I've spent the past 48 hours praying a lot and sleeping poorly, over one of my Seattle inter::mission team members. She called on Saturday with the news her teenage brother had died in an auto accident. Horrible. It makes Resurrection hope seem both tantalizing and desperately far away at the same time.

Labels: friends, prayer

Can't say where this came from, but I've been walking through this whole Christmas season with a bit of an edge. People have heard me say cranky little quips, and even the occasional mini-rant. In part, it's the consumerism of the season that a lot of people are cautious of. There are good efforts out there already to combat that mentality, and to make something better. For the most part, though, I've had a more theological sort of thing going.

I'm more concerned about the gross imbalance that exists between the time, money, effort, and overall attention that Christians and churches give to Christmas vs. Resurrection Sunday. Hear me now - I'm a grateful believer in celebrating the Incarnation, and the amazing story that it is. I do think it's good and right for us to make a big deal of that.

But let me ask this question - How many Christians do you know that redecorate their whole house to celebrate the Resurrection? Not talking about Easter bunnies here, either. I'm talking about clearing the coffee table so we can set up a little ceramic scene of a big rock mountain with a cave cut out of it, and a stone that's been rolled away from the entrance. You've got your ceramic angels hanging out at the tomb, ceramic Mary looking confused while talking to that strange ceramic gardener dude, ceramic Peter and ceramic John sucking air from having just finished their foot race. Everyone except for the angels, and the aforementioned gardener have that expression of "Wha??" on their faces. O.k., so I got a little out of control there . . . all that might be a little creepy.

How many Christians do you know that use even 20% of the money they'd spend at Christmas to give it away to Christian missionaries or causes?

Almost all churches make a big deal about their Good Friday/Easter Sunday services. Celebrative gatherings, sunrise services, special musical presentations. Many new church plants hold their public "launches" on Easter (a thing I've got a whole different set of misgivings about). I don't want to be completely unfair here - there is special emphasis on the Resurrection. I'm just wondering if it's equivalent to Christmas.

All of this, when in two of our four gospels, the narrative of the birth of Jesus isn't even mentioned! Do I need to bother asking the counter-question of how many gospels have the Passion narrative?

With all that said, let me rescue myself from this scrooge-y corner I'm in. I DO LIKE CHRISTMAS. Michelle and I will be traveling great distances to be with family and friends for celebrations. I LIKE GIVING GIFTS TO PEOPLE, and think that Christmas represents a beautiful time for us to honor those that God has placed in our lives. I DO LIKE SOME CHRISTMAS MUSIC - this is good stuff (but this and this make me want to hurt people). I LIKE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. Oh, and I LIKE SEEING LITTLE CHILDREN GET GIDDY ON CHRISTMAS MORNING. I've got no beefs with Santa - he's always been better to me than I've been to him. In the interest of full disclosure, let me also say that I LIKE RECEIVING GIFTS - especially those that show that someone really thought about me and wanted to express their love.

My main thing here is to put things in perspective. Thank you God for the Incarnation. Indeed. But thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus for inaugurating an everlasting Kingdom by your words, your deeds, your sacrifice, and your Resurrection!

With all that said, let me wish all of my readers out there (I could name the four of you, but I wouldn't want to embarrass you) a great Christmas. I do hope this holiday season is a wonderful celebration. Just remember, when you open your Bible to Luke 2, feel free to follow it up with some time in Luke 24.

Peace

Labels: Christendom, Christmas, culture, family, friends, theology

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

On days like today, I haul my tired butt out of bed, and at some point look at myself in the mirror and say, "Dude, you're looking old." Typically, I'm more oriented toward "feeling as old as I think," which is to say, fairly young.

Happily I can say on this Monday morning that I'm tired from having had a weekend of seeing good friends. I spent Thursday evening and Friday morning/early afternoon at the Off The Map Live event. Got to at least touch base with a number of friends and acquaintances that I only see at events like that. It would have been really good to be there longer and relax a little with some friends. But I had to jump in my car with a couple of my younger friends (a.k.a. my staff team) and drive many hours through the dark of night to get to eastern Oregon. We were attending the Northwest Collegiate Ministries fall conference. I'm grateful to have some fun, good hearted, and adventurous people - the road trip was good. Being at the conference was good, too - I respect and enjoy my counterparts in ministry, and I don't get to catch up with them often enough.

At the conference, we had Lauren Winner come and talk through her book, Real Sex. I've not read the book, but I definitely appreciated her perspectives. She debunks many myths we hear in the church about sex, and does so in an intelligent way.

