A friend of mine (Andy) asked me to write a post on some practical things we can do to be “more green.” It would probably be best if you all could share some of your tips, experiences, and suggestions on the issue. Here are a few of mine:

1) Get outside!!! Wendell Berry writes, “we seriously underestimate how much the Bible is an outside book.” For me, at the heart of being Green is experiencing the beauty of creation and the One who created beauty. Camping, taking a walk, gardening, etc. are all things I think are tremendously healthy for our souls. Why care about the earth if we spend most of our time sheltered from it, in front of our TV’s and computers? Let’s not kid ourselves- being “green” has become a fad. Fads fade because they have no substance. Unless we realize the “being green” is ultimately rooted in God and His call for us to take care of creation, I have little hope for this current pop-culture fad. I think the ultimate longevity of the “green movement” rests in our ability to get outside and re-connect with nature (and God).

2) Be aware. This is a constant battle for me. Even as someone who cares about this issue, most of the time I am unaware of how my lifestyle effects the planet. Throwing out trash, taking showers, turning on the lights, buying certain light bulbs… it is easy for me to simply be unaware how all these daily things effect then planet.

3) Care. Even when I am aware, sometimes it is hard to care. I like the conveniences of being able to buy bottled water, or shower twice a day, or buy the cheap light bulb. I think being green also comes down to putting the care of our planet above our selfish desires and spoiled lifestyles. Truthfully, this is where the rubber meets the road… and I am still a work in progress here.

4) Produce. By produce, I mean contribute something good to the world. One of the reasons we are in the predictament we are in, is because all we have done with the earth is rape it for our consumption. Even now, we are simply asking questions that basically ask “How can we rape the earth less?” I hope we can begin to ask more questions like, “How can we heal the earth?” Plant a tree. Clean a park. Ask your company to donate to a “green” organization, or switch to soy-based ink (I really don’t know what this is, but I knowShaklee uses to conserve water- It sounds cool, but if anyone knows why it is not cool, let me know). Watch the movie Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore.

Practically:

Use energy efficient products (lights, laundry, microwaves, etc), bike and walk more, recycle (obviously), plant stuff (trees, gardens), grocery shop with cloth bags (they hold more groceries anyways), have my friend Randy convert your car into a hydrogen-gas hybrid using a mason jar (he just told me about this today at church).

Share your concerns and passions with others. Alone, the task seems overwhelming. However, I believe we are beginning to see the power of people working together for the same cause. Ultimately, we will need everyone to make better decisions- this requires people to demand different products (cars, cleaners, factories, etc), business to operate and produce things differently (greener), and everyone to have new priorities (think of the shift from truck toprius ). Share with people the benefits of energy efficient bulbs, or that they do not have to use harmful cleaning products, or how cool cloth shopping bags are (?… Natalie is the grocery shopper).

Just ideas and ramblings…

What do you guys do???

Maybe it is already old news, but I came across this post on the Dobson-Obama debate (?) that has been in the news.  You can read it here.

Do you guys think Dobson’s comments were fair?  Did he really listen to what Obama was saying?  Were Dobson’s comments motivated by an agenda?  How does this witness to the world the Christian faith?

Or, are our comments about public life always fair?  Do we really listen to what others are saying?  What are our agendas?  How does the way we communicate witness the Christian faith?

I had to run an errand the other day for church.  Basically it consisted of swinging by a few houses of members of our congregation to pick some things up.  To make it to 5 houses took me well over 3 hours… and I was at each house for less than 2 minutes.

A few years back I was living just outside Chicago.  I re-connected with some old friends and was looking to connect with a church as well.  It turned out that my friends were making a 45 minute- 1 hour commute to attend Willow Creek’s mid-week service.

These are more dramatic examples of things I do every day/week.  In an age of transportation (and consummerism), I pass at least 5 local congregations in my neighborhood to attend church.   Sure, maybe it is what it is.  And maybe I ask annoying questions.  But driving around the other day made me wonder:  How “local” are our churches?

The definition of local:  1.pertaining to or characterized by place or position in space; spatial.

