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Self-Interest, Kingdom of God, and The Great Dilemma

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

So I’ve been pondering lately about the dilemma I faced while still operating as part of the institutional systems of church, the dilemma that so many well-meaning church leaders face today.

The dilemma is this: we like to see ourselves, and our local church, as part of the larger Body of Christ, recognizing that we are only a part of THE church. And yet, because of the nature of sustaining an institution, most of the decisions the leader(s) must make have to do with the growing of “our” church rather than building “the” church.

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Closing the Last Chapter

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Categories: moments of truth

I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve been working mainly on this post…and this is likely to be one of the most vulnerable, personal posts I’ve ever put on this blog. So be nice. 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, The Wild One and I started having a conversation about this transitional place we are in, trying to get settled in Denver, and the challenges we’re dealing with. And she made the observation that I had grown increasingly negative in my outlook over time, tending only to see the glass half-empty. It wasn’t a mean-spirited conversation at all; but she said it partly because she wanted to understand what was behind it, and partly because in our situation, we really need a positive, can-do attitude, and my pessimism was making it difficult for her to keep her own spirits up. A fair assessment.

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The Bubble (excerpt)

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Categories: What the heck was THAT?

From my recent post at Communitas Collective. (Go check the new site…lots of updates!)

I lived inside a bubble long ago
Where all inside was safe and sterilized
With all the evils of the great unknown
Conveniently ignored and hid from view
And others lived within the bubble, too
And we enjoyed the bliss of ignorance
Our bubble-world, to us utopia
Protecting us from chance and circumstance

And everything made sense within the walls
A micro-world, with everything controlled
Unanswered questions gnawing at our souls
Could easily be shoved beyond the veil

(There’s more…read the rest here…)

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Permanent link to this post (99 words, 2 images, estimated 24 secs reading time)

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A Few Moments of Quiet

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up)

So it’s Sunday morning, and while you are probably asleep, I am up even earlier than usual. I was prepared to drive through the snowstorm to the gathering where I lead worship. Got a call–it’s cancelled.

Just snowy enough to cancel my commitments; not quite snowy enough to stop me from walking down to my favorite blogging spot. 🙂 Can’t beat that with a stick. So here I am, blogging away for your indifferent disinterest reading pleasure.

This is a preview of A Few Moments of Quiet. Read the full post (656 words, 1 image, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

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The Beer We’ll Drink in Heaven…I Guess

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Categories: fun, Things I Should Probably Not Be Telling You, What the heck was THAT?

So tonight, a new pub/restaurant that’s opening up just across the street had an open house and invited the neighborhood to come have free food and drinks before their grand opening tomorrow. So we walked the two minutes into town to check it out. And besides the free food that kept coming out of the kitchen, they offered free stuff from the bar. And they had the beer in the picture on draft.

I remembered how in his book Exiles, Michael Frost tells the story of how Arthur Guinness developed Guinness Beer. And in the book he says, “It’s the beer we’ll drink in heaven.” So since it was free…I tried it.

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Who Does She Think She Is?

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Categories: creativity, healing wounds, women's issues

Yesterday afternoon, blogger friend Kathy invited some folks over to her house to watch a movie and discuss it, and the family and I went. We can do that now, being that we now live near her. 🙂

The movie was called Who Does She Think She Is?, a documentary about women in the arts, their struggles to find their voice, the obstacles they face–and the price they often pay for their choices. (No–I was not the only man in attendance.) The movie made was by the same people who made the Oscar-winning film Born into Brothels.

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Zombie Christians

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

I suppose this post would have been more timely last weekend…. 🙂

Have you ever noticed, those of you with a church background (particularly of the more charismatic type), that there is often a vibe in church that our minds are an obstacle to receiving from God? Most of the time it’s subtle; other times, not so subtle. But the underlying premise is that we receive from God by the Spirit in ways that our natural minds cannot understand, and that if we try to discern with our minds, it will become a stumbling block to us. You can pick up this vibe in the way things are worded–when we are encouraged in some way to “bypass our minds” when God is manifesting His presence in some way, or when we are trying to get hold of some revelation, or when we are praying in tongues (again, for you charismatic folk).

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On How We Ought Not to Just Talk About the Bad Stuff, and Start Doing Something Different

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Categories: church, Meanderings (look it up)

Conversations from both here and over at Communitas Collective have got my mind running, so thought I’d better jot these thoughts down before I forget. 🙂

My blogger friend Kansas Bob, and newer blogger friend Al, together sort of made the point that it is not really enough for those of us disenfranchised folk to just point out the stuff that’s wrong with institutional forms of church…that we need to live out the positive effects of change in our lives. I truly agree with this, and I think it’s important to process that idea, to embrace the truth of it more than just verbally assent to it.

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Pondering a Deconstructed Spirituality

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Categories: changing mindsets, Meanderings (look it up)

Not too long ago, I posted a question: “What is ‘spiritual’?” Thanks for your answers.

I continue to ponder this line of thinking a bit. When I wrote about how I’m doing, I talked mainly about specifics relating to our transition to Denver from Tulsa, and getting our feet under us. But I’ve also been thinking about where I’m at from a spiritual perspective, and where my spiritual journey away from “church-as usual” has taken me thus far.

This is a preview of Pondering a Deconstructed Spirituality. Read the full post (1231 words, 2 images, estimated 4:55 mins reading time)
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