Quiz Results
Okay, the results are in. The votes from last week's poll was fairly evenly divided between those of you who wanted to kiss up to me by asking about my Restoration History Class and those of you who are just cruel and wanted to hear about my physical mishaps. I'll give you quick looks at both. For the record, Randy was the sole desenter and wanted to hear about the comics. To Randy: I haven't gotten far enough to know about Jan becoming a real Wasp, but she changes outfits almost constantly, so maybe one of her outfits just really looked like a Wasp.
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Restoration History: I have been teaching this classs on and off for the last two months. My thesis for this class is that our movement begins in the midst of Enlightenment thought, which emphasizes logic and reason. This is why our movement is historically weak in issues like the Holy Spirit and Angels. Enlightenment thought also states that we as human beings are capable of solving any problems if they apply reason and logic. The founders of our movement, who were Enlightenment thinkers, struggled with the problem of Christian unity. Our movement, therefore, is a unity movement at its heart, calling all people to be one in Christ. Where we had problems, however, is in what unity looks like. It is one thing to say that all Christians are one, but it is another thing to believe this when you get together and one group uses a guitar and another prays to the Virgin Mary. Our enlightment thinking founders, therefore, "solved" the problem by saying that we would all be unified if we all did things the way they did things in the first century. Therefore the restoration movement, our desire to restore the first century church, began as an attempt to create unity in the body of Christ. But what do we think of christians who don't do things the way we think the first century church did them? The restoration principle, unfortunately, often comes into conflict with our unity principle. Historically speaking, CoC's have tended towards the Restoration principle. In other words, we would rather everyone do things the "right" way than to consider someone a brother or sister in Christ if they do things differently than what we would do. I think this trend is changing, but what do you think?
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Physical Breakdown: As I've mentioned before, Booger the cat does not enjoy taking his medicine. Twice a day, Jennifer has to fill a syringe full of foul-smelling gunk and shoot it into Boog's mouth while I hold him. Thi is decidedly a two person job, because the cat squirms wildly to avoid the treatment. Well, early last week, Jennifer left for work without giving Booger his medicine. I didn't think much of it, figuring that since I outweigh the cat by a factor of 30 that I could hold him down and give him his medicine. Long story short, I was wrong. I would hold him down, but displaying an incredible sixth sense, Boog would jerk away from me just as I pushed the plunger on the syringe. This resulted in both of us winding up with far more of the foul smelling gunk on us than in him. I didn't think anything of this until the next morning when I woke up and found my hands covered in a bright red rash that itched like heck! I'm now a little paranoid about medicating the cat, and am doubly careful about coming into contact with the medicine itself.
The rash breakout occured on the same day as my big bathtub fall, and I wish I could blame my stupidity on the medicine, but it was all me. Sunday morning, as we were once again rushing to get ready for Church in a timely manner, I was taking a shower. Just as I finished getting good and soapy (read: slippery), I noticed a bug crawling on the ceiling. Knowing that Jennifer would over react if she saw bug, I decided to play the part of the hero and squash said bug. Unfortunately, I was six inches too short to hit it, so I stepped up on the side of the tub to get leverage, immediately slipped, and smacked my head on the back of the tub. There was no blood, but I got a pretty good sized bump on the back of my head. For the record, the swelling has gone down and the double vision is getting much better.
______________________________
So, I've been writing this during staff development. We are back in the swing of things, and I am so not ready for school to start. Staff Dev. is good, but, boy, would I rather be goofing off.
______________________________
Restoration History: I have been teaching this classs on and off for the last two months. My thesis for this class is that our movement begins in the midst of Enlightenment thought, which emphasizes logic and reason. This is why our movement is historically weak in issues like the Holy Spirit and Angels. Enlightenment thought also states that we as human beings are capable of solving any problems if they apply reason and logic. The founders of our movement, who were Enlightenment thinkers, struggled with the problem of Christian unity. Our movement, therefore, is a unity movement at its heart, calling all people to be one in Christ. Where we had problems, however, is in what unity looks like. It is one thing to say that all Christians are one, but it is another thing to believe this when you get together and one group uses a guitar and another prays to the Virgin Mary. Our enlightment thinking founders, therefore, "solved" the problem by saying that we would all be unified if we all did things the way they did things in the first century. Therefore the restoration movement, our desire to restore the first century church, began as an attempt to create unity in the body of Christ. But what do we think of christians who don't do things the way we think the first century church did them? The restoration principle, unfortunately, often comes into conflict with our unity principle. Historically speaking, CoC's have tended towards the Restoration principle. In other words, we would rather everyone do things the "right" way than to consider someone a brother or sister in Christ if they do things differently than what we would do. I think this trend is changing, but what do you think?
