M7 Audio Tracks

For those who were at M7, interested in M7, or interested in the emerging workshops there you can now (finally) download the mp3's here, along with all other workshops. You'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page. Or you can follow these links to the emerging church workshops I hosted.

Panel Discussion: Tim Keel, Tim Conder, Mike King, Jon Middendorf, Jim Wicks, Sean Heston - What is Emergent?
Tim Conder - Missional Approaches to Leadership
Tim Conder - The Church in Transition
Tim Keel and Mike King - Emerging Spirituality
Tim Keel - Reckoning with Intuition: Rediscovering Imagination and Releasing Creativity in the Local Church
Jon Middendorf - Emerging Theology

Update on my Question

Some people from our church joined in the recent Amaroho Africa trip. Mike King, Tim Keel and others went and shared on Sunday. Mike's also been blogging quite a bit on his trip, as has Brian McLaren.

Some of their conversation ties directly to my posts about post-colonialism and who is involved in our emerging conversations here in States. I think Brian's post here is particularly timely and obviously is directly speaking to some of my questions.

Flat Earth: Many Bumps Part 4 of 4

This is the end of this small series of thoughts.

Post Colonialism

There is a growing number of people who are desperately seeking to share the gospel and the kingdom in a post-colonial world and way. They are digging through the remnants of people scarred and burned by the colonial way and are trying to re-imagine together a new way of embracing where God is already at work, sharing the story that unites us and to tell it in ways that not only fit the culture, but come out of the culture. For people in different global areas this looks differently and the language is different, but perhaps the hearts of the questions are not so different.

For those of us who find ourselves on the colonial side, we too are feeling the effects of our people’s heritage. We see the carnage left behind and some of us at least are truly sorry, saddened and sickened. We also feel the effects of colonialism in our own culture and world. As we see and experience this post-modern world changing us and the cultures in which we live and move and find our being, we want to re-approach the ways and whys of church. The problem you see is that the method and model have worked before and if it isn’t working now, then it can’t be the model that’s broken it must be the culture that its in. Therefore, the obvious solution is that the culture must change and be formed back into the mold and model that the colonial church has deemed best. Enter the west into the post-colonial new day!

Lots of Bumps

The west and the non-west have not exactly conformed to this colonial model. Whether you find yourself in the East, South or West, you see that everywhere are peoples who are NOT fitting into this dropped in model. Not only are they not fitting into this model, they are not understanding it and increasingly reacting against it. This is not just a reaction to church done the colonial way, it is a reaction to almost every colonial system from government to economics to society.

The reactions however are not uniform, as could be expected from different people shaped by different histories informed by different philosophies and relationships. The reactions and the many sub-cultures that have arisen out of these reactions have created many bumps on this flat world. While we may truly be as connected as ever, able to share more than ever, we are also able to affirm our individualism and connect with others around our specific interests, dreams and passions.

This has created a world in which many of us belong to many different sub-cultures. These groups of people that we identify with only with certain parts of our lives have created a decrease in the value of money and possessions and an increase in the value of true relationships and community. We have become spread so thin among our own many identities and our many sub-groups that anyone who we can trust with the “whole me” is a true friend. The new gold rush may indeed be the running of people, not toward the west, but toward authentic relationships and the places where these just might be found.

The church finds itself in an interesting place in this new bumpy world. There is a desire among some to represent the church as truly the one-stop shopping place for the many sub-cultures to gather and find identity under one umbrella. This would be a move to reclaim the model of broadcasting one message to the masses.

There is also a desire among others to find more and more ways to narrowcast the message of the gospel to each sub-culture, each group in the language and ways of that sub-culture helping it identify the places where God is already at work in their midst and inviting them to live this out in its completion in Christ.

A Convergence?

There’s an interesting convergence developing here. There is a growing number of people who are trying to re-imagine church and faith in this new post-colonial world. These groups often find themselves centered around their attempts to communally live an authentic life of faith. Insert these evolving communities into this flat world full of small bumps of sub-cultures and you have a unique synergy.

