Into the Wild

There are a lot of reasons not to do what I am doing.  One thing that cyberspace does not need is another theology blog (everyone has one and no one reads each other's).  But Eugene Peterson once said, in an interview about being a writer, that true writers don't write to be read but because they just have to write.  I suppose that is what I am doing.  But there is also a more concrete purpose...

A year or two ago I set out to write a book entitled, Head and Heart.  The purpose of the book would have been to explore how the theology of Karl Barth, in my opinion, creates a useful paradigm for having a healthy and vibrant Pentecostal pastoral theology.  Perhaps some day the book may appear - perhaps even written by me.  At the time I was totally unaware of how many Pentecostals already were aware of Barth.  This proved my thesis, I suppose, but also proved that others were way out in front of me.  I was no teacher.  I still needed to be a student.  In talking to a small handful of professional Pentecostal theologians, I received quite a bit of positive feedback.  I also received a goodly amount of encouragement to pursue a Master's Degree in theology and transform my book idea into a thesis.  This also may be something that happens one day.  But for today I am a lowly pastor of a lowly church in a lowly town on a lowly island.  God has not called me further into the academic world at this moment (perhaps one day).  He has given me the task of being a pastor.  And this brings me to this blog....

Since I am not yet ready nor knowledgeable enough to author a book, and since calling prevents me from pursuing higher academic work, I have started this blog as a side project.  This idea is dangerous, of course.  I am a pastor, and between family and ministry I probably do not need a theological distraction like another blog (I already keep one blog, which is more pastoral in intent, at www.vicc4life.com/blog).  This idea is also dangerous in that I stand to get very discouraged.  In all likelihood I may look back on this project in a few months, embarrassed that I once thought a "Pentecostal Barthian" blog wasn't a waste of time.  But for now I set out, as God and time allow, to muse about the intersection between Karl Barth and modern-day Pentecost, between the mind-exhausting labor of reading through the Church Dogmatics and the mind-circumventing experience of speaking in tongues (hint: Barth's doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the act of revelation, "the Subjective Reality of Revelation," is what originally set me on this journey...more of that later).  This may be a waste of time.  This may be a dangerous distraction from the joyful duties of wife and community.  But it may also be just what I need to further clarify my thoughts and, sorry Karl, experiences.  And so here I go, for better or for worse, into the wild...