spirit farmer

Just in case you missed the news . . .

2008-03-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

. . . I am now blogging at www.spiritfarmer.com. Update your RSS Reader accordingly. Thank you for visiting.

Happy New Year, Happy New Blog

2008-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a really long time in coming, but I finally got a minimal amount of tinkering done, and I'm ready to welcome 2008 with a new blog presence. After nearly six years of publishing this blog on Blogger, I'm making the switch over to WordPress. I've got no big gripes with Blogger - I was a little worried back when they were bought out by Google, but they've not been too terribly evil. I just think that some of the features over on WordPress will make managing the blog a little bit easier.

And for the first time ever, I'm going to be blogging under the name of my very own URL. When I started this thing, spiritfarmer.com was owned by someone else. But a little over a year ago, I found that it was unregistered, so I purchased it. So now you can visit me at www.spiritfarmer.com. I've still got some tinkering to do and some things to learn on WordPress, but it's good enough to go live with.

So if you read this via a feedreader, reset your feed to this. One thing I discovered in Google Reader, though, is that the blog title doesn't show up, so you'll have to set that yourself for the time being. I'll see if I can figure that out (or one of you blogging geniuses can throw me a bone, and teach me).

Thanks for following me . . . I'll check in on the Blogger account occasionally, just to make sure folks aren't getting lost. Let me know if you have any issues with accessibility: spiritfarmer [at] gmail [dot] com.

Praying for a younger friend

2007-12-31T12:34:00.000-08:00

I've spent the past 48 hours praying a lot and sleeping poorly, over one of my Seattle inter::mission team members. She called on Saturday with the news her teenage brother had died in an auto accident. Horrible. It makes Resurrection hope seem both tantalizing and desperately far away at the same time.

Merry Christmas (I think)

2007-12-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

Can't say where this came from, but I've been walking through this whole Christmas season with a bit of an edge. People have heard me say cranky little quips, and even the occasional mini-rant. In part, it's the consumerism of the season that a lot of people are cautious of. There are good efforts out there already to combat that mentality, and to make something better. For the most part, though, I've had a more theological sort of thing going.

I'm more concerned about the gross imbalance that exists between the time, money, effort, and overall attention that Christians and churches give to Christmas vs. Resurrection Sunday. Hear me now - I'm a grateful believer in celebrating the Incarnation, and the amazing story that it is. I do think it's good and right for us to make a big deal of that.

But let me ask this question - How many Christians do you know that redecorate their whole house to celebrate the Resurrection? Not talking about Easter bunnies here, either. I'm talking about clearing the coffee table so we can set up a little ceramic scene of a big rock mountain with a cave cut out of it, and a stone that's been rolled away from the entrance. You've got your ceramic angels hanging out at the tomb, ceramic Mary looking confused while talking to that strange ceramic gardener dude, ceramic Peter and ceramic John sucking air from having just finished their foot race. Everyone except for the angels, and the aforementioned gardener have that expression of "Wha??" on their faces. O.k., so I got a little out of control there . . . all that might be a little creepy.

How many Christians do you know that use even 20% of the money they'd spend at Christmas to give it away to Christian missionaries or causes?

Almost all churches make a big deal about their Good Friday/Easter Sunday services. Celebrative gatherings, sunrise services, special musical presentations. Many new church plants hold their public "launches" on Easter (a thing I've got a whole different set of misgivings about). I don't want to be completely unfair here - there is special emphasis on the Resurrection. I'm just wondering if it's equivalent to Christmas.

All of this, when in two of our four gospels, the narrative of the birth of Jesus isn't even mentioned! Do I need to bother asking the counter-question of how many gospels have the Passion narrative?

With all that said, let me rescue myself from this scrooge-y corner I'm in. I DO LIKE CHRISTMAS. Michelle and I will be traveling great distances to be with family and friends for celebrations. I LIKE GIVING GIFTS TO PEOPLE, and think that Christmas represents a beautiful time for us to honor those that God has placed in our lives. I DO LIKE SOME CHRISTMAS MUSIC - this is good stuff (but this and this make me want to hurt people). I LIKE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. Oh, and I LIKE SEEING LITTLE CHILDREN GET GIDDY ON CHRISTMAS MORNING. I've got no beefs with Santa - he's always been better to me than I've been to him. In the interest of full disclosure, let me also say that I LIKE RECEIVING GIFTS - especially those that show that someone really thought about me and wanted to express their love.

My main thing here is to put things in perspective. Thank you God for the Incarnation. Indeed. But thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus for inaugurating an everlasting Kingdom by your words, your deeds, your sacrifice, and your Resurrection!

With all that said, let me wish all of my readers out there (I could name the four of you, but I wouldn't want to embarrass you) a great Christmas. I do hope this holiday season is a wonderful celebration. Just remember, when you open your Bible to Luke 2, feel free to follow it up with some time in Luke 24.

Peace

Jesus Manifesto

2007-12-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd drop some linkage love here . . .

I've been enjoying Jesus Manifesto, the blog of Mark Van Steenwyk, for a while now. He recently invited others to contribute, and they just re-launched the site - looking good.

A little Jesus anarchy anyone?

U.S. Media

2007-12-12T06:25:00.001-08:00

Just in case you were wondering, I'd recommend NOT trusting everything you see and hear in mainstream American media. I've come across two different stories this week that illustrate that the news-as-business machine gets very sloppy, very lazy, very biased, even as it sells it as "investigative," "straight talk," and "everything you need to know."

One of the stories has to do with the referendum in Venezuela recently. The media told the story as a corrupt, power hungry president, trying to become a "dictator for life," but getting defeated in the election. I smelled something a little fishy, given that if Hugo Chavez was truly a dictator, he'd have won the election easily. Anyway, this morning, I came across this video analysis of the news coverage, so I thought I'd share.

This is just one example about a story most Americans don't really care about. But it makes you wonder what else we "learn" from our media sources.

This is why I get most of my news via Google Reader, and read stories from the BBC and Al Jazeera as much as stories from the New York Times.

Time for a breather . . . o.k., good, now back to work!

2007-12-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

As of about ten minutes ago, when I sent off the last of four assignments/projects due by midnight tonight, I'm done with this semester. I'm numb. I'm literally leaned back in my chair with my eyes closed right now, just willing myself to type these words. This has been an intense past few months. Definitely the most challenging academic semester I've ever faced.

But now I can breathe . . . at least for a couple of days. Then I'm going to dive into a class I need to take "on the side" in order to qualify for the program I've spent the past year and a half in. I shan't complain, though, especially given that one of the assigned books for the class is N.T. Wright's excellent masterwork, Jesus and the Victory of God. Hopefully I can knock that class out in about a month or so, because by then I'll be headlong into the next semester. Joy!!

For now, it is time for me to re-acquaint myself with my pillow and my wife. Nighty-night.

Merry Christmas, from a blogger you weren't really expecting

2007-12-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!

My sincere congratulations to everyone for the Glorious and Auspicious Birthday of Divine Prophet - confirmed and authenticated by Gabriel, the angel of Divine revelation - the Obedient of Almighty God,

Jesus Christ, the Messiah (peace be upon Him)

This is your warm Christmas greeting, straight from the blog of . . . Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

via

The most intriguing story I didn't have time to read this week

2007-12-08T05:54:00.000-08:00

No time to read "other" stuff this week. Truth is, I don't have time to be blogging now. But when I do have more time, I'm going to chase this story:

For Earth's Sake, Don't Divorce . . . Study: Single Households Consume Lots More Per Capita Than Married Ones

A quick scan of "Christian" headlines I track reveals not a blip on the radar . . . perhaps we're too busy fighting homosexual marriage and denying global warming to actually care about heterosexual divorce and the environment. Perhaps I'll get to this story next week.

Quiet days on the blog . . . so what's new?

2007-12-02T23:19:00.000-08:00

Hey there. Just thought I'd say that.

My posting 'round these parts has been sparse of late, which is due mainly to school stuff. I've read well over 1500 pages of books and articles in the past two weeks, in addition to my normal work responsibilities. At about this time next week (that's 11:30pm on Sunday, for those of you who are keeping track), I hope to be polishing up my written work for the semester, and then I hope to sleep and breathe a little more than I have been. With the launch of inter::mission and some additional coursework I'm required to do, this semester has been extremely challenging. It appears that I'll emerge intact, but definitely tired.

Oh, speaking of inter::mission, we did our final teach-in of the Fall quarter this past Thursday. I interviewed our newest staff member, Johnson, who literally just came back from the jungles of Peru, where he spent the past three years. He's a good guy, with some great stories and perspectives, so that was fun.

On Friday, Michelle and I also celebrated 11 years of marriage. We were going to go try an Italian restaurant we hadn't been to before to celebrate, but our house got something close to 5 inches of snow yesterday, so we had to stay closer to home. Thankfully, the point is my beautiful wife and our life together. Good times.

We also got a visit from my bud, Petey, who was here with his wife and daughter from Corvallis, Oregon. Walked through Pike Place Market and Left Bank Books. Picked up some posters by Nikki McClure - terrific, hopeful, thought provoking artist.

So you see, I've been a busy boy! Apparently, no time for blogging, because I'm doing too much living. I'm guessing it's better that way.

Peace.

The New Conspirators

2007-11-30T00:48:00.000-08:00

I had the delight of meeting Tom and Christine Sine at their Seattle home on Monday. They're both terrific people, and a real delight to be around - gracious and hospitable. We were mainly just meeting for the first time, but we spent some time talking about Tom's new book, due out in early spring, called The New Conspirators.

Related to the book release, Mustard Seed Associates is putting on a really great looking conference by the same name. It'll be Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 2008. They've assembled a really terrific lineup of speakers, from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Check it out . . . and stay tuned here. We may try to throw together a little shindig at The Purple Door after the conference.

Funny little things

2007-11-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that in the Facebook e-mail environment, the spell-checker flags "Facebook" as a misspelled word.

And since I'm talking about it, is it just me, or is Facebook super slow today??

Intense Week

2007-11-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, this has been a heavy set of days for me. Having come off of two conferences last weekend (one of which involved around 12 hours of driving round trip to attend), I've had a heavy school project working - hard work on structuring my dissertation and outlines. Much frustration here. I know the work will pay off, but oi! It's funny, because words and writing and ideas have always been pretty easy for me, but there have been multiple moments this week where I've felt the same as I did in my college chemistry classes - completely stuck. I'm making small breakthroughs, so no worries. I'm just whining.

In better news, we had another teach-in with inter::mission last night. Good times. I made enchiladas, guacamole, and some cinnamon tortilla chips. Tasty, if I must say so myself. Mike Gunn, pastor of Harambee Church in Renton, WA joined us for a discussion of gospel and culture. I really enjoyed that a lot. Mike is skillful at reading culture, as evidenced by his movie reviews over on Hollywood Jesus. His approach to culture is in the tradition of Lesslie Newbigin. He also made reference to Kevin Vanhoozer's book, Everyday Theology . . . though that mention made me sad, as that book has been sitting unread on my desk for the past two or three months . . . even now, it's only about thirteenpointfive inches away from my left elbow, mocking me, taunting me, daring me to lay aside the piles of school books I'm already delinquent on . . . but I digress. Mike hammered the Christian ghetto culture more than the culture of the bigbaduglyworld, which is a no brainer for some of us, but a stunningly new approach for many. All in all, it was another stellar evening at The Purple Door, and another signal that we're continuing to move in a quality direction.

