The lead story on CNN.com right now is Jesus for President!
They are a bit too focused on the political end instead of the faith end, but it’s still cool.
Shane Claiborne (author of the Irresistible Revolution) and Chris Haw’s new book “Jesus for President” just came out a few months ago. It’s a book that insightfully seeks to grapple with the question, “How do we navigate our allegiance to state and our allegiance to Christ, especially when they come into conflict?”
I am on the coordinating team that is bringing the authors and some of their colleagues to DC to talk about the book and the topic. I hope you can come and will spread the word to your communities (publicity materials are available at http://www.jesusforpresidentindc.org/publicity)!
Friday, June 27 at 7PM
Calvary Baptist (755 8th St NW, Washington, DC)
Tickets are free, but you need to register at http://www.JesusforPresidentinDC.org.
Have no idea who Shane Claiborne is? You should definitely pick up a copy of Irresistible Revolution. I’ve personally given away over 200 copies of it. Check out the Jesus for President book reviews on the site as well http://www.JesusforPresidentinDC.org.
Please plan to come and don’t forget to spread the word to your friends. It’s going to be a great night!
I’ve been at the Envision 08 conference the last couple of days. I’ve had lots of great and challenging conversations which I’m still processing. There’s a good overview of each session here.
While there I met some amazing college students. We had some great conversations–needless to say, they all left with Irresistible Revolution in hand. None of them knew what the emerging church was, so, at their request, I clumsily tried to define it.
The neat thing was, though none of them knew the term “emerging,” our conversations revealed that the concepts spoke of most often in emerging circles were in no way foreign to them, in fact, they were givens in their conception and understanding of God.
Many people think of emerging as a movement to do something different and shift thinking in the church. This tends to be less and less the point the younger the person is.
I didn’t have to introduce my new friends to the concepts of emerging. I didn’t have to show them how to be emerging. At core, they culturally are already emerging.
Over the last couple of months, grappling with Culpeper House closing, I have felt lots of things—anger, fear, hurt, inadequacy, sadness, loneliness, mourning, and exhaustion. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a general anger like I have in this time (I am very seldom angry, and when I have been it’s been directed at a specific instance, not a general series of things). Interestingly I haven’t once felt darkness. Consistently over the last year, any time I have felt down, God has brought words of encouragement from friends to feed my soul. It was time for Culpeper House to close and I’m excitedly beginning this new season.
Last Sunday, I worked on a Children’s story using Matthew 6:25-24. It’s about not worrying, because God will provide for us, after all, He does for the flowers and the birds and how much more does He love us. I’ve been worried a bit the last few weeks about where I would live and stay—I wanted to flexibility of not having a lease as I hope to be back in community soon, so I didn’t want to do the easiest thing and just go out and get an apartment. Luckily, there was too much to do to really spend time to work things out on my own. Someone asked me where I was going to stay and I said that I’d know once I moved out—I just didn’t have the energy to work out things that far ahead. Not knowing where I was going to stay has also had the added benefit of allowing me to truly mourn the loss of Culpeper House.
This morning I’m at peace.
I believe I am to rely upon the hospitality of others during this season. In the middle of the night Friday, Eric (one of my best friends from High School) was helping me move and he said he was offended I hadn’t asked to stay with him yet—needless to say, that’s where I am for the next few days. I’ll be spending a couple of weeks in June at Casa Chiri and likely a few days in the Southeast House. It has been and will continue to be practice in faith as God shows me where I will be living. I’m reminded of the verses Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58 “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” (Checkout http://archives.wittenburgdoor.com/jesusposter/index.html) It will produce greater humility and faith in me to rely upon God and His provision through others instead of what I so often mistake as mine own.
This season will be an opportunity for me to minister in a similar mode to the Apostles (though more locally): traveling from community to community, household to household—learning from each and attempting to bless each as the Spirit gives grace to do so. I am excited, trepid but truly excited.
This will also be a time of discernment as I seek what the next season will look like. (Pray that I will fully embrace this season, however.) Will I become a part of a current community? Will I be part of a new community? Something else? It will be fun learning what God has in mind.
Emily of Casa Chirilagua sent me a link to a great Washington Post article today.
It talks about how going green has become a new option of conspicuous consumption. It’s something I and my friends struggle with. One, Dawnille, also of Casa Chirilagua, is particularly interested in starting a business of fair trade clothing, but is working through how to do it successfully while not continuing the societal embrace of consumerism.
She sent me a wonderful website, the Story of Stuff. It does an excellent job of addressing the history of consumerism in our society and the problems of our extreme resource usage.
Over the next few months Culpeper House will be losing some of the members of our community… Josh and Sarah are returning to Florida to be with their families, Ryan is planning to move into an apartment with his brother, and Sarita will be leaving for Uganda.
Times of transition provide excellent opportunities to refocus. Over the coming weeks we will be focusing on the vision that God has put on our hearts as a community and how to best structure ourselves moving forward. This will help us better transition new people into Culpeper House as we move forward.
If you or someone you know is interested in exploring the possibility of being a part of Culpeper House, please e-mail us at info@culpeperhouse.org.
It’s an exciting time, but also a sad time as we will very much miss those who are leaving.
Another article about New Monasticism ran in the Boston Globe earlier this month, but I forgot to post it.
In John 13:34-35, Christ says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It’s funny to me that most churches today decide if you are a disciple by a “conversion” moment, baptism, a profession of faith, or agreement with a belief statement.
Being a disciple of Christ has NOTHING to do with a mental assent and everything to do with having Him as the decisionmaker in each of our lives. The gage Christ has given us is love not law.
Too bad gaging love requires relationship instead of a few words on a form. God forbid we waste church resources on truly getting to know people instead of building better and bigger programs and expanding our rolls. The way of the Kingdom is always ineffecient and ineffective in the eyes of the world.
Ran across a wonderful article in the LA Times:
It is well worth checking out!
I had a new friend ask me what I meant by an activity listed in my facebook profile: “Learning to be the Church while helping others do the same.”
Here’s how I tried to concisely describe what I am trying to say:
During college I experienced a lot of growth in my faith–I was surrounded by people seeking to give their whole lives to Christ, who challenged one another, lived simply, sought to love one another unconditionally, prayed and worshipped together throughout the week, met up throughout the day, shared possessions, and so fourth. When I got out of college, I discovered that, though I did all the churchy things like going to worship, being in a small group, leading the missions team, working with the homeless, and even practicing hospitality, I became more and more like the world and less and less like Christ. I was an A+ citizen of a church, but I was becoming less and less of a follower of Christ while I became more and more “American.” I continued to discover more and more how selective and myopic churches are as to scripture and the gospel. Because I wanted to be a follower of Christ (even though the cost was much more than churches let on), I sought a community of people dedicated to doing life together (much like I’d experienced in college).
I think that the Church is very specifically defined as people and, while theologically and rhetorically pretty much everyone would agree, churches structurally tell people that church is an event, a building, a club, or an institution. (Check out what I wrote about “my church” a few months ago: http://www.atthemargins.com/2007/05/04/where-do-you-go-to-church/ ).
I want to be a part of the Church that sets people free from those things that afflict them, that is powerful, that is known by it’s unconditional love for others, that radically follows Christ, that is willing to die to itself, and that, as a result of all this, sees people transformed day after day.
My friends and I are slowly, but surely learning to be that Church.
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