Category: Blog

Have you registered for our Fall retreat this year?

You’re invited to New Wine, New Wineskin’s annual retreat at Twin Rocks Camp in Rockaway Beach! September 11th-13th, Multnomah University and Biblical Seminary faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of New Wine will be joining to enjoy God’s creation, one another, and worship through prayer and reflection with our Triune God.

If you’re interested in more info, or to RSVP, please email DerrickPeterson@multnomah.edu with the subject line “New Wine Retreat” and let us know the following: how many people you are bringing, ages, genders, dietary restrictions, and how many days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning) you will be staying with us! If you can’t make it for the entire weekend you’re more than welcome to come up for the day.

Food and lodging are provided (but bring your own blankets, pillows, or sleeping bags, or you may purchase linens on-site for $7)! Come any time after 4pm on Friday. Make sure to bring food for you and loved ones Friday evening, but breakfast, lunch, and dinner Saturday, and Sunday morning breakfast are on us! Carpools are strongly encouraged. If you’re driving up and have room for new friends, let us know.

The weekend is gonna be a great time of getting to know each other, growing in solidarity with God and our neighbor, and a wonderful start to the season. See you there!

Jeffrey Harley is the Education Chaplain at The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, Philadelphia, PA. The following is an excerpt from his article “Rising Above the Fray” a reflection on the happenings in Ferguson. The article is published in its entirety in Cultural Encounters, our bi-annual journal offering a biblically informed, Christ-centered trinitarian engagement of contemporary culture.

“I believe that God made every human being in His image and likeness. I believe that God placed within each and every one of us the desire for relationship with Him and with others. This image of God in all of us is what gives us value. Thus, as a chaplain in a context where people are marginalized and exploited, I believe that it is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can work with the Spirit of God to restore and reconcile people back to God. When people are reconciled back to God and begin to experience His love and grace, they begin to see their own value in the eyes of God. The Triune God is always reaching out to all people to reconcile us back to the community of the Trinity. When we experience His love, we are dramatically transformed into new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17). It is this proclamation that I share daily with the men that I serve because I know that it is the transformative power of the love of God that will deliver them from the clutches of the enemy. However, my biggest opposition is from White, suburban evangelical Christians who are bound by their own cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic philosophies.

The evangelical, White, suburban church has been taken captive by its own cultural biases and not by Jesus Christ. These evangelicals come to the inner city with their preconceived ideas about the poor, desperate Black people that are helpless without their resources. Thus, they come to the city with a patriarchal attitude and mindset, and not with the mind and heart of Christ. They do more harm than good because their attitudes and approach dehumanize people. Thus, just like Officer Wilson in Ferguson, they don’t see us as human beings made in the image of God. Wilson caused the physical death of Mike Brown, and the White evangelicals that come to the inner city with these attitudes cause the spiritual deaths of people of color. Many of our men cannot understand why the people who talk about a personal relationship with God are so cold and aloof toward them. When I attempt to dialogue with my White brethren, they say that not everything is about race, and that the homeless need to be motivated and get off of government assistance. They are blind to “White privilege” that they practice by promoting unqualified Whites to management positions, while firing Blacks at a moment’s notice. This angers me and causes me to want to retaliate. But I must rise above the fray. Their attitudes and behaviors cause more division and separation in the Body of Christ. In fact, our responses to Ferguson are only highlighting the deep divisions that already exist among us. There are two typical responses by Blacks in our context. Some Blacks are obsequious and docile, while others become angry and militant (I fall into the latter category). The obsequious and docile response, on the surface, appears to be in relationship with the “other,” but that relationship is not genuine. The angry, militant response leads to isolation and separation, which leads to no relationship with the “other.” Moreover, this dehumanizes the already marginalized and oppressed people that we have been called to serve. Instead of reconciliation and the cultivation of the image of God in others, these actions destroy the image of God in both the Blacks and Whites. This must sadden the heart of Jesus Christ, who has called us to be one, even as He and the Father are one. We must rise above the fray and be the answers to Jesus’s high priestly prayer in John 17…”

For the rest of Jeffrey’s reflection make sure to subscribe to Cultural Encounters here. Students of Multnomah Biblical Seminary can get access to the journal for free by emailing NewWine@multnomah.edu. The latest volume of Cultural Encounters also offers reflections on loving our gay neighbor, California culture and theology, religious diplomacy, and much more. You can see a full article list here.

Dr. Brad Harper is the associate director of New Wine, New Wineskins and in 2014 presented on his journey as an Evangelical theologian with a gay son at the Justice Conference in Portland, Oregon. This presentation is available in its entirety to subscribers of Cultural Encounters, our bi-annual journal offering a biblically informed, Christ-centered trinitarian engagement of contemporary culture. The following is an excerpt from that talk:

Recent research has indicated how sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds in our country view evangelical Christians. The number one thing that young non-Christian people say about us is that we’re anti-gay. Boy, doesn’t that make us proud? It’s not that we love Jesus, or that we love each other, or that we help the poor. It’s not even that we try to convert them to Christianity—that would be way better, right? But it’s that we’re anti-gay. For 91 percent of them, that was their first perception of us.

