Wow, this has been a heavy set of days for me. Having come off of two conferences last weekend (one of which involved around 12 hours of driving round trip to attend), I've had a heavy school project working - hard work on structuring my dissertation and outlines. Much frustration here. I know the work will pay off, but oi! It's funny, because words and writing and ideas have always been pretty easy for me, but there have been multiple moments this week where I've felt the same as I did in my college chemistry classes - completely stuck. I'm making small breakthroughs, so no worries. I'm just whining.

In better news, we had another teach-in with inter::mission last night. Good times. I made enchiladas, guacamole, and some cinnamon tortilla chips. Tasty, if I must say so myself. Mike Gunn, pastor of Harambee Church in Renton, WA joined us for a discussion of gospel and culture. I really enjoyed that a lot. Mike is skillful at reading culture, as evidenced by his movie reviews over on Hollywood Jesus. His approach to culture is in the tradition of Lesslie Newbigin. He also made reference to Kevin Vanhoozer's book, Everyday Theology . . . though that mention made me sad, as that book has been sitting unread on my desk for the past two or three months . . . even now, it's only about thirteenpointfive inches away from my left elbow, mocking me, taunting me, daring me to lay aside the piles of school books I'm already delinquent on . . . but I digress. Mike hammered the Christian ghetto culture more than the culture of the bigbaduglyworld, which is a no brainer for some of us, but a stunningly new approach for many. All in all, it was another stellar evening at The Purple Door, and another signal that we're continuing to move in a quality direction.

Labels: conference, culture, inter::mission, school, the purple door

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

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

Regardless of the fact that I actually planned, or at least knew, that this would be an insanely busy time in my life, I still feel like I'm overloaded. I'm the kind of guy that actually enjoys being busy a lot of the time - it's fun to push hard, live on adrenaline, juggle a lot of things at once. It's just that it's not a sustainable way. And I'm arriving at the "diminishing returns" place, where I'm having increasing difficulty maintaining concentration on the tasks at hand. I'm pretty sure things will settle back down into a rhythm of more controlled chaos in a few weeks, but until then, I need to keep pushing. The thing that has (somewhat) saved my butt thus far is that I'm still trying to being idealistic about the whole Sabbath thing.

After a long summer, school starts next week at UW. We're getting a new year of campus ministry stuff ready now. On a parallel track, inter::mission, a dream we've been working on for the past two years, is about to officially launch. It'll likely be a quiet launch that builds momentum, but at least we'll be able to say it's happening. I want so much to enjoy the ride with the students, and help them experience a different way of living and seeing the Kingdom of God at work . . . but that will require finishing a ton of work first. By the way, if you know any UW students that need housing this year, we've got a few open rooms at The Purple Door, just waiting . . .

Labels: sabbath, the purple door

. . . 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

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

Idealism is a really great trait to have . . . except when it comes time for getting work done. This is one of the things I struggle with. I dream. Sometimes I dream big. Mostly I dream small to medium. But always when I dream, I dream the perfect, idealistic vision kind of dream. In other words, the kind of dream that is usually impossible to fully attain.

In fact, one of the reasons I don't dream really big more often is that I know from the get go that really big dreams have almost no shot at reality. Politics is a good example - at various times in my life, I've followed political goings-on, and thought about getting involved in local/naitonal causes. But I have always been quick to remind myself that many thousands have gone before me with the best of ideals and intentions, and gotten sucked into the corrupt game that politics often is. What makes me think I could outdo all those people?

I'm at a point in life and work where some of my dreams, while still very much in process, are conceivably within reach. But now is when the really hard work of bringing them to fruition is critical. And if I'm not willing to get some serious work done, the dreams just won't happen. Oh, and now is the time when I need to be willing to set some of that idealism aside. There have been times when fear of not measuring up to the ideal has frozen me into not doing anything. I have to let it be o.k. for the dreams to not be perfect. Knowing that I put my best into something and trusted God and others more has to be o.k., even if it could have been better.

Some people allow failure to be perfect to kill their spirits. Others use the failure to drive their quest for improvement and perfection. Idealism is a tricky thing - which side of failure would I rather call home?

In my present scenario, pursuing the dreams also includes making some decisions that are making life significantly harder on other people. That sucks. It just does. I hate confrontation, and being the bearer of bad news . . . I just want to run away and hide from it. But that's part of the deal. Personal integrity, respect for others, and most important, love, require that I tell the truth, and let it be o.k. for people to be pissed off at me . . . hopefully only for a little while, but maybe forever. I'm a people pleaser to the extreme, so that's a tough one, indeed. I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've failed to do the right thing, in favor of not upsetting others. The times I've held the line have produced what was needed, but have often been miserably stressful. It's still worth it, though.

Sorry for the lack of direction here, and the lack of specificity in what these "dreams" are . . . I'll share more in the weeks to come. But sometimes it's good to take a peek behind the surface, where conflicted feelings (and the dreams themselves) reside.

Labels: the purple door

This week has passed by quickly, but certainly not without notice. I've been in a bunch of meetings, culminating in some important decisions and new directions for the ministry I lead. It's exciting, scary, energizing, painful, exhausting, hopeful stuff - an emotional cocktail. I can't go completely public with the details just yet, but I'll dish soon.

I'm looking forward to this evening, when my buddy Jeff Greer will play a benefit concert for us at the Perkatory Cafe at The Purple Door. He's a super cool man, whose facial hair has been featured on the most trafficked emerging church blog in the world. Our musical tastes are right up the same alley, so I know I'll be lovin' life, even as I pull espresso shots for the masses. We're giving all of our coffee donations (Perkatory has no set prices - it's by donation only) to the University of Washington chapter of Habitat for Humanity to support their building projects around King County.

Good times, but tiring times. Happily, I'm going off to a retreat thingy next week, which will focus on the theme of Sabbath . . . timely.

Labels: denomination, perkatory cafe, the purple door

Yesterday morning, I had a conversation with a UW student who lives at The Purple Door. He's Jewish (by culture more than belief), and is considering joining the UW fraternity that is primarily Jewish in membership. He told me something I didn't know - the frat house they occupy is next door to the home base for the campus Islamic organization. Ironic indeed. Sadly, even among these enlightened, educated, hopeful young people, the same kinds of tensions arise that take place in the Middle East - bottles and bricks have flown between the two in some isolated incidents. The parking lot that separates the two buildings is known as the Gaza strip. Clever. I don't think anything has reached fever pitch, and hopefully it won't, but it's definitely disappointing to hear this stuff.

Labels: culture, the purple door

Earlier this week, the Perkatory Cafe went live at The Purple Door. It's a partnership between the college ministry I'm a part of, and a local church. We're open for some limited hours to start with, but hopefully we'll expand those as time goes. Good, fairly traded coffee will be served, along with a homey vibe, free wi-fi, and 15% more love than the other guys' coffee shops. If you're in Seattle, come on by and say hello. One hint, though - take the bus . . . sadly, vast amounts of parking isn't on the menu.

Labels: coffee, perkatory cafe, the purple door