race- are we so different?

I saw this exhibit in Washington D.C. this past summer and was excited to see that it's in our local UNI museum until June.  It's a must go see for any who live around here!

http://www.uni.edu/museum/exhibits/featured.html

new wineskins

Mark 2:22

"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

I believe God is taking Christ’s Church through transition from old wineskins to new.  The models and structures of church as we have known it might just continue to fade, making way for a whole host of innovative ways that God wants to send his people out to lovingly engage their neighbor and incarnate the Gospel.  

A friend of mine is leaving a position at our church to go full time into property management.  His boss is investing in real estate and is buying up properties with the intent to be a just and responsible landlord and to help physically create and restore affordable living spaces for many who are lower-income in our community. His motives?  I hope and believe Christ is motivating him to be a good steward of his gifts and resources, to meet real felt needs in our community, to work toward just rental practices, and to be a light and witness for Christ through all of it.  This is just one example of a new wineskin... of being the Church where we live and work.  


What about you?  God has some new wineskins for all of us if we dare pray, dream, follow..

knowing better

I listened to a great audio teaching in a Bible Study yesterday from Rich Nathan, a Vineyard pastor of a congregation  in Columbus, OH, I believe.  He began his teaching talking about the following categories of "unknowns" and "knowns" in our lives:

There are some things we know we know.  I know I know my name.  I know I know how to tie my shoe.

There are some things we know we don't know.  I know that I don't know how to knit.  You could give me knitting needles and yarn, and I know I would not know how to make anything you'd like to wear.  I know that I do not know how to program a computer.  I scarcely know how to turn one on and get to this page to type a blog post.

There are some things we don't know that we don't know.  There are whole bodies of knowledge that I'm completely unaware exist.  I can't even give you an example of this one because if I could, then it wouldn't fit in this category.

Then, there are some things we know that we make unknown.  This is the realm Rich talked about.  The things we know but pretend not to know.  The things we turn a blind eye to, live in denial about, choose to walk away from, to "forget" and "unknow".  Rich gave the example of intelligent bankers in our nation who knew that they should not have given loans to people who would likely not be able to repay the banks but chose to anyway.  Or persons in an affair who knows the truth of their situation but continue on anyway.  Or people who know of the principles and practices of health and nutrition but choose to ignore them.  Nathan goes on to speak of Deuteronomy as the book where God calls his people out of unknowing knowns into rememberance...Remember God when life is hard...Remember God when life is easy...Remember God by remembering our need for Christian community.

I was thinking about these last two categories as related to the pursuit of justice and racial reconciliation as Christ-followers.  There are some things we don't know that we don't know, but there are an awful lot of things that we know but are choosing to keep "unknown".  All we have to do is read the Bible, read the paper, look around our segregated communities, listen to the news reports, etc...We'd have to live under a rock to not know that things are not as they should be.  What do we do with this knowing once we turn from denial and acknowledge our awareness of it? That's a key question that is leading me these days.  That's why diverse Christian community (across race, socio-economics, cultural) is such a critical need for me...if I am only in Christian community with people similar to me, I will likely remain ignorant, and worse, to pretend to remain ignorant.  Being with people who are different from me forces me to live in the reality, grapple with it, and hopefully "know better" so that I might grow and act as an ambassador of Christ.

Love Cedar Valley '12 Kicks Off

One of the things I love about Love Cedar Valley are the relationships formed with the core church planners!  Last night was our kick-off meeting as we begin to look ahead to LCV '12 on Saturday, April 21.  What an outstanding, enthusiastic group of Christ-followers seeking to help their church family unite with the Body of Christ to pray, serve, and worship together.  Learn more HERE.

calling

We met this morning for a leadership retreat at our church to share and celebrate what God has been up to in and through our body, to spend time in worship, and to collectively look ahead of us into the future a bit.  Over one hundred leaders in the room.  It was so, so good to hear from people in our body and to listen to the movement of God through their voices.  I desire processing and discerning from this day for a good spell ahead.

I was paying particular attention to many comments throughout the morning, but it was during one time of sharing that tears began to well up and my mind has been fixed since ....that's when I know I better pay attention.  The sharing done was about the discernment and transition process for a bringing a new leader for Orchard Hill in the next six years.  The issue on which my mind is stayed is that of calling.

The person who will lead this church must be undeniably called by God. I think I got teary because the call of God is so powerful...so irrevocable....so compelling.....so right.....so burdensome......so difficult.

On the one hand, you cannot NOT follow the call of God, you feel compelled, you cannot rest and find peace until you do.  When you are in the way of God's calling, you know it, you feel carried along by God, you have great passion, and you recognize His work in and through you.  You feel like you're coming into your destiny and purpose.  There is no deeper joy and grace and dependence found than here.

