Summer seems to be a natural season to step back, slow down and SIMPLIFY. Christianity and the accompanying church life has become increasing complicated. The life that we have been given has become marked by condemnation rather than grace and chaos rather than peace. Jesus said that the essence of Christianity could be summed up in two inseparable commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Simple yet more powerful than we know. This summer we are committed to learning and living out the wonders of loving God and others simply and powerfully.
Join us at SKYLINE ( www.SkylineOKC.com ) this Sunday morning, June 1st at 11:00am. I will continue the teaching conversation through the book of Galatians and lead our extended community in communion.
The KAMP's neighborhood BBQ will take place this Sunday, June 1st at 5:30pm. We will be gathering on the lawn off 26th street just to the north of Wesley Church. We need a group to come around 3:30pm to help with setup and flyer distribution. We need everybody to bring lawn chairs, dessert, drinks, or disposable plates, cups and plasticware to share. Please make plans to attend, bring friends and let us know how you plan to help.
The KAMP's Gathering will happen as usual next Sunday, June 8th at 5:30pm. Robert and Rebecca Prince will be sharing their experience of "Making Room for Life" and Ryan Gikas will be leading and journeying with us in worship.
Please mark your calendars for Saturday, June 21st. We will be serving and celebrating with refugees from Myanmar (formerly burma).
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
May God Bless You.
Ben.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
She.
I was working through some info I had compiled related to church planting for the V360 effort and came across the farewell letter I sent to the staff at New Life nearly two years ago. I concluded the letter with an excerpt from Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis:
One of the central metaphors for God and his people throughout the Bible is that of a groom and his bride. God is the groom; his people are the bride. I like this because it makes the church a "she". We need to reclaim this image. The church is a she.
She's a mystery, isn't she? Still going after all this time. After the Crusades and the Inquisition and Christian cable television. Still going. And there continue to be people like me who believe she is one of the best ideas ever. In spite of all the ways she has veered off track. In spite of all the people who have actually turned away from God because of what they experienced in church. I am starting to realize why: The church is a double-edged sword. When it's good, when it's on, when it's right, it's like nothing on earth. A group of people committed to selflessly serving and loving the world around them? Great. But when it's bad, all that potential gets turned the other way. From the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows. Sometimes in the same week. Sometimes in the same day.
But she will live on. She's indestructible. When she dies in one part of the world, she explodes in another. She's global. She's universal. She's everywhere. And while she's fragile, she's going to endure. In every generation there will be those who see her beauty and give their lives to see her shine. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against her. That's strong language. And it's true. She will continue to roll across the ages, serving and giving and connecting people with God and each other. And people will abuse her and manipulate her and try to control her, but they'll pass on. And she will keep going.
One of the central metaphors for God and his people throughout the Bible is that of a groom and his bride. God is the groom; his people are the bride. I like this because it makes the church a "she". We need to reclaim this image. The church is a she.
She's a mystery, isn't she? Still going after all this time. After the Crusades and the Inquisition and Christian cable television. Still going. And there continue to be people like me who believe she is one of the best ideas ever. In spite of all the ways she has veered off track. In spite of all the people who have actually turned away from God because of what they experienced in church. I am starting to realize why: The church is a double-edged sword. When it's good, when it's on, when it's right, it's like nothing on earth. A group of people committed to selflessly serving and loving the world around them? Great. But when it's bad, all that potential gets turned the other way. From the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows. Sometimes in the same week. Sometimes in the same day.
But she will live on. She's indestructible. When she dies in one part of the world, she explodes in another. She's global. She's universal. She's everywhere. And while she's fragile, she's going to endure. In every generation there will be those who see her beauty and give their lives to see her shine. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against her. That's strong language. And it's true. She will continue to roll across the ages, serving and giving and connecting people with God and each other. And people will abuse her and manipulate her and try to control her, but they'll pass on. And she will keep going.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Who Gets To Narrate The World?
I dove into a new book last night by Robert Webber...
Who Gets To Narrate The World? - Contending For The Christian Story In An Age of Rivals.
An excerpt from the back cover:
The late Robert Webber believed this question to be the most pressing issue of our time. Christianity in America, he preached, will not survive if Christians are not rooted in and informed by the uniquely Christian story that is the gospelof Jesus Christ.
