The Daily Office, Contemplative Spirituality, and Fixed Hour Prayer

For the past several weeks I have been reading from Day By Day by Peter Scazzero at the start of each of our Morning Blend sessions. This is a devotional or daily "office" book written by Scazzero to assist the reader in practicing contemplative spirituality in a rhythmic, twice-a-day manner. To hear more about the premise of this book, you can watch Scazzero's video introduction here:

If you like the idea of introducing this ancient Christian practice into your own life and want to check out more resources, you might take a look at some of the works of Phyllis Tickle, who was a speaker in the Animate: Bible series we studied a few years ago. You can read several excerpts from her book and read more about Daily Offices/Divine Hours by following this link: The Divine Hours.  Tickle includes an article on her own website, About Fixed Hour Prayer, where she also recommends a book by Shane Claiborne, who is part of the Animate: Practices series that we may be studying in the spring. On his website, you can find daily prayers online: Common Prayer.

Video Introduction to Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

The video repeats a fair amount of what you'll find in the book, but if you're looking for an audio-visual intro to the study, here it is!!

Who is Peter Scazzero?

Our upcoming study, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is by Peter Scazzero:

Pete Scazzero is the Founder of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, NYC, a large, multiracial, international church with seventy-three countries represented. After serving as Senior Pastor for twenty-six years, Pete now serves as a Teaching Pastor/Pastor at Large. He is the author of two best-selling books: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Church (Zondervan, 2010) and most recently released The Emotionally Healthy Leader (Zondervan, 2015). He is also the author of The EHS Course (Zondervan, 2014) and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (Zondervan, 2013).

Pete and his wife Geri are the founders of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking ministry that equips churches in a deep, beneath-the-surface spiritual formation paradigm that integrates emotional health and contemplative spirituality. They have four lovely daughters.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

What's brewing at Morning Blend? Starting September 9th, we will be studying Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, an 8-session series by Peter Scazzero. A synopsis from the website says this,

Pete Scazzero learned the hard way: you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was a pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do:

• Avoid conflict in the name of Christianity
• Ignore his anger, sadness, and fear
• Use God to run from God
• Live without boundaries

Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution, utterly transforming him and his church.

In this best-selling book Pete Scazzero outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested ways to break through to the revolutionary life Christ meant for you. “The combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality,” he says, “unleashes the Holy Spirit inside us so that we might experientially know the power of an authentic life in Christ.”

It's a new year! We're looking forward to being challenged to learn and grow!

Young Adults, Megachurches, and Meaning

Last week we discussed the third session of Ray Vander Laan's series, Dust of the Rabbi, and we had a conversation about how young people, especially young adults, feel lost in the current church culture. We talked about megachurches and the various technologies that churches are using to draw the younger generation...and how that fits into the context of making disciples. We talked a little about what we imagine the church "should" be and what it might have been at its beginning.

Coincidentally, I found that Rachel Held-Evans was on Minnestoa Public Radio speaking about this very topic just the day before our conversation! If you were with us at Morning Blend last year, you will recognize Rachel Held-Evans. She was part of the Animate:Bible series that we studied (see more about her by clicking her name in the right sidebar). You can hear the 11 minute podcast or read the transcript here: Where Church Goes Wrong for Many Millennials.

The MPR interview resulted from an article that Rachel Held-Evans wrote, which was featured in the Washington Post: Want Millennials Back in the Pews? Stop Trying to Make Church 'Cool.' Evan points out:

"According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, among those of us who came of age around the year 2000, a solid quarter claim no religious affiliation at all..."

The church has responded by...

 "...focusing on style points: cooler bands, hipper worship, edgier programming, impressive technology." 

However,

"Recent research from Barna Group and the Cornerstone Knowledge Network found that 67 percent of millennials prefer a “classic” church over a “trendy” one, and 77 percent would choose a “sanctuary” over an “auditorium.”

And, perhaps, my favorite quote from the whole article:

"You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve. You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God. "

 I highly recommend checking out both the article and the podcast. Enjoy!

Dust of the Rabbi - Additional Resources

Ray Vander Laan has an excellent website with additional articles about the people and places mentioned in the study. You can browse through addtional articles on this page:

https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/in-the-dust-of-the-rabbi

Obedience & Biblical Commands

We had a discussion last week about obedience, and it came up that the New Testament scriptures actually have more commands than the Old Testament scriptures. Here are some links if you're interested in reading more:

613 Commandments of Torah (meaning the first five books of the Old Testament) - If you scroll down the page, you'll see all 613 Commandments listed with their scripture references. You may notice that some commandments are very similar or nearly the same. They are still counted toward the total number by the rabbis.

