overheard on aaron's blog

"Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager." ~ Os Guiness, quoting a Japanese businessman

my life as a bishop kelley butt pirate

if you know me well, you’re aware that i don’t dance, deplore karaoke and absolutely refuse to dress up for halloween. i don’t hate people who participate in these activities, but have little interest in sharing such experiences. i figure that i make enough of an ass out of myself by constantly interjecting opinions and liberally spewing sarcastic commentary. i don’t need to further offend the world with yet another piss poor rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.

but, on occasion, i have participated in incredibly foolish, exhibitionist activities such as drunken skinny dipping in the seminary pool and participating in the last ride of the bishop kelley butt pirates. i remember the former experience fondly and do not harbor any regrets. but I count the latter experience was one of the finest of my high school years.

on a warm, may afternoon in the year 1995 i stripped down to BVDs, wrapped a black patch around my left eye, picked up a super soaker filled with various ingredients and mounted my eight year old huffy. in the moments before the raid on sunny, rain soaked bishop kelley campus, i trembled with fear. but when blaine, our swash buckling, g-string swaddled, fearless leader, lifted his sword i eagerly joined in the charge.

over the next five glorious minutes i upended unwitting freshmen as well as their books, was violently dismounted by a burly, neolithic junior and, in a moment of daring and bravado that is still eagerly recounted by the pirates who have followed, completely douched brother richard by skidding my bike and hurtling my body into a full, foul puddle of water. our last ride was so dashing, daring and hopelessly homoerotic that i am finding it hard to reduce it to words.

last night, adrift in a sea of sleep, i recounted our glorious ride. i reflected fondly upon torturing freshman, spraying the school debutantes with my own piss and briefly dethroning brother richard. when i awoke, i was filled with pride concerning the butt pirate’s last ride and felt emboldened to make a fool of myself once again.

but on second thought, maybe not.

musing…

so i’ve really been in the shit lately. occupational angst and transitions in my personal life have left me in a precarious and uncertain place. i’m constantly fumbling with questions such as:

why can’t you find contentment in serving Christ at the SS? is massaging your own ego keeping you from appreciating God’s provision?

what’s keeping you from investing your days in something more meaningful? is education your hindrance or insecurity?
will this wound i received from a former mentor and friend ever heal?

but the question that’s really cooked my noodle is “why don’t you stop trying to build an institution and start truly following Jesus?” of course, this question has led to a host of additional questions about whether my inclination to build a church is really, at some subtle level, an attempt to evade some of the more stringent demands of discipleship. for instance, i find it far easier to sit and muse about the mission of our church and how we can support and share the mission of other churches than i find it to listen carefully to, and thereby love, my difficult co-worker. in addition, i suspect that setting my sights on and sometimes lusting for ministerial success is a means of reducing the exceedingly, abundantly incredible demands of Jesus (“be ye perfect,” anyone?) to a more manageable size.

so that’s where i’m at. i’m not begging for tea and sympathy, much less inquiring for answers. i just wanted to let you know where i’m at.

now you’ve scene it! with rear-entry gentry and kevin smith clark

gentry's take...

while out on vacation kellie and I had the pleasure of watching grizzly man with kevin and amy clark. grizzly man recounts the journeys of tim treadwell, a burned out hippie, failed actor and erstwhile medieval times character who fell in love with alaskan grizzly bears and so spent the last fourteen years of his life living among these magnificent creatures and advocating on their behalf.

i was transfixed by timothy’s passionate idealism, for in a way he reminded me a little of saint francis, the self proclaimed “jongleur de dieu” or juggler of God who was not afraid to make a fool of himself as he fulfilled his purpose in life. as foolish as some of timothy’s decisions were – i.e., walking among and talking to ferocious bears he personified with nicknames like “mr. chocolate” and “baubles” – I could not help but respect his willingness to pursue his passion at all costs. fortunately, i was also transfixed by timothy’s ability to scale the heights of unintentional comedy. The autobiographical videos he left behind record such comedic jewels as: his musings on why life would have been so much easier if I was gay (actual excerpt: “I've always wished I was gay, it would have been a lot easier. You know, it's just Bing! Bing! Bing! - gay guys, no problem. They go to restrooms and truck stops and perform sex, it's like so easy for them and stuff.”), his weeping over the beauty of a red fox and blubbering “you, you are the star of all the children!,” his passionate exploration of a pile of bear shit (at which time he said something like “it’s so warm! Look at it! it was just inside mr. chocolate!”) and his profound theological musings (actual text: “I want rain. I want, if there's a God, to kick some ass down here. Let's have some water! Jesus boy! Let's have some water! Christ man or Allah or Hindu floaty thing! Let's have some fucking water for these animals!”).

i recall that on one occasion during preaching class, dr. sackett said that “if you’re not an interesting person, you will never be an interesting preacher.” well, timothy was an interesting, passionate person and a world class unintentional comedian. i think you will find grizzly man oddly fascinating, overwhelmingly funny and unexpectedly touching.

clark's take

As I get older, my appreciation for documentaries increases. From the heart-wrenching (Sound and Fury) to the bizarre (Dancing Outlaw), I've found several that I would view multiple times before entertaining any more feel-good dreck from Ron Howard (especially A Beautiful Mind...which is just a step above dogshit). I found another gem in Grizzly Man. I agree with my brother, Jeff, about its ability to make you laugh ("Downy is hungry! Tabitha is hungry! Melissa is eating her babies!!"), wince, and marvel at one man's passion.

I asked myself, "Where is the line between passion and madness?" Treadwell had a geniune love for these animals, and I think he thought he was doing the right thing. But, through Herzog's presentation, he was unable to function outside of this environment. He would complain about his lovelife, but failed to notice that few women would be attracted to this dangerous lifestyle. And the one that was (Amy) lost her life as well.

Bottom line: there's a reason man should not interact with bears the way Treadwell did. I disagree with Herzog, who said that the underlying current to the universe is chaos. It's very much rooted in order, the way it was designed. Though these bears would sniff at Treadwell in a curious sense, there's always the chance they would snap/attack/defend. Even domestic animals, like dogs, will snap and attack, sometimes kill, humans. We weren't designed to have fellowship with bears, nor they with us. I can't lament Treadwell for his choices. I, like Jeff, can appreciate his passion, but I cannot and will not condone his behavior. He's not a humanitarian. He's not Dianne Fossey. He's not Jacques Cousteau. Hell, he's not even Steve Zissou. He's a man who proved what these bears have been trying to communicate for a long time: leave us alone.

It's a fascinating watch, and a reminder that though we are first among His creation, we are not exempt from the laws He set to govern it.

and now, for the denouement

we enthusiastically give grizzly man two thumbs up, way up (the ass).

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Last night I felt what I thought was the prompting of your Spirit. As a result, I spoke in a manner that appeared to be prophetic, proclaimed that you were leading our friends out of bondage and spoke of you as a cloud by day and a fire by night and implored the community to follow you and refuse to fear those who had driven them out. My word was equal parts encouragement and condemnation. I called our friends to look up towards your presence and boasted that our enemies should look out.

