Opening Day

The Cubs couldn't win their opening game today, but it was still encouraging to see Fukudome hit a game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth in his first MLB game. I think the Cubs will win the division again this year as does pretty much every baseball analyst (unfortunately, which may do nothing but curse the Cubs).

Co-Ed College Dorm Rooms

You've got to read THIS STORY to believe it.

Great idea, let a 19 year old couple room together. I'm sure it's a breeze to clear that up when they break up three weeks into the semester. Really making things easy on the Dean of Students with that idea!

Behind the Back Goal

Kelli and I were at this Winterhawks game with Ryan and Rachel Moreland and Andy Devlin and Emily Reis so they can attest to this. The game itself was awesome. It was a tie game after overtime so they went to the shootout, this was the game winning shot which was unbelievable. We were right behind the glass of the goal so it was pretty amazing to see live. Check it out! I can't believe he pulled that off to win the last game of the season.

Another Dustin Bagby?

No seriously. I thought I was the only one. I always thought my name was pretty unique. It turns out there are a few different Dustin Bagbys out there! And THIS ONE is a musician. Check out his Myspace. This is good stuff. I'm glad that if there is another Dustin Bagby in this world, he's a good musician. Nice work Dustin.

I still think it would be weird to say, "Hey, have you guys heard the new Dustin Bagby record?"

How many of you are out there?

Truly a Fantastic Week

#1 Holy Week complete with Maundy Thursday Dinner, Good Friday Gathering, and of course Easter this Sunday. Yeah Resurrection!

#2 NCAA Tourney First Round (the best round) this Thursday and Friday. I will be at my television at 9am when it starts out here and will feel great about skipping Hebrew to catch all the action while I pack up boxes for #3.

#3 We're moving this Friday morning over to the SE (Burnside specifically). We'll be about a half a mile from Western Seminary which is awesome and will be paying less rent for more space!

A side note, not only does our home get bigger, but our brewery does as well. I won't have to sleep next to my gurgling fermenter anymore (but I might anyway). Speaking of beer, the Brown Nut Ale (brewed alongside Chris and Devin) came out better than I imagined. The brown sugar added a lot of flavor and smoothness and the alcohol content was a little higher than I wanted, probably around 7 to 8 percent (oops). I also have a Pale Ale bottle conditioning that I brewed with Elvyss that will be drinkable in about a week and a Red Ale that Devin and I brewed specifically for baseball season that I racked into the secondary today.

On tap to brew this summer: Heifeweizen, ESB, and for the ladies, Hard Apple Cider! I'm so glad I found a hobby! This is so much fun.

My Wife is Back

It's not that she was physically gone but had just gone into a time of hibernation over the winter. But this much is clear, this last week her jokes have been witty and funnier than ever! Her mind is sharp and ready to belt out a clever reply to anything you give to her. I told her that I was glad to have the Kelli back that I know and love and this was her reply via email:

"I'd like to thank my parents for always believing in me, and all the fans for supporting my work, for the directors and producers that gave me a second chance, and most importantly to my husband, without his love i wouldn't have known how to play this character and how to come back from it.

Thank you, thank you all!!"

Good to have you back!

Grand Archives

I just discovered a great album from Grand Archives released from Sub Pop Records. This will definitely be on my top albums of 2008 list! This is seriously the best thing I've heard this year so far.

Here's their Myspace page.

The Treasure of Discernment

Today I am reminded that the human heart is a deep and mysterious thing and it is impossible to know all of the thoughts and desires that are deep inside of another person. Unless you're God of course, who knows everything that is in our heart and even those things we try to hide from ourselves. As pastors, this makes the job of pastoring and taking care of people difficult. How do we help those when we do not truly know what is going on inside of them. How do we help those who do not even know what is going on inside of themselves? The task seems impossible, except of course by means of some sort of discernment that God grants us by the Holy Spirit.

This is a reminder to me that helping people is a much bigger task than the techniques that we learn in Seminary (as helpful and needed as those are), but it truly is a spiritual task that we have completely have to rely on the Spirit of God for. I guess that is why prayer is so important to the pastoral task. God, help us to listen to your Spirit and to discern how we can help those who come seeking.

How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative 2

I finished Roger Olson's book a few days ago and enjoyed it very much. The word "Evangelical" is a tough word to define seeing that this is a diverse movement rather than an organization or denomination. But when talking about Evangelicals, Olson takes on Bebbington's four characteristics and then adds a fifth of his own. When we are calling ourselves or someone else an evangelical this is what is meant:

1. Biblicism - belief in the supreme authority of scripture.
2. Conversionism - belief that Christianity always includes a conversion to Jesus Christ by personal repentance by faith.
3. Crucicentrism - worship, piety, and devotion centered on the cross.
4. Activism - Concern for and involvement in social transformation through evangelism and social activism.
5. A respect for the great tradition of Christian doctrine.

I believe these to be good, working characteristics of what it means to call oneself an Evangelical. I would put myself in the midst of this movement. The problem is, the media paints a picture of an evangelical in a much different light. When they bring on an Evangelical to their talk show, what they are saying is that they are going to have a Conservative/Fundamentalist (you can almost use these words interchangeably anymore).

