Manry Family

I’ve restrained myself from getting academic on my family’s website, so forgive me for taking the opportunity of responding to a good friend of mine’s recent “tag” here.  I am fortunate to have been associated with a nurturing academic community at Lipscomb University, my alma mater through three degrees. The friends I shared life with there are emerging as leaders within the Churches of Christ and the Restoration Movement, and they continue to challenge me about what it means to be a faithful servant of God within both a church and academic community.  Read on to engage in our recent conversation across cyberspace, and if nothing else, add a couple of books to your reading list.

The tag was started by my friend Mac Ice, a high school Bible teacher in Nashville, TN who wears bow ties, and targets “bloggers who are in their 20's-30's, Church of Christ folk, emerging student-leaders of the next generation of our inherited Reformation movement. In other words, those who have been recently tagged by the round of questions I [am putting out there for us].”  Be sure to check out Mac’s initial post as well as that of Chad Smith, who is now working on an M.Div at Boston University.

Here’s my contribution:

Three affirmations of the  Churches of Christ:

1. Our polity of congregational autonomy embraces the importance of the local church in the unfolding story of God’s Kingdom, and aside from that, just makes sense.
2. We take the Bible seriously and allow it to form our lives, even if we inevitably read it from our limited vantage point.
3. The restoration idea potentially offers a compelling vision of God’s redemptive activity in His world.
   

Three professors and/or courses who have influenced your thinking:

1. John Mark Hicks, Harding Graduate School and Lipscomb University, (Theological Hermeneutics and Postmodern Theology).  Dr. Hicks dislodged me from the safety of my assumptions about the Bible and modeled the scholar-pastor role that effectively showed me how academics can serve the church.
2. Harvey Floyd, Lipscomb University, (Introduction to Greek, Greek Readings I, II, III, IV, V; The Holy Spirit, and Presuppositional Apologetics).  Dr. Floyd brought the New Testament to life for me through his passion for the language in which it was originally written.
3. Peter Cain, Sheffield Hallam University, I would ideally always list my current professor in this list, and he is the one guiding me into the discipline of history through Theories of Imperialism.
   

Three academic books which have shaped your thinking:

1. The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer. This classic popularization of Cornelius Van Til’s presuppositional apologetic broke down my distinction between sacred and secular, showing me the Christian faith pervades every aspect of life.
2. Scripture and Discernment by Luke Timothy Johnson. This book introduced me to the idea of reading Scripture in community by highlighting the process through which the New Testament community discerned Scripture in light of God’s ongoing activity.
3. Whose Justice? Which Rationality? by Alasdair MacIntyre.  This author/book acknowledges pluralism while mapping out a viable alternative to relativism.
   

Three CoC/Stone-Campbell books which have shaped your thinking:

1. Reviving the Ancient Faith by Richard Hughes.  This book invited me into the rich history of the Restoration Movement to appreciate its multiple, and sometimes competing, ideological and theological origins.
2. Come to the Table by John Mark Hicks.  A great example of constructive theology and academics functioning within and serving church communities.
3. tie: Mere Discipleship by Lee Camp and Civil Government: Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny, and the Christian's Relation to It  by David Lipscomb.  Both of these have shaped my understanding of God’s Kingdom and caused me to reassess my eathly allegiances.

Three hopes you have for the future of Churches of Christ:

1. That we will be able to embrace and value the whole of our movement and its rich and diverse history.
2. We will continue to increase our involvement in missions not just in quanity of persons and money but also the quality of our theologies and strategies
3. That we will be around.
   

Three fears you have for Churches of Christ:

1. In the effort to hold our ground, we will continue to erect walls that divide us and isolate us from sources of renewal.
2. In the effort to be relevant, we will jettison our rich heritage to thoughtlessly embrace commercialized and popularized Christianity.
3. That we might not exert any effort at all.
   

Three challenges we will face in Churches of Christ in our generation:

1. Will we be, in the words of James McClendon, a church gathered or a church given?  In other words, communities of disciples of Jesus Christ or mere cultural icons?
2. How will we relate to the broader Christian community, both in our nation and worldwide, especially as Western society enters a post-Christian age.
3. What place will the Bible have in our movement of churches and more importantly, how will we read it together?  This will shape the conversations about a host of other practical and theological issues.

Here's a blast from the past:

The picture to the right includes, from R to L, Me, Mac Ice, Chad Smith, and Brian McDonald during our "pilgrimage" out West to Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1997.  Many good conversations we shared over our two week journey in the company of KoG.

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