Junk Drawer Spirituality

Emergent Village "De-Institutionalizes"

There is a press release coming out tomorrow (yes, I feel pretty cool that I knew about all this before the press release came out) written by Tony Jones and the group at Emergent Village.  I don't know all of the details but it looks as though they are attempting to dissolve some portions of "Emergent Village," and Tony Jones will no longer be the chief . . . and apparently there will not be a replacement chief.  Here's the statement: "To this end, Emergent Village will “flatten” the organization by discontinuing the national coordinator position and significantly reducing the organization’s fundraising."

The way they're pitching it is that this is an attempt by Emergent to move away from an institutionalized method of living their mission . . . which makes sense, since their primary function seems to me to offer a critique of the modern institutionalized church.  So to that end, I applaud Emergent for walking the talk.  It does get me thinking about how often an organization, a non-profit, a church, a business, anything that has started off with a very simple, grass-roots mentality tends to gravitate toward institutionalization and complexity.  Even for an organization who's primary function for existence is to critique institutionalization, the natural tendency is always to create structure, and layers, and bureacracy; and that's not nearly as sexy as a "grass-roots" or "organic" movement . . . and arguably not as effective either. 

Bar Stool Economics

I found this post on Michael Patton's blog, and I thought I'd share it here.  It seems like it's basically a fiscally conservative parable rebutting the Obama tax plan.  So take it for what it's worth.  Of course all such analogies fall short of reality to some degree, but I found it interesting, and if you disagree with the logic, I'd love to hear why.

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

Waterfront Interview on K-Love and Air-One

This morning, Jim Semradek, our Waterfront Lead Pastor, recorded a radio interview with the national Christian radio station, K-Love.  It's a short, 30 second interview but it will be played nationwide on all K-Love stations throughout the day on November 10th.  Then, there will be a series of follow-up interviews with Jim on Klove.com and their sister station Air1.com.  I'll update my blog when I get more info about the interview, but keep your ears peeled for Waterfront Community Church in the next few weeks if you're a K-Love listener.

The Real Saul, Sticks and Stones

I was in the seventh grade, sitting in art class.  We sat at tables instead of desks, four to each station.  So as I doodled on my art project I was trying to keep up with the conversation happening around me.  See, my older, and much more popular High School-aged brother had visited my Middle School that morning for reasons I can't recall-- some sort of project with a history class-- and his visit became a topic of conversation at my art table that day.  One of the more attractive cheerleaders of my grade, who also sat at my table, felt that it was her duty to inform me that my brother was super-hot, and that "You're not nearly as cool as your brother is." 

On Being a Progressive Thinker in a Traditional Church

There's an interesting blog discussion going on today on Scot McKnight's blog.  Scot McKnight is a New Testament professor from the area, an accomplished author and an academic advocate in the Emerging Church movement.  A young pastor wrote him a letter asking his advice on what to do if you're a progressive thinking, emerging, youth pastor in a more traditional church that tends to frown on thinking that colors outside of the lines.

I don't know that I would classify myself or ever will classify myself as "emergent" but I certainly know the feeling of being at odds with certain streams within the church in which I'm employed.  I've been there, and it's tough.  There's a continual awkward tension of trying to teach with conviction and honesty, always knowing that if you stray too far from the party line, you could get shot for mutiny.  But there was one comment on this blog post that I found to be especially profound concerning this topic.  Here was the comment:

"When I started to feel emerging leanings, it became so enticing to become cocky and let everyone know anytime I disagreed with a conservative pastor about something. It’s easy and sexy to do, but somewhere along the way, I quickly forgot the importance of submitting to Spiritual authority. Preach with conviction, but submit to authority- if you can’t do both, then it may be time to move on."

Simple, humble, and wise. 

