Dream Awakener

Beaver Point, Aug 8, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-08-08T11:53:15-05:00

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Beaver Point, Aug 8, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-08-08T11:52:35-05:00

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Lyons, Aug 7, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-08-08T11:51:59-05:00

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Pints and Saints Part VII

2008-08-08T00:03:00-07:00

German pub friends
Originally uploaded by Camera Freak

A guest post by Mark Steffey

“Craft Beer” – Option Two: Formalized Mission Programs
The second option for Christians is to go right into the center of the storm by targeting bars and pubs as viable “third places” for mission. Churches and communities of faith should encourage members to frequent local pubs/bars as a social context in which they can get to know and build strong relationships with people who are there. This could lead to a variety of pathways to Christ – long-term friendships, invitations to attend a meeting of the missional church community, or other creative groups, like the ones started in various cities by the Catholic church known as “theology on tap” groups. These groups target young adults for weekly or monthly gatherings where spiritual topics are addressed while attendees share a drink. In her article, “God and beer in the summertime,” Renee M. LaReau describes one such group,

"But in the cool basement of the Sheil Catholic Center on Northwestern’s campus the atmosphere is more reflective. More than 80 young adults, participants in the Chicago archdiocese’s Theology on Tap program, deliberate thoughtfully and silently as they sit at round tables and write. Music by Christian singer Michael Poirer plays softly from a CD player in the corner of the room. Periodically, the clink of glass breaks the silence, as participants sip from cold bottles of Amstel Light and Samuel Adams during this 10-minute “reflection time.”

Jesuit Fr. Michael Sparough, the featured speaker at this Theology on Tap site, gave this group much food for thought in his presentation on decision-making. He encouraged them to reflect on their own decisions in the areas of friendship, career, prayer life and sexuality. After the reflection time, he invited participants to divide into small groups for discussion. Sparough encouraged them to share at a level of intimacy they are comfortable with. “Don’t put something out there that’s kinda raw,” he half-joked, provoking an immediate wave of laughter (LaReau, online article 2002).

These groups are an example of a creative, organized way of capitalizing on the tendency of young adults to gather around “good” beer. Churches and other Christian groups need more of this kind of bold programmatic thinking.

The next post is a short conclusion.

This Week with Henri Nouwen - The Dynamics of our Spiritual Lives

2008-08-07T00:05:00-07:00

Our emotional lives and our spiritual lives have different dynamics. The ups and downs of our emotional life depend a great deal on our past or present surroundings. We are happy, sad, angry, bored, excited, depressed, loving, caring, hateful, or vengeful because of what happened long ago or what is happening now.

The ups and downs of our spiritual lives depend on our obedience - that is, our attentive listening - to the movements of the Spirit of God within us. Without this listening our spiritual life eventually becomes subject to the windswept waves of our emotions. - Henri Nouwen

Beaver Point, Aug 6, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-08-06T13:00:14-05:00

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Pints and Saints Part VI

2008-08-06T08:35:53-07:00

German pub friends
Originally uploaded by Camera Freak

A guest post by Mark Steffey

Third Places
Followers of Jesus need to actively involve themselves in the life of the community in which they live, especially in the leisurely activities of the people who they find themselves surrounded by. The idea of the “third place” in the life of a Christian is important. The home is the first place, where we spend most of our time. The place of work is the second place. The “third place” or “third places” is the location or locations where we choose to spend whatever time is left. In his follow-up book to A Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost says, “Many Christians don’t actually go to third places. In fact…for many Christians, the church is their third place. All their leisure time is spent at church meetings or gatherings, belonging to church-based committees and occasionally socializing with our church friends (Frost 2006: 27).”

One the most common of “third places” for many people is a bar or pub. Subsequently, Christians should consider how they might frequent such establishments as a “missional outpost.” Frost says, “Two of the core ingredients that make third places fertile for mission are food and alcohol. Although it makes many conservative Christians uncomfortable, it’s a fact that many not-yet-Christians really open up about important issues over a meal and few drinks (Frost 2006: 175).”

