Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

Prisons...a missional adventure @ Mission

Gone ( HERE ) for the weekend, I'll see you Monday. Enjoy your weekend, shine some light.

virtual space...a fabrication of real life

Ok, here are some thoughts that are not fully prepared. So, beware. I'm just throwing them out on the table, not even serving them on a plate. They're just going to land where they may, some might even land on the floor. It's a mess, but, pull up a chair and pick through it with me.

the christian alternative to halloween...HELLOWEEN

"A part of Salvation is being afraid of going to Hell." Youth Pastor Tim Ferguson

In 2001, director George Ratcliff came out with his documentary entitled Hell House, on Christian haunted house attractions bearing the same name.

"Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews." (Hell House Site)

I first heard about this in the mid 90's, back then I thought it was nuts, But, Eruesso tells me this church in Dallas is doing " Hell House 19." That's 19 years of extreme tricks and "no " treats. But the vampires, ghosts, and demons of a traditional haunted house have been replaced by scenes of family violence, suicide, abortion, drug and alcohol use. Instead of scaring kids with Freddy Krueger their using real life situations and the fear of eternal damnation to spook them into salvation. Is Christianity really about being afraid of Hell? Is their any room for fear in a message of Love? What do we do with this message of Fear?

Here's a clip...

Eruesso tells of his experience of going through Hell House, he seems to have exited Hell unscathed, and appears coherent and relatively normal. He recommends going through one. I think I'll pass.

I find it interesting that any church that immerses itself in the truth of the Gospels could come up with the imagination to reveal salvation from such an extreme angle. I don't see anywhere, where Jesus scared the hell out of anyone. It was more He loved the hell out of them.

I wonder if you had a haunted house displaying scenes from the Bible of profound radical scandalous love what effect that would have. Probably not much, since post 9/11, and terrorism we seem content to imagine nothing but fear.

thoughts half baked:Oct.04...worship

( image courtesy of David LaChapelle's creativity )

Sometimes worship doesn't start with a nice chord progression. It's uncomfortable. It's humiliating. It comes out of desperation. It involves submission.

it involves... ... ...

Youtube...U2 join forces...

U2 live from the Rose Bowl Global Live Webcast Sunday October 25th 8:30pm ( PT )

You can tune in and watch it ( HERE ).

Born Again...tradin' up

I was talking to a friend last night who is teaching up at Hope Farm on the outskirts of Duncan. She is leading a group of recovering addicts through John's Gospel. This week they're looking at chapter three, the rooftop meeting with Jesus, and Nicodemus in the dark of night.

Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."

 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."

Unless, a person is born again...it's not possible to see, or enter into God's Kingdom. Sadly, I think we've made this born from above, or born again into an event thing. The altar call, the revival meeting, the roman road...a choreographed dance; saying the right words, a confession, the laying of hands, a dispensing of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly your a new person, born again.

Yes, there are instantaneous realities of being born again, such as being justified, of being declared righteous before God because of Jesus sacrifice. So called, justification by faith. The reality, " born from above ", is a process. And of course the Holy Spirit being breathed into your life.

It's not as simple as trading up, taking your old beater self and trading for a newer model. Having the deal finalized when you can mumble like an auctioneer at an auto mart, and then drive away into a new life. For me, so far it has been a forty year process.

Born again is not a guaranteed loading pass on Revelation Express to heaven when the last call is announced. Being born again is about the Kingdom of God, the now, and the future of the Kingdom. Being born again is developing eyes to see what Jesus is pointing to, today.

For me it has been a series of epiphanies. Almost like looking through a frosty window on a winters day. Rubbing the window pane I see glimpses of things that weren't readily visible before. I begin to " get it." I get revelations of God's Kingdom. I develop a redemptive imagination, to see the Kingdom in places of hopelessness. I get the idea that the more we can build the Kingdom on earth as in heaven, that it becomes a profound revelation of the redemptive imagination of Jesus...pointing to the absolute glory of the future Kingdom.

Born again is not just a personal individualized spirituality trip. It's about a profound sense of wholeness in everything and everyone.

