Revolutionary Honesty

"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." (George Orwell)

How To Love....

"He invited us to come inside a reality that was his. But he didn't give out healings, or food , or words of encouragement, or life, or love based on whether someone was in insider or someone was an outsider. The kingdom came freely into the world, you get to taste the kingdom before you decide if you want to be part of it or not. ...... But I don't love them based on whether or not they're an insider to my way of doing things. Whether or not they get the lingo. Whether or not they believe or perceive life the same way I do. Whether or not their ethical lines are in the same place as mine  How are they going to be loved if we don't......? (Wayne Jacobson. Podcast The God Journey)

Stunned By My Limits

When life was certainly simpler...... I'm stunned at my limits too. I'm past thinking I have the answer for anyone.

"Dear Angela, I am tired of being vulnerable, of worrying about the villagers, of sharing myself with others, I want to be young and stupid and frivolous. My limits stun me....."

(Monique Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing: A Memoirs of Love and Slide in Africa. Pg, 160)

Change........

"He discovered that these people were not so much against change as suspicious of how it would be implemented."

(A Bed Of Red Flowers: In Search of my Afghanistan. Nelofer Pazira Pg, 48)

Foraging Wild Plants - Tips

"Only experiment with feed. Only experiment with and eat plant parts that you know to be edible, that are found at the appropriate stage of growth, and that you know how to prepare. If you do not know all three of these things about a plant, you do not know enough to be eating it."
(Edible Wild Plants. John Kallas )

I Planted Ten Churches..... Or did I?

I love this video.... we all would, if we are serious about Jesus..... It gets to the heart of what kingdom is all about.

However, most of you reading this have never really experienced it or actually seen it in action.  ....Ok, breath, suck in some air..... get past the "BUT BUT...... my church does.....!
No, your church is not any different. Each congregation if full of people who say, "But MY church does...." Part of the delusion we have to sell..........that we are more righter, more better :-) .

Church people mostly focus on the Sunday Event. Most of our time, resources and money are focused on the Sunday event, and it so over shadows that it keeps us from functioning much in the "Whole World"of even our own community. We is locked down pretty tight there and not doing much to get out. :-)

The main thing for us, frankly, is the main Sunday thing. The New Testament says surprisingly little about church gatherings and events. Why is that? No I'm not bitter... which church folks are taught to assign to anyone who exposes the silliness of some things we say and do as a group.

No, we just talk about this video stuff, we talk, and talk, and it's just talk. Sunday is still the main thing and promotion of our Sunday main thing service will continue to be our main thing. That is what we are saving people to.... to come to church, and make the church the main thing. We think kingdom work is our Sunday event, and recruiting people to the Sunday event is evangelism.
I see that as only a dot in the kingdom sentence. Making a church member is not the same as making a disciple. Good church members, can be lousy disciples. I know I've been one, and I have tried to lead them.... I'm down with "Sold out to Jesus" kind of people.

Gathering with other believers is essential.... but it need not have to be with that one group down the road only, most of the time. It can be with any part of the body, anywhere, anytime, and the field is the world so we need to get out there and sow the seed more than we gather here (We nod at the theology, but despise the practice of this truth). How can you build one big looking local church talking about releasing people like this, and letting them meet all over the place?

Frankly, I am not too sure where Jesus fits in to all this "Sunday is the main thing" apporach any more.
I know I don't need the corny stuff to prop up my faith. I love Jesus, and I worship him every day...... it's not limited to Sunday, nor is Sunday the Big day of my worship, it's just another day of my 24/7 worship. Also, I love Jesus so I love my brothers and sisters in my family and spend time together (Ahem.... when you can actually find anyone who has time).

Regardless of whether it's country and western or hip hop gospel band music on Sunday. Does not matter if people are excited or reserved in expression. Does not matter the style or the charisma of the preacher. My faith remains, and I can and I do grow with or without most of the distraction on Sunday. We sell the idea that you can't POSSIBLY grow if you don't immerse yourself in this stuff.  ..............Bla.... fooy. 
The truth is this busy stuff gets in our (At least my) way.  20 yrs of ministry exposed that truth to me. Run, run, tired, exhausted, event pushing business...

I worked it and worked it hard. Had some success too, and a little reluctant notoriety too. Planted  ten churches now, around the world.... and two more in the works....Yep.... I did.... Surprises you Eh!
You think I'm down on church, and have a negative view of church?  No, I love church in the biblical sense... But I don't love everything we do that has come to be called "church" today. Took me 20 yrs to be honest and brave enough to finally say it out loud.... as it comes with a cost from that community.


