Imagine Me as a Daddy for a Girl

Well, it’s official … Heather and I are having a girl as child number 2.  Though my sis already announced it to the world, I thought I should make it known to.

Being Eliot’s Dad hasn’t phased me.  I can handle a boy.  I understand boys.  I was one (still am at heart).

But a girl is a whole different bag.  I’m excited … but already a little scared (oh God, please help me through those teenage years).

Having served previously as a youth pastor, I know that girls change more often in more ways imaginable between 12 and 17 years of age.

Friends become enemies who become friends who become enemies, etc.

“I like this … No I don’t like that anymore … Ooh why would you think I like that? … What are you an idiot!!! Of course I like that!”

It’s going to be a fun experience.  Still praying for Mommy and the little one due to enter the world in September.

SO TELL ME:
Are you a daddy to a girl?  Can you help a brother out?

——-

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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What Is a Minister? - Part 2

In part 1 of this post, I discussed this question from the perspective of .

Now, let’s look at it from the world’s . By world, I mean those not actively engaged with the system of the religion.

A person in this context expects the to be optimistic, unobtrusive, and a sanctioner of in a world.

This person will also be underwhelmed with me as a minister. However, I will come closer to meeting these types of expectations than I will the expectations of the religious person.

In Part 3, I’ll spell out my understanding of what is a minister to be. For now, I’ll say that I do see a progressive world … but not a world that faith must ask permission to enter. Instead, the world is defined by faith as expressed through the .

The “religious” person’s expectations of the minister will reject the death required in God’s search for humanity. The person of the “world” will reject the life offered in God’s search for .

Death must happen when we realize all our false notions of reality in the light of God’s great love for us. Life beyond our wildest imaginations can be embraced when we allow ourselves to be defined by our Creator.

SO TELL ME:
Is it easier for you to suffer death or embrace life?

SO TELL ME SOMETHING ELSE:
Has your idea of what a minister should be changed at all?

——-

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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What Is a Minister? - Part 1

So what is a supposed to be and/or do?

A good question for me to wrestle with (being a vocational and what not).

First, let’s look at this question from the perspective of “religion.” Now by religion (specifically the ) I mean the system of organized and instituted by human initiatives and based on an underlying of God’s initiatives. And an individual who looks at the world through the eyes of religion tends to separate the world into two parts: and .

This is not the lens through which I see the world.

Instead, my worldview is filtered through the person of the . This means I’m adverse to the definition of “What Is a Minister?” that follows.

The religious person expects to see the minister as profoundly serious and deliberate in his/her approach to life. The minister shoud be dignified in his/her denouncement of the world. The minister should attend to the needs and wants of the religious under his/her care and separate oneself from the world.

The religious person will be decidedly disappointed with me as a minister.

Seeing the world through the lens of the Triune God means I don’t see a separation between sacred and secular. All is of God. All is good. All space and time is and time. “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever!” (Romans 11:36). I confess being influenced by and his theology of glory.

Consequently, the world is my parish.

Part 2 will answer this question from the perspective of “the world.”

SO TELL ME:
What is a minister to you?

From Quotes on My Wall

“The Crucifixion settled who and what God is; the resurrection settled that God is. And just so the crucifixion settled also who and what we are, if we are anything determinate.” — Robert Jenson

So … are you anything determinate?

Persecution

As I’ve been studying and meditating on the theme for this week’s Big Idea series (”Who Is Jesus? …  The Persecuted), I’m fully aware of the tragedy that transpired Monday at Virginia Tech.  The profound sadness and sense of despair solicited by the events are palpable.

I tend to tune out much of what President Bush says in recent times due to ideological incongruities.  But yesterday, as he addressed the convocation at Va. Tech. I noticed he quoted the apostle Paul in Romans: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Now, I would suspect that the President’s notions of how this plays out are different from what Paul envisions (I say this based on Bush’s penchant for military solutions to evil).  From how the Spirit speaks to me through the context of the apostle’s words, I recognize that it is not evil persons we are to do battle with.  Rather, the Church is to be on the offense against the systemic evil that results in tragedies like this recent one. How do we do that?  Well, it will certainly put us at odds with the ruling government and systems of authority.   It will be counter-intuitive to 21st-century American logic.  But it seems the Church has failed in equipping the home–the family–with the tools for spiritual formation.

The Church in America has often had little to offer in the wake of national tragedies.  A space to be quiet, some candles for a prayer, some words about life after death.  But the place of the Church is not one of help but one of truth.  If we embraced the truth that Christ is life, thereby revealing the reality of life, we might actually be able to speak truth into the family unit.  This is a truth that will equip parents with the tools of spiritual formation; equip families with the ability to endure adversity; equip children with the reality of a God who suffers with them.

I know our LORD’s heart breaks when such things happen.  Our God is a God who suffers.  This suffering affirms the reality and importance of this life.  I repent of how the Church has undercut and limited the effect of that good news.  I pray with a tangible hope that we will be enabled by Christ’s Spirit to be more truthful in the days ahead.  The answer to this prayer may even transform persecution into life.