Page malfunction: to play any videos, click the title on top of video; clicking it left of the vertical line running through the page

Quiz Thurs: 1) Question from syllabus reading pp.1-36 of Leadership on the Line
2)Comment on your answer to one pf the questions on board below.
3)Paragraph on your practicum

a)In England, they drive on the _____side of the road
(help)

b)"the pastor/leader should watch over their ______"
(help)

c)The leader should be publicly __________"
(same help click as b)

d)Jesus' anger in the temple is all about __________
(see below)

e)Symbolism of Palm Branches ?
(see below,"Lamb of God video and articles)

f)Which is the worst sin: to tell a lie or lose your temper
(See below)

g)Are dogs racist ? (;
(class discussion)

The stories I told about wearing a clerical collar and a "dress"? Click this

http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-dress-for-sale-on-ebayfinally.html

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Trump's top foreign policy advisor?

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/273197-trumps-top-foreign-policy-advisor-im-speaking-with-myself

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VIDEOS FROM the author of your "In the Name of Jesus" book:

Henri Nouwen's "The Life of the Beloved" series:
1. Being the Beloved; 2. Becoming the Beloved; 3. The Disciplines of the Beloved.

All three "Beloved" messages in one clip

---------------

Henri Nouwen's "The Vulnerable Journey" Introduction and Chapter 1: The Vision of God:

Henri Nouwen's "The Vulnerable Journey" Chapter 2: The Way of Jesus:

Henri Nouwen's "The Vulnerable Journey" Chapter 3: The Work of the Spirit:
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Henri Nouuwen COMISS Award Speech:

Remembering Henri Nouwen ( (1932-1996): --

Palm Sunday:

Is it inconceivable...
..or inevitable....that we have hugely "misundertaken" Palm Sunday?

Does it mean what we think it means/memes??

Imagine Jesus appeared at your church Sunday; it was self-authenticating that it really was Jesus.
Among the options as to how you might respond..

does it even cross your mind to wave the American flag at him; and beg him to run for president??

No,

But that is, in a sense, what the Palm Sunday branch-waves were doing.

Resources:

1)Great article by Tim Geddert on how we misinterpret Palm Sunday:

Parade Or Protest MarchWhat are we celebrating on Palm Sunday?By Tim Geddert
Palm Sunday is a day of pomp and pageantry. Many church sanctuaries are decorated with palm fronds. I’ve even been in a church that literally sent a donkey down the aisle with a Jesus-figure on it. We cheer with the crowds—shout our hosannas—praising God exuberantly as Jesus the king enters the royal city.
But if Matthew, the gospel writer, attended one of our Palm Sunday services, I fear he would respond in dismay, “Don’t you get it?” We call Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem “The Triumphal Entry,” and just like the Jerusalem crowds, we fail to notice that Jesus is holding back tears.
Jesus did not intend for this to be a victory march into
- continued here

2)Which reminded me of the classic "Lamb of God" video by Ray VanDer Laan
below.

excerpt of "Lamb of God" video by Ray Van DerLaan:

Notes by RVL:
Passover

For the Jewish people, Passover was more than a religious observance. It was the time of year when they celebrated liberation from Egyptian bondage.

During Jesus' time, they also used this opportunity to express their longing for political freedom from Rome. Jews who claimed to be "messiahs" had so often caused riots during Passover that the Romans brought extra troops into Jerusalem during the Passover season. The Roman soldiers did not hesitate to shed blood to keep the peace.

Jesus on his way to Jerusalem
On the Sunday before Passover, Jesus came out of the wilderness on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives (just as the prophecy said the Messiah would come).

People spread cloaks and branches on the road before him. Then the disciples "began, joyfully, to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen" (Luke 19:37). The crowd began shouting, "Hosanna," a slogan of the ultra-nationalistic Zealots, which meant, "Please save us! Give us freedom! We're sick of these Romans!"

The Palm Branches
The people also waved palm branches, a symbol that had once been placed on Jewish coins when the Jewish nation was free. Thus the palm branches were not a symbol of peace and love, as Christians usually assume; they were a symbol of Jewish nationalism, an expression of the people's desire for political freedom.