Then Rennie spoke.

She urged us not to harden our hearts in hatred and prayed for those who persecuted her community. She implored you to grant wisdom and guidance to those who have gone so ridiculously astray and as a result have deeply wounded many.

I tried to emulate the prophets, expounding upon your glory and denouncing those whose works appear to blight it.

But Rennie emulated Jesus. She incarnated his command to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. She steered clear of judgment, which belongs to you alone, by choosing to act in love.

I hope that my friends follow Rennie and take my presumptuous “prophecy” with a grain of salt. I am constantly amazed by how often those who seek to lead in this upside down Kingdom of yours are those who most desperately need to be led.

tonight, on a very special episode of musings...

pastor phil wyman of the gathering, which is a sister community of sinners and saints and was, until the recent inquisition, a four square gospel church, would like to share a few words.

Krishna, Hospital Visits, Preachers, and Dictionaries for France

I don't like places which have too many things happening at the same time. It makes my brain slow down. When my brain goes slow, my body goes slow too. What is even worse is when I am in a place with too many things, and big words I don't understand. When that happens it is like when my wife asks me to do more than one thing at the same time. I have to ask her to put it on a list, because a list is just one thing, and I can do a list, because it is one thing.

Last week my son went to the hospital. His name is Elijah, and I don't have any other sons - or daughters either. Some people have more than one, but like God I only have one.

I don't like hospitals when someone in my family is in them, because they are busy, and in hospitals people say things I don't understand. Then my brain goes slow, and so does my body. Somebody should do something to make
hospitals easier. I think that there should be a hospital dictionary, like the dictionaries for people who go on vacation to France.

This is how Elijah got to the hospital: Elijah's left eye became blurry in the peripheral vision, over the course of a day or two. The peripheral vision is that place on the side which you can't really look at, because once you try to look at it, it isn't on the side any more. Apparently, when your peripheral vision gets blurry suddenly your eye is telling you that something is wrong,
like when the airplane on the way to France makes a strange new noise.

Elijah called his friend Jim Trick. Jim is a another musician, a preacher, and an optometrist. That's a lot of different things to be. I wonder if Jim goes slow in a hospital like I do. I don't think so, because he can do all those smart things. Elijah is a musician too, but he's not a preacher, or an optometrist. I am a musician, and a preacher too, but I'm not an optometrist either. Maybe
if I was an optometrist I'd like hospitals better, because they would make sense to me, and I would be someone who could do many things at once.

Being a musician and a preacher is not really very different. They both get up in front of people and talk, and sing about stuff. The musician can sing about any kind of stuff, but the preacher only has to talk about God stuff, so he
doesn't have to be as smart. He only talks about one thing. Then again God is a big thing to talk about, so maybe we have to be a little smart about one big thing.

Jim Trick sent Elijah to a Doctor. The Doctor was very nice, and saw Elijah that same day even though he was busy. He looked at Elijah's eyes. He said that Elijah needed to go to the emergency room at the hospital.

The Doctor's name is Krishna Gaddipati. He is Indian - from India, not from a reservation in America. He is an opthamologist. Opthamologists go to school for a long time to learn to look at eyes. So he is smart, and probably doesn't go slow in hospitals, because he does surgery on people's eyes, and he probably doesn't need a dictionary for the words. He probably knows
them all by heart.

Elijah went to the emergency room, just like Dr. Krishna said. They checked his blood pressure. They told Elijah's wife Rhonda to fill out the paperwork for him, and they took Elijah back into the emergency ward.

Elijah did not have to wait to be helped by the doctors. No waiting is usually good, but now I know that it's not always good at the emergency ward.

Elijah's blood pressure was 209 over 125. People have strokes when their blood pressure is 209 over 125. When they write out the blood pressure it looks like this... 209/125 mmHg. MmHg is millimeters of mercury. The hospital used to use a machine called a sphygmomanometer, but that was a long time ago. Mercury would rise by millimeters in a long thin tube to tell
how strong someone's blood pressure was. Today they use electronic devices and blood pressure cuffs with no long, thin mercury tubes. But I had to read about that after the visit to the hospital.

Elijah was sitting in a little room with three walls, and a curtain for another wall, but the curtain was open. Doctors and nurses came in and went out. There were needles, and Elijah got shots. There were IVs in his right arm. IVs are intravenous tubes which medicine is sent through. Little things called sensors were placed all over his chest. The little sensors were connected to
the machine which said "beep, beep, beep...," and made the wavy lines which tell you if your heart is beating properly. There were doctors saying they were very concerned. They said that young men Elijah's age should not be having problems like this, especially if they don't smoke, drink too much alcohol, or take drugs. Elijah is 21, and he doesn't do those things, so they didn't know what was wrong.

It is not good when the Doctors don't know what is wrong.

Elijah did not know what was happening. Rhonda not did understand what was happening either. So Rhonda called Bev on the phone. Bev is my wife. Bev is a Dental Hygienist. Bev is like Jim Trick. She can do a lot of things. She can play the flute, preach, and do Dental Hygiene too. Playing the flute is not like preaching, because you don't talk, or sing when you do it, and Dental Hygiene is like a hospital kind of thing, except you never have to stay for five days to get it done, but you do have to know big hospital words. So I think that Bev is more comfortable in a hospital than I am. Bev told Rhonda, "I don't clean people's teeth when their blood pressure is 209 over 125." Rhonda cried.

Rhonda cried because she began to understand a little bit. Elijah was not doing well. He was very sick, and this was strange. It was strange, because Elijah looked and acted healthy. The only things wrong were that he had headaches, and blurry vision in the part of his left eye which you can't see when you are trying to look straight at it, and his blood pressure was 209/125 mmHg.

209 is the systolic pressure. Systole is when the left ventricle of the heart pumps and makes the most pressure on the blood vessels. The word systolic comes from systole. A ventricle is one of the little rooms in the heart, but it is not one of the rooms which preachers talk about when they say that we try to keep God from certain rooms in our hearts. The ventricle is just a place for the blood to go in, and then to get pumped back out, and I don't think that we can pump God out. The left ventricle pushed hard enough to rupture some blood vessels in Elijah's eyes, and that's why Dr. Krishna sent Elijah to the hospital. Dr. Krishna knew something was wrong with Elijah's blood pressure. He knew that Elijah could have lost his eyesight permanently, or
had a stroke, or any number of other bad things which happen when your blood pressure is 209/125 mmHg.

Rhonda filled out paperwork while Elijah had needles, and IVs put in has arm. The hospital was a new place to Rhonda. But not a new exciting place. Some new places are fun. This was not one of those fun, new places. It didn't have a dictionary.

We came to see Rhonda a little bit after Elijah went back into the emergency ward. The hospital was not an exciting new place to us either.

It took a long time for the doctors to bring Elijah's blood pressure down. It was three days later, and then the blood pressure was 120/55 mmHg. That is a normal level, but it only stayed normal when Elijah took pills for his blood pressure. We prayed really hard on the day it went down to 120 over 55. Maybe Jesus heard us, and helped the doctors. Doctors need help from Jesus.

