the Weary Pilgrim

(Extra)ordinary vision...

Just so you know I'm still kickin', I thought I would post this part of an e-mail from Fred Peatross:

If the church is going to turn the corner on the consumerist twist it finds itself caught up in, it will do so because leaders involve themselves in building a culture of the ordinary evangelist (a faith-community niche). Jesus’ apprentice is not going to be formed through Sunday morning sermonettes, drama, worship teams, or edifices fit for comfort but through clear, intentional teaching that says evangelism is forged through a process of salvation. And ordinary attempts are the turning points. Now, here’s something you might not know. Every Christian makes ordinary attempts. But Christians need to be made aware:

 

• They need to understand that the process of ordinary is as important as the event of salvation

• They need to understand how significant and important their role is in the process of salvation

• Christ wants them to know! The vision must come alive!

 

Teach it! Practice it! Talk about it every time the community

gathers!

 

It’s time we rally around a niche and there is none more important! Make your Sundays a time for ordinary stories among ordinary Christians! Culture building…until Christ comes back! So…Do we invite the missing to our environment? Or follow Jesus’ mandate to “GO” and walk with them in their environment?

 

Road stories are crucial. Like the early Christians, we need to, once again, become known as people of the way. How?

 

• By walking with and listening more to what the people Jesus misses the most have to say

• Drop the infamous slogan “We hate their sin but love the sinner,” and actually get to know and become a fellow sinner’s best friend

 

If we really desire to reach out to this culture, we’re going to have to become like the spies Joshua sent out and boldly walk across our faith borders and engage the land God wants to give us. It’s time we break out of our Christian circles, stop the busyness of church, face outward, take a look, and experience the world beyond the borders of our community gatherings.

 

subverting the ordinary...

tr.v.   sub·vert·ed, sub·vert·ing, sub·verts

1. To destroy completely; ruin:
2. To undermine the character, morals, or allegiance of; corrupt.
3. To overthrow completely

Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw are making the rounds, they were in Toronto ( Church of the Redeemer, Bloor Street ) a few nights ago...pimping the movie " Ordinary Radicals ", and talking about subverting the empire. Shane Claiborne has done wonderful work expanding the Kingdom, and God's mission. " Irresistible Revolution ", was a great book revealing the reality of simplicity...that small mustard seeds can grow into great things.

But on every seat...glossy brochures...Simple Way's new magazine " Conspire "; Ordinary Radicals, the Movie; Jesus for President, the book.

The Ordinary Radicals website, a website featuring some of the most highly regarded thinkers in the North American church. Among the names I noticed Tony Campolo –a man I greatly admire. It is hard to overstate my regard for Tony, he has mentored and help shape my faith. The blog is an advertisement for the upcoming documentary and as it lists, features Interviews with: Becky Garrison, Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell, John Perkins, Brooke Sexton, Michael Heneise, St. Margret McKenna, Logan Laituri, Zack Exley, Aaron Weiss and many more Ordinary Radicals. All great people, shaping the Kingdom...but;

I am frustrated by the absolute “un-ordinary-ness” of the people it is about. Alot of the people on the list are international superstars in the christian marketing culture, have been on “The Colbert Report” and CBC's " The Hour ", any number of high profile talk shows and television appearances. Most of the above names are regulars on the conference circuit. They are highly educated and enjoy flexibility and some notoriety. Wallis is the founder of Sojourners, a prolific author, and teaches at Harvard. Campolo " Red Letter Christians ", was a personal adviser to Clinton and a protégé of Albert Einstein. Claiborne is ...irresistible. McLaren the" New Kind of Christian ",is considered by most to be the foremost spokesman for the emerging church. Rob Bell, Nooma Video series, " The Velvet Elvis "...speaker extraordinare.

Subverting the empire: the movie. Subverting the empire: the magazine. Subverting the empire: the book tour.

Sadly we are being subverted from the reality of the " extra-ordinariness " of faithful living. It's not books, magazines, the conference hype. It is those simple acts of faith...stopping and talking, helping, feeding the poor drunken addict you find passed out on the street.

We want to subvert the empire...imagine if we all started living, by simply practicing extravagant love and faith everyday.

the fruit of social injustice...

Christ is not only the healer of individuals. He is also a prophet to the nations. While he walked on earth, Jesus delivered people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy, suppurating wounds, deformity, and muteness. But again, and again in word and deed he returned to the plight of the poor, whose poverty in true prophetic fashion, he considered no historical accident...but the fruit of social injustice.

What would he say and do in our hard and uncertain times, in a world of thirteen, a world one-half of whose children never so much as open their mouths to say " aah " to a doctor, a world in which almost every country is robbing the poor to feed the military?

And would he not pronounce our own nation a greedy disgrace?

Whole cites could live on the garbage from our dumps, on the luxuries we consider necessities. The world with its triumphs and dispairs, its beauty and ugliness, has today moved next door to every one of us.

Only spiritual deafness can prevent our hearing the voice of God in the clamour of the cities. Only blindness of a willful sort can prevent our seeing the face of the Risen Lord in the faces of the suffering poor.

The Glory of God is the human race fully alive, and that means at least minimally fed, clothed and housed.

( William Sloane Coffin 1924-2006 )

Worship...from industry to art

As a musician on a worship team, I share Brian McLaren's frustration. How often do we prepare something for a Sunday morning, that is nothing more than an appetizing meal for the hungry consumer. Why do we avoid the tough stuff? When it comes to pain, sorrow and the utter mystery that sometimes surrounds us...where are the lamentations...songs and cries from the valley? Where is the worship, that comes from the imagination of Jesus?

