Wedding Pics Online & Luggage Update

Had a chance to post up some wedding pictures last night, so head over to my picture gallery for those. Beth Bennett did a great job and we're expecting to get some more from her when we return to Colorado Springs next month.

This morning, Kristy and I awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing at about 7am. (Not a very reasonable hour, given the previously late night of dominoes and cards with my parents.) Our grumpiness from being rudely awaken was turned to relief when Kristy was informed that my suitcase was finally located in Chicago! United is going to Fed Ex the luggage to Kristy's parents' place in Denver so it'll be waiting for us when we arrive back on the 17th of January. I'm really hoping that the bottle of St. Lucian rum is still intact. Not only because I was looking forward to some rum 'n Coke, but also because I know Kristy's parents aren't big fans of alcohol and probably don't want their house smelling like rum.

This Sunday, Kristy and I will be giving a report to my parents' church here in Longview (Grace Bible Fellowship) and, on the 8th of January, I'll lead worship at Grace Community Church in Auburn and give a report. Then, on the 14th, my parents will be putting on a wedding reception here in Longview for all my friends and family who couldn't make it down to Denver for the wedding. I'm really looking forward to that. I think my mom mentioned that we had about 90 RSVP's, which is actually more than we had at the wedding. My in-laws will also be flying up from Denver to attend the reception, which will be cool. (Maybe they can bring me my rum.) Finally, on the 15th, Kristy and I will give a report to my home church, Grace & Glory Community Church down in Vancouver.

In between all of that, I'm hoping to get some reading and blogging done, but we'll see. I'm also going to be trying to connect with as many financial partners as I can to set up some face-to-face time with Kristy and I. We're really hoping to come across some new financial support while we're here. Pray that the needed financial resources will come in so that we can get back to Europe!

Christian Faith or American Christendom?

Interesting article over at The Economist this week. (LINK) The question is, does the article describe the Body of Christ or an American Christendom version of Christianity, as seen in the American phenomenon of the mega-church?

Categories: church, culture

Marital Bliss (or, Back in the Blogosphere After the Marriage Break or, What Have I Done?!)

As you know, the month of December has been quite the connubial experience for me, to say the least. I married my best friend on the 9th and the whole week leading up to it was full of good times and memories with friends and family. The snow made things a little tough to get around, but fortunately was not enough to bring things to a halt completely.

My younger brothers arranged for the bachelor party to happen up in Denver with all of the groomsmen in attendance. At the hotel, they made me wear a long silvery dress/skirt, a black afro wig, and some sort of colourful scarf. The highlight of the evening for everyone was meeting a drunken computer tech entrepreneur in an Irish pub just outside the walls of Coors Field and chatting with him about life, spirituality, philosophy, and Cuban cigars. He even invited us upstairs to his luxury apartment for some billiards and further fellowship.

The wedding itself was brilliant. Kristy and I were both blessed to have so many friends and family working so hard to make it all come together as well as it did. My good friend and pastor, Marc Johnson, did a great job officiating and another good friend and mentor, Jim Adkins, did a fine job sharing a few thoughts from Ephesians. Jim’s daughter also performed the special music beautifully.

One of the only blips on the radar was a flu bug that my mom picked up the night before and had a hard time shaking off. Fortunately, she was able to drag herself to the ceremony with the help of my faithful and dependable father. My sister-in-law, the beautiful and amiable Iris Wellcome, stepped in to fill in for my mom in lighting the family candles with Kristy’s mom.

On the way to the reception in Kristy’s dad’s 1971 Buick GS (not the one in the link picture), we were stopped at a traffic light after getting off the freeway when people behind us from the wedding party began honking and making a bunch of celebratory racket. All of a sudden, we began to hear the low droning of some sort of horn, like the kind made out of ivory that you hear in tribal contexts. Sure enough, we looked over a few lanes and this car full of men were blowing on these large horns out the windows and yelling “Blessings in the name of the Lord!” Kristy asked what they were and they answered back that they were shofars and that they were meant to be blown as a blessing. It was the most random, unexpected, skin-tingling blessing I’ve ever experienced!

The reception was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy the chocolate fountain. My two brothers (the best men) took their toasting/speech responsibility and turned it into an embarrassing, albeit creative and unique, account of our hiking trip this last summer in Yosemite. (I ended up in the emergency room due to dehydration.) Their warning to Kristy: Keep this boy hydrated! After this brief conclusion, they handed me a Camel Back that they’d purchased together.

The honeymoon was also brilliant. The most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had. Swimming, snorkelling, skiing, hiking, etc. We even took a day to get away from the resort and tour the island of St. Lucia. The trip back, however, is another story.

It consisted of island hopping on a plane with Liat and, after arriving in Antigua, our flight to Puerto Rico was delayed for about 2½ hours. We finally arrived in San Juan and missed our connecting United flight to Philadelphia by about 15 minutes. The lady behind the desk booked us new flights to Philly, via Charlotte. We arrived in Philadelphia close to midnight, as opposed to the original 6.30pm arrival time. Kristy and I added some things up in the midst of the waiting, the impatience and the anxiety: Six airports in eighteen hours straight of travel. Flights to Europe suddenly didn’t seem so bad. I was happy to have my new wife with me. And James Joyce.

While waiting for our luggage in Philly and looking forward to what few hours of sleep we had ahead of us, Kristy got a phone call from someone named Lorrain in Connecticut to explain to us that she had our luggage in Hartford and that hers had gotten switched with ours. After going back and forth at the US Airways baggage centre and over the phone, it was explained to us that our luggage would get sent to Chicago and on to Denver to meet us there.

After three hours of sleep in the hotel, our flight for Denver, via Chicago, left at 6am from Philadelphia. (In the same clothes we’d worn all day previously. Gotta love that.) Upon arriving in Denver, we anxiously waited for our luggage. Kristy’s suitcase finally came through, but there was no sign of my own. After waiting to see if it would come up from another flight from Denver, we again reported to the baggage claim centre and hoped for the best. We left the airport without my luggage and today, 3 days later, I am without 75% of my summer clothes, both casual and formal, the digital camera with all of our honeymoon pictures, a travel case of CD’s, a bottle of premium St. Lucian rum, and a brand new Samsonite suitcase that Kristy and I received in a 3-piece set from my parents as a wedding gift. As each day passes, hope fades for having these things returned.

So, for the last three days, my moods have randomly toggled from enraged, frustrated, and perplexed over my lost luggage to content, happy, and expectant as I’ve enjoyed the freshness and newness of marriage and companionship. Once in a while, I’ll be reminded of a favourite shirt or CD or a cell phone charger that was in my lost luggage and I’ll again do battle with frustration and anger. All the while, I know deep inside that God wants to speak to me and remind of me of what clothes and CD’s are actually worth in the Kingdom economy that I belong to more than I belong to this world. I know this cognitively, but I’m convinced that it’s only through life experiences such as these that I really come to take the most profound ownership of that truth.

The good news? On December 9th, 2005, I married my best friend. And I now have a companion to do this adventure of life with, arm in arm. Dang it. I just remembered that my Coldplay “X&Y” CD was in my luggage. Pray for me.

Categories: life

Relevant Podcast & The Supposed "War on Christmas"

For the last several years, Relevant Magazine has been a regular visit for me and this week they have some really interesting discussion on their podcast. In particular, the Relevant crew brings up the issue of Christians freaking out about retail stores taking Jesus out of Christmas, replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays." This season it seems to be everywhere. Okay, so maybe it's just everywhere over at Fox News.

In the Christian community, quotes like this are commonplace:
“My personal solution to this attack on my inherent constitutional rights, is to boycott all businesses that refuse to acknowledge that Christmas is a ‘national’ holiday. Those unbelievably huge retailers who refuse to reference the Christmas season need to feel the impact of the Christian community. Money talks!” — Rich (Harrisburg, PA)

This kind of attitude and tone is encouraged by our brothers and sisters in Christ who are promoting a "culture war" (e.g., The Dob and Jer Bear.) Very problematic. I'm sorry, but most Americans do not have a faith in the Jesus of the Christian Christmas. Therefore, it seems pretty natural for department stores to say "Happy Holidays" so as to include as many people of different faiths (or of no faith) as they can without alienating their customers. Afterall, the purpose of Target and Wal Mart is NOT to promote Christianity. It's to make money! Yet the first reaction of “American Christendom” is to lash out as though retail stores are going to single-handedly take down the God of creation Himself.

