Ok, almost out of the airport! Anyway, as I was trying to write yesterday, there were all these amazing different communities gathered not just to discuss, but to celebrate their faith as it is lived out in their very common, yet not-so-common life together.
The topic of the gathering was not just community, but faith lived out in every aspect on one's life and for these people, that meant inclusivity' identification with the poor, poverty, action, love and worship. It was clear that not everyone was coming from the same background and certainly not everyone was coming from the same sort of "doctrine". But what they did have in common was a desire to follow Christ so as not to be Christians, but to be disciples.
This was a good look at what I might call a kind of emerging neo-monasticism. The days were structured around morning worship which usually involved a phone call to someone like tony camplo or Brian mcclaren (rock stars of the faith) followed by learning sessions held in the morning. My flight is about to board so ill follow up on this later!
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Monday, June 23, 2008
Post PAPA fest
Well, here I am stuck in Chicago, about to fly out to get stuck in Detroit because the weather has been spotty and my flight has been delayed. I am pooped, but feel satisfied after having experienced this wonderful converging of communities.
As I think I alluded to before, I had no idea what to expect. I had a vague idea what it was about but that was kinda along the lines of: oh, there is this festival of people who come together to create community and they talk about interesting things like prayer and converting your diesel engine over to a vegetable oil burning engine. Yeah, pretty vague but I was intrigued. So I went along and discovered a network of intentional christian communities some of which have been around since the 1940,s while others have only been in existence for a few years.
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As I think I alluded to before, I had no idea what to expect. I had a vague idea what it was about but that was kinda along the lines of: oh, there is this festival of people who come together to create community and they talk about interesting things like prayer and converting your diesel engine over to a vegetable oil burning engine. Yeah, pretty vague but I was intrigued. So I went along and discovered a network of intentional christian communities some of which have been around since the 1940,s while others have only been in existence for a few years.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld
Thursday, June 19, 2008
This is a test
So, I thought I would try out mobile blogging while I am away the next week and a half. Let's see how it goes!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld
Friday, May 30, 2008
Church anyone?
So, we had another Taize service and this time potluck to follow. So far, this thing is going well and it has really been a beautiful service each time. We are getting this thing streamlined and we want to keep food a part of it. In fact, partly due to the holiday weekend preceding everything we had a lot of food to share which pleased me greatly because I had no idea what was going to show up on the table.
Because it is so lovely, I can see this taize service working as a attractive invitation to people to stop by and check us out. Still, is it church? Everyone there seems to understand it as a church service, but how is it connecting with them--particularly since we've only done two of these things. The last thing I want to see is another pretty church service unattached to anything in the outside world. We need more, but what and how to introduce it? Bible study as it was is over, and that's ok--we aren't supposed to be "bible study;" we are supposed to be "church" but I get the sense that church still means the institution for many people. As my friend Chad told me, this sort of thing is easier to do with non-Christians than with those who have grown up in the church. I have to say that in my limited experience, I have to agree. The one individual I have been working with who comes from no church background whatsoever has really embraced this somewhat emergent model of church. He immediately thinks "outside of the box" because he was never in a box to begin with.
And I do think that much of this actually requires us to think outside of all boxes. Otherwise, how are we owing our faith, how our we living out our baptisms? Everyone I talk to has some opinion as to what is wrong with the church, but they don't seem to have much of an imagination when it comes to what might be a new way of envisioning church. I repeatedly tell people that it is not about being right, but rather it is about being faithful. So much of what I come across when it comes to people's church baggage has to do with doctrine, or dogma as they usually put it. But while they can articulate this displeasures they have no language for doing things otherwise (perhaps its because its easy to bitch?) And I think it is more simple than they believe.
James Alison has put it well and put it simply when he writes: the really hard work in Christian theological discourse lies in the ecclesiological sphere: creating Church with those who we don't like. Or, to put it another way; as a Catholic, the only way I could conceivably be right in what is recognizably a new theological and moral position is if I show that being right is nothing to do with me, and how it includes an account of how we have all been wrong together in which I too am on the side of those with whom I disagree as someone undergoing a change of heart along with them.
We aren't "right;" we are striving for something beyond ourselves (like, God)--that is what it means to be church. This is what I'm trying to get across to people.
Because it is so lovely, I can see this taize service working as a attractive invitation to people to stop by and check us out. Still, is it church? Everyone there seems to understand it as a church service, but how is it connecting with them--particularly since we've only done two of these things. The last thing I want to see is another pretty church service unattached to anything in the outside world. We need more, but what and how to introduce it? Bible study as it was is over, and that's ok--we aren't supposed to be "bible study;" we are supposed to be "church" but I get the sense that church still means the institution for many people. As my friend Chad told me, this sort of thing is easier to do with non-Christians than with those who have grown up in the church. I have to say that in my limited experience, I have to agree. The one individual I have been working with who comes from no church background whatsoever has really embraced this somewhat emergent model of church. He immediately thinks "outside of the box" because he was never in a box to begin with.
