Eternal life. Where is it? When is it? For a long time I have thought about eternal life as a life after all my birthdays have run out. For most of my years I have spoken about the eternal life as the ‘afterlife,’ as ‘life after death.’ But the older I become, the less interest my ‘afterlife’ holds for me. Worrying not only about tomorrow, next year, and the next decade, but even about the next life seems a false preoccupation. Wondering how things will be for me after I die seems, for the most part, a distraction. When my clear goal is the eternal life, that life must be reachable right now, where I am, because eternal life is life in and with God, and God is where I am here and now.

– Henri Nouwen

This to me is one of the basic differences between the Jewish way (life with God here and now) and the Platonic/Greek way (life with God after you escape this world).

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Luke 10:25-28

What is blocking you from tasting life with God now?

Tags: heaven, eternal, nouwen

This isn’t really unique to Lutheranism, but my question is around the idea that Paul’s doctrine of justification is “the doctrine by which the church stand or falls.” (p. 47) I have no problem with Paul’s emphasis on the doctrine of justification by faith, nor the Lutheran re-emphasis, but what I do have a problem with is how it seems to push the life and teaching of Jesus into a Christian footnote. What authority does the earthly teaching and ministry of Jesus hold when it seems to be subservient to what is deemed the most glorious work of scripture – the doctrinal work of Paul? How can we hold the ministry of Jesus and his gospel of the Kingdom of God in a rightful relationship with Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith? What comes first? Should we not interpret Paul’s doctrine in light of Jesus’ gospel? It just seems that have often reversed this.

I assume it is this question among others that will be discussed at the upcoming Reclaiming Paul Conference. If anyone has an extra plane ticket to Kansas City I would love to snatch it up!

Tags: justification, gospel, protestant, christian, tradition, paul

Anyway, today I was listening to an old Emergent Village podcast from December 2006 that was hosted by Melvin Bray. (Incidentally, why isn’t Melvin doing more podcasts for Emergent Village? And what is with the lack of podcasts lately? Surely there isn’t an absence of possibilities for content. Sorry, no more erratic questions.)

Back to the podcast… Melvin spoke of looking forward to 2007 as the year of “Justice.” No doubt that was largely the story. Prophets such as Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne as well as many others, both contemporary and historical, liberal and conservative, led us artfully and with wisdom into a revitalized World Christianity that took seriously the question of stewardship and justice. In the larger global neighborhood both inside and outside the Christian church people turned their attentions to the need for a greater compassion.

This discussion has only just begun, and in many places our churches are only beginning to realize the greater significance and calling. Throughout a myriad of contexts the church really is emerging from her interior programs and ministries to see a world literally starving around her. I’m fairly certain I heard that there is an Emergent Manifesto of Justice being published sometime next year. (Does anyone know of a list of contributors to the project?) This rally surely must continue.

Coming around to the reason for this posting…
What are the conversations that you see being sparked around you as we are now into the second half of 2008.

What are the questions you foresee being asked in the coming year?

What will be emerging at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century?

What will emergent phenomena will we see in the year 2010? What will be the world’s questions a decade on from 9/11? Am I getting too far ahead of ourselves now?

May we never lose our sensitivity to the anxieties and questions of that which is other to ourselves.

Tags: future, emergent, emerging, justice, brian mclaren, shane claiborne, melvin bray, 2009, podcast

ROLLINS: What I’m trying to get at there is that God, as presented in the Bible, escapes our attempts at capturing him in conceptual form. This happens in two major ways. Firstly, we cannot grasp God, not because there is a lack of names, but because there is such a surplus of them. These different ideas and names of God clash at various times—for instance, when God is named a warrior and then a peacemaker, or one who is unchanging and one who rethinks situations. The fact that there are so many ways of naming and describing God is a way of saying that no name or group of names can grasp God.

