I heard about something like this recently, so I thought I'd put one together.

Do you think it is appropriate?

What would happen if we did this?
Just wondering...
I don't know if I could do it...but I think that's not such a good thing.
When do I know if I'm materialistic?
When do I know if I'm loving Mammon?
I'm not pushing this on you.
Just wondering...

The other day I saw a sign that read, "Good is the enemy of great." Of course it was suggesting that mediocrity is the enemy of excellence, but it also got me thinking this morning about another sort of good and great. So I thought, "Greatness does not guarantee goodness." A person can strive for and achieve great accomplishments in life and still lack character. It seems to me that the more important pusuit is character--goodness. It may even be said that without goodness, no one is great, and that the greatest among us have been those whose lives are marked by goodness. So let's grow in the character of Jesus and pursue the ruling and reigning of God in our lives--let any accomplishment flow out of lives of character rather than naked ambition.

Here's an email I got from Randy this morning:

"Good Morning!!! I am really tired, but I have some good news… pictures will be sent your way within the next day. At 9:55 p.m. on Thursday night, Kathy gave birth to a healthy baby boy!!! His name is Jaden Andrew Buist. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz, and he is 20 inches long. All went well, and mother, son, and dad are doing fine. We arrived at the hospital at 7 p.m., and it was less than three hours later when he entered the world. God is Good! Randy"

Congratulations Randy and Kathy!

I was working through some ideas the other day about apprenticeship, but I got distracted by an issue of how we should approach the Scriptures. I wrote, "But we were never called to be a ‘people of the book.’ We were called to be the people of God, and in that sense we are a people who, like all those in the Scriptures, are a people of the Story." I'm still processing what exactly our approach to the Scriptures should be. (For the full article, which is the fifth in a study I did called 'Living in God's Story', click here).

Last night I talked through some other ideas on apprenticeship with some friends and came up with what I thought was a pretty helpful mental image. I believe that the strongest force for apprenticeship is the love of God (God's love for us and our love for God). The analogy of a compass came to my mind, so I looked at my life and thought, "Yeah, the love of God is like this magnetic north that draws us to God." Then I thought about all the other 'false norths' in my life and how small magnetic sources, when near, can through a compass off the true magnetic north. It was a great picture for me.

Later, my friend Kevin told me about a story of a guy who was walking in the Arctic and trying to find his way with a compass, but his gun barrel was throwing his compass off just a little. By the time he realized what was happening, he had been travelling for a day and a half and was completely lost. He died, and they found his journal and he told what had happened in his journal. True story? I don't know. (If someone could confirm that, I'd appreciate it.) Anyway, it's a wonderful illustration of how the competing loves in our lives can lead us out of the rule of God.

So, I see the role of spiritual disciplines as aids in identifying the 'false norths' or other loves in our lives, and in 'neutralizing' their disorienting effects. The disciplines, when done in cooperation with the Spirit of God, can help us navigate life according to the love of God.

So, that's the start of my thinking so far. Let's hear your comments.


On another note, Marsha is coming back from her treatment in California today. Be praying that she makes wise choices when she returns.

Joe Myers is taking part in a web conversation (on The Ooze) about intimacy with God. His insights are always worthy of pausing and taking seriously. The link to this forum...

Here are some of my thoughts from Soularize. I wrote these thoughts as the conference was unfolding...well, you'll get it.



Yesterday Doug Pagitt talked about his journey and some of the things people have taught him. Nothing too new for me there. It was good stuff, I just felt like I've been there already. I also feel a bit that he was holding back(?). I thought Soularize was supposed to be a bit shocking and pushing the edges and all--and in many ways it is--but I am reminded that some people are just starting out on the journey beyond traditional faith experiences. It will mean that we will need to be more patient with others who are beginning their journey.

One thing that I noticed bothering me this morning was the fact of explaining what we're doing at Water's Edge. I find myself wanting to talk about practice rather than tell other people what I'm doing. It always seems like bragging or some sort of showcasing. Maybe that is just what I'm struggling with in my heart--with all my desire to be respected. Well, I would really like to get into a good conversation about spiritual transformation here.

