Tall Monastic Guy

How are you, Jack?

More often than I’d like to admit I fantasize about my basketball days. I relive those glorious (and inglorious) moments of high school and even my short college career through ridiculous dreams, which often involve me hitting last second game winners or going off for 40 or even 50 points.

It seems these dreams are indicative of the universal desire for more – more achievement, acclaim, and notoriety. And while one half of us enjoys these silly dreams the other half of us recognizes that fame is usually more burden than blessing.

Book Review: Geography of Grace ~ Doing Theology from Below

These days when a Christian book hits the shelves with new ideas and distinctions, our radar of reality goes up with the significant inquiry, “Are the authors really practitioners or are they simply peddling their product?”

In the case of my friends, Kris and Joel, I happen to know they are practitioners in every sense of the word. The work within Geography of Grace comes from years of stumbling, failing, and interpreting theology among the barred and broken of our cities. I can’t pretend to write an objective review of this book because for the last several years it’s been Kris and Joel along with the entire Street Psalm Community who have helped shape my theology as it has been lowered to the level of the streets.

My favorite quote in the book? 

“God has no fear of the slimy intimacy of touching his own creation.”

Focusing on the Poor

"Like every human organization the Church is constantly in danger of corruption. As soon as power and wealth come to the Church, manipulation, exploitation, misuse of influence, and outright corruption are not far away. 

How do we prevent corruption in the Church? The answer is clear: by focusing on the poor. The poor make the Church faithful to its vocation. When the Church is no longer a church for the poor, it loses its spiritual identity. It gets caught up in disagreements, jealousy, power games, and pettiness. Paul says, "God has composed the body so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be eqaully concerned for all the others" (1 Corinthians 12: 24-25). This is the true vision. The poor are given to the Church so that the Church as the body of Christ can be and remain a place of mutual concern, love, and peace." ~ Henri Nouwen