Interesting classes I have taken:
- Talking about the Gospel as More than Penal Substitution
- What make you and Others Tick: Finding God in our Messy Lives
- Healing and Hope for Kids who Cut
Talking about the Gospel as More than Penal Substitution: This class containe tons of useful information and Scot McKNight was a funny man. The only downside was that he spoke in seminary lingo. He usually explained what he meant but it threw me off to begin with. He said we have four issues we need to deal with: What is the Gospel?, How we make people respond to the Gospel and Salvation?, The problems that are resolved by the Gospel, and making a robust Gospel for Robust problems. Scot does not believe in shrinking the gospel into 3 or 4 points because the gospel isn’t simple, but complex. Yet, he gave us 3 nice little 4 point lists. The net part talked about the fall of man and our becoming cracked icons or cracked reflections of our maker. The four problems of man that must be addressed by the gospel is: the shame of self, fear of God, alienation and blame between ourselves, and alienation from the world we exist in. These problems come from our eating the fruit and being deceived by the serpent. The only way that we can address these cracks is to make sure that wha twe tell people is the whole story. Most of the time we make the Gospel as Jesus taking the punishment that we deserved, but we have to create a Gospel that is more.
General Session 3-Francis Chen: He really pushed my buttons and challeneged me. It especially talked to me because of the place I feel Bridge Midtown is at now. It seems we have been stuck in a slump and haven’t gotten any kids to come. Some nights it was only the leadership team and it has been hard. Every night at the diner, other people are reporting back there numbers and they were so much bigger than what we had. I wanted that. It has been a struggle to try and be happy with the kid we have gotten to stay and become regulars. The biggest thought: “Jesus saw a big crowd and was skeptical. He didn’t want followers, he wanted disciples. Followers weren’t useful for anything. They would ruin his crap.” (My own stringing of thoughts not Francis Chen’s).
What Makes you and Others Tick?: Was quite upset when I walked in and saw that the slides said it was on prayer. I did not want to go to a seminar on prayer. I wanted stuff on personality. He did speak on it and after that I left. He said there were three type of people: Head centered, Heart centered, and Gut Centered. Head centered people are more introverted and their looking at the world without a lot of engagement. Most of their interactions are made within their own heads. Their is tons of things that are going on inside of them. Their central question: “What’s going on here?” They experience God outside of themselves and this is where God can talk to them. Heart centered people are extroverts and they have a huge social world. They like to interact and their central question is: “Will they like me?” They experience God inside of them because their outer world is so packed. Gut centered people are, what we can call, omniverts. They are a balance of both worlds. Their central question is: “Dos my inner world make sense with my outer world?” They have been known to say: “”Here I am. Deal with me.” They experience God in and out. After getting this information, I left.
Healing and Hope for Kids who Cut: Surprisingly when I entered this seminar, it had just begun. I didn’t miss any of it. The most important thing to know is that cutting or self-injury is self-caring. These kids are dealing with pain the only way they can. Self-injuring is a way to ese inner tension from emotions that seem uncontrollable, to escape from emptiness and depression, realizing anger, maintainng a sense of security and uniqueness, obtaining a sense of euphoria, esccaping numbness, preventing suicide, expressing emotional pain, commnicating inner turmil and need for help, validating their emotional pain, expressing/repressing sexuality, continuing abusive patterns, obtaining biochemial relief, and preventing something worse. The most common behaviors are; cutting, burning, and head-banging. Other forms are: branding, hair pulling, biting, carving, scratching, abrasions (example: draggin knuckles along a brick wall), hitting, bruising, interferring with natural healing (picking scabs). They do not stop because it’s thier decision and doesn’t affect anyone else, it’s their body and they can do what they want, it’s a way to show their pain, their scars help them manage, giving it up will cause more pain, pushes people away, they deserve to be punished, and if they stop, they will end up killing themselves. It’s a cycle of addiciton for them. It’s a way for them to get from the negative area of emotion into the positive, but it follows the law of diminishing return which means as they continue, they will not get the same high they one got until it gets to the point they can’t even get into the positive anymore. We have to respong with affirmation, alistening ear, offering our presence, acceptance, and speaking of Hope. Some practical suggestions are: life a life worthy of trust, listen deeply/actively/non-judgementally, be available (not frantic), do NOT condemn, be medicall objective, read all you can, refer to a qualified therapist, and become acquainted with organizations for self-injurers like S.A.F.E and To Write Love on Her Arms.
General Sesson 4: Phyllis Tickle spoke. It was very informative about the history of the church. It is very interesting to hear where we came from, but I get slightly board. I could not fit myself into any of her four quadrants and realized my church is emerging! lol.
I hope this format is more helpful. I know last post was a little jumbled. I know there are others with better notes. My friend Janelle’s blog is very good. It’s at janellepainter.com/blog.
I can’t wait for what’s in store next!
