Blogging is Taking Over My Life :)

Blogging has taken over my life. It is 11:08 am and I am still here in my jammies, but I value and so appreciate the conversation.

As you are aware if you have been reading along for awhile, I struggle, vent, fall down, get up and generally rant and rave about issues I am passionate about, which recently include faith, politics and faith and politics together (as in how does one influence the other?).

On the faith front, I have been exploring the Emergent Church movement, which makes some people nervous, others hostile, and yet others really excited. Everyone has an opinion, and as I hope you know, I value them all here. I just decided to attend an event in Memphis called The Great Emergence the first weekend in December. I hope that it will impact my prayer and discernment for a non-traditional church plant that some of us at my home church are involved in. I am passionate about sharing the love of Christ with others, and the week after next will also be attending the National Outreach Convention in San Diego. It was through that organization's publication, Outreach Magazine, that I discovered the Faith in Action Campaign.

Politics. I never really considered myself a political activist, but perhaps having an opinion and being willing to share it openly has made me one. The catalyst for my sharing came from receiving one too many mudslinging, name calling emails, that I ended up muttering about on ad infinitum with my husband. His suggestion was rather than react defensively, I go on the offense, so I guess that is what I have done, by stating my opinions, which I hope don't become offensive in the wrong way.

But check this out: an editor from a web site noticed (My meta tags must be leading people to my site) and I got the following email:
Subject: RE: Politics Message: Hi,My name is Tia and I am an editor at Opposing Views. I came across your site, liked what I read, and wanted to introduce us because we both write about political issues. Opposingviews.com is a debate site where experts go head-to-head on a variety of topics. With Election Day approaching, our experts are discussing some of the most interesting and high-profile ballot initiatives from across the U.S. I encourage you to check out those of interest…I believe you and your visitors will appreciate these debates and might want to weigh in with votes or comments. If you like our site, I would appreciate it if you blog about us or give us a link to the debates. You can create a profile page giving readers information and links to your site. Or, if it is easier, I can do this for you. In the near future we’ll add a blogosphere section to each debate so we can directly feature outside blogs like yours.Thanks for the time and consideration. Let me know if you have any questions or recommendations for experts or debates. Sincerely,Tia www.opposingviews.com.

I went to their site and it looks interesting. Which is another reason it will be going on noon soon and all I have done is blogged, read other blogs and tried to figure out how to post links to blogs I like on my blog. I had to email my web gal for help with that one. I am a total techno peasant.

Which brings up the complicated inter-relationship of faith and politics. Should one influence the other? Does my pastor have it right by abstaining from voting as a peaceful way of protest? What about writing in a candidate instead? Should the government take over where the church has failed? How can we do this perhaps on a more grass roots level in our communities (for example the Faith in Action Campaign?) and do you ultimately believe as does my husband's faith that he grew up in but doesn't follow, that God has already selected the next president, so why bother?

OK. I need to get dressed, do some errands, forget the laundry, and yikes, I do have book writing related work to do, not to mention some church outreach business. But I am way hooked on this. Oh Boy. Now when I need to work on a book, I guess I will have to go where I can't get Internet...

Peace.

Alter Boyz

I believe we can't take ourselves too seriously. The ability for humor (especially self-deprecating humor) is a must. Maybe that's why I like reading Matthew Paul Turner so much...(I am still hoping he has time to write an endorsement for my upcoming Bible Study amidst the flurry of activity of his new release...) There is way too much tragedy in the world to get hung up on the "small" stuff. I find myself reflecting a lot these days on the big picture: God, grace, hope, mercy,justice and the ways we superimpose our views onto those things or filter them through a sieve of the small picture: whether I can watch an R rated movie with a group of girlfriends, how going to Neighborhood Bunco (Omigosh, a card game involving money, isn't that gambling?But before all Christians who think gambling is a sin yet still plan to vote for McCain just realize that he has very strong lobbying ties to the gambling industry), or how I can laugh at a hilarious performance of a production of the Alter Boyz, and still firmly hold onto my faith.

Obviously there are some long standing impressions that are still stuck inside the cobwebs of my head and I am working diligently to shake them loose and live a life without judgement that reflects the love of Christ.

