Thursday, July 23, 2009

Let's Get Started...Testimony #1

Whenever I walked into my Sunday school classroom in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, I was met by our most committed and enthusiastic-about-teaching-the-kiddos Sunday school teacher, Louise. Louise took me by my chubby, Kindergarten hand and led me to the rug where all of the other children were sitting. In the front of our classroom was the most beloved and widely used resource for teaching all good Christian children- the flannelgraph (Oh yeah, you know you remember!). On this day, I would experience for the first time what I call “new pastor’s kid treatment” where people went out of their way to welcome me with their warmest- and by chance their sincerest- welcome to their church. Its one thing to be the “new kid”- being the “new pastor’s kid” is an experience in of itself (people often don’t understand that there is a subtle and unconscious “holy man” approach people take in the socialization toward the pastor and his children. I call this “enlightened one syndrome”).

With all of the greetings out of the way, all of the children seated “Indian style,” and all eyes on the flannelgraph, Louise could begin her lesson.

To tell you the truth, I remember very little from the lesson that day.

However…

Little did I know that I would learn something that day that would psychologically and subconsciously distort my understanding of Jesus, the church, Christianity, and, thus, my entire worldview until my early 20s.

Louise would begin by declaring…

“Now, Jesus was a good Christian boy who went to church every Sunday.”

That’s it…

That’s all I remember…

How many problems can you find with that statement?

How could these mistakes be potentially confusing, hindering, and inherently hexing in the development of one’s understanding of Jesus?

What say you?


Bobby Ray Hurd
+ recovering sinner, idolator, and religious zealot +

The Greatest Form of Art

Shalom! Shalom! Shalom!

One must repeat this word multiple times before the reality and implications of this inevitably "loaded" term may begin to sink inward and thus becoming a rousing mantra of liturgical worship.

Or perhaps it becomes more of a reality if put into lyrical verse?

"Hevenu shalom alechem"- we bring peace to you. (an Israeli folk song)

Or maybe God's shalom becomes a reality for you within the luscious nuances of poetic verse?

"And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
(Walt Whitman- Song of Myself)

For our crew of writers, theologians, pastors, philosophers, poets, stroytellers, and thinkers, the word "shalom" (meaning "peace") is an aesthetically profound verb; an active force in the world that helixes the soul of every human being. It is a force that is denied by many "realists", articulated by the few, and goes lamentably uncommunicated by the vast majority of us that are discouraged, wounded, marginalized, and poor-in-spirit.

In light of this, we've come to advocate that "shalom" is never in a more observable manifestation than through the testimony of the ultimate form of art; our lives!

Therefore, we can think of no better place to start this conversation than in observing and listening to the eminence and semblance of God's shalom through the stories and testamonies of your lives.

Please email us at:

ouremergingthought@gmail.com

Please feel free to remain anonymous. Please send us your testimonies in their written form that are as honest as they are in their human form. In other words, we are all living R-rated lives. May your testimonies be as honest as they were whenever they were experienced. This conversation cannot happen without YOU.

Therefore...

The greatest form of art is life, and every atom belonging to me as good belonging to you!

Bobby Ray Hurd
+ recovering sinner, idolator, and religious zealot +