“The boy is more important than the rule.” --The prophetic witness of Clarence “Clari” Kinzler (1935-2023)

 

“The boy is more important than the rule.”

The prophetic witness of Clarence “Clari” Kinzler (1935-2023)

By Rev. Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.1

I visited my mentor and friend, Clari Kinzler, a week before he died on October 15, 2023.

Knowing his heart was weak, I asked him about his health. He didn’t want to talk about his

health. He wanted to talk about his church. His heart was burdened about the future of the

Church of the Nazarene, and he wanted to do something. Call the General Superintendents?

Write a bunch of letters? Tell his story of the challenges back when he was a District

Superintendent? He wanted to strategize with me as we used to do, for such a time as this…

His wife Sue poured us a glass of cold water…

Beyond strategizing with my friend, I had the chance to tell Clari what he had meant to me over

the years. I thanked him for his years of pastoral mentoring, for co-officiating at Rebecca's and my wedding, for loaning us his cabin in McCall for week heavy discernment and decision-making, for being at my father’s beside a day or two before he passed.

Clari told me revealing stories, some of which I had heard before. Like the time in college when

he got in trouble for breaking a campus rule. Instead of expelling him, the College President

offered grace: “The boy is more important than the rule.”

Clari’s father died when the boy was only five.  Growing up in Nampa, Clari became an athlete

and felt a call to the ministry. He went to seminary in KC to learn how to preach and pastor a

local church. He was better at basketball than most, but not as good a preacher as others, and

he didn’t fit the norm. Discouraged, he needed some fatherly advice. Maybe he wasn’t called to

be a pastor?

The President of NTS at the time was the same Dr. D.T. Corlett (1952-1966)—formerly

president of NNU—who Clari knew and respected growing up. When he heard that Clari was

considering dropping out, Dr. Corlett came to visit him: “Son, take courage. You have gifts and

graces. You are called and chosen… I don’t want you to drop out; I want you to be who you are in Christ.”

Greatly encouraged, Clari persevered, graduated, became the founding pastor of the Shawnee

(KS) Mission Church of the Nazarene. He preached grace and gratitude as pastor of Arlington

Avenue Church of the Nazarene in Riverside, CA, and then as Senior Pastor of Nampa (ID)

College Church. In 1984 he became District Superintendent of the Northern California District

where he served for 17 years. He served on the Board of Regents at NNU while pastoring

College Church and on the Board of Trustees for PLNU while serving in Northern California. In

1992, Point Loma Nazarene University conferred on him the honorary degree, Doctor of

Divinity.

In retirement, Clari served various interim roles including Senior Pastor of San Diego First

Church of the Nazarene, President of the Nazarene Strengths Institute, District Superintendent of the Northwest Oklahoma District, and pastor of the McCall (ID) Church of the Nazarene. In 2009, Clari was honored as the first recipient of NNU’s Wesley Order of Servant Leader’s award.

Golden Gate Community and the Oak Street House

As the founding Pastor/Director of Golden Gate Community (an Urban Mission of the Church of

the Nazarene) in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of SF, Clari Kinzler was my District

Superintendent. I was "one of his boys”, as he used to call us, “one of his guys/girls in the inner

city.”

Young and brash at 30, I remember trying to ‘splain to my new DS (straight outta Nampa) that

there was a difference between a local church and a mission center. 

Quoting Robert Schuller: “A mission center for JC puts the needs of the unsaved a notch or two above the needs of the saved.”

“That’s why Golden Gate Community only has 30 church members,” I tried to explain, “but we

have over 1,000 registered community members on our responsibility list—poor, homeless,

addicted, mentally ill, door people, van people, street people—all who visit our Oak Street

House for coffee and bagels, hospitality and social services every week or month.”

Clari challenged me: “So, Michael, can you do both? Grow the church and direct the mission?

That would be a Win/Win.” (Clari liked to use sports metaphors when strategizing about the

church in the city). “Both may not be possible,” I said, “but we’ll try.”

To draw a distinction: A mission center can accept and include folks who don’t look like, talk

like, dress like, think like, or act like most church people. A local Nazarene church is expected to

uphold certain standards of belief and practice and require adherence to be a member. Putting the needs of the unsaved a notch or two above the needs of the saved, a mission station for Jesus Christ can love, accept, forgive, bless, and include people just as they are—each of us

uniquely on a spiritual journey, in the process of becoming all that God’s wants us to be.

Clari appreciated the distinction between a local church and an urban mission. He looked at the

cigarette butts on the front porch of the Oak Street House and the empty bottles on the street.

And he said: “When I come back, I want to see this place packed with all kinds of people … and

if I don’t see cigarette butts and bottles outside the church doors… then I’ll know that you’re not

doing your job!”