Week 2 On the Waterfront

We just completed our second Sunday with Waterfront Community Church yesterday, and we had a great day.  Church planting is one of those enterprises that, on the one hand has the potential to create alot of anxiety over the unknown, but on the other hand, there have been so many churches that have been planted in the past and so much has been studied and written about church planting that we have a fairly accurate estimate of what we can expect from week to week.  It's actually quite comforting.  Prior to week one, based on the level of marketing that we were doing, I estimated that we would have somewhere around 250 attenders.  We had 238, so I was pretty close.  Church planting experts say that number will drop dramatically the second week and the goal is to keep more than 50% of your first week's attendaance.  We met that goal on Sunday with an attendence of 126.  So according to the "experts" we're doing good.

But here's the stuff the experts don't talk about.  We really honored God on Sunday.  Here's something Jim Mueller, one of our Core Team members, wrote to us this morning: "Yesterday morning while, overlooking the auditorium, I thought, 'We are on holy ground.'  I was struck with a powerful, 'God is here' feeling."  It kinda makes you realize that as important as the numbers and expert calculations are, and even though we want a high attendence every week and will continue to get as many people in the door as we can, we serve an audience of one every Sunday.  Can't wait til next week. 

The Real Saul, Why We Hide

I remember several occasions on average spring days, my family would drop what we were doing, get up, and hide in a closet.  I grew up in Amarillo,TX, a city that is far from the threat of hurricanes and earthquakes but right in the middle of tornado alley.  Tornado alley is a thin vertical strip of tornado activity hovering over middle America that climatologists say extends from the Texas Panhandle to S. Dakota, and my hometown sat in the center of it.  Often in the springtime, we would have 3 or 4 tornado warnings a week.  I remember hiding.  The sirens would blare.  The television warnings would sound.  And my family would huddle together in a small closet hoping it wouldn't get too close. . .  We'd hear the pounding rain and the gusts of wind.  If it got too close you could hear the sound of a freight train.  But that's why we hid.  We were afraid.

We've been talking about Saul, and the fact that Saul's problem in life was less about his pride and more about his deep insecurities.  The passage we're examining today was, I think, the one that really helped me understand Saul better.  As I've said, I always heard that the reason for Saul's downfall was his pride, but this passage helped  me see a different side of Saul.

Web Discussions and Articles On Waterfront

We're starting to see a few more articles and web discussions pop up on he internet about Waterfront.  I'm really interested in the conversations Waterfront is generating.  It’s amazing to me how Waterfront seems to make alot more sense to people who aren’t very connected to church than it does to church “veterans.” You ask an unchurched person how they’d feel if there was a church trying to give it’s money away, and they’re really supportive and say things like “Why don’t all churches do that? I’d go to a church like that.”. . . but pastors and church leaders have a harder time “getting it” it seems.  Hard to understand.  But I love the fact that it's getting talked about, and I actually also love the fact that people are pushing back on it, and asking tough questions.  It forces us to continually think things through.

Here's a link to a blog discussion on a website for Christian leaders called Monday Morning Insight and a link to another article written about our church.

Art and Evangelicalism

I just read a very interesting review of the recently released, Christian produced, movie Fireproof.  I have not seen the film, but I know a few Christian friends who have, both of whom highly recommended the film to me.  As most Christians and non-Christians alike, I'm always extraordinarily skeptical of something that is supposed to be entertaining that has "Christian" as a qualifying adjective . . . like "Christian music," "Christian skate parks," "Christian novels."  I've seen a few Christian movies and I've been sorely disappointed by every experience.  I went to see the movie Joshua a few years ago and it was absolutely aweful.  It carried about the same creative clout as an episode of 7th Heaven and it was so cheesy and predictable I felt sorry for the poor theater workers who had to actually show this lame excuse for a film.

So back to Fireproof. . .

Waterfront Article In "The Daily Herald"

Today, there was an article in the Daily Herald, a Suburban Chicago newspaper featuring Waterfront and our mission.  It's interesting to hear this columnists interpretation of our church from her perspective on Sunday, and there are some VERY interesting comments about our church below the article from people who read it. . . these comments include people who are excited about our church's model and people who are very skeptical that a church would actually want to help it's community.  I love the fact that this church is getting people talking.  Here's a link to the article. 