They don't always know what is wrong, but Jesus always knows those things. Maybe Doctors have slow brains in the hospital sometimes too, and that's why preachers like me need to go to the hospital and pray for them.

After five days Elijah was able to go home. That was two days ago. The doctors still don't know what is wrong with Elijah. There will be more tests, and more needles.

In a couple days I think that I'll be better, but right now I'm still going slow in my head. I don't think that I will need needles, or IVs, and that is good, because I think that would make my brain go even slower. My brain should go back to normal on its own.

We are all very thankful for Dr. Krishna, but it is funny that his name is Krishna. I am a Christian, and I believe in Jesus. I don't believe in Krishna. Krishna is a Hindu god, and I am not a Hindu, but the doctor's name is Krishna, and he is not the Hindu god. He is just a good doctor who helped save my son, and only his name is Krishna.

A few months ago I sat in a room with other preachers. They told me that I was not being a good preacher. They said things which were not true, and said that I was aberrant. Aberrant is what someone calls you if they think that your teachings about Christianity are wrong, but they didn't know my teachings. They were only guessing, and they made things up about me. I
still don't know why they made things up, and so my brain went slow for a little while then too.

That meeting was like the hospital. It was not a fun, new place, and people were saying things which I didn't understand. I didn't need a dictionary like the ones which people get when they go to France, because I understood the words, but I did not understand why they said the words they were saying, because I thought that preachers were supposed to say true words, and they were not saying true words about me.

I think that these same people might not understand when I say that Krishna saved my son's life. They might think that I am a Hindu, but I am not a Hindu. I am a Christian, and I know that Jesus saved my son's life, but Jesus used a Doctor named Krishna to help.

I think that it is funny that a Doctor named Krishna helped save my son, but I know that there are some people who aren't funny people, and they wouldn't understand. Maybe they need a dictionary to learn how to be funny, like the dictionaries which people get when they go to France. Maybe someday I'll write a dictionary to help people learn to be funny, but that will have to wait till my brain gets back to normal, and I am not thinking so slow.

overheard

"compassion is the physical movement into the presence of suffering and the spiritual movement into the void created by the sense of abandonment that suffering brings."

~david hansen in loving the church you lead, pg. 73.

gentry’s book blurbs

Howard Bryant’s Juicing the Game

“Juicing the Game is the quintessential examination of MLB’s steroids (or should we say Selig?) era. Howard’s careful, comprehensive analysis provides us with a comprehensive examination of the pharmacological, sociological, economic and architectural causes of baseball’s “Big Bang” decade. This compelling, Schlosser-esque narrative uncovers Barry Bond’s Game of Shadows and indicts an institution that was on the juice.”

Memorandum from Captain Random

Sorry that I’ve been so distant lately. Kellie and I just returned from a short swing through the upper Midwest, we’ve been spending a fair amount of time supporting one of our sister churches that just got screwed by their denomination and our community is entering into one of our most activity heavy times of the year. I don’t have much time to write now, but would like to offer some ill-considered and free associated thoughts for you.

During our time in the Midwest, we celebrated holy week at St. Paul’s, the Episcopalian parish that our brother-in-law serves, and spent a lovely evening reconnecting with the good folks at Xenos. as always, my time in and around St. Paul’s fed my love for liturgy and the sacraments as well as my bent towards a more inclusivistic theology. In contrast, my time at Xenos fed my passion for seeing: the gospel of Jesus clearly proclaimed, the path of discipleship clearly demarcated and the church community living out the compassion and truth of the gospel. Like I mentioned to my comrade and fellow co-hort leader kid positive last night, sometimes I wish I could cultivate that “one pure and holy passion” we longed for and sang about in years hence. Since I cannot seem to integrate my progressive sensibilities and approach to ministry with my evangelical passion for proclamation, I wish that I could fully embrace and energetically pursue one of these passions with my whole heart. But I fear that elevating one tendency at the expense of the other would lead to a form of spiritual schizophrenia and suspect that I need to continue to hold onto both these passions whether or not integration that I hope for ever comes.

I think the boston co-hort, which had it’s initial meeting last night, is a good place to work through these struggles with others. I like to think of our co-hort as “a good place to discuss dangerous theology.” If you live in the area and are interested in joining us, please visit the site I linked above or contact me directly. Our next meeting will be on May 23 at Bukowski’s pub in downtown Boston.

Shit…now that I’ve made that shameless pitch, I need to get to work. Hopefully I’ll be able to free-associate again later in the day.

The SS may or may not do business with an organization officially known as "Went Fruity Inc."

T-minus 265 minutes until I get to eject from my cube, head down to the big city and catch a Red Sox game with my Dad. Our tickets are about 10 rows behind the Sox dugout.

The customer service department of the SS is currently choosing a departmental mission statement. Our new Fuhrer has asked for submissions and I'm going to suggest the following.

1. SS Customer Service: The buck stops over there!

2. SS Customer Service: German attitude, American efficiency.

3. And the old standby - SS Customer Service: Just because we serve you doesn't mean we like you.

Which mission statement do you prefer? Have any creative ideas that I can claim as my own?

so i went to the doctor yesterday…

on account of my tingling left arm, they told me i might have a torn rotator cuff. i threw baseballs for years and did absolutely no damage to my arm. now, after carrying a couple of buckets of waste veggie into the basement and off-loading a couple of cartons of catalogs at work i might have to see a physical therapist or have surgery.

that figures.

i’m twenty-eight years old, have a torn rotator cuff and a prostate the size of a national league baseball. perhaps i can find a way to contract tennis toe, psoriasis or gingivitis. Then my list of small, strange yet nagging injuries would be complete!

on second thought, let’s scratch the gingivitis. i don’t want to face the armenian warrior who works at the dentist’s office any more than i absolutely have to.

off the shelf

frederick buechner once said that “to truly tell the story of anything well is to tell the story of everything.” that quote always arrests me. it makes me think about the great stories i’ve heard, the stories of those i know and love who have lived well and it really makes me think about the story that is mine to tell. but since i don’t feel up to musing about such deep things this morning, i’d like to tell you a little bit about a story i’ve been reading over the past couple of days.

on saturday afternoon i was mired in a funk and seeking solace in the library. every time i walk into our local library, which providentially sits only a block and a half from the house, i always check out their used book cart for another volume that can establish residence on my shelf and likely go unread. this particular saturday, i was surprised to stumble across a yellowed but usable copy of bill bryson’s a walk in the woods. i’d heard great things about this book, so for the reasonable price of two quarters, i decided to give it a shot.

although i had planned to polish off the history of the negro leagues i’ve been reading, i decided to read bryson’s introduction first. after the first few pages i was hooked. now bryson’s book is on the shelf and the negro leagues book is sitting precariously in my half finished pile.