This is the burden of Webber's final book, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. Convinced that American evangelicals are facing the demise of their entire way of life and faith, Webber challenges his readers to rise up and engage both the external and internal challenges confronting them today. This means that Christians must repent of their cultural accommodation and reclaim the unique story the Christian story that God has given them both to proclaim and to live.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Mars Hill Update.
Summer seems to be a natural season to step back, slow down and SIMPLIFY. Christianity and the accompanying church life has become increasing complicated. The life that we have been given has become marked by condemnation rather than grace and chaos rather than peace. Jesus said that the essence of Christianity could be summed up in two inseparable commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Simple yet more powerful than we know.
Mark 12:28-34 says, One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
There will not be a KAMP's Gathering this Sunday, May 25th. Enjoy the holiday weekend with family and friends.
Join us at SKYLINE (www.SkylineOKC.com) on Sunday morning, June 1st at 11:00am. I will continue the teaching conversation through the book of Galatians and lead our extended community in communion.
The KAMP's neighborhood BBQ will take place next Sunday, June 1st at 5:30pm. Please make plans to attend and let us know how you plan to help.
Please mark your calendars for Saturday, June 21st. We will be serving and celebrating with refugees from Myanmar (formerly burma).
I Look Forward To Loving God and Loving Our Neighbors Together This Summer!
Simplify & Serve.
Ben.
Mark 12:28-34 says, One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
There will not be a KAMP's Gathering this Sunday, May 25th. Enjoy the holiday weekend with family and friends.
Join us at SKYLINE (www.SkylineOKC.com) on Sunday morning, June 1st at 11:00am. I will continue the teaching conversation through the book of Galatians and lead our extended community in communion.
The KAMP's neighborhood BBQ will take place next Sunday, June 1st at 5:30pm. Please make plans to attend and let us know how you plan to help.
Please mark your calendars for Saturday, June 21st. We will be serving and celebrating with refugees from Myanmar (formerly burma).
I Look Forward To Loving God and Loving Our Neighbors Together This Summer!
Simplify & Serve.
Ben.
The Crisis Continues.
The Crisis in Burma continues...
Today in Myanmar, 2.5 million people cling to survival after the disaster that hit two weeks ago. The latest state television update in former Burma has declared the death toll after the May 2nd cyclone to be 77,738 people. Another 55,917 are still reported missing.* Thousands swarm the roadsides of a country void of the foreign aid it so desperately needs. Children, destitute and orphaned, are picked up by vicious traffickers prowling the disaster area.
This week, David Batstone travels to Myanmar to approach the crisis situation.
Last Fall, Not For Sale partnered with Thai Abolitonist Kru Nam to build a shelter for 125 kids rescued out of the sex trade industry. Today, she implores us to intervene again as Burmese children trafficked into Thailand are being rampantly sold.
It's time to build a shelter, and it's time to act fast.
Not For Sale, this week, has partnered with a foundation that will match EVERY DOLLAR we donate, up to $25,000. Our goal is to raise $50k in the next two weeks. The shelter will be on the border between former Burma and Thailand, and will provide the critical care necessary to rescue Burmese orphans out of slavery. Kru Nam's village, as is, cannot support one of the growing needs in this crisis. But together, we believe we can raise enough money that can.
DONATE now. Every dollar you give is worth two. Join the call to action in this crisis.
* Statistics obtained from www.nationalpost.com
Today in Myanmar, 2.5 million people cling to survival after the disaster that hit two weeks ago. The latest state television update in former Burma has declared the death toll after the May 2nd cyclone to be 77,738 people. Another 55,917 are still reported missing.* Thousands swarm the roadsides of a country void of the foreign aid it so desperately needs. Children, destitute and orphaned, are picked up by vicious traffickers prowling the disaster area.
This week, David Batstone travels to Myanmar to approach the crisis situation.
Last Fall, Not For Sale partnered with Thai Abolitonist Kru Nam to build a shelter for 125 kids rescued out of the sex trade industry. Today, she implores us to intervene again as Burmese children trafficked into Thailand are being rampantly sold.
It's time to build a shelter, and it's time to act fast.
Not For Sale, this week, has partnered with a foundation that will match EVERY DOLLAR we donate, up to $25,000. Our goal is to raise $50k in the next two weeks. The shelter will be on the border between former Burma and Thailand, and will provide the critical care necessary to rescue Burmese orphans out of slavery. Kru Nam's village, as is, cannot support one of the growing needs in this crisis. But together, we believe we can raise enough money that can.
