I was almost home yesterday, just having entered my beautiful and myopic suburb when I passed my favorite church.
Now my real favorite "church" is the one I am a part of, my brothers and sisters, but I love this church for its street sign. See, the sign is on one of the two main streets in a suburb of 60k, so it gets lots of exposure.
I have had so many laughs on my way home from work, I've also gotten pretty angry (at this specific church, and the church on the whole).
Well unfortunately this was an angry one.
America Bless God
We've all seen it/heard it before.
What the hell does it mean?
Because when I look at scripture and it talks about God blessing Israel, it meant bestowing certain gifts upon them. Now maybe blessing god makes sense to some of you (Just like saying, "God we pray that blah blah blah..." while you are praying), but to me I am lost. I certainly have nothing to give to god, other than that which he already owns (everything). Unfortunately I think that the word bless has come to mean, wish well.
And really, don't get me wrong, I want god to have the best week, so yeah, bless him up! but seriously, this phrase has no meaning. God has blessed us, blesses us now, and will continue to bless us, he has given us life, and everything in it.
I came across a post on Tony Jones' blog six months or so ago about meaningless statements. the discussion was about whether or not statements can be/are meaningless that reference the limits of god (I'm not explaining it well, but its not important).
It got me thinking about meaningless statements. America Bless God certainly holds some meaning these days, but that doesn't mean it isn't meaningless meaning...?
I think the author means America Praise God, which is nice, except we have no clue how to do that...
but how do we bless god?
Its just another example of christianity trying to be cute, thinking it somehow can be relevant to the society that already hates it.
Not sure what I'm trying to even say here, other than I'm frustrated.
Frustrated with every attempt to be relevant, without really being relevant. To me, relevance is an infinite term, limited only by the number of people you are trying to be relevant to, which, by definition, makes relevance a relational thing. Too bad the church can't learn to be relational. Even then, the times that it seems to get it, it is a shallow and meaningless relationship.
When will we learn to truly know people?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Emerging Church
Dr. Eddie Gibbs on the Emergent church (for those of you looking for a three paragraph description [not definition])
He's pretty spot on with most of it. (seems to come from an "unbiased" but pro-emergent view)
They(Emergents) believe that the church – especially the Protestant and Evangelical streams – are the product of modernity, and our assumptions need to be re-examined now that we are in a post-Christendom, pluralistic and increasingly post-secular social context. These profound cultural shifts have increasingly marginalized the church. Consequently, the church can no longer operate on a come-to-us basis. It must become a truly missional church, recapturing the simplicity, mobility and engagement with culture that characterized the disciples of Jesus and the churches of the New Testament.
For Emerging Church leaders the church is not a noun but a verb; it is not a place but a people; it is not primarily a weekly gathering but a community of the faithful.
Salvation is not a visa for heaven stamped in your passport, but a life to be lived here a now that presents a radical challenge to the materialistic values of our culture. It is as much concerned with life before death as with life after death. On account of their emphasis on relationships, community and active participation, they are not interested in megachurches. They regard the bible as central to their faith, but not as God’s answer book to all and every question. Rather it is a book that inspires them in their journey of faith, linking their personal stories to God’s unfolding drama from Genesis to Revelation. Also they insist that spirituality, that is so significant within our culture, must bea holistic spirituality that embraces every area of life. They don’t buy into the separation of spheres – public from private – that prevailed within a modernistic, secular mindset. They find most in common with the early church that operated from the margins, owned no real-estate, and engaged the pluralistic world of their day with humility, grace and sacrifical service in the face of hostility and persecution as a counter-culture movement.
But they do not adopt an isolated, judgmental stand. Rather they believe that God’s
presence is evident in the wider culture, with which they seek to identify, in order to become “good news” to the tens of millions of younger people that have either walked away from the church, or never walked through its doors. In theological terminology this is a mission characterized by incarnation, which represents authentic identification and reconciliation with a view to transformation.
The Emergent Churches represent a ground level movement rather than top-down
leadership initiatives. It is present both within traditional denominations as well as new networks. It is both de-centered and interconnected, via websites, chatrooms and blogs.
