Friends... (aka, the two of you who still read this blog!)
Today I am "officially" moving on from this blog. We've had a good run, but now it's time to move on to something that has a little bit less of an identity crisis.
So... this blog is breaking up with itself and moving to TWO places.
First, for the more "spiritual" and church-related reflections, I direct you to http://awakechurch.org/blog/ where I will be blogging once in a while, and hopefully I will eventually be joined by some other members of our community.
Second, for the Aurora content, check out the new neighborhood blog I'm starting with a group called Neighborlogs. I'm still getting the hang of it of it will take a while for it to look good and neat, but I'll be posting here fairly regularly. Find it here: http://auroraseattle.com/.
Come join me at both!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Freestyle
The other morning I read this quote: "Don't fail to do something just because you can't do everything."
About an hour later, I met a woman who is embodying this quote exactly when my friend introduced me to his friend and neighbor who is trying to encourage a movement of what she calls "Freestyle Volunteering". Check it out and try it out!
About an hour later, I met a woman who is embodying this quote exactly when my friend introduced me to his friend and neighbor who is trying to encourage a movement of what she calls "Freestyle Volunteering". Check it out and try it out!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Score
The inaugural season for the Seattle Sounders, our very own Major League Soccer team, began a few weeks ago. While my soccer playing days ended in 7th grade when I moved over to the game of (American) football and my knowledge of MLS stops at David Beckham and the guy from Melrose Place who played in the league years ago, I am excited about the Sounders being in town and I hope to make it to a game.
Especially since the fans have been singing about my neighborhood...
Sung to the tune of "Guantanamera":
"You couldn't score on Aurora,
You couldn't score on Aurora,
You couldn't score on Aurooooooooooora."
— Emerald City Supporters chant
Get it?
Personally, I think it's hilarious!
But it also epitomizes the exact thing that we're trying to combat: the Aurora stereotype.
For the past year and a half I have been a part of a community task force in the Aurora area. One of the things that we've been trying to do is help people see the changes that have taken place in this emerging neighborhood. In other words, we're just not satisfied with stereotypes. Yes, yes, there has been and there still is crime and drugs and prostitution - and if I'm to speak about this place truthfully, I can't ignore them. But Aurora is not just these things. Under the surface, behind closed doors, there are neighbors blessing neighbors, there is laughter, there are dreams, there is hard work. It is my dream that people would start to wake up to this Aurora. It is my hope that Aurora would come to be known as the place where neighbors seriously care for their neighbors, where extending mercy and seeking justice are a way of life, where hospitality is extended to all. I could go on and on... But I'll stop, except to say that this is the kind of stereotype I could live with!
But the truth is that we have a long way to go. We can't just be about responding to negative issues impacting our community, nor can we simply be about initiating positive activity ("Seattle Nice" is not enough!). Ultimately, we have to be in relationship with one another.
And if this happens, all I can say is,
"Score!"
Especially since the fans have been singing about my neighborhood...
Sung to the tune of "Guantanamera":
"You couldn't score on Aurora,
You couldn't score on Aurora,
You couldn't score on Aurooooooooooora."
— Emerald City Supporters chant
Get it?
Personally, I think it's hilarious!
But it also epitomizes the exact thing that we're trying to combat: the Aurora stereotype.
For the past year and a half I have been a part of a community task force in the Aurora area. One of the things that we've been trying to do is help people see the changes that have taken place in this emerging neighborhood. In other words, we're just not satisfied with stereotypes. Yes, yes, there has been and there still is crime and drugs and prostitution - and if I'm to speak about this place truthfully, I can't ignore them. But Aurora is not just these things. Under the surface, behind closed doors, there are neighbors blessing neighbors, there is laughter, there are dreams, there is hard work. It is my dream that people would start to wake up to this Aurora. It is my hope that Aurora would come to be known as the place where neighbors seriously care for their neighbors, where extending mercy and seeking justice are a way of life, where hospitality is extended to all. I could go on and on... But I'll stop, except to say that this is the kind of stereotype I could live with!
