“A gold medal is a wonderful thing,” the coach says. “But if you’re not enough without one, you’ll never be enough with one.”

In church, lessons like these are often taught about all sorts of worldly accomplishments: the dream job, the big raise, the right friends. This week at EMU, an influential theological writer in the emergent church movement, Peter Rollins, delivered a similar message about God, who, Rollins argued, is too often (and falsely) imagined as an idol capable of providing true wholeness and fulfillment.

Sin – from denying pain of life?

Rollins, originally from Northern Ireland and now living in New York, argued that sin is the result of everyone’s relentless drive to escape the pain of being alive, regardless of whether relief is sought in drink, in friends or in the church. Salvation, then, doesn’t come from attaining closeness to God and relief from pain, but rather by embracing that pain of being alive and letting go of our drive to heal it.

“Religion helps us avoid facing up to our brokenness and troubles … [and] that is devastating,” said Rollins, during his chapel presentation. “We need to have spaces where we can be open about the places where we’re suffering.”

Rollins, whose most recent book is titled The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction, also hosted a “talk back” at the , spoke at the year’s first University Colloquium, visited classes and led an evening conversation hosted by EMU’s Freethought Coalition.

At the colloquium, Rollins criticized contemporary religion’s tendency to place itself right beside competing products in a “vending machine” that purports to offer people various paths to fulfill our primal desire for wholeness. What the church should be doing, he said, is taking a sledgehammer to that vending machine and disabusing us of the idea that we’ll ever be whole. (During chapel, Rollins criticized the church for getting people “drunk on sermons” and on God to distract them from the reality that everyone “will die and never be again” and everyone we love “will die a cold death.”)

Community based on love

During his coffeehouse talk, Rollins said he finds hope in building a community in the present – not in some next world or afterlife – where love exists among people who embrace their collective and individual hurts.

Rollins’ ideas have become influential in the emergent church movement, which offers critiques of religious institutions and traditions that cut across denominational and ideological lines. This criticism can be as applicable to seemingly counter-cultural religious institutions like EMU as they are to mainstream Christianity.

, professor of , noted that Rollins’ “version of being counter-cultural would be different from the ones we are most used to hearing.”

While Anabaptist traditions may emphasize alternative ways of living and thinking about God, they often still reinforce the notion of longing for wholeness.

“Rollins argues that you instead learn to live with being human, being broken, being, in a sense, unfulfilled. And in the shared humanity of that, you find true fulfillment,” said Early. “The move that needs to happen is not that you abandon being a Mennonite or being an Anabaptist, but that you hold it differently…. It’s something that’s really important for us to wrestle with.”

The value of the “light of inquiry”

Thomas Millary, a junior and co-president of the Freethought Coalition, said he admires Rollins’ call to embrace, rather than trying to escape, the brokenness that everyone experiences in life, and hopes Rollins’ visit will spark wider conversation on campus about finding joy and community in the midst of pain.

“This campus could really benefit from dialogue about faith and [Christianity] from a perspective like Peter’s,” said Millary, who founded the Freethought Coalition to provide a space for honest exploration and discussion of difficult or controversial topics.

When introducing Rollins at the University Colloquium, said that inviting Rollins to present his provocative ideas at EMU offered the university the opportunity for self-reflection.

“It’s important that our basic assumptions are not just taken for granted, but that they are held up to the light of inquiry, that they are examined,” Kniss said.

The titles of Peter Rollins’ books offer clues to his stream of thought:

• The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction (2013)

• Insurrection: To Believe is Human; to Doubt, Divine (2011)

• The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales (2009)

• How (Not) to Speak of God (2006)

• The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief (2008)

In his , Rollins is characterized as “a provocative writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker who has gained an international reputation for overturning traditional notions of religion and forming ‘churches’ that preach the Good News that we can’t be satisfied, that life is difficult, and that we don’t know the secret.”

In an interview posted at last April, Peter Rollins said: “Some of my critics say I’m telling them to doubt, but that’s not it. I’m saying you’re already full of doubts. It acts the same way as alcohol abuse – the alcohol makes you feel better about yourself, but then you have this hangover where you realize you’re just covering over some sort of brokenness.

“I’m saying when you’re in church around people who believe the same thing and you’re reading all those books, it feels great, but then, at night over a drink with a friend in a bar, you feel like that there must be a better way. It [i.e., the usual form of church attendance] prevents us from encountering our own brokenness and working through it.”

This interview sparked 50 online comments, with the readers strongly debating each other.

Rollins will be the chapel speaker at 10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium, followed by a “talk back” at 10:45 a.m. in the student-run coffee house, in University Commons. At 4 p.m. Rollins is speaking at the on “the idolatry of God.” He wraps up the day with a 7:30 p.m. conversation with members of EMU’s Free-Thought Coalition in Strite Conference room of the Campus Center. All of these events are free and open to the public.

