Rhetoric to Reality
talked with Greg today about this whole movement to mission deal in eric's personal life... we agreed on one thing::a lot of what was only rhetoric in the begining is now becoming reality. I needed to hear this from a mentor. I've been listening to lies from the enemy that I am playing games...but no games... this is real. real lives. real stories. real cosmic conflict. it is light vs. dark. and I'm right smack dab in the middle of it...and I like it here.

meditated today on this:: "the light shines in the darkness > but the darkness does not overcome it"
This world is messed up... thick with sin. I was never one for Calvins thoughts on Total Depravity but today they click with me.
Check this out:: "the heart is so steeped in the poison of sin, that it can breath out nothing but a loathsome stench." That stench seemed to be rather potent today at work. BACK BITTING; FOULNESS; IMPURITY; LIGHTHEARTED PERVERSION; HYPOCRISY; DECIETFULNESS; EVEN WITCHCRAFT. In the very next breath i could agree that these were seemingly good people. Calvin goes on "But here it ought to accur to us that amid this corruption of nature there is some place for God's grace; not such grace as to cleanse it, but to restrain it inwardly....but if some men occasionally make a show of good, their minds nevertheless ever remain enveloped in hypocrisy and decietful craft, and their hearts bound by inner perversity"

yet in the wesleyan tradition I can hope in the thoughts of prevenient grace. this grace comprises "all the drawings of the Father - the desires after God, which if we yield to them, increase more and more." and this grace implies "some tendency toward life; some degree of salvation; the beginning of a deliverance from a blind, unfeeling heart, quite insensible of God and things of God." Wesley's Works 6:44

this writings of Wesley on God's work in the life of the natural man encourage me on days like this. all I can see with my eyes and feel with my heart is what Calvin writes about ... what i hope in is what Wesley speaks of. And what gives me the best perspective is my own journey and that I still need a savior. I still need God. I still need repentance, grace, and more grace.

good day at work. gerald and I are finishing up in two ladies basement. they live in a gigantic house in new albany and now they just have to have that extra space downstairs. It was a quick two days...not much said and that's ok. My work ethic seems to be improving. working harder with less mental breaks. my body will keep going if i am present to the task. also landed three paid gigs in the past week. blast 2003, an emaus retreat in michigan, and a youth revival at shep naz ... really excited about the first two. i need more of these opportunities to arise. thank you Lord for these three.

homo unis libri
John Wesley publilshed approximately six hundred works on various themes, yet he still resolved to be homo unis libri "a man of one book." He Exclaimes, "O give me that book! at any price, give me the book of God!....Here is knowledge enough for me.
I want to be that committed to the centrality and authority of scripture. Last nights home group went very well. We practiced Lecio Divina. The raw word of God. No overexplaining, no prefabricated exegisis, no predetermined application for those recieving. One recipient told me afterward that the raw reading of the powerful word of God was just what she needed. Praise God!
don't know if my college professors would have considered it exegetical justice to the word of God and they have a place saying that ... but I think the mysterious proclamation of the Word is over due in our evangelical traditions. We pastors tend to overexplain scriptures that we know little about just because we feel we should have insight into the mysteries of God. What's that one verse about using the foolish to shame the wise? maybe we should leave the exegesis up to the fools.

i got called out this morn... too much time on the internet... I am somewhat addicted. This is my community in some sence. I read posts by kids who feel what I feel, think what i think and read what I read...
I do need to be more present with my family when I am home and tonight I did just that. Riley and i just hung out, wrestled, laughed and played... and then to bed. songs::books::hugs::kisses. it felt good and I knew what I was participating in was holy. God was with us. God is in Riley! I love that kid

had a good meeting with palmer yesterday. this was surely a gift to me. I left with a feeling of gratitude for the time I was able to share with this cat. His work is so underground/backstage/peculiar... i likee...

what can e.william learn from the life of Menno Simons | Chasing Hats Magazine

I can't believe I am reading this in "The Younger Evangelicals" by Robert Webber right after Scott and I dialogued about it. He saw four fold worship being practiced by a ancient future community while on sabattical.

Webber states that the four fold worship interprets worship to be an unfolding of the narrative of God's story and is expressed in four movements.
First, the people gather. This is the theological act in which the church is actualized and brought into being. Second, the church hears the story of God in Scripture readings, the Psalms, and the sermon. Third, the churhc responds with praise and thanksgiving at the table, enacting God's redeeming story with bread and wine. Finally, the community of God goes forth, empowered by the Spirit to be a living member of God's story in the world.

Traditional Evangelicals::Threefold:sing, preach, invite
Pragmatic Evangelicals::Twofold:music set and preaching
Younger Evangelicals::Fourfold:narrative of gathering, hearing the Word, Communion, dismissal

lot of good things from my meeting with scott last night:

4fold worship using lecionary texts

enter to worship: OT Scripture "thanks be to God"

we hear the word: epistle

we give thanks: psalm eucharist/ offering

we leave to serve: Gospel passage "praise to you lord Christ"

Could use this somehow for simple church using lecio divina and a simple homily following the reading of the word in the second move of worship.

just some thoughts>>it all seems very reproducable

fromReal Spirituality
good article!!!
something I need to be mindfull of::
The pursuit of holiness, Paul argues, is our real service of worship. Real worship is not participation in a religious ceremony whereby the worshippers close their eyes to reality and enter into a transcendent state of consciousness. These truths ought to determine how Christians think about worship. If I participate in a religious service or discipline--be it prayer, a quiet time, Bible study, or attending church--and I consciously or unconsciously use that discipline to close my eyes to the truth about God, about myself, or about the world, then that discipline is not of God--no matter how "spiritual" it may appear. According to Paul, closing our eyes to the material world and discomfort of our moral and physical limitedness is not spirituality. Striving after moral purity in the midst of our fallenness is.

i am very excited about an opportunity to start conversations with internationals again. a friend here in columbus helps at the ifi office at osu. hof and i are going together tomorrow night to meet up with new friends and to share our stories.

