Our Cross of Silence

Still reading Miller's Once Upon a Cross.

he points out God's silence while Jesus is on the cross.

funny how, when the time comes for us to die to self, we rarely hear from God. we must enter in, bold faced, to our own death.

we hear a voice in the discernment times. we hear a voice in the encouragement times. but when our cross is raised, God is silent. it is judgement time on our flesh; God "cannot look" and all we can do is die.

Good Stuff

Interesting read, especially as we consider our transition.

wondering

Some ask if Emerging Churches as still emerging?
My question is if Emerging Churches are a trend? The idea is great, but will it go the way of modernist viewpoints with the next generation criticizing it as a passing fad?

EWC

hey look kelly and i are on the web! family portrait for EWC3. back before i cut my hair.
(insider's note: the picture of the person on the bottom is kelly. we're still not sure why they cut off her head.)

lift

Lord, may we be a healthy family.

Building Buildings and Other Tragic Tales

she's gone twice.
both times she is inundated with requests for cash.
they hold up signs reminding her of their "need."
they open the service with requests for cash.
they sings songs about cash (and it ain't johnny.)
a guy talks about the building. not the one they have, but the half billion dollar one they need the cash for.
they sing a song and remind her to give cash.
she leaves with questions.
she passes the "coffee ministry" table with its offering box.
this same table functioned while single mothers were turned away last week b/c the church "could not afford" to help her buy groceries.
dang, that sucks.

"Lord, it is so great to be in heaven. How did you like the buildings we built for you?"
"Whatever you built for the least of these, you built it for yourself."

Where are our priorities?

Sorry, I don't mean to sound so cynical. But there's a problem when we are so self absorbed in our buildings that we leave the kingdom of God behind.

We are in transistion at Mars. Shedding the old skin of "building life" possibly for a less expensive skin of "home life." It will be interesting to see how this affects us. My hope is that we understand it for what it is and learn the right lessons.

Oh, they also gave the people the "opportunity" to hand over land deeds, car titles, and the like and the staff could "take care of those" for them.
here's to the coffee ministry!

Burning Bridges

There's a great piece here by an aussie pastor type. The idea is about questioning the methods we as the Church have been using. the idea of "building bridges" into our communities by doing programs that will eventually get people into our buildings. the article questions the practice with very good reasoning. i am inclined to agree with this perspective. the idea of doing things in the real world to get people to come to our functions seems to run a little shallow in light of what we are really supposed to be doing. putting this mentality up against biblical perspectives shows the superficiality of its logic. if we are commanded to go and make disciples...
the question comes up about using bait to hook the fish. i guess my question is wether we use bait that we create or if we use bait that already is. is it a program or is it something that comes from the Spirit. is it conjured up to get us to fill some sort of ethereal unsatisfiable quotient, or is it like the creamy head on a beer, the natural reaction between the yeast, the air, etc. causing carbonation to make this head to overflow the brim of the glass? and why are we hooking "fish" in the first place? how would you feel if you showed up somewhere only to find out you were a product and not a person. i guess the program mentality tends to make me feel like a product. i am here to fill your need of more people, more money, bigger building, bigger name. people are not products. we need to bait the hook with love. the net needs to change from pews and functions into relationships and the rocky waters of life.
i think mars knows now that we as a family can't have programs. we've tried, they've fallen flat. we've passed out flyers. we've been on the radio doing live shows. the only positive growth we have seen in the numeric realm has come from people loving people (love God, love people) and inviting them to hang out for breakfast on sundays or to engage in conversation on a friday nite.
so, now we are possibly doing away with the whole idea of utilizing a building. honestly, i am ready. i am ready to be done with "rent." i am ready to be open to giving God's people the chance to put their money where their mouth is.
one question is this: where is the line between inviting someone to a function and inviting them to participate in the kingdom?

Update

kelly got the marriage certificate today. woohoo!

next, the ss card.

then the dl.

then the passport.

then the visas

then Russia.

I just had a thought.

What will the seminaries do when the Church starts to think for herself?

merry christmas

now go be with your family.
if you do not have family to be with, call me.