It seems that  our church communities are no longer “characterized by place or position”.  They are characterized by other stuff:  style, theology, likes/dislikes, etc.  But communities of God’s people are hardly characterized by their local.  (If they are, it is in only a very general sense- how much I am willing to spend on gas).  This is important to me because I believe that community (at least the sort of community that God desires for His people) requires proximity.  Community after all, demands time and space.
Against this back drop I remember stories my grandma has told me.  Well, maybe not stories, but parts of stories.  In parts of her stories she can name every family on her block.  And with each family came the names of parents and kids, stories, and shared memories.  Other stories of my grandma included walking two blocks to church every week.  And all church stories included people, stories, and relationships the exuded community.  Not everyone in the neighborhood went to church.  But everyone at church lived in the neighborhood.  Sure, times were very different.  But we still live next door to neighbors and down the street from worshipping congregations.  What I struggle with is the quality of our relationships with both our neighbors and within our churches.
There is no doubt that community is at the heart of God’s intention for His creation- salvation itself is communal.

So I wonder if we can re-imagine a local church.  What would it look like if our church building was in the neighborhood (think of the closes church to your house/apartment)?  What would it loook like if all the members of your congregation lived in the neighborhood?  Would your church community look different?  Would your relationships with your non-Christian neighbors look different?

What do you think… should this imagination inform us?  change us?

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately:  “Where do we do life?”
1) Solitude/Individually. In many ways, I think many of us have forgotten how to live in solitude. By that I mean we live in a world of noise. We are constantly surrounded by people, entertainment,advertisement , etc. And in the process our identity becomes wrapped up in all of these things, most all of which are superficial. Rare are the people who can go beneath all of these things and become familiar with their soul, the soul of God, and see the souls of others.

At the same time, we live in an individualistic world. Isolation and loneliness are commonplace for most modern Westerners. Though most of us have many relationships, few of us have true community. There seems little doubt in my mind that this is largely due to our selfish and individualistic priorities. So, we have people that rarely are alone, but also rarely in meaningful community.

How do we re-learn how to do life in solitude? Do you do life here? Does this enhance your communal relationships or make them more awkward? Do you find your identity more so here, or in your relationships with others?

2.) Community. As stated above, having relationships is not the same thing as being in community. We live in a world in which relationships are plentiful, but community is rare. Of course, many of us mistake human interaction as community. I do not use this word that way. Updating facebook pages, chatting for a few minutes after church, or making an occasional phone call is not community in my opinion. All of these things probably occur in community, but they are the by product of sharing life together. This by its very nature cannot be superficial. It requires large amounts of time and energy. It certainly is not efficient. And I believe it requires proximity.

To my point: How many of us do life in community? Again, I see tension. For many, sharing life looks like a series of relationships that continually begin, end, and begin again. Even our “closest” friendships are broken by distance, busyness, work, “growing apart”, going our own way, etc. We do life first as an individual, probably bouncing between many “communities”. I think this can also be true of the church. How is this also true of church? Our our church communities marked more by scatteredness, busyness, and going our own ways? Or, are they more readily described as a “sharing life together”?

3.) Mission (communitas). How many of us, as individuals or communities, do our life in missions? By that I mean, how many of us live our life in the context of the brokenness of others. How many of us “do life” with people who are hurting, forgotten, in poverty, etc.? For those of us who have discovered solitude and community, what about mission? Is mission “where we live” or is it more an activity done by an individual or community (at a specific time)?  And can community take us out of mission?

Rarely do I hear people speak of missions as a way of life. Mostly, I hear of it spoken of as a project or activity for an individual or community. As a project, mission becomes “out there”- separate from everyday life.

I believe that we can, and should, be living in solitude, community, and missions. These things, in my opinion, should support each other. Too often times, solitdue is drown by noise, community superficial, and missions a program (or lost to a non-missional community). Then we find ourselves often alone but busy and surrounded by people, unfamiliar with our soul, and though involved in church, too often far from both community and mission (again, community and mission are “out there”).

