Methodist Blogger Profile: C.S. Roberts

C.S. Roberts of Hoosier Pastor

I am a husband, father of three (with the third due in April), and a probationary elder in the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. I am graduate of the University of Cincinnati (Go Bearcats!) and United Theological Seminary (see www.united.edu). I serve a small congregation in the cornfields of Indiana. I am a contact person for Lifewatch, the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality (see www.Lifewatch.org), a supporter of the Good News (see http://www.goodnewsmag.org) and Confessing Movements (see http://confessingumc.org/v2/), and involved in many different North Indiana Conference activities. I am passionate about building God’s Kingdom through the Church, sharing the Gospel, and seeking to bring about justice for all. While I am a pacifist, I am also a Chaplain Candidate (Lieutenant JG) with the US Navy. I am interested in the emergent church movement and since I am under the age of 35 I have been influenced heavily by all facets of post-modernity. If you want to know more you can read my most recent posts about my Spiritual Journey at my blog.

Why do you blog?
I am relatively new with this blogging phenom. I started blogging so that I could interact with people who think like me and those who don’t. As a young person, raised in the big city, shaped by both post-modernity and liberal educational institutions, to pastor a small rural church with mostly retired folks can get pretty lonely. So blogging provides a safe environment to find healthy debate and positive affirmation. It is good to know that people think like me and I am not stuck in my own cranium

What has been your best blogging experience?
Recently I posted a letter I wrote to post-modern pioneer Brian McLaren which addresses my own depression and discouragement. This post received lots of feedback and much encouragement. Thanks!

What would be your main advice to a novice blogger?
I am a novice blogger. I don’t know what the hell I am doing. Therefore, I have little advice except: drink a beer (I recommend http://www.uplandbeer.com/wheat.html), relax, and type your mind.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day?
Wesleyblog, By Father Steps (see http://www.byfarthersteps.com/) although Tim hasn’t updated recently, and Locusts and Honey, of course.

Who are your spiritual heroes?
John Wesley, Bishop Wil Willimon, and most important Stanley Hauerwas. If you haven’t read Resident Aliens: Life in The Christian Colony. I demand that you get it (whatever that is worth).

What are you reading at the moment?
Why I am Not a Calvinist by Jerry L. Walls and Joseph Dongell.

What is your favorite hymn and why?
This is My Song, UMH #437

Can you name a major moral, political, or intellectual issue on which you've ever changed your mind?
Abortion. Back in my more patriotic days, I used to be pro-choice. The basis of my argument was always the “right of the woman” that is upheld via the US Constitution etc. Then after much study I realized that the baby, in the womb, is no less a stranger or neighbor that we are to love. All Christians are connected. AIt is my responsibility to care for all of God’s creation. Romans 12 states, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” If through our baptisms we do not belong to ourselves and we all belong to each other, then the baby another Christian is carrying is just as much mine as it is hers. Therefore, 1) She doesn’t have any “right” to murder that child and 2) I have the responsibility to help her care for, love, and raise that baby from conception on. Now, I am adamantly anti-abortion.

What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to combat?
Philosophical thesis? Don’t know if it is one, but the idolatry that is patriotism causes more headaches in the church than we may realize. It is contrary to the witness of scripture and in fact detrimental to the Gospel for Christians to pledge allegiance and worship (ie sing songs to) anything other than Jesus Christ. Patriotism supports a false identity, one firmly attached to the Powers and Principalities of the world. It also supports a false sense of security, one in which we place our trust in military power for freedom. Freedom is not something to be fought for… freedom is a gift from Jesus Christ and him alone. For more on this topic see my blog post on the Lordship of Jesus Christ here: http://hoosierpastor.blogspot.com/2006/01/your-understanding-of-lordship-of.html

If you could effect one major change in the governing of your country, what would it be?
Put as much effort into peacemaking as we do war-making. Having spent time with both the Navy and the Marine Corps it is amazing the amount of time, money, and energy the Power of the US put into waging war. If only the US would put as much money and energy over a very long period of time into the effort of peace-making and pre-emptive peace, then maybe our world would be more like God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

If you could effect one major policy change in the United Methodist Church, what would it be?
It would have to do with the ordination process. I recently re-posted a blog post I wrote some time ago about this problem. I think that the Boards of Ordained Ministry in every conference should spend more time focusing on the candidates acceptance of UM polity and Wesleyan doctrine. The reason we have such poor leadership in some areas of the UMC is that the BOOMs are not doing their job.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Love your family, love our God, and love the Church.

What, if anything, do you worry about?
The state of the church. See my blog post on the nature and mission of the church for more on this topic: http://hoosierpastor.blogspot.com/2006/01/describe-nature-and-mission-of-church.html

If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything that you'd do differently?
Maybe that time I told a CandE “member” of my church at Christmas that I hope to see him before next Easter. I would take that one back.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you do now)?
Somewhere warm… anywhere. Hoosier-land is cold.

What do you like doing in your spare time?
Being with my wife and kids, reading, and spending time in the garden (come Spring/Summer)

What is your most treasured possession?
My wedding band.

What talent would your most like to have?
Speaking Spanish. This would be a great help to reaching out to the people in my community who most need help.

If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner, who would they be?
John the Revelator, John Darby, and Tim Lahaye. I would like to see John lay one these wacky dispensationalists. I can just hear him saying, “Rapture, my ass!”

UPDATE: Text changed at blogger request.