That’s all I needed to hear to trust my District Superintendent. He was not going to make us

require more to join our church than Jesus required to join his. The gospel of love, acceptance,

and forgiveness—with a commitment to become all that God wants us to be—would be enough.

And meeting people’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter—in Jesus’s name—could be

our priority. Clari had a broad view of the Church’s mission in the world, and an expansive

vision for cross-cultural ministry in the cities.

AIDS in the City

When HIV/AIDS plagued the city of SF in the 1980s, Clari was with us on the front lines of the

crisis. Though controversial, he supported Golden Gate Community’s ministry to people with

AIDS, as well as our ministry in the gay community in SF.

I preached a gospel of radical grace and inclusive love for all God’s children. Some local pastors

and denominational leaders objected to my “soft and liberal” theology and practice and called

for church discipline. The General Superintendent in jurisdiction required me to change my

view of homosexuality to conform to the statement in the Nazarene Manual. But Clari protected

me, interpreted me to others, loved, affirmed, and even joined me at times in calling for changes

in church polity. 

Rather than bringing me up on charges, asking me to file my credentials, or withdraw church support, my District Superintendent was a pastors’ pastor. Even when I knew I had to leave the church of my birth, and join the Methodists, he kept me “dually aligned” for as long as he could…and blessed me on my way. Clari followed the example of John Wesley who said to those with whom he disagreed: “If your heart is right, as my heart is right, then give me your hand.”

That’s how he saw his job as District Pastor. Extend the right hand of fellowship. Protect the

shepherds. Guide the sheep. When they’re hurt, lift them up. If they’re wrong, gently admonish.

“In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things charity.”

Strategically, Clari preferred working behind the scenes, indirectly dealing with a problem. He

tended to talk around the edges of a conflict or controversial issue rather than shinning a direct

spotlight on it. He wanted to avoid an 'end-run' and get a 'win/win' if at all possible.

I remember once--after I had preached and written something too controversial for the

church—he wanted me to tone it down. He took me to lunch and wrote down a win/win

strategy on a table napkin. He drew four boxes in a quadrant and suggested: 

• Box #1 is stuff you can preach, teach, publish for all to hear, come what may. 
• Box #2 is hard stuff to share with just the people who have your best interests in mind—your friends and family and close community. 
• Box #3 is your private beliefs and doubts best kept to yourself. 
• And Box 4 is stuff you might want to re-think and re-consider. Before speaking or writing something, ask what box of the quadrant it belongs in.

He used other sports metaphors on me to change my course of action or to tone down the

rhetoric. “Let the game come to you,” he often said. “Don’t go out of your way to stir things up…

or call too much attention to yourself. If you let the game come to you, then you can act and say

what you gotta say. At the right time and the right way.”

The Game Came to Clari

The time came for Clari to say the right thing at the right time and in the right way--clearly and

directly to his church. Over time he had earned the respect of Nazarene General Superintendents and church theologians. In 1992, they invited him to give a keynote address to the Eight Theology Conference for the USA/Canada Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City. The game had come to him.

His paper on “Articulating and Living Christian Holiness in a Pluralistic World” asked hard

questions: Who is my enemy? Who is my neighbor? Who is the one I so often exclude? The

Mormon family in Nampa? The gay son in San Francisco? Those living and dying with AIDS? 

He applied the Nazarene doctrine of Holiness to how we actually treat people who are outsiders,

who have different beliefs and practices and identities than what we consider acceptable.

For example, in his paper Clari shared the moment when his attitude toward homosexuals in

the church began to change. It was at an AIDS Healing and Communion Service at a gay church

in San Franscisco on Thanksgiving Sunday. Led by two seminarians--Jim Mutulski, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church (the gay church in town) and my wife Rebecca Laird (seeking ordination in the Church of the Nazarene). Together, they stood at the front of the sanctuary to welcome--whosoever will-- come to the altar for communion and healing. And Clari and Sue were there!

Here's how Clari described it 30+ years ago in his 1992 address to the leaders and theologians

of the Church of the Nazarene:

“Crazy wild kids! [Michael and Rebecca Laird Christensen]. They invited me to go along with

them [to the gay church]. Sure, sure: we’ll all lose our credentials together! I didn’t answer

them for several weeks. But, more or less kicking and screaming, I decided to join them. My

wife, Sue, felt that she would like to go also.