1050 New Testament Commands - The 1,050 commands are divided into 69 categories on this website. Other sites put them into 800 categories. Again, you'll notice a certain amount of repetition of similar, nearly identical commands. You'll also notice that several are repetitious of commands from the Torah.

This statement by Jim Garrish in his article The Commands of the New Testament seems to echo some of Ray Vander Laan's thoughts on the subject of obedience:

In the past, the church has often avoided the subject of God’s commands and laws in fear of leaning too far in the direction of legalism. Unfortunately, by so doing the church has now leaned too far in the direction of antinomianism. It has become lawless, disobedient and sinful in the process.  Jesus reproves such a church, saying, “Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say” (Lk.6:46)?  It is amazing that the modern church has diligently carried out part of the Lord’s great command.  She has gone into all to the world to make disciples. Yet, she has often ignored the last part of the same Great Commission, that is in teaching those disciples to do all that the Lord has instructed (Mt. 28:19-20).

The Jim Garrish article also attempts to list all the New Testament commands, which he describes as no easy task:

This is a difficult task. I have first tried to eliminate all those commands that were given to specific individuals, unless those commands seem to have a direct application to the church in general. I have also omitted the many statements and teachings of Jesus and his disciples which are given in a manner that they may almost be construed as commands.  These ‘implied commands’ could become the subject of another study entirely.  Here I have listed only those statements that seem to be clearly given as commandments. 

 

Walking on Water

In Session 2 of In the Dust of the Rabbi, Ray Vander Laan tells the story from the Bible of  Jesus...and then Peter...walking on water.  For some further thoughts on this story, I enjoyed this sermon by Nadia Bolz Weber: Jesus Walking on the Water - A Sermon Sarcastic and Serious:

We might see the moral of the story as “you should have so much faith that you can walk on water toward Jesus” but the truth of this story is that Jesus walks toward us. The truth of the story is that my abundance of faith or lack of faith does not deter God from drawing close.  That even if you are scared to death you can say Lord Save Me and the hand of God will find you in even the darkest waters.  Because this is a story not of morals but of movement. Not of heros of the faith making their way to Christ but of Christ drawing near to you in the midst of fear. 

It is an important contrast, a tension we have to hold as believers - that our faith compels us to act but that our actions do not save us.

Women in Judaism

Last week we briefly mentioned how, unlike many other cultures throughout history, Jewish girls were educated alongside boys in Beth/Bet Sefer until they were 12 or 13, meaning that girls and women were often just as educated as their male counterparts. Only some boys/men went on to study more in Beth/Bet Midrash after finishing Bet Sefer. Given that discussion, I thought you all might appreciate an article from Judaism 101 about the "Role of Women" in Judaism. Here are some interesting snippets:

The position of women is not nearly as lowly as many modern people think; in fact, the position of women in halakhah (Jewish Law) that dates back to the biblical period is in many ways better than the position of women under American civil law as recently as a century ago.

The equality of men and women begins at the highest possible level: G-d. In Judaism, unlike traditional Christianity, G-d has never been viewed as exclusively male or masculine. Judaism has always maintained that G-d has both masculine and feminine qualities.

The rights of women in traditional Judaism are much greater than they were in the rest of Western civilization until the 20th century. Women had the right to buy, sell, and own property, and make their own contracts, rights which women in Western countries (including America) did not have until about 100 years ago. In fact, Proverbs 31:10-31, which is traditionally read at Jewish weddings, speaks repeatedly of business acumen as a trait to be prized in women (v. 11, 13, 16, and 18 especially).

The following passage is perhaps the best explanation for why it was so important for girls and women to be educated in the Torah:

There is no question that in traditional Judaism, the primary role of a woman is as wife and mother, keeper of the household. However, Judaism has great respect for the importance of that role and the spiritual influence that the woman has over her family. The Talmud says that when a pious man marries a wicked woman, the man becomes wicked, but when a wicked man marries a pious woman, the man becomes pious.

The entire article can be read here: http://www.jewfaq.org/women.htm.

Who is Ray Vander Laan?

Our upcoming study, In the Dust of the Rabbi, is by Ray Vander Laan:

Since receiving his Master’s of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1976, Ray Vander Laan has been actively involved in studying and teaching Jewish culture using the methods of Jewish education. He has continued graduate studies in Jewish Studies in the United States, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. He has been a teacher for 35 years and is an ordained minister with the Christian Reformed Church. He has also authored a book entitled Echoes of His Presence, published by Focus on the Family. Vander Laan founded That the World May Know Ministries in 1998. Ray has taken over 10,000 people with him on his study tours of Israel, Turkey and Egypt.

For more information on Ray Vander Laan, including podcasts of his teachings and discussion forums, visit his website at: http://www.rvl-on.com/about/