cross-gender friendships

hey all, if you haven't read Kathy Escobar's interview with her friend Dan regarding cross gender friendships, then get ye to her blog!

harmony not hierarchy

One of the speakers for Big Tent is Rachel Held Evans; she's the woman who wrote Evolving in Monkeytown. Currently, she's experimenting with a year of "biblical womanhood."

She just wrote a post called "Seeking Harmony, Not Hierarchy" on her blog, and I encourage you to read it. She discussed the Wesleyan quadrilateral: the balance between scripture, experience, tradition, and reason. I think that this is a topic that is relevant to us since many of us have experienced an imbalance of the four in our lives.

"In fact, I’ve recently come to realize that when I’m struggling with doubts about my faith it’s because one (or more) of these elements is failing to harmonize with the others."

Immigration

I want to share an fantastic site on immigration and getting to know more about the undocumented people's plight. It's called undocumented.tv

They are looking to share a message about love, understanding, and grace. They are also sharing a video and looking for groups to host discussions. Thought some of you might be interested.

article on atonement

Wow. I just finished reading an article on an "alternative" view of atonement. It really was a twist on what I had been taught, but it really rung true to me.
Check it out. It is really worth your time.

interview with emily

(photo by hannah)

Hey all!
I did another interview of an EmDes'er on my blog!
It's Emily!
Check it out here.

thoughts on a not so personal god

I don't know how many of you read Magpie Girl's blog, but I have followed her for a few years now. She used to be a pastor in a typical evangelical church, but she has slowly moved into a more all-embracing multi-faith practice. She recently blogged about the idea of a personal god when your spirituality expands. From her blog:

This shift from a personalized, highly-involved God to something wider and less humanoid can be unsettling for a lot of people. I often get questions around the idea of: “Well, if God is not personally in charge or me or personally involved with my life, what does that mean!??!” It’s a big shift, and not everyone makes it, or even needs to make it.

agnostic christian

I have in my rss feed a blog called Existential Punk. This blog is written by a woman named Adele. She recently posted about being a Christian agnostic. I found that it might be interesting to some of us at Emerging Desert. Here is the link to that particular post if you are interested.

Here is more about her in her own words:

My name is Adele and "i am thomas, doubter. i am judas, betrayer. i am nicodemus, reluctant in the night. i am st. john of the cross, soul darkened by love. i am a christian. i am not." (i borrowed this from David Henson at the blog unorthodoxology b/c i like what he said and i resonated with this.) i am also "lost, wicked, and depraved but redeemed by the grace and beauty of God." ( i also resonated with this and borrowed it from Eugene Cho at the blog beauty and depravity.)

i am a traveler who currently resides in Sacramento, CA with my partner and love of my life, Katryna, and our dawg Mushu, a Tibetan Spaniel. i am currently going through long-term treatment for Chronic Lyme Disease, other tick borne diseases, and heavy metal toxicity.

The Book of John

I was talking with a friend about our discussion through the book of John. He suggested that we might want to listen to Shane Hipp's sermons on it. So hey, here's the link-might be a nice addition to what's already rattling around in our heads.

certainty and doubt

Yesterday, we talked a bit about those who hold certain beliefs true and those who are holding doubts. Is there room for both people in our group? Are there people who could come to our gathering and feel unwelcome because of issues in their life?

It was an interesting discussion, and I think it really challenged many of us. I certainly was engaged, and I learned so much from people who have actually faced certain situations in their lives. It's one thing to pose a hypothetical situation, but to hear answers from real situations is humbling.

I thank everyone who shared stories.

It's true that context and relationship can change us. It's one thing to have an opinion or belief, but it up-ends us when someone we love comes to us in their pain.

Thoughts?

joy's blog

Hey friends and lurkers,

Joy has been blogging through a bit of her spiritual journey, and I think she is doing an amazing job. Check out her latest post regarding deconstruction and reconstruction of "praxis"

(Two thumbs WAY up)

because gmail is down for craig, I post in his stead

it's tuesday, which of course means new music day! {=o) okay, maybe i'm the only one who thinks of tuesdays as a weekly music holiday. anyway, there is an album out today that i thought some of you might find interesting. david bazan - curse your branches. if you haven't heard of david bazan or his better-known previous project, pedro the lion, it's really a pretty interesting catalog of work. he has always been very open and transparent about his spiritual life and struggles (with some sidebars into his problems with politics/the religious right). starting from his early work of basically hymns and praise songs mixed with critiques of the church to this latest record where he tends to call out god on more than one occasion even to the point of questioning his existence. here's an interesting interview with the guy, if you'd like to find out a little more about where he's coming from.
i've got the record if anyone is interested in borrowing it. i've been listening to it for about a month,* some days i have to play it a few times in a row and sometimes i don't want to hear it.

here are a couple of great songs from the record.

When We Fell

with the threat of hell hanging over my head like a halo
i was made to believe in a couple of beautiful truths
that eventually had the effect of completely unraveling
the powerful curse put on me by you
when you set the table
and when you chose the scale
did you write a riddle
that you knew they would fail
did you make them tremble
so they would tell the tale
did you push us when when we fell
if my mother cries when i tell her what i have discovered
then i hope she remembers she taught me to follow my heart
and if you bully her like you’ve done me with fear of damnation
then i hope she can see you for what you are
what am i afraid of
whom did i betray
in what medieval kingdom does justice work this way
if you knew what would happen and made us just the same
then you , my lord, can take the blame

In Stitches

my body bangs and twitches
some brown liquor whets my tongue
my fingers find the stitches
firmly back and forth they run
i need no other memory
of the bits of me i left
when all this lethal drinking
is to hopefully forget
about you
i might as well admit it
like i even have a choice
the crew have killed the captain
but they still can hear his voice
a shadow on the water
a whisper in the wind
on long walks with my daughter
who is lately full of questions
about you
when job asked you the question
you responded “who are you
to challenge your creator?”
well if that one part is true
it makes you sound defensive
like you had not thought it through
enough to have an answer
like you might have bit off
more than you could chew

* - yes, i am a sinner. i steal music from the internet when it is not yet available in stores. but i fully intend to buy the lp once i can figure out how to get it to my house without melting.

Apparently... We're still alive. And the emergent video contest.

Wonderful conversation on Sunday on why we're still alive. Everyone's passionate responses revealed too much to write. But what really came out was the beauty of a group of people that desires to follow Jesus and not let anything stop that. It's great to have met such a group!

I am announcing the first ever Emergent Video Contest. What is that you ask?

I am going to ask any group that considers itself emergent or emerging to submit a two minute video showing what their gatherings are like. This is meant to show that we're not cohesive at all. We're a ragtag group of Jesus people who have many different expressions. Someone said on Sunday that essentially the tag emergent is nothing but a group of people engaging in a conversation, and this is true. I think a good way to show what this means is to show the differences in groups that consider themselves emerging/emergent.

Every contest has rules, so here's mine: It must be substantive. We need to get an idea of how your group works when we see your video. Also, include some sort of contact info at the end (your website, address, twitter, whatever). Anyone have any more criteria? Let me know.

Interested in participating? Ask me how! If everyone is comfortable with it, we'll do some sort of video of our group. But mainly I need help getting the word out and setting up a easy way to collect videos (any techie people out there?).

Oh, and the contest part. Well, contests require incentive. Can anyone think of someplace that would be willing to donate something that would be of value of a group of people as a prize? I'm thinking that there would be a random drawing for a winner.

Lastly, if you think this is a terrible idea to begin with, let me know and it might get 86ed.