if you haven’t read any of bryson’s work before, i think that a walk in the woods is a wonderful place to start. throughout these pages bryson records his, and his reformed-alcoholic, overweight, lovable imbecile of a friend katz’s ,attempt to walk the appalachian trail. as these lovably crotchety guys drag their middle-age asses up mountains, struggle to find sleep on rat infested sleeping pallets and wrestle with the ever-present temptation to take the nearest highway to the greasy spoon (where katz may or may not find yet another endomorphic woman of his dreams), bryson provides an oral history of such diverse subjects as the AT, the coal mining industry in pennsylvania, the forest service and the mortality rate on mount washington. i fear that i’ve made the book sound like a boor, so you’ll have to trust me that it is far from. it is one of the most engaging, witty and insightful pieces of travel/adventure writing that i have read in a long time.

here are a few excerpts that i found funny.

whilst reflecting on bear attacks: their causes and avoidance a book that kept bryson keyed up and “saucer eyed” late into many nights, bryson confesses: “what on earth would i do if four bears came into my camp? why, i would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. i would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children’s parties – i daresay it would even give a merry toot – and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag” (pg. 19. and to answer your question, yep, that’s for you james the girl).

when bryson and katz sat down for dinner at shaw’s, a well known hostel in monson, maine, they were joined by “two others, a sweetly hesitant and wholesome-looking young couple, both tanned and fit and also very clean.” after the guys are caught unawares by the couple’s extended dinner prayer, bryson tries to make conversation. the following is a record of what ensues:

“so you’ve nearly done it, huh?” i (bryson) said, a trifle inanely but just trying to make conversation.”

“yes,” said the girl. she said it slowly, as two syllables, as if it hadn’t previously occurred to her. there was something serenely mindless in her manner.

“did you ever feel like giving up?”
the girl thought for a moment. “no,” she said simply.
“really?” i found this amazing. “did you never think, ‘jeez, this is too much. i don’t know if i want to go through with this?’”

she thought again, with an air of encroaching panic. these were obviously questions that had never penetrated her skull.
her partner came to her rescue. “we have a couple of low moments in the early phases,” he said, “but we put our faith in the Lord and His will prevailed.”
“praise Jesus,” whispered the girl, almost inaudibly.
“ah,” I said, and made a mental note to lock my door when i went to bed.
“and God bless Allah for the mashed potatoes!” said katz happily and reached for the bowl for the third time” (pgs. 249-250).

a severe storm watch is in effect

i once trembled
as the sky turned green
calm conquered the wind
sirens sounded in the distance

while others set up camp
camcorders at the ready
seemingly eager for calamity
i cowered in a ceramic corner

but the stream of years
has eroded such anxieties
now I listen for cataclysmic thunder
and almost hope to spot a hook in the sky

but as seconds tick by
with secret hopes unfulfilled
and the years assault
the levies of opportunity

i still tremble

yet another reason i will never visit branson (again).



i would give my left...earlobe...to be on deck this friday though. regis is going to be there!

light the fire again!

has your church attendance been down?

are the walls of the baptistry looking moldy?

do you have more parking than you know what to do with?

is the starbucks in the lobby bearly breaking even?

if you've answered yes to any or all of these questions, then we have the answer for you!



sneak a peek at kirk's "glamour shot," hear a snippet of his evangelistic message and shop for other inspirational speakers at outreach speakers.com!

i may or may not be

committed to giving customers “the pickle”

sitting on an enflamed prostate

bereft of any significant thought

hiding two red sox, field box tickets in my satchel

a committed vegetarian

a future graduate of the South Hamilton Institute of Theology

the president of a non-profit corporation

squeezed into a new pair of exciting, and enhancing, jockey briefs

concerned that our i.t. manager just spied this post as well as the espn real time scoreboard up on my screen

planning to ignore my evening responsibilities to watch and worship baseball

what about you? do you have anything to say for yourself?

put it where it doesn't belong

there's no other way to say it, my day at the SS has been a fucking mess. i'm brutally bored, my blood is up and i'm on the verge of blowing my promising career in giftware to smithereens.

fortunately this furrow browed, death inducing day has not been without humor. five minutes ago, while i was puzzling over a stack of long-ignored invoices, i heard patty smith, my sweet, slot machine lovin', 65 year old co-worker, matter-of-factly repeating the following titles to a customer:

"want a whipping?

clean clothes, dirty mind.

want to get lucky?

thanks for making me stretch.

you and wine are best drunk."

after she completed her list, i about shit. i had no idea that we had decided to carry the "hustler home accents" line.

overheard

over the past few weeks, i've been coming back to this entry from uncle henri's the inner voice of love time and again. so i thought you might find it intriguing as well.

keep trusting God's call

"as you come to realize that God is beckoning you to a greater hiddenness, do not be afraid of that invitation. over the years you have allowed the voices that call you to action and great visibility to dominate your inner life. you still think, even against your own best intuitions, that you need to do things and be seen in order to follow your vocation. but you are now discovering that God's voice is saying, "stay home, and trust that your life will be fruitful even when hidden."

it is not going to be easy to listen to God's call. your insecurity, your self-doubt, and your great need for affirmation make you lose trust in your inner voice and run away from yourself. but you know that God speaks to you through your inner voice and that you will find joy and peace only if you follow it. yes, your spirit is willing to follow, but your flesh is weak.

you have friends who know that your inner voice speaks the truth and can affirm what it says. they offer you the safe space where you can let that voice become clearer and louder. there will be people who will tell you that you are wasting your time and talents, that you are fleeing from true responsibility, that you fail to use the influence you have. but don't let yourself be misled. they do not speak in God's name. trust the few who know your inner journey and want you to be faithful to it. they will help you stay faithful to God's call."

i hear you uncle henri. by God's grace, i'll continue upon this road of descent.

sometimes i wish…

that i was one of those gracious people who made every person they spoke with feel like they were the most important person in the world. i’m sure you’ve encountered these magnanimous individuals, who listen carefully to your every word, find a way to relate to every experience and are able to encourage people with wise words instead of unreflective opinions.

i wish i was that way, but i’m not. when i don’t want to talk to someone, by body physically recoils. when an uninvited individual invades my space, i quickly re-establish boundaries. and in those rare moments where i physically force myself to slap my empathetic face on and receive people well, anyone who looks in my eyes knows that i’m being false.

there’s a guy at my work who is as extroverted as i am intro and his love for small talk is almost as great as my hatred for it. but i constantly slap my empathetic face on in an attempt to be the person that i wish i was and - truth be told – in order to score a few of his red sox tickets.

i am jack's self-loathing.

An Open Invitation

Hey friends,

Boston's emergent co-hort will be meeting for the first time on Tuesday, April 18th at 7 p.m. at Bukowski's in downtown Boston. Bukowski's is located at 50 Dalton St., Boston, MA 02115. I'd provide more detailed directions, but trust that you can use google maps and read T maps as effectively and efficiently as I can.

Craig Lewiston and I will help facilitate the first gathering, but we really want this co-hort to be a shared venture. So come ready to introduce yourself, share your idea of what the co-hort should/could be, laugh a good deal and drink a pint or two. Maybe, if things get really crazy, we'll tromp over to the Christian Science Center which is located near Bukowski's for an ad hoc educational tour.

Ok, maybe not.

