Tall Monastic Guy

Hipsters

Lately, I’ve been a bit confounded once again regarding my course… my calling… how I invest my energy and conversations. But as I scan back through my story as well as those who have allowed me to be a part of theirs, I’m learning that my primary passion dwells in the realm of helping others discover a true and full sense of their unique identity. This past weekend I hosted a retreat for fifteen of Adullam’s men. I asked the oldest (53) and the youngest (24) individuals if they both struggled with issues involving uncertainty in regards to their identity. They along with the rest of the men in the room all agreed that navigating one’s own personal sense of identity and avoiding common attachment of identity to one’s vocation, bank account, blue jeans, or i-pod playlist, etc. is the most burdensome aspect of humanity's struggle.

Most of this post stems from this article.

Owning up to one’s true story and identity is a burdensome pursuit. The pursuit of relevance and cool seems so much quicker and easier to attain as attested to by “hipsters”...

"Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance."

Winter Park Men's Weekend

Here are some pics from the Adullam men's weekend in Winter Park. We had 15 fellas of varied  ages and backgrounds, great weather, good and deep conversation, and some much needed sacred space for silence and reflection.

 

 

The Mentoring Project

Another reason I like Don Miller.

 "I’m endorsing a candidate, and it’s not Obama or McCain!"

Vaccines and Prayers

Yesterday was JP’s four month doctor visit which included round two of his vaccination shots. As new parents, Angie and I are not big fans of watching him get poked in the thighs with big needles or the ensuing red faced wailing that follows. He’s a tough little man and the crying didn’t last long, but nevertheless we struggled with it.

It made me think about crying, and how God responds to it. Several people have asked about how becoming a parent has changed my perspective on God. I understnd why folks ask me that because those are the types of question I like to ask, but honestly, I havn’t been thinking too deeply in those terms… until today. Crying is a natural response and even a necessary aspect to a baby’s developmental process. But when he cries an internal blinker starts flashing in me and I listen and my heart feels compassion for him. It’s made me think several times about Matthew 7: 9-11 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

3 quotes

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. 

Albert Einstein

 

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world. 

Blaise Pascal

 

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman

Raising support while the market sinks...

By the time you finish reading this, I'm guessing the Dow will probably have sunk a few more points. As I watched the news this morning I thought to myself, what better time than now to post a blog about fund raising?

In all the crazy and varied tasks and opportunities before me in my work as a pastor, I can say with complete confidence that raising personal funds is my least favorite thing to tackle… and yet one of the most necessary. Growing up, whenever the school would sell candy bars or popcorn to raise money for the band or athletic department, my lone sell would be to grandma who required no persuasive skill whatsoever. If persuasion were basketball I’d dribble it off my leg while running into my defender drawing an offensive foul. I’d then mumble a bad word thinking it was under my breath but inadvertently say it loud enough so that the referee would hear it as i passed by and he'd kick me out of the game and on my way to the locker room I’d trip over the mop that was leaning against the wall twisting my ankle and be out for the remainder of the season. When it comes to persuading I’m about as powerful and comfortable as Michael Scott from the The Office. 

Well, aren’t you like a pastor or something and don’t you need to persuade people to like go to church and stuff? Well, as I began picking up on God calling me to be a God-guy the church in the west was already dropping almost as drastically as today’s stock market. Smart sociology and philosophy brains began talking about a western trend called postmodernism. And I didn’t really get it until Angie and I arrived in Denver (a city that is 3% churched) 5 years ago and I started making coffee at Starbucks while fighting my way through seminary. All my co-workers at the Bucks were good pagans and occasionally a Christian would come through the door making their presence known by laying their Holy Bible on the counter as they paid and as they left they'd cowardly drop a comic track booklet about the horrors of hell in an attempt at evangelism. Several times a year the catholic kids would come in trying to sell their cheesy sun-catchers because they believed God was calling them to go on a mission trip.  

Throughout this Starbucks experience I stood back watching these circumstances cause an increasing chasm between my barista friends and God. I was almost as bad at making coffee drinks as I am persuading people, but God used my 15-month Starbucks career to further affirm his nudge on my life. One morning, one of the teenage girls I worked with came through the door noticeably shaken by something. As she grabbed her apron and passed by me she says, "Ryan, we have to talk... now". We went to the back room and she could barely get the words out that she was pregnant, scared shitless, and didn’t know if she could afford to keep the baby. My shirt was soaked with her tears as she sobbed on my shoulder. What came next was a litany of questions about God. “Is God mad at me?” “Does God want me to keep the baby?” “Will I go to hell, if I get an abortion?” To make a long story short, she kept the baby and was eventually married to the father, but for me, that experience was a major clue to my life’s calling. (If you’ve read the Tangible Kingdom, that was my “Fiona” moment.) While God calls all types of leaders, in this post-christian culture he wants some to simply be good neighbors that make people feel like they can safely talk about the things that matter most to them. So many in our culture have a knowledge of God but they have nobody they can light a cigarette around and vent about how guilty, judged, and severely wounded they are by the church. And if these are the kind of folks God is asking me to love and invest my energy in, asking them for money to contribute to my living is out of the question.

So, this is why I’ll post a blog about raising personal funds even though it’s the last thing I want to blog about and even while you wave goodbye to your 401k. I can’t fulfill my calling without the support of friends and family who believe that God can use people that are done forcing the gospel and are ready to begin radically living it. If you have any interest in supporting me in this way let’s start a conversation via email ryanangie@comcast.net or phone 720-934-3653. 

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

From... to... A hopeful list

Found this list via Mike Todd via Paul Fromont

               From the centre to margins: in Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.

·             From majority to minority: in Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.

·             From settlers to sojourners: in Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post-Christendom we are aliens, exiles and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home.

·             From privilege to plurality: in Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one community among many in a plural society.

·             From control to witness: in Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witnessing to our story and its implications.

·             From maintenance to mission: in Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is on mission within a contested environment.

·              From institution to movement: in Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement.

God's poetry

Poiema. An ancient Greek word translated “poetry” in English. This is the word Paul used when he wrote to Ephesus (2:10) calling you and me God’s workmanship (NIV), handiwork (TNIV), or masterpiece (NLT). 

A few posts ago, I mentioned a mentoring grid that I have been referring to which leads one through the process of listening to someone’s story as well as communicating one’s own story of life.

The emphasis on my story and your story when it comes to our development as followers of Jesus comes from this idea that our lives are made poetic masterpieces to the world though Christ. That has a nice ring to it. Do we believe it?

Apparently, the entirety of my story, all of it, good chapters and bad chapters are included in the ongoing masterpiece. As Eugene Peterson says, “there are no throw away lines” in the poetry that is our lives. After his brothers begged for forgiveness, Joseph told his brothers that even the bad parts of the story God uses for good.

In describing the parable of the wheat and weeds, Friar Richard Rohr says, “That’s the mystery of holding wheat and weeds together in our one field of life. It takes a lot more patience, compassion, and love than aiming for some illusory perfection that is usually blind to its own faults. The only true perfection available to us is the honest acceptance of our imperfection.” (Everything Belongs 41)

I’ll never understand why, but somehow it all belongs, times I’ve caused hurt and the times I’ve been the recipient. I used to be so burdened by my moral trip ups within my story but somehow God redeems that stuff. 

Knowing your story and the ways God has merged in (like on the Road to Emmaus), especially during times of transition or when it comes to making a big decision seems to create a clarity and wisdom unlike much else. 

But another key to this story telling talk is that outside of community, the story doesn't get told and likewise the story of others doesn't get drawn out of the well. So let's grab a friend, order a pint or a cup of coffee and let the story unfold.