Last night we had our first home group. it went very well. it was good to see ages ranging from 22 to 42. Jesus was there. I think that it stunned some folks but I am confident that they will return. I spent a good portion of our time together trying to paint a picture of what our times together will consist of. i told them that they could still bail if they wanted to after this first week. made some disclaimers and let them know they didn't have to come back if they didn't think they would jive in this sort of environmnet. Jesus was the same way with his 'potential' disciples' in Luke 14:26 ... he said "hey, if you don't hate your own life....your possessions, your status, your relationships, even your family...in comparison to how much you love me... you cannot be my disciples." --so not seeker friendly.

John Wesley's "Covenant Prayer"
"I am no longer my own, but Yours.
Put me to what You will,
Rank me with whoever You will.
Put me to doing...
Put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for You,
Or laid aside for You.
Exalted for You, or
Brought low for You.
Let me be full -
Let me be empty.
Let me have all things,
Let me have nothing!
And now, O Father,
You are mine and I am Yours.
So be it.
And the covenant I am making on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

still dealing lately with the move from relevance to prayer...
Henri Nouwen makes it sound somewhat glamourous in "In The Name of Jesus"
open and vulnerable and I've been taking some hits lately at work (sbux)
my friend who doesn't love Jesus is an angry kid who doesn't know what to do with all her newfound power (shift-sup.) --comes down pretty hard on me. she's 21. she's in darkness.
I need grace. I need love - the agape kind::aka::stupid love for my friend

Lord,
make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is descord, union.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we recieve;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
-St. Francis of Asissi

starting a class this month to kick off our new ministry. one thing I'm struggling with: an age specification. do I lay it down when casting the vision for this thing. This is where i think i'm going for now - a class for the young at heart - Gen. Douglas MacArthur wrote:
"Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

The class...

Radical Discipleship [-=+] Living Out Your Faith in a Postmodern World
::a journey inward :: a journey outward :: a journey together::

>>Goals of the class

-Those who are part of this class will be taught how to be serious disciples (apprentices) of Jesus, as we represent Him to those around us (2 Corinthians 5:20). Making "disciples" (as Jesus called it in Matthew 28:19) will be the primary ultimate goal.

-Those who are part of this class will serve each other so that we experience true community (Acts 2:42-47; John 13:34-35). We will be passionate about helping people discover how God desires each to have a very valuable part of being in the "body of Christ" (the church- 1 Corinthians 12:27). One may be asked to bring something to share:: a friends story, a loaf of bread for communion, a poem or piece of art.

-Those in the class will learn to have our hearts break for those who have not yet experienced the love and grace of God and joy of knowing and following Jesus (2 Peter 3:9). We will try and learn to see people and love people as Jesus did (Matthew 9:35-38).

-Those in the class will have a heart for being involved in our local community and in activities that express the love of God outside of our internal church activities and church events.

now i'm staring at the screen trying to think of something profound to post just so I don't have to enter one more line in Quicken... right now I'm on Oct. 4th's transactions...

I'm supposed to be doing finances right now and I can't stop blogging

what's your trash guy's story?
my friend Gerald was telling me of his trash guy's story the other day. His wife has cancer and he has three kids at home to feed...money is tight. How did he know his story...Gerald asked - every so often, Gerald meets him at the curb, helps him with the load and then buys him lunch.
this is the manifestation of the love of Christ in our present reality. a window into the Kingdom of God
this is stupid love

My new friend Palmer got a great write up in the ooze about his church plant in the Short North called the Landing Place

The church's business is not to maintain freedom or to promote wealth or to help a political party or to serve as the moral guide to culture. The church's mission is to be the presence of the Kingdom. ... The church's mission is to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God. - Robert Webber in The Younger Evangelicals.

somedays I wonder if I should be a mennonite

What should I do with my life?
Of course, addressing the question, What should I do with my life? isn't just a productivity issue: It's a moral imperative. It's how we hold ourselves accountable to the opportunity we're given. Most of us are blessed with the ultimate privilege: We get to be true to our individual nature. Our economy is so vast that we don't have to grind it out forever at jobs we hate. For the most part, we get to choose. That choice isn't about a career search so much as an identity quest. Asking The Question aspires to end the conflict between who you are and what you do. There is nothing more brave than filtering out the chatter that tells you to be someone you're not. There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice. Asking The Question is nothing short of an act of courage: It requires a level of commitment and clarity that is almost foreign to our working lives.

it happened the other day...
i was pulling shots for a drink and she was steaming milk
..."are you a christian....cuz i am too"

Praise God.