fun with metaphors

on march 7th the gathering gang is leading a breakout session on the topic of worship at the brian mclaren/everything must change conference that the episcopal diocese is hosting.

as i've been preparing for this discussion, i've started thinking about the liturgy at the gathering as a "mashup." i'm a bit of a technological idiot, but as far as i can tell a mashup is an artistic piece that is a creative combination of two or more divergent video or audio sources.

for example a cursory search on youtube yielded this mashup of office space and the trailer for xmen 3 and that brilliant mashup of christian bale's latest profane tirade.*

at the gathering, we often offer up a new mashup every week. last week's mashup might be pentecostal worship whipped with a evangelical "big idea" sermon, while next week's mashup might be classic hymns of the reformation intertwined with lectio divina and a zwinglian framed communion. sometimes these mashups are inspiring and provocative and sometimes the juxtapositions are cumbersome and distracting. however, since we are a diverse community each member has to trust that the elements that do not connect with them speak directly to someone else in the congregation, while another element which does speak to them might not connect with the other at all.

i'm not going to lie, sometimes i wish our worship had the cohesion of a catholic mass or the plodding regularity of a presbyterian order. but i love our quirky community and believe that the mashup is the best fit for our diverse congregation.

one side note: while reading the most recent modern reformation david wells states that "emergents" have rejected the niche marketed vacuity of the megachurch and have instead embraced "casual blending of different belief systems in their churchly experimenting-a bit of Catholicism here, a bit of Greek Orthodoxy there, a hip rendition somewhere else-has also come about because of a rejection of traditional ideas of authority and because the self is exercising its autonomy to shape its spiritual context the way in which it wants."

i think that his former assertion is right on, but i don't believe that the tendency of the participants in the emergent conversation to drink deeply from multiple streams of christian tradition and to weave the strands of that tradition** into their worship is, necessarily, a rejection of "traditional ideas of authority" or a narcissistic pastiche. rather, i think that many of the participants in the emergent conversation are trying to respect and practice their received tradition of the christian faith while also exploring and utilizing the untold riches of resources that have been discovered by christians throughout the centuries. although i'm a evangelical protestant by birth i think it would be foolish for me to ignore the valuable practice of lectio or lenten fasting just because my immediate forbears did not embrace these practices. i'm proud of my christian church/church of christ tradition, but my forefathers and foremothers are many, and i don't think i am dishonoring alexander campbell - neal windham for that matter! - or rejecting their "authority," by listening to the words and being shaped by the practices of st. francis of assisi, martin luther king jr. or henri nouwen.

second side note: feel free to share mashups that you love. i've just started to explore this art form and would love to receive your recommendations.

* this clip is inappropriate for children and those who are easily offended. consider yourself warned.
** talk about your mixed metaphors.

in context

is a sailboat. stupid head!

read and reviewed: creating a world without poverty by muhammad yunus
submitted by: anita

I thought that I was a dreamer and an optimist, but compared to Muhammad Yunus I would almost be considered a cynic. In Creating a World Without Poverty, not only does he envision eliminating poverty in his native country of Bangladesh, he envisions "putting poverty into museums" throughout the world so that future generations of children could go and marvel at the way large parts of the world used to live.

He acknowledges that he is a dreamer. Yet he has in fact reduced Bangladesh's poverty level from 73% in 1973 to 40% in 2005. The poverty level continues to decrease by 1 percent each year and so in the not too distant future, his dream of eliminating poverty in his country could become a reality.

How is he doing it? It's pretty simple. He has dared to think outside of the box. He has refused to buy into the capitalistic, maximizing profit model that the developed countries have lived by. Instead, he introduces the concept of social businesses. These are businesses that are created not to be PMBs (profit maximizing businesses) but businesses that have as their goal a social benefit to the world's poor. People who invest in the businesses get their investment back, eventually, but they do not receive any profit. Instead any profit that the business makes is re-invested into the business or else it goes to the shareholders who are the poor. As an added benefit, the investors in these businesses can then invest in another social business and keep perpetuating the benefits. It is much better than a hand-out, for both the investors and the recipients.

How can a model like this work? Yunus has shown that it works well. He started out by offering loans to poor people who had no collateral and who would be poor risks by most bank's standards. He found that these poor borrowers had a far better rate of loan repayment than more well-off borrowers. He also found that the poor were extremely resourceful and hard-working when it came to using their loaned money. As a result many of them were able to create viable businesses, pay back their loans and better the standard of living for themselves and their families.

For example, some poor women would take out a loan and become telephone ladies. They would purchase a cell phone and then sell minutes to people in their village. This provided benefit to them and also to others around them. And connecting a poor village with the world helps to remove them from isolation which further increases the likelihood that they will escape poverty.

It is a hopeful book. Yet it also is pleading with the world to adopt this same model of social businesses in order to save our planet as well as eliminate poverty. As has become obvious to many, the world can no longer afford to maximize profit and ignore the effect that this idea has had on the world's resources and on the use of the these resources by the privileged few.