The challenge for the emerging church in this new world is many fold. First, they are about finding their own identity apart from just deconstructing and NOT being what was before. Second, they are challenged to continually ask the important missionary questions that would not bring their favorite model of ministry to the place where they find themselves, but would rather identify the work of God in the place where they find themselves and begin to embrace that. Finally, as they develop and grow they must not fall into a neo-colonial mindset, where they begin to teach others that the only right way is their way.

An invitation

I’m writing this a bit as a reporter, a bit as a truth teller and bit as someone trying to re-imagine this new life in this new world. It seems to me that we in the Christian community, attempting to incarnate the gospel wherever it is we find ourselves, should be sharing our stories with one another, challenging each other to discover the missionary questions that we are asking as we find friendship in the little bumps that our millions of sub-cultures provide, and working hard to be authentic people involved in authentic relationships for the sake of authentic relationships.

This is an open invitation to whomever might want to join in this conversation centered around the gospel in a new and developing world. Whether you find yourself on the front, slippery edge of this world, trying to get your footing and yet somehow moving forward at a break-neck pace, or find yourself perhaps identifying more with the colonial or anywhere in between, we want to come together.

We must come together and commit to one another so that we can somehow find out past and our future in redemptive, Jesus-like ways. We must come together and commit to one another so that we can actually be the gospel.

Flat Earth Part 3

This is part 3 of 4. If you're following along at all, your contributions in the way of comments are incredibly helpful to me.

Globally Speaking

In matters of church and religion, those of us who have grown up in the west have not truly experienced the massive oppression that colonialism brings. Perhaps we’ve felt the remnants (more on this in a bit), but mostly we’ve just enjoyed being a part of the WE and perhaps from time to time thanked God for bringing us into life as a WE and not a THEM. If we were extra strong in our faith and love of others we might even pray for THEM from time to time as well, hoping that THEY would be able to experience our model, adapt to it, see the error and foolishness of their ways and come around to the good kind of living. Rare was the person who realized that the model of WE might not actually be the best model for THEM and that the model of WE might actually harm THEM if forced upon them and might actually even harm THEM if WE continued to live it ourselves, after all it had worked for us, right?!?!

A great example of the struggle in this is the story of St. Patrick. George Hunter has a great book on St. Patrick, “The Celtic Way of Evangelism”, relating it to today that I highly recommend as background reading to this. The bottom line here is that Patrick went to Ireland and instead of bringing with him a specific model of how to “do church” he instead came as a missionary looking and listening for the places God was already at work in the people that he and his band went to share life with. Out of this kind of looking and listening approach Patrick taught first one tribe and eventually hundreds of others how to see God in what they were already involved in, to share the story that unites them all and to tell it in the ways that not only fit their culture and life but came out of their culture and life. Instead of assuming that he brought God with him to this place (as in colonialism), he started with the assumption that God was already at work there. As the church grew exponentially in Ireland the Roman Catholic Church from which Patrick drew his education, tradition, ordination and beginning resources, took great notice. What it noticed was that their model was not being taught, replicated or explained. This was a problem and eventually became a very large one for the Celtic church and for Patrick. In a way colonialism “won” that round, but perhaps has lost the war.

Globally this kind of “gospel share,” by inserting our better people, traditions, methods and models on others, has been wide spread. In matters of the church it has been the dominate model of “missionary” work. Again, this model is hard but potentially satisfying for the US and not so great for THEM. This kind of Jesus imposed has not been well accepted, nor has this church which claims to want to share Him.

Questions
I wonder in what ways has colonialism shown itself in the world you live in?

In what ways have you seen it do "good"? Are there any?

In what ways have we seen its harm? Please expand your comments above just "spiritual" things.

Does re-imaging any of this lead us only to a "new and improved colonialism"? In other words are we only going to re-do this pattern with a different model OR can we truly set a new course?

My hair

Today brought to you by... Tim Evans!