We are not growing because of this Sunday stuff (as people), we are growing despite it. The church does not grow us, Jesus does, and others can nurture what Jesus does or not. Some do, most don't contribute to the process at all (The process is  the 56 things we are to do for "One Another" in the New Testament. But we we are not focused on Jesus ourselves, other have nothing to nurture in us).
I've learned a long time ago, that I can prepare 1000 well thought out sermons, and preach them over years to a people, who never actually lift a finger to know Jesus, communion with him, to learn his word.... or nurture another faith...... I have to plop the gospel in front of them, and we say "Hey great folks, they come to church and listen every week.",   and the reality is they do nothing to nurture their own faith, let alone contribute to the "One Anothering" and certainly not discipling an unbeleiver......

Studies show (our eyes confirm it) that 95% of what I say on Sunday is forgotten by Monday, and that monologue is the least effective form of teaching and communication on the planet.  Yet we tell people they can't possibly get buy without coming to hear a Sunday sermon... Yes they can, and they do.... Because they take almost noting form it, home. Not because they are bad, our teaching method is bad.  And some of us, most of us church folks in fact,  have no communion with Jesus outside of Sunday..... we have no idea what it even means to live under the awareness of him every day.... to live in the reality of the constant presence of Jesus.No sermon or church event can replace that huge hole.

I want to be with a people who want to be with Jesus, and who want to do some "one anothering..." (Me for them and yes them to my family too). Sitting in a pew with others, silent, looking on stage, and then a brief chat after "service"  does little to fill my soul. And I don't pretend to believe my sermon, nor my little chat with you after church helps much either... the setting is too contrived and unnatural, artificial.

Jesus fills my soul, and good genuine time in relationships with people, and discussing the word as Iron sharpens Iron,  does. But stage shows don't help me much. And I know it makes some of you fume to hear me say it. I don't need your stage show, and I know mine "Don't impress you much"... . I need you.... you need me, and we both need Jesus and his word, lived out in the reality of life's context.

When will we get that through our thick heads? Relationship with Jesus, relationship with others in Jesus about Jesus. . It's the key.... the only key.... Jesus called it Love God, Love your neighbor.

A building with a shingle is not a success story for me anymore. With enough time, and enough money most people can pull that off.... trust me.... not hard to make a gathering. Making disciples is a whole other thing.  The truths out....But you can't fake a kingdom family...

Being Shaped By An Institution Is A Grim Thing

"You see I'm not saying that God isn't at work in the midst of these institutions or that some good isn't being done in and through them. I'm simply saying that the source of life is Jesus, not an institution; and no matter how useful you think your institution is, until you understand the difference you will be enslaved to it, and slowly, little by little, you will be consumed by it instead of finding life in him. To be shaped by an institution rather than by communion with him—well, that is a grim thing."
(Gray's conversation with Michael in “The Bastard Tree“ M. V. Lang. Pg 134)

When Your Hands Are Already Full

"You can't receive anything if your hands are already full."
(Gray's conversation with Michael in "The Bastard Tree". M.C. Lang)

This can apply to so many things.
To begin anything fresh and new, we need to drop the load that's already in our hands, before can pick up anything new. A new opportunity my be staring us in the face. However, we can't receive it because we can't bring ourselves to let go of what is filling our lives right  now.
I see it all the time in churches with church people. Having myriads of meetings about how to become vibrant, new and revived again.
But all the while holding on to all they do as if it's all sacred ( some is, most isn't). So, in the end we can not receive anything new. So, we rather settle with trying to stuff a few EXTRA things into the already heavy bags, in our already weary hands.

Oh, don't grow weary in doing good..... I don't grow weary of doing good. But a lot of what people are labeling "good", is not so "good" at all.

I did that for years with them trying to stuff more "good" into the bags we already have.
Until one day I started a journey of stripping away, that took time, but it took that before I had room to become something new.

This is what I see..... the most critically difficult phase is the willingness to let go of what we have in our hands now. I have learned that I can now only work and walk with people willing to empty their hands, or already have been through that process and can guide me through it.

Drop the bags, begin taking items out, one at a time if necessary, or just toss it at all at once if that is what it takes. Because you can't receive anything if your hands are already full.

I walked that road and I know......our hands are way too full.

Tired Of Taking Offense?

"More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense."
(Ken Keyes)

Eating Out Of Your Back Yard

The idea of Eating edible wild plants has been fascinating. I've been reading on the subject a bit.