Jesus as the Passover Lamb
Yet Jesus came to the people as the Lamb of God. Jesus, the sinless Messiah who would die on humankind's behalf, appeared on the very day that people chose their spotless Passover lambs!

It's almost as if God said to the world, "Here's my Lamb. Will you chose him?" But instead of turning to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the crowds misunderstood his proclamation that he was the Messiah. They wanted him to be their political-military deliverer.

Jesus Wept
In response, Jesus wept. The tears Jesus shed as the people cried out their political "Hosannas" were tears of grief for the hearts of his people.

Jesus foresaw the terrible devastation of Jerusalem that would result because the people did not recognize him as God's Messiah. The people were looking for a messiah who offered political deliverance and a political kingdom.

However they would have nothing to do with the Messiah who offered forgiveness and deliverance from sin. In his grief over their distorted beliefs, Jesus wept out loud. link

Related Van DerLann posts:

3)

What Palm Sunday Means: God's Street Theatre Comes to Jerusalem

N.T. Wright

also:

Hosanna” has the sense of immediacy, and so it would be correct to this word as  “Please save us, and do it now!”
When Jesus rode in his upside-down Kingdom-way on a donkey (not a stallion) into Jerusalem, there was desperation in the air. These Jewish citizens of Jerusalem were under the heavy yoke of the Roman Empire. They had heard about Jesus. The  rumor was that he claimed to be a king. Even the Messiah. So when word got out that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem  on a donkey, he was greeted as a king would be greeted.
As shouts of “Blessed is the King of Israel!” are heard, clearly the people see in Jesus the answer to their nationalistic, messianic hopes. Earlier a crowd had wanted to make Jesus king (6:15), and now this crowd is recognizing him as king in the city of the great King. Here is the great dream of a Davidic ruler who would come and liberate Israel, establishing peace and subduing the Gentiles
The way Jesus entered Jerusalem was a deliberate, prophetic “Zechariah 9:9 act” on his part.  Zech. 9:9 reads: Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. Jesus comes into Jerusalem in a kingly way, and the people respond in a kingly fashion. The imagery is regal and even messianic, though it is a humble Messiah who makes the ride. As the people spread their garments (NIV: their cloaks) on the road, a "red carpet" of sorts is produced.
He was there to rescue them. The people were about to get “hosanna-ed,” “rescued.” But it wasn’t going to look like they thought it should. Jesus is a different kind of King. He’s going to “Hosanna” the world by dying on a cross. N.T. Wright writes: “The meaning Jesus attaches to this “triumphal entry” is quite different from the meaning they are wanting to see in it. That, perhaps, is where we can learn most from this story today.”
People turn to God when there’s something they want very badly. That’s like deciding to use a telephone when you desperately need an ambulance to come and help you. Church attendance – generally – was up, briefly, after “9-1-1.” Suddenly everyone wanted to ask the big, hard questions.
Here, in our Palm Sunday story taking place just outside Jerusalem, suddenly everyone wants Jesus to ride into the city and be the kind of king they want him to be. “Help!” “Save the life of my sick child!” “Pay my bills!” “Give us peace, now!”
Jesus does intend to respond to the people’s cries. He has come to seek and save the lost. He has come for people who need help, people who are sick and need a doctor. Yet he’s not coming to be all things to all people. He’s not riding into Jerusalem to conform to the expectations of the crowds of people. He isgoing to answer in his own way.
The people wanted a prophet. This prophet, Jesus, is going to tell the people that they are under coming judgment. They wanted a Messiah. This one is going to be enthroned on a pagan cross. The crowds wanted to be rescued from evil and oppression. This person Jesus is going to do that, but in a far, far deeper way than they were thinking.
Jesus is going beneath surface evil and in to the depths of the human heart. N.T. Wright says: “Precisely because Jesus says ‘yes’ to their desires at the deepest level, he will have to say ‘no’ or ‘wait’ to the desires they are conscious of, and expressed.” (NTW, Matt, 68)
Once you really cry out “Hosanna,” Jesus is going to “hosanna” you more thoroughly than you imagine, maybe more deeply than you wanted. The Hosanna-ing Jesus brings is not just a band-aide. This story of Jesus entering Jerusalem  is “an object lesson in the mismatch between our expectations and God’s answer.” (NTW, Matt, 69)
The bad news is that the crowds are going to be disappointed. The good news is that their disappointment is on a surface, shallow level. “Deep down, Jesus’ arrival at the great city is indeed the moment when salvation is dawning… The “Hosannas” were justified… they were correct…. but not for the reasons they supposed. To learn this lesson is to take a large step towards wisdom and humility, and towards genuine Christian faith.” (NTW, Matt, 69) link

