There's Nothing Wrong With Vanilla

I can't recall exactly what year it was--although my memory is prodding me toward the 1984 ACC men's basketball tournament--but Duke's hoopsters were hanging tough with number-one ranked North Carolina. Duke was coming off two or three substandard years at the start of Mike Krzyzewski's regime there, and Coach K got his first major signature win with a 77-75 win over Michael Jordan and company. The game isn't the thing here. The memory that comes to mind is an off-hand comment by an announcer who mentioned that Krzyzewski "loves vanilla ice cream."

I thought it was odd, an odd comment to make in the heat of a major upset. And it was odd because I thought, in my 13-year old mind, "Why would someone prefer vanilla over a host of other flavors? What about chocolate? Rum raisin? Daiquiri ice? Rocky road? Butter pecan?"

Over the years, I've come to realize there's nothing wrong with vanilla. In fact, there everything right with vanilla. And I'm not talking about ice cream anymore.

I'm talking about pastors in Christian ministry.

Father's Day brought the sad news that a flagship megachurch in my denomination, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, is facing the loss of their senior pastor, for reasons of moral failure; that means, in brief, engaging in an adulterous affair. Once again, a shepherd in God's kingdom has tumbled from vocational grace.

Some of these pastors are high-profile individuals, having forged para-church movements that advance specific aspects of ministry. These movements can be helpful and shed much light in helping (1) existing Christians understand the Gospel more deeply and clearly and (2) attracting unbelievers to teaching that satisfies a spiritual thirst.

However, once the pastor/leader falls from grace, the constructed ministry can tumble, too. This can be for the simple reason that--for better or worse--in some way these movements are tied to the personality and behavior of their leaders.

In truth, there is nothing wrong with entrepreneurial endeavors that highlight biblical truth. But I'm not convinced these are at the heart of what it means to be a spiritual shepherd. It's clear from Scripture--especially the qualifications for spiritual leadership found in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1--that God is interested in the moral foundation and the character, the integrity, of the pastor of a church or leader of any faith community. What's interesting is the lack of words like "cultural guru", or "strategic thinker", or "visionary leader."

It's not that those things, those flavors in the Baskin Robbins of personal qualities, are bad things. They are good things. But they are not the primary foundation of what God requires. And sometimes Christianity is looking all around for those flavors when we should be expecting the vanilla that God wants from leaders.

If you are a church-going Christian, do you have a pastor who works diligently at studying Scripture, so that they can patiently and clearly apply it to your life? Does your pastor pray? Does he administer the Sacraments (or ordinances, for my Baptist friends) faithfully? If you can answer yes to all three, you've got a fine pastor.

I'm the fifth generation in the Davis family to be ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. I've never known generations one and two (my great-great-grandpa and my great-grandfather), but I have heard enough about my Grandpa Davis and experienced enough about my father's ministry (if you want a taste of it, too, you can find sermons here) to say this: They might have never led a multi-staff, multi-campus, megachurch, or made significant cultural inroads, or spearheaded other ministries or headlined major conferences (although Dad has done a few). However, they were/are faithful to their ordination vows, have preached Scripture, and loved their people well.

That's vanilla. And it's good. Better good vanilla than other spoiled flavors.

And lest we get too proud versus those who fall from grace, recall the words of John Bradford, "There but for the grace of God go I."

The Cover

We're beginning the process of getting my next Cameron Ballack novel--titled The Broken Cross--into readers' hands. We have editing and other matters to go, but we are getting in the final stretch.

In the meantime, here is the cover design to keep you happy for now. It was drawn up by my former student and soon-to-be freshman at Northeastern University, Ciarra Peters. Ciarra is not only a brilliant artist; she is a phenomenal student overall who excels in science and robotics.

The image is one of the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin within the Cathedral Basilica, the seat of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. In The Broken Cross, the Cathedral is an imposing setting that throws a considerable shadow across the storyline. Aesthetically, the Cathedral is one of the most beautiful houses of worship imaginable, and Ciarra captures this exquisite delight with clarity, color, and grace.

So Where Do You Get Your Characters?

The lead-up to my sequel's release continues and we shift to a common question I've received from a number of readers and students:

"How do you figure out your characters?"