".........I selected common plants that everyone in North America will be able to find somewhere between their yard and the local neighborhood. Included are important wild greens and vegetables eaten by our European ancestors since the beginning of time. Many of them grow as weeds in the typical garden. The benefit of local plants is that you can have everyday access. If you can grab your salad from the backyard in a matter of minutes, you are more likely to eat these plants than if you have to drive two hours to reach more exotic habitats. That is how our European ancestors ate, from foraged plants growing around their homes."
(Edible Wild Plants. John Kallas PHD)

Edible Wild Plants

"If you venture out of your nuclear-proof, earthquake-proof, asteroid-proof bunker into the real world, you might be at risk. Yes, it's true! You may be hit by a bus or get E coli or staphylococcus poisoning from a church potluck. If you kiss someone, you may get herpes, mono, or worse—a tragic relationship. On the golf course, you may be hit by lightening. If you go ice skating, you may break your neck. If you go on a hike, you may trip on loose rocks, fall over a cliff, and die. Or you might be in the World Trade Center at the wrong time. Look, you can either curl up under your bed covers and live a safe, dull, insulated life reading about other people doing things you wish you were doing. Or you can join the real world. If you venture into the real world, you risk living your life to its fullest. You risk the rush of climbing that mountain, of dancing all night, of scuba diving in reefs of mind-blowing color, of standing in the rain on an ocean viewpoint, watching huge waves crashing against the rocks, of meeting the partner of your dreams. You risk getting exercise and breathing fresh air. You risk making life worth living. So if you decide to venture into the world of wild foods, you'd better prepare yourself for some fun, adventure, and risk. Yes, there are risks to eating new foods that you've never tried before. You might make some mistakes or have allergies to foods you haven't been exposed to yet."
(Edible Wild Plants. John Kallas)

Friction Of Souls

Gray's statement to Michael......"To have the friction of two souls sharing the journey together and to be changed by it, that is what it is to know Truth." (M. C. Lang. The Bastard Tree. Pg, 107)

Winning a Man's Head But Not His Heart

"Truth is not something you can master. It's a person—Jesus. You have a relationship with Truth, not a mastery of him. And you can introduce people to him, you don't need to convince them. It is not solely an intellectual ascent, though many have made it that. Sadly, you can win a man's head without his heart. That's a dead man walking for he has become self-righteous and yet does not really know Truth. Information can only tell you about someone, but it is not the same as knowing them: to share experience with them." 

(M. C. Lang. The Bastard Tree. Pg, 106.)

Organized Religions Mania For Ideal Order

"Much of organized religion, however, tends to be peopled by folks who have a mania for some ideal order, which is never true, so they are seldom happy or content. It makes you anal retentive after a while, to use Freud's rude phrase, because you can never be happy with life as it is, which is always filled with handicapped people, mentally unstable people, people of "other" and "false" religions, irritable people, gay people, and people of totally different customs and traditions. Not to speak of wild nature, which we have not loved very well up to now. Organized religion has not been known for its inclusiveness or for being very comfortable with diversity. Yet pluriformity, multiplicity, and diversity is the only world there is! It is rather amazing that we can miss, deny, or ignore what is in plain sight everywhere."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

Necessary Church Suffering?

"My soul, church people get so hacked off when I post things like this. The unpardonable sin is to confess a reality. Speak of it, even just a few times, you are labelled divisive, or bad attitude, or have lack of vision, or........ The only accepted response is to sit down, shut-up, and listen to what our leaders tell us, and jump through the program hoops they put before us. When you do confess that what we do hurts people, in many varies ways,  they deny it. They have to.

We are not so different than the the people who buried and hid the truth in church sex and child abuse. How so you ask? Well the absolute desire to protect the image (false one) that we are not like that here at THIS church We would rather perpetuate a false illusion, even a lie, than live and deal with some of our baggage we struggle with. It is there, always will be to, all we have to do is keep working it through. The beauty of the church is lost when we can't' talk about it, move on and grow. Great truth in the following words.

"I must start with my birth relationship with Catholic Christianity (I presume you know that I have been a priest for forty years, and a Franciscan for almost fifty), because in many ways it has been the church that has taught me—in ways that it did not plan—the message of necessary suffering. It taught me by itself being a bearer of the verbal message, then a holding tank, and finally a living crucible of necessary (and sometimes unnecessary!) suffering."

(Richard Four. Falling Upward.)

Who Changes Their Mind These Days?

"'Repent' which literally means to "change your mind," it did not strongly influence Christian history. This resistance to change is so common, in fact, that it is almost what we expect from religious people, who tend to love the past more than the future or the present...... We all receive and pass on what our people are prepared to hear, and most people are not "early adopters."

( Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

Church More Influenced By Plato Than Jesus

"I remember the final words of my professor of church history, a very orthodox priest theologian, who said as he walked out of the classroom after our four years of study with him, "Well, after all is said and done, remember that church practice has been more influenced by Plato than by Jesus." We reeled in astonishment, but the four years of history had spoken for themselves. What he meant, of course, was that we invariably prefer the universal synthesis, the answer that settles all the dust and resolves every question—even when it is not entirely true—over the mercy and grace of God."

( Richard Rohr. "Falling Upward")

 Yes, Church style, and attitude, is often far more influenced by Plato, than Jesus.

No Room For Honesty or Relationship When You MUST Be Right

" "They align themselves on one side of the paradox at the expense of the other. They solve the unsolvable by denying half the equation, but their answers are never wholly satisfactory, which only makes them more inflexible. Unfortunately, there is no room for honesty when one must be perfectly right, and if there is no room for honesty then there is no communion, only false and shallow interactions. When people believe their salvation depends upon having everything figured out, their insecurity can contort them in ugly ways." (The Bastard Tree. M.C. Lang, pg 106)

Seeing The Suffering Of One......At Least One

" It is peculiar in men that, somehow, seeing suffering amongst many makes it much easier to ignore than seeing the suffering of one. The commonality of it somehow lets us push our convictions aside; perhaps reasoning that one couldn't possibly help so many people. But when there is just one—and any man passing by knows full well he could certainly do something, maybe even something very significant—then we are confronted with our innate selfishness and we hate that man for it. Who is he to reveal the dark corners of our hearts? Projecting scorn is perhaps the quickest way to deflect that searing spotlight from ourselves.
(The Bastard Tree. M.C. Lang, pg 84)

What is Our Body?

"It is only after one sees his first dead person that he can truly learn the reality of the body, which is only a temporary housing for the soul. Until that point, the soul inhabits and intermingles to such an intimate degree with the housing—tilling it to overflowing—that it makes it very difficult for one to truly separate the two. And indeed, we shouldn't; for until the soul leaves, the body is very much pulsing with the soul. But once it's gone, the body is revealed to be an empty wine cask."
(The Bastard Tree. M.C. Lang. Pg 72)

12 Symptoms of a Spiritual Awakening

I can't even put into words how insightful these insights are. I'm learning to live there reality more and more. Maybe it's just my age, or phase of life I'm in that sparked the change. Or maybe, just maybe I'm beginning to grow up to some new experience in life. Loss of interest, seems to characterize my life these days. Loss of interest in managing all the old institutions, paradigms, attitudes, narrow perspectives, judgements, and opinions.  Loving Christ, his church, and the world... And people are dumbfounded how I could possibly still have the spiritual life that enables us to live in a 100% Muslim community in West Africa, and start Jesus communities there. People assume a loss of interest in all this "Churchy" stuff must mean no interest in kingdom purposes or a weakening of spiritual resolve.... As if it's impossible to get there, to any meaningful active place, without it. But that is what each local church is trying to sell you. You need this, like this... or you can't make it... You need the body, not necessarily in that location, not necessarily there group, or of that kind, in that way...  Ya, I have a lack of interest in that guilt game....

AJ

12 Symptoms of a Spiritual Awakening.

1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

2. Frequent attacks of smiling.

3. Feelings of being connected with others and nature.

4. Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

5. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience.

6. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

7. A loss of ability to worry.

8. A loss of interest in conflict.

9. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

10. A loss of interest in judging others.

11. A loss of interest in judging self.

12. Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything in return.

This is an excerpt from the new book We Codependent Men-We Mute Coyotes, copyright 2011, Recovery Trade Publications.

http://www.recoverytradepublications.com/blog.html?entry=12-symptoms-of-a-spiritual

And We Run Away!

"In second grade, I ran away. I did not know grown-ups still did." 

(Young Peace Corps Worker in Africa... Monique Schmidt. "Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa", pg147)

Hate The Sinner

"When Christians talk about "hating the sin", why does it sound & feel so much like hating the sinner ... plain old garden-variety hate." 

(Karl Ingersol Fredricon NB)

Does everything that you don't like or agree with, have to be stupid? That's just pain stupid. - KI

We's So, So Good!

"Heaven goes by favour (grace). If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in." 

Mark Twain

The Loyal Soldier Guilt.......

