Tall Monastic Guy

new life

Some recent pics... The two of JP show how he's starting to come into it, cooing and laughing a bit. He gets his vaccine shots today. We're dreading that a little.
On another note...
The baptism pics are of our friend's Alisha and Matt. I, along with Alisha had the awesome privelage of dipping Matt yesterday. It was a beautiful day at Chatfield Reservoir with the Adullam community. We baptized 7 total, 4 adults and 3 kids.

Some light summer reading and thinking...

Three of the books I’ve set out to read this summer, 2 of which you see in my side column have had significant-big time-huge impact on my spiritual, ecclesial, and political imagination. From my processing, all 3 books have seemed to converge on the idea of what "subordination" means in God’s kingdom. And as my paradigms morph the circumstances of my life begin to take on new meanings. At Adullam we have a baptism this Sunday and a few will express their submission to God and his church. As the presidential race draws to the final stages and Denver hosts the DNC next week, my mind has been drawn to process what it means for a Christ follower to submit to governing authorities.

With that said, the following is not a book review. The following words are simply me processing through these books and the scriptures they led me to and some of the recent circumstances of my spiritual journey. (Warning: this post falls into the "rant" category so you may want to disregard)

Son, be a good follower...

I’ve never imagined saying these words to Josiah, but perhaps those words will make more sense than, “Son, be a good leader!”
My seminary leadership classes brought to my attention the wide array of misinterpretations of the use of, “leadership”. It gets misused and abused ALL THE TIME in church ministry settings. Ask people why they don't go to church anymore and my guess is that the majority would respond in some way or another in relation to abuses of position and power.
The term, leader, seems often given away way WAY to freely and other times withheld way WAY to conservatively.

Navigating the socially awkward...

Last week I had an interesting conversation with one of the MCAP participants and it’s a conversation that I’ve had with other leaders recently as well. What does a missional/incarnational community do about the socially awkward in their midst? As we charge ahead on mission we sometimes wonder whether it’s worth connecting with or consoling those who struggle fitting into a group or socially relating well with others.

My conclusion? We gotta love em all the same. My thinking is that the socially awkward likely fit into the category that the scriptures refer to as “the poor”. And the Bible has lots and lots to say about the poor and when it comes down to it, all individuals experience a level of poverty. And often times when you inquire deeply enough you realize that the socially awkward individual was likely neglected in some key developmental areas and likely have some deep needs that Jesus would stop, address, and offer his touch.

Yes, it appears to slow us down. And yes, we rationalize that in being bogged down by a socially awkward Christian we sacrifice quality time with pagans. But the Jesus of the gospels I doubt would draw any such comparison between the two. Both are poor in their own way and equally deserving of our presence and compassion.
Thoughts?

Not a bad line up...

If you're like me it takes a lot of convincing to get interested in conferences...
But yesterday the catholic/Emergent conference in March 09 was called to my attention.

The planned line up: Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Alexie-Torres Fleming, Shane Claiborne, and Phylis Tickle.

hmmm...

the explosive power of trust

Once in a while I’ll wake up from a bad dream that leaves my tail between my legs and I realize that the dream was so troubling because it would hit me at some of my deepest insecurities. As I begin to become more attentive to the details of these dreams, I realize that they often deal directly or indirectly with past failures and embarrassments. And I’m learning that often the unconscious response to those dreams is to not trust myself and who God is making of me.
I’m believing that one of the primary ways the devil takes the western church out at the knees is to get God’s people to not trust themselves as well as to not trust the brothers and sisters in their community. The bad guy uses much of our culture to help out with this. Bad politicians and government officials have given us reason to not put our trust in our country. For many, broken marriages or hurtful relationships have created distrust in the opposite sex. People have been given many reasons to have a growing distrust in religious institutions, which often leads to a general distrust in the presence and/or goodness in the one true God.