So, how do we separate ourselves from being tossed into the Fundamentalist camp when we say we are Evangelicals without throwing out our heritage as being part of the Evangelical movement? After all, I very much am in line with these five things listed above and don't want to toss any of those five things out. This is why Olson uses the language when he calls himself a "Post-conservative Evangelical". He isn't a right wing conservative, but he is also not a left wing liberal (although if you are a Post-Conservative the Fundamentalists love to label you as a liberal). So this is the middle-ground that Olson is helping to pave by calling himself a "Post-Conservative".

While we are at it, so we don't have a misunderstanding here, Olson defines "conservative" as "that habit of the heart that reacts against anything nontraditional and tends toward an idolatry of some perceived past "golden age" when church and society were good and not yet corrupted by forces of secularity and liberal thinking."

Conservative theologians are those that believe that all important theological matters were cleared up in the first eight centuries. But they also tend to see the Reformation as the golden age of Christian Theology and exalt those (Luther, Calvin), ironically, who had the nerve and the Spirit to question the status quo and bring about reform. But even though they pay lip service to the reformers, any idea of continual reform goes out the window. With most conservatives there is a "hardening of the categories" and most systematic theologies are simply a restatement of past conservative theologies in updated language because of course, "we've got everything right by now, and just need to protect it against new ideas." How did the movement of the Reformation with it's motto "Reformed and always reforming" become one of stagnant defense against any new thought? It's a mystery this book seeks to ponder.

Nothing is Sacred

Not even beloved Wrigley Field's name. Now, it's not that there's anything special about "Wrigley", it's that it's been named that for so long, and everyone loves going to "Wrigley" Field.

But apparently the owner of the Cubs couldn't care less as you can see here as he is considering selling the naming rights to the field. Great, another Petco or Safeco Field. Or maybe we should just cut to the chase and name it Playtex Park or Walmart Stadium. Gene has a few other ideas here. Frick.

How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative Pt. 1

I’ve been reading Roger Olson’s latest book entitled “How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative.” I heard Olson speak at three separate workshops last week at the National Pastors Convention and I left impressed and encouraged. I honestly wish he were one of my professors for a few reasons.

1. He’s an intellectually respectable Arminian. Last time I checked at Western there are no Arminians and no one who respects them (note broad sweeping statement, this is just how I feel sometimes). Many Seminaries seem entrenched in staunch Calvinism and unable to see anything else and unfortunately buy into the system so much they mistake it for the gospel. So in any case when I hear a well-articulated and very intelligent Arminian (which is my background) I get excited.

Another reason I was excited to hear Roger is because the guy takes a lot of crap in the Ultra-Conservative world (which this book won’t help). If you have read Reclaiming the Center, then you know that Olson is a constant target because of his willingness to entertain new ideas and not accept that every theological issue has been worked out in the first eight centuries. So in that way, I figure if all of these guys dislike his thoughts then there is a good chance I will enjoy them. (the most prevalent example of this is an article entitled “Postconservative Evangelicals Greet the Postmodern Age.”)

In the line of Stan Grenz, Olson is not convinced that we have discovered with certainty all there is to know about God (sounds obvious doesn’t it?). He is also not comfortable signing his name to human made, faulty creeds without mental reservation (which he admits there is nothing in the world in which he does not hold some sort of “mental reservation” (again, pretty obvious right?). Creeds can be helpful to our faith as a guide and especially show us how we have gotten where we are at in theological history, but once we start adhering to creeds without questioning the truth behind them in a Biblical sense then we have created an idol and have privileged tradition as if people had a special kind of knowledge “back then” to be able to create a creed that was perfect, accurate, and infallible. In this sense, my Restoration heritage has gotten it sort of right with one of their mottos, "No Creeds But Christ". I agree that our allegiance should not lie in creeds, but this statement has led many "disciples" to ignore important creeds throughout our history that we may have found helpful.

I appreciate Roger Olson’s new book as I have already consumed about half of it and will surely comment more on some of his chapters. This is a very readable, accessible and thought provoking book that I recommend reading and thinking through. Plus I was excited that Roger Olson never said, "I have three angels around me at all times, I have verifiable proof to this." I am also impressed at the face Olson made when JP Moreland said this in the theological panel. The face showed bafflement, a little shock, and utter astonishment at such a statement. I can get behind that kind of face :)

Back from San Diego

The last two days were a whirlwind of two good sessions with N.T. Wright who really blew my mind, an early morning Bible Study with N.T. Wright where he talked about the entire book of Acts in 45 minutes (which they didn't record), and a theological panel discussion with Roger Olson, Greg Boyd, Carolyn Custis James, and J.P. Moreland whom made the statement,

"I know as an indisputable fact that I have three angels surrounding me at all times. I have more verifiable proof of this fact than I do that George Bush is our president."

Huh?

I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since and I think I'm actually going to email him and try to find out what the heck he was talking about. It's not that I don't believe in angels, it's that I'm not sure have you have verifiable proof of something like that.

San Diego was a nice refreshing break, but it was nice to get back to Portland last night. We were thankful to get on the standby, there was a chance we'd be spending the night in Seattle and I grateful to get home!

On the flight from San Diego to Seattle I sat next to a large guy, who ordered four jack and cokes and drank them in about 30 minutes and for some reason didn't have any problem with his hairy arm rubbing my bare arm the entire flight. It was one of the longest 2 hours of my life.

As my friends have pointed out, one of the unfortunate things about a convention put on by two huge publishers is that they are trying to sell you stuff the entire time, every workshop is kind of a sales pitch for the authors book, but it was cool to get a ton of free books.