DONATE now. Every dollar you give is worth two. Join the call to action in this crisis.
* Statistics obtained from www.nationalpost.com
What Is Love?
1 John 3:16-19 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has not pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? If you see some bother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality."
Monday, May 19, 2008
New Blogging Buddy.
Robert Prince has recently started blogging. Please check it out, subscribe, add feeds and spread the word.
http://openmeandread.blogspot.com/
http://openmeandread.blogspot.com/
Not Far.
Kingdom. How things really are (ultimate reality) and how things should really be (the will of the Father). Kingdom. Bringing this future reality into the present (heaven to earth). So how does this kind of Kingdom reality find its way near to us and to those we live and love among?
Mark 12:28-34 says, "The Greatest Commandment 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [e] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' [f] 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' [g] There is no commandment greater than these."
32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
So when we love God and our neighbors...The Kingdom Comes!
Mark 12:28-34 says, "The Greatest Commandment 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [e] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' [f] 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' [g] There is no commandment greater than these."
32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
So when we love God and our neighbors...The Kingdom Comes!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Mars Hill Update.
Hey Everyone - Just A Brief Update This Week.
Please mark your calendars for Sunday, June 1st. We will be hosting and faciliating a block party for the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's.
I'm excited about our new friend Terry, who we met through Sharefest. You see, Terry is a hard working loving husband and father. He wakes up around 5am everyday to head off to a construction site for the day. He is excited about building a business so that his children will have a promising future. This kind of hope is not often found in urban neighborhoods, particularly in the urban African American community. Where there is no hope, despair abounds. Despair is what happens when you're tired of being desperate. And there are entire family and neighborhoods living under a cloud of despair.
But not Terry and his family. Terry aspires to have a BBQ restaurant some day. For now, he has a big smoker that he hauls around on a trailer preparing amazing food for family and friends. I'm glad to say that Terry will be providing the food for the block Party on June 1st.
Do you see the significance of this? A neighbor cooking dinner for his neighbor in a neighborhood that needs hope. And we the church, we will make an invisible God visible by facilitating such an event.
Go to the people, Live among them, Learn from them, Love them, Start with what they know, Build on what they have: But of the best leaders, When their task is done, The people will remark "We have done it ourselves." - Chinese Proverb
Please let me know how you would like to help participate.
I look forward to casting vision for the summer months and celebrating communion with you this Sunday evening, May 18th at KAMP's.
Please let me know if we can serve you or serve with you in any way.
Have A Great Day!
Ben.
Please mark your calendars for Sunday, June 1st. We will be hosting and faciliating a block party for the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's.
I'm excited about our new friend Terry, who we met through Sharefest. You see, Terry is a hard working loving husband and father. He wakes up around 5am everyday to head off to a construction site for the day. He is excited about building a business so that his children will have a promising future. This kind of hope is not often found in urban neighborhoods, particularly in the urban African American community. Where there is no hope, despair abounds. Despair is what happens when you're tired of being desperate. And there are entire family and neighborhoods living under a cloud of despair.
But not Terry and his family. Terry aspires to have a BBQ restaurant some day. For now, he has a big smoker that he hauls around on a trailer preparing amazing food for family and friends. I'm glad to say that Terry will be providing the food for the block Party on June 1st.
Do you see the significance of this? A neighbor cooking dinner for his neighbor in a neighborhood that needs hope. And we the church, we will make an invisible God visible by facilitating such an event.
Go to the people, Live among them, Learn from them, Love them, Start with what they know, Build on what they have: But of the best leaders, When their task is done, The people will remark "We have done it ourselves." - Chinese Proverb
Please let me know how you would like to help participate.
I look forward to casting vision for the summer months and celebrating communion with you this Sunday evening, May 18th at KAMP's.
Please let me know if we can serve you or serve with you in any way.
Have A Great Day!
Ben.
Never Eat Alone.
There is a popular business book entitled: Never Eat Alone. That title has stuck with me over the last couple of years as a good reminder to engage engage engage. Why do anything alone when you can do it with others? That is really what Christian life and community is all about.
