Gospel of Promise, Community and Neighbor

As I have been thinking about what Gospel means and revising along the way, as I have been informed throughout my Gospel in Global Media Cultures Seminary Course, I have learned more about the global impact of the gospel message of promise , community and neighbor. At the beginning of the course we read an article of this same name that was drafted by the faculty of Luther Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota where I am in my senior year in the Master of Divinity program. This article summarizes a theological rationale for vocational formation in community. One purpose of this article is a statement draft to introduce some of the key educational goals of the leadership in today’s faith community. The second paragraph of this two page document says this: “Luther Seminary educates leaders for Christian communities called and sent by the Holy Spirit to witness salvation in Jesus Christ to serve in God’s world.” That is gospel! In this in our ever-changing world the Lutheran Confessional witness that we share, based on Holy scripture, xxx we seek justice, love, faith and truth in the communities we serve. Called and sent to share the promises of God, in word and sacrament, in God’s community and with our neighbors.

In reading the book Amplifying our witness by Benjamin T. Conner I was particularly attentive to the gospel truth that is expressed by the author. He has worked with adolescents for over twenty years and currently offers a ministry to adolescents with developmental disabilities in Virginia. The publisher is Wm.B Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids/Cambridge. This book engages disability theology as it seeks to be a community of friendship and faithfulness, “through compelling stories that offer an image of the body of Christ when individuals with disabilities are included. Anyone who wants to create a church culture that honors and receives gifts of all God’s people should read this book” (quoted from Amy Julia Becker- author of A Good and Perfect Gift)

One part of this book that I found particularly intriguing was a quote from page 13 regarding an observation about faith in children that the author thought would also apply to adolescents with developmental disabilities that is quoted form Karen Marie Yust, in which the auther (Benjamin T. Conner) asks the reader to consider the implications of this statement for understanding the spirituality of adolescents with disabilities. But I think it could apply to all of the community and all of our neighbors.

“My call for defining faith as a gift from God rather than a set of beliefs or a well-developed cognitive understanding of all things spiritual is, then, and attempt to encourage us to take
seriously this tension of “grace” side of the equation so that children are recognized fully [spiritual] beings from birth. If we hold this definition of faith as an act of grace, then we
make room for children to be actual people of faith rather than just potential people of faith in need of further development before they can truly engage in a spiritual life. If faith is not something we do but something we are given by God, then anyone can be a recipient of faith and respond with faithfulness, even if that person is incapable of rational reasoning.”

The Good News of the promises of God, through the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sent to save us from sin, death and evil. We have the hope in the words of promise through God’s Word and sacrament. I am informed by Paul in these Words of promise in Titus 3:5-8: Through the water of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which is poured out through Jesus Christ, so having been justified by his grace become heirs in the hope of eternal life.
I see the Gospel as God’s will and testament in which God reconciled us to Godself and we then die to our old sinful self and become new enclosed in God’s Word and command, given the gift of faith which trusts the Word of God. Trusting in the promise and God’s endless grace we are called by God to have hope in the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. God suffers through our weakest moments with us and gives us the strength to meet life’s challenges and through these challenges comes hope. And in turn sharing these gifts with others who are hurting gives them hope as well. The Gospel is God with us! In addition to this which was my first definition of Gospel in March for the Gospel in Global Mission and Media Course at Luther Seminary. I have been enriched by the many blog posts of my group and classmates that have further informed my expression of the Gospel. I would then add:  The Gospel is God for us! We believers are the body of Christ, a community of faith freed and empowered to love and serve our neighbor. This good news of the Gospel is the Word of God given for you and me to share with all creation.

Fair use, Creative Commons Licensing, and Ministry

I have to be honest this weeks material and topics have been quite foreign to me. I have read articles about fair use and copyright laws and find it all confusing, thinking I need to hire a Philadelphia Lawyer to sort it all out. I have learned some useful things for use of information and what needs to be cited, but it is not all clear to me. The how to cite is still also unclear as to what constitutes fair use. Also I did some exploring on Google images and Flickr to determine what has Creative Commons Licensing and that really narrows down the useable photos, I also had difficulty in actually knowing if they truly are CC items, even using the advanced search with the CC features as I wasn’t sure of the proper features to choose in my ignorance. There are many items i use and try to faithfully cite them properly, and hope I am doing so accurately and adequately. I found this youtube video helpful in better understanding fair use.

