Tag: Tommy Airey

A Post-Evangelical Pilgrimage, Part I

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation4 Comments

evangelical TimeBy Tommy Airey

*The first in a three-part series exploring more compelling ways to follow Jesus.

…the essence of Christianity is itself an essentially contested concept.
James McClendon, Doctrine (1992)

I was inducted into North American Evangelical Christianity in 1983 while attending the Christian elementary school where my mom got a job teaching 5th grade. I was in the 4th grade and my teacher, whom I loved, rhythmically proclaimed:

God said it, I believe it and that settles it.

This was after daily prayer and Bible readings in class. End of conversation. No debate or diversity. It’s settled. Period. I remember the rush of certainty and triumph that would flood my heart and mind.
Continue reading “A Post-Evangelical Pilgrimage, Part I” →

The Pedagogy of Place: The Whisper of the Wind

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

DSC00079By Tommy Airey, the final post in a series about how we learn from our location about what is truly Divine
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In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Toni Morrison

Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side…
Mark 6:45

The wind is deceptive in Detroit. When it is at your back, you forget it’s even there. On the bike, on my way to the church, the electronic marquee at the Prince Valley Supermercado registers 25 degrees. I doubt it. I’m traveling fast and I’m working up a sweat. But at the end of the work day, trekking west back to the block, I have a stubborn epiphany, once again, that the wind was there all along. Now it’s 40 out, but the wind is blustering my face off, cracking my lips into a pot pie crust. It’s virtually impossible to complete the journey without cussing. A lot.
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The Pedagogy of Place: The Art of Coping

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

By Tommy Airey, the first post of a 3-part series about how we learn from our location about what is truly Divine
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Every town has the same two malls: the one white people go to and the one white people used to go to.
Chris Rock

About a month ago, I drove just across 8 mile (the border between Detroit and Southfield) to visit the mall that white people used to go to. I went for one reason: it was closing that week and everything was 60-80% off. I was the only white dude in there. It felt good because it was like I was breaking Chris Rock’s rules.
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A Prophetic Imagination: Right Here, Right Now

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

Micah IconBy Tommy Airey

…they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
Micah 4:3-4

*This is the fourth installment in a series of seven pieces on Micah posted every Wednesday during Lent.
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As we travel the Lenten road of death and resurrection, we continue to inventory both the personal and prophetic. The more we pursue the personal the more we realize that the addiction, abuse and alienation in our homes are symptoms of the wider systems in our world—the social, economic, political and religious structures that organize and, ultimately, pulverize our lives.
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Prayer

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ripple_effectby tommy airey

Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else can in the world.
Gandhi

We do not want to be beginners [at prayer], but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!
Merton
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Prayer is a pilgrimage into the deepest recesses of our being. It is being attentive to God’s active presence both with us and within us. The 15th century Indian contemplative Kabir wrote that “God is the breath inside the breath.” The Apostle Paul quoted the philosopher Epimenides as he sermonized the Athenians: “For in him we live and move and have our being.” God is that energy and power and inspiration that we draw upon to live and thrive. Continue reading “Prayer” →