I hope that you can take the time to connect with us. I'll don some Saint Louis Cardinals gear so we'll be easy to locate and I'll be sure to share the four spiritual laws with the surrounding patrons before we meet, so that we won't feel guilty about failing to fulfill the Great Commission between 7 and 9 p.m. on that particular night.

If you have any questions about our gathering, or would like to hear 15 reasons why the Chicago Cubs are the most pathetic team in professional sports, feel free to shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.

Peace of Christ,

Jeff Gentry

One more thing - Craig is in the process of securing a domain name and setting up an interactive Word Press blog for our co-hort's use. I'll let you know when the site is up and running and will clue you into the first topic of conversation (Right now, I'm leaning towards "How our co-hort can intentionally inflate the sales of Brian McLaren's books," but such thoughts are always subject to change).

And again... - Feel free to invite anyone and everyone who is interested in dialogue - and/or has a distinguished record of "picking up the tab" - to join us.

Lord have mercy

In my experience, death washes over us in waves. Fortunately, I have enjoyed many seasons of drought, when death is so absent that I almost forget its omni-presence. However, I have also weathered a season or two when death has been at high tide and the grief and difficulty of accompanying those I love through the deluge has been almost overwhelming.

For many that I love, this appears to be one of the latter seasons. Kevin Rains and his remarkable community at Vineyard Central in Cincinatti have suffered through the death of two of their church leaders, Mark Palmer and Chad Canipe, in a one-month period. Both of these men had a passionate love for God, were innovative church leaders who invited many into God’s community and, perhaps most importantly, left behind wives and children. Please join me as I pray the Vineyard Central community through this difficult time.

Furthermore, Becky's church is enduring the tragic shooting death of one of the young men in their community. Having been a part of a church that endured a school shooting, I can tell you that the shock and the grief that follows these sudden events is often overwhelming. Please a moment to support this community in prayer.

Finally, another friend and her family is enduring through the despairing death of her uncle. Pray God’s mercy upon those who are crushed by the broken machinations of this busted world. Ask the Spirit to provide their family with solace during this time.

Like I’ve said before, I don’t think our Judeo-Christian tradition provides us with many answers about suffering. However, the fathers and mothers of our faith who struggled forward before us as well as our suffering servant of a Lord have labored to show us how, even in the darkest of nights, to hold out hope for the dawn. Let us pull upon the riches of our tradition as we pray, serve and accompany our beloved ones through this season of grief.

show and tell

i have been known to walk, talk and preach in my sleep, but unlike many others (hi there, holli-brooke) i have never had many lucid dreams. but last night was an exception to the rule.

it all started when i stumbled into our bathroom and was startled to find that it was literally splattered with shit. there was shit smeared on the windows, shit caked in the crevice between the handle of the flusher and the basin, and our hand towels, which had apparently been used in lieu of sanitary paper, were smeared with shit. as soon as the stench of shit hit my nostrils, i knew who perpetrator was an old acquaintance who has, dare i say, less than reputable hygienic tendencies.

so i had my old college buddy matt woodrow drive me down to the corner store where this fellow kept a satellite office. after a quick interrogation, i wrestled a confession out of the bastard, found out how he entered our locked house – i figured the basement window was his most likely point of access, but it turns out that he used wayne newton’s backstage door instead – and, grasping him firmly by the neck, i physically forced him into the backseat of the car.

once we got back to the house, i vehemently berated the guilty party while he cleaned and disinfected every inch of that bathroom. after he finished, i resisted the urge to physically harm him, but i made damn sure he knew that his life would be in jeopardy if he ever shit stained our bathroom again.

what’s the moral of the story? if you ever decide to spray shit all over our bathroom, there will be hell to pay.

i also had a more peaceful dream that focused on negro league baseball, stowe, vermont and chicken cordon-bleu. but my show and tell time is now up.

musing...

The pixie should pen this post, not me. But since she is still a bit reticent about blogging, I’ll take a quick stab at it.

As I continue down the path of discipleship, I am beginning to realize that I will probably never be the pastoral superstar that I was trained to be. I don’t think that sinners and saints will develop into a mega-church, I won’t lead a pastoral staff that’s larger than a major league roster and I doubt that I’ll spend my weeks speaking at conferences and weekends facilitating retreats. Thankfully, I’m learning to be ok with the fact that I’m called to be Andrew instead of Peter and, under the guidance my wife and spiritual director, I’m starting to develop a theology of the ordinary.

From my perspective, a theology of the ordinary does not provide you with the principles of schematics that you need to do “great things” for God, but rather enables you to not only to endure, but love a difficult co-worker. Moreover, a theology of the ordinary does not enable you to interpret the Word of God for your community, but it does suggest some ways that you can incite and participate in a community of interpretation. As with so many of my posts lately, this one needs and deserves a far greater amount of development and thought. However, I like to share my inclinations as much – or more – than I like to share my “conclusions,” with you. Moreover, I think that a number of you might have something to add.

May God’s face shine upon you and His Spirit guide you as you learn to sketch out your own ordinary theology. Much love.

so that's why they call him "the rocket"

"All the Team USA pitchers -- and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann -- were in awe of Roger Clemens. But one thing they weren't ready for was Clemens taking that Icy Hot that pitchers rub on their shoulders and arms and spreading it over his upper thighs and private parts. "He doesn't want to get comfortable on the mound," says Jake Peavy, who tried the same trick Friday night in Phoenix. " -from "the commissioner's" espn insider blog

hey...he stole my metaphor!

for a number of months i have been describing sinners and saints as a centrifugal church (okay, most of the time i mistakenly spoke about it as a centripetal church, since i'm not much of a physicist, but still...), insofar as we are committed to equipping people for ministry, blessing them and sending them out when they leave and continuing to provide some form of accompaniment as they continue to incarnate the Kingdom throughout the world.

i'm not going to lie to you, i thought this metaphor (even when incorrectly communicated) was a clever way of communicating the passion of our church. then i went on steve holt's blog today and found out that fred peatross used my metaphor to describe the missional church in this article. of course, he also explains the concept in a manner that is much more cogent or concise than i could ever muster.

so i'm thinking about sticking his ass with an "improper use of intellectual property" suit. then he'll think twice about effectively appropriating my ideas.

musing

on wednesday night, as i was leafing through neil lanctot’s excellent historical survey negro league baseball: the rise and ruin of a black institution, my eyes drifted over to one of our bookshelves. resting somewhat conspicuously on the bookshelf was james sire’s the universe next door. for some reason, the sight of this book got me thinking.

i thought about how books like the universe next door, the scandal of the evangelical mind and worldviews in conflict have challenged young evangelicals, including myself, to pursue academic studies with rigor and fully apply our intellect to the Christian faith. i thought about how the desire of evangelicals to attain intellectual credibility has intentionally or unintentionally resulted in a lot of the progressive and innovative thought that we see in circles such as emergent.

i feel like we were taught to study rigorously and expand our experience of life, but then quickly return to the assumptions of our evangelical forbears. for instance, in seminary i felt like they handed us the tools of textual criticism, which exposed the rich layers of tradition and compilation in the Pentateuch, and then expected us to faithfully affirm and fight to the death for the assumption of mosaic authorship. moreover, the uncompromising evangelical commitment to mission has introduced many of us us to, and encouraged us to invest in, cultures throughout the world, yet when we returned home we were expected to leave our cultural assumptions unchallenged and our methodologies unchanged.

i hope that no one hears me hammering on our evangelical tradition here or scoffing at those who have trained and invested so fully in our lives. this is not an attack of any sort. i just find it interesting how initiatives such as the evangelical scramble for intellectual credibility give birth to such unintended consequences.

