the countdown is on …

In less than three days, I’ll be boarding a plane for Nairobi, Kenya.  My friend/colleague, Bill Gorman, is joining me for the big adventure!  Together, we’ll be exploring the prospect of more long-term partnership (what it might look like for folks from my community here in KC to engage in collaborative-relationship with our Kenyan brothers & sisters).

One of the most exciting things about my travel is a reunion of sorts with one of my grad-school classmates & his family: Luke & Lillian Jaoko.  We became close friends during my years in Chicago.

Here’s Luke with his youngest, Sheenah (born during our last year of seminary).  My roommate & I broke with all cultural-sensitivity and threw the Jaoko’s one big-phat-baby-shower.  (Complete with the competitive relay: “cell-phone-on-your-ear, baby-on-your hip, laundry-basket-in-your-hand … hanging-clothes-on-the-line.”  My team kicked-butt.)  But I digress …

Luke & Lillian: two of the most heroic people I will ever meet.  I’m incredibly honored to know them; ecstatic about our reunion.

Sobered by the many other heroes I will be meeting in the coming weeks.  (I’m dousing myself in Ephesians 4 these days; praying some of it will somehow get down deep inside me.)  Your prayers for God’s gracious work in and through me are coveted …

anthony & leslie are adopting nathan

Nathan was found abandoned outside of a mudpit-latrene last year in Rwanda.  After a bit of time in the hospital & police custody, Nathan was given into the safe-keeping of New Hope Homes (a home for abandoned children in Rwanda).  This is where Nathan will stay until Anthony & Leslie bring him home later this fall.

Anthony & Leslie shared this brief story with our faith-community earlier today.  It was so honest & heartfelt.  (There wasn’t a dry-eye in the room.)  My favorite line came from Leslie who said something like, “we have had fears about this: can we love Nathan like we love our other three girls?  can we handle another child under 4 years of age?  can we thrive as a bi-racial family?  how will I do Nathan’s hair?  But we have chosen to believe that these concerns pale in comparison to the great gift God is giving to Nathan & our family in bringing us together [Jt’s paraphrase].”

I’m so grateful God has given to our congregation a life-sized illustration of what it might mean to care for the least of these …

i spent much of today with john perkins

It was an amazing day.  (Lord, may I manifest such spunk & sacrificial service at 78!)

Over lunch, John introduced me to an old Chinese poem–one of his favorites.  (I loved it too.)

Go to the people
Live among them, Learn from them, Love them
Start with what you know, build on what they have:
But the best leaders, when their task is done
The people will remark, “We have done it ourselves.”

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.

---

[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.)