India Day ??? (May 15)

Dad used to talk about Donovan Ing, pastor of one of the largest churches in Hong Kong. Dad met Donovan while in the UK, when Donovan was a student at an IPHC bible college and Dad was a guest lecturer. The college was small, of no repute, and Dad felt like the whole thing was likely of little kingdom value.

Until Donovan started his church and grew it to over 5,000 in just a few short years. He credits his success to Dad's week-long class on church leadership. Now, Donovan supports Dad's mandarin-speaking congregation in Canada.

I guess you never really know what kind of impact your work overseas will have.

Yesterday i spent all day with a small of group of pastors, evangelists, and missionaries teaching them about apologetics, scripture, and the way of Jesus. Afterwards, when it was already late at night and the power to the city had been lost for the third time, i went with pastor Lal and visited every single member in his church at their homes and prayed for them.

What a day.

I kept thinking "i've got to get some rest...i'm exhausted." And then we'd go to the next house, pray for the next family, and i'd think "that was worth it...these people are worth it...this is worthwhile."

I feel like i've been a good encouragement to these people. I've given a bunch of money away and a bunch of gifts away, to the missionaries and pastors...but they tell me the teaching and training i gave them was far more valuable.

I'm not sure i believe them, but it is cute to hear them refer to themselves as Peter, James, and John to my Jesus.

Lord, forgive me :)

Pastor Lal is doing a good work here. He supports 5 missionaries out of his own paycheck and has good inroads to local universities and businesses. He is well liked and well connected. Our money is well invested with him.

I'm not yet sure about whether or not we could bring a team here, though. Mostly because of the cost. He would make good use of us, and it would be a good experience for our people, but i'm not yet convinced it would be a better experience that we might have in SA or Haiti, etc.

Today i fly to Aurangubad and meet Suresh. Pastor Lal says Suresh is hardcore, and will take me waaaaay out into the middle of nowhere to minister to the villagers and country folk.

Please, God, let there be no spiders.

Anyway, i began my trip in the Radisson Hotel in Delhi, one of the nicest spots i've ever stayed in, and then went to Guwahati and am staying in a total dump. It feels like, now knowing where Suresh will take me, this trip is a slippery slope away from civilization. I think it's good for me to be so uncomfortable. I've not been this out of my comfort zone since i was 14 and in the Phillipines. India is the filthiest place you could possibly imagine, and maybe this is the best landscape for me to more wholly rely on God.

OK - now pastor andrew (the former terrorist, now rehabilitated and ordained) is knocking on my door to film a sermon for sunday. How funny! We're in the worst place on earth, but they still have video cameras and LCD projectors in church. I'll record the message today, andrew will edit it and add Hindi subtitles, and they'll show it on sunday.

I guess that's only slightly weirder than watching LA Ink in a mud hut last night while drinking Chai Tea by candlelight.

India Diary: day 2 (though, it might be day four)

I see now why people have warned me against going to India. It's a fascinating place, but the poverty is immense. Usually, even in the South African townships or the Haitian villages, there's one place where you can buy bottled water or eat packaged food. Not here. Every bottle of water has been used and resealed with a cheap glue. They get the bottles out of the trash in the bigger cities and then reuse them in the out-of-the-way places. You can't get packaged food either.

Everything just sits in some little store front until someone eventually buys it.

For all that, though, i'm feeling good and have eaten well. The Christians here are very hospitable and want to ensure i have a first rate experience. But for them i would probably be hugging a toilet bowl most of the day.

Thangklal is a good man. He's the pastor here in Guhawarti. He stated the church about three years ago and they now have about a hundred people. He and his family live meagerly. They have three rooms in their house, with cement roof + floors + walls, and its FULL of giant bugs. Last night i gave his children some gifts from the States, and as i pulled them out of my bag a giant roach came flying with them. The roach landed on the daughter, who them began to play with it while her parents ooeh. Later, some geckos ate the roach and we sat and watched.


Pastor's wife made us Chai Tea on her stove. I felt very sad watching her do that. It was a coleman stove, with only 2 pots hanging above it. There were not enough cups for here to have some tea, so only pastor and I and his brother drank. I was given the large cup as a gesture of respect.

Last night i spoke at a bible study for their church. It was about 20 college students and 10 PhD professors. Everyone was involved in mechanical/chemical/civil/biochemical engineering. It felt so strange to remind myself to speak slowly and simply (because of the language barrier) to a room full of such brilliant people.

Today i'm going to teach a half day seminar on church growth and discipleship. The indian people are so polite its hard to tell if they really benefit from my teaching or if they are just concerned about my feelings. I'll never know.

No cell service or wireless internet here. I'm cut off from the world. No coffee either. I've been drinking black tea to avoid the caffeine headaches.