“God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”

I think that most of us have seen that bumper sticker at some point in our lives and I am sure that many of us found it unsettling. When I hear someone speak about scripture in that manner, I assume that they regard Scripture as a pile of propositional bricks with which they can build their house or, perhaps, they think of it as an ideational 2 x 4 with which they can smack those who disagree with them over the head. So I’m completely uncomfortable with that kind of absolutist, propositional approach.

But I am still quite willing to do something simply because “the Bible told me so.” Is that a contradiction?

I think not. But in order for me to submit my life to Scripture in such a manner, I’ve had to alter my metaphors. I no longer look at Scripture as 66 old piles of propositional bricks, but as the record of how God, through the Holy Spirit, has and is shaping his people to worship Him, love one another and incarnate his presence in the world. Since I believe that the same Spirit that inspired the Scriptures and has shaped God’s people throughout history is still moving within and shaping both me and my community, I do not hesitate to submit my life to the Scriptures. So, in the end, I am still willing to do things “because the Bible said so.” But my motives for doing so are a bit different now than they were in the past.

I don’t know if this makes any sense at all. This kind of topic deserves more careful treatment, but I don’t have the time to offer that right now. Just thought I’d let you know what I’m thinking.

overheard

my friend dustin just penned an excellent, proverbial article that was featured in 7ball magazine. if you take a few minutes to read following the ants, i think you'll like it.

i've added steve holt - STEVE HOLT! - to the ole sidebar. he and his wife chrissy are planning on creating incarnational communities of christian compassion in the boston area. be sure to check out his blog, which i'm sure you'll dig.

agent b continues to provide regular reports conerning his incarnational ministry. i'm so glad that larry cannon over at lifeway turned me on to this guy.

eth·no·cen·trism (thn-sntrzm)
n.

1. Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.
2. Overriding concern with race.
3. Choosing to broadcast the conclusion of a meaningless, domestic N.I.T. game instead of the intriguing first inning of the World Baseball Classic.
   

questions that are confounding my infantile mind

why is the united states of america a featured country in epcot’s “world showcase?” isn’t that a little redundant?

does anyone else suspect that adam morrison is the older brother of that autistic baller that was recently featured on espn? the other day he attempted a avant-garde, "defense by jumping jacks" approach. he's one strange duck.

why are people sending out patriotic spam to mark the third anniversary of this futile war?

why are “it” personnel almost universally condescending? relatively few car mechanics, vacuum repairmen and hvac technicians i’ve known expect to be treated with reverence and awe. why do computer mechanics expect to be treated differently?

how many tattoos must one have to work at the friendly toast? does their management refer to body art as "flair"?

why do people keep calling my cell phone and asking for hamlet?

why have i ignored the ncaa tournament for so many years? the tourney provides one of the most complex and compelling plot lines in all of sports.

why do we allow companies to treat us like commodities?

why is it so hard to love and so easy to hate?

why am I expected to walk on emotional egg-shells with SS sales reps? i need to save my sparse reserves of eq for our customers. our sales reps are going to have to develop thicker skin.

why do i continue to put up with blogger (the aol of the web log world) when free, open-source options like word press are available?

why are the decades old embargos against cuba considered sound policy? wouldn’t capitalism crack their ideological walls a hell of a lot quicker than imposed isolationism?

musing

in other news...a couple of weeks ago i mentioned that while i was well-grounded in the ecclesiolae, or local church, i was quite clueless about my role in the ecclesia. well, over the past month or so the Lord has provided a number of connections with the larger body of Christ. in the past month i have been introduced to an intriguing cast of characters including the aforementioned ben d10 - who leads a relational homechurch in atlanta, steve and chrissy h. - who are about to leave the confines of abilene christian university in order to plant relational churches in the boston area, michael m. and john d. - two forward thinking and long faithful gents with whom i hope to help start an emergent co-hort, steven from lcc - who, along with his incredibly gifted wife, have been incarnating the Kingdom in afghanistan, hank w. - who is heading up an intriguing church plant in the boston area and jason a., a passionate Christ follower who is a part of d10s crew. i am excited about partnering with these folks as together we seek to be the incarnation of God throughout the world. i desperately hope that our developing relationships as well as any work we do together will honor God and leave our personal ambitions unfulfilled.

musing...

"holiness is sustained attention to the heart, the source of all action. it concerns itself with the core of the personality, the well-spring of behavior, the quintessence of the soul. it focuses upon the formation and transformation of this center." -richard foster, streams of living water, pg. 83

lately i've been doing a lot of good things: extending hospitality to people who are visiting our community, applying myself fully at work and participating in this season of penitence and reflection that prepares us for the resurrection of our Lord.

lately i've been doing a lot of good things, but i haven't been living from the center. one moment i'm intentionally serving the Lord and accompanying my brothers and sisters in Christ and the next moment i'm failing to serve the interests of our community or setting a remarkably poor example for our community. these spiritually bi-polar episodes are really starting to wear on me and, i fear, my beloved ones as well.

i hope that during this season of holistic deconstruction, the Lord makes good on his promise of restoring all things. i long for him to purify my heart, to increase my dependence on His animating Spirit and re-establish an enduring connection between my intentions and actions. i want Him to teach me how to connect with the larger body of Christ without weakening my connections to my most beloved ones and i want to learn how to be a true tentmaker instead of a ministerial mercenary. i want to be led towards the via media that, i suspect, exists between my idolatry of space and the open spaces wherein i provide unlimited access to my heart.

Lord, help me endure this season of holistic deconstruction. i look forward to your restoration and long to be more fully integrated into the body of your holy people.

overheard

"Jesus is there only for others...Our relation to God is not a 'religious' relationship...but our relation to God is a new life in 'existence for others,' through participation in the being of Jesus...the church is the church only when it exists for others." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer as quoted in Foster's Streams of Living Water

I was stunned by this assertion by Bonhoeffer that our "relation" to God is not something that is primarily focused on our edification or even our salvation. Rather, our "relation" to God is an invitation to invest our lives in and allow our stories to unfold in the midst and on behalf of others.

My prayer is that our "relation" to God will lead us into a proper "relation" with others, among whom we freely give and freely receive, freely embrace and freely surrender. God has blessed us by making us recipients of His grace. By the indwelling of His Spirit, I pray that he will teach us to live lives of "gratuite."

where I skirt the issue and settle for a quote

From my perspective, the Judeo-Christian tradition doesn’t offer a lot answers about the source or origin of suffering. I know that oceans of ink have been spilled on this issue and there is even a type of theological inquiry - known as theodicy – that tries to unravel the “problem of pain.” I am thankful for the work my fellow sinners and saints have done in this area, but I have not found any of their answers persuasive.