For me, last night that included laughing hysterically at a production of a show called the Alter Boyz, that was performed at Bucknell University. It absolutely made fun of several stereotypes, beliefs, even of faith, but yet rung so true. Yet I found myself reflecting on yes, my new favorite author MPT (and he reads a guy called David Sedaris, so now I need to pull his work out...) and suspected that he would have been laughing right along with me...I will have to email him and ask. But for so long I felt like if I laughed at something like that there was something wrong with me...I was dissing Jesus and heaven's what might others think? I also suspect and said this to Howie, as we left, (having shared a really fun evening together...) I wonder how several of my Christian friends would have responded to this show. Contempt? horror? at least a lot of squirming...yet there was so much truth in many of the points they made, and I did have some true moments of poignancy as a lover of Jesus. Howie didn't agree with me on that one, but that's totally OK.

I can totally see how this show, "sacrilegious" as it was could, can and I suspect will be a point of conversation with those who only know that side of Christianity, and there are plenty. And not nearly enough who experience the grace and the desire to be a representative of Christ here on earth. But I believe it is totally possible to embrace both. And am finally becoming more comfortable doing just that.
But that begs a different set of questions...more for me to ponder myself at this point than share...

But what it does do is reconfirm for me the passion of pursuing a non-traditional church plant, which is something our home congregation is doing. A place where I can laugh alongside fellow congregants at fringe things, keep an Obama magnet on my car without getting too nervous, or believe that we can serve God on Sundays even if it means swinging a hammer. (A reference to our recent Faith in Action Campaign where "work" projects were moved to Saturday in observance of resting on the Sabbath...) And enjoy a glass of Merlot. But most importantly model, represent and introduce people to Jesus.

Yet it is my church home, the place where I met the real deal Jesus. But...and I don't want to be judgemental, I am just reflecting about thoughts that are swirling around in my mind about having a strong, strong faith and yet enjoying and embracing many different things...sorry, rambling.

Who'd have thought sitting through a show like the Alter Boyz would have been such a Spiritual experience...

From Faith Inaction to Faith in Action

I have to say, we had a really great message in church this morning. Our Faith in Action campaign culminated with service projects last weekend, and over 170 people from our church contributed almost 600 volunteer hours. And it was raining...and one of the guys had just lost his job the day before but came to serve joyfully anyway.
In church today we heard from some of those who served and how it affected them. I joked that they didn't ask me to share because they only wanted one to two minute snippets. Impossible...

And then the message was on putting hands and feet to our faith, that basically "faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:26). Basically, we need to live our faith, not just give it lip service. This is my language, and actually the central message of a Bible Study I have that will be released in March, UNDOING CHURCH: NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BIBLE STUDY about being the church, not just going to church.

But I thought about moving from inaction to action and the things that stop us in our tracks, all basically lies meant to keep us in a paralyzed state of inertia:

• One person can't make a difference.
• I'm not qualified.
• I'm too busy.
• We're all going to die anyway, so why bother.
• It's not in my job description, my problem, blah, blah, blah...

But here's the deal, if we're Christians, we must act. "Saving faith moves your head, your heart and our hands. Faith alone saves us, but the Faith which saves us in not alone."

These words were spoken by our pastor this morning, and I wanted to jump out of my seat and scream, "YES!" It's the Samaritan lifestyle, something I have been giving a great deal of thought to lately. To have, to take, to make the time to be aware of life and needs around us, to be moving slowly enough to respond, and not simply wave off the needs as a nuisance or an interruption. To adopt the Samaritan lifestyle guarantees interruptions, but also blessings.

How do you live your faith? There is a hymn that has the words, "They will know that we are Christians by our Love". Have you read the book UnChristian? Love is not a word that most non-Christians use to describe us. Hypocrites, homo phobics and judgemental are closer to the top of the list. So do something to put your faith in action and change the perception. I know that those we served got a glimpse of Christian love through our service, our faith in action last weekend, but it is a lifestyle, not a program or campaign.

I echo here the verse our pastor used in closing, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me'" (Isaiah 6:8). And I want to go.

The Last Two Days in the Rain...

