Hey there. Just thought I'd say that.

My posting 'round these parts has been sparse of late, which is due mainly to school stuff. I've read well over 1500 pages of books and articles in the past two weeks, in addition to my normal work responsibilities. At about this time next week (that's 11:30pm on Sunday, for those of you who are keeping track), I hope to be polishing up my written work for the semester, and then I hope to sleep and breathe a little more than I have been. With the launch of inter::mission and some additional coursework I'm required to do, this semester has been extremely challenging. It appears that I'll emerge intact, but definitely tired.

Oh, speaking of inter::mission, we did our final teach-in of the Fall quarter this past Thursday. I interviewed our newest staff member, Johnson, who literally just came back from the jungles of Peru, where he spent the past three years. He's a good guy, with some great stories and perspectives, so that was fun.

On Friday, Michelle and I also celebrated 11 years of marriage. We were going to go try an Italian restaurant we hadn't been to before to celebrate, but our house got something close to 5 inches of snow yesterday, so we had to stay closer to home. Thankfully, the point is my beautiful wife and our life together. Good times.

We also got a visit from my bud, Petey, who was here with his wife and daughter from Corvallis, Oregon. Walked through Pike Place Market and Left Bank Books. Picked up some posters by Nikki McClure - terrific, hopeful, thought provoking artist.



So you see, I've been a busy boy! Apparently, no time for blogging, because I'm doing too much living. I'm guessing it's better that way.

Peace.

Labels: blogging, family, friends, inter::mission, Seattle

I had the delight of meeting Tom and Christine Sine at their Seattle home on Monday. They're both terrific people, and a real delight to be around - gracious and hospitable. We were mainly just meeting for the first time, but we spent some time talking about Tom's new book, due out in early spring, called The New Conspirators.

Related to the book release, Mustard Seed Associates is putting on a really great looking conference by the same name. It'll be Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 2008. They've assembled a really terrific lineup of speakers, from diverse backgrounds and experiences.





Check it out . . . and stay tuned here. We may try to throw together a little shindig at The Purple Door after the conference.

Labels: conference, friends, Seattle

In all the buzz and hubbub of the emerging church (a mostly Western/Northern world thing), the voices of the Church Emerging in the global South have not been heard. This is the focus of my school research, so I was delighted to read this:

The rumble of the drums and the joyful voices of our brothers and sisters from the Emerging World are getting louder and louder each minute. With all due respect, dear brothers and sisters from the west and north, you’ve been speaking for quite awhile. Now it is your time to show some humility and listen. [read more]

Good words. May they - and the ears to hear - increase.

Labels: culture, emerging church, Global South, Seattle

It's becoming a sort of default calendar item for me, but it's the first weekend of November, which must mean I'll be at the Off The Map event, this year codenamed Hear, Listen, Connect. I've been so cranking busy over the past few months that I've not had the time to be as involved in some of the behind the scenes stuff as in previous years, but I still love going to these things - mainly for the people I get to see. I won't be able to stay for the whole conference, but I'm sure it'll be fun. I'll definitely miss seeing some friends that aren't making the trip this year, though.

Labels: conference, Seattle

Those of you who know me, or have been tracking with this blog over the past couple of years know that much of my work has involved building a thing we're calling inter::mission. It's a dream that began before I was hired into my position, so I don't take credit for it, except that I've had the fun of giving vision and some structure to it. I won't go through everything that's involved (you can learn more about it on the inter::mission website if you want). Basically, it's a live-in experience for students (and a few non-students) which attempts to re-orient life around our identity in the Kingdom of God, and our joining with God in mission.

About two years ago I began work on this thing, and have been working to build it ever since. It's morphed a few times from its original form, but we officially kicked the thing off a little more than two weeks ago. One of the things it involves is a weekly "family meal" on Thursday nights. We eat together, hang out together, and talk about life together. On alternating weeks, following the family meal, we have teach-ins around Kingdom and mission. My goal is to primarily utilize guest speakers for these teach-ins. In Seattle, we have access to so many innovative, catalytic, super smart people who are actually practitioners, so we're able to make this happen.

Last night, we were honored with a visit from Karen Ward, Abbess of Church of the Apostles, as our first outside speaker/conversation leader. She talked a bit through the history and ethos of COTA, and about urban monasticism in their context. It was a really good time for the students. Definitely stimulating and challenging. She talked about the way they approach their neighborhood, Fremont, with the mentality that their whole zip code "belongs" to the church/parish, and how it's the role of the members of the church to serve and minister to the church, regardless of belief, lifestyle, affiliation, or status. Good stuff. Karen is such a humble, kind, and warm person, but with focus, creativity, and the best kind of leadership skill.

