I've been rereading parts of "The Challenge of Jesus" by NT Wright. Here's a bit that hit me tonight...(from p. 95)

"And when therefore we speak...of shaping our world, we do not--we dare not--simply treat the cross as the thing that saves us "personally," but which can be left behind when we get on with the job. The task of shaping our world is best understood as the redemptive task of bringing the achievement of the cross to bear on the world, and in that task the methods, as well as the message, must be cross-shaped through and through."

I think this is what I had in mind when I painted this last year


The image is not intended to make us recognize that "Jesus suffered for me," but rather that as apprentices of Jesus, this is to be the shape of our lives. We are to bring the achievement of the cross to bear on the world around us. Our task is to recognize this achievement as the way in which God won the victory over all destructive forces and began the healing of all creation. If you and I are to see this "kingdom come" in our worlds, it will only be realized as we follow in the way (character and power and praxis) of the crucified Messiah.

May God be known in our cross-shaped lives.

You know someone is a close friend if you don't have to shake their hand.

I've been noticing this phenomenon lately when I meet people. If they are a close friend, we never shake hands. That doesn't mean I'm not friends with people if I shake their hand, it's just that there is still a level of formality there (and that is not to say formality is bad). Shaking hands comes out of a tradition to show that one is not carrying a weapon to kill another. It is saying, "We are not enemies and it is safe for you to be with me."

I could draw analogies (which have likely been drawn already) to 'evangelism' should look like (just take the last statement of the previous paragraph and chew on that), but I really just want to point out something I noticed about myself when I meet with people close to me. So next time we meet, don't be offended if I don't shake your hand. It likely means we no longer need to show each other that it's safe to be together. And if I do shake your hand, it still means it's safe (well, relatively--I would like to be known as a dangerous follower of the dangerous Messiah).

I wrote the following (@ theooze.com) in response to the question: Is the Bible different from the word of God...

In regard to this discussion, it seems that the tradition determines the place of the Bible/Word of God. For example, the evangelical church in North America has generally made the Bible equivalent to the Word of God. But, the Catholic church does not state that the canon is closed. Thus, the Word of God is something that continue to be evolving, something that takes on forms other than the written text.

Personally, I would suggest that the Bible is the Word of God, but I would suggest that the Word of God, or whatever that means, also continues to be dynamic. i.e. Wise people in my life who have a passion for God continue to speak words of wisdom into my life. They are speaking God language into my lfie. Perhaps they are not the words of God, but they are words from children of God... if God's children are anything like earthly famalies, the kids quickly begin to reflect their parents... the older I get, the more I realize that I speak much like my father...

So, the Bible holds signficant space in my life, but my friends and family who know Christ, are also of huge importance to my understanding of God. In fact, I would suggest that the church has been pathetic at emphasizing the importance of the voices of fellow brothers and sisters... so instead, we rest of the voice of the pastor who speaks for 30 or 60 minues on Sunday, and we call that the "word of God." ... poop...

I've just enabled the shoutout feature. Now you can all tell me how far I am off my rocker...or else just say what you think of what I write.

Just click the "Shout Out" link below...

In the world of Joel and Torie, it looks like we will be homeowners soon. It has been a big surprise to us--not in the plan, you know? But it seems to us to be a prudent time to make the move and we found a great place near to where we both work. We took our parents out to see the place last night and so far have their blessing. We're pretty nervous because we are intending to remain here for a long time. Randy and Kathy are moving in to their house pretty soon. I think I will write up a service for us to set aside our homes as operational centers for blessing and peace. Ooo, does that sound corny or what? Well, whatever it is, Torie and I want our house to be a place that allows us to be a blessing to our neighbors, friends, and strangers. We really see this (if it comes together) as a gift, and we want to share it for the benefit of others. So I guess I'll try to write something all of us could use to set our houses and apartments aside for kingdom work.

I'll keep ya'll posted, but in the mean time, I'm waiting for Kyle to post his stuff to this blog....

Well, I have finally come to grips with some things I've been denying. I am tired of trying to interest the uninterested (thanks for that phrase go to Todd Hunter and probably others). I am undertaking a new strategy in what I do. I am going to focus on building a "coalition of the willing." No, I'm not going to war with Iraq. I am just feeling like I don't have enough time to spread myself thin over people who really don't share the same agenda. It's not that I am writing people off in an angry way. It's more a matter of stewardship and focus.

As I write this I sense that this has what I have seen as necessary for a long time and am finally resolving myself to it. This, I think, is basically how Jesus operated (just remember the thinning out that Jesus' teaching did [John 6]). Jesus didn't really waste too much time with the uninterested. He announced the kingdom, called people to follow him in his way, and focused in on a smaller number of people to be his apprentices. As my friend Daryl pointed out today, Jesus even told some people they were not to follow him around, but to go back to their homes to be accepted back into their communities.