Mornings Like These

2007-11-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

On days like today, I haul my tired butt out of bed, and at some point look at myself in the mirror and say, "Dude, you're looking old." Typically, I'm more oriented toward "feeling as old as I think," which is to say, fairly young.

Happily I can say on this Monday morning that I'm tired from having had a weekend of seeing good friends. I spent Thursday evening and Friday morning/early afternoon at the Off The Map Live event. Got to at least touch base with a number of friends and acquaintances that I only see at events like that. It would have been really good to be there longer and relax a little with some friends. But I had to jump in my car with a couple of my younger friends (a.k.a. my staff team) and drive many hours through the dark of night to get to eastern Oregon. We were attending the Northwest Collegiate Ministries fall conference. I'm grateful to have some fun, good hearted, and adventurous people - the road trip was good. Being at the conference was good, too - I respect and enjoy my counterparts in ministry, and I don't get to catch up with them often enough.

At the conference, we had Lauren Winner come and talk through her book, Real Sex. I've not read the book, but I definitely appreciated her perspectives. She debunks many myths we hear in the church about sex, and does so in an intelligent way.

Yesterday afternoon it was back in the car for the road trip home. It's good to be back.

So, while I didn't have my favorite person in the world with me, I had a tiring weekend of rich relationships, all of which I'm thankful for. I would have name dropped specifically who I'm talking about, but I'm too lazy to link them all here. A younger version of me would have done a better job at this.

Eliacin nails it . . .

2007-11-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

In all the buzz and hubbub of the emerging church (a mostly Western/Northern world thing), the voices of the Church Emerging in the global South have not been heard. This is the focus of my school research, so I was delighted to read this:

The rumble of the drums and the joyful voices of our brothers and sisters from the Emerging World are getting louder and louder each minute. With all due respect, dear brothers and sisters from the west and north, you’ve been speaking for quite awhile. Now it is your time to show some humility and listen. [read more]

Good words. May they - and the ears to hear - increase.

Off The Map time . . .

2007-11-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

It's becoming a sort of default calendar item for me, but it's the first weekend of November, which must mean I'll be at the Off The Map event, this year codenamed Hear, Listen, Connect. I've been so cranking busy over the past few months that I've not had the time to be as involved in some of the behind the scenes stuff as in previous years, but I still love going to these things - mainly for the people I get to see. I won't be able to stay for the whole conference, but I'm sure it'll be fun. I'll definitely miss seeing some friends that aren't making the trip this year, though.

inter::mission rolls on

2007-10-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

In the middle of a busy week, where much of my time has been spent thinking about the fires in SoCal, our work with inter::mission here in Seattle moves on. We had another one of our teach-ins last night. One of our staffers, Lindsay, threw down on some Poppy Seed Chicken for dinner - outstanding! Our student from Turkey made some yummy Turkish coffee, too. Then my good friend, Ed Park, pastor of Sanctuary Church, led us in a conversation about spiritual formation and mission. He really nailed it. He tied the dynamics of formation into the theology of mission in a way that was holistic and real. Quite honestly, it was very helpful to me personally, on the same level as Dallas Willard in some ways. Ed has been doing missional, relational, and incarnational church planting in the city for a while now, and it's evident. If I could just get him blogging . . .

The community of students living at The Purple Door is really becoming a great group. We've been blessed with a remarkably diverse group. One student from Turkey, one from (East) Germany, one from China. One of our students has lived in multiple countries, growing up in a family engaged in medical missions. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to be doing dishes in the kitchen after dinner's over, and hearing the laughter of students enjoying relationship late into the evening . . . despite having heavy school workloads. I know staying up late and being social are sort of par for the course for college students, but they're doing this stuff within the context of spiritual depth and connectedness. The school year is young, but I'm really pleased with how good it's gotten already. More good times to come.

Our next teach-in will be November 8. Mike Gunn, pastor of Harambee Church in Renton, WA will be leading us in a conversation about mission and culture. I'm really looking forward to that.

SoCal fire, pt. 4

2007-10-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to pay close attention to news updates yesterday as I had the previous couple of days. The fires continue, but the weather has begun a more helpful turn, so hopefully that will give the firefighters an edge. Nothing new to report on our immediate family and friends. Everyone is safe and sound, and as far as we know, they're all back home . . . which is more than can be said for a lot of others, in particular, those who have lost their homes.

O.k., time for a rant or two.

RANT ONE:
In the national as well as local (San Diego) news coverage of this event, over and over, I have heard little off-hand comparisons of this situation with the hurricane Katrina disaster. Perhaps its the scale of evacuations, perhaps its the fact that many evacueess are at a major stadium. Whatever the case, with my one lone voice in the blogosphere, all I can say is this: PLEASE STOP. These situations are most definitely not the same. There are a ton of reasons why.

First, the evacuation is different because a huge number of people have had family and friends within the same region to stay with. There was a ton of traffic, but not for hundreds of miles in every direction, like with Katrina. Second, given that San Diego went through this just four years ago, people are extremely well rehearsed for this, and the relief work was done in an impressively organized way . . . which, by the way, is markedly different than the last go round. City/county officials know how to run the show without merely hoping that FEMA can handle everything. Third (this is the one that may open a can of worms), the economic realities of most of the people affected by these two scenarios couldn't be more different. Many of the areas devastated by Katrina were the poorest areas of the city . . . which was already a very poor city, mind you. In San Diego, the damage done by the fires has primarily been done in upper middle class to wealthy areas. I don't say this in any way to take compassion away from the people who have lost homes to fire - it's an intensely difficult thing for them, and I hurt for them. Having lived through a little piece of this myself, I know it's going to be hard, but the difference in economic starting places is different. Trust me, I'm also well aware that some poorer folks have lost their homes - no insensitivity to them intended. My point is not class warfare here, but to say that San Diego wildfires and Hurricane Katrina are just not the same.

For the record, my San Diego and fire disaster credentials are already on record, and I've been to New Orleans twice since Katrina, so I'm not completely ignorant (perhaps unintelligent, but not ignorant).

RANT TWO:
Jason and Brooke, and their housemates in San Diego are part of a really great effort to aid the migrant workers who have been displaced by the fires. Dangit, I love those people. Michelle mentioned to me just a minute ago that 1/3 of California's avocado trees were lost in the fires - think for a minute about the people that work those groves, and pick those delicious guacamole gems. That makes me actually very disturbed at reading this story this morning. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Sorry to be cranky this morning. I just want to think and pray with a clear head about these things, and help others who don't know the situation to do the same.

UPDATE, 10:10am - Now I'm really pissed. Read Jason's latest update on his family's efforts to support the migrant worker volunteers. Speechless.

SoCal fire, pt. 3

2007-10-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I actually don't have any news to report regarding my immediate family or friends right now - fires are still raging, but things seem to be settling a bit. The weather is improving - less wind, more humidity.

The main thing I wanted to note here is on a little different level. Despite my consistent venting and whining about my denomination, it is times like these that make me more satisfied. I was watching the San Diego news online this morning, and they were talking about the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center, where thousands are being housed. They specifically noted the fact that my denom was there with its mobile kitchens, feeding lots and lots of people. I know from seeing them in action firsthand in New Orleans that they wear some butt-ugly yellow t-shirts, but when I see those things on TV, I'm glad that I get to be a part of that. Good work folks - keep rocking.

Other churches and friends are, of course, also doing good work. But if I'm gonna whine about the denom, I need to also give equal time to the good stuff.

SoCal fire, pt. 2

2007-10-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

Being so far away from family and friends in the fire affected areas in San Diego is hard - not as hard as being there, mind you, but hard. This situation is astonishing. The fire moved so fast. Michelle's folks are doing o.k. - they decided to wait it out in their house, and seem to be in a sliver of land that the fire burned around . . . probably due to the fact that it all burned just a few years ago, and there wasn't as much fuel.

We've been watching a San Diego TV station that's been streaming their coverage online. That helps.

Keep praying.

UPDATE 8:50am: A large mountain about half a mile to the north of Michelle's folks may be catching fire. This mountain didn't burn in 2003, so lots of old brush there. They're watching it closely, and may evacuate.

UPDATE 5:15pm: Michelle's parents got a reverse 911 call at around 2pm telling them to evacuate. As of around 3:45pm, they hadn't left yet. My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids had to evacuate yesterday, but were allowed to go back home this afternoon.

SoCal on fire . . . again

2007-10-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Four years ago (almost to the day, actually), Southern California was on fire. Michelle and I came very close to losing our home - we had charred land to within 20 feet of our front porch. Unfortunately, Michelle's folks had a different outcome. Their home of 30 years was burned. They spent the next two years rebuilding. And now, the fire's back. They haven't evacuated just yet, but the fire is getting closer. Heavy winds are expected to drive this fire for at least the next two days. By the time this is over, many people will have lost their homes. Pray for the safety of people who are leaving, and for the safety of the firefighters and police.

Prayer for Dan Kimball

2007-10-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

Others around the blogosphere have mentioned this already, but here I add my prayers for peace to Dan Kimball and his family. Dan is one of my classmates, and well known all around the emerging church. Dan's father had a fall last week and hit his head. He died today. Married over 50 years. Devastating to all. Pray for Dan and his family.

inter::mission update

2007-10-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me, or have been tracking with this blog over the past couple of years know that much of my work has involved building a thing we're calling inter::mission. It's a dream that began before I was hired into my position, so I don't take credit for it, except that I've had the fun of giving vision and some structure to it. I won't go through everything that's involved (you can learn more about it on the inter::mission website if you want). Basically, it's a live-in experience for students (and a few non-students) which attempts to re-orient life around our identity in the Kingdom of God, and our joining with God in mission.

About two years ago I began work on this thing, and have been working to build it ever since. It's morphed a few times from its original form, but we officially kicked the thing off a little more than two weeks ago. One of the things it involves is a weekly "family meal" on Thursday nights. We eat together, hang out together, and talk about life together. On alternating weeks, following the family meal, we have teach-ins around Kingdom and mission. My goal is to primarily utilize guest speakers for these teach-ins. In Seattle, we have access to so many innovative, catalytic, super smart people who are actually practitioners, so we're able to make this happen.

Last night, we were honored with a visit from Karen Ward, Abbess of Church of the Apostles, as our first outside speaker/conversation leader. She talked a bit through the history and ethos of COTA, and about urban monasticism in their context. It was a really good time for the students. Definitely stimulating and challenging. She talked about the way they approach their neighborhood, Fremont, with the mentality that their whole zip code "belongs" to the church/parish, and how it's the role of the members of the church to serve and minister to the church, regardless of belief, lifestyle, affiliation, or status. Good stuff. Karen is such a humble, kind, and warm person, but with focus, creativity, and the best kind of leadership skill.

The past couple of years, and especially the past few months have been such a busy, maddening sprint to get this dream fleshed out and ready to go. And trust me, we're far from embodying a ton of what we have in mind. We're a small, quiet bunch right now, and continuing to add students to the mix little by little. But last night, as I sat and listened to Karen, and looked around the room, I got the sense that yes, this thing is really happening. It was one of those beautiful moments that wasn't self-satisfaction, but thankfulness for God's blessing and gifts. I'm really glad I got to be a part of this, and watch it develop. I'm even more glad that I get to continue helping nurture it and be a part of it.