The church and the gay community are often talking past each other, arguing simply over the morality of the behavior and not building relationship bridges through which we can dialogue from a place of love and trust. We are often on opposite ends of an argument and do very little to connect in a place where we can actually talk to each other. For young gay people in the United States, coming out is still a very difficult thing. There’s a lot more of it happening now than when I was in high school. If you’re a young gay male, and you come out in my high school in the mid-seventies, you’re in trouble. You’re probably going to get beaten up a lot. I didn’t know who the gay guys were in my high school until my twenty-year high school reunion. Then it was okay for them to come out. It’s still a very difficult thing even today. For kids in Christian homes, it’s even more difficult. There are many, many kids in Christian homes in our country and in our city who, by the time they’re in junior high school, begin to realize they have an attraction to the same sex. But rarely will they say anything about it.

So what they begin to do is pray like mad for God to take it away. He doesn’t. For people who have an embedded, lifelong orientation toward the same sex, prayer does not generally take it away any more than prayer heals people from cancer. Does it happen every once in a while? Yeah, but what do we call that? A first-class miracle. That’s not the norm. And it’s the same way with this.

So they come to some various conclusions when God does not respond and take away their attraction. “I might as well immerse myself in the gay world since God is not changing me.” This has been the response of many gay men and women who have grown up in the Christian church. “God must have already condemned me, and I’m going to hell anyway, so I’m just going to do what comes naturally to me.” Or even, “There is no God. He doesn’t respond. I’ve prayed every single day for a year and cried out to God, and there’s nothing, so this must be mythology.”

For more from this presentation by Dr. Harper make sure to subscribe to Cultural Encounters here. Students of Multnomah Biblical Seminary can get access to the journal for free by emailing NewWine@multnomah.edu. The latest volume of Cultural Encounters also offers reflections on Ferguson, California culture and theology, religious diplomacy, and much more. You can see a full article list here.

Dr. Harper was also interviewed alongside his son Drew recently by John Lussier. The interview covers a number of issues related to the LGBTQ and Evangelical communities. You can watch that here.

Our annual New Wine retreat is scheduled for Fri, Sept. 11 – Sun, Sept. 13 at Twin Rocks Friends Camp in Rockaway Beach!

The retreat is for the New Wine community, which includes students, faculty, alumni, AC members, community supporters, and their families. All attendees get to attend free of charge. If you can’t make it the whole weekend, feel free to join us just for Saturday the 12th. If you’ve ever been on the retreat before you know this isn’t something to miss so make sure to save the dates!

If you have any questions feel free to email newwine@multnomah.edu

 
Warner Pacific College and The Portland NAACP with The Portland YWCA, Impact NW, and A Common Table present RACE, FAITH, AND JUSTICE IN THE AGE OF FERGUSON AND BALTIMORE

[Portland, OR] –Race, Faith, and Justice will take place at Warner Pacific College 2219 SE 68th Ave, Portland, OR 97215in McGuire Auditorium on Monday, June 29th at 7pm to 9pm.  Featuring keynote speaker Rev. Sekou (activist, public theologian, author from Ferguson) and a panel discussion from:

• Rev. Sekou (Fellowship of Reconciliation and Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford University
• Dr. Daymond Glenn (Warner Pacific College)
• JoAnn Hardesty (Portland NAACP)
• Eric Knox (Imago Dei Community)

This free event, held at Warner Pacific College, will bring Rev. Osagyefo Sekou to speak about his experiences in Ferguson and Baltimore. Rev. Sekou was arrested multiple times, supported the activists on the front lines of protest and speaks about the new identity of protestors. He sees a new class of young people rising up to change systems and challenges us to follow these new, young, black, LGBTQ, and mostly female leaders.

After Rev. Sekou inspires and challenges our ideas on Ferguson and the role of people of faith, our panel will provide practical and Portland specific feedback. Exploring ideas such as:

• The role of people of faith in the Black Lives Matter movement
• How people of faith have been a support and how they have failed
• How people of faith can participate in issues/projects in Portland
• How young people can connect their faith and civic connection
• The place of people of color in American Christianity
• And more.

Local organizations, such as the YWCA, Impact NW, and others will promote their programs and attendees will have a chance to ask questions and connect further.

Unique Aspects:

The dialogue of faith in connection with racism and protest is a needed and little had discussion. Many local churches are supporting this event. Imago Dei Community is a large Evangelical church and has recently embraced dialogue around these issues. Eric Know will help draw attention to ways this has been done.

Warner Pacific is a private Christian college. Their partnering with the NAACP and dialogue around this issue shows great leadership and willingness to address the tough issues of today. Dr. Glenn will spotlight their work to expand the presence of students of color and engaging diversity in the education system.

The Luis Palau Association is a largely Evangelical organization but has shown willingness to engage civic participation. With the Season of Service program and now this, Christians are finding new ways to engage social justice issues.

Rev. Sekou provides real, honest, and deep perspectives from the front lines of protest. His time following the lead, as a pastor, of young, LGBTQ, black women is a unique and little heard story.

Participants are available for interviews before the event  by contacting Jake Dockter (503 954 8566 –jake.dockter@gmail.com)

Rev. Sekou is travelling and busy so advanced notice is required.

More info on the participants:

• Rev. Sekou – http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/19/pastor_in_ferguson_police_crackdown_i
  – http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/osagyefo-uhuru-sekou
  – http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/s/osagyefo-uhuru-sekou.html
• Eric Knox
  –  http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/profile/eric-knox/
• JoAnn Hardesty
  – http://www.consulthardesty.com/about-2/jah
  – http://www.theskanner.com/news/northwest/22318-new-president-joann-hardesty-on-civil-rights-now
• Dr. Daymond Glenn
  –  http://www.warnerpacific.edu/directory/glenn-daymond/