being godly is kind of like being a community organizer

I dont say this in many circles, but I am pretty sure I believe this:

God Exists.
God doesnt care.


Let me explain.

Many people view church as the "house of God". It is the place where God stays for an hour or so on sunday. Where we can tell him what we want/need/fear/hope etc. And please don't misundertand- I think that community gatherings are important and beneficial.
It is good to gather with people who have shared interests. And organize to accomplish a goal.

There is, I think, a misunderstanding when it comes to the way Americans view church.
If we continue to view Church as if it were a hospital, where all the sick people needed to line up to get treatment from an effectively trained practitioner for what ails them- we will continue to be disappointed in "God" and ask the wrong questions about the nature of evil and malady in our lives.

This is a deeply flawed model.
This is like going to the Smithsonian and expecting to discover a docent on 19th century warfare in the US- and asking them to solve Race relations between the El Salvadorian gang in one neighborhood and the African American Crips in another (they keep shooting each other).
The docent can surely give you some insight- but they cannot solve the problem.
Sadly, pastors and priests do not have magical powers and all they can do is tell the story of "God". They are anthropologists.

The real practitioners are those who roll up their sleeves and try to heal with their own hands.
In this way Hospitals are Churches.
Schools and Universities are Churches.
Your local PTA can be a Church.
Your local pet adoption center is a Church.
Even your local starbucks is church... But church?
What is church?

If we do not care, god does not care.
If we cannot find the cure- there will be no cure found.
God is not a chemist- god has no lab coat.
God only has one thing in his tool belt- you.

I began thinking I could change the world.
Then it turns out I can only change myself.
I still hold out hope that the former can be achieved by the latter.

Denny Bradshaw 1960-2008

A philosophy professor was holding a lecture one morning on the nature of objects.

This was a Metaphysics course and the discussion centered on the professor's blue neck tie.

The professor asked the class "what makes this tie blue?" This was not intended as a trick question. "Pigment" one student stated."Refracted light on our rods and cones?" another proposed.Dissatisfied with the answers given thus far, the professor waited patiently to see if more suggestions were offered from the class. Finally a student in the back raised his hand and said "God makes your tie blue. God makes everything happen, so God must be the reason that your tie is blue". The professor was a kind man and a patient teacher. He said to the student "That is a very common belief. But unfortunately you can't have GOD in your ontology." This surprised the student, and he asked "Why?".

The professor replied, "You can't have GOD in your ontology because he does too much work."

Denny Bradshaw 1960-2008

http://www.myspace.com/dennybradshaw

Has the YMCA lost it's Christian Path?

I am a huge fan of the YMCA.



If you don't know, it is a very old (150 year +) non profit organization whose mission is
"To put Christian Principles into practice through programs that develop healthy spirit, mind and body for all."


(disclosure: I work for the YMCA)

The YMCA is in almost every community across the country and in over 120 countries.
It exists to serve and turns away no-one based on an inability to pay.

A friend of mine recently blogged about how the "church" has abdicated its role in saving our communities.


"I believe that most of the work of God in the world today is largely being done by para-church organizations anyway, as the church has abdicated this responsibility.”


http://www.axxess.org/?p=42

Sadly, I agree with his assessment.
This reminded me of a story from a few years back. I was an eager young program director working with a friend of mine at our local YMCA to create community development programs. Some of them included:

• Teen Clubs, Teen Camps
• Grief Support Groups for families who had lost children
• Kids in motion classes
• Classes offering financial strategies for families trying to buy a home
• Healthy Kids day/ Activate America anti-obesity programs
• Workshops for adults with MHMR disabilities
• English for Speakers of Other Languages

etc, etc...

The town we live in has many Spanish speaking citizens (legal or not I do not know, or care) And the YMCA is the largest childcare provider in our town (over 1000 kids daily) so we come into contact with Spanish speakers (breadwinners!) all the time who would benefit from learning English (more importantly their kids would benefit! imagine navigating an emergency room in Mexico with YOUR baby and no one spoke English).

There is a large local conservative evangelical church in the town I live in. And they have an existing ESL program. So we thought, "Hey, why not partner with them? They have the teachers and the curriculum, we have 1000 plus kids and workshop space and buses for transport"

Its a win/ win right?

Not so fast...

