interview with hannah

Hey everyone! I am currently writing a series on my blog in which I interview my friends. My last post was an interview with Hannah! Here's the link!

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?

I am because we are...

Heya friends,

I stumbled upon a really beautiful blog post over on www.emergingwomen.us by Erin Crisp. The article is about how kids in America don't like going to school compared to kids in Kenya, but I thought the theme of the post was applicable to so much in our lives. Check it out!

“They do not understand that ‘I am because we are, and we are because I am.'"

Recap 5.03.09

     Adam shared with us a bit of his story, and how he and Tara came to be on this journey.  It had been on his and Tara's heart to go see, hear and taste what extreme poverty actually is.  While in Addis Ababa, Ethiopa, among the places they went was a church service for those dying of AIDS.  Those running the service would care for those in need and give them a place to worship in their final hours.  Needless to say this was a life changing experience.  This was contrasted later with a mega-church service here in the valley (we'll allow it to remain nameless) in which the happy parishioners were cheering the pastor as he revved his Harley Davidson down the aisle and up onto the stage as a sermon intro.  This could be a place marked as the beginning of a change for the Bams...

(Adam and Tara, for me to sum up the depths your experience(s) in a few lines is impossible.  Please edit away, or feel free to write "not endorsed by the Bams" in the comments.)

Adam then read to us from pages 136-138 in Shane's book, as a new perspective, or rather a big picture view of the great commission.

In light of some of the points brought up in Jesus for President, the pledge of allegiance was mentioned as a little more difficult to swallow for some of us, especially those of us who have children and are wondering just exactly what it is that we want them to value.  Isn't it the people who make a country, not the country that makes the people?

As we take another hard look at becoming the church we want, becoming the people we want to become, we ask "how"?  Yet in regards to what we "haven't" done, or to respond to our own critiques that say we are all talk and no action, we discussed the following.

I'm not sure who brought it up, but I believe it was Ron.  Yeah you Ron.  Here's the idea: no, we're not yet satisfied with where we are, and arguably we may never be.  However, if we look back at ourselves 5 years ago (more or less for some of us), we can see that many things have changed.  Some things have changed dramatically.  We should not discount that this is in fact a journey, and it will be comprised of many single steps, not a small number of giant leaps.  As I type this my own impatience is becoming all too apparent.  I like big leaps.

Well, I hadn't been made aware of this about myself at the time, so I pressed on.  My thoughts were these: We look at those who are examples of drastic change, such as Shane C.  We usually respond with "I'm not going to make my own clothes or give my house to the poor so.....what can I do?"  And yet I feel that if are ever going to be able (read: willing) to give our houses to the poor were going to have to start somewhere.  So here's the question: where is a happy medium between changing the source of our coffee from *unknown to *freetrade, and giving away every possession we have?  Can we drum up some creativity to find that middle ground?  By the way, I think we all need to become very aware of what we buy, why, where it comes from, and who it affects.  That said, I don't believe stopping there will satisfy what it is we're longing for.

Some ideas that came up...

• Jim suggested that we consider starting a neighborhood Laundry Love project in Mesa.  This would be very cool: hanging out together, making new friends, and extending our love to those who need it.  Check out the link - it's all sorts of good stuff.  At this point we're just looking to see if somebody would like to kick it off.  Are you that person?  (I should go into recruiting, that was powerful)

• Sarah mentioned a friend of theirs who is a pastor and is experiencing some heart-ache from the decision to leave his church.  Sarah said they are going to try and be there for him and support him through this time of transition. 
  
• This kicked off a discussion about how pastors in many church contexts can be very overworked and under-appreciated.  Yet while they need support, they may not be able to be supported by staff or laity because of the nature of the job, and the way you should "appear" to your congregation (I could type a novel about this, but I shan't).  Jamie suggested there could be an opportunity here to serve those working in the church.  I wonder: is this a hint of what it could look like to have a positive and mutually beneficial connection between the emerging church and the institutional church?  I dream I dream....

•  Mr. Grzecka suggested as a group we look at an Amor Ministries (or similar) weekend trip.  That would also be way cool.
  

•  Another good idea is one that Tara brought up (years?) ago.  I think it fits into the question of what things we can do to live differently, yet not scary differently.  A simple (online?) way of sharing resources among the group.  Those items that we would be willing to let someone borrow we could have on a list, and basically could be able to say what's mine is yours.  Tara, do you care to extrapolate, or have you modified the idea at all since way back when?

      I think that's a pretty good start.  Any other ones?  Comments?  Longest recap post in the history of ever?  Peace out...

for the northerners

Hey folks,
I know some of you live on the north side, but would like to participate in feeding the hungry on Sundays. A couple years ago, I attended some networking meetings for people like us around the valley, and I met some cool people doing something called Taco Church. Basically, they are doing what we are doing but out of a Mexican restaurant. The Lord works in mysterious ways. And awesome ways. Mmmm...Mexican food...
Anyway, I wanted to provide the link to their site--fancy, I know--we don't even seem to know how to give proper directions to smoking church most of the time. So here you go...contact and attend at your own risk.

one of the best ever

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!

I am a little excited. I have a confession: I love giving presents. And no joke, I dreamed I bought a golden retriever puppy for Stacy. I can still smell his puppy breath. Ew. (Sorry Stacy, I didn't get you one in real life.)

I was checking the internets this morning, and read about an amazing Christmas Eve during WWI. The soldiers stopped shooting each other and exchanged food and song. I thought this was a truly beautiful story. You can read about it on TallSkinnyKiwi's blog.

". . . if we had been left to ourselves, there would never have been another shot fired. We were on the most friendly terms, and it was only the fact that we were being controlled by others that made it necessary to start shooting each other once again."
--Major Murdoch Mackenzie Wood, Gordon Highlander

Annunciation

To the impossible: Yes!

Enter and penetrate

O Spirit. Come and bless

This hour: the star is late.

Only the absurdity of love

Can break the bonds of hate.

--Madeleine L'Engle

Love God

Okay, so I must admit first off that I'm not cool with blogging. I like to read blogs, but I am more reserved when it comes to putting myself out there. But here I go...

I read Kathy's blog today about Love, Mercy, and Compassion:

http://kathyescobar.com/2008/12/16/what-could-be-love-mercy-compassion-extended/

The one sentence that keeps weighing on me is this: "what i am saying, though, is that without a true heart connection to God’s redemption, grace, and mercy in a practical & real sense, it is hard to pass it on to others."

And I'm starting to wonder if I really do love God. I thought I did back when it was about rules. I was really good at following rules. But when I really think about it, my faith story mostly has to do with me making choices to do certain things and not do other things, and that was how I loved God I thought. And now the rules are very fuzzy for me and I think are starting to disappear, and I'm not sure that I can honestly say that I love God. I'm more of a thinker than a feeler in most areas of life, including my faith, and I can't say that I feel much emotion about God at all. I've wondered about this in the past and thought I could fix this by getting to know God better...so I would read my Bible more or pray more...just be more disciplined. But I don't really want to read the Bible right now or pray and I don't know what that means. Do I even know God?

I'm trying to process this, and I try to think of things I love: my husband, my kids, the ocean, good food, sunny days and clear skies, art and music. But things like grace and mercy and God are so abstract right now for me that I don't know how to apply the word "love" to them. The only sense or emotion that I'm getting related to God is that somehow I think He still wants me even though I'm really messed up. But I don't know where it can go from here. It always comes back to the same question, "How do I do this? How do I love God?" I want to...for reals. A little help here?