I found it an inspiring book, with lots of practical insight. Putting its ideas into practice should be given serious thought by the developed nations. Success will only be hindered by a stubborn clinging to the current model of business that has benefited only a small portion of the world's population. Yunus believes that investors and people in general, are capable of and even attracted to making a choice that does not result in financial gain, but instead contributes to a world where those at the bottom of the socioeconomic structure are benefited and given a way of escape.

on "emergent"

lately i have had a number of people ask me what "emergent" is. actually, they usually ask me what the "emergent church" is and question what the "movement" is all about.

i'm not a philosopher and i'm not all that qualified to hold court on such issues, but for what (little) it is worth, emergent is a conversation.

in our cohort anyway, the conversation usually centers upon theology, ecclesiology and missiology. when our crew meets at danny's diner we bitch occasionally about dissonance we feel with our church traditions or the anemic expressions of christian "culture" (see: fireproof), but generally everyone around the table is there because they are in awe of Jesus Christ and, individually and collectively, are committed to finding a way to persevere upon this journey in order that they might be, as Jesus promised, saved/reconciled/redeemed/resurrected/made new.

i'd encourage you to question sweeping generalizations about the "emerging church" or the "emerging movement." last time i checked, emergent isn't looking to plant any churches, pen any creeds or establish the clear leadership structure* and steady income stream that movements generally require. since emergent is a conversation, i think most of its detractors are simply protective of their authority structures and/or they need a new whipping girl to take the place of open theism, the mega-church, carman, contemporary worship, third-wave charismaticism and whatever other developments have threatened (that also hard to define thing we call) american eeevangelicalism over the past bundle of years.

if you would rather hear it from the horses' mouth, here you go:

"Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ." - emergentvillage.com

"As a follower of God in the way of Jesus, I've been involved in a profoundly interesting and enjoyable conversation over the last ten years or so. It's a conversation about what it means to be 'a new kind of Christian' - not an angry and reactionary fundamentalist, not a stuffy traditionalist, not a blase minimalist, not a wishy-washy liberal, not a New Agey religious hipster, not a crusading religious imperialist, and not an overly enthused Bible-waving fanatic--but something fresh and authentic and challenging and adventurous. Around the world, millions of people have gotten involved in this conversation, and more are getting involved each day. (One reason we keep calling it a conversation is that we can't find a short way of describing it yet," Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, pg. 3.

* what little leadership structure we had was deconstructed when tony jones stepped down as emergent's national coordinator in the fall of 2009.

Impending Emergence

Hey There,

Our friends at The Boston Faith and Justice Network and The Crossing are hosting a few killer events in in February and March. Take a look at what's on tap:

What: The Gratitude Economy Event featuring Shane Claiborne
When: Saturday, February 21st from 4-9:30 pm
Where: Park Street Church
How (Much): $0
Visit: The Boston Faith and Justice Network at http://www.bostonfaithjustice.org/.

What: The Everything Must Change tour featuring Brian McLaren
When: Saturday, March 7th from 9:30 am-3:00 pm
Where: George Sherman Union, Boston University, 775 Commonwealth Ave
How (Much): $15 for adults, $9 for students, $10 for a box lunch
Visit: This site to register: http://www.diomass.org/event/diocesan/brian-mclaren-one-americas-25-most-influential-evangelicals-keynote-spring-learning-e. Seating is limited.

What: The Crossing Presents Phyllis Tickle
When: Thursday, March 26th from 2-7:30 pm
Where: Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 138 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
How (Much): $25
Visit: This site to register: https://www.regonline.com/checkin.asp?eventid=697167. Seating is limited.

We hope to see you at one or some of these events. If you have any questions about these events, feel free to email me at gentry13ATgmail.com.

an open invite to friends near and far

Hey All,

Just a reminder that the cohort is meeting this Tuesday night at Danny's Diner (300 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA) from 7-9 pm.

When I was a student at Soybean Bible College my favorite professor and spiritual director always taught me to "study and experience abroad, but always find a way back home." In light of this advice, I have always been open to diverse theological conversations and new forms of Christian mission, but I have also tried to stay consciously rooted in the Christian Church, Church of Christ tradition of my youth.

This month I would like for us to discuss the beliefs and practices of our faith tradition that we value and aim to sustain. The Emergent conversation is often concerned with letting go of the past so that we can lean into God's future. While those discussions are necessary and valuable I think it is also important for us to discuss the beliefs and practices that have shaped us in the past and shape us still. At this meeting we'll also review the Peter Rollins event and talk about the upcoming events sponsored by the Crossing Community.

I hope to see you there!

gentry

gentry13ATgmail.com

ht: dr. james

the cardinals' winter warmer



ht: aubucade

musing...

as much fun as it is to ridicule governor blagojevich, his allegedly unethical activity raises a troubling question or two in my mind.

what if blagojevich's current position mirrors jose canseco's in 2005 when juiced was first published and he was a universal object of ridicule and scorn? are we going to find out in the coming months that blagojevich is more the norm than the exception? perhaps pundits are right in suggesting that he is only guilty of "doing politics on tape."

as we continue to track through the nuclear winter of recession and there is far less capital to grease the wheels of the government machine are we going to see an increasing number of politicians revealing the corrupt schemes of their "friends" in order to ensure that there is enough slop in the trough? in massachusetts we've already seen the speaker of the house bounced due to alleged ethics violations, a state senator fell in december after taking bribes on tape from the fbi and a city counselor from roxbury is about to fall. once you start indicting mass politicians where are you going to stop?

enough politics for now.

musing...

for the past four weeks we have been listening to abram's story at the gathering. last night, as we rambled down highway 51, i couldn't help but but admire abram's responsiveness. although abram had significant faults and flaws, when God spoke abram responded and when God visited abram was quick to welcome.

as much as i hate to admit it, i am not seared by the experience of God as Abram was and i rarely receive the revelation of God as a call to action.

over the past several years, i've devoured books like spirit and flesh, salvation on sand mountain, the family and even body piercing saved my life that enable me to reflect upon my own faith tradition from a critical distance.

if i'm going to continue on this road of pastoral ministry i need to find my way - or be led - back to the place where the revelation of God can cut me open, reorder my understanding, recreate my heart and so ready me to walk together with God's community towards the good, the beautiful and the true.

happy haiku friday

loving and killing
legacy double-dealing
i have the cancer

happy haiku friday

with velocity
of thermal viscosity
open mouth, insert foot

musing...