4)Dan Clarenden:

Subverting Our Nation....:]Jesus's triumphal entry into the clogged streets of Jerusalem on Good Friday was thus a highly symbolic and provocative act, an enacted parable, or street theater that dramatized his subversive mission. He didn't ride a donkey because he was too tired to walk or because he wanted a good view of the crowds. The Oxford scholar George Caird once characterized Jesus's triumphal entry as more of a "planned political demonstration" than the religious celebration that we sentimentalize today.
           Given that the Roman state always made a show of force during the Jewish Passover when pilgrims thronged to Jerusalem to celebrate their political liberation from Egypt centuries earlier, Borg and Crossan imagine not one but two political processions entering Jerusalem that Friday morning in the spring of AD 30. In a blatant parody of imperial politics, king Jesus descended the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem from the east in fulfillment of Zechariah's ancient prophecy: "Look, your king is coming to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Matthew 21:5 = Zechariah 9:9). From the west, the Roman governor Pilate entered Jerusalem with all the pomp of state power. Pilate's brigades showcased Rome's military might, power and glory. Jesus's triumphal entry, by stark contrast, was an anti-imperial and anti-triumphal "counter-procession" of peasants that proclaimed an alternate and subversive social vision called "the kingdom of God."
           People today argue about who's "subverting our nation." A friend in Florida forwarded me an email that blamed Muslims in America for our problems. Others attack evangelicals as "Christian fascists." For a long time now others have taken aim at "secular humanists" and liberal Democrats. On his nationally televised program Jerry Falwell blamed the wickedness of pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU, and People for the American Way for the 9-11 disaster, which he construed as God's judgment. Pat Robertson, a guest on the show, nodded in agreement, “well, I totally concur.” The greed of corporate executives and the sleaze of Hollywood movies also make easy targets. But I never recall anyone blaming Jesus, that Jesus is the one who's "subverting our nation." But that was the allegation that sent Jesus to Golgotha.

Marc Chagall, "Yellow Crucifixion" (1943).

           Twenty years after Jesus died, charges of subversion dogged his first followers. In Philippi, a mob dragged Paul and Silas before the city magistrates, then had them stripped, beaten, severely flogged, and imprisoned: "These men are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice" (Acts 16:20–21). In Thessalonica, "some bad characters from the marketplace" dragged Jason and some fellow believers before the city officials, shouting "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here. . . They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus" (Acts 17:7)
continued:http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070326JJ.shtml

5)what do the palms say?

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Excerpts below from a good Andreana Reale article in which she sheds light on Palm Sunday and the Temple Tantrum:

,, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem actually echoes a custom that would have been familiar to people living in the Greco-Roman world, when the gospels were written.