An even more aggressive example of the missional engagement of the pub and bar culture is explained in The Shaping of Things to Come, where the authors describe a pub in England owned and operated by passionate Christians. The owners claim to “Set about creating a loving, welcoming environment, where locals are cared for, listened to, and ministered to (Frost and Hirsch 2003: 17).”

Frost and Hirsch express the kind of interaction that must take place in our culture if we are to impact people with the truth and hope of the Gospel, "The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don’t yet know him" (Frost and Hirsch 2003: 12).

Hirsch, writing on his blog explains further this missional stance. "Incarnational mission thus engages people from within their cultural expression. Once this essential missional listening, observation, connecting, and networking have been done, then the forming of Jesus communities can take place. This is the only way to ensure that the Christian community truly incarnates itself and is fully contextualized."

Only this way can the church actually become part of the cultural fabric and social rhythms of the host community. Once it has achieved this, it can therefore influence it from within. And it doesn’t matter what group that might be. In our neighborhoods are literally hundreds of different ‘tribes’ that can be meaningfully reached by such means. Through the missional-incarnational approach Jesus is introduced into their imaginations and conversations in a really evocative way (Hirsch, blog entry 3/17/2008).

Mother Teresa: An Inside Look - Part I

2008-08-05T00:03:00-07:00

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Originally uploaded by Adoremus_in_aeternum

So I am reading a recent book written about Mother Teresa called Mother Teresa - Come Be My Light compiled by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C. who knew Mother Teresa for twenty years and is the postulator for her cause for sainthoood and director of the Mother Teresa Center. This book is a collect of letters that she wrote to her spiritual advisors over the decades that reveals her inner life. I thought that I would blog some of the thoughts that grabbed me from her life and her letters. This book was published ten years after her death.

When she was twelve she felt called to a vocation to the poor, between the ages of twelve and eighteen she didn't want to be a nun, but she says, "when I was eighteen, I decided to leave my home and become a nun, and since then, this forty years, I've never doubted even for a second that I've done the right thing; it was the will of God. It was His choice." (14)

Her first journey Calcutta, the city that would be inseparably linked with her name, was on January 6, 1929. In her letter she said, "Pray much for us that we may be good and courageous missionaries." (17)

She was sent to Darjeeling shortly after arriving in Calcutta to continue her formation and began her "novitiate" a two year period of initiation that proceeds her first profession of vows. She made her first profession of vows on May 25, 1931, promising to live a life of poverty, chasity, and obedience, and to devote herself with particular care to the instruction of youth.

Following her vows, Sister Teresa taught at St. Mary's Bengali Medium School for girls, until 1948 when she left Loreto to establish the Missionaries of Charity. Here is what she wrote in a letter to her local Catholic magazine back home about these years of service.

"The heat of India is simply burning. When I walk around, it seems to me that fire is under my feet from which even my whole body is burning. When it is hardest, I console myself with the thought that souls are saved in this way and that dear Jesus has suffered much more for them... The life of a missionary is not strewn with roses, in fact more with thorns; but with it all, it is life full of happiness and joy when she thinks that she is doing the same work which Jesus was doing when He was on earth, and that she is fulfilling Jesus' commandment, 'Go and teach all nation!'." (18,19)

Monday Morning Medicine

2008-08-04T01:20:58-07:00

"A cheerful heart is good medicine" Proverbs 17:22

Praying with Walter Brueggemann

2008-08-03T01:51:39-07:00

Dr. Walter Brueggemann
Originally uploaded by meggomae

PRAYER - Practitioners of Memos

Here we are, practitioners of memos:
   We send e-mail and we receive it,
   We copy it and forward it and save it and delete it.
   We write to move the data, and
            organize the program,
            and keep people informed -
   and know how to control and manage.

