school of theology

School of Theology is back!!

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

With all the buzz behind our last session and tons of positive feedback we have decided to keep the momentum of School of Theology by having 2 more sessions - back to back!!  Starting Jan 24 - Feb 21, we are offering our first session of the year on "How to Study the Bible", taught by Glen Wagner and Bill Barton (with other teachers soon to be added).  Our second session will start that next Thursday (Feb 28) and end on April 3 studying the "Book of Revelation", taught by Glen Wagner (with other teachers soon to be added).  So here are the dates again:

• Jan 24 - Feb 21 (7-9pm) How to Study the Bible; Glen Wagner, Bill Barton, and others TBD.
• Feb 28 - Apr 3 (7-9pm) Book of Revelation, Glen Wagner and others TBD.

Please pre-register at ericmetcalf@communitychristian.org or 630.388.5119 - let us know if you need childcare - it will be available for $5 a child, $7 per family per night.

All sessions are currently reserved for the Yellow Box in the ICON Theater.  We will have notes available online soon - look forward to seeing you there!

A Place for School of Theology among the 3C's

John Wills * School of Theology Team

Thursday night, 50 people joined us for our first night of the first class of the School of Theology (SOT).  And coincidentally, the Big Idea for the week at CCC was about the need for all Christ-followers to feed on "pure spiritual milk" so that they may grow in their knowledge and understanding of Jesus.  Using an analogy equating spiritual growth with human development, we infer that our growth should lead us to "feed ourselves" spiritually, and then learn to take responsibility for "feeding others".

The teaching pastor, Jon Ferguson, extended an official welcome to SOT in the message, recognizing that the point of the school is to learn to "feed ourselves", so that more people will continue on the mission of helping people find their way back to God.  We hope some will come to have their spiritual appetite whetted, some for an appetizer, some for desert, but all will come away with a "cooking lesson" so that they can begin to feed themselves (how is that for analogy abuse??).

Celebrate. Connect. Contribute.  Our 3C's.  Experiences that will promote spiritual development.  And SOT, learning to feed ourselves so that we may feed others, and grow this body of Christ together.  Where the experience of Jessu can be internalized, contemplated and ultimately communicated.

Thanks Jon, for making it so clear that the 3C's and the SOT are all part of the same mission!

Join us for night #2 this Thursday in our case study of Colossians, as we "love the Lord your God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength".  And think about joining this ministry; bring your head and heart and passion and gifts.  See you Thursday!

Colossians Syllabus

Eric Metcalf * NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

Alright, we have now finished the syllabus for School of Theology: Colossians (download here).  We initially thought we would have pre-work for this course, but due to deadlines and life, we are simply asking that you please read through Colossians at least twice before Thursday paying attention to these four domains: culture, leadership, theology, and spiritual formation - noting where Paul makes reference to them - implicitly and literally.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Colossal Kick-off!

Eric Metcalf * NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

Beginning Oct 25, Thursday nights, 7-9pm (for 4 weeks) at the Yellow Box (in the NEW theater) we are going to kick-off our first session of School of Theology!  As a part of this first session we will be studying the book of Colossians - a letter the Apostle Paul wrote the to an early church in Colossae.

Through this course we will study the spiritual formation, leadership, culture and theology of this early church.  Not only that, we are going to have some phenomenal speakers: Glen Wagner, Shawn Williams, Dr. Rick Richardson (Wheaton College), Bill Barton, and Dr. Earl Ferguson.

Come back here soon and we'll even have a syllabus for your download so you can prepare well for this 4 week course on Colossians.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Hearing from God

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

I'm currently reading a book that takes the book of Acts and retells the story in a screenplay fashion.  The authors, Brian McClaren and Chris Seay, take the book of Acts (verse by verse) and write it in a way that actors like Russell Crowe or Edward Norton could look at and play a part in.

I realize I'm only a few pages into it (pg. 7), but I am really enjoying the fresh approach to Acts.  Brian and his friends wanted to take scripture and write it from the perspective of artists and philosophers - postmoderns versus only seeing scripture through the perspective of thinkers and rationalists - moderns; hypothesizing that our current version of the Bible is just that - a modern perspective on the Gospel.  They're not saying the modern "version" is wrong, they're just saying it's modern.  Anyway, I am enjoying the book thus far, but how can the Acts of the Apostles not be enjoyable?!?

If I Could Copy-cat

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

I would do what these guys are doing.  And here are some of their cool programs too.

I Left the Church to Find Jesus

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

A great book by Dan Kimball has a quote that inspires me to do School of Theology even more:

I wish the church would respect my intelligence.