Provision

i just had a friend share with me a story.

her purse was stolen last week. she lost cards, license, and christmas cash intended for her daughter. she was bummed.

last night her daughter went to a company xmas party. she entered a drawing. she won the exact amount her mother intended to give her. i'm sensing a Divine grin here.

smile on, Daddy.

away in a manger

waterlogged hands fresh from the womb
soon to be drenched with blood
indistinguishable cries for feeding or comfort from Mary's breast
soon turn to prayers for relief from the wrath of a Father
manger that
brings a comfort beyond words
soon to be a cross that
brings a comfort beyond words
in a cold night away from the inn
under stars made by a Father
intent on bringing this baby
to slaughter
for me

Whatever will be will be

Interesting article about transitions.

My Wife Does Not Exist (the truth according to uncle sam)

passport: lost
DL and SS Card: stolen
marriage and birth certificates: unlocateable

Status- You do not exist.

We're trying to get the passport stuff together for the trip to Russia. We are waiting for her birth cert to come in from chicago. then we get her ss and new dl. then we go to houston for a walkthru to get her new passport. then, we send info to CHC to get visas.

everything must be complete by feb 26th.

after xmas purchase=
combination fire proof safe: priceless.

it is good to know that one does not need documentation to be kissed and held.

Dying Well

last nite i got Calvin Miller's new book "Once Upon a Tree" from dave. i started reading it before i went to bed. good stuff.

in the introduction he talks alot about dying and the power that the cross has to bring us through the pain of it all. he mentions a scare he had where the possibility of death was very real and how he noticed that death was not as terrifying as he thought it would be.

funny how we run so quickly from death. its definitely not an easy thing, but its the inevitable end of us all.

funny how a mutilating that took place years ago on a cross brings us a comfort to face our own mortality.

miller mentions the idea that the cross did not happen only in 33ad. it is happening today.
"Did he really die two thousand years ago? It seems not so. It seems he's dying now-- ever dying. I daily gaze upon his cross, and I am rebuked for my own pursuit of ease. I cannot place Good Friday in the distant past. Good Friday is last Friday, next Friday, every Friday. I must daily die to self and live for him. I must count on its continuing glory; I must repeatedly reckon with its demands."

there is a demand that this particular death places on us. but i think, contrary to some ideas, it is not a demand to die. i would say it is a demand to live. in Last Samurai, after the death of one of the characters, a friend asks someone who was with him when he died, "Tell me how he died." the reply of the one who was with the dying man was, "No, I will tell you how he lived."

there is a mystery in laying down our lives with Christ to experience what it means to live. there is a mystery in being nailed to a cross with Christ, but living. yet not living yourself, but the life of this same dying Christ living through you, coursing through your every heart beat.

may you die well today.

MH Dallas Blog

I've been discussing the possibility of blogging out some ideas with some folks at Mars Hill here in Dallas. I just brought up another blogspot to start this up today. It is over here.

EWC3

we should begetting the next set of EWC3 in the mail soon. Please shoot me an email if you would like one.
justin@tribedallas.com

What the blog?

A little outdated, but good nonetheless.

Natural Progression

"Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise."

Richard Halverson, while he was US Senate Chaplain

I just came across this at NextReformation. Good stuff. The whole article on Wed, Dec. 17th is great. Kelly and I struggle with the fine line of knowing God will supply for His work and giving His people the chance to give to His work. What we've found is that it is all about relationship. When people know you, they know what they are getting into when they partner with you. Its the integrity thing.

Cooper and Grace

Berry blogged on Jordan's recent experiences (The Pain of the Longview)about being hurt by some pretty close folks. He mentioned Scriptural accounts of poo-poo people (Boneheads) that God used to worked in David's life.

i've been struggling with this lately. last week we were threatened with a lawsuit from the boss of a couple in our local family. imagine recieving a call at 11pm that says someone you have never met is threatening a civil suit against you, your wife and your congregation. imagine knowing the only contact this man has with you is only through the words of family that you are trying to help. imagine knowing the only information about you comes from the lips of those you have been entrusted to care for and that this information, for the threat of a civil suit to be an option, had to be false.
here's my struggle. i know bad things happen. i know crap happens in the church. family can be a crappy place. i know God works in adversity. i know that he is at work in the midst of everything, good and bad, to somehow bring honor to himself. but i wonder, is there not a time that lines need to be drawn. isn't there a place in relationship where healthy boundaries need to be set?
i've since had to do this with these particular family members. the boundary is set until the dealings they have with the man i've never met are finished. would it be right to keep myself in front of a train if i have the capacity to step off the track or divert the course of the train from plowing through my house?

