Emerging in West Texas

A Hymn for Wesleyans

2009-06-18T09:45:00.000-06:00

A powerful hymn!

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heart consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till love create a place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

Words: Bianco da Siena (15thC) tr Richard Frederick Littledale (19thC)

How far should our patriotism go?

2009-06-09T13:35:00.005-06:00

The Fourth of July is just around the corner. It seems that it comes and goes so quickly. Some have suggested that we have a patriotic season from Memorial Day culminating with Independence Day (Flag Day is in there as well). Interesting.

I've always been patriotic. Maybe it's because I've lived in the south for most of my life. It could be connected to the Texas pride that has been ingrained in the very atoms of our beings here. I remember being taught at a young age, as all school-aged kids are, the pledge of allegiance. It was one of my favorite parts of the morning school ritual.

As I grew up fireworks was the way to express our national pride and celebrating our freedom as a country that has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

In high school I developed a strong sense of nationalism. American pride was oozing from me like cheese leaking out of a Juicy Lucy. It was around Operation Desert Storm that this pride really took off. I remember supporting Pat Buchanan's ultra-conservative views (Didn't he advocate way back then putting up border walls?). If you are going to be in America then speak our language. All that nationalism jazz was what I believed.

My world changed when I moved to Kansas City in 2000. Maybe it was the crisis of "culture shock." Maybe it was me getting out of a dominant point-of-view and was starting to hear other political voices that were just as authentic and genuine. Perhaps it had more to do with my theological molding that I would frame while attending Nazarene Seminary.

I now find myself back in the south. I used to get excited when Old Navy put their current year's flag shirts on sale to express my commercialized patriotism. Now, I don't know exactly how to view myself as one who eagerly wants to live and operate and have my being rooted in the kingdom of God while I live and am a citizen of these United States of America. It seems that at times the way of the kingdom and/or the ways of America are diametrically opposed from the other. The values of America (self-sufficiency, rugged individualism, profit at all costs, "you're-either-with-us-or-against-us," "exploit other countries by using their national resources and polluting their air and water so we don't have all that junk here while underpaying their workers so that we don't have to pay our own people to do it and provide job benefits," and others) don't seem to align with the way of Jesus and the kingdom.

This doesn't even yet deal with how we view America and her early beginnings. I don't really want to take the time to spell out anything about our history as a "Christian" nation. But for several years I've doubted that notion.

Have any of you struggled to find how to be in two places at once regarding this issue of American patriotism and living in the kingdom? I do not want to associate/equate patriotism and nationalism because I think that they aren't required to be linked. What does it look like to be seriously Christian -- in the way of the kingdom -- and having pride in America?

-- Even now I am thankful that I live in a country that allows us to talk and publish questions such as these.

Who is shaping us?

2009-04-14T10:52:00.005-06:00

[photo by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr]

Who is shaping us?

I am really growing tired of reading and hearing of the attacks on our brothers and sisters in the church who are attempting to help the church community locally and regionally (thinking of the church in the West) understand and appreciate the shift that is taking place in society and culture.

I hear of individuals and groups of people who are going after these re:thinkers (both clergy and laity alike) and are doing so in a manner that is not at all Christlike. It has been called a witch hunt by some. It's been called a ministry of discernment by others. Any way you shake it, no matter what side of the spectrum you are on, it is not being done in charity, grace, and humility.

As I've been thinking and processing this over the last week today I found myself asking a question. For those who resonate with the emergent dialogue, it is easy to see who these re:thinkers are being shaped by. It is obvious that McLaren has for those outside the dialogue been named the de facto leader. But there are so many other voices: Len Sweet, Bolger and Gibbs, Scot McKnight, Dan Kimball, Shane Claiborne, the late Robert Webber, and this is just scratching the surface. It is pretty obvious to see how these great and challenging writers are informing and shaping the persons who are helping us re:think.

But what about those who are questioning the re:thinkers? Who are they being shaped by? The pop Christian bubble of media (TV, radio, books, magazines, etc) are predominantly shaped--and dare I say controlled--by Calvinist/Reformed leaders. I must say here that it obviously depends on the specific medium, because a lot of what's on TV and radio at least in my geographical area of West Texas, is dominated by Pentecostal/Charismatic leanings.

Most of the Christian talk radio shows that are hosted by renown preachers generally lean away from a Wesleyan perspective. They hold firmly to Sola Scriptura and high innerent view of Holy Scripture that could come very close to bibliolotry. Dr Paul Basett wrote a paper back decades ago on "the leavening of Fundamentalism within the Church of the Nazarene." It continues today. Our people are shaped more by Reformed views than Wesleyan. Just like politically, I would venture to say more Nazarenes turn to Rush Limbaugh or Shawn Hannity for their political advice/perspective and allow them to shape them politically.

Who is shaping us? I'd venture a guess that people who sit in the pews week in and week out are shaped more by the sermons on the radio than by the one given by their pastors. And these dynamic voices are so convincing that their views/mindsets get absorbed into our people's minds that "THIS is the way it is." Then, they come to church or see a discussion and it doesn't fit that Reformed position, even though they more-than-likely don't even know that it's reformed...but it's what Chuck Swindoll says or David Jeremiah says or Jerry Johnston says...therefore it is right.

And, this brings me back around to the beginning of how the "discernment" is being expressed. A wise person (I don't remember who) said that there is a difference between "right belief" and "believing rightly." Right belief is right at the expense of others. It's the "king of the hill" mentality. At all costs, RIGHT belief. Then, there is believing rightly. This is understood in terms that actions, words, and thoughts all are expressions of what is believed. If I have to emotionally beat down some one so that I view dominates and is heard that loudest over all views, then I am NOT believing rightly.

Sorry, two thoughts in one post.

Revival or revising revival

2009-02-11T10:48:00.008-06:00

A thought occurred to me this morning. In our tribe or idiom, we are familiar with the language of revival. It is out of the American holiness movement and frontier big tent revivals that the Church of the Nazarene began.