Simon Maccabeus was a Jewish general who was part of the Maccabean Revolt that occurred two centuries before Christ, which liberated the Jewish people from Greek rule. Maccabeus entered Jerusalem with praise and palm leaves—making a beeline to the Temple to have it ritually cleansed from all the idol worship that was taking place. With the Jewish people now bearing the brunt of yet another foreign ruler (this time the Romans), Jesus’ parade into Jerusalem—complete with praise and palm leaves—was a strong claim that He was the leader who would liberate the people.
Except that in this case, Jesus isn’t riding a military horse, but a humble donkey. How triumphant is Jesus’ “triumphant entry”—on a donkey He doesn’t own, surrounded by peasants from the countryside, approaching a bunch of Jews who want to kill Him?
And so He enters the Temple. In the Greco-Roman world, the classic “triumphant entry” was usually followed by some sort of ritual—making a sacrifice at the Temple, for example, as was the legendary case of Alexander the Great. Jesus’ “ritual” was to attempt to drive out those making a profit in the Temple.
The chaotic commerce taking place—entrepreneurs selling birds and animals as well as wine, oil and salt for use in Temple sacrifices—epitomized much more than general disrespect. It also symbolised a whole system that was founded on oppression and injustice.
In Matthew, Mark and John, for example, Jesus chose specifically to overturn the tables of the pigeon sellers, since these were the staple commodities that marginalised people like women and lepers used to be made ritually clean by the system. Perhaps it was this system that Jesus was referring to when He accused the people of making the Temple “a den of robbers” (Mt 21.13; Mk 11.17; Lk 19.46).
Andreana Reale

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TEMPLE TANTRUM:

Article By Dave Wainscott
“Temple Tantrums For All Nations"
Salt Fresno Magazine, Jan 2011:

Some revolutionaries from all nations overlooking the Temple Mount, on our 2004 trip

I have actually heard people say they fear holding a bake sale anywhere on church property…they think a divine lightning bolt might drop.

Some go as far as to question the propriety of youth group fundraisers (even in the lobby), or flinch at setting up a table anywhere in a church building (especially the “sanctuary”) where a visiting speaker or singer sells books or CDs. “I don’t want to get zapped!”

All trace their well-meaning concerns to the “obvious” Scripture:

"Remember when Jesus cast out the moneychangers and dovesellers?"

It is astounding how rare it is to hear someone comment on the classic "temple tantrum" Scripture without turning it into a mere moralism:

"Better not sell stuff in church!”

Any serious study of the passage concludes that the most obvious reason Jesus was angry was not commercialism, but:

racism.

I heard that head-scratching.

The tables the Lord was intent on overturning were those of prejudice.

I heard that “Huh?”

A brief study of the passage…in context…will reorient us:

Again, most contemporary Americans assume that Jesus’ anger was due to his being upset about the buying and selling. But note that Jesus didn't say "Quit buying and selling!” His outburst was, "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations" (Mark 11:17, emphasis mine). He was not merely saying what he felt, but directly quoting Isaiah (56:6-8), whose context is clearly not about commercialism, but adamantly about letting foreigners and outcasts have a place in the “house of prayer for all nations”; for all nations, not just the Jewish nation. Christ was likely upset not that moneychangers were doing business, but that they were making it their business to do so disruptfully and disrespectfully in the "outer court;” in the “Court of the Gentiles” (“Gentiles” means “all other nations but Jews”). This was

the only place where "foreigners" could have a “pew” to attend the international prayer meeting that was temple worship. Merchants were making the temple "a den of thieves" not (just) by overcharging for doves and money, but by (more insidiously) robbing precious people of “all nations” a place to pray, and the God-given right to "access access" to God.

Money-changing and doveselling were not inherently the problem. In fact they were required; t proper currency and “worship materials” were part of the procedure and protocol. It’s true that the merchants may have been overcharging and noisy, but it is where and how they are doing so that incites Jesus to righteous anger.

The problem is never tables. It’s what must be tabled:

marginalization of people of a different tribe or tongue who are only wanting to worship with the rest of us.

In the biblical era, it went without saying that when someone quoted a Scripture, they were assuming and importing the context. So we often miss that Jesus is quoting a Scripture in his temple encounter, let alone which Scripture and context. Everyone back then immediately got the reference: “Oh, I get it, he’s preaching Isaiah, he must really love foreigners!”:

“Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord…all who hold fast to my covenant-these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-8, emphases mine)

Gary Molander, faithful Fresnan and cofounder of Floodgate Productions, has articulated it succinctly:

“The classic interpretation suggests that people were buying and selling stuff in God’s house, and that’s not okay. So for churches that have a coffee bar, Jesus might toss the latte machine out the window.