Our vision for inter::mission is to help liberate young adults to experientially own their missional vocation. This is where we begin.

I've blogged recently about how easy it is to get caught up in the negative side of critique - especially those who are in any way affiliated with the emerging church vibe. There's a role for it, but talk is cheap if we're not actually paying attention to building a better way forward. For as long as God gives it to me, inter::mission is my humble contribution.

Liberalism Gone Crazy in a Major Denomination

2007-10-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

Over the past ten to fifteen years, my denomination has engaged in a discussion of how to read the Bible. This has produced a "victory" for those who favor a view of inerrancy. The Bible is literally God's word, and is completely without error. Meanwhile, those who take even a slightly moderated view of this position are described as liberals and borderline wack-jobs.

Among many issues that these liberals get taken to task on is a sense in which they approach scripture with an agenda in their back pockets, and read those agendas into the texts in order to get them to say whatever they want them to say.

Given the "victory" of the biblical "conservatives" over their left-leaning conversation partners, imagine my surprise at reading a report regarding a poll recently taken by one of the denomination's agencies. An outside polling group was contracted to take a survey of our views regarding the use of alcohol. I won't waste time listing all the questions and responses here, but when asked to respond to the statement, "Scripture indicates that people should never drink," a full 41% of pastors agreed. Come again? 41%. Ummmm, where exactly did they get that?? I must have a bunch of copies of the Lutheran Bible or something, because none of the ones I've read say that.

My point here is that in the middle of our fight to save the Bible, we've gotten so conservative that we've turned liberal. People have approached scripture with an agenda in their back pockets, and chosen to believe that the texts say what they want them to say.

Look, we all do this to some degree. For example, some use "grace" texts in order to go on with selfish, greedy ways without remorse because the sin's already covered. But 41%? Of pastors? I just wonder what kind of uproar there would be if 41% of pastors in my denom were found to have a biblical position opposed to the war in Iraq. Or if 41% believed that scripture teaches that women should be ordained.

So perhaps my denomination is more liberal than I thought. No wonder I was beginning to feel a little more comfortable around here.

Campus Ministry in Middle America

2007-10-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

Is Missouri considered part of the Bible belt? Not sure. It's Midwest-y, and I thought pretty conservative. Anyway, if I were to ask anyone familiar with college campus religious life what the top campus religious organizations at a college in Missouri, what responses would I get? Campus Crusade for Christ? InterVarsity Christian Fellowship? Well, apparently, at Missouri State University in, well, Missouri, the 2nd largest campus religious organization is . . . wait for it . . . The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Indeed. If you haven't heard of them, or their noodly appendaged object of worship, they've been around for a couple years now. But apparently, they've gotten some traction in the heartland. Interesting stuff. You can check out their Facebook Group here.

HT: onegoodmove

Free Burma

2007-10-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Left Behind Video Games: Sue The Evildoers

2007-10-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Justin Baeder is being threatened with a lawsuit by the makers of the abominable Left Behind video games. I'd laugh if I weren't so stunned by the silliness. Read Justin's version of things here.

Shiny, Happy Blogging

2007-09-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

For the past several months, I've been supposedly preparing a revamping of my blog with different content, different layout, different blogging engine. As it turns out, I've been so cranking busy that that project has been placed on the perpetual back burner. Quite honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if the burner even works at this point . . .

HOWEVER, yesterday, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a good friend (you know who you are) pointed out something that I've been chewing on personally for a few months now. It goes something like this: those of us who run in emerging church circles can be a cranky, angry lot. Oh sure, we might have a better sense of humor and feel more relaxed than when we were in the mainstream of the evangelipseudofundmentlismo factory. But in the midst of all of our critiques of church culture, modernity, consumerism, etc., it's very often easier to know what we oppose, or what we're pissed off about, than what we're for. Sometimes it gets to the point that an outside observer would rightly wonder why we even bother with all this, anyway. As a note to said outside observer: most of us have asked that question more times than we can count.

But really, don't we want to be known for something other than our critiques? Don't we believe in a Story that is so good, so rich, so powerful that we decided to organize our whole lives around it? Isn't our faith in the God-man, Jesus, and his Kingdom vision something that stirs our hearts? Isn't our love for Christ's bride a calling to something good, rather than something we wish we could escape?

Let me be clear: I'm guilty of cranky critique and a bad attitude. I too often get lost in seeing a need for change, and lose my vision for a better way forward. I have a bad attitude.

So perhaps I'll try to launch that new version of my blog after all, except with a more positive mindset. Not some pep-talk, toothless, feel-good mantra fest or anything. And not necessarily a place free from critique. But a place where I can point to the good things that are going on, even in the middle of difficulty. A place I can freely display the hope that I have for the things to come.

That's all.

Reading List

2007-09-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

I just updated the list of books that I have read, as well as the list of books I intend to finish by the end of the year. There are a few more books I need to add to the "to be read" list, but I'll pop those on the 'ol blog later. I dare not linger too long on what's left to be read, because it's pretty overwhelming. I'm not an overly fast reader, nor am I an amazing retainer of the things I've read, unless it's super good. Usually, I'm good for a few general summary sentences, but not a thorough review.

Anyway, the reading list alone should indicate why I haven't been blogging as frequently, as well as the likelihood that my frequency will change much in the near future. Maybe I'll just pop a bunch of YouTube videos on here to keep people entertained . . . as if anyone comes here for the entertainment value.

Time to breathe

2007-09-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

Regardless of the fact that I actually planned, or at least knew, that this would be an insanely busy time in my life, I still feel like I'm overloaded. I'm the kind of guy that actually enjoys being busy a lot of the time - it's fun to push hard, live on adrenaline, juggle a lot of things at once. It's just that it's not a sustainable way. And I'm arriving at the "diminishing returns" place, where I'm having increasing difficulty maintaining concentration on the tasks at hand. I'm pretty sure things will settle back down into a rhythm of more controlled chaos in a few weeks, but until then, I need to keep pushing. The thing that has (somewhat) saved my butt thus far is that I'm still trying to being idealistic about the whole Sabbath thing.

After a long summer, school starts next week at UW. We're getting a new year of campus ministry stuff ready now. On a parallel track, inter::mission, a dream we've been working on for the past two years, is about to officially launch. It'll likely be a quiet launch that builds momentum, but at least we'll be able to say it's happening. I want so much to enjoy the ride with the students, and help them experience a different way of living and seeing the Kingdom of God at work . . . but that will require finishing a ton of work first. By the way, if you know any UW students that need housing this year, we've got a few open rooms at The Purple Door, just waiting . . .

Seattle in the Summertime

2007-09-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I just returned from a blurryfastwaytoobusy trip to SoCal. We went down there to clean up our rental house from previous tenants and prepare it for the next go-round. Tons of work. And blazing blazing HOT. The mercury hit 107 (f) one day. Sadly, our time was very limited with family and friends. We got a lot of work done, but not quite enough for our liking. Happily, we were able to get some new tenants lined up and ready to move in. That's a relief - things get financially tight with two mortgages.

We came home to amazing weather. The Pacific Northwest has to have the best summer weather in the nation. We've had a few spots of rain, but for the most part, it's sunny and mid 70s. No smog. Good times. It's almost enough to make me forget about the long, rough winter we had this past year. So if you're looking to visit Seattle, make your plans for July/August or early September. Take a drive across one of Lake Washington's floating bridges (like I do every day) and see some eye popping beauty.

I guess I'm a pretty lucky guy. I've lived in two metropolitan areas in my life - San Diego and Seattle. Not bad.

Working for "The Man"

2007-08-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day back in the saddle with my local ministry context after over a week spent in meetings in denominational environments. In my last post, I mentioned a quick trip to Atlanta. For the past few days I was in some regional denominational meetings in the Portland, OR area. By the time my car rolled into my driveway late yesterday afternoon, I was definitely ready to be home, and back in my element. Over the past several days, I've spent some good time with some really terrific people - some of whom I would count as close friends. But being in the buildings, and seeing the kinds of money and mentality that "we" employ in the name of our organizational mission and purposes can be really frustrating. At one point yesterday I found myself quite agitated and angry.

I don't need to get into a gripe session here, but let's just say that I have some very serious questions/doubts/concerns about my tribe. Anyone who knows me knows that this is nothing new, but believe it or not, there are times when I flirt with optimism, thinking that we might just be able to reform ourselves some day to get farther away from religion and power and security, and closer to the dangerous, prophetic ways of the Kingdom of heaven. Yesterday, I flirted with darker thoughts - things will never change, and I'm wasting my time and efforts in trying to prop up a system that's doomed.

Fortunately, I was reminded that one of the strengths of my denomination is that it gives people like me a lot of latitude and freedom to chuck all of the political b.s. and stay on track with the things I know I'm called to do. And when I stay in rhythm with that stuff, the other rubbish is only as annoying as I allow it to be. I know that the likelihood of bringing about any significant change in systems is remote (at best), but I also know that that's not what I'm supposed to do here. I know why I'm here, and I'm going to go after it - if my denomination wants to support that and sign a paycheck for it, that's great. If not, that's fine, too - I'll still do what I'm supposed to do.

I have a greater distaste for religion today than I did a week ago. And that's a good thing. I hope I have a greater distaste for religion next week than I do now.

I'm pretty sure I'll wake up soon . . .

2007-08-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

. . . and when I do, I'll wonder where my summer went. Wow, it's continued to be super busy. Transitioning at the Purple Door, welcoming new staff, cranking on school, etc. At the end of last week, I had a quick trip to Atlanta for some meetings at one of the denom's big mission centers. It was a good trip - got to see some George Fox school buds for dinner, and the work project at the denom went very well.

I'm quite certain at this point that one of the key things that's kept me sane has been my renewed "efforts" in the area of Sabbath. I've not been perfect, mind you, but more often than not, I've been able to significantly mellow out and spend some down time reflecting, talking at a reasonable pace with my lovely wife, and realizing that the world will still be waiting for me when the day is over.

I only have two weeks left before my DMin school stuff gets going again, which means I need to hustle hard to get my summer school stuff knocked out. The classes I've taken this summer are on Jewish scripture . . . what we Christians call the Old Testament. That's been interesting, in the sense that it's a wonderful reminder to me that God's Kingdom has always been central in scripture, and that our story goes back a long, long time. Even the legal focus of these texts points in a direction that focuses on the true King, and the fitting response of his people.

Like it or not, the next few months are gonna stay hectic. In fact, I can almost guarantee that things will get "worse" before they start getting "better." It's almost all good stuff, though, so I don't want to complain (much).

Peace to all who read this.

A little piece of good news

2007-08-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Al Jazeera is reporting that two of the Korean hostages have been released by the Taliban. Keep praying for the others.

Where Do You Get Your News?

2007-08-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

For the past several days, Eugene Cho has been keeping us up to date on the hostage situation involving a Korean relief worker team. He has asked many times over why this story hasn't been covered more widely by the major U.S. media outlets.