Revival stirs the mind and points us in our thinking to specifics. We tend to think of revival as a time in which we recommit ourselves to the Lord through a week (or now more commonly a weekend) of evening gatherings of singing and hearing a visiting evangelist. It is common to overhear parishioners in churches across the fruited plain say, "What this church needs is revival." Revival--an emotional experience and outlet to pour out one's life in spiritual rededication and renewal.

Due to the passage of time, a growing and maturing of the church, and changes in culture and society, revivals are not as effective as they have been in eras past. No longer are church pews filled with expectant ears to hear a word from the Lord. Revivals today do not seem to carry the evangelistic fervor they once did back in the "glory days." So, revivalism has seemed to take on a different purpose than it once did for the local church. They now seem to be geared towards spiritual deepening for the congregation. Still, in the retooling of revival to accommodate the changing trends (and point to the marginalizing of the church's influence over culture), revivalism turned inward. Still, across the country if you listened to the hearts of parishioners you would probably hear a message beating in their hearts, "What this church needs is revival."

Because of the shift/change/retooling of revivalism, I wonder if our understanding of revival needs updating, along with the language used in naming it. Could it be that revivalism was a tool of a particular era that was effective for a time and space? It fit in the framework of church and society like a piece of a particular puzzle of Americana circa the Progressive Era. It is a certain snapshot of life within the closing frontier culture of the evangelical church in America. Is revivalism a product of its sitz em leben? Or is it reproducible today--a tool for the church that just gets reshaped? Yet this latter questions begs another question: if a tool is changed into something other than what it was, is it still the same tool it was before? Obviously, no.

Does this mean that revivalism is dead? Good question. I do not intend to say that the church no longer needs reviving. I would say that a lot of churches have a pretty weak spiritual pulse and are close to dying on the vine. In my understanding right now (as I learn more and sometimes unlearn more I change my view/opinion) the local church does not need another revival, per se. The language of revivalism does not help us today because of our preconceived ideas and notions that lies behind the word revival clutter our thinking and keep us constrained to a certain way of thinking.

I like wordsmithing. I don't think that I am very good at it yet, but I enjoy the process of hammering out thoughts and meanings. A word for me that serves as a good image which connects on some levels with revival but also points beyond it into a deeper realm is awakening. Now, this term has been employed for centuries: "the Great Awakening," "the Second Great Awakening." Some are even talking about a fourth Great Awakening that is taking place.

I believe awakening is a word picture that points us to coming out of our spiritual slumber, coming out of our entangled way of viewing/doing life in a particular me-centered way, coming out of our notions that spirituality and things of the church are products and resources for me to consume to become "super saint." Our churches need an awakening. I need an awakening. An awakening from a sepia-colored monotonous existence into a vivid and vibrant, exploding technicolor world that sees, interprets, understands, and lives into a radically different and beautiful reality and world. A world that sees all of who we are as Christ followers, all of what we are as Christ followers, and all we that we live out as Christ followers is based on the foundation, framework and interior/exterior design that we point others to this awe-inspiring mysterious world called the kingdom of God.

Awakening to God's gracious and loving reign in our lives and the world shapes us into entirely different people than revival does. Awakening to God's rule and authority in our lives is different than focusing on what I get or don't get from an experience. Now, awakening is full of experience--it is dis-orienting, it is re-orienting, it is exciting, it is challenging, to name a few adjectives. But awakening, in the way that I am understanding it, accomplishes what revivalism set out to do in the beginning (invite people into a life-changing relationship with God) and its more recent reshaping (viz, renewal of the heart). But awakening repositions us and puts us on a trajectory that keeps the Christ life of both person and church community in line with partnering with God the Father in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ the Son through the Holy Spirit, who invites us into the very life of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Awakening to common union and awakening to purpose--"As you are going, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

What say you? Does this image help? Am I off in left field? Do you see any blind or weak spots that I am not seeing?

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

2008-12-31T13:36:00.004-06:00

I just listened to the audiobook of Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden. It is an incredible book that paints a wonderful picture of the church today living in a radical story of grace and mission propelled by the symbol (and story) of Eucharist. It goes beyond Eucharist--it is merely a symbol that points us to a deeper reality of just how upside down (or rightside up) the kingdom of God is--power and wealth are status symbols of empire and we exist within an empire. And the Bible doesn't have very positive things to say about empires.

I encourage you to read (or listen) to this book. It will challenge and revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

"Which Story Do We Live In"

2008-11-07T10:04:00.002-06:00

Brian McLaren spoke back in August at Mars Hill Church in Michigan. He paints a fascinating picture of the different stories we live in and how they distort the Story of Jesus to fit their own story line. It is powerful.

You can find it here.

A call from de Caussade

2008-11-05T09:33:00.004-06:00

This morning I read the following. I'd really like to get your thoughts.

Notice where the responsibility of holiness lies. Also, pay attention to what de Caussade calls us to.

God wishes to dwell in us in poverty and without the obvious accessories of holiness which can cause people to be admired. This is because he wishes to be alone the food of our hearts, the sole object of our desiring. We are so weak that if the splendour of austerity, zeal, almsgiving or poverty were to shine out in us, we would take pride in it. Instead, in our way of following Christ, there is nothing but what seems unattractive, and by this means God is able to become the sole means of us achieving holiness, the whole of our support. Meanwhile the world despises us and leaves us to enjoy our treasure in peace.
God wishes to be the sole principle of our sanctity, and for that reason all that depends on us is our active fidelity which is very trifling. Indeed, in God’s sight there can be nothing great in us – with one exception: our total receptivity to his will. God knows how to make us holy, so let us stop worrying about it and leave the business of it to God. All depends on the special protection and operation of providence; our sanctification will occur unknown to us and through those very things which we dislike most and expect least.

Let us walk, then, in the small duties of our life, in active fidelity, without aspiring to great things, for God will not give himself to us for the sake of any exaggerated effort that we make in this matter. We will become saints through the grace of God and by his special providence. He knows the eminence to which he will raise us; let us leave it to him to do as he pleases. Without forming false ideas and vain systems of spirituality, let us be content to love God without ceasing, walking in simplicity along the road which he traced for us, a road where everything seems so insignificant to our eyes and to those of the world.

-- Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

God will make us holy; he will sanctify us. We are called to "active fidelity." de Caussade is talking mainly about our attempts to make ourselves holy and that is apparent.

But as I read this I keyed in on the thought of "vain systems" and our attempt to syncretize two worlds that have a hard time blending. There is a vain system of spirituality that is very pervasive in our world. It tries to bring the desire of wealth and prosperity along with a spirituality that says God wants this for me. It is on very dangerous ground that one stands upon while making that claim. No where in Scripture, nor history of the Church do we find this idea supported. For 99.9% of Christ followers around the sphere of time and space, this has not been their experience. Reason does not lend to this understanding either. It is a rather recent 20th Century American, modernist/individualist, self-focused lens through which the Bible is read.

Jesus said no one can serve two masters. As we approach the greatest advertising/marketing/spending season of the year, can we hear the whisper of simplicity amidst the ringing cash registers and covetous commercials?

What does it mean to be called to simplicity? What does it look like for us in America? In Suburbia? How does a call to simplicity affect our lives?

Also, what does it mean for us to be called to active fidelity, rather than a pursuit of holiness?

What say you?

Gregory the Great on Praying for our enemies

2008-09-03T09:39:00.004-06:00

Remembering what Hippolytus said in the previous post and Christians and the military, I read this reading today (Sept 3 celebrates Gregory the Great) from a homily from Gregory the Great. To me this reading calls us as Christ followers to question how we involve ourselves in politic of war.

When our hearts are reluctant we often have to compel ourselves to pray for our enemies, to pour out prayer for those who are against us. Would that our hearts were filled with love! How frequently we offer a prayer for our enemies, but do it because we are commanded to, not out of love for them. We ask the gift of life for them even while we are afraid that our prayer may be heard. The judge of our soul considers our hearts rather than our words. Those who do not pray for their enemies out of love are not asking anything for their benefit.
But suppose they have committed a serious offense against us? Suppose they have inflicted losses on those who support us, and have hurt them? Suppose they have persecuted our friends? We might legitimately keep these things in mind if we had no offense of our own to be forgiven.
Jesus, our advocate, has composed a prayer for this situation and in this case the One who pleads our case is also our judge. There is a condition he has inserted in the prayer he composed which reads: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Since our advocate is the One who comes to be our judge, his is listening to the prayer he himself composed for our use. Perhaps we the words: “Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” without carrying them out, and thus our words bind us more tightly; or perhaps we omit the condition in our prayer, and then our advocate does not recognize the prayer which he composed for us, and say to himself: “I know what I taught them. This is not the prayer I gave them.”
What are we to do then, my friends? We must bestow our love on our brothers and sisters. We must not allow any malice at all to remain in our hearts. May almighty God have regard for our love of our neighbor, so that He may pardon our iniquities! Remember what He taught us: Forgive, and you will be forgiven. People are in debt to us, and us to them. Let us forgive them their debts, so that what we owe may be forgiven.

Could it be that we have put our patriotism/nationalism before our "Christianism?"

Pacifist Jesus???

2008-08-13T06:38:00.001-06:00

John 18:10-11 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servants name was Malchus).
Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
Peter was carrying a sword some three years into his discipleship. He was prepared to use it and even swung a blow that should have struck the head in a deadly fashion (Good reflexes Malchus)!
If Jesus was against protection or any form of violence he would have surely rebuked Peter not for this one incidence but for ever having thought this action would be OK.
His only rebuke was that at this moment He had to submit and not fight because it was the Fathers will that He be taken.
Jesus being God cannot be molded into the pacifist of our touchy feely generation and culture. I believe that this would be an isogectical and not exegetical endeavor.

Hippolytus on ...

2008-08-12T09:19:00.009-06:00

Today the life of Hippolytus is honored in the Anglican tradition. He wrote a treatise (ca 215AD) called The Apostolic Tradition, in which he seeks to correct the practice and pattern of worship that was already being either intentionally moved away from or just innovated. Hippolytus saw that the tradition of Christian worship needed to be handed down and kept.

What strikes me is what is found in the list of vocations Hippolytus gives that Christians should not be involved with.

16 They will inquire concerning the works and occupations of those are who are brought forward for instruction.²If someone is a pimp who supports prostitutes, he shall cease or shall be rejected.³If someone is a sculptor or a painter, let them be taught not to make idols. Either let them cease or let them be rejected. ⁴If someone is an actor or does shows in the theater, either he shall cease or he shall be rejected. ⁵If someone teaches children (worldly knowledge), it is good that he cease. But if he has no (other) trade, let him be permitted. ⁶A charioteer, likewise, or one who takes part in the games, or one who goes to the games, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. ⁷If someone is a gladiator, or one who teaches those among the gladiators how to fight, or a hunter who is in the wild beast shows in the arena, or a public official who is concerned with gladiator shows, either he shall cease, or he shall be rejected. ⁸If someone is a priest of idols, or an attendant of idols, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. ⁹A military man in authority must not execute men. If he is ordered, he must not carry it out. Nor must he take military oath. If he refuses, he shall be rejected. ¹⁰If someone is a military governor or the ruler of a city who wears the purple, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. ¹¹The catechumen or faithful who wants to become a soldier is to be rejected, for he has despised God. ¹²The prostitute, the wanton man, the one who castrates himself, or one who does that which may not be mentioned, are to be rejected, for they are impure. ¹³A magus shall not even be brought forward for consideration.¹⁴An enchanter, or astrologer, or diviner, or interpreter of dreams^b, or a charlatan^c, or one who makes amulets, either they shall cease or they shall be rejected. ¹⁵If someone's concubine is a slave, as long as she has raised her children and has clung only to him, let her hear. Otherwise, she shall be rejected. ¹⁶The man who has a concubine must cease and take a wife according to the law. If he will not, he shall be rejected.

A soldier is not a position worthy of a Christ follower. "...He shall be rejected, for he despised God." I have heard persons in the military say "for God and country." Hippolytus would, of course, have a major disagreement with that.