The past couple of years, and especially the past few months have been such a busy, maddening sprint to get this dream fleshed out and ready to go. And trust me, we're far from embodying a ton of what we have in mind. We're a small, quiet bunch right now, and continuing to add students to the mix little by little. But last night, as I sat and listened to Karen, and looked around the room, I got the sense that yes, this thing is really happening. It was one of those beautiful moments that wasn't self-satisfaction, but thankfulness for God's blessing and gifts. I'm really glad I got to be a part of this, and watch it develop. I'm even more glad that I get to continue helping nurture it and be a part of it.

Our vision for inter::mission is to help liberate young adults to experientially own their missional vocation. This is where we begin.

I've blogged recently about how easy it is to get caught up in the negative side of critique - especially those who are in any way affiliated with the emerging church vibe. There's a role for it, but talk is cheap if we're not actually paying attention to building a better way forward. For as long as God gives it to me, inter::mission is my humble contribution.

Labels: blogging, emerging church, friends, inter::mission, Seattle, the purple door

Michelle and I just returned from a blurryfastwaytoobusy trip to SoCal. We went down there to clean up our rental house from previous tenants and prepare it for the next go-round. Tons of work. And blazing blazing HOT. The mercury hit 107 (f) one day. Sadly, our time was very limited with family and friends. We got a lot of work done, but not quite enough for our liking. Happily, we were able to get some new tenants lined up and ready to move in. That's a relief - things get financially tight with two mortgages.

We came home to amazing weather. The Pacific Northwest has to have the best summer weather in the nation. We've had a few spots of rain, but for the most part, it's sunny and mid 70s. No smog. Good times. It's almost enough to make me forget about the long, rough winter we had this past year. So if you're looking to visit Seattle, make your plans for July/August or early September. Take a drive across one of Lake Washington's floating bridges (like I do every day) and see some eye popping beauty.

I guess I'm a pretty lucky guy. I've lived in two metropolitan areas in my life - San Diego and Seattle. Not bad.

Labels: family, friends, San Diego, Seattle, travel

I don't blog politics much. It's not that I am apathetic, but rather that I'm quite ambivalent and distrustful of political parties and their agendas of power - I think most politicians may start their careers with the best of intentions, but inevitably get sucked into the gamesmanship and insider dealings far too easily. I'm totally not ready to jump into the 2008 presidential election coverage yet - wake me up when two things happen: 1) We're LESS THAN twelve months away from election day. 2) There are less than about four viable candidates from each party to choose from. As things stand now, I'm pretty sure that everyone from Hillary Clinton to George Clooney to Don Imus to my soon-to-retire mailman are in the race.

I remember the days when the Republican party was all about reducing the size of government. Nowadays, of course, our Republican president has developed a juggernaut government.

At the local level here in Seattle, we're facing some silliness at The Purple Door with the city. I won't bore you with details, but we've recently had to respond to a complaint filed by one irrational, disgruntled community member. The complaint refers to a city ordinance that is entirely redundant to other laws and ordinances, has no definable community service purpose, and requires a city office of bureaucrats to monitor and police. Oh, by the way, it's quite possible that the ordinance is straight up unconstitutional. We're talking violation of the freedom of assembly and religious practice here - pretty basic, obvious stuff. One of the city staffers we've talked to about this issue told us that they recently shut down a house church based on this ordinance. Wha? Come again? Yep.

I'm NO FAN at all of the Christian groups that sue government because a school official won't let a kid wear a "God hates liberals" t-shirt to school. So I'm not looking to call them anytime soon. But this case actually sounds like something that those godless, left-wing-extremist, gay-and-lesbian-loving wackos at the ACLU would take on. Not like I've got lots of time or energy to fight this one out in a courtroom. But we're pretty frustrated at this point.

Well, enough whining for one day. Maybe this will all blow over quickly and we'll look back and laugh at all this. Maybe.

Labels: politics, Seattle, the purple door

I've been super busy with work and school stuff lately that I am behind on my blog reading, and I haven't been tracking with most of the news, other than a quick scan of headlines on the web. Whether it's my problem or the U.S. media's problem, the story of a group of Korean aid workers being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan has escaped me. One was murdered.

In the mean time, I did hear that there was some kind of CNN YouTube debate, Michael Vick is going on trial for his dog fighting operation, and Lindsay Lohan is an addict (still).

If these were white, American hostages, would this story have gotten by without notice? Unlikely.

Read Eugene Cho's summaries of the story here, and please pray for the hostages, their families, and their captors. Eugene is a pastor in Seattle, with a diverse, growing church.

Labels: media, prayer, Seattle