…

ROLLINS: [T]o be orthodox is to bring praise to God through one’s life. While people these days are asking the question, “Is Christianity true?,” the more fundamental question must be, “What does Christ mean when he uses the word truth?” The reason I am asking that question is that when Jesus talks about the truth, He talk about life. The truth is what brings life. My axiom for today is that Christianity at its core doesn’t explain life but it brings life. We must thus ask whether our beliefs and actions bring life, healing and love to the people in the world.

You simply must read this interview with Pete done by Becky Garrison for the Wittenburg Door. Both of his books are blazing as well. I’m trying in my own context to search for the right questions in a way similar to how Pete thoughtfully takes us away from a Christianity based on belief of a certain set of absolute abstractions and in the direction of a Christianity thoughtfully lived. We regularly need to be reminded that Jesus was not a Christian in an abstract – know the right answers – sort of way. He moved so perfectly in love, beauty, grace, peace and justice that his spirit, actions and person were called way, truth and life. Truth is a person. Incredible. As Tony Jones puts it, “Truth had smelly armpits.”

DOOR: What then does it mean to be a Christian?

ROLLINS: It means entering into a journey of becoming one. It does not mean accepting a world view but rather entering into a healing journey of life. To be a Christian also means that one is committed to exploring this life through the Judeo-Christian tradition, wrestling with it, learning from it and being transformed by it. Being a Christian means learning how to be the opening of life into the world.

ht: Bob Carlton

Tags: jesus, peter rollins, philosophy, christianity, god, truth, becky garrison

Me and my buddy Mike are about to set off to Grand Rapids to check out the second to last stop on the Church Basement Roadshow tour. We are looking forward to having a grand ol’ time wading in the revival waters of this hope-filled, alive-and-well, future-invading-the-present message of Christianity that Tony, Mark and Doug have been proclaiming across America this summer. We are also probably going to drop in at Mars Hill Church tomorrow morning. The church that I am a part of has a regular group of about 50, so Mars Hill will definitely be something I am not currently accustomed too. I’ve been following along a bit with their summer teaching series in preparation.

Mike and I aren’t really sure where else to go while in the GR area. If anyone could suggest a good pub or coffeehouse or something else entirely that would be appreciated.

Tags: revival, church basement roadshow, tony jones, doug pagitt, mark scandrette, grand rapids, emergent

There is really no reason that we, as followers of Jesus, should allow the global mall, our class or income to define for us what constitutes the good life and better future. Remember the imagery of the better future that Jesus, “who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2), looked forward to. What was the “joy that was set before him”? It was to see “God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It meant looking forward to that homecoming day when he returns to a world in which healing comes to the broken, justice to the poor and shalom to the nations – all made possible because he endured the cross and because he rose as the first member of a new humanity.

Tom Sine, The New Conspirators (p. 228)

Tags: gospel, future, jesus, tom sine, new conspirators, joy

This week Out of Ur blog hosted a bit of a discussion between reviewer Chad Hall and authors Mark Driscoll and Tony Jones. Chad reviewed the books of both men and then posted responses from Mark and Tony.

The whole concept was bad from the beginning. Pit two authors and their books against each other to see which one is more like Jesus. Baptize one at the expense of the other. Call one humble and the other Egotistical. Label them as insignificant or impotent or trendy. It’s a replay of a tired and aging Right and Left (aka, Right and Wrong) political drama that doesn’t really exist unless we need it to. There is no matchup between emergents and new reformers unless you want there to be one. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would want such a fight, although I too am weak and am easily persuaded to believe in these lines.

Predictably, the match-up lured out the proponents of both factions, myself included. Folks rallied behind their superstar and accused the other of lacking humility and Christ-like-ness. Trenches were dug even deeper and viewpoints were caustically hurled through the virtual air.

I really appreciated the responses by the Tony and Mark. Yes, even Mark. (I don’t say that to say that Mark is less capable of graciousness, but to expose my own bias). Dare I say that Jesus just might have gained the upper hand here. Tony was true to his character as he brazenly defended his friends in the Emergent sphere while not personally attacking Chad. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Tony and I was struck by his clear desire to build relationships but not with sugary words or the right Christian idioms. There was much grace in his biting responses.