Is Hippolytus off in left field? If he's not, what does that mean for American Christianity that sees American patriotism as part and parcel of the Christian faith?
Also, he says that if a Christian military man in authority is not to execute people, what does that say about capital punishment?

A quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

2008-07-30T10:18:00.002-06:00

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said in "The Phenomenon of Man" published in 1959 (A highly controversial book in the Roman Church [and subsequently probably Protestant as well] ),

"Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore."

Obviously he was progressive. In this book he attempted to weave together like a jacket zipper two unseemingly divergent points: science, viz. evolution, with theology. And this is what got him into trouble. However this little quote from the book seems to be very interesting to me. For in this statement there is a sense of progression. That as the church continues to be the church, living into the realities of the kingdom of God, the world will find the God it can adore. Idealistic, yes; Romantic, yes; Ivory tower, no. Maybe the optimism of grace. Maybe a little bit of Moltmann's Panentheism?

What say you?

Addendum:

Thanks to Curt, who is always graciously helping me say things better, I will try to give a clearer thought.

I find this quote to be fascinating. A world with so many problems to be solved and his thought that this makes our world more religious. It could be the very reason we have the problems that need to be solved is due to the very lack of religion (and I mean it in the historical sense, and in the idea of Wesley--a religion of the heart). Yet de Chardin's thought isn't left in that paradox, but the simple realization that the god the world serves is itself.

I could be reading into de Chardin's thought when I said that it points me to an optimism of grace...and that if the church re-orients herself to God's kingdom and the triune God working in the world to set all things to rights and participates in that, the world begins to see this God it can adore. I see in this quote (for whatever reason) a call to live more intentionally in the ways of Jesus. I think of Hauerwas who talked of the church being the identity the world is so desperately looking for, which it doesn't have.

Am I in left field blowing dandelion seeds?

The smallest small group in America

2008-06-11T20:13:00.003-06:00

Todd Hunter has recently initiated a new small group ministry called Three is Enough. Here is an article saying that three might be too big.

http://larknews.com/august_2004/print.php?page=4

Gregory the Great on Pastoral Care

2008-06-10T08:54:00.002-06:00

Today, I read in Celebrating the Seasons a selection from Gregory the Great's "Pastoral Care." It actually comes from chapter seven of Book One, "Of the Life of a Pastor." Celebrating the Seasons does a great job of using more modern vernacular. But I think that the way the Early Church Fathers series writes them is still understandable.

Here in this reading, I find it interesting, that even in life "back then" pastors could get caught up in things that pull us away from what we need to be doing. Read this below and tell me what you think. Does this exhortation need to be heard by more of us today? If you need a more modern reading, go to Google Books and do a search for Celebrating the Seasons and go to page 332.

The ruler should not relax his care for the things that are within in his occupation among the things that are without, nor neglect to provide for the things that are without in his solicitude for the things that are within; lest either, given up to the things that are without, he fall away from his inmost concerns, or, occupied only with the things that are within bestow not on his neighbours outside himself what he owes them. For it is often the case that some, as if forgetting that they have been put over their brethren for their souls’ sake, devote themselves with the whole effort of their heart to secular concerns; these, when they are at hand, they exult in transacting, and, even when there is a lack of them, pant after them night and day with seethings of turbid thought; and when, haply for lack of opportunity, they have quiet from them, by their very quiet they are wearied all the more. For they count it pleasure to be tired by action: they esteem it labour not to labour in earthly businesses. And so it comes to pass that, while they delight in being hustled by worldly tumults, they are ignorant of the things that are within, which they ought to have taught to others. And from this cause undoubtedly, the life also of their subjects is benumbed; because, while desirous of advancing spiritually, it meets a stumbling-block on the way in the example of him who is set over it. For when the head languishes, the members fail to thrive; and it is in vain for an army to follow swiftly in pursuit of enemies if the very leader of the march goes wrong. No exhortation sustains the minds of the subjects, and no reproof chastises their faults, because, while the office of an earthly judge is executed by the guardian of souls, the attention of the shepherd is diverted from custody of the flock; and the subjects are unable to apprehend the light of truth, because, while earthly pursuits occupy the pastor’s mind, dust, driven by the wind of temptation, blinds the Church’s eyes.

Ancient Faith sermon series

2008-05-16T10:11:00.002-06:00

What would a sermon series look like today preaching through the Apostles Creed? The Creed is a succinct telling of the orthodox faith. In a world of swirling belief systems and competing narratives, how could we approach this statement of faith in a relevant way that calls a congregation to live out/practice, as well as call those who are on the way to faith, to experience this faith?

Born of God, Arise

2008-05-13T09:01:00.002-06:00

This song was a part of the Morning Office at Mission St. Clare today. The words are pretty simple. The song reminds us of who we are and calls us to enter fully into our new identity given to us by the risen Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!, born of God, arise.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
born of God, arise and follow your God.

Come and be clothed in God's righteousness:
Come join the band who are called by God's name.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!, born of God, arise.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
born of God, arise and follow your God.

Look at the world which is bound by sin:
Walk into the midst of it proclaiming new life.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!, born of God, arise.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
born of God, arise and follow your God.

Words and music: Mimi Farra, adapted (20thC)

The Future lies in the Past

2008-05-07T19:51:00.002-06:00

Christianity Today ran an article in the February 2008 edition entitled "The Future Lies in the Past." I'd be very interested to get your input on this. I am among these whom Webber called "the younger evangelicals" and resonate with the article. Do you agree with Webber that the path to the future runs through the past?

The Kite Runner

2008-04-28T20:15:00.003-06:00

Tonight, Amy and I watched The Kite Runner. I found it to be a very deep and beautiful story. Beautiful? But, it's a movie of such violence and silence! Grace is woven all through the film. It is beautiful how Hassan refuses to hit Amir, even after he is pelted by his best friend in an effort to move him to attack him for his cowardice. I find it fascinating how the son of Hassan continues his work of redemption...even as he is being saved. I find it interesting how the Amir, whom we never see pray in the film before, is brought to a place of prayer. There's so much to this film.