So yesterday, I had about an hour or so in between meetings and it landed right around lunch time. After a quick trip to the bank I decided I had better grab a quick bite to eat. That morning I had really been thinking about Jessica, Javeyon, Anthony, Jada and Montrel - our friends in the KAMP's neighborhood (see http://marshilljourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/fruit-of-sharefest.html for the back story).
So I made my way over to 33rd & McKinley and found the entire little family there together. After hanging out in the living room for a bit, I decided to take the two older boys (age 7 and 6) for some lunch. We landed at Irma's for some cheeseburgers. It was too much fun sitting up at the bar downing burgers and root beers with two little men who I am confident will be a part of my life for some time.
So, Never Eat Alone!
So yesterday, I had about an hour or so in between meetings and it landed right around lunch time. After a quick trip to the bank I decided I had better grab a quick bite to eat. That morning I had really been thinking about Jessica, Javeyon, Anthony, Jada and Montrel - our friends in the KAMP's neighborhood (see http://marshilljourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/fruit-of-sharefest.html for the back story).
So I made my way over to 33rd & McKinley and found the entire little family there together. After hanging out in the living room for a bit, I decided to take the two older boys (age 7 and 6) for some lunch. We landed at Irma's for some cheeseburgers. It was too much fun sitting up at the bar downing burgers and root beers with two little men who I am confident will be a part of my life for some time.
So, Never Eat Alone!
A Little Link Love.
This week I spent a couple of hours with some guys on staff at River Tree Christian Church from Canton, Ohio. Great guys. Really trying to work at turning their 4,000 - 5,000 member church inside-out. I love their pursuit. They came to OKC to learn about being church in missional and urban ways. I am grateful that there are faith communities in our town that can not just talk about it, but show them where the TRANSFORMATION is taking place.
Check out:
www.LoveCanton.com
www.LovePortland.org
Check out:
www.LoveCanton.com
www.LovePortland.org
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Emerson.
Everybody in Oklahoma City needs to go spend time at Emerson Middle and High School. They focus on alternative education for those that have had dilequency issues or those who have become pregnant or parent a child as a teenager. There is a nursery onsite that has 40-50 babies from day to day. These teenage mom's have the wonderful opportunity and are given the necessary support to continue their education. I spent an hour or so there today and wept as I saw these beautiful teenage women, kids, daughters, mothers.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
New Rob Bell Book.
OK - pleasant surprise from Amazon today. Rob Bell and Don Golden will soon be releasing a new book entitled: Jesus Wants To Save Christians - A Manifesto For The Church In Exile.
A description from Zondervan:
There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers. It's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity, It's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest, it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from. It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.
Mars Hill Update.
Easter is the season of HOPE. The message of Easter is that the way of being in Jesus, the way of living the new resurrected life is through participation. The original metaphors of the faith found in the New Testament and early church are old metaphors that need to be made new. The Easter Season is the time to recapture some of these old metaphors and make them new and fresh. The primary metaphor for the Easter season is the church as the resurrected people living a resurrected spirituality. Because of Easter we are in union with Christ.
Pentecost Sunday ends the extraordinary season that began on the first Sunday of Advent. In approximately six months the church has been carried through all the saving events of God - his incarnation, manifestation to the world, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. All these crucial events form faith and the spiritual life.Pentecost plays a crucial role in salvation history. Pentecost results in a clearer and deeper understanding of Jesus and the Spirit continues to pour out an understanding of the faith. The coming of the Holy Spirit resulted in a new empowerment. It was here that the mission of the church given by Jesus just before his ascension began to take form. Christians have always marked Pentecost Sunday as the birthday of the church. The church is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the continuation of the presence of Jesus in and to the world. The metaphor of "the body of Christ" that became common in the early church captures this incarnational dimension of the church. While Christ is seated at the right had of the Father, he is also completely present in a mystical way through his body, the church.
I would like to point your attention to the Mars Hill Journey blog(www.MarsHillJourney.blogspot.com). Here you will find the updates, articles, insights, book reviews and ideas that are influencing our journey together. I encourage you to take a look around and join the conversation.
Please mark your calendars for Sunday, June 1st at 5:30pm. We will be hosting and facilitating a block party for the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's. We need people to help with passing out flyers, food, inflatables, face painting, yard games, etc. If you have any ideas or areas that you would like to contribute, let us know and make plans to do so.