Yesterday afternoon it was back in the car for the road trip home. It's good to be back.

So, while I didn't have my favorite person in the world with me, I had a tiring weekend of rich relationships, all of which I'm thankful for. I would have name dropped specifically who I'm talking about, but I'm too lazy to link them all here. A younger version of me would have done a better job at this.

Labels: campus ministry, conference, friends, travel

In the middle of a busy week, where much of my time has been spent thinking about the fires in SoCal, our work with inter::mission here in Seattle moves on. We had another one of our teach-ins last night. One of our staffers, Lindsay, threw down on some Poppy Seed Chicken for dinner - outstanding! Our student from Turkey made some yummy Turkish coffee, too. Then my good friend, Ed Park, pastor of Sanctuary Church, led us in a conversation about spiritual formation and mission. He really nailed it. He tied the dynamics of formation into the theology of mission in a way that was holistic and real. Quite honestly, it was very helpful to me personally, on the same level as Dallas Willard in some ways. Ed has been doing missional, relational, and incarnational church planting in the city for a while now, and it's evident. If I could just get him blogging . . .

The community of students living at The Purple Door is really becoming a great group. We've been blessed with a remarkably diverse group. One student from Turkey, one from (East) Germany, one from China. One of our students has lived in multiple countries, growing up in a family engaged in medical missions. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to be doing dishes in the kitchen after dinner's over, and hearing the laughter of students enjoying relationship late into the evening . . . despite having heavy school workloads. I know staying up late and being social are sort of par for the course for college students, but they're doing this stuff within the context of spiritual depth and connectedness. The school year is young, but I'm really pleased with how good it's gotten already. More good times to come.


Our next teach-in will be November 8. Mike Gunn, pastor of Harambee Church in Renton, WA will be leading us in a conversation about mission and culture. I'm really looking forward to that.

Labels: friends, inter::mission, the purple door

I wasn't able to pay close attention to news updates yesterday as I had the previous couple of days. The fires continue, but the weather has begun a more helpful turn, so hopefully that will give the firefighters an edge. Nothing new to report on our immediate family and friends. Everyone is safe and sound, and as far as we know, they're all back home . . . which is more than can be said for a lot of others, in particular, those who have lost their homes.

O.k., time for a rant or two.

RANT ONE:
In the national as well as local (San Diego) news coverage of this event, over and over, I have heard little off-hand comparisons of this situation with the hurricane Katrina disaster. Perhaps its the scale of evacuations, perhaps its the fact that many evacueess are at a major stadium. Whatever the case, with my one lone voice in the blogosphere, all I can say is this: PLEASE STOP. These situations are most definitely not the same. There are a ton of reasons why.

First, the evacuation is different because a huge number of people have had family and friends within the same region to stay with. There was a ton of traffic, but not for hundreds of miles in every direction, like with Katrina. Second, given that San Diego went through this just four years ago, people are extremely well rehearsed for this, and the relief work was done in an impressively organized way . . . which, by the way, is markedly different than the last go round. City/county officials know how to run the show without merely hoping that FEMA can handle everything. Third (this is the one that may open a can of worms), the economic realities of most of the people affected by these two scenarios couldn't be more different. Many of the areas devastated by Katrina were the poorest areas of the city . . . which was already a very poor city, mind you. In San Diego, the damage done by the fires has primarily been done in upper middle class to wealthy areas. I don't say this in any way to take compassion away from the people who have lost homes to fire - it's an intensely difficult thing for them, and I hurt for them. Having lived through a little piece of this myself, I know it's going to be hard, but the difference in economic starting places is different. Trust me, I'm also well aware that some poorer folks have lost their homes - no insensitivity to them intended. My point is not class warfare here, but to say that San Diego wildfires and Hurricane Katrina are just not the same.

For the record, my San Diego and fire disaster credentials are already on record, and I've been to New Orleans twice since Katrina, so I'm not completely ignorant (perhaps unintelligent, but not ignorant).


RANT TWO:
Jason and Brooke, and their housemates in San Diego are part of a really great effort to aid the migrant workers who have been displaced by the fires. Dangit, I love those people. Michelle mentioned to me just a minute ago that 1/3 of California's avocado trees were lost in the fires - think for a minute about the people that work those groves, and pick those delicious guacamole gems. That makes me actually very disturbed at reading this story this morning. Talk about adding insult to injury.