And I do think that much of this actually requires us to think outside of all boxes. Otherwise, how are we owing our faith, how our we living out our baptisms? Everyone I talk to has some opinion as to what is wrong with the church, but they don't seem to have much of an imagination when it comes to what might be a new way of envisioning church. I repeatedly tell people that it is not about being right, but rather it is about being faithful. So much of what I come across when it comes to people's church baggage has to do with doctrine, or dogma as they usually put it. But while they can articulate this displeasures they have no language for doing things otherwise (perhaps its because its easy to bitch?) And I think it is more simple than they believe.
James Alison has put it well and put it simply when he writes: the really hard work in Christian theological discourse lies in the ecclesiological sphere: creating Church with those who we don't like. Or, to put it another way; as a Catholic, the only way I could conceivably be right in what is recognizably a new theological and moral position is if I show that being right is nothing to do with me, and how it includes an account of how we have all been wrong together in which I too am on the side of those with whom I disagree as someone undergoing a change of heart along with them.
We aren't "right;" we are striving for something beyond ourselves (like, God)--that is what it means to be church. This is what I'm trying to get across to people.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Another thought...
With the Taize, this little group seems to be going through some changes. What we've been doing so far we've been referring to as bible study and we've been meeting for a while now and we've seen various people come and go. Over the last several months we have been simply getting together for dinner and discussion of the bible. Now, though we are still tiny (very tiny) I think we are ready to be something a bit more and I think we have come to a place to see ourselves as a kind of community. Bible study is over (at least as it has been happening) and we have decided to stop calling it "bible study." While a name for the group is a little beyond us right now, we may be at the beginning of moving in a specific direction, and a different kind of energy may be emerging.
I can't really say where we are heading yet, how long it will take, and what it will look like in the end. I have some ideas of where I'd like it to go, but it isn't all up to me either. But, it is going somewhere and I'm excited to see where exactly. As one person said, "We've birthed this baby, now lets christen it."
Sounds good to me.
I can't really say where we are heading yet, how long it will take, and what it will look like in the end. I have some ideas of where I'd like it to go, but it isn't all up to me either. But, it is going somewhere and I'm excited to see where exactly. As one person said, "We've birthed this baby, now lets christen it."
Sounds good to me.
Taize
Well, at the end of April we had our first Taize worship experience and it was lovely. We again used the empty storefront on Hamilton Street and had about 12 people attend. We did this at 9:30 at night and lit the place up with candles. Lots of candles. We had a small altar set up against the wall and inserted Holy Communion in the middle of the service. For those of you who aren't familiar with Taize, check it outhere.
Basically, this is a contemplative prayer service that is sung. You sing each prayer slowly and you repeat them in order to center, to open yourself up to an experience of God. We sung a few prayers, had a reading from the gospel, a sung psalm and then communion--and the prayers here were also sung. We had some silence and continued singing with the Lord's prayer. Steve, our musician, lead us with his violin and did a marvelous Job. We, as a group, had never sung together and I didn't know everyone in the room even. We did a wonderful job so, we're going to do it again.
Here's a picture of Julie, who is now off in Vietnam serving the world, lighting the candles.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Passover
Now, I don't come from any kind of Jewish background and have very little experience with the Jewish holidays, but one of our bible study members does and so he and his partner are graciously opening up their home this coming Saturday to host a passover Seder. From what Steve says we are going to be spending some time participating in the meal as he figures it will run about 2-3 hours and this is the short version. Those I have spoken to from the group seem eager to be there; I know I am.
One of the things I and others have been keen to include in the realm of "group" activities are monthly meals. This desire, I believe, is part of what has lead us to be gathering for Passover. It is also what will hopefully bring us together next month for a meal during which we will participate in the Eucharist. I mention all this about the Saginaw group because it seems we are on the edge of some kind of change. I'm having a difficult time articulating that, but it seems that now we can perhaps move a little beyond being simply a bible study. Particularly since worship is being introduced there seems to be another dynamic making its way into the group that while not eliminating "bible study" will change it. However, the group itself will be undergoing a fairly large change in the near future when several of the college students who have been helping to form a core to the community graduate and leave the area. What we will look like after that, I cannot say. I only know that it seem the time has come for us to begin seriously talking about who we are, what we believe, and where we think we are going in Christ.