But the truth is that we have a long way to go. We can't just be about responding to negative issues impacting our community, nor can we simply be about initiating positive activity ("Seattle Nice" is not enough!). Ultimately, we have to be in relationship with one another.
And if this happens, all I can say is,
"Score!"
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
This Economic Life
Back in college I spent my summer days painting houses. Besides painting there were two things that were daily staples: At lunch I would eat a PB&J sandwich and in the afternoon I would listen to National Public Radio as I slapped paint on the side of a house and stood 20-30 feet up in the air on top of a ladder affectionately called the "widow-maker".
Those were great days. I laughed a lot, got a good tan, and learned a ton from amazing programs like "This American Life." It's been a while since I've been able to listen to a radio program on a consistent basis. Fortunately, there is this thing called a "podcast".
My friend Matt recently recommended to me three engaging podcasts of NPR's This American Life that discuss with incredible clarity and impartiality the nuts and bolts of our current economic situation.
The Giant Pool of Money
Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Bad Bank
So pick up a paint brush and a PB&J, and enjoy!
Those were great days. I laughed a lot, got a good tan, and learned a ton from amazing programs like "This American Life." It's been a while since I've been able to listen to a radio program on a consistent basis. Fortunately, there is this thing called a "podcast".
My friend Matt recently recommended to me three engaging podcasts of NPR's This American Life that discuss with incredible clarity and impartiality the nuts and bolts of our current economic situation.
The Giant Pool of Money
Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Bad Bank
So pick up a paint brush and a PB&J, and enjoy!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Hidden Homeless
Please take a moment to read this article from the New York Times about the hidden homelessness of families living in motels. And pray. The parallels of this story to what we're seeing here are too numerous to count.
These neighbors aren't just on Aurora - they're all over the place!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Merciful and...
There was once an ancient region on a lake that was made up of about 10 small cities. This region was known as a progressive and pagan place. Today, some people would call it “godless”. If a person was a good and pious person, they knew that they should avoid this place like the plague so that it wouldn’t contaminate them. Their religious tradition, their denomination, left this place a long, long time ago.
Just as this region was considered to be on “the wrong side of the lake” by a lots of religious people, the people living in a particular city in this region east of the Galilee had their own area that they designated as “off limits” – not for religious reasons, but because there were stories about a wild man who lived there. At times the stories about this wild man seemed so bizarre, so extreme, so terrifying that people where convinced that he must just be a local legend, a myth.
But they couldn’t just write these stories off as mere legend. Because when they came near this off limits place they could hear the man’s bloodcurdling shrieks coming from the burial caves, when they were out on the lake in their boats they could see this insane, naked man scurrying around on the cliffs like some sort of beast, and – most tragically – there was a family living in town that remembered all too well the day that their son, their brother, their friend, left home and headed towards this desolate place south of town on the lake.
Over the years, they said, things deteriorated dramatically. At first, they would go to him and bring food and clothes, but each time they returned he would again be starving and naked. Then they started to notice that he was always covered with scabs and sores from self-inflicted wounds. Eventually, he wouldn’t even respond to them when they called out his name. At one point, someone decided to chain him up so that he wouldn’t harm anyone in the city. But eventually he broke through those chains. He broke through dozens of chains. Now, even the cities strongest men had decided to give up on the chains because they could no longer hold down the wild man. Yes, even they were afraid of him!
So they left him alone – everyone left him alone. It had probably been years since the wild man had any company besides the pigs grazing nearby.
Until one day he was interrupted...
As he crawled around on the side of the cliff, he noticed a boat on the lake that seemed to be purposefully coming towards him. Boats never came towards him; they always stayed north, directing their bows towards the town marina. The wild man drew near to the approaching boat. The boat reached shore and a man got out and started to move towards him. No one ever came near him – he was the wild, naked man, imprisoned by evil powers, despised and rejected by men.