I also really appreciated the response by Mark. He was gracious and humble even as he tried to convince us that Chad labeling him as humble was a mistake. Folks are trying to claim that Mark is “turning over a new leaf” as of late with a less caustic attitude. And maybe he is. I hope so. And I hope that as such a thing emerges that those of us who have been offended by Mark in the past (with good reason) will be able to forgive. Such forgiveness will always move us in a good direction. I say that in a small voice because I am far from being one who has been hurt most by his words. I’m not calling on anyone to make any such move of forgiveness, but hoping that it can be a future reality.

I may not agree with Mark’s theology as much as I agree with Tony’s, but I will always agree with grace. Following Jesus is ultimately about giving off a fruity aroma and not about falling in line with a doctrinal team.

Tags: christianity, jesus, jones, driscoll, emergent, emerging, reform

An extended quote from the truly prophetic (think call for repentance, not fortune telling) book by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw:

Today the logic goes something like this: “Calling a ruler ‘Son of God’ is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God.” But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. To which do we pledge allegiance? Surely, one of them must have the wrong idea of how to move history. Can a servant serve two masters? To say that we must kill our enemies and join the popular project to “rid the world of evil” is to call Jesus unrealistic. And that is possibly desirable for many; surely his ideas do not resonate with any common wisdom. But can you call Jesus the Son of God and say, “He just doesn’t understand the world today”? How ironic is it to see a bumper sticker that says “Jesus is the answer” next to a bumper sticker supporting the war in Iraq, as if to say “Jesus is the answer – but not in the real world.” Remember, Jesus’ followers were burned alive, beheaded, or fed to lions. They knew evil and the “real world.” They would meet it face to face. If there was anyone who tried to deal with evildoers and terrorists, it was certainly first-century Christians.

When the church takes affairs of the state more seriously than they do Jesus, Pax Romana becomes its gospel and the president becomes the Son of God. After all, what is the point in calling anything God if it does not also hold sway in every part of one’s life – especially one’s politics? (Haw/Claiborne, p.166)

Instead of worshiping flags and rulers and constitutions let’s start putting our hand over our heart in salute when we ask for forgiveness or when we say “thank you” to the provider (think sunshine, not Costco) for our daily bread. Maybe the act of saluting our creator will stop us in our tracks when we start to worship any other master.

Tags: politics, jesus, shane claiborne, chris haw, jesus for president, books, iraq, war

We’ve all heard politicians saying that America is the world’s greatest hope. While that is certainly not anything close to truth I have also heard some Christians saying the same thing about the Church. But is it?

Tags: America, hope, church, obama

I thought I might post some of my reflections so far from my reading of the various posts on missional. My intent here is not to generalize or dismiss anything that I disagree with, nor to fully endorse anywhere I might find myself agreeing. This is an exercise in sorting. Doing consciously what our brains are doing subconsciously at all times.

Do More

I need to address what I think is a grave error. We have missed a step. The worthy opinion is that to be missional is to get off your ass more often. By all means, YES, but that isn’t the road to a more healthy worldview or community. The ingenuity and servant movement of many of those who are living missionally is very much in tune with what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Faith has to be lived out, but the wonderful thing about the concept of missional is that we can stop believing that it is up to us to run the course while God cheers us on from the bleachers. Missional isn’t just action, it is action with, resulting from, in response to, in the wake of, in the footprints of, in the arms of our missioning God.

I recognize that we need this kick in the pants because of our tendency to, more often than not, go the opposite way. But missional focus reminds us that ultimately it is our God who moves. With a spirit of watching the movement of God we can truly rest. Sabbath will cease to create anxiety because of our inaction.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have not simply been set loose by God to complete a task that has been laid out for us. Instead we are called into participation with Him as He recreates and renews creation. While our feet will be quickened to respond to his call when we truly live into this relationship, it is not our duty to march on and do what we believe God wants done.