reason 2,342,656 i love living in massachusetts: incredible, non-commercial radio. almost every day i listen to wbur, boston's npr news station that produces such fan favorites as car talk and tom ashbrook's on point, wers an eclectic, indie-music giant out of emerson college, wumb an influential folk music station, that regularly features john hiatt, out of umass boston and wgbh, a classical music/npr news format station that is a perfect refuge from wbur during fundraisers. now, if we can only get a non-commercial sports talk station that is hosted by michael lewis, thomas boswell, chris collinsworth, bill simmons, chuck klosterman, ken rosenthal, rob neyer, bill james and joe morgan we'll be all set!

i read phyllis tickle's the great emergence a little over a month ago and i enjoyed it. i wish i would have reviewed it immediately after reading so that her assertions were fresh on my mind. tickle's central premise is that every 500 years or so - think pope gregory the great, the great schism, the great reformation and brian mclaren - the church undergoes a major seismic shift. she goes to great lengths to show that the last shift was inspired not only by luther's theological complaints but by the printing press, the rise of the nation state and the renaissance/enlightenment/late middle ages. tickle believes that we are currently undergoing a major shift she calls the great emergence on account of the rise of globalization, the internet revolution and the forthcoming decriminalization of marijuana.

anyway, in regards to western christianity tickle asserts that the playing field has long looked like a quadrant that included the roman catholics, the social justice christians, the fundamentalists/evangelicals and the pentecostal/charismatics. as christians have been more and more exposed to the valuable elements of other quadrants and have even incorporated practices that were characteristic of other quadrants into their worship and mission, tickle suggests that there has been a "gathering center" of believers who are leaving their old denominational designations and exclusivistic theological systems behind in order to plumb the diverse depths of the traditions and join with others on the redemptive, kingdom mission of Christ.

where am i going with? right. tickle notes that in each quadrant there are 10-15% of believers who will refuse to move towards the center and will become quadrant fundamentalists of sorts. she also notes that there currently are and will continue to be "hyphenated" groups such as preby-mergent that hold on firm to their quadrant with one hand and reach as far towards the gathering center as they can with the other hand.

as for me, i would love to be numbered among the hyphenateds by maintaining my roots in the stone-campbell movement while continuing to be an active participant in the great emergence. since i am already a part of the latter, i've been thinking about the elements of my tradition that will help me keep a firm hold on the former. thus, my great question is: what elements of the stone-campbell tradition are worth holding onto?

so far, i've decided that the weekly practice of the eucharist, believers baptism, a dedication to world mission, an openness to utilizing contemporary mediums in order to communicate the message and shared leadership are stone-campbellish elements that i would like to hold onto. if you are a part of "the movement" or have simply had a movement and would like to comment on either tickle's book or the idea of living a hyphenated christian life, feel free.

one more thing: kellie mentioned yesterday that she does not think it is the government's responsibility to provide vouchers, and thus PAY, for americans with rabbit eared sets to make the jump to digital broadcasting. i can't agree with her more. since when did the ability to watch stupid schlock like american idol become an inalienable right!? now they want to delay the conversion because people haven't listened to two years of endless commercials about the shift or don't care enough about the transition to pony up the $200. come on!!!

True Love (Can't) Wait
by: slowfo

Ah....the South...nothin' but country charm, bluegrass, and lots and lots and lots of unprotected, teenage sex. My Yahoo front page today told me that a new report is out and Mississippi is finally #1 for something other than being the fattest state in the union: highest number of teenage babies being born (and please, stop having mental images of what all the fat Mississippi teens are doing with their free time...it's gross). Cheer up though Mississippi...one of the fifty states had to take the prize. And if it wasn't going to be Mississippi, it would be Texas, New Mexico, or Arkansas (Arkansas wasn't mentioned in the article, but come on....it's Arkansas). Although frankly, I was inwardly hoping that Alaska would have been #1 because the comedians and late-night hosts would have been both relentless and hilarious with it.

What I find most interesting about the report is that the states with the highest teenage birth percentages all come from a very familiar band of states also known as "The Bible Belt." So what is going on here besides the obvious? Is it that this strip of states is more ignorant than the rest and doesn't think ahead about either a) using some sort of protection, b) abstinence, or c) the repercussions that having unprotected sex might actually lead to dragging a newborn baby onto the school bus next fall?

I throw out a few more questions for discussion:
1. As some Christians advocate, should the Church just accept that kids are going to have sex and help them use protection to avoid disease and unwanted pregnancies?

2. If Christianity really is more prevalent in the South, then why haven't these same people (who are more theologically conservative and apt to preach abstinence to teens) been able to make more of a difference?

3. Is this more about how Christianity is played out among different races? If you go directly to the report, it shows that Non-Hispanic Whites have a teenage birth rate that is more than 50% less than Non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. Why the difference if the same or similar theology is preached in all churches?

Whatever your conclusion, it looks as though there's a whole lot more going on in the South than just Whistlin' Dixie....then again, maybe Dixie's skillful whistlin' was part of the problem to begin with.

musing...

i just finished watching david simon and ed burns' television adaptation of evan wright's generation kill. while watching this stark and remarkable series i couldn't help but think about the lack of publicity generated by generation kill as well as the low box office takes for iraq-related movies over the past couple of years

i suppose that the apparent lack of interest in iraq related fare might be related to questions concerning the quality of films or the poor publicity these films have been afforded.

however, i suspect that this media has largely been ignored because the public would rather consume, and corporations would rather promote, a few more stories about our country's past "glories" than spend a few hours reflecting on our current quagmire.

if you're interested in a thought-provoking reflection on the iraq war and you live local i'll be happy to lend generation kill to you.

musing...