Waterfront Weekend Generosity

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a great opportunity this weekend at Waterfront to help a single mother in the commmunity of Schaumburg through an organization called Fellowship Housing.  This was not only our launch weekend, but this was also our first opporunity as a church to give all of our Sunday offerings away.  I just recieved word, that from the 238 people in attendence this weekend including kids, we collected $4,318!  That's what we collected from a room full of first-time attenders and visitors, most of whom probably didn't come prepared to give today!  The generosity revolution has begun. 

Waterfront Launch!!

This morning, Waterfront Community Church, the church plant I and many friends (now my family) have been working on for the past 7 or 8 months, launched to the public in Schaumburg, IL.  What an amazing morning.  From the moment I pulled up and met Greg in Schaumburg at 6:45 this morning to get the trailer, I had a smile on my face, and it didn't leave all day.  We just had fun today!  All of our teams that have been building for the last few months did outstanding this morning.  Everyone came prepared and ready to serve, and everything went really smoothly with very few hiccups.  At the end of the day, we counted 238 people come through our doors, and we recieved many response cards.  I talked with many, many people who were planning on coming back next week!  All in all, we had a great morning. 

And maybe the best part of the experience, beyond the numbers of people who showed up, the great preaching by Jim or the outstanding musical job by our worship team, was the fact that we had the opportunity to collect an offering today that was going to benefit a single mom in Schaumburg through an organization called Fellowship Housing.  For the first time, we got to give all of our money away!  She's a mom who grew up in the projects of West Chicago and has been trying to raise a ten year old child with Cerebral Palsy on her own.  I'm not yet sure how much we collected, but It feels so good to love somebody in that way.  Here are some pictures of the morning.  Thanks to all of you who've been praying for me the last few months.  Keep it up, because things are just beginning.

    

 

The Real Saul, Metamorphosis

There is a process  of transformation that some insects undergo called "metamorphosis."  The most common and documented example is the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.  A long, larva-like, black and yellow, creature, who inches along the ground munching on leaves . . . an ugly worm-like creature, after a period of time creates a cocoon and morphs into something completely different.  It becomes a beautiful butterfly.  Something ugly, something unimpressive becomes something extraordinary, with unparallelled beauty in the natural world.  It's actually pretty incredible to watch (you can catch a youtube video of a butterfly emerging from it's cocoon here).

I'm facinated by the idea that something could be one thing at one moment and then become something completely different at another.  It's amazing to me.  I think it's even more amazing because sometimes I very strongly wish I could achieve some kind of metamorphosis, myself. . .

Waterfront On The Radio

Well, we're just a few days from launching Waterfront Community Church (October 19th BABY!!!!!), and we've been hitting the streets trying to spread the word about this innovative new church we're beginning.  This afternoon, our pastor, Jim Semradek, was interviewed on Moody radio, which was broadcast all over Chicago.  Jim did a REALLY good job!  You can click on this link to listen to the interview and find out alittle more about our church.     

The Real Saul, Too Small

I'm continuing my little character study on Saul, taking a look at what made him tick.  And as I've said before, I think Saul's story and eventual downfall were a result of deep rooted insecurities, not necessarily pride and arrogance.  Last time, we looked at Saul's generational history, being a Benjamite, and carrying all of the family baggage that comes with being a Benjamite.  This time we're talking about something similar but alittle closer to Saul's heart. . .

How NOT To Deal With Your Wild Teenager

Apparently there's a law in Nebraska that allows mothers to anonynously give up an infant to the custody of a local hospital without being prosecuted.  It's a "safe haven" law that states, "No person shall be prosecuted for leaving a child in the custody of a hospital employee."  The intent of the law is noble, designed to prevent mothers from abandoning their babies in unsafe ways because of the fear of prosecution.

