19 Aug
My recent sermon based on Luke 12:13-21 about storing up treasures is now featured at Life & Liberty with David Housholder. This passage was a little tricky until I decided to identify with the “fool.”
>>>Please click to listen to the sermon “Storage & Spirituality”<<<
To hear all my audio, you can check the audio page right here on my blog.
17 Aug
So, um…last week on the blog was a little out of control. I mean, speaking in tongues? Who talks about that in Lutheran circles? Well, apparently, a lot of somebodies were interested in hearing about it because my “Confessions of a Lutheran Charismatic” post in which I admitted to singing/praying in tongues quickly became the single most-viewed item on this blog. The post was written as a reaction to reading my friend, David Housholder’s book, “Light Your Church on Fire Without Burning it Down.”
I quickly became pretty self-conscious about what I had written. David Housholder even warned me that it was “very transparent.” And I, of course, assured him that I had anticipated whatever consequences I could. Except, the consequences I anticipated were more along the lines of being dismissed as a crazy person. I’ve gotten that before for doing things that seem more normal to me than that tongues stuff.
But to be listened to about crazy-sounding things as if they might have some merit? I was not prepared for that.
And as someone who is always trying to figure things out, I am trying to understand what exactly it means that people are listening to me about all this.
I got comments and messages from other Lutherans who have had similar experiences and thanked me for letting them know they were not alone. It was as if my writing about it had given them a similar gift to what Housholder’s book had given me.
Is there something stirring among my Lutheran tribe to which I can give voice?
If there is, then it may not be as radical as you think, for sometimes the work of the Spirit is very, very quiet. Oh, of course there are the spectacular and rather weird things–you would really think I was crazy if you saw the way I’ve been praying since my last post! But sometimes the most out-of-control thing the Holy Spirit can do is to whisper words of encouragement and calm our hearts in the midst turmoil or uncertainty.
I feel the Holy Spirit powerfully at work in my life. And I can see the movement of the Holy Spirit in my life since my childhood in everything from seemingly mundane things to the absolutely inexplicable.
And I want to say more about all of that.
I can see the Holy Spirit powerfully at work in the church. I’ve been watching the church very closely since my childhood, since I became a pastor’s wife at the age of 19, and since my education and formation as a Deaconess in my 20s.
And I want to say more about that.
I had planned to tell more of my story tonight. But there is too much to tell in one night. And it is already past time for me to post for the week.
And while I can’t say it all tonight, I am prepared to say more about what I see as the work of the Spirit.
8 Aug
Confessions of a Lutheran Charismatic OR What Happened to Me When I Read David Housholder‘s Book about the Holy Spirit
This is not a book review, this is the story of what happened to me when I read David Housholder‘s book, “Light Your Church on Fire Without Burning it Down.” Now if this were a real book review, it would be important to mention that I received this and Housholder’s other book as gifts from the author. Even so, it is well that you know about these being gifts. If anything, the gifting of the books gives me permission not to write a book review. Instead I can simply use the books as best suits me, as all good gifts are intended.
(If you don’t know who David Housholder is or why he might be inclined to gift his books to me, click here for the back story.)
Overview
Before I tell you what happened to me when I read the book, I will tell you briefly about the book itself. “Light Your Church on Fire Without Burning it Down” is about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Housholder names Lutheranism as his first spiritual language, but now considers himself fully bilingual with his second language being Pentecostal spirituality. The purpose of the book is to translate Pentecostal spirituality into terms that other Christians can understand.
Having grown up dual-enrolled at a folksy 1970’s Lutheran church plant on Sundays and a Charismatic Methodist youth group on many Wednesdays, I consider myself rather conversant in Charismatic spirituality even if not certain of all the lingo. Part of why I like working with Housholder is because he understands aspects of my spirituality that are less understood by many Lutherans. To be honest, I didn’t expect to have any major revelations while reading the book. I just wanted to see what my friend had written and maybe get a little better grasp on terminology that was missing from my vocabulary.
There were terms that he defined that I did not know. For instance I learned that “Pentecostal” refers to a specific movement started in the early 1900s whereas “Charismatic” refers to Christians of non-Pentecostal denominations with a more toned down version of the Pentecostal flavor of spirituality. I also learned that Pentecostals don’t use “it” as a pronoun for the Holy Spirit–they say “he.”
For those who are less conversant in Pentecostal spirituality, Housholder’s book covers the topic well. Housholder relates Pentecostal spirituality to concepts and events in scripture and traditional Christian spirituality. His conversational writing “de-mythologizes” Pentecostal spirituality and makes it approachable and understandable.