I'm at Southern Nazarene University for their regional youth event. It's a great event, tons of high school and middle school kids everywhere. I'm doing some NYI meetings, including meeting with all coordinators and presidents about NYC.

They have very graciously put me up in an Alumni house. Because it's a whole house, I don't get it all to myself, I share it with two other guys, JD Sailors and Tim Evans. We each have our own bedroom and Tim and I have to share a bathroom.

Now for the fun/awkward part... because I usually have to stay in hotels and because of the airlines saying you can only bring a pinch of any liquid (which by the way is a load, because for the fourth straight time flying I've accidentally forgotten to take a bottle of contact solution out of my bag and they've said nothing) I don't bring my own shampoo. The house where I'm staying doesn't provide any either. Thankfully, Tim Evans had taken a shower before me and left his shampoo in there. So while I probably won't say a word to his face, I will publicly thank him here on my blog for making my clean hair a possibility today!

Update 11:00pm - I'm back to the room and Tim has left! I have to get up early tomorrow and go to airport and long meetings all day... what shall my hair do?

Update 4:30am - For those of you who have been up and worried about my serious situation... I discovered a small bottle of shampoo from a hotel I had visited a while back that has been in my suitcase for at least 2 months. So worry no more for my hair, but worry a lot for our airport security.

Flat Earth Pt. 2

As many of us have read, seen, experienced and realized, the world truly is getting flatter. In fact it may already be almost flat again. Of course I’m not talking about geography, but rather sociologically and economically. We can truly know more about one another than ever before in the history of our planet. We can be friends with people who we have never or rarely ever see. We can pick up a mobile phone and be in touch with someone on the other side of the world. We can share information about life, business, and of course ourselves. With this growing interaction and knowledge share comes a growing standardization of sorts. This is not a standardization in the way everyone must be the same, but rather in the way that everyone knows about everyone else and we’re all okay. This knowledge share has created a lack of surprise and mystery in our world. We know about other cultures and how they speak, what they wear, what they think, how they worship, and how they dress.

As communication and information have flattened the world, the converse is true of what this effect has created among people. Instead of becoming more and more like each other, or swarming to a specific people group and conforming ourselves to that mold or pattern, we have instead connected to many people groups based solely on our personal interests. It has created not fewer groups of people that are more homogenous, but more people groups that are diversified. In other words the flat world has many bumps.

It seems to me that the flat world has encouraged, nay, embraced, nay, necessitated the constant creation and destruction of people groups as they gather together (dare I say glob) around particular interests, passions and dreams. This is also seen clearly in religion and church. People glob to an area or ministry that they enjoy, relate to, or feel will meet their need. They will then glob to another area or ministry that “scratches a different itch” so to speak, but rarely with the same people or community. This has created not a multiplication of people groups, but an exponential explosion of people groups who experience, effect, and evaluate the world in more ways that we could possibly try to measure.

Colonialism

To cut to the heart of this particular thought, and to make a rash generalization, when it comes to sharing the gospel with the world, the church has adopted the model that it will find something successful and teach its “stars” to replicate this model and then drop the model, the methodology and the “stars” into wherever they want to create the same results. It’s simple, find the model, find a need, drop the model on the need and surprise, surprise you get a winner every time. It is however not the gospel we are sharing but our thoughts and beliefs on the gospel. It is colonialism.

Of course as with all models, behind them lies some kind of ideology. There is this sense, whether spoken or not, in colonialism that WE have a better way of doing things and WE want you to learn them and be like us and WE will show you how. It is quite simply put arrogant.

This kind of “gospel sharing” tends to be a bit more popular if you belong to the WE, that is those who are bringing the model, those who have the answers. It’s not so great if you are one of THEM to whom the model and methodology are coming. When you belong to THEM it simply doesn’t matter what you think, what you do well, or what you may be dreaming, because the answer to it all lies with those who belong to the WE. WE are certain that what you have really been longing for, hoping for, dreaming for, is to become like WE.