Easter, Day 17 of 50

2008-04-08T09:54:00.004-06:00

Trying to stay in the rhythm of Easter is difficult, especially since it doesn't get the attention it deserves from the surrounding culture like Christmas does (and that cultural celebration/observance is placed in Advent rather than Christmastide). I found this hymn this morning that is beautiful. The tune wasn't something I was familiar with so I used the trusty "Sing to the Lord" hymnal and cyberhymnal.org to try to find some melodies that are more familiar to our Christian tradition so we could sing this wonderful hymn. Its meter is LM, which can be sung to the tune of "When I Survey the Wonderful Cross." I find this a very interesting juxtaposition especially considering that "When I Survey" is focused on the cross, and this hymn is about resurrection. The hymn can also be sung to "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I think it is good to be able to cross the tunes from the seasons, especially from Christmas because of its joyfulness. There is also tune from "Jesus Shall Reign" that works well. This hymn is really great and I hope that it ministers to you as it did me.

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.
The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes with praises ring.
Love, drowned in death, shall never die.

Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now,
and touching every place and time.

Not throned above, remotely high,
untouched, unmoved by human pains,
but daily, in the midst of life,
our Savior with the Father reigns.

In every insult, rift, and war
where color, scorn or wealth divide,
Christ suffers still, yet loves the more,
and lives, where even hope has died.

Women and men, in age and youth,
can feel the Spirit, hear the call,
and find the way, the life, the truth,
revealed in Jesus, freed for all.

Christ is alive, and comes to bring
good news to this and every age,
till earth and sky and ocean ring
with joy, with justice, love, and praise.

Words: Brian Wren

Corporate Confession

2008-03-02T15:09:00.005-06:00

There is a really interesting thread on a/the general confession that is missing from our worship services. It'll take a little while to read through them all. It's interesting to see how differing views on holiness/entire sanctification [and even cultural assumptions] shape (and determine) one's view toward a corporate confession. I'd encourage you to read it. In the season of Lent I find this conversation to be timely.

http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php?t=17664

A Community Called Atonement

2008-02-14T14:02:00.005-06:00

I just started a new book by Scot McKnight entitled, "A Community Called Atonement." So far, just 50 some pages in, I want to share that I could not put it down. However, a book of this magnitude requires so much processing, I would like to propose that we share some of the ideas from the book and talk about what we are defining as the "church" - not to mention anything else that may spring forth from reading. Here is something that stands out from the first few pages:

" 'The gospel we preach shapes the kind of churches we create.
The kid of church we have shapes the gospel we preach.'
It would be simplistic and colonizing to suggest that power determines everything, but we should be alert to the observation that the power a local church possesses shapes what it offers as gospel and atonement. Could it be that we are not reconciled more in this world - among Christians, within the USA, and between countries - because we have shaped our atonement theories to keep our group the same and others out? I believe the answer to that question is unambiguously yes. "

While there is so much I think about this and will hopefully share, I will simply say that I agree with his assessment and anticipate reading what you think.

A hymn for Shrove Tuesday

2008-02-05T10:07:00.000-06:00

A hymn for Shrove Tuesday

Alleluia, song of gladness,
hymn of endless joy and praise.
Alleluia is the worship
that celestial voices raise
and, delighting in God's glory,
sing in heaven's courts always.

Alleluia, blessed Salem,
home of all our hopes on high.
Alleluia, sing the angels;
Alleluia, saints reply;
but we, for a time on this earth,
chant a simpler melody.

Alleluias we now forfeit
in this holy time of Lent.
Alleluias we relinquish
as we for our sins repent,
trusting always in God's mercy
and in Love omnipotent.

Blessed Trinity of Glory,
hear your people as we pray.
Grant that we may know the Easter
of the Truth, the Life, the Way,
chanting endless alleluias
in the realms of endless day. Amen.

Can be sung to any 8.7.8.7.8.7 tune
From The Saint Helena Breviary, Church Publishing 2006

Wesley Conference Webcast

2008-02-01T19:03:00.000-06:00

This next Thursday and Friday (07-08 Feb) there will be a webcast for the conference at NNU entitled: Furtherness: Holiness Reoriented in a Changed World." The guest speakers are Brian McLaren, Scott Daniels, and Thomas Oord. It's only $25 a person and the more you have with you watching, the cheaper it gets. It would be easy to hook a computer/laptop up to a video projector! If Amy and I weren't going to Turbo at Northwood, I'd definitely be a part of this. Here is the link to find out more: https://www.nnu.edu/wesleywebcast

I encourage you to be a part of this. Perhaps if no one can participate, we should get the DVDs and get together and watch it and discuss. Bring the conference here and have our own, at the lead of these great leaders.

Refraining from using business as a metaphor for the church

2008-01-29T16:15:00.000-06:00

I'm finishing up Alan Roxburgh's and Fred Romanuk's book entitled The MIssional Leader: Equipping your Church to Reach a Changing World. On p118 I think they give a pretty convincing argument as to why we cannot and should not use the language and metaphor of business for the church. Now, in the following quote they are talking about leaders, but there is a sentence (or two perhaps) on the church using the language.

At the core of leadership, then, is the question of one's identity and its source. This is why the church cannot simply borrow its categories for leadership from other arenas and impose them on its life. To do so is to borrow a purpose and end that are not shaped out of this fundamental participation with God. When we borrow from other arenas such as business or corporate governance, we actually form a character and identity as a leader that, though it may be successful by any number of measurements, leads away from formation as God's person. It also gives the church that is involved a distorted understanding of itself and its own purposes. For example, some current leadership models derive from measuring effectiveness in terms of numbers and size, which are not necessarily measures of success in a life with God.

I think they are spot on. We have played a numbers game for so long, as if the size of our congregations prove our effectiveness. However, we are called to make disciples not just attract the masses. I've refrained from saying anything else...to just let what they say stand for itself.

