The Things You Love

I love watching a herd of horses grazing in an open pasture, or running free across the wide, sage-covered plateaus in Montana. I love hiking in the high country when the wildflowers are blooming—the purple lupine and the Indian paintbrush when it’s turning magenta. I love thunder clouds, massive ones. My family loves to sit outside on summer nights and watch the lightning, hear the thunder as a storm rolls in across Colorado. I love water, too—the ocean, streams, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, rain. I love jumping off high rocks into lakes with my boys. I love old barns, windmills, the West. I love vineyards...I love my boys. I love God.

Everything you love is what makes a life worth living. Take a moment, set down the book, and make a list of all the things you love. Don’t edit yourself; don’t worry about prioritizing or anything of that sort. Simply think of all the things you love. Whether it’s the people in your life or the things that bring you joy or the places that are dear to you or your God, you could not love them if you did not have a heart. Loving requires a heart alive and awake and free. A life filled with loving is a life most like the one that God lives, which is life as it was meant to be (Eph. 5:1–2).

John Eldredge, Waking the Dead

"...We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

Paul to the Gentiles at Lystra, Acts 14

"Emergent" Breezes

"Emergent" and "emergent church" have become popular terms to describe the wind blowing today from the East. Here's a decent overview of it, from Wikipedia.

While I won't call myself an Emergent (any more than I would call myself a Christian) and I don't worship with an emergent congregation, I will say I find many things to identify with in the emergent "conversation." Rob Bell (one of the ministers at Mars Hill in Michigan) is one of my favorites, although he keeps his distance from the word "emergent."

Here are a few snippets from this article that I particularly identify with:

Missional Living
...Being missional within the emergent church framework can be defined as having the knowledge that one is living in the Kingdom of God right now and that there is a strong desire for others to share in that temporal blessing.

The Church
...the idea of "being a local community of people on a journey" and not "a corporate church."

Narrative theology
Narrative presentations of faith and the Bible are emphasized over exegetical Bible study and propositional presentations such as systematic theology which are viewed as reductionism. [Also from Wikipedia: Reductionism is a theory that asserts that the nature of complex things is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things. This can be said of objects, phenomena, explanations, theories, and meanings. THIS is at the very heart of my new outlook on life and the Way of Jesus.]

Christ-centered life
A commitment to emulating Jesus' way of living: in particular, his love of God, neighbors and those normally considered enemies. It has an understanding of the gospel centered on Christ, a message about the Kingdom of God being reconciliation between God, humans and creation. This is opposed to the more traditional approach of Christians who sought to ready others for eternity.

Authenticity
Favouring the sharing of experiences and interactions that are personal and sincere such as testimonies over scripted interactions such as propositional, formulaic evangelistic tracts and teaching.

Mars Hill Church Revision

Mars Hill Church in Michigan has revised their "core beliefs" statement. I suggest this should be read out loud with some dramatic movie score music playing in the background:

Mars Hill is devoted to joining the God of the oppressed in the restoration of all creation.

We believe the Bible to be the voices of many who have come before us, inspired by God to continue to speak to us today. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative and to continue to faithfully live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit.

God, the author of all things good, created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, others, our inner self, and creation. God is in a communal relationship with himself and his creation and he created us to be relational as well. Sin entered the world and our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation were broken and distorted.

We believe that God did not abandon his creation to destruction and decay, rather he promised to restore this broken world. God chose a people to represent Him in the world. This people started with Abraham and his descendants. God promised to make them into a mighty nation. In time they became enslaved in Egypt. They cried out to God because of their oppression and God heard their cry. He brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity as his treasured possession, a Kingdom of priests, a holy people. The story continues, revealing God's refusal to give up on his people through their frequent acts of unfaithfulness to him.

God brought his people into the Promised Land. They were blessed to be a blessing and called to put God on display to the nations. They made movement toward this missional calling, yet they disobeyed and allowed foreign gods into the land. In Israel's disobedience they became indifferent and in turn irrelevant to the purposes God had called them to. They were sent into exile, yet a remnant looks ahead with longing and hope to a new reign like David's where peace and justice would prevail.

We believe these longings found their fulfillment in Messiah Jesus, born of a virgin, mysteriously God in the flesh. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted and set captives free. He lived a perfect life proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom. He was rejected by many, crucified, buried, and rose again. His death and resurrection bring hope to all creation. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and God is reconciling us to himself, each other, ourselves, and creation. Jesus is the only mediator between God and humans. For all who accept his sacrifice he gives the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth through a communal life of worship and a missional expression of our faith. The church is called to put the resurrected Christ who lives in and through us on display to a broken and hurting world.

We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return and reclaim this world, the earth's groaning will cease and God will dwell with us on a new and restored creation.

Community to Survive

I spent the last week in Southern Sudan on a survey trip, seeing if it would be a suitable place to set up a "kingdom development business".

This little boy was one of several hundred people who came to see our plane come down out of the sky over the village of Lobone, Southern Sudan. The only planes they see in this village come from Catholic Relief Services, so they were all looking for supplies of some kind. All we did was ask a few questions and take some pictures. I hope they weren't disappointed.

Southern Sudan is one of those beautiful and tragic places. So much promise, so much hardship. The ground is so fruitful, but the people have so little to eat. Especially in the larger towns. The land around Lobone is exceptionally fertile, so these people are not starving, but you can tell by the bulging bellies of the children that they do need more protein.

Regardless of their food issues, I'll say this--Africans have not forgotten what community is. This is something we need to learn from them.

They cannot survive without each other. They enjoy one another.

I don't think I've ever lived a day without every need being met, with little or no thought on my part. But in Africa, it is community that sustains them. Most do not have jobs, so they have to take care of one another.

With our isolated family units, individuality, and mobility, we have lost something that we were meant to enjoy--deep fellowship with our extended families and communities.

Just Wondering

I wonder if believing that your life is a story is what makes it into one.

I wonder if wondering is the same as faith.

I wonder if our wondering feels like an invitation to God.

[When you use the word wonder that many times, it starts to sound a little weird. I wonder why that is?]

The Inadequacy of Relationship

One thing is "like" another.

actually: foreshadow? to image? Speaks of? parable? imbued? infusion?

Visible attributes over essence.
Measurable qualities over invisible identity.
Description over understanding.
Knowledge over knowing.
Goal: control-------goal: consume.

One thing "outside" of another.

Can we train ourselves to live and see this way?
Can we ask the right questions?
Can our eyes be opened to a new paradigm?

To relate = to oppose
To know = to consume.