We placed a call to the local church and after leaving several unanswered messages, we got their ESL coordinator on the phone and it goes something like this:

YMCA: Hi this is the YMCA and we have heard you have an ESL program, would you be interested in partnering with us to serve more people?

Church: (after a considerable pause) Um. To be honest, we got your messages..

YMCA: Oh great! what do you think?

Church: Well, to be honest, we have concern that the YMCA has deviated from it's Christian path, so I am not so sure how comfortable we would be partnering with you...

YMCA: Uh? We want to see people speak English. I didn't realize that was a point of theological concern.

Church: I will take down your name and number and share this with our Executive Pastor...

YMCA: OK?

Church: Have a blessed day!

==================================

Suffice it to say we never heard back from them.

She was sharing a little code with me: We (the YMCA) are not explicitly anti- Gay, Abortion, Mormon, Muslim, Jewish enough to be CHRISTIAN.
Books could be (and probably have been) written on this small point.

This type of church is indicative of many churches that you have seen. Angry, Narrow and Scared. What is so egregious about their behavior is not just their arrogance (which is pretty hard to stomach) but rather the complete waste of resources. "Giving" to others (like providing ESL classes) with pre-existing terms is NOT charity. Their process of branding everything with their brand of Christianity is such a waste. The result of which is little Christian ghettos where people can only speak to those they agree with. This is a joke and from the outset there is a cautionary tale to be learned for the Emergent set:

If you think you have nothing to learn from the "moderns" you will be doomed to repeat their mistakes... So dialogue and learn from one another...

aloysha

A Jerry McGuire moment (Farewell for now...)

I took a day off from work today.

It is the first day I have taken off in a while.

I did not realize just how tired I am.

Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

The search for meaning in life is exhausting and I think I am just now beginning to believe something I have probably professed to my family and friends for years.

Ready?

Here goes:

We do not FIND meaning in this life.

We CREATE meaning.

Pithy, cute and straight to the point.

You've probably said it yourself. Heard it a million times yourself.

I do not know how frequently I have said this in the past but today it hit home more than it ever has before.

Does God need a new bass player?

3-2-2008

I went to a party last night in honor of a friend of mine from high school.
There were 100+ people there.
There was BBQ, and beer, and dogs and babies and guitars and a big sprawling lawn.
Sundresses and lots of laughter. And a wheelchair.
The wheelchair belonged to my friend Zac. The evening’s special guest.
Zac and his wife of 9 years moved home from California this week.
After 8 years of battling various types of cancer, there does not seem to be anything that medicine can do to put his illness at bay any longer.
He road worn and tired. Zac has decided to rest.

I don’t want to overstate my involvement with this get together.
Zac is a friend, but not a best friend. We went to Junior High and High School together.
A person in whom I share a reciprocal esteem. We don’t Myspace or email one another, but I felt it was important to show up last night and give him a hug. We don’t see each other frequently, but he is still loved.

I have often thought that we (as a culture) do not handle death very well.
We are afraid of it. We use weird ways of dismissing its finality by saying things like “well maybe God needed a good softball player up in heaven” to make us feel like there is purpose in dying.

There isn’t purpose in dying. There is purpose in living.

The beautiful thing about last nights party was the rare opportunity to participate in life with Zac, if only for a few more moments, rather than to remember life later while participating in a funeral or a wake.

Zac is a brilliant musician.
As I made my exit from the party last night, his musician friends (probably 8 or 10 of them) had made a circle on the porch with acoustic guitars and congas and a steel guitar.
It was beautiful.
Someone gave Zac an acoustic bass to play from his wheel chair (they removed the arms of the chair to accommodate). And for the next several hours they played music from the 90s; music from our Jr High and High School Days. (Sublime,Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Meat puppets, Toadies, STP, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc.)

It was wonderful. It was sweet. It was sad. It was life being lived in the present.

Maybe God needs a new bass player? No. That would be a reduction. Right now, Zac’s friends need a friend. And for now, they have one. And he plays bass pretty well.

Apocalyptic Literature

Apocaplytpic literature is the writing of the defeated.
Having lost their vision of national events, they turn away from social justice.
They retreat into private religion, with its rewards in a future outside of history.
They have rejected a vital faith for artificial schemes.

- phyllis trible