He's pretty spot on with most of it. (seems to come from an "unbiased" but pro-emergent view)
They(Emergents) believe that the church – especially the Protestant and Evangelical streams – are the product of modernity, and our assumptions need to be re-examined now that we are in a post-Christendom, pluralistic and increasingly post-secular social context. These profound cultural shifts have increasingly marginalized the church. Consequently, the church can no longer operate on a come-to-us basis. It must become a truly missional church, recapturing the simplicity, mobility and engagement with culture that characterized the disciples of Jesus and the churches of the New Testament.
For Emerging Church leaders the church is not a noun but a verb; it is not a place but a people; it is not primarily a weekly gathering but a community of the faithful.
Salvation is not a visa for heaven stamped in your passport, but a life to be lived here a now that presents a radical challenge to the materialistic values of our culture. It is as much concerned with life before death as with life after death. On account of their emphasis on relationships, community and active participation, they are not interested in megachurches. They regard the bible as central to their faith, but not as God’s answer book to all and every question. Rather it is a book that inspires them in their journey of faith, linking their personal stories to God’s unfolding drama from Genesis to Revelation. Also they insist that spirituality, that is so significant within our culture, must bea holistic spirituality that embraces every area of life. They don’t buy into the separation of spheres – public from private – that prevailed within a modernistic, secular mindset. They find most in common with the early church that operated from the margins, owned no real-estate, and engaged the pluralistic world of their day with humility, grace and sacrifical service in the face of hostility and persecution as a counter-culture movement.
But they do not adopt an isolated, judgmental stand. Rather they believe that God’s
presence is evident in the wider culture, with which they seek to identify, in order to become “good news” to the tens of millions of younger people that have either walked away from the church, or never walked through its doors. In theological terminology this is a mission characterized by incarnation, which represents authentic identification and reconciliation with a view to transformation.
The Emergent Churches represent a ground level movement rather than top-down
leadership initiatives. It is present both within traditional denominations as well as new networks. It is both de-centered and interconnected, via websites, chatrooms and blogs.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Practice of Resurrection
"we will continue to practice resurrection, in the face of a world that continues to create destruction"
-Shane Claiborne on the fire in kensington
More to come soon...
-Shane Claiborne on the fire in kensington
More to come soon...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Lightning Storm
I was driving home after a particularly frustrating day yesterday when I was blessed with a treat.
Lightning.
My drive home from work is around 35 minutes without traffic and the sun had just gone down so the roads were clear of other commuters.
The storm had been gathering on the horizon for most of the day, it seemed.
Finally as I was driving on the highway the show began.
There was an amazing electrical show directly in front of me in the distance. This allowed me to watch and keep my eyes safely on the road (sort of).
There were two lines of clouds in the distance, both large and billowing, but I only stole glimpses as the lightning struck. It was nearly all cloud to cloud lightning, stretching out and splitting into the fingers on God's immortal hand. I can't even find the words now to describe the beauty.
As the lightning struck the top edge of the closer line of clouds was illuminated and the entire back line was lit. In fact, much of the lightning was blocked by the closer storm. It was quite frustrating to not be able to soak in the entire beauty of the storm, but for it to be just out of grasp.
As I kept driving I wondered if this is the very reason for discontent. I see such a beautiful picture of Christian love, but not fully.
I experience some of it daily, and can dream about what the rest looks like, but it never comes to fruition.
Obviously this is just the way life is, always moving forward (hopefully) but never quite reaching the goal...
But I know it is beautiful, even if I can't see it all, and we're melting away clouds as we get closer to our dreams.
Friday, June 15, 2007
The Coming Darkness
I feel it coming.
Just a simple conversation of events in the past sparked it. I feel it coming like a curtain, closing in on me from all sides.
Call it loneliness, isolation, depression, whatever it is it sucks, and I know there is a better way.
Today a gentleman wandered into our building before I arrived, it was pouring miserably outside. The kind of rain that makes you wonder how the homeless do it.