Meet Audrey and Pastor Dave...This was our Faith in Action Weekend. Our church was engaged in about fourteen service projects in the Milton Community. It was raining, but what else is new? It has been raining here since yesterday morning...Audrey is our Director of Ministry Development, and has been the backbone to this project. I spent time at this family's home earlier today where we cleaned and organized the shed and also put new flooring in the home. It was awesome. Then two of the kids came home with me and are now here for a sleepover. What fun! And you know I am in mode...cleaning and organizing is my current gig...so this was just terrific, and the owners just felt so blessed...

So that was today.

Yesterday we went to the Bloomsburg Fair. I have avoided it for the last two years, so there was no way I was going to get out of it this year. So off we went with ground rules set up ahead of time. Like how much money everyone was going to get, when it was gone, it was gone, blah, blah, blah...and we had a great day! I ate too much ice cream (and enjoyed every bite!) and then we went off to the HS football game. It was raining there too. But the girls had a good time, and I got to listen to my oldest son Chris broadcast. He broadcasts the HS football games for Internet radio. It was just a really low key, fun and relaxed day.

I must admit, though, I do have a philosophical problem with arcade games that are not skewed in favor of the participant. Nicole was really hoping to win a life size cardboard image of Zach Effron. Shucks. She didn't win...

But we all had a great day

An Outreach Kind of Day

I attended a lunch today sponsored by a community church interested in engaging in a cross denominational conversation about outreach and what different groups are doing, are trying and succeeding at, and also what we are trying and not succeeding at. It was a refreshing gathering of people who love Jesus (something I am having a much easier time saying and feel less attacked about than which presidential candidate I support...) The timing was perfect for the two of us representing the church I worship at, Community Mennonite Fellowship (do I look like a Mennonite? Blasts some preconceived notions now doesn't it...hmm...) because we are engaging in our Faith in Action service weekend coming up this Saturday and Sunday.

The local community newspaper did a great job covering this event, complete with photo which I am in. You can read the article by clicking on this link: http://www.standard-journal.com/. It is really cool stuff.

The basic premise is that instead of going to church on this Faith in Action Sunday, we actually serve as the church in our community, by putting our faith in action. I read about the original concept in Outreach Magazine, in an article titled, Church is Cancelled, Service Begins. Catchy, huh? So several churches have actually cancelled their services on Sunday and gone out to serve. After all Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and got blasted for it by the Pharisees (the rule keepers of the day). But Jesus asked, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" (Luke 5:17). In my way of thinking,what could be more life giving than sharing the love of Christ with those who have not yet been touched by that love by going out and serving in the community.

The Sabbath is still protected and revered by some, so for now some of our service will take place on Saturday and some on Sunday but I think what was the most confusing to me was the position taken of not working on the Sabbath so our manual work projects were shifted to Saturday. But then one of the individuals who had strong feelings about this is not participating because she ended up being scheduled to work on Sunday afternoon. There was just a disconnect there for me. I didn't get it and was a bit sad that we didn't embrace the campaign in its fullest sense. But strong traditions are hard to reconstruct, and I am thrilled that we are starting somewhere.

The lunch was a time of sharing and feeling unity amongst ourselves as "the church" and not a particular denomination.

And for that I was thankful.

Confessions of a Middle Aged Drama Queen

Oh, I had such fun! I was asked to present an impact moment at church today, and decided props were in order, and well, I just had a blast.

We are gearing up for our Faith in Action Campaign, where we will be going out and being church in our community. As a prelude to this weekend event, which will be held the last weekend of September, different members of the congregation have been presenting "impact moments" sharing different insights of faith they have had. Not one to miss an opportunity to share (did I miss my calling as a performer?) I volunteered. I have to admit, until I pull my thoughts together I do experience a little bit of stress over preparing, but it generally turns out fine.

So I gave three snapshots of moments or stories that had meaning to me in terms of teaching me a bit more about following Christ and how to and not to emulate him. My desire was to both encourage and challenge others.

My objective was to illustrate ways in which either we have an impact on others, or they have an impact on us, with the ultimate desire to impact God's kingdom.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD and not men." (Colossians 3:23). In other words, remember who your boss is.

