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2012 HIGHER ED GUIDE

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The conscientious rebel speaks his mind

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contents

converge

6 EDITOR'S LETTER 12 REFLECTIONS 14 WHAT'S YOUR STORY? Tales of Christian education

22 CHURCH IN A MOVIE THEATRE 24 THE SINGLE GIRL'S GUIDE Navigating life post break up

26 THE LEGACY OF ALBERT PUJOLS 34 2012 HIGHER ED GUIDE 46 COVER: CAN CHRISTIANS CUSS? 50 PROMISE REMAINS

One journey through depression

52 DEREK WEBB

The rebel with a cause

58 CHRIST CULTURE AND ZOMBIES 62 REAL MARRIAGE REVIEW

What are the Driscolls really saying?

64 LAST WORD

from you jan-feb

2012

andrewzo: @converge_mag whoa, you guys have an article written by Shane Claiborne ow.ly/8x5ri SRhallin: Great article @Converge_Mag by @IrvineN on "Danny & the Deep Blue Sea "w/@Alekspaun & @LoriTriolo @PacificTheater thechelseagrin: @CONVERGE_mag @shara_lee Talking to D.Webb now. Dude I'm going to need waaay more than 1500 words.

sweet tweets

We'd love to hear from you! @converge_mag

CalebMeakins: “@CONVERGE_mag: Live interview with @ ShaneClaiborne. http://pic. twitter.com/2euVgY1k”// Now here is someone I truly admire, Shane is pretty cool too :D seeketchum: Funny @missionsfestvan convo at @CONVERGE_mag booth: Man: "Do you have an issue with Switchback on the cover?" Me: "You mean Switchfoot?"

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editor's letter

THe believers' club By age 11 I had read, raced, skimmed through the Bible three times and I was on a mission. I gathered what few Christian friends I had in public school and formed a believers' club. We sealed our shared faith with scribblings of “W.W.J.D.” on the corners of our workbooks. We prayed with one heart at lunch. We converted (or at least we tried converting) Sikhs, atheists, Buddhists, and whatnots, warning of sure and certain hellfire judgments. We were being good Christians, and they needed rescue. We would get into debates during recess. “You’re wrong,” a short and gangly boy named Jerry screamed. “No, God is good,” we retorted.

Some people took us for nuts. Our own classmates laughed at us. We were the minority, and we were weird.

P

eople like what they know, hate what they don’t know. Forming the believers' club in elementary school is something I didn’t quite “know.” Though raised in a Christian home, I didn’t quite grasp what it meant to live like Jesus. I had to figure that one out for myself. (I’m still at it.) Back then, what we were doing was a big deal. But over time, as we took a bigger bite out of life (or rather the other way around!), it became clear we didn’t even know ourselves why we did it. But one thing is sure — some who objected to our views made foes of us. Admittedly, our “in your face” approach violated rules of decency enshrined in their already well-formed juvenile worldview.

Our intent was good. Our action, sans prudence and sensitivity, was odious.

A friend told a similar story of youthful “misalignment,” resulting in a big hoo-ha. Tender of age then, and full of life, she invited the pastor’s eightyear-old son to a game of strip poker, not knowing what it really was. Understandably, she was horrified upon learning what the game was about. But the whole church was stirred. The innocent blunder of an eight-year-old had brought on a major moral crisis into the holy community.

Many a controversy is not as big a deal as people make it, yet serious conflicts have come from minor disagreements or misperceptions — the flaw of an “all-too-human” human nature, I suppose. Whether grossly uninformed or slightly misinformed the outcome is often equally nasty. Unless of course we do the good and decent thing of allowing room for mistakes to be made, which is also a very human thing. None of us is all-knowing. So there is indeed great comfort in a God who was once human like us (albeit without sin) and knows all things. So, is there room in your heart or mine for reproof, for correction, for instruction, for a little forgiveness now and then? . . . anyone?

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reflections

psalm

3 4 :2 2

"No one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned."

S

ome characters from the Bible are difficult to identify with. You may not feel the strongest connection to Samuel, Noah, or Job. But David is the Bible’s everyman. To the poor or the young, he is David the shepherd boy; to the eminent, he is David who celebrated majesty with enormous wealth.

We will follow someone we trust anywhere. Having overcome life struggles, David the psalmist is qualified to lead us into worship of God and through whatever life circumstance we find ourselves in. Interestingly enough, Psalm 34 was written after David feigned insanity to escape from trouble with an adversary; Bible times had awkward moments.

Philip Yancey’s The Bible Jesus Read tells how relevant the Psalms are: they contain almost every human emotion imaginable. Many churches fear tears. Many frown at laughter, expecting pious sufferers. But David, the “man after God’s own heart” is not afraid to expose his emotions to God, the creator of emotion. A person who knows God knows He is close to the broken-hearted as well as being the giver of joy.

David’s psalm sets the bar high with the opening line: “I will exalt the LORD at all times. His praise will always be on my lips.” Is this unrealistic? If we magnify God and focus on Him moment by moment, we will be prevented from focussing so much on our problems. Our perspective will be filled

with His greatness and His ability to handle our situations.

Consider the author. David went through hellish times and is qualified to provide a living example.

David has a lot to say about identity. Much recurrent pain we experience and require healing from stems from a broken identity. We become new by shedding old identities in metamorphosis.

David writes, “Those who look to God are radiant.

Their faces are never covered with shame.” Religion has a tendency to shame us by persuading us that we need to attain perfection. However, God’s message to humanity is diametrically opposite. It’s cheeky and potentially offensive how He calls us His “holy people” and “the righteousness of God” before we have even seen the final work of salvation. It is literally unbelievably good news.

He is the one in whom we find our new identity. We shed past wounds by receiving His love. We escape old habits by making Him our source of strength. As we go, He will provide appropriate “fires” in which we can choose refinement. Sadly, we can also choose to take offense and burn out. That’s why David invites the aff licted to join with him in worship. Our perspective will be changed after we taste God’s goodness. — Craig Ketchum

5 Needs Twitter Reasons Every Pastor

1. Leadership connections

Twitter is like a giant cocktail party. No, scratch that. Twitter is like a giant potluck dinner of local and international leaders all looking to connect and learn from each other in real-time. Through Twitter, many leaders who formerly were either inaccessible or unknown are suddenly available and interacting. Twitter is the greatest church leadership resource currently available, hands down.

2. Community connections

With close to 500,000 new Twitter accounts being created every day, it is likely that many people from your community have beat you to your first tweet. An engine for social interaction, Twitter is a shockingly natural way for pastors to meet and connect with others in their community. And while some pastors may be tempted to form a Twitter strategy, what is really needed is a relationship strategy. Remember, Twitter is social.

3. A learning source

Social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have changed how people interact, think, market, and sell.

Blending technology and social interaction, online social networking is built on the premise that people actually want to connect with other people. Like the invention of the printing press and the electric telegraph, social media has changed the game of communication.

Of all available social media platforms, Twitter stands out as one of the best.

Best-selling author and pastor Rick Warren commented in a recent article, “I want pastors to dominate Twitter. We don't want celebrities dominating these things, we want pastors using this for the Good News.” That’s a pretty heavyhitting endorsement for Twitter.

So what’s all the fuss about? Here are five reasons every pastor needs Twitter.

10 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

Twitter is the fastest and most readily accessible news network in the world, and it is all user-generated. Case in point, the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed was first dropped on Twitter as a 140-character tweet. Aside from news, Twitter brings together a mass of articles, quotes, stats, book recommendations, infographics, and conversations from varied sources. Do not be surprised if you are surprised at what you will learn on Twitter.

4. Trend watching

One responsibility of a pastor is to accurately critique the culture of the city they live in. Memorizing stats and demographics doesn’t do much good for understanding a mission field, unless there is someone to tell the story behind the numbers. Twitter will give you the story as you listen to what is happening, what people are thinking and responding to, and how people are feeling as they live their lives. Twitter, in the hands of a pastor, can be an amazing tool for understanding the local mission field.

5. Influence outside your normal sphere of influence

Twitter helps to strengthen new and existing connections with leaders or people in your city. Formerly inaccessible people, communities, and cultures have a tendency to open up. In the process of relationship building, people can be touched and influenced by the Gospel. Quite simply, Twitter is a tool for mission in your city.

#Who to follow

So, pastor from the last century, get started! Sign up for a Twitter account, upload a glamour shot, and write a short bio. Start by following a few people, send your first awkward tweet, engage in a few conversations, and be a good listener. Find me on Twitter @JeremyPostal and I’ll answer as many questions as I can to help you get up and running.

@Converge_mag @DerekWebb @brettmccracken

Happy tweeting!

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What's Your Story?

Life after Christian education

There’s a high standard for the Christian brand. We each have a personal standard of very individualized expectations that we want it to fulfill. We expect our spiritual needs to be met by Christian music, Christian film, Christian role models, and not least of all, Christian education.

With its prospect of teachers and authority figures who share a heart for the child's spiritual health, Christian education is like having an outside contractor in the Proverbs 22:6 effort. For the parents who can afford it, it's a godsend. For those who can't, it's a kind of holy grail.

But the success or failure of Christian education is often declared too early.

The die isn't always cast by the time a student graduates. The following are the backward glances, the stories told in hindsight. We hope to learn from them how the investment of Christian education pays off over the long term.

Interviews by Chelsea Batten

LAURIE Laurie spent four years as an undergraduate at a conservative Christian college in Santa Clarita, California.

“You had to sign a thing that you were a believer, [in order] to enroll. It wasn't like, ‘We have a percentage who are nonbelievers.’ As far as faculty, it wasn't just ‘Are you a believer?’ The list of things [you] needed to believe was long.

[Church attendance] was an all-day affair. Forget Sundays for getting work done. [To prove it] we had to sign a check system on the board in the hall.

[Chapel] was a highlight. And then of course there was always chapel media stuff, funny videos and skits. So I liked it. We embraced it. We loved that kind of campus life.

I was so encouraged to just be around people my age who were believers. I had never experienced that . . . ever. I considered that a treasure because I knew it wouldn't ever be like that the rest of my life. It challenged me to dig deeper into my Bible. It solidified a love for God's Word.

Something that I've had to work through (and not just me, a lot of graduates that I've talked to) is ‘Well, So-and-So has been studying this for 45 years, so why would you disagree?’ I think it's negative, that there's a false guilt about questioning or wondering.

[But] the foundation of the Bible is key, I think. So I can't throw that out with the bad.

The balance I had to figure out, and have had to for the last 10 years, is that there are amazing people that believe different things, [and] that the Holy Spirit is active, and not to be scared of that.

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I felt I was challenged to learn stuff, but not necessarily to challenged to think about it. I did teacher education [as a major], and I felt they had a great program and I was prepared to teach. So, in that sense, I think they did their job.”

Laurie and Danny have been married since she graduated from college. She continues to attend church with her four children. Their family is waiting to hear back from colleges where Danny has applied as a professor.

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For an objective outsider, it was really straight-laced. We knew we were in a bubble. But it was fun. — Danny

danny Danny spent three years as an undergraduate at a conservative Christian college in Santa Clarita, California. Applicants are interviewed before admission to determine their theology as well as their salvation.

“The doctrinal statement is obscenely specific . . . a long list.

You sign a contract saying that you will not smoke, drink alcohol or dance during the time that you're a student, or in the breaks in-between. They made you attend [church] twice a week. There were RAs (resident advisors) in the dorms, and part of that job was spiritually shepherding people on your wing.

Another element was chapel three times a week, and you had to dress up. It was basically a church service. Journals were out and people were taking notes. I always looked forward to chapels — they brought in good speakers.

For an objective outsider, it was really straight-laced. We knew we were in a bubble. But it was fun.

There was a sense that we were the serious believers, the vanguard. You're upholding true orthodoxy, as opposed to all the liberals out there. Like those at Biola [University], let's say (because those are our cross-town rivals.) It felt great to think that you had the market cornered on truth.

Any alternative viewpoint was denigrated. [We] were never given the opportunity for an even-handed approach on issues where honest, intelligent, Bible-believing Christians differ.

I was a biology major, and I came out of that school without a clue about how good the evidence for evolution actually is.

My only course in psychology required the textbook Why Christians Can't Trust Psychology.

Preparing you for things you might read later was totally off their radar. It was like, ‘Why would you even read man's wisdom against God's Word?’ It was as if they couldn't realize that the Bible was the product of an ancient culture and didn't speak to a lot of modern issues.”

As Danny discovered arguments against doctrines he'd been taught, he brought them to a professor who had become his friend.

“He just went straight to, ‘Danny, are you going to say you know Greek better than John Macarthur does? That you've studied the Bible more than he has?’

I don't think my not believing now is a reaction to a conservative upbringing. I reconciled pretty much all the problems I had within orthodox Christianity to my satisfaction a couple of years ago, before I stopped believing. I think it was just a culmination of learning critical thinking in graduate school. I can't just say I believe God exists. I can't justify, say, the resurrection on the basis of evidence, because I reject parallel claims on behalf of other deities made on similar bases.

I think [my college] set me back. I think I would say that even if I were still a believer. Such a narrow view of Christianity is ultimately unsustainable, especially if you [teach] it so dogmatically that they're not even allowed to question.”

As of last year, Danny no longer considers himself a believer. He is still involved with friends at his old church, and supports his family by continuing to attend there. At the time of this printing, he will have finished his PhD dissertation in ancient Israelite history.

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what's your story?

It's nice to be rooted in the same thing as the people you do life with. — Cayla

cayla Cayla attended Christian schools from grade three through college. There were about 200 students in her secondary school. The smallness, she says, made the environment both close-knit and ripe for cliques.

"Definitely time made the difference for me. When I got to the school, I was the outcast. There were only 10 girls in our whole class, and most of them were cool, and I was a nerd. I was goofy-looking, had weird clothes, and they had all

been together a lot longer. It made the first few years horrible. But then . . . by the time we were in high school, I was pretty good friends with all the girls who gave me the worst time in grade five. We laugh [now] about the days when we hated each other's guts, and all the mean things we said to each other.