Sorry to be cranky this morning. I just want to think and pray with a clear head about these things, and help others who don't know the situation to do the same.

UPDATE, 10:10am - Now I'm really pissed. Read Jason's latest update on his family's efforts to support the migrant worker volunteers. Speechless.

Labels: culture, family, friends, politics, San Diego, social action

I actually don't have any news to report regarding my immediate family or friends right now - fires are still raging, but things seem to be settling a bit. The weather is improving - less wind, more humidity.

The main thing I wanted to note here is on a little different level. Despite my consistent venting and whining about my denomination, it is times like these that make me more satisfied. I was watching the San Diego news online this morning, and they were talking about the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center, where thousands are being housed. They specifically noted the fact that my denom was there with its mobile kitchens, feeding lots and lots of people. I know from seeing them in action firsthand in New Orleans that they wear some butt-ugly yellow t-shirts, but when I see those things on TV, I'm glad that I get to be a part of that. Good work folks - keep rocking.

Other churches and friends are, of course, also doing good work. But if I'm gonna whine about the denom, I need to also give equal time to the good stuff.

Labels: denomination, family, friends, prayer, San Diego

Being so far away from family and friends in the fire affected areas in San Diego is hard - not as hard as being there, mind you, but hard. This situation is astonishing. The fire moved so fast. Michelle's folks are doing o.k. - they decided to wait it out in their house, and seem to be in a sliver of land that the fire burned around . . . probably due to the fact that it all burned just a few years ago, and there wasn't as much fuel.

We've been watching a San Diego TV station that's been streaming their coverage online. That helps.

Keep praying.

UPDATE 8:50am: A large mountain about half a mile to the north of Michelle's folks may be catching fire. This mountain didn't burn in 2003, so lots of old brush there. They're watching it closely, and may evacuate.

UPDATE 5:15pm: Michelle's parents got a reverse 911 call at around 2pm telling them to evacuate. As of around 3:45pm, they hadn't left yet. My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids had to evacuate yesterday, but were allowed to go back home this afternoon.

Labels: family, friends, prayer, San Diego

Others around the blogosphere have mentioned this already, but here I add my prayers for peace to Dan Kimball and his family. Dan is one of my classmates, and well known all around the emerging church. Dan's father had a fall last week and hit his head. He died today. Married over 50 years. Devastating to all. Pray for Dan and his family.

Labels: friends, prayer

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

For the past several months, I've been supposedly preparing a revamping of my blog with different content, different layout, different blogging engine. As it turns out, I've been so cranking busy that that project has been placed on the perpetual back burner. Quite honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if the burner even works at this point . . .

HOWEVER, yesterday, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a good friend (you know who you are) pointed out something that I've been chewing on personally for a few months now. It goes something like this: those of us who run in emerging church circles can be a cranky, angry lot. Oh sure, we might have a better sense of humor and feel more relaxed than when we were in the mainstream of the evangelipseudofundmentlismo factory. But in the midst of all of our critiques of church culture, modernity, consumerism, etc., it's very often easier to know what we oppose, or what we're pissed off about, than what we're for. Sometimes it gets to the point that an outside observer would rightly wonder why we even bother with all this, anyway. As a note to said outside observer: most of us have asked that question more times than we can count.

But really, don't we want to be known for something other than our critiques? Don't we believe in a Story that is so good, so rich, so powerful that we decided to organize our whole lives around it? Isn't our faith in the God-man, Jesus, and his Kingdom vision something that stirs our hearts? Isn't our love for Christ's bride a calling to something good, rather than something we wish we could escape?

Let me be clear: I'm guilty of cranky critique and a bad attitude. I too often get lost in seeing a need for change, and lose my vision for a better way forward. I have a bad attitude.

So perhaps I'll try to launch that new version of my blog after all, except with a more positive mindset. Not some pep-talk, toothless, feel-good mantra fest or anything. And not necessarily a place free from critique. But a place where I can point to the good things that are going on, even in the middle of difficulty. A place I can freely display the hope that I have for the things to come.

That's all.

Labels: blogging, Christendom, emerging church, friends

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

. . . and when I do, I'll wonder where my summer went. Wow, it's continued to be super busy. Transitioning at the Purple Door, welcoming new staff, cranking on school, etc. At the end of last week, I had a quick trip to Atlanta for some meetings at one of the denom's big mission centers. It was a good trip - got to see some George Fox school buds for dinner, and the work project at the denom went very well.

