Cold Play rules...

...no, no, Jesus and his Kingdom does. But I really, really, really, love to float Cold Play. It just fits my story right now.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 2:53 PM (0) comments

 
ragged
wow! It's been so long I almost forgot my user name and password.

Ragged. A bit. Life in the bubble that we like to call church is crazy. Alot of activity, alot of relationships, alot of mess. Good mess though. It's just life. It doesn't surprise me. While one couple walks the tight rope of "seperation" for their marriage another gets pregnant and moves toward marriage. Whooooohhh. Yet another picks up pennies and slumps in back allies. And another dude just rots away. Just life. Light in darkness I guess. But I quit givin' easy answers long ago, now I just listen and ask to be heard. No bull shit if you know what I mean. We can't fix people because we ourselves are still broken - but we can love eachother and in that way limp along together and refuse to quit. Whoooooohhh(that's o as in boat).

Do we blame the darkness for being dark or the light for not shining? That's from Scot in his book Walk On - about the spiritual journey of U2. I am eating the book up.

- posted by Jacob B. @ 4:10 PM (0) comments

 
house cleaning
just cleaning things up this morning on the site. Happy to see my good friend Jord pick the keyboard and punch in some thoughts on his own site. Nothing brilliant to say today. It's foggy over olympia/lacey, we got a taste of sunshine this weekend and that was quite a tease for me. I am ready for a change in season. Drinking too much coffee. Maintaining an edge of sanity. Missing old friends. Missing family. Wishing things were much simpler.

dreaming of days when I was younger, high on pure height itself and adrenaline. I miss the long warm Yosemite days of vertical adventure and exploration. Something deeply spiritual stirred in me as my hand touched each high place and pulled my whole self higher away and from reality. The smell of granite, the deep chill emerging from the surface, the freedom, the feeling of being close to something very old, very immense, and very revered.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 9:00 AM (0) comments

 
a conversation
Here's a window into a conversation I have been having with someone in my community. The issue at hand is a disagreement over a decision I made. It pertains to someone whom I am allowing to "be in leadership" (mind you a very minute role) who doesn't have his "christian life credentials." Let's just say him and his girlfriend aren't exactly sleeping in serperate beds. The fact is he doesn't know Christ well. This it:


"Your perspective could very well be better than mine here or vise versa. But at some point, as you probably understand, we have to step out there and do something. This is the role of the leader. It is a risk. It is not a decision to be made lightly. It may flop. But hey, that's the dividing factor between a company like Intel and the kingdom of God. A company like Intel doesn't have much room for mistakes (especially with the economy the way it is) it must succeed in its mission - it's existence depends on that. But the in the Kingdom of God, the mission is God's. He initiated it. And its depends on him acting and working in our lives. And all of this happens under the prevailing cover of grace. The mission won't fail because we fail, but it will succeed because God makes it succeed. All that to say that there is room in the Kingdom of God for mistakes. By trying to control everything to the degree that "we never make mistakes" we might be living on the under the false notion that it is up to us to accomplish what only God can do.

That's my heart out in plain text. The truth is I usually try not to make mistakes because I am afraid of what others might say or do. I sense God calling me out of that way of living. He wants me to trust him and for right now, for me that means taking risks that may be mistakes.

Disclaimer: this doesn't mean I care more about my own personal spiritual development than everyone else's in the cell. If I felt like my decision had the potential to hurt a lot of people I would have never made it. But this is just where I am at."

Maybe I am way off, that's just the way it looks to me.


- posted by Jacob B. @ 12:36 PM (0) comments

 
missional?
My friend Dwight wrote an article worth reading. You can see it here today. Just page down to "Why I am not missional".
- posted by Jacob B. @ 3:58 PM (0) comments

 
McNeal's take...
My primary mentor here at the church, and "formal ministry partner" picked up a copy of McNeal's The Present Future:Six Tough Questions For the Church. In the past couple of days alot of stuff has been going in my relationship spheres...all that to say at the same time I have been ambushing this book. The author has finally woken up to the fact the world has changed and the modern/evangelical/church/culture is on it's way out. His suggestions are lacking, but his points are helpful. We'll see how this works out in the long run. I hope that it will be a useful tool for opening up dialogue with those who give leadership to our church.

All I do know is that the book really pushes me faster and harder in the direction I am already going.

Watch for a change...I am going to change my URL here from snakey645.blogspot.com to something else...sometime soon...
- posted by Jacob B. @ 3:48 PM (0) comments