That's a fair question. Given that, as P.D. James said, all fiction is somewhat autobiographical, one would expect there's some ordinary life crossover into fictional characters. Well, let's dive in:

Detective Cameron Ballack: As far as the name goes, this is a combination from two sources. Cameron is our son Joshua's middle name. Ballack is the surname of one of our favorite German soccer players, Michael Ballack, whose powerful leg brought Die Mannschaft many a goal. In temperament  Ballack turns out to be a combination of our son Joshua (for the brooding nature) and me (for the bizarre tendency to remember the smallest details).

Detective Tori Vaughan: Tori is carved out of Joshua's former home health nurse, Theresa Robinson. Like Tori in Litany of Secrets, Theresa got her nursing degree before going into the police force as a detective. Tori's personality is slightly different from Theresa's, but not by much, and there is still a lot of crossover--a determination that people not judge her for her working-class background, a supreme desire to overcome any barriers, and a devout Catholic faith.

Martin, Marie, and Jill Ballack: Without doubt, they would mirror myself, my wife Christy, and our daughter Lindsay. And the grave of Johann Christopher Ballack at the end represents that of our departed Jordan.

Other characters in minor roles:

Nicholas Panangiotis: The last name comes from a board member at the first school at which I served, but in terms of physical looks and action, Nicholas is meant to look like World Wrestling Entertainment star Dolph Ziggler. No kidding.

Marcus Curry: The lone black student at St. Basil's Seminary is much like former student Zach Hampton, an intelligent young man who knows how to stand alone and live life in an attraction manner. And be snarky at the right time.

Pastor Stuart: He is drawn from Rev. George Stulac, former pastor at Memorial Presbyterian Church, who graciously and wonderfully officiated the funeral of our Jordan. George retired last year and is the ultimate example of humility and grace over a long season of ministry (thirty-three years at Memorial!).

Father Timothy Birchall: Tall, imposing, wild curly hair. And the name similarity. Yes, Father Timothy strikes me as someone like former WWE star Paul Burchill, shown here (although skip to the 1:37 mark to see him sooner). 

Of course, the real question is, "Have any of your murder victims been like people in your past?"

And to that I say, no.

At least, not yet.

Divine and Human Creativity

The video above is well worth your time. P.D. James speaks at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 2013. The priest on stage with her, the Canon Rev. Michael Hampel (Precantor of St. Paul's), dialogues with her on how--as we are made in God's image--the creative energy and characteristics of God are found in the literary giftedness of humankind. Even if you don't agree with her on every particular detail, you'll find it a great talk. Carve out an hour of your day for this.

Writing, Faith, and the Attrition of the Latter

My friend Rich Smith dropped the first official question regarding my offer to do a loosely running interview in preparation for my upcoming book release this summer. In a previous post, I offered to take any question on writing, books, faith, life, etc. Granted that's a broad category, but Rich has always been up to ask good questions. His was on the issue of faith--a rather pointed concern in my writing, given that my protagonist Detective Cameron Ballack, is a skeptic himself.

Rich brought up the recent Pew Foundation research on religious affiliation and strength in the American landscape. I won't share all the details here because everyone is able to access the report elsewhere. But Rich did ask how I interpreted the multi-point decline of Americans identifying as Christian (linked to a rise of the "unaffiliated" who would claim no religious faith at all). He was especially interested how I viewed that in relation to what Jesus says in John 15:18-25.

Okay, I'm not sure I can give a full response in a short blog post, but in looking at the John passage, one can go either of two directions. Either the Pew research is tracking a natural flow of the secularization of American life in which some people are peeling out of Christianity, or this is evidence that there is a growing hatred of Christianity.

I think it could be both, but let me explain the second part. Perhaps what we're seeing here is a frustration on the part of some who have found their particular Christian tribe weighed in the balances and found wanting, that they haven't found the intellectual, moral, or community cohesion what it should be, so they look for it elsewhere. Personally, as a teacher in a Christian school, I'm running across more and more kids who are in these evangelical churches but are de facto deists, agnostics, or atheists and are keeping relatively quiet while on their Christian educational journey. And I find them to be very hungry, very precocious, and very engaging. It's just that people have to understand that the skepticism is not merely out there in Hollywood or Wall Street or the wider culture. It's in the pews of churches and Christian school chapels around the nation.

