the long pause

And with baited breath, they waited until they could wait no more. One by one they visited with dwindling frequency, losing hope that anything would change. I like to think that's the case, since my lack of writing leaves me as parched for deep thought exercises as just about anyone else. As is the usual case, my only pitiful excuse for my lack of any written words is of course my crazy schedule between life and work. A few short updates on those topics...

Work continues to keep me busy, such is the norm. Between career building tasks, project assignments, and the daily grind of maintenance I do not lack for things to do. At times I find this a blessing, and other times a curse -- the curse portion is usually when I am inundated by tedious, repetitious tasks which drives the creative side of me up a wall scrambling for some kind of relief.

In other areas of life, I've found a whole new arena of spiritual nourishment that I've been enjoying immensely. I've gotten involved in a new church plant in my area. And when I say involved, I mean that I am working with the core team of people who are forming the worship, generating the marketing, and overall doing a lot of organizing. In particular, my areas of influence have become designing and maintaining the website (duh!), as well as working with the Tech-A/V team which supports the audio and video aspects of worship. I've been discovering that I have a real knack for working the audio mixer for the worship team, and as a result I'm becoming a bit of the go-to guy in that arena. Of course, its hard to discover a new talent if you don't have talented people to work with, and it amazes me how quickly the worship team came together to create beautiful music which I love helping fine-tune. Maybe once I get a few more people up to speed on operating the board, which is 50% art since you need to have an ear for it, I might try my hand at joining the worship team. My guitar skills are rusty and spotty, but I think I could get them up to par enough to lend a hand. Check out the website, I'm excited about this whole endeavor.

Northwest Hills Community Church

On a slightly different topic, I'll leave you with a couple of thoughtful morsels to ponder. Why do certain Christians feel the need to use overly religious, or pseudo-righteous, and biblical language and/or trite phrases when they talk amongst themselves? For example: for the cause of Christ; remember, be holy as He is holy; etc and so on, you get the picture. I'm certain there are probably situations where this might not seem out of context, but when things get tossed in the mix of normal conversation it just sounds odd. Or maybe it's just me and I have a cynical side that just cringes every time I hear phrases that are just dripping with religious overtones and "Christianese." Just to clear things up right away, I'm not criticizing the people who do this or passing judgment, there are some really nice people who I've met who do this from time to time -- I just silently cringe and move on. So maybe the second question is, whenever we find a situation where we might normally toss out some religious/spiritual/biblical phrase, should we stop and think for a moment to ask the question: could I say this with plain speech, without religious overtones, and still make the same point?

Personally, I don't have much use for overtly religious phrases, I think they just cloud any issue you discuss. I find it much more constructive to take the insights we gain from scripture, apply them to the world around us, and use the resulting knowledge as our language and point of reference.

Oh, and on the ReGroup front, things are currently in stasis. Everyone who is involved is being pulled in a lot of different directions, so scheduling another meeting has been tough. We definitely will, it just might be a while... like, we're talking end of summer or into the fall.

regroup has begun

So it only took about 3 months longer than I anticipated, but ReGroup finally made it off the paper and into reality. Honestly, I couldn't be more pleased. I was organized, I was ready, and our house was open and ready for some of our friends to come over and join in this new experience. Once we all sat down and got the ball rolling, everything I planned was tossed right out the window.

At first I was concerned that getting started was going to be like being back in college, you know the times when the professor is practically pulling teeth to get something, anything, out of the students. But, since the whole point of getting this group together was to provide a safe place to talk about whatever topics we might not be comfortable bringing up in other environments, that's where I started. Luckily, once the first topic was tossed out there the conversation flowed and twisted and moved under its own power so that I only pulled a couple of items from my jotted down ideas (which I had up my sleeve in case nobody could think of anything). Interestingly enough, we spent a good part of the night discussing a few topics that all sort of hovered around the grander topic of death; things like predestination, heaven and hell, divine influence on lives, and that ultimate question, "why do bad things happen to good people?" We didn't end up bringing any scripture into the discussion, since this was more of an introductory gathering and involved a little bit of probing as to where people sat on certain issues. However, the discussions have spurred me to gather more information, seek advice, and I'll eventually pull together some scripture references to help provide some food for thought on the topics we discussed.

We've already decided that we do want to continue meeting; everyone seemed to have a good time and thought the time was well spent. For now I think we'll be meeting on a monthly basis, since anything more frequent I think would feel oppressive. From my perspective, it gives me more time to find information to add more depth to previous discussions, and maybe find material that will transition to a new topic. I think it would be fairly obvious that getting stuck on something for a long period could be detrimental, unless we're all enjoying the continual discussion that is. In some ways the first ever ReGroup meeting was anticlimactic for me, but that was actually a good thing. I didn't feel a lot of pressure, and I never really talked through any of the finer structural points of where I wanted to go with the group. Honestly, I never even brought the name ReGroup up, and I think it was better for it. I've stated from the beginning that ReGroup should be about meeting the ever-changing needs of people seeking answers and faith with a "come as you are" mentality; I think the first meeting did just that.

being intentional

While I was in Australia this year, I had some interesting thoughts running around in my head. It's funny what you can think about when you have 24 hours of nothing but one-way air travel on your hands. I've been reading quite a few blogs over the past couple of years, and with many of them I keep hearing this recurring theme of communities being authentic and being intentional. Authenticity I have thought about in the past since that is a key trademark of my generation; we love authenticity and the feeling of knowing complete honesty, but we absolutely despite fake-ness (terrible word, but inauthentic is kind of redundant) or doing something with a hidden agenda. However, the concept of being intentional is something that has really started to click with me.

Let's start with what being intentional in this context really means. To be intentional implies that one has determination to bring about something by design or plan. In other words, doing something you set your mind to doing. I think this is such a great concept because it applies to everything in our lives, and sometimes we can let that slide a little too much with our faith.

We need to be intentional in our relationships. Not in who we form relationships with, but in forming them period. People like to say that marriage is hard work and that you only get out what you put in, but I think the same applies to every relationship we form. Being part of a community means forming bonds with the people who comprise it, and skirting in and out along the fringes does not build up that community. So to that end, we have to take time and be intentional about forming relationships with people: our neighbors, friends, families, co-workers, and especially people we worship and fellowship with. I don't know about you, but I know the world always seems a little brighter and friendlier when I visit a place where I know someone. And to be honest, I'll be the first (since I'm writing this anyway) to say I fail at this all this time because often I'm not intentional in the way I handle relationship building. This is partly because sometimes I don't feel it will be worth the effort, partly it is because I am not willing to invest the time, and sometimes (or often, depending on your outlook) it is because I don't feel I have the time I feel I would need to genuinely build that bond.

We need to be intentional in our commitments. I've sort of touched on this topic in the past, especially when it came to the early planning stages of ReGroup. I find it odd that we can so easily over-commit ourselves at work, and under-commit ourselves to the things we enjoy. Things can get so bad that we eventually cannot add anything new to our schedules, because to do so would leave us with the feeling that we have no time to relax or no time to ourselves. I know I can get this way, though I do try to avoid it. I think being intentional in our commitments is a huge step to take, but one that can benefit us. First, being intentional about commitments means investing ourselves in tasks we are passionate about. At work, if I am passionate about the security of our infrastructure, committing my time to maintaining and enhancing the security methods we employ does not feel like a burden. I am passionate about ReGroup, so by the same logic the energy I am investing in trying to get it organized and the time I am willing to set aside for gathering with people does not feel like a sacrifice. Secondly, it means committing ourselves to endeavors we feel called to be a part of. I've experienced the opposite of this at work and it drives me nuts; you meet people who are perfectly matched for a particular assignment, but they refuse to step to the plate because they have already stretched themselves so thin they couldn't commit to the task if they tried. Which sort of leads to the counterpoint, that sometimes being intentional about commitments means being intentional about refusing commitments; this way we have time when something truly important does come our way. And yes, I know, there will always be something that we do not truly enjoy that we cannot refuse, but we take those in stride when we must. Overall, we shouldn't make commitments we are not willing to give ourselves over to, it just cheats us and the other people involved.

We need to be intentional about prayer. This one is a bit more obvious, and yet I still struggle with it. What really drives this home for me, is that being intentional about prayer directly relates to being intentional about our relationships. Prayer is part of our relationship with God; it is our most intimate form of communication. If we are not determined to pray, then we are not determined to build our bond with God. Praying intentionally is also about commitment; if we are not willing to commit time to conversing with God, it exposes a gap in the passion of our faith. And let me tell you, writing these words is painful; like I said, I struggle with prayer, so it hits home... hard.

I've written about how working with ReGroup is going to take patience and how it will require the people involved to foster an environment of authenticity and love, but the one thing it will truly take to get it off the ground is intentionality -- and people who are passionate, committed, and prayful.

fluidity of time

No, I haven't change topics for the blog to quantum-multi-dimensional physics; it's time for another update and "I'm not dead" post. I could of course ask, nay beg, your pardon for my lack of writing and information, but I'm sure many of you will understand anyway.

Time is money. Time is of the essence. Time is on my side. Time is a piece of wax, fallen on a termite, that's choking on a splinter. Time is running out. Time to make the donuts. Time is a precious commodity. Time is irrelevant. Time heals all wounds. Time is... annoying!

I'm not normally a "not enough hours in the day" kind of person, but lately I could convince myself to be. Between the mountain of work I have to finish before my holiday vacation time, the preparations that go along with those holidays, and both recent and looming business travel to contend with, I want to know what happened to my 4th quarter lull. The increased demand on my time, conflicting schedules, and the ever unpredictable illnesses have made it extremely difficult to make forward progress with starting up ReGroup. I have been thinking about it a lot, and gathering bits of information here and there in anticipation of some possible areas of discussion. However, for the moment it is looking like ReGroup will not launch until 2007.

Time waits for no man, but...

James 5:7
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

the un-meeting

In this instance, "un-meeting" does not refer to some interesting aspect of how ReGroup is different from other types of groups that exist out there. No, last night we had an non-meeting; or to put simply, there was no meeting. Due to some extenuating circumstances, the couple who had offered their home to host ReGroup for the evening had to cancel. The good news, is that things just like this -- life getting in the way -- are to be expected and must be given room. Sometimes other things just have to take priority, which can be a good thing. So, I'll be looking to reschedule this postponed kickoff for sometime after Thanksgiving when schedules allow. I hope to have at least one meeting, preferably two, before people start to disappear for Christmas.

So for those who were waiting on word, there it is... I appreciate your thoughts and prayers, hopefully it won't be much longer.

the saga begins

Nope, this isn't a random post about Star Wars, though I have been known to throw a couple of those in from time to time. This is about mustering the troops and circling the wagons. In other words, the very first ReGroup gathering is happening this weekend. Obviously, the first ever meeting will be a bit structured since there is some housekeeping to take care of -- primarily explaining what exactly is going on.

You see, the people who are going to be a part of this pilot experiment don't really know what to expect because they came to me with concerns and requests, from which I cobbled together this concept. From one person came the concern about lack of faith and lack of answers to tough questions, while another is fed up with the lack of meaning in an existing church community. I was asked to put together a Bible study by one, and told that I should start a new church by yet another. I will be pulling together these people, with widely varying stories and stages of faith, and nurturing a community. However, I have to first explain to everyone what crackpot ideas I came up with and what exactly this "ReGroup" thing is. I have some book excerpts to read, some scriptures to share, some questions to discuss, and in the end an informal poll to take. The idea is to introduce the idea of what our community is going to be and the limitless possibilities for where we can take it. Once that is covered, I can finish up by asking each person some of their specific questions they'd like to explore, topics they'd like to discuss, and activities they'd like to organize... you get the idea. Basically, the first meeting is really an introduction and information gathering session. But, don't get me wrong, if some of the exploratory discussion questions really ramp up, then we can throw away script and riff.

I'm excited and just a little nervous -- the nerves are mostly because I hope they don't all think I'm nuts when I unveil this rather unconventional idea instead of some other expectation they might have. We shall see...

group flexibility

A semi-quick word on flexibility, seeing as I haven't posted much lately.

There are many ways to interpret flexibility, especially as it relates to church and spiritual matters. There is flexibility in doctrine; while in some instances this can be useful for maintaining unity and avoiding judgmentalism, as they say, there can be too much of a good thing. There is flexibility in meeting; I touched on this earlier, mostly from the frame of reference that gathering together is not limited to a single time and place. There is flexibility in format; again, this topic I touched on before, maintaining the position that changing up the content and activities of a meeting is a good thing. Lastly (for now), there is flexibility in the medium. This is what I'd like to elaborate on.

Medium: singular of media, the format through which communication is achieved. Since ReGroup is by its very definition something that must emerge from its surrounding cultural and societal context, the medium or media used for communication within and for the group will range widely. However, as with flexibility in doctrine, there is a limitation to how flexible a group can be with the media used to communicate. First and foremost, there is one aspect of ReGroup that is fundamental and unchangeable for it to function and succeed. People who join ReGroup must be located geographically near each other so they can meet face-to-face on a regular basis. This personal contact is a must, especially in a time when digital interactions are a major part of mainstream communication - instant messaging, texting, chat rooms, blogs, myspace pages, cell phones, etc. This is not to say that any of those technologies are bad, they have their uses. However, to truly know someone and be a part of each other's lives requires that fundamental human need -- to be with others, not be alone, and know you are loved.

Now, the flexibility in medium comes from the communication that takes place between meetings. Sure one could go so far as to say that meaningful conversation should only ever take place face-to-face, which might lead to many impromptu calls to meet for coffee, but there obviously are other options. If the group so decides, they could choose any one or more (or none) of the myriad communication technologies to keep each other up to date, or perhaps discuss ideas for future meetings. Anything goes, so long as it works for everyone: a private or public group blog, a group website (like Yahoo! or MSN Groups), myspace, a mailed newsletter, phone calls, text messages, etc. How a group communicates will emerge from within the context of how they live their lives. There is no defined template of how a ReGroup should be formatted, and thusly there is no template as to how a ReGroup will communicate.

Cheers!

Reminder: Keep that feedback coming, as much as it might help you to have questions or concerns addressed, it helps me even more by forcing me to think about things that I might never have thought of...

round one responses

A couple of weeks, a couple of questions, and now some responses. I'll apologize in advance, as I must not have been getting a refreshed page each time I checked the site (possibly a side-effect of migrating my blog to the new beta interface). Here I went a full week thinking no one had responded!

Trust and Openness
In response to my previous post, church regrouping, Jim brought up some key points of what will make ReGroup sink or sail. Trust and openness go hand in hand when attempting to create a safe environment for people to share and grow. Obviously, trust is something earned, so part of that process means that everyone understands the ground rules and someone has to start the cycle. Those ground rules being something of the variety: we respect each other's opinions even if we don't agree; we don't pass judgment on each other's personal decisions; criticism is to be done from an honest and loving attitude, without bitterness or vindictiveness; stories shared in confidence are to be kept within the group, only to be shared outside the group with the permission of the one who shared. When I say someone needs to start the cycle, I mean that openness starts with someone opening up. Since I'm going to be the initiator of the first ever incarnation of ReGroup, my most important job is to share my story honestly in small bites and ensure that others begin to feel they can trust me and each other to share their own stories and experiences. And obviously, as Jim mentioned, trust also comes from getting to know each other in different scenarios, so the ability to change up the format and venue allows different people's personality to shine through.

Living the Busy Life
As a response to a brief additional comment that Jim made, I felt it would be good to bring up that constant nagging aspect of the current American way of life: over-scheduling. We can get so busy in our lives that we often feel we couldn't possibly fit another thing into our schedules. However, it is interesting to note that we often find time to squeeze in things that we want to do, and use the "busy" excuse when something we should do comes up but don't necessarily want to do it. In order to avoid falling prey to the over-scheduling aspect, I think the ability to keep things flexible becomes crucial. Setting a regular day and time should be done, but with the caveat that should the need arise to move to another day or time it can be done to accommodate the group. As for the want/need problems... my advice would be the same for say, golf. If you want to play more golf, but don't often have time, you have to make the time. If it is something important to you, then you will find the time to do it. In this instance, you have to be willing to break the cycle of your life. Another golf analogy: you'd like to buy new clubs, but you don't play that often due to your schedule so you don't feel you can rationalize new clubs; however, if you bought the new clubs, wouldn't you make time in your schedule for more golf the next year in order to make the purchase worthwhile? Short version, you're only as busy as you allow yourself to become, and you are in charge of your schedule -- your schedule is not in charge of you. (Then again, I am an optimist...)

Keeping it Intimate
I think ideally that if the group can stay under 10 people, it would be to a greater benefit to the group's self-determined goals. I say this because smaller groups have a tendency to foster greater intimacy and stronger relationships between people. However, that doesn't mean that the group couldn't swell to above 15 people for a given meeting or event. One of the other important aspects is that the group should always feel open and inviting to anyone and everyone, so obviously there wouldn't be a group bouncer who turned the 16th person away. The key here is that the small nature of the group is designed to foster relationships and encourage strong bonds so that we can help each other in our journeys.

Evolving with Change
In order for the group to remain flexible, authentic, and relevant, it needs to be able to cope with change in group dynamics. One of the most obvious kinds of change is the fluid nature of the group. Everyone in the group, especially those committed to the community for the long haul, need to recognize that the group may serve some people for a short time. Hopefully, those we help will stay in touch, but we don't require them to stay in the group forever. Another kind of change to deal with is change brought on by growth, when the group starts getting close to 15 people or above on a regular basis. At that point, the best scenario is for at least 3 or 4 people to make the commitment to spin off another group. They wouldn't have to spin into a completely autonomous entity if they didn't want to; as Jim mentioned, I think drifting between groups would be good and occasional multi-group organized activities would be even better. Another kind of change might even be a group deciding that rather than spinning another networked-yet-independent group from itself, they choose to set down roots and form a somewhat more traditional church body -- weekly services, classes, leadership team, preacher(s), and of course ReGroups.

I like to think of the growth process like gardening; tomatoes for example. You plant the seeds, water them, ensure they get proper sunlight, remove weeds that would impede growth, and in the end you hopefully have a healthy plant that bears ripe tomatoes. But that's not the end, those tomatoes are chock full of seeds, which you could reserve during meal preparation for a couple of purposes. You could use the seeds to increase your yield of tomatoes next year, you could share the seeds with a friend to help them establish their own tomato garden, you could give the seeds to a school and offer to help teach children about how plants grow with them, etc and so on. The only limitation is the the self-placed one.

Keep the questions, ideas, and comments coming... they only help to further define an explore the many facets of ReGroup!

polling in spirit

Considering that I've been told that there are some people out there who are reading this blog to hear more about ReGroup as I weave things together in preparation for an official kickoff, I figured information about it should be gathered in the spirit of the idea.

What do I mean by that exactly? Quite simply, rather than you passively reading my blog and wondering when I'll next toss some intellectual and practical morsels about ReGroup, it's your opportunity to contribute and interact. I want to know, those of you who are intrigued by the concept or excited about the idea, what questions do you have? What comments or concerns come to mind when you think about this endeavor? Or to put a different spin on things, did you read or hear my initial description and think that it was something you would love to start or join yourself? Let me know!

I could keep writing things as I think of them and work them out, but the fact that there are people wanting to know more and not knowing what questions they have makes it hard for me to write more about ReGroup. If I don't hear much, then I'll shift to some other topics that I've back-burnered for a while. If I hear a lot, maybe I'll consider spinning off a separate blog to tackle the subject in-depth -- which I may do eventually anyway.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing all your questions and comments, constructive feedback is always appreciated!

church regrouping

So, I know I have some people out there who have been waiting to hear more about this whole ReGroup thing that I am hashing out, so I guess I have a bit more worked out that I can share. So I'd like to share 2 things: how does one introduce the concept; and when I say ReGroup isn't church but at the same time it is church, what exactly does that mean?

For those who might have heard Paul and I speak at the ACU Lectureship, obviously the final day was one way that the concept can be shared. Essentially, I read an abridged version of my post, the time of regrouping. However, as some have expressed to me, that explanation really only whets the appetite for more information. Because of this, I've been working on a flexible agenda that I can use to kickoff the first ever meeting of a ReGroup community. As I've seen, sometimes the best way to start something is to make sure everyone understands what defines the mission. The first and most important items on my kickoff meeting agenda are: What is ReGroup? What is ReGroup NOT?

So what is ReGroup?

• A community where one can safely explore issues of life and faith.
• A community which supports one another in the face of great joy and terrible pain.
• A community that accepts people for who/where they are in their journey.
• A community which stands ready to help each other take the next step in their journey.
• A community who welcomes in those hurting from the abuses of today's society.
• A community that values who you are and who you want to be, more than who you were.
• A community that can change and adapt to meet the needs of the group.
• Whatever you want and need ReGroup to be...
  

(Catching a trend there...)
Obviously, in order for a lot of that to work in practice, a ReGroup community probably can't grow much larger than say 15 people before it starts to compromise the intimate dynamics that a smaller group can offer. Also, when I say ReGroup can be whatever you want/need it to be, I mean exactly that. Which leads me to the next question...

In that case, what is ReGroup NOT?

• A Bible study.
• A church small group.
• A discussion group.
• A book club.
• A devotional.
• A social outing or event.
• An informal counseling session.
  

However, at the same time, it can take the form of any of those should the need arise. One thing that ReGroup can never be though, is an exclusive group of friends. Building friendships is core to the growth and success of ReGroup, but exclusivity will stop it dead in its tracks and undermine everything it stands for. I suppose one other thing ReGroup can never become is some form of a 3/6/12 step program for fixing your faith. If there's anything I've learned through my own spiritual wrestling, it's that there is no single, guaranteed way to find and build a faith that works for everyone. There are common threads, but weaving those threads into a living faith is different for everyone.

So, now that the basic idea has been laid out there, why is ReGroup not church and yet still church? What makes this community a new and different kind of church? Honestly, I make no claim that this idea of mine is some kind of new and revolutionary form of church that I alone invented. There are threads of ideas that I have taken and woven together into a vision of a community built on faith that meets a need that I see being overlooked. Take the idea of organic church for instance, the concept of taking the kingdom of God into places where life happens and culture is formed -- instead of taking people out of those places. There's a book on the topic that I've heard quite a bit about that I want to check out: Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens by Neil Cole. Then there's always a favorite book of mine, No Perfect People Allowed: creating a Come As You Are culture in the church by John Burke, which describes how Gateway Community Church came about in the Austin, TX area and began building bridges to cross the cultural divide between church and life in a "postmodern" world. Now think about the terms that have also floated around about liquid or fluid church, wherein the idea is that church flows out and fills into new spaces that it couldn't get to as a "solid" church -- it's flexible. Then there's the house church movement, which at times can look exactly like a mainstream church in form and function, but located outside a stereotypical church building, typically in someone's house (or rotating amongst the homes of the community members). Lastly, I suppose I reflected on how youth groups and college groups typically interact within existing church communities, and I asked myself the questions: "Why is it that in most churches only the teenagers and college students have organized activities beyond Bible studies and devotionals? Why are the youth the only ones who gather on a regular basis outside the walls of the church building for friendship building activities?"

Those are some of the church related ideas that lead me to believe that ReGroup is a form of church, albeit a very different form. After all, I doubt very much that ReGroup will ever have anything that resembles a worship service, at least in the traditional sense of the term. Then again, nothing says ReGroup couldn't have a dedicated time of semi-traditional worship, if that's something a ReGroup community had the gifts, resources, and desire to do. However, the principle that I think drives ReGroup is the understanding that you are gathering together in order to share and express your faith, while helping each other live out the Way and the Life that Christ's message painted for us.

Cheers! And thanks for reading...

post-lectureship reflection

So I've been back from Lectureship for about a week now, and a post about the experience is probably long overdue. So here's a brief one... I hope.

First, I have to say that my expectations going into the whole Lectureship thing were relatively low. This isn't because I have some low level of respect for it or anything, it's more because I attended a couple out of requirement while in college so I knew the basics of what went on and I didn't expect anything to be different. So with that as a primer, my expectations were blown out of the water - in multiple ways.

I heard most of the evening keynote speakers, and they were awesome. There was a huge narrative aspect to the speeches they gave, which rather than making the experience feel like a lecture or a political speech gave the presentations a more personalized and involved feel. Plus, it didn't hurt that most of what I heard was a cage-rattling, table overturning rhetoric that was calling for people to wake up and smell the change in the air before it's too late. It really made me feel like what I was there to present fit into the subtle yet over-arching theme I discerned.

Speaking of why I was there; Paul and I both agreed, our sessions were a smashing success if we do say so ourselves. Our student panelists (Jordan Swim and Jordan Wesley) added so much valuable insight from their unique experiences, and most of the topics we brought up were met with what I can only describe as a warm and welcoming attitude. Each day was success in my mind, because each day we touched someone in the audience on an emotional level with the stories and ideas that we shared. However, the first day we might have struck a few tender nerves by touching on the inter-generational communication gap and Catholicism; neither of which was part of the original plan, but it seemed the Spirit moved us that direction. This turned out to be a good thing in the end though, as it levelset a few things and provided a model of how we intended the sessions to be considered a safe environment for discussion and sharing.

I am a firm believer in God sending people places, in a seemingly innocuous manner, so they might touch certain people's lives. I experienced it in college, I've experienced it in travels, and I've experienced it at Lectureship. While some might think that I would say I was sent to Lectureship to share my story and help others, I would say I was brought to Lectureship to share my story so that others could help me. Sharing some of myself and my aspirations for ReGroup was a liberating experience because of the outpouring of positive comments that I received, which makes me even more excited and driven to make sure it gets off the ground successfully. I am still planning and working out the many ideas that are swirling around in my mind, but things are firming up little by little and I hope to have the group up and in full swing before Christmas.

For any new visitors from Lectureship, welcome and thank you for stopping by. If you attended our sessions, Paul and I thank you for your time, attention and valuable discussions. And for those that offered your blessings and comments on ReGroup - especially Kathy, Allen, and Ray - I thank you.

more on groups

So I know that I've been tagged to whip up a list of influential books in my life, but I've got to get this out of my head and into print before I forget it. So bear with me, the books will come next week sometime.

So my last post fleshed out this concept of a spiritual support and healing group, sort of like a Casa Blanca of the church world. However, I got to thinking that the scope could be even broader than my initial thoughts on the subject, primarily because the entire concept is very flexible. I was referred to a series of multimedia articles that follows recent college graduates trying to find their way in the world, and shortly after that I read a blog post about how 75% of teenagers active in church will abandon church in their 20's. The combination of the two got me thinking about how spiritual formation in teenagers tends to lack a reality check about what life is like after high school and college as a Christian. It's a wonder the rate of disillusionment isn't higher... We give them what to believe, but the why is a pointer to scripture with no current day contextual equivalent. Most likely those who make their way back after abandoning church, do so because they grappled with the questions they couldn't answer at first and found a peace. It may sound dangerous, but I think teens need to wrestle with the hard questions... even if they do trip up along the way, at least this way they have a support structure around them to help them back on their feet when they are ready.

For those who are already beyond their teen years and leaving college, ReGroup would serve them as well. It could serve as a landing place for graduates, a place to take a breather and get oriented. Hitting the real world after college can feel a bit like having been shot from a cannon, dusting yourself off and figuring out where you are without a map or a sign.

Just another in a litany of possibilities...

Cheers!

On a different note -- anyone planning on attending the ACU Lectureship next week, I would encourage you to come hear Paul Clark and myself in our 3:00pm session as we lead "Emerging Conversations with the Next Generation of Christians"... or so that's what the brochure describes it as. Come check it out, it's going to be a great discussion!

the time of regrouping

Retreat, recover, reevaluate, relearn, refresh, renew, recharge, rebuild, repair, rebound...
ReGroup!

No, I don't have a sudden fetish with words starting with re, but I have had a recent epiphany. I've mentioned in the recent past that I've had this overwhelming feeling that there is something I need to be doing, or something that was coming I needed to be prepared for; I think I found it. It seems that over the past year I've been meeting a slowly increasing number of people who are caught in a state of limbo with regards to church. They've become completely disillusioned, disenfranchised, disgruntled, or just plain dissatisfied with the faith they find themselves with and the church they were raised in. At the moment the demographic is mainly people around my own age, and they are all coming from the same doctrinal church heritage; however, the whole situation got me thinking.

I've come to realize that there seems to be a need, in my area at least, for a group where people can fall back when they feel their faith losing step with the local church they belong to. Or in another situation, a place to run to when their faith is fine, but they have been hurt by their local church and need a place to figure out what to do now. A meta-church so to speak; a group of people committed to each other for the purpose of spiritual formation, growth, learning, encouragement, conversation, fun, and healing outside the walls of the available church communities. Your denominational affiliation wouldn't matter, it would be a spiritual melting pot where ideas are shared, good news rejoiced, and pains comforted. There wouldn't be a building, because people would be free to remain or become active members of other communities of faith, but for those uncomfortable in traditional churches we would be their spiritual family (like a house church). Money wouldn't be a focus, since as each is able to contribute, they can do so; whether that contribution is providing a meal, opening their home, paying for an outing, helping out a friend in a financial bind, or organizing a charity fundraiser. Also, leadership isn't really an issue since all it takes are a few people with the strength to start it, the courage to share their stories, and the patience and understanding to listen to others; after that, the group kind of runs itself so long as someone is willing to schedule a time and start the conversation for the evening, where it goes from there is determined by group dynamics of that evening.

The more I think about it, the less nervous and more excited about it I get. In my mind, the possibilities are endless; what could begin as a Bible study, could change to a movie night, group excursion, coffee conversation, weekly meal, or anything you can think of. It's not church, but at the same time, it is church - a different kind of church. It provides a safety net for people falling out of today's churches, where previously no net existed. And it is your choice whether to stay in the net and help others who fall, to climb back up to your local church, climb over to a different local church, or jump out of the net and find a different path altogether (of course there is the possibility you could miss/avoid the net in the first place, too). I've got some work to do, some ideas to polish, and some time to wait on, but I plan on going forward with this... it just feels right.

Quick book update - as you can see to the right, I have been reading 3 books at once! Shocking! It appears that you are rubbing off on me, Paul. I finished up Dear Church - Letters from a Disillusioned Generation by Sarah Cunningham rather quickly, and I must say there were many parts that felt like a mirror to my own thoughts at times. It's an excellent book for those who don't prescribe to the status quo, and leaders who want to understand them. When it comes to Emerging Churches, sometimes its hard to find time to sit down with it, because the book has so many good things in it I don't want to miss it because I was distracted while reading. As I've said, I have to keep my pen handy with that one. Those two books probably have been fueling my alternative approach to church ideas, and have also given me the confidence that I could start formulating a plan of action to meet this need I see. Lastly, on a less academic level I suppose, I have been reading Joshua and The City. So far, I would say that it's not as good as the original Joshua, but it is still entertaining to read - with a little bit of insight thrown in from time to time.

You keep reading... I'll keep writing... perhaps more so now that I have this idea I need to flesh out somewhere.

Cheers!