I wonder if something else is going on here, and I wonder if the Old Testament passage Jesus quotes informs our understanding?…Here’s the point:

Those who are considered marginalized and not worthy of love, but who love God and are pursuing Him, are not out. They’re in..

Those who are considered nationally unclean, but who love God and are pursuing Him, are not out. They’re in.

God’s heart is for Christ’s Church to become a light to the world, not an exclusive club. And when well-meaning people block that invitation, God gets really, really ticked.”

(Gary Molander, http://www.garymo.com/2010/03/who-cant-attend-your-church/)

Still reeling? Hang on, one more test:

How often have you heard the Scripture about “speak to the mountain and it will be gone” invoked , with the “obvious” meaning being “the mountain of your circumstances” or “the mountain of obstacles”? Sounds good, and that will preach. But again, a quick glance at the context of that saying of Jesus reveals nary a mention of metaphorical obstacles. In fact, we find it (Mark 11:21-22) directly after the “temple tantrum.” And consider where Jesus and the disciples are: still near the temple, and still stunned by the “object lesson” Jesus had just given there about prejudice. And know that everyone back then knew what most today don’t: that one way to talk about the temple was to call it “the mountain” (Isaiah 2:1, for example: “the mountain of the Lord’s temple”) .

Which is why most scholars would agree with Joel Green and John Carroll:

“Indeed, read in its immediate context, Jesus’ subsequent instruction to the disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain..’ can refer only to the mountain on which the temple is built!... For him, the time of the temple is no more.” (“The Death of Jesus in Early Christianity,” p. 32, emphasis mine).

In Jesus’ time, the temple system of worship had become far too embedded with prejudice. So Jesus suggests that his followers actually pray such a system, such a mountain, be gone.

Soon it literally was.

In our day, the temple is us: the church.

And the church-temple is called to pray a moving, mountain-moving, prayer:

“What keeps us from being a house of prayer for all nations?”

Or as Gary Molander summarizes:

“Who can’t attend your church?” -Dave Wainscott, Salt Fresno Magazine
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--------------------
the money changers were in the Gentile courts of the temple..Jesus' action opened up the plazaso that Gentiles could pray." -Kraybill, Upside Down Kingdom, p. 151.
-----

FOR ALL THE NATIONS: BY RAY VANDER LAAN:

Through the prophet Isaiah, God spoke of the Temple as ?a house of prayer for all the nations? (Isa. 56:7). The Temple represented his presence among his people, and he wanted all believers to have access to him.
Even during the Old Testament era, God spoke specifically about allowing non-Jewish people to his Temple: ?And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord ? these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer? (Isa. 56:7).
Unfortunately, the Temple authorities of Jesus? day forgot God?s desire for all people to worship freely at the Temple. Moneychangers had settled into the Gentile court, along with those who sold sacrificial animals and other religious merchandise. Their activities probably disrupted the Gentiles trying to worship there.
When Jesus entered the Temple area, he cleared the court of these moneychangers and vendors. Today, we often attribute his anger to the fact that they turned the temple area into a business enterprise. But Jesus was probably angry for another reason as well.
As he drove out the vendors, Jesus quoted the passage from Isaiah, ?Is it not written: ?My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations??? The vendors had been inconsiderate of Gentile believers. Their willingness to disrupt Gentile worship and prayers reflected a callous attitude of indifference toward the spiritual needs of Gentiles.
Through his anger and actions, Jesus reminded everyone nearby that God cared for Jew and Gentile alike. He showed his followers that God?s Temple was to be a holy place of prayer and worship for all believers. - Van Der Laan

---

--
Excerpts from a good Andreana Reale article in which she sheds light on Palm Sunday and theTemple Tantrum:

,, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem actually echoes a custom that would have been familiar to people living in the Greco-Roman world, when the gospels were written.