I talked with Rick Bennett this morning as we walked here from the hotel. Rick was sharing a little on his workshop "The Cult of Cool vs. Post-consumerism." He commented that so much of what people are doing is in danger of just becoming a 'cool' version of what is already going on. That is what I felt to a degree about this morning's 'DJ led worship. It was a very noisy and busy project. Cool, yes, but not very engaging to me. I did appreciate the stations--one of which was an open art table. I did a picture of Jesus in the 'scribble' style that I have been experimenting with. It turned out prety good, but I think I ruined it by putting words on the paper: 'love is beautiful.' Yes, it is, but I should have left it with the image.

Anyway, from my talk with Rick, I was sensing that the way forward (or way out, as I put it then) will require movements toward humility, stillness, and irrelevance (in the sense of not being driven by needs or attractiveness, but by the Spirit). Humility, or an appropriate smallness, is needed for we must take our eyes off of ourselves (and stop worrying about how others think of us), and focus on others. We must gently create space for others, and listen.

Pride drives us into the many problems of hurry and propels us to say all kinds of unnecessary things--which only make us sound stupid or arrogant. I think this humility will take the form of speaking only when we are invited to speak--at least moreso than we have in the past. We're so tempted to walk around like peacocks, spreading our words like feathers to impress others. But as we become people who simply listen, our beauty will be quiet and creative. It will create beauty in others. It will help others draw near to God in ways they did not expect or even know possible. I think this humility is perhaps most necessary when dealing with people who 'do not get it'--people who have not yet struggled with the questions we are asking. There is a real temptation to have a meanness and arrogance toward our mother (the faith 'system' we come from). Like adolescents searching to find an identity apart from their parents, Our struggle comes off as mean and self-centered.

Stillness is another move that will be necessary for us. This has more to do with the frantic pace of life that we have been trained to desire. We must be comfortable with producing nothing--to simply 'be' before God. This stillness shows us that the world does not really need all our busyness. We are not really necessary. The irony is that such people who recognize their non-necessity are the most needed people among us. They teach us to depend on God and to act, not out of an anxiety to produce, but from an identity of love--loving in the name (identity) of Jesus.

Stillness gives us the perspective and ability to hear the vox Dei (the voice of God). As Dallas (Willard) said, "Silence is like the wind of Eternity blowing in your face." One of he greatest enemies of our faithfulness is in busyness. Perhaps our greatest ally then, will be stillness. Perhaps we will then know what it means to fulfill our calling to be a people of peace. Perhaps we will experience a bit of the promised rest of God. And from that rest, we can find the most helpful sort of creativity. The healing creativity of God in our hearts

Irrelevance is also necessary. Not in the sense of being 'no earthly good', but in the sense of not being driven by our need to be needed or wanted. Secretly we may desire to have others be contingent upon us--that we meet needs for them that no one else can. But we forget that we too are contingent beings. Irrelevance means, i suppose, that we direct everyone to depend on God rather than on us. We will then be Spirit directed, and not 'need' driven. From this mindset of irrelevance alone can we truly be helpful to others. It is because we grasp our own contigency that we can help others where they truly have need--the need to depend on God. (There is probably more on this idea, but I'm out of time.)

Anyway, I have been experiencing God's peace through the music of John Michael Talbot this morning. It is so helpful for calming my heart that is so prone to busyness and noise and anxiety about producing.

My centering prayer last night was "Hallowed be Thy name." It was so necessary to me as I have been secretly hoping for my name to be respected. I am content to remain in silence and irrelevance if God's name will be hallowed among the people around me.

I hope that I can find a way forward from a critical spirit. I have been able to see clearly the problems around me, but I long to be able to move forward to be able to see the creative movements necessary as well.


Thursday@8:00am--It's strange who you meet when you least expect it. Last night I found out that the previous night I was talking to some guys from Lincoln. Jeremiah and Brian. In a strange collision of worlds, Brian and I played basketball together (or against) each other in intramural basketball when I was in Seminary. Then I was reading his blog a few months ago, and then last night we talked and I found out he was a LCC (Lincoln Christian College) grad. Then he told me that the other guy he was with was none other than Brian Lowery--the son of one of my most influential professors. It was really quite serendipitous.

So we talked for a few hours over Roast beef, Mashed Potatoes, and later, a cider. It was really great to see some more Christian Church people in this conversation I was feeling quite alone in this whole thing.