"It takes a huge push, much self-doubt, and some degree of separation for people to find their own soul and their own destiny apart from what Mom and Dad always wanted them to be and do. To move beyond family-of-origin stuff, local church stuff, cultural stuff, flag-and-country stuff is a path that few of us follow positively and with integrity. The pull is just too great, and the loyal soldier fills us with appropriate guilt? shame, and self-doubt, which, as we said earlier, feels like the very voice of God."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

When God is Big!

The grander my vision of God became, the smaller and more confining my denomination and my theology became. - KI

A Friends Shares Our Solitude.

Sharing Our Solitude

A friend is more than a therapist or a confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness.

A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we don't have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.

Nouwen

Religious Rocket Science!

"When one takes theology or creed as the center of Christianity, it naturally follows that there must inevitably be a division of Christians into denominations and sects."

(Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ)

You would think that this is suggesting theology is not important. The process is, but not all the conclusions drawn from theology are important, good, or even true.

The only "creed" that united the early Christians was, "Jesus is Lord."..... Nothing more, nothing less.

When we look around at all these religious people, in all these christian denominations, people who truly don't see it like I do (or like 'my' church does), we often hedge and row ourselves off.

When we start looking around with our church lens, we get one image. But, if we begin with a Jesus lens first, something changes.

If we have no "Creed but Christ", and look at who is saying "Jesus is Lord", it's easier to see who is mindful of Jesus or not.

The bible (1 Corinthians 12:3) says..... "and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit."..... and I always hear people add the big 'but'.... but, no one can say "it" and REALLY mean "it" unless.....of course the implication, and judgment is that there are lots of people saying it who don't really mean it......(see their hedge?). After all, not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter......

It's my experience that there are not many people saying Jesus is Lord who don't mean it. However, a lot who only talk "my church" is......

I see and hear a few people, but people in crazy and diverse places, saying Jesus is Lord,  and meaning it.

But I also hear most religious people saying I'm Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal etc with great pride in what "church" they are branded to be part of (be it by birth, choice, or osmosis).

They talk about their church, their denomination, their religious tradition, their affiliation.... Talk about "where" they belong,  but never to "who" (Jesus)  they belong.

You'd never ever hear a word about Jesus from them. They don't seem to have the "Jesus is Lord" vocabulary. They have their "what church they belong too" vocabulary..... but that is it.

There is no Jesus talk, or talk of Jesus' walk.

I now look for people who are talking and walking "Jesus is Lord". Not those talking about their church, how good it us, how right it is, or how to fix it, tweak it, modernize it, market it, how to fill it (church here meaning building of course), how to get people in the door of it, make leaders for it, or get volunteers to run 'it' ..... It....IT....

What I am finding is that those saying Jesus is Lord are  naturally already serving the kingdom and naturally loving their neighbors deeply in real helpful ways. Sometimes, though rare times, they do this through a "church" program. But mostly I see the "Jesus is Lord" people doing it outside of any church program, in a very natural way. Because they obey Jesus now, they don't wait for someone to organize it. They never waited until the church catches up. They don't wait until the church organizes an event to promote (or manage - or try to force) some Jesus kind of action or reaction that "Jesus is Lord" people already have, but "this is my church" people naturally don't have, and don't want to do.

My church is better than your church!

Oh really? Really?
Na!
Jesus is better than your or my church's division and pride.
Who's talking and walking "Jesus is Lord" long before the church clued in. Who's long been talking and walking "Jesus is Lord",  long before its leaders were, long before the new church vision casting team sprang up,  long before the new lead charismatic priest or pastor came. Who has been off doing it under the nose off,  and often in spite of the church.....
Those are the people I have been paying particular attention to knowing and understanding better. They're in every church, and they are hard to find because they are rarely on the stage, and don't want to be.

They just live it, and always have. They don't need the church to set them up to get going,  because Jesus already has. Because they know him. It's that simple. They know it's not the rocket science the church inadvertantly seems to make it into.

(Some one posted this video on YouTube. It is more about "Look at how Good My Church Is" than the little Jesus tag on at the end. It's typical church marketing today.... and I will get labeled for pointing it out ( that's the worst sin in church today- talking about anything in other than is a glowing manner). But it turned my stomach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhy3khbpC1s&sns=em

Let Our Illusions Die

"We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.". —W. H. AUDEN

Theology Can Be An Empty Husk If...........

"'Aren't theologians trying to learn about God and help others do the same?'