Simon Maccabeus was a Jewish general who was part of the Maccabean Revolt that occurred two centuries before Christ, which liberated the Jewish people from Greek rule. Maccabeus entered Jerusalem with praise and palm leaves—making a beeline to the Temple to have it ritually cleansed from all the idol worship that was taking place. With the Jewish people now bearing the brunt of yet another foreign ruler (this time the Romans), Jesus’ parade into Jerusalem—complete with praise and palm leaves—was a strong claim that He was the leader who would liberate the people.

Except that in this case, Jesus isn’t riding a military horse, but a humble donkey. How triumphant is Jesus’ “triumphant entry”—on a donkey He doesn’t own, surrounded by peasants from the countryside, approaching a bunch of Jews who want to kill Him?

And so He enters the Temple. In the Greco-Roman world, the classic “triumphant entry” was usually followed by some sort of ritual—making a sacrifice at the Temple, for example, as was the legendary case of Alexander the Great. Jesus’ “ritual” was to attempt to drive out those making a profit in the Temple.

The chaotic commerce taking place—entrepreneurs selling birds and animals as well as wine, oil and salt for use in Temple sacrifices—epitomized much more than general disrespect. It also symbolised a whole system that was founded on oppression and injustice.

In Matthew, Mark and John, for example, Jesus chose specifically to overturn the tables of the pigeon sellers, since these were the staple commodities that marginalised people like women and lepers used to be made ritually clean by the system. Perhaps it was this system that Jesus was referring to when He accused the people of making the Temple “a den of robbers” (Mt 21.13; Mk 11.17; Lk 19.46).

Andreana Reale

So Jesus is intertexting and ddouble pasting two Scriptures and making a new one.

But he leaves out the most important part "FOR ALL NATIONS"...which means he is hemistiching and making that phrase even more significant by it's absence,
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"If anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done.' (Mark 11:23). If you want to be charismatic about it, you can pretend this refers to the mountain of your circumstances--but that is taking the passage out of context. Jesus was not referring to the mountain of circumstances. When he referred to 'this mountain,' I believe (based in part on Zech 4:6-9) that he was looking at the Temple Mount, and indicating that "the mountain on which the temple sits is going to be removed, referring to its destruction by the Romans..

Much of what Jesus said was intended to clue people in to the fact that the religous system of the day would be overthrown, but we miss much if it because we Americanize it, making it say what we want it to say, We turn the parables into fables or moral stories instead of living prophecies that pertain as much to us as to the audience that first heard them."
-Steve Gray, "When The KIngdom Comes," p..31

“Indeed, read in its immediate context, Jesus’ subsequent instruction to the disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain..’ can refer only to the mountain on which the temple is built!... For him, the time of the temple is no more.”

-Joel Green and John Carroll, "The Death of Jesus in Early Christianity,” p. 32, emphasis mine).

"The word about the mountain being cast into the sea.....spoken in Jerusalem, would naturallly refer to the Temple mount. The saying is not simply a miscellaneous comment on how prayer and faith can do such things as curse fig trees. It is a very specific word of judgement: the Temple mountain is, figuratively speaking, to be taken up and cast into the sea."

-N,T. Wright, "Jesus and the Victory of God," p.422

it's a sign

As Ted Baxter used to to say, "It all started

at a 5, 000 watt radio station in Fresno, Californiua..."

Well, what you are about to see all started with a slideshow of 50 or so funny signs

(typos, bad translations, double entendres, non-sequiturs, headscratchers etc) from around the world; to accompany my teaching for church, and at camp on the Seven Signs of Jesus in John's Gospel.

It has now become multiple photo albums on Facebook.

Ted Baxter would be proud; Many were taken right here in Fresno, California

Enjoy, and keep 'em coming!

Links below, here you go:

- See more at: http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-sign.html#sthash.QKec2TTh.dpuf

Three thought experiments.

-Think if I offered you a drivers license, claiming i had authority to issue it
-Think if someone destroyed all bank records and evidence of any debt you have owe
-Think what would happen if you pointed at something, hoping your dog would look at it.

Now watch this short and important video for explanations...Temple as SIGN-post.

INTERTEXTUALITY OR HYPERLINKING

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---More from Craig Keener here
http://seedbed.com/feed/jesus-the-temple-and-the-old-testament-law/

Live webcam to temple mount
HERE
Which is the greater sin?