More so, our duty is to notice. Notice the things that God is doing in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. When we really begin to notice what is going on we will see better the actions that are called for. Love notices, then responds. Love listens and then, perhaps, answers.

I fear that too often we believe that just because we have read a few books, including the Bible, that it is our job to be the Avengers; that by our actions the world will be a better place. This idealism is something I battle against in my own life and it never seems to work out all that well in history.

Let’s be less quick to just do it, and quicker to listen. Perhaps that posture of prayer and waiting is also a part of a missional life. Then, having regained our proper footing, we will be more ready to leap into action.

To everyone who has posted about our need to get out and do, know that I am not disagreeing with that at all, I just wanted to add one more spice to that recipe.

I’m probably going to post a few more reflections over the next couple days.

Tags: missional, missional synchroblog, prayer, gospel

I had a quick follow-up thought after putting up my Missional post last night. The thing that I find invigorating about a missional Christianity is that there is only one mission.

God’s mission is our mission.

Let me explain:

In the modern paradigm there seem to be two things going on.

One: There is God’s mission, which was to send Jesus into the world to die for our sins and then to prepare a heavenly home for us post-resurrection.

Two: There is our mission, which is to tell people about what God accomplished and will accomplish (note the past and future emphasis with nothing to say about today)

In a missional Christianity God’s mission is very much different. Yes it includes the sending of Jesus, the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. But those events are embedded in the thing that God has been doing all along. The past, present, and future work of the reintegration of all of creation with the purposes of God. In a missional Christianity we are called to be full participants in the work of this God on a mission. A God who most often has shown himself to us as He who is active and involved in His creation.

One mission. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Tags: missional, mission, creation, god, jesus, missioning

This post is a contribution to the Missional Synchroblog organized by Rick Meigs.

It held promise. Honestly, I had held out hope. As much as I had had issues with the direction of the place in the past, I had never heard a blatant rejection of the type of Christianity that I hold dear. In all actuality this is a place that for me holds a high place of honor when it comes to mission. A church with a proud missionary tradition of going to the farthest reaches of every continent, and even to our own indigenous people groups. They had sent people into the “darkest” places on earth. Those who were sent were known in every context to be people of great love and compassion. I know many of them personally and can attest to these claims.

Like I said, regardless of any other frustrations I have had with leadership, committees, programs, structures, and style, I had always said, “These people get mission.” I’m not sure if I still believe that… Let me explain.

What I heard today was a point by point upholding of the old ways. The “take Jesus to the dark places where they didn’t have him, and tell them the message that will save their soul from flames” way of doing mission. It wasn’t all bad, but much of it was downright horrible.

Things started off well enough. We sang songs (you can’t go wrong with a good old hymn sing). We sang and prayed about the importance of getting into God’s streams – of following Him where ever He may go. After all, it is true that “people need the Lord”. (He’s the open door)

The first lines of the sermon were pretty much great. “Your mission cannot fail because it is God who has ordained it.” Oh, but wait… what was that? As we walked a hop-skip-jump Roman Road for the next 30 minutes I found myself frantically searching for the context surrounding the cherry-picked verses that outlined a lot of stuff that did seem to be in that context…

• how knowledge about Jesus was what people need to be saved
• how if there is anything we need to include in a gospel message it is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – anything else we may do or say can just get in the way
• how people first need to know that they are doom to eternal hell (I had a hard time finding the word eternal in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man — but no doubt it was somewhere in Romans)
• we heard how the biggest prayer meeting in all the cosmos was going on in Hell right now
• we heard how when Jesus said to GO he added on the “make disciples” line as a secondary command. Sort of a “while you are going and saving souls you might should probably make a few disciples along the way as well.”