The Upside of Down...Thomas Homer-Dixon @ Uvic :: Saturday

Saturday May 19th 7:30 pm @ the University of Victoria

University Center :: Farquhar Auditorium                           

Cost :: Free

Details here to resereve your seat

In The Upside of Down, political scientist and award-winning author Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that converging stresses could cause a catastrophic breakdown of national and global order — a social earthquake that could hurt billions of people. But he shows that this outcome isn't inevitable; there's much we can do to prevent it. And after setting out a general theory of the growth, breakdown, and renewal of societies, he shows that less severe types of breakdown could open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies.

Homer-Dixon contends that five "tectonic stresses" are accumulating deep underneath the surface of today's global order:

• energy stress, especially from increasing scarcity of conventional oil;
• economic stress from greater global economic instability and widening income gaps between rich and poor;
• demographic stress from differentials in population growth rates between rich and poor societies and from expansion of megacities in poor societies;
• environmental stress from worsening damage to land, water forests, and fisheries; and,
• climate stress from changes in the composition of Earth's atmosphere.

Of the five, energy stress plays a particularly important role, because energy is humankind's master resource. When energy is scarce and costly, everything a society tries to do — including growing its food, obtaining enough fresh water, transmitting and processing information, and defending itself — becomes far harder.

The effect of the five stresses is multiplied by the rising connectivity and speed of our societies and by the escalating power of small groups to destroy things and people, including, potentially, whole cities.

Drawing parallels between the challenges we face today and the crisis faced by the Roman empire almost two thousand years ago, Homer-Dixon argues that these stresses and multipliers are potentially a lethal mixture. Together, they greatly increase the risk of a cascading collapse of systems vital to our wellbeing — a phenomenon he calls "synchronous failure." Societies must do everything they can to avoid such an outcome.

On the other hand, if people are well-prepared, they may be able to exploit less extreme forms of breakdown to achieve deep reform and renewal of institutions, social relations, technologies, and entrenched habits of behavior. This is likely our best hope for a prosperous and humane future.

relationship...faith and the environment

tomorrow Sunday April 22...is Earth Day

Blind Beggar, Rick Meigs offers some great ideas on how faith communities can less there impact on the environment. Ancient monastic communities seemed to live in relationship with the environment that surrounded them.

This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.

The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would’ve understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.

As a congregation, as part of the body of Christ we need to accept responsibility for our environment, that is too say God creation. If we can do this we are more than likely to put renewed effort into caring and tending for our local surroundings.

Anyway Rick has started the ball rolling with come great ideas...and looks forward to some added conversation...over here.

Earth Day ... a prayer

Here we are, God — a planet at prayer. Attune our spirits that we may hear your harmonies and bow before your creative power that we may face our violent discords and join with your Energy to make heard in every heart your hymn of peace.

Here we are, God — a militarized planet. Transform our fears that we may transform our war fields into wheatfields, arms into handshakes, missiles into messengers of peace.

Here we are, God — a polluted planet. Purify our vision that we may perceive ways to purify our beloved lands, cleanse our precious waters, de-smog our life-giving air.

Here we are, God — an exploited planet. Heal our heart, that we may respect our resources, hold priceless our people, and provide for our starving children an abundance of daily bread.

( by Joan Metzner, found in Earth Paryers; From around the World. 365 prayers, poems, and invocations for honouring the earth  )

"The Secret" ...it's not, we've heard it all before

Well, I was going to ignore it, but in my previous post, Annie in her comments brought of the " S " word. You know what I'm talking about, maybe you saw the panel of Gurus on Oprah's Show. Yah, its the Buzz...it's  " The Secret ." The hidden message, the Gospel of prosperity...where imagination becomes truth. Its, " name it, and claim it ", or " blab it, and grab it "...or just a new way to ensure you get your slice of the American pie.

Anyway, this is from a friend, and a site I visit often...here's her take...funny but true...

Are there useful principles and truths that are applicable to a believer's growth and maturity? Sure there are. Learning to take thoughts captive, to have our minds renewed according to the truth of God's Word, to overcome doubt and fear, these are all valuable concepts to understand.

Will this be a tool for bringing truth to spiritual seekers?

Is The Secret really Truth?

Is Spam really meat?

Is Velveeta really cheese?

I don't think that we can present a message of self-will and expect that people will find the truth of Jesus and the gospel in the midst of that.

The promises of The Secret seem antithetical to taking up one's cross. Based on its enormous popularity, we can see that people want answers. Or maybe they just want easy answers.


People are hungry.
Can we give them something better than Velveeta and Spam?

no where to hide...the words of a prophet

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendell Berry, " Christianity and the Survival of Creation."

Black Gold Screening Tonight @ Hermans

Just in...the screening is sold out. Awesome news...but also bad news, I forgot to make my reservation. Arghhhh!!!

The Place has been serving up Level Ground's Fair Trade Coffee for a number of years now, and seeing as how they have also started a great relationship with a community in Ethiopia, they thought you might be interested in knowing that The Ethical Purchasing Forum and Victoria's Open Cinema and have come together for a screening of Black Gold: A Look at Fair Trade and the Global Economy of Coffee on Tuesday February 20th at Herman's Jazz Club (map)...tonight at 7:00pm.

The film traces "the trade route of Ethiopian coffee beans through various middlemen to your friendly neighbourhood cafe or supermarket shelves, and drives home the human value of fair trade, " and the night will also feature a man familiar to the Place (he spoke at our last retreat after all!) Stacey Toews.

If you're interested in going, come early for food and conversation , as Herman's is open for dinner beforehand and it'd be fun to get a crowd down there early. Tix are between $5 and $10 and you can read more about the evening here.

(ht: The Ethical Purchasing Forum )...and James Kingsley