Fall

Fall into the Word,
fall into its embrace.
The Word will always be there,
in love and in truth and with grace.
It might not seem sane,
it may not seem safe.
But, there is no greater high
than to fall into the Word,
to fall with all faith.
Faith that it will catch you.
Faith that it is right.
But, always remember
to have faith is to fight.
To fight fears and emotions.
To fight passions and cares.
To fight ego and people;
it's just a burden that we must bear.
Fall into the Word,
let it echo in your mind.
Fall into the Word
and leave all else behind.
Let not anything detour you,
to yourself be not untrue.
Fall into the Word,
and what the Word says,
DO!

I HAVE A DREAM

I have a dream that one day the church of Jesus Christ will rise up to her God-given calling and begin to live out the true meaning of her identity- which is, the very heartthrob of God Almighty- the fiancee of the King of Kings.

I have a dream that Jesus Christ will one day be the Head of His church again. Not in pious rhetoric, but in reality.

I have a dream that groups of Christians everywhere will begin to flesh out the New Testament reality that the church is a living organism and not an institutional organization.

I have a dream that the clergy/laity divide will someday be an antique of church history, and the Lord Jesus Himself will replace the moss-laden system of human hierarchy that has usurped His authority among His people.

I have a dream that multitudes of God's people will no longer tolerate those man-made systems that have put them in religious bondage and under a pile of guilt, duty, condemnation, making them slaves to authoritarian systems and leaders.

I have a dream that the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ will be the focus, the mainstay, and the pursuit of every Christian and every church. And that God's dear people will no longer be obsessed with spiritual and religious things to the point of division. but that their obsession and pursuit would be a person - the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a dream that countless churches will be transformed from high-powered business organizations into spiritual families- authentic Christ-centered communities- where the members know one another intimately, love one another unconditionally, bleed for one another deeply and rejoice with one another unfailingly.

I have a dream today...

- Frank Viola -

A Call to Clergy: Stop Performing Legal Marriages!

Hey all - this is an interesting post that I saw on Will Samson's facebook. I don't know much about the author but is for certain to be a good tribute to the conversation, please scope it out and post your comments here.



http://blog.tonyj.net/2010/01/a-call-to-clergy-stop-performing-legal-marriages/

Rich...

It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. -Jesus

We have become so numb to the reality of our situation that we really do not comprehend how incredibly rich we really are; at least in the terms of conveniences’. Even the lowest classes of our society have access to luxuries that 200 years ago kings and queens would of envied. And when Jesus spoke these words 2000 years ago the emperor of Rome seated on his golden throne, surrounded by thousands of slaves could not imagine the conveniences’ that we take for granted today.
I don’t believe that prosperity in its self is wrong, but there is most definitely a point were we fall into the pit of “riches” and become the rich men that Jesus admonished.
Jesus said something else, he said that “we can not serve God and mammon.”
So my question is; who do we serve, God or mammon?

a Godsend

I've been away from the blogging world for some time on account of a busy schedule, but I've been wanting to blog on a few topics that hopefully I'll get to one of these days.
BUT we did have a big event happen in the life of our group here lately that needs to be blogged about, and that was the weekend visit from Dan and Jeanine and some of their community members from Canada.
Dan Lowe spent some years as a member of Communality, an intentional community in Lexington Kentucky where Jese has visited a few times. We got to spend a few months with Dan a couple of summers back while he was taking care of business to get to Canada and needed a place to stay. We estabished a quick friendship with him because he's not only a likeable and outgoing guy, but also an incredible source of knowledge and insight. When our group was first opening ourselves up to the concepts of community/new-monasticism, Dan served as an encourager and mentor. So we were incredibly stoked when we learned that he and his wife that we had heard so much about would be visiting us with some members of their newly established community out of Edmonton.

Truth be told, it has been a helluva hard year for our group, from personal crises to our collective struggle to hang on to our original ideals. After finishing up our big summer project ( the community garden, which needs a post of its own) we were a little bit aimless, wondering where to go from there, what was next, and especially, why? Why were we striving toward this nebulous goal of "community" that none of us really knew what looked like or how to get to? Why were we spending all of our energy battling against a church body ? Why were people not interested in the ideas that had taken our breath away and got us dreaming of a better way to follow Christ than we had ever known? It was a discouraging time.

Enter Dan and Jeanine's group. I was initially worried about the weekend, feeling like there wasn't much optimism we could lend to this budding community. But as the weekend played out and we ate together, talked together, and listened to their stories I was revitalized. Rachel, one of their members, shared about their groups formation and about the house she shares with her husband, another married couple, and three bachelors. Her eyes lit up as she talked about how "beautifully messy" it was and I experienced anew my own enthusiasm. There's something unquestionably spiritual about this kind of get together; a hospitality from each party that is as willing to receive as it is to give. Luke and Heather graciously shared their home and we all pitched in to cook - the Edmonton folks split us a winter's worth of firewood. I was given an armful of new books!

The more I process through the weekend and the conversations, the more I realize what a great gift it was. We connected with amazing people, rekindled our dreams, strengthened our resolve... it was truly a godsend.

This isn't a joke, but you would think it is.

hell, y'all

This is a thought-provoking article on hell by a guy named Jason Boyett. It touches on some of our discussions about modern day interpretations of various books in the Bible. Lots of folks assume that the way today's Christians understand things is the way people always have. Not so, good people. Not so.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/features/18239-one-hell-of-a-question

Here's a teaser from the article:

"I heard a lot about hell growing up, particularly about how awful the eternal burning would be. I spent too much of my childhood fearful that somehow my salvation wouldn't take and I'd end up there. The horrors of hell are seared into my psyche.

So I was pretty annoyed to discover the biblical case for the hell of my imagination to be less than airtight. Along with this annoyance came some serious questions."