on last year's long road home kellie and i tried to listen to joan didion's the year of magical thinking. i tried to listen to it anyway, i think kellie slept.

since the introductory chapters of the book are nothing short of morose the book didn't make for great road reading and somewhere between amarillo and mclean i turned it off.

however, before i clicked it didion remarked how her husband, who was also an author, often said something like "note taking is what distinguishes a writer, from a non-writer."

while i'm not a writer - though i'd be lying if i denied that in my more grandiose dreams i fancy myself one - i'm going to do my damndest to take better notes this year. even if it doesn't help my writing Lord knows it won't hurt my preaching.

reflections from the road: sunday, december 28th, monday, december 29th, tuesday, december 30th and wednesday, december 31st

crap. i really lost my way with these reflections. i was hoping to write on a daily basis in order to reincorporate the practice of blogging into my life, but i, obviously, fell far short. anyway, here are some scatter-shot reflections from our final days on vacation. please note: the date of the activity precedes the drivel.

28th: kellie, preston and i went to my home church to attend the morning service. due to the need to return the tire shredded rental car that morning, we arrived late and walked in just when the sermon was getting started. when the sermon began with three long, scarcely related, political quotes and then continued with step-by-step instructions on how to "forget your past" and prepare for the future, i realized once again that i really don't understand a lot about bible belt homiletics anymore.

the sermon was well delivered and it seemed to connect with the audience, but, from my perspective anyway, it lacked the provocation and subversion that marks a good sermon. i think that sermons should bring a sense of dislocation to christians who tend to become a little to comfortable in the midst of their exile and should shock visitors with the grace and compassion of the gospel. it appears to me that the christian churches we visited on this trip expect their pastors to serve more as chaplains than prophets, storytellers and social advocates. maybe that's part of the reason why, much to my dismay, i can't seem to fit in there anymore.

in the afternoon we celebrated christmas with the gentry side of the family. i was encouraged and surprised to hear that my cousin jeremiah, who is currently a captain in the air force, is pursuing an online theology degree through liberty university. so we had a lot to talk about and we enjoyed watching the patriots put a wind-blown pasting on the bills.

not that the pasting mattered, because brett farve SUCKS!

in the evening we celebrated christmas with the davis/holland side of the family. during that celebration, a minature replication of our traditional christmas eve gatherings, preston, kellie and i were showered with gifts. i'm not going to run through the particulars at any length, but preston received a game quality cardinals warm-up jacket, kellie received a gift card for a sewing machine, i received money to purchase some new clothes and we all received a snazzy sony handi-cam. a good time was had by all.

after the latter celebration, my cousin chris, my brother josh and i went to the fox and hound pub for a few beers. as josh and i drank skanky $2 shiner bocks and chris enjoyed tastier libations we had a great conversation about where we are, where we might be going and what the hell this might all mean. i really enjoyed our time together.

earlier that evening i also used a couple of gift cards to purchase hbo's generation kill mini-series of dvd. i really enjoyed the book on which the mini-series was based and apparently i'm such a devoted fan of the wire that i've decided to purchase anything david simon and ed burns produce. i'll let you know what i think about the series once i complete it.

jeez this is getting long already...

29th: the morning was fairly uneventful. i enjoyed a late mcdonald's breakfast with with ian and landon, josh's fiances' two sons, and rounded out the morning and early afternoon hours by playing with preston, who was in the process of gorging on his new petro-chemical products toys.

at 3 pm i met slowfo for a coffee at one of the dozens of starbucks that have sprouted up around town. scott and i were having a nice, breezy conversation concerning our role in our respective family systems and how much the ou sooners suck, when he asked me whether i thought that the church of our youth "prepared us for life in the real world." obviously the conversation that followed that question was long and drawn out as we questioned the unified telos, i.e., individual salvation, that was the apparent focus of our church's mission at that time, touched on the anemic perspectives on sexual ethics that were bestowed by youth groups and pondered the historicity of the divine genocide recorded in genesis 6. more importantly, after our conversation i walked away with confidence that slowfo is asking the right questions about life and is serving his family well. i love that guy.

after 3 pm, there's no nice way to say this, i entered my, "i'm tired of being away from home so now i'm going to be an asshole" mode. this happens on the backside of every trip that lasts for more than 5 days and there is generally little excuse for it. i apologize to those i victimized and will try to make the trip shorter next year.

in the evening, kellie, preston and i were planning to have dinner with wesley-wesley wilson and his lovely - yet, until now, completely unseen - wife amanda. but wes' food poisoning and my decision to spend a little more time with josh and crystal, made those plans untenable. next year in jerusalem! wesley.

in the evening, we went to see the CURIOUS case of benjamin button, which i thought was a pretty good flick. the original story was written by f. scott fitzgerald, but the setting and style reminded me of walker percy's the moviegoer. anyway, the movie was decent, with an excellent performance by cate blanchett, characteristically funny touches by david fincher and noteworthy cinematography of an epic scale. that being said, i wasn't sold on brad pitt's performance - although he's a fellow, characteristically handsome, oklahoman, i have to agree with one of the npr reviewer's accusation that there is little of interest going on in his face. aside from makeup, there was little nuance to his performance. i also thought the movie was a little self-important and would have benefited from both a few more touches of fincher's absurdist humor and a stronger editor.

30th: we enjoyed a great southern breakfast with my Pa Pa - for the record: little p adores big p - and we had a great lunch with my old seminary friends crystal and jenn in okmulgee, ok. after lunch, crystal showed us her beautiful, roomy, shotgun style house that sits on 3/4 of an acre, features two large porches and a fire pit and was purchased for well below 100K. i am now insanely jealous. i suppose at this point i should note that for all the bitching i do about s.h.i.t., i walked away from that experience with some excellent, long-term friends. i love you guys! and girls for that matter. always remember i'm an egalitarian eh-vangelical.

later that evening we celebrated my grandmother's 84th birthday with grilled steaks and cakes. it was great to celebrate my grandmother, who is a wonderful woman with a fascinating life story, and fun to reconnect with my uncle phou and aunt jeanie from texas.