Flat Earth: Many Bumps Pt. 1

This is Part 1 of what will probably end up 4 parts.

I have been thinking a lot about the global nature of some of the emerging church conversation. Dave and I have been going back and forth on whether this is truly a global conversation, or whether it’s an anomaly to the white suburban church. This is particularly important to me because of the global nature of our Nazarene church, the global nature of my growing worldview, and the global nature, I believe, of the gospel.

The Disconnect

The disconnect lies in the many, many conversations that I’ve found myself involved with here in the U.S. They all seem to be full of educated, white males who are trying in some way to both deconstruct the church of their past or even their now and are trying to live into a church that they dream of. In and of itself this is not a bad thing. I truly do believe that it’s worth following the Scriptural mandate to “Test everything. Hold onto the good.” It’s simply Christian to test everything and keep testing everything.

In the process of thinking and testing many have come to the conclusion that the world is continuing to change, especially in this postmodern era, and that the church is failing at its missional core of asking missionary questions of the culture and the church and so there grows a disconnect between the culture and the church. Instead of embracing the models and methodology of the past (and perhaps ideology and theology as well), they are choosing instead to dream again of what God might want for the church to do and be in the context in which they find themselves. All of this is good stuff, generally speaking, because it is indeed testing everything and seeking to hold onto the good. It is an attempt to strip the methodology and models away and get back to the missionary questions that engage both the church and the culture in the gospel and the kingdom!

But if this truly is a conversation about re-imagining the present and the future asking these kinds of missionary questions, how come all of us in these conversations are educated, white, middle class guys?

1. I would theorize that there are a couple of options to this answer:1) This is truly only a conversation for those who can afford to have it. Meaning because we have financial resources to survive without the old we don’t mind kicking it around a bit, much the way a teenager kicks around the safest person they know (usually their parents) because they know somewhere deep inside that they may be the only people who would take it and keep on caring.
2. There are more people interested in the conversation, but they haven’t really been invited.
3. There are other people having the same kinds of conversation, but using different language and different avenues.
4. There are other people having the same kinds of conversation and we just haven’t really bumped into each other yet.
5. This is a conversation that has turned back into an issue of methodology and models which is the issue that always seems to push different people groups apart and never brings them together.
   

May we never forget...

On the road again...

I've been and will be on the road again...
- Just returned from St. Louis, lots of successful and good meetings. That's good!
- Also on that trip met up with some new friends from Lutheran Church Missouri synod. Terry and Mark are youth ministry guys over there. Good times freezing our keisters off at the Cardinals game.
- This week we have our big "speaker summit". We're brining all of our speakers for NYC in and spending two days going over everything, refining, fitting pieces together, etc. Please pray for this exciting time. Pray for God's unity in Spirit and purpose in the room as we try to make this a great event for the "kid in the seat"!
- Then its on to Oklahoma City to visit my friends at SNU.
- Then back to St. Louis.
- Then home to KC, but will be at MNU for a day
- Then to Nampa, Idaho and friends at NNU.

If anyone is reading from any of these spots and would like to meet up, give me a holla...

Traveling in my mind to...
- My friends at Adsideo in Portland. They are just up to some good things and my heart and prayers are with them lately.
- Emergent Theological Conversation in Philly - going to be great. Trying to find a way there.

In my heart God is...
- kicking my butt on this slavery issue.
- Heard some great sermons (especially last Sundays!) on slavery at the Well then saw Amazing Grace. God is up to something in me.

Working on...
- A paper and seminar on Missionary Ministry in the Model of Patrick: Raising up leaders amongst the bumps on our flat earth... or something like that.

Ah, to be a "Christian"

I was watching the new NBC show by Conan O'Brien and his ex-sidekick Andy. Andy is the star and you can download the pilot for free on i-tunes. In the pilot, there is a great joke made in passing. Andy's just started his own CPA firm and has moved into a store front in a plaza with other stores. One of the other stars of the show, who owns the video store with no customers, be-friends him and is showing him around the plaza. He says, "Don't park in front of the Christian book store. They'll tow you."