However, while our rich tradition doesn’t seem to provide many solid answers, I think that it does provide us with incredible resources for persevering through our pain. In fact, if we utilize these resources - which include innumerable texts such as Job, Proverbs, the Gethsemane stories and the Apocalypse of St. John – I’m convinced that together we can persevere through the trials and travails which regularly confront us and occasionally even find a few streams in the desert.

Why am I saying this? Well, because I’m really stumbling forward right now on a path that intermittently skirts the edge of the abyss, and I need the self affirmation. Also, I thought it would be wise to provide a little context for this Henri Nouwen quote from The Inner Voice of Love *

“This is what Jesus means when he asks you to take up your cross. He encourages you to recognize and embrace your unique suffering and to trust that your way to salvation lies therein. Taking up your cross means, first of all, befriending your wounds and letting them reveal to you your own truth.

There is great pain and suffering in the world. But the pain hardest to bear is your own. Once you have taken up that cross, you will be able to see clearly the crosses that others have to bear, and you will be able to reveal to them their own ways to joy, peace and freedom.”

So there you go. Simply writing this stuff out is therapeutic for me. Thank you for taking the time to listen.

* In answer to your question ahbahsean, stick with Nouwen. I think his books are excellent, if not essential, companions for this journey.

overheard

“we can do no great things. only small things with great love.” –Mother Theresa

Lord, remind me of Mother Theresa’s wisdom when i feel the temptation to be spectacular and powerful. remind me that my life will not be measured by the size of our congregation or the scope of my influence, but by our community’s attempts to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, incarnate His compassion and apply the Sermon on the Mount to our lives. when temptation comes, fill me with your Spirit so that i might remain faithful to both this calling and ministry in this particular place. amen.

this and that

for the past week the sinners and saints community had the privilege of hosting a week of e group from lcc. for an entire week josh jackaway and his friends tyler and knox served with beverly bootstraps, slept on our floors, played halo into the wee hours of the night and connected with members of our community. highlights of their visit included:

* teaching knox how to give and receive a “high five”
* tyler leading our community’s discussion of Luke 16…er, I mean, Luke 17
hearing about the hilarious exploits and overwhelming trials of deion – the boys’ imaginary best friend
* talking at length with josh and tyler about our dreams and intentions of serving God
* watching josh and tyler compete for the coveted title of “world’s most whipped man.”
* i particularly enjoyed whipping all three of their asses at halo on a daily basis

several weeks ago I met ben d10, a good friend of jon wise, who just so happens to lead a home church community in the atlanta area. i am incredibly excited about connecting with ben and his community and am looking forward to partnering with them as together we seek to incarnate the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply His teachings to everyday life. if you’re interested in intriguing theological reflection, constant dialog and/or finite element engineering, be sure to check out ben’s blog.

if you live in the boston area, try to stop by sinners and saints’ fourth annual saint patrick’s day party. our little shindig will be kicking off around 7 p.m. at kellie and i’s place (e-mail me for directions). holli-brooke and I would like to make this our first official home church keg party, but something tells me that our fellow home church leaders will never let that happen. probably for good reason...

that’s all for now. have a week.

while sorting invoices

Ken greets the dawn stocking groceries
John fuels his retirement by pumping gas
Joe applies his degrees by picking weeds
But I’m still bitching about grinding it out on my ass

I preach to myself about solidarity
I long to identify with my fellow man
But slaking the suburban thirst for novelty
Appears to be more than I can stand

Holy God, do not let me languish in this desert of ideals
Lord Jesus, lead me down the road of incarnation
Holy Spirit, teach me to love those who share my station

there’s a foul stench in denmark

at 9:32 a.m. his cell phone rings. the call is unidentified, but the northwest ohio area code encourages him to answer. the following dialogue ensues:

caller: “hello may i speak to hamlet please?”
recipient: “i’m sorry. can you speak to who?”
caller: “hamlet. hamlet palatto?”
recipient: “somewhat unfortunately, there’s no one by that name here.”
caller: “is this 978.999.4466?”
recipient: “yes it is.”
caller: “and there’s no hamlet palatto there?”
recipient: “it appears not.”
caller: “have a nice day.”

perhaps his friend kevin, who he suspects might have orchestrated the call in question, is right. maybe the recipient is a crazy magnet.

mid-afternoon moral dilemma

The temporary credit analyst who sits right behind you spends the whole morning in a loud, verbal wrestling match with his/her temp agency about health insurance issues. You are glad for the reprieve from the temps usual topics of conversation - which include bitching about mother, talking about food and boasting about how he/she “confronts” his/her boss, mother and circumstances – but you are frustrated by the non-stop laments about his/her inability to visit specialty doctors as well as his/her attempts to cajole your co-workers into taking his/her side on this issue.

After five hours of enduring the temp’s non-stop yammering, do you report his/her “time theft” to her superior for the good of your company as well as your own well being? Or, do you show empathy to the temp and incredible, patient, perseverance by letting the issue slide?

musing

please note: this post is primarily intended for those who are trying to make sense of Christianity and doing their damndest to follow Jesus. Everyone is more than welcome to read and respond, but please keep in mind my intended audience. Pax.

I am an eager participant in the emergent conversation. From my perspective, emergent is a wonderful opportunity to re-imagine the gospel, re-envision the church and realize that other Christians that we once marked as competitors are more rightly embraced as collaborators. Investing in this conversation and connecting with the intriguing folk who are around this table has helped me follow God in the way of Jesus. For that I am incredibly grateful.

That is not to say that this conversation does not have weaknesses and should not be subject to critique. In fact, the viability and strength of this conversation is the primary reason that I feel free to bring up a point of critique for discussion.

Lately I’ve noticed that a number of us are developing a tendency to either avoid or mis-appropriate the offense of the gospel. As followers of Jesus we are well aware of, and undoubtedly have experienced, the offense of the gospel. Jesus spoke about this offensiveness on a number of occasions, including in MT. 10:34ff where he taught us not to suppose that he came to bring a superficial peace on the earth for he “did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus continues this line of thought by explaining that receiving and choosing to incarnate the gospel may separate a man from his father and a daughter from her mother. Paul also does not pull any punches about this issue. In 2 Corinthians 2:12ff, Paul explains that his attempts to proclaim and incarnate the gospel are the hope of life to some and the harbinger of death to others. Jesus and Paul do not appear to relish the offense of the gospel, nor do they seem eager to serve as source of division. However, they still choose to talk about this effect of the gospel in a matter of fact way. These men knew that the gospel must expose our wounds before we can be healed by Christ and nurtured to health by his church. Thus, they were unwilling to ignore the offense of the gospel.

