John August Swanson

I love the work of John August Swanson. He is a visual artist with gift for capturing scenes of procession, joy and community. His work is copyrighted so I cannot show it here, but here are a couple of links:

• A gallery with a slide show of his works.
• John August Swanson's website.

In my classes, I often use his image of the "Festival of Lights". For some reason, I think of this as a Los Posadas procession. (I wonder if I remember that from his comments at a conference where I heard him speak about his work because it is not in the description of the painting.) It is a dual image for me. First, this image speaks of the importance of theological education. Education is never just for the personal enrichment of the student, or it shouldn't be. All education is for the benefit of others. I think of my students as preparing to go back out into the world as a procession of lights. A powerful image.

Second, this image reminds me that as we are in the world, we need to keep asking the question: "Is there room for Jesus to be born here? Is there room for hope to be born and thrive here?" Do we believe that hope is possible? I am reminded of a phrase from James Houston: "When you are in an age of darkness, light as many fires as possible." This image shows something of the hope of this statement.

Enjoy! And be one of the people bringing light and hope to the world!
-Chelle

My New Book; as if I have an old one...

I have a book. Well, I am one of 5 authors. We are a diverse crowd: gender, race, theological passion, denomination, doctrine, etc. What unifies us is a love for the church and a love/hate relationship with the movement called E/evangelicalism.

Most of the authors met at the Lausanne Conference in Malaysia. (I'm the only one that didn't go...) On the way home from the conference a few of them asked the question, "Do I want to be an evangelical?" Out of this came a set of articles in The Other Journal dedicated to this question: Earth to Christians. Mark Russell, one of the original crowd, thought that this conversation would be a good book, so voila! here is the fruit of this original question.

I guess we all want to remain evangelical, in one way or another, because we spent the time writing this book. We even got together for a writing a few summers ago in order to all talk face to face about our chapters and our visions for the future of evangelicalism. It was a good time, though very tiring. We laughed a lot, cried a bit and, from time to time, fought passionately about our ideas. We, for the most part, agreed about the need for more conversation and flexibility within the tradition. We also agreed that the church needs a more robust understanding of God as Trinity and we need to live in the world in an attitude of humility and love of neighbor. What we disagreed about were the specifics of how this happens within the community of the people of God. But conversation is a very good place to start. Conversation about our passions, our difference and our commonalities (especially our love for God and God's love for us) is a vital key for creating community. If evangelicalism it going to not only survive but also thrive and flourish, then broader and more open conversation is needed to establish trust in the ranks. I tend to think that God is really the answer to all the questions but we are a diverse and creative people. Because of this, we are all called to take part in the formation of the church, the 'how' of this call on our lives to be the people of God.

The authors are Allen Yeh (he teaches at Biola), Michelle Sanchez (she is a pastor in Boston), Mark Russell (a missiologist, who writes and teaches about micro-finance in the two-thirds world and how business and missions can work together to help two-thirds world economies), Dwight Friesen (who teaches with me at Mars Hill Graduate School) and me, Chelle Stearns.

What did I write about in my two chapters? Worship and the Holy Spirit. Ahhh, for a really robust doctrine of the Holy Spirit within our understanding of the workings of the church!

So, look out for Routes and Radishes: and other things to talk about at the evangelical crossroads, Zondervan, 2010.

I for one benefited from conversing with this small group of theologians and pastors. Who are you talking to about these issues?

Peace,
Chelle