I appreciate Cameron Strang’s sensitivity on the Relevant podcast when he points out that, if he were to have a Jewish friend, he wouldn’t mind saying “Happy Holidays” to include his friend, thus preserving the friendship with potentially redemptive results in the future.

Christians have been called to be agents of change in enemy territory, not to protest the enemy. The problem is that sometimes Christ-followers mistakenly identify the enemy (i.e., retail stores), expecting the darkness to be less dark. Worse yet, American Christians too often use their supposed “constitutional rights” (see above quote) to force their faith on those who don’t have Jesus, but desperately need to see examples of Christ-like character so absent in the defensive culture-war movement.

Granted, there are those who want to wage some kind of all-out war on Christianity and even take Santa out of the picture (which would be fine for the promoters and gatekeepers of American Christendom) as a result of a ridiculous obsession with political correctness. However, these voices have a stronger bark than they do bite. And even if they did begin to move the zeitgeist, God would not go away and the real enemy would still have only defeat to look forward to in the future.

One more quote from the Fox News article that I think is on the more profound side of the issue:
“War on Christmas? Are you kidding me? There are more pressing issues in the world that need to brought up. If someone is in need of a ‘war,’ why not hunger, crime, social injustice, or racism?" — Sophia

Big shout out to Sophia.

(And by the way, Xmas is NOT an attempt to take Christ out of Christmas.)

Categories: culture, God, church

That *expletive* Discussion

Phil Kingsley sent me an e-mail about some dialogue resulting from a poem read at a Scum of the Earth gathering in Denver. I began responding to his message with an e-mail, but then decided that it might make a better blog post.

I think this is a great discussion. It seems to me that the brand of Christianity that many take on is not so much biblical faith as it is a "culturally respectable" christianity. In "respectable Christianity," somehow profanity (as defined by culture) finds itself amongst the worst of sins, while things like selfish ambition, pride/arrogance, gossip, and the subtleties of excusable and acceptable racism get swept aside as soft sins, worthy of neglect and even dismissal. Maybe our understanding of things like holiness, purity and sin just need to be re-hashed.

Soooooooo, are swear words sin? Well, unfortunately God hasn't made it real easy for us by designating certain English slang words as such (obviously). So maybe Christians should look to the necessary cultural institutions that both reflect and influence culturally determined values, such as profanity. (The only thing that comes to mind in the U.S. at the moment is the MPAA and the BBC and BBFC in the UK.) I have to be careful back here in the U.S. where words like "hell" and "damn" draw raised brows from Christians, whereas it's not as much the case in Britain. I personally believe that soft, or moderate, profanity such as these can be helpful in expressing opinions and ideas, but can also be quite abused and used unintelligently (as in the case of many Hollywood films these days), often so as to disrespect or de-humanize other people.

I also think there are bigger and broader issues that this particular topic points to that need to be discussed. For example, is a Christ-follower guilty of sin for watching a movie with a heavy dose of profanity? Does it nullify any other redemptive components of the film? How much is too much? Can we really speak for God in determining how much profanity should be allowed in a film before we walk out of the cinema or push "stop" on the DVD remote?

Should Christians really be as offended at something as biblically ambiguous as "cuss words"? Do scripture passages that mention such things as "filthy language" refer primarily to culturally informed profanity more than words of resentment, gossip, contempt, malice, rage, etc.? What about Paul's use of "scubalon" in his letter to the Philippians (a Greek word which directly translates into English as - well, a word I would probably get complaints about if I used here - let's just say it rhymes with "spit")? And by the way, the word I refer to is actually translated "rubbish" in the NIV. How respectable.

There are also broader concepts such as what it means for Christ-followers to be in the world, not of the world, sent to the world. Should we as God's children be shocked and offended when non-followers act as if they're, well . . . not followers of Jesus, lost in the darkness of their sin nature? (Much to the gobsmacking disgust of members of the "culture war" movement?)

Like I said, it's a good item of discussion and one that has far-reaching implications in regards to what it means for followers of The Way to be aliens and strangers, with a divine calling to be catalysts of redemption and change.

More Prosumption

Another great post by Andrew Jones, re: the prosumption idea that I blogged about a few months back. Andrew has been on top of this concept for a lot of years.

In other news, this will probably be the last of my blogging for a while. Wedding happens next Friday evening. Let the craziness begin! I'm expecting lots of memories and good times, though. After coming back from the honeymoon, Kristy and I will spend Christmas with her family in Denver and then head up to the Great Northwest to spend time with friends and family there. On the 14th of January, we'll have tonnes of people over at my parents' church in Longview/Kelso for a wedding reception. Back to The Springs on the 17th.

. . . . Maybe I'll try to squeeze in a few posts between now and then.

More Good News from England

Got some more encouraging news from England the other day. That event that Luke Royce is putting together is moving forward really well. Big shout out to Chris Curtis for agreeing to speak. Chris is the perfect choice for the job and will be a big encouragement to Luke and the others in making that event a big success.

My guess is that Jon West put together this promo poster. Click here to see more of Jon's work. (Also, click on the image for a larger version.)

Keep up the great work, Luke & Jon and Co.!!

Thoughts from John 14

I've been enjoying my time in the Gospel of John lately and just the other day I came to chapter 14, where Jesus is laying some things out pretty clearly to His boyz. After He'd explained quite unambiguously that if they'd seen and known Himself, then they'd seen and known God the Father, Philip pipes in and says, “Jesus, just show us the Father and it’ll be all good.”

About half of Jesus’ response to Philip is in question form. One can almost sense the frustration in Jesus here. “I’ve been with you for the last 3 years and you still don’t realize who I am? Do you not believe me even when I explain it plainly to you?”

It would be easy for us to think poorly of Philip and say, “What a bonehead! If I was one of Jesus’ disciples I totally would’ve believed everything Jesus said. And then I would’ve smacked Philip upside the head.” However, I think what we see in Philip is a normal, s-l-o-o-o-w, human process of absorbing truth into our lives. Sometimes we get these “mutations,” where God cements his truth into our hearts such that it finally sticks and our character is formed in supernatural ways. But most of the time, it seems that we have to keep learning and re-learning the same things over and over again until they get absorbed into our lives and we begin to embody His truth. I wonder if a crucial part of our spiritual formation as Christ-followers is recognizing this process and adjusting our expectations accordingly, while continuing to be proactive in that journey.

Ambassador's Briefing

Just about every month, GEM missionary Ruth Robinson sends out a report on a broad range of European issues, made up of various news articles and other sources. I've found the briefing very informative and helpful in understanding current events across Europe. Click here for the current issue, as well as the archives from the GEM web site.

Moving On Without Me

It's been good to hear that the youth ministry at Hightown Baptist in Luton is moving ahead in big ways. The web site looks sweet! (Way to go, Jon!)

Please continue to keep these young people and their leaders in your prayers! Pray also for Pastor Keith Berry and the rest of the church leadership.

Cool, Thoughtful Art

Found this little online art gallery, thanks to a post over at Jonny Baker's blog. Art that makes you think is the best kind, in my opinion, though I realize that artistic expression can be important merely for it's intrinsically aesthetic value. (warning: some of the art on that page may be offensive to some.)

Speaking of Jonny Baker, he's got another great post from a few days ago in his creative and innovative worship tricks category. Attaching a video projector to the outside of a subway train?? Good stuff. Check it out here.

More Healthy Critique of Evangelical Theology

There's a new book out called The Problem with Evangelical Theology that seems to ask some great questions and tackles key controversial theological issues with a recklass indifference to stepping on the toes of traditional doctrinal views. Sounds like my kind of book. We need more discussion/writing that challenges the comfort of our conclusions that our theology gives us, without challenging us to think more deeply and love God with all our minds.

I particularly like what author Ben Witherington says in this interview with CT:
"I think part of the problem is that we are still doing theology in an Enlightenment frame of mind, as if it were a string of ideas that we should logically link together, and once we've produced a nice logical circle, then we're home free. The truth is that life is a lot messier than that, and the Bible is more about stories than the history of ideas that are embedded in the stories."