Ah, to be "one of those Christians".

My eldest daughter has a friend over this last week. The friend brings with her some of her CD's for them to maybe listen to. On the car ride to our house, after picking up her friend, Meg looks through the CD's and says, "I don't know any of these but I'm pretty sure that my mom isn't going to let me listen to this one." (It's a Brittany Spears CD with her half-naked on the cover. Also remember that these girls are 9.) The friend says, "Oh, its okay, she's a Christian." To which my daughter replies, "Just because she says she is a Christian doesn't make her one. Lot's of people say that and it doesn't make it so. If we never act like a Jesus and claim that we are Christians, it doesn't make it true."

Later my daughter received a huge hug from me.

Futurist

My amigo and compadre (and also new daddy) Josh and I were emailing a bit today. I think he was asking me some questions out of his blog post which is great, but I had not yet read. We got to talking/emailing about openness and change... here are some questions I landed on and thought I'd throw them out...

Erwin McManus calls himself a “futurist” with the understanding that he is just telling people where they are right now and because everyone (especially the church) is constantly looking at where they have been, his comments seem “futuristic”.

What would it take for us to be real and aware? Is this called relevance or something else?

What personally do we fight to do so? Corporately? Systemically?

I wonder if Jesus wasn't the perfect model of being aware and real. He was... "I AM" in flesh.

I know personally I fight fear of failure and change and vulnerability a lot.

Corporately I think we fight the urge to want to make sure we're all okay and people still really like us. I don't think that we are committed enough to one another most times to be truly honest with each other. And while this can come across as being "nice", I actually think its one of the shallowest ways to be together because it constantly avoids honesty and confrontation. It seems to me that we grow and change and come together only at that point of vulnerability and reality. But again that's scary.

Systemically I think we fight our memory as much as anything. And I also must point out that our memory ain't so great most times. We remember what we choose to celebrate or fear most and forget the rest. I'm not at all for tossing where we've come from, rather I'm all for being faithful to that by pushing ahead, just like most of them did. And by the way, a lot of people aren't going to like us for doing it. There's also a sense here where systems seek equilibrium and the things that are in the "now" somehow tip that.

God help us to faithfully proclaim what you've given us to proclaim, whether through word or flesh or both.

Great People

I've been in St. Louis since last Friday morning early. It's been a good time with our volunteer core team, but incredibly busy and intense. This project is huge and I've found myself pausing at its massive scope quite often lately. I was reminded this weekend that God has been great to me by bringing great people into my life.

Perhaps one of the greatest currencies of our time is friendship. Thanks to so many of you for making me rich!

Chinese New Year Celebration

We went to a Chinese New Year Celebration on Saturday night with some great friends, Ed and Ansie Marquette. They are always so generous and so kind. They are also great people.

We took the whole family and had a great time. It was more of a performance celebrating the new year as the Chinese often do. The Chinese New Year is celebrated like Christmas is here in the States. There were a lot of dances and songs, great outfits and of course a little martial arts. Highlights from the kids were the butterfly dance (Kate), the lion dance (Meg), the Shaolin Shadow Boxing (Jahred) and the Sword demonstration (Isaiah).

There were some funny kid moments - Jahred leaned over and whispered to me that he had seen someone who "looked like they have Billy Bob teeth in"... but those were real teeth. To which I responded, "thanks for not saying that out loud... and thanks for telling me!"

Raging Bhull

I'm trying a change of names to the old blog. Not a particularly good reason, just feel like it.

Some of my co-workers at NYI thought that this would be a good title to my memoirs one day. Pretty funny if you ask me. This one's for you RJ!

M7

We had a great week at M7... making friends, telling stories, throwing parties and giving gifts.