This Sunday, May 11th, we will be gathering together on Sunday morning at 11:00am with the newest downtown church, SKYLINE - located at 123 Robert S Kerr. Parking is available off Dean McGee between Broadway and Robinson. KidCity is available for all children up to 5th grade. Check out www.SkylineOKC.com for a map and more info.
Hope To See You Sunday At Skyline.
Ben.
Pentecost Sunday ends the extraordinary season that began on the first Sunday of Advent. In approximately six months the church has been carried through all the saving events of God - his incarnation, manifestation to the world, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. All these crucial events form faith and the spiritual life.Pentecost plays a crucial role in salvation history. Pentecost results in a clearer and deeper understanding of Jesus and the Spirit continues to pour out an understanding of the faith. The coming of the Holy Spirit resulted in a new empowerment. It was here that the mission of the church given by Jesus just before his ascension began to take form. Christians have always marked Pentecost Sunday as the birthday of the church. The church is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the continuation of the presence of Jesus in and to the world. The metaphor of "the body of Christ" that became common in the early church captures this incarnational dimension of the church. While Christ is seated at the right had of the Father, he is also completely present in a mystical way through his body, the church.
I would like to point your attention to the Mars Hill Journey blog(www.MarsHillJourney.blogspot.com). Here you will find the updates, articles, insights, book reviews and ideas that are influencing our journey together. I encourage you to take a look around and join the conversation.
Please mark your calendars for Sunday, June 1st at 5:30pm. We will be hosting and facilitating a block party for the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's. We need people to help with passing out flyers, food, inflatables, face painting, yard games, etc. If you have any ideas or areas that you would like to contribute, let us know and make plans to do so.
This Sunday, May 11th, we will be gathering together on Sunday morning at 11:00am with the newest downtown church, SKYLINE - located at 123 Robert S Kerr. Parking is available off Dean McGee between Broadway and Robinson. KidCity is available for all children up to 5th grade. Check out www.SkylineOKC.com for a map and more info.
Hope To See You Sunday At Skyline.
Ben.
Transformation.
Here in words is the heart overflow of one of my best friends, Lance Humphreys. I hope you are inspired by how God is already at work among us.
"Jesus wants to TRANSFORM Oklahoma City for His glory. The days of individual churches or ministries getting glory are over. The days of being satisfied with obscure, incremental gains are coming to an end. Our city is entering a season where everything is being shaken. It’s grass roots, neighborhood by neighborhood and it’s at the highest levels of government and business. It is signs and wonders, unity in the church, harvest of salvation, and TRANSFORMATION in every segment of society (social justice, business, government, agriculture, arts and entertainment, medical, and communications). People will come from all over the world not to see what a single church, ministry, social service, or business has done, but what God has done. God will do a work in Oklahoma City that will impact nations. God always goes after the heart, and he is going after the heart of our city.
I believe God is going after the heart of OKC, and the heart of our city is downtown. You may recall that in October of 2006, while on sabbatical I sensed God saying that transformation was coming to OKC, beginning among the most marginalized in the center of the city and spreading to impact the entire region. Days later I received the phone call that connected us with an international vision to see cities transformed through uniting business and church leaders together in church planting (Vision360). Bridgeway has since become a catalyst in uniting business and church leaders in OKC to focus missionally on the heart of our city. Over the next 3 years we are partnering with other churches and business leaders to plant a church in every one of the 15 most vulnerable schools in Oklahoma City.
When Stacy and I moved back to OKC from Colorado to be a part of Bridgeway it was with a sense of a call to a city not just to a church. I can recall being in OKC for Christmas when we lived in Denver. For two afternoons I drove every street from 50th south to downtown praying for the city and envisioning a day when the church would rise up in the city center, uniting rich and poor, black and white, young urban hipsters with boomer suburbanites, worship and prayer filling the old cathedrals and mission filling the streets."
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Shalom.
An excerpt from Shauna Niequist's book, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life.
There is a way of living, a way of harmonizing and hitting a balance point, a converging of a thousand balance points and voices, layering together, twisting together, and there are moments when it all clicks into place just for a split second - something deep inside that feels like peace - and that the place I'm trying to get to.