Just to confirm this, in the past five minutes I've scanned a few news sites (their front pages only) for mentions of the situation. Fox News? Nope. CNN? Nope. US News & World Report? Yes, if you're willing to scroll to the bottom of the page. Time? Yes, a link at the top of the page. Of the pages I've scanned so far, you know who has the most prominent and eye catching emphasis of the story? Try Al Jazeera. The UK edition of BBC also gets honorable mention. Actually, when I look for news headlines, I do so via my RSS reader, and I have three news feeds - Al Jazeera, BBC, and US News & World Report. I hardly ever visit the other pages I've mentioned . . . seems that I get my fill of stories about Spears, Lohan, Vick, Beckham, etc. elsewhere.

By the way, these are Christians being held hostage . . . which leaves me wondering why my denomination's "news" page's latest coverage of the story is four days old.

By way of update, Korean officials are now in talks with the Taliban. Pray for this as you are able.

Big Government at the Local Level

2007-08-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

I don't blog politics much. It's not that I am apathetic, but rather that I'm quite ambivalent and distrustful of political parties and their agendas of power - I think most politicians may start their careers with the best of intentions, but inevitably get sucked into the gamesmanship and insider dealings far too easily. I'm totally not ready to jump into the 2008 presidential election coverage yet - wake me up when two things happen: 1) We're LESS THAN twelve months away from election day. 2) There are less than about four viable candidates from each party to choose from. As things stand now, I'm pretty sure that everyone from Hillary Clinton to George Clooney to Don Imus to my soon-to-retire mailman are in the race.

I remember the days when the Republican party was all about reducing the size of government. Nowadays, of course, our Republican president has developed a juggernaut government.

At the local level here in Seattle, we're facing some silliness at The Purple Door with the city. I won't bore you with details, but we've recently had to respond to a complaint filed by one irrational, disgruntled community member. The complaint refers to a city ordinance that is entirely redundant to other laws and ordinances, has no definable community service purpose, and requires a city office of bureaucrats to monitor and police. Oh, by the way, it's quite possible that the ordinance is straight up unconstitutional. We're talking violation of the freedom of assembly and religious practice here - pretty basic, obvious stuff. One of the city staffers we've talked to about this issue told us that they recently shut down a house church based on this ordinance. Wha? Come again? Yep.

I'm NO FAN at all of the Christian groups that sue government because a school official won't let a kid wear a "God hates liberals" t-shirt to school. So I'm not looking to call them anytime soon. But this case actually sounds like something that those godless, left-wing-extremist, gay-and-lesbian-loving wackos at the ACLU would take on. Not like I've got lots of time or energy to fight this one out in a courtroom. But we're pretty frustrated at this point.

Well, enough whining for one day. Maybe this will all blow over quickly and we'll look back and laugh at all this. Maybe.

Use an RSS Reader

2007-08-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

I do hope that the few fine people who read this blog do so via an RSS reader of some sort. Mainly because I just don't seem to be posting much this summer, and asking people to manually drop in to the actual site is probably asking too much.

I'm still in the midst of a summer school slam. Last night I got to the 99% point of completion for one class I've taken. Sadly, not 18 inches from my right elbow, is a stack of 7 books waiting to be cracked for my next class.

Some good stuff's happening these days. But I'm just not in the position to process it publicly in blog format . . . too much other stuff to get done. I'm already feeling guilty about the ten or so sentences I've taken the time to write here.

Some day soon, I shall return.

Bikes to Rwanda

2007-07-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is a very cool deal that the coffee and bicycling communities of Portland, Oregon have put together. One of the ways that Rwanda is being rebuilt after its devastating civil wars is through the coffee industry. Stumptown Coffee asked the coffee farmers what they needed, and they said bikes. So, bikes is what they're getting. Check out the Bikes to Rwanda site.

HT: tonx

Prayer for Hostages in Afghanistan

2007-07-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've been super busy with work and school stuff lately that I am behind on my blog reading, and I haven't been tracking with most of the news, other than a quick scan of headlines on the web. Whether it's my problem or the U.S. media's problem, the story of a group of Korean aid workers being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan has escaped me. One was murdered.

In the mean time, I did hear that there was some kind of CNN YouTube debate, Michael Vick is going on trial for his dog fighting operation, and Lindsay Lohan is an addict (still).

If these were white, American hostages, would this story have gotten by without notice? Unlikely.

Read Eugene Cho's summaries of the story here, and please pray for the hostages, their families, and their captors. Eugene is a pastor in Seattle, with a diverse, growing church.

We Feel Fine

2007-07-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

My buddy Jeremy comes through again. He sent me a link to this TED video. It's a talk by Jonathan Harris, talking through a project he put together called We Feel Fine. It's a super fun, amazing computer program that he wrote that aggregates blog entries that use the words, "I feel" or "I am feeling." It's a wonderful universe of emotion, accessed through what Harris calls "passive observation." It connects human emotion in a way that will make you smile. So go the site, and click the "Open We Feel Fine" link, and explore.

God and Country

2007-07-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Charles Marsh, a professor at the University of Virginia wrote a devastating article (actually, an adapted chapter from his new book) in the Boston Globe a couple weeks back. Here are a couple of snippets:

These past six years have been transformative in the religious history of the United States. It is arguably the passing of the evangelical moment -- if not the end of evangelicalism's cultural and political relevance, then certainly the loss of its theological credibility. Conservative evangelical elites, in exchange for political access and power, have ransacked the faith and trivialized its convictions. It is as though these Christians consider themselves to be recipients of a special revelation, as if God has whispered eternal secrets in their ears and summoned them to world-historic leadership in the present and future.

and

If only holiness were measured by the volume of our incessant chatter, we would be universally praised as the most holy nation on earth. But in our fretful, theatrical piety, we have come to mistake noisiness for holiness, and we have presumed to know, with a clarity and certitude that not even the angels dared claim, the divine will for the world. We have organized our needs with the confidence that God is on our side, now and always, whether we feed the poor or corral them into ghettos.

The article makes note of the fact that evangelicals in the U.S. chose conservative national political alliances over global spiritual alliances. Christians from around the world overwhelmingly opposed the war in Iraq . . . Christians in the U.S. overwhelmingly supported it.

Via: Fast Company Expert Blogs

Quiet days - at least in the blogging world

2007-07-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

You can call it a summer slump if you want to, but I haven't posted here for a while. It actually has a lot more to do with the fact that I'm overly busy right now. I'm doing some summer school classes. They're self-paced, but I seem to have paced myself at one course per month during July and August. This on top of a ton of transitions at work that keep me running. I'm not complaining. I'm just finding myself less connected to the things I would normally find interesting enough to blog on.

There's definitely a post or two that I've been meaning to write, but haven't taken the time yet. Perhaps soon . . .

What's up with the house churches?

2007-07-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

About six or seven years ago, when I began to rethink my role in faith, church, theology, mission, culture, etc. I didn't know anybody who was asking the same kinds of questions I was. Oh, there were plenty of people out there that were farther along than I was - I just didn't know any of them. I slowly began meeting some of them online. About five years ago, I began meeting some of them face to face. For whatever reason, I was meeting a lot of guys that were part of house church communities. Since that time, I've continued to meet new folks, and maintain contact with the others.

Michelle and I have had the honor of hanging out with several house churches over the past few years. Good people, good communities. We've even been a part of house church expressions as our primary worship communities. Good experiences there.

But something seems to be happening. Within the past six months or so, I know of no less than five house churches that have functioned at varying levels of strength (some fledgling, others what I'd call rock solid), but have decided to call it quits. Different parts of the country, different sets of reasons involved. But the same ultimate result - they no longer meet regularly for worship, community, mission, etc.

I'm not going to assume that it's either a good thing or bad thing for any of these communities - I'm sure that most have had really solid reasons, and that God still likes 'em.

It does cause me to ask some questions, though. Especially in the area of sustainability. One of the things I love the most about a simple community is that it's so relational, and not dependent on a paid staff person or programs or buildings, and as a result, has sustainability built right in. But apparently for some, that's not proving to be the case. That's sad.

I don't believe that this is necessarily a bad, bad thing. Even in the cases of communities that have ceased to exist, many have found safe places to explore faith, ask hard questions, heal up from past church-related hurts, and gain a new perspective on the Kingdom of God. That's all great stuff. I'm thankful for these communities.

So what to think? Do some churches (regular and simple) have a natural life cycle, and it's o.k. that some die? Does this indicate something about a lack of health? What about sustainability? What about growth and multiplication?

Got way more questions than answers here. Especially given that my own primary worship rhythm doesn't include house church . . . which I'm not entirely content with. I'll be interested to watch and listen to what some of my friends have to say about all of this.

On a related note, Jason said some good words about house church last week.

Stop Caste Now

2007-06-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working with Jim Henderson to host an event or two to help Sunil Sardar. Here's a quick clip video that shows a bit of what he's all about.

I don't know which I'm more tired of hearing about . . .

2007-06-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

. . . Paris Hilton or the iPhone. Is it just me, or are the people dying in Iraq and Darfur just not sexy enough to retain our attention?

Quick Visit to San Diego

2007-06-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I just got back last night from a few days in sunny San Diego. We went down for the wedding of some dear friends, which I was honored to officiate. It wasn't quite as busy/hectic as I thought it might be, so that's good. We always come home wishing we had been able to see more people than time allowed for, but we did pretty well. In addition to good hang out with both sets of parents, my sister and her kids, we saw some folks at the wedding. Friday night, we also got to visit Jason and Brooke Evans in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego - we walked with them, caught up a bit on life, and just enjoyed friendship with these people we love to death.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the San Diego vibe on this visit. We had an early dinner with my folks at the Edgewater Grill, the wedding rehearsal brunch at Pacific Beach's legendary Broken Yolk Cafe, and the wedding was at the Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens. Kinda touristy trip in some ways, but really fun.

The Simple Way

2007-06-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Simple Way community in Philadelphia has experienced a devastating fire. Their community center and several neighborhood homes were destroyed. Their site has ways you can help.

The Simple Way most recognizable as the home of Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution.

Having experienced the impact of a fire like this firsthand, I'm definitely feeling for the community.

Oh yeah, I'm still an idiot dude

2007-06-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

This summer I get the pleasure of officiating two weddings - the first of which is this weekend. The second of these is a bit later in the summer, and I'm starting some premarital counseling soon with the couple - young, bright. fun, level-headed. The bride-to-be works with Michelle, and I made a book recommendation to the couple through Michelle this week. It's a book that we read together a few years back and found interesting, so I suggested it.

Apparently, without me noticing a thing, the book has a noticeable male bias. The bride-to-be had started the book a while back on her own, but found it pretty demeaning. Michelle's suggestion was that given that most of my theological positions have shifted around pretty significantly in recent years, perhaps it would be good to review my list of book choices that predate the era of shifts. Hmmmm, that's probably wise. I can already pull a few volumes off my mental bookshelf that I really valued when I read them, but are something less than helpful now.

Humbling to know that I'm still a chauvanist, despite all this pseudo-enlightening I've been up to.

So, anyone know of some good, healthy premarital books that are equally honoring and respectful to both genders?

Put down the guitar, slowly back away, and nobody will get hurt . . .

2007-06-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

So there are a bunch of people around Seattle buzzing about the cover story in yesterday's issue of The Stranger. For those of you outside the area, The Stranger is the local alternative newspaper. Check that . . . The Seattle Weekly is the local alternative newspaper, and The Stranger is the alternative to the local alternative newspaper. Anyway, the article is basically 30 staff writers getting sent out to 30 houses of worship on the same weekend, and writing witty, snarky reviews. Some of them are hugely hilarious, some of them are a bit unnecessarily mean spirited, some of them are a waste of time. Personally, it seemed to me that some of them tried too hard to be funny.