(HT: Rhett Smith)

Thoughts on Christendom & Mission

I've been reading (or rather, feeding on) a book that has been opening my eyes to the way that outside forces, other than Scripture, have shaped the modern day evangelical church and adjusted the very fabric of our purpose from being missional to being institutional. Last night in particular, some things really began clicking in my own heart and mind as Darrell Guder gave a very concise description of this shift:

"I have stressed that the concrete presence and action of Christians in the world was their witness, their way of carrying out God's mission by demonstrating what the gospel was. Now, Christian activity was gradually being recast as the disciplines of Christian behavior that would prepare one for heaven. Rather than reading the canonic Scriptures as equipping for mission, the church began to understand them as sacred texts that provided guidance for spiritual improvement and perfection." (p. 111)

Guder explains in chapter five how the christianizing of the Roman empire by Constantine led to the current model of Christianity called "Christendom." When the Protestant Reformation came along, the leaders of the movement (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) addressed the errors in the Catholic church regarding salvation, ecclesiology, etc., but never challenged the “Christendom” paradigm as a whole. In fact, they kept the “Christendom” model intact and, in Guder’s words, “maintained the Christendom focus upon the management of each soul’s salvation on earth in preparation for heaven.” Guder goes on to say that German theologian Jürgen Moltmann was right when he “does not think that the Reformation succeeded in changing these patterns inherited from the Constantinian turn.” (quoting Arne Rasmussen, p. 114.)

There are so many implications and directions to go in discussion of these things. For now, I’ll just affirm how much sense this makes to me personally. In the last several years, I’ve had this nagging sense that the way we manage and organize (and debate) the evangelical body of doctrinal truth is not altogether a precise treatment of God’s truth as a whole. Take, for example, the categories of systematic theology, such as soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), hamartiology (the doctrine of sin), eschatology (the doctrine of the end times – a modern day classical favourite), etc. After being introduced to all of these “-ologies” in Bible college, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had stepped into a science laboratory. That’s why it hit home when I read this statement from Guder: “The theological disciplines were profoundly re-shaped by the intellectual environment that adopted and adapted the scientific method as authoritative.” (p. 116)

The special emphases on “the end times” and securing our place in heaven (while somehow devaluing the mission we are to be about as God’s people on the earth NOW) coupled with the emphasis on Jesus birth, death and resurrection (while devaluing the significance of his life and ministry BEFORE arriving at the cross) has never really been adequate in my own heart and mind.

I could go on to think through issues of the Body of Christ with the modern day attractional models intended to bring people from outside the Church into it’s meetings and functions. And I could talk about the interesting ways that I’ve heard pastors communicate spiritual maturity in terms of faithful attendance at the meetings of the church and the great time and energy poured into buildings and facilities. Then there’s the funny tensions that exist in evangelical circles regarding our relationship with “the world” and even our definitions of “the world.” (I still get funny looks from some Christians when I say I’m not a big fan of “Christian music, whatever the heck that is” and that I’ve been spiritually inspired by a lot of non-Christian artists in music, film, and literature.) Perhaps these tensions are all likely the result of the “Christendom” model of faith handed down to us through centuries, finding it’s source in Constantine’s christianized Roman empire.

There's a lot I'm still wrestling with and pondering over. That should do it for now. Comments and questions and contributions to the discussion are welcome!

Good, Healthy Conversation within Emerging Church

I'm of the opinion that there is a lot of good, healthy conversation going on in what is known as "the emerging church," particularly when the conversation is on more of a theological level that informs praxis effectively. However, I'm increasingly discouraged by comments and attacks that come from the self-proclaimed gatekeepers of evangelical Christianity. These are mostly men who have contributed much to the academic and pastoral circles of the Christian faith in the last 30 years or so and who deserve respect and a listening ear. However, oftentimes, the things that they are writing and saying in reaction to the "emerging church" conversation are not consistent with the character and wisdom that they are known for, at least by me and a few other amateur church leaders and thinkers.

One Christian leader in particular who has seemingly softened his tone and been very helpful in his responses to the emerging church is Michael Horton, who contributed to the book Church in Emerging Culture: 5 Perspectives. He had a very gracious discussion online with Andrew Jones last spring that was somewhat softer than his contribution to the book. If you surf around enough on Andrew's blog, you'll also discover something of his interaction with D.A. Carson, author of Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. Recently, I also came across this interaction on John O'Keefe's blog with yet another criticism.

In response to the flurry of reactions, opinions, criticisms, and responses to the emerging church dialogue, a few prominent members of this club got together and wrote what I would consider a very gracious, gentle response (and even "subversive rebuke?") to these reactions.

I'm sure there are more recent online conversations between established evangelical leaders and those in the emerging church conversation. (Too bad that there is this "us and them" dichotomy that is developing over the issues, but I guess it's consistent with both the history of protestantism, not to mention the very name "PROTESTant.")

The reason I'm pointing these things out is because I have a lot of friends, family and supporters who are following my life and ministry in Europe. An increasingly big part of that ministry is connected to this movement called the "emerging church." (I myself am not particularly excited about labels, but I realize they can be helpful.) As I think through and blog about some of these issues that are being thrown around by the EC, I realize that there are plenty of people out there who listen to/read respected evangelical leaders who are issuing blanket condemnatory remarks about the EC (eg., Chuck Swindoll, Michael Horton, D.A. Carson, etc.) And without doing the research and thinking through things for themselves, they are buying in to the views of these men about the EC dialogue.

Within historical Evangelical Christianity, there seems to be a tendency to dismiss someone completely whom you might have a disagreement with in one area of theology/doctrine/philosophy. This may be a result of an evangelical presupposition that bad or innacurate theology has the power to corrupt one's mind and even usurp the sovereignty of God. Therefore, in this view, we should put up our defenses and protect ourselves. It is because of this mentality that I have heard people say things like, "Ooo, stay away from those people or from that website because they promote this or that heresy." (In other words, "Don't think for yourself, let my version of 'sound theology' indoctrinate you and do the thinking for you.")

Rubbish. This protectionist, defensive posture is nowhere found in scripture. In fact, if we are to obey Jesus' command to love God with all of our minds, we should be willing to dialogue with people of all sorts of viewpoints and perspectives with humility, realizing that no human being has the monopoly on truth, even in spite of the fact that God has "clearly" revealed Himself to us in Scripture. If this means having an intelligent, respectful conversation with someone outside the narrowly defined boundaries of evangelicalsim, then so be it - especially if it sharpens us and causes us to think more deeply about the issues at hand.

Having said that, I understand scripture's warnings about false teaching and the like. The problem is that it is much too easy to misuse those passages to put controls on our own doctrinal opinions, thus granting ourselves immunity from whatever false teaching is out there threatening our controls.

My apologies if this informative-essay-turned-rant has developed an antagonistic tone (with a British flare - "rubbish"? where'd that come from?). That is not my intention. Evidently, there are some tensions and frustrations that have been bubbling under the surface of my own heart that decided to come out during this increasingly lengthy blog session.

Much more to be said about these things, but I think it's time I cut myself off and turned my attention back to the wedding planning. =)

Good/Bad in the City of Angels

I'm here in LA until Friday representing Greater Europe Mission during a special global vision week emphasis at Azusa Pacific University. Here's a little summary of my time thus far:

Good: Rental car handoff between Rick Roberts, leaving to fly back to Colorado, and me, arriving at Ontario airport.
Bad: It’s a PT Cruiser. (The exclusively preferred car of women over 40.)

Good: Southern California weather.
Bad: Southern California smog.

Good: Hanging out with college students, talking about good music, etc.
Bad: Trying to play salesman to college students (and not doing it very well).

Good: Great coffee shop on campus at Azusa Pacific.
Bad: At least 3 Starbucks sightings around the hotel and college campus.

Good: Dinner at “In ‘n Out”.
Bad: Trying to find “In ‘n Out” (in a PT Cruiser) after being given faulty directions by the guy behind the hotel desk.

A Burden for a Particular Corner of Europe

Okay, so I mentioned that I’d give a little more explanation re: our decision to head for Ireland next summer, and here I am distracting myself with a lengthy post about a Rolling Stone interview with Bono. (OH! By the way, I forgot to mention that, in the interview, Bono mentions the African ubuntu concept that I blogged about a few months back. Okay. I’m done with Bono.)

When Kristy and first agreed to visit Ireland, we were really just going through the motions of responsibly researching our “other option” aside from church planting in Cologne. I really liked what I saw in the Cologne team and thought there was really good chemistry and an impressive mix of gifting and ability. However, while we were there, it just never felt right for various reasons and I sensed that Kristy felt the same way. I’m not one to go solely on feelings, but after a few days in Ireland, I was reminded of the sense of calling that I had during my short-term experiences there and in England years ago. The burden on my heart for the peoples of Ireland and Great Britain went deeper than feeling to the level of passion and conviction. I wanted to be there.