On the other hand, though you feel Kingdom rightness and gain, there is much death and loss to undergo.  The way is treacherous, and it is foolish to those with eyes and values of the world.  There is hardship and struggle and suffering and sacrifice at multiple levels.  The burden is heavy.  It is lonely.  It is hard, often unpopular, dangerous,  risky, and it is costly in the ways of this world.  I am familiar with only a bit of this cost at this point in my call but enough struggle to feel deeply moved to pray for the future leader of Orchard and for all leaders as they move with courage into the calling that God has for them.

That's why we so need the Fellowship of Christ around us...to pray, listen, discern with...to give courage to one another so that we might walk forward in obedience and en-couragement, to sharpen one another as God equips and empowers His Church to do His bidding as He reconciles the world through Christ.
  
"The way is fraught with danger."  A mentor far, far, far ahead of me on the journey of Christian Community Development sat straight across from three years ago, looked me in the eye, and spoke those words.  At the time, I could only begin to guess what he meant. I have a slight taste in my mouth now of what dangers lurk on this journey, so what a reassurance it is to remember "The battle is the Lord's".  It is Christ who works and calls and empowers and reigns as King.   May we trust and loyally follow as His servants.

17, 011 days in

I'd be sure to receive the author's severe reprimand for speedbrowsing through a book called The Power of Slow (Hohlbaum, Christine Louise, 2009, St. Martin's Press), but I did.  I can't help myself from taking home several books from the "New Books" shelf at the public library, knowing full well I won't arrange my time to read most of them.

Ah, well, as long as we're on the subject of time, here's a quote from The Power of Slow:


..."the term 'time management' itself is contradictory.  How can you manage something as uncontrollable as time?  It exists whether we do or not.  The only things you can manage or control are the activities in which you engage during the time you have available to you.  It is inarguable that we all get twenty-four hours a day.  And Americans live, on average, approximately 28,000 days.  That gives us about 672,000 hours to make use of.  While there are broad variations from one person's life span to the next, we all get to choose what to do with the time we have.  Most of us do not know how long we have to live.  This uncertainty makes our relationship with time extremely personal.  We begin our lives with our own individualized bank account of time.  It is up to us as to how we spend our temporal currency."

I'm 17,011 days into my earthly time bank.  Praying I'll invest the balance in learning to love and follow Christ without reservation.

undoing racism

After the Undoing Racism workshop last winter, I wrote the following list of what I think I’ve been learning about change and action…

1  1.    I can’t see change without Jesus.  Because of our sin, He’s the only one who can truly reconcile and restore us to Himself and one another.  Forgiveness of self and others, newness, freedom, our true identity and calling as a community of people can be known when we trust and obey Jesus as the leader of our lives.

2 2.  I need to meet people where they are.  I only have to look at my own journey thus far and know how important it is not to condemn or write others off.

3 3. This is a slow, very intentional journey of patience, grace, humility, love, listening.

    4. This is a very urgent journey of importance and is deeply interrelated to our identity, lifestyle, values, poverty, worldview, faith. 

5 5.       We must bridge and bring people together.  We deceive ourselves to think the problem can be solved without coming together, reconciling, and modeling change.

6 6.       Relocation is optimal.  When we become literal neighbors, our lives become more integrated and interconnected. 

7 7.       Conversations and questions are critical for the journey.

8 8.      Personal stories are important to help people tap into emotions involved in the issue.

9  9.      Being reborn means seeing people as Christ sees them…the value, worth, dignity, gifts of all people.

1 10.   CCDA has been a great source to learn about components and models of reconciliation and restoration.

1  11.   Focus is important.  Too often we stay too broad, overwhelmed, disjointed.

1 12.   Find the bright spots in your defined area of calling and build off of them.

1 13.   Wholistic neighborhood strengthening.

1 14.   Small things have a cumulative effect as relationships are built.  We often think big problems need one big solution.  Many times, small, focused wins and successes create a momentum that makes big change happen.

1 15.   Translate ideas into specific behaviors.  Be concrete.

1 16.   Know passions, gifts, skills, calling in the mix…we try to serve outside of those and we lose energy, get distracted, burn out.

1 17.   Experiences lead to relationships; relationships lead to advocacy.  Not a lot of people are aware enough or care enough to start with advocacy. 

1 18.   Learning communities are helpful.

1 19.   Book discussions are helpful.

2 20.   Focus on children is key.

2 21.   Jobs for Life and economic strategies  important

2 22.   Long term commitment is necessary.

2 23.   Partnerships are critical.  It may start with a core but is too big for one or two churches and will require many people of faith, as well as cooperation with agencies and government at all levels.

What have you been learning about change and action toward reconciliation and justice in our community ?