“We entered the church early and sat near the front. The sanctuary that seated several hundred

became packed with people from the gay and lesbian community. The song service was led by a

tremendous musician who had the congregation singing with great exuberance. They told me

60% of the congregation had AIDS. I looked around. Here were same-sex married couples who

had been together for many years. There were the young 18–24-year-olds who were in the gay

or lesbian lifestyle… I asked the Lord why I was there. The still small voice of Jesus answered:

‘If I were in bodily form in San Francisco tonight, I would be exactly where you are.’ “

And then something dramatic, unexpected, and life-changing occurred at the gay church:

“They introduced the Golden Gate team, and then asked the District Superintendent of the

Northern California Church of the Nazarene to please stand. When Sue and I stood, the crowd

went crazy. They clapped and clapped until they clapped me to tears. They knew where the

Church of the Nazarene stood on their practice of homosexuality, but that someone would value

them as human beings and step across the dividing walls, was hope to them… 

My heart was broken as I saw young men, mere boys, jamming the middle isle, waiting for someone to pray for them a prayer for healing.” [And as I remember, some of them fell into the arms of Sue and Rebecca who stood there with communion elements to welcomed them home.]

“I’m not sure that everyone would agree that we belong in the gay-lesbian arena, Clari said,

“but, if we are strong enough to trust the validity of our experience with God, we really have no

choice but to be there with our powerful [Wesleyan] model of ‘wholeness.’

“It’s not easy, but we in leadership must give permission and blessing to these bright young

people who have been raised in our parsonages and in our homes… 

Please, dear holiness church that I love: let’s not let our negative sectors dePine our mission and set our perimeters…”

And Clari concluded his talk by saying that some of the people the church excludes are not just

our neighbors but our own sons and daughters.

My Last Visit with Clari at Grace Assisted Care

Clari reminded me of this transformative event in his life when I visited him at Grace Assisted

Care just a week before he died. Clearly, the opportunity to address the theologians and leaders

of his church and tell this story was one of the highlights of his life and ministry.

“After I read my paper and delivered my soul,” he told me, “there was a long, long silence.

Nobody said a word. I wondered if I had crossed a line...

Then, Finally, from the back of the room, Nazarene Seminary Professor Kenneth Grider gave a shout: ‘Yeah! THAT’S MY BOY!’ And then the room warmed up, and they applauded what I had to say.”

Whether Dr. Grider was thinking of his own son, who was gay; or thought that Clari was like a

son to him, who can say? But Clarihttps://www.northwindinstitute.org/advances’s message were as clear as day: Love the excluded other as if they were your own son or daughter.

By standing up and showing courage, supporting urban ministries of compassion, advocating

for people with AIDS, withholding moral judgement in favor of acceptance, and speaking the

truth in love… even if your voice shakes…you're doing the right thing. 

By doing the right thing in a difficult and ambiguous situation, Clarence Kinzler, I predict, will have a powerful prophetic influence on the Church of the Nazarene.  

My elder by 20 years, he mentored me like a son or daughter. But what I want to say today about Clari is what Dr. Grider said of him back in the day: “Yeah! That’s my boy!”  He’s my

man. My beloved mentor and friend.

And I’m also grateful that Clari’s mentor back in the day didn’t expel him from college after he

broke a campus rule. But instead, channeled grace: “The boy is more important than the rule.”

May the Church of the Nazarene live up to the values of its prophetic leaders.

Clarence Kinzler chose to be buried in the same grave plot as his father. May

you rest in peace, beloved Clari. And with your father, rise in glory!

1 Tribute delivered at funeral service of Clarence Kinzler, Nampa College Church of the Nazarene, November 3, 2023

2 Former President of NNU Dr. D. T. Corlett’s maxim.

‘Equipping the Saints’ for a New Reformation

Northwind Seminary shares its mission and passion for ‘equipping the Saints’ for a New Reformation

By Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.

Ecclesia semper reformanda is a common Latin phrase used by church reformers to remind the people of God that “the church must always be about reforming”). The early Jesus Movement and Apostolic Church, the Imperial Church of the Holy Roman Empire, the Protestant Reformation, and Roman Catholic Counter Reformation, all had their day and role to play in the growth of the Christian tradition. At least three “Great Awakenings” in the history of American Christianity served to renew the Church at critical times.  The “Great Emergence” of new church forms and fresh expressions of ecclesia at the turn of the third Millennium of Christianity served to prepare the way for a Global Church—no longer centered in Europe or America, but growing in the global south, Asia, and Africa.  What next ‘new thing’ will the Spirit of God do in the world? What new ways and forms will characterize the next Church? (See Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (2008)

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; do you not perceive it? --Isaiah 43:19 

Northwind Theological Seminary emerged in 2019-2020 from a vision and calling to support and equip local pastors, bi-vocational ministers, second career clergy, lay leaders, and life-long learners seeking a theological degree and/or an alternative pathway to ordination in their own faith tradition during a time of great change and upheaval in the Church and culture.