If this were a true book review I would probably go on to tell you some highlights of the book, I’d offer quotes and good things like that. I’d probably even tell you about the part of the book that made me uneasy, for the sake of good journalism. But this is not a book review. So, instead of all the proper treatment of a book I am going to tell you what happened to me after page seven.
What Happened after Page Seven
I was barely into reading the book, in just the first chapter, when I had to abruptly stop reading it and set it down. On page seven Housholder describes a healing meeting (healing ministry is described later in the book) in which he heard a woman start “singing over someone in tongues.” Housholder later defines “tongues” as a primal language of “expressing oneself vocally without the structure of grammar &/or vocabulary.”
The concept of tongues was not new to me–in fact, I was relatively certain I had prayed in tongues before. But only, when I did it it was always musical, like a song whose words I had never been taught. But I had never heard anyone outright acknowledge singing in tongues to be a real thing until I read page seven of Housholder’s book.
Since I didn’t know that anyone else thought of “singing in tongues” to be a real thing, and since any form of tongues is largely viewed with suspicion by many mainstream Christians, I kept it quiet. I mean that in at least two ways. First I kept it quiet in the sense that I didn’t tell a living soul that I could sing in tongues. Secondly, I kept it quiet in the sense that I didn’t do it very often. I largely squelched the gift–much to the impoverishment of my spirit.
It saddens me to have a gift that I don’t use. It’s like receiving a gift card for my favorite store, only every time I go to the store I find that I’ve left the gift card at home. If I’m lucky, I can pay out of pocket for my purchase if I have the cash on hand. But sometimes, I may have to forego a purchase because I forgot the gift card. But if only I had brought the gift card!
So, for me, the true gift of Housholder’s book closely parallels the gift he has given me creatively–the reminder and encouragement to use the gifts that God has given me. So, after reading page seven and hearing Housholder talk about the “singing in tongues” as a real thing, I put the book down and yielded to the gift.
The Spirit’s song came through me in all of its unintelligibility and it was beautiful. I myself do not know what the words were in English, but the theme of the song was something along the lines of, “My soul magnifies The Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior” from Luke 1:46. I felt a deep connection with God in the singing.
When my husband got home he became the first person I told about this ability. Before writing this I had occasion to mention it briefly to Housholder himself. And now, I am telling the whole Internet. The reason why I’m telling is because I am tired of leaving my gift card at home. I want to use all the gifts that God has given me to His glory.
And so, you see why this is not a proper book review. I am much too biased by Housholder’s influence in my life. Would that we all have people in our lives who bias us so strongly by their good will and generosity toward us. Would that we all have people in our lives whose gifts bring out the very best of ours.
To order your own copies of David Housholder’s books, please visit his online store: http://astore.amazon.com/davidhoush-20
19 Jul
Spiritual growth is one thing, but what about when we feel more like we’re just plain shrinking? I recently was inspired to write on my blog about spiritual growth because I believe that growth in our relationship with God in Christ Jesus is truly important. I love seeing God transform people’s lives so they can be a greater blessing to the world around them!
That post took inspiration from some “grow animals” that my son had submerged in water and I cautioned that spiritual growth is not just a simple matter of “Just Add Water.” Then something happened that took this idea to a new low–once the “grow animals” were taken out of the water and set out to dry, they shrunk considerably (see photo).
I knew then that I had to write about “spiritual shrinking” because our growth in faith is not always as linear as we’d like. And ultimately, being willing to talk with each other about the shrinking can increase our growth potential in Christ.
I’m playing with this idea because when those little animals dried out it reminded me of other terms we use to speak of such things in our spiritual lives:
Spiritual growth is not magical and “spiritual shrinking” happens more than we discuss.
I think part of why we don’t discuss the shrinking is because even if we don’t expect growth over night we do expect that we at least keep growing. We impose on ourselves some kind of expectation that each day we have to become a better and better version of ourselves. So when something occurs in our spiritual lives that causes us to shrivel up, we also find ourselves feeling like we need to suck it up and not talk about it.
Of course, we want to remain in Christ and keep trying to live more fully into who God has called us each to be! But sometimes, life happens. Circumstances come along that seem to suck the life out of us:
These and many other predicaments can leave us feeling parched and shrunken in faith and life.
I think it is important to name the reality of “spiritual shrinking” because we all have times in which growth does not appear to be happening. At some point we all have challenges in our spiritual lives. We don’t need to let these waning times prevent us from talking about our faith.