I have glimpses every once in a while of this achingly beautiful way of living that comes when the plates stop spinning and the masks fall off and the apologies come from the deepest places and so do the prayers, and I am fighting, elbowing to make more of my life that life. I want that spirit or force of happiness that is so much deeper than happy - peace that comes from your toes, that makes you want to live forever, that makes you gulp back sobs because you remember so many moments of so much un-peace. I search for those moments the way I search for beach glass, bits of glitter along a desolate expanse of sand, and I want those moments to stretch into hours, into days.
The word I use for it is shalom. It's equilibrium and free-fall, balance and shake. It's a new dance, a new taste, the feeling of falling in love, the knowledge of being set free. It's that split second cross between fact and a feeling, something you would swear on in a court of law but couldn't find words for if you tried.
To get there, I'm finding, is the hardest work and the most worthwhile fight. Shalom requires so much, so much more than I thought I would have to sacrifice, and it scrapes so deeply through the lowest parts of me, divulging and demonstrating so many dark corners. It's something you can't fake, so you have to lay yourself open to it, wide open and vulnerable to what it might ask of you, what it might require you to give up, get over, get outside of, get free from.
Shalom is about God, and about the voice and spirit of God blowing through and permeating all the dark corners that we've chopped off, locked down. It's about believing, and letting belief move you to forgive. It's about grace, and letting grace propel you into action. It's about the whole of our lives becoming woven through with the sacred spirit of God, through friendship and confession, through rest and motion, through marriage and silence.
Shalom is happening all around us, but it never happens on its own. The best things never do happen on their own, and shalom is the very best thing. In the same way that forgiveness never feels natural until after it's done, and hope always feels impossible before we commit to it, in the same way that taking is easier than giving, and giving in is easier than getting up, in that same way, shalom never happens on its own.
It happens when we do the hardest work, the most secret struggle, the most demanding truth telling. In those moments of ferocity and fight, peace is born. Shalom arrives, and everything is new. And when you've tasted it, smelled it, fought for it, labored it into life, you'll give your soul to get a little more, and it is always worth it.
Shalom.
There is a way of living, a way of harmonizing and hitting a balance point, a converging of a thousand balance points and voices, layering together, twisting together, and there are moments when it all clicks into place just for a split second - something deep inside that feels like peace - and that the place I'm trying to get to.
I have glimpses every once in a while of this achingly beautiful way of living that comes when the plates stop spinning and the masks fall off and the apologies come from the deepest places and so do the prayers, and I am fighting, elbowing to make more of my life that life. I want that spirit or force of happiness that is so much deeper than happy - peace that comes from your toes, that makes you want to live forever, that makes you gulp back sobs because you remember so many moments of so much un-peace. I search for those moments the way I search for beach glass, bits of glitter along a desolate expanse of sand, and I want those moments to stretch into hours, into days.
The word I use for it is shalom. It's equilibrium and free-fall, balance and shake. It's a new dance, a new taste, the feeling of falling in love, the knowledge of being set free. It's that split second cross between fact and a feeling, something you would swear on in a court of law but couldn't find words for if you tried.
To get there, I'm finding, is the hardest work and the most worthwhile fight. Shalom requires so much, so much more than I thought I would have to sacrifice, and it scrapes so deeply through the lowest parts of me, divulging and demonstrating so many dark corners. It's something you can't fake, so you have to lay yourself open to it, wide open and vulnerable to what it might ask of you, what it might require you to give up, get over, get outside of, get free from.
Shalom is about God, and about the voice and spirit of God blowing through and permeating all the dark corners that we've chopped off, locked down. It's about believing, and letting belief move you to forgive. It's about grace, and letting grace propel you into action. It's about the whole of our lives becoming woven through with the sacred spirit of God, through friendship and confession, through rest and motion, through marriage and silence.
Shalom is happening all around us, but it never happens on its own. The best things never do happen on their own, and shalom is the very best thing. In the same way that forgiveness never feels natural until after it's done, and hope always feels impossible before we commit to it, in the same way that taking is easier than giving, and giving in is easier than getting up, in that same way, shalom never happens on its own.
It happens when we do the hardest work, the most secret struggle, the most demanding truth telling. In those moments of ferocity and fight, peace is born. Shalom arrives, and everything is new. And when you've tasted it, smelled it, fought for it, labored it into life, you'll give your soul to get a little more, and it is always worth it.
Shalom.
Monday, May 5, 2008
The Multiplying Church.
