"Thinking about the future of Christian leadership, I am convinced that it needs to be a theological leadership. For this to come about, much--very much--has to happen in seminaries and divinity schcools." --Henri Nouwen
Note: Let's have this be a fun, no-pressure blog, i.e. this is not a grade, and no, I won't correct your grammar ;).
What does it mean that we Asburians are a theological seminary who worship together? We come to seminary to prepare for ministry, to learn from the Lord and about the Lord. Classes, relationships, worship, and service all play a part in the spiritual formation that occurs? In this context, what does it meant to be a worshiping body?
Henri Nouwen gave a lecture concerning Christian leadership that is published as the book In the Name of Jesus. He writes about theological thinking and theological education being what the church needs now.
He writes, "What, then, is the discipline required of a leader who can live with outstretched hands? I propose here the discipline of strenuous theological reflection. Just as prayer keeps us connected with the first love and just as confession and forgiveness keep our ministry communal and mutual, so strenuous theological reflection will allow us to discern critically where we are being led."
I'd like to point out that our blog is a great place for "strenuous theological reflection" that doesn't have to be stuffy or impractical. I recommend this short book. What Nouwen writes about prayer, confession, and forgiveness is absolutely necesary, so we miss that part of his argument.
Nouwen continues, "Few ministers and priests think theologically....Most Christian leaders today raise psychological or sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of the ministry. They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models father or mother figures...but that has little to do with Christian leadership because the Christian leader thinks, speaks, and acts in the name of Jesus, who came to free humanity from the power of death and open the way to eternal life....The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the desert into a new land of freedom."
Nouwen applies these thoughts to seminaries and divinity schools,
"Thinking about the future of Christian leadership, I am convinced that it needs to be a theological leadership. For this to come about, much--very much--has to happen in seminaries and divinity schools. They have to become centers where people are trained in true discernment of the signs of the time. This cannot be just an intellectual training. It requires a deep spiritual formation involving the whole person--body, mind, and heart. I think we are only half aware of how secular even theological schools have become. Formation in the mind of Christ, who did not cling to power but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, is not what most seminaries are about. Everything in our competitive and ambitious world militates against it. But to the degree that such formation is being sought for and realized, there is hope for the Church of the next century.
Nouwen has a great point. We can easily put aside the things of God for our own ambitions. It is important to ask the Lord to show us where we do that in our own lives. I do think ATS is one of the rare institutions that is characterized by spiritual formation. I like that he said "body, mind, and heart."
So, what does this mean for worship? You tell me :).
4 comments:
I really like Nouwen,
And I think that these are good reflection/challenges.
I remember being told one time to refer to the body I was ministering too as disciples and not theologians. I was referring to the fact that we all have thoughts about God. I understand why this suggestion was directed at me, but I don't think we should be scared of people thinking about God.
For me, I desire to know God and not just know about God. That is a pretty hard thing to do sometimes. I guess that is why theology of worship should be so important. For those of us training for the pastoral ministry, worship is what we get. I think Dr. Kalas has said wonderful things about the importance of music in his personal life. I identify with God inside the formal liturgy the most, but I am really praying for growth inside of other styles of worship.
As for personal ambition, I think we have had conversations about what I think of the amount of entitlement that I feel some people have in the ministry. This soul check is something that I have to do on a daily basis...and I am always seeking to be identified with and inside of God instead of the "work" I do involving ministry.a
Formation in the mind of Christ, who did not cling to power but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, is not what most seminaries are about.
This sentence grabs me.
This is why worship is so crucial as the very context for theological education. Corporate Worship is a type of liminal space-- a threshhold place between the conceptual and the concrete. it is not so much a place of knowledge as it is of wisdom--- not pedagogical but revelatory. In other words, we don't gather for worship to think and learn as much as we gather to behold and adore. This is not to diminish thinking and learning, but rather to put them in their proper context. In this fashion, the worship assembly becomes the first and the last class and the one in which the rest of the curriculum coheres.
This is in part why the work of worship design is so important.
Get your game on.
one more bit--- formation in the mind of Christ---- we will not get there primarily by thinking. this is the myth of Descartes---"I think therefore I am." For me it is more akin to "I become who I behold." am i making sense here?
"i become who I behold"- Is what we look to what we worship? Like in Heb 12 where the runners eyes are fixed on Christ. I guess the question that I am asking is this "is the thing that we look at the most what we end up worshiping?" I think the answer is "yes." If that is true then Descates' statement points people to worship themselves. I dunno, I'm thinking out-loud...
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