On our rather lengthy list of pros and cons, there were smaller, more peripheral things that added up and pointed to Ireland, but this sense of being at home in Ireland and the UK was the pivotal issue for me. It means closer proximity to friends and colleagues that I’ve gained in England and thus opportunity to build on the ministry foundation I have there in a variety of ways. It also means potential involvement in future GEM church planting initiatives in Great Britain.

However, it also means a step of faith. With the Germany opportunity, I knew the chemistry and gift mix of the team that had invited us and how Kristy and I would fit in. In Ireland, there isn’t a specific church planting team context immediately apparent for us to join. In fact, there are several teams and initiatives in the Dublin area – none of whom have actually invited us to join them. But that’s okay. It just means having the faith that God will provide guidance, insight and wisdom on how to fit into what He’s doing.

Having said that, I look forward to working with Phil Kingsley, the Ireland field director. Phil has a 25 year history of working with the Irish church and a tremendous amount of respect and credibility with Irish church leaders. He’s also very engaged in the church planting dialogue and networking in the country. There’s also Rod Taylor and the burgeoning GEM Youth Ministries, to whom I will be committing a portion of my time and energy. After a few minor setbacks, the process of developing training curriculum for European youth workers is well under way and I look forward to staying involved in that work. Phil and Rod are the ones who’ve persisted in getting Kristy and I to Ireland.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or with regard to anything in this explanation needing clarification!

RS Interview with Bono

On the flight into LA this morning, I read the cover story/interview of the latest Rolling Stone magazine, featuring U2's frontman. (I think this is Bono's 12th appearance on the RS cover.) RS writers and editors seem to have varying degrees of openness and sensitivity to spiritual matters, but for the most part, they seem pretty hostile to evangelical Christianity (which I can sometimes relate with) and to faith in general. Unfortunately, I don't think their readers share the same general hostility to spiritual things. I personally get the sense that, though many people in American culture have a revulsion to elements of American evangelicalism, they’re not necessarily ready to reject the true God. I think Glen Galaxy (frontman for the band Soul Junk) was wise to tell one concert crowd, “Consider the possibility tonight that what you've rejected is not God, it's man's attempt to play God.”

Anyway, in this RS discussion with Bono, the interviewer asks very direct questions about the Christian faith that he is increasingly open to talking about. Bono seems to respond with some tentativeness when he says this:

“If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there’s a force of love and logic . . . behind the universe. . . the story of Christ makes sense to me. As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It’s so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don’t use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I’m the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut.”

Wow. I wonder if we can use Bono’s example to replace the Evangelical “how-to” evangelism formulas. Set aside your “Four Spiritual Laws.” Set aside your hotel-issued Gideon Bible. Set aside your “seeker-sensitive” church services. And in their place, just share your heart of wonder for the poetry of God’s story. (Please note: I’m NOT saying that those other things are all bad.)

Notice his reticence to call himself a “Christian,” not necessarily out of shame, but because of a humble recognition of what it means. Bono has seemingly counted the cost of what it means to call himself a Christ-follower. But here’s a man who has gotten the attention of world leaders and the wealthiest of businessmen to act on behalf of the most marginalized, victimized people in the world – echoing the example of Jesus. And he calls himself the worst example of a Christian.

Later, Bono says this: “I also have enormous respect or my friends who are atheists, most of whom are, and the courage it takes not to believe.” If you’re a Christ-follower, just think to yourself for a moment. Are your brothers and sisters in Christ generally known in society for the respect that they have for atheists (or agnostics or the everyday, run-of-the-mill non-Evangelical Christian, for that matter?)

There are plenty more jewels in the interview, but I’ll just end with a couple more quotes.

Speaking of his relationship with the other band members:
“They make me a better singer [and writer]. The idea of being in a room surrounded by people who agree with you is terrifying, ‘cause I’m not sure I’m consistent enough in my own judgment.” (Oh, man. Could this be an example of an appropriate attitude for Christians in the context of biblical community? What about theologians who see their own doctrinal opinions as black and white truth?)

Speaking of the evangelical movement in the U.S.:
“I’m wary of faith outside of actions. I’m wary of religiosity that ignores the wider world. In 2001, only seven percent of evangelicals polled felt it incumbent upon themselves to respond to the AIDS emergency. This appalled me . . . Amazingly, they did respond. I’ve started to see this community as a real resource in America.”

I haven’t actually picked it up myself, but there’s a book that came out last spring that’s essentially one big interview with Bono. I’m sure it contains some more insightful nuggets about the enigmatic rock icon.

1-4-1 PDX

Just received an e-mail from an old friend who has a burden for the homeless, particularly in Portland, OR. I love what Crystal is doing because it puts very practical handles on ways that everyday people with a few bucks in their pocket can help. Check out the the website that's up and running (but still a work in progress) to get the big idea behind the vision. (LINK) There are already great organizations and ministries throughout the U.S. that seek to meet the needs of the homeless, but I think Crystal's fresh and innovative vision is something extra special.

Tragic News from Waco, TX

Got some news of tragedy today. Kyle Lake, pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, TX died yesterday during a baptism that he was leading. Apparently he grabbed a mic while in the water and was electrocuted. I personally have been blessed by some of Kyle's writing through Relevant Books and the magazine.

Kyle's book, Understanding God's Will, was released exactly one year ago today.

Please be in prayer for Kyle's wife, three young kids, and the UBC community.

Adventures in Wedding Planning . . . and Ireland

I'm beginning to resign myself to the fact that my current situation in life will not allow me to have any sort of consistency in the blogosphere! Yesterday, Kristy and I spent what seemed like hours registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target. (Click on the links for the registry at each place.) They finally kicked us out of Target at 10pm when it closed.

Kristy was able to pick flowers and colors (black and purple) for the wedding this last week. We also had a pre-marital counseling session, got the invitations out, met with the wedding coordinator, ordered our wedding bands, and decided on a tuxedo place.

On Tuesday, we went to a Switchfoot concert at the Ogden Theater in Denver. It was a great show and I was hoping to write up my own little review, but alas, wedding plans call. I'll say this for now, though: Jon Foreman has stage presence. I could tell the front man was battling a mild cold from the get-go. Just wasn't hitting the notes 100% and quite often was opting for the lower harmony notes. With his voice struggling and probably feeling other cold bug symptoms, Foreman made up for it with stage antics and, in response to chants from the crowd, a few spontaneous vintage numbers from the bands pre-Atlantic Records days.

In between all of the wedding preparations, Kristy and I were able to confirm that we are definitely headed for Ireland. For the sake of time, I'll just post part of an e-mail that I sent off to a few of our colleagues in Ireland today:

After a crazy process of prayer and consideration, Kristy and I have decided that Ireland will be our destination next summer. It was a bit unexpected for both of us, given our excitement to be involved with the church plant in Cologne, but it's much more consistent with my own heart burden for the UK/Ireland (oops, I mean Ireland/UK) corner of Europe. This is just one "pro" in a longer list than that of our Deutschland option. I look forward to talking through how I might split my time between the needs of GEM YM and my desire to apply my rather short inventory of gifts and abilities to the church planting dialogue in Ireland and the rest of Western Europe. I also look forward to seeing how God will use Kristy's many gifts and skills with GEM YM and in areas of social justice in Ireland.

Hoping to get some time this next week to blog a few thoughts from this great book I keep talking about (I know, I know - that's what I said last week!), as well as a few more details about our decision to head for Dublin. We'll see.

Prayer for Slovakia

Been busy with wedding prep this week, so I haven't had a chance to give much time to the blog. Last week, I tried getting caught up with some online prayer for Europe and I asked Kelly Shattuck if he could provide a prayer from his experience in Slovakia. Kelly and his family have been in that country for several years doing youth and camping ministry. (LINK) When asked about his ministry, Kelly's heart bleeds for that former communist country, once connected to the Czech Republic. (Czechoslovakia used to be my favorite word to say as a kid.)

"Father of Grace in Heaven, we pray for the leaders of our churches in Slovakia that they would experience the saving & keeping grace of Jesus Christ and live in intimacy with Him on a daily basis. Break the bonds of legalism. Shatter the fear of evangelism. Tear open the closed groups afraid of reaching out to new people. Free the Slovak believers in Christ from fear, doubt, negative self-image and restore to them the joy of their salvation, the peace that overcomes all doubt and the recognition of who they are in Jesus Christ.