All of these statements trouble me to various degrees, but their were two things that troubled me more than anything. I heard today that God has given us a mission. We as people have a mission to reach people. Our mission is crucial because it is the way God has chosen to work in this world. God has chosen to limit himself to using people to accomplish the gospel. Over and over it was Our Mission. God didn’t seem to have much to do with it at all, outside of giving us the power to accomplish it. So, the question that arises is, “What is God really up to then?”

How did we miss it? Being a church that has stood on its head for mission for the last 50 years, where have we been looking that we have missed the most crucial aspect. How did we not hear anything about the fact that GOD has a Mission in this world? Did I miss something? Has God completed what he is doing and now he has chosen to sit back and watch us do our thing? Not a chance! Our God is active. He is present. He is at work. He is reaching out to the broken and hurting. He is sitting patiently and moving actively with the stubborn and stressed, the hungry and suffering, weak and afflicted.

Yes, we are part of this. God wants us to be a part of this. God wants us to find our place in His mission. Our God is a Missioning God who has called us to partner with Him for His cause. That cause being the restoration and completion of ALL THINGS. The redemption of all sin (disintegration from God). The patching up of broken dreams and relationships. The patching up of wounded knees and hearts.

We are also called to proclaim the message of God. We are called to proclaim the message of Jesus, our hope of a life lived in the glorious reign of God. His Kingdom here on earth. Our Saviour who would could not be beaten by the powers of this world. But who was resurrected as fully aligned with the Kingdom of God as ever before. Our Saviour the fully integrated person of God, moving and active in our world then just as He is today.

Today, in that church service, the question repeated over and over was “do you know where you are going after this life?” The question I believe God would have us ask is much more Missional, much more Incarnational. God’s question to us is, “do you know where you are living Today? Are you living in My Kingdom, or are you living in the Kingdoms of this world?”

The second thing that bothered me is very much tied into the first. Since we are called to participate with God’s Mission in the world we have to ask ourselves, what is God’s Mission? I believe He is doing the same thing Jesus was doing. Proclaiming peace in the midst of war, healing in the midst of sickness, hope in the midst of despair, subversion in the midst of Empire, and life in the midst of death. As missional Christians we are called to live a life that is marked by our Master. A life drenched in Kingdom values. We are not called to lead people toward an intellectual understanding of how they are sinners, need Jesus, and can have Jesus come and save them so they can have be given life after this life. Jesus’ intellectual conversations on the metaphysics of salvation were few in comparison to his many interactions with “the least of these”. Interactions where he provide immediate healing and hope, not just a hope for tomorrow or the next life, but a glorious hope for today. Coupled with this hope was the call to “go, and sin no more”. Jesus called those he had healed into a life in the Kingdom.

And you know what. Missionaries get this. In spite of the bad focus that I heard from the pulpit today, those who are really going out into the world have the heart of Christ guiding them into acts of compassion that far exceed their drive to provide personal conversions by intellectual understanding. Missionaries are far more easily found in hospitals tending to the sick or in service garages fixing some chap’s car or on the streets of some megacity playing with the street-kids, than in pulpits and seminaries and libraries.

So today at the commissioning service of two people who I adore and who I know have a desire to join in with God and His work in the world I found myself torn in two directions. Every thing preached from the pulpit spoke of the modern assumptions of a world that is run by a distant, removed God who touched humans and sent them on their way to reconnect with Him, eventually, in another life. Everything in the faces of those two people spoke of a God who resides with his people. A God who would not be traveling across the ocean with them in a few weeks, because he would already be there when they arrived. A God who is doing mighty things in this world and who has called us all into FULL participation with Him. Not as an afterthought to salvation, but as a way to be involved in God’s work toward the redemption of ALL THINGS.

—————————————
I definitely urge you to explore the rest of the participants in this missional synchroblog. All 50 are linked below.

Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug Jones Duncan McFadzean Erika Haub Grace Jamie Arpin-Ricci Jeff McQuilkin John Smulo Jonathan Brink JR Rozko Kathy Escobar Len Hjalmarson Makeesha Fisher Malcolm Lanham Mark Berry Mark Petersen Mark Priddy Michael Crane Michael Stewart Nick Loyd Patrick Oden Peggy Brown Phil Wyman Richard Pool Rick Meigs Rob Robinson Ron Cole Scott Marshall Sonja Andrews Stephen Shields Steve Hayes Tim Thompson Thom Turner

Len says, “Each brings their own renewal dynamic to the broader church, and I’m convinced that the convergence zone is where some of the most creative experiments will occur.” I too believe in the convergent zones being the places where the really good stuff happens. And from my own experience, this convergence is inevitable (as I pray all healthy happenings should be).

Len’s doodle reminds me of a whirlpool, or one of those big funnels in the mall where you can roll a coin down into the center. When you enter one of these three worlds (Missional, Emergent, Monastic) you get pulled into the others. In my experience, the more excited I became about the movements and ideas circling within Emergent thought, the further I was pulled into the ideas proposed by the Monastic and Missional movements. I find myself swirling around from one to the other and being pulled toward the inside of the funnel where I am more and more influenced by all three simultaneously. Relationships in one sphere lead to relatioships in the others. There is no sense of having to pick one camp over and above the others. In this way the center is not a crushing place that squeezes all things into one thing, but a broad place where more depth and variety of experiences just seems so much closer and accessible. The closer you get to the center there is more energy and more movement. Life seems to flow even more vigorously.

The center is really a non-center. In my experience it has been like the classic idea of a blackhole that opens up into another world on the other end. There has been a lot of spinning and confusion and joy and sadness and question and answer and question and in the midst of it all a broad horizon is becoming visible. An environment that is experienced and felt, and yet is far off. Allow me to indulge in some quick and dirty photoshopping…

The disappearance of the previously contentious issues is so refreshing – another thing that Len hits on. Gone are the squabbles over musical choice, emotional faith or intellectual faith, dispensational gifting, sheep stealing, or denominational representation. These sorts of squabbles seem to have been left on the other side of the squeeze. The further we all travel into our future, the more these things fade into the past. No doubt there are other issues arising that our children will distance themselves from in time. That’s just humanity. But maybe our journey down the slippery slope will provide a better vantage point for our future to deal with these emerging issues.

A great short by The Work of the People

All things…

All things…

All things…

it echoes throughout scripture.

Tags: liturgy

You know those times when your thoughts are building and changing so quickly that you barely have time to reflect on each of them and give them the brain time they deserve? Those times when all you can do is pound your hand on the table or attempt to suppress a squeal of excitement? Yes. Those times.

You know those times when thoughts start to crawl beneath your skin and into your eyeballs amidst the most queasy of itchiness? When you find yourself only able to think about how you need to stop thinking about these concepts because they are burning worse images in your head than those Faces of Death videos from grade seven? Yea…

Admittedly, three years ago the ratio of the first to the second would have been entirely reversed, but still, Pete’s latest book had me in both regions of anxiety. When reading The Fidelity of Betrayal the table pounding squeals far outweighed the eyeball squirms, but they were still there.

Pete takes us through three (four) aspects of our experience of God that we possibly need to be ready to betray in order to avoid mistaking these objectified realities for the creator God we worship. These being the Word, the Name, and the Act of God – the fourth being Truth itself (himself).

My biggest pauses came when I heard myself saying things like, “Aw that snake wasn’t such a bad guy,” Even though my beliefs about the story of the fall have changed drastically in the last while, I was still believing that the person-hood of God was contained in the words written about the encounter between God, Eve, Adam, and the Serpent (poor snake). Pete’s intent is not to pull us into a sympathy for the devil but to pull us from a loyalty to our words about God as contained in the Bible. We need to search out a deeper devotion to our creator born out of that betrayal. So while I’m not ready to run off to join some serpent cult, I am more ready to embrace the ambiguity of God’s nature within the Biblical narrative and try to see past my simplified ideas about a knowable personality of God.