The beginnings of a missional theology

2008-01-29T11:18:00.000-06:00

So, I googled "missional theology" this morning and found this on a blog. I think it's a really great start. I say it's a good start because I connect the Kingdom of God with Missio Dei, and there is no language of Kingdom there. I see it as good fodder for thought.

cold, historical insights, and the opposition

2008-01-25T13:26:00.000-06:00

Today was once again another cold day - only real cold. Did I mention I hate the cold? Me and cold don't mix well - like oil and water. In fact it has been freezing rain here today and a brick 34 degrees. It could be that it is one of those times where the rain is actually giving us a message: it's a cold day. Economic recession, war, not much is on the up and up - save lavitra commercials. In actuality though there are some important things going on in our world. Why, centuries and centuries later, have we not learned something from Christ. Martin Luther King Jr. once made a statement that a man has already died if he is not willing to give his life for something - but the statement is often taken out of context - it is prefaced with 'in our non-violent' ways. Jesus says that he came to bring a sword, (look it up... Matthew 10) but everything in the passage is about a backwardness that is so obvious we mistake it for straight forward. A deeper look would expose that this passage points toward being so on board with Jesus' message of hope and kingdom that one would need to take up sword to get there. In effect, we should have the passion enough to die for this type of connection with the kingdom and hope through Christ. Later on, Jesus says that those who live by the sword die also by the sword, another deeply mis-used phrase. So. Jesus in effect did not come to lead a revolution by military force but a new type of force that would change our reality. ... Later he makes his thoughts about physical force more clear: "am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?" What makes sense of this? There is a deep longing within the message of Christ that brings a revolution of love so powerful and transforming, that it actually calls us to have altered states in our minds. Think about it, "non-violent ways?" No one actually thinks that non-violence is a real form of love is it? I simply have two things that need to be shared.

1. Why do we believe that it was great for one man to stand opposed to all that we see as wrong. War, segregation, unfair laws, and more. It was great for a man who is a follow of Christ to stand up and do that - then... but not now. If I were to stand in front of my church and chastise them for believing in a war that should not be waged and call on them to bring back our troops - I would be ousted from the church. Why? Because I oppose them politically? Spiritually? Why is it no longer acceptable for a man in the church to call out what he sees as wrong? There is serious opposition to this? Do we not want to hear good news?

2. Good news. If we were to so truly believe this state of mind to the point where we actually loved people, shared wealth, cared for each other - do you think it would be possible to overcome some of the challenges presented extreme fanaticism? I do. I believe that the kingdom that Jesus spoke about was truly revolutionary, and we have very few people that enter into it that don't get caught up in something. [myself included]

My hope is that we overcome.

Hospitality's relation to Community

2008-01-24T16:59:00.000-06:00

We had our meeting this past Sunday night with our launch team. We talked about community and what it means. This week I've still been reflecting on it. I found myself thinking about hospitality in community. I kept coming back to certain questions. They weren't worded exactly like this but similar: Can you have community without hospitality at its core? If so, what would it look like? Can you have community without hospitality at all? I wonder if we were to "recover" a strong ethos or spirit of hospitality in our fellowships of Christ followers, how might that change the essence of each particular community of faith? A community could be hospitable and still closed off to those outside. But, I think that to do so would miss a major aspect of hospitality. What do you think?

A Pure Heart

2008-01-09T12:03:00.002-06:00

It’s the whole speck and log thing. It’s the one finger pointing out and three pointing back at me. It’s a known issue in thousands, shoot—probably tens of thousands of churches, but for some reason no one does too much of anything about it. We talk about how much it causes problems and keeps the local expression of the body of Christ broken and fragmented. Slander and gossip in the various guises they take are passive killers, like carbon monoxide quietly leaking into a closed room.

I confess, I have actively participated in conversations about some one who has done something or hasn’t done something. When in a group with others having that conversation, the experience seems to unite us, to bring a sense of solidarity because we express our feelings and frustration about said person (or persons). When that particular group of persons get together, it isn’t long before the conversation turns to the Persons (that’s their name now), and the situation is relived, re-experienced. In some of those conversations we’ve talked about how Persons talks about other people and how it isn’t right. And there in lies the paradox (self-contradiction): participating in a practice that we ourselves condemn for others. Ahh, but we are justified in our actions, or so we easily convince ourselves.

I read the quotation below this morning and it’s what stemmed this email. It’s from a writing from the 1st or 2nd Century A.D. by the Shepherd of Hermas, who addresses situations like these with bold words, words that are like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Be humble and innocent, and you will be like the children who don’t know the wickedness that ruins men’s lives. First, then, speak evil of no one, nor listen with pleasure to anyone who speaks evil of another. But if you listen and believe the slander which you hear, you will participate in the sin of him who speaks evil. For believing it, you will also have something to say against your brother [or sister]. Therefore, you will be guilty of the sin of him who slanders. Slander is evil and an unsteady demon. It never abides in peace, but always remains in conflict. (italics mine) Keep yourself from it, and you will always be at peace with everyone. Put on a holiness that will not offend with wickedness, but whose actions are all steady and joyful. Practice goodness.

Most of the time I think the stuff we fill those conversations with are petty and small, or a misunderstanding of something said or done. It shows how shallow the friendships really are. Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don’t. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link—If I’m really honest with myself, sometimes I’m the weakest link.

But “love covers a multitude of sins.” My prayer is that I willfully perceive those conversations for what they are—evil, and speak grace into them, instead of contributing to the fragmentation and downward spiral experienced in so many congregations. I want to be a part of a loving community that nurtures deep friendship, loyalty, respect, and Godly love. And the Holy Spirit will guide us if we open ourselves, soften our hearts to allow his corrective grace. And in that correction I am being reshaped in the image of Christ and he continues to make me holy. My light that shined dimly is rekindled, to the glory of God. Thanks be to God.

“But to do good and communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is pleased to dwell.” Heb 13.16

I am the Church

2008-01-08T09:50:00.001-06:00

A new friend named Nathan who attends SNU emailed me this video. It has quite a few messages, but one that nearly comes out of the screen and slaps us around a bit. That sounds a little violent...what I mean is it brings our attention back to a fundamental reality: WE are the church--not a building, not a building with stained glass and a steeple. We--diverse in age, ethnicity, stories, walks of life, perspectives, and experiences--are the church.

