and they gazed at the stars

Whenever a discussion turns to topics such as, "how can we rethink the way we do worship," I usually throw out a few ideas that I have been churning in my head. Most are just a new twist on old things, such as incorporating more participatory aspects into worship (i.e. town hall style discussion, musical meditation, incorporating art or creative writing somehow, etc). I probably wouldn't think about completely shifting locations and incorporating something that I enjoyed, which is why I think what I just found is awesome!

I blog-hopped my way to a couple of new sites today, and while reading through some comments on the topic of coming up with innovative worship, one idea just jumped out at me. Check it out...

we went star gazing with our church last night...

How inspiring is that? Being outside on a beautiful night, taking in the vastness that is creation, and incorporating artistic, musical, and scriptural components. And more importantly, the overriding theme was that the community worshipped together - they went through the experience together. I think this is such a interesting break from the norm. I could definitely see adapting this to other kinds of outdoor activities - at the moment, hiking seems to be the one forefront in my mind; though a quiet, grassy clearing would probably work just as well.

a ray of hope

Posts like these highlight what the media either refuses to show us or has not seen in their travels with the government relief effort.

Forces on the Frontlines -- Mike McNichols

This is the kind of publicity that The Church really needs. Not a particular denomination, group, sect, movement spear-heading an effort and shaming other groups... all Christians of all walks of life and from all the different flavors that exist working together selflessly.

My favorite excerpt...

I spoke with a sheriff with whom I worked in Bogalusa. He found it amazing that we had come all the way from California to help. He said to me, "I don't know what we would have done without the Christians."

love and obedience

So, some of my discussions over at A New Kind of Conversation have recently turned towards the roles of love and obedience in spiritual formation. While I tend to struggle with the full impact of obedience in a Christian life, I relate well to the concept of loving as a Christian. I like to come at the question, "what does is mean or look like to follow Jesus," from the angle of love as opposed to obedience. To me, and probably many others, obedience on the surface just feels like a power issue, perhaps bringing to mind the image of a drill sergeant barking orders. Deep down I know that's not what it means from a Christian perspective, but not everyone we come into contact has that same perspective. So in my mind, spiritual formation becomes a process by which we cultivate our faith with love. Behind any step, any facet of spiritual formation (such as the 7 elements proposed by Brian McLaren) there must exist some level of love for God and Jesus, or else why would any formation or transformation take place?

Anyway, before I ramble on too long, I wanted to point you to Mike Lewis' latest blog entry. I think he explains well some of the thought process that goes into why I feel love is a stronger force in spiritual formation than obedience (though both go hand-in-hand). By telling someone about Jesus, you are obeying. By showing someone Jesus, you are loving. It's a minor difference with a major impact.

So, They Don't Believe In Absolute Truth? -- Mike Lewis

Enjoy!

pardon the silence

Lately I have been focusing my spiritual ponderings and musings on the discussions over at A New Kind of Conversation, particularly the topic Spiritual Formation in a Postmodern Context. Which, incidentally, a big thank you to those of you who are visiting here for the first time. Hopefully, you won't think anything I've written or will write is totally absurd.

Other than that, I'm now struggling to balance my life between work, my own spiritual formation, and neighborhood issues. I'm hoping that last bit will clear up soon...

the conversation begins

Got the following in my email today:

Hello all,

"A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging Toward a Postmodern Faith" will be posted online at 12:00pm Eastern Standard Time (US), today September 15th! Brian McLaren and Bruce Ellis Benson kick things off for us. Brian with thoughts on "Spiritual Formation in a Postmodern Context" and Bruce examines the question of "What is Postmodernism?". Other topics by our remaining contributors will be rolled out every two days, so be sure to follow along as things progress. And thanks to everyone for doing such a great job getting the word out. We have been overwhelmed by thousands of people who have come to the site. This has the potential of being a truly global discussion. Continue to let others know, we are still trying to get as many folks from Asia, South America, and Africa into the conversation as possible! So if you know of any bloggers in these regions of the world, point them in this direction. Thanks again and welcome to anewkindofconversation.com.

Hunter & Myron

Enjoy! Just be sure to read the Site Expectations so you understand exactly what they are trying to do and what may come out the discussions. Also, if you do decide to join in, there is an acceptance agreement you need to read since there is the possibility of your thoughts being published.

reconciling personality with spirituality

So even though David Wray said not to think too hard on the Spirituality Type exercise that we went through, I was perplexed by my results - not upset, just intrigued. You see I landed solidly within the Inner Life quadrant. Inner Life spirituality focuses on contemplation, inner peace, sometimes a monastic life, and prayer that seeks or leads to mystical union with God/Jesus/Spirit. At first I was really confused because according to Myers-Briggs I am an ENTP (yeah I know, to some including my wife a total shocker!) and I figured that being extroverted would kind of preclude me from something that requires a lot of solitude. However, reflecting on events from Monday and going back to my Myers-Briggs work-up, I think I've been able to reconcile what I perceived to be a dichotomy in my life. You see, my strongest personality function is N, intuition. This means that I am a creative problem solver, someone who takes in information by noticing patterns, possibilities, interrelationships and using my gut feeling. However, combine that with extraversion (drawing energy from people/activities/things) and you get the result that I like to share with people the ideas generated by this internal process.

Some of you might think this is useless information, but I guess I really wanted to share all this because I find it helps me understand why/how I do some of the things I do. Not that you should scramble to find out what your spiritual or personality types are, but maybe this insight into myself will help you understand and reconcile some aspects of your own life. As for me, the continual, inane rambling I do on this blog helps me in my faith journey so I can figure out what my spiritual role is or should be - I still don't know what that is, but perhaps the picture is getting a little less fuzzy now. Thanks for reading...

"Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe."
-- Henry David Thoreau

following the unknown path

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I did take a rather interesting journey. Since it was my last day off before heading back to the world of work, I decided that I really wanted to do something I'd been putting off -- hiking! I scanned the internet trail guides for Connecticut and settled on checking out Breadloaf Mountain, which connects up to the Appalachian Trail and offers views of the Litchfield hills and the Housatonic River valley. The views I figured would be gorgeous, and it was a great day for hiking, but I also just wanted someplace quiet to be with nature, meditate, pray, and maybe read some scripture and/or write. Excited at being in the outdoors once again I took off with gusto, tackling the trail at a fairly aggressive pace. As to be expected - since I haven't done any serious hiking in a while - the moment the trail took its steep, upward climb to the peak, I started to feel the burn in my legs and lungs. But not one to be beaten down easily, I forced my body through the initial pains, drank some water, and continued on. I mean come on, the hike was only 0.5 miles - albeit a lot of it was uphill, severely uphill. After about a half hour of steady climbing I reached the peak and was rewarded with stunning views.


Breadloaf Mountain Looking South


Breadloaf Mountain Looking Across the Housatonic River Valley

I sat for a while taking in the peaceful surroundings, had a snack, and then decided to break out my bible. While at ElderLink, Paul and Jeff had talked about how 2 Corinthians 4 speaks very eloquently about being a missionary - dealing with struggles, keeping focused, and things of that nature. Of course, I'd never really heard that take on it before, but when I sat there during their session thinking about it, it really did speak to me as a kind of comforting, morale booster for someone struggling out in the field. They also talked about how sometimes we need to stop taking everything at face value, the "we heard it once or twice so now we know all there is to know" kind of attitude, and dig deeper from many angles (my words, not theirs). Thinking about all this gave me the reason to tote my bible with me to the top of the mountain. I decided that starting with 2 Corinthians 4 (after a few moments of silent prayer), I was going renew my study of scripture, but with more depth. At first, I read through chapter 4 alone a couple of times, but as I read it I started to realize that it seemed to me there were allusions to something that must have been said previously. So then I decided to skip back a couple of chapters, but as I scanned I realized I really needed to head back to the beginning and read 2 Corinthians 1-4, so I did. I really got a lot more out of that passage of scripture than I ever had before, and I plan on going back and utilizing some of the discussion questions Paul and Jeff provided. So with another moment of prayer, I decided it was time to leave, but seeing as I wasn't tired I figured I would check out another trail I knew was nearby - it was just a short walk along the ridge on the Appalachian Trail to the Pine Knob Loop, which supposedly offered more scenic views. I mean come on, the map shows that they are not that far apart!

Well, first I hiked the 0.1 miles to the Appalachian Trail - no problem - and then headed north to find the Pine Knob Loop. And continued to head north, and more north, and more north. I wasn't really all that tired, the terrain wasn't too steep, so I soldiered on until finally I found the trail. So I headed off figuring that this loop didn't look too long. The trail had a decidedly downward slope to it, nothing terribly difficult just continuous. The loop took me along a really neat stream that at certain points had washed away everything leaving a wide swath of smooth, bare rock and also had some neat ravines.


A stream along the Pine Knob Loop

However, as you've probably guessed by now, the trail was not a short jaunt through the woods. I continued down, never curving back up the mountain, and eventually I found myself a mere stones throw from the parking lot (not where my car was) along the main road at the bottom of the mountain. I was a little tired by now and figured I would drink some water and eat the apple I had brought along, and continue on back up the final leg of the loop. I passed a couple with a dog on my way up, and they wished me good hiking and asked why I was taking the steep way up. At this point I was getting a little concerned because I was definitely low on energy and my legs were tired from the not so steep hike down, and decidedly longer than expected hike from Breadloaf Mountain. Nonetheless I continued on, but decided to check the map that I had picked up from the trailhead at the beginning of my journey. That's when I noticed the words -- Map Not to Scale -- Uh oh. I decided that perhaps I should turn around and walk the main road back to my car, since I did know that both parking lots were off the same road. A little further down I passed another guy, he asked how much further up it was to the overlook, he had heard that this was a 3-mile loop but wasn't how far to the scenic view. At this point I knew I had made the right decision to turn around, and so I backtracked to the parking lot, where I found out that by road it was another mile to my car. Once I got back, I went to go get a better look at the topographic map that was there -- as it turns out, the little semi-informational guide that I picked up was completely useless for anything other than pointing out highlights and finding camping and pay-phones. It was 0.6 miles from my car to the Appalachian Trail, probably another 1.5 - 2.0 miles from there to the Pine Knob Loop, I hiked at least half the loop (about 1.5 miles), backtracked about 0.5 mile and lastly walked 1.0 mile back to my car. Grand total estimate for my first hike of the year, and first real outdoors hike in a while -- 5.1 - 5.6 miles over varied terrain. For those of you who like topo maps, check out the terrain from Breadloaf Mtn to the north along the ridge and then the area between the two streams (that's the Pine Knob Loop).

It was an exhausting day, much more than I had planned, but I saw a lot of the beauty of Litchfield County up close. I also felt like I really got in some quality spiritual time, which I also needed. Next time I plan something like this though, I think I'll hit up Barnes & Noble for a guide and map book about Connecticut trails.

quick links - not so quick reads

So before I get to another more lengthy update, here are some links to some excellent articles/blog-posts that I've come across recently.

Conversation about Walter Rauschenbusch - Brian McLaren
David Evans is a brilliant emerging theologian, African American, currently working with the Mennonite Central Committee and soon to begin PhD work in American religious history. He and I had lunch recently and talked about Walter and the social gospel, Anabaptism, civil religion, and other topics. He sent me this reflection after our most recent lunch which I thought was worth sharing. He gave me permission to post it here. If you'd like to email him for further dialogue, his email is . - Brian

First Corinthians circa 2005 - Patrick Mead
Be a part of God's blizzard. By yourself you're, well, just a flake.

Opening the Gift of Time - Jason Clark
Let me ask the question I hope you'll post an answer to as a comment, before you read below? How are you finding ways to subvert the rhythm of our consumer culture? Here are some of my ways and thoughts.

Enjoy!

back from elderlink 2005

Yeah, you read that correctly... I went to ElderLink 2005 in Nashua, NH. I am in no way, shape, or form a church elder or leader, nor do I intend on being either of those things anytime soon (well, at least that's what I think, God may have something else in mind). For me, this was a great opportunity to re-balance my life a bit. Since I've been working a lot lately, I kind of felt my spiritual life suffered a bit since I didn't really have the time or energy to reflect on much.

In short, the plenary sessions with Randy Harris about doctrinal disagreements were awesome! I think a lot of what he had to say shook up some people who were there, and while this was primarily a Church of Christ event, I think a lot of what he said translates directly into inter-denominational and inter-faith/religion relations. I also thoroughly enjoyed David Wray's talks on Christian spiritual formation. He started with a brief introduction to some of the thoughts conveyed in Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy concerning modern churchs' overemphasis on spiritual information, as opposed to spiritual in formation. David Wray jumped off from there and talked about a need for balance of 3 things: spiritual information, spiritual formation, and spiritual transformation. I would translate this to the ideals of education, nurturing growth, and openness to being conformed to the image of Christ. Ok, you got me, that last bit about conforming was some more from David Wray's talks.

However, I would be horribly rude to leave out the main reason I went to ElderLink. Paul Clark was a co-presenter with Jeff Christian in a couple of sessions about being and becoming a missional church. The idea being that a missional church is not a place that you go to, but rather is a group from which you are sent out into the world (local, regional, global, or whatever your groups' calling is). I would say that while some of the tools and topics that were covered have no bearing on my current station in life (me not being a church leader of a church looking to move more missional), I did find the concepts helpful in understanding the kind of church community I want to be a part of. Paul is a great friend of mine, and he recommended that I come up for the event, for which I am grateful since I enjoyed his sessions and everything else. I did have a few people comment that I seemed a bit young to be at a conference aimed primarily at church elders, which was a bit amusing to me as it was truly curiosity and nothing more on their part. Most who continued in deeper conversation got a small taste of the ideas I have been floating around on this blog over the past year, along with the address of my blog (Welcome!).

I will have to check out what is on the books for next year's event, and maybe shake things up a bit more (I admit, I was mostly a wallflower). Anyway, I've rambled on plenty to make up for my weekend away from the blog. Coming up next, a recount of my winding outdoor journey from today (from which I am exhausted) and my current plan for expanding my prayer life and dwelling in scripture.

divulge from the norm

So in a brief break from my typical spiritual and/or faith related musings, I just have to shoot out a quick blog about Apple and their super cool new stuff. First of all, when the ipod was introduced I really wasn't even paying attention to the digital music player market so I didn't really know what it was or how cool it was going to be. Once I saw one and saw how crazy consumers went for it, I kind of figured out that it was going to take something impossibly innovative to knock the ipod off the throne of digital music players. To date, the only thing I've ever seen is company after company attempting to mimic the ipod, albeit with some minor twist (thumbwheel, touchpad, indiglo screen, brushed metal skin, etc). However, no matter what the competition did, Apple always seemed ready with the one-up trump card -- ipod mini, ipod color, ipod shuffle. Now I think Apple has once again proved why they are on top of the digital music world.

Enter the ipod nano. It's smaller than the ipod mini in every aspect, but it packs the features of a regular ipod - such as a color screen, picture storage, and calendar/contacts. It utilizes the extreme featherweight concept of the shuffle (including the flash memory, not hard drive), but is as fully-featured as the heaviest ipod with long battery life to boot. And to top it all off, it comes in white or black (for now, I assume). Now while I do have a music player already, mine just doesn't have as much of a whiz-bang gadget impact as this newest ipod. I use a Sony netMD N510-S -- using those Sony proprietary minidiscs. It is cool in that technically speaking I can't run out of space for songs, but the downside is that I have to buy more discs if I want to carry more music -- which translates into carrying more stuff overall. Maybe one day I will treat myself to something cool, new and gadgety... but not today, I have too much will-power and recognition of my lack of need for it. Although, it would be nice...

Now couple that with their partnership with Cingular and Motorola to provide the ROKR - an iTunes enabled phone with functionality similar to an ipod shuffle - and I think the future dominance of Apple in the digital music world has been secured for quite a while longer.

If only honest, loving Christian faith were as prolific, contagious, and sought after.....

blogging about beliefs

Matt Ritchie does it again! I've thoroughly enjoyed his Untangling the Gospel series of blog posts. The most recent one hit on some topics that I've mused upon at various times in life. The idea of beliefs and doctrines - which is which, which is important, how do we know what we hold, and other similar questions - was probably the most influential line of thinking in moving me philosophically outside the realm of what I would call the "doctrinally focused" church. What I mean by "doctrinally focused" is essentially that a group of people are more concerned about what they should believe rather than how they should believe. The following quote, from Kevin Smith's Dogma, I think drives home the idea - in this situation, associate their use of "belief" as doctrine.

Rufus
... the factioning of the religions. He said that mankind got it all wrong by taking a good idea and building a belief structure on it.

Bethany
Are you saying that having beliefs is a bad thing?

Rufus
I just think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. People die for it, people kill for it.

Not to say that being able to flip-flop on issues is to be applauded, but more along the lines of understanding what those ideas are that you hold onto and live for so that you can adjust to the times, cultures and events as necessary. After all, when learning to multiply, rote memorization of the multiplication tables only gets you so far - you need to understand the concepts and principles behind the math if you want to make real progress.

Oh yeah, and check out Matt's Untangling the Gospel 9: You'd Better Believe It!

A New Kind of Conversation

So I came across this upcoming blog-book in my daily blog reading. It's a grass-roots, free-form kind of discussion being geared up in blog format by Brian McLaren, Mabiala Kenzo, Bruce Ellis Benson, Ellen Haroutunian, Myron Penner and you! That's right, sign up to be a part of the conversation and you can make your voice heard if you so wish. Here's the description from the site...

Blogging Toward a Postmodern Faith

This blog-book will discuss what a postmodern evangelical faith looks like. The blog format will make it possible to allow you the reader, to participate in the writing of both the blog and the eventual published book to follow by Paternoster Press. Be a part of this experiment in conversation by adding your voice to the discussion.

Sign up if you are interested at http://www.anewkindofconversation.com/