'Oh, yes, there are a great many who are. But theologians have the same problem all people have, and they can fall into plastic religion as easily as the next. Thus, the drift in a few religious scholarly circles is not really about knowing God. It's more about mastering God. Then you can develop systematic theologies to explain away the problems. It becomes a nice religious formula and can limit relationship with God to an intellectual ascent. You see, theology is necessary and can be a very healthy thing, but it can also be the empty husk of life people cling to when they leave intimacy behind.'"
(The Bastard Tree. M.C. Lang)

Assumptions

"When you 'assume' you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me.'...
'You don't really believe it's a coincidence that the word ass is contained within the word assume ...do you?"
(The Bastard Tree. M.C. Lang)

Never heard this before. However, there is a lot of insight gained by this statement. I've had too many assumptions about others. I feel I was on the receiving end often enough too.

This is a fiction book. But no fiction in this truth. The title would put off Christians, but the book is absolutely not what you think. It's actually a redemptive story. This book can not be judged by it's cover. Publishers suggested he change the name. However, the author refused. I recommend it.

Consumer Driven Christianity of North America.

The Jesus Way vs. The American Way

by Eugene Peterson

The great American innovation in congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. We Americans have developed a culture of acquisition, an economy that is dependent on wanting more, requiring more. We have a huge advertising industry designed to stir up appetites we didn’t even know we had. We are insatiable.

It didn’t take long for some of our Christian brothers and sisters to develop consumer congregations. If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem solving, whatever. This is the language we Americans grew up on, the language we understand. We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?

Given the conditions prevailing in our culture, this is the best and most effective way that has ever been devised for gathering large and prosperous congregations. Americans lead the world in showing how to do it. There is only one thing wrong: This is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus’ salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more. This is not the way in which our sacrificed lives become available to others in justice and service. The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, “deny yourself” congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church.

We can’t gather a God-fearing, God-worshipping congregation by cultivating a consumer-pleasing, commodity-oriented congregation. When we do, the wheels start falling off the wagon. And they are falling off the wagon. We can’t suppress the Jesus way in order to sell the Jesus truth. The Jesus way and the Jesus truth must be congruent. Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life."

"The North American church at present is conspicuous for replacing the Jesus way with the American way. For Christians who are serious about following Jesus by understanding and pursuing the ways that Jesus is the way, this deconstruction of the Christian congregation is particularly distressing and a looming distraction from the way of Jesus. - Eugene Peterson

I'm Smart, But I Can't See It.

"I'm living in a tent...." "You shouldn't be living in a tent", said the commentator. "No! I know I'm smart. But I can't see it. I don't know why." 
(A Young Homeless girl (22yrs old) on Streets of Vancouver.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78EuiFXkZ34

Touch Something.......

"He told me, in a moment meant to be poetic, that the Wind, like a person, was only noticed when it touched something."
(Monique Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa. Pg139)

This may threaten some people in education. However, it makes me happy to know people are not really dependent on everything I say, to learn. Exposure, opportunity, and time, enable curious kids to learn much from curiosity. This is a powerful article, and is a real insight into Home Schooling, an should help parents relax more about Home Schooling's potential, and remind us to take a more relaxed approach.
Also, maybe I'm getting too hippy these days.... But I enjoy any article that sticks it to the system... just to let it know some people can "make it" without you.  

Ethiopian kids hack PCs And Teach themselves English, in 5 months with zero instruction

"What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they'll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware. Whoa.
The One Laptop Per Child project started as a way of delivering technology and resources to schools in countries with little or no education infrastructure, using inexpensive computers to improve traditional curricula. What the OLPC Project has realized over the last five or six years, though, is that teaching kids stuff is really not that valuable. Yes, knowing all your state capitols how to spell "neighborhood" properly and whatnot isn't a bad thing, but memorizing facts and procedures isn't going to inspire kids to go out and learn by teaching themselves, which is the key to a good education. Instead, OLPC is trying to figure out a way to teach kids to learn, which is what this experiment is all about.
Rather than give out laptops (they're actually Motorola Zoom tablets plus solar chargers running custom software) to kids in schools with teachers, the OLPC Project decided to try something completely different: it delivered some boxes of tablets to two villages in Ethiopia, taped shut, with no instructions whatsoever. Just like, "hey kids, here's this box, you can open it if you want, see ya!"
Just to give you a sense of what these villages in Ethiopia are like, the kids (and most of the adults) there have never seen a word. No books, no newspapers, no street signs, no labels on packaged foods or goods. Nothing. And these villages aren't unique in that respect; there are many of them in Africa where the literacy rate is close to zero. So you might think that if you're going to give out fancy tablet computers, it would be helpful to have someone along to show these people how to use them, right?
But that's not what OLPC did. They just left the boxes there, sealed up, containing one tablet for every kid in each of the villages (nearly a thousand tablets in total), pre-loaded with a custom English-language operating system and SD cards with tracking software on them to record how the tablets were used. Here's how it went down, as related by OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte at MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference last week:

"We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He'd never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android."