Skipping ahead to the end of the book, Pete prompts us to consider a betrayal of our secured church boundaries in favor of a communal encounter with a God that we find in a religion without religion. A religion founded on the movement of God in miracles of love and reflected on through sacraments and then third and least made knowable through a set beliefs and creeds. I’m still to find a church institution that doesn’t try to downplay 1 John 4 in some way – to attempt to house the “of Gods” first within a church structure, system, or belief net.

So, I finished this book angrily and over-joyed. I’m angry because I feel alone. I feel alone among a sea of churches and Christians. I feel an insecurity in my beliefs that somehow fills me with a wonderful desire to fill the absence with love. I’m angry that I believed for so long that doubt and insecurity would be my enemy in life – that I needed to make sure I built my house on a church-rock. The problem being that the church-rock lately has felt much more like quicksand. Quicksand that pulls down anyone that doesn’t fit in order to make room to stabilize those who would do well in that system. And the thing is, I have a vision of Jesus jumping right off that church-rock too. Not to pull people back up on top, but to be present with those who have been sucked down.

It seems scary, and right now I feel alone, but I am going to try to stop squirming and go down too. I’m thinking that’s where I’ll find God. It seems that’s where heaven is.

So, tomorrow I’m going to turn pages in Post-Charismatic? by Rob McAlpine (aka RobbyMac). I’m not from the charismatic stream officially, but have interacted with the local Pentecostal and Vineyard churches quite often throughout my life. I’m especially interested in learning to engage more fully with this stream of Christianity to move forward into a more generous and spiritually expressive future. I’m excited about the opportunity to look both look backward while facing forward into a hopeful future together with my charismatic and post-charismatic sisters and brothers.

Oh, and Rob, I’m really sorry about the absence of picture on the amazon.ca page. That’s actually my fault and it will be corrected next week!

Pax

Tags: reading, charismatic, postcharismatic, robbymac,

Tags: phyllistickle, emergence, emergent, books

In the last few days I have devoured this tiny book during lunch hour reading sessions. Mudhouse Sabbath is an honest and concise exploration of how ancient and more modern Jewish practices can enrich the lives of Christians if only we would look outside our own houses once in a while. Lauren takes us on a journey through a selection of Jewish spiritual practices including shabbat (sabbath), avelut (mourning), hachnassat orchim (hospitality), tzum (fasting), kiddushin (weddings), and mezuzot (doorpost inscriptions). In her distinctively vulnerable way, Winner takes us through her own attempts at incorporating these practices into her adopted Christian life. Lauren’s deep love and respect for both spiritual traditions and her knowledge of the quirks and intricacies of them each surfaces in every personal reflection.

One large theme echoed in my head in each chapter. The first and most important reason for a Jew to engage in all of the mentioned practices is because they were told to. Their first thought was never to personal benefits that arise from the practices, but to God’s command to be faithful; although the personal benefits are indeed numerous. “They don’t light Sabbath candles simply because candles make them feel close to God, but because God commanded the lighting of candles. Closeness might be a nice by-product, but it is not the point.” (Winner, xii)

Christians are more likely to practice spiritual discipline for personal benefit and it is a great freedom and privilege to do so. However, we would do well to consider the selfless attitude of obedience that marked the consistency with which the Jewish community has committed themselves to remembering these time-honored rhythms.

I also really love the devotion to community and hospitality as a spiritual discipline above all others. If your adherence to dietary laws does a disservice to your interactions with others then it ceases to be a blessing. The rhythms in the Jewish wedding and mourning traditions give preeminence to the role of the community in those celebrations. Often we think of spiritual discipline as something we act out in our bedroom when we are supremely alone with God. But a faith that is only personal gives us a very partial view of the real blessing awaiting a community that practices together.

My own attempts at spiritual discipline are always disjointed and more valiant in my head than they end up being in practice. The simplicity in Lauren’s book has strengthened me to try again. Practice is never all that fun, but the results are always thrilling and most surprising.

Tags: reading, lauren winner, judaism, christianity, spiritual discipline

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