It\u2019s hard to believe we\u2019re preparing for our final advance. It seems like only yesterday when I arrived in Cape Town with NO IDEA what to expect. I remember thinking the 3rd year students were so\u2026 advanced. And that this was going to be an exceptionally long process.<\/p>\n
However, this program has sped by, and now I am a third-year student with a significant amount of imposter syndrome (the shores of my ignorance, and all that\u2026). At this point, I\u2019m pondering whether I think the program should have been longer.<\/p>\n
I recall how unhappy I was with hearing about the change from Asia to DC for our 3rd advance location. One of the reasons I joined this program was the promise of traveling around the world and learning in far-flung locations. But after considering the details of our upcoming time, I\u2019ve turned a corner and am genuinely excited about the location and the people we will hear from.<\/p>\n
One of those people is Bret Fuller, who has been a Senior Pastor for over 30 years in Washington, D.C., as well as an author and pro-sports chaplain; he authored the books Dreaming in Black and White<\/em> about racism and High Ceilings<\/em> about women in leadership. Another speaker we will engage is Jim Wallis, a politically progressive evangelical thinker who wrote God\u2019s Politics: A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America.<\/em><\/p>\n These three books mentioned will provide a starting point for our time with these two authors. And in preparation for that time, we are being asked to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n First, \u201cwhat are the main pivotal points\/these of the books?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n High Ceilings<\/em> is a concise book that stakes out what Fuller calls a \u201cComplementary-Egalitarian\u201d position on women in leadership. This stance distinguishes itself from both the Egalitarian perspective, which allows for full availability of every aspect of leadership within the home, church, and society for both men and women, and the Complementarian viewpoint, which asserts equal value but distinct roles in family, church, and culture. Fuller\u2019s position combines aspects of both and suggests that the Bible calls men and women to separate roles in the family but allows for full access to leadership in every other domain.<\/p>\n In Dreaming in Black and White<\/em> Fuller approaches the problem of race relations in the US from an open-eyed but hopeful perspective. While he explores how systemic racial issues have affected (and continue to affect) everything from broader culture to economic reality to personal relationships, he points to the need for honest dialogue and greater understanding between those of different races. His belief is that racial harmony and reconciliation are possible, that injustice can be addressed, and that the answer can be found in Jesus’s example.<\/p>\n God\u2019s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn\u2019t Get It<\/em> by Jim Wallis promises \u201ca new vision for faith and politics in America.\u201d \u00a0His main point seems to be that the right has often manipulated religion to act as a bully-pulpit for politically conservative issues and that the left has frequently ignored issues of justice that are tied to moral and spiritual realities. He calls his readers to embrace prophetic politics that aligns with justice, humility, and compassion and that majors on issues such as poverty, systemic brokenness, peace, and the environment.<\/p>\n Second, \u201cbased on pivotal points\/thesis of the books, what questions would you like to ask the authors when you meet them?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Concerning High Ceilings,<\/em> I would like to ask Brett Fuller about how he came to the \u201cComplementary-Egalitarian\u201d position. While I resonated with the book’s brevity and \u201clay-style\u201d and agreed with its take on women in culture and the church, I had questions about its understanding of family gender roles. I wonder how he dealt with arguments about the words \u201cheadship\u201d and \u201csubmission\u201d and his response to those who would read Genesis 2 differently than he does.<\/p>\n Dreaming in Black and White<\/em> was compelling, and while I did an inspectional reading of it, I intend to read it entirely on my trip to DC. My one question from that book comes from the recognition that even though I pastor an urban, multiethnic church, I have not really paid the price to adjust the culture to shape a genuinely reconciling congregation; the black people in our church are likely simply accommodating the dominant culture in which I have continued to lead. While I aim to do this with humility, compassion, and curiosity, there is still much more to do, especially in adjusting our staff’s composure. My question would be: \u201cHow can a church leader intentionally hire a specific minority (black) on the leadership team without making it a \u2018token or \u2018diversity\u2019 hire?\u201d<\/p>\n God\u2019s Politics<\/em> is a book written nearly 20 years ago that speaks to vital issues today. It would be fascinating to discuss some of Wallis’s political positions and ideology in detail. However, if I had one question, it would be something like: \u201cThe church I serve is politically diverse; how can I disciple my congregation to engage in the political process without compromising their beliefs and values (where \u201ctheir\u201d party doesn\u2019t align with those values), but also lead them to demonstrate the love of Jesus and the unity of the Body across partisan lines both in our church and in our community?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s hard to believe we\u2019re preparing for our final advance. It seems like only yesterday when I arrived in Cape Town with NO IDEA what to expect. I remember thinking the 3rd year students were so\u2026 advanced. And that this was going to be an exceptionally long process. However, this program has sped by, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,3208,3250],"class_list":["post-38120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-fuller","tag-wallis","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38123,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38120\/revisions\/38123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}