This experiment began earlier this year, and what OLPC really want to see is whether these kids can learn to read and write in English. Around the world, there are something like 100,000,000 kids who don't even make it to first grade, simply because there are not only no schools, but very few literate adults, and if it turns out that for the cost of a tablet all of these kids can simply teach themselves, it has huge implications for education. And it goes beyond the kids, too, since previous OLPC studies have shown that kids will use their computers to teach their parents to read and write as well, which is incredibly amazing and awesome.
If this all reminds you of a certain science fiction book by a certain well-known author, it's not a coincidence: Nell's Primer in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age was a direct inspiration for much of the OLPC teaching software, which itself is named Nell. Here's an example of how Nell uses an evolving, personalized narrative to help kids learn to learn without beating them over the head with standardized lessons and traditional teaching methods:

Miles from the nearest school, a young Ethiopian girl named Rahel turns on her new tablet computer. The solar powered machine speaks to her: "Hello! Would you like to hear a story?" She nods and listens to a story about a princess. Later, when the girl has learned a little more, she will tell the machine that the princess is named "Rahel" like she is and that she likes to wear blue--but for now the green book draws pictures of the unnamed Princess for her and asks her to trace shapes on the screen. "R is for Run. Can you trace the R?" As she traces the R, it comes to life and gallops across the screen. "Run starts with R. Roger the R runs across the Red Rug. Roger has a dog named Rover." Rover barks: "Ruff! Ruff!" The Princess asks, "Can you find something Red?" and Rahel uses the camera to photograph a berry on a nearby bush. "Good work! I see a little red here. Can you find something big and red?"
As Rahel grows, the book asks her to trace not just letters, but whole words. The book's responses are written on the screen as it speaks them, and eventually she doesn't need to leave the sound on all the time. Soon Rahel can write complete sentences in her special book, and sometimes the Princess will respond to them. New stories teach her about music (she unlocks a dungeon door by playing certain tunes) and programming with blocks (Princess Rahel helps a not very-bright turtle to draw different shapes).
Rahel writes her own stories about the Princess, which she shares with her friends. The book tells her that she is very good at music, and her lessons begin to encourage her to invent silly songs about what she's learning. An older Rahel learns that the block language she used to talk with the turtle is also used to write all the software running inside her special book. Rahel uses the blocks to write a new sort of rhythm game. Her younger brother has just received his own green book, and Rahel writes him a story which uses her rhythm game to help him learn to count. LINK

A Telescope With No Stars!

"In college I took astronomy, my chance to look through the observatory telescope and truly see the stars. But it was physics. Astronomy was physics. It ruined the stars for me. There was only one night of observation. After two weeks, I dropped the class."
(Monique Maria Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing: a memoir of love in real life in Africa 2005, Pg134-35)

I suppose some would simply say the beauty is in the details too. However, when the details cause us to stop seeing, there must be an imbalance.
I've come to feel the same way about my faith. There are extreme in both directions. Simplicity with out substance is not rooted. However, neither is understanding complexity, but loosing sight of the simple beauty. Sometimes understanding robs us of the beauty of simplicity too.
I came from the exegesis camp. I love every detail I learned. But it soon engulfs our ability to see,  and  often we no longer take time to stop , look, see, and really truly see the beauty.
I know MANY Christians who no longer see the beauty, over the physics of church. I was one of them. While running the machinery of church religion, I have shockingly gotten to the place were I was seeing few stars any more. Actually believed active in church was active in Kingdom. I soon learned that this is not always so.
I'm still trying to crack my eyes back open..... I am starting to see beautiful stars in my telescope again.

International Worker Sayings

Only international workers could write these phrases.....?..

" I watched a praying mantis give birth on my lantern."

"Sand dunes replaced snowdrifts creating low visibility due to dust particles, not snow flakes, but no one cancelled school."

"I read the back of one of the antibacterial hand washes I packed in the states. The instructions say it's still 99.9% of all common germs. The worrisome word: common."