__________________________
Physical Breakdown: As I've mentioned before, Booger the cat does not enjoy taking his medicine. Twice a day, Jennifer has to fill a syringe full of foul-smelling gunk and shoot it into Boog's mouth while I hold him. Thi is decidedly a two person job, because the cat squirms wildly to avoid the treatment. Well, early last week, Jennifer left for work without giving Booger his medicine. I didn't think much of it, figuring that since I outweigh the cat by a factor of 30 that I could hold him down and give him his medicine. Long story short, I was wrong. I would hold him down, but displaying an incredible sixth sense, Boog would jerk away from me just as I pushed the plunger on the syringe. This resulted in both of us winding up with far more of the foul smelling gunk on us than in him. I didn't think anything of this until the next morning when I woke up and found my hands covered in a bright red rash that itched like heck! I'm now a little paranoid about medicating the cat, and am doubly careful about coming into contact with the medicine itself.
The rash breakout occured on the same day as my big bathtub fall, and I wish I could blame my stupidity on the medicine, but it was all me. Sunday morning, as we were once again rushing to get ready for Church in a timely manner, I was taking a shower. Just as I finished getting good and soapy (read: slippery), I noticed a bug crawling on the ceiling. Knowing that Jennifer would over react if she saw bug, I decided to play the part of the hero and squash said bug. Unfortunately, I was six inches too short to hit it, so I stepped up on the side of the tub to get leverage, immediately slipped, and smacked my head on the back of the tub. There was no blood, but I got a pretty good sized bump on the back of my head. For the record, the swelling has gone down and the double vision is getting much better.
______________________________
So, I've been writing this during staff development. We are back in the swing of things, and I am so not ready for school to start. Staff Dev. is good, but, boy, would I rather be goofing off.
posted by Phylemon at 12:46 PM
2 Comments:
Paul-
As I have been telling the people here in Louisville during our Restoration History study I think a lot of what has been emphasized comes down to how we view scripture. You are right about the Enlightenment and us thinking that humans could figure everything out on their own. But we have had such a high view of scripture that that has led to an emphasis of restoration over unity. We want to get the Bible right. And we don't feel as though we can be united with people who we feel have not gotten the Bible right. I think this has been the mindset of most for a long time. Of course, when you look at the totality of scripture you realize that we have not gotten it all right. We have concentrated our focus on a narrow part of scripture. There is a lot of scripture that we have ignored and not attempted to restore.
I agree, though, that the focus is changing. But, again, I think it comes down to how we view scripture. I think the people who have changed hold scripture to be just as important as ever but they realize that there are some things that are more important. The gospel message is the most important. That is where we draw lines of fellowship. Other matters of opinion should not be made tests. I think we should follow up a study of Restoration History with a study of Galatians because this is exactly what Paul talks about there. The Galatians were saying that you must believe the gospel and be circumcised in order to be a Christian. Paul said, no, you just need to believe in the gospel. We have not made circumcision a test of fellowship but we have put other things on the level of gospel. We have said well, you are only a Christian if you follow the gospel and if you worship a cappella or if you do this and this. We have added to the gospel and it's wrong.
Anyway, enough of that rant. I am the comment killer so it will be interesting to see if someone comments after me.
Kent-
I think it is impossible to overestimate the role of scripture in the formation of our movement. What I think is interesting is the role of scripture in the change that we are talking about. It isn't necessarily that we have realized that there are things more important than scripture, I think that we have just chosen a different part of scripture that we want to "get right". Perhaps we have become less concerned with getting the "ancient order" passages right, but we are still interested in restoring the "love" and "unity" passages.
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