Rich also asked a second question: "How do you interpret the more granular data which shows evangelical churches growing in strength while mainline congregations dwindle?"

Good question, and maybe the Episcopal Church will still be functioning by the time I finish my answer (I say tongue-in-cheek). At first glance, the Pew study shows a slight decline in evangelical congregations, but there's some things it didn't include which Ed Stetzer--the irrepressible Yoda of missiology--tackled on CNN.com this past week. Here he points out that while we're seeing a great deal of mainline decline and even decline amongst evangelical denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention (in which Stetzer is a ordained pastor), these are balanced by the rise of the evangelical "nones". In the past couple of years, the number of nondenominational evangelicals have increased from around 12% to 25%, a staggering upshot. For those who survey using labels, some of these non-denoms can fly under the radar, and so although there's a significant amount of secularism at play in America and which won't be going away anytime soon, neither will the presence of those who claim evangelical faith.

In truth, that makes for a very interesting America. As America should be.

Hey...I've Got a Question!

Later this summer, it's quite likely the next volume in the Cameron Ballack Mystery series will be available. The Broken Cross will continue the story of our wheelchair-bound gumshoe as he blends logic and intuition while getting used to having more personnel as part of a larger team. That means the murders get nastier and the interpersonal relationships get more complex. 

The tapestry of greater St. Louis is still in full force, and as we begin at the Cathedral Basilica and move to the Drury Plaza at the Arch, to Fast Eddie's Bon Air in Alton, IL, to St. Vincent's Park for some Gaelic football and all places in between, the pace will not let up. It's a different sort of mystery, but readers should enjoy a consistently great story. 

Nonetheless, in the interest of promoting the book's release, I fully recognize some people still have questions. Some of them may revolve around some basics about writing: "How did you figure out what to write about?", "What's your writing routine?".

Or some question might revolve around my books themselves, like "Why these characters?", "Who do your people represent?", "Why St. Louis?"

Maybe you have some questions about the Christian faith and the art of storytelling. Perhaps you want to know where the whole storyline is headed. Maybe you have a question that doesn't fit in these categories.

To that end, I'm doing what I call "Build An Interview". Figuring my connections on social media might have the best queries because they've tended to read my stuff and get on my blog, this is open season. What you can do now is simply pose any question on writing/reading/faith/my books to me by responding here on my blog, via private message on Facebook, directly on my Facebook wall, or by tweeting me at @LukeHDavis, or to my email if you know it (I'm not slinging my email all over the public domain, though). The questions will be compiled and answered for however long they come in, and if you ask a truly unique one, I'll note your name as a bonus.

Let's build the interview, folks. What questions do you have for me?

Learning and Limits

Before you query any more deeply about the title, this is about technology.

You know, technology and its role in the classroom.

Like the use of iPads.

Yeah, something safe, designed to kick up no dust.

Well, let me preface this: I am sharing all this as an employee of a school where we have a growing iPad initiative in place. Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, we began to require--not without discussion--parents of entering seventh-graders to purchase iPads (or at least iPad Minis) for their children to use in the classroom. Also needed were the downloading of educational apps--both free and at cost to the families--which would be utilized as part of their educational experience here.

My purpose here today is not to ride the fine line of support and critique. The class levels using iPads have not risen to the place where I am having them as students, yet. So I can't say much for what the more widespread use of iPads and like digital technology brings to my classroom. I neither can nor will speak for my colleagues and their experience in trying to shuffle the deck and use iPads in their curriculum. I'd refer you directly to them if interested. It's only fair to let them speak for themselves.

However, as our daughter Lindsay began there as a seventh-grader this past year, I think I can speak as a parent-educator. Not to give a blanket endorsement nor scathing critique, but simply to say this: There are things that iPads can do and there are things they cannot do.

First, what they can do...