I'm quite certain at this point that one of the key things that's kept me sane has been my renewed "efforts" in the area of Sabbath. I've not been perfect, mind you, but more often than not, I've been able to significantly mellow out and spend some down time reflecting, talking at a reasonable pace with my lovely wife, and realizing that the world will still be waiting for me when the day is over.

I only have two weeks left before my DMin school stuff gets going again, which means I need to hustle hard to get my summer school stuff knocked out. The classes I've taken this summer are on Jewish scripture . . . what we Christians call the Old Testament. That's been interesting, in the sense that it's a wonderful reminder to me that God's Kingdom has always been central in scripture, and that our story goes back a long, long time. Even the legal focus of these texts points in a direction that focuses on the true King, and the fitting response of his people.

Like it or not, the next few months are gonna stay hectic. In fact, I can almost guarantee that things will get "worse" before they start getting "better." It's almost all good stuff, though, so I don't want to complain (much).

Peace to all who read this.

Labels: denomination, friends, sabbath, school, the purple door, travel

For the past several days, Eugene Cho has been keeping us up to date on the hostage situation involving a Korean relief worker team. He has asked many times over why this story hasn't been covered more widely by the major U.S. media outlets.

Just to confirm this, in the past five minutes I've scanned a few news sites (their front pages only) for mentions of the situation. Fox News? Nope. CNN? Nope. US News & World Report? Yes, if you're willing to scroll to the bottom of the page. Time? Yes, a link at the top of the page. Of the pages I've scanned so far, you know who has the most prominent and eye catching emphasis of the story? Try Al Jazeera. The UK edition of BBC also gets honorable mention. Actually, when I look for news headlines, I do so via my RSS reader, and I have three news feeds - Al Jazeera, BBC, and US News & World Report. I hardly ever visit the other pages I've mentioned . . . seems that I get my fill of stories about Spears, Lohan, Vick, Beckham, etc. elsewhere.

By the way, these are Christians being held hostage . . . which leaves me wondering why my denomination's "news" page's latest coverage of the story is four days old.

By way of update, Korean officials are now in talks with the Taliban. Pray for this as you are able.

Labels: culture, friends, media, prayer

Labels: culture, friends, missiology, politics

Michelle and I just got back last night from a few days in sunny San Diego. We went down for the wedding of some dear friends, which I was honored to officiate. It wasn't quite as busy/hectic as I thought it might be, so that's good. We always come home wishing we had been able to see more people than time allowed for, but we did pretty well. In addition to good hang out with both sets of parents, my sister and her kids, we saw some folks at the wedding. Friday night, we also got to visit Jason and Brooke Evans in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego - we walked with them, caught up a bit on life, and just enjoyed friendship with these people we love to death.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the San Diego vibe on this visit. We had an early dinner with my folks at the Edgewater Grill, the wedding rehearsal brunch at Pacific Beach's legendary Broken Yolk Cafe, and the wedding was at the Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens. Kinda touristy trip in some ways, but really fun.

Labels: friends, travel

This summer I get the pleasure of officiating two weddings - the first of which is this weekend. The second of these is a bit later in the summer, and I'm starting some premarital counseling soon with the couple - young, bright. fun, level-headed. The bride-to-be works with Michelle, and I made a book recommendation to the couple through Michelle this week. It's a book that we read together a few years back and found interesting, so I suggested it.

Apparently, without me noticing a thing, the book has a noticeable male bias. The bride-to-be had started the book a while back on her own, but found it pretty demeaning. Michelle's suggestion was that given that most of my theological positions have shifted around pretty significantly in recent years, perhaps it would be good to review my list of book choices that predate the era of shifts. Hmmmm, that's probably wise. I can already pull a few volumes off my mental bookshelf that I really valued when I read them, but are something less than helpful now.

Humbling to know that I'm still a chauvanist, despite all this pseudo-enlightening I've been up to.

So, anyone know of some good, healthy premarital books that are equally honoring and respectful to both genders?

Labels: books, friends

This past week during one of our class sessions, one of my cohort-mates, John, talked about some of the teachings he's been doing at his church recently. Today I've been bumping around with some reading from Dallas Willard, and was reminded of a sentence John said . . . I'd like to make it a mantra in the days to come:

Who are you becoming by what you are repeatedly doing?

Labels: books, friends, school

Holly Sharp has posted images of a new series of paintings she's been working on. Really good stuff . . . makes me want to add to our collection.

Labels: art, friends