Pastor Lal has been paying for everything out of his pocket, to show me honor. That is also very humbling. He deserves the honors. He is the one overcoming poverty, persecution, and a massive religious-culture war. I pray God richly bless him and his family. I will go home meekly because of his patronage.

God is good. I feel Him strongly with the Indian Christians. I want my kids to experience this stuff sooner rather than later. Christianity simply must be de-westernized in order for the promise of the kingdom to make sense.

Love Jesus more...that is what i think and feel today

india day one

After a long trip from detroit to chicago,then to new delhi i arrived at midnight in an urban cross between new york and a toilet. The smell hits you like a dirty dish rag when you get off the plane and the 115 degree heat doesn't disappear with the sunshine.

Still, it feels cool to be halfway around the world.

I'm not sure what to expect on this trip. I'm here, primarily, just to meet our missionaries and see what they're doing. I want to know if i could bring a team from the winds to India - like we did in South Africa - but the first step is seeing for myself what's happening on the ground level.

I love travel, especially new places, so i'm excited to be doing this.

I have this back-of-my-mind suspicion that God wants to show me something on this trip. So, even while watching The Wire and reading fiction, i keep ring to open myself up the the Spirit and invite Him to speak.

So far, i feel a strong sense of His pleasure, a strong sense of gratitude for this experience, and a strong (and even overwhelming) sense of being covered in prayer by the folks back home.Which is cool...i'm not sure i've ever actually felt prayed for before (even though i always knew there were people praying). This time, i can feel it.

I miss C and the kids, but its bearable thus far. We had great family time before i left, and that always helps.

greatest bio ever (from hugh gallagher's NYU application)

3A. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

---

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat 400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

inglorious pastors: Waging Peace in a World of War

theology matters

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

Exerpt from Colossians Targum

Let the beautiful testimony of God's grace pour out of you in all manner of artistic expression and thanksgiving. Write songs, sing, play music, make stuff, create, foster creativity in others, and do it all bathed in God's Spirit so that everything you make serves the dual purpose of pleasing and propogating God.

Do it all, make it all, for Jesus - the Center, the King, the Savior.

finished!

after almost 2 full weeks of being holed up in my basement eating sour patch kids and drinking coffee strong enough to put chest hair on mark hamill...it's finished.

look for "bleached: hope for the desolate" in just a few short weeks, available on amazon.com

the cutting room floor

hemmingway once said that in order for a book to be perfect, you usually have to take out your favorite part.

i don't know that i'll achieve hemmingway-status, but i bounced my favorite part out of bleached tonight at exactly 2:31am.

here it is:

Some time ago I was at a gathering of pastors, informally, and found myself (as usual) playing the malcontent, going against the grain like I loved the ride. In this instance, I was getting pretty heated over a common leadership failing among ministers: friendship.

Pastors, as a rule, don’t have many friends. Usually this is because the friends we’ve had in the past have turned on us because of some situation or decision involving our leadership. We’re not perfect, and everyone gets that, but it becomes harder to overlook that when we find ourselves in specific situations where we have the power to do things others don’t like and we do them anyway. It costs you friends.

And we don’t usually do a good job of making new friends, because there’s always some little sin-sponsored voice in the back of our heads saying: Sure, make a friend. Jesus would have had another Judas if he’d stuck around longer…I’m sure this guy will be awesome.

Right.

So we get scared,

stay guarded,

and live alone.

Anyway, I’m often bolsheviked by the way senior pastors treat their staff members. We treat them like employees. Which, I get it, we have to to a certain degree – certainly our employees cannot help but think of us as their employers (especially at the beginning) – but I actually think it’s wrong for the church to run like a business. I mean it, I think running a church like a corporation is unethical. Corporations, after all, are hardly the paragon of morality and goodness in the world; so why are so many churches intent on adopting their model of government and hierarchy?

Beats me.

I serve King Jesus, who told his disciples I no longer call you servants, but friends.

Servant leadership is what every does

when they’re trying to imitate Jesus.

I want something more.

I want to incarnate Christ,

not copy him.

I want to do ministry with my friends – and if they’re not my friends at the beginning, I really want to become their friend over time. And this can’t always happen, but it’s always what I want.

Did I mention friends cost you something?

Right. Back to the pastor’s gathering…a bunch of my peers were talking about how hard it is to fire your friends. I sympathize. I once had to “downsize” several of my friends because of budgetary constraints. I cried like Shirley Temple. It was necessary, but awful. I’ve also had to terminate the employment of someone I thought was my friend, because he was acting immorally and refused accountability. That made me mad. He was my friend, and our friendship deserved better than what he gave it.