Anyway, something I noticed on balance from these pseudo-reviews was the number of digs the writers took at church music. All the churches with a non-hymn format are described as having bad indi-soft-rock cover bands. In one case, the lyrics of the songs are called into question for sounding a heckuva lot like pillow talk (very very funny). With the whole seeker movement a long time ago, church music shifted in the direction of "contemporary" in order to be more welcoming to the unfamiliar nonbeliever. In many cases, churches produced what they thought were pretty solid musical packages. In a few cases, even I thought the music was fairly decent. I've lost count of the number of church ads I've seen that actually use their hip music as a selling point for the church. Perhaps it's time to stop . . . people aren't that impressed. Even with the best musicians, and the purest hearts, it's just not that great. Sadly, most churches that make an attempt DON'T HAVE the best musicians, even if they have pure hearts . . . and then it's even worse.

I hope we've impressed ourselves with our cool music (of course, it would be better if we've honored God with our worshipful attitudes). At least that way someone enjoyed it.

Mixed messages

2007-06-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

So this is the week each year where I clinch my teeth and hold my breath - hoping against hope that something silly or bizarre won't happen. I also await the annual addition to the long list of things I'm supposed to boycott. It's the week of my denomination's big annual meetings.

So far, nothing too weird has hit the press. But I was scanning the denomination's news site a few minutes ago and found two stories. One was about the denomination stepping up its ministry to homosexuals. O.k., I suppose, depending on how "ministry" is defined and carried out. The other story, though, was about a resolution that was approved by the attendees, "opposing hate crimes legislation that includes homosexuals and transgendered persons as protected classes."

So let me get this straight - we want to reach out and "help" homosexuals . . . but we don't want to help protect them from getting singled out for violence because of their homosexuality? How do you think that one's gonna play in the LGBT community?

Just for the sake of clarity, this resolution, as with all resolutions that are voted on in my denomination is only symbolic in value - it is not binding for churches or entities of the denomination. Thankfully, I can continue to be a gay-loving, grace-extending member of the denom . . . whew!!

Who am I becoming?

2007-06-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

This past week during one of our class sessions, one of my cohort-mates, John, talked about some of the teachings he's been doing at his church recently. Today I've been bumping around with some reading from Dallas Willard, and was reminded of a sentence John said . . . I'd like to make it a mantra in the days to come:

Who are you becoming by what you are repeatedly doing?

Art I'm Enjoying

2007-06-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

Holly Sharp has posted images of a new series of paintings she's been working on. Really good stuff . . . makes me want to add to our collection.

Down from the Mountain

2007-06-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I returned from being away for the week on Mt. Hood in Oregon for school. We stayed at the historic and beautiful Timberline Lodge - 'twas a good, good week.

It had been almost a year since the last time I saw most of my school chums, so that was cool. I'm honored to be a part of such a great group of people, and this week, many friendships went to a deeper, richer level. So many good stories, great laughs (one guy talked about what a great ab workout he got from laughing so much), shared experiences. Oh yeah, and it snowed . . . we basically couldn't go outside for two days because it was snowing with about a 35mph wind. It didn't accumulate much, but we were stuck inside - which gave us more time for conversation.

The classroom end of things was pretty decent, too. Interesting discussions - nothing too shockingly profound for me, but I'm always up for good theological conversation with cultural insight and bits of missiology thrown in.

I'm definitely glad to be home - it's hard to be away for more than a couple days. Sleep is nice . . . definitely nice.

Spirit Farmer phone home . . . or not

2007-06-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

This morning (only about a year overdue) I had our home telephone service disconnected. As of this coming Monday, the way to reach Michelle and I will be e-mail and mobile phones. Since we moved to the Seattle area 2-1/2 years ago, we've just not used the traditional phone much. It's not worth the money to keep the landline any more. So, if you're one of the few people who even have our home number and want to know how to reach us, shoot me an e-mail, and if I know you, like you, trust you, etc. I'll give you my mobile number.

TSK on MacArthur

2007-05-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Andrew Jones is at it again with another critic of the emerging church - this time it's John MacArthur. I haven't read his book, so I won't comment . . . but Andrew did read the book, and has a stellar review here. Quite funny, generous, and fair.

Idealism and the People Pleaser

2007-05-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

Idealism is a really great trait to have . . . except when it comes time for getting work done. This is one of the things I struggle with. I dream. Sometimes I dream big. Mostly I dream small to medium. But always when I dream, I dream the perfect, idealistic vision kind of dream. In other words, the kind of dream that is usually impossible to fully attain.

In fact, one of the reasons I don't dream really big more often is that I know from the get go that really big dreams have almost no shot at reality. Politics is a good example - at various times in my life, I've followed political goings-on, and thought about getting involved in local/naitonal causes. But I have always been quick to remind myself that many thousands have gone before me with the best of ideals and intentions, and gotten sucked into the corrupt game that politics often is. What makes me think I could outdo all those people?

I'm at a point in life and work where some of my dreams, while still very much in process, are conceivably within reach. But now is when the really hard work of bringing them to fruition is critical. And if I'm not willing to get some serious work done, the dreams just won't happen. Oh, and now is the time when I need to be willing to set some of that idealism aside. There have been times when fear of not measuring up to the ideal has frozen me into not doing anything. I have to let it be o.k. for the dreams to not be perfect. Knowing that I put my best into something and trusted God and others more has to be o.k., even if it could have been better.

Some people allow failure to be perfect to kill their spirits. Others use the failure to drive their quest for improvement and perfection. Idealism is a tricky thing - which side of failure would I rather call home?

In my present scenario, pursuing the dreams also includes making some decisions that are making life significantly harder on other people. That sucks. It just does. I hate confrontation, and being the bearer of bad news . . . I just want to run away and hide from it. But that's part of the deal. Personal integrity, respect for others, and most important, love, require that I tell the truth, and let it be o.k. for people to be pissed off at me . . . hopefully only for a little while, but maybe forever. I'm a people pleaser to the extreme, so that's a tough one, indeed. I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've failed to do the right thing, in favor of not upsetting others. The times I've held the line have produced what was needed, but have often been miserably stressful. It's still worth it, though.

Sorry for the lack of direction here, and the lack of specificity in what these "dreams" are . . . I'll share more in the weeks to come. But sometimes it's good to take a peek behind the surface, where conflicted feelings (and the dreams themselves) reside.

Living the 4th Commandment

2007-05-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

I spent the past few days in the land of paradoxy. I was at a retreat for my colleagues in Northwest Collegiate Ministries - folks from all over Oregon, Washington, and Northern Idaho. The topic of the retreat was Sabbath . . . which sounded ever so refreshing to me. Unfortunately, because I don't get a chance to see my friends in ministry that frequently, I stayed up way too late, and got way too tired . . . quite un-Sabbath-like! But hey, at least it took place just in front of a three day holiday weekend, right? Sabbath time indeed!

The presentations given by my boss-man, and good friend Wes and his wife Charlene were really terrific. It wasn't just about convincing us that it's good to take a day off - they actually did a terrific job of making it real for people. In particular, I was pleased with how they integrated personality types into the discussion.

At one point, Charlene talked about how inconsistent and hypocritical we are when it comes to the 10 Commandments. We place great importance on the marital fidelity thing and the coveting thing (which is, of course, good), but we very regularly totally dismiss the Sabbath rhythms that remind us that we're finite, and most assuredly NOT God.

I am going to make strong efforts at developing a workable Sabbath rhythm. It'll be hard, I know. But what a great place to start in being counter-culture in our workaholic, consumeristic culture.

Secular Student Union

2007-05-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended an event with the University of Washington Secular Student Union , co-sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. They brought Jim Henderson in to talk about his recent experiences of buying the souls of atheists, writing books with atheists, being nice to atheists, etc. He nailed it. It was the best I've seen Jim speak - probably more transparent with them than he is with a lot of the pastors he speaks to. After the event, about 8 of us went and ate Indian food for a couple hours and continued the conversation.

I have to say, I was super impressed by the students there (most of whom were atheists). They're not looking to win arguments, make religious people mad, or get militant about changing the Constitution. The questions they asked Jim were insightful and genuine. It was a good time, definitely.

Jim also told me a little about what's in the works for this year's Off The Map event in November. It's a bit of a different format from the past couple of years, but sounds creative, energetic, and musically delicious.

Facebook me

2007-05-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

O.k., so I've blogged before about the wonders of Facebook. Working within an environment of college students, it's been on my radar for a while now. I think I joined up about a year and a half ago. But since they recently opened up membership to non-students, I've noticed more and more of my friends popping up there . . . except I don't know who is and who isn't signed up. So hit me up, yo! Add me as a friend . . . I promise I wont stalk you.

Big week

2007-05-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

This week has passed by quickly, but certainly not without notice. I've been in a bunch of meetings, culminating in some important decisions and new directions for the ministry I lead. It's exciting, scary, energizing, painful, exhausting, hopeful stuff - an emotional cocktail. I can't go completely public with the details just yet, but I'll dish soon.

I'm looking forward to this evening, when my buddy Jeff Greer will play a benefit concert for us at the Perkatory Cafe at The Purple Door. He's a super cool man, whose facial hair has been featured on the most trafficked emerging church blog in the world. Our musical tastes are right up the same alley, so I know I'll be lovin' life, even as I pull espresso shots for the masses. We're giving all of our coffee donations (Perkatory has no set prices - it's by donation only) to the University of Washington chapter of Habitat for Humanity to support their building projects around King County.

Good times, but tiring times. Happily, I'm going off to a retreat thingy next week, which will focus on the theme of Sabbath . . . timely.

Falwell

2007-05-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm going to withhold my own commentary (good, bad, and indifferent) on the death of Jerry Falwell. You want to know what others are saying, though? Digg has a story with close to a thousand comments . . . brutal.

Not a good sign

2007-05-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I had a conversation with a UW student who lives at The Purple Door. He's Jewish (by culture more than belief), and is considering joining the UW fraternity that is primarily Jewish in membership. He told me something I didn't know - the frat house they occupy is next door to the home base for the campus Islamic organization. Ironic indeed. Sadly, even among these enlightened, educated, hopeful young people, the same kinds of tensions arise that take place in the Middle East - bottles and bricks have flown between the two in some isolated incidents. The parking lot that separates the two buildings is known as the Gaza strip. Clever. I don't think anything has reached fever pitch, and hopefully it won't, but it's definitely disappointing to hear this stuff.

This is not a political post

2007-05-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'll just admit it - I'm an addict. I am a faithful fan of public radio's This American Life. I'm a week or two behind schedule on my podcast listening, but this morning, I tapped into their episode "Habeas Shmabeas 2007," which was an updated version of an episode they did a year ago - an episode which won them a Peabody Award. It talks about the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, detailing some of their stories.

Now, I don't care what you think about the war on terrorism, but this stuff is just outrageous. I'm not typically very politically active, and I greatly dislike the rhetoric of the major political parties, but I will say this - after listening to this show, I'm all of a sudden sympathetic to some of the cries for impeachment of the president and vice-president (to be clear, sympathetic doesn't mean endorsement . . . just sympathetic, for now).