"We also pray for the young people of Slovakia. We pray that there would be a revival of incredible proportions that would impact the entire world for Jesus Christ! We ask that Your Spirit would be free to mold the minds, dreams, desires and plans of the young disciples of Christ that they would radically change their youth ministries, churches, cities and country! Let them experience the joy of living by faith, not by sight or creed or legalism.

"Above all, we pray that every believer in Jesus Christ would be bold to build relationships with those who don't know Him and be free to share their love for You with them in the most practical and tangible of ways.

"Thank You, Lord, that You have heard our prayer and that You will answer in Your time. We look forward to that day! Amen!"

Thanks, Kelly! Our hearts and prayers are with you and your family and the people of Slovakia!

Coffee with an Attitude

I feel so spoiled back here in the States. There are at least 4 coffee shops with decent coffee along Academy Blvd. in Colorado Springs (3 with free wireless internet access) - and that's not even including the 3 or 4 Starbucks that I've seen around.

At the moment, I'm sitting in Peaberry and couldn't help but chuckle at their take-away cup wrapper thingy (what the heck do they call those things anyway?), pictured above. I can only assume they're taking a shot at a certain aforementioned coffee shop empire in particular.

Funny enough, on the back there's a patent number and "Portland, Oregon" in small print. I'd be careful, Peaberry. You mess with Seattle, you mess with the whole Pacific Northwest. You can't be pickin' a fight with Seattle and not expect little brother Portland to sit idly by, thinking it's your friend. =)

Hooray . . . A New Label from Barna

Okay, so that post title sounds really cynical, but the Barna article to which I'm referring is actually pretty interesting. (And I just happen to be growing especially tired of evangelical Christianity's preoccupation with labels.) The article is a summary of Barna's latest book, Revolution. Really, he just seems to be writing about the disillusionment of many Christ-followers in the U.S. (though it's happening all over western society) and the subsequent search for new forms of church that go beyond the status quo of most American evangelical "Christendom" churches. Could be an interesting read, especially in light of Barna's statistic/polling expertise, though I've got a growing "to read" list of books that will probably go deeper theologically than Barna's usual fare. I'm sure this one will be widely discussed throughout the blogosphere.

Thanks to Kristy for the link. Wait a minute - you're supposed to be shopping for wedding dresses with your mom today, not passing along blog fodder. =)

Wedding Plans and European Prayer Catch-Up

The last several days have been full of wedding plan activity. The wedding planning itself hasn't been too exciting, but it's been really good to be able to spend time with Kristy every day. Obviously, she's enjoying the whole thing more than me, which puts a little smile on my face to see her excitement. There's been a little stress, due primarily to the fact that we're just getting on top of some things that are usually done 3-5 months before a wedding (e.g., pre-marital counseling, purchase of a wedding dress, invitations, etc.) It's all good though. Hopefully the invitations will be going out in the mail tomorrow or Friday. We got some help from a woman who works at Kinkos named Heidi. Heidi was a student in the youth ministry where I interned during my Bible college years. It's been good to see her and talk about some memories that we share together from our days at Brush Prairie Baptist Church.

In the midst of all this transitioning back into life in these United States and wedding planning, I realized today that I've neglected my personal commitment to pray for Europe! So I'm hoping to get back into that. I've missed Russia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. (Kristy posted a nice little prayer for Romania, if you hadn't noticed.)

I think Russia could particularly use prayer in light of the corruption that exists at so many different levels of society, due in part to a former-KGB president who regrets the fall of communism and the Soviet Union. Pray that God's people would exist there as a voice of light and redemption and Jesus-like character.

I'm going to try and have a colleague in Slovakia provide a prayer for that county, since he has been doing youth ministry there for several years.

And Slovenia? I have absolutely no idea how to pray for that country. Try the link above for some prayer requests, and then click here for more info. about the country. Answers.com always has a wealth of information as well.

That's it for now. I'm currently reading a book that has me doing some very deep thinking about the missional nature of the church. I'm hoping to blog some thoughts from that book in the near future. Stay tuned . . .

The Eagle Has Landed

Kristy and I landed in Denver on Sunday night, just before a large snow storm blew through the area. The next morning, we woke to 7 inches of snow. On Tuesday, we packed up Kristy's belongings that were being stored at her parents' place in the Denver area and headed down to her townhouse in Colorado Springs. That night, I went over to the Roberts' place, where I'll be staying until the wedding.

The last few days have been full of sunny weather (the snow didn't last long - that's Colorado for ya!) and many efforts to get settled in with such basic modern luxuries as phone and broadband service.

Observations that have sent my head spinning since arriving back:
1. Cell phone service is ridiculously expensive and not nearly as accessible here in the States as it is in Europe, especially if you're not interested in signing 2 years of your life away with Verizon.

2. All this space to drive on the roads makes me dizzy. Could it be that I actually miss the smaller, narrower streets of England?! Maybe I've just developed a case of agoraphobia.

3. The variety of choice in restaurants and coffee shops is bewildering. This is a strange one for me. I love the convenience of having at least 3 different coffee shops around with with great coffee and free wireless internet, but at the same time, all these places to eat and shop and . . . well, consume . . . it just all smacks of materialism and vanity.

It reminds me of something I came across in cyberspace recently.

Own Less
If you don't own the latest thing,
it won't go out of date.
If you don't own much,
you won't have much to lose.
If you own next to nothing,
you won't worry about ending up with nothing.
If you own less than you want,
you will still have more than you need.
If you spend less money on things,
you can spend more time on you.
If you own less, you will value it more.
If you own only what you can carry,
you will carry less baggage around with you.
Travel light.

(HT: Jonny Baker)

En Route to Colorado

Kristy and I are travelling back to the States separately today. Would’ve cost us a good $100+ to travel on the same flight. I was hoping to get some Wi-Fi action here, but I only seem to be able to pick up a weak T-Mobile signal, way out here in gate 3 of terminal 4. Aside from that, I can’t even find any electrical outlets. Almost makes me feel like I’m in a cyber-countryside, where things are slow in catching up with the technology of the WWW urban sprawl. Wow – I sound like a techno-geek.

When I got to the check out counter, the lady made me take a book and a pair of jeans out of my big suitcase and put it in the smaller one to bring it down 1 freakin’ kg to the international weight limit. Worse yet, my laptop briefcase weighed 12 kilos, 6 over the limit. I have never had to off load my briefcase on a flight to be checked in. So I took the laptop bag out and proceeded to stuff it with some magazines and the book I’m currently reading, along with my Palm. When I got up to the security line, it hit me that I’d left my MP3 player in the main briefcase, which would be enjoying it’s first ride in the belly of a Boeing 777. Under my breath, I said one of those swear words that are permissible in Britain, but still taboo in American evangelical Christianity.

Walking through the airport on the way to my departure gate, I noticed an “inter-faith” prayer room. This is the first time I’ve flown out of Heathrow through terminal 4 and I’ve never seen an inter-prayer room in any of the other terminals, or even any of the other airports for that matter. There was one Muslim man in the room who had spread out a prayer mat and looked like he was preparing to bow toward the east. Couldn’t help but wonder how followers of The Way might plug in with such prayer rooms in redemptive ways. (And I don’t mean leaving gospel tracts littered throughout the room.)

Report from Dublin

Kristy and I are having a great time here in Dublin. There's been an absolute flurry of activity in church planting dialogue here in recent days. This past weekend, Jonny Baker was here speaking for a Church of Ireland group. When Kristy and I arrived at the GEM Youth Ministry office on Tuesday, I was pleasantly surprised with an opportunity to meet Andrew Jones and chat about emerging church stuff for a brief amount of time. He titles his blog "Tall Skinny Kiwi," and after meeting him in person, I can confirm that he is all three. The guy read three different books during his stay of maybe 24 hours here in Dublin, including "Blue Like Jazz." Since he lived and ministered in the Portland (OR) area for a few years, he knew many of the Portland sites mentioned by Donald Miller. The Jones family was staying with Phil Kingsley (the GEM Ireland field director) en route to the U.S. Phil's eldest son, Matt, and his family have recently joined the GEM Youth Ministry team here in Dublin and he has written up a little blog post of his own about hanging out with Andrew.

On Tuesday evening, we joined a group of church planters for a pint of Guinness at this traditional Irish pub with brilliant live music. It was essentially just 3 people with fiddles and I think some traditional Irish instruments playing softly in the background. Coolest pub experience I've ever had. Was also blessed by a conversation with a guy named Will from the mid-west U.S. who had been living in Dublin for three years, just getting to know Irish culture and connecting with people in various settings, looking for ways that God is at work in Ireland.

