Emerging Thoughts

I have landed, in more ways than one.

I am back home after a full, thought provoking, prayerful, and at times painful weekend.
It all made much more sense after reading Phyllis Tickle's book, The Great Emergence, upon which the three days of sessions in Memphis were based.

In her book Tickle examines major cultural and historical shifts that occur about every 500 years that prompt a response and reshaping of Christianity. The most recent upheaval was during the Reformation. (This is a less than Cliff Note version...) We are now entering that next time of upheaval, which has been called The Great Emergence, and while Protestantism came out of the Reformation, no name other than Emerging (not to be confused with Emergent) has been given to the form of Christianity resulting from the current cultural shifts. More recently perhaps also referred to by some as Missional Churches responding to a Post Modern Culture.

I am still trying to process what that all means, but have landed solidly in the space of committing myself to following Christ as best I can, taking His commandments seriously and paying close attention to what the New Testament has to say. I would say I am a mid line emergent, not nearly as far left as some, but trying to walk very carefully in the way of Jesus. Humility and service to the poor (both poor in spirit and poverty stricken) are two attributes of how I see that being lived out. It probably puts me into a non-fundamentalist, more moderate theology with Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo as writers worth reading and speakers worth listening to. I know some may view them as left, but believe me, there are plenty to the left of them.

I did make it back for a prayer meeting tonight involving a non-traditional church plant in our community, and God has seemingly landed me there as well. This is a church that would specifically minister to the poor in our community, the poor that don't yet know Jesus. I have sensed God calling me to this, but with upcoming writing commitments it didn't look like it was going to fit. Now that that has taken care of itself, I find myself firmly landing back in that place of church planting, so it will be interesting to see what other doors God opens and closes over the next few weeks and months.

I am glad to be home with my family. I thank God for His love.

Peace.

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.

More Air Travel from You Know Where...

Well, I am sitting at an airport again...My flight got messed up again. But here's the thing. We have a choice in how we respond. No amount of kicking, screaming, moaning, groaning, or other more unacceptable words describing frustrated air traveller's behavior is going to make it any better.
I am going home after an intense two days of visiting with life long friends. Well, almost lifelong. Since first grade. I guess I was saying third grade, but my memory isn't what it used to be...it was since first grade.
We got off to a bit of a later than hoped for start from the hotel, but it didn't matter...my flight was delayed anyway. The earlier one had been cancelled. I was to fly from SD to SF on my way back to Newark, where I then need to shuttle to Timbuktu two to find my car and then drive, once again in the middle of the night.
Well, then my flight got delayed, resulting in a missed connection, resulting in a re booking through Denver. So what are you going to do?
Act in a way that would do Jesus proud.
I greeted the gate agent and thanked him for taking care of me, noting that just for the record I didn't hold him personally responsible for the fact that things were messed up. A pleasant change, he noted.
We had a lovely conversation, and he upgraded me to economy plus; an unexpected perk.
And...I was smart enough to buy a new book at B&N yesterday (Shane Claiborne's JESUS FOR PRESIDENT) and am still coherent enough to write, so I got a draft done for a story on love and friendship for a compilation that Gary Chapman is working on. (If you are reading this and want to submit and don't have the writer's guidelines, email me). Perhaps you could also see the Starbucks sign in the background, so how bad can it be? I'll let you know when I get home! But seriously, its not the poor desk agent's fault, so why take it out on him?
So live the Golden Rule and do Jesus Justice.