Instead, because of how vague the word "child" is in the law, parents all over Nebraska have been abandoning their unruly teenagers at local hospitals  . . . and it's completely legal.  Here's a quote from the article: "Of the 17 children [left at a hospital] since the law took effect in July, only four are younger than 10 -- and all four are among the nine siblings abandoned by a man September 24 at an Omaha hospital."  Did you catch that?  One guy left 9 of his kids at the hospital.  Parents just said, "I give up!  I can't take these little punks anymore!"  The Nebraska congress has scheduled an emergency session to change the wording of the law, but I think this is a fairly strong indication of the role the church needs to start playing in building strong families in our society.

Here's the cnn vdeo

Why I Think Political Debates Are Silly

I just watched the second McCain/Obama debate tonight.  I heard the issues.  I think Obama did well on some points and McCain did well on a few other points.  McCain introduced an economic plan to deal with the crisis, which he hadn't done yet, and which has yet to be more closely examined.  Obama seemed to have won the health care issue in my opinion, but I'm not so sure about his economic plans.

But nobody seems to care about that stuff.  What seems funny to me is the fact that after every debate I've watched thus far, the political analysts and reporters insist on talking about everything in the debate that DOESN'T matter.  Tonight, in a senior moment, McCain seemingly forgot Obama's name and referred to him as "That One."  All of the sudden, "That one" is the top headline on CNN.com, the number one story coming from the whole debate. . . not the new economic plan McCain introduced which needs to be scrutinized and addressed, not the health care plan of Obama.  The most important issue of the night is apparantly the speculation that McCain might, at best, not respect Obama as a worthy opponent, or at worst, be a full blown hood-wearin', cross burnin', racist.

First Waterfront Sunday in Schaumburg High School

This morning, we held our first Waterfront "service" in Schaumburg High School, the new home for Waterfront Community Church.  It was a long morning between driving from Aurora in the wee early hours, hitching up the trailer, unloading all the equipment, running the service, etc.  But it went great!  Way better than I expected.  There are bugs we have to work out, but we learned alot today, and things went relatively smooth despite it being our first time in a new facility with all new equipment.  This thing's happening dude!

Just a reminder, Waterfront officially launches our church to the public October 19th!  Say a prayer or invite a friend . . . or both!

The Cubbies Get Drummed

Hard to know how to describe what just happened to the Cubs in the last 4 days, with the final postseason blow coming late last night.  This year, after a year living in Chicago, I started following the Cubs and became a fan.  It's infectious in Chicago.  Cubs feaver is crazy here!  And THIS summer, the Cubs were playing great.  They were the top team in Major League Baseball.  They cruised into the playoffs with home field advantage throughout.  Most predicted the Cubs winning the World Series.

Then, they lost game one of the playoffs . . . and then they lost game two in very, very, ugly fashion . . . and then they slept walked into a game three loss and a nail in the coffin to their postseason dreams.  It's bewildering.  I know the history.  I've heard all the stuff about curses, black cats, Bartman, and Billy Goats.  But come on.  That's a load of crap, right?  Right?  This ESPN article says what I'm thinking much better than I can explain right now so take a look if you're interested.       

What I Hope Never Happens To Waterfront's Trailer

I heard this story on another blog a few months ago.  There's a church in Atlanta Georgia called Kinetic Church.  They're a relatively new church plant much like us, and like us, they store all of their church equipment in a trailer.  They pull the trailer up to a movie theater every Sunday morning, unload their equipment, and then load it back up after service and store the trailer away during the week.

Well, sometime this year, somebody stole their trailer. . . and all of the church equipment inside.  It was tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and just like that . . . it was gone.  It's a scary thought that the same thing could happen to us too.  All of the time and money we've invested in collecting the stuff that will help make our church experience a reality could be gone in the blink of an eye.  But what this church did in response was sort of funny . . .