Anyway, last night I was able to go to Joe Myers' workshop on Post-Evangelicalism. It was probably more significant than I understood. It's hard to get outside of the framework that one assumes to be reality. I mean to say that I understood what he was saying, but it was hard for me to see how my life would look in light of it. What I came to was that beyond evangelicalism the church will need to see its role as 1) coming alive to God, and 2) being a catalyst for 'the other' to come alive to God's presence as well. He suggested that most Christians believe that Satan is omnipresent (or else they think Satan is working on them personally), and that God is almost omnipresent. But we must reexamine the ideas we have about omnipresence (as well as a great number of ideas) so that we really understand what it means for God to be present everywhere. It will mean that we assume God to be at work in everyone's life in some way--even in the lives of people we have written off. So we will include them in our 'congregations'. It will dramatically redifine 'those who count' for us.

Joe suggested that Christians should take up an idea from MLM about seeing everyone within ten feet of you as a 'target'. Let's not take up the 'target' language, but it will be a radically helpful shift for us to consider everyone around us as someone we can help (and not in the patronising way we often 'help' people), but to simply help people, where appropriate, with their lives. He suggested that this, in some way, brings the kingdom of God into their lives. I think I agree with that because I believe God is at work already in everyone's life--they just don't always see it. So it is our job to simply demonstrate the love and compassion of God in a life of peace, love ,joy, and purity of heart, so that we may act as a catalyst for other people to come alive to God's presence and action in their life. Grace permeates this world now, and we must come alive to that reality in our lives if we are to help others come alive to it as well.

Friday night, Oct 18--Sitting in the Midway airport. As I look back on the trip, I struggle to define the immediate benefit of the conference. I suppose it is in the continued affirmation that we are not alone in our journey. I think the highlight for me was the conversations with people, and in particular, the conversations I had with Brian Lowery. I also developed a sense of connection to the Ooze as a community. The workshop with Tom & Christine Sine today was the best workshop I attended. It was good to hear people talking in such articulate ways about the things I have been trying to teach (often in not-so-articulate ways).

We strolled through the Mall of America during a few hours we had free in the afternoon. It was a complete disappointment. I was painfully aware of the incredible power that materialism has over our culture. A great ziggurat of consumerism, the Mall of America, shows me what god we really trust in. I can't temper this idea anymore. I cannot excuse my own materialism anymore (although I do sense that it is weaker than it used to be--at least in some ways). I cannot apologize to others for condemning it. I walked through that enormous temple of greed, and thought, "I never saw so much stuff I didn't want" (that is, until I saw the Apple store). How did this come to be? We can build these huge buildings for ourselves, but we can't spare $1800 to build a small cement block house for a family in southern Africa. I suppose I have been comfortably dumb about it in the past. I suppose I have been able to ignore it--and maybe I will still forget more than I remember--but this idea of injustice and apathy for the poor keeps washing ashore in my mind. One day, I will stop throwing it back out to sea.

Anyway, as I flew into Chicago, we encountered a little turbulence. Those moments force you to admit your complete helplessness to save yourself. It is a complete act of confidence in the ability of the pilot and the laws of physics. I thought about life and how fragile and precious it is.

Gotta catch my plane.

Tonight (Sunday night) we had a huge group of people for our worship time. You need to understand that 30 plus is huge for us. Part of the reason for so many people... a group of people from a few miles away are also doing a new faith community thing. It was great to have a handful of them with us. It was also great to hear about the joys and struggles of another faith community. Our two communities are kindred spirits. Perhaps we need to consider doing a few things together just to encourage and support one another.

During the course of the night, we heard about some of the struggles of working with a denomination as they are doing. We faced the same issue a year and a half ago. We moved away from the institutional/denominational model, and thus we said goodbye to lots of funding and support. We also said hello to new ways of being the church.

In the midst of the conversation, I was again remined how the baby boomers believe in the strong church leader model of church planting/church prospering. While the model has worked for a while now, someone sold the boomers swampland in the ocean when they became convinced that the strong leader model was the ONLY way of being Christ's church. Perhaps I have strong opinions here, but the biblical model doesn't support one way of leadership at the exclusion of the other. My gripe - why won't the boomers who control so much of the institutional money get it? Why won't they admit that the mainline churches are not connecting? Barna and most every other statasticial will point toward the younger generations walking out the doors of the church. Yet, they fail to really think beyond what they currently know. They continue to find examples of their models being effective. They continue to sit on the boards of the Lilly Foundations, and they continue to dole out money to the seminaries and "known" organizations that are desiring to try something new.

