Let the PSProject begin!
Over the next three months we’re going to take a journey of discovery together, going deeper into what it means to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom, into what it means to make the good news of salvation real and tangible in the here and now. Specifically, we’ll be pondering and practicing Kingdom speech. This won’t be an easy journey, but along the way we’ll experience the good news transforming us and giving us and those around us life. We’ll gain wisdom — “the expression of cumulated experience” — from what we go through and will thus have a story to share with others — about how Jesus is making a difference in our faith community, our individual lives, our attitudes, our speech and how he invites others to join in as well. Rather than just theory, we’ll have witness to share out of something we’re actually doing.
But before we pursue the good news, what’s the bad news? Well, it’s clear that speech and communication have been used for less than life-giving purposes. We humans use words to hurt, manipulate, gain the upper hand, humiliate, gossip, make fun, embarrass, degrade, devalue, lie, deceive, weaken, divide, serve our own ends. Words are powerful; we’ve all felt their power for both good and bad.
To quote JD from Scrubs, “Sticks and stones may breaks my bones … but words will hurt forever.”
Thus, according to professor Mark Love, “in an age of debased and abusive speech, the call of the Kingdom is to let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no.’ In contrast to gossip, slander, and other forms of speech that protect self-interest at the expense of others, praise and blessing fill the world with God’s life-giving word. Suggestive possibilities here include Paul’s description of his own speech in 2 Corinthians which seem to be tied to his experience of God’s resurrecting power, or the Psalms persistent claim that the throats of evildoers are open graves, while the righteous have the fruit of praise constantly on their lips. It would not be difficult to describe how this Kingdom way greatly contrasts with our own public discourse.”
This is our project, to seek to make the Kingdom value of praiseworthy speech a way of life. How should the paradigm of Jesus’ death and resurrection — of giving up power, privilege, and life in order to give life to others and to gain true life for ourselves — shape our speech? How would ‘dying to self’ change the way we communicate with people? How did Jesus use words and communication in his ministry? What does it mean to tell the truth? What kind of power do words have — to create, to destroy? How does praiseworthy speech require and create community? We’ll be thinking about these and other questions over the next few months. Here’s what our project will look like…
Summary of activities:
- Commitment & Practice. As a team and individuals we’re committing to practice praiseworthy speech. That was an obvious one, wasn’t it? See below for more on making the commitment.
- Reflection Papers. We’ll be writing one-page reflection papers about every other week, including…
- Description of personal commitment to project
- Reflection on PS as evidenced in life & ministry of Jesus and in death & resurrection of Jesus
- How PS is or isn’t evident in our cultural context (Czech and/or American).
- How does this way of life require and create community. What kind of community does PS create?
- Find a conversation partner (song lyric, poem, short story, movie clip, etc.) that (even if secular) has a connection with speech, the use of the tongue, the power of words. Reflect on it for five days during one week. Think of it as stream of consciousness conversation — start with the source and let it take you wherever you go. Type thoughts for each day.
- Reading materials. We’ll alternate our reflection papers with readings related to PS. These may include…
- “Tell Me About Yourself: What Is Language?,” from Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics by Marcel Danesi, 65-90.
- “Talking Ourselves Into Being Christians,” from Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian by Thomas G. Long, 3-20.
- “Sunday Words,” from Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian by Thomas G. Long, 39-63.
- “Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk,” from Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian by Thomas G. Long, 89-108.
- “Taking Time for Fluency,” from Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age by Brad J. Kallenberg, 65-89.
- Two sections (Scripture: The Story We Enact // Worship: The Story Reenacted) in “How Then Should We Live?,” from Seeking a Lasting City: The Church’s Journey in the Story of God by Mark Love, Douglas A. Foster, and Randall J. Harris, 187-190 // 194-200.
- Two sections from Beth Moore’s study book Believing God, one about the power of words and the other about how we receive words whether good or bad, true or untrue.
- Portions of Liberating Evangelism: Gospel, Theology, and the Dynamics of Communication by Stephen K. Pickard.
- Various portions of Scripture, specifically chapters from Ephesians and Colossians.
- Discussions. We’ll try to take a few minutes during our Friday prayer times to discuss our reflections, readings, and how the PSProject is going in general. How it is difficult? How it is good news? Plus, feel free to discuss these things at any time, not just on Friday mornings.
- Blog quotes & reflections. Twice a week we’ll be posting various quotes related to PS / the tongue / the power of words to create & destroy / communication. In addition, we’ll be posting some of our personal reflections and notes.
- Accountability. It can be easy to forget from day to day that we’re supposed to be practicing praiseworthy speech. So, let’s commit to remind each other and hold each other accountable. When Graham and I participated in a similar project (ours was focused on peace) in our Narrative Evangelism class at ACU, whenever one of us would say or do something which wasn’t peaceful, the other would say, “I’m not at peace with that.” It was a light-hearted way to call the other back into focus. Perhaps we could have similar phrases for each other, both positive and negative: “Now that’s praiseworthy!” OR “I can’t praise that!”
- Lord’s Prayer. Try to say the Lord’s Prayer at least once every day. May it shape our attitudes and our speech. May His Kingdom come and His will be done — in our lives, in Olomouc, in the world.
Other possibilities for bonus points… 
- Worship. Feel free to incorporate PS into our worship times together.
- PSPresentation. Our group’s final assignment for the peace project at ACU was to put together a presentation to share the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection as it is taking shape in our community’s life via a specific Kingdom practice. We used multimedia, testimonies, drama, handouts, etc. to share our story with others in a coffeehouse atmosphere. It was intended to start the conversation (rather than ending it), inviting others to join us in the discussion of how to best embody this Kingdom value in our communities. We could consider doing something similar at the end of our project.
First assignment — One-page commitment paper.
Finally, here’s your first assignment. Reflect over the next few days about what praiseworthy speech is and how you want to embody it in your life. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to just words — communication includes tone, gestures, expressions, writing, etc. After pondering the project, write a one-page paper describing your commitment to pursue this practice over the next few months. Feel free to come back to this paper and edit it as our project progresses; our various readings and discussions may bring new insights.
I think it’s going to be a good and transformative few months! May God be with us.
Word,
Mitch
P.S. To see more about our Peace Project at ACU and to see some of my reflection papers, check out the following links on my blog — post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4.