But I’ve never fired a friend because they weren’t corporate enough, or educated enough, or from the right demographic, or the right socio-economic status, or because they weren’t doing things in the precise way I wanted all of the time. I’ve never fired someone just because they weren’t “it.” But that’s what my peers were discussion – firing someone who just couldn’t cut it.

No option to retrain them.

No opportunity to hire over them.

No alternative but to sever them.

Who severs their friends?

Who can live with themselves when they do that,

in Jesus’ church,

in Christ’s kingdom in microcosm,

where the last shall be first,

where we no longer have servants

but friends?

It is hard, granted, to fire someone – to sit in judgment over them and decide their fate with the scepter of good management acumen –

but it’s far harder,

far more sacrificial to grow with them,

to walk alongside them,

and to love them as Christ has loved us.

And – just as an FYI – you’re going to get way more productivity, energy, and visionary leadership out of your employees when they know you’ll take a bullet for them.

We overstep our Christian ethic when we play judge and call it leadership. There are standards for employees, and they should be held to those standards, but if we want to lead the Jesus way we’ve got to leave them room to grow.

So as we grow, we’ve got someone to be there for us to.

So we don’t die alone.

So we’re not crying in our communion one empty Christmas Eve when our wife has left and we have no one to call, no one to comfort, and no one to speak hope.

There is a deep connection between the way we work and the way we live, but we miss that interconnectedness when we elevate ourselves above others, play God, and look down to pronounce judgment.

Don’t do that anymore.

God may be One, but we need one another.

a quick synopsis of ezekiel & the valley of dry bones (excerpt from "bleached: hope for the desolate" :: forthcoming, 2010)

what we have in Ezekiel 37

is the outlandish story

of an eccentric prophet

who gets yanked into Hell

by the Hand of God,

whereupon

he is compelled

to violate every personal religious belief he has

concerning holiness

in an effort to fill-in-the-blanks

for a cosmological census of craniums

and cadavers

and after

he is asked an impossible yet-somehow-not-rhetorical question

by the Author of Life and Death

which if he answered incorrectly

might not lead to his death

but most certainly would not lead

to the resurrection life

of thousands of wayward spirits

long separated from their bodies

after being annihilated

by their national adversaries

but fortunately he answers intelligently

and is then commanded

to prophesy to their skeletal remains

and watches them turn into

[first] zombies

and [then] dead bodies

before being told to prophesy again to the wind,

the wandering spirits,

God’s spirit,

the spiritual wind surrounding the altar

in a Temple that’s been destroyed hundreds of miles away

before finally witnessing

what has to be

the craziest miracle in history.

the cue: easter prayer

Lord

we are walking wounded
the waking dead
dead to the world

we look to you for life

we need new life
we need to be animated by your Spirit

Risen Christ
rise in us
raise us up to live again

and we will live for you

amen.

the battle at al hillel (part 3 - final)

I am tired now, and the spoils of war have spoiled. I have spoiled.

The dragon-woman is still hucking curses and woe-begotten prophesies like spears. I want her to shut up, but I can’t be bothered to move. I’m ready for home and bed. I’m ready to stop.

Some chuckling brings me around, though, and I see three younger men – my kin – coming back to the woman. They think she’s funny, and they missed their turn for sport earlier and their blood has not stilled.

They begin to tease and blow kisses. Her resolve falters and they are on her like dogs.

I tell them to stop. They don’t. No one listens to me. But I am the bull again and I stand up – more aggrieved that they disrespect me than that they plug this woman.

They tell the bull to blow his horn, and I’m angry. I’m the angel now. The devil. And I add to the butcher’s bill one of my own. The other two pop up and there’s a new lust and a new anger. They mob me and I go down for some stupid woman.

After they’re done with me, but before my lanterns go out, I see them kill the woman. She’s thrown on top of me. I guess our bones will be here for the dying god when he finally feels like getting up again.

I ought to be angry – with myself, with my people – but what good would that do now. I’m here forever – cut off from my people, separate from my land. I am the cut flower, the bladed grass. I am a bull on the altar, the angel of death.

Make no mistake – this is the way of our god: take what you can, fight what you want, crush who you hate.

I’m tired of it, but as I slip away I think maybe it would have been better if I didn’t die here in this valley of judgment and war.

the battle at al hillel (part 2)

Even after they were dead, and we were sure of our victory, we rode our horses over the bodies. The men made jokes. Those who had listened to the eunuch made jokes about how impossible it would be to lust after these ‘beautiful’ boys now. Those who had listened to Nebuchadnezzar said Belteshazzar’s friends were safer in the furnace than these fools on the field. Those who listened to the priest decorated the ground in pinkish paint like the infidels had desecrated the temple.

