What I Learned about the Bible from Undergrads

May 15, 2013 By 12 Comments

Today I’ll finish grading the final exams of the students who took “Introduction to the New Testament” this Spring at St. Cloud State University. It was my first foray into undergraduate teaching, and I heartily thank all of you readers who gave me advice about teaching undergrads. The most-given piece of advice was, “Own the Classroom.” I can’t say that I did that. Although I didn’t allow the students to call me by my first name, I cannot help but run a fairly informal classroom — you may have heard, but I’ve got a thing against hierarchy.

It seems that one of my dear students has entered me at RateMyProfessors.com, and my first rating is, um, positive:

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Filed Under: bible, Teaching Tagged With: 12 Comments

Farewell, Dallas Willard

May 8, 2013 By 20 Comments

Dallas Willard, 1936-2013

Dallas Willard has succumbed to cancer at age 77.

I first met Dallas Willard in 2001. I was organizing the first ever Emergent Village Theological Conversation. I had scheduled Nancey Murphy and her husband, Jim McClendon, to be in conversation with us — both of them had been professors of mine at Fuller Seminary. But Jim died in late 2000, putting the whole event up in the air. Nancey decided to keep her commitment, and we were her first public event after Jim’s death.

Dallas agreed to join us as well, in Jim’s stead, even though he and Nancey agreed on virtually nothing. And it was magical. Dallas was kind and generous. He and Nancey talked and laughed and cajoled one another. At one point — and everyone who was there will remember this — he was telling us about his childhood Christianity. He stood up and broke into the cadence of a Southern preacher, spun around, and mimed skipping sinners across the lake of fire. To see such an accomplished philosopher do such a thing was, frankly, breathtaking.

I also remember this: Dallas needed someone to move his car, so I got his keys and went to move it. He drove a humble car — a sedan of some kind. And when I started it up, a tape started playing in the tapedeck. It was the Bible on tape. Then I noticed that strewn across the passenger seat were all the books of the Bible on tape. Again, I was astonished: one of the most accomplished Christian authors of our time was listening to the Bible on tape. (To this day, I keep a small iPod with the audio Bible on it because of his example.)

I saw Dallas at several other conferences and events over the years after that. But my last encounter with him was just as memorable as my first:

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Filed Under: christianity in america, Teaching Tagged With: , 20 Comments

Would You Step on Jesus?

April 30, 2013 By 10 Comments

My friend and fellow Minnesotan, Jay Bakker, is known to throw his Bible to the ground during his talks, in order to break his audiences of their bibliolatry. At first blush, it seems like an act of sacrilege, but his point is that the Bible is ink on a page, whereas the Word of God is something more than that.

The always insightful Stanley Fish draws our attention to a class at Florida Atlantic University, in which students were asked to write the name “Jesus” on a peace of paper and then step on it. The governor of Florida was horrified, as were many others. But, as Fish reports, they got the story wrong. The professor is a Christian, and the exercise had a point:

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Atheist Undergrad to Christian Pastor: Don’t Be a Dick

April 29, 2013 By 83 Comments

A student at St. Cloud State University protests the preaching of John Chisham on campus on April 23, 2013. (Photo by Molly English)

When I first arrived on the campus of St. Cloud State University in January to teach Introduction to the New Testament, a couple of the students mentioned the preachers who come to campus. It seems that, as a Christian minister myself, they thought I should know how Christians are seen on campus.

Last Thursday, as class was about to begin, they asked if I’d been around the previous day to see the traveling preachers make their annual appearance. I hadn’t, so one student began showing me photos she’d taken on her phone.

You can imagine my surprise when I recognized one of the preachers: John Chisham, aka, “Pastorboy.”

Longtime readers will remember Pastorboy. He used to comment on this blog regularly (he was banned from commenting by me in 2009), and to post about me and others on his various blogs. He allowed me to interview him on video when my book, The New Christians, was coming out. And he was the lone protestor outside of JoPa’s event, Christianity21 – we had 21 women preachers speak at that conference, and he preached 21 sermons on the sidewalk outside (since, of course, women are not capable of preaching the gospel in his twisted theology).

Chisham is a Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) pastor in Marshall, Minnesota at River of Life Alliance Church. But he regularly travels to preach his hate-filled “gospel” message at gay pride parades and college campuses. The StarTribune covered him at a gay pride parade here, and when he preached at Mankato State University in 2010, a bunch of students took him up on his invitation for them to come to his church — they came, and stood silently in front of the church bearing signs of their own. Of course, Chisham did not take this in stride but called on the university to sanction the professor who advised them.

As you see in the photo above, and the uncropped version below, this year the students at St. Cloud State also fought back against his hate. [Read more...]

Filed Under: christianity in america, minnesota, Teaching Tagged With: , , , 83 Comments

The Lonely Life of an Adjunct Professor

February 7, 2013 By 36 Comments


Last semester, I taught a class at a local seminary. The class met on Thursday nights. After the first week of class, I received a one-line email from the dean, asking me how everything was going. And a month after the class, I received another email asking how everything went. Other than that, I didn’t hear from anyone on the faculty. I didn’t meet anyone on the faculty; I wasn’t even greeted by anyone. I did receive emails from the support staff with attendance sheets and asking for grades, but that was it.