It was also really neat to be able to hear from teachers who at least had similar values and worldviews. It's nice to be rooted in the same thing as the people you do life with. Of course, we ended up arguing over issues that different churches saw differently. But [we were] able to go back to the Bible and have similar (at least in the big picture) understandings of a foundation.

My junior year of high school, most of the girls I was really tight with . . . all of a sudden started jumping off the deep end: doing drugs and sleeping with their boyfriends. All of a sudden I had to figure out for myself whether I was going to follow them [and] how even to be friends with people who I didn't agree with.”

At her Christian university, Cayla found friends and mentors who shared her growing convictions. “[I was] realizing what it meant to follow Jesus myself. I was involved in ministries around people who were passionate about the Lord, and that pushed me closer. At the same time, I was around a lot of people who claimed to follow Him and lived totally different lives. That confused me a lot. For me, standing firm in what I believed, it was good [to be around Christians] to talk to people who agreed.

I would say the biggest hindrance is that we were kind of in a bubble. You lived in the middle of a city with one of the highest-rates of poverty. And yet our school was this perfect little bubble, and we lived in our worldview of everything happy and wonderful.”

After graduating, Cayla and her husband Matt spent a year as missionaries in Thailand. They now live in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, working with Preemptive Love Coalition. (preemptivelove.org)

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There wasn't enough of a division between school and Christianity. It was just all kind of one. — Jason

Jason Jason went to a very small school (18 in his graduating class) that was closely affiliated with a large suburban church. Most students came from the middle to upper-middle-class. Jason began attending in grade eight, after several years of homeschool.

"There were a lot of teachers and principals, as well as pastors, involved in everyday life. So everybody knew everything about everybody else. If something was off, you'd have six people come up to you and say 'What's wrong? Talk to me.'

My math teacher loved math, and she would be so excited about the gift that God had given her. Her physical being would show every little emotion about how much she loved math. [By the third day of class], it was like 'Okay, can we do some math now?'

I was the kid that was more interested in the girls. I was the kid who just did the bare minimum. I was in trouble throughout. Got suspended here and there [for things that] never had anything to do with school. Just being alone with a girl at a table was a big nono. The principal and I didn't really get along. It started off seeming very genuine, that he was really concerned, which became, over time, [concern about] looking the right way. If something didn't look the right way, you would get talked to; your parents would get talked to.

We called it the 'bubble.' The mindset of 'let's keep outside influences out, and let's influence ourselves.' [We were] keeping God at

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the center, which was good, but there wasn't freedom in that.

I definitely had a group of friends that thought we were the cool kids of the school . . . the whole high school of 50-60? [laughs] But because I had got in trouble more when I was younger, there were more eyes on me."

Midway through his senior year, Jason was expelled.

"I was dating a girl, we were sneaking around outside of school. The parents of the girl got the principal involved, and I got expelled for not being a good influence to the younger students. Basically [the meeting] ended after they told me I was expelled, and me blowing up, saying 'I can't wait 'til you have teenagers!'

In the first few months, it was just a lot of bitterness. Not toward God, but toward the system. Now I look at it as the best thing that happened to me, because in the long run, [it] really opened my eyes to the circle I was stuck in. Was that the vision of them kicking me out? No. But God's bigger than that.

There wasn't enough of a division between school and Christianity. It was just all kind of one. Getting kicked out of the school made me more independent in a way — I wasn't just following the sheep in front of me."

Jason completed his graduation requirements by attending community college. Three months later, he joined the army.

His experience there was one of loneliness and desperation. He says that time brought back to mind the things he had always believed but never owned, and showed him his need for God in an unprecedented way. He's now married and has a baby daughter.

He isn't sure whether he'd send her to Christian school or not.

what's your story?

Ruth

Ruth attended three different Christian schools from kindergarten to grade 12. Grades four to 12 were spent at a coed Christian private school located in a suburb of Vancouver. There were around 50 students in her graduating class. The school was founded by a group of Christian pastors and laymen in partnership with a Vancouver-based billionaire who made a generous donation.

“I was a middle child, and I think, because I had an older sister that was very type-A, mature, responsible, and I had a baby brother, I was really a typical attention-craving middle child. I think my personality was always on the rebellious side, because that’s how you get attention when you’re young. The more boundaries you gave me, the more I felt I needed to break them.

Elementary school . . . honestly, I have to say it was a very positive experience.

I don’t think I really felt that Christian school was different in elementary school.

I don’t think you notice it. But I noticed a dramatic change in high school. We were given a set of rules and the rules weren’t explained.”

Ruth once asked an authority at school why she couldn’t swear. “[The response was] 'Well, because it says so in the Bible.' That was the typical answer that you got for everything. ‘Because Jesus says so.’ But it’s never really furthered, so you can’t go on from there.

So you question it, and you want to push those boundaries because you don’t understand them. If the school were to have said, ‘Everything boils down to your relationship with God,’ then you would understand why you don’t do certain things.

Truth be told, socials and science can only be taught one way. The only other course that we had would be 'Christian Perspectives.' And we had chapel once a week. I cherish that time — the fact that we were given that kind of opportunity to be able to worship during school, I think, was really great. Because Christian schools are smaller, you have more attention. Not to say public school can’t give you care and attention. There are just so many kids. You can slip into the cracks a lot easier. It’s a really good thing, but it keeps you in. It’s cliché, but everyone calls it 'the bubble.'”

College brought a culture shock to Ruth.

“I was surprised that the professor would talk about sex and swear. That’s how he taught. It was funny, but I was like, ‘Wow, is that allowed?’ I wasn’t really ready for that — and I was already someone who was kind of rebellious. I would say 90 per cent of my friends were outside of school. A huge part of my life was outside. So I wanted to think that I wasn’t naïve, and that I was prepared, but I wasn’t.”

Ruth is now married and has two children. She is a worship leader at her church and mentors the youth in her congregation. Ruth and her husband made the decision to send their kids to public school.

chelsea Chelsea spent grades three to six in a very small private Christian school run by the church her family attended. She was homeschooled throughout secondary school, then attended a mid-size Christian university.

“Growing up, I always saw public school as a really scary thing. Everybody was having sex and doing drugs and swearing all the time.

Being homeschooled was the best thing for me. I started being involved in some programs outside of the church I grew up in. I took drama classes through a Catholic program, which might have been a little revolutionary for my parents to do at that time, in our church. I was . . . starting to meet people outside of my church. I don't think I actually ever made a non-Christian friend until I started working outside of college.

This one teacher pretty much changed my life. She was a recent college grad teaching a literature class for homeschoolers. We read Shakespeare, we read Barbara Kingsolver, we watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet . . . I remember the feeling of witnessing what I sensed to be 'film as art' for the first time.”

The culture of the church in which Chelsea grew up was to micro-manage students' lives. The Christian college she attended allowed her to take a balanced look at the mores she had grown up with.

“In youth group, you weren't even allowed to look at a boy, much less cultivate a meaningful friendship. It just made me über self-aware. In college, I learned that my inhibitions were ridiculously prudish.

In ways, I see [those inhibitions] as being very good, because it informed who I

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I could have been one of those incorrigible flirts, just throwing myself at guys. But I didn't, because I didn't have any opportunity when I was younger.

— Chelsea

Amber

am now. I could have been one of those incorrigible flirts, just throwing myself at guys. But I didn't, because I didn't have any opportunity when I was younger.

I came to think of Christian education as being something that held me together.

Questioning things was okay — you needed to do that. But the less you were put into the position where you needed to do that, probably the better. I was afraid that if I was in a secular college, I would be surrounded by so much darkness that I would just be drawn into it.

Within the [Christian] college that I went to, they encouraged a lot of thinking. I think I learned a lot and I grew a lot. Being an artist is as much about personal development as anything else.”

Chelsea graduated with a BA in studio arts and photography. At the time of this article's printing, she'll be getting married.

FAMILYLIFE

Amber is the daughter of a prominent Christian minister. She attended Christian school from preschool through college.

"I went to school with Tim LaHaye's grandson . . . kind of had this little flirtation going on for four years. [The school] was under Baptist affiliation. We had to wear dresses that went to our knees; boys had to wear pants and couldn't have long hair. I didn't think of it as anything weird.

I loved being a star pupil. Growing up, I got the sense that my teachers were invested in me, that they cared about me. I felt loved and attended to.

Every night I would write something I learned about on the back of my hand, and then spend the next day practicing it.

Learning to be humble, or forgiving, or kind.”

Amber and her friend made a game out of picking one person each week to encourage and pray for. Amber still hears from people who tell her how much her encouragement then meant to them — people she can't even remember now.

“I went to a party one spring . . . there being alcohol there. I came home crying, really grieving their depravity.”

Amber enrolled at a Christian university as a ministry major.

"It never occurred to me that people who were Christians did things [for a living] that are not ministry-focused. I asked one of my friends, 'How can you balance your faith [with knowing] that people are going to hell if you don't get this message out?’”

Amber found herself angry at God for creating a world where people like her were responsible for saving souls. She consulted the school chaplain, and her friends tried to help her with her struggling faith. When she graduated, she let it be known that she was not a Christian anymore. She felt very isolated from her friends and family after that.

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"A lot of people [said] things like 'You're sinning right now by doubting God, but I'm sure He'll still love you.' They thought I was being rebellious. That was not ever my intention. I wanted more than anything to [get] through this."

Amber began work in a group home for abused children.

"Through that, I found writers like Anne Lamott and Joan Borysenko, people who were able to embrace the grey areas with me. The book called Conversations with God [by Neale Donald Walsch] answered a lot of questions that Christian theology couldn't answer for me. I got a graduate degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica.

I was struggling with how to make meaning in my life without this Christianity thing being the focus anymore. I remember spending [a] whole year working on the idea of self-trust. It was terrifying, to jump into that. It's like growing up in Disneyland your whole life, and then accidentally seeing a glimpse of Anaheim, and being like 'What's that?' I was unequipped to function in a secular world. And the more I tried to make Christian theology make sense, the more it unravelled. I kept wishing I could go back. Of course, that never happened."

Amber lives in San Diego with her 5 year old son, Jack. She works as a psychotherapist, specializing in foster youth and underprivileged children.

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The Truth about the end times

By Kurt Willems

I

n the past year, REM’s hit from the late ’80s, “It’s the end of the world as we know it” could serve as a theme song. The Mayan calendar tells us that something cataclysmic will take place before we have the chance to replace our calendars. Add to this the rapture hysteria of the folks loyal to Harold Camping last year. He predicted that the “end of the world” would happen in two phases. First, May 21 would usher in the rapture of the church away from the cosmos and then the final judgment — the annihilation of all unrepentant humanity and creation — on October 21. Both days came and went and if you’re reading this magazine, you probably didn’t get obliterated.

Why is there an obsession in popular culture and in certain sects of Christianity with the “end of the world”? When I think of the REM song, my mind immediately goes to the movie Independence Day featuring Will Smith. Although the end to come in that film had to do with aliens and not God, countless movies take on fanciful apocalyptic themes.

Many Christians share a similar fascination. Maybe these Jesus followers don’t agree with people like Harold Camping, but they often hold to a similar theology: when Christ returns, believers will be taken to heaven and the earth will be destroyed.

This certainly represents the view bequeathed to me in my upbringing in Evangelicalism. A main text to support this view is found in Mark 13, where Jesus uses “apocalyptic” language to

describe the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Consider the following analogy for understanding apocalyptic language. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright invites us to ask: What if we compare Jesus saying, “the sun will be darkened” or that “stars will fall from the sky,” with our exaggerative language of “earth shattering” event?

Think about the most “earth shattering” event of our generation in North America. It would probably be 9/11. Suppose you read a news article with that sort of language in it. You wouldn’t assume that an earthquake caused the Twin Towers to collapse. You would understand the exaggerated metaphor.

The same understanding may not be true of someone who, 2000 years in the future, reads the exact copy of that article. Such a person might think that a literal earthquake “shattered” the World Trade Center, causing a new political situation to emerge. Of course, they would be misinformed.

The same is true for us as we read doomsday texts in the Bible. In fact, whenever that sort of language is used in the Old Testament, it almost always refers to a major event that had political or social ramifications.

For instance, Isaiah uses cosmic language to describe political events, such as Babylon’s conquering and the eventual fall of Edom. These are realities that have already been fulfilled in history. Jesus borrows this sort of Old Testament rhetoric to explain the coming doom of Jerusalem.

We still ought to believe in the Second Coming — that’s our hope! It’s a hope that needs to be reframed, not around God’s eventual destruction of the earth, but in God’s redemption and healing of all creation. In this way, REM’s lyrics are partly right — when Christ returns it will be the “end of the world as we know it.” Revelation 21-22 tells us that this world will be renewed (Greek for “new” means “renew” not “brand new”). Suffering and death will cease, evil and violence will end, and the curse of Eden will be lifted. Romans 8 says that the groaning creation will be, “liberated from its bondage to decay” and will experience the same fate as God’s children.

The whole New Testament teaches that heaven will mysteriously join this planet and God’s restorative, healing justice will reign forevermore. The Church’s invitation is to live in light of that hope-filled vision, existing as though God’s future world has already begun. Every time we bring healing in the midst of suffering or provide justice to the oppressed we live as signposts pointing toward the opposite of “doomsday.” Instead, we live out the hope of God’s bringing of heaven to earth.

We still ought to believe in the Second Coming — that’s our hope! It’s a hope that needs to be reframed, not around God’s eventual destruction of the earth, but in God’s redemption and healing of all creation.

Kurt Willems is a final year Master of Divinity student at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif. He is a freelance writer for various print and online publications, including his personal blog hosted by the religion website Patheos.com.

Turn the page for 10 apocalyptic scares that shook the world

5Israel in 1948:

top 10

apocAlyptic scares

By Al Mills

1 Black Death:

The 14th century pandemic killed over one third of Europe's population. Upon infection, victims only had a few days to live. Having little understanding of disease, this plague, among others during the Late Middle Ages, intensified a preoccupation with death and judgment.