The name of our seminary--Northwind--points to the breath of God and the dynamic movement of the Spirit to orient the compass of our lives to true North. Symbolically, northernness is an orientation in life, a quality of character, an image and metaphor in theology and ministry, the first of the four Cardinal points of the circle to which all others are related. For C. S. Lewis and other great writers, the way to God lies to the North.

As an ecumenical, online seminary attracting students from across the spectrum, our mission is to offer quality, affordable, online and hybrid degree programs in Theology, Semiotics, Specialized Ministry, Spiritual Formation, Faith-Based Community Development, and Biblical Studies. We study together within a ‘Big Tent’ that is broadly Christian, biblically-based, and postmodern in approach to contextualized ministry.  

Northwind affirms a both/and approach to theological education.  We affirm the great classical Creeds of the Christian tradition as well as the prophetic radical edge of what it means to follow Jesus today in a postmodern, post-Christian, traumatized world. As Richard Rohr reminds us: “The prophets of old were both radicals and traditionalists. With penetrating insight and wisdom, they saw into the heart of their own tradition and called the people of God to embrace a new day. We shouldn’t be surprised if we find ourselves falling in love with our tradition and wanting to radically change the way things are.”

Rooted in the Wesleyan-Methodist tradition, with tree leaves and branches extending into many faith traditions, Northwind nurtures new expressions of Christian faith and practice, new ways of being the Church in mission.  Our deep desire is to equip a new generation of faithful disciples and ministerial leaders for just and innovative ministry for a new era. 

 

“I believe that Christianity is in need of a new reformation,” writes Adam Hamilton, pastor of the 15,000+ member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas.  “The fundamentalism of the last century is waning. And the liberalism of the last fifty years” has failed to reform the Church. “The new reformation will be led by people who are able to see the gray in a world of black and white.” (Adam Hamilton, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White (2008), p. xvii)

United Methodist theologian Elaine Heath believes “we are still at the forefront of a new Reformation, one that is freeing the Christian faith from the sinful structures of patriarchy and classism, and exploitive forms of mission and evangelism.”  In her inaugural lecture at Northwind Seminary in 2021, Dr. Heath identified five marks of the New Reformation, including: healing the wounds of Christendom inflicted by racism, sexism, elitism, and all the other isms.  The new Reformation, she says, “is all about the emergence of a generous, hospitable, equitable form of Christian practice that heals the wounds of the world.” (Elaine Heath, Inaugural Lecture on the "Five Marks of the NextChurch of the New Reformation" at Northwind Seminary, September 24, 2021)

We are in the middle of this new Re-formation, according to Robert J. Duncan, Founding President of Northwind Seminary.   “The Church is moving from the modern to a postmodern world, fueled by digital media and innovative uses of new technology. We have an opportunity to redeem the technology of the global culture and use it for ministry in the digital age.  For Wesleyans, electronic circuit riding in the twenty-first century is the new form of evangelism and mission.” Robert J. Duncan Jr., “Circuit Riding in the Twenty-First Century” in Equipping the Saints: Mobilizing Laity for Ministry, Michael J. Christensen with Carl E. Savage, eds (2000), p. 142)

Northwind Professor Leonard Sweet identifies an important parallel between the modern and the postmodern Reformations: “If the technology that fueled the Protestant Reformation was the printing press, and the product was ‘The Book,’ the technology that is fueling the Postmodern Reformation is the microprocessor and the product is ‘The Net.’”(Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami (1999), p.32)

As a Christian futurist, Professor Sweet adds:  “The NextChurch has two next challenges: getting clear and clearing out.”  Getting clear about who Jesus is and clearing out spiritual deformities that dis-order the church’s structural life and dis-able mission.”  In the process, “the role of pastoral leadership is dramatically shifting from representative to participatory models” in the priesthood of believers. (Leonard Sweet, Foreword, in Equipping the Saints: Mobilizing Laity for Ministry, Michael J. Christensen with Carl E. Savage, eds (2000), p. 7-8)

“A new Reformation of the Laity has already occurred,” according to Dr. Michael J. Christensen, Founding Academic Dean of Northwind Seminary.  “What remains of the revolution is whether the clergy or whether the laity will be abolished in favor of ‘one body with many parts.’ If all Christians are ministers, all believers priests, then the mere layman is nonexistent, and the clerical order gone.  In the New Reformation of the Laity, the people of God are rising up in opposition to clerical privilege, episcopal power, and ecclesial exclusivity in ministry.”   (Michael J. Christensen, Equipping the Saints: Mobilizing Laity for Ministry, Michael J. Christensen with Carl E. Savage, eds (2000), p. 166)