Imbibing and Creational Joy

i live in the buckle of the Bible belt.
what place does the joy of imbibing (partaking of adult beverages) have in my sphere? the arguments go like this:
1- if it causes a brother to stumble, don't do it.
2- if it glorifies God, run with it.
i'm seeing that the church is in a place of total recall. we're recalling everything we thought we knew about how things needed to be, how things should be run, if they should be "run" at all.
most of the family in the states do not deal with the question of believers imbibing. however, the general idea of the church in the south is that drinking is not a socially acceptable thing to do. i have a big problem with that logic. there comes a time when old ideas and paradigms must be laid to rest and i think this is an argument that has had its time. for a good example why, you can simply go to any restaurant in a "wet" county and see find the socially accepted norm has nothing to do with abstaining. and about the relevance of the believer, what good is it to abstain from something that the scripture commands us to partake in joyfully, with thanks and for the glory of God? should not we be the ones redeeming God's purpose in giving man the wisdom to create such beverages? some have taken this wisdom and allowed themselves to become addicted and with time forgotten the One who gave them the idea to partake in the first place.

could it be time for the south to reevaluate her view of God's creation?

for further reading, see Kenneth Gentry's "God Gave Wine." great read.

SHOUT Outs...

are up! bring it on.
thanks bear.

misadventures and divine intervention

kelly and i are getting ready for the excursion to Russia. we've been working closely with Children's Hope Chest in Colorado Springs, CO, since last year to get the ball rolling on a project just north of Moscow. CHC funds and revitalizes orphanages with money from churches and private companies to raise the standard of living for the kids that are there. they provide better food and quality teachers to give the kids the best chance at making it in the outside world. CHC also has a 'ministry center' for the kids who have 'graduated' from the orphanages. they can go there to get off the streets and get some training for local jobs. our plan is to work with the ministry center to establish a coffee house in their basement. this will create an environment of welcome-ness and allow the kids to have a place to express their talents (the russians are an extremely talented crew of folks. God has gifted them amazingly. the sad thing is that, as a people under communism, they have been so oppressed and not given the encouragement to develop those gifts. we are hoping to give them a boost).

i've done a lot of seeking over the last year about why the door is open for us to Russia. this voice in my head keeps bringing up the question about why we're not doing it here in the States. the more i've thought on it, the deeper the conviction goes that, in light of the rest of the world's standards, we Americans are truly spoiled. there's a sense that we've been given such great financial wealth to steward and so many of us are wasting it on ourselves and needless crap. i want to be able to do something for some folks who can really use my cash. not in the "i'm the American here to save you from you poor self" kind of way, but in the genuine, "i don't know why, but i was born in America with an incredible wealth to steward and i really do not think it is meant for me alone" kind of way.

so, here we go. CHC is getting things in line. we're waiting for a few things to be completed on our end and after that the ball will roll with the mighty force of the hand of God. i want to be local. i want friends to know God through me. i want to be transient and for strangers to hear is voice, too. i want to be global and for his heartbeat to pulse through me throughout this incredible world. God, make me a funnel. Not a funnel cake, more like the thing we use to put oil in our cars. You've got so much to give.

links, etc., again

k, so i got brave and ventured into the code realm. i figured out how to add the links. just waiting for the berry to add the Shout Out thang.
thanks again, bear, for the nudge to begin this exhibitionist rambling.

links, etc...

i really want to get some links of some kewl peeps i've found over the last few days. pls be patient while berry ( berryalvis.blogspot.com & faithblogs.blogspot.com ) and i werk this out. soon, you will have the rad opportunities to reply to my ramble-on-ish-ness, too.

and maybe, just maybe...
kelly will post soon.

tiring of long blogs

i want to write short sentences to get my point across.

maybe it will happen that way.

blog thief

i just ripped this from brad whom i've never met. i like. its a vibe that kelly and i have been rumenating on for a while. its long, but well worth the read. enjoy.