2 Melchior Hoffman:

A German Anabaptist who predicted the end of the world and the return of Christ in 1533. He and his followers set up a shortlived end times kingdom in the city of Muenster, Germany. Many of his main supporters were executed, while Melchior spent his remaining years in prison.

3 Napoleon:

His meteoric rise to power included attacks on the Catholic Church and French Monarchy during the later part of the French Revolution.

Because of this and his other subsequent conquests, this military giant was considered to be the antichrist by his religious enemies.

4 World War I & II:

Some Christians saw World War I as Armageddon, the war to end all wars, ushering in the new millennium of Christ's reign. During World War II, Adolf Hitler's extreme hatred and violence against Jews combined with Nazi persecution of the Christian Church had some believing he was the antichrist.

Following the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, many Jews returned or were forced out of the foreign nations they lived in. Biblical prophecies of Jews returning to Israel (such as in Zechariah 8) lead many to believe that within one generation, or forty years, the end of the world would come.

6 The Cuban Missile Crisis:

In 1962 the Cuban and Soviet government secretly built missile bases in Cuba within range of most U.S. states.

The ensuing conflict escalated the threats of an all out nuclear war. Thankfully the Cold War kept cool and both sides negotiated a peaceful agreement.

7 Hal Lindsey:

The 1970 bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth was even made into a movie

by Orson Welles. Herein Hal predicts that the end of the world: the rapture, tribulation and return of Christ would happen in the '80s. This '70s crowd certainly ate up this sensational dispensationalist.

8 Y2K:

As the year 2000 approached, fanatical groups encouraged society to buy their survival kits and get ready to run for the hills. Somehow the idea of mainframes exploding due a minor numerical glitch managed to gain steam. Whoever started the rumour really ruined what should have been a worry free millennium-ending bash.

9Harold Camping:

Camping’s third and most recent prophecy gone bad — Jesus would return to earth on May 21, 2011.

While Camping has been the subject of many jokes, his actions spurred many unfortunate deaths. Seventy plus Camping-Believing Hmong Christians were slaughtered by the Vietnamese government when they banded together in a peaceful gathering to await the end of the world.

1 0 2012 Phenomenon:

According to ancient astrological and numerological interpretations, the Mayan's long calendar apparently predicts a new age and existence beginning December 21, 2012. The potential new era would involve a total destruction of life as we know it. Although these claims are largely unsupported by most scholars and Mayan historians, you can still enjoy the flick starring John Cussack.

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CHURCH

Mission not impossible Church in a movie theatre

By Craig Young

P

Village started in the Synesael home with 12 people. Soon it grew to 50 people. The move from living room to movie theatre was what Synesael describes as, “the beginning of our outward face.”

One of the things you may not notice right away when attending a Sunday morning gathering, is that West Village is actually built upon community groups. These groups meet and reach out in their community throughout the rest of the six days of the week.

Synesael encourages these groups to be active in their neighbourhood and choose a mission that they can own as a community group.

One group has embraced their local school, where they hold open barbeques and set up bouncy castles for the local children. “We don’t go in with the posture of trying to convert anyone or evangelize anyone . . . we just love and serve the people and the community that God has called us to,” he says.

Victoria, specifically, has had a difficult time with church attendance and has even been called one of the least churched communities in Canada. Synesael looks at this dilemma as an opportunity. He says, “The question that drove this church plant was not, ‘How can I get people to come to church?’ but ‘How do I get the church to go to people?’”

I asked Synesael about his family, and specifically how his three kids have responded to being a church planting family. He shares his kids’ response to this journey as, “fantastic . . . especially now that Daddy works from home!” The main challenge for the kids has been around “sharing their Legos” and people invading their personal space. Synesael talks about some weeks having over 100 people pass through their living room. However, he sees this more as a discipleship tool, saying to his kids, “Mission is sharing your Legos with kids, so their mommies and daddies can hear about Jesus.” This seems to be a key message for all of us, that, in a lot of ways, being church and community is more difficult than just attending church. Pastor Synesael would respond this way, in a recent tweet he wrote, “The mission of the church is not [to] make more seats in its Sunday service — it is to make more seats at your dinner table.”

astor Chris Synesael of West Village Church recently tweeted, “How many pastors get to watch Puss n’ Boots right before their Christmas Eve Service? #ChurchPlanting.”

As my family and I entered through the movie theatre doors, we were welcomed into a lobby with West Village Church signs sitting tall among colourful, illuminated ticket dispensers. The West Village refreshment table held coffee, baked goods, Milk Duds, and buttery popcorn. Greeters mingled in the lobby next to staff members wearing maroon vests, as the theatre was being prepared for their first movie showing immediately after the service ended. When we exited the service nearly two hours later, paying customers entered the theatre. Now the challenge was to decipher who was who. You couldn’t tell the difference between those singing praises to Jesus just minutes earlier, and the ones holding tickets to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. Synesael says that what happens on Sunday is not called a morning service but a morning gathering.

Pastor Synesael and his wife Kellee planted West Village church on the have a cool church?

West Shore of Victoria, B.C. less than one year ago and originally had no Want your church plans of choosing a movie theatre for or church plant its future location. Synesael mentions, featured in Converge?

“On the West Shore, there are very few Email us at: places that will hold 40 people.” West info@convergemagazine.com

22 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

Craig Young is a pastor and the producer of an online program called Going Home Show www.goinghomeshow. com. He lives in Victoria, B.C. with his wife and five kids.

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LIFE

THE SINGLE GIRL'S GUIDE Things my ex taught me

By Stephanie Ip

Illustration by Jennifer Ku

W

e broke up via text message.

No matter how many times I tell the story, people still look at me incredulously, as if they couldn’t believe breaking up via text messages actually happened in real life. Others look at me with anger, feeling the same rage I first felt when I read his text.

I always say I’m over it, that I’ve recovered. People always shake their heads when I tell them The Ex and I still talk, that we’re just friends, that he’s got a new girlfriend, and I’m okay with it. Well, sometimes.

But it wasn’t without a lot of work that happened both before and after our relationship took place.

About four months before I met the person I now call The Ex, I began studying Song of Songs. On the recommendation of a friend, I looked into The Peasant Princess, a video sermon series by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church.

The study examines Biblical marriage and even covers topics for singles and couples who may not be ready to say, “I do.” It took me through the dedicated love letters between a man and his future bride, and their journey from courtship to marriage bed.

As I explored line after line, describing exactly the way a marriage should be, I felt hope:

24 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee. (Song of Songs 1:16) It was a promise of what God had designed, something intended to be lasting, encouraging, all-encompassing.

I started exploring Song of Songs because I was lonely. It had been a while since I’d dated, and as I neared the end of university, I felt this push to jump into the next phase of life. Being surrounded by friends getting married, engaged, or who were in long-term relationships didn’t help curb that pressure either.

As I became familiar with Song of Songs, I felt like I had a better handle on what I should be looking for and what my role was in a relationship. I undoubtedly had a more grounded and biblically based approach to what God intended as a marriage.

It also repaired a lot of the broken thoughts and skewed perspectives I had due to previous relationships. While I can’t say I don’t still hurt occasionally, a lot of what I learned helps me grapple with those feelings of abandonment that still resurface occasionally.

But as I was learning these things, I met The Ex. He hadn’t been to a church in awhile but we met through my community group. It seemed obvious to everyone that we were somehow on another playing field, constantly one-upping the other with quips, jokes, and teasing. We made plans to hang out, really just any excuse to spend time together. It was like we were in our own little world and it finally clicked: This must be what love is like.

While I thought my study had brought me to a new place of understanding and self-love, it didn’t quite compare to when I was with The Ex. I felt validated when I was with him. Finally, there was someone to prove I could be loved.

There are still days where I wonder if those feelings were misguided. How could I have a wonderful, loving, almighty Father in Heaven who had designed and created me, and yet I only understood my own value when I heard it from another earthly, flawed individual? Someone who later broke up with me and left me hurting, no less?

The end crept up quietly. It was a process I saw early on and yet, didn’t want to acknowledge: We had chemistry but weren’t in the same stage of life. We weren’t building the same relationship. I fought to hold on but in doing so, pushed him even further away. I still wonder if I had been a little more aloof, a little less demanding, maybe things would have worked out.

What I realize now is that things did work out. God was trying to get my attention in a big way. He had promised and created marriage to be an adventure, embodied by two people becoming one, and so much more fulfilling than any relationship I could ever fashion on my own. As I was learning biblically how to handle an emotional and intimate connection, God was trying to tell me I would only understand what my role in a biblical marriage could be if I believed I was worthy of filling that role. Having been single for so long, I’d lost sight of my own allure. Strangely enough, the only way I began to rediscover my value was through the eyes of my then boyfriend. It was like God was saying, “If this is how good things are now, imagine how good they could be.”

There’s still days where I remember little details about his apartment or his jokes, and I’m suddenly left with a sinking feeling in my chest. But instead of wondering why I wasn’t good enough, I realize that I’m now in a better place. Not only am I good enough, I am worth infinitely more than what I had allowed myself to receive.

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CULTURE

The Legacy of Albert Pujols Baseball for the glory of God

By Paul Arnold

H

ow do you measure the legacy of a professional athlete? Do you look at the accomplishments of the individual, or at the contributions the individual made for his or her team? Is it important if an athlete stays loyal to one team and one community for his whole career like Mario Lemieux, Cal Ripken Jr., John Stockton, or Karl Malone? And how important is it that an athlete be remembered for his charitable contributions outside sports, like Lance Armstrong or Dikembe Mutombo? Maybe the legacy of an athlete is more dependent on intangibles that can’t be found in sports almanacs.

In his 10-year career, Pujols has positioned himself to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He has accumulated a Rookie of the Year award, nine All-Star appearances, six Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, three National League MVP awards, and two World Series Championships. Pujols currently sits at 445 home runs, 37th on the all-time list, and has the potential to hit 600, and possibly even 700, before his career is over. He also has a shot at 2,000 runs scored and 2,000 runs batted in (RBIs), a combination that only two players in history have achieved: Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth (soon to be included in that list is Alex Rodriguez).

Accomplishments? Check.

Despite these achievements, Pujols is very clear that baseball is not his primary vocation in life. On his website, he says, “Believe it or not, baseball is not the chief ambition of my life . . . My life’s goal is to bring glory to Jesus . . . God has given me the ability to succeed in the game of baseball. But baseball is not the end; baseball is the means by which my wife, Dee Dee, and I glorify God. Baseball is simply my platform to elevate Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.”

26 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

It is with this focus that Albert and his wife, Deidre, launched The Pujols Family Foundation in 2005 to care for those with Down syndrome. Albert and Deidre have a daughter of their own with Down syndrome and have said, "We did not choose Down syndrome. Down syndrome chose us." The foundation also seeks to provide extraordinary experiences for children with disabilities and/or life threatening illnesses, and to benefit the impoverished children and families in the Dominican Republic, Albert’s home country.

Charitable work? Check.

However, in December, Pujols signed the second most lucrative contract in baseball history to move from the team he has spent his entire career with, the St. Louis Cardinals, to the Los Angeles Angels. The deal is worth $250 million over 10 years, and for many people, particularly Christians, it could put a permanent black mark on his legacy. How could a Christian, whose chief ambition is apparently not baseball, leave the state of Missouri (where he played high school and community college baseball, met his wife, and spent his whole professional career) in the pursuit of wealth?

The answer might not be so simple. Pujols’ move may not have been entirely motivated by money. A recent Forbes article compared the cost-of-living and tax discrepancies in St. Louis and Los Angeles, and concluded that although the Cardinals offered Pujols less gross income, the Angels’ contract actually carries less purchasing power when all aspects are considered.

Pujols likely made the decision to join the Angels for three main reasons: one, the Angels were offering a longer term contract; two, the Angels play in the American League with the designated hitter position that can lengthen a player’s career and help Pujols reach many of baseball’s most coveted milestones; three, the Angels play in L.A. where there is a large Hispanic/

Latino population (where both the Angels and Pujols would benefit from increased interest).

The real reasons remain unclear, and many are unconvinced that Pujols’ presence in L.A. will energize the Latino community, but it would be unfair to classify Pujols’ decision as a pure money grab.

However, Pujols has put himself and his legacy in a precarious position if he ever becomes irrelevant on the baseball field.

Although the chances are good that he won’t become unimportant to the team anytime soon (the Angels are wagering $250 million that he won’t), Pujols turned 31 on January 16 and is now entering the stage of his career where athletes begin battling Father Time. As Charles Barkley once quipped, “You can't beat Father Time. Father Time is undefeated.”

Whether age will show up in the form of injuries or fatigue, if Pujols doesn’t continue to be the player he once was, can he continue to be relevant? I think so, but in leaving St. Louis, Pujols has left a large part of his legacy behind. In L.A., he will need to work from the ground up to become an integral part of the L.A. community and the Angels organization that he once was in St. Louis. And if he doesn’t continue to hit home runs, his job will be that much more difficult.

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MINISTRY

Escaping SEXUAL SLAVERY Former madam Tania Fiolleau shares her story of life in the sex industry

By Shara Lee

When she was admitted to the hospital, Fiolleau was faced with the same decision her mother was faced with years ago: stay with her abusive husband or leave with her children. “I didn’t want my kids to feel the sense of abandonment that I felt,” she says.

Fiolleau needed $7,000 to retain a lawyer. She didn’t know what to do. While flipping through the newspaper she came across an ad in the paper that read, “Earn the sum of up to $1,500 a day.

Fun, friendly safe environment, female owned and operated.” She went in for an interview and subsequently got the job.

During her first appointment, Fiolleau found out that she was working in a brothel. “I made $1,700 that night . . . When I came home, I jumped in the shower, scrubbed my body, scrubbed it raw, and slinked down to the shower just bawling my eyes out.”

Soon after, Fiolleau decided to become a madam so she could run her own brothels. “I took over one that was going downhill and made it successful.”

