Thin~Spaces

New "Church" Emphasis ~ "Purge Sundays"

Man! If all churches had the guts to do this, we would see a higher standard in christian communities/churches. A purge Sunday says, "We are serious about being Christ-followers. Are You?"

Since Cavey arrived in 1996, "purge Sundays" have been held once or twice a year, devoting the teaching time to challenging people to turn from being church "consumers" to being "contributors." A typical purge sermon (or mini-series of two to three sermons) walks listeners through the biblical basis of what normative Christian life in community should look like.

Then people are asked to make a choice -- to get fully committed to being integrated into normal church life -- or to find another church where they'll be able to do that.

.... "We encourage them not to come back to The Meeting House if they