Making Friends... it was just overwhelming to see the turnout at all of our emergent workshops and to meet so many great people who are also Nazarenes and are also on this journey of asking missionary questions in their culture. From my new friends in Canada, to the west coast, to the east coast and everywhere in between, it was great to meet you and spend time thinking and talking and eating together (you've gotta eat right??) I also want to thank all the presenters - Jim Wicks, Sean Heston, Tim Conder, Tim Keel, Mike King, and Jon Middendorf. Thanks for being you!

Telling Stories... over food, over coffee and of course during the in-between sessions and workshops time. Good people are doing great things all over!

I also had the privilege of sharing some stories of Jesus at our party Monday night. I talked about Jesus two miracles of feeding - 5000 and 4000, with special attention to the location of these miracles and the number of baskets left (land of the 12- 12 baskets; land of the 7 - 7 baskets). I also told the story of Jesus quiting the storm in the context of the things we fear the most. The theme of the stories was "calling" and what Jesus has called us to in following Him.

Throwing Parties... We threw two distinctly different parties both geared for college aged students (props to the 700+ college students there). Both nights we had the Jacob's Well band perform and both nights we were in Grace and Holy Trinity church in downtown KC. What an awesome space!! (another post on that to come I'm sure) Monday night was more of a church service, very similar to what goes on at Jacob's Well on a typical Sunday. Tuesday night was a prayer service and was lead by various people including some folks from the 24-7 prayer movement. It was also a great time.

Giving Gifts... we did give a few gifts, but we also recieved some great gifts like...
- people's participation - the emergent workshops were the best attended of all the workshops at M7. This clearly says that people are hungry for more information and more conversation.
- people's voices - not only were the workshops well attended, but people were so engaged. The conversation was rich!
- graciousness - we had several guests including Tim Keel, Tim Conder and Mike King and they were graciously recieved
- visitors - the conference was open to one and all and we had several who were form no tribe or different tribes than us Nazbos there and we are better for your presence

If you were there please drop a comment on your experience. We missed some of you quite a bit who couldn't be there.

M7

We had a great week at M7... making friends, telling stories, throwing parties and giving gifts.

Making Friends... it was just overwhelming to see the turnout at all of our emergent workshops and to meet so many great people who are also Nazarenes and are also on this journey of asking missionary questions in their culture. From my new friends in Canada, to the west coast, to the east coast and everywhere in between, it was great to meet you and spend time thinking and talking and eating together (you've gotta eat right??) I also want to thank all the presenters - Jim Wicks, Sean Heston, Tim Conder, Tim Keel, Mike King, and Jon Middendorf. Thanks for being you!

Telling Stories... over food, over coffee and of course during the in-between sessions and workshops time. Good people are doing great things all over!

I also had the privilege of sharing some stories of Jesus at our party Monday night. I talked about Jesus two miracles of feeding - 5000 and 4000, with special attention to the location of these miracles and the number of baskets left (land of the 12- 12 baskets; land of the 7 - 7 baskets). I also told the story of Jesus quiting the storm in the context of the things we fear the most. The theme of the stories was "calling" and what Jesus has called us to in following Him.

Throwing Parties... We threw two distinctly different parties both geared for college aged students (props to the 700+ college students there). Both nights we had the Jacob's Well band perform and both nights we were in Grace and Holy Trinity church in downtown KC. What an awesome space!! (another post on that to come I'm sure) Monday night was more of a church service, very similar to what goes on at Jacob's Well on a typical Sunday. Tuesday night was a prayer service and was lead by various people including some folks from the 24-7 prayer movement. It was also a great time.

Giving Gifts... we did give a few gifts, but we also recieved some great gifts like...
- people's participation - the emergent workshops were the best attended of all the workshops at M7. This clearly says that people are hungry for more information and more conversation.
- people's voices - not only were the workshops well attended, but people were so engaged. The conversation was rich!
- graciousness - we had several guests including Tim Keel, Tim Conder and Mike King and they were graciously recieved
- visitors - the conference was open to one and all and we had several who were form no tribe or different tribes than us Nazbos there and we are better for your presence

If you were there please drop a comment on your experience. We missed some of you quite a bit who couldn't be there.