With the bodies of the enemy soldiers, we filled the valley like grass. The pieces were like dandelions, littered and seeding the ground.

We made sport and- gave their flesh to the eagles and vultures to feed upon.

A woman was found watching from the hills and the men made sport of her. I watched her after. She was broken. She exhausted her grief, collapsed, and passed out. She came to an hour later, angry, spewing rage. She was a broken dragon.

She spoke of their god and His promise to look after them. I don’t know if she was angry with us for killing her god, or angry at her god for losing. I don’t know who she blamed, but it was a performance I had not previously witnessed. She vowed her god would avenge them. I guess maybe their god doesn’t die very well. Sore loser.

I got up to leave but was startled to see her bend over and begin digging. She was making graves.

I told her to stop.

She didn’t.

I told her again, and the dragon spewed. I spat and walked off. Someone else will kill her later, and maybe I’ll bury her if I decide to care.

But I don’t.

Like I said, these bones can stay here forever. Let this be the ruin and desolation of those who serve the god who keeps dying.

the battle at al hillel (part 1)

603 B.C.E. :: Babylon, Al Hillel :: It is noon, a Friday

I am tired of soldiering. I have walked too many times into the blood and muck and watched my fellows fall.

There is some exhilaration in battle, but it is just work – like bone setting or metal working. A job done well feels good.

But I have done too many jobs, and the goodness dims.

Across the field, in a valley, are some thousands…maybe more. They gleam, but quiver also. Fine armor over pretty arms. I think we’ll be done early.

We come at them, bulls shouldering metal bulrushes, and they fall. They are not soldiers. Not really. They are fine-looking statues. No. They are sticks. Toys. We should have sent our daughters to fight.

Our lines relax and the men begin to look for trophies to claim. I see nothing I like, but take fistfuls anyway to sell. As I reach, I see movement from the left, and twist to avoid a spear.

One survives.

He is wild-eyed. I note his wounds – many, but mild – he must have been caught under a horse or pile. He foams. That’s never good. His spear is quick, and I am a victim of age and tenure, so he sticks me in the gut. It is shallow, but deep enough to stoke my passions. He ends badly.

My father was a bull, a lion, a griffon, an angel. He brought death to dozens each day, and laughed after. In this moment, I was the angel, and I carved this thing in front of me like a sacrifice. He came apart, properly prepared, and I gave Baal his heart.

Still empassioned, I walked the valley and jabbed at the slain. None made a noise. Everyone died, and I was my father – the bull.

The valley was a meat shop now that the battle was over, a butcher’s board open for business.

I’m not sure why we came, I’m not even sure it matters. But we came. We fought. And we won. I killed a hundred men. Almost.

People think that a battlefield must sound like a forge, with clanging and shouting, but it’s different. It’s like a run through the mud. There’s a lot of panting and everything sounds wetter than you’d think.

Wet clothes.

Wet sod.

Wet meat.

The priest told us we came to fight because these men had defiled the temple walls and were the enemies of our gods. The eunuch told us we came to fight because these men were slaves who had stirred the queen’s passions with their youth. The king told us we fought because no Jew should worship Nebuchadnezzar – not after those three escaped the fire – but these did.

But who cares why? I’m a soldier. I fight. I see their carcasses as food for the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth. I watch to endure no one frightens the beasts away.

This valley is full of dead men – soon it will be only their bones. Then only their dust, which will be the dry dirt of the valley floor.

preview of artwork for bleached ( our series on ezekiel and the valley of dry bones)

the last few books i read...

the collected tales of solomon kane, by robert e. howard - kane is a demon-hunting puritan...pure awesomeness

an altar in the world, by barbara brown taylor - folk spirituality and wisdom from a phyllis-tickle-like sage...this was a great read

the charismatic theology of st. luke, by roger stronstad - i've been meaning to read this "classic" for a while, as a means of re-connecting with my charismatic upbringing. honestly, there is SO MUCH support in scripture for the spooky stuff i am baffled as to how some people dismiss it...on the other hand, the contemporary variety of spookiness is often far-removed from the biblical model, so i do understand those who are leery of such things

alive for the first time, by david c. needham - Jvo recommended this to me as a primer for christian spirituality...it's not bad, but i'm still unsure as to whether i'll be passing it along to anyone else

blood rites, by jim butcher - this was my final guilty pleasure, the dresden files book #6...it's about a wizard in chicago who helps a vampire...what could be a better reprieve from theology than pulp sci-fi?

for the winds...

of course, i've had plenty of time to think about the winds while i've been away and i've got lots cookin...