Monday, December 08, 2003

SOME THOTS ON 'PREACHING'

scotty asked me to read a blog discussion he's been in about (re)definitions of community, preaching, and such. more on that perhaps soon. at the moment, i have some initial thoughts about preaching and whether it's a lost art, or an art we should lose.

not quite that simple of a choice, even if i'm the one setting up the question in the first place.

anyway, an initial thought: in my range of experiences, traditional preaching is usually an abstract "conversation" without a concrete context and so excludes people from the circle of application, or a practical "conversation" that is too concrete and so excludes people from the circle of listening. that's the big picture. some unpacking:

you can go info-download style, in which the preacher presents information that supposedly all hearers can use specifically, and application is usually left up to each listener. problem is, this is usually abstract and theoretical input, and it tells what to do without showing how to do it. and so, if a listener hasn't been discipled how to discern their own context of problems, needs, etc., how will they make a relevant application? if we've got blind spots, they're by definition things we can't see, so (unless the Holy Spirit really gives us our sight on an otherwise blind-spotted/peripheral-vision issue in our lives) how can we do anything with theoretically relevant material, even if from Scripture? i've spent a lot of time in such churches, and learned a lot of truly important facts and details from/about God's Word. but sometimes discipleship becomes all about what you know, not what you live.

or you can go seeker-sensitive style, in which the preacher presents predigested practical information on generic human needs or specific personal problems. in either case, it's generally more concrete in its application than the info-download style. but when you get this concrete, you also exclude people whose circumstances/context don't fit. for instance, how many times have i been subjected to a lovely and practical multi-week series on marriage? how often do the married people have to listen to a lovely and practical multi-week series on singleness? i've been in these churches a lot too. after a year or two, every sermon seems like its about the same things, just slightly different personal/social problems. it's like a ken and barbie style show where they're put into different outfits over and over, but it's still ken and barbie. and seeker-sensitive churches seldom help the average congregant go on in discipleship to maturity. it's often 'maturity-lite' in its long-term impact, even if how we're living gets to look pretty good on the outside.

this is not a goldilocks and the three bears story where the first two beds are too hard, or too soft, and the third one is 'just right.' but here is a third option. someone in the diablog scotty mentioned talked about shifting from the word 'preached' to the word 'proclaimed.' when someone proclaims God's truths in a relational conversation (one-to-one or in a small group instead of from a pulpit to a congregation), i think it hits home far more often. i think that's because there's a built-in context in a conversation. either the proclaimer knows me, the real me, and what i need and seeks to connect me with truths that apply. or, because i know the proclaimer and care about him/her, that relational context motivates me to listen and grapple with applying what's being said.

perhaps the proclamation approach appeals more to those who desire community, because it keeps a relational context and cuts thru the crap a whole lot more. it makes sense as the core of discipleship, because it is direct, personalized, taken in relational context, is less easy to shrug off as if it doesn't apply when someone who knows you and your situation is speaking with you eye-to-eye. it's about truth and about living, not one or the other.

no wonder people are going into small groups or house churches or monastic structures or residential communities and such where this kind of proclamation brings a whole-grain bread of life to them, and eschewing or not chewing the wonder bread that's offered in the (typically) anonymous congregational setting. most of what is preached from info-download and seeker-sensitive pulpits is available in books or on tape. i'd rather spend my time in proclamation-oriented conversations with people who are aware of my context (personal history, current struggles, strengths and weaknesses, etc.), thank you very much.

i'm not sure proclamation is taught in seminary, though preaching is. preaching is more about developing your ability to speak and say something that's right for the listener. proclamation is more about developing your ability to listen and then say something that's relevant to the listener. if that's accurate, then perhaps there's hope that a congregational teacher can connect both proclamation by knowing the context of the listeners AND preaching by developing an engaging way to communicate, and it is more of a conversation.

but i think that's gonna be pretty hard to find. and i've had so much doctrinal info-downloads and recovery-oriented seeker-sentiments that i think i'll go for the conversation-in-context-and-community stuff for the time being.

hope that makes some sense, scotty, you rockin' disciple who loves Jesus with all your heart ...
Brad 4:02 PM
http://beyondposthuman.blogspot.com/

The Last Samurai

Dude! Jeff, Josh, Steve and I went to see it last nite. I walked away awestruck. It hit so hard, on the drive home I found my self saying out loud, "Man, that movie freakin rocked! Wow." That would not be so big of a deal except I was alone. Actually, not really. It was more like a prayer. I was so slammed with the idea of honor and justice, so shifted by the idea that "samurai" is the Japanese word for servant.