I am tired of fighting the old way of being God's people. The old way isn't wrong. It has worked. God has been faithful in the midst of doing church as my grandparents and parents largely know it. Sadly though, their generations too often fail to believe that the Spirit will lead if faith communities look altogether different than they did twenty, ten, or one year ago. ... But here is my question. Do you think that Jesus envisioned the "Lord's Supper" being served from an expensive hardwood table with the words, "This do in rememberance of me" carved onto it? As I said before, this isn't wrong. It has served the church well, but it really has very little to do with the grace of God as we remember and believe it through the practice of communion.

That's enough for now. It mostly reminds me of why it would be difficult, and probably impossible, for me to do church as I did for the first thirty-four years of my life. It also helps me realize that God has given us an incredible adventure as we try to find new ways of being God's people for the younger and future generations. With the words of Paul, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. God's blessings as we keep in step with the Spirit of the living (note - not dieing) God!

Well, it's Tuesday and I've been quite busy. Among all the sightseeing, I have been able to connect with some really great people from the London churches. Sunday night, we headed out to St. Stephen's Twickenham. It was a nice contemporary service. The music guys sounded just like and 'unplugged' Delirious. They were really good. I got to talk a bit with one of the clergy guys, named Adrian, and to another fellow, Andy (for a few seconds). It was an interesting trip to Twickenham, but not the alternative worship service I assumed it would be. Not bad, just not what I expected.

On Monday I was able to connect with Steve Collins from Grace. Steve drew me a perfect map, and then gave me a two hour lesson in alternative worship. Wow. I was in the presence of greatness. Okay, I was in the presence of someone who had 'been there and done that' for more years than I've even known about it. Steve really cleared things up for me and affirmed to me that what we're doing is headed in the right direction. Steve gave me a personal tour of his website (smallfire.org) and showed me all the amazing stuff folks like Grace and Vaux and Epicentre have been doing.

Steve shared with me a little of the dynamics of the Church in England and how things are headed. the picture did not look good. Many people give the intitutional church 40-50 years before it runs out of people and resources to hold it up as is. Steve said a lot more, but I didn't record it. Needless to say, I am grateful for his time and all he shared with me. Especially the affirmation he offered to us and what we're trying to do. I'll share with you all next time I see you some of the rest of what he said, but I'll move on to other things...

Steve recommended that I go to an Epicentre gathering, so I went. I showed up a little early, so I headed over to a pub for a stromboli and a pint--oops, make that a soda water. :) It was an okay stromboli, but I've had better. I showed up later to Epicentre and sat down with them on the floor around a banquet of snacks. The theme of the night was on Harvest, so we gave thanks for the abundant harvest God provided for us, and prayed for places where harvest is not so plentiful. The rest of the night we did some liturgy (great stuff), and talked. I talked with Nick and Phillip and Peter (some perfectly wonderful Anglican clergy-types who gave me a thoroughly enjoyable ride back to the 'tube' station at Sloan Square--my only car ride so far!) and later arranged to have lunch with Ian (one of the lead guides for Epicentre).

So today, I was pouring 20p, 10p, and £1 coins into the phone booth to set up my meeting with Ian. We finally arranged to meet outside the Westminster Tube station in front of Big Ben (which is actually only the big bell, not the clock tower itself). We met there and went to a cafe at the place where Methodism began (or else where it is only now barely holding on...I don't remember exactly), the Methodism Central Hall. My conversation with Ian was really great. Again, Ian affirmed to me that we are headed in the right direction. He did caution me about making sure we have a good connection with an established church--one whose leadership will be completely supportive to what we're doing. It will keep us from having to justify and legitimatize ourselves constantly. It made me think that perhaps we might reconsider our relationship with Southside Vineyard. They 'get' what we're doing. They offered to let us use their facility. Maybe we should be a little more open to making the drive once a week.

Anyway, it was a really good talk with Ian, and then we went to a bookstore in the heart of the Anglican Church, and I bought a couple of books: 'Threshold of the Future,' by Michael Riddell, and 'Truth is Stranger than It Used to Be,' by J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh. I will be ordering, on Ian's recommendation, a new book by Alan Jamieson, 'A Churchless Faith.'

So that's my report for now. Of course that all excludes the scores of miles I have put on my shoes and on the 'Tube', and all the sights I've seen, but I won't stir up envy in your hearts. ;)

peace to you all.