Anyway, more later. Time for bed. Tomorrow, Jon Covell is taking Kristy and I out to the Irish countryside to some ancient castle and celtic ruin sites. We fly back to Luton late tomorrow night.

Final Moments Gallery

Got some pictures up in the gallery that sort of capture the last few months here in England. Stay tuned for more after Kristy and I get back from Dublin next week . . .

Windows of Opportunity in Modern Day Technology

I came across an article in “Wired” magazine early last month that gave a report on where the internet has come in the last 10 years. The article was intriguing on several different levels. It’s staggering to realize how the internet has changed the world we live in and how closely it’s tied in to the development of contemporary culture. In particular, I was fascinated by author, Kevin Kelly’s, take on how the web has influenced consumerism. Take note of Kelly’s insightful point at the end of this quote in particular:

“I run a blog about cool tools. I write it for my own delight and for the benefit of friends. The Web extends my passion to a far wider group for no extra cost or effort. In this way, my site is part of a vast and growing gift economy, a visible underground of valuable creations - text, music, film, software, tools, and services - all given away for free. This gift economy fuels an abundance of choices. It spurs the grateful to reciprocate. It permits easy modification and reuse, and thus promotes consumers into producers.”

Any pastor deeply committed to disciplemaking and equipping believers for missional living can testify to the roadblocks that are created by the consumer mentality that permeates the lives of Christians in the western world today. When I read this quote, I sat up and began to ponder this question: Could the internet be opening up a window of opportunity to loosen the grip of consumerism that wields so much power to trap Christians in our smug, passive, and apathetic inactivity? It seems that, as a result of how the internet is shaping our culture, there’s a growing potential to re-new a vision for all believers to be participators in God’s Kingdom agenda.

First, however, I really think that we as pastors must find ways to encourage participation in our congregations. Many churches who’ve taken on the “emerging church” label are pursuing this idea, with varying degrees of success and faithfulness to sound ecclesiolgy (which by the way, I don’t claim to have arrived at.) It will require pastors to think creatively outside the conventional boxes. For example, how can we adjust our preaching to include dialogue and self-discovery? How can we adjust our meeting places to be more relationally friendly (vs. staring at the back of people’s heads for 2 hours and then going home)? How can we deepen the potential for participation from the congregation in worship and lessen the central focus of stage performance by musicians?

And these are primarily questions directed at worship services! The bigger, more substantial questions should really be pointed at helping people see church as something bigger than a worship gathering, as a force of redemptive change in the world. This brings to mind the staggering potential for relational connection that emerging technology presents. Towards the end of the article, Kelly draws attention to the social networking created by the participation that the internet is stirring up.

“What happens when the data flow is asymmetrical - but in favor of creators? What happens when everyone is uploading far more than they download? If everyone is busy making, altering, mixing, and mashing, who will have time to sit back and veg out? Who will be a consumer? No one. And that's just fine. A world where production outpaces consumption should not be sustainable; that's a lesson from Economics 101. But online, where many ideas that don't work in theory succeed in practice, the audience increasingly doesn't matter. What matters is the network of social creation, the community of collaborative interaction that futurist Alvin Toffler called prosumption. As with blogging and BitTorrent, prosumers produce and consume at once. The producers are the audience, the act of making is the act of watching, and every link is both a point of departure and a destination.” (emphasis mine)

What would it look like for the Body of Christ to not only be a “community of collaborative interaction,” but to find ways of allowing that community to be connected to the greater social network of the world in redemptive, incarnational ways?

I love this idea of prosumption. I think it is a key ingredient in the healthy multiplication of Christ-followers and of churches. But I'll stop for now.

Encouraging Signs

I sat in on a youth workers' meeting this evening and was so encouraged with how God is at work! One of the things that I'm most excited about is the intiative that Luke Royce is taking to plan a worship and fellowship event for Christian young people in Luton (on top of his key involvement in Momentum). This is a guy who, just a year ago, absolutely shuddered at the thought of actually leading people in worship with his newly-formed guitar skills. Now, he's wanting to gather the Christian young people of Luton to lead them in worshiping together and praying for one another! Fortunately, he's working with another young person from another church with the same vision and it really looks like it's got a great chance of coming together.

There are also two additions to our youth worker team, "Maz" Royce (Jason & Luke Royce's sister) and another young woman named Angela. Maz has done a fantastic job with administrative details for the team, as well as breathing new life into Friday night "Fusion Cafe" for the purpose of helping our young people share Christ with their non-Christian friends. Angela has worked hard to launch a special evening event to bring together adults and youth in the church for fellowship. She's also been instrumental in moving "Sudden IMPACT" (now called "IMPACTuesdays") ahead with new ways of building the faith of our young people through interactive prayer and scripture meditation/study.

Of course, our other youth workers who have been there all along (like Paul, Tina, Rhoda, and Bruce) continue to be faithful in pouring their lives into young people and making things like Momentum move ahead with creativity and effectiveness. And I haven't even begun to talk about the fresh new work that we're seeing God doing in young people like Jon West, Nick Willis, and Helena Bernard, just to name a few!

All this good stuff is making it all the more difficult to leave!

Emerging Church Discussion for Download

For those who are interested, I came across these presentations from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, available to be downloaded as MP3 files. Guest speakers/presenters include Brian McLaren, Mike Wittmer, and Ed Dobson. I also just happened to notice a guy by the name of Steve Argue as the moderator in session 5. Steve was involved in the leadership of Sonlife Ministries for a few years and spoke at the Portland SEMP conference that I had the privelege of leading worship at in 2002.

Packing Things Up

This week has been full of boxing things up, cancelling utilities, moving things into storage, etc., etc. I've also managed to meet with a few young people, particularly the guys the I've invested most in. Yesterday, I sold my car, which turned out to be really good timing. I was left a deposit and we made plans to transfer the rest of the funds and hand off the car by this next Friday. Kristy and I are in Ireland for most of the next week after that, before we head back to the States on October 9.

Last night, I had a great time hanging with lots of friends at Bruce Moulding's birthday party. (30 yrs. old, today.) We all got him gifts that reflected his personality and the creativity was impressive, if not hilarious at times. He's a good man.

Tonight, some people have planned some sort of "going away" party or social or something after the evening service at Hightown Baptist. All I know is that, at some point, I'll be interviewed about what I've learned in my 2 1/2 years here in England and that kind of thing. Knowing this group of people, there'll also be some embarrassing pictures, lots of laughs, and food.

Continuing Crisis in Sudan

It's been a long time since we heard anything from major news networks regarding the genocide happening in Sudan, at least in Britain or the U.S. Yet, run "Darfur" through Google and you'll find plenty of up-to-date info. Needless to say, it's still a problem and the response of world leaders is less than satisfactory.

Focus on the Family has reported that "religious leaders" are trying to get the attention of the U.S. government regarding the crisis. LINK (I'm not always completely on the same page with Focus, but I know we're on the same team.)

A TV ad attempting to call media attention to the Sudan crisis (made by American Progress Action Fund) was rejected by all of the major American news networks. It's a great commercial. However, I'm not sure why APAF expected to get permission to run a commercial that slated the very networks that would run it.

I finally saw "Hotel Rwanda" when I was in the States this last summer and it immediately had me thinking, "I hope we've learned our lesson so the same thing doesn't happen in Sudan." Looks like Don Cheadle is thinking the same thing. LINK

Meeting with Chris Curtis

I had a great time meeting with Chris Curtis over coffee today. Always enjoy our conversations. Today especially was nice because I was feeling a bit frazzled from the craziness of packing up and preparing to head to the States. I even offered to pay for Chris's coffee and bagel, only to discover that I didn't actually have enough cash on me and they didn't accept credit cards. Now there's a classy thing to do. Fortunately, Chris is classy enough to let it slide (of course, not without a few little friendly jabs.)

To my delight, as soon as we sat down, Chris jumped into explaining his latest movie craze. I could sit for hours and listen to that guy analyze and critique films. He's got a very thoughtful approach and he's somehow able to find the most obscure, but meaningful and though-provoking movies out there.

I'm really hoping to stay in touch with Chris. No matter where Kristy and I end up in Europe, he'll be a great resource to learn from and stay connected to. The work that he's doing with LCET is quality stuff. Although, as we discussed today, it would need to look totally different for individual churches (vs. a parachurch organization) to be involved in public schools, especially outside the UK. Having said that, I think his experience and expertise could prove helpful.