But this man came near him. This man’s name was Jesus. The demons that possessed the wild man recognized him immediately and called out, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”, because Jesus had just commanded the evil spirit to depart from the man.
For too long these evil powers had their way with this man. They had seemingly systematically stripped this man of his humanity.
He lived not among the living, but in burial caves among the dead.
He was cut off from community.
He was cutting himself with stones.
He was cut off from his own humanity.
But Jesus looked at this man – who lived on the wrong side of the tracks on the wrong side of the sea – and still saw something. It was faint. The untrained eye could not see it. But Jesus could. Jesus saw this man’s humanity; Jesus saw the image of God.
Which made Jesus angry and devastated with sadness. This was not how it’s supposed to be. This was not how human beings, the crown of the God’s creation, are supposed to live! And so, Jesus – the King and the one who was announcing the arrival of the kingdom, of God’s rescue plan, of God’s work of restoration – commanded the demons to leave the man and asked the man, “What is your name?”.
But the demons replied with their name, “Legion”. And they began to bargain with Jesus. “Don’t send us out of this area.” “Actually, please, please, send us to those pigs over there!”
In a moment of mayhem, Jesus granted their request, the evil spirits left the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2000 pigs stampeded down the steep bank into Lake Galilee where they all drowned. Those who were tending the pigs sprinted to town, told people what happened, and the people came out to get a glimpse of what was going on. There were multiple responses:
“All of that madness was inside of this man! Poor guy!”
“What kind of prophet, what kind of Messiah causes 2000 pigs to drown in a lake? What kind of Messiah destroys these creatures and devastates the local economy?”
“Look at the wild man! He is free!”
What kind of Messiah is this? Indeed.
This is the kind of Messiah who frees the wild man! The kind of Messiah who finds clothes for the wild man, who dresses him and feeds him and treats him with the dignity and respect, the attention and love every human being deserves.
Yes, yes, the pigs are dead and the farmers are suddenly devastated and strapped for cash. But the wild, demon-possessed man is sitting there, “dressed and in his right mind.” He has been restored. His humanity has been reclaimed.
This, the locals said, was some strange and dangerous magic. This man, Jesus, is bizarre and unpredictable. This man must get back into his boat and leave at once!
But before Jesus left, the formerly wild man pleaded with him to join Jesus and his disciples and go back across the lake. Though this Jesus granted the demons’ request to stay in the region and go into the pigs, and though this Jesus has granted the town’s request that he leave, this is one request that he refuses to grant. Instead, Jesus sends the man back to his people, back to his family. Back home. And Jesus said to him, “Tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you!”
What kind of Messiah is this? What kind of Rescuer?
This Jesus is merciful.
Merciful and wild.
----
This retelling of Mark 5.1-20 was inspired by (and in some places borrows from) ReJesus by Frost and Hirsch, pp. 108-111).
Just as this region was considered to be on “the wrong side of the lake” by a lots of religious people, the people living in a particular city in this region east of the Galilee had their own area that they designated as “off limits” – not for religious reasons, but because there were stories about a wild man who lived there. At times the stories about this wild man seemed so bizarre, so extreme, so terrifying that people where convinced that he must just be a local legend, a myth.
But they couldn’t just write these stories off as mere legend. Because when they came near this off limits place they could hear the man’s bloodcurdling shrieks coming from the burial caves, when they were out on the lake in their boats they could see this insane, naked man scurrying around on the cliffs like some sort of beast, and – most tragically – there was a family living in town that remembered all too well the day that their son, their brother, their friend, left home and headed towards this desolate place south of town on the lake.
Over the years, they said, things deteriorated dramatically. At first, they would go to him and bring food and clothes, but each time they returned he would again be starving and naked. Then they started to notice that he was always covered with scabs and sores from self-inflicted wounds. Eventually, he wouldn’t even respond to them when they called out his name. At one point, someone decided to chain him up so that he wouldn’t harm anyone in the city. But eventually he broke through those chains. He broke through dozens of chains. Now, even the cities strongest men had decided to give up on the chains because they could no longer hold down the wild man. Yes, even they were afraid of him!