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.( Colossians 1; Eugene Peterson's The Message )

Being born again is part of the wholeness, of being partners with Jesus, co-creators in the new creation. Being born again is developing the eyes to see the Kingdom in all of that, its fixing all the broken dislocated pieces of the universe. That's me and everything around me. Jesus came to heal relationships, and in God's Kingdom I'm related to everything, and everyone.

Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."

finally...a bible worth thumping

Finally...were going to get the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ( HERE ).

Bruce Cockburn...a creativity to help us see

Great interview with Drew Marshall and Canadian music icon Bruce Cockburn. Open, vulnerable, like sitting in your living room with a friend, Bruce talks about humanity, God, spirituality...and Christianity. He comments about in a Christian consumer culture, that the " Christian Music Market " is bankrupt in terms of creativity. Poet, artist, truth-seeker, a man alive to the nudgings of God...through music he engages God and man, bringing the two of us closer together. Just a beautiful conversation!

You can listen to it >>> HERE

text messaging...

( Image courtesy of photo shop text portrait )

Re-Text Us

We confess you to be
text-maker,
text-giver,
text-worker,
and we find ourselves addressed
by your making, giving, working.

So now we bid you, re-text us by your spirit.
Re-text us away from our shallow loves,
into your overwhelming gracefulness.
Re-text us away from our thin angers,
into your truth-telling freedom.
Re-text us away from our lean hopes,
into your tidal promises.

Give us attentive ears,
responsive hearts,
receiving hands;

Re-text us to be your liberated partners
in joy and obedience,
in risk and gratitude.
Re-text us by your word become wind. Amen.

Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

Thanks to J.R. Woodward

thoughts half baked Oct.03...dinner in God's Kingdom

( image courtesy of the incredible creative mind of David LaChapelle )

That triggered a response from one of the guests: "How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom!"

 Jesus followed up. "Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the suburbs, the burbs with invitations, saying, 'Come on in; the food's on the table.'

"Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, 'I bought a piece of investment property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.'

"Another said, 'I just made some plans for dinner with my friends, and I really like them . Send my regrets.'

"And yet another said, 'I don't know who your master is, and I'm not comfortable eating with a table full of strangers.' Send my regrets."

 "The servant went back with invitations still in hand and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, 'Quickly, get out into the city streets, back alleys, skid row hotels, under bridges, crack houses, ditches and gutters. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.'

"The servant reported back, 'Master, I did what you asked— and there's still room.'

 "The master said, 'Then go to the country roads, scour the ditches, vacant lots and prisons. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.'"( Luke 14: 15-24 paraphrased )

Download 06 In My Father's House ( studio recording Dr Bones Blues Project )

From the beginnings of the Blues Project we always thought we'd find our niche' on the margins of society. " the house band for the homeless ", as one of our friends at The Mustard Seed Street Church and Food Bank called us. We also play the prison, more marginalization, chain link fence and barbed wire, them one side us on the other. Marginalization has the power to change your identity. Your worthless. You don't fit. You don't belong. In a sense, there is not much difference between the homeless person in abject poverty, the addict on the street, the mentally afflicted on the street and the inmate behind bars. There all prisoners to a false identity.

Some would frown upon my paraphrasing of scripture, that somehow I'm diluting the message reducing it's potency. Jesus told stories. I'm telling a story, that I believe is revealing the same underlying truth. All I'm trying to do is land the story in the context, into the lives of the people who are hearing it; people who are extremely marginalized, and excluded...those with no sense of belonging.

The thing that is challenging about the story is, that if you read it from one angle as already being invited, it's a nice warm fuzzy story that just makes you want to curl up in your church pew and wait for dinner to be served. But, can we see ourselves as the servant with invitations in hand. Or can we see ourselves as being invited, and filled with excuses as to why we can't go. Can we see ourselves as the extremely marginalized, the homeless, the addicted, mentally afflicted, and the inmates.

Reading the story from every angle should challenge everything about us. Just as the Kingdom of God is near, it's present; it is also coming a future reality. This story is a present truth, and a future truth. The challenge is, HOW DO WE LIVE THE STORY OUT FROM EVERY ANGLE, TODAY?

But what I love most about the story is that the marginalized are not on the fringe anymore, the excluded are included...they now have a new identity.

Dinner in God's Kingdom might be a real surprise. It is a dinner filled with the redemptive imagination of Jesus.