31st: kellie, preston and i woke up at 4:45 am, which was probably about 15 minutes late, so we had to rush out the door to catch our plane. we were worried that the impending snow storm on the east coast would strand us in newark, nj, but, surprisingly - since most folks on the east coast are cowards when it comes to snow - our flight was released three hours late from newark and we made it back to providence. after which we had to struggle through three and a half hours of 30 mph driving to get home.

when we arrived in our beloved beverly, i went to pick up an order at china river, and unexpectedly ran into the pope, who told me he and aime are expecting a ____* in the spring. after our conversation, our food was finally ready so we slogged our way back to judson - where we had to make an illegal turn to access the homestead - put a screaming little p back down, enjoyed our food and watched a little killing.

btw - we didn't stay up to watch the balldrop. i may have some insecurity issues, but i respect myself far too much to subject myself to ryan seacrest and lionel richie.

* you'll have to ask them yourself!

reflections from the road: saturday, december 27th

since today was our last in amarillo i decided to take syd, my five year old niece, to see bolt the most recent film by disney's increasingly irrelevant* pixar unit. although bolt was vaguely entertaining the primary lessons i learned by the end of the film were:

a) acquaint yourself with the voice actors before going to see a glorified cartoon lest you spend an hour and a half guessing whose annoyingly scratchy voice is behind the wonder dog
b) thou shalt feed pre-schoolers before the film lest you spend most of the film refusing to buy additional concessions, and
c) if one tears up during the "climactic" finale when the child actor voiced by miley cyrus is unexpectedly reunited and subsequently saved by the sans super power, but still darling and devoted wonder dog voiced by john travolta one probably misses his dog more than he would like to admit.

all in all, i enjoyed hanging with syd. maybe next year she'll be old enough to catch an anniversary edition of raging bull with me or something.

one of the things i love best about celebrating with two families is expanding my christmas palate. at the morris house Christmas is not the time for turkey or god-forsaken spiral ham sandwiches, but the time to enjoy authentic hand-rolled tamales, tasty green chili and texas brisket with a nice, cold miller high life. we ate well in amarillo.

kellie's dad, commonly referred to as "grumpy" also surprised preston and i with an uncle henry pocket knife for christmas. i'm crap with knives but little p has been having a blast with it!

on our long trip back to tulsa kellie and i listened to john le carre's absolute friends, which is a lengthy examination of back story in search of a plot, stopped at bucks in okc for much needed pit stop and made it within three miles of my parent's house before the left rear tire on our rental car shredded to bits. fortunately, thanks to my masterful mechanical skills, the donut was affixed in short order and we dragged our tired arses home.


* from what i've heard wall-e was fantastic and i enjoyed the incredibles as well. but "pixar does doc hollywood" and "pixar does milo and otis" is somewhat less than original.

reflections from the road: friday, december 26th

on friday morning i finally had the opportunity to make my way down to lubbock, texas in order to both meet with agent b and piss on the red raiders for surrendering so easily to the sooners.

on the way down i promised myself that i would not listen to npr on xm or to an audio recording of fight club that i borrowed from the (incredibly impressive) hardesty branch of the tulsa public library, so that i could soak up the silence and stark expanses of west texas and try to commune with my God. i'd love to say that i immediately embraced the silence and rhythmically prayed the Jesus prayer the entire way. unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

although i could feel myself unfolding as i passed through the great expanse, the minutes felt like hours and my 125 mile trip turned into a sojourn. such discomfort is troubling since i spend so much time preaching and sharing my inner life with others. i realize that the most effective words come out of silence and i need to be more intentional about cultivating silence in the coming year year.

meeting with agent b was like reconnecting with an old friend. although we have only known each other for four years and we've only met on three occasions, his family and mine share the mission of incarnation and the ground that separates us is indeed holy. b and i shared our evolving visions over shitty beer and sub par burgers, we stumbled across a $50 subsidy for our gathering, we drank slightly better beer at chili's and we started to cut to the heart of things at starbucks.

at the latter location i asked agent b how he would, in light of his a-congregational ministry and mission, define the gospel that we both serve. after hemming and hawing a little bit he simply defined the gospel as "doing." when i asked him how the person of Jesus informed his practical definition of the gospel he said that Jesus was "the example" of doing. he then offered a number of illustrations of what this gospel looked like in action. if you'd like to hear those stories for yourself, you'll find a few of them, along with the best characterization of my pastoral calling that i've ever read, over on the agent b files blog.

when we'd sobered up* enough to brave the trek home i embraced my friend and fellow slave and we went our separate ways. on the trip back, as i listened to fight club i was both titillated by the narrator and thankful that God has treated my disassociation disorder with His unrelenting grace and the unexpected graciousness of friends.

cheers agent b! here's to a continuing long obedience in the same direction.

