freedom school

 

It’s one thing to celebrate accomplishment.  It’s another (glorious) thing to celebrate hard-won accomplishment.  Tonite — attending “Freedom School Graduation” at CFBC – I watched and celebrated with about a hundred students (elementary-high school) basking in such glorious accomplishment.

I don’t know many stories from the lives of these specific students (though I teach Sunday school to a few of them once a month so have a couple stashed away!), but statistics from the urban core where they live are enough to prompt my imagination and (then) my appreciation for what this summer school program means to them. Tonite’s graduation included performances in song & dance … recitation of original poetry & drama.  It was good.  It was messy.  It was genuinely funny.  Utterly endearing.

Watching the grand finale from the back of a full house, I saw 100+ beautiful, shining students singing and swaying to the tune of hope.  I cried.

Gets me every time: the story of redemption — success — smack in the midst of life’s ugliness.  And I am compelled to live deeper or more … or somehow more truly.  Here’s to beating the odds … (and so, shaping my world).

congrats to mr. & mrs. foster

Two classier individuals there could not be.  (And to think they went and married one another?!  Uh-oh!)  No, seriously, my heart has been celebrating all nite long … gladdened that God has called these two to image His love and life to our watching world.

Honored to be a witness (and so thankful Kurt took that phone call … even during 24).

relationally inept chart relationships

This was the headline (or something like it) that came to mind as I took part in a classroom exercise yesterday–charting spaces in my life/relationships as either “public, social, personal, or intimate.”  (Categories derived from Joseph Myers helpful book, The Search to Belong.)

In spite of my own self-conscience commentary along the way, it was a great exercise … and gave me permission to think about cultivating spaces for a wide array of contexts and friendships.  (A luxury that–dare I say?–few Christians seem willing to allow for.  Though I’ve long held that following Jesus should not have to involve abandoning normalcy in all social relations.)  But now I rant.

The point is: great exercise.  Worth my time (maybe yours?) and probably even deserving a bit more consideration in the days ahead.  The same may be said for a few other elements of Allelon’s Summer Institute, a five-day course I completed today.  (Yes, I said five days.  Talk about some serious brain-drain … even after allowing myself a game of hookie.  How did I ever swing grad-school?!)

I’m looking forward to more time to process in the days ahead–maybe even a corollary blog-post or two.

mia?

I’ve been away from the blog-o-sphere for a couple of days.  Internet trouble on Monday, and heavy eyelids last nite … (I was snoozing by 9 p.m.)!  Alas, I’ve returned to the land of the living (& typing) to drop a quick update.

Even in my absence on-line, God’s been showing Himself strong & fully present with me.  (Something I’ve been needing desperately as of late, amidst my own small season of disorientation.)

After some tearful, earnest prayers last weekend, I felt that God reached out to me today through Letitia Washington (the woman we’re building our Habitat home for this year).  Letitia called out of the blue and left a message saying she had no agenda; just hadn’t talked to me for awhile and felt she should call.  I — in a rare moment of reaching out beyond expectations — decided to call back.

It was an awesome conversation.  Turns out, Letitia and I have some important things common these days (as we both navigate through the acquisition of a new home).  The best moment was when Letitia said to herself (or so she thought), “you know, God will never leave you or forsake you.”  This, after my pestering-prayer of the weekend had been “God, are you with me here?” (emphasis on each syllable, please).

It’s amazing how God’s Word — enlivened by God’s Spirit … enfleshed by God’s people — does, in fact, change the day.  I’m still reeling.  (And still quite disoriented, I suppose — but that’s for another post.)

Sometimes — more days than not, it seems — I just can’t believe God is interacting with me in such real and invasive ways.  You’d think I’d get used to it after 20+ years.  I find the converse is true; I am more surprised each day by the nearness of Christ.  Amen.  (May it be.)

hospital hill or bust?

Bust the wallet, that is.  I confess: I’m a bit of a cheapskate to begin with … so that doesn’t help matters.  But there’s something about paying $50 bucks for a simple activity (I usually do for free on Saturday mornings).

My griping may be due to the fact that I’ve still got a “bad taste” in my mouth from Olathe’s (1/2) Marathon … what with all of it’s road-kill and portapotty-lines.  I mean line.  (There was just that one portapotty at race-start, right?!)  Note to self: NOT ALL fun-runs are created equal.

I’m incredibly partial to my very first fun-run experience: Wichita’s Riverfest Run ‘92.  To this day, it’s gotta be one of my favorite fun-runs (challenged only by Chicago’s Shamrock Shuffle).  The RiverRun - annual tradition for the past 15 years (give or take a year or five) - was on it’s game once again this Spring.  (Which is why I’m smiling so big in the photos taken here - two weeks ago- just after Jenn and I pushed ourselves near nausea.)

We neared our personal best: a 9 minute mile/pace.  (Which pretty much nails the coffin on Boston.  But who cares?  As long as we’re aiming to puke at the finish-line; isn’t that what it’s really all about?!) 

