Jenni Perkins' Weblog

Week 10 – Wednesday

jenperk — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:32:52 +0000

I really appreciated Ryan’s final comments on Jesus’ life today. Too often our churches get caught up in “doing church” in Pauline ways, in traditional ways, in relevant ways…but we don’t take the time to look at how Jesus did community. My struggle now is how to I help a church caught up in the Pauline-traditional-relevant argument to see Jesus. The youth are beginning to get the first glimpses of a life lived without the inside/outside dualism, but most of the adults I’ve talked to are completely repelled by the idea. Perhaps if I try to use the non-coercive change model Ryan described at the end of class, some of the adults will begin to understand, or perhaps it just means that my husband and I keep dreaming about how we can be part of a “neo-monastic” emergent church community when we leave Fuller.

Week 10 – Monday

jenperk — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:03:47 +0000

Okay, so I forgot to blog…it’s only been 10 weeks of doing this

I have never left a class before feeling like “I want to buy that book!”, but I did Monday. So I ordered the Yoder Body Politics off Amazon when I got home from work Monday night. I liked the way Yoder described the 5 practices of being the church, and I wanted to explore that further.

Week – 9 Fullenbach

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:05:43 +0000

I love Fullenbach’s statment that “we are called to promote feasts where people of all races, cultures, relgious traditions and worldview come together to enjoy one another’s company in life-giving relationships and genuine compassion.” Two weeks ago I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my youth group. They were encouraged to invite anyone who might not get to enjoy Thanksgiving as a family to come be part of our family. We had over 50 teenagers for our feast, about 15 of whom were visitors. One girl, Gia, came to me after eating to thank me for cooking for so many people; she said, “I don’t really know what to do with this. I’ve never been to a church before, but this isn’t at all what I imagined. I feel really comfortable here. Would it be okay if I came back next week even if I don’t believe in your God-stuff?” Gia has come back for the last two weeks, even though there hasn’t been food. I think, I hope, that she comes because she feels welcomed and loved and because she is finding hope.

Week 9 – Response to Jeannette

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:55:36 +0000

I agree that “society has come a long way toward getting women more equal treatment”, and I too wonder how far we have to go. Can we ever be really treated equally? Research done in the 1960s to determine if women actually deserved to be paid the same as men showed that in the same work day an average woman does the work of two average men, and yet women in the work force today, 4o years later, statistically still are underpaid in comparison to their male counterparts. Unfortunately we (as women) still have much of our identity handed to us by the men around us.

Week 9 – Racial Discourse – Gibbons(Castle)

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:45:37 +0000

One could not have a stronger argument for the falsity of the notion of race than the descriptor “Irish race”. Even those who propounded the notion articulated the trouble with separating “Irish” from “English” on a purely physical/visual level, which is supposed to be the point of race – classification of humans based on physical characteristics that denote also mental, emotional, and cultural status. By using the term “Irish race” the writers of the early 20th century defy their own definition.

Week 9 – Inventing Ireland – Kiberd(Castle)

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:24:55 +0000

I feel sorry for the Irish of the late 19th early 20th centuries. What were they to do? How were they to see themselves since their history had been stolen from them? They had no choice but to invent – to create the kilt – to cover their vulnerable loss. My grandfather is Scottish (although born in America), and when I was a child I asked him if his mother told him any of the stories of Scotland. He looked at me with sad eyes and just said, “I cannot even remember my grandfather because the English stole him away.” How is a people to know itself, when its history has been stolen?

Week 9 – Reading a Woman’s Death – Bourke(Castle)

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:58:20 +0000

I must confess that I have been party to the fanciful, fairy-tale view of Celtic lands (Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland in particular). I like the romanticized history of these lands because it give me a romantic heritage (my family is from the Highlands). Prior to reading this article I did not realize how much damage was done to the Celtic people through this romanticization. I knew that it wasn’t TRUE history, but I thought of it as fun, beautiful history. Now I see the un-fun, ugly side.

Week 9 – Local Divine Powers – Mbuwayesango(Sugitharajah)

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:52:04 +0000

I finished this article very confused. Okay, so the missionaries used the Shona word for God in their translation of the Bible. I don’t really understand the problem. I can agree that Zimbabwe deserves their own original languages translation of the Bible done by their own people, but it seemed to me that Mbuwayesango unfairly accused earlier missionaries of “colonizing Mwari.” I am concerned with his statement that “the translation of the Shona Bibles be done independent of the evangelization of the Shona.” Hasn’t that generally been the point of translating the Bible? So that people could read it in their own languages and then believe in the God of the Bible? Does the fear of “colonization” mean that we can no longer evangelize, that we must only translate as literature?

Week 9 – Mary of Magdala – King (Sugitharajah)

jenperk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:32:32 +0000

I can agree with King that the traditional history of Mary Magdalene as taught by the church has been doctored so that she becomes the “repentant sinner” rather than a “devoted disciple” (much like Junia of Acts). However I take major issue with King basing her demand that we “approach the canonical texts afresh with a hermeneutics of suspicion” based on the teaching of a much later, non-canonical text. I don’t know where the Gospel of Mary came from; I do find it interesting and have studied it for other classes exploring the role of women in the 2nd century church. Perhaps Mary of Magdala did play a more important role in the life of Jesus than is portrayed in the gospels, but that does not make me suspicious of the gospels. I sure that a lot happened in the life of Jesus, that he had a lot of relationships, that aren’t recorded, or aren’t recorded fully in the gospels.

Week 9 – Wednesday

jenperk — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:20:31 +0000

The more I hear about emergent churches, the more I feel that is where my husband and I are headed. In the past year we have repeatedly had conversations about how we are going to “survive” ministry with our faith intact. When Dr. Bolger mentioned that the apologetic of the emergent church is hospitality, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself because that is the way we have described the way we approach youth ministry.