* i'm not simply talking about alcohol here.

reflections from the road: thursday, december 25

i celebrated the birth of the Lord Christ by:

breaking in my new running fleece and logging a mile or so with my sister-in-law

interrupting the family's television time by laughing at matt taibbi's undercover antics as profiled in the great derangement

finally admitting to my father-in-law, whom i love and deeply respect, that i am rubbish with power tools and don't have an interest in improving myself in this area

watching the celtics dump a game to the lakers

half-watching the bucket list, a movie that is scarred by schlocky sentimentality and rob reiner's inept direction, but is carried by actors who are hard to ignore

dancing a turn or two with the girl in the moon

re-watching portions of cars with the little p. while the film is endurable it was much more aesthetically enjoyable when it was called doc hollywood. you can definitely tell that brad bird didn't write this one

and constantly reminding preston that his cousin's new dollhouse is not a: a) stepladder b) window seat or c)gender appropriate toy for him to enjoy

how did your day go?

reflections from the road: wednesday, december 24th

a couple of quick observations on our sojourn through the mostly barren wilderness that separates tulsa from amarillo:

1) there are several starbucks in the okc area that are available for mid-trip refueling. this is a good thing.
2) as opposed to years past, there are far, far fewer american flags stuck to people's bumpers, festooning pot bellies or flying festively over ford dealerships. i'm starting to suspect that oklahomans and texans hate our freedom.
3) though i would like to report otherwise, i am really freaked out and afraid when i have to stop in places like mclean texas to get gas at 11 p.m. at night. the locals screaming at their kids, the senior citizens' coffee clubs, the jalapeno corn dogs and jacked up pick-up trucks are quaint and entertaining during the daytime, but at night, when the locals could carve you up into bits and scatter your entrails in the red dirt with barely a notice, those little towns are downright spooky.*
4) the pix and i listened to michael lewis' blind side on the trip down. the book was a wonderful exploration of southern football, the effects of african-american poverty and well-intentioned eh-vangelical philanthropy. it's definitely worth a listen or read.

last night we attended a beautiful, but somewhat vacuous christmas eve service at a local church. the program was put together well and the sincerity of the participants was never in doubt, but they flattened the nativity narrative - Jesus' birth was a gift for attentive shepherds and you! - and the logocentric, low-participatory liturgy left me wanting more. in a town characterized by a significant poverty culture and a large migrant community christmas seems to be the perfect time to discuss the displacement of the holy family and the exile of the infant Christ. it seems to me that in the often xenophobic south we also need to talk a little more about the role that the magi play in the nativity story.

i would love to get out to the movies this afternoon, but few interesting movies are playing here. palatable choices include the mysterious case of benjamin button and, the mysterious case of benjamin button. can someone get me some milk and a gran torino please? please!

* this reflection makes me feel out-of-touch, elitist and arrogant. but , well...

reflections from the road: tuesday, december 23

the pix, pres and i are currently on a nine day road trip to oklahoma in texas. when i can catch a spare moment, i'm going to provide some reports from the road.

yesterday morning, after six short hours of sleep that followed ten hours of horrific christmas travel, i finally started to shake off sleep and get going. in the few short seconds between my first glimpse of the ceiling and my feet hitting the floor, i realized that i was going to see my pa pa, better known around my house as "big preston," and i could barely contain my excitement.

since i've almost always got an analytical thermometer up my ass i then tried to parse why i was so excited to see my pa pa. was it because we would have long, meaningful conversations? probably not. we've had a number of those over my 31 years, but now we're usually content to sit together. was it because i needed hug him tight and feel him reflexively scrunch his shoulders as if he was absorbing my love? closer, but that wasn't the sole reason. was it because i longed for my son to bask in the gentleness, generosity and common nobility of his namesake? that was part of it.

in the end i realized that i could no more explain my heightened expectation of his arrival than i could rationalize the incredible depths of my love for the man. at almost the same moment, i also realized that the negative correlation between my increasing love for the man and my growing inability to express or explain my love is very similar to my growing passion and investment in the Kingdom of God and my decreasing ability to speak conclusively about my faith.

apparently, for me, the deeper the love and the more abiding the passion, the less i can actually say about it. i'm starting to realize that this tension does not give way to doubt, but leads me towards wonder, story and tears.

reader/response

today's herb of grace advent reading included the following provocative reflection:

"A good question to ask in this Christmas season would be, “why did those in authority want to kill Jesus, not only as a grown rebel but even as a small child? What was he doing to disturb their kind of peace?” Once we find out exactly what kind of threat Jesus was to the established order, then all we need to do is be that same kind of threat. Then we will be praying “come Lord Jesus” as something different than a sweet Sunday morning melody."

your response?

speaks for itself



ht: sam fisherofmen

connections

when i was a s.h.i.t. student i defined my homiletical theory as provocation.

recently, with little apparent provocation, a friend at church said that i could easily be renamed "table flipper."

last night, during peter rollins'* excellent talk at the gathering, he agreed that his writing is intentionally provocative. he then expanded upon this idea by stating that one of the goals of his teaching and preaching is to detach individuals from (i'm assuming) our conceptual idols, reductionistic readings of texts and our intrinsic desire to name, define and circumscribe that which names, defines and circumscribes us.

i'm proud to journey in the company of provocateurs like peter.** moreover, i think peter's focus perspective on homiletical and pedagogical detachment is intriguing.

if you heard peter this week feel free to share your reflections. of course, all other comers are welcome as well.

* in addition to talking at the gathering and harvard div, peter also bunked out at 4 judson for the weekend. even when exhausted, peter is an excellent guest who is quick to share a story, parse a question and share a pint. here's to hoping we'll have an opportunity to host him in the future.
** peter's visit is yet another example of how much the emergent village crew has invested in our cohort and church community over the last couple of years. tony jones has met with us several times, mclaren has connected with our community, will sampson graced us with a visit last spring, karen ward popped in on one occasion and peter has now been here twice. the good folks at emergent village don't simply talk about generative conversation among friends...they incarnate their commitment. our communities has been all the better for it. thanks ev!