Along with that, it is worth remembering to clothe ourselves in humility and to do nothing out of selfish ambition.

With that, I dramatized the story of the ugly American passenger on my flight to Honduras trying to stuff his overstuffed bag into the overhead compartment. I demonstrated complete with a pile of "carry on" luggage, pillow and computer case. I think my girls were both mortified and annoyed that I used their bags to illustrate my point.

My second snapshot was to talk about the incredible hospitality I experienced last weekend at the wedding. I made sure I wore the dress to church that I wore to the wedding...I commented about how I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but then again, isn't that just like God to invite us to those places out of our comfort zone; the question is,what will we do with that invitation?

And then I talked about giving God our best and the incredible junk for Jesus I saw in Honduras and wrapped up with a wonderful challenge issued by a pastor at a church in Colorado I read about in Rev! Magazine, where he invited the congregants to leave their coats that they wore that day, their best Sunday coats, not leftovers, for homeless people in their community. Beautiful...

I loved sharing and was even forgiven for exceeding my time limit. Now that's grace!

Generous Living...

"Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:18)

Generosity is:

• Nice when you are on the receiving end.
• Particularly nice when your kids are involved, either on the giving or receiving end.
• Something that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you hear these great stories of other people who are generous.
• Not always so easy to incorporate into our daily lifestyle.
• Totally necessary to incorporate into our daily lifestyle.

It's way too easy to fall into the first three; the latter two are more challenging. But not optional, especially if we call ourselves Christians.

Generous living was the message this morning at church, and the sermon followed a presentation of Shane Claiborne's that he gave at a youth event earlier this summer. This guy (Shane) in my opinion, has it right. He is a phenomenal storyteller and is always up to something related to radical love and living out his faith in the way of Jesus. He has worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, in Baghdad during the 2003 bombing and has been to court in Philly charged with feeding the homeless. Pretty cool, huh?

So after seeing this great film (you can search "Shane Claiborne" on You Tube and see for yourself) we had this great message on generous living which I hope challenged all of us. We can all do better in this department.

How do we do at generous living? I love the definition of poverty our pastor gave in his message. He described poverty in the following way: "Anyone who needs something I have is poor in that area of their life". So for people just tip toeing into sharing who are still clutching their wallets thinking, OH NO, they want my money...there are probably many, many other things they can start with. But a caution, it is just a start, because loving money and loving God are on a collision course with each other. But if we start with the smaller things, gradually we move to being generous with more and more.

The sad thing is, as I think about all the junk I sorted through in Honduras (see my blog post Junk for Jesus) I imagine there were plenty of people who thought they were being generous, but worn out stuff is not sacrificial or even slightly uncomfortable giving. In my mind it doesn't qualify. True generosity carries with it an element of sacrifice whether in time, stuff, money, comfort, giving up having the last word, and the list could go on for a long time.

So how can you start? Well, you can start with the excess to gently work your way in...

Here are a few ideas. This would qualify as generosity 101. Hoarders may have a problem with this.

• How much hotel soap and shampoo do you have sitting around? Find someone who doesn't have any and share it. It doesn't even have to be overseas. There are plenty of people in need, probably right in your community.
• How many pairs of shoes do you really need? (OK,I have a weakness for Birkenstocks,although I do get most of them on EBay). Rather than try and resell on EBay or even at a yard sale, give them away. We only have two feet after all, and some people go barefoot.
• Does your sixth grader really need a cell phone? How much food could that money buy for a family who really is starving? I have met these families first hand, and it is too difficult to distance yourself from it when there are real faces.
• Share your time. Listen. Care. Love.
• Share your talents. Do you have a gift for encouragement? Use it.

OK, you get the idea.

After you master Generosity 101 there are several advanced courses to choose from.

There are plenty of needs. But hey, that's great news. Because it means that we have countless opportunities to live generously.

At the end of September our church will be engaged in a Faith in Action weekend, where we will be serving in our community. I pray that the people involved will discover their generous spirits and will be able to reach people in our community. We all have something to give; love, hope, prayer, a hot meal, a helping hand. And there are many, many in need. Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus. After all, he did all of those things and then some, so why not use him as the model.

