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Soli Deo Gloria: A Doxological Hermeneutic of Mission in Emerging Ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Get PDFThis research project is a grounded theory, ethnographic study of emerging ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Twenty emerging ministries were selected from within the ELCA. Six of those sites were the subjects of indepth site visits by a research team. Eleven additional sites were the subjects of partial site visits and interviews. The data-gathering phase of the research concluded with a consultation with thirty emerging leaders held at Luther Seminary. Four sensitizing concepts were used as lenses in data gathering: Lutheran, emerging, missional, and doxological hermeneutics. Leadership in emerging ministries and emerging ministries as contextual and indigenous developed as themes in the research. The sociological concept of transculturation as deculturation and neoculturation emerged in support of a grounded theory that transculturation provides a way forward for the ELCA to glorify God through diversity among and within its congregations and ministries. The research question, “How is God glorified in emerging ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and in the lives of their people?” developed from the perspective of a doxological hermeneutic of mission. Mission shapes and is shaped by the praying and believing of the church: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex movendi. A doxological hermeneutic of mission is Spirit led, perichoretically discerned, publicly realized, theoretically informed, and biblically/theologically/confessionally framed—soli Deo gloria! And finally, doxology is perichoretic play
The Ten Commandments 2.0
Get PDFSince the Ten Commandments still enjoy a primary place in both church teaching and cultural debate, it will be both helpful and faithful to interpret them anew in the light of our new media and new technologies. Adam Copeland does just that in this article
Life on Screen and Other Musings on Faith, Food, & Media
Get PDFMedia and food have this in common: a healthy diet of either one nourishes us, while an unhealthy diet causes problems. Just as we eat together in families, we should find ways to engage media together as well
The Ecology of Vocation
Get PDFThose who care about the future of the church have a vested interest in both the quantity and the quality of candidates preparing for ministry in this generation and into the next. And it is easy to see those pastors as the product of a series of independent and individualized decisions. A college student, for example, meets with her pastor to discuss her future. Or an engineer sits at the kitchen table with his wife asking if they have the money for him to quit his job and head off to seminary. The future of ministry does indeed depend on these decisions. But those decisions depend on something else. They depend on a system, a system of formal organizations and informal relationships. They depend on the system in just the same way that a flowering bush depends on the ecosystem of the meadow in which it grows