I remember a conversation I had with someone who was raised in a church but left when she reached her twenties.  She wasn't critical or cynical but was sincere as she spoke to me about her story.  She attended a large church and participated in the children's and youth ministries through her formative years.  She said she learned a lot and made great friends.  But as she entered her twenties, she says, "I left the church, because I grew out of it."  That statement might sound arrogant, but if you knew her or could see her heart, you wouldn't come to that conclusion.  She said that the teaching was repeated every three or four years, perhaps with a different name for the series, but pretty much the same thing repackaged.  She said that the lyrics to most of the songs were more akin to a "teenage romantic crush" than worshipping God's transcendence and majesty.  She explained that the music and the projection of the lyrics on the screen came across like a Disney children's video, and she almost expected to see a bouncing ball above the words to help teach people the songs.  She was bothered by the preacher's simplistic outlines and how most of the time he ignored problem passages and controversial issues.

Now, I know that we can't experience the body of Christ in isolation and that abandoning the church is not the answer.  We all need to be part of a local body, and with her zeal for learning, this young woman probably would make a great teacher.  But she said that when she talked to the pastor to explain her feelings, she felt he wasn't very understanding, and he wasn't willing to add any theologically deeper classes to the more pragmatic ones the church offered.  The pastor wasn't convinced that many people at this church loved teaching, so there wasn't any need to go into the historical background or cultural context of scripture.  He explained that people just wanted their "felt needs" met, that they wanted to see how the Bible deals with their day-to-day activities.  She concluded that the people were more interested in their lives than in learning about God and the life of Jesus.  She sincerely wanted deeper teaching; she wanted the opportunity to grow.  And so, she said, "I left the church to find Jesus."

Ouch.  What are your thoughts after reading this quote?

Helping people find their way...

Three contexts - three stories - juxtaposed, time compressed...yesterday.

Morning Context - Beautiful Arlington Park Race Track - IT Security Symposium - Executive Leadership Workshop. 25 CIO's, Senior VP's from SMB - Fortune 500 firms - all wrestling with leadership in the vortex of a data rich / meaning starved, cynical, sub-prime meltdown, terror-sensitive, globalized and media centric modern marketplace.

I worked hard to serve these gifted people by sharing my best insights gleaned from strategic consulting and leadership coaching conversations with hundreds of leaders. The final element of the workshop was a dynamic Q/A session. No one asked questions about technology, operations, budgets or marketing. They almost never do. They did offer nuanced and complex inquiry into entrenched issues that require hard thinking about things like hope, fear, conflict, values, vision, diversity, personality and culture.

In one on one conversation, it became obvious that many of these leaders come from a place of faith. Usually quiet and private but sub-consciously seeking depth and a voice. Many simply wonder if their faith has any relevance to the issues they face daily in the modern marketplace where most of us spend at least half of our waking lives Sadly, none of them have been equipped to engage their world with cogent and practical resources that living theology can provide.

Afternoon Context - The boardroom of a client firm - meeting with the CEO and COO to discuss strategy, growth and purpose.

After several meetings preceding this one we have wrestled with leadership challenges, change and conflict. It was obvious that, although they face certain and very real marketplace challenges they are excited about the future, have a better understanding of each other and a deeper sense of hope and relational quality going forward. They were appreciative of the spiritual AND strategic insights that I have brought. We got busy starting to plan marketing strategy, building a leadership pipeline and integrating a set of management structures for moving forward. Hard skills AND soft skills, governance AND God, Spirit AND Strategy - life is not easily compartmentalized...

Evening Context - Home - in my family room - holding my four month old grandson Alexander Momoto Sogavo!

What an amazing experience it is to become a grandfather. Is that legal at 49? This kid is simply phenomenal...but that isn't the main point. He was born April 28th, 2007...almost one year since his mom, my oldest daughter miscarried her first child. I remember having a memorial service for that child, loved and never held. The tears of sadness that flowed hard then...and the tears of joy that flow freely now as I hold my grandson and celebrate with my daughter and son-in-law their journey of becoming parents. Always becoming, grief and joy mixed, markets and motherhood, leadership and love, weariness and joy. Life is precious...and living theology matters.

Missional Church

Here's more study on missiology by Tim Kellar of Redeemer Presbyterian, NY.  One of the primary motivators for understanding our culture is to be missional.  Kellar takes the time to explain what a missional church can look like.  Good stuff!

Culture

CCC will unveil the School of Theology this Fall and the experience will cover several different disciplines of spiritual formation including "Culture".  We'll focus on culture becasue it's an extremely important issue when we're trying to be a missional reproducing people of God. That's right, we need to consider culture when attempting to reach people with the Good News of Jesus within our culutre. We go to church in a culture that's become increasingly more diverse and complex. We work in a culture; we play in a culture, we live within a culture. But maybe before we go any further we need to answer a simple question first:  What is culture? Maybe watching this scene from the acclaimed "Fiddler on the Roof" will help you gain a little more insight into culture.