I tried really hard to listen to this show with objectivity, taking a devil's advocate position in my mind. But ultimately, I was won over. I'm more than willing to listen the other side of the story, too. I have a hard time believing there are many convincing points in favor of the practices described. Enough of my ranting already - go listen!

Denominational words on evangelism worth listening to

2007-05-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

Nobody ever accused me of having a shortage of negative things to say about my denomination. But in anticipation of the big annual meeting next month, the President of the denom (mostly a figure-head PR position) said the following about evangelism:

It is time to emphasize evangelism with integrity. No longer should we use manipulative methods that may bring about larger numbers when those persons' commitment to Christ is little or none.

Evangelism without manipulation? That is a much needed step in the right direction.

How 'bout some positive talk?

2007-04-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been successful in refraining from comments on the latest round of unnecessary controversy invited upon a local, well-known pastor . . . that is, invited upon him BY him. Instead, I happily direct your attention to Eugene Cho, another local (not as well known) pastor who has posted on the same topic, but with respect and love.

What is Web 2.0 . . . or . . . What is Missional?

2007-04-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read this blog and don't know me, let me just state something that's fairly obvious to those of you who do - I'm a geek . . . but about obscure, mostly irrelevant things. The traditional image of Geek (notice the formal capitalization there) is someone who hovers over their computer keyboard, typing code, and taking occasional breaks to play World of Warcraft. I'm not that kind of geek. However, because I believe geeky technology - especially that of the computer variety - will continue to shape our culture, relationships, economy, justice, education, and religion, I have a few techy blogs in my feedreader.

This morning, one of them, Robert Scoble, posted a short ditty trying to define Web 2.0. In the tech world, lots and lots of people throw that term around, companies develop business strategies around it, investors throw down huge bucks for it . . . but not very many people can actually tell you what it means. A lot of people use the term in ways that make web developers want to pull their hair out, because they're so off base. Scoble gives the ol' college try this way:
Web 1.0 was about pages. URLs.
Web 2.0 was about users. Adding them onto corporate pages. Wikis. Blogs. Myspaces.
Web 3.0 is about getting rid of pages altogether. Being able to make the Web YOU want or need.

But, Scoble also links to another tech geek blogger who muses on the question. Different responses over there. Whatever the case, I've gotten the distinct impression that most web developers would say something like, "I can't define Web 2.0 for you, but I know it when I see it."

So now I come to the question: What is missional? Lots of people are using the term these days in the Church. Few could give you a concise definition if you asked them. A lot of people would give answers that seem well off the mark. A lot would say, "I can't define missional, but I know it when I see it." There are increasing attempts out there by some very smart people to define it in clear ways . . . but the ones who say, "I know it when I see it," may not even care - it's more about living into it than defining it. Ultimately, there will be people who don't "get" missional, but say the word all the time. Frustrating or not, it's still more about living into it than having some sort of linguistic power over definitions.

The Cobalt Season

2007-04-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here's some encouragement for you to do what I just did . . . go buy The Cobalt Season's new record! I can't wait to hear the yummy goodness.

I forgot my anniversary (again)

2007-04-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

One should not be fooled by the title of this post that I'm a negligent husband. I've celebrated ten wedding anniversaries with Michelle, and remembered every one of them.

The anniversary to which I refer might be cleverly referred to as my "blogoversary." Yesterday was the five year mark since I started this here blog. I've changed the template several times, but have been pretty consistent in bringing random tidbits about life, culture, theology, and mindlessness in a way that has produced a stunning following of at least 4-1/2 readers.

I had intended to celebrate the anniversary by announcing that I was shutting the ol' blog down . . . mostly because I've got a new one in the works. Alas, I had a more pressing writing project to complete and wasn't able to get the new blog up and running in time. Perhaps over the next couple weeks I'll manage to find some time to finish polishing it up. Until then, I'll continue posting here.

Capitalism is evil

2007-04-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I went to the pet store yesterday to buy dog food. Michelle remembered while we were there that she wanted to buy a cat litter box scoop spoon thingy. After finding the right aisle, she was faced with a decision - which of the approximately 46 versions of an incredibly simple device was best? I'm sorry, but I just have a hard time believing that any store would need to carry more than one or two varieties - a plastic one and a metal one, maybe. But ergonomic? Comfort-grippy-handle? Hydraulic-sport-tuned-suspension-with-a-Hemi? Ionic-breeze-odor-reducer? No thanks, I'll take the plastic one.

Am I cranky this morning, or just over-tired?

"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down That Wall!"

2007-04-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

BBC News is reporting on a concrete wall being built in Baghdad:

Once the 3.6m (12 ft) wall is finished, people will enter and leave Adhamiya through a small number of checkpoints guarded by US and Iraqi forces.
The US military says the barrier is the centrepiece of its strategy to end sectarian violence in the area but insists there are no plans to divide up the whole city into gated communities.

U.S. taxpayer dollars hard at work to re-create a situation that clearly didn't work well in Berlin? Decide for yourself . . . this just seemed a little on the ironic side to me.

How (Not) To Rethink Church

2007-04-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

I attended a breakfast meeting this morning, sponsored by the international missions agency of my denomination. Amid all the frustrating things that make me wish I wasn't part of this denomination, this agency has consistently been one of the brighter lights - I've met tons of people that really get the Kingdom of God . . . primarily because they've served in situations where they weren't the comfortable majority, and developed some humility and respect as a result.

While at the breakfast, I got to talk to some good folks, in particular, about the Church in Latin America. Good times.

During the "meeting" portion of the breakfast, some good, encouraging things were said. But mixed in with them were some things that made me scratch my head.

Here's an example: "We need to help Christian in North America rethink church. What is it? A building? A worship service? What? We need to be able to show people that church can take forms other than the normal model we're accustomed to. Small gatherings of people in informal settings can legitimately be the church . . . as long as they're fulfilling the five purposes of the church . . . "

I was tracking happily with that, right up until the last line . . . five purposes. Ummmm, o.k., so if I'm supposed to rethink the church, why can't I rethink the five purposes (which, by the way, were left undefined, and therefore, left me feeling sheepish and silly for not knowing them off the top of my head . . . clearly, I don't know my New Testament)? So, basically, church can look many different ways in many different contexts . . . just as long as it looks the same everywhere. Got it.

The meeting was enjoyable and well worth my time (even at 7:30am). It's just funny how in the midst of changing everything, we have the capacity to miss some things. I am certainly as guilty as anyone in this regard. God help us all.

How great is the Great Commission . . . really?

2007-04-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I read David Bosch's game changing misiology book, Transforming Mission. It's long, thorough, and so good in so many ways. It's truly a remarkable work. Not an easy read, mind you, but well worth the work I put into it. I will re-visit that book many times in the years ahead.

As I was reviewing some of the notes I made on it this weekend, I came across something that was very curious to me. It goes a little something like this. If you were to take a poll of evangelical pastors in North America, and asked them what the three most important verses/short passages in the Bible are, what do you think they'd say? John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 6:23, Hebrews 11:6 . . . what else? I gotta think that Matthew 28:18-20 would be included in the list that many many pastors would give. I don't remember how old I was when that was one of my memory verses, but it had to be pretty early - I mean, it's the Great Commission, right?

So imagine my surprise when I read Bosch write that this short passage of the New Testament that I and countless others have come to think of as central was basically not elevated to any special status as Bible verses go until about 60 years ago. Are you kidding? The way we talk, and preach, and organize our church activities, you'd think that this would definitely have been a biblical staple throughout the entirety of church history. Alas, it seems that it wasn't.

So my question is, "What does this mean?" Why is it that something the church has so organized itself around wasn't always given such importance? Not that it was dismissed or marginalized. I'm just curious about this. Perhaps that's not very interesting to you. It caught my attention, though, so I figured I'd share.

Using the Great Commission has certainly led to the expansion of the Church, it's fueled a lot of efforts at serious discipleship, and motivated many to take sharing their faith in Jesus seriously. Cool enough. But that stuff also happened prior to 1940 . . . what motivated folks then?

Pavlov's Breakfast Invention

2007-04-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

via

The Rise of Facebook

2007-04-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

Interesting article over at Fast Company on Mark Zuckerberg, one of the brainy founders of Facebook. Three years ago, he was a 19 year old Harvard sophomore. Today he's running a company that reportedly turned down an offer from Yahoo! valued at $1 billion. I know from working in a college environment how powerful this thing is.

It's a good illustration of how fast things move these days. From literally nothing to being the sixth most trafficked website in the U.S. in three years. Social networking . . . whatcha gonna do about it?

New Church Marketing Campaign REVEALED

2007-04-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was trolling the groups section of the Seattle Craig's List page and found this: "Christian Nudists." Call me a sucker (or a perv), but I did follow the link for the group description. Not much there . . . I guess what you see is what you get.

Unexpected and Unpredictable

2007-04-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

One week ago today, it was cold here. Michelle called me from work, which is about 20 miles to the north of where we live, to tell me there was snow on the ground. On Friday, we had record setting temperatures . . . but not of the cold variety - the thermometer hit 80. As I look out the window of our home office a little after 5am, I see the silhouettes of large pines being pushed and pulled by strong winds, and it's back to our normal temperature range.

The shifts in weather have been an apt metaphor for life. In the face of some disappointing realities, I've been seriously considering a revamp of some projects I've worked on for the past year and a half. It would mean rapid change, a new flurry of work, and a new learning curve . . . oh yeah, and a lot of prayer and faith.

I'm coming down to crunch time on some school deadlines, so there's two big stacks of books and another two big stacks of journal articles consuming our dining room table. In this sense, I knew what was coming, and I've actually done a pretty decent job of preparing for it.

My parents, grandmother, sister, nephews, and niece are flying in for a visit tomorrow. This will be their first visit since we moved here, so that should be fun. Maybe after over two years here I'll actually go to the space needle for the first time, eh?

I enjoy the challenge of my job, and especially the creative freedom (and encouragement) I have to create incarnational environments and opportunities for college students. I enjoy school, with the push to read tons of books on a range of topics. I've enjoyed working with a couple church planting types over the past couple of months. I'll enjoy having family around. All that to say that I'm not complaining about the busy-ness or the pace.

I will say that I'm tired. In some ways, I'm not handling the fatigue and stress all that well. In other ways, I'm doing just fine. I think the thing that worries me in times like this is that if I'm going to be tired and stressed out, I want it to be over the right things. Am I giving myself away to what the Master would call good? Am I celebrating the Resurrection through hopeful efforts? Do I live into a hope that is alive, and do so in a way that stirs that hope up in others?

Much to learn, much more to practice. More love to share. More peace to proclaim. Much injustice to combat. Much walking to do.

The Pope of America Takes on Reality TV

2007-03-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

What? You mean you didn't realize America had a pope?? Say it with me - "Oprah." Massive financial success and power, fiercely loyal following, self-styled spirituality for sale, generosity to others, literacy, oh the list goes on.

Her latest venture is sure to be an interesting one: unscripted drama (read "reality TV"). Variety.com is reporting that her company is developing a show for ABC called "The Big Give," which "follows a group of 10 people who will be handed money and resources -- and then challenged to find dramatic and emotional ways to use the coin to help others." Whoever wins gets one of their own wildest wishes granted.