 

Ministry in criminal justice and crap detection

” There are four forms of ministry that the ELCA wishes to put into practice. These are listening with compassion, hospitality, accompaniment, and advocacy.” This was taken from the Setting the Table blog post in my Gospel in Global Media Cultures course at Luther Seminary from the Social statement about the Criminal Justice System in the United States . As I was reflecting on this these forms of ministry blend well with what Howard Rheingold describes in his book Net Smart: How to Thrive Online when he says, “I must add that networks are not the same as communities, although any person can belong to both networks and communities simultaneously: people can communicate online about shared interests without establishing personal relationships. Knowing the difference between a community and a network is as critical socially as crap detection is essential informationally. And knowing how to be a good community or network member can be more than a key to sociability, support, information and communications; it can save your life. ” (page 163) he continues by expressing that he feels the difference between online social network and community has to do with the quality, continuity and degree of commitment in the relationship between members. Which he says comes down to whether the participants care about each other and are willing to act on their feelings. I think there is a fair amount of crap detection that the ELCA statement is calling us to take note of in the criminal justice system just as Rheingold seeks for us to focus our acute attention on the information online to discern the truth about its content. (Infotention) If we prayerfully use the four qualities above in our online, community, church, social injustice and inequality situations, and crisis intervention interactions, this will help to engage an authentic, faithful approach to Christian ministry as we proclaim the Gospel promise.

Called to pay it forward

In my Global Gospel Media Cultures class this week we are reading a very interesting book by Howard Rheingold called Net Smart- How to Thrive Online. In relating to social media in ministry I have learned about a term called social capital, on page 215 the author says that “voluntary cooperation depends on social capital. Norms of generalized reciprocity and networks of civil engagement encourage social trust and cooperation. Trust itself is an emergent property of the social system, as much as a personal attribute.Individuals are able to be trusting (and not entirely gullible) because of the social norms and networks within which their actions are embedded (Cited from Robert Leonardi, RafaellaY. Nanetti, and Robert Putname, Making Democracy Work, 1993) Trust and cooperation are essential in social networks on-line or face to face. The value of paying it forward was also a topic that was spelled out in Chapter 5 which suggest another way in which social capital works, such as doing favor for strangers with no anticipation or expectation of a reciprocal favor in return, a way to describe a portion of human behavior, the best way to get help is to get help is to help somebody else- pay it forward”

This to me relates to the golden rule “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.” This relates to the gospel message as well, in our day to day vocations as Christians and in our on-line ministry as well God calls us to share this Gospel message to pay it forward, we are given the gift of faith in service to others and to pass on this to others who will then also pay it forward. I am reminded of Matthew 10: 7-10 when Jesus sends out the 12 apostles and says in verse 7: “Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have been given.” Essentially pay it forward.

When I think of Gospel there are a number of things that come to mind that capture the meaning of the Gospel. The first is the Good News of the promises of God, through the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sent to save us from sin, death and evil. We have the hope in the words of promise through God’s Word and sacrament. I am informed by Paul in these Words of promise in Titus 3:5-8: Through the water of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which is poured out through Jesus Christ, so having been justified by his grace become heirs in the hope of eternal life.
I see the Gospel as God’s will and testament in which God reconciled us to Godself and we then die to our old sinful self and become new enclosed in God’s Word and command, given the gift of faith which trusts the Word of God. Trusting in the promise and God’s endless grace we are called by God to have hope in the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. God suffers through our weakest moments with us and gives us the strength to meet life’s challenges and through these challenges comes hope. And in turn sharing these gifts with others who are hurting gives them hope as well. The Gospel is God with us!
In addition to this which was my first definition of Gospel in March for the Gospel in Global Mission and Media Course at Luther Seminary. I have been enriched by the many blog posts of my group and classmates that have further informed my expression of the Gospel.
I would then add:
The Gospel is God for us! We believers are the body of Christ, a community of faith freed and empowered to love and serve our neighbor. This good news of the Gospel is the Word of God given for you and me to share with all creation.