So they left him alone – everyone left him alone. It had probably been years since the wild man had any company besides the pigs grazing nearby.
Until one day he was interrupted...
As he crawled around on the side of the cliff, he noticed a boat on the lake that seemed to be purposefully coming towards him. Boats never came towards him; they always stayed north, directing their bows towards the town marina. The wild man drew near to the approaching boat. The boat reached shore and a man got out and started to move towards him. No one ever came near him – he was the wild, naked man, imprisoned by evil powers, despised and rejected by men.
But this man came near him. This man’s name was Jesus. The demons that possessed the wild man recognized him immediately and called out, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”, because Jesus had just commanded the evil spirit to depart from the man.
For too long these evil powers had their way with this man. They had seemingly systematically stripped this man of his humanity.
He lived not among the living, but in burial caves among the dead.
He was cut off from community.
He was cutting himself with stones.
He was cut off from his own humanity.
But Jesus looked at this man – who lived on the wrong side of the tracks on the wrong side of the sea – and still saw something. It was faint. The untrained eye could not see it. But Jesus could. Jesus saw this man’s humanity; Jesus saw the image of God.
Which made Jesus angry and devastated with sadness. This was not how it’s supposed to be. This was not how human beings, the crown of the God’s creation, are supposed to live! And so, Jesus – the King and the one who was announcing the arrival of the kingdom, of God’s rescue plan, of God’s work of restoration – commanded the demons to leave the man and asked the man, “What is your name?”.
But the demons replied with their name, “Legion”. And they began to bargain with Jesus. “Don’t send us out of this area.” “Actually, please, please, send us to those pigs over there!”
In a moment of mayhem, Jesus granted their request, the evil spirits left the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2000 pigs stampeded down the steep bank into Lake Galilee where they all drowned. Those who were tending the pigs sprinted to town, told people what happened, and the people came out to get a glimpse of what was going on. There were multiple responses:
“All of that madness was inside of this man! Poor guy!”
“What kind of prophet, what kind of Messiah causes 2000 pigs to drown in a lake? What kind of Messiah destroys these creatures and devastates the local economy?”
“Look at the wild man! He is free!”
What kind of Messiah is this? Indeed.
This is the kind of Messiah who frees the wild man! The kind of Messiah who finds clothes for the wild man, who dresses him and feeds him and treats him with the dignity and respect, the attention and love every human being deserves.
Yes, yes, the pigs are dead and the farmers are suddenly devastated and strapped for cash. But the wild, demon-possessed man is sitting there, “dressed and in his right mind.” He has been restored. His humanity has been reclaimed.
This, the locals said, was some strange and dangerous magic. This man, Jesus, is bizarre and unpredictable. This man must get back into his boat and leave at once!
But before Jesus left, the formerly wild man pleaded with him to join Jesus and his disciples and go back across the lake. Though this Jesus granted the demons’ request to stay in the region and go into the pigs, and though this Jesus has granted the town’s request that he leave, this is one request that he refuses to grant. Instead, Jesus sends the man back to his people, back to his family. Back home. And Jesus said to him, “Tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you!”
What kind of Messiah is this? What kind of Rescuer?
This Jesus is merciful.
Merciful and wild.
----
This retelling of Mark 5.1-20 was inspired by (and in some places borrows from) ReJesus by Frost and Hirsch, pp. 108-111).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pew
The other morning I was sitting on a church pew...
In a café.
What does that say?
Think about it for a moment.
It means that a church somewhere probably shut down. Of course, it could also mean that a church replaced its pews with chairs because they thought that more comfortable seating might get more people to come to church (by the way, which reason for selling a pew is more unsettling? You make the call).
