thoughts and artings from the junk drawer
I’m just without an internet connection at home right now. I feel bad using work time to write blog posts…. (not that I’ve been squeaky clean in that area)
Anyway, I’m hoping we can get our modem issues taken care of tomorrow and then I’ll be back more often.
This is a daily cycle with which I am far too familiar…
Compelling and Poignant Moments From the Daily Life of Lois
I love the drawing style too. Wonderful, expressive body postures and expressions. Reminds me of so much of art school days. More of Lois’s work can be found here.
Tags: art, illustration
I’m no photographer. I depend on my subject matter to make the pictures look good. This not so little guy obliged me greatly. And can I just say that I want mandibles. Seriously, those little hand things that sit on each side of his mouth would be so useful. You could use them to keep a better grip on a messy burger, or hold your phone, or scratch your ears. So cool!
I posted a few other pics from our trip on flickr. Have a fantastic Sunday evening.
At the beginning of the year I set a goal for a certain number of books I was aiming to read this year. I think I am fairly far behind it right now. The goal was more to encourage me to continue to search out voices to hear. I don’t really read a book just to get through it. I’ve found myself slipping into an old habit of reading more than one book at a time and taking a while to finish any of them. Therefore, I am proposing to myself that I grab one book this weekend intending to read the whole thing in one go. I haven’t done such a thing in many years. I think the last time was grade nine while reading a fantasy series by David Eddings called The Belgariad (fantastic, as I recall – which would be why I read the whole five book series in one week).
So, tomorrow I’m going to turn pages in Post-Charismatic? by Rob McAlpine (aka RobbyMac). I’m not from the charismatic stream officially, but have interacted with the local Pentecostal and Vineyard churches quite often throughout my life. I’m especially interested in learning to engage more fully with this stream of Christianity to move forward into a more generous and spiritually expressive future. I’m excited about the opportunity to look both look backward while facing forward into a hopeful future together with my charismatic and post-charismatic sisters and brothers.
Oh, and Rob, I’m really sorry about the absence of picture on the amazon.ca page. That’s actually my fault and it will be corrected next week!
Pax
Tags: reading, charismatic, postcharismatic, robbymac,
All of us, every day of our lives, are influenced by a certain set of outside works. This list evolves continually. As we change and are changed by our surrounding canon we adopt new strands and discard older strands. There is an interesting interplay here between what is adopted as we grow to need a new canon and the influence that our canon has on our need to change its very self. It’s an odd chicken/egg thing.
Here are the texts that are creating me today. The rules for creating the life canon were found here via Trip Fuller of number 6. (no particular order). I added one thing to the setup – formative community. I just wanted to get away from the thingness of the list. Not that the authors and artists mentioned here are things, but my interactions with material output of individuals does not fully comprise my life canon, as I see it.
1. The Cobalt Season, But I Tell You (music)
2. Intuitive Leadership, Tim Keel (book)
3. Preaching Reimagined, Doug Pagitt (book)
4. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Brian Eno and David Byrne (music)
5. Twitter
6. Homebrewed Christianity Podcast
7. missioning.ning.com (community)
8. Juno (Film)
9. An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Ed. Pagitt and Jones (book)
10. Rawdon Street Baptist Church (community)
So what is your life canon?
A few pictures of a place I have grown very accustomed to as of late. (click to peruse. Click the right side of the image to progress. Click the left side to recede.)
1. The box I live in.
2. A few sales samples I’ve neglected to hand out in the midst of other busyness.
3. A little bit of hope to carry me through.
4. A glum little fella to temper my hope.
Spirituality may seem like shallow waters to many religious and devoted Christians, but those who are finding freedom to explore these new pools of spirituality find a deep place with bottoms still unseen.
So what exactly is a faith community? As far as I can tell what is meant is a church. But what is with all this faith business? Doesn’t a hockey team have faith in each other and their strategy and their coach? Don’t the kids in their science project group have legitimacy as people of faith? It takes tremendous faith to let half your grade rest in three similarly irresponsible 10th graders. Are these not likewise faith communities?
Why do Christian communities feel this need to proclaim faith as their distinctive tie that binds? Do we really think that faith exists inside church and there is a faith vacuum outside? Of course not.
And no, it is not just a handy witnessing tool. You are not so sly when you say, “Oh, I was just hanging out with my faith community today.”
“Oh, yeah? A faith community, you say. And where did you get this foreign substance known as faith? I wish I had some faith that I could place somewhere. Spill the beans of faith!”
“Jesus gave me some!”
Yes, Jesus. The fella that blesses the Christian with the mutant superpower of Faith. Oh, if only the world would realize how awesome it is to have faith in something – anything! Surely, if there is one thing our communities can bless the world with it is faith. Maybe we should open up our faith storehouses and let the faith roll down the hill into the faithless valleys of darkness.
I need faith in something more than just having some.
My stunning wife sitting dockside at Boondocks restaurant in Wilbur by the Sea, FL.