An interest event

2007-11-27T17:26:00.001-06:00

SNU is hosting a sermon planning workshop on Monday, 07 Jan 08 with Dr Steve Green as presenter. This should be good! If any are interested in attending, perhaps we could carpool. They also said that if five or more go there will be a group discount. So, if five people from a particular area go and go together, will that get the discount? It's only $29 (and that includes lunch) so it's not that much...but a discount is a discount!

Christ the King

2007-11-26T17:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Christ the King day, the festival celebrating the last week of the liturgical calendar. As I was getting ready for church I was listening to the classical radio station because they broadcast much better preachers than the Christian radio stations. I was excited to hear a broadcast on the lectionary readings for the day...and in it I heard one of the best thoughts on this great day, Christ the King--looking back at the whole year, but also looking at the Kingdom of God that Jesus was pointing to in his life and death. I don't know how long it'll be online, so I hope you get to hear it. I was blown away!

Peace,

Michael

Living in the Tension? or Jingle all the way?

2007-11-19T20:57:00.000-06:00

We are approaching Advent...and sooner the encompassing cultural “Christmas” season. It seems that the Christmas season is now starting before Thanksgiving. I saw holiday commercials starting on All Saints Day, Walmart put up their Christmas decorations on that day. Christmas music has been playing and started two weeks ago. I know that the Christmas season has taken on a cultural identity outside of the faith (commercialism, etc) and I’m okay with some of that. But I find myself asking the same question I did last year around this time: How do we balance the tension of the already and the not yet of Advent? I find myself wanting to wait to sing and even hear the carols. I want the Advent hymns and content to be given space and place. But, it’s so hard to hear it in a culture that blares those sacred songs everywhere with no meaning. And, once the clock turns past Dec 25, the larger culture takes down the trees and lights and moves on...and a large chunk of the American church follows with it. How do you foster the Advent season in singing “O come o come Immanuel” when others are singing “Joy to the world the Lord is come?”

Could I be bifurcating something that doesn’t need to be separated? Does the liturgical season of Christmas encompass Advent? The Easter season doesn’t encompass Lent, right? But, I guess in a way Christmas would encompass Advent because of the focus of the first two weeks—the second advent. But, Advent has to do with anticipation, hope, waiting, longing...maybe even silence (ha! Try that one in the culture!) in expectation of redemption and the coming of a savior (Savior) to bring us back to where we belong. And it is journeying through this time of waiting and longing that we can sing boisterously Joy to the world the LORD is come! Let earth receive her King! And, I’ve come full circle because the King has come already.

I some how find myself wanting to call this time from Thanksgiving to Christmas the holiday season, because of the cultural content of Santa, reindeer, sugar plums, and candy canes, Frosty, and all the fun songs that go along with it. But I don't want to call it the Christmas season. And I don't want to sing the carols..."because it's not time for them yet."

I don't want to be legalistic about it--I just want Advent to be given space and place in a very crowded and loud season.

Peace,

Michael

Emerging into difference?

2007-08-14T11:56:00.001-06:00

Dear Unknown Voyeur
I am an old guy in an emerging world. When I started planting churches it seemed like everything I did and said was emergent, even though I had never heard of the movement. Now that I am in an established church some in the emergent world have grinned at the thought that we are an emergent church.

With that said: I do agree that the whole emergent movement has been turned into Starbucks. Starbucks was a cool alternative in a landscape of mediocrity. Now they are lowering standards and have in essence become the proverbial corporate "MAN."The emergent church is heading in that direction at break neck speed. I think what we as Nazarenes need to realize is that from our inception we had the foundations of this movement engrained into our theological DNA.

Ol P. F Bresee said "In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things love." The main problem I see with the "Conversation" is the sacrifice of good theological discussion. I just thank God we don't burn people at the stake because allot of emergent want to be's would be crispy today. I think that ministry amerced in the reality of peoples lostness and disconnected theology, will give us enough ground to be emergent without ever really having to try or point it out to people.

There comes a time when we make the church more comfortable, but then there is a time when we have to make the church very uncomfortable. Well that is my 2 cents for now. I hope I am not uninvited and banned from the conversation. O, and I do know I can't spell my way out of a wet paper bag. Me and P. F have that in common.

I think they're on to something...

2007-07-23T16:16:00.000-06:00

I've known of Allelon for a couple of years (I think) and have found it to be an invaluable resource for thinking and engaging missionally, and just what that means. But today, I listened to one of Roxburgh's Journal Netcast entries and was really moved by what Pete Atkins described. It's different. It's not what we're used to. But they are discerning where God is at work and orienting themselves, and those around them in their community, to the in-breaking Kingdom reign of God. I was arrested by the line Atkins said along the lines of, We're praying that God would reveal to us what he's doing, not that he'd bless what we're doing." Man--that's soooo right on.

May the LORD reveal to us here in West Texas where he's working and woo us to join him!

The Lord be with you!

Michael

COTN and World Vision

2007-07-18T08:22:00.000-06:00

I read this article this morning and it really gave me a shot of hope. It is in and through this creative work where we see glimpses of the kingdom breaking in!

A groundbreaking partnership between one of America's high-profile denominations and World Vision will soon be providing desperately needed food assistance to thousands of poor families in southern Africa.

Church of the Nazarene is teaming up with World Vision to walk alongside those struggling to pull themselves out of poverty in Mutendere, a rural community in northern Malawi — one of the world's poorest nations. Through this partnership, Church of the Nazarene congregations are adopting World Vision's youth-focused 30 Hour Famine as their own. Now, Nazarene congregations will participate in the Nazarene 30 Hour Famine, powered by World Vision. Funds raised through the Nazarene 30 Hour Famine will support World Vision's ongoing work in Mutendere. Read more.