Just thoughts. Maybe because I am seeking more of all 3 (solitude, community, and mission). Where are you all at?

I found this link on a friend’s website. Check it out!!!

www.storyofstuff.com

I think we need to be more aware of the systems we live in.  I will write more about this in the near future.

I think sometimes it is easy to disconnect ourselves from history. This can be dangerous because in history we learn the dynamic nature of both life and God. And if it is true that both life and God are dynamic, we cannot remain static. All of this comes to mind as I wrestle with the formation of leadership in the church.

For many of us, we assume that present church leadership is how the church has always functioned (for the most part). This makes it easy to embrace. It is all we have ever known personally. And we have not witnessed any “better” alternative. This is not only true of church leadership, but the church itself - its structure, purpose, and practices.

In the past couple of years I have been challenged to both reconnect with history and dream again what the church (and its leadership) might be “in a time such as this”.

1) The early church: Lead by apostles, focused on mission. “Devoted themselves to the apostles teaching” (Acts 4). This developed into pluralistic leadership based on calling and gifts. Deacons were assigned responsibilities very early. In Ephesians we read that God has given some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And all of leadership was for the purpose of “equipping the saints for ministry”. In other words, all who were followers of the Way were ordained into ministry/mission.

2) From apostles to priests: The church moved from the margins of society to being the official religion of the state (empire). Infant baptism determined who was part of the church. In this transition, the leadership of the church became priestly. The mission of the church in proclaiming the “kingdom of God” now became more a function of the empire. Leadership became responsible for holding services, administering sacraments, interceding for people. In a way, the church became the chaplain of the empire. Leadership during this period included a lot of power and authority (very hierarchical).

3) (Reformation) From priests to pedagogues (literally “teachers of children”): Although the Reformation was a very large paradigm shift, it did not alter the assumptions of church leadership too much. The nature of the church changed. What was the “true” church became important. Thousands of splits and denominations emerged. So while leadership remained hierarchical, doctrine became extremely important and a point of contention. Therefore, the function of leadership became that of a teacher - teach correct doctrine (which many people disagreed and fought over), the “true” gospel, etc.

4) From pedagogue to professional: The Enlightenment brought with it the rise of science and education. Reason became the driving force of truth. The church tried to keep pace and made theology an academic pursuit, placing alongside science and philosophy in the university. As this developed, leadership developed into professional, seminary trained theologians. In addition, the training of ministers almost solely focused on teaching. Reason and education did not have categories for apostles, prophets, etc. Or, if these things were addressed, they became a subject to be taught. “Professional” ministers trained in academia became the dominant leadership model. Again, this inherently priviledged certain trained Christians for ministry while lay people remained more passive.

5) Today, we still inherit a “professional” model: Church leaders and leadership still operate in a very professional and specialized mindset. Theologians, pastors, counselors, managers (executive directors), youth specialists, etc. are all professional job titles. The church most often functions as a business. There is a very distinct line between professional church “staff” and lay leaders. The Enlightenment still informs a leadership philosophy where teachers/pastors are given priority over apostles, prophets, evangelists. The congregation is largely the group of people being ministered to, and rarely considered ordained by God to the mission of the church.

6) From professional to missional leadership: As America (and the Western world) becomes more and more pluralistic, Christianity is again going to be moved to the margins of society. While America is use to sending missionaries to foreign lands, America itself has become a mission field. Churches as businesses are competing for a shrinking customer base (I hate that language by the way). Therefore, churches and church leadership need to re-discover their missional identity. A pastor/teacher ministering to and leading a congregation will not be sufficient. Leadership will not be for a single person, but for a community of multi-gifted people. Even more, the ministry of the church will not fall on the shoulders of a professional staff, but is the responsibilty of the “priesthood of believers”. There are no professionals- there is a community of called people, each with their own gifts and experiences (some leadership). This community is the body of Christ called the to mission of God in the world.

How do we move forward? How do we stay dynamic as God’s people in the world? What do you think? Is your church a missional community? a priesthood of believers? Are you static as a community, leaving the professional leadership to be active for you? Are you competing with other churches over Christians in your city, or engaging together missionally to reach a pluralistic world? Where are you in God’s Story?