M7

I've been getting geared up for M7 which is Monday - Wednesday. It's a Millenial conference (whatever that means) and is basically a chance to get Nazbo's together during the lull between the quadrennial General Assemblies. It happens to be here in Kansas City this year.

OK, now let me tell you what's going to be interesting. There are 200+ workshops over 2 days offered and among them will be some "Emerging Church" workshops that we are hosting. I'm really excited about some of the folks we've invited and who'll be joining us: Tim Keel (Jacob's Well), Tim Conder (Emmaeus Way), and Mike King (YouthFront) will all be joining us. We also have some great youth workshops that we are doing. Put that together with the 700+ college kids that are coming and two late night worship experiences that we are helping pull together (Mike Crawford & Jacob's Well worship folks!!!) and we should have for some late nights, good conversations, new friends, stories told and general chaos.
If you are going to be there be sure to try to look me up. If you are a blogger and going to be there be sure to drop me a comment here and we can connect stories throughout.

...faith, hope and love... the kingdom of God...

It seems to me that we oftentimes sell ourselves short. We talk so often about what we are going to give up, surrender, confess, release. But we forget that for most of us, in order to let go of the rope that we so desperately (and sometimes foolishly) cling to, we have to be jumping for something else that we can hold on to.

It seems to me that forgiveness often works this way. We can't let go of the anger, fear, and pain we feel about someone, unless we are able to begin to live into a new kind of relationship with them that we can picture, can dream (if only distantly); a relationship of forgiveness, redemption, hope and love. This is the beauty in the words and life of Christ. He didn't come just to free us from darkness. He came to be light. If we live into this life of Christ, we too become light.

To begin with, this way of Jesus is more than just things we DO NOT do or be. The way of Jesus is not an absentee way, a way of void, a way of nothing - no laughter, no fun, no pain, no joy, no sorrow, no weakness, no desire, no mystery, no action. The way of Jesus is in fact a way... and I would argue that it is the best way... to live life full of laughter, fun, pain, joy, sorrow, weakness, desire, mystery, action and more. It's more than just letting go of the things that are "bad".

There is no doubt that for all of us we have parts of our way of life that are "bad". Perhaps these are addictions, reactions, bad habits, open wounds of the soul that we desperately try to protect. Whatever they may be they are certainly things that don't help us or those we love. These are not things that might bring us closer and more deeply into the mystery and love of God. We all have them. We all know that they are "bad". I can name mine (at least the ones I notice right now, perhaps my wife given the chance could enlighten us all further). You can name yours. Letting these things go is a good thing. Stopping these things that hurt us and others is a good thing, a right choice. But if we truly were able to stop all the bad things that we do, to NOT sin, where would we be?

If I might borrow from the Biblical story, I'd argue that we are back to Adam. We are back to the beginning. And that's only IF we could on our own stop doing those things, let go of them completely. But as in the case of Adam and Eve, even IF we did let go of these things, we would choose to go back to them or another thing that would center our lives solely on ourselves, harming others, disrupting our souls, separating us from the things that are lovely, good and pure.

To simply let go of something is not enough. We must begin to live into the kingdom of God. This means that when I do give my "sin" (those things that separate me from others and God) to God because I cannot get rid of it on my own, that I have to keep going and begin to live into this way of Jesus.

What is this "way of Jesus", this "kingdom of God" that you are talking about? While I cannot describe it fully here, I can tell that it involves love for yourself, for others, for all of creation and for God in ways that are beyond us. And this love is not just a "down in my heart" kind of love. It is a love of action, of movement, of concern, of desperation, of help, of presence. It is a love that none of us have fully in us. It is a love that we begin to experience as we try out this way of Jesus, but also one that we LIVE INTO as we practice this way.

