Update, New poems and some emerging/ent thoughts

Update, New poems and some emrging/ent thoughts

 

Wow, so much had been going on lately that I am really deprived of knowing where to start. So for starters, I am enrolled once again in an institute of higher education pursuing a degree in creative writing. As you can tell I need all the help I can get. This, in large part is the reason for the undue neglect to this blog.

 

I am also focused on a new gig, professionally. I was informed that the religious institution of which I have served on the global outreach team for the past six years is allowing me support, to work with a group of friends in the transition/ emergence of another faith community. For those readers who know me well, know what a privilege and relief this is. Not that my previous gig was bad, but it was pulling me into a black hole other than that magnificence to which I am otherwise gravitating toward. This all came about, in large part because of a miracle wrought by my friend Dave Fleming, but of course.

 

I am still overseeing the Living Room and that is as exciting as it ever was. Especially now that we have some momentum on a community development project that has been a heartfelt passion of ours for some time.

 

I have just posted a new poem and thought you ought to be the first to know, you can find it here.

 

 

Now some thoughts:

I was talking with a friend recently who is in the employ of a religious establishment of the rather contemporary evangelical sort. We have been dialoguing for some time, practicing the art of dipping our toes into the emergent conversation. That’s a mouthful right there I know. Regardless, my friend recently asked me to lunch for conversation, after having recently read a book that as Doctor Phil might say, dropped a hornet in his hanky. The book shook a lot of paradigms for my friend but was only really an entry point into the conversation.

 

I figured we were on safe ground so I started in with ideas, a thousand colorful what ifs. After about an hour my friend looking particularly bewilder, looked at me and said something like whoa, you are pulling bricks out left and right. He was of course referring to the building blocks of evangelical Christianity, of which many are made from the mud of a modern worldview rather than the heritage of faith Christianity owes itself to. I apologized, backed up and offered some comfort in the form of easy illustration.

 

I realized in that moment that I better take a dose of my own medicine. I have always said that it is impossible to get someone to leap from one side of the Grand Canyon to the other in a single bound. No, if we are to get to the other side without dying, or in this case shipwrecking our faith, we need to take the slow steady journey down (deconstruction) one side and up (emergence) the other. So a word to my emergent friends out there, lets help people take the slow and sometimes painful journey, often holding their hand and not push people off cliffs.

 

Good night and have fun….

Worn out by the hype

It is so easy to say that what really matters is that we are. That is to say, that we are human, we are created, we are children, we are a reflection of God’s beauty and that is enough. It is quite another thing to really be satisfied in knowing that I am of great value intrinsically because God made me and that I need not do or say anything profound to be worthwhile.

I confess that sometimes I get so caught up in, and worn out by the hype of the poop (er I mean pop, er do I), culture that inevitably finds ways of creeping into Christendom. Perhaps you could say that it doesn’t have to creep in because most of the time we bring it in with us. I forget that by just existing, I am joining with every other created thing declaring the beauty, and majestic creativity of God. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting God’s time, and yours by not doing or saying anything extraordinary.

In these moments I begin to gage my worth by what I have accomplished, what my ministry has accomplished, what we have given voice to. And usually, for me it’s never enough and I waste a couple days on a good inner sulk fest. That is kinda where I have been lately. Then today a friend of mine, a fellow laborer in the urban landscape, sent me an email connected to a devotion written by Shane Claiborne. It was just the kick in the ear I needed to refocus. So I would like to share it with you all. You can download it here. And if you haven’t read Shane’s Book “The Irresistible Revolution” yet, hope on, it’s a good ride.

irresistible.

Theoretical Physicists Michio Kaku said something to the effect that if all the world were to live by the American standard of life, it would be a matter of years before we utterly consumed all of the earths resources. America, something like 2% of the worlds population consumes something like 50% of its resources. Some say twenty billion dollars would alleviate the extreme poverty that 1.2 billion people live in ( extreme poverty = less than $1 a day). Twenty billion dollars is about how much America and Europe spent on ice cream last year.

What to do about it? Perhaps the answer is found in a whole new way of life. Downward mobility, sharing the blessing that we have been given with our fellow humans, believing that the they really are created equal. Putting a face to statistics and seeking first the government of God and His Justice..

Shane Claiborne's recent book has been a reassurance, a confirmation if you will, that something can be done and that it starts with me…and you…and how we live today… pick it, up, it's an easy read. Be warned though, it may change your life, and consequently we may change the world.