two things are worth mentioning here, as a tiny priming of the pumps

#1 i'm jonesing to try some new stuff with the teaching, but i'll need help. i want the teaching to be as interactive as possible - catering to those of all learning styles and intelligences - so i'm looking for techno-geeks and some artsy-fartsy types to help me pimp stuff out on the weekends

#2 because the winds has always been a *boutique and not a *big box kind of church, we've always known that our future successes are more likely to come in the shape of multiple locations (of boutique churches) rather than transitioning our church into a kind of holy walmart. we've failed twice at this: once we pulled the plug in ann arbor (because our friend randy got sick and creating new churches was WAY less of a priority), and once we aborted a merger with another church. somehow, someway, we've got to get back on the multi-site horse and make a ride for the sunrise.

these trips are tricky...

something about doing "pastor" things with other pastors always weirds me out...to satisfy my own emo itch, i'll confess why:



* i don't fit the mold, and i'm increasingly surprised by HOW MUCH i don't fit the mold...i think either everyone else is getting moldier or i need to audition for a role in the breakfast club made-for-tv-remake



* i don't like measuring what everyone else likes to measure...and i want to be clear that their measurements aren't bad, just that i feel strange and ugly when i adopt their "wins and successes" and the standard...i won't elaborate, because i don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but i proritize friendship, transformation, and imagination way over and above the more common stuff



* that said, it really is hard not to get into a pissing contest and if/when that occurs i feel more like the urinal than the runner-up



* getting around other pastors always reminds me of how badly i want church to be different, and how badly i want churches to be effective in making disciples and healing the world...but by and large, the big We sucks in both categories and i am deeply bothered and frustrated and angered by the suck and want so much for things to be different



* getting around other pastors also reminds me of how different i want things to be at the winds...let me be clear: i love westwinds, but our efforts to push ourselves and our people into something truer and more beautiful are often frustrated by time constraints and a lack of sustainable leadership. it's the greatest church in the world, but my hunger for us to be increasingly shaped into something better is not easily sated

* finally, these trips are tough because i'm reminded of how lonely ministry really is...i don't miss being part of a denomination - too many rules, too few relationships - but i sure miss that feeling of not being in this thing alone...i miss knowing for certain that if i threw in the towel someone outside of my church and my family would care. fortunately for me this collection of guys at leadership network were super-cool and i think we'll make some lasting chums.

D

books i've read so far (just in case you're a dork and were wondering)

influencer: the power to change anything, by kerry paterson - this book was a gift from the folks at leadership network...and i mean "gift" in every sense of the word. paterson does a great job of breaking down influence into identifying vital behaviors (that need to change in order for larger, more holistic changes to "stick") and then gives a great rubric for how to effect and evaluate change and how change-ready we are. i think this book is the next "good to great."

the way of jesus, by jonathan and jennifer campbell - this book was okay, but not at all timely. leaving aside some of the uber-left-wing theological abstractions, most of this book was about the shift into the postmodern world...something that 'everyone' was writing about 15 years ago. honestly, the book was well written so if you've never been exposed to this topic it's not a bad read...but i have some theological and philosophical criticisms that make me think you'd be better off reading "soul tsunami"

a new kind of christianity, by brian mclaren - mclaren is a great writer and has written this book well...but it's not a great book and i would never recommend it. increasingly, brian mclaren finds more of his theological support from culture and less from scripture. i don't feel like critiquing all that here - i still love his book "a generous orthodoxy" and wish everyone would read it - but i do feel like he's gone too far off base on too many little things for me to be a supporter anymore. that said, my absolute favorite part of any book i've read in the last 12 months was when mclaren tackles mark driscoll's take on the second coming of jesus. driscoll is found of embellishing biblical perspectives of jesus to make christ look much more mma-ready...and mclaren takes 2 pages to dismantle mark's comical and playful (and yet horribly telling) image of a conquering christ with about 60 scriptures that contradict mark and re-ground christ in the bible.

between heaven and earth: divine presence & absence in ezekiel, by john kutsko - this is an academic book that i thoroughly enjoyed outlining God's *departure from israel during exile because of their idolatry...and yet maintains that god is still present with them even while they keenly feel his absence (he's just *there in a new way). good thoughts on idols, imago dei, and son of man stuff if you're interested

the sabbath, by abraham heschel - tons of wisdom in this little text...not sure i was keen to learn more about the sabbath per se, but heschel has so many good things to say i'll read anything of his just because it's another chance to hear him

missional renaissance, by reggie mcneal - this book was FANTASTIC. i'm going to buy it for our staff. if you have no idea what it means to be "missional" buy this book.

semiotics: the basics, by daniel chandler - this is a boring book about a potentially cool subject that might make you sound like len sweet if you mastered it. if you're interested in the notion of interpreting signs & symbols in culture, i'd get anything by george lakoff (on metaphors) instead.

multi-site churrch road trip, by warren bird et al. - great book...bought copies for staff and elders so we can prepare to take another crack at launching additional campuses of the winds

and their memory was a bitter tree, by robert e. howard - this is my guilty pleasure...an anthology of conan stories by their original creator :)

How Facebook Killed the Church

(found this great article at experimental theology [click on post-title to link])



There has been a great deal of hand wringing in the Christian community about the onset of Web 2.0 relationality (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, MMOGs). The concern you often hear is that "virtual" relationships are no replacement for "authentic" relationships.