Why bother telling a story if you can sum it up with simple moral?
Tags: art
***Disclaimer*** I am neither a viticulturalist nor a climatologist by any stretch. I’m not deluded enough to believe I have enough information to fully buy into the facts I state, but they are helpful in proving my point – such as it is.
Disclaimer out of the way, lets look at some trends and stats. I will leave most of the numbers out to avoid boring myself.
Viticulture is a very fragile thing. Prime grape growing conditions exist within a thin temperate sliver. Average temperatures can not deviate too drastically during the growing season. Too many cold nights or scorching days and the crop fails. Too short of a season and harvests are thin. These strict requirements have meant that areas like Napa Valley in California, much of France and Italy, and many other temperate climates around the world have been wonderful places to plant vineyards. But this is swiftly changing.
In the 21st Century two words scare viticulturists witless. Migration and Elimination. Climate change and global warming especially have resulted in prime grape growing zones moving further toward the poles and higher into the mountains. France, which has strict laws in place governing the types of grapes that are allowed to be produced in specific areas, is being forced to readdress these laws to allow their vineyards to succeed in growing quality grapes. Places like Germany, and Ontario and British Columbia in Canada have been some of the very few winners in the midst of these climactic shifts. California is poised to be a big loser.
Gregory Jones, along with other notable viticulturalists, predicts that potential premium winegrape production area in the United States could decline by up to 81% by the late 21st century.1 In response to these trends many vineyards are turning to geneticists to protect their crops. Hardier grapes that are able to withstand greater temperature fluctuation are being explored. Imported wine varieties from as far away as Australia are more and more common here in North America. Massive amounts of energy is being expended in attempts at preservation, forced adaptation and modification.
So how does this have anything to do with practicing the Eucharist?
This seemingly bizarre connection was sparked by a conversation between a mainline pastor and a congregationalist in which I got to be the fly on the wall.
The first said, “I’m as open to doctrinal and structural reform as the next guy, but I draw the line at the eucharist. Milk and cookies is not sacramental.” Various attempts at reconciliation were bartered and a non-unanimous conclusion was reached. Anything semi-fluid containing “fruit of the vine” was acceptable for the Lord’s Table. Milk is out, but grape jelly is in. We didn’t get to debate percentages, but I believe there are allowances for fruit cocktail as well.
Anyone who will hold to such an absolutist position on a topic is just begging for hypotheticals to be lobbed at them – “holy hand grenade” style.
So now, let’s get hypothetical!
What if warming trends continue and temperate grape growing zones disappear from much of Europe and all of America? Let’s say that 200 years from now the bulk of winegrapes are grown in Canada, Russia and China, but less stable temperatures at these extreme locales result in much lower yields. Demand outgrows supply and wine prices begin to become prohibitive. Just to get a little crazy let’s assume that much of China and Russia has been wiped out by nuclear war and rendered unharvestable by radiation levels. Lay off me… this is my hypothetical situation!
How does a church in the 22rd Century deserts of Georgia support spending a large chunk of their resources on supporting their Eucharistic habit duties? Will we one day find the predominant feature of church buildings to be a greenhouse housing the holy vines of the communion cup? Will pastors be taught viticulture in seminary? Will the Vineyard Church become more than a biblical metaphor?
My point is not to prophecy doom, but to question our affection for a particular “wineskin” (oh dear) in the face of changing realities. I for one do not want to be the guy decreeing that churches in poor and non-vined areas of the world need to work on their importing or face divine judgment. I just can’t help but think that such an assertion really misses what it is to come together around a common cup.
Drink ye all of it, in remembrance of Him!
Tags: eucharist, wine, viticulture
Got pointed to this great tool for visualizing publications online. issuu has an incredibly simple and quick process to upload your content and there seems to be a great base of creativity already on the site.
I uploaded this to test it. It is a collaborative online arts mag that I contributed to a couple years ago. Give them pages a turn!
Tony Jones has uploaded the first in a series of videos based on interactions found in his book The New Christians. Say hello to Trucker Frank!
Tags: emergent, emerging, trucker frank, tony jones
Mudhouse Sabbath – Lauren Winner
In the last few days I have devoured this tiny book during lunch hour reading sessions. Mudhouse Sabbath is an honest and concise exploration of how ancient and more modern Jewish practices can enrich the lives of Christians if only we would look outside our own houses once in a while. Lauren takes us on a journey through a selection of Jewish spiritual practices including shabbat (sabbath), avelut (mourning), hachnassat orchim (hospitality), tzum (fasting), kiddushin (weddings), and mezuzot (doorpost inscriptions). In her distinctively vulnerable way, Winner takes us through her own attempts at incorporating these practices into her adopted Christian life. Lauren’s deep love and respect for both spiritual traditions and her knowledge of the quirks and intricacies of them each surfaces in every personal reflection.