Prayer in social media

I was just thinking of some of the email or text message interactions I have had recently in which I have asked family or friends if I could pray for them, but now I just think of the opportunity that I have missed and perhaps the others have missed, by praying for them right then and there in that moment, by typing my words of prayer at that time. I know that they were grateful but the missed opportunity to pray so they could see the words could possibly evoke some emotions or reciprocal interaction to continue the prayer or conversation, allowing a space to enter in to prayer, if this were a public space this could allow other prayers to be added by others as well. In fact I am thinking of sending my little nieces and nephews an Easter Prayer text since we will not be together this year, oh why not I can send one to my sisters and brother too! Easter Blessings to all!

Vulnerability forms cultures of trust

This week in my Global Media Cultures class, as I read the assigned articles by Deanna Thompson about uses of the Caring Bridge social media sites. After being ill with cancer about 15 years ago myself, I really see the value in this form of social community, in which there is a format for expression of prayer and compassion, and as Deanna Thompson explains as a place to encourage vulnerability which has prompted others to be vulnerable in return. She quotes Marty Martin who says of this vulnerability,” that this is how cultures of trust get formed”. (Virtually There:Martin Marty, Cyberspace and Cultures of Trust in the 21st Century-by Deanna A. Thompson page 5[17]) I was particularly able to relate to this vulnerability in my own life when Deanna Thompson expressed this on page 5 of this article: “While my initial understanding of the function of a site like Caring Bridge was as a tool to help me update others on the condition of my life as a cancer patient, I quickly realized it was much more than that. My updates became the start of a conversation with an assembly of people who respond with stories of their own navigation of similar health journeys, offers of prayer or support, and acts of care for me and my family. The conversations taking place online have often been illuminating, encouraging, and life giving during very dark times.” page 5[14] Thank God there is a place for this type of interaction and caring mission and ministry, to form these cultures of trust through mutual vulnerability and sharing of life’s stories.

A witness to Christ

When I think of witness I often go to the greek word for witness being, martyr, and yet we can also be a witness, without such dramatic, lethal outcomes. Another word that has been explored and pondered on this week are the words testify and testimony. These words have dramatic connotations to them as well, I think of testify as a court word, it has a repentent quality to it in a sense as well. The word testimony conjures up the image of an altar call in my mind.  But in the case of the purpose of social media and digital cultures it takes on a different sense to me one of telling the story of the gospel promise, using our stories to share the good news to others, in a community like that of a cloud of witnesses where others are free to share their stories as well and the promises are shared and stories are shared and Christ is shared as well.

What is the Gospel?

When I think of Gospel there are a number of things that come to mind that capture the meaning of the Gospel. The first is the Good News of the promises of God, through the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sent to save us from sin, death and evil. We have the hope in the words of promise through God’s Word and sacrament. I am informed by Paul in these Words of promise in Titus 3:5-8 Through the water of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which is poured out through Jesus Christ, so having been justified by his grace become heirs in the hope of eternal life. I see the Gospel as God’s will and testament in which God reconciled us to Godself and we then die to our old sinful self and become new enclosed in God’s Word and command, given the gift of faith which trusts the Word of God. Trusting in the promise and God’s endless grace we are called by God to have hope in the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. God suffers through our weakest moments with us and gives us the strength to meet life’s challenges and through these challenges comes hope. And in turn sharing these gifts with others who are hurting gives them hope as well. The Gospel is God with us!

Open source that is making a difference

I was particularly intrigued by the use of the open source model to cause social and medical change. In Clay Shirky’s book “Here comes everybody” on page 254, in which in the public health domain the SARS disease race was on to sequence the genetic code of the virus by a variety of cooperative and collaborative networks. This made me think of a news program that featured an open source game site that is making an impact on cracking genetic codes for diseases see this link. Fascinating I think!!

http://othersideofscience.com/2011/09/video-game-that-cures-cancer/