Peace.

Hand Up Foundation...

"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth" (Psalm 108:5)


I believe we need to take care of the glory of creation. The people at HUF (Hand Up Foundation) also believe this and are doing an amazing job at their recycling center. In the first five months of this year over 70,000 pounds of computer components have been recycled. It is more than some counties in PA have recycled in the past three years.
They own a baler, and bail everything from clothing that doesn't meet the quality standard to be sold in their discount center, to cardboard (I got downright giddy with excitement to discover that I no longer have to tear apart my cardboard boxes, the baler will do it...) to plastic bottles. And they take every imaginable kind of paper too, from newspaper to cellophane windowed envelopes...more giddiness ensued.

More mind boggling recycling efforts include the complete dismantling of major appliances; even the freon in refrigerators is recycled. Can't you just grasp the impact this has on our environment? My personal goal is to get my household down to one trash can of household trash per week...more giddiness! Below are appliance components which will all be broken down and hand separated.

The new building will house the recycling center downstairs and the new discount center upstairs. They hope to have the remodeling completed in time to transition the store by the end of September. The amount of space is phenomenal, and for a bargain happy used clothes junkie like me that is cause for more celebration (and giddiness!).

The outside of the discount center has a completely handicapped accessible entrance as well as a ramp that cars will be able to back right up to to deliver donations. And because of the recycling center, no donation is junk. Some will be sold, some will be recycled.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10)

This place is the ticket. There are so many opportunities to do those good works which I believe God has prepared for us to do right here, right now, in this community. It is a place for relationship building. It is a place for service. It is the new home of the Milton food bank. It helps transition hurting individuals into job ready positions with training and skill development. There are dreams for all kinds of community programs and the space is just waiting to be occupied by willing teachers and eager students.

I am excited, because our church, Community Mennonite Fellowship will be partnering with HUF the last weekend in September when we are engaging in the Faith in Action campaign, serving as Jesus' hands and feet in our community. We will be partnering with them in delivering food baskets, helping with extra volunteer power at the discount and recycling centers. And in the process we will be building more relationships.

And Doug and I banged our heads together and the visions were just exploding. Let the fireworks begin!

Today's Sneak Preview...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition , with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6)

This is one of my favorite verses, and yes, you've read it here before. Remember those eagle's wings from yesterday? Well, add them to the prayer I will undoubtedly need to get me through today and I guess that's what is meant by getting through on a wing and a prayer. Today, I have a feeling, is going to be one of those "flying through life by the seat of my pants" kind of days...

It's only 8:21 in the morning and already I have had a lesson in patience and hopefully Nicole has had a preview of natural consequences. We got all the way to school, early and on track for the mega day ahead that doesn't have nearly enough margins in it between things...and she realized she had forgotten to put her homework agenda back in her backpack after I signed it. I had time to drive back home (which is way out of the way and backed up with insane traffic for our little town because of the bridge being out between here and there...) but then had to make sure I gathered everything I needed for the day because I won't get home till after 4, maybe later...But we had a little conversation about whose job it was to pack the agenda in the backpack. Final warning, final answer. Hers. And the next time I won't go back to get it.

Other things that I will be skidding through today, hopefully without getting brush burns...

• Dropping off a friend's son at the high school, which is why I have time to post now. I had just enough time to sit here for fifteen minutes, but not enough time to run home (again).
• A meeting in the next town for service projects we will be doing for our upcoming Faith in Action campaign at church. Of course, we never got confirmation of where the meeting is for sure, so there could be extra steps involved there too...
• That meeting is followed by a meeting with our ministry director to get back into leadership mode in the Outreach initiatives we are involved with.
• Matt is coming home today for a die contrast MRI of his wrist; the injection is at 1:30 the MRI at 2:45. We are running a special on MRI's in my family...I will try to get to some of that.
• School pick up is also at 2:45 and 3:15, then Tianna has a doctor appointment at 3:30.
• In the meantime my mom is withdrawing into a shell and it is hard to see.
• Cheering practice tonight at 6 for Nicole for two hours.
• A discussion with Matt somewhere along the line about how much we will be able to support him this fall.

I'll let you know how it all works out.