Meanwhile, word got to the court that she was working in the sex industry. “I was not being judged as an abused battered women protecting the lives of her and her kids; I was being charged as a dirty prostitute,” says Fiolleau. “This dragged on four-and-a-half years and during that time I fell in love, I remarried. I found out after I had married, that [my husband was] in an organized crime family and was a murder suspect. The odds were stacked against me.”

It was then when she had a breaking point and cried out to God asking him to prove himself to her by giving her custody of her kids. “The next morning I found out by grabbing the paper that I had won sole custody,” she remembers.

“It’s never by choice cause if they could make the same money doing something they liked, they’d be doing that.”

A

lot of people can say that they are against sexual slavery, but few can say that they actually lived through it. Tania Fiolleau once lived as a prostituted person and later went on to run several successful brothels as a madam. Her story is one of deep tragedy but even greater redemption.

“My father was an alcoholic,” says Fiolleau. There was a tremendous amount of abuse in her home, so much so that authorities got involved. Fiolleau’s mother was unwilling to leave her husband and lost custody of her child. At 11, Fiolleau was put into foster care.

She stayed in 13 different homes throughout her childhood.

“Nobody wants to adopt you when you’re that age so I just kept moving around,” she recalls. “I felt that nobody wanted me.”

One day out of sadness and desperation, Fiolleau stuck her thumb out on the highway hoping to hitchhike far away. A man driving a semi picked her up and subsequently raped her. “I’d always dreamt of keeping my virginity till my wedding day . . . those dreams were shattered,” she says.

Years later she married someone who was just like her father.

“I had no self esteem when I was with him. He would call me names and put me down,” she says. “If I was with a guy that was treating me like gold, I didn’t feel like I belonged 'cause I was used to the abuse.”

Not only did he verbally abuse her, he was convicted several times of spousal abuse. “On his last conviction, he ran me over with his work van,” she recalls.

28 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

Fiolleau began going to church regularly. She took over a tanking tanning salon and turned it into a profitable business. Fiolleau also owned a home. This was a fresh start for her, but things weren’t all roses from there. Just when she seemed to have it all, she heard God telling her to give it all up. Following His instruction she closed her business.

Fiolleau could no longer pay her mortgage and her home went into foreclosure. She spent months living in her car with her son.

She didn’t understand it then, but God was humbling her. “Now I have girls that I rescue and they say, ‘Well Tania, it was easy for you to get out cause you were a madam and you had money.’ I [say], ‘Really? I went to the food bank, I lived in my car, I went to churches, I went to women’s resource centers,’” she says. “A lot of women that say they get into prostitution by choice. It’s never by choice cause if they could make the same money doing something they liked, they’d be doing that.”

After a time of struggle, Fiolleau was granted housing through the government. It was only after she had gone through all this that her work as an abolitionist began. She became a media commentator speaking out against prostitution. Her background as a trafficker gave her credibility.

Today she continues her ministry by reaching out to prostituted women and sharing the gospel with them. Although she was financially secure before, she would not trade the life she now has. “I’m not wealthy now, I’m quite the opposite, but I’m a lot more rich in other ways,” she says.

Tania Fiolleau is the author of Souled Out, for more information on her ministry visit savethewomen.ca

Named one of the best colleges in the Midwest by Princeton Review, Washington Monthly, Forbes.com, and U.S. News & World Report

Find your place in God’s world Sioux Center, Iowa www.dordt.edu

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on i s s i M o T r Doo r u o Y n e ge p n O a h C | e s o p Vision | Pur unch into a new reality. ica r you can la ations in Afr n ti s This summe e d e e r l t one of th sformationa n a tr Volunteer a e th d n le nce firstha inority peop m g n ti and experie c a p d’s Word im a. Expect n a h G r o power of Go a y , meroon, Ken discipleship ic p e groups in Ca , e r tu n e ox adv ural outside-the-b es of language and cult re g tim into Scriptu s t h ig s life-changin in d e nt . d unexpect on moveme ti learning, an la s n a tr le a! al Bib rm.wycliffe.c e and the glob tt r o h s t a options Explore the

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LIFE

Dealing with gender insecurity And other manly confessions.

Author to remain anonymous

W

hen I was in grade 12, I was obsessed with becoming a U.S. Marine. They were the toughest branch of the American military and could take a wimp like me and turn him into a tough, rugged, fearless fighter. I was small, thin, insecure, had never gotten in a fight, and shied away from competition. My extracurricular activities of choice were the school choir, community theatre, and the swim team. I did not naturally smell of Old Spice (although I remember using lots of it).

I began to experience a lot of teasing and bullying in grade seven. I would sit through art class, quietly working on my projects, while guys at the next table would call me things like, “fag,” “queer,” and “fairy.” Often the bus ride home would be more of the same. I pretended to ignore them but internally felt like I was getting punched in the gut, over and over. All of

Illustration by Carmen Bright

that rejection did something deep within. The verbal abuse I experienced left trauma inside — some deep beliefs about who I was (or wasn’t) as a man.

I started to think that I wasn’t fully a man, that I hadn’t developed correctly like all the other guys, that there was something wrong with me. Without being able to articulate it at the time, I was struggling with a deep gender identity insecurity. I didn’t come to the point of questioning if I was supposed to be a man or wishing I was a woman, but I felt something essential was missing. I disliked and internally rejected who I thought I was,

30 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

wishing I were someone different, while noticing all the “manly” characteristics other guys had.

I changed how I dressed and acted, and I switched my hobbies and group of friends. I fantasized about being bigger, stronger, more popular, and having better clothes, athletic accomplishments, a girlfriend, a truck — whatever would help me be more like a man. Then, around grade 10, I realized I was feeling attracted to guys. I would notice other guys’ bodies and feel an intense curiosity. I also felt emotionally attached and dependent on my two best guy friends, at times feeling jealous for their attention and wanting their exclusivity. I was horrified, embarrassed, afraid, and desperately hoped that if I just followed God and tried to “fix” myself that it would all go away.

The truth was, I had a deep wound in my own sense of manhood and a lot of unmet need for male affection, affirmation, and belonging. Out of these profound realities was bubbling up an attraction to other guys. I tried to stuff down my feelings as much as possible. I desperately wanted to be normal; to go to college, get married, serve God, and make a difference with my life. I prayed fervently for all this to go away, went to Bible school (a Christian version of the Marines), and did my best to be a normal guy for the next number of years. Things seemed to go well enough.

A few years ago, however, my struggles began to resurface and intensify, leading to high anxiety and depression. I finally worked up the courage to seek help. In seeking help, I discovered that God was more real, compassionate, and powerful than I had ever believed. Through the help of a skilled counsellor, a healing ministry called Living Waters (which I now work for), and some close Christian friends, I began to open up about how I felt about myself as a man, the memories of being bullied, my unwanted same-sex attraction, and the ways I was coping. As the masks came down and I opened up, the shame and dread began to lose their grip. God began to administer his love, compassion, and truth to my heart. I discovered that God was real, that He wanted to prove Himself to me as my Father, be with me in my pain and aloneness, and speak truth into the lies and emptiness I’d been living with. He began to affirm

over and over: “You are my Son, whom I love; I am so pleased with you” (Luke 3.21-22). This healing process began only a few years ago and yet today I am a different person — transformed inwardly, and so much more myself. I feel like God has been leading me home, to be at home in my body, my history, my faith, my identity, and my calling.

I believe that God did design gender as a part of His creation. But like all good gifts God has given to us in Creation, we have made a mess of it. We use gender as a way to get respect, attention, admiration, social repute, pleasure, or sex. Some of us become obsessed with having the perfectly sculpted body, just the right clothing, the right accessories, the right features, the right friends . . . all to become the image of the man or woman we long to be. Entire industries thrive off of this.

Others of us start to hate gender, maybe due to how we’ve been treated or how we’ve seen others treated. Simply as a result of being a woman or a man (or a particular kind of woman or man) we start to see gender as more of a liability than a gift.

While I do believe that concepts of gender and gender roles have led to a lot of oppression and social violence, (and that as Christians we need to confront that violence and the lies that empower it) I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. As a guy, I am also very suspicious of formulaic or legalistic Christian responses to what some have called, “the emasculation of the church.” I don’t think we can capture the mystery of what it means to be human beings, made as male and female, in a short list of qualities or proscriptive roles (as outlined in John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart).

I still have plenty of struggles. Shame still rears its ugly head from time to time. I instinctively return to old coping mechanisms. But more and more there is a settling sense of who I am in God’s love, and that who I am is good. I’m glad I didn’t enlist in the Marines. I don’t think it would have a “real man” out of me. Slowly, day-by-day, God is helping me experience true son-ship in Him, and in doing so is restoring my true masculinity.

NURTURING DISCIPLES AND TRAINING LEADERS TO SERVE

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Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.

Photo by Cora Lynn Carey of Bethany College

2012

EDUCATION

GUIDE

By Craig Ketchum

I

look back on my time at university very fondly. There were moments of ecstatic joy as well as suffering, making a lasting impression on my life.

Post secondary education is not for everyone, but it can be the opportunity you need to come alive. Classes fired my mind into high gear as ideas I had were confronted, edited, and clarified.

I was provoked to muse deeply, freeing the deep thinker in me (kept in check in high school for social reasons). The whole experience paradoxically left me feeling more unified and more certain of myself. The refining fire had clarified my identity.

The best choice I made was getting involved on campus. I got involved in student clubs and attended campus events and outings. They established a network of contacts and friendships and introduced me to new experiences that didn’t balance my life or encourage healthy sleeping habits but kept life interesting. My diligent involvement in student clubs and the campus newspaper, as well as service on student government, offered resume material. Meetings and outings offered me weekly events to look forward to and helped craft an identity as I pursued personal passions. This is vital for a young adult moving in a new direction. I made a name for myself on campus and had an opportunity to be significant.

34 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

Classes fired my mind into high gear as ideas I had were confronted, edited, and clarified. I was provoked to muse deeply, freeing the deep thinker in me.

I guess all people long for significance.

When I didn’t feel significant, I felt discouraged, particularly during my first Canadian winter when seasonal blues set in. Partially satisfied by class discussions, social events, sports, and campus life, I tried to keep myself occupied but would sometimes just escape through video games. I would later discover the inner healing I needed in reuniting with God through the right church community.

Now having graduated twice, here is my advice: first, make the most of the unique features of your school. I went on a travel study to Ottawa, spending time working for a political party. I used my institution’s small size to pursue student leadership and get to know my professors.

Whatever is interesting or quirky about your school can be something a potential employer or leader highlights about you.

Second, while you are completing your education, don’t be too easily swayed by jobs that may pay better but are not in the field you want to pursue. These jobs could be interesting and could even open you up to new experiences, but too many jobs today seek people with years of experience in the field. The job market is too fragile and too competitive to risk losing your edge. Employers typically don’t want a generalist. They’d prefer someone who can outperform his or her competitors in the skill set they offer.

If I could go back and do undergrad again, I would change two things: I would not have lost so much sleep over women, and I would not have delayed joining a church community by church hopping for years. In the end, I am who I am today by the grace of God, and am glad I can look back with joy at the experience.

acadia divinity college

acts seminaries

alberta bible college

Wolfville, N.S. • Seminary • Student Body: 220 Avg Tuition: $6,133 • Financial aid: Yes • acadiadiv.ca

Langley, B.C. • Seminary • Student Body: N/A Avg Tuition: $7,600 • Financial aid: Yes • www.acts.twu.ca

Calgary, Alta. • College • Student Body: 100 Avg Tuition: $5,850 • Financial aid: Yes • abccampus.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 10:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: We are an evangelical

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 14:1 HOT HANGOUT: The Collegium ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: ACTS is a unique partnership

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 3:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Centre ATHLETICS: , Adventure Sports THE PITCH: Right from the first

theological seminary offering degrees from one of Canada's most acclaimed universities. Our students enjoy all campus facilities and extra-curricular programs as well as the close relationships and spiritual formation available through the intimate ADC community.

of five seminaries developing Christian leaders for both vocational and lay ministry. We create a dynamic, integrated learning environment where students can learn, grow, and explore theological traditions and spiritual experiences.

semester you will be in a guided ministry experience that will begin to equip you for serving.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Equipping Christian Leaders

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Serving while learning . . . learning while serving

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Essential Training for Christian Service

bethany college

briercrest college & seminary

calvin college

Hepburn, Sask. • College • Student Body: 140 Avg Tuition: $6,400 • Financial aid: Yes • bethany.sk.ca

Caronport, Sask. • College & Seminary • Student Body: 838 Avg Tuition: $8,000 • Financial aid: Yes • briercrest.ca

Grand Rapids, Mich. • College • Student Body: 3,967 Avg Tuition: $25,340 usd • Financial aid: Yes • calvin.edu

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 10:1 HOT HANGOUT: The Cafe ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: •Discipleship — Individual mentorship of all students by faculty and staff.

•Community — Live in dorm, study God’s word & learn in community.

•Transformation — Through experience and service learning.

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 22:1 HOT HANGOUT: The Point ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: Outstanding Christian

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 11:1 HOT HANGOUT: Johnny’s Café ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: Mind or heart? At Calvin,

education. Quality ministry preparation in a learning community that values university-level studies. “The word of our God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40:8

it’s about both. Think courageously, act faithfully — and learn to connect the way you think with the way you live.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

My heart I offer to you, Lord, promptly and sincerely

Outstanding Christian Education

SCHOOL MOTTO:

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Nurturing Disciples and Training Leaders to Serve

For a complete list of programs & degrees offered, please visit www.convergemagazine.com

canada institute of linguistics at twu

canadian mennonite university

Langley, B.C. • University • Student Body: 100 Avg Tuition: $16,000 • Financial aid: Yes • canil.ca

Winnipeg, Man. • University • Student Body: 600+ Avg Tuition: $6,150 • Financial aid: Yes • cmu.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 30:1 HOT HANGOUT: CanIL Common Room ATHLETICS: Offered at Trinity Western THE PITCH: CanIL offers high quality

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 12:1 HOT HANGOUT: Blaurock Café ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: Come study at CMU where

applied linguistic training for crosscultural service opportunities around the world in Bible translation, literacy and language development.

faith plays a role in our academic excellence, along with faculty mentorship, emphasis on experiential learning, and a strong sense of community.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Equipping men and women

Enrolment theme: Shape Your Journey

capernwray quebec bible center

carey theological college

Chertsey, Que. • Ministry • Student Body: 20-30 Avg Tuition: $10,400 • Financial aid: N/A • cqbc.ca

Vancouver, B.C. • Seminary • Student Body: 100+ Avg Tuition: Please inquire • Financial aid: Yes • carey-edu.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 2:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: Outdoor Activities THE PITCH: CQBC offers an intimate

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: N/A HOT HANGOUT: The Cafeteria ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: •Accessible — 2/3 of courses online, 1/3 on campus.