In his religiondispatches.org interview, Rollins called for people to “create a place where there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, atheists or theists, gay or straight.”

He added: “That’s the good news of Christianity for me. It’s not that you can be happy and whole, but rather that life is crap and you don’t know the answers. It’s good news to be freed from the oppression that there’s something that’s going to make it all better. When you’re free from that and begin to work through your brokenness and suffering with a set of rituals, practices and sacraments that help us encounter our humanity, I think we become more loving, more beautiful, more grace-filled people.”

Educated at Queens University in Belfast, Rollins holds degrees in scholastic philosophy (BA Hons), political theory (MA) and post-structural thought (PhD). His EMU visit is sponsored by the .

Those three words will be the center of discussion for Ted Swartz ’89, MACL ’92 of , during Spiritual Life Week at ��ݮ���� (EMU), Oct. 30-Nov. 2.

“Ted combines a love of the Bible with outrageous humor and fresh perspective,” says , EMU campus pastor. “Always relevant, always challenging, always engaging; you won’t want to miss it.”

In addition to leading university chapel on Wednesday, Oct. 31 and Friday, Nov. 2, Swartz will perform Didn’t You Get My Letter? Musings From the Apostle Paul on Wednesday at 7 p.m., in EMU’s MainStage Theater. Admission is free for EMU students with ID or $5 at the door for non-students.

For more information, call campus ministries at 540-432-4115 or visit emu.edu/spirituallifeweek.

Tuesday, October 30

12 p.m. ­– Mission & service lunch conversations in the dining hall

8 p.m. – Ted Swartz shares his spiritual journey in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

9 p.m. – Mission & service coffeehouse in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

Wednesday, October 31

10 a.m. – Chapel: “Toward Faith.Hope.Love” with Ted Swartz in Lehman Auditorium

10:40 – 11:30 a.m. – After-chapel fellowship with lemonade and pretzels in the Campus Center Greeting Hall

7 p.m. – Ted & Company performance of “Didn’t You Get My Letter? Musings From the Apostle Paul” in the MainStage Theater

Thursday, November 1

11 a.m. – Chapel gathering with Ted Swartz in Martin Chapel (Seminary)

Noon -1 p.m. – Talk with Ted lunch in Northlawn East Dining Room

8 p.m. – “Faith, Fear and Failure” – Ted Swartz in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

Friday, November 2

10 a.m. – Chapel: “Toward Faith.Hope.Love” with Ted Swartz in Lehman Auditorium

10:40 – 11:30 a.m. – After-chapel fellowship with hot chocolate in the Campus Center Greeting Hall

At a Jan. 12, 8:30 p.m., , Guyton’s topic will be “Contentiously Mennonite: My Journeys in Anabaptism.” At a on Jan. 16, at 10 a.m., Guyton will speak on attaining dreams by squarely facing old fears and putting hope in Christ, even when it seems risky, as King did.

Guyton also knows about taking risks. He started his adult life on a proven path to success by first earning his bachelor’s degree at the prestigious United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and then serving as a U.S. Air Force officer stationed in Norfolk, Va.

Somewhere in his journey, however, he began to feel that Jesus was calling him to be “subversive and radical” in his witnessing of the Gospel and to question America’s glorification of power, wealth and violence.

Influenced by his future wife Cyndi, Guyton became deeply involved in a Mennonite church in Hampton, Va., Calvary Community Church. He became a conscientious objector and withdrew from the military in 1998. For 17 years Guyton held various ministry roles in Calvary, including youth pastor. By 2006, Calvary had the largest membership of any Mennonite church in the United States. Calvary is led and largely populated by African Americans.

In 2009, Guyton joined the staff of . He now works from San Antonio, Texas, as the church’s national director of constituent resources.

Part of Guyton’s responsibilities is giving leadership to anti-racism work within the Mennonite Church. “As our church seeks to become anti-racist, the dominant group must have accountability to the racial/ethnic constituency in the decision making process,” says Guyton.

A dynamic personality, Guyton has spoken to thousands of youth and adults in the United States, Jamaica, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana. He holds a master’s degree in education from Regent University. The Guytons are the parents of a 14-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son.

Tribute Weekend

In addition to Guyton, EMU will hold an ongoing multimedia presentation from Friday, Jan. 13 – Monday, Jan. 16., in front of the student life suite on the second floor of University Commons.

All events are open to the public.

The group of 26 was led by , instructor in , and assisted by EMU alums Elizabeth Zook Barge and Jason Ropp. The group left on Aug. 31 and returned to Harrisonburg on Dec. 10 for debriefing and wrap-up activities.

Soweto, South Africa

The students began their journey in Soweto, a laboring-class urban area inside the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Students studied the values and norms of South African culture, immersed in language study and participating in community projects.