1. They can streamline materials, presentations, and transmission. And they do this quite well. I liked the idea of Lindsay having her math textbook downloaded on her iPad Mini rather than clunking around an 800-page monster rivaling War and Peace for denseness and my last meal for weight. Her presentations for projects in Bible and Geography classes could be ably entered onto Keynote. And ordinary vocabulary assignments could be completed on the iPad and sent to her teacher without the need of tracking paper. There's no doubt the iPad is more eco-friendly in that regard.
2. The iPad can encourage collaboration, and that helps students to see that education--as Socrates once said--is not the filling of a vessel, but a lighting of a flame. The more multi-sensory opportunities of the iPad can expand possibilities in the classroom, if managed effectively.
3. However, iPads can overwhelm and distract an already distracted and distractible student population. The sheer number of apps available can be more of a tidal wave than a manageable river at times. And a generation that is already addicted--yes, I went there...addicted to technology is having one more layer of white noise put into life's package. You're telling me that students aren't trying to multi focus, that they aren't playing games or doodling on their other apps when they should be paying close attention to class discussion of King of Mulberry Street? Yeah, tell it to the bull out back.
4. The iPad creates...nay, it mandates an additional layer of responsibilities for parents who must be watchful of what their child is putting on the iPad itself, be it pictures, memes, or whatever online sites are in their browsing history. We have to be very careful as schools in the message we are sending to conscientious parents who want their children to make responsible moral decisions in what goes from their eyes to their brains to their hearts and to their souls. Christy and I are watchful and check regularly, but I sense we're in the minority. And to be quite honest, it wears us out. Oh, what's that, you say? Your kid would never wander into questionable cyber-pastures? Because they go to a Christian school? Yeah, the bull is still out back.
5. The iPad can be a great drawing card for people who want a twenty-first century education for their child. (Of course, since we are technically in the 21st century, everyone is getting that kind of education...duh.) However, a school must give careful thought to how digital technology fits into the overall scope of the curriculum and the educational mission of the school. If the issue is competition with other schools--especially in private and independent education--then we must give pause. Eventually, teachers and parents will figure out if the reason you have iPads is to be able to tell prospective families that you have iPads. They're smart like that, you know.

And what iPads cannot do...
1. They cannot improve your attention span. The amount of information in the world doubles at a fairly rapid rate (every eighteen months, if I recall correctly...and IBM estimates we could hit a rate of every thirteen hours one day!), so I understand life doesn't slow down unless we are intentional about it. But don't expect tools like the iPad to help in that intentionality. Just saying.
2. They cannot give you a greater thirst for learning for learning's sake. No technological tool can do this. Occasionally, one might unlock some improvement and desire that was latent. But a student will learn more, apply truth more, and broaden their applicator wisdom better if that fire burns within them anyway. What an iPad can do here is so minimal here it is staggering.
3. By and large, they cannot make you a better reader or writer. More and more research is coming out about the differences between digital reading and the use of hard copy books. While people might read a higher volume of stuff with digital readers (Kindle, Nook, iPads with e-reading app, etc.), the ability to connect with previous locations in the book, prior quotes or events in a story, and in general the critical thinking skills that flower with deep reading skills truly grow and ferment well via the reading of traditional paper material. In a culture in which people read less and less (and in which some of my students can't remember the last time they read a book), we don't need to hamstring ourselves if that's what it might come to. And writing skills flourish best when students are expected to take notes and write responses by hand rather than typing
4. Technology cannot automatically make you a better critical thinker. You become a better thinker by reading, writing, and learning how to think. Yes, thinking is a skill that can be strengthened and improved. It can be taught. It can be learned. And there are ways to do this in schools (cough...teach Latin and logic in schools...cough). An iPad can take these strengths and help put them to use, but it is not substitute for a living flesh-and-blood human guiding someone through how to think well (for materials to help, go here).
5. And, an iPad will not make you a more moral soul, a more loving person, or an increasingly compassionate individual who has a concern for human flourishing. To do that, you need to be more attuned to looking others in the eyes and being drawn to their needs and soul thirsts.And to look other in the eyes, you need to get your eyes off digital devices. Just saying...

So, keep in mind this is not a diatribe. It's a call to sober judgment and careful discernment. Tools like the iPad can be very helpful in many areas. But they come with challenges, unanswered questions, and unintended consequences that we are obligated to navigate. No, I don't propose to remain a dinosaur myself, but I do have one final question.

Do we ever stop to think that we might desire to give our students what we didn't have that we forget to pass on to them what we did have?

Just one final question from me, a person who graduated from high school...before Google. I'd think that gives my thoughts some legitimacy.