•Practical — Culturally relevant, community grounded, theologically based.

•Transformational — Creates opportunities to encounter God; journey inward to find meaning for outward expressions of faith.

discipleship opportunity and a unique Quebec culturural experience as you deepen your relationship with Christ through classes, serving and living together.

SCHOOL MOTTO: rosebudschoolofthearts.com

Live the Theatre!

Declaring Christ as Life!

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Accessible, Practical, Transformational

educate EDUCATING, EQUIPPING, AND ENRICHING CHRISTIANS FOR SPIRIT EMPOWERED MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD

capernwray harbour bible centre

equip

Thetis Island, B.C. • Ministry School • Student Body: ~120 Avg Tuition: $10,900 • Financial aid: N/A • capernwray.ca

1 & 2 YEAR PROGRAMS 3 YEAR DIPLOMAS 4 YEAR DEGREES

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 4:1 HOT HANGOUT: The Pump House ATHLETICS: Intramural Sports THE PITCH: Capernwray is a one year,

in depth, practical Bible School program; training in the Christian life. Discover & know Jesus Christ as Life! Community & stunning island living.

enrich

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Life!

christ for the nations bible college Surrey, B.C. • College • Student Body: <100 Avg Tuition: $5,000 • Financial aid: Yes • cfnc.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 5:1 HOT HANGOUT: N/A ATHLETICS: Intramurals THE PITCH: •Intimate — Small class sizes and low student-instructor ratio.

•Location — In Metro Vancouver near mountains, ocean & more.

•Price — Among the lowest tuition in Canada, every student subsidized.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

For Life & Ministry

For more information visit us at www.summitpacific.ca

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY PASTORAL LEADERSHIP COUNSELING FOUNDATIONS INTERCULTURAL STUDIES

MUSIC CHURCH MINISTRIES YOUTH LEADERSHIP

Discover Christ in You!

WORLD IMPACT BIBLE INSTITUTE

concordia lutheran seminary

dordt college

Edmonton, Alta. • Seminary • Student Body: 24 Avg Tuition: $7,100 • Financial aid: Yes • learngrowserve.ca

Sioux Center, Iowa • College • Student Body: 1,400 Avg Tuition: $24,300 USD • Financial aid: Yes • dordt.edu

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 5:1 HOT HANGOUT: The Foosball Room ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: CLS is a small confessional

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 15:1 HOT HANGOUT: 55th Avenue ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: At Dordt, you are part of a

Lutheran community that forms servants for Jesus' sake.

vibrant residential community where you will be encouraged, challenged, and supported in your faith and in your studies.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Servant's for Jesus' Sake

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Find your place in God's world

OVER 3000 Graduates... ministering JESUS on EVERY CONTINENT!

JOIN THE REVOLUTION hillsong college

horizon college & seminary

Sydney, Australia • College • Student Body: 1300 Avg Tuition: A$4,500 • Financial aid: N/A • hillsongcollege.com

Saskatoon, Sask. • College & Seminary • Student Body: 60 Avg Tuition: $5,890 • Financial aid: Yes • horizon.edu

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 25:1 HOT HANGOUT: Anywhere!

ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: Hillsong College, helping

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 15:1 HOT HANGOUT: Starbucks, Tim Hortons,

connect you to the purposes of God for your life.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

To receive your free information package call 416.497.4940 x 102 Toll Free: 1.800.275.2713 or visit WIBI.com

Equipping you for your God given future

Student Life Centre, Community Kitchen ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: Horizon is an intimate Christian community with all the benefits of city life, we are committed to help students grow academically, socially and spiritually.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Preparing leaders for Christian life and ministry

1932

Alberta Bible College

emmanuel bible college

heritage college & seminary

Kitchener, Ont. • College • Student Body: 200 Avg Tuition: $9,344 • Financial aid: Yes • emmanuelbiblecollege.ca

Cambridge, Ont. • College & Seminary • Student Body: 250 Avg Tuition: $9,000 • Financial aid: Yes • discoverheritage.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 1:9 HOT HANGOUT: Sherk Lounge & Wildcat Cafe ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: Emmanuel is an accredited

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 11:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: We are committed to

undergraduate, degree-granting institution that focuses on ministry professions.

Bringing together Bible/Theology, general studies, professional courses and hands-on experience, a degree from Emmanuel gets you ready to run.

delivering excellence in Christian Higher Education through innovative programming, rich campus life and modern facilities.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Pursuing God with Passion & Excellence

Preparing women and men to think, live, serve and lead in the Church and in the world

Practical ministry – from day one. www.abccampus.ca

living faith bible college

living word bible college

Caroline, Alta. • College • Student Body: 40+ Avg Tuition: $4950 • Financial aid: Can. Student Loans • lfbc.net

Swan River, Man. • College • Student Body: 30-40 Avg Tuition: $3,600 • Financial aid: N/A • livingword.mb.ca

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 5:1 HOT HANGOUT: Study Lounge ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: •Sound teaching.

•Discipleship focus.

•Small class sizes.

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: N/A HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: N/A THE PITCH: In depth study the word of

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Equipping men and women

Equipping for life and ministry.

…because there are already too many disengaged Christians.

God; low teacher-student ratio and tuition, room and board fees.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

Trades: A Hands-on

By Gavin Fisher

Education

T

he final years of high school — as well as the first few years afterwards — are challenging times for young adults trying to map out their education and career paths. For some, the obvious choice is to go to university and get a bachelor’s degree. However, university is far from being the only option for high school graduates. Learning a trade continues to be a popular choice for those who prefer a hands-on education and training that leads to a specific career.

Nathaniel Printis, a young welder and machinist from Surrey, British Columbia, chose to go into the trades because he enjoyed working with his hands. “I find satisfaction in building things,” he says. “You can say, ‘I built that’.” Printis did not know what he wanted to do after graduation, but he knew what he did not want to do. “Like everybody, I had no clue what I wanted to do when I was in high school. All I knew is that I didn’t want to go to university . . . I didn’t want to sit in a desk or a cubicle,” says Printis.

Printis had enjoyed his metalwork classes in high school, so he applied to a program that allowed him to take his first level of welding at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, while completing Grade 11 and 12. Many high schools in B.C., as well as across Canada, offer students opportunities to learn a trade

and the like, there are other trades that might not immediately spring to mind.

This was the case for Jonathan Passiniemi, who knew he enjoyed working with his hands but had to explore a few different options before he found what he really wanted to do. Passiniemi studied at Simon Fraser University for a year, taking the Mechatronics Systems Engineering program, but found it wasn’t exactly what he was looking for. “I just didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Passiniemi says. “I needed to know what kind of job I was going to get at the end of it — what I was being trained for.”

Although he was accepted into the program after his first year, he chose not to continue, and began exploring other career options — such as firefighting, policing, and aviation. Speaking to a family friend who works as a pilot, Passiniemi discovered that there was another alternative that was especially suited to him: aircraft maintenance.

“Because for every pilot in the sky there

I needed to know what kind of job I was going to get at the end of it — what I was being trained for.

— Jonathan Passiniemi and do an apprenticeship while still in high school. These programs, such as the ACE-IT and Secondary School Apprenticeship (SSA) in B.C. or the Youth Apprenticeship Program in Ontario (OYAP), enable students to get credit for their first level of training in a specific trade and complete apprenticeship hours. By the time Printis finished high school, he had both his high school diploma as well as his Level C certificate for the first level of training in welding.

While there are a range of schools that offer courses in welding, carpentry,

40 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

are a couple hundred people on the ground, fixing the aircraft,” Passiniemi says, quoting his mentor. This appealed to Passiniemi’s mechanical inclinations, so he researched the program, applied, and two months later began his training at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

Passiniemi took the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering program with the electronics specialization, which took a year and eight months to complete. Passiniemi, who admits that he struggles with absorbing information

in a lecture form unless he can physically see or handle it, says he enjoyed the “learn, then try it yourself” format of his program. “I liked being told about something and then getting to actually build it and see how it works,” Passiniemi says. “I would finish the little project or assignment we were given and then I would try and change it and see how the results would change.”

A week before finishing his program, Passiniemi was hired by a helicopter aviations company where he is currently employed. Printis also found employment quickly, and his employer paid for him to take his Level B welding training at Kwantlen while he was working for them. “If you get in the trades, you can pretty easily find work,” Printis says.

“People are looking for welders anywhere you go.”

Both Printis and Passiniemi give thanks to God for the abilities they have and for getting them where they are today. “I . . . credit God [all the time] for giving me these skills,” Printis says. “It was a big decision in high school for me . . . I prayed [and] this is what I did. He gave me these skills to work with. I have no doubt about that.”

For young people who want to gain a hands-on education, or for those looking to make a career change, going into the trades provides one with recognized certifications and plenty of job opportunities. There are many options – from automotive services and plumbing to aircraft maintenance and marine engineering. It’s something worth looking into. After all, Jesus was a carpenter.

mcmaster divinity college

millar college of the bible

nipawin bible college

Hamilton, Ont. • Seminary • Student Body: 280 Avg Tuition: $5,900 • Financial aid: Yes • macdiv.ca

Pambrun, Sask. • College • Student Body: 150-160 Avg Tuition: $10,200* • Financial aid: Yes • millarcollege.ca

Nipawin, Sask. • College • Student Body: 50-65 Avg Tuition: $10,000 • Financial aid: Yes • nipawin.org

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 13:1 HOT HANGOUT: East Meets West ATHLETICS: Through McMaster University THE PITCH: MacDiv is intentional,

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 16:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: Millar’s integral model

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 3:1 HOT HANGOUT: Student Lounge ATHLETICS: THE PITCH: Biblical instruction. Caring

evangelical, diverse, and affordable; we have the best of both worlds as an independent Christian seminary on a major university campus.

of education allows you to grow in four important areas of life: Biblical Knowledge, Life Skills, Relationships and Spiritual Growth and Character

community. Opportunities to grow, achieve and try new things. You’ve just read a list of what we feel characterizes Nipawin Bible College.

SCHOOL MOTTO:

SCHOOL MOTTO:

SCHOOL MOTTO:

“In Him All Things Consist” ­— Colossians 1:17b

Developing Passionate, Relevant Servants of Jesus Christ who are shaped by the entire Scriptures.

Inspiring people to know and live the word of God

pacific life bible college

peace river bible institute

prairie bible institute

Surrey, B.C. • College • Student Body: 170 Avg Tuition: $4,650 • Financial aid: Yes • pacificlife.edu

Sexsmith, Alta. • College • Student Body: 110 Avg Tuition: $5,700 • Financial aid: Yes • prbi.edu

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TALK THIS WAY: The heart within our words

M

y Great-Uncle Leroy is a man of no uncertain force. After serving in World War II, he came home from the Navy with an imposing anchor tattoo on his forearm. He went from near illiteracy to being a high-school English teacher in only a couple of years. And he loved to box; he routinely challenged anyone at the dinner table to go a couple rounds after the meal. (Including my mom's thenserious boyfriend, who wisely refrained and lived to become my dad.) He's spent the last 50 years as a traveling minister and radio preacher, coaching people to spend more time with God in prayer. (His signature move is a sharp finger-snap and the words, "Now listen up!")

He's undoubtedly one of those men we'd describe with a certain compound word.

You know the one. It starts with "bad" and rhymes with "mad as." It pays tribute to more than just his age or number of academic degrees. It means you'd better not get between Great-Uncle Leroy and his business. It's a term of respect.

But if he heard me say it, about him or anyone else, he'd probably wash my mouth out with soap.

(Which kind of makes him even more . . . that word. You know?)

Uncle Leroy is the best kind of Biblebeating fundamentalist: the kind who would spend a week praying with you (or

for you, if you can't do it yourself), but who also would reprove you for saying "golly" or "doggone."

"I'm very hesitant to say this," he told me on the phone recently, "But of course that's a euphemism for . . . God . . . damn . . . it."

Even in explanation, saying these words cost him an effort. "We should use our tongue for the righteousness of God, not for vulgar slang expressions."

Wherever he travels, Uncle Leroy calculates the number of prayer hours that could be "going to the throne" if each person in his audience spent just 15 minutes a day talking to God. I imagine the idea of wasting our words on social vulgarities, when we could be using them to pray, is for him not so much a moral outrage as a woeful inefficiency.

Ever since I got over my own self-righteous reflex against profanity (living in New York City will do that to you), I've been wondering whether if what I was made to consider was right. I've heard plenty of Christians use plenty of profanity. Some I look down on for it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the ones who seem like they're trying to be a big deal. Some I admire for it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the impassioned ones, who resemble my Uncle Leroy in everything but their vocabulary.

Fundamentally, I admire and appreciate honesty. Even (maybe more so) when it comes out ugly. But I've been wondering whether there are, even in our most authentic moments, words that Christians must not say.

In asking this question, I quickly learned one thing. If you're going to challenge people's freedoms, keep your chin down and your hands up. Among the many defensive responses I encountered, the most articulate went like this: "I feel like you're taking this conversation in a direction that I don't want it to go."

I was talking to Curt Gibson about his mentoring program for at-risk youth in southern California. He calls it an "incarnational ministry," wherein he models to his students a way of life that they've never before encountered. Part of that includes using, in his words, an "elevated vocabulary."