I wanted to pass along a post I received this morning from Bob Roberts. I'm glad to be able to call Bob a new friend. We have met a time or two and he will be making a visit to Oklahoma City tomorrow to spend some time with a handful of young church leaders. Really looking forward to it.
Bob says:
The Multiplying Church: Why Start Churches?
Why have people started churches throughout history? We don’t have any record of people starting churches in Jerusalem. We do have house churches. The question as to why we are starting churches is crucial to our future. We want to see a movement that will transform societies similar to what has happened in the past and is happening in the East.
If you look at the chart on page 28 of The Multiplying Church, Antioch started churches for transformation of the person and the world, but particularly the city. Acts 17:6 “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here.” I believe that is where we are moving. I believe 2010 it will become an emerging verbalized reason people are starting churches. For now the primary motivation for starting churches is the oft quoted statement about church planting being the best method of evangelism ever invented. This is true. However, it’s critical for us to see the big picture of Christ bringing reconciliation to all things. That reconciliation starts with a person accepting Christ but should never stop there. Most of our evangelism in the West is about very self-centered, personal conversion. Instead, through that personal transformation, the family, the city, the nation, and the world should be in the process of reconciliation - even healing the broken structures and institutions of society for mercy and justice.
Why 2010? Here’s why…
Bob says:
The Multiplying Church: Why Start Churches?
Why have people started churches throughout history? We don’t have any record of people starting churches in Jerusalem. We do have house churches. The question as to why we are starting churches is crucial to our future. We want to see a movement that will transform societies similar to what has happened in the past and is happening in the East.
If you look at the chart on page 28 of The Multiplying Church, Antioch started churches for transformation of the person and the world, but particularly the city. Acts 17:6 “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here.” I believe that is where we are moving. I believe 2010 it will become an emerging verbalized reason people are starting churches. For now the primary motivation for starting churches is the oft quoted statement about church planting being the best method of evangelism ever invented. This is true. However, it’s critical for us to see the big picture of Christ bringing reconciliation to all things. That reconciliation starts with a person accepting Christ but should never stop there. Most of our evangelism in the West is about very self-centered, personal conversion. Instead, through that personal transformation, the family, the city, the nation, and the world should be in the process of reconciliation - even healing the broken structures and institutions of society for mercy and justice.
Why 2010? Here’s why…
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Save A Tree.
So this morning I decided to take a trip by Mardel because I was in need of a particular commentary on Galatians. Mardel is some kind of bizarre. I think about Mardel as "The Marketable Jesus". It's just so gimmicky. But here I was hunting and hoping that they would have a copy of the book. Of course they didn't, I should have just saved the trip and gone to Amazon.
As I roamed through the store I picked up a copy of Relevant Magazine and flipped through its pages. There was one particular article that peaked my interest so I thought I would pay them for it rather than find a chair and read it on site. I made my way up to the register and was greeted by Pam or Marge or Lois (some elderly lady type name...I can't quite remember). As I set me Relevant on the counter, she was playing it cool. She the grandma...me the young "cool" preacher kid, she must have been thinking.
After I paid way too much for one magazine, she stuffed it into a PLASTIC mardel bag. I told her she could save the bag and I would just carry the magazine out, if that was alright. To which she replied, SAVE A TREE. I walked out of Mardel - the marketable Jesus, laughing and thinking. Plastic Bag...Save a Tree. Something's not quite right with that picture. Oh, but how Relevant grandma Marge must have felt in that little moment, Ha!
As I roamed through the store I picked up a copy of Relevant Magazine and flipped through its pages. There was one particular article that peaked my interest so I thought I would pay them for it rather than find a chair and read it on site. I made my way up to the register and was greeted by Pam or Marge or Lois (some elderly lady type name...I can't quite remember). As I set me Relevant on the counter, she was playing it cool. She the grandma...me the young "cool" preacher kid, she must have been thinking.
After I paid way too much for one magazine, she stuffed it into a PLASTIC mardel bag. I told her she could save the bag and I would just carry the magazine out, if that was alright. To which she replied, SAVE A TREE. I walked out of Mardel - the marketable Jesus, laughing and thinking. Plastic Bag...Save a Tree. Something's not quite right with that picture. Oh, but how Relevant grandma Marge must have felt in that little moment, Ha!
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