Dallas Willard & Richard Foster

Another great interview with one of my favourite authors, Dallas Willard, along with Richard Foster.

Starbucks Saturation

Those of you who know me can confirm I'm a big coffee fan. However, often I get confused with a "Starbucks fan," which is not necessarily the case. Starbucks coffee is all right. Not the best coffee in the world, but at least you know what you're going to get, whether you're in Vienna, Barcelona, or Seattle. The best coffee, however, is found in the little private places that you find all over Europe and even in the U.S. where they are very picky about where they get their coffee, and often roast their own beans. Having said that, after visiting Caribou Coffee in Chicago this last summer (infamous amongst mid-westerners), I personally think it's near the very top of the list.

The number of Starbucks in London, however, comes across to me as a little obnoxious. Check out this blog post and this article for a little taster of what I mean, if you've never been to London. Even in Cologne, Germany there are at least two Starbucks, though the coffee was comparably better everywhere else that I got it there last week. I must admit, I'm beginning to find the Starbucks mania a bit burdensome. Kinda like a pop tune that gets way over-played on the radio.

Prayer for Romania

Romania has undgergone an incredible amount of change since the fall of communism here in December 1989. Please join me in praying for this country or add your own prayer.

Dear Father in Heaven,
Thank you for the changes you have allowed in this country. Thank you that your church was not crushed under communism. I pray that people would not trade in their new freedoms for their dependence on you - but that they would pass on their faith in you to future generations. I pray for President Basescu, that you would give him wisdom and courage to continue fighting against the corruption that has gripped this country for so long. Keep him safe as he tries to root out those causing the problems. Provide a trustworthy staff for him to work with and be an example to leaders throughout the country.

Lord, I know you can see the plight of so many babies and children here. I claim your promises to take care of the fatherless. I pray that you would provide good homes for these children, where they will learn about how to have a relationship with You. Give these children peace in the midst of their situations. I know how these children long to be held - I pray that they would feel your arms around them as they lay in their cribs at night! Please give the staff an extraordinary tenderness and patience with the children each day.

In Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen.

I Repent

Recently, God has been dealing with me on some of my weaknesses that have been highlighted through various conversations, circumstances and whatever else God wants to use to show me my character flaws. By the time I made it to this blog post, I was getting the message loud and clear. Dang. And here I was, thinking that "dying to self" was just a profound principle to teach others. Even in thinking about it now, I realize that this process of death to self will take the rest of my life. It's a humbling thought. Even as much as I love to talk about humility and teach it to others, it seems that I just can't avoid a certain level of hypocrisy. Guess that's just a part of human fallenness. Fortunately there's hope in the midst of that fallenness. Hope that change can and will come.

More from Köln

Today we've enjoyed being a part of the church planting team meetings. The effort to connect with people in the community is an exciting part of the process. Something that's been discussed is how friendly the people are here in Cologne, especially compared to the rest of Germany. This cultural inconsistency provides some significant Kingdom opportunity for churches in this city and it's something that this team is wanting to jump on. There's also a significant effort by this team to connect with other churches in Cologne and communicate their desire to partner with them to be a Kingdom presence here.

Over the last few days, Kristy and I have had some significant conversations and prayer time about this opportunity. We would appreciate prayer as we seek God's face in regards to joining this church planting effort in Cologne! As we discuss things, I've been a bit surprised to find that, rather than gaining more clarity about this decision to move here or there after the wedding, we've actually gained more clarity and understanding about one another. This is encouraging, considering that our relationship will take first priority over our ministry location.

From Köln

Kristy and I are enjoying our time in Köln with the Gascho family, Jared & Lori Bridges, & Carsten Meiβner. Below is a picture of (L-R) Kristy, Bethel, Adam, Lori and Jared, having dinner together outside under a tent near the Rhine. About half way through dinner it began raining rather heavily and we found ourselves surrounded by people fleeing their own tables (without tents) and crowding around us under our tent.

Today we attended Köln West Church with the Gaschos and Bridges. More later!

Off to Germany

This evening, I catch a flight to Cologne to meet up with Kristy and to spend some time with the team that has invited us to be a part of their church planting effort. I took the train to Gatwick airport early to get some work done. I like to believe that God takes pleasure in my giddiness towards Wi-Fi. =)

Had a great time with my younger brother this last weekend. I showed him around to the usual: London Tower, St. Paul's (which we climbed to the top of), London Eye (which we did not go up in), Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, and about 3 or 4 London pubs.

The Sunday morning service at All Souls was interesting. It had a unique mix (unique in my own experience, anyway) of traditional Anglican and conservative evangelical elements to it. It was my first time seeing an Anglican infant baptism and there were responsive liturgical readings that were actually quite meaningful. The band included drums and a horn section, but wasn't lead very clearly by the two young people singing into microphones. There was one semi-contemporary song, while the others were older hymns that were actually quite triumphantly sung by the congregation. The pulpit was elevated on the stage such that it made the preacher (NOT John Stott, by the way) appear to hover in mid-air just above the heads of people in front of us. My guess is that this is intentional, so as to communicate the centrality and priority of the teaching of Scripture in the church. All in all, it was a pretty traditional, though lively church service.

It was good to chat with Jason about it afterwards, especially since he hasn't regularly attended church since high school. I prefaced my, "What'd ya think?" question to him with the thought that there have been findings of young adults actually preferring a more traditional and liturgical approach to church. He gave a thoughtful response that articulated a desire for a more personal, interactive, and creative church experience. I was impressed that his feedback addressed more than just issues of style, but reflected a desire for engagement. Now - if we can just get him to actually engage with a local church in Seattle. =)

Unchanging Truth, Ever-changing Expression

Just came upon a very academic and philosophical treatment of the "traditional vs. contemporary" argument of church style, reminiscent of what I was attempting to say a few weeks ago. Very thought-provoking and concisely put, particularly this bit:

"Hart’s assumptions regarding musical preference and spiritual maturity are telling, but I’ll leave that aside to ask, Must truths be chained to an unchanging mode of expression in order to abide? The abiding truths of Christianity are both ancient and contemporary, and we should welcome their expression in various forms, whether ancient or contemporary. . . . The arguments against liturgies that employ contemporary cultural forms often rely upon a tacit assumption that the traditional forms are transcultural and universal, over against the contingency and specificity of the new symbols. This conceals the fact that the symbolic values of traditional worship are themselves culturally specific and contingent, having originated in the cultural idioms of particular times and places of the past. No eternal, acultural liturgy has dropped down from heaven! All liturgies are human responses to God in particular cultural forms. There is no escape from cultural specificity, just a choice of which culture and time to privilege."

Click here to read the whole post.

Prayer for Poland

Today I began praying for Portugal, but I realized that I hadn't posted a prayer for Poland from the last 7 days. So, if you're reading this, please add your own brief prayer for Poland in the comment section.

Prayer for Poland
God of heaven and earth, we thank you that Poland is a relatively free country, allowing for it’s people to worship freely. But we pray against the vanities of capitalism that have disillusioned the Polish since the fall of communism. Father, cause Polish Christ-followers to wrap their lives around something much more substantial and compelling than material wealth. May they see themselves as a pilgrim people on a journey to a much better place where love and truth are the most valuable commodities.

We also pray that the political influence of the Catholic church would diminish, making it easier for protestant Christians to worship without threat of discrimination.

Lastly, we pray that the leaders of the Body of Christ in Poland would make Jesus’ vision and mission of disciple making of vital importance. We pray for the multiplication of young leaders to be sent out to plant churches that announce and demonstrate Your Kingdom.

For further information on Poland and ways that you can pray for or serve there, go to the Josiah Venture web page.

Hanging Out with Younger Bro

Tomorrow I'm off to see my little (er, rather, younger) brother, Jason, in London. He's staying in a hotel near the British Museum and is in town to work with the UK branch of Weber Shandwick, the PR firm he works for in Seattle. Looking forward to hanging out with him in London and showing him around. On Sunday, we're hoping to land over at All Souls Church for the morning service. All Souls is where John Stott has served for many years and also happens to be the church where Hightown Baptist's own Tim West has begun serving in a one year intership. Look for us Tim!

Lessons from an Aussie Church Planter

Just came across this article written by an Australian church planter. He lists and briefly explains 16 lessons that he's learned from his experience thus far. It's all very profound, but in a down-to-earth, practical kind of way. Many of these things totally resonate with things that I've been chewing on regarding church and with things that have come up in my own conversations with other folks about church planting. It's an area that I am excited to move into and articles like this one just serve to fuel that anticipation.