No doubt this is true. But I've done some research in this area and here's my general conclusion: Facebook friends tend to be our actual friends.

No doubt, the vast majority of the people in a friend list on Facebook are strangers, acquaintances, or old school friends you haven't seen in years. But no user of Facebook is confused enough to think that she is "in relationship" with any of these people. These are just the penumbra around the core of our Facebook interactions, connecting with people we actually know and are friends with.

In short, Facebook isn't replacing real world relationality. Rather, Facebook tends to reflect our social world. For example, in a soon to be published study some ACU colleagues and I used Facebook to predict student retention at our school (i.e., which freshmen return for their sophomore year). We found that on-campus Facebook activity was significantly correlated with measures of "real world" relationality. Further, on-campus Facebook activity also predicted who would come back for their sophomore year. For example, if you had a lot of Facebook Wall Posts you felt more socially connected and were more likely to come back to ACU for a second year. Which makes sense. Who would be posting on your Wall day to day? Sure, old friends might give you a shout out from time to time on your Wall. But for the most part Wall posts come from people who you'll actually see today. Or at least this week, month or year. The point is, you know these people. Talking with them via Facebook is authentic relationality. It's staying in touch, coordinating plans, offering up encouragement, saying a prayer, working out misunderstandings, and sharing a moment.

Over at my friend Mike's blog there was a recent discussion about why Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are leaving the church. His question was, why are they leaving? Most of the answers took aim at the church. Churches are too shallow, hypocritical, judgmental, or political. Many surveys have shown these attitudes to be widespread among Millennials. Consider the Barna research summarized in the book unChristian. Young Christians and non-Christians tend to feel that the church is "unChristian." Too antihomosexual. Too hypocritical. Too political. Too judgmental. That's how young people see "the church." And it's hard to blame them.

But my argument at Mike's blog was that the church has always been this way. Is the church of 2010 much different from the church of the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, or '90s? I don't think so. So, yes, the church is screwed up. Always has been. The church has been a depressing constant over the generations. So the change isn't with the church. The change is with the Millennials. If so, in what way and how has this change related to the church?

The most obvious change is in mobile and Web 2.0 connectivity. Generation X didn't have cell phones. Nor did they have Facebook or text messaging. And you can't tell me that Millennials see the church any differently than Generation X saw it. Look to the right at cell phone subscriptions plotted by decade. Most have Generation X as birth dates between 1961 to 1981. Which has Gen X as college students in the years 1979 to 1999. As you can see, most Gen X'ers didn't have cellphones. And based on the sociological evidence Gen X was much more cynical and anti-establishment when compared to the Millennials. So you can't tell me Gen X'ers didn't see the church as judgmental, hypocritical, or sold-out. They did.

So what happened? Why didn't Gen X leave the church while the Millennials are leaving in droves?

The difference between Generations X and Y isn't in their views of the church. It's about those cellphones. It's about relationships and connectivity. Most Gen X'ers didn't have cell phones, text messaging or Facebook. These things were creeping in during their college years but the explosive onset of mobile devices and social computing had yet to truly take off.

So why has mobile social computing affected church attendance? Well, if church has always been kind of lame and irritating why did people go in the first place? Easy, social relationships. Church has always been about social affiliation. You met your friends, discussed your week, talked football, shared information about good schools, talked local politics, got the scoop, and made social plans ("Let's get together for dinner this week!"). Even if you hated church you could feel lonely without it. Particularly with the loss of "third places" in America.

But Millennials are in a different social situation. They don't need physical locations for social affiliation. They can make dinner plans via text, cell phone call or Facebook. In short, the thing that kept young people going to church, despite their irritations, has been effectively replaced. You don't need to go to church to stay connected or in touch. You have an iPhone.

Sure, Millennials will report that the "reason" they are leaving the church is due to its perceived hypocrisy or shallowness. My argument is that while this might be the proximate cause the more distal cause is social computing. Already connected Millennials have the luxury to kick the church to the curb. This is the position of strength that other generations did not have. We fussed about the church but, at the end of the day, you went to stay connected. For us, church was Facebook!