So many interesting questions here. Like this one - "Is this the commodification of generosity?" - or another way of putting it, "Who's making money from other people giving it away? ABC? Oprah? Advertisers?" Or how about this one - "Are non-dramatic, non-emotional forms of giving now somehow inferior?" The questions about what all this communicates could go on for hours. I'll leave it to you to ask some more. Mind you, I'm not trying to be a cynical jerk here - there are likely some more positive questions to be considered. I'm just trying to get the ball rolling.

Perkatory Cafe

2007-03-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, the Perkatory Cafe went live at The Purple Door. It's a partnership between the college ministry I'm a part of, and a local church. We're open for some limited hours to start with, but hopefully we'll expand those as time goes. Good, fairly traded coffee will be served, along with a homey vibe, free wi-fi, and 15% more love than the other guys' coffee shops. If you're in Seattle, come on by and say hello. One hint, though - take the bus . . . sadly, vast amounts of parking isn't on the menu.

And now for something completely different

2007-03-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

I quote the entirety of a local television "news" story:

A blind woman in Texas said she is coming under fire for her choice of a service animal. Tabitha Darling said she is being harassed by her property management because she and her 12-year-old pony, Trixi, live in a one-bedroom apartment in suburban Fort Worth.

Darling said Trixi is a seeing eye "dog" and wheelchair combined and is protected by federal law as a service animal. The woman rides Trixi several miles to work at Wal-Mart everyday, and Wal-Mart managers accommodate the pony with a specially built pen behind the store. Darling hopes to move to a house soon and said she got similar hassles when she lived in Idaho.

Denmark Observations - entry 4

2007-03-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

This will probably be my last entry in this series. I may have a random thought here or there, but this'll do for now. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be ending the series on an "up" note. Oh well.

While at a conference that involved missiologists, denominational seat holders, and other sorts of theological types, I was struck at how very stale the spiritual dynamics were there. Apparently, there was more interest in the state of Christianity at work in the world than interest in the way the Triune God is at world in the world. One could argue about the inevitability of an institutional feel at an academic conference of scholars, but if that's truly the case, then I'd like to opt out of the academy. I just don't believe that academics, and the dynamics of a living, working, redemptive God, are mutually exclusive. It's far too easy to lose our way. The topic of Christianity in the Global South is hugely important - way more important than most Western Christians can conceive. But isn't it the Spirit of God at work? Aren't we called by the name of one that we believe has risen from death? The kinds of changes that we need to embrace in our radically changing world are not of the scholarly, reserved, staid variety - they are the changes brought about by compelling passion that refuses to stand still and be respectable.

I do not mean this post as a knock on anyone at the conference - they were a wonderful, gracious, hospitable group. I just hope that they (we) are able to integrate our hearts and souls into this intellectual work in a way that creates excitement and movement.

Denmark Observations - entry 3

2007-03-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

At the conference I attended at University of Aarhus last week, I very quickly noticed that I was the only person there that didn't have some sort of affiliation with some form of the Lutheran church. There were faculty members from a few "public" universities in Denmark and Sweden, but by virtue of these countries having state-endorsed churches, they're connected. Also, a couple of participants were there from the Lutheran World Federation mothership in Geneva.

I had one very interesting discussion over lunch with a couple of professors - one of whom has served at very high levels in the World Council of Churches. I was asked about the nature of the emerging church movement in North America, so we talked about that for a while. We also talked about the degree to which this kind of a renewal movement would be possible/likely within the Scandinavian context. They didn't give the emerging church much of a shot at bringing about renewal - at least not within the state church. In large part, they said, it's because if you start messing around with the ways they do church, you're literally messing around with the ways they do citizenship in the country. Wow - very different. Interestingly (frighteningly?), one comment was made to the effect of, "You can deny the resurrection of Jesus, deny the virgin birth, deny the Trinity, but don't you dare mess with baptism because that's how citizenship is sealed."

Is it any wonder that while everyone "belongs" to the church, virtually nobody shows up? Not to these professors. They're in an interesting position, though - they are not officially employed by the church, so they don't fear for the loss of their jobs, and yet they're able to make some critiques based on their observations.

I actually do have a bit more hope for the emerging church viability than my learned friends. Mainly because of the decidedly non-Christendom approach that the emerging church ethos involves. It won't require or significantly involve the state church to make it work. Tony Jones' recent trip to Scandinavia is a good example of some connections being made.

Within the context of a conference discussing the church in the global south and east, it's more than a little ironic to me that the theological conversation is still very Euro-American centric, despite the fact that the church is far more alive in the south and east than in the west. It's validated some of the directions of my doctoral work, but also potentially significantly shifted the practical focus of my work. I'm still chewing on some thoughts in that regard, but maybe I'll put some sentences together here in the days to come.

Denmark Observations - entry 2

2007-03-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

I think it's because my trip was so short that I never adjusted fully to the time shift, but I slept very poorly while in Denmark - average of about 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep. So I did a bit of Danish/German TV channel surfing. I watched a fair bit of CNN Europe (or whatever they call it). Anyway, this "world" news was extremely U.S.-centric. I wasn't that surprised about it, but there were a couple of times where I thought, "Why do people in Denmark or Sweden or Germany need to know about an anti-meth ad campaign in Montana?" The funny thing was that there were all these U.S. news stories, with a few world (as in non-Iraq) stories mixed in . . . and then they went to the sports update. Rugby, soccer, cricket, sailing, formula one car racing . . . and one quick Kobe-Bryant-had-a-big-game basketball highlight. I think there was a gold update too. So the "world" aspect of CNN's coverage appears to primarily concern sports. Apparently Europeans don't care about regular local news, just sports.

In a somewhat related story, while I was at the conference in Aarhus, one of the speakers was from Nigeria. After he presented his paper, during a Q&A time, someone made mention of Western political and media influence - he responded to the question, but made an aside reference that woke me up: "Much of the time when it comes to how evangelicalism is presented in Africa, it is assumed that George Bush speaks for the evangelical church." Well, now, that's a bit of a problem, isn't it? Regardless of how you personally feel about this prez and his performance, it's jarring to hear that he's assumed to be speaking not just for the U.S. government, or the people of the U.S., but for mainstream Christianity in the U.S. Apparently Christendom is alive and well. We have far to go.

Denmark Observations - entry 1

2007-03-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

While only in Denmark for a few short days, I noticed some cultural stuff that surprised me. First, I was surprised at just how similar the popular clothing fashions are. In one sense, because of the global media and marketplace I shouldn't be surprised, but my past experience traveling to Europe has been that there are a lot of similarities, with a few distinct oddities mixed in. This time there was an almost total lack of those oddities - about the only thing I noticed was that the females there LOVE the look of form fitting jeans tucked into calf to knee high boots (most with high heels). As for the guys, all I noticed was that they like scarves . . . oh, and all the shoe stores I saw were well stocked with these dress shoes that have extra long toe space with a squared off front.

Anyway, perhaps my biggest cultural surprise was something I didn't see there: Starbucks. Not one. News of their global takeover has not reached Copenhagen. Long live the Danes!

Denmark and back

2007-03-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back home after a few days away in Denmark. It was a good trip, but too short and too lonely (in other words, I wish Michelle had been able to go with me). I went to a conference on Church, Religion, and Politics in the Global South - it was a school related thing for me. Basically, I was looking for a conference to go to, and this came up on an internet search, and when I looked into it, I found a phenomenal price for a nonstop flight from Seattle to Copenhagen. So, I went to this thing in Denmark for less money than I would have paid to go to a conference in Los Angeles or Atlanta or Boston. Cool deal. The conference was held at the University of Aarhus - a very large school about 3 hours by train from Copenhagen. Aarhus is a great little city - full of life and energy.

The conference was good - highly academic (all of the speakers who gave presentations read their papers) and helpful. Not exactly compelling, life change oriented stuff, but again, from an academic standpoint, it was very helpful to me in my research. Plus, I got to be with some very smart, gracious, and interesting people. And now it's time for a little name dropping. I got to share lunch and conversation with THE Viggo Mortensen. No, no, not the actor, the highly regarded missiologist.

I was able to spend two nights in Aarhus and two nights in Copenhagen after the conference. I've got several items of reflection and commentary on this trip, most of which are random and unrelated to each other. So, I'll post a few times over the next few days and process some of my observations and things I found interesting.

Double whiplash

2007-03-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just surfed a good handful of blogs for this story, but it doesn't seem to have surfaced. I was watching CNN Europe ealier today (I'll explain this in another post) and they aired a story about Al Mohler. This is a guy with huge influence in my denomination, and surprisingly enough, huge influence with a number of young "emerging" leaders. I don't count myself one of them . . . nope, not a fan (granted, I'm overly sensitive, given that he essentially called my wife, and me, "morally rebellious"). Anyway, this news story called attention to Mohler's commentary on the potential of a homosexual gene, and whether Christian parents-to-be should "fix" the gene if found in their pre-born children.

My first case of whiplash was connected to Mohler's seemingly open mind to a genetic factor when it comes to homosexuality. I've long believed that this is a likely scenario, even as scientific studies continue to be done on the topic. But Mohler? Really?? Props to him for being open to scientific discovery without a knee-jerk reaction.

But the second case of whiplash came when Mohler argued that if a gene is definitively discovered to be the "gay gene," and a fix was possible, Christian parents should choose to go ahead and have that fixed. Wha?? Wow, he just opened Pandora's box and didn't bat an eye!

On one hand, he shows sensitivity to homosexuals by saying that we ought not blast homosexuals wholesale if they haven't made a choice in their orientation. On the other hand, he wants to go around messing with fetuses to fix what God got wrong. If his argument is that God would certainly not intend a baby to be born with a predisposition to homosexual sin, then what about a predisposition to obesity (gluttonous sin)? Alcoholism? Anger? Judgementalism?

Once again, we have a Christian leader singling out homosexuality as a worse sin than others, not admitting, of course, that homosexual sin is only one form of sex outside of marriage . . . in fact, there's a heckuva lot more pre- and extra-marital sex going on than homoesexual sex - perhaps we should fix that gene while we're at it. Oops! Can't do that . . . then everyone would end up "morally rebellious" like I am.

Passport success

2007-03-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Since I hinted at whining about my passport last week, I thought I'd give a quick update. I got it. Finally. After 7 weeks, an extra $60 for so-called expedited service, well over 3 hours on the telephone, and a four hour trip to the Seattle Passport Agency. Sheesh.

Conversation as . . .

2007-03-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Just started reading The World Cafe: Shaping our Futures Through Conversations That Matter. I'm only a couple chapters in, but there's some good morsels there. Often talking with others is either dismissed or overlooked because in proof-is-in-the-pudding kind of world, we place the real value on action. But what if conversation is action? How many truly revolutionary actions ever took place in isolation from some sort of catalytic conversation? I'll mention some further thoughts as I get farther along, but I do b'lieve I'm gonna like this one.

Need a Passport? Tough.

2007-03-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

You can thank me now . . . no really, go ahead. You're welcome.

You're thanking me for saving you from an angry rant that I have all stored up inside me. Instead, I would like to offer this public service announcement to anyone in the U.S. who is planning to travel outside of the country in the next three years, and needs a passport: STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING NOW AND GET YOUR BUTT TO THE PASSPORT OFFICE TO START THE PROCESS. Seriously, if you've got a trip in the next 18 months, do it NOW, and I'd recommend throwing down the extra $60 to expedite. If you're traveling about 10 months from now, you might be in luck and get your passport in time.