The thing is... we cannot do this alone. We can't live into this life separated from everyone else. We have to be connected to not just God, but to each other, to our neighbor next door, our neighbor half a world away, our brother, our sister, our enemy, our friend.

This is the kind of life that I'm trying to "live into". It is a life that I fully believe is worth living. It is a life like no other.

So join me in

letting go... and picking up;
walking away from something... and towards another;
breathing out... and breathing in
dying to self... and living into the Way of Christ.

To close I offer an invitation from Shakespeare, "Come take hands with me and let us shake the ground whereupon these sleepers be."

Seen it all

As I mentioned last week, I was in Louisville for the entire week at the Religious Conference and Meetings Association Conference. It is about as complicated and odd as it sounds. There are indeed some useful seminars amidst the glut of others, but that's not what I want to share with you about.

To give an example of the oddness of this conference, let me share this story. For the opening ceremony, the room grew dark, the stage colorfully lit on a relatively plainly curtained stage. Out come singer/dancers dressed in glittery costumes singing their original song about RCMA's 35 years. It would have been great... in 1974 (the year I was born). Jenny who was sitting next to me, said, "is it always like this?" Then she asked me if would be rude to take a picture with her phone to send to a friend. I told her they would take it as a compliment. But I digress...

To continue to paint a picture of the crowd and style of the conference, I should point out the "night of entertainment" artist. Before I tell you this year's choice, let me reveal the last two years performers: Shirley Jones and last year, Ben Vereen. This year in a decided move to the youth they brought in Wayne Newton. Rumor has it that they got him at half his going rate (which is also rumored at over $100,000) because he "can't really sing anymore". But again I digress...

I consider myself to be quite fortunate in that I've been able to see a lot in my life. I've seen big spectacles and little ones. I've been able to travel to almost all parts of this fine country and several others. But none of this prepared me for what I witnessed at the grand gala on Thursday night of RCMA. And while I thought I had seen it all, I consider my boss to have seen more (including I HAVE to add, Twister Sister Christmas Concert at Disney... a sure sign of the apocalypse). But none of his life had prepared him for this night either.

I will humbly try to describe the scene to you. Out comes a Mariachi style band. They wore the leather jackets with fringes on the sleeves, the sombreros and the tight leather pants. They were all from the same family. They started with a festive Mexican sounding song or two including some odd but slightly amusing crowd participation. They continued on into a set of German beer drinking music - getting odder. Then they broke out into an Irish, "Lord of the Dance" type routine - getting odder. They proceeded to do some Italian songs, a "stomp" dance routine, they threw in a patriotic set including "God Bless America" and then pushed into some kind of football helmet wearing, marching band, something. If this picture seems hard to describe and harder even to comprehend, then I'm probably getting you close to a taste of the show. Bizarre is a word to use. Bad is another. I finally settled on distrurbing as the word to use.

As I believe I mentioned the oddness of the RCMA crowd, I'll give them some credit. Once the German music hit a good third bolted immediately. Another third of us stayed in shock in awe not able to tear our eyes away from the carnage. Another third would be like the gentleman sitting next to me, gleefully awaiting the next preposterous change in music or dance, mesmerized by the "skills" of this group (the person who booked this musical group undoubtedly fell into this type of people). It was an oddly fitting cap to the week at RCMA.

I have vowed to never again utter the phrase, "just when you've seen everything", because frankly I'm sure now that I haven't.

"Crappage"

We are trying to help our kids think about the words they use (I know, "why the departure for your children Brian?"). Anyway, Isaiah has been saying "crap" lately to refer to things he doesn't like. Carol has told him to stop saying that word. So the other day she asked him to get some trash from downstairs and bring it up. He referred to it as "crappage". Carol asked, "what did you just say." "Crappage, mom. I did not say crap." We believe this to be a combination of "crap" and "garbage".

While I'll admit I should be a bit embarrassed or something, there is no doubt a bit of pride in his creativity of language at such an early age. It is true that I will someday probably regret my joy at this moment, but for now that's a bunch of crappage.