Northwind Professor Thomas Jay Oord sees light at the end of the revolution. “The future is open and yet to be determined. We’re all in process.” As we walk in God’s light we are becoming all that God has called us to be.  Tom Oord envisions an “open future” in which our everloving and relational God “guides us, inspires, nurtures, nudges, and coaxes us” into greater creativity and wholeness. Those who embrace this human and divine freedom ”step outside confining categories, able to explore a way that reflects their experience of reality.  Many feel invigorated. God seems more like a companion. Life seems expansive. Reality becomes a pulsing, living movement into possibilities.” (Thomas Jay Oord, Open and Relational Theology: An Introduction to Life-Changing Ideas (2021), pp. 28, 45)

The New Reformation requires a new 'notions' of church and approaches to ministry. according to Dr. Carl Savage, Dean of Degree Programs of Northwind Seminary.  “Ministry in a postmodern world requires that we have a layered approach and portrait of our ministerial context. We are trying to grasp the ‘what is,’ the present in that context, and to understand how that moment is defined by its past and/or its future.” (Carl Savage & William Presnell, Narrative Research in Ministry,(2006), p. 31)

Here at Northwind, our hope and vision are for a new awakening, a spiritual renewal, and a revolution of the heart among followers of Jesus and people of good faith; this in order to engage what the Bible calls “principalities and powers of this present .” And to dismantle oppressive structures and systems of domination, and clear out spiritual deformities and dysfunctions of racism, sexism, and exclusion in the Church—with God’s help.  And at the same time, learn how to build together what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned as the Beloved Community of peace with justice on earth as in heaven.

Northwind Theological Seminary is now a contextualization partner of Kairos University.  We gladly join the other contextualization partners in the global network for the shared mission of making disciples, equipping the saints, and preparing ministerial  leaders for a new Reformation– the “New Thing” God is doing in the world (Isa. 43:19).

Northwind Theological Seminary

"Humble and riding on an ass"

Sure, Jesus rode humbly into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey in fulfillment of an ancient prophesy:

Lo, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on an ass, 

on a colt the fool of an ass." 

(Zechariah 9:9)

But the palm-waving on Palm Sunday may have been less of a parade and more of a protest.  Less of a party and more of a parody against the Empire. 

Jews came to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire to observe the Jewish Feast of Passover (commemorating the deliverance of God's people from Egyptian bondage).  Judea was occupied by the Romans who subjugated the children of Israel, but allowed them to celebrate their festivals.  The Romans rulers were braced for unruly crowds swelling Jerusalem, for uprisings, and for demonstrations against the Empire. Challengers to the Emperor were traitors to the Empire and could be arrested and crucified on a tree.  Jesus was not be the only to die on a cross, executed by the State for sedition, tyranny, inciting rebellion, claiming to be King of the Jews. 

New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan argue that the Triumphal Entry of Jesus on a donkey was an anti-imperial demonstration, an act of political theater, a protest parody intended to mock the pomp and ceremony of the Roman Governor of Judea who rolled into Jerusalem from his coastal residence on a King's horse.  Accompanied by his military, dressed in all his imperial majesty, he was there to remind the Jewish pilgrims who was in charge during their Feast of Passover.  Some Jews (especially the Zealots) resisted Roman rule and wanted to overthrow the oppressors. For them and others, Passover was a symbol of Jewish resistance, an opportunity to wave a palm in protest, like a fist thrust high in the air. For others, palms were symbols of praise to welcome the miracle worker and possible Messiah.  For Jesus, the crowds led to the cross. 

According Mark's gospel account, Jesus had made arrangements to borrow a young donkey on which he would ride, not like a King but as a humble servant.  His was a non-military procession of the powerless and vulnerable, a ragtag and absurd image of the mighty King of the Jews. This is the background, Borg and Crossan argue, against which we need to frame the Christian understanding of the Jewish Passover Jesus observed and the Church celebrates on Palm Sunday. (The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Last Days in Jerusalem).

It's hard not to draw contemporary parallels.  We too are living in an anxious age, a time of disruption, political oppression, occupation, and pervasive fear.  We, too, need a Savior, a Liberator, a Coming King. 

As I post these words, hundreds of thousands of brave Russians are protesting their leader's insane war on neighboring Ukraine; and thousands of Ukrainian citizens are defending their lives with everything they have.  Where is the Prince of Peace when we need him most?  (This is personal for me.  As a former relief and development worker who came to the aid of the children of Chernobyl in the 1990's, I made 17 trips to the contaminated region of Ukraine and Belarus.  I still know people there, some of whom have gotten out and become refugees.  I hear them chanting, "How long, O Lord, How long?")