You have no idea what I'm saving you from by not ranting here. So, again, you're welcome.

An Emergent Manifesto of Crappy Marketing

2007-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

So, there's a new book coming out soon from your conversational friends at Emergent Village - it's called An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. And they made a promo video for it and stuck it on YouTube, starring Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. Those guys are both very smart and sincere (though perhaps a bit elitist), and I think they've stirred up some good thinking. But this video is horrible . . . I couldn't even finish watching the thing. Exactly how many times can you sound natural fitting the words "emergent manifesto of hope" into a sentence?? Uhhhh, how about NONE?

I'm quite certain that someone in the marketing department of the publishing house had the idea, and that Tony and Doug were more or less dragged into this, but come on! It's this kind of marketing that causes people to question the motives of Emergent in the first place . . . as in, it's not about rethinking faith or mission, it's really about selling books.

I'm not a fan of the label "emerging church," even though I've used it a good bit, and advocated for the category. But I've always made a point of distinguishing the emerging church (little "e") from Emergent (big "E") - it's confusing for people, and at times, pretty unhelpful. Anyway, this video is a good example of why I'm not a fan.

I bought my very first prom dress yesterday!!

2007-02-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

Never one to pass up a new experience, I decided to give cross-dressing a go. I may be experimental, but I'm not stupid . . . so instead of going to a fancy department store to look at all of their fine apparel, I took Michelle (yes, I included her in this adventure) to a local thrift store, and found a lovely, shiny dress. I snatched it up and brought it home. I'm really excited to try it on, but it will need some alterations . . .

1. Take scissors to the prom dress and cut it up into a bunch of smaller pieces.
2. Take the smaller pieces and stitch them in to the thrift store sportcoats I also purchased yesterday, making lovely new designs.

I look forward to the creative process, and to being able to wear my new promcoat out in public.

O.k., so it doesn't actually qualify as cross-dressing. But hey, if I'm going to dabble, I'm going to do it slowly. Perhaps some day I will be bold enough to do what Michelle and I observed with one of the thrift store employees - a teenage guy . . . wearing an impressive kilt. Takes a real man, and nice looking legs to pull that one off.

Howdy . . . I mean it . . . I really do

2007-02-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Just flew home from Texas this morning. I was in the DFW area for a missions event for college students. I'm going on about 3 hours sleep right now, but it was a good good weekend. I get really stoked when I see college students with a fire in their eyes to make their lives count for more than the paycheck on the other side of their degree, or the white throne on the other end of their hangover. It was a really encouraging time with some new friends.

I'll admit it - I talk too much trash about the South/the Bible Belt, and the Christian subculture that's just so bloody thick there. But I shared worship with 200 students who are committing themselves to being on Kingdom mission as a lifestyle. Some will get assigned to short term projects away from home, and some will get assigned to projects lasting a full year. That's encouraging. As with any pet issue, it's a lot easier to talk trash when you don't have enough friendships with the people you're talking about.

Must sleep . . . losing coherence . . . fighting a migraine . . . looking forward to dinner alone with my favorite person.

Inside the Missional Matrix

2007-02-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

Seattle is just hoppin' full of interesting events this spring. Including this one, brought to you by Off The Map and the Shoreline Vineyard. There's a possibility that I'll be out of state . . . but I may just rearrange things a little.

Art installation

2007-02-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

The Ikon community in Ireland (home of Peter Rollins, author of the excellent book How (Not) to Speak of God) has an art installation up. Here's one of their pieces:

HT: Jonny Baker

Coming in April to University of Washington

2007-02-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

Film, Faith, and Justice 2007

- do plan on being there, won't you?

The Q

2007-02-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

When I lived in San Diego, "going to the Q" meant going to watch the Padres or Chargers play ball - at Qualcomm Stadium. Many natives still call it "The Murph," given that before naming rights wrecked the world, the stadium was named after a legendary San Diego sports journalist, Jack Murphy. Some have merged the two names, and refer to the stadium as "The Qurf". I digress.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eugene Ch o, the pastor of Quest Church in the Interbay area of Seattle. The church is about five years old, and has a really good story. They also have a cool coffee shop called Q Cafe.

We talked about the cultural vibe, our histories in the church, making a new way with multiple generations of Jesus followers, and how at times our idealism comes to a point of collision with reality - how to adjust?

Is church planting always a good thing?

2007-02-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

Just a quick shot here - not much time to post. I've just been brewing on some conversations I've been a part of recently in which church planters are discussing their work. I hear a lot of talk about the new church, the new vision, the new approaches . . . but I can't say I hear a lot about Jesus. In one case, I heard a church planter describe his "non-institutional" approach to church planting, and I can't recall hearing the words "God" or "Jesus" or "Kingdom".

Don't get me wrong - I value church planting . . . but the point isn't to start new churches, is it? Please tell me it's not. Please tell me that creating new environments for the King and the Kingdom to be announced and revealed has something to do with it.

Is it just me?

2007-02-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

. . . or did Prince sing more cover songs in his Super Bowl show than he did of his own stuff? It was so strange to me that I actually pulled out my Foo Fighters CD (from which he sang "Best of You") just to check the liner notes and make sure he didn't write the song. Nicely done.

The Kingdom is at hand . . . but . . .

2007-02-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

O.k., so there's no clever or profound way of saying this - sometimes life is hard. It's hard to living the kind of life that is in harmony with the reality that Jesus came to announce and inaugurate. Somehow the kind of hope that the new reality would seem to stir up within us seems to be just out of reach. People who work hard, speak peace, pray for justice, and give their lives away to others wake up cranky, discouraged, and dismayed that while the Kingdom may be "at hand," it's the middle of the night and you can't see that "hand" in front of your face.

I'm not writing this as an autobiographical confession necessarily. I certainly have my share of those feelings and experiences. But for whatever reason, over the past few months, I've spent time (phone time, electronic correspondence time, actual face to face time) with what seems to be a large (and growing) number of friends who are at a place of struggle. They/we are trying hard, looking for Kingdom ways forward, and spending time on our personal souls, and yet we're experiencing dry seasons, dark nights, and rocky soil. The Kingdom at hand isn't visible. The gospel of hope fails to stir up the life change we desire.

I write this more to just publicly admit it. I hope that among the many changes that we are seeking in the Church and in our communities is the ability to say this kind of stuff out loud. Not to get sympathy or pity from others or support from them or whatever. But just to have the freedom to say it. "Life is hard right now. I don't know how long it will last. I just know I'm not having any fun. I'm not giving up."

So if you're the praying type, pray. Pray for the assurance of hope that the Kingdom has come and will come. Pray for the courage to walk through dark nights and rocky fields. Pray for financial provision, and the wisdom to steward it well. Pray for a heart of forgivenness and forgiveness.

Strengths and Weaknesses: redux

2007-01-25T07:39:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about my lovely personality profile as "pessimistic, cynical jerk," I thought I'd project my faults onto others for a moment. Would you like to join me? I thought so . . . aaaand off we go.

My cynicism toward the powers that be - especially the powers in the church of the Western world (I won't bring the rest of the world in just yet) - is largely an attitude I share with many people in the so-called emerging church scene. As I said yesterday, in some ways, this is a good thing, because it helps me (us) see through a lot of the broken rhetoric, hypocritical power plays in denominations, screwed up understandings of church structure, and self-serving/consumeristic teaching . . . much of which masquerades as "theology." But, again, much of it not so good, because of the bad attitude that goes with it. As a further indictment, I am often guilty of talking a good game about all that's wrong with this institution or that, but not living out the kind of change I want to see in the world (as Gandhi might say).

This has brought to mind a memory that goes back ten to fifteen years ago - back in the day when I used to listen to (and largely buy into) conservative talk radio. One of the labels that the hosts of said shows used to use when talking about their political opponents was "the liberal elite." I don't think I ever pondered that description much. I think what they were trying to get at was a description of intellectually gifted, highly educated, well to do, idealistic people who argued on behalf of the rights of the poor, downcast, etc. but never cared enough to get their hands dirty.

So now I'm wondering if my cynicism has put me into that kind of territory where matters of church and faith are concerned. I'm intellectually inclined (perhaps not "gifted," but I think a lot), well educated, financially comfortable, and idealistic . . . and I regularly take mental and/or verbal pot shots at "the establishment." I do so with good intentions most of the time - saying things I fancy as prophetic calls for change. But so much of the time, my talk is as far as it goes. I fail to get my hands dirty - at least dirty enough.

Scot McKnight's recent article, which is getting linked a lot around the blogosphere (for good reason) references the reactionary nature of one of the streams of the emerging church. To those in this stream, I'd ask, "How dirty are your hands?" In many cases, I'm happy to say that I've seen some filthy dirty, muddy up to the armpits hands. In many many others, though, I've seen hands that look like they just spent quality time under the care of the local manicurist.

I'm ready to turn my prophetic calls back on the emerging church and try to get more people to really do the stuff we all like talking about.

Strengths and Weaknesses

2007-01-23T21:52:00.001-08:00

I just spent the past two days at an in-town (as in, not a sleepover type) staff retreat. It involved some team oriented discussions around the DiSC assessment. Given my counseling education and work experience, I've taken and administered a ton of personality inventories, and by now, I can usually predict what the inventory is going to tell me about myself.

This time, though, it's been at least a few years since I've taken an inventory of any kind. A lot's changed since the last time I did one - I launched out into church planting, I put an end to my church planting efforts, I moved to the Seattle area, I went into collegiate ministry and began developing a dream for an experiential learning process for young adults. All the while, over the past few years, I've deconstructed, partially reconstructed and then re-deconstructed most of my assumptions about faith, church, scripture, leadership, vocation, etc.

I can't say that I was super surprised by the results of the inventory this time around, but the profile was significantly different - in some good and not so good ways. I came out as a much more entrepeneurial, adventurous, creative type fellow . . . with a strongly pessimistic, cynical outlook on life. Interesting combination - I'm energetic to go start new things, but apparently doubtful that anything worthwhile will come of them! O.k., so perhaps that's not really what it said, but you get my drift.

When I read the part about my cynicism, I smirked and later laughed - mainly because that's a fairly new description for me . . . and yet it's really quite correct. For a few minutes there, I have to admit that I had a smug attitude about it - sort of a prideful thing, like, "Yeah, see, I'm this fring-y rebel punk rock guy that doesn't buy into the system and wants to change everything." This morning, I thought and prayed a good bit about this, though, and realized the ways in which this is both a good and bad thing. Cynicism isn't typically a complementary word - why should I view it as a positive? Well, mainly because I think I see more deeply into issues of culture, theology, and praxis because I don't automatically swallow what everyone tells me. I think I have a sharper edge and can speak more prophetically to the church and culture because of it. But, it's definitely a dangerous thing. Just because I can see the dark spots in the rosy pictures of life doesn't mean that it helps anyone for me to go around being a whiny jerk. My cynicism is often arrogant and unkind. As if that's a terrific way of helping people see the Kingdom of God at work around them.

I honestly can't say that I want to leave my cynical, critical thought processes behind me. I do think they serve me well . . . except when they don't. So, I need to become more self-aware when I'm being overly critical, overly demanding, and borderline hopeless. Time to put away the Depeche Mode and Morrissey CDs for a while.