“There was never a dull moment in Soweto, with the events ranging from late night dance parties, to playing soccer in the streets, to constant greeting of passersby,” said Kiera Stenson, a junior from Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. “Soweto was filled with love and ‘ubuntu’ (togetherness)—everyone lives as a huge family, your neighbor is your brother, therefore if your brother is in need of something you help him.”

A country inside a country

After spending 24 days in Soweto, the group traveled to Lesotho, an enclave of South Africa. Divided into two villages, the group experienced life with no electricity or running water and the challenges of bed bugs, run-away horses and rats.

“During the second week of our time in Lesotho, we packed small backpacks and crammed into two rickety taxis that took us to an MCC [Mennonite Central Committee] mission farm,” said Sarah Grace Fitzsimmons, a sophomore from Woodstock, Va. “There we worked in the mornings and had campfires at night…. Lesotho was a get away, a reflective time for us…. We experienced life in its simplest form.”

Living on the Cape

The final stop on the cross cultural brought the students to Cape Town, where South Africa’s parliament convenes. Students could choose among relaxing on the beach, visiting gardens and museums, and hiking Table Mountain. In addition, several group members heard lectures at the University of Cape Town on the history and culture of Southern Africa that included how religious beliefs affected government policy during the apartheid era.

Todd Hooley, a senior from Wayland, Iowa, said the group was able to share an American holiday with their host families.

“On Thanksgiving, many of our families wanted to make us feel at home, so they cooked us a traditional American meal…. Cape Town was a more western-feeling homestay, but we still experienced love and Africa through the city,” said Hooley.

Lessons from South Africa and Lesotho

The students closed the chapel with a  produced by Joaquin Sosa, a junior from Utica, New York,

“We offer this chapel as a gift to the campus and greater community as an expression of the faithfulness and transforming love of God,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor.

The 45-minute chapel will feature songs, scripture and other readings focused on the nativity. Jericho Road, ChoirWithoutBorders and the EMU Chamber Singers will perform at the service.

For more information contact Brian Martin Burkholder at 540-432-4115 or brian.burkholder@emu.edu.

Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, religion and philosophy at Goshen (Ind.) College, will open the series 11 a.m. Tuesday with a Seminary Chapel presentation entitled “Sexuality: God’s Gift.”

At 8 p.m. that day, he will focus on “Seeking Good Sex(uality)” in Common Grounds Coffeehouse in the basement of University Commons.

Miller will continue the series 10 a.m. Wednesday in University Chapel with the topic, “Shameless Sexuality.” He will conclude with a talk at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Campus Center Greeting Hall on “Seeking Good Sex(uality) 2.”

Miller’s specialty areas at Goshen College include contemporary Christian ethics, religion and politics, religion and sexuality, and adoption and childhood issues. He has written four books and speaks frequently in congregations and conferences on these and other topics.

In addition, Miller has co-led Goshen’s SST (Study-Service Term) semesters with his spouse Ann in Cambodia, Cuba and Costa Rica, China and the Dominican Republic.

Miller has a BA degree from Franklin (Ind.) College, an MDiv from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., and a PhD from Emory University in Atlanta.

“Keith Graber Miller is uniquely gifted and prepared to guide our campus-wide conversations on sexuality,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor. “He brings a wealth of experience engaging the themes and dynamics of sexuality with young adults both in the classroom and as a faculty mentor.”

The series is sponsored by EMU Campus Ministries and is open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call 540-432-4273.

Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, religion and philosophy at Goshen (Ind.) College, will speak Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 28-29, on the theme, “Embodying Sexual Wholeness in a Broken World.”

Miller will open the series 10 a.m. Wednesday with a university chapel presentation “On Loving Sexuality and Living Faithfully.”

At 6 p.m. that day, he will focus on “Negotiating the Young Adult Sexual Landscape” in Martin Chapel of the seminary building.

A “talk back” will follow at 9 p.m. in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse of the University Commons. Miller will recap his evening talk and speak briefly on pornographic seductions with opportunity for questions and responses.

Miller will continue the series 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Martin Chapel with the topic, “Sexuality in the Ministering Person.” He will conclude with a luncheon talk at noon Thursday in the west dining room of the university cafeteria (Northlawn ground floor) on “Emerging Sexuality Themes: Listening to the EMU Campus Community.”

Miller’s specialty areas at Goshen College include contemporary Christian ethics, religion and politics, religion and sexuality and adoption and childhood issues. He has written four books and speaks frequently in congregations and at conferences on these and other topics. He has co-led Goshen’s SST (Study-Travel Term) semesters with his spouse Ann in Cambodia, Cuba and Costa Rica, China and the Dominican Republic.

He has a BA degree from Franklin (Ind.) College, an MDiv from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, and a PhD from Emory University.

“Keith Graber Miller is uniquely gifted and prepared to guide our campus-wide conversations on sexuality,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor. “He brings a wealth of experience engaging the themes and dynamics of sexuality with young adults both in the classroom and as a faculty mentor.”

The series is sponsored by EMU Campus Ministries and is open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call 540-432-4115.