We write and receive one-dimensional memos,
            that are, at best, clear and unambiguous.
   And then - in breathtaking ways - you summon us to song.
   You, by your very presence, call us to lyrical voice;
   You, by your book, give us cadences of praise
            that we sing and say, "allelu, allelu."
   You, by your hymnal, give us many voices
            toward thanks and gratitude and amazement.
   You, by your betraying absence,
            call us to lament and protest and complaint.
   All our songs are toward you
            in praise, in thanks and in need.

We sing figure and image and parallel and metaphor.
We sing thickness according to our coded community.
We sing and draw close to each other, and to you.
We sing. Things become fresh. but then the moment breaks
   and we sing back into memos:       "How many pages?"
                                                               "When it is due?"
                                                               "Do you need footnotes?"
   We are hopelessly memo kinds of people.
   So we pray, by the power of your spirit,
            give us some song-infused days,
            deliver us from memo-dominated nights.

   Give us different rhythm,
            of dismay and promise,
            of candor and hope,
            of trusting and obeying.

Give us courage to withstand the world of memo
   and to draw near to your craft of life
                  given in the wind.
   We pray back to you the Word made flesh;
   We pray, "Come soon."
   We say, "Amen."

From Prayers for a Privileged People

Pints and Saints Part V

2008-08-01T00:22:12-07:00

German pub friends
Originally uploaded by Camera Freak

A guest post by Mark Steffey

"Light Beer" - Option One: Subtle Mission Praxis
The first option for Christians to reach this unique segment of the culture is simply to move out into it as individuals and groups of friends. I am proposing that getting a group of friends together for fellowship and libations at a local pub can be a doorway to mission. In his article, Stuart Murray states,

It is vital to recognize that a post-Christendom society is not the same as a pre-Christendom society. Lesslie Newbigin reminds us that modern society is "a pagan society, and its paganism, having been born out of the rejection of Christianity, is far more resistant to the gospel than the pre-Christian paganism with which cross- cultural missions have been familiar (Murray, 21)

The society of the United States is post-Christendom. The people living in the apartment buildings, condominiums, row houses, and flats of our major cities have little or no exposure to the Christianity of the cathedrals. The “come-and-see” model will not work for these people. Christians must go to them. As I stated earlier, many of these people frequent the neighborhood bar or pub on a regular basis. Many find friendship, fellowship, and a listening ear while sitting on a bar stool.

Today, too many churches are simply attempting to recycle or re-do the mega-church and church-growth models of the late 20th century to regain a place of importance in the lives of suburbanite families. The emphasis to reach the culture of the bar and pub does not translate well among those local expressions of church. What I am proposing is for those Christians who find themselves living and working among the “working class”, everyday “Joes” of our nation. Murray, again quoting Newbigin,

In a situation of declining numbers, the policy has been to abandon areas (such as the inner cities) where active Christians are few and to concentrate ministerial resources by merging congregations and deploying ministers in the places where there are enough Christians to support them. Needless to say, this simply accelerates the decline. It is the opposite of a missionary strategy, which would proceed in the opposite direction - deploying ministers in the areas where Christian presence is weakest (Newbigin in Murray, 22)

Those Christians who live among the “empire” of America must view themselves as resident aliens, and find their way to the physical locations where life intersects with regular people. William Shenk, using the metaphor of the resident alien, notes, “A resident alien lives in an inescapable tension with the sociopolitical order. Rather than focusing inward on individual spiritual and personal concerns, this metaphor keeps attention turned outward, this maintaining that vital tension between the community of faith and the world (Shenk 1991: 109)

Next post on 3rd places...

This Week with Henri Nouwen - Spiritual Dryness

2008-07-31T00:47:10-07:00

Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don't experience God's presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.