A Prayer from St Benedict

2007-07-10T21:29:00.000-06:00

O gracious and holy Father,
Give us wisdom to perceive you,
intelligence to understand you,
diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you,
eyes to see you,
a heart to meditate on you,
and a life to proclaim you,
through the power of the
spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.
-- Saint Benedict

I think on these words and find them becoming my own. Perception and discernment of the in-breaking kingdom, the prevenient presence of God the Spirit enabling and empowering us to live and lean into the kingdom, and a holistic life that is shaped by the Father's mission in the Son.

A fad or the future?

2007-06-05T20:06:00.000-06:00

I've talked with some and heard others discussing this emerging shift. It's interesting the range of discussion and agreement within the conversation, from those within and those outside of it. I heard some say it's a passing fancy, like the Jesus Movement of the sixties or the Seeker-Sensitive Movement of the 80s-90s.

With all this "newly" forming thought of doing and being church within a postmodern context, I've begun to hear people calling themselves post-postmodern or post-emergent....like they're already sporting the "been there done that and here's my t-shirt to prove it" attitude.

A friend of mine told me that they were starting a postmodern service at their church and he talked about it being really no different from their contemporary traditional "Nazarene" service. He said that the music is different but it's pretty much the same.

I have an idea but I'll refrain from giving it right now in attempts to spur some conversation on here. So, what do you think? Is it different, is it a fad or is it something that is going to be a round for a long while?

Peace.

What are you reading?

2007-05-29T21:48:00.000-06:00

I like to read. Sometimes it takes me a while to get through a book. I've always been jealous of those who learned how to speed read. I tried to learn back years ago when I entered seminary...but I felt like I wasn't retaining what I read...anyway.

I'm curious what others are reading. What have you read in the last year, six months that was really insightful or has made an impact on your outlook, theology, thought processes, etc?

Irenaeus on Pentecost

2007-05-27T08:17:00.000-06:00

From Against Heresies

This is why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

"The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God" came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world in which, according to his own word, the devil too had been cast down like lightning.

A different starting point?

2007-05-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

As I've read blogs, books, and thought through this "phenomena" of emerging, it appears to me that the paradigm shift, the reform, the reaction to the approach of "doing church" in what was considered to be THE way, is based on a move past a pragmatic efficient model that finds itself couched in a modernist framework. The work of Alan Roxburgh helps us see that the church in the western hemisphere finds itself being pushed out of the position she used to hold: the cultural (music, art, etc), moral, and scientific center of society. We now find ourselves on the margins, the periphery of society, along with the outcasts and the has-beens.

It is interesting how Robert Webber led us to see that we find ourselves in a world, that while it's unfamiliar to us (coming out of a Constantinian framework where the church plays a significant role in culture) it is not unfamiliar to the church. Webber said that our culture is not far removed from that those beginning few hundred years in the infancy years of Christianity.

I think what is different about this emerging thing from what some might call the mega church model is the starting point. I don't want to be disrespectful to this approach because it has been helpful and has done amazing things to help bring people into relationship with God. They took (and take) the call of the Great Commission seriously. Their focus is different. It seems to me that these churches have taken the approach that the church is a business and draws examples and direction from marketing and efficiency found in the business world. It seems to me that this emerging movement's domain is different--it "operates" with a different set of values. Rather than business as a deep foundation, it seems that the emerging movement returns to a theological foundation that the mega-church approach seems to take for granted. Maybe it was so "dumbed down" that theology wasn't seen as a really important matter or issue. Well, maybe just not their starting point--who understands theology but churched people, right?

But in recovering a theology of God, particularly seen through the lens [hermeneutic] of God's mission (missio dei) we see how we choose to cooperate and partner with God in his mission. That shapes the direction the church takes, forming all that the church does. If it doesn't connect with this theological understanding, then it is questioned as whether it is an important factor for the church. Worship is moved past a focus on pre-Christians and to return to Christ and a strong Trinitarian focus. Discipleship moves from individual piety to how the personal fits with communal Christian spiritual formation in the way of Jesus. Evangelism is different. It's different in that it's not about saving souls for heaven and from hell, but it's about pointing people and orienting them to the coming Kingdom of God's gracious and loving reign.

Because we are in this in between time and are on the early stages of this shift we find ourselves in, there's still the need for the mega church and their model. But because fewer people are finding that approach valuable, this new approach is taking a significant step forward in helping connect people's spiritual desire to God, and not the many other things they use to try to satisfy it.

What do you think? Does this make sense? Is this short-sighted? Is it fair?

A Genesis

2007-05-22T15:32:00.002-06:00

Here's to a beginning. There's a whole lot we have behind us. It has shaped us, directed us, moved us. Where we have been is directly linked to where we are going, as well as where we are going is directly linked to where we have been. Robert Webber was well known for saying, "The road to the future runs through the past." I agree. An important question that needs to be asked is, "which past?" We are creating space for a place to discuss what it looks like to be connected to a matrix of relationships (Church of the Nazarene, evangelicalism, Protestantism, catholic orthodox Christianity, modernity, post-modernity, post-everything) and how that plays out in West Texas and a more localized context of our communities. Finding ourselves in the 21st Century, we are awakening to a major geographical change, like Dorothy coming out of her house to find that she's not in Kansas anymore.

I remember a Mickey Mouse Cartoon that was connected to Walt Disney's animated version of "Robin Hood" called "Brave Little Tailor." In it Mickey is misunderstood to be a giant killer and is recruited to kill the giant in the kingdom. Mickey does his best and in a brilliant orchestration he tangles up the giant, pulls his feet out from under him and he goes down with an enormous earth-shattering fall--creating a swath of land upheaval around him. He's out cold. The town decides to celebrate by putting up a carnival around him. They're playing around, having fun in this new place, powered by the sleeping giant. But I wonder about something Disney didn't take time to address, what will happen when the giant wakes up?

Anyway, the land around them changed and they adapted and used it to their benefit. Now, my mind is wandering about the metaphor of this new land and the giant. I kinda like the Wizard of Oz one better, because there is no sleeping giant, only a wiked witch looming in the background that is easily "liquidateable."

Maybe this is where the call in Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon to make their selves at home in this new land speaks to us. Our goal, our aim, is NOT to return to Kansas, but to see our way forward in this new land.

Peace,

Michael