passion
In the past few of days a couple of streams have flowed across my desk "reminding me" that with Mel's upcoming film the Passion of the Christ comes an incredible "outreach oportunity"!

I am just not buying it. I am sure the film is going to be incredible - but I will not approach the film like hunter positioning myself near the animal's food so I can make the kill while it's eating breakfast. Uhn uh. Not me. I aint tellin nobody that message either. We're so concerned that it is an opportunity for "them" that we miss the opportunity for us.

I wanna go and just enjoy the film. For what it is! I want to embrace the images of violent grace and let them stir in me something new and refreshing. I want that film to give birth in my heart to a new capacity to love and be loved by Christ. I am banking/betting on the fact that in the process of giving myself fully to him - he'll use me to share his love in very appropriate ways with "them" - the people of the world that I know and love.

Just had to say it. It was pissing me off. I'm just reacting to the modern/evangelical/right side/conservative place I been leaving lately.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 3:49 PM (0) comments

 
put it out there
Enjoying Newbigin today (and the answer is "No!" I don't ever get anything done at work to all of you who are wondering). He never uses "the" word (postmodernity) yet he nails it man. Heres a quote that really reaches:

"...the call to the church is to enter vigorously into the struggle for truth in the public domain. We cannot look for the security which would be ours in a restored Christendom. Nor can we continue to accept the security which is offered in an agnostic pluralism where we are free to have our own opinions provided we agree that they are only personal opinions. We are called, I think, to bring our faith into the public arena, to publish it, to put it at risk in the encounter with other faiths and ideologies in open debate and argument, and in risky business of dicovering what Christian obedience means in radically new circumstances and in radically different human cultures."
- Truth to Tell, p. 60-61

I am realizing I have long held, and we leaders of the church too, the belief that the Christian faith needs us to hold it together. That is it our job to defend it, to encourage it, to make sure it happens, to "get it done" and whatever else. The problem with living under this fear/belief is that Christ gets demoted from his posistion as head of the church.

Could we "put it out there?" Light is shown for what it is only when contrasted by darkness. Light on light is/does/means little.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 4:25 PM (0) comments

 
left behind
I revisisted my copy of A New Kind Of Christian this weekend. Reading the reviews that amazon displays is fascinating, let alone reading the book itself. Really I filtered out the tiresome fictional dialogue and hunted for burried treasure in the mind of McClaren. Some new insights were born - my mind and heart were stirred. I told my wife about it like this: "It's like before when we first read this thing it was like wow! There is another world that we always dreamed about! It was like we were being ushered in for the very first time to something brand new and exciting." Then I went on about my latest venture back into the book, "But now I am realizing, it's like what the hell? How do I actually live in this new place? Because there is no going back with a thing like this." Anyway...I am just stuck once again by the imensity of this change we are going through (flight from modernity to...). It has such far reaching consequences for our how we live out and understand our faith.

Here is one example that is killing me. Much of the N.T. is filled with the writings of Paul. And it's like the evangelical/modern (my) world has used him and his theology to construct their grid upon which "true" Christian faith is organized/finds its meaning. He has been overinterpreted to the nth degree. We have read into him - his understanding of Christ/revelation our worldview and interpreted it likewise. But Paul if he could be transported to the 21st century would be totally lost. He had such limited knowledge. His world was radically different than ours. It is way worse than we might be "slightly off" when we try and say today what his words meant back then. Who can know?

As the grid begins to dissolve how does one find meaning/make sense of the mess that is left behind? And then how does one resist the urge/pressure to ressurrect the old grid and it's dependance? That's where I am at.

Moving closer and closer to points of total dependance upon Jesus to hold not only the universe together but the very fabric of my fragile faith together. And he is doing it. I am not losing it.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 4:03 PM (0) comments

 
Emerging values or modern church madness?
Living on the fence can be uncomfortable. Yet when survival is at stake it can be so necessary. 'Caught in the middle' I love cold play. What I would give to do one of their shows.

On a different note...

The chasm grew ever darker - ever deeper yesterday. Prolife radicals camped on the WA State capitol campus, "Christians" bearing gruesome pictures "shocking the world" into changing it values about abortion. They were couterattacked by The Greener Army which marched up from Capitol Blvd and 4th armed with their own signs (one of which read "we need more men telling us what to do" - ironically a message the church would do well to listen to).

I was disheartend by both. The passion pointed hatefully at eachother projected out to the world. There has got to be a better place for passion. The "christians" make me sick. Meanwhile the greeners make me cry. And the chasm grows deeper. And none of seem to really get His grace.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 10:49 AM (0) comments

 
From Chris
For months now I have traveled vicarously with and through the blog of Chris Marshall. He is birthing, along with others a missional community unlike church as most of know it. It is awesome. Check out the link and make sure you view his thoughts from Monday, January 19th. Some day Lord...some day.

But for now, I have to live right here, in the reality of my own context - just like you and your challenge to live in the reality of yours. The stuggle to fully be me and do life with those God has placed me near in space/time is constant. The challenge is demanding.
I live on...
- posted by Jacob B. @ 3:10 PM (0) comments

 
moving along
I have really appreciated the way Brian lays out his 3 postmoderns. Check it out if your interested. It's just the world I have been living in lately. I am convinced more than ever of the reality of an emerging church/Kingdom that is at hand. Looking forward to the day/time when I can fully participate. So limited here/now.

Gotta run to Safeway to meet the wife and kids...
- posted by Jacob B. @ 4:13 PM (0) comments

 
words about the dark night of the soul
"Some people - and it is sad to see them - work and tire themselves greatly, and yet go backward; they look for progress in what brings no progress but instead hinders them. Others, in peace and tranquility, continue to advance well. Some other let themselves be encumbered by the very consolations and favors God bestows on them for the sake of their advancing; and they advance not at all."

- St. John of The Cross
- posted by Jacob B. @ 1:24 PM (0) comments

 
cold
it's cold outside.
My heart is cold too.
Nothing new.

There are extreme weather spells even within seasons.
It's winter now. I am experiencing two.

3 My soul is in anguish.
How long, O LORD, how long?

4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
(psalm 6:3 NIV)

- posted by Jacob B. @ 12:09 PM (0) comments