Then it is important to realise that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts. It is a great grace to be able to experience God's presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don't, it does not mean that God is absent. It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness. It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God. - Henri Nouwen

Earthquake Hits LA Area, But National Geographic Says The Big One is Yet to Come

2008-07-30T00:26:11-07:00

So the earthquake that hit the LA area yesterday was a 5.4 on the richter scale. The LA Times has some of the pictures from the quake. I posted two of them in this entry. There was only minor damage because the quake was centered in an area mostly built after building codes tighted up after the 1994 Northridge tremblor. According to the LA times, "The quake struck hardest in an area of San Bernardino County that has seen massive growth in population and housing in the last decade. That meant that the buildings shaken the hardest were mostly built under California's strictest building codes, updated in 1997 in response to the 6.7 Northridge quake of 1994. That kept damage to a minimum."

"Only minor injuries were reported, three at an outpatient medical clinic in Brea and five at a building in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles."

The ten largest quakes in California recorded history includes two quakes of 8.25. Here is a picture of where they all occurred plus the magnitude of each.

So what about future quakes in California? Well the National Geographic in this article, that came out in April 14 of this past year, has said that recent calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years - by 2037. According to this article, "California is one of the most seismically active regions in the world.

More than 300 faults crisscoss the state, which sits atop the meeting of two of the Earth's major tectonic plates, the Pacific and the North American."

The LA times says, "The most interesting thing to us is that this is the first one we've had in a populated area for a long time," seismologist Kate Hutton of Caltech said. "People have forgotten what an earthquake feels like. We should look at this as an earthquake drill for the Big One that will come one day."

It seems wise to prepare for the big one.

Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T16:05:19-05:00

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Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T15:56:33-05:00

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Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T14:06:05-05:00

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Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T14:05:47-05:00

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Earthquake Rocks LA - Here is my Apartment

2008-07-29T11:51:55-07:00

Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008
Originally uploaded by dream awakener

Since moving on Los Angeles, I have been in a few minor earthquakes. Just five minutes ago, at about 11:42 a.m. I experience the biggest earthquake thus far. I don't know what it was on the richter scale, but this picture shows you that it was big enough to knock over my books and picture frame. A number of items fell off the book shelves, but the book shelves themselves did not fall over.

I will give an update a little later. But for those of you who might hear about this on the news, I am doing okay.

Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T13:47:43-05:00

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Los Angeles, Jul 29, 2008 [Flickr]

2008-07-29T13:47:16-05:00

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Pints and Saints Part IV

2008-07-29T00:27:59-07:00

German pub friends
Originally uploaded by Camera Freak

A guest post by Mark Steffey

DRINKING WITH CALVIN AND LUTHER

The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love. -Martin Luther

The above title is taken directly from the book of the same name by Jim West, Drinking with Calvin and Luther. In it, West traces the importance of drinking in the life and ministry of not just these two but many church leaders and reformers. About Calvin, West says,

"John Calvin also expressed his heartfelt gratitude for wine. He wrote in his The Institutes of Christian Religion that 'It is permissible to use wine not only for necessity, but also to make us merry.' Calvin praised the transubstantiation of the water into wine at Cana of Galilee as 'most excellent wine.' He laid down two conditions for wine drinking: First, it must be moderate, 'lest men forget themselves, drown their senses, and destroy their strength.' Calvin even argued that 'in making merry,' those who enjoy wine "feel a livelier gratitude to God (West 2003: 26).'”

West also traces how important beer and wine were to Luther’s life and ministry, citing many letters and writings where Luther talks about drinking. He cites this example, among many, when it comes to Luther, “When Luther was married, he was presented with several casks of beer, but the university gave him a large silver tankard, platted with gold on the outside and inside, weighing five pounds and a quarter (West 2003, 58).”

Tracing back to Jesus, up through the reformation, and even in the last century in the life and ministry of the Trappist Monks or the important conversations that took place among “the Inklings”, the church has a rich and significant ministry that either centers around or includes beer, wine, and alcohol in general. Followers of Jesus must recapture this spirit and look to this history as both inspiration and to find example of how to faithfully move forward.