This week in church we will be talking about homosexuality.  What is interesting in thinking about this issue, is how it brings up questions about our beliefs, the quality of our love, and the sort of community we embody.  If we dig a little deeper,  issues like fear and diversity are just below the surface.  By the way, I need to correct myself.  This is not really an “issue” so much as it is real people wrestling, like all of us, with life, idenity, and how we fit into this broken world.

Reflections

My world is at peace when neighbors are mirrors
And answers come easy when talking to peers
Belief is like music tickling my ears
Community a blanket covering my fears

My reflection looks good staring at friends
But when belief equals love, it always depends
So say what you want and be who you are
Cause love’s unconditional, if you don’t wander too far

So I beg you my friend not to open your soul
Cause love gets tricky when my agenda’s the goal
And if what I see in you doesn’t seem right
The mirror gets ugly and I fear the sight

Cause if staring at you is looking at me
My soul is something I’m not ready to see

I like blogging. However, I am not sure if it is my thing. It is starting to feel more like a journal, less of a conversation. I guess without the conversation, I feel like I am writing opinions into thin air. That is just awkward.

Maybe I feel that my last few posts were cynical. They are not (well, maybe a little :)). But without the honest conversation I thought they might produce, they come off as negative- at least to me. And that is not my goal for blogging.

Sorry (if anyone is reading).

So, you all might not hear from me for a while. Or, maybe I will write without the expectations of responses. Or, maybe I will just get edgier and edgier until I invoke more comments

Shalom.

The role or office of the prophet was very important in the history of Israel. In fact, there is a very large section of our Bible that is called ‘the prophets’. Many scholars say that the role of a prophet was a huge part of Jesus’ ministry. And even in the early church (Eph 4) we see that the office of the prophet was identified and considered given by God.

So my honest question is: Where did all the prophets go?

I had a little fun with this question- trying to imagine what I know of biblical prophets in the context of some modern church structures. Still, my question is honest and I would love to hear what you think. Is there a role for prophets in the local church? Does the “prophetic voice” still exist? Where is it at work in the ministry of the church today?

Top Ten Reasons Churches Don’t Hire Prophets

10) Lack of social etiquette and people skills

9) Calling for repentance is not part of the church growth plan

8 ) The ministry of the prophet would focus primarily on the church leadership responsible for hiring him/her (especially the executive director of …).

7) No accredited seminaries have prophet degree or ordination programs

6) Most prophets are more commonly known as “heretics”

5) “The board” has never heard of a prophet and doesn’t understand why we would need to hire one (especially when we need more directors, secretaries, administrators, and team leaders)

4) We like the budget just the way it is

3) Most prophets would not look good on our webpage (not that the pictures on our webpage are of the people in our church anyways).

2) Can you imagine a prophet trying to go through the canidating process?

1) The “prophetic voice” was not high on the spiritual needs survey

Hey friends…

I do not mean to be cynical with this poem.  It has just been a long winter and I have not been outside much.  And I miss experiencing God through nature.   So, seeing images of nature during worship services has been difficult for me.  Don’t change them Alex, they are still very cool.  And for the record, communal worship services in buidlings (yes, malls) are some of the most powerful and Spirit-filled experiences of my life.  Still… poets must write.

Images on the Screen

Dark orange sunsets sink into oceans

Strangers worship in deserts with unbridled emotions

Fields of wheat dance under Montana skies

Though truth’s on the screen, reality lies

Cause I’ve stood on the mountains and heard them sing

Whitewater falls thundering praise to their King

I’ve slept in the night under heaven’s ceiling

I’ve joined in its chorus and know its feeling

I’ve walked the edge of this earth where land becomes sea

Ridden its waves and learned to be free

I’ve been lost in this song that creation well knows

But now I am lost in this building, its pews and its rows

Cause you can’t feel the wind when you’re surrounded by walls

And nature’s shouts grow faint when we worship in malls

You can’t see the sky when you’re looking at screens

And if the picture’s not us, what’s it all mean