That seems a fair enough approach to take with the urban underprivileged. But I wanted him to specify which words ought never to be spoken among mature Christians.

Whether we keep them or break them, we all crave rules as means of self-identification. That may be why Christians indulge in some grey areas as if they were still black-and-white. It's not the activities so much that give us pleasure, as the force with which we propound our opinions about them.

There's a self-evident answer to the question "Do Christians cuss?" We've heard it from preachers of the Mark Driscoll/Tony Campolo stripe, whose strategic use of profanity was hailed by Patrol Magazine as "the new fire-and-brimstone." We've heard it from those of gentler manners but equal passion, such as John Piper, who was admonished after the Passion 2007 conference for the use of a mid-level profanity. It's now fairly common practice among the church's rank-and-file. Profanity helps us fit in, puts others at ease, and relieves our emotions.

Should Christians cuss?" is problematic. Salty-mouthed preachers and laymen alike cite Philippians 3:8 as a precedent, where Paul uses what might be the Greek equivalent of "shit." (The bolder derive the principle from Jesus calling the Pharisees "fools" in Matthew 23.) They say that they are "redeeming language" by calling a bad thing a bad name, using the vulgar in service of the holy. convergemagazine.com

| 47

These words are more complicated when it comes to their expletive use. Can we (or do we) ever express love with spontaneous profanity? Is it harmless to cuss out a stalling car or a malfunctioning phone, if we believe that these things are provided by God? Whom are we addressing when we say, "damn" in surprise, even in appreciation? (Though this use of the word is probably ironic, there's still an implied object being wished to hell.)

And though a word for sexual intercourse might seem inoffensive in the face of misfortune, or as a mere intensifier of another word, the vulgar implications could degrade how we regard sex, misfortune, and the world at large. Ludwig Wittgenstein, the linguistic philosopher, examined how our perception is shaped by the words we use to describe what we perceive. He said, "The harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language."

Lovers and pedants alike lament that English offers only one word for a wide spectrum of emotional affinities: love. This one word has caused many to prematurely declare themselves "in love," when they only feel toward a person the way they have felt toward a product.

D.H. Lawrence marveled in his incendiary novel Lady Chatterley's Lover that a

word for a precious intimacy has become one of the vernacular's most intense obscenities. But according to University of Ottawa linguistics professor Andre Lapierre, that's precisely the point: "You swear about things that are taboo."

In its essence, profanity is a means of fighting back, of exerting violence linguistically, rather than physically. This is where the "should" part of the question becomes thorny.

Maybe spiritually renewed hearts "shouldn't" feel such violent anger, but they do.

For both sides, then, "Can Christians cuss?" is the simplest question to address, which is why I pressed Mr. Gibson and everyone else for the one or two words they

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won't, on any account, say. Some balked at the use of "damn," as being too denotatively harsh for even colloquial use. Most stopped short of the F-word, on the grounds of cultural offensiveness. And everyone seemed to agree that the third commandment proscribes any profanity referencing God. But the prevailing attitude is well summed up by one pastor's wife: "I don't swear vocally very much . . . anymore."

There was one apologetic for profanity that seemed tenable to me. (Maybe because it's been my own excuse.) As one friend put it, "Sometimes there is no other word that fully expresses the force and brevity of an emotion." Besides, the virtue of self-control can function as a blind for passions that we'd rather not confront. Michael B. Allen, co-producer of the popular documentary Beware of Christians, is familiar with the religious habit of avoiding the acknowledgement of evil along with the appearance. "It's not that hard to resist saying those eight bad words," he says. "It doesn't require the power of the Holy Spirit to [not do] things that aren't culturally acceptable.

We should understand that there are many more offensive things in our hearts and in our minds to God than the language we use." By way of contrast, he told me about a friend of his, a 60-year-old Christian man who spends his days on the street with the homeless. "He loves God. He loves people.

And he cusses like a sailor."

Receiving the hand-slap for his verbal indiscretion, John Piper wrote: "I am sitting here trying to figure out why I say things like that every now and then. I think it is the desire to make the battle with Satan and my flesh feel gutsy and real and not middle-class pious . . . I don't like fanning the flames of those who think it is hip and cool to swear for Jesus. On the other hand, I want those hip people to listen to all I say and write.â&#x20AC;?

If communication were only a matter of being hip with our preferred social group, the question would be an easy one to settle. But honesty makes everything more complicated.

A writer dealing with words is faced with the same dilemma as a Christian dealing with morality. The expectation is that we are masters of it. We hope to achieve a natural grace with it. But at times, it seems to offer nothing that really works.

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Promise Remains: A Personal Reflection on Faith and Depression

There is no sure-fire cure for depression, so for many Christians it is a chronic issue that is simply “there” in everything they do; dealing with it is a matter of getting through one day at a time.

As I write, I wish to respect the experiences of these people without prescribing a formula to fix their lives. What I write is borne of my own experience as well as that of those close to me; it is not a ten-step guide on how to cure depression, but rather some thoughts that will hopefully help Christians as they deal with the blackness.

Re-embodying depression Something I need to keep reminding myself is that I have a body. This might sound strange — obviously I have a body! But one of the primary problems with Evangelical theology is its tendency toward gnosticism (cf. Historian Mark Noll’s Scandal of the Evangelical Mind), a heresy in the early church that thought of created matter, including bodies, as evil rather than good. Such gnostic tendencies can keep us from recognizing that depression is a physical illness as much as it is a mental illness, and that a bodied response is often more effective than an internalized response; cognitive distortion keeps us from thinking our way out. What we need is external intervention, such as conversation, exercise, medicine, routine, etc., and orthodox Christianity supports this. Our bodies are a part of our selves; they will be resurrected at the end of time, and are intertwined with our hearts, souls, and minds. So while I may be tempted to assume that simply praying harder or having more faith will cure my depression, I often have to step back and see the much simpler answer: I haven’t gotten enough sleep, haven’t eaten enough, haven’t exercised enough, or have forgotten to take my medication. We need to be discerning lest we mistake basic physiological problems for spiritual ones, and this is where we need the help of community. Depression can easily appropriate theological language, so we need people around us to help tell the difference between the voice of God and the voice of depression.

When our testimony isn't the testimony we wanted This is not to say that there is not a spiritual component to depression — there is. One of the most difficult things for us who are depressed is the process of understanding our spiritual story, our testimony. Ever since the Jewish celebration of Passover, stories about how we first met God and continue to meet Him have been an integral part of our faith. But depression robs us of many of the elements that most Christians expect in such stories. We lose our emotive connection to God, as minister and theologian John Colwell notes in his recent book, Why Have You Forsaken Me: “It is the crushing darkness of this sense of God’s apparent absence that is the most distressing aspect of clinical depression for the Christian.” Moreover, we cannot always point to a heroic “love is a decision” stance in our treatment of these emotions; depression can cause us to be unreliable in our commitments to people, so that we often feel very frail in the area of showing Christian love when we don’t even have the strength to meet someone for coffee. Thirdly, our testimonies do not always end the way the broader Christian community wants them to. Evangelical Christians are generally not impressed by those who stand up at the front of church and talk about how they do not feel the presence of God, how they are effectively useless in their impact on the world, and how this might be the way they are for the rest of their lives. What kind of faith is that?

a second century Bishop and church father, suggested that the glory of God is a human being fully alive; might not the glory of God also be a depressed person barely alive, but sticking it out and thanking God for a life he is tempted daily to destroy?

Loving those who love us Though we are depressed, we are not exempt from the greatest of commandments: love. We can receive love, but even in our helplessness, we can also show love by getting help for the sake of those helping us. Depression fallout is a condition often experienced by our closest supporters; effectively, they are so often around our despair that they begin experiencing depressive symptoms as well. I believe God calls us to exercise Christian love by mitigating, as far as possible, the effects of depression fallout. We can, for instance, broaden our network of friends, so that no one person is forced to carry the entire load of our depression. An “I can make it on my own” attitude is a thinly veiled refusal to get help and thereby lighten the burden of depression on those who bear it with us. “Carry each other’s burdens,” Paul says in Galatians 6, but later he adds, “for each one should carry his own load.” The community is our lifeline, but love means not abusing it by refusing to seek as much help as we need, medical or otherwise.

Where's God when I’m too numb to hurt?

For my own sake, that of fellow sufferers, and that of the broader church, I answer boldly: it is everyone’s faith. The story of Christianity does not hinge on personal triumph or the wonderful things God is doing in our lives. Rather, it is a story of a God who came to save humans in their utter helplessness.

“Not many of you were wise by human standards,” says Paul to the Corinthians. “Not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise . . . . It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 2627, 30, NIV). Somewhere along the line, we as churches have traded this story for a story of progress measurable by earthly standards and complicit with the North American Dream. The Gospel preaches One who has become a scapegoat for us — and He is our sanity.

The witness of being dressed and in our right minds We are challenged every Sunday to be an example of Christ and do great things in the world — yet for us who are depressed it is a great thing to get out of bed in the morning. Fortunately, God has not left us without example. Depression is not the same thing as demon possession, but Christ’s response to the man possessed by Legion is instructive. The man, after he is cured, wants to travel with Jesus and do great things. But Jesus says, “No,” he should go back to his community, where people are astonished to see him dressed and in his right mind. For us who are depressed, part of our vocation involves learning to be dressed and in our right minds; the simple act of functioning may sometimes be our best witness to God’s power. Irenaeus,

Finally, there is the issue of experiential spirituality, which doesn’t come easily to depressed people. But I often wonder if the issue is less a matter of not experiencing God and more a matter of having false expectations of what that looks like. One of the traditions most precious to me as a depressed person is the tradition of apophatic (negative) theology: the knowledge of God through a state (it would be imprecise to call it a feeling) of utter abandonment and absence. Most famously associated with St. John of the Cross in his Dark Night of the Soul, this tradition is found throughout the Bible; Ecclesiastes, a number of psalms, and perhaps even Christ’s final forsaken cry on the cross, are examples of apophatic theology.

As a way of communicating this tradition while honouring the mystery of its ineffability, I want to give the final word to Colwell, who describes his encounter with God after his depression kept him from attending a church service with his family and friends: “That service had been a service of Holy Communion and, on their return, they determined that (however I might feel about it) I should share in communion with them. Bread and (very good) wine were placed on their coffee table, we all knelt together, and I recited words of institution (this, after all, was my ‘job’). I really cannot remember the degree of hypocrisy that I felt at the time in doing this, but I do remember what I didn’t feel - I felt no sense of God’s presence, I felt nothing whatsoever, if I retained any sense of personal faith it was, by then, the merest glimmer. Yet, as we knelt at that table, the thought (rather than feeling) came to me that, just as the bread and wine were simply there on the table, whatever my feelings or even my faith, so once in history Christ had suffered on the Cross and here, by means of the bread and wine, his body and blood were present for me as surely as the bread and wine were present, without prejudice to my lack of feeling or even my lack of faith but solely by virtue of God’s promise. I have no prejudice against felt experience and, in happier times, I have experienced charismatic phenomena, but this experience — entirely devoid of any felt experience — remains the most profound and formative experience of my Christian life. That evening I came to understand the meaning of grace in a way that I had never understood it previously. In utter darkness, in the absence of all felt presence, promise remains.” convergemagazine.com

| 51

Words by Chelsea Batten | Photos supplied by Dryve Artist Management

52 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

DEREK

WEBB The Conscientious Rebel

W

e like our heroes to be linear. We like to see them grow at a steady incline until they transcend all possibility of self-doubt and failure. Ideally, they'll do more than show us the way — they'll walk it on our behalf. And if they stumble, they'll at least deliver a handsome public apology. It's a branding progression, rather than a human progression.

By contrast, the Derek Webb brand is all too human. Just when you think he's this kind of artist, with this kind of message, he takes a sharp left turn. For the Christian music world, he's the guy at the party that you've learned not to leave alone for too long. You never know what you don't know about him.

If he has a consistent branding tactic, it's that of using whatever pedestal he's been placed on as an opportunity to take better aim. Over the last twenty years and any number of left turns, people have loved and excoriated Webb with equal dedication for the way he refuses to play by the rules of Christian music. It seems that every past interview has revolved around some kind of “why do you make so much trouble” question. When I spoke with him on the phone last week, I just wanted to know if he enjoyed it.

"I feel a particular giftedness in agitating people. I'm either good at doing it, or I'm good at not caring about the results of having done it,” he told me. “I try to use my powers for good. I try not to enjoy it too much."

I first encountered Webb's music when my youth pastor's wife gave me the debut CD of a new band called Caedmon's Call. At that time, adolescents were being enthusiastically plied with the music of the newly minted Contemporary Christian music genre (CCM) by elders grateful for a non-threatening alternative to the mainstream artists of our day. ("You like Alanis Morissette? Listen to this Rebecca St. James CD!") For me, ignoring my emotions seemed preferable over adjusting them to CCM dimensions.

convergemagazine.com

| 53

Caedmon's Call was less derivative than many of the musical outfits spawned by early CCM. It was a good, sincerely produced record, infused with doctrinal themes that would soon make the band darlings of the Reformed theology movement. But amid the lyrics of explicit piety, there was one track that caught my attention differently. It's the only one that I still remember.

The song â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bus Driverâ&#x20AC;? was a twangy, blues-tinged number about a blue-collar worker musing on the hidden significance of his daily routine. Musically, between the tack piano and the freight-train cadence, the song was disarmingly simple, free of the arm-tugging earnestness plied by other Christian music toward my demographic.

54 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

i feel a particular giftedness in agitating people. i'm either good at doing it, or i'm good at not caring about the r es u lts o f h avi n g d o n e it.

But what really set this song apart from the rest of the album, and from CCM as a whole, was that it didn't attempt to draft my emotions for spiritual duty. Looking back, I think it was somehow connecting directly to spirit. This was something I'd never encountered before, in the Christian enclave or anywhere else. It made me uncomfortable, in a way I didn't understand and didn't want to lose. I played it on repeat for months.