In the end, I’ve had many ocassions (during many great RiverRuns and several lousy others) to think about the “must-have” elements of any race-day.  (They’re pretty simple, actually; you’d think more festival committees could get this.)  And there aren’t a ton; but the few are, indeed, essential.  Here’s my short-list:

• A gun at the starting line (some things one feels even silly mentioning, until …)
• Helpful volunteers (why else did you choose to volunteer; surely you’re not in need of honor’s student comm-service hours).  I’m okay if you pretend to cheer
• Potty spots (I mean: race-day or no … this is quite simply a must)
• Race-time chips (as in digital time-keepers).  You pretend to volunteer; I pretend to race
• Live music (I don’t need Frank Sinatra; the highschool sax-player will do … and he’ll distract me for a moment from your bored and worthless volunteers)
• Post-race water & refuel (A banana & a hershey kiss; what’s that … 60 cents?)

The equation is not complex.

And some (cheaper-than-me-race-planner-skates) might be surprised by the number of participants who linger in the streets to celebrate & talk with strangers and old-acquaintances.  Then cough up the dough to come back again and do it all over again the next year.  That’s why I pay $50 bucks.  Or (in the case of Wichita’s RiverRun) $20.

Here’s hoping Hospital Hill’s got this one figured out …

 

we’re creatures before we’re christians

This was a favorite phrase from one of my seminary professors.  (Not your average systematics-guy.) 

Today, in gearing up for the Intuitive Leadership  conference I’ll be attending next week, I was re-reading a portion of Tim Keel’s book (also called Intuitive Leadership).  The following paragraph stood out as just one part of what means to say we are first creatures and then Christians:

Because of the incarnation, people and churches must always contend with the limitations of our creatureliness.  We always access and thus must subsequently express the life of God with and through the cultural tools at our disposal.  This does not make all tools equal or valuable.  The task requires discernment and wisdom.  But because of the reality of our limitations, our language and communal faith expressions are always provisional and in need of reframing and re-forming around the continued revelation of God in Christ.  Moreover, we must be in constant dialogue with those with whom we differ (in concept, culture, or class), whether they are contemporary or ancient, in order to access and submit ourselves to the full wisdom of the church animated by the Holy Spirit.

what do you think?

I’ve just spent another zany day in church-world.  Which is to say, the “world” of being a pastor.  (Something I try not to fess-up to very often.)  As such, I’ve been thinking about who God’s people might be & do, and how we might organize who we are and what we do …

Here’s the latest philosophical statement I wrote … and hate.  (But feel trapped into using because, hey, who’s saying anything better, in a way that fits our community?)

Philosophical Approach to Mission– As God has demonstrated through His progressive work of redemption in history and His specific revelation in Scripture, God can and sometimes does reveal Himself directly to humanity in a single memorable event or moment.  However, God’s typical pattern is to make Himself known to humanity over time through His chosen people, giving us many ways to hear, learn, and respond.[1]

When praying and laboring for the Gospel in a community, a city … or among a culture or ethnic group, we believe that a congregational, collective effort best reflects God’s intention for His people.  Though individual work and isolated initiatives may, at times, seem more efficient or productive, we believe them to be, ultimately, inadequate.  Only durable Kingdom partnership, through the collaboration of local church congregations, permits God’s people to be both a sign and foretaste of the Gospel they also labor for and bear witness to.

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[1] I am indebted to Tim Keller & Phil Butler for pointing me to the Biblical concept that spiritual transformation is most normative as a process—not an event.  (Keller, Tim, Born of the Gospel, sermon at www.sermons.redeemer.com and Butler, Phil, Well-Connected.  www.connectedbook.net.)

it’s holy week and i see bones, but i believe and minister (no matter what) by telling the basic story

“…There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you. You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our time conditioned understanding of our needs, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of word and sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices. There are a lot of other things to be done in this wrecked world and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the basic terms with which we are working, the foundational realities with which we are dealing—God, kingdom, gospel—we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation.” 

That, or something very much like that, is what I understand the church to say to the people whom it ordains to be its pastors.

–Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles

it’s holy week and i see bones, but i believe and minister (no matter what)

“…One more thing: we are going to ordain you to this ministry and we want you to vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as ours, and that your mind can play the same tricks on you as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like we are believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it …”

–Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles

it’s holy week and i see bones, but i believe and minister

” …We need help in keeping our beliefs sharp and accurate and intact. We don’t trust ourselves—our emotions seduce us into infidelities. We know that we are launched on a difficult and dangerous act of faith, and that there are strong influences intent on diluting or destroying it. We want you to help us: be our pastor, a minister of word and sacrament, in the middle of this world’s life. Minister with word and sacrament to us in all the different parts and stages of our lives—in our work and play, with our children and our parents, at birth and death, in our celebrations and sorrows, on those days when morning breaks over us in a wash of sunshine, and those other days that are all drizzle. This isn’t the only task in the life of faith, but it is your task. We will find someone else to do the other important and essential tasks. This is yours: word and sacrament …”

–Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles