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October Blog Index
New Way Ministries has been recently founded by Larry Crabb. Larry's journey has been an interesting one. From a cognitive psychological model, he has recently been undergoing something like a second conversion, with a center on love and community.
Larry contrasts an "old way" and a "new way" on his website...
"The old life energizes a dad to want to straighten out his drug-abusing son, to be a good father who does things right. The new life empowers a dad to want above everything else to enjoy God and be abandoned and responsive and honoring to Him even when his son stumbles in the door at four in the morning, buzzed and defiant. Living the new way removes pressure from the dad to “do it right” and relieves the power struggle between father and son. And that opens up possibilities for better relating between them and for wisdom in better responding to a troubled child.
"The old way is all about us and it draws on resources everyone has whether Christian or not. The new way is all about God. Living it requires resources from God available only to Christians. Living the new way attracts outsiders to a life they cannot have apart from Christ but which they discover they desperately want. The old way uses moral principles to make life work, thus reducing morality to pragmatism. The new way trusts God to empower us to enjoy Him as our greatest blessing and reveal Him to others as our highest calling."
Larry's recent books have documented his journey into a new way of seeing the world, and a new way of living in it. Larry admits that much of his life has been centered on his own needs for safety and feeling in control. "Connecting" was the first book to document the changes. More recently, "Shattered Dreams," and "The Pressure's Off" continue the story.
It's been both encouraging and helpful for me to see a new freshness and honesty in Larry's work. The generation above me have sometimes impressed me with their intellectual abilities, but I have not always felt drawn to their lives. The kind of courage shown by Larry is a hopeful sign and a new kind of leadership. This draws me and challenges me. Thank God for this honesty and courage!
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
11:30 AM
I still love fall.. don't get me wrong.. but do you have any idea how many leaves are on a walnut tree?
Let me give you a hint. You know that place in Genesis where God says to Abraham, "I will multiply your descendants, and they will be like..."
I happen to know that the Hebrew actually says.. "they will be like leaves on a walnut tree."
You know where I'm going with this, right?
We have a very healthy walnut tree in our front yard. It's close to the driveway. I was thinking of running out to Future Shop this morning, but I couldn't find the car.
As I was meditating on the value of raking leaves, and as my back was talking to me about the many hours I spend sitting in front of a computer display, I got thinking how unproductive it is to rake and bag leaves. Why should a guy like me, with somewhere around 18 years of education, be raking and bagging leaves?
Then I got to thinking how much thinking the Lord must have put into the system of trees and leaves.
I have no idea how many types of deciduous trees are in the world, or how many shades of green, yellow and red they cumulatively produce in the colder climates every year. But God knows. I'll bet he gets quite a kick out of it. (I wish he'd give me a hand with the leaves though...)
Ok, seriously, so I'm raking the leaves and I'm thinking.. what is it I enjoy about this? It's not the pain in my side.. it's the smells, the fresh air.. escaping my desk for an hour or so. It's the transition too.... the crisp freshness of autumn days after a long summer.
And yes, it's the color.. the amazing color. And in a perverse kind of way, I enjoy it because it is so completely unproductive. Sure, someone has to clean up the yard... I guess. But a couple more nights of wind like the last one, and my neighbor will have half the leaves anyway (LOL).
No, aside from getting them off the ground into bags, it's relatively unproductive.
Let me make it official. I protest the protestant ethic. I protest productivity, efficiency, and five year plans.
Nature is an incredible waster, hopelessly redudant, promiscuous. Is there really any good excuse for so much life and color?
If there need be a reason, let it be joy.
Glory be to God for dappled things --
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
11:00 AM
Look, if I'm grumpy today I have a right. Have you any idea how long it's been since I had a REALLY great pizza? Any idea? NO?? It's been a loooooooooong time.
Great Pizzas I knew and loved..
One of the greatest pizzas you can get in Winnipeg is at Mama Mia's on Corydon Ave. Over the years I'll bet I helped them get rid of a hundred pounds of cheese. No kidding.
On the west coast there is a pizzeria in Chilliwack called Bozzini's. Next time you are travelling to the coast pull off the highway at Chilliwack (next exit past Young street) and head north. It's on your left about half way into town.
Vancouver probably has two or three great pizzerias. There used to be one down near the University but it closed a few years back and I can't recall the name. Doubtless some new almost-as-great pizzaria rose from the ashes to take its place.
Kelowna? Well sure.. we have pizza here too.. just not GREAT pizza. If anyone knows differently please mail me. I'm getting desperate..
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
2:30 PM
Questioning the Sunday Church Paradigm
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
2:10 PM
It's fall in the Okanagan valley. I feel sorry for the tourists who see the Okanagan in summer blossom but miss the glory of the fall season.
We took a walk at Mission Creek park on Wednesday afternoon and snapped a few photos.
This past week, between immersion in various writing projects, I've been thinking about emptiness. I come around to this train of thought every few months, it seems.. or am led there.
I've been reflecting on John's statement: "I must decrease so that He may increase." It's the journey every believer has to make to the Cross.
I'm struck that this isn't an easy message to carry, much less an easy one to live! We live in a market culture.. but how do we market death to self? And how do we market emptiness?
We are filled with answers, and we are busy with many important things. Those of us who are trying to love God are busy building His kingdom.. we hope. (Read Revelation of Jesus if you haven't yet).
But emptiness is a place we all must journey to at some point, if we are to have a realistic assessment of who we are in the light of who God is. It's a desert place of dryness, sometimes a feeling of uselessness, sometimes of powerlessness, and with powerlessness, fear. But it becomes a place of grace and of hope as we discover the life of Jesus hidden in deep wells.
Meantime.. the organized church will keep on marketing health and wealth in the name of Jesus, because those are things our culture will buy.
This morning I was trying to find a David Ruis piece that struck me this past week. The chorus is, "More of you and less of me..." and seeing the beauty of His face. May we fall more in love with Jesus.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:10 AM
"The pecking order presently seen in the Church today is about to topple.
Its collapse is already in motion and a whole new order in God is going
to be established."
Read more: The Pecking Order
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
3:45 PM
I heard the voice of the Lord begin
to speak to me in a very pronounced fashion. He said, "Chris,
would you be OK if I told you that we are going to take a trip
to the backside of the desert and in that place, all of what
you have come to think of and know as normal will cease."
Read more: Revelation of Jesus
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
3:35 PM
As I was out raking leaves yesterday morning, reflecting on the glory of
God (a good reflection for a Sunday morning) it struck me how pagan the
western church has become.
We have plenty of rituals.. many of which have lost their meaning.
We intellectualize about God, but put little of what we know about Him and
His purposes into practice (ie. we are gnostic).
Our churches are more like clubs where we gather like minded, economically homogenous people together, rather than life boats and hospitals where we welcome the sick and the dying.
We have a powerful priesthood whom we admire and who exercise a lot of power, while
most of us are passive.
We don't actually believe half of what the Bible says about God. We say we
believe it, but we don't practice it or expect God to work now as He worked
then. The heart of this is that we emptied the world of devils and are
somewhat deistic, not expecting to see the Lord move in power as he did in
the first century.
This weekend we had a friend from Africa staying with us. She told us
about three of the young black men who work with her.
The first one is Surpris. Surpris is among the poorest of the poor. He
lives in a mud shack with his wife and two children. It is a single room and
about 10x12. He never complains about the conditions and is one of the most
joyful men Lee has ever met.
Surpris is a powerful preacher, a prophet and an evangelist. He oversees a
number of congregations.
Not long ago a witch doctor cursed a child in one of the villages he visits
(he walks miles on foot every day in 100 degree heat).
As a result, she could no longer walk. The doctors examined her and found
something like an illness, but they couldn't identifiy it and they couldn't
help.
Surpris fasted and came and prayed for her .. and she started walking. That
naturally led to the salvation of the entire family.
Not long after he visited another village where a young girl had died of
malaria. He asked the father if he could go in and sit with her and pray. He
was allowed to do so. When he came out holding her hand an hour later they
were a bit shocked! Most of the pagans in that village came to the Lord as a
result.
Another young man, Totoo, was visiting a village at New Years. In that
village the witch doctor was very ill, which wasn't a cause for great upset,
but was confusing for some who saw this man as all powerful. Naturally, the
witch doctor considered Totoo an enemy.
Totoo visited his hut and asked him what he had done to rid himself of the
sickness. Of course he had done the usual rituals and blood letting and
appealed to his demon etc..
So Totoo asked him if he could pray for him. Naturally, the man was healed
instantly and became a Christian.
This past year the floods were bad as usual, and there wasn't enough food
for the orphanage. On the Lord's day they had one 5 kg bag of
rice to feed 600 orphans. So.. they prayed.
When they finished the meal the pots were still half full, and everyone was
stuffed.
Now that is a church that knows their God :) They are all dirt poor,
gloriously happy, and they understand what has real value.
Can you imagine if Africa starts sending missionaries to North America? It's
already happening.. and we desperately need them.
"When the son of man returns, will he find faith in the earth?"
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:50 AM
Recently this ancient letter was brought to my attention. I think you'll enjoy looking over my shoulder.
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Dear Sir:
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.
The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.
As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven competence.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.
The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.
Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability, resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible.
We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
Sincerely,
Jordan Management Consultants
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:10 AM
Eugene Peterson on formation:
"Formation begins in the soul and then in the imagination. Imagination needs to be fed.
"We have to learn to see the invisible. That's what imagination is. You are not just looking at the data; you are seeing all the connections behind it. We need masters of imagination to train us. We live in a culture that is so fragmented and disconnected and empirical. People who are poets and novelists see the connections between the fragments, observing all of what's there, not just the parts that make noise. If we are over-influenced by the contemporary, we don't have the imagination to see the eternal. That's the first thing.
"The other thing is to get four or five friends. It is very hard to do this by ourselves. For some people it is impossible. These friends don't have to be other pastors. Meet with these men and women every couple of weeks. Talk about your vocations, your identities, who you want to be. Help each other. Talk and pray. The defined character of your group should be for spiritual formation, though that might be too fancy a term.
"That's where I'd start. Spend the next ten years with five or six writers and five or six friends."
What is essential is invisible to the eye." St. Exupery, "The Little Prince."
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:50 AM
Seminary should be seminal, a place where seeds are planted and can be born to be carried by the wind to spread life.
Seminary should be a place of death, because every seed that bears fruit must first fall into the ground and die.
Seminary should be a place where servants are made, and not leaders.
While encouraging reflection, seminary should discourage abstract thought, instead reaching beyond abstraction to embrace the unity of subject and object, word and spirit.
Seminary should bring believers into closer contact with life, not house them in a privatized ghetto, reinforcing the split between sacred and secular, clergy and laity. Mark Strom, in Reframing Paul, comments:
Seminary tends to reward the most intelligent and articulate individuals, and certainly has no place for those who struggle with heady analysis. It is marked by professionalism, and its values are the values of the modern educational institution, reinforcing the creation of rank and status. Mark Strom, commenting on our western church meetings, remarks:
In purporting to create and shape "leaders" rather than "servants," most seminaries contribute to the destruction of the communities they claim to support. Furthermore, they thus work counter to the foolishness of the gospel, which purpose was to eliminate rank and status in favor of the unity of Christ. Sandra Cronk of the Society of Friends comments:
This model tends to make the minister the leader by virtue of power and to disempower others in the community of faith. But ministry among Friends is meant to do exactly the opposite. It is meant to build a community of faith. It assumes that in such a community all minister to one another. A minister is thus not one with power over others, but a servant. While the professional model sometimes talks of service, it usually does not operate in a servanthood pattern.
Mark Strom considers the place of rank in modern institutional life:
Paul urged leaders to imitate his personal example of how the message of Jesus inverted status. He was at pains to dissociate himself from the sophists, those travelling orator-teacher-lawyers of his day (1 Cor 2:1-5). Though undoubtedly educated and skilled, he did not imitate the sophists' eloquence and persona. In so doing, Paul set himself on a collision course with the contemporary conventions of personal honour-and with his potential patrons. He refused to show favouritism towards individuals or ekklesiai.
We have generally made the Seminary a career path, and shaped its environment accordingly. We have emphasized the professional model, and the leader as the expert, further elevating a certain class above others, and conferring them with power and prestige. Unfortunately, the power we give to a few tends to disempower the many, even as it is used to reinforce the status of the few.
But dying and rising in Christ is the heart of the gospel message. In making the gospel a path to power, we have accepted the temptation that Jesus refused in the desert, and created thousands of "small kings" whose main purpose is to feed their own ego and maintain their small kingdom. Furthermore, we have made the gospel abstract and divorced it from a real life of death and surrender. In doing so we have lost the Cross as the central reality of Christian experience. Mark Strom comments:
Dying and rising with Christ meant status reversal. In Paul's case, he deliberately stepped down in the world. We must not romanticize this choice. He felt the shame of it amongst his peers and potential patrons, yet held it as the mark of his sincerity. Moreover, it played a critical role in the interplay of his life and thought. Tentmaking was critical, even central, to his life and message. His labour and ministry were mutually explanatory. Yet, for most of us, 'tent-making' belongs in the realms of missionary journals and far-flung shores. As a model for ministry in the USA, Britain or Australia, it remains as unseemly to most of us as it did to the Corinthians. At best it is second best.
Evangelicalism will not shake its abstraction, idealism and elitism until theologians and clergy are prepared to step down in their worlds. Some might argue that since the world often shows contempt for the pastoral role, then professional ministry is a step back. But that is to ignore the more pertinent set of social realities. Evangelicalism has its own ranks, careers, financial security, marks of prestige, and rewards. Within that world, professional ministry is rank and status.Ministry as profession feeds the pride that separates the seminary and the pulpit from the congregation. It makes Paul abstract.
Thankfully, the "leader as expert" is a modern paradigm whose days are numbered. In the new birthing world, it is those who know how little they know whom we trust, and those who invite us with them on a journey of discovery. It is those who truly serve whom we are learning to admire, and we admire their vulnerability and humanness more than we admire their position and power. We are learning to look for and to find the Christ and the marks of His cross.
What are the most essential skills needed by a servant of Christ?
The ability to listen.
Note that this skill set is more about character and being anchored in Christ than about management and organizational needs. As Larry Crabb put it, "We can either be managers or mystics."
Lest it seem like I am attributing the evils of the world to the Seminary, let me add a few disclaimers.
First, the western Seminary reflects the western church, which in turn reflects the dominant values of western culture.
Second, some of the most godly people I've ever known I met in Seminary. However, they were godly before they arrived there.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:40 AM
My daughter is a volleyball freak. While her team isn't the strongest in the city, they have a good time and win on occasion. I took some short video clips a few weeks back. In this one she makes a great serve over the net.. Volleyball. You'll need Quicktime to play this 2.5 MB movie.
More on Celtic Christianity from George Hunter III...
"The Celtic understanding that you help people find faith by bringing them into Christian community, and into the ministry of conversation, has been strongly validated ... Peter Berger's The Social Construction of Reality features three major insights that especially validate the Celtic way: (1) A person's view of Reality is largely shaped, and maintained, within the community into which one has been socialized. (2) In a pluralistic society, the possibility of conversion, that is, changing the way one perceives essential Reality, is opened up through conversations with people who live with a contrasting view of Reality, and (3) one adopts and internalizes the new worldview through resocialization into a community sharing that new worldview." The Celtic Way of Evangelism, George G Hunter, III, pp.99-100.
"Some Christian movements today, such as Revelation Church in the south of England, are consciously informed by a Celtic Christian vision. Revelation's leaders know that most postmodern people experience "Belonging before believing," so they welcome the full involvement of seekers. Their goal is to plant churches so indigenous to each people group "that its expression will emerge from within their culture, in their language, style and flavors, yet still embody the counter-cultural values of the gospel." p.109
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:30 AM
"Three .. suggestions should establish the relevance of the Celtic Christian story ..
"First, a host of New Barbarians substantially populate the Western world; indeed, they are all around us. Many of them are "secular"; that is, they have never been substantially influenced by the Christian religion; they have no Christian memory and no church to "return" to. They are often thought to lack "class." Many [of them] are addicted..
"Second, these populations are increasingly similar to the populations that the movements of Patrick, Columba, and Aidan reached as the New Barbarians become increasingly postmodern. For over two cneturies, the ideology of the Enlightenment shaped the climate of Modernity that profoundly shaped people's consciousness in the West. It scripted people to believe that they were essentially good and rational creatures; that they could bulid morality and society on reason alone; that progress was "inevitable.." As the Enlightenment has faded, postmodern people are .. suspicious and .. dubious of Ultimate Explanations.. the grounds of their identities are shifting. We observe the retribalism of the West as peer groups and subcultures [again] produce an "I belong, therefore I am" sense of identity.
"Third, most churches assume that the postmodern New Barbarians are unreachable, because they are not civilized enough to become "real" Christians. Most churches assume this at a time when this population is the most receptive group in our communities." The Celtic Way of Evangelism, George G Hunter, III
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:15 AM
It's getting cooler here. We had frost on the weekend for the first time this fall. Luckily, the days are remaining clear and sunny, but not a summer-time clarity... it's that supernatural clarity and sharpness that only really occurs on cold days.
The kitten we were given in the spring is now a full grown cat. She is a siamese cross, and it shows both in the textures of her creamy coat with dark grey highlights, her clear blue eyes and pinkish nose, and her unusual intelligence.
Even more curious, she is the first cat we have ever seen who will play fetch and hide-and-seek. Lauren will chase her around the house and then pretend to lose her. Then Lauren hides and waits for Kiara. A few minutes later Kiara will creep up on her, sort of "pounce," then run away and hide. When Lauren finds her she scurries away, then comes looking for Lauren again. The game can extend for quite a while.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:45 AM
Mother Teresa of Grant Park
"There is a saint who lives in our neighborhood. I call her the Mother Teresa of Grant Park. She has been an inner-city missionary for nearly thirty years. She has no program, no facility, and no staff. She lives in virtual poverty. Her house blends well with the poor who are her neighbors. There are box springs and mattresses on the porch and grass growing up around the old cars in her front yard.
"She goes about feeding and clothing the poor with donations from concerned people. She works all hours of the day and night. She is difficult to reach by phone, and she doesn't give tax receipts to her donors. To the consternation of her mission board, she seldom submits ministry reports (although for years she has faithfully saved all her receipts -- in a large trash bag in her living room.
"The Mother Teresa of Grant Park appears to have a poorly ordered life. She doesn't plan much ahead. She says she nees to be free to respond to the impulse of God's Spirit. And that she does. Through her, God works quiet miracles day after day." Theirs is the Kingdom, Robert Lupton
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:30 AM
"The push toward concentration in the infotainment telesector that is rooted in .. show business mentality .. has accelerated since 1996, almost at the same moment that the Disney company acquired ABC... this move toward concentration has had a potentially devastating effect on the variety and liberty of civic communication. In the nineteenth century the great monopolies in oil, steel, coal and the railways were finally dismantled by vigorous anti-trust legislation. But Michael Eisner is no Rockefeller and Bill Gates is not Vanderbilt and Steven Spielberg is no Carnegie. Eisner, Gates and Spielberg are far more powerful, for theirs is power not over oil, steel and railroads -- mere muscles of our modern industrial bodies -- but over pictures, information, and ideas -- the very sinews of our postmodern soul."
Benjamin R Barber, Jihad vs McWorld, p. 298
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:15 AM
"Artists and writers, I believe, have a special role, creating new questions for which they offer experimental answers. We are tested, enriched, and fulfilled by the varieties of experience. And as the years pass there are increasing advantages to being a questioner. Answers can trouble us by their inconsistency, but there is no such problem with questions. I am not obliged to hang on to earlier questions, and there can be no discord - only growth - between then and now. Learning, I have found, is a way of becoming inconsistent with my past self. I believe in vocation, a calling for reasons we do not understand to do whatever we discover we can do.
"I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever."
Daniel Boorstin on The Amateur Spirit
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
11:33 AM
"The first military front must be prosecuted... but it will be the second civic front in the war that will determine the outcome. It [will be] a war for justice, but a war defined by a new commitment to distributive justice: a readjudication of North-South responsibilities, a redefinition of the obligations of global capital to include global justice and comity, a repositioning of democratic institutions .. a new recognition of the place and requirements of faith in an aggressively secular market society.
"Terrorists.. swim in a sea of tacit popular support and resentful acquiescence.. and these waters -- roiling with anger and resentment -- prove buoyant to ideologies of violence... It is not terrorism itself but this facilitating environment against which the second-front battle is directed. Its constituents are not terrorists, for they are terrified by modernity and its [values].. What they seek is justice, not vengeance. They are not particularly ant-American; rather, they suspect that what Americans understand as prudent unilateralism is really a form of arrogant imperialism, that what Americans take to be a kind of cynical aloofness is really self-absorbed isolationism, and that what Americans think of as pragmatic alliances with tyrannical rulers in Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are really a betrayal of the democratic principles to which Americans claim to subscribe."
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:15 AM
Love Transforms Chaos
"There are seven aspects of love that seem necessary for the transformation of the heart that is profoundly alone. They are: to reveal, to understand, to communicate, to celebrate, to empower, to be in communication with another, and to forgive.
"The first and key aspect is to reveal. To reveal someone's beauty is to reveal their value by giving them time, attention and tenderness. To love is not just to do something for them but to reveal to them their own uniqueness.. the revelation that heals takes time.
"The second aspect is to understand. If no one understands us, how can we find our own inner peace? [In particular, those who have lived in chaos need the security of order].
"The third aspect is communication. Just as we need to be understood, we need to understand ourselves and for that we need help. People who are disturbed need someone to help them name the disturbance, or else confusion and anguish will grow. To name something is to call it out of chaos. It is a terrible thing when certain realities are unspoken, unnamed and hidden. This process of teaching and learning involves movement back and forth; the one who is healed and the one who is being healed are constantly changing places.. And here is a profound truth: understanding, as well as truth, come not only from the intellect but from the body.
"The fourth aspect of love is celebration. It is not enough to reveal to people their value, to understand and care for them, we must also celebrate them. Every person needs to also be a source of joy. Only when all our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self images be transformed.
"The fifth aspect of love is empowerment. It is not just a question of doing things for others, but of helping people do things for themselves, helping them to discover the meaning of their lives. To love means to empower. With a sense of personal responsibility grows respect for others. When we are empowered we begin to observe the fabric of community and make the effort to love and respect others. Empowerment is much like the role of the midwife.
"Love flows into communion, the sixth aspect of love. Communion is mutual trust, mutual belonging; it is the to and fro movement of love between two people when each one gives and each one receives. Communion is mutual vulnerability and openness one to the other; it is liberation for both where both are allowed to be themselves and grow in greater freedom and openness to others and to the universe.
"Communion is at the heart of the mystery of our humanity. It means accepting the presence of another inside oneself, as well as accepting the reciprocal call to enter into another. Communion implies the security and insecurity of trust, a constant struggle against all the powers of fear and selfishness in us, as well as the resilient human need to control another."
Beloved, let us love one another
"The seventh and final aspect of love is to forgive. In order to make the journey out of chaos, we need unconditional love. But no human being can fully respond to that need.
"All of us carry within ourselves brokenness, as well as shadow areas, dark corners of the spirit where uncomfortable things are hidden. Human beings cannot be constantly attentive, loving and nonviolent. There are times when we allow ourselves to be governed by our pain. At those times we need someone to confront us with a firm, unflinching manner. But we will only accept that confrontation if we trust the person. Authority is based on this fundamental trust, and where it is not, it can only become oppressive, destructive of personal freedom and growth.
"When we confront from this place of love and respect, we reveal our subjection to a higher, more profound laaw, one that we do not construct but that is given to us, hidden in the heart of every person, to reveal that life is about growth and that it is possible for each of us to move beyond darkness and chaos into light and into a new world of love."
Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, 1998 (pp.21-31) paraphrase mine.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:40 AM
Deep Rapture
I entered -- yes, but where?
I entered -- where, who knows? --
Of goodness and of peace
Head swimming with delight,
Once there (the dregs of self
With height on height allowed,
This knowing that unknows
Of so supreme a kind
If any long for news
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:00 AM
"Here's one thing that I've done with a few people and I think it's worth thinking about. I tell these men and women, "Wherever you are, pick five people in your congregation who might be considered 'losers.' They don't contribute anything to the church. They are apathetic. They are eccentric. Nobody particularly likes them. Now make them your best friends. Spend a lot of time with them. Get to know those people as children of God. They are not going to help you build your church. They are not going to give you any emotional gratification. That is your training ground for paying attention without a reward. Actually, it doesn't cost anything. It's not a huge expenditure of time. You visit these people once every two weeks. But your view of what a congregation is changes radically when you do that.
"Our culture says you go after the winners. You get the glamorous people. You find the people who are going to help you develop a church. So spend your time with the leaders. That is a basic leadership thing in our country. But what did Jesus do? He hung out with the losers."
Interview with Eugene Peterson in Cutting Edge Magazine
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:30 AM
"Me? Well, I am a recovering fundamentalist and my spiritual walk, for most of my journey, has been stuck in my head. In many ways I am just catching up to a holistic way of loving God with my mind and heart and soul and body. I guess the body part has been lagging. And the diet. Especially the diet. Not to mention the abuse of my body's skin as well as its colon that has been well and truly clogged up by highly processed grains."
Read more in Buffy the Backside Slayer
From an interview with Todd Hunter (thanks to Jordon)...
Todd: We ask questions like “What should I do with my life?” or “What kind of person should I be” or “How should I live.” But you can’t really answer those questions until you answer the question “What story am I a part of?”
If the story is to say this prayer — giving mental assent to one theory of the atonement — so that when you die you’ll go to heaven, then that affects how you answer those questions."
Read more from the Interview
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
12:30 AM
"A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful that God has implanted in the human soul." - Goethe
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
12:30 AM
"To live well is to observe in today's apparent order the tiny anomalies that are the seeds of change, the harbingers of the order of tomorrow. This means living in a state of insecurity, in anguish and loneliness, which, at its best, can push us towards the new. Too much security and the refusal to evolve, to embrace change, leads to a kind of death. To be human is to creat sufficient order so that we can move on into insecurity and seeming disorder. In this way, we discover the new.
"How do we learn to read the signs of evolution and to see where it is going? Here are five principles that have helped me.
"First: all humans are sacred... each of us (even the weakest) has an instrument to bring to the vast orchestra of humanity.
"Second: our world and our individual lives are in the process of evolving... it is not always easy to determine the good and the bad in something that is evolving... it is a question of loving the essential values of the past and reflecting on how they are to be lived in the new.
"Third: maturity comes through working with others, through dialogue, and through a sense of belonging and searching together.
"Fourth: human beings need to be encouraged to make choices, and to become responsible for their own lives and the lives of others.
"Fifth: in order to make such choices we need to reflect and to seek truth and meaning. Reality is the first principle of truth... It means to abandon the loneliness of being closed up in illusions, dreams, and ideologies, frightened of reality, and to choose to move towards connectedness. To be human is to accept ourselves just as we are, with our own history, and to accept others as they are...."
Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, 1998 (p.13-15)
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:30 AM
This is a busy weekend for us. Friday evening we have six people from Langley staying with us, and the next morning we go on prayer walks here in our city. Then on Sunday we have about twenty adults and numerous children sharing thanksgiving dinner with us.
The funny thing is, we are broke again.
This used to get to us. We used to find it depressing. Now we have almost a sense of expectation. Well, Lord, how are you going to do it this time?
The first time this happened to us was about 18 months ago. We had invited a few pre-Christian friends for a BBQ, and our budget had already been stretched to the max. When it came to the weekend, our account was $20 in the red, with no overdraft protection.
On that Thursday night my wife had a dream that there was money in our account. So on Friday morning she told me I should check it.
I laughed my Sarah laugh....
"Just not possible dear," said the giant of faith. "I just got notice of payment on my last writing contract, and it's ALWAYS two or three weeks later that the deposit appears."
"Check it anyway. This dream was VERY real."
"Ok, I'll check it anyway." I did, and there was $650 in our account!
A few months later a repeat. Broke. People coming over. A dream. Money in the account.
Ok, so there is no dream yet. We have $20 in our account, but its already spent. The big event is on Sunday. We already have the turkey, but there will be a few more things we need. I think the empty pots are already set aside... I'll let you know what He does about it.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:15 AM
On October 8th Heidi and Roland Baker from Mozambique appeared on One Hundred Huntley Street, a Christian talk show in Canada. I previously heard Heidi speak two years ago at a conference in Kelowna. Heidi and Roland have a powerful ministry to orphans and street kids, the poorest of the poor, in Africa.
It's hard to know what is more impressive about their story: their dedication and love for God and for the poor, or the incredible miracles they have seen. But either way, the interview is worth hearing, and Heidi has a powerful word for Canada. If you want to skip all the intro stuff, start watching at about 28 minutes..
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:15 AM
Is it my imagination or is everyone talking about "andropause," the male equivalent to menopause?
Mail from Prodigalyesterday. His blog looks great so I've added the link below. Of note on his page recently, check out Responding to the Cry of the Earth: An Eco Spirituality in PDF format.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
8:55 AM
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
8:55 AM
"I sometimes use this analogy when I speak: If one of you walked out of this meeting and a guy with a mask walked up to you in the dark parking lot, took out a knife, stabbed you in the stomach, took all your money and left you unconscious, you would call him a mugger.
"But if you left this meeting and walked down the street to the hospital, a guy with a mask came and cut your stomach open, took all your money, and left you unconscious, you would call him a doctor and thank him. One is a mugging, the other is surgery.
"Suffering is a lot like that. There is therapeutic suffering, and there is destructive suffering at the hands of evil people. The key is to be able to tell the difference between the two and to apply the right experience to each. Too often in the church those who have been mugged have been told that God is trying to teach them a lesson and that what they are going through is a result of their own sin or a part of the growth process."
Cloud and Townsend, "How People Grow"
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
8:55 AM
The broad-backed hippopotamus
The Hippopotamus by TS Eliot.
More by
TS Eliot.
A friend forwarded a long article on apologetics. Some of it was quite interesting. The sections in italics are by the author arguing for traditional apologetics. I'll share my responses to some of the items...
This is also the meaning of the axiom: "The best apology of the Christian religion is its proclamation." Let the Gospel be made known, and it will of itself prove its divine character" (J. T. Mueller, Christian Dogmatics).
I am an evidentialist, but not in the classical sense.
I would argue that the best apology is a life lived in the grace of Christ. We must demonstrate in renewed communities the truth of the Gospel. When they see it, they will believe it. Isn't this the very heart of the meaning of the incarnation? God could have lectured us as to His caring for us, His presence with us.. instead, He demonstrated love in his life and death for us.
Postmodern spirituality is an eastern spirituality. Classic Christianity is western in the sense that truth is objective. It is outside of you.
It's true that postmodern spirituality is more eastern than western, or as some might point out, more Celtic than American. But Christian spirituality was BORN in the east, and was Hebrew and holistic. When it moved to the west it became Greek, dualistic and eventually "objectified." We have to somehow move back to the personal level and away from dichotomies of sacred and secular. Embracing a Celtic and holistic approach to faith and life is one way of moving toward a biblical spirituality. Maybe that's why the Catholic contemplatives are so attractive to many of us since they preserve an older perspective on inner life and inner knowing.
[truth] is outside of you.
Yes, but... if it remains there, what use is it? We aren't saved by acknowledging truth, we are saved by relationship with a Person.
Truth has to be internalized. The Spirit must indwell us. Until then , our knowledge is merely cognitive and propositional, and not transforming.
So, while it is accurate to argue that truth is out there whether we believe it or not, it might not be an argument that is useful in our culture. Postmoderns want to see the truth.
Postmodern spirituality does include Jesus, but he is not the Jesus of Scripture. He is another Jesus who is appreciated by postmodern people. This Jesus was a great teacher, an enlightened spiritual master, but not the Son of God, Savior of the world, and only way to the Father.
But the same could be said of modern spirituality. The church worships Jesus, but he doesn't always seem like the Jesus of Scripture. Instead, he seems like a successful capitalist or corporate CEO.
Jesus was poor, surrounded himself with uneducated fishermen and questionable characters, and spent most of his time among the common people.
We pursue wealth, position and success, surround ourselves with successful and educated people, and spend most of our time with religious people.
Jesus took 12 with him and showed them day by day how to live the kingdom. We gather in lecture halls talking about "truth." Hmmm. That's why I think Halverson's quote is so cogent..
"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
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:20 AM
There's roads and there's roads,
In times of change we can feel that our anchor has been torn loose from its moorings. In order to discern change and rethink our direction in response to change, we have to be secure in something that does not change. If we are too rooted in the culture around us, change will threaten everything we hold dear. That in turn will generate tremendous anxiety. Anxiety in turn prevents us from hearing the voice of the Lord.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
10:30 AM
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
Tennyson, "Ulysses"
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:00 AM
"It started with a summer men's group focusing on John Eldredge's book, Wild At Heart. After meeting for two months, we decided to close out with an evening in town discussing the last chapter of the book over a plate of spicy man-food and heading out to a late movie. It gave our group one last evening of bonding before starting the new school year."
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:00 AM
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." Abraham Lincoln
"There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place." Washington Irving
"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." Harold Wilson
In case you missed it, check out The Rabbi's Gift.
Submitted by Ray: I Don't Believe in Discipleship.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:15 AM
Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point cites the research of British Anthropologist Robin Dunbar into our "social channel capacity." If you belong to a group of five people you have to keep track of 10 separate relationships: your relationships with the four others in your circle and the six other two-way relationships between the others. You have to understand the personal dynamics of the group, juggle different personalities, manage the demands on your own time and attention, and so on. If you belong to a group of 20 people, however, there are now 190 two-way relationships to keep track of. Even a relatively small increase in the size of a group, in other words, creates additional significant social and intellectual burden. Gladwell relates that,
The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us. Putting it another way, it's the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar."
Dunbar has combed through the anthropological literature and found that the number 150 pops up again and again. For example, he looks at 21 different hunter-gatherer societies for which we have solid historical evidence, from the Walbiri of Australia to the Tauade of New Guinea to the Ammassalik of Greenland to the Ona of Tierra del Fuego and found that the average number of people in their villages was 148.4. The same pattern holds true for military organization. "Over the years military planners have arrived at a rule of thumb which dictates that functional] fighting units cannot be substantially larger than 200 men," Dunbar writes. "This, I suspect, is not simply a matter of how the generals in the rear exercise control and coordination, because companies have remained obdurately stuck at this size despite all the advances in communications technology since the First World War. Rather, it is as though the planners have discovered, by trial and error over the centuries, that it is hard to get more than this number of men sufficiently familiar with each other so that they can work together as a functional unit."
It is still possible, of course, to run an army with larger groups. But at a bigger size you have to impose complicated hierarchies and rules and regulations and formal measures to try to command loyalty and cohesion. But below 150, Dunbar argues, it is possible to achieve these same goals informally: "At this size, orders can be implemented and unruly behaviour controlled on the basis of personal loyalties and direct man-to-man contacts. With larger groups, this becomes impossible."
From Malcolm Gladwell, "The Tipping Point"
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
7:25 AM
My wife and I were talking about the many changes the Lord has brought to our lives in the past two years. As we shared what God was doing among some poor families we know, we both expressed our unhappiness with the word "ministry." A shining example of Christianese, it seems to come with a lot of baggage. It implies people with power doing something to those without power. It implies that those who are something impart something to those who are nothing. It implies superior position and superior knowledge, unequality, and perhaps professionalism. In short, it smacks of cultural imperialism, not the servanthood and sacrifice and friendship of the One who calls us to Himself.
"Leadership" is another problem word because of the cultural context of hierarchy and control. There is a chance that your experience of leadership is something more like friendship and mentoring. How blessed you are if this is the case, because your experience is closer to a New Testament reality. But for many in our Christian sub-culture, the word "leader" conjures up the corporate CEO image. In too many churches leadership is modeled on the leadership we have seen in our task oriented, success and marketing driven culture. For more on the problems we have with language, see The Language of the Kingdom
We don't need new models of leadership.. we need new metaphors. The imaginative architecture of the modern world is collapsing, and we need a new architecture.
Models have a static and inflexible nature. Models as a framework quickly develop a life of their own that acts back on the original vision and pushes toward institutionalization.
Metaphors, on the other hand, are part of a narrative. Metaphors tell a story, and so help in developing an imaginative architecture that remains flexible and evokes rather than describes reality. Metaphors involve imagination, and imagination is the engine of understanding and eventually of change.
Not long ago Michael Toy mailed me a summary of a discussion they were in with Doug Pagitt. Doug Pagitt was proposing we ditch the word "leadership" with all its military implications, and find new language for talking about those who tend to communities. His preferred analogy was an organic gardener.
Not long after I read this I thought.. I need to rescreen "Being There." This old film starring Peter Sellers was a funny treatment of a mentally challenged individual (gardener) who goes on to become something of a "guru" in his time. Hmmm.. another "Holy fool?"
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:25 AM
Emergent Theological Conversation: "Is America a Safe Place for Christianity?" with Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics at
Duke University. January 20-22, Chapel Hill, NC
Emergent Convention. February 26 - March 1, San Diego, CA
Enter into ground-breaking discussions with Christian thought leaders about
where church and culture are headed, and discuss what reinventing the church
might look like. Hear from speakers including Dallas Willard, Dave Tomlinson, Doug
Pagitt, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Chris Seay, Rudy Carrasco and Anne Lamott
and worship with David Crowder Band and Over the Rhine, among others.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
9:25 AM
"Now, postmodernism is a segment of the American Christian Industry. I now hear about a lot of style -- it is a marketing tool to co-opt grassroot movements, assimilate them, and churn out stylized version of it for mass-consumption. It is flash without substance."
Read more at e-church, and then go back and read David's article.
"In a study in 1994 under the title "Barriers to Belief" in Scotland, says Rev. John Campbell, "many have indicated that one of the greatest barriers to belief in God is the Church itself." If the problem is the system, then even our best solution is part of the problem. That leaves even the most dedicated, visionary, passionate and revived Christians trapped in a system which is sucking their very energy and is simply overpowering. The way forward, therefore, may not be hidden in slight changes and adaptations to some new forms in "Church as we know it", but in a much more radical rediscovery of the very nature of Church itself." Wolfgang Simson, Houses That Change the World
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
8:45 AM
Then, welcome each rebuff
37 For thence,--a paradox
Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
8:25 AM
Birth of the Chaordic Age is published by the Leadership Network. From the intro: Chaordic. “1. The behavior of any self-governing organism, organization or system which harmoniously blends characteristics of order and chaos.”
Hock makes a compelling case that all organizations are fundamentally based on flawed seventeenth century concepts that are no longer relevant to the vast systemic social and environmental problems we experience daily. He delineates a path to organizations that are based on chaordic principles—organizations he believes can harmoniously blend chaos and order, competition and cooperation.
Part Two: Leading Innovation and Transformation
Part Three: Leadership in the New Information Economy
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
6:25 AM
A Quiz: Who's the full-time minister?"
Of Dogs and Sheep, Reprinted with permission from The Chicken Scratch, one of the excellent journals published in the Kingdom of Catropolis. The editor's notes included are those of the editor of the said journal, Mr. Cocksure.
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
6:00 AM
"Dear Pastor Jesus Ben Joseph;
"It is with deep regret, and prayerful soul searching, and discussion with other church leaders, that the Elders of the First Modern Community Church ask for your resignation. Our determination is based on your path of ministry and our path of ministry, and we have determined that just do not meet. While this should not reflect upon you personally, your style of ministry and your teachings may fit well into another church setting. We have determined the following were issues for many of the church that could not be overlooked."
posted by Len Hjalmarson |
5:55 AM
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"Kiara" is the first cat we have ever hosted (does anyone really own these things?) who loves to make eye contact. When she wants your attention she will stare into your face til you make eye contact, then she will either come toward you or meow. It's a strangely endearing trait, for its humanness, I suppose.