The next post in this series is: "Light Beer" - Option One: Sublte missional praxis

Monday Morning Medicine

2008-07-28T00:01:00-07:00

Potatoe Pancakes 1
Originally uploaded by heatherlynchriza

"A cheerful heart is good medicine" Proverbs 17:22

A boy is about to go on his first date, and is nervous about what to talk about. He asks his father for advice. The father replies: "My son, there are three subjects that always work. These are food, family, and philosophy."

The boy picks up his date and they go to a soda fountain. Ice cream sodas in front of them, they stare at each other for a long time, as the boy's nervousness builds. He remembers his father's advice, and chooses the first topic. He asks the girl: "Do you like potato pancakes?" She says "No," and the silence returns.

After a few more uncomfortable minutes, the boy thinks of his father's suggestion and turns to the second item on the list. He asks, "Do you have a brother?" Again, the girl says "No" and there is silence once again.

The boy then plays his last card. He thinks of his father's advice and asks the girl the following question: "If you had a brother, would he like potato pancakes?"

Praying with Walter Brueggemann

2008-07-27T04:11:57-07:00

Dr. Walter Brueggemann
Originally uploaded by meggomae

THE PRAYER - The God we would rather have

We are your people and mostly we don't mind,
except that you do not fit any of our categories.

We keep pushing
            and pulling
            and twisting
            and turning,
   trying to make you fit the God we would rather have,
            and every time we distort you that way
                  we end up with an idol more congenial to us.

In our more honest moments of grief and pain
   we are very glad that you are who you are,
   and that you are toward us in all your freedom
   what you have been toward us.

So be your faithful self
and by your very engagement in the suffering of the world,
transform the world even as you are being change

We pray in the name of Jesus,
who is the sign of your suffering love. Amen.

From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

Pints and Saints Part III

2008-07-25T01:05:33-07:00

German pub friends
Originally uploaded by Camera Freak

A guest post by Mark Steffey

"May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness—
an abundance of grain and new wine." Genesis 27:28

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." 'But wisdom is proved right by her actions." Matthew 11:19

Jesus first miracle takes place at a wedding in Cana, where he turns water into wine (John 2:1-11) This familiar story is a clear indication of Jesus’ view that alcoholic beverages can be, when consumed in moderation, an important element in celebration and fellowship. Jesus’ miracle brings life to a party that was threatened by a lack of wine.

Later, as Jesus’ ministry continues, he spends most of his time with people on the margins of society, the sinners, including tax collectors, prostitutes, and common fishermen (Matthew 9:10). He is often found at parties and in social situations that include people viewed by the religious leaders as “sinners.” In the passage listed above, Jesus defends his lifestyle to the crowds while speaking of the life and ministry of John the Baptist. John has abstained from all alcohol, but Jesus was here clearly stating that both he and John lived a life that was pleasing to God, even though they differed in this area.

Finally, at the last supper, Jesus institutes a meal to remember his coming sacrifice, using wine to represent his blood (Matthew 26:28). I am not claiming here that Jesus used wine because he was instituting “drinking” as a normative practice for his followers. But it is interesting to note that at this most sacred of meals, which the church has throughout its history viewed as an important part of its liturgy, Jesus uses wine.

These three events show that Jesus, when finding himself in situations where “ministry opportunity” and alcohol intersected, chose to use the most of the setting. Of course, the drink mentioned in all three of these passage is wine, not beer, but the example remains just as valid. Jesus drank. The church today must do the same as Jesus did. The reality of the culture we live in is that many people drink in social settings, especially bars and pubs. The church, as Guder notes in Missional Church, must not shrink back from the culture, but engage it as it is. He says, “The apostolic character of the church implies a variety of ways in which its mission is carried out, and thus a variety of structures that a missional ecclesiology must address (Guder 1998: 75).”

The idea that Christians should embrace and engage the world of beer and alcohol is something that is not new, but rather has been lost over time…

Next post in this series: Drinking with Calvin and Luther

This Week with Henri Nouwen - People Who Mean The Most

2008-07-24T00:21:47-07:00

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand." - Henri Nouwen