It saddens me to know that we are part of such a shallow "culture" (if you can call it that). LS carried the idea through the screen so thickly that the truth, and integrity and so worth fighting for. there's this mixed feeling of being totally ashamed at my immaturity and the lack of really knowing what's going on (which I think that is the state that we are all in,even with all of our buzz words and research, but it is a rare event that leads us to actually acknowledge it) mingled with a sense of needing to recapture that integrity Allgren and Kasomuro (sp?) fought so hard to maintain and protect.

God, where are our samurais?

Do yourself a favor, go get moved by this flick.

is...

kelly going to blog??? will there ever be a time where she will pour heart and soul into a keyboard for all the world to see? oh, the drama! oh, the mystery!

accountability

jeff and i sat down for a cup of joe ($4 joe at that. thanks for picking up the tab, bro.) and some good old fashioned honesty. we share the weeks events and struggles, the good, the bad, the ugly. its good to know there are people who actually care about what you are going through. its good to have family who are there to encourage you to press in and not give up the fight.

when i think of "church" life, i think this is part of the way things should be. gone should be the days of superficial attendance related "services." gone should be the days of fashion shows (can you believe she wore pajamas/ tennis shoes/ jeans/ "insert non-dress item here" to church?) gone should be the days of church life revolving around a preacher and his charisma. gone should be the days of forgetting the idea of "doing life" together. let the days of intimacy and care come in. let the days of hanging out and dinners and laughter and "quality time" come in. let the days of praying for eachother, crying with eachother, teaching one another come in.

with mars in transition, i wonder what the next leg looks like. john e said that maybe we were meant to not stay in one place for any extended amount of time. maybe that's our lot. maybe for the next year, we'll meet in houses. then, after that, we'll meet in a billion dollar cathedral meant for really rich people. then we'll figure out we can't afford it and meet under a bridge somewhere. then people will get cold and we'll go to the beach. yeah, imagine that. communion with God on the cusp of his roaring oceans. maybe it will be under the stars with a moon thats bright enough to read your book by. maybe we'll figure out it does not really matter where we gather, just as long as we do. maybe we'll figure out that what matters is that we get together to meet with God and allow him to speak to us. i know, you say there's so much more theologically/ christologically/ ecclesiologically that we need to consider. but, even after we consider it all, it all boils down to having the same kind of trust a little child would have in their dad. simple. why do we have to make it so hard?

lunch plans?

i find it strange that i can tell the world (or at least whoever reads this) that i am now officially going to lunch for the day.

i know its a little late for lunch.

kelly joins the ranks

i added kelly to post on the blog. welcome to our world...

amazing grace?

so, what is it going to mean now that saddam is found?

when the long day comes

when the long day comes
and night is put to rest
stains are laid aside

where on earth
does the cold wind blow from
that chills my neck

when the long day comes
cold no longer stings
for all will be rest

community, family and pain

a community lives together and may, on occassion, do things/activities together. rarely will you see people on opposite ends of the street hurt together. they may live in the same zip code, but rarely will they share the same life together. family goes deeper. it hurts together, it cries together, it understands truly why another family member pops a cork on a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
community may hover in the same circles. family makes the cirlce.

dang... i just asked a lady how her day was. she says she's had better. i told her i hoped her day got better. she said it would not without her husband. he passed away in march. she's around 60. she started crying and wished me a merry christmas. i hope she has family. my gut wrenches at the thought of not having my wife with me to celebrate christmas.

transitions and distrust

i'm surprised that you can find so many people at Six Flag when its 35degrees. we went saturday with jeff and had a blast.

mars hill, our family, is currently under another transition. this will make move number 6 in 5 years. we started as a single's ministry. moved to lower greenville and spent a year there. transitioned to the Granada Movie Grill for 6 months. transitioned to the Beagle Bar for another 6 months. both of those locations required us to set up and break down and move our own sound system. following the Beagle we moved closer to Deep Ellum to a building on Hill St., next to Baylor hospital. after a year there, we moved to Richardson (a more centralized location for the people who were gathering together) where we are currently... for now. we'll be moving again in about 4 months. we've realized that, given our current trend of communtiy giving, we'll not last in the place we are at.