My challenge is that I have always take "church" for granted. In this setting that is impossible and it is always a new thing that we are creating. And for me, striking that balance between my helping it being created and me creating it is tricky. I don't want to impose too much structure, yet too little and what are we doing? Right? I think that's why right now things feel like they are shifting, more structure is being added, but I also think I'm not the only one adding it. So, perhaps for now, we are right where we should be. Even if I can't quite get my head around it.
Oh Lord, let it be so.
One of the things I and others have been keen to include in the realm of "group" activities are monthly meals. This desire, I believe, is part of what has lead us to be gathering for Passover. It is also what will hopefully bring us together next month for a meal during which we will participate in the Eucharist. I mention all this about the Saginaw group because it seems we are on the edge of some kind of change. I'm having a difficult time articulating that, but it seems that now we can perhaps move a little beyond being simply a bible study. Particularly since worship is being introduced there seems to be another dynamic making its way into the group that while not eliminating "bible study" will change it. However, the group itself will be undergoing a fairly large change in the near future when several of the college students who have been helping to form a core to the community graduate and leave the area. What we will look like after that, I cannot say. I only know that it seem the time has come for us to begin seriously talking about who we are, what we believe, and where we think we are going in Christ.
My challenge is that I have always take "church" for granted. In this setting that is impossible and it is always a new thing that we are creating. And for me, striking that balance between my helping it being created and me creating it is tricky. I don't want to impose too much structure, yet too little and what are we doing? Right? I think that's why right now things feel like they are shifting, more structure is being added, but I also think I'm not the only one adding it. So, perhaps for now, we are right where we should be. Even if I can't quite get my head around it.
Oh Lord, let it be so.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Stations 2
Ok, here is the second half of the meditation. It kinda cuts off abruptly, but with a ten min. cap, this is what happens.
In addition to watching, we also had people reading the story of the Way of the Cross (taken from the Book of Occasional Services) as well as saying the prayers that appeared on the screen (following the leader, response format). This helped bring the two dimensional movie into the three dimensional world. Anyway, we kept it really basic and there seemed to be a desire to build on it for next year.
I really think that we will be doing more with the visual/audio world as we get better at it. So, here is the second half of our Stations:
In addition to watching, we also had people reading the story of the Way of the Cross (taken from the Book of Occasional Services) as well as saying the prayers that appeared on the screen (following the leader, response format). This helped bring the two dimensional movie into the three dimensional world. Anyway, we kept it really basic and there seemed to be a desire to build on it for next year.
I really think that we will be doing more with the visual/audio world as we get better at it. So, here is the second half of our Stations:
Ok, Wow. So, a lot has happened over the last few months
So, finally I'm back. Its been a couple of crazy months--I got ordained, Lent, and then finally Easter! There is sooooo much that I am going to be catching up on today.... Anyway, we've been busy. Our little bible study continues to meet, I think to grow, and to evolve. We had our first sort of worship experience. A couple of the guys and I put together an Imovie of the stations of the cross. Thanks to Jim Best for sending me these amazing photos of the stations! What we did is basically put together an elaborate slide show of pictures depicting the stations (traditional stations of Jesus and his mother, Simon and so on) and positioned them along side more contemporary photos (provided by the MaryKnoll Brothers and my digital camera). We laid over tracks from the movie "The Hours" and made a kind of meditation using a sound system and a projector. Really basic and we had a small gathering for it. I wasn't even sure we'd be able to do this so I didn't even start putting things up until the week we did this (Holy Week).
Since I only know how to upload this to youtube, and since you can only upload so much at a time on youtube, here is the first half of our stations:
The quality is not so fab. here and it did come out much better in real life. But this will give you an idea of what we did. I'll also upload the other half of the meditation as soon as I create it. I think this went well for us, and we had a wonderful bible study last night with great conversation, looking ahead and enthusiasm. I hope we can maintain this energy! We are looking ahead to going to and having our own Taize service as well as getting together for a Passover meal next month. So, the Saginaw groups is, at this moment, going well.
Now, Midland: who wants to try stuff like this here?
Since I only know how to upload this to youtube, and since you can only upload so much at a time on youtube, here is the first half of our stations:
The quality is not so fab. here and it did come out much better in real life. But this will give you an idea of what we did. I'll also upload the other half of the meditation as soon as I create it. I think this went well for us, and we had a wonderful bible study last night with great conversation, looking ahead and enthusiasm. I hope we can maintain this energy! We are looking ahead to going to and having our own Taize service as well as getting together for a Passover meal next month. So, the Saginaw groups is, at this moment, going well.
Now, Midland: who wants to try stuff like this here?