Children of Chernobyl by Michael J. Christensen

Russian Orthodox Bishop Seraphim Sigrist, my old friend with whom I still interact on FaceBook, posted a poem by a Russian saint for Palm Sunday: 

"A fine poem, I commented on his post, but it makes me sad.  I want see prophets and sages, Messiahs and Kings (and Jedi Knights), entering the Gate, or standing near the Ladder pointing the way."

"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence," the good Bishop replied, quoting Paul Simon.

Here's the prayer I prayed at my church on Palm Sunday:

In the sounds of silence, Lord hear our prayer.

In the songs of the courageous fighters and protestors, Lord hear our prayer. 

In the words of the restless, orphaned, poor and needy prophets in everyday life, Lord hear our prayer.

May the violence end and peace descend.

May he lost be found and the hungry fed.

May our hearts rise up and our spirits call:

Hosanna in the Highest, peace on earth, good will toward all.

"Run, Forest, Run"--A Tribute to my friend Jim Forest (1941-2022)

 
 

A great and humble man of God died last week in the Netherlands of natural causes at the honorable age of 80.  Unable to walk without his walker and with failing health in his final months, I imagine Jim now in heaven running and leaping and praising God.  I think of him as Forrest Gump of the Peace Movement in America--always there, behind the scenes, with more famous people up front, yet present everywhere, and at just the right time.

Friend of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Dan Berrigan, and Thich Nhat Hanh--with whom he con-spired (lit. breathed with) to protest injustice in the 1960's.  A noted journalist and author of a dozen books on spirituality and justice.  An ordained Reader in the Russian Orthodox Church.  Conscientious Objector to all wars. He was a peace activist who spent over a year in Federal prison for his non-violent direct action against wars and nuclear armament. While in prison, he not only read the works of Tolstoy, but many patristic writers and lives of saints. He carried on a significant correspondence with fellow peacemakers Henri Nouwen, John Dear, and Thomas Merton (One of Merton's letters from 1967 to Jim--"Letter to a Young Activist"-- is worth reading today:  

He traveled with Thich Nhat Han during his first peacemaking trip across America, and helped introduce Nhat Han to Martin Luther King, Jr.--explaining why many regard him as a bodhisattva (any person who is on the path towards Buddhahood).  

Jim wrote among the best biographies of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, and a book on lessons learned from Thich Nhat Han. After Pope Francis read Jim's book, All is Grace-- on Dorothy Day, he referenced her life and witness in his remarks to the American joint session of Congress in 2015. 

On a personal note: I will miss him, not only because I have valued his books and teachings over the past 40 years, and hosted him a number of times at Drew University and Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association during his US speaking engagements, but because he was a friend to me at a critical moment of my life when I did not believe in myself. Turning 50, having a delayed midlife crisis of sorts, Jim reached out to me in person and in letters, and was a life-line.  When a stranger becomes a friend, and comes through for you at just the right time (kairos speaking), you don't forget such loving kindness or neglect to pay tribute. 

I visited Jim and his wife Nancy twice at their home in the Netherlands, and we've had good walks and  bright moments of sweet fellowship around our common interest in Russian icons and liturgy, friendship with Henri Nouwen, and the relationship of contemplative spirituality and peace activism.  

I've included in this tribute some beautiful lines from a few of Jim's close friends and his son, Ben.  But before I share these great quotes, I want to say to Jim in the spirit of Forrest Gump: 'RUN, FOREST, RUN!"

 

An Ancient Prayer of Commendation 

 

Depart O Christian Soul 

out of this world.

Run, Run, Run

into the Arms of the One 

who made you and calls us His own in the Paradise of God.

New Book on progressive Wesleyan spirituality

Book Review: Life in Christ: The Core of Intentional Spirituality (2020)

Look what arrived at my door on New Year’s Eve?  Steve Harper’s latest book. 

At first glance at the cover, I see a long-haired Jesus of Nazareth on a blue background book cover simply titled “Life in Christ.”  But inside the pages a more cosmic and universal Christ appears. Quickly, I pursue the chapters scanning for what is new in Steve Harper’s 30th book on spiritual formation in the Wesleyan tradition.   