I wish now that I'd thought during our

phone conversation to ask Webb about this song, and why he didn't write another narrative like it until a couple years ago. He did, however, say something that confirmed what I saw in the song, and what made it unique.

“My favorite kind of music is folk music. Now when I say folk music, I don't mean acoustic music. I mean like not as a style, as much as an ethic. I feel like what folk singers do is they tell the unfiltered stories of the people, the viewpoints that you're not hearing anywhere else.”

By the time I resurfaced from "Bus Driver” and from high school, Webb was leaving the band. Their music, he told me, had become too thematically entrenched for the songs he wanted to develop. In truth, Webb's tunes were always the outliers on any Caedmon's Call record. They just seemed to be looking in a different direction from the rest. And as time went on, his lyrical content grew too stringent and too specific to fit into the band's successful formula.

An artist leaving a band is like a believer leaving a church, in that it's usually not accomplished without rancor, and it's definitely not viewed favorably unless the defector has a solid landing place in sight.

Webb had neither bad blood nor a new band to justify his transition.

Webb told me he has no negative memories of working with Caedmon's Call. In fact, he produced their most recent album. It seems he just wanted to write his own songs.

“I've always been kind of restless in that regard,” he said. “Caedmon's [was] such an unbelievable experience. But what

it did was really lock us into doing one thing for a long time. Since I've been on my own, I can take a lot sharper turns nowadays. I like to experiment. That's what I'm in it for.”

Webb launched his solo career with 2003’s She Must and Shall Go Free, wisely rooted in the country-folk-rock his erstwhile band was known for. Having musically lured the Caedmon's Call fan base in for a listen, he dropped a moderate bomb with the song "Wedding Dress," a fairly explicit indictment of materialistic church culture. But since the song was written in the first person, the pill of self-indictment went down without choking out too many CCM listeners.

The nascent "sacred romance" movement carried the song to prominence, launching a thousand rededication ceremonies where the conscience-stricken sobbed, "I am a whore, I do confess," on each other's shoulders.

I think that's when I started to begrudge Webb my admiration. Without question, I resonated with "Wedding Dress." In fact, I resonated with several tracks on the album — "She Must and Shall Go Free," which exulted in guaranteed sanctification, and the rueful (but unapologetic) "Nobody Loves Me." But the interiority he expressed was all over the map; I had a hard time squaring so many disparate emotions. I would have doubted his authenticity if I could. But Webb's voice, possessed of more character than culture, seals personal fervor into every song he sings.

The emotional counterpoint of "She Must and Shall Go Free", and the hope

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i think people have come to the conclusion that i squint my eyes to see anything that might be polarizing or provocative, nothing could be further from the truth. implied in its internal conflict, was sometimes more than I could deal with. It wasn't unlike the strange disenfranchisement of seeing your best friend develop her first crush, while you're still in the throes of boy-hatred. Rather than try to live with the contrast, it was easier to just not listen.

Webb's next studio release, i see things upside down (2004), introduced a slight change of focus, clothed in a shimmery post-punk sound. Not surprisingly, fans latched onto the single "I Repent," which represented the self-reproaching Derek Webb they recognized from years past.

The following year brought Mockingbird, which Webb said he intended for the socio-political conversation he was hearing around him. In producing the songs, Webb allowed himself only eight instruments, in order to bring a cohesive sound to what became a sonic diatribe against unthinking conservatism. It was getting harder for old-guard fans to find a single to hang their hats on.

The Ringing Bell (2007) brought a further complication, in that it had no specific ideology or ethic to proclaim. In Webb's words, the record was an attempt to remake the Beatles' "Revolver." The music on this record feels emancipated, with a "come on, let's go" energy behind it. It's as if Webb had shucked off any lingering concern for what constitutes Christian music.

“I don't believe there's any such thing as Christian music,” he told me. “In my opinion, the word "Christian," other than applied to human beings, is a marketing term. Art has so many purposes, and if

56 | CONVERGE. march - april 2012

we're truly diverse members of one body, then we're not all going to have that same ethic.”

Years later, my dad brought my attention to a video on YouTube. "Listen to this song and tell me what you think it's about," he requested.

I found myself watching Derek Webb sing in black-and-white frames cut together with images of a giant mixing board. His eyes were squinted shut, his voice as earnestly strained as ever, but this time he was backed by a completely different sound. That mixing board was a visual clue, in case you couldn't believe what you were hearing, that Webb had gone electronic.

I looked at my dad. "It's about AIDS," I said.

The song's reference to 100 million dying people might not have been specific to AIDS. But the lyrics came down on the “God Hates Fags” crowd like a piano dropped from a rooftop. And while he hadn't used the prefix “homo-,” Webb did

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Visit Derek Webb's side project:

noisetrade

use the word "sexuality," and another Sword, as well. The one with four letters. On a Christian record.

The air of controversy that had always smoldered around his music burst into gleeful flame. His label dropped him. The blogs blew up. A lot of people stopped listening to his music. But a lot of new people began to.

"Controversy is never something I aim for,” he told me. However, he admitted, “I had some things I wanted to say. I had some people I wanted to say some things to. The moment that I was writing [the 2009 album Stockholm Syndrome], I was seeing a lot of my friends and family at the business end of the church's judgment on homosexuality. I just felt like I could no longer not write about it. ” For my part, I enjoyed seeing Webb use his powers to light some real brushfires.

His reliance on grace was looking backward less, leading him forward into risky territory. And he was moving forward to the beat of some juicy, club-flavored loops that gave his latest left turn an insouciant edge. He was coming out bolder than ever before; it was impossible to resist.

He told me that his musical rebranding wasn't simply a surfeit with coffee-shop alt-rock. He has rediscovered the narrative thread that drew him to folk music in hip hop. “Hip hop is where you can hear, today, the unfiltered stories of the people. It's unbelievably poetic and honest music.”

Webb admitted that the music also communicates a degree of aggression that "can be too much for some people." But he sees his job as being an honest portrayal of "moments" as he sees them.

“I think people have come to the conclusion that I squint my eyes to see anything that might be polarizing or provocative,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't feel like I have nearly that much control over what I write, or what seems important to me at any given moment. I don't really understand how that works."

When you're artistically gifted and eloquently outspoken, the Christian community will assimilate you if it possibly can.

(Look at Bono. Look at Shakespeare.) But Webb had outstayed his welcome among

traditionalists. These days, Webb is no longer the church-sanctioned safe house for believers with a countercultural streak. Instead, Webb's effigy is now bearing the flag for "progressives," “liberals,” and those disillusioned with the church.

Webb stated that he doesn't kindly receive being hauled onto yet another ideological platform.

"I'm just as uncomfortable with progressive, more liberal Christians doing it as I was with the more conservative. People seem to be so focused on the one thing that they wrapped their theological identity in, that they keep themselves from responding to [others] in the way that Jesus might. That's a concern, you know. It feels like gang mentality.

Every time I put a record out, I get a lot of feedback that people wish I would go back and make my first album again, something that's more explicitly to or for the church, even more acoustic. My response is, I made my first album, and I've done nothing to unmake it.

I'm still making those same confessions. And I look at the songs that I have and the songs that I feel like I need to have, in order to tell a more updated story . . . you know, these newer songs, I imagine them alongside songs like "I Repent" and "Wedding Dress." Because that's hopefully how I'm going to experience them."

I find it kind of staggering that Webb has time to listen for feedback, let alone respond to it. Between his online project Noisetrade, speaking engagements, and frequent guest artist stints, there's also the touring schedule and the occasional collaboration with Caedmon's Call. But this array of projects is mere water-treading for Webb who doesn't see himself as being all that prolific. (Um, excuse me?) When I pressed him, he conceded, "In terms of sheer output, it does seem like a lot. I guess I keep busy." The real force will be back this year, in the follow-up to Stockholm Syndrome. He wouldn't give me much on it, but my educated guess is that fans (and foes) can expect the tight beats and polemical attitude that made the last release such a lead zeppelin, in the best possible sense.

And if the backlash grows in proportion?

"If I dig into that moment, and that's the result, I actually feel fine about that. Not because I want to make people angry. But I was thrilled by the fact that people were listening and they responded,” said Webb.

discography she must and shall go free

2003

i see things upside down

2004

mockingbird

2005

the ringing bell

2007

stockholm syndrome

2009

feedback

2010

"I think it's just an instinct that I have. As a kid, I was a real discipline case. And when I first started following Jesus, I thought that surely I was going to have to get rewired or something, because that didn't seem congruent with the Christian culture where I was living. The better part of my adult life up to this point — what am I, 37 or 38 now?

— has been spent not being less rebellious, [but] being more discerning about the right things to rebel against. I think there are a lot of them, and I don't mind writing the soundtrack for it."

That's when I realized what I really wanted to ask him about. Webb's music had first attracted me with its advocacy of those unknown and outside. But how do you get your own people to join you there? Especially when your shortcomings threaten to put you on the outside, too?

I wanted him to tell me what galvanizes a spirit crippled by self-reproach, so that its convictions and imperfections can not only coexist, but maybe result in something worth showing to others. This is the story implied in the arc of his music. Having posed the question, I waited, feeling an immoderate anticipation that he would clear it up for me.

"All I can really do,” he said, “is tell my own story. If I'm not really aware of what kind of person I am, of what I'm capable of, if that is not enabling me to move towards and love people better, because I realize how not-different we are . . . " He paused.

“That is the way I feel you move forward and progress honestly in your life. I feel like the art would suffer tremendously if I was under some sort of delusion about being a better person, as if I'm not among the things that need to be corrected in the world I look at. That self-awareness is going to either beat you down, or is going to restore your sanity in a way.”

The head of Webb's former record label said, upon their parting of ways, "Hopefully what we do will comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And Derek knows how to do the latter very well."

But I'll say that in doing the latter, Webb also comforts those afflicted with both an acute conviction of sin, and an uneasy gift for rebellion.

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&

Christ

Culture ES I B M O Z . . . AN D

By Nick Schuurman Move over Edward; vampires are so yesterday.

I

t's the zombies who are lumbering their way to the forefront of popular culture now, dragging bloody limbs and collectively moaning their one demand: “Brains!” Well, from the looks of it, they may be after a chance at stardom as well. Who would have thought? The walking dead — generally a standoffish bunch — aren't that shy when it comes to the spotlight. In the past few years, they've managed to stumble out of obscurity and claw their way into blockbusters, best-seller lists, and prime-time television spots.

Now I'm not all that savvy when it comes to pop culture, but I can tell you the moment the reality of this burgeoning zombie revolution hit me. I was sitting on my friends' couch, half paying attention to the screen in front of us while we talked and they played some recently-released first-person shooter. “Wait, what's going on?” I said, interrupting our conversation, a little startled by what I saw. “Oh, those are Nazi zombies,” my friend replied nonchalantly, as if that combination of words was as natural as “macaroni and cheese.” I didn't really know what to say, but kept watching, until, you guessed it, we were transported to the moon in order to fling bullets at Nazi zombies . . . in space.

I did a little research, and it turns out it wasn't just video games. The zombie has become a gory fixture in pretty much every niche of contemporary media. We've rewritten Victorian classics, playfully amending Pride and Prejudice with the addition of the undead, making high school English class a little less dull and a little more bloody as result. The Walking Dead, first a comic book and now a network television series, is already in its third season, with a growing fan base. Brad Pitt (bear in mind this is Brad Pitt we're talking about here, not some no-name, first-appearance actor) is set to star in the upcoming zombie flick, World War Z, and, if you drop by your local bookstore, you'll be able to find, among other zombie titles, It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols.

Perhaps most startling is the zombie's move beyond the comic book and the big screen towards a participatory symbol. Back in 2003, six horror film enthusiasts donned tattered clothes

Photo by Carmen Bright

and fake blood then wandered about the streets of Toronto. The zombie walk was birthed. Over the next decade the concept would end up growing into a global phenomenon, where there are now annual zombie walks held all over the world.

Just a few months ago, the world record was again broken, when, in Mexico City, more than 10,000 men and women gathered to participate in the city's zombie walk.

It's enough to make one consider stockpiling for the “zombie apocalypse,” the tongue-in-cheek end of the world scenario zombie enthusiasts often warn about (with varying levels of seriousness).

While you are stacking up your canned goods and spare candles, you might want to consider enrolling in one of several boot camps intended to train individuals for survival should a zombie revolution take place.

All joking aside though, what exactly is it about the undead that has got us so excited? Why is it that our generation has so enthusiastically latched onto these rotting figures and bought into what the film executives and marketing geniuses down the street have fed us?

It might help to take a step back and look at the surprising history of our beloved zombie. You see, he didn't always look the way he does now. Like so many cultural symbols, the modern living dead bear little resemblance to their earliest ancestors. Unlike other iconic symbols of Western horror narratives, which are generally either products of natural cause or human design (think werewolf and Frankenstein), the zombie has spiritual origins. Influenced by West African folklore and mythology, the zombie first emerged in Haitian voodoo practices.

Witch doctors would perform “resurrections,” animating otherwise lifeless corpses.

The zombie was first made known to the western world largely through the English language writings that came as reports from visits to Haiti, most notably William Seabrook's The Magic Island, written in 1929. The first major film appearance of the zombie was in Victor Halperini's White Zombie in 1932. This still largely Haitian portrayal (which included the witch doctor and his incantations) made several minor appearances in decades following, but its undisputed Hollywood debut was in George Romero's 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead.

Romero removed the witch doctor, added the element of cannibalism, and relocated the moaning menace to an American landscape. He later filmed several follow-ups to Night of the Living Dead, further portraying the modern

zombie, allowing it increased exposure to Western culture and solidifying its place as horror cult classic. The zombie continued to have a place in film, especially horror, seeing a resurgence of interest in the early 2000s, with films such as 28 Days Later, I am Legend, and Resident Evil.

a little faint. Hanging out with a bunch of folks who look like they ought to be in the nearest emergency room, no matter how friendly a group of zombies they may or may not prove to be, doesn't really appeal to me. But apparently some people can't get enough of it. And the gore? I get nauseous seeing people get

Our faith does not celebrate death, not even ironically, and we ought to take seriously even what is meant to be entertaining or humourous.