The pushback here will be that all this Millennial social computing, all this Facebooking, isn't real, authentic relationship. I'd disagree with that assessment. It goes to the point I made earlier: Most of our Facebook interactions are with people we know, love, and are in daily contact with. Facebook isn't replacing "real" relationships with "virtual" relationships. It's simply connecting us to our real friends. And if you can do this without getting up early on Sunday morning why go to church? Particularly if the church is hypocritical and shallow? Why mess with it?

Why are Millennials leaving the church? It's simple. Mobile social computing has replaced the main draw of the traditional church: Social connection and affiliation.

Basically, Facebook killed the church. May it Rest in Peace.

women in leadership (there's LOTS more coming...)

ACKNOWLEDGING MY BIAS

I grew up in Vancouver BC,

a cosmopolitan, metropolitan city of more than a million people comprising a diverse range of ethnic groups, cultural enclaves, and world commerce.

The issue of equality in all matters between men and women was settled in Vancouver a long time ago.

I grew up in a Pentecostal church,

based in the Wesleyan holiness tradition that recognized women as full partners fully capable of holding every ecclesial position.

The issue of equality in all matters between men and women was settled in the Pentecostal/Wesleyan tradition a long time ago.

When I moved to Jackson, Michigan I was surprised to find out that there were some who felt strongly about limiting the role of women inside the church. I was doubly-surprised to find out that the church position I had just accepted was among those. To be honest, I had always thought that those who limited a women’s leadership capacity within the church were an anachronism. I imagined that those few who felt like women shouldn’t (or couldn’t) faithfully fulfill each position in the church were the equivalent of ecclesial red-necks. I also imagined that they had all but died out of the world.

I was wrong on both counts.

First, I was wrong because there are many good and godly people who love Jesus and hold faithfully to the Scriptures who believe women should be limited in their ministry. Based on their interpretation of the Bible, they feel like God has ordained that women always be in a subordinate position to men – both in the home, and in the church.

I could not disagree more (as will become plain). Furthermore, I strongly contend that this women-limiting position is not just a theological one but also one that concerns basic human rights and dignity. I think it’s unjust that we limit their roles.

I digress. The point, however, that I want to make clear is simply that those who limit the role of women are not “red-necks” or “idiots” or “misogynists” or “woman-haters” or whatever else. All of the people I have personally known who limit a woman’s role in the church do so because they believe that’s what the Bible teaches.

Of course, I’m convinced that is NOT what the Bible teaches, but the fact that their beliefs are based on their interpretation of Scripture deserves credit, respect, and some measure of thanksgiving. I wish all church conflicts arose from differing opinions on Scripture, rather than differing opinions on style, form, structure or whatever else. At least when we disagree on an interpretation of the Bible we’re all united in saying: what the Bible teaches matters most.

The other way in which I was wrong about those who limit-women is that I thought they’d all died out. I thought they were a small branch group of uneducated folk who just dwindled away like folklore. Again, I was surprised to learn that – in the United States, at least – this group is very much active and at work to convince others that (while women may be able to enjoy God’s pleasure and fulfill His purpose and destiny in their high and holy calling as mothers and wives) women simply cannot lead either churches or men.

There are two Scriptures that seem to limit the role of women within the church: 1 Corinthians 14.33-35 and 1 Timothy 2.11-15. I will deal with those passages in a later post...for now I just wanted everyone to know where I'm coming from (and that I'm aware of the inherent biases).

pax.

shane claiborne gets called down by angry protestors

i found this via the sojourner website, and could not believe what i was reading...

Beauty and Ugliness in a Shooting’s Aftermath

by Shane Claiborne 02-26-2010

Something sort of mystical and magical happened after a 19-year-old kid named Papito was killed on our block a few weeks ago. As our neighborhood ached and grieved and cried with his family, we began to create a memorial for Papito where he died – a familiar ritual in the inner city. Those who knew and loved him brought photos and flowers. Kids on our block brought stuffed animals or whatever they had and laid them on the sidewalk memorial. And everyone brought candles. But here’s where the magic happened. It was the next day that the east coast was to be hammered with one of the worst snowstorms since we’ve kept records. As the snow showered down, I thought the little candles, sheltered only beneath a little shanty of soggy cardboard, would not stand a chance in the blizzard. But on they burned. Hour after hour, even through the night they burned. And the warmth of the fire melted down the snow as it fell. Flake by flake melted from the warmth of the fire. The next morning I went out to find the candles still burning, on a little patch of wet sidewalk like an oasis of warmth glowing in the middle of 2 feet of snow encroaching on all sides.