I am familiar with his early books, including: John Wesley's Message for Today and Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition.  And I love his breakout-of-the-mold revolutionary book--Holy Love: A Biblical Theology for Human Sexuality—after which he self-identified as a progressive Wesleyan theologian, left Asbury Seminary, joined Northwind Seminary, and started a new blog series on the New Awakening he sees happening in the world as the Church undergoes radical transformation and a new Re-formation. https://oboedire.wordpress.com/ 

The new thing I found within the pages of this book--written and published during COVID Apocalyptic Year 2020—is a fresh expression of an ancient Christology for the nextChurch of the new Re-formation.  Rooted in Scripture (especially in the “new birth” narrative of Nicodemus in the Gospel of John), grounded in Wesleyan spirituality, a tree of life grows from a strong trunk of the universality of Christ as taught by E. Stanley Jones, with panentheistic branches of new insights from Richard Rohr, Barbara Brown Taylor, and even Thich Nhat Hanh… and with leaves and fruit for healing and nourishing the questing soul.

E. Stanley Jones, according to Steve Harper, describes the Cosmic Christ as the sum total of all creation, “not only as a pervasive presence in all things, but also as the penetration into all things, ‘written into the nature of reality, written into our blood, nerves tissues, relationships—into everything.’ (E. Stanley Jones, The Way).” 

Steve also invokes and quotes Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ and Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom Jesus in support of his (and E. Stanly Jones’) mystical view of the universality of Christ in all things: “I really do believe in the Cosmic Christ, and I believe the presence is pervasive, not just within the world’s religions, but within every aspect of life, from the smallest particle to the farthest star.” (p. 140).

Steve was known and read widely as a popular, conservative, Evangelical, Wesleyan theologian in his earlier life and career as a VP/Academic Dean and Professor of Wesleyan Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. In this his latest book, he appeals more widely, not only to readers not yet professing faith in Christ, but to non-Christians committed to other religions: “I hope Life in Christ helps you recognize the universal Christ’s presence in your faith tradition and in your life.” (p. 140).
So, does this mean that the mature Steve Harper is now a universalist?  If pressed, he would say, ‘No.’ Rather, his purpose in the book is to say ‘Yes’ to the universality of Christ as described in the scriptures: 

“God revealed his hidden design to us, which is according to his good will and the plan he intended to accomplish through his Son.  This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.” (Eph. 1:9-10)

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col. 1:15-20). 

Harper does not shy away from these scripture passages about the Cosmic Christ.  Rather, he embraces them as the “core of intentional spirituality” for a New Awakening. “The heart of God is bent toward universality,” he writes. “We are in relationship with the God ‘who wants all people to be saved’ (I Tim. 2:4).” (p. 136).  And why should God, who woes and reconciles all creation, not get what God wants by the end of time?  “The culmination of life in Christ is in eternity.” (p. 137).
If you want an accessible, inclusive, prophetic, and profound book to study with a spiritual formation group or class, consider Life in Christ by Steve Harper. 

Skillfully, he weaves together insights from classical Christian spirituality with contemporary spiritual writers in a new key. Ideal for a Lenten Study book, or a first dive into interspirituality, this is a book to share with a friend who may have given up on church, or is not yet a Christian, or anyone on the spiritual path.  And if you want to follow the paper trail to see how Harper got from where he began his journey of faith to where he now is resting before his next book, read the footnotes! (Its where I always begin). 

At the end of 141 pages, Steve summarizes his friendly book, and sums up and reduces all that he has learned and said in 30 books and 50 years of his life in Christ down to one simple truth and invitation: “become a person in love, using Christ as your pattern....because you are made in God’s image. You are God’s beloved.” (p. 141). 

For information on Progressive Wesleyan Theology at Northwind Seminary, see Professor Steve Harper's courses and degree program here: https://www.northwindseminary.org/wesleyan-studies

 

 Sermon for All Saints Sunday (2021) by Rev. Michael J. Christensen

Sermon for All Saints Sunday on Youtube channel of The Waters' Edge UMC, San Diego, CA.

Bromance: Romantic Theology Today

Apple Podcast on "Romantic Theology: Bromance Inklings Style" 

with Dr. John Bash, host of ChurchHurts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/romantic-theology-today-with-dr-michael-j-christensen/id1517919664?i=1000524708711

Background story: 

“My happiest hours are spent with three or four friends,” C.S. Lewis said about JRR Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams and other practicing poets in Oxford in the 1930-40’s.  They met together twice weekly—on Tuesdays at the Eagle and Child pub, and on Thursday nights in Lewis’ Magdalen College rooms to read and discuss each other works into the wee hours “taking nonsense, poetry, theology, metaphysics over beer, tea and pipes.  There’s no sound I like better than adult male laughter.”  

Together, the Inklings produced a body of fiction and fantasy worthy of the name “Romantic Theology.” 

After reading my book, C.S. Lewis on Scripture, and hearing that I had designed a doctoral program of study on Romantic Theology for  NorthwindSeminary.org , Dr. John Bash (a former Presbyterian pastor and current radio talk show host, contacted me about being on his weekly show, ChurchHurts.org  “Romantic Theology Today” was our topic, and he took me to places I had not expected to go.   