In contrast to our Savior and Paul, I have noticed that a significant number of us are unable or unwilling to associate ourselves with the offense of the gospel. I’ve noticed this especially in our discussions of homosexuality. A little over a month ago, when I was up at the cemetery talking to a few emergent leaning yet theologically conservative students, I confessed how I have struggled to love my friends who are homosexual without denying the teaching of scripture concerning this lifestyle choice. Much to my surprise, these students told me that they were so uncertain concerning the question of homosexuality that they were “unwilling to take a theological stand on this issue.”

I admire the willingness of these students to serve this culture incarnationally and identify with their friends who are practicing homosexuals. However, I fear that the reason they are unwilling to “take a theological stand” on this issue is that they do not want to alienate their friends from the gospel/Jesus/the church or, perhaps, they are afraid of that the teaching of scripture will alienate themselves from society at large. Somewhat ironically, I think that my friends’ tendency to shy away from the teaching of Scripture in this area may unintentionally cause the disassociation between their friends and the gospel/Jesus/the church that they fear, for if we are not willing to let the gospel reveal our wounds it is going to be damn difficult for us to receive the healing that God offers.

In the end, I think we shy away from the offense of the gospel because so many of us have seen it inappropriately applied on a number of occasions. I know people who have been literally condemned within a church for what they wear, others who have been considered suspicious because of where they work and still others who have been left outside of the fellowship of community because of the leisure activities they prefer. Moreover, I think that McLaren and many others in Emergent have been right to point out that the offense of the gospel should be felt and responded to within the church before the offense should be revealed to those who are outside our community of faith. However, I do not think that we should shy away from the way the gospel offends our religious, political, communal and personal sensibilities of all people. Rather, we should allow the gospel to lance our wounds, so that the healing medicine of the gospel can effectively be applied.

Of course that’s only my opinion. I could be wrong.

I’d love to hear what the rest of you have to say about this issue. Am I creating a conflict where there is none? Talking about an essential issue in an unhelpful way? Utterly ignorant of what “the offense” is?

musing

there was a time in my life when i could not handle disruption. when my mother unexpectedly opened my door while i was reading i snapped, when a study session was marred by the funky riffs of the dorm sideman i screamed and when friends lingered in my living room too late into the night i simply asked them to leave. i thought that i had to fight for a well-ordered life and i vehemently confonted anyone who violated my space.

but this morning, as i sit here sick in bed, i am hemmed in by the sound of alex's alarm as it dutifully completes it's ten-thousandth cycle, the muffled voice of dave kazan as he accompanies james' work in the basement and the anticipation of jackaway and jonikay's arrival later in the day.

i once thought that i had to carve out my space and vigorously protect it against all trespassers. now, i am beginning to realize that it is only within the context of these friendships and the boundaries of this community that i have found a space worth inhabiting. in this communal space i feel contained, safe and loved. i'm incredibly thankful for that.

overheard

Jayber Crow, the protagonist of Wendell Berry’s excellent book by the same name,

In Wendell Berry’s excellent, Jayber Crow the protagonist offers his thoughts on the “new” war, which in his context was WWII. I found Jayber’s thoughts quite interesting and think that they have something to say to us as we face another undeclared, yet undoubtedly “new,” kind of war.

“I knew that this new war was not even new but was only the old one come again. And what caused it? It was caused, I thought, by people failing to love one another, failing to love their enemies. I was glad enough that I had not become a preacher, and so would not have to go through a war pretending that Jesus had not told us to love our enemies.

The thought of loving your enemies is opposite to war. You don’t have to do it; you don’t have to love one another. All you have to do is keep the thought in mind and Port William (J’s hometown) becomes visible, and you see its faces and you know what it has to lose. Maybe you don’t have to love your enemies. Maybe you just have to act like you do. And maybe you have to start early (pg. 142).”

monday morning time waster

check out overheard in new york. i, um, overheard a conversation about the site on npr and i find it pretty e.o.e.ing funny. this evening i've been researching the site for new conversational material. kellie claims that my old standby, stock conversations just aren't cutting it anymore.

here's an overheard post i found funny:

Hipster guy: That's a cool coat, it's pimp.
Ghetto guy: Thanks...Did you say "pimp"? I'm not a pimp.
Hipster guy: No, I meant pimp like cool.
Ghetto guy: Oh, okay...It's not real. I'm a vegan.

--A train

loving the ecclesiolae, longing for the ecclesia

for the past month or so i have been wondering about my role in the ecclesia (or church universal). i am incredibly at home in and thankful for our little ecclesiolae (s & s), but am interested in interacting and partnering with Christians throughout the boston area as together we seek to participate in the mission of God.

fortunately, throughout this inquisitive phase i have connected with a number of like-minded believers in the area and throughout the world. since i'm a fairly gregarious guy - at least at first - i often make connections with a wide-range of people. however, as of late, i have been struck by how many intriguing believers i have touched base with. so, in 'an attempt to deepen these conversations and find innovative ways to partner with other believers i have decided to start a boston-area emergent cohort.

although i've never participated in an emergent cohort meeting, i've heard from a friend that the purpose of these groups is to: connect with other progressive/emerging/innovative/insertyourattributiveadjective christians, drink a fair amount of coffee and/or beer and pad the sales of brian mclaren's books. if any or all of the above activities sounds interesting to you, and you're willing to hear me tell the same jokes and run the same stories into the ground time and again, then i'd love for you to help me get this group rolling. if you're interested, please shoot me an e-mail at gentry13@gmail.com.

in the body of the email please provide your name, email address and web address if you have one. moreover, please include concise answers to the following questions.

1. Assuming that our cohort would meet monthly, what would be the best night of the week for you to meet?

2. Are there any particular topics that you would like to discuss?

3. What books would you be interested in reading together (i think we should branch out beyond the emergent canon from time to time by reading books like jean vanier's community and growth, the collected works of saint francis and saint clare and perhaps even relevant works of fiction such as philip caputo's superb acts of faith).

4. Would you be willing to facilitate the group on an occasional basis? I have no interest - and trust that none of you would either - in spinning this co-hort into an episode of "The Jeff Gentry Show?"

5. Would you rather meet in a pub or a coffeehouse setting? Any suggestions concerning a location?

Thanks in advance for your interest. I hope that this cohort incites conversation, provides healthy connections and serves as a source of encouragement for those of us who follow Christ.

pax.

on my induction into the SS

1 dramatic fall from chintzy office chair

+

1 stack of urgent memos shredded

+

1 completely plugged toilet

= one hell of a first week

insert witty title here:

okay, so i’m beginning to realize that i was foolish to accept the first job offer that came my way. instead of risking financial stability to find a job that appropriates my skills, i greedily drank a stop-gap measure and am now spending my days serving the SS. e.o.e. me.

at this point i could plead for tea and sympathy or i could resume the “everyday, up-at-dawn, pride swallowing event” that is the job search. but i’m going to do neither. instead, i’m going to fulfill my three year tour with the SS, set my sights upon and study my arse off to achieve an MSW and, ultimately, hope that i can spend my days doing something worthwhile.

if you know and love me i have one small request: neither put up with my bitching about my job nor allow me to settle into a morass of mediocrity. instead, cajole, provoke and encourage me to persevere through this season of life and hope for better days to come.