The next week we held a prayer vigil at the local gun shop, praying for an end to violence … and specifically asking and praying that the owner of “The Shooter Shop” would agree to a voluntary “Code of Conduct” drafted by Mayors from all over the country who agree that these ten simple steps would prevent deaths like Papito’s. So on February 13, we walked in silence with friends and neighbors from the candle memorial where Papito died three blocks to The Shooter Shop down the street. And we carried candles. It was there that I remembered the candles gentle warmth as it faced the coldness of a winter storm.

As we gathered with dozens of other Christians from around Philadelphia to pray for peace, we were met by a counter-demonstration that had been organized by gun-rights groups. They shouted some of the meanest things I have ever heard. I didn’t mind them calling me a “scumbag”, and I even concede on the “you need a shower” comment … but then the insults shot like bullets – racial, economic, angry insults … some of them to kids from our block, some of them whispered just loud enough to hear, such as, “stupid immigrant.” As we started a sacred moment of silence to remember Papito and the other kids killed with illegal guns … the silence was pierced with insults and meanness. As we prayed the Lord’s Prayer it was interrupted with the singing of “God Bless America.” A deep theological cage match was happening in the heavens, it seems:

While I do not believe the folks we met reflect the character or views of most gun owners or even NRA members (heck, I’ve shot some squirrels for dinner back in Tennessee) … the ugly counter-protest was organized by folks who started off by saying things like this:

Be advised that Shooter’s Shop is located in a dicey neighborhood. You should have no problem in daylight, and I doubt the local neighborhood folks are going to mess with a bunch of NRA members, but carry your gun with you. Do not leave it unattended in a vehicle if you go where someone could break into your car and steal it!

–from the Web site, “Snowflakes in Hell” (which, incidentally, may flaw with my candle metaphor!)

So the fact that they are not from the neighborhood may explain some of the behavior we saw and their inability to lament the bloodshed we see on these streets from guns sold to straw buyers at gun shops like the Shooter Shop (not many folks are buying hunting rifles from a gun shop in Kensington … we don’t have many deer here).

There is no doubt that my grandmother was right when she used to say, “God doesn’t like ugly.” And the Scriptures speak clearly: We are not fighting against people but against principalities and powers – ugly, filthy, sick principalities and powers. When we look at Jesus’ cross we see what love looks like when it stares evil in the face. It is non-violent, it is forgiving, it is steady and courageous. It is this courageous love that exposes evil by making it so uncomfortable that it has to be dealt with. Colossians is correct when it says that as Jesus rose from the dead he made a spectacle of the cross. As he listened to insults, had people spit in his face, curse him, and kill him he knew full well that he was exposing the ugliness … and in the end, love wins over hatred.

When we came back to the house we got a chance to unpack things with some of the teenagers from the block who were at the vigil. They shared about how powerful it was to see us return meanness with kindness. We remembered how Martin Luther King said to those who were so mean to him: “To our most bitter opponents we say: ‘Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead, and we will still love you … but be ye assured that we will wear you down with our love.” As the early Christian martyrs said: “Grace dulls even the sharpest sword.”

We will continue to hold vigil and to pray for a conversion of heart from the gun shop owner. In fact, the steady witness is growing … more than 100 pastors and church leaders have drafted letters (like this one) to the gun shop owner urging him to seize this opportunity to lead with integrity and show irresponsible gun shop owners a better way. Please light your candle and send your letter to Mr. Haney. When he signs the Code of Conduct we will alert the press and have a huge celebration outside The Shooter Shop (I might even buy a new bb-gun from him).

This morning I woke up and saw the snow falling again, and the candles still burning (they’ve been burning for almost three weeks now) … they are still melting the snow. As I thought about the vigil last week, I had once thought we were sheep among wolves … but now I’m thinking we were just candles in the middle of a blizzard. And snow melts, but the light keeps glowing. We are to be the light, to be the salt … both of which can melt the toughest ice or the coldest heart.

Shane Claiborne is a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President.

why go to church

there are many reasons - biblical, social, familial, etc - but the one i find most compelling is that church is a place where we surrender control.

at church, as part of a community of believers, we trust that the holy spirit speaks to us through:

music we might not like
a sermon we did not choose
people we might not know
a time and place that is beyond our control
an experience we would never have designed
strangers we would never have met and would never have been forced to confront
christian men and women who can be prompted by the spirit to speak things into our life that
we might never choose to hear
scriptures and songs themed towards issues we may never have otherwise considered
the needs of others about which we would have remained ignorant

in short - church is a place where a million things happen...sometimes randomly, sometimes chaordically, sometimes intentionally...and the spirit works through all of those to penetrate our lethargy, our apathy, and our indifference.

when we come to church with an open and receptive heart, we are changed every time.

that's why we should go to church.