Tall Monastic Guy

The Miller's

Our friend's Mark and Tara Miller, whom we met about 5 years ago (Tara and I worked together on starting an Alpha Course at Pathways Church) have courageously decided to begin the quest of adopting an orphan from Ethiopia.
Why Ethiopia? Ethiopia has approximately 5 million orphans. Although in many cases, extended family or neighbors take in orphaned children, there are simply not enough adults to go around. AIDS, along with other illnesses, is wiping out an entire generation of parents. The immense poverty of this country is beyond our imagination. If interested in digging deeper, Tara says, There is No Me Without You is a good book to begin understanding the orphan situation in Ethiopia.


This whole process will likely take between 6 months to a year. The total cost will be in the neighborhood of $25,000.
The Miller's would love it if you worked their quest to adopt into your prayer schedule. And if further compelled to invest please contact me (ryan.taylor@adullamdenver.com) if interested in making a donation toward all of the costs involved.

Missional Fanaticism

Since the birth of Josiah a week and a half ago I’ve had just enough energy and short spurts of time to be catching up on some blog reading. The articles I’ve read along with some specific recent conversations have led me to some lingering thoughts regarding the idea and definition of what it means to be “missional”.

In the blogosphere and in some churches I’m seeing many utilize and customize the term to the point to where it is becoming as amorphous as “emerging”. I tend to agree with many definitions out there and observe many who are faithfully living out their unique role in God’s mission. However, just as many seem to be living the life more accurately described as a "fan" of missional. After several years of following the emerging conversation (which at its essence I believe is a healthy movement of ecclesial renewal) I watched a similar accumulation of people I would only consider fans.

I’m getting this idea of fanaticism from a snippet out of Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart in which he says,

Fanaticism ---in art, politics, sports, or religion, to name some of the main kinds--- is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and trying to take all of their existence into it. Being a fan of… is treated as something deep and important. Because those who do this do not have a whole soul directing their lives toward good, rooted in God, they allow a “flow” they find outside themselves to take over their thoughts, feelings, behavior, and social relations. That flow intoxicates them. They absolutize the flow and no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried and true human values.

(Renovation of the Heart, 203)

Tangible Kingdom Weekend

This will be a great weekend to prime the pump and for some of you a great excuse to spend a fall weekend in colorful Colorado.

2 items of interest

One, for those of you Denver-ites. Shane Claiborne will be speaking on his "Jesus for President" tour on Monday July 7th at 7pm at:
Trinity UMC
1820 Broadway
Denver, CO 80202
303-839-1493

The event is free but it is suggested you show up early.

Another item of interest... I found Sam Metcalf's article "Anti-Organizational Bias" an interesting read. I think especially for us Gen-Xers who typically cringe at the words "structure" or "orginization", it is a great perspective from a wise, well traveled leader. (Sam is CRM's president and his blog is always interesting)

Just another Adullam gathering...

Sequence to the morning...

Wake up and change a poopy diaper... (First time I've began my Sunday like that!)

...Fix myself and Angie something for breakfast

...briefly look over sermon notes

The Josiah experience changes everything. Yesterday as I was sitting alone eating breakfast at the hospital cafeteria, I just started noticing people. I noticed them as people who are all uniquely individual miracles, “forged in the fires of human passion” as Rich Mullins said. Then I thought about corruption and separation from God and then I thought of how much God loved all these unique miracles and so he sent Jesus and he came up with The Way. And then I thought of how badly Jesus wanted all these miracles to discover The Way and to lovingly make all of them new again redeeming their relationship to the Father. And there at the cafeteria table I started sobbing and with tears watering down my biscuits and gravy, I got a glimpse of just how much the triune God loves us and draws us to himself.

Maybe it’s just delirium from such little sleep in the last 4 days but looking at a newborn changes the way you see the world.

(And don't worry, I'm not neglecting my duties. He's just taking a long nap.)

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts…

(Psalm 139: 13-17, TNIV)

smallmonasticguy

Josiah didn't pay attention to the countdown ticker...
No words could express...

It's all about holiness...

Yep, that's pretty much the point of all this... It's about our willingness to be shaped into his likeness... further into the likeness of God who invites us into a living, spirited dance.

May we be open to these good words...

1-3 One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. 4-5 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. 6-7 Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before. God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. 8 If you disregard this advice, you're not offending your neighbors; you're rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 4 (The Message)

experiments in intentionality...

Last Wednesday Angie and I splurged a bit to get to our first Red Rocks concert. The fact that Angie was with me made it all the more special. We made a new years pact that we’d join the other in an activity or event of the other’s choosing and we’d intentionally seek to see the activity or event from their perspective. For Angie’s activity we went to look at an exhibit at the art museum in January and I spent some intentional time listening to her describe why she enjoyed the exhibit. Rocking out to Death Cab for Cutie at Red Rocks was my event that Angie intentionally walked her pregnant self up all those steps to join me for.