In fact, finding safe people with whom to discuss our spiritual wilderness can provide:
Exactly how to find safe people like that is a little harder to define. Sometimes testing a person’s reaction with a small piece of your story can give an indication of their trustworthiness. Many times formal Christian support groups form around shared problem areas.
One thing I know most of all is that I want to be the kind of person, the kind of Christian, with whom other believers can share their struggles. I don’t ever want people to think they have to put on a pretense with me. I don’t expect my friends to be spiritual giants. I want them to be real with me and I want to be real with them. If I can be that kind of friend, then that itself is huge.
12 Jul
Listen to my first podcast at Life and Liberty: “Where is God in the Muck?”
Friends, I am so excited to tell you about my first podcast ever! (A “podcast” is an audio recording on the internet that you can listen to on a computer or a handheld device.) This podcast is about one of my scariest experiences I’ve ever had and how I got through it. I was 14 years old at the time. The story is titled, “Where is God in the Muck?” This is the first of my new monthly contributions on “Spirituality” over at Life and Liberty.
>>>“Please click here to listen to the podcast “Where is God in the Muck?”<<<
Keep reading to find out how I got this opportunity and why I’m so excited about it.
When David Housholder put a call-out for spirituality contributors on a Lutheran clergy Facebook group, I responded before I had the chance to over-analyze the opportunity. Not long before that he had commented on my blog and I became an instant fan of his. I mean, he’s a tradionally-published author with real books to his name and yet he noticed little old me! He was so supportive of my writing that when he said he needed spirituality contributors, I nominated myself.
(I’m grateful to Clint Schnekloth for putting me on his blogroll when both my acquaintance with him and my blog itself were only a few weeks old. It was through Clint Schnekloth’s blog that David Housholder got to my blog to begin with.)
The irony is not lost on me that the exact post at which David Housholder first “noticed me” addressed my awareness of my own desire for greatness. Even my elation at being noticed by someone more successful than myself drips with egocentrism.
Also not lost on me is that the content of David Housholder’s original comment to me was, “make the big time where you are.” That’s great advice for being faithful with small things! But then that same guy is giving me this big opportunity? I’m still working all this out in my own spirit.
I’m gonna tell you right out, we hope to make money over at Life and Liberty. It is after all, a magazine. And magazines exist to make money.
On my blog here, I don’t make a dime off any clicks on anything at this site. I’m not directly selling anything here. I started this thing for the sheer need to share my voice with the world on a more regular basis. I need to do this just because I can’t not do it anymore. I’ve squandered my voice too long.
But over there, we mean business…well…hopefully! The site is barely covering costs right now, but it’s gaining momentum and it has the potential to be profitable. I would be delighted if a stream of income from my work there could contribute to my family’s financial goals.
Also, and this is the part I’m mostest scaredest to talk about, if you hadn’t already figured it out, Life and Liberty is kinda political. Okay, a lot political. I’ve tried really hard to pin down my own ideology. I don’t fit neatly into the bipartisan landscape as it is. And so, I have never really thought outloud much of my political stance with anyone outside of my very closest family and friends.
When David Housholder said that contributors would have to be able to work with the Libertarian-leaning of his site, I told him I was secretly very comfortable with that. The way I’ve been voting doesn’t thrill me anyway and I have become more open to Libertarian ideas over time. But, when he formally accepted my application and was willing to give me a shot as a contributor, I had to decide if I was willing to go public as having affinity for Libertarian ideas.
I went to the Libertarian party website to study their platform. And the more I read, I just kept nodding. And I figured if large portions of their platform felt like something I might’ve written myself, then maybe it makes sense to be honest about the resonance I feel with it.
Once I got the Libertarian concern resolved for myself, the rest was easy. David Housholder’s vision for a free society that is spiritually deep is akin to thoughts and ideas I have had for years. What it comes down to is this, I wouldn’t be over there if David Housholder didn’t agree with me as much as he does! (Listen to this and read my comment exchange with him to see what I mean.)
There are things on the site I can’t even look at, there are things that make me shake my head just reading the title, and there are things on the site that point out realities that make me sad in ways that I’ve tried to explain here on the blog. At the same time there are things over there that give me much hope, there are things that give me a fresh perspective, and there are even things that kinda encourage a belief in fairies!
Also, as I’ve begun to meet the other contributors, I am particularly drawn to Lisa Goodwin and the amazingly deep things she has to say. I’m glad to join the team as a second female voice.
So, I’m stepping out into something new. I’m excited and nervous. And I don’t know where any of it is going. But somehow working over there brings out more of who I am really which is so freeing. I hope you’ll take this step with me!
Jennifer Clark Tinker 