So what has made me feel like I need to keep trying to interest people (I'm talking "church people" here, yo) who really don't care a whole lot about what I'm saying? Maybe it has something to do with thinking I need a majority of people to agree with me. Maybe it is being unrealistic about what I can really accomplish and how people really learn. Maybe it is because I feel I have to justify my financial compensation by pleasing those who provide it (which may be a completely inappropriate assumption). Is this ringing any bells, or am I the only one?

So here is my plan. I am giving it the code name "Operation Orange Seed." (Why? Because orange seeds are small and I like oranges and orange trees don't grow too big, but they produce good, sweet, healthy, vitamin C-packed fruit.) I will build a coalition of the willing among the people around me (here and at 'the other place'). I will not be discouraged by people who don't join my coalition (I will still love those Frenchies even though they don't join me--and even if they send me pretzels). I will learn from and teach those who are interested and want to share in this journey of apprenticeship. I will not be concerned with how many people are with me (orange seeds are small, after all). I will be concerned with seeking to nurture, with God's action among us, the small seed into a flourishing citrus beauty that provides healthy fruit and shade to all who come near.

Eventually, who knows? Maybe the coalition of the willing will expand. Maybe the fruit will fall to the ground and die so that new seeds can develop into trees that bear good fruit. It's just going to take a while. Maybe a lifetime. Maybe three years.

Well, there goes our old numerical growth models. Maybe that's a good thing; they weren't working too well anyway.

I'm getting ready to have lunch with my friend Matt Krick (a true apprentice of Jesus) and Mark Riddle (we'll see about him... heh heh heh). Just kidding. This will be my first face to face with Mark and I'm looking forward to it.

For your desktop viewing, here are some links to some digital images I put together for our "Taste" experience a little while back. Just click the words below and it should take you to the images, then "save as" a .bmp file and put it on your desktop.

peace
gentleness
justice
kindness
faithfulness
goodness
love
joy
patience
mercy
Here's my favorite out of the bunch...

A great deal of emphasis in recent years has been placed on the idea of "How do I apply the scriptures (usually one particular verse or passage) to my life?" It has been suggested to me, though not precisely in these terms, that this is a bit of a wrong-headed question. The question we should be asking ourselves is this: "How do I apply my life to the scriptures?"

My friend John West has been putting this question out there and someone responded by wondering what the difference between those two questions is. Is there a difference? I believe there is, but it requires us to look at what lies behind the questions to see the distinction.

Here's where I see the difference: The first question ("How do I apply the scriptures to my life?") suggests that I am here to make up things as I go along, using the scriptures for advice as I compose my own story, whereas the second question ("How do I apply my life to the scriptures?") suggests that the story is there to interpret me and call me to live in it. Yeah, that clears things up...right. Okay, how about this: I think the first question is initially self-centered (how can I use the scriptures in my story?), and the second question is initially self-examining (how am I to live in God's story?).

I am not saying we shouldn't be sharing with each other about how we can apply the scriptures to our lives (in the sense that our lives should be conformed to God's direction). I guess what I'm saying is that we need to begin elsewhere. We need to begin by getting over the idea that everything is about us ("me") and by getting into the idea that everything is about God and God's great big plan to make every broken person and thing whole again. Maybe when we get over ourselves we can get into cooperating with what God is up to all around us.

It really does matter what questions we ask.

Wednesday night - just watched the ABC news show - Nightline. The half hour was dedicated to discussing the Bush adminstration's foreign policy. Much of the conversation was about the Iraq war that will soon happen, but it seems that the administration hopes to rebuild Iraq as a little America, and then other "evil" dictators will be targeted as well.

I am deeply saddened. My brothers and sisters in Iraq will die Their families will be left without fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. My sense of loving my enemy or caring for those who don't desereve it... to hell with it. It's all about America the beautiful.

Tonight I feel like a true resident alien. America hardly feels like home; what does that flag stand for anyway? Somehow we have so intertwined the American flag and the church in American that we too easily stand behind our leader. We can argue otherwise, but... but are we creating a policy for the world that is really something of which God would approve?

I'm going to try to sleep, but my soul longs for a kinder and gentler America.

Peace... Shalom... May He turn His face toward you and give you His peace!

(sigh... oh yea - I'm still resting in the arms of God!)

Okay, so I think I can post the reflections so the ten of you who read this blog don't have to wait until March 15 or whenever. So here it is for what it's worth...


As I arrived in San Diego, Randy mentioned that the phrase that people all seemed to be saying was "We're just trying to figure this all out." And my response was, "Boy when all these people get things figured out, the world will be in for it."

I 've been in the 'conversation' now for about a year and a half--maybe more, depending on what one considers "in the conversation" to be. I have a sense that for me the conversation, this "trying to figure out" a way of being the church that is faithful to its vocation (as opposed to merely being concerned with forms expressed in the get-up of either modernity or post-modernity), is coming to some sort of resolution.

Well, perhaps not a resolution--maybe it is that I just feel like I have a bit more of a handle on things now. It's not as new to me as it was last year and that is a good thing. It means that for me the 'conversation' has progressed.