Friday, February 1, 2008
Mars in Retrograde
Wow, its February already and its been a month since I last blogged--goodness! January was an interesting and rather long month. For my part, I've been working on keeping bible study strong and getting ready for my ordination; all of which is a lot to think about and I've been full of various feelings. I'm definately looking forward to my ordination, and I've invited many of the people I've met over the last few months to share that day with me--hopefully you'll all come! At the same time, I've been working on keeping bible study consistent, interesting, and inclusive in order to work on building community. Some days I feel really good about how things are going, other days not so much. January in particular was a roller coster of "oh, this is never going to work," to "ok, I think we are headed somewhere." One of the things we did was move our meeting location from the Magic Bean coffeeshop, to the Mixx bar in old town. I think we're going to enjoy the bar better than the coffee shop; the ambiance is certainly more cozy and those who couldn't come to the coffee shop, are able to come to the bar (in other words, the bartender's schedule changed so we moved to help accomodate it.) So far, so good and we had a better number this week than last (not that its about numbers...)
Another thing we've been working on is getting involved. All of our bible study people are involved someway in the community and I think that's fabulous. At the same time, I'd like to unify our efforts more and thus focus our energy on one particular need. One of our members in particular has been identifying needs in the downtown Saginaw area and has been very good about showing us these areas. He grew up in the Tri-cities, and I have learned a lot from him about what's up and what's down in Saginaw. Its pretty basic right now but even those efforts, I discovered, are greatly appreciated. So, I and a few other people are going to be in Saginaw tomorrow pulling usable stuff out of homes that are scheduled to be demolished. In this way, perfectly good building material can be reused. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first, but then saw that this was indeed something good, yea, necessary for the improvement of the neighborhood. It is a simple task really, but one around which energy can be put and one where we can also see the fruit of our labors.
So what does this have to do with Mars? I chose the title Mars in Retrograde after hearing it commented on by one of our bible study people. I really don't know what it means, but she said that anytime something significant happened in her life, Mars always seemed to be in retrograde (so, obviously it has something to do with Astrology). After hearing her talk about it like this, I thought I'd use it to point out that small things are indeed happening within this little group. I think significant things are beginning to happen and there seems to be a kind of energy emerging (dare I use that word?). I pray that it is the Spirit starting to move, because I'm dying to see where she takes us.
Another thing we've been working on is getting involved. All of our bible study people are involved someway in the community and I think that's fabulous. At the same time, I'd like to unify our efforts more and thus focus our energy on one particular need. One of our members in particular has been identifying needs in the downtown Saginaw area and has been very good about showing us these areas. He grew up in the Tri-cities, and I have learned a lot from him about what's up and what's down in Saginaw. Its pretty basic right now but even those efforts, I discovered, are greatly appreciated. So, I and a few other people are going to be in Saginaw tomorrow pulling usable stuff out of homes that are scheduled to be demolished. In this way, perfectly good building material can be reused. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first, but then saw that this was indeed something good, yea, necessary for the improvement of the neighborhood. It is a simple task really, but one around which energy can be put and one where we can also see the fruit of our labors.
So what does this have to do with Mars? I chose the title Mars in Retrograde after hearing it commented on by one of our bible study people. I really don't know what it means, but she said that anytime something significant happened in her life, Mars always seemed to be in retrograde (so, obviously it has something to do with Astrology). After hearing her talk about it like this, I thought I'd use it to point out that small things are indeed happening within this little group. I think significant things are beginning to happen and there seems to be a kind of energy emerging (dare I use that word?). I pray that it is the Spirit starting to move, because I'm dying to see where she takes us.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Bible Study Number 2
Whooo hooo! Had another bible study. Thank you all for coming--it's always lovely to see you! Really. No, seriously, it is. You see, (and I don't know if any of you who actually came might be reading this but,) everytime we get together, we are forming a kind of community. We are coming together to participate in something bigger than ourselves and in doing so, make ourselves available to be changed as well as to faciliate change around us. We were talking tonight about how so many people talk about doing things, but never actually get around to doing them. We mentioned that many people don't feel that they have the power to do anything and so succumb to apathy. Well, I'm here to point out that the simple act of coming together for something as like a bible study is a first step to avoiding this type of lethargy. Believe it or not, Christianity, a faith community, is not about avoiding certain kinds of behavior, but is about taking on certain kinds of missions. Nor is it about getting people to believe in the same things as you. Instead, community in the Christian faith is about action; it is being present to the world by being in the world and doing so as an empowered individual serving in an empowered community. When we follow in the way of Christ, when we become disciples of his, we are taking on his work, his mission to be the light to the world. To each other.
It starts with the simplest of committments. Can you not see how powerful you are?
It starts with the simplest of committments. Can you not see how powerful you are?
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