Last summer, I sent a query to another seminary for which I’d taught online courses for three years. Would they be needing me this year? Nope. Budgets are tight.

And this semester, I’m teaching at a state university. So far it’s great fun. But last week when I was walking toward the classroom, the professor who teaches in the room before me turned off the lights and locked the door — he had no idea I was there as a professor. A grad student let me in the room so that I could teach.

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Filed Under: Teaching 36 Comments

Practice Precedes Doctrine

May 9, 2011 By 15 Comments

I’m in heavy prep mode for the first year of the Doctor of Ministry cohort that I am leading for Fuller Seminary.  The cohort begins in one month, and I’m thrilled to report that a full contingent of students have been admitted.

The cohort is focusing on Christian spirituality, which is, of course, a very broad subject.  I’m reading several books to prep right now, among them the beautiful tome, The Story of Christian Spirituality, which traces the way that followers of Jesus have practiced their spirituality through the centuries.

One thing that’s intriguing to note, and easy to lose sight of two millennia later, is that in the very earliest church, practice begat doctrine.  That is, the early church didn’t convene theological conferences to debate the nature of the godhead and then spin out a practice of prayer.

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An Online Youth Ministry Course

April 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m teaching a one-month, online youth ministry course through Andover-Newton Theological School next month.  Here’s how they describe their LEARN offerings:

The Local Education and Renewal Network (LEARN) provides access to the learning resources of the Andover Newton community through the LEARN On-line Seminars. LEARN Seminars offer education and renewal experiences for both laity and clergy, tailored to meet specific needs. They are conducted entirely on-line and do not require students to attend classes on the Andover Newton campus.

In my course, we’re reading one book, my Postmodern Youth Ministry, and here is the description of my course:

In the past few decades, youth ministry has come out of the basement and become a major aspect of many churches’ ministries. And as youth ministry has become more professionalized, it has continued to evolve. Youth ministry faces many challenges in a pluralized, postmodern age, and this course will investigate the changes that must take place in this current era.

There’s still room for a few more folks in the course — it’s a great opportunity to get some CEU credits.  Check it out: Andover Newton Theological School » » LEARN Seminars Spring and Summer 2011.

Filed Under: Teaching, youth ministry Tagged With: Leave a Comment

I [Heart] Spirituality

March 8, 2011 By 1 Comment

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m teaching a three-year Doctor of Ministry cohort at Fuller Theological Seminary, beginning this June (we’ll meet for two weeks in June 2011, 12, and 13).  I’m really looking forward to this journey because, like many followers of Jesus, I need a kick in my spiritual pants.

I already tend toward the intellectual, to be sure.  My recent posts about demons and angels hint at what my friends already know: that I’m predisposed to believe only those things that make rational sense.  In all honesty, that makes an uneasy postmodernist, since my bias is toward a more empirical worldview.

But, as much as I love theological and doctrinal wrangling, I know that spirituality is actually at the heart of the Jesus Way.

As my dissertation has dragged on over several years, I’ve not really afforded myself the chance to reinvest in Christian spirituality, as I had in several of my books.  Writing a dissertation is, of course, a thoroughly intellectual endeavor.  Not that it doesn’t test one’s spirit — it does! — but the method of writing an acceptable dissertation is one of qualified truth claims backed by warrants and evidence.  The intuition that is so valuable in spirituality is not needed for this type of academic work — in fact, it most likely gets in the way.

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Filed Under: spirituality, Teaching Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

A Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary

February 14, 2011 By 10 Comments

I’m pretty excited about the D.Min. at Fuller Seminary that I’ll be teaching starting this June, not long after completing my own “terminal degree.”  (That’s a telling phrase!)  I know that several readers of this blog have already applied to Fuller to join the cohort, and I’m hoping that a few more will.  Here are some of the reasons that this D.Min. is unique:

  1. Those of us in the cohort will, I am quite sure, develop friendships that will last for years.
  2. We’re going to be learning together.  This won’t be a lecture-listener format, but an ongoing, interactive learning environment.
  3. The topic is Christian Spirituality, so we’ll not just be learning in an intellectual sense.  We’ll also be growing our own spirits as we seek to follow Jesus.
  4. I’ll be joined be some incredible fellow instructors: Lauren Winner, Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, and Gareth Higgins.
  5. We’re meeting for about two weeks each June for the next three years.
  6. The first and third years will take place in Southern California.
  7. The second year, with Brian McLaren, will be a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the Minnesota-Canada border.

Below is a video in which I explain a bit more of what I’m looking forward to.  I hope you’ll consider applying.

Filed Under: spirituality, Teaching Tagged With: 10 Comments

A Doctor of Ministry?

January 13, 2011 By 5 Comments

See that cool ad in the right sidebar?  Click on that and learn more about getting a DMin at Fuller Seminary, taught by me, and co-taught by the likes of Brian McLaren, Lauren Winner, Phyllis Tickle, and Brian McLaren Gareth Higgins.  I’d love to have you join us in a three-year journey exploring Christian spirituality.

And, I promise, the next post on The Possibility of Christian Universalism is coming tomorrow.

Filed Under: spirituality, Teaching Tagged With: 5 Comments