'I must be an acrobat, to talk like this and act like that...' -Actung Baby,U2
I am Jacob Bailey. I have been writing here for a while now. I am 27 years old, on the brink of moving to Spain. I love my wife and two beautiful children. Glad you stopped by - please let me know you were here by posting a comment.
leading with QUESTIONS
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
p. 35 and 36
I find it slightly ironic that page 35 in the latest Christianity Today issue is a (Zondervan) advertisement for the Purpose Driven Life book ("It's not just a book. It's a movement" off hand comment - yah how convienient for Zondervan and Rick Warren) and page 36 begins the article called "The Emergent Mystique" in which Andy Crouch critiques the emerging church.
Oh, the watershed. I read it, I live it, I know it so well.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Check the project for a new american century here.
what do we do with this? This kind of thinking for four more years could be so destructive to mankind around the globe...Has anyone else heard of PNAC? Any perspectives?
tech lectio
thinking about Lectio Divina (in community) and dreaming about "club like" worship services where the rythms of lectio are used to pace a Christ centered worship experience. The four rythms of lectio...(1)listening for God's word to me right now, (2)meditating on God's word or phrase, (3)offering that back to Him as prayer, (4)resting in his presence...seem to lead us into his presence...how do we translate this into a group experience - built on top of tech tunes and powerful images...and sacred text/story layered in too...
Has anyone heard of anything like this...? Experienced this...
Any other thoughts?
Friday, October 22, 2004
just soaking
just soaking in a cup of afternoon coffee, and the internet, and tech tunes. I lumped all my tunes that I have uploaded to my computer into helpful play lists called "All Rock," "All Tech," and "All Smooth." Very nice I am sitting here letting my PC take me on a tour of my own tunes we are somewhere in All Tech rolling through some Moby funk I think...sick.
Brewing is this discussion with my boss about my choice of film for an upcoming retreat. The road signs all read conflict and chaos ahead. I am hearing in the wind the "challenge to be you" and "a challenge to offer yourself in relationship. Don't hide, don't amuse. Live into this thing. Don't roll over. Don't react. Don't kick back. Offer...offer...offer...even if its wierd...offer you. Turn the other cheek...out of love not spite....risk being you." All of this and more....................................................................................................................................so much more.
Now I am to Darude no wonder why I am writing as I am...Dardude moves. The loop in his home page is so so potent...it is just lieing in wait to explode. Reminds of the emerging church and some people I know. Oh Lord may your Kingdom come........
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
the younger evangelicals
I just began The Younger Evangelicals by Robert Webber. And now I am in a real delima. What do I do with all of it? It's like reading along and I'm saying "yah, yah, yah, it all makes sense. Sure that's my world...I mean you don't have it to a "T" but hey, I give you props Webber, your pretty close to the target." But now what...?
I mean know I got this book not so much for me...I mean I hope it to be a conversation piece. I have to figure out how to offer it to "someone" else. I have to figure out how to offer myself as I offer the book. Why do I feel like avoiding that conflict?
Gut feelings suck.
Had a great evening last night with Andy and Joy. Tania and I went to school with Andy at Simpson and then met Joy up here in the Pacific Northwest District (CMA) - she is a children's pastor at Lighthouse Church in north of here. They met and got married and make a wonderful pair. We really enjoy our time with them.
It is interesting to live in such different worlds and yet the same one too. We could really all "come to the table" and bring our unique and similiar opinions about the evengelical space we live in. It was encourageing to see others waking up to the realities of a consumer culture and inherent dangers of living in the US today. We talked alot about the global responsibility of loving your neighbor. Great conversation. As they we fixing to leave (i owe that to April Kinser) they awkwardly explained the white envelope they would be leaving with us. $600.00 cash toward or Spain plans.
Wow...I felt odd, and honored and blown away by their generosity. These folks don't have money. But what they do have they give away. Thanks Andy and Joy - your example of loving challenges me...and Tania and I feel truly blessed.
Monday, October 18, 2004
"Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without healthcare, health insurance, jobs, childcare, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need a president who will do something about jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers." - (Glen Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.)
Ummmhmm...helpful perspective. The rest of the article and More here. thanks mom-in law.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
quantum servanthood ??
wondering about leadership today? has it got you scratching your head? Here are some helpful thoughts about it from John O'Keefe.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
ahhh...
that so much...better. No, I don't feel black and blue right now. Gray? Yes, I hope always things are a bit gray...but black and blue...not right now. May this outward projection always reflect my inward posture.
Monday, October 11, 2004
agenda and relationship
what if we let go of agendas (personal) for the sake of relationship (other)? what if relationship was our only agenda? but what about places where survival is necessarily the only agenda? how can the "us" in these places possibly let go of survival for the sake of relationship? or could it be possible that in embracing relationship we survive?
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
what if the best way to love people...
what if the best way to love the church...
what if the best way to love Christ...
was to offer myself in relationship?
In as much as I am who I am right in the moment and express what I feel and discern and think...in as much as I bring that to the table and enter into relationship with others...
I mean don't we simply amuse ourselves or hide? Those are the two ways of being with people that I observe and do normally live out...with others. But isn't there another way of being with people, a way of loving others? Is it possible to offer myself to others? To really listen and abandon my self serving agendas? To ask questions that most often are left aside as to not offend? To speak what I really believe and not what the other wants to hear, or what will amuse them, but what I think right then? Is it possible to trust the creator to work and bring life out of the chaos I produce? (some of these thoughts prompted by DF who has lived this out to me, to whom I am so grateful!)
I have been living with Psalm 62 this week and found convergence this morning as I realized that God is not my refuge. For I am my own refuge...I withdraw to the relative safety of silence instead of offering myself to others. Naturally "my enemies"...well I have none...for in my own place of safety, in my own fortress of self protection enemies can rarely be made.
The voice of Christ to me today: make me your refuge - offer your self to others unreservedly then wait on me to become your safe place. Hide no longer within your castle of self love and self protection. Love me. Love others....
Monday, October 04, 2004
alongside the film City of God, under special features, is an amzaing documentary on life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. I stand amazed and changed after watching the film twice yesterday.
The on going war between the police and dealers in completely heartwrenching. The injustice the accompanies both sides and all who are caught in the middle is inhumane. What might you see if view this documentary...go find it. May it break your heart and cause you take up the cause of those who suffer much at our (the rich) hands. America is a monster....reality local is no reality at all when held agaisnt reality global...what have we done? When will I wake up?
lord break out hearts for the world...may our consumerism make us mad...and cause to see reality and live for the sake of others...for your sake...
-off to Portland for 3 days...PNW district conference...
