My good friend Joey is back to blogging (FINALLY!!!). He has always challenged me to think and was once the lead singer/guitarist of the most incredible band ever (more on that another time). Check out his blog, get into his head, and enjoy.
Only 5 days until I leave for Origins.
I helped House Blend out at the Exponential Conference Yesterday.
I have way too much to get done at work.
I’m tired.
Another one of those posting days where I just let everyone know I am still alive.
Still thinking about the form of "church" and how the form affects the function. Should the form be defined by the function or have we (maybe unconsciously) altered the function because of the form we have inherited?
In the comments on the last post, Jon brought up the comforting nature of a cup of coffee. One of the things he pointed out, was it is not just drinking the coffee, but the comfort of a familiar ritual. Which leads to the question…
How do you drink your coffee?
I am a very diverse coffee drinker (right now I am finishing a Mocha Latte). Usually I prefer a smooth bold world bean black. That is my default. I walk into a new coffee shop, look at their coffees, and order the biggest black coffee I can get my hands on.
In college, I would French press some dark coffee, froth some milk, and pour a couple of huge lattes for my wife and I before we would head to class. It was partly a survival mechanism, trying to stay awake through a horribly boring lecturing, but there was something comforting about sipping a fresh latte.
The comfort, I think, comes from the familiarity of the routine. At work I regularly take a break from what I am doing, head to the back, refill my mug, and take a big sip. The coffee is great, the caffeine helps ward off the exhaustion, but there is something relaxing in simply having the coffee in my hand.
So what’s the point? The point, I think, is there is comfort in ritual and routine. We all like adventure. We all like something new and exciting, but there is a certain level of comfort in knowing what to expect.
I’ve talked a lot lately about my frustrations with Church, but for many people, and occasionally my own self, there is a lot of comfort in the very thing that frustrates me. The ritual is comforting. The liturgy is familiar and so we find comfort in the service.
The question, I guess, that comes next in this, is should we comforted? And my short answer is sometimes. Sometimes we need that liturgy and ritual and comfort. We need to listen to some music that makes us feel connected with God. But regularly…
We are back to the point where I have more questions than answers. I have a hard time separating my experience in churches with the conversations I am having about what the Church should look like. Everytime I start to have a thought about the way the Church could/should look like in the "real world", some programmed church thought pops into my head.
Am I fighting too hard? Am I making change for the sake of change? How did Paul feel as he left Judaism for Christianity? Peter struggled with his traditions and Jewish beliefs in contrast with his new faith in Christ, so why I am surprised that I struggle with my traditions?
Still too many questions. The pertinent one for today… Should we attempt to maintain traditions and liturgy because they are comforting or is the fact that they are comforting all the more reason to kill them off? Are we called to a comfortable "christian" life or are we called to a radical existence of following Jesus?
Any thoughts?
The world around me is just changing too fast. On top of that, I think I am just allowing myself to be too busy.
I updated my feed reader today with some blogs that I forget to check by hand but who I actually want to keep up with. I need to redo my Home website soon, but need a few hours to dedicate to that goal.
I am leaving in less than two weeks for Origins.
I am helping House Blend out at the National New Church Conference next week.
I am meeting a ton of people and learning new things everyday.
I’m tired.
There is so much I want to write about. So much that is being brought to the table that needs to be torn about and applied to my particular situation. The world is changing. Church is/should be changing. Things do not work the way they once did. I’m having a hard time keeping up with it all. I need answers.
A lot of people have been posting questions on their blogs the last few days. I have a ton. Just no time to post them and less time to actually dig into what the answers might be.
Tomorrow the whole family is heading to House Blend for breakfast together. I still won’t have blogged anything, but I’d have slowed down and relaxed a bit, and spent some time with the family.
Did I mention I was tired? I’m heading to work now and I feel like I am already ready to head home.
In happier news, the IRS accepted our return and we should be getting our direct deposit soon.
Does the rapid pace of topic shifting in this post make you feel like you are listening to an overheard couple of teenage girls talking about boys. My head hurts that bad.
Well… of to work. I’m hoping to perfect the merger of offline and online presence soon and my online life will seem less like these bursts into the digital world and more like an extension of my "real life".
Thanks for listening. Enjoy a good cup of coffee and relax and have a better day than I am planning. And if things aren’t too crazy, I will grab a cup of coffee, take my own advice, and chat with the boss a little.
The world is changing… try to keep up.
Well… My taxes are done. I must say, TurboTax rules. It makes me nervous, though, trusting that it did the math right and I am not going to get audited or something, but the numbers are right on my end, which means the numbers should be right on their end, but my total lack of understanding of the how’s and why’s of tax law makes me feel rather overwhelmed.
One thing I like/don’t like about TurboTax is the counter on the left that tells you what your return is going to be. At one point it said I would be getting back around $3000. At another point it said I owed $1500. It ended up as a return and it takes care of some bills I was worried about, but that fluctuation makes it feel more like gambling and less like a precise science.
Anyways… tons I want to post, but taxes have been on my mind and it has been a busy week. If you haven’t checked out the pics over at houseblendcafe.voxtropolis.com, you should. Also, there is video over at the voxtropolis homepage and also in the cafe. (Including video of me). Thanks Alex for shooting the video for that.
Friday, April 27th 2007
7:00 PM
House Blend Cafe
Ocoee, FL 34761
I’m over in Ocoee today at House Blend Cafe at the Second Annual Crawfish Boil. Follow the action over at the House Blend Blog, or better yet, stop on by.
I had a thought last night. One that I am only just beginning to dig into. One that desperately needs discussion and tearing apart and evaluating. But for now, let me just share the quick thought.
When we make a translation of scripture (or really of any book), the best translations always come from going back to the source material. If you want to make an accurate translation of the New Testament, you should be doing it from the Greek, not the Latin, German, KJV, or anything else. Let’s go back to the original and start from there.
BUT… when we make a "translation" of "church" into a new culture, we tend to start with what we have and what we are used to. We’ve done this in the missions field over the years, we’ve done this as northerners retire to the south, and we’ve actually done it during major periods of Church reformation.
As the Church has recognized the need for change over the years, we have made changes (sometimes major changes) to doctrine and liturgy, but we have continued to keep the church in roughly the same box it has had since Constantine. We have church buildings, scheduled services, an orator speaking at an audience, etc…
We may have made the building cooler, we may have scheduled more convenient meeting times, we may have adopted less churchy language and added video and drama, but we are still modeling Constantine’s church.
Just a quick thought… I wish I had answers… please share your insights as The Church struggles to become who God intended it to be…
Well this Easter was definitely unique. Temperatures were in the 40’s as we headed out to the church property for a sunrise service. Afterwards, David and I headed to the High School where we normally have our Sunday Morning Services to do a communion prayer walk. (We had to move our services because they were using the high school to distribute food and we thought we’d offer communion to those who might be interested.)
Turns out the set up to distribute food was a lot different than what we were imagining, so we "punted" (David’s phrase), put communion back in the car and helped load up cars with food that was being given out.
Chinese food for lunch (a recent tradition), a long nap, easter eggs and a movie with my girls. All in all… a great day.
Of course…
The whole strangeness of heading to the high school instead of to second service got me thinking again about what Church is really all about. And family too. We get so caught up in doing things with family on holidays… and we get trapped into having to go to "church". Shouldn’t it be more?
I know… this is just the same thought I keep hitting on, but really… shouldn’t we be doing more than showing up for an hour on Sunday?
I’ve been struggling a bit with wording and structure and ritual in my life lately. Part of me is comfortable with the established status quo that has been my religious life up until this point. Most of me is repulsed by it.
Yesterday I came across several posts that all seem to hit on this very issue. This whole idea that we have reduced our faith to a weekly gathering. And before anyone freaks and gives the obvious "Sunday School" answer, I know that lots of christians do more than just show up on Sunday. BUT… the way we structure our services, programs, bulletins, etc… certainly give the impression that what is important is Sunday and that our role is to attend.
The People formerly known as the Congregation
The first thing I stumbled across was this piece by Bill Kninnon.
Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.
We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives.
Wow… He starts the whole thing off with a quote from a similar piece that talks about people no longer being just the audience but also content creators. And of course, the implication is that we are not just the audience in church, either, but capable and responsible to BE the church.
Not Just Sunday
Scott Williams hit next with two quick posts about Sunday Morning Worship being a barrier to Spiritual growth (1) (2).
Dallas Willard, author of books about Christian spiritual formation, writes, "We must flatly say that one of the greatest contemporary barriers to meaningful spiritual formation in Christlikeness is overconfidence in the spiritual efficacy of ‘regular church services,’ of whatever kind they may be. Though they are vital, they are not enough. It is that simple."
PodCAMP
Jon Swanson actually hit this one pretty well this morning, but yesterday Chris Brogan had a piece about the Spirit of PodCamp. PodCamp is an unConference on New Media. One of their core values is that the conference is the attendees. Therefore…
Forget EVERYTHING you read that makes you think otherwise. All PodCamps, EVERY PodCamp is your event. There are people working their heads off to organize this for you, to help make all the pieces line up. They’re missing sleep. They’re not getting paid. They are begging, borrowing, and reaching out in every direction to make this happen. But don’t you think for a minute that YOU aren’t the center of the event.
But just like Spider-Man, “with great power comes great responsibility.� Every spilled drink is YOUR job to pick up. Every lost soul in a hallway is YOUR duty to bring to the right place. Every session that runs a little late is because YOU and the participants let it go late (which isn’t nice to the next, incoming session). You create and control everything.
Jon said this, this morning…
So I started thinking about church. Too often, when people talk about the church, as in, “that’s awful, the church should do something about that�, what is meant is, “the paid staff should do something about that.� But the more I am reading and thinking and praying these days, I am increasingly concerned that if we are depending on the paid staff to be the church, then at least one church of which I am part of the paid staff is in trouble.
I can’t be the church. I don’t want to be the church. We’d be a really bad and limited and boring and ineffective and unbalanced organism if I was the church. Just like a PodCamp, EVERYONE is the church.
The church is not the staff, the institution, the treasurer, or even the volunteers. Ultimately, of course, it is bigger even than just one congregation, but for the sake of this discussion lets talk about just one congregation. The church is everyone who shows up. One of the things PodCamp stresses is that the nobody who hasn’t started yet is just as important and valuable as the A-list problogger.
So What Should It Look Like?
I have no idea. I’ve got glimpses and I am developing some core values kind of lists. I am getting a better idea of what I think needs to be there and what might be optional.
Lately, my life has felt like church 24/7 and "church" has felt pretty routine. (This past Sunday being an exception, but I was only there for one service and God used the scripture passage to speak to me in a way that was totally not what the Sermon was about).
Any thoughts? Any Insights? I’m still struggling along this path, knowing that God is leading and He has a plan, but completely uncertain of what that might be.