New Orleans Blogger

One of the crazy things about modern day technology is the glimpse you can get into people's lives. For example, ever wonder what it's like on the ground in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina? Click here for a blogger in the middle of it all who is providing regular reports about his own experience. The chaos that he describes is disturbing at times.

With that in mind, please continue to pray for the relief efforts of the government and volunteers. Pray that the government can bring order so that the right amount of relief can get to the greatest areas of need and that the rioting and looting will be put to rest.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote

While at Greenbelt this last Saturday, I walked by a guy with a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote on his t-shirt. It got my attention so much, I went back and found the guy a minute later and asked him where he got the shirt. He said that he had gotten it at the Make Poverty History demonstrations in Edinburgh during the G8 summits in early July.

The quote went as follows:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Ponder. Ruminate. Reflect. Good stuff.

Greenbelt Arts Festival Report

I had a great time at the Greenbelt arts festival this last Saturday. It was good to finally get a chance to experience it for myself. It’s definitely a more ecumenical kind of gathering, though drawing “artsy Church of England” types more than anything else. I think the best part about it for myself was that it’s different than the usual evangelical subculture that I’ve been immersed in all of my life. It’s so refreshing to be exposed to different perspectives and viewpoints on the Christian faith and to have the freedom to think for myself. I think a lot of conservative/fundamentalist Christians would probably frown on something like Greenbelt, but I’m increasingly of the opinion that God’s truth can stand on it’s own. Yes, we need to address false teaching (Col. 2.16-23; 1 Tim. 1.3-4; 6.3-5; 2 Peter 2.1-3), but I have seen so much arrogance and theological ego demonstrated in the name of “protecting against false teaching” in the evangelical church. This kind of thing often results in an atmosphere of suspicion, paranoia, and mistrust amongst God’s people. (See this blog post by Rhett Smith for a great discussion on the crucial role of humility in theology.)

One of my favourite talks/seminars that I attended was by Steve Stockman, author of Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2. In particular, he talked about how Desmond Tutu’s “abuntu theology” influenced Bono and his song writing. Stockman summarized “abuntu theology” as a theology of human interdependence: “we are human only through the humanity of other humans.” As you might guess, it was essential theology in the context of the fight against South African apartheid, as well as in the continued reconciliation efforts there. I may not be totally on board with all of Desmond Tutu’s theology, but this bit of it I can roll with. It’s essentially a result of a high view of imago Dei (people are made in the image of God) and an accurate depiction of how Jesus treated people during his life and ministry on the earth.

Stockman didn’t go down this particular path, but I think it has staggering implications. Though Jesus was fully God, could it be that He chose to be interdependent on other humans in His full humanity? Was He not in fact even dependent on his mother to feed and clothe him as a child? Of course, it was his connection with and dependence on His Father that Jesus modelled most profoundly for us. How does this dependence on God fuel our interdependence on other human beings, both outside and within the Church?

There were a few other thought-provoking panels and seminars that I went to, as well as some inspiring art exhibitions and concerts with the likes of Kendall Payne, John Davis, and Tree 63. I also ran into Chris Curtis (LCET) and hung out with him during one of the panel discussions. We had a great conversation afterwards as well. We seem to share much of the same thoughts and struggles and questions about the church, so it’s always refreshing and even clarifying to be able to talk to him and get his feedback on stuff.

Finally

Over a month ago Brandon informed me that I could post things on the blog and asked me to write a little something. Needless to say, I've been a little slow at getting it done. My biggest cause for procrastination was not really knowing what to say to all 3 of you who might read this. I'm still not sure what is going to come out so read on at your own risk.

I saw the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" this past weekend. In addition to being pursuaded that Brandon and I should add Itlay to our list of potential places to land, I was struck by another thought. In this movie, a newly divorced woman, Frances, buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim. In the midst of buyers remorse, she is asking why she bought such a large place for herself. She goes on to say she wants a wedding to take place there, people to cook for, and a family to call the villa home. Her dream, of course, is that it will be her wedding, her family who live there.

In one of the last scenes of the movie, someone points out to her that she has gotten her wish. A wedding has taken place. A family has taken residence. She has had people to cook for. But it wasn't her wedding, it's not her family, and those she had been able to cook for are gone.

The thought that came to me was this: sometimes God grants me my desires - but like Frances, I nearly miss it because it does not come packaged the way I thought it would. At that point I have a choice. I can foolishly cling to the way I wanted things to work out and resent that it didn't, or I can let go of that picture and fully embrace the gift God has given me. I know which choice will lead to a more enjoyable, fulfilled life. Guess it's a matter of consistenly applying that knowledge.

Faith & Culture

After my little rant about Christianity and the arts the other day, I remembered a quote that I was given by a friend in Stockholm. I'm pretty sure that the book was entitled "What is Culture that Thou Art Mindful of It?," but I can't even find it on Amazon or Powells. The author writes about how C.S. Lewis viewed the relationship between Christianity and culture.

"Lewis’s reply was that the ideal of suspending all cultural activity for the sake of evangelism or the pursuit of holiness was impossible. 'If you attempted,' he argued, 'to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better.' This is precisely what many religious people do, which is one of the reasons we have such bad music and ugly architecture in Christian settings. Lewis went on: 'You are not in fact going to read nothing, either in the Church or on the [front] line: if you don’t read good books you will read bad ones. If you don’t go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions you will fall into sensual satisfactions.'"

The attempt to "suspend all cultural activity" by the church has been quite subtle, but I wonder if it has been an underlying cause behind much of the nasty mudslinging against those involved in th emerging church dialogue. I think part of what is driving that dialogue in the first place is the realization that it's impossible to separate culture from faith and the church. There is no such thing as a church that has managed to quarantine itself from culture, thus being purely informed by Scripture. The very language we speak, be it English or American English or high German or Austrian German, carries cultural nuances.

Those churches who do attempt to either separate themselves from culture (or more commonly, simply attempt to ignore or downplay any cultural influence) usually find themselves merely embodying a cultural aesthetic that is about 50 years old. Think about it. How many churches have you seen or been in that still use flannel banners with the words of Matthew 28.19-20 or John 3.16 (or other scripture passages) sewn on with other material? How 'bout those reader boards outside church buildings? Here in England, 3 out of the 4 churches that I've been invited to guest preach at have also asked me to do a little song-and-dance thing for the kiddies at the end of the service. These are usually the churches that still conduct worship singing out of hymnals or use acetates (yankees, read "overhead transparencies"), lead by the senior pastor and accompanied by an older female piano or organ player who can't quite keep a steady tempo, in part because the pastor just informed the piano player of the hymn numbers that morning.

I really don't mean to sound mean or cynical. My point is, as was Lewis's point from the mystery book, any attempt to separate the church from culture results in inadvertently replacing that culture with a foreign or unfamiliar subculture.

A few other ideas/questions about how culture has informed how we do church:
- Just think about how we dress at church. For a lot of years, church goers predominantly put on their "Sunday best," claiming to give God their all in how they dressed. This meant that men wore three piece suits and women wore dresses or skirts. Was this type of dress style informed by Scripture, or by the secular business standards of the day? Today, in most contemporary evangelical churches, people dress however they feel most comfortable, which means casual. Have you ever noticed the fashion news headlines stating that corporate dress standards have gotten more casual and informal? (Just ask my brother what the big wigs at the Microsoft campus in Seattle wear to work.)

- Where in the Bible does it say that the people must sit theatre-style in church, staring at the back of one anothers' heads while all the action happens on a stage? Sounds like what happens at the modern day cinema or the symphony.

- Where in the Bible does it say that local churches must be lead by a single senior pastor (or elder), with a few associate pastors below him (if any at all)? Sounds like the equivalent of the modern day CEO or president of a large corporation.

These are just a few petty examples of modern day cultural influences that I've wrestled with. I think the bottom line is that the church needs to loosen up about culture, while not letting it get in the way of the mission of the church by 1) ignoring it, or 2) getting so consumed by it that the point is lost.

I'll end with one last quote that I think informs the issue rather well:
“. . . the church is a part of the whole; she is both influenced by the world around her and called to influence the world in which she exists. Too often the church does not realize that she is a part of a greater societal and spiritual ecosystem and that her role is to be the very fiber that produces health within that ecological system. . . . The commission erupts out of the great commandment. . . . . When relationships become stagnant and the community of Christ closes itself to the outside world, the result is an institution rather than a movement.” (Erwin Raphael McManus, An Unstoppable Force)