reader/response

"Following the image of the kingdom that was spoken of by Jesus, we encounter the idea that while it is still thought of as 'to come' this does not mean that it will one day arrive at the end of a certain period of time, but rather the kingdom is 'to come,' that is, the kingdom is already among us but in a spectral manner that resists our grasp. here the opening created by the eschatological kingdom of God is not an opening into the future but rather an opening into the present that acts much like the portable holes we see in cartoons that can be placed on any solid surface, thus creating a gap." -peter rollins, the fidelity of betrayal, pg. 51.

this passage challenged me to set aside my simple linear conception of God's kingdom in order to contemplate God's kingdom as a depth or chasm that i am sometimes standing on the precipice of, other times foolishly, cartoonishly spinning my wheels above or, in darker times, as likely to find as a artesian well in the desert.

contemplating the dimensions of the kingdom in this manner makes me suspect that when i am struck dumb by the texture of my grandfather's hands or am seemingly called home by the squint in neal's eyes, the Spirit is suggesting that i am near the holy and hidden heart of it all.

the unexpected depth and appearance of the kingdom in our midst, also makes sense of my uncle freddy's suggestion to pay attention my eyes well up with tears, as they have so often lately, or when a lump rises in my throat.

during this holy advent peter's text is reminding me that throughout this season of anticipation it makes as much sense to look down and dig around as it does to lean forward.

musing...
by: kevin smith clark

“Could I have been a parking lot attendant
Could I have been a millionaire in Bel-Air
Could I have been lost somewhere in Paris
Could I have been your little brother
Could I have been anyone other than me…”
Dave Matthews, “Dancing Nancies”

Could I have been…miserable in central Kentucky? I had this Zen-like moment on Sunday while walking through the halls of my parents’ church. This was the same church where I cut my teeth on ministry and realized my calling. This was the same church where I met her…the girl I dated before my wife, Amy. And I saw her Sunday morning (I won’t get into details, I won’t slander, but we’ve taken distinctly different paths since June ’97). Then the FLASH of insight (sorry to mix Buddha and Jesus): what if I hadn’t severed the ties of that necrotic relationship? Could I have been anyone other than me?

I’m 99.9% confident: (1) I never venture out of KY for anything, (2) I never get involved in leading worship, (3) I miss out on my relationship with Amy, my two beautiful children, and (4) I don’t meet g13 at Soybean Bible and strike up a friendship that was originally based on two facts: the Dave Matthews Band are gods (we’ve both changed our opinions since then), and Barry Sanders is the greatest running back in history (I’m still steadfast on this, assuming g13 is as well).

Needless to say, I made the right choice…but that Sunday was all the Thanksgiving I needed. Anyone else had one of those moments lately?

i stand corrected, sir

"By 1998 six of the seven largest parachurch mission agencies were World Vision (founded 1950, annual revenues $304 million), Larry Jones International Ministries/Feed the Children (1964, $128 million),MAP International (1954, $85 million), Compassion International (1952, $69 million), Food for the Hungry (1971, $53 million) and Christian Aid Ministries (1981, $43 million). All have been founded since 1945 and all make relief, development, education and health care their primary focus, with evangelism a secondary concern." - Michael S. Hamilton, "More Money, More Ministry: The Financing of American Evangelicalism Since 1945," pg. 118.

"The budget of just one organization dedicated to evangelism - Campus Crusade for Christ ($241 million) - is itself larger than all spending by all evangelical political group, right and left. Evangelicals spend more on summer camps than on politics, more on urban rescue missions than on politics, and more on youth programs than on politics. When we factor in the amounts that evangelicals give to their churches - probably somewhere between $14 billion and $20 billion - there is no doubt that evangelicals devote less than 1 percent of their religious spending to public affairs matters. If we follow the money, it clearly does not lead to politics." - ibid, pgs. 130-131.

these figures are from 1998, but they are still startling. to me anyway.

a fitting tribute to the poor bastard killed by consumerism


i can't believe they can't prosecute the killers. couldn't they at least seize their credit cards or ban them from wal-mart?

warning: explicit lyrics.

mid-morning time waster: yakking off

"you americans...

first you arm hussein

then you fight hussein

now you elect hussein

what a country!

what's next? hijab as new black?"

your turn! what's your favorite yakov bit?

Joe the Plumber=America
submitted by: slowfo

It all started with a simple game of football with his son in the front yard...or at least that's what Wikipedia tells me (and if you can't trust Wikipedia, who can you trust anyway?). On October 12, 2008, then-Presidential candidate, Barack Obama whizzed through an Ohio neighborhood to do a little meet-n-greet and stumbled upon Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka. "Joe the Plumber", and changed history in ways that we still haven't seen the end of yet.

To recap the major events since October 12th, here's Joe's meteoric rise in a nutshell:

• Joe was played like a pinball over the next 3 weeks as the two best options for President of the free world (or at least the best two who actually wanted to pursue the job) would use him in any way, shape, or form for their own selfish, political gain.
• 
  
• All major media groups picked up the Joe the Plumber story, swarming him for feedback and/or appearances. Fierce competition for ratings continued throughout the campaign and Joe was a major piece to that puzzle. Consequently, Joe became our newest celebrity-next-door.
• 
  
• Soon after Joe's thrust into stardom (if you can really call it that) Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, had for-her-eyes-only background checks being done to see if he owed unemployment compensation taxes, child support, or received welfare assistance from the state. Jones-Kelley was an Obama supporter who made 14 background checks within 48 hours after the final presidential debate. Now surely a state employee wouldn't immediately abuse their power to dig up dirt on a regular public citizen to hopefully discredit their opinions and assassinate their character for political gain (oops, that last part hasn't been proven yet...I'll bet Ms. Jones-Kelley was a McCain supporter all the way, dontcha think? ;-). Dishonest political powerplays with priveleged information....Joe, meet Big Brother. He's here to tell you a bedtime story that we like to call...Watergate.
• 
  
• Joe's no fool (altho' time will tell on that one) - he sees opportunity in all of this and so do a gathering crowd of others who are whispering into Joe's ear about how much big money he can make through all of this (don't worry, the whisperers will get their self-indulgent cut of the action too). Joe's planning on sueing the State of Ohio (by the way, isn't it great that the ACLU protects citizens like this?.....what? they haven't called for the lawsuits and firings? they've only admitted that the Jones-Kelley debacle "raises questions?"....geez, what's a white, middle-class male to do to get a little back-up here??). Joe's got a book coming out. Joe's started his own website, watchdog group, and has inquired into cutting a country music CD and has hired his own publicity management agent.
  