This creates a problem, however, because some people are just getting into this 'conversation.' Indeed, it appears that four times as many people are in on the thing. There were eleven hundred people just at the emergent part of this two-headed animal (the other head being the Youth Specialties National Pastor's Conference).

Yes, the emergent folks got together side by side with those strange creatures known as pre-emergent (primordial?) pastors. You could tell there were two different conferences going on just by looking at the average attire of those walking up and down the halls. In many cases, you could judge the book by the cover.

We were warned, we emerging ones, at the outset to behave and play nice with the older kids. I wasn't aware, I suppose, of the animosity. Maybe I got over it already. Yeah, probably.

Anyway, if there was any question in the minds of the thousand-plus folks who sat packed into the ballroom as to the 'different' nature of this 'conversation,' all was crystal-clear when the young man dressed in...well, what was he dressed in?...dressed in a sampling of wildly colorful bits of clothing. Words fail me, but picture a sort of 'punk/Rastafarian' interpretation of a Native American rain-dancer. If someone came expecting Steven Curtis Chapman to be opening up with "The Great Adventure" they now knew they had made a wrong turn at the registration booth.

The opening session was an ADHD patient's dream. The carnival (a metaphor for the postmodern landscape) atmosphere set out the conference's intention of being a very different kind of conference for a different kind of culture.

And in many ways it has been. From the interactive prayer installations that my friends Lilly and Rob put together to the chill out space to the art tables (at which I spent not a little time), it was very different from the 'other conference.'

Yet this year's Emergent Conference was also different than my initial introduction to Emergent (the 2002 theological conversation in Houston--which still echoes powerfully in my mind). First off, this conference is bigger. Okay, that much is obvious, but the point of stating it is to say that it changes the nature of the thing.

I really felt it to be much more of a production than a conversation. Yes, we had many great conversations during our trips to the food courts next door, but I felt like I had less of a voice. Not to say that I want to have some mic time—I don't—but I felt more like people were talking to me and less like I was in dialogue. While there was plenty of time for personal conversation over lunch and dinner, there was very little public ‘conversation’. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I recognize it as an inherent challenge of bigness.

Concerning the seminars, among others, I got to hear Dave Tomlinson, with whom I think I unknowingly shared bread and wine while I was with Ian and the other folks at London's (now disbanded) Epicentre community (I mention that not because I like to drop names, but because I am in wonder at the fantastic people I keep bumping into, unaware of their ‘celebrity’).

Dave shared about the Church's declining social capital and how we might turn things around. I don't have the space to explain all he shared, but it was more than worth the attention of all 200(?) people packed into that little seminar room. I also got to talk to Dave's wife after his presentation and got caught up on how Ian (a bright chap I shared tea with in London) was doing.

More than all the great presentations (and the seminars I went to were very well done by very thoughtful and gifted people like Rob Bell and Chris Seay), I think what I valued from this Emergent Conference was the time I got to spend with old and new friends, partners, and fellow journey-ers--not least of whom were Jason and Brooke who showed us amazing hospitality, and Eric, Tom, Chad, Melody, the folks with Matthew's House, and the amazing group with whom we shared dinner and prayer on Wednesday night.

One of the things I have already wondered about concerning these emerging church conferences is how it will develop as more and more people 'figure it out.' How will these events be able to speak to those who are well on their way in the 'conversation' as well as those who've just shown up? I think it will be a continued challenge for those who are further along to embrace those who are new to the conversation by inviting them to talk over a meal in a restaurant or late at night over a pint.

It will also be a challenge for the organizers of future Emergent gatherings to keep from centralizing. Perhaps what we will see from future Emergent conferences will be more, smaller, regional events. This year’s “big” Emergent was a good experience, but I just wonder if it would be more a reflection of the people who are in the ‘conversation’ to move to a more regionally oriented approach where public dialogue is more feasible and attendance is more financially appropriate to the people involved (we’re mostly church planters for goodness sake!).

There were many more insightful reflections here at the conference concerning how we will find a way forward--not the least of which were stated in the opening session by Dallas Willard, Todd Hunter, and Brian McLaren (a conversation I was initially disappointed in, but now understand to have contained some extremely important cautions). Thanks should be given to all those friends who worked so hard to pull this thing together. It was evident that a great deal of personal creative energy was invested, and whether you liked it or not, you should send someone who was involved with putting it together a note of gratitude. If you were there, let them know what you liked and what you hated, but share your thanks for who they are and the sacrifices they’ve made.

What I will take away from this conference is the companionship of friends old and new. And, even though the 'conversation' is no longer new to me, I will bring with me a determination to continue further in and further up in this pursuit of faithfulness to our vocation as the Church.

I sent in an article to next-wave on my reflections from the Emergent Conference. I'd post them here, but I don't know if I'm supposed to do that yet.

Tonight was really good. We had our weekly gathering and there were only eight of us there. We talked about Psalm 15 a little, but it was just a very safe place to talk about life and where we're going and what we're going through. (I even felt safe enough to make an unfortunate diarrhea comment...don't ask.). Anyway, here's an image I was going to share tonight to go along with our discussion.