When I walked in, I was stopped by one of the staff, who let me know the guy was in the venue side of the building. They said a young lady was also in the room.
I casually wandered through, pretending to look at the new show in the gallery. The gent was asleep, the girl smiled.
She later came in to buy him a sandwich, and she ended up leaving her bible for him, while he was asleep.
I met the guy when he woke up, he didn't talk much (which is unusual).
He came in again later and asked to talk to me.
He cried, just plain old cried, in desperation.
It was the crying of a man who had tried to convince himself that he was ok, but had realized that he wasn't.
He told me his life story, how he had lost his wife and kids because of his addiction, how he was a wanted man because he owed some loan sharks some money.
I have not seen many people more broken in my life.
I had a great conversation today with a couple about the homeless we work with in out community, and about a particular member who is broken deeply. It sure started out depressing with us saying, what can we do but be lovingly honest? But it ended with some hope, the hope of God's continuing redemption. We in fact prayed for brokenness to open our eyes to our needs.
Then tonight over a beer (or three) and a burnt offering (thank you camacho) three of my closest friends and I talked, and 12 step programs were brought up. One of my friends said he wishes that he and his students (he is a minister) could really hit rock bottom so that they could embark on the journey. Then we all realized that we have all hit rock bottom, everyone has, but that some of us just don't know it yet. In fact, the problem of sin (which ain't so much of a problem any more [way to kick satan's ass, Jesus!]) has us all at rock bottom. We are in the pit of sheol.
My homeless friend was so broken that he was baring himself to me, cracks and splinters and shards and all...
He was so broken that he was ready to begin on his healing journey (I thought). But he didn't return, yet. All I can do is hope that he has found love somewhere else, that he can continue his journey of healing, and escape the bogus world system.
So how do we escape?
I guess we can wait until the a later post to solve the problems of the world.
Just a simple conversation of events in the past sparked it. I feel it coming like a curtain, closing in on me from all sides.
Call it loneliness, isolation, depression, whatever it is it sucks, and I know there is a better way.
Today a gentleman wandered into our building before I arrived, it was pouring miserably outside. The kind of rain that makes you wonder how the homeless do it.
When I walked in, I was stopped by one of the staff, who let me know the guy was in the venue side of the building. They said a young lady was also in the room.
I casually wandered through, pretending to look at the new show in the gallery. The gent was asleep, the girl smiled.
She later came in to buy him a sandwich, and she ended up leaving her bible for him, while he was asleep.
I met the guy when he woke up, he didn't talk much (which is unusual).
He came in again later and asked to talk to me.
He cried, just plain old cried, in desperation.
It was the crying of a man who had tried to convince himself that he was ok, but had realized that he wasn't.
He told me his life story, how he had lost his wife and kids because of his addiction, how he was a wanted man because he owed some loan sharks some money.
I have not seen many people more broken in my life.
I had a great conversation today with a couple about the homeless we work with in out community, and about a particular member who is broken deeply. It sure started out depressing with us saying, what can we do but be lovingly honest? But it ended with some hope, the hope of God's continuing redemption. We in fact prayed for brokenness to open our eyes to our needs.
Then tonight over a beer (or three) and a burnt offering (thank you camacho) three of my closest friends and I talked, and 12 step programs were brought up. One of my friends said he wishes that he and his students (he is a minister) could really hit rock bottom so that they could embark on the journey. Then we all realized that we have all hit rock bottom, everyone has, but that some of us just don't know it yet. In fact, the problem of sin (which ain't so much of a problem any more [way to kick satan's ass, Jesus!]) has us all at rock bottom. We are in the pit of sheol.
My homeless friend was so broken that he was baring himself to me, cracks and splinters and shards and all...
He was so broken that he was ready to begin on his healing journey (I thought). But he didn't return, yet. All I can do is hope that he has found love somewhere else, that he can continue his journey of healing, and escape the bogus world system.
So how do we escape?
I guess we can wait until the a later post to solve the problems of the world.
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