(Monique Maria Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing. 2005, Pg134-35)

Lonliness Is A Good Sigh

"Loneliness means at one time I had friends."
(Monique Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa. Pg 133)

Africa, Light, And Paraplegics

"Remember where you're from there are no Bush taxis or sacrifices for 120 degree afternoons spent in unair-conditioned tin structures. Remember where you're from there are escalators, ice cube machines, and stores with roofs. Where you're from you don't light your house with candles bought from a woven basket on top of a woman's head. And rats don't run through bars while paraplegic polio victims beg for francs.“

(Monique Maria Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing. 2005, Pg133)

Becoming A Student Of An African Village

"Several times every week, usually more than once a day, I did something that made the villagers chuckle. I told myself they laugh with me, not at me. I didn't believe it. None of the cross cultural training that Peace Corps gave me my first three months had prepared me for being an incompetent idiot in the village..... I had already established: couldn't bargain at the marché, couldn't carry water on my head, couldn't sweep with a palm leaf room, didn't have a permanent man in the house. In their eyes, the first three caused the last one."
(Monique Maria Schmidt. Last Moon Dancing. 2005, Pg131)

Jesus Sees At Much Higher Level

"Well, I quote Jesus because I still consider him to be the spiritual authority of the Western world, whether we follow him or not. He is always spot-on at the deeper levels and when we understand him in his own explosive context. One does not even need to believe in his divinity to realize that Jesus is seeing at a much higher level than most of us."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

Pewhood Of All Believers

"Instead of a priesthood of all believers, we end up with the 'pewhood' of the disengage spectators masquerading as the body." (Neil Cole- forward in "The Pastor Has No Cloths)

Able To See Clearly?

"I believe that spiritual maturity is not the ability to see (or experience) the extraordinary, but the ability to see the ordinary through God's eyes."
Frank Viola. Revise us again.)

Not Brave Enough To Be Indifferent

"Perhaps some of us are better at hiding our fear. But my mother never claims to be brave enough to remain indifferent. No Hollywood lightening expert could capture the paleness of my mother's face, the quivering of her colourless lips when she hears the rocket fire. She says her heart gets weaker with each explosion, each death and each funeral.... Of course, the war was always real to us, but until now the battles were in the countryside and in other cities. Before this, we used to hear news of the fighting; now we see its victims, bloodied, burned, broken and dead. For years we lived a fantasy of war, but now it invaded our lives. On the streets, inside our buses - even in classrooms - people get into arguments and fistfights quickly. We were loosing our collective nerve. The war has come to our homes. "

(Nelofer Pazira. "A Bed of Red Flowers. In Search Of My Afghanistan" pg,12)

War

"It's not cold, but we all hug our arms around our bodies as if shivering from fear. We all walk fast, very fast - hoping to get away from everything and everyone. It's been ten years since the beginning of the war. Who started it? Who will end? These days, we are so tired that we wish to forget. But is it possible to forget a war when minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day we feel that something bloody in terrible supposed to happen?" 

Nelofer Pazira. A Bed Of Red Flowers: In search of my Afghanistan. Pg6)

Think Right, Or Else!

We are more civilized today. We don't torture or kill, we just marginalize, or ostracize, or give people the cold shoulder, or anything that assures that we keep these persons out of the inner circle loop. Reality is that the same heart is at the root. We have so much fear in our lives and institutions.

"Yet we have a history of excluding and torturing people who do not "think" right." (Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)

Tell God So He Can........................... And He Can

"Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them: show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability... Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God!"

 

(Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Letters of Archbishop Fenelon. Letters to men, London)

God Blamed!

"I've routinely watched God get credit for things that He never authored and blamed for things He never imagined."
(Frank Viola. Revise Us Again)

Cast Off The Script

"The very day I was converted to Christ, I was handed a script. And I began living from it. Over the years, that script has expanded both in size and variety. As I attached myself to various churches, denominations, parachurch organizations, and ministries, new lines of text were added to my script.

In the same way, every human being is scripted through their  upbringing, their surroundings, their culture, and their religious influences. Our scripting works unconsciously. We are usually unaware when the scripting is happening to us. Somewhere along the line, however, I became aware of the religious script that was given to me. As Christians, we can safely assume that some of the script we have been handed matches the heart and mind of our Master. But typically, much of it doesn't.

In such cases, we want those lines of script that are incompatible with the teachings of Jesus revised and re~visioned to match His heart and mind.

Transformation (spiritual formation) can be described as editing out that which is not Christ and revising that which is. Or to use Paul's metaphor in Ephesians, its a matter of "putting off the old" and "putting on the new."

Revising is a process. And it begins with opening ourselves up to the possibility that the script we have been given in life is not perfect. It's in need of regular evaluation and revaluation."

(Revise Us against. Frank Viola)

A Case For Silence &Solitude

"It is a good discipline to wonder in each new situation if people wouldn't be better served by our silence than by our words." Henri Nowen. The Way of the Heart)

"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16)