On Being Emergent and Neo-Restorationist

A recent podcast and article. In case you wanted to check it out:

http://web.mac.com/disciplesfellowship/iWeb/Travelers/Unfinished/Unfinished.html

http://the-next-wave-ezine.info/issue105/index.cfm?id=28&ref=ARTICLES%5FEMERGING%20CHURCH%5F404

Expectations of Church

I was in Abilene this past week, having been asked by my alma mater (ACU) to come speak at their annual Lectureship and share stories about Immanuel Austin and our desire to "bring church to people" before we bring people to church.

As I ran into former classmates, many of whom are now working for churches, I got to share stories about how rewarding the past couple of years have been. The way I found myself explaining it to them was by saying, "this is the first time in over two years that Rachel and I have had anything like a vacation...and all we want to do is get back home."

As I spent time with our house church last night and walked into BookPeople this morning, I realized how true that was. And I find myself recalling the incredulous looks of ministers and Christians who can't imagine loving church and following Jesus as much as we are.

And I remember that it wasn't that long ago that I felt the same way. And I wonder when we started settling for church as place instead of people, and not even that inviting or exciting a place.

We're not "getting it right" at Immanuel and we certainly aren't doing anything fancy or impressive. Yet, I find that this church is consistently a source of good news for me, a group of people that remind me what it means do the difficult and rewarding work of walking in relationship with God.

I Am As Old As Hip Hop

I am as old as hip hop
as angry and confused
as sold out and conflicted
as beat up and abused
as hopeful and progressive
as backward and profane
as full of wit and wisdom
as messed up and insane

We are like brothers
born in the same year
raised up in the same city
shaped by the same icons and images
chased after and beaten down on the same streets
puffed up with credibility
both earned and faked
walking that walk
talking that talk
feeding that myth
born of reality

We are the same
and yet not the same

jumpy and confident
pimped out and insecure
crying for justice
desperate for love

sampling the past
to make sense of the present

unsure about the future
but proclaiming just the same

I am as old as hip hop
the same, but not the same
born of different mothers
go by different names
and though we share a history
we often disagree

and so I cannot speak for hip hop
and hip hop cannot speak for me

Camus On Christians and Suffering

"When an innocent youth can have his eyes destroyed, a Christian should either lose his faith or consent to having his eyes destroyed." -from The Plague by Albert Camus

A Prayer Worth Praying

This is a prayer written by my friend and former professor, Randy Harris, for the beginning of the new school year:

O God,
All of our instincts tell us to pray for nothing but good things for this semester,
But we know that this is self serving and short sighted.
So we pray that you will give us whatever we need to be your people.

We pray
You will give us enough joy to make us cheerful and serene
and enough sorrow to make us big-hearted and compassionate.
You will give us enough success to make us confident and hopeful,
and enough failure to keep us humble and dependent on you
You will give us enough of the cross to make us like Jesus
and that resurrection power will always be present in our lives.

We pray, O God, that you will hold us so close to your side
that the Evil One cannot touch us.
And that as you place your hands of blessing on us we will become your hands to bless the world.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

The Hair On The Head of the Body of Christ

I thought about what an undertaker had told me once - that your hair keeps growing, for a while anyway, after you die, and then it stops. I thought, "What keeps it growing? Is it like a plant in soil? What goes out of the soil? The soul? And when does the hair realize that it's gone?" -Ed Crane in The Man Who Wasn't There

I got to see this film for the first time, a few nights back, and this analogy has been scratching at the back of my mind ever since. It may not be completely thought out, but I'll risk it.

I've been thinking lately about my beard. It's getting to be longer than it has ever been and I am increasingly fond of it. It isn't vanity, but I find myself fascinated with this mane of hair coming out of my face and down my chin.

One of the things that fascinates me about it, is how much it feels. I discovered something similar when I began shaving my head. Just one hair left unshaven can make me keenly aware of the wind that's blowing.

And yet, as soon as it's cut off, that feeling ends. Ed Crane gives voice to this during one of his sessions in the barber shop. How this hair that is a part of us gets cut off and thrown away and then isn't any good for anything except the trash heap.

And I think about how the more cut off from Christ I am, the less I feel. I think about the times in my life when I put distance between us and how dead I was, how little growth I experienced.

And I think about that hair that grows even after it's dead. How it almost doesn't even know it's dead, it just keeps growing and thinking it's getting somewhere. How long it takes before it realizes that it's gone.

And I think about Jesus talking about the vine and the branches:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. -John 15:1-6

And I think about how we always talk about heaven and hell as if they're rewards and punishments and wonder if they are more simply a matter of choice. If we cut ourselves off, thinking we can grow on our own, and see that we are growing for awhile, and think that means we're still alive. If what we call punishment is actually pruning and what we call hell is what happens when we refuse to be connected to something real and alive.

I know that's been true for me. The moments when I cut myself off were the moments I came closest to dying. The times I tried to grow my own way were the times when I began to wither and die.

But the times when I have sought connection with Jesus Christ, the true vine, even when pruning felt like punishment and refining happened by fire; those are the times when I have produced the fruits of the Spirit -love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fathfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are the times when I have been most alive.

A Book Quiz Shouldn't Make Me This Happy

A friend of mine directed me to a website that asks questions and then tells you what book you are. This was my result:

You're A Prayer for Owen Meany!

by John Irving

Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire
faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest
this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking
moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT
SOUNDS LIKE THIS!


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

This is one of my top 5 books. I've read it almost 10 times. I love that this is what came up.

Soundtrack of My Life: The College Years

20 Tracks:

1) The Last Goodbye -Jeff Buckley
2) Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago -Soul Coughing
3) Ants Marching -Dave Matthews Band
4) Zombie -The Cranberries
5) Wonderwall -Oasis
6) Fake Plastic Trees -Radiohead
7) Ground On Down -Ben Harper
8) The Ghost of Tom Joad -Bruce Springsteen
9) 1979 -The Smashing Pumpkins
10) The Stars of Track and Field -Belle and Sebastian
11) Lord Only Knows -Beck
12) Misunderstood -Wilco
13) Ready or Not -The Fugees
14) Brick -Ben Folds Five
15) Not Dark Yet -Bob Dylan
16) Between The Bars -Elliott Smith
17) Karma Police -Radiohead
18) Independent -Damien Jurado
19) The Longer I Lay Here -Pedro the Lion
20) Two Headed Boy Pt. 2 -Neutral Milk Hotel