Centerfolds in Big Green Theology Books

It has got to be the most engaging, practical and liveliest books around...

with the most boring title.

It's "Clinical Theology" (zzzzz) , Frank Lake's classic...the heavyweight (literally; it's known in academia as "the big green book" of over 1000 pages) tome. For years out of print, and the prize possession of only three of my seminary professors, some bibliophiles (I confess) have been known to spend years searching used bookstores (before Amazon and EBay) like drug addicts for a copy. Especially a copy with the (I am serious) fold-out centerfolds included (Often these are missing when the copy has been used...kinda like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, eh, John?).

Shawn Rabon, a member of the church I pestered (not a typo) in Delano, Calif. (now in ministry in England) had for years heard me whine that I did not have a "real" copy...just a cheesy cheap

counterfeit condensed ("Condensed"? How dare any mortal put that word in the same sentence as the immortal Frank Lake! Heresy! Next you you know, they'll be a condensed Bible!!...oops).
Besides, as you can see by the photo,this

is clearly an illicit bootleg:
it is not big OR green!!)

I'll never forget the day that Shawn met my plane into London. I was thrilled to see him again, we were to spend the night at the airport hotel before my flight to Israel the next day.

But when I scanned the crowds, and found him...my eyes (and jaws) immediately dropped at the big green book in his hand.

He had scored a copy for me!

I don't think I kissed him..

..until he verified what was too good to be true:

Yes, the centerfolds were included!

We had to steal a peek at them right in the middle of Heathrow International.

(OK, for those worried a bit..the fold-out

centerfolds are full of intricate diagrams of

theological and psychological charts...not naked, airbrushed and hairbrushed babes, These charts are lusted for in some seminary circles)

I still owe you man.

But Shawn, do you remember then going over to the airport newstand; where we were browsing magazines. On gentleman was sneaking peeks at a naughty

magazine centerfold, and you (obviously still so in awe at seeing me again...I understand!!) actually interrupted his fun with "Hey, this is my pastor from America!"

I am sure he was thrilled. He mumbled something; I think the word "sod" was in his sentence.

(you UK folk know what that means).

But Shawn's genuine evangelistic enthusiasm is refreshing.

Even though I turned a few shades of red.

Now, thirteen years later, the big green book is still my favorite addiction/pornography.

I read it in the study, in the car, on the beach

( I get so ongrossed I don't even notice....as much... the scantily-clad women).

Especially the famous dozen centerfold charts. I mean, just

look at them!

(note i have the theologian's beer in my hand).

I was leading a seminar on culture and evangelism a few years ago, drawing as usual from a wide variety of material: from Matrix movie clips to Nextreformation articles to U2 songs to (of course) Frank Lake's centerfolds.

On the last day, I knew it was time for a "lab." I sent my class out on the town in groups of three (No, we weren't dressed like Mormons) for low-key conversations with people. My group walked the parking lot of the shopping center where the church we were teaching at was located.

I'll never forget Nancy Boyd (pastor of this amazing tribe), bold and loving like Shawn (though

not like Shawn),

befriending and praying for a guy sitting is his car. No, we didn't mention that two of us were pastors. But we noticed a minute into the conversation he was drinking a beer and had spread open on his dashboard..an adult magazine centerfold.

We had a good talk, and even prayer.

As we were about to leave, he asked "Are you from that church over there?

We were, we told him.

He said, "I think I went to school with one of the pastors."

He dropped the name and he was right.

No accident.

Steve (the pastor he mentioned, pictured here at the beach where he was, uh, doing theology homework with his senior pastor) have been praying for this guy since. Hopefully by now, he has

connected with Jesus, the church community, and has encountered the big green book that's far better than porn.

The centerfolds can't be beat.

0 Google +0 0

- See more at: http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008/02/theological-centerfolds.html#sthash.MhS2GTRY.dpuf

Min 357 Spr 16

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Monday, March 21, 2016

3/22 and 3/24: Prejuidice/racism issues; instructions for quiz Thurs