we are also re-evaluating our ideas of stewardship. it is becoming hard for us to justify giving more than our monthly "income" to a building and less to biblically mandated areas such as taking care of the poor, the orphan, the widow (see matt 25 and james' idea of "true religion."). there's this sense that one day we'll have to say, "sorry we couldn't feed you or clothe you, but hey, look at the cool buildings we met in." what kind of good is that?
i think this is part of the catalyst for the jaded mindset that has led so many to walk away from any sense of christian community. they have sensed the hypocrisy in building grand memorials to our own achievements while forgetting the "weightier matters" like justice and truth. who can blame a person for not supporting such an institution? kelly and i heard a report on NPR this morning about the general distrust of Americans in non-profit institutions, especially since the 9-11 red cross scandal. approx. 40% of americans said they have little or no confidence in non-prof organizations. no wonder we have a hard time convincing people to plug into an institution that is willing to accrue outstanding amounts of debt just to fit more people into one place. why do we need more people in one place? why not those same people in lots of places... in communities, houses, coffee houses, bars, soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity? how can you convince a thinking person that it is more beneficial to gather with hundreds you will never talk to when you really only know about 10-15 of them on any real level.

at indie allies we talked of the difference between a community and a family. chew on it. more later.

you know what never ceases to amaze me? calm waters in the midst of the storm.

insert subliminal message here:
go out and buy a copy of Enter the Worship Circle: Third Circle. kelly played percussion and i did some engineering and the photography for the project. better yet, email me at justin@tribedallas.com to ask for a copy. the money goes towards our work with the orphanages in Russia.

recapturing family

i'm at work and its raining.

its cool to be able to blog at work.

kelly and i are going to six flags tomorrow with jeff and a few friends. it will be cold, but that's okay. my wife will wrap her arms around me a warm me up. oh yeah. bring on that cold weather, baby. bring it on!

i enjoy family time. i think we need to recapture the ancient art of hanging out. walking together. eating together. (berry, i concur. there is a grace in eating together. think about the last dinner. why dinner? i know, that whole "fulfilling prophecy" thing. but why was a dinner in the prophecy. and why is there a great feast in the end? i think Someone has a divine sense of good food and family.) just time together is good. maybe we could do a little less with the tv, too. (ouch)

i had an email that i submitted to www.relevantmagazine.com get put onto Slices. pretty cool. its a good site, too. they published the book of one of our friends, Ben Pasley, "Enter the Worship Circle." they have good heads on their shoulders.

so i'm walking down this path and the sun is shining even though its midnight. he walks up to me and says, "thanks for the walk." i smile because that was exactly what i needed to hear. there's a joy in being appreciated.

there's a lot of talk about community, post-postmodernity, authenticness (no, it is not a word. it just makes sense for this sentence), and the like. i got to thinking about this whole thing and the idea that "community becomes commodity" stuck in my head. when a great idea gets published that somebody thought (hopefully) long and hard about, it makes its way into our language within a matter of months and there's this race to get everyone speaking the same thing. we hear the word and we run out into the street looking for someone else who heard it, and we use it to trade like some undergound thought currency. with time, its devalued. its cheapened. i think we forgot to do something. we forgot to invite it in for dinner. we forgot to let it into our bedrooms and our meditation times. we forgot to introduce it to our wife and children first. in a sense we strip the idea of its dignity and turn it into simple pocket change.

i guess you could say i'm ready to get past the words and get covered in the muck of reality.

a few things...
i love my wife. she phreakin' wrocks. i have some really close friends, but none on this earth can compare with her. she is amazing. you'll hear more about her as the days go by.
i love God and that crazy Messiah guy.
i love His lovers.
i think art needs to happen. fleshing out that soul stuff is healthy.

the light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it.

i just spent 20 minutes throwing out thoughts and lost them all with the click of a button.
dang.
let's start slow.
breathe in, breathe out... repeat.
zen.
okay, so i had a friend tell me i needed to start blogging. he says there's thoughts in my head that need to get out.
let the tide roll on, brother. roll on.

we begin with thought...