I had assumed we would focus on the power of myth, poetry, and story to transport us to the field of dreams’, the place ‘where the streets have no name’, and other spaces of in romantic imagination.  Knowing that Lewis wrote the book on the four Greek words for Love (Eros, Storge, Philia, Agape), John went straight to Eros (romantic love) and led with a story about being a 13-year-old boy who was told by church leaders not to hold hands with girls lest it lead to sex and hickeys!  

"Yes, John," I said with a blush, "Romantic Theology has something to do with sex.  Our sexual instincts, adolescent explorations, romantic relationships, erotic and romantic love, sexual energy (libido)—all that.  After repenting of the ways that our behaviors have hurt others and ourselves, we can look back to our sexual experiences, our natural impulses, and all earthly pleasures, through what Lewis calls a “baptized imagination” and see them as yet another spiritual path to the love of God—who transforms our longings not by negation but by fulfillment." 

Here’s the link to our lively, half-hour, discussion on Romantic Theology Today: how youthful lust can lead to holy longing (sehnsucht, Lewis called it).  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/romantic-theology-today-with-dr-michael-j-christensen/id1517919664?i=1000524708711

After the interview, we kept the mics on for the AFTERSHOW and continued talking about sex, and the church.  

The Romantic Theology of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings provide much to chew on, including what Charles Williams called the "Way of Negation and the Way of Affirmation" of the senses.  C.S. LEWIS in letters to his childhood friend Arthur Greeves (a gay man) compared notes about the difference between love and lust, the path of sexual addiction and holy desire, spiritual embodiment and sensual fulfillment, the feeling-intellect and romantic experiences in love and nature, the proper role of the passions in the baptized imagination, and the paradoxical expressions of the mysteries of life. 

For example, Lewis writes to his best friend Arthur Greeves about their own adolescent sexual trespasse soon after Lewis's conversion to Christianity: “The delights of those days were given to lure us into the world of the Spirit.” (Letter to Arthur Greeves, 1 Oct. 1931).  What Lewis came to believe is that our romantic experiences, sexual longings, and earthly pleasures, are yet another path to the love of God—who desires us from another realm.  

In another letter to Greeves, Lewis writes: “God not only understands but shares the desire which is at the root of all my evil—the desire for complete and ecstatic happiness.  He made me for no other purpose than to enjoy it…”  If “God has made us for himself,” as the theologians have declared; and if “our chief aim is to love God and enjoy God forever,” then it makes sacred sense that God is a jealous Lover who desires us, woes us, and embraces us as the Lover of our souls. (Letter to Arthur Greeves, 12 Sept. 1933). 

“In looking back on my past sexual sins,” Lewis again writes to Greeves, “in the very heart of my evil passion there was something that God approves and wants me to feel not less but more. Take the sin of Lust. The overwhelming thirst for rapture was good and even divine…” It need not be recanted, but it will never be quenched. “If I refrain—if I submit to the collar and come round to the right side of the lamp-post—God will be guiding me as quickly as He can to where I shall get what I really wanted all the time. It will not be very like what I now think I want: but it will be more like it than some suppose. In any case it will be the real thing, not a consolation prize or substitute.” (Letter to Arthur Greeves, 12 Sept. 1933).

In The Great Divorce, Lewis describes how a tormented man had a little red lizard on his shoulders, always whispering things in his ear and leading him further into his addiction.  Until the man submitted to the Spirit who offered to kill it. Once it was killed, the lizard thing was transformed into a beautiful white stallion who carried him all the way to the mountains.

The Spirit of Christ considers the Church his beloved Body and Bride, and seeks to be in spiritual union with our hearts, our deepest selves, as the Scriptures teach, and all the best poets have beautifully said:

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.—John Donne

Now when we reflect on the energy of romantic love, the holy longing to be enraptured, the intimacy of human relationships, and the purpose of sexual expression; the path of addiction, sacrament of marriage or the gift of celibacy; the proper role of the passions, and the baptized imagination (and even the tensions of unfulfilled sexual longing) …. we are doing Romantic Theology, as Lewis and Charles Williams (his fellow Inkling) describes it: 

“A romantic theologian does not mean one who is romantic about theology, but one who is theological about romance, one who considers the theological implications of those experiences which are called romantic.”—C. S. Lewis in Essays Presented to Charles Williams—the Inkling who coined the term and wrote Outlines of Romantic Theology.

For more on this topic, enroll in one of my courses on C.S. Lewis on Romantic Theology and Charles Williams on Theology of Romantic Love at   https://www.northwindseminary.org/romantic-theology-degree