One large theme echoed in my head in each chapter. The first and most important reason for a Jew to engage in all of the mentioned practices is because they were told to. Their first thought was never to personal benefits that arise from the practices, but to God’s command to be faithful; although the personal benefits are indeed numerous. “They don’t light Sabbath candles simply because candles make them feel close to God, but because God commanded the lighting of candles. Closeness might be a nice by-product, but it is not the point.” (Winner, xii)
Christians are more likely to practice spiritual discipline for personal benefit and it is a great freedom and privilege to do so. However, we would do well to consider the selfless attitude of obedience that marked the consistency with which the Jewish community has committed themselves to remembering these time-honored rhythms.
I also really love the devotion to community and hospitality as a spiritual discipline above all others. If your adherence to dietary laws does a disservice to your interactions with others then it ceases to be a blessing. The rhythms in the Jewish wedding and mourning traditions give preeminence to the role of the community in those celebrations. Often we think of spiritual discipline as something we act out in our bedroom when we are supremely alone with God. But a faith that is only personal gives us a very partial view of the real blessing awaiting a community that practices together.
My own attempts at spiritual discipline are always disjointed and more valiant in my head than they end up being in practice. The simplicity in Lauren’s book has strengthened me to try again. Practice is never all that fun, but the results are always thrilling and most surprising.
Tags: reading, lauren winner, judaism, christianity, spiritual discipline
Will Samson says, “I am collecting preliminary data for a more detailed social network survey in the fall. The survey involves the Emerging / Emergent Church, and the people who tend to be connected to that conversation. If you would be willing to help out, Click here to take survey.”
UPDATE: The survey is now closed.
Tags: emerging, emergent, christianity, survey
scott: i have been pondering over the weekend about the word ‘missional’
scott: i find that defining terms is not something that i excel at, but i have sort of narrowed it down to 3 bible passages that make the term work in my life
david: right. i’m hoping we can all help each other to understand it better
david: i have yet to put something together too.. i use it often, but I think i use it differently
david: on different days
scott: haha
scott: it seems to be the kind of word that can have more than one meaning to it
david: ya… well that’s part of it.. i wan to get beyond the missionaries/normal people way of thinking about it
scott: i am on board for that
scott: i have been seeing it as a ‘team-working’ (if you can’t tell, i just made that term up) of the greatest commandments, the sheep and goats being judged, and the great commission
david: cool
scott: for me it focuses it on the main aspect of loving people, and because of that love, taking care of their physical needs and sharing the gospel
scott: i like looking at it like that because it can work on a micro and a macro scale
david: you mean, it is about individual relationships and also relates to the call of the church as a whole?
scott: yes… to the individual and to the body. also, it relates the day to day with the long term
david: or the whole mission of god
scott: yes
scott: the mission of taking care of spiritual and physical needs in an ongoing way, based off of the love that we have for others
david: i think that’s one of the important distinctions
david: we tend to think of our mission as first and foremost shouting on street corners
david: forgetting that jesus said that the gospel is good news to the afflicted
scott: for sure… and going that out of obligation and not as an act of love
scott: going = doing
david: right
scott: so yeah… that is what i have been thinking about the word ‘missional’
david: i believe mission has to absolutely foundational to a group of people that would call themselves part of the church
scott: i would have to agree with you, sir. for most of my life, the word mission dealt with profession
david: right
scott: that is all the word was to me, but i think that it should be a purposeful lifestyle
scott: a sincere one, at that
david: i believe that is why people leave churches
david: they have not been given a chance to be missional
david: it is fairly unfulfilling to just take up space
david: many times we take away the job of everyone and give it to the professionals
scott: that is a very good point, dave
scott: being in a church like that also takes away the feeling of community. whether people want to believe it or not, community is when everyone pitches in
scott: and when people can’t pitch in, then they aren’t actually a part of a family, they are a guest
david: the majority of the church is told that their job is to fund the professional christians
david: which is great, but comes up short
scott: haha… for sure, which makes it a business relationship more than anything
david: share holders
scott: exactly
scott: disconnected share holders
scott: so really, active community is absolutely key for a missional church
scott: without the true community aspect, then there is a disconnect, and the whole congregation is not encouraged to be missional
Tags: missional, church, jesus, incarnational
I attempted to distill this list down to some absolutely peerless
resource connections. If anyone has something to add please do!
This 50 minute clip should absolutely be seen first:
Michael Frost on Youtube
After that these are all excellent places to search through:
Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Book)
Missio Dei, Fred Peatross (Book)
Allelon.org reading list
Resonate.ca
Resonate Audio Podcast (features some great talks by Michael Frost)
Friendofmissional.org
Missio Dei (Wikipedia)
Then there is also the little project that this blog is part of that is trying to add more story and understanding to our missional lives.
Missional Synchroblog
Well, almost a year… (Blog birthday approacheth!)
So this is primarily a blog about Christianity and it has gone on for almost 12 months and over 100 posts without mentioning Hitler or Nazi Germany. Congratulations in order?
Oh, and this post DOESN’T COUNT.
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