The zombie has now outgrown not only its cult status, it has moved beyond the horror genre altogether (consider the film Shaun of the Dead — essentially a zombie romantic comedy, a zom-rom-com, if you will, and pardon the wordplay) and become a sort of cultural obsession — an increasingly present figure in film, music, video games, television and fiction.

So what is it about this modern zombie that we've come to love? Is it a way of dealing with the seriousness of death and mortality without really having to be confronted with it? Is it a playful engagement of actual fears we might have regarding how the world might end?

Or is it just plain fun, and if so, why has such an unlikely (and frankly kind of terrifying, when you think about it) symbol come to be celebrated? I'm not sure. If anything, it's probably a combination of all of these things, and then some others.

Do you and I make up Generation Zombie as some have suggested? Does our culture mimic the symbol we have come to love? The transience, restlessness, and the lack of purposes of our generation have many cultural critics suggesting the image fits. Not because teenagers today mill about with decaying limbs, nibbling on brains, but because, perhaps more than generations previous, we are living and yet we are something less than alive. While the generalization definitely isn't true across the board (I know a lot of respectable adults who seem to love zombies as much as their unemployed, uninspired teenage counterparts do), there is something there worth paying attention to.

I for one can't stand the sight of blood, real or fake, without getting more than

f lu shots, so when it comes to the likes of severed limbs, I'll pass, thank you.

It does beg the question, though, of what we are to do with all of this as Christians? Is it caution to the wind and wide-armed embrace of our undead brothers and sisters, or do we keep our distance for the sake of our personal safety and spiritual conviction? Is it cool to mix faith and fake blood? Well, those are complex questions, and probably require discernment specific to each situation, depending on whether that means participating in a zombie walk, watching the latest horror f lick or killing Nazi zombies in space. Like most cultural phenomena, the wisest approach often lies somewhere between the two extremes (of complete rejection or wholehearted embrace), while still involving spiritually-informed decisions one way or the other (buy the game or let it sit on the shelf; watch the movie or opt for another choice). What I will say, however, is this: our faith does not celebrate death, not even ironically, and we ought to take seriously even what is meant to be entertaining or humourous.

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I will be sorely unprepared. Apologies to any enthusiasts out there, but I've got better things to worry about. I will, however, be watching this growing zombie revolution because I find it fascinating, and because it shows a lot about who we are as a culture. It's hard to say what will come next. Will our fascination with the living dead peak or find new cultural expressions? Will the spiritual nature of the creature be rediscovered? Will the zombie evolve into some new pop culture incarnation? We will just have to wait and see. convergemagazine.com

| 59

HAVE YOU HEARD?

By Tracy Le

The Shins Port of Morrow March 20, 2012

Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear) Silent Hour/Golden Mile March 20th, 2012

On March 20th, very patient fans of The Shins will finally be rewarded with their fourth studio album — and just in time for fans to memorize every single lyric to sing along to at Coachella 2012. The curiously titled, Port of Morrow will be the first studio album in five years since their last and very underrated 2007 release Wincing the Night Away. A prereleased track titled, “Simple Song” blends together guitar, drum, and the iconic Mercer voice. And though there is a crowd of musical instruments and beats, the listener will not get lost in the sound that stays true to The Shins charm but perhaps with more glorious weight and less wince.

Singer and multi-instrumentalist for Indie band Grizzly Bear, Daniel Rossen will be debuting his first solo EP titled Silent Hour/Golden Mile on March 20th. The unaltered and raw piano medley is drenched in melancholy and wonderment in the introductory track.

With the help of various musical talents, including Ian Davis and Kris Nolte on horn arrangements and Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick, there is a spectrum of genius in the collaboration that makes for a packed 5-track EP. “Saint Nothing,” the first single, has already garnered praise, branding Rossen’s solo act as something special. The sound that Silent Hour/ Golden Mile embodies is one of fragility and intimacy.

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Check out convergemagazine.com for our daily music pick.

Great Lake Swimmers New Wild Everywhere

Dave Barnes Stories To Tell

April 3, 2012

March 13th, 2012

“Easy Come Easy Go” serves as the first single off of Canada’s melodic folk band Great Lake Swimmers in their fifth studio album, New Wild Everywhere. With hope to expand their creative musical muscle with the upcoming 12-track album and to also reel in long time fans, lead singer Tony Dekker points to the band’s fluidity from their previous album to the upcoming one. He adds that though they’ve been prone to creating and recording their music in more organic settings, Great Lake Swimmers took a risk with recording their 2012 album in a traditional studio space that is Toronto's Revolution Recording studio. If their single has shown us any indicator of what to expect, it will definitely be a colorful orchestration of instruments all carefully crafted to please our eardrums.

The talented, creative, and incredibly entertaining (check out his YouTube videos) Christian singer/songwriting Dave Barnes is set to release his fourth studio album, Stories To Tell, on March 13th. The album is Barnes’ first ever album recorded outside of his hometown in Nashville, TN and will be produced by John Fields in Los Angeles, CA. Taking a step towards a more “fleshed out” sound alongside the influences of rock, pop, blues, and country, Barnes’ uninhibited use of layered instrumentals and synth sounds resonates throughout the album, especially with his first album single, “Mine to Love.”

All Sons & Daughters March 13th, 2012 Hailed by Worship Leader Magazine as, “the most enchanting sound emerging in the worship genre,” the Franklin, Tennessee-based duo of Leslie Jordan and David Leonard make up All Sons & Daughters. Gracing 2012 with a second digital EP, Reason to Sing quickly made way for the first full-length album, Season One, which is set to release March 13th.

Like their EP, Season One is expected to be comprised of songs of healing and hope. The album title was inspired from the duo’s understanding and passion about the ever-changing church and growing faith as new elements are explored when worshipping God daily.

Season One is expected to reflect our seasons of growth and change. All Sons & Daughters will join Chris Tomlin on his Canadian tour in March 2012.

HAVE YOU READ?

By Patricia Lim

Mark Driscoll, is well-known for making controversial and divisive statements about the roles and responsibilities of men and women from the pulpit of megachurch Mars Hill. Therefore, the uproar over Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship & Life Together, Driscoll’s latest book on marriage (co-written with his wife, Grace) is not a surprise: leaving liberals steamed over his chauvinist attitude, and conservatives shocked by the explicit sex advice. Mark Driscoll’s choppy and uneven writing style, as well as his lack of sensitivity, also distract from the main message. Underneath all the controversy, however, the aim of the book is to highlight the importance of communication between a wife and husband.

Real Marriage is part marital biography, part marriage treatise, and part sex manual. The book is divided into two parts: 1) Marriage, and 2) Sex. Just in terms of information of organization, it is telling that the Driscolls seem to be placing discussions on marriage at the same level as discussions surrounding sex. While the “marriage” section covers friendship, gender roles, and conflict

management, the “sex” section covers porn, sexual assault, and being sexually giving. It also contains the infamous “Can We___?” chapter, which contains explicit descriptions combined with dry and tedious statistics about various sexual activities. The issue of sex apparently played a major role in the trials and tribulations of the Driscolls’ marriage, and although I chaffed at the

number of times Mark Driscoll would mention his sex drive, I did appreciate the openness in the book’s discussions on sex, which should hopefully spur on more openness in the lives of the couples reading the book.

It is actually this biographical element, as well as the Driscolls’ willingness to be open and vulnerable in sharing the most painful moments of their marriage, that lends authenticity to what they have to say about friendship, communication, forgiveness, and a God-centered marriage. I appreciated reading about the Driscolls’ real life struggles and Grace’s painful recovery from a past sexual assault.

Less effective is the Driscolls’ use of Scripture to provide examples for a successful marriage. One of the more astounding examples of taking Scripture out of context occurs in Chapter 4 (“The Respectful Wife”) when Grace Driscoll opens with a recounting of the story of Esther. Esther risked her life when she went to her husband (the Persian King Xerxes) to ask for a favour, and ultimately saved the Jewish nation. Grace Driscoll commends Esther as an example of “wifely respect,” also mentioning that the king had divorced his first wife for disrespecting him in public.

HAVE YOU SEEN? coming soon: Blue Like Jazz April 13, 2012

What she fails to mention is that his first wife had “disrespected” him because she had refused to obey when asked to parade herself in front of his drunken friends.

Neither does she mention that when Esther came to the king to ask him for a favour, she was defying the edict to come to the king only when summoned upon point of death. This is certainly not an example of a marriage relationship that we should look at in a positive light.

In fact, misapplication of Scripture was one of the most serious issues I had with the book. I would recommend this to those reading this book: keep the Bible nearby (as I had to do) to look up the cited passages. Early in the book, Mark Driscoll quotes 1 Timothy 5:8: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” He uses this passage to bolster his argument that a man needs to provide financially for his family.

However, as pointed out by a friend who attends theological college, in its Biblical context, the passage does not refer to the responsibilities of a man to his family, but rather to the responsibilities of a church to its vulnerable widows. Certainly, there is nothing unbiblical about a man providing for his family, but at the same time, that’s not what the Scripture here is saying.

On several occasions, Mark Driscoll takes the opportunity to expound on the real meaning behind the “garden” and the “scents and flavours” mentioned in the Song of Songs. A fruit is never just a fruit.

(How do you like them apples?) Mark Driscoll’s treatment of this book as a stepby-step graphic sex manual seems a bit

simplistic. In one section, Mark Driscoll lists off numerous sexual acts alluded to in SoS and dutifully cross-references each individual act with the corresponding chapter and verse.

I asked Andy and Briony Hy, a young couple married a little under a year, about their thoughts on the book. Briony had an immediate negative reaction to Mark Driscoll’s idiosyncratic way of expressing himself, particularly when he described what happened when his pregnant wife got a haircut (“She asked what I thought, and could tell from the look on my face.

She had put a mom’s need for convenience over being a wife. She wept.”) On Andy’s side, he pointed out that he wasn’t too keen on Mark’s reactions to his wife’s haircut, but could understand how the discovery that his wife cheated on him (even if it was years ago) would affect him deeply. What Andy got out of Real Marriage was that communication is key in a marriage.

Will this book help you improve your marriage? Certain sections seem more enlightening than others. In the preface, Mark and Grace Driscoll give a disclaimer stating, “Read as a critic trying to find where you think we might be wrong. Although we seek to be faithful to the Bible, this book is not the Bible, and, like you, we are imperfect, so there will be mistakes.

Take whatever gifts you find in this book, and feel free to leave the rest.” I recommend you take this advice seriously. Read this book with your spouse, keep a copy of the Bible handy for your own reference, and be prepared to communicate up a storm

Based on Donald Miller's bestseller, 19-year-old Don tries to escape his Christian upbringing only to find it is where he belongs.

The Hunger Games March 23, 2012 In a destroyed civilization, 24 members of each district are chosen to fight for their survival for the world's entertainment.

Boy March 2, 2012 A heartwarming story of 'Boy,' a dreamer, and a Michael Jackson lover. When his father returns from a 7 year absence, Boy has to love the man for who he is and not for who he had been hoping for.

Darling Companion April 20, 2012 When a woman's 'darling companion' goes missing, family and friends come together, rekindling a lifelong love to go on a adventurous dog search.

l ast word

T

here is one area of my life that, despite my best intentions and efforts, usually ends in failure. It is the area of gardening. I rarely keep plants alive. Leafy greens, blooming bulbs and even the un-needy cacti die slow, painful deaths all around my house. I end up having to buy replacement greenery, much to my frustration. I’ve even marked on my calendar when my plants need to be watered so as to prevent their death and avoid making another trip to the store. But this has not worked! My desire for a greener life exceeds my ability to fulfill it — c’est la vie.

I have over-analyzed this, plummeting the depths of the darkest recesses of my heart to figure out what makes my thumb so yellowish-brown! After all, I’m good at other “tending” jobs, such as nannying. All the kids grew tall and were happy, fed, dressed, and stayed alive every day I cared for them. So what makes keeping houseplants alive so hard for me?

This globe contains hundreds of thousands of species of plants — just think of all the tending necessary to sustain that amount of life on a daily basis. Amid the variety, all plants share the need for nourishment, protection, and plenty of time to flourish. Pruning occurs, and flowers wither and die, but only in order that room be made for further growth in a coming season. What a complex and amazing process! Given my track record in keeping houseplants, I am well aware of the fact that someone greater than I must keep the world of horticulture spinning.

God is the Great Gardener. He brilliantly tends the entire world, knowing well the particularities of everything His hand creates. That includes us! The Psalmist says, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb,” in praise of the great depth of knowledge and careful nurturing that has characterized God’s tending hand from the very beginning of his life. God is at work to design us into beautiful gardens as we continue to grow up in Him. I have recently experienced God’s green thumb working in my garden, in very clear ways. Knowing that God was tending me in a new way, I assumed that the plants in my garden that were not thriving would be nurtured back to life and that I would feel immediately better. I have instead felt the pain of His pruning shears and the pressure of His shovel as He deals with the unkempt plants that have turned yellowish brown in the hands of the world. I watched as God did not simply water and shed sunlight on my withering branches. Instead, He dug up and replaced the plants in my garden that, because they were tended poorly and were bringing death to me. God is carefully landscaping my heart with new plants that will thrive and bear fruit under His watch.

John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” When we remain in God, we al-

low Him the keys to our garden so He can do His brilliant work.

Abiding means that our garden is an extension of His tending hand. We do not uproot, prune, water, or find nourishment on our own. Instead, we allow Him free reign to grow life in every corner of our hearts.

If your heart hurts today in an area of old pain, do you think God is trying to remove an old plant from your garden? Will you let Him do this wonderful work, though it may cause you pain? Let the Great Gardener shovel, shear, and perfectly shape each and every plant in the garden of your heart so only wholeness and beauty will flourish.

— Michelle Sudduth

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