So what does this all mean? Political gain. Fierce competition. Stardom. Abuse of power. Character assassination. Dishonesty. Opportunity. Lawsuits. Big money. Call me a cynic but if you want to know what real-world, on the streets, and in the board room America is all about, here it is wrapped up in one big story: "Joe the Plumber."

overheard: will leitch

"Say what you will about Barack Obama, but I love him, if just for one reason. When asked about his favorite baseball team, he said, 'Oh, that’s easy. White Sox. I’m not one of these fair weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball. Southside.' This is exactly what we Cardinals fans think about Cubs fans. Because it’s true. It’s nice to have someone rooting against the Cubs in the White House." More...

why i love my job

what's that? wait...oh my god! that's makua's music!!!

makua and qwest from ringside entertainment stopped by rectangle today and they made a big splash.

over the last several weeks, rectangle has undergone some difficult transitions and the atmosphere among participants, staff and supporters has been, to say the least, incredibly tense.

little did we know that a little professional wrestling was just what the dr. ordered.

when makua and qwest unexpectedly busted up our monday morning meeting to announce that ringside entertainment, yea-uh, is going to host a benefit wrestling event for rectangle on friday, december 13th in everett, ma, yeah-uh, the room erupted. participants who are ringside loyalists called out to makua and qwest by name, the work floor supervisors had goofy smiles plastered across their faces and long-time, well-cultured managers recanted of their previous inclination to reject the event altogether.

in the midst of that meeting there were tears* shed, high fives slapped and many, many autographs given. after the meeting as i escorted the celebrities to their dressing room i couldn't help but think that this must be what the celebration of jubilee felt like.

thank you makua, qwest and ringside entertainment for shedding a little light and sharing a lot of love with all of us at rectangle. your support and philanthropy,** especially at this time in our community's history, means more than you could ever imagine.

* some of which, i am unashamed to say, were mine.
** i mean that in the truest since of the word.

schlocky sentimentality

july of 1996 was a difficult month for me. my grandmother was in the process of dying from heart disease, i had just received my fourth alcohol related citation in six months and i didn't know what i was going to do with my future - though i realized that returning to oklahoma state for a second year of blatant debauchery and academic excellence was not my best option.

during that time i was fortunate to receive guidance and accompaniment from people i knew and loved, such as scott schlotfelt, sean radecki and regina (whitehead) johnston each of whom spent many hours reminding me that, as confused as i was, i was still loved and i had a strong community supporting me.

however, during that time, i was also fortunate to receive encouragement and accompaniment from an unexpected source. namely, the lcc dayspring group. this crew traveled throughout the region that summer singing songs about Jesus, encouraging young adults to attend bible college and blessing those they came across. at sean's insistence, i helped them unload their gear into the church, i attended their charming, if a little cheesy and formulaic, performance and enjoyed chatting with them after the show.

the next morning sean called me to tell me that dayspring's bus had broken down* and to invite me to hang out with the crew for a little longer. so i did. as that day turned into half a week, guys like joel craig, david drake, john cassetto and, especially, todd zastrow really blessed me with their friendliness** and they encouraged me to explore the possibility of attending lcc instead of simply jumping ship to another state university.

their encouragement tapped into the odd*** affirmations i had received over the years that i would "grow into a preacher" someday and, as a result, i decided to give at least one semester of bible college a try.****

the first semester really sucked, but i received an unexpected call to preach, i stuck around lcc and that calling continues to orient my life until this day.

why am i tripping down sentimental lane and dropping names? good question...

this weekend i remembered the dayspring week because a sort-of similar group from st. stephen's university in new brunswick visited the gathering. this group of eclectic, incredibly talented musicians invited us to experience "the filid," which they described as an experience of celtic liturgy, song, dance, poetry and prophesy.

i didn't know what to expect from "the filid" crew, but when i realized within an hour of meeting them that several of their members were former l'arche assistants and that the whole crew had been profoundly shaped by the life and ministry of jean vanier and henry nouwen, i had a feeling that we would get along famously.

fortunately we did.

their performance was amazing***** - weaving a "deconstruction liturgy" together with contemplative sculpture, quirky, powerpoint entangled proclamation and soaring instrumentals - and afterwards we lingered over many beers and they joyously jammed out versions of marvin gaye's "let's get it on" as well as original tunes such as their bi-lingual, comedic, closer of a love song between canada and separatist quebec.

obviously, i'm too old to respond to their rousing performance by running off to a christian college, but spending time with the st. stephen's crew reminded me of my roots in spiritual theology, gave me a vision of an engaging, mixed media liturgy and, by the strange miracle of grace, provided a provision of much needed bread for the journey.

---
* which came as no surprise to that crew or anyone who attended lcc during that time period.
** friendship is probably too strong a term. they were recruiters, after all.
*** odd because my language, behavior and contrarian nature have always made me an nontraditional candidate for ministry in the christian churches, churches of christ.
**** against the recommendations of schlotfelt and radecki who discouraged me from attending for rather superficial reasons (that i will not reveal except to say that the "wish book" was involved).
***** i wish i had another superlative, but, um, there you go.