The Harvey Potthoff Memorial Lecture Series is a lecture series given each year at Christ United Methodist Church in Denver, Colorado. Named in honor of their former pastor and Iliff professor, the series has had speakers such as Marjorie Suchocki (Process Theologian, Claremont VP), Jay Rundell (President, MTSO), and more recently Dr. Beldon Lane from St. Louis U.
For 2015, Hacking Christianity has been invited to give the lecture. What a crazy honor to be in the tradition of such smart people and what an overwhelming responsibility to offer something substantial to the progressive community!
I say “Hacking Christianity” and not just me (Jeremy) because it really is because of you and this community that we are invited into new formats and situations to share our values, methods, and perceptions. It’s from the collision of ideas in the comments, in the new social media interactions, and from the offline random phone calls and messages that the ideas take bloom. So you’ll be up there with me.
The Topic
The lecture topic is on Discipleship in the progressive tradition. From the promo:
Discipleship is more than a process of learning about values and theological constructs. Discipleship is about our theological heritage, our language for faith and dialoguing with God, our identity as Christians. What does a discipleship process look like for progressive churches in a post-modern world? It is time to get as radical about our faith as we are about our politics and inclusion.
Boom. Sounds like fun, and a great way to get to know some of the voices I’ve gotten to know over the six years of the blog.
As we turn theological ideas on its head, I can think of no better topic than the narrative that “progressives are not about discipleship,” or that we do not care about discipling people in the traditions of the church in a post-modern world. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it’s time the parts of the country that only know reactionary progressivism to know there’s more to it than meets the eye.
I’m honored to be included in this lecture series and will do my best to continue the honor of the series as well.
See you in Denver!
If you are in Denver and the surrounding area, I invite you to attend January 24th and 25th (Saturday has lecture/interaction; Sunday has classroom discussion and sermon). There’s a special gathering of young clergy the night before, so be sure to consider that if you fit that demographic. Here’s all the info and how to RSVP: Potthoff Lecture Poster letter size (PDF).
So sound off:
- What question of discipleship and progressives do you most want to hear reflections on?
- What’s your sense of how progressives view discipleship differently than conservative/traditionalists? Or do we?
Thanks for your comments and see you in Denver!
Make sure you greet Dick Phillips, Dean Emeritus of Hendricks Chapel who wrote a biography on Potthoff.
Have fun out there! As an Iliff grad I must warn you, The style of discussing theology is much more ‘confront and contend’ than anything I ever encountered at BU! I had fun at the recent AAR connecting with some current and recent Iliff folks and discovering that the styles of discussing theology that made Iliff unique in my time are still around despite most of the faculty and administration turning over.
Expect arguments not because they disagree so much as because they agree and want to push a point further. Or just imagine talking with a room full of people like me who will needle you to refine your points further.
To which I have to raise again, the “we here at Hacking Christianity” remains disingenuous in my view. Then when incorporating commenters) remain your editorial decisions…thus your voice. Claiming some sort of ‘corporate voice of the blogger and commentators’ either a) glosses over serious disagreements from regular commenters with the ideas you posit in your posts, or b) ignores the editorial control you maintain in selecting which commenters to incorporate or which to simply disagree with and exclude from your “we here at Hacking Christianity’ claims.
Only when you completely turn over the blog for a ‘guest post’ do you approach something more polyvalent in voice, but even then, it’s only been on certain issues and your own discretion.
In my view Hacking Christianity remain the voice of Rev. Jeremy Smith (which is a very good thing!) with commentary and critique in the comments. Not a ‘corporate voice’ that approaches a enough of a consensus to make “we here at Hacking Christianity” theological claims unless you’re simply discounting the detractors and those who disagree in your commenting section, which then again means Hacking Christianity is under your editorial voice.
You were invited to the Pottoff Lectures, not some corporate ‘we’. While you’re right to acknowledge that your thought is influenced in dialogue with others, the blog isn’t corporately written or conceived. It’s your voice, claim it and proclaim!
I agree with Kirk. This is not an online community in which everyone has equal voice, like a forum. This is a space where one speaks and edits, then many respond. I think there are other creative and more accurate ways to credit your sources and say how commenters have shaped your thoughts. You will find then because you’re you.
One last bit on this point (unless Jeremy wants to take it up off blog), then I’ll make a post that contributes to the topic (gasp!)
I harp on this because I care. As someone to teaches undergraduates this sort of corporate “we” rattles my sense of academic integrity because it occludes sources, voices, and editorial selections. Academic integrity is something I know is important to Jeremy (*coughmarkdriscollpostscough*)
It differs from other forms of cooperative claims. It’s not like a co-written or group written article because it’s not vetted by each contributor. It differs from something like the Book of Discipline because it’s not voted on by the body (or its delegates).
You can claim it’s part of some “new form of online writing and conversation” but I’ll call hipster bullcrap on that all day long because it’s a problem for reasons my contribution to the question will point out (gasp!)
Okay! I’ll try to keep this terse, but you know I like big posts and I cannot lie! (Baby got Blog!)
As someone who identifies and is usually identified by others as theologically progressive I never really got the progressive resistance to the addition of “witness” to the membership vows. Nor have I ever really gotten the heebie jeebies words like discipleship and evangelism seem to cause among fellow progressives.
I do get that these reactionary rejections stem more from an aversion or bad experiences with Christians of other theological persuasions who generally use these words freely. I also get that there’s a weight of ‘assumptions’ in the general population that are applied to those who use these words that make progressives really uncomfortable.
But, you’d think a community who does all this political identity label reclaiming could get over that and get on with it. Perhaps that’s because I’ve already worked through my own theological construction of these ideas and come to a place where I’m probably practicing them in ways that look different than what people expect. [cf: read up on Johannes Hoekendijk’s “Church Inside Out” for one of my big influences in framing these terms.]
So here’s some musings on progressives and discipleship:
1. Stop being a closet Christian.
This is my (in)famous point I’d harp on at Cambridge Welcoming Ministries about “being who we are in here among ourselves…out there.” I’ve found it very powerful to say things like “I take this progressive political position because of my Christian faith.” It gets attention because it challenges the weighty assumptions that I’ve often let silence my willingness to identify as a Christian in the public sphere.
2. Don’t let identifying as a Christian box you in.
This means we don’t have to water down our progressive theological commitments to identify as Christian. As someone who has gotten more deeply involved in the interfaith movement, I engage in activities that support the rights of other faith communities to strengthen their own religious and secular commitments among one another because I believe that’s a part of what being Christian is all about. There’s an imperative of hospitality and welcome and regard for others in the Christian calling. Go and make disciples (not just converts!) is a commission that isn’t a one step process. Forcing Jesus out there as the only option for others is a great way to undo the sort of good will and regard that allows us to witness the love of Jesus Christ in the world.
3. Drop the talking points.
This one could probably apply to just about any theological ‘camp’ out there. The corporate ‘we’ of internet conversations rankles my academic integrity sensibilities because it occludes authorship. It allows for progressives to find a voice they can agree with more or less and simply parrot it.
This is my hangup with the “Not All Like That” thing too. Saying, “I’m a Christian, but not THAT kind of Christian. We’re not all like that,” is a cop out. It’s the theological equivalent of clicking “LIKE” on a Hacking Christianity post or retweeting the link and sitting back and saying, “There, I witnessed my faith to the world today!”
Bull crap. If you’re “not all like that” then what are you? In your own words please…no talking points borrowed or ‘corporate voice.’ You’re free to cite and attribute, but, like my undergraduate students, no ‘plopping’ a quote or paraphrase without explaining explaining where it’s from, why you’ve chosen it, and how you understand it.
4. “That we may be for the world the body of Christ.”
Take communion regularly, pay attention to the words, they’re what they are for a reason. For me, thoughts about discipleship are wasted if they’re a “theology of mission.” A theology of mission seeks to theologically construct a “why” and “how to” of doing mission. Blech.
Discipleship should be about mission theology, or theological construction that is DOING mission to the world. Discipleship can’t be about simply ticking off a Covenant Discipleship list as if it were simply a daily “to do” list so you can sit with your group on Tuesday evening and say, “Yup. Did that.” It leads to good metrics and dead faith.
Discipleship is about the communion blessing that in taking in Jesus Christ, we might BE the body of Christ for the world. And to temper against the historical triumphantalism that can come with such a theological claim, let’s all take some time to remember all the ups and downs of what the gospels tell us about Jesus’ physical presence in his life.
We have to be fully human. While we cannot be fully divine, we can point to the one who is. We do that by showing the love, compassion, care, anger, humor, and passion of the one who’s name we dare to claim. There’s a progressive bent to how we embody that because we’re not out there trying to tell people to love one another, we’re out there trying to be love for one another. Discipleship is in the doing and it’s ever so more vital than the proclamation. Our vow to witness must be in our discipleship, not our words.