Let’s assume the first scenario: people stopped coming to church so the church closed down and sold its benches on Craigslist to a café.
Now this one story of this one church in this one place likely signals that the influence of this one church in its particular community declined over the years. It also seems to symbolize the declining influence of the church in North America – and it doesn’t take an empty pew or a relocated pew to recognize this reality.
This isn’t just the story in urban areas; it’s the story in rural America too.
Interestingly, however, while churches everywhere continue to close their doors or are forced to share pastors or try to make changes to stay relevant, America remains fascinated by the pastors who have the power to get people “in the pews"...
Mark Driscoll, the most famous or infamous - depending on who you talk to - Christian in Seattle is featured in the New York Times Magazine.
Rick Warren, a megachurch pastor, prays at Obama’s inauguration and, at least in Seattle’s Paramount Theater, is booed by the crowd. (Meanwhile, another pastor, Dr. Joseph Lowery is greeted with cheers and tears as he delivers the benediction. Fascinating.)
Ted Haggard, another (albeit former) megachurch pastor, is on HBO in the documentary "The Trials of Ted Haggard", which chronicles his life after he admitted to "sexual immorality" with a male prostitute (Interestingly, the film is by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi). To promote the film, he appears on Oprah and Larry King.
Joel Osteen gets a gig on Larry King too.
If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that Rod Blagojevich, the impeached ex-Governor of Illinois, was a megachurch pastor too because he also was doing the TV circuit. He appeared on Larry King, and while he didn't appear on Oprah, he did almost choose her to replace Barack Obama as Senator of Illinois.
Anyways... This is fascinating to me:
The pews are empty, but the news is full.
Yes, yes, yes, there are many reasons for the declining role of the church in North America right now, but I can't help but think that all of this news coverage (whether these mega-men are accurately represented or not) has something to do with why I was sitting on a church pew...
In a café.
In a café.
What does that say?
Think about it for a moment.
It means that a church somewhere probably shut down. Of course, it could also mean that a church replaced its pews with chairs because they thought that more comfortable seating might get more people to come to church (by the way, which reason for selling a pew is more unsettling? You make the call).
Let’s assume the first scenario: people stopped coming to church so the church closed down and sold its benches on Craigslist to a café.
Now this one story of this one church in this one place likely signals that the influence of this one church in its particular community declined over the years. It also seems to symbolize the declining influence of the church in North America – and it doesn’t take an empty pew or a relocated pew to recognize this reality.
This isn’t just the story in urban areas; it’s the story in rural America too.
Interestingly, however, while churches everywhere continue to close their doors or are forced to share pastors or try to make changes to stay relevant, America remains fascinated by the pastors who have the power to get people “in the pews"...
Mark Driscoll, the most famous or infamous - depending on who you talk to - Christian in Seattle is featured in the New York Times Magazine.
Rick Warren, a megachurch pastor, prays at Obama’s inauguration and, at least in Seattle’s Paramount Theater, is booed by the crowd. (Meanwhile, another pastor, Dr. Joseph Lowery is greeted with cheers and tears as he delivers the benediction. Fascinating.)
Ted Haggard, another (albeit former) megachurch pastor, is on HBO in the documentary "The Trials of Ted Haggard", which chronicles his life after he admitted to "sexual immorality" with a male prostitute (Interestingly, the film is by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi). To promote the film, he appears on Oprah and Larry King.
Joel Osteen gets a gig on Larry King too.
If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that Rod Blagojevich, the impeached ex-Governor of Illinois, was a megachurch pastor too because he also was doing the TV circuit. He appeared on Larry King, and while he didn't appear on Oprah, he did almost choose her to replace Barack Obama as Senator of Illinois.
Anyways... This is fascinating to me:
The pews are empty, but the news is full.
Yes, yes, yes, there are many reasons for the declining role of the church in North America right now, but I can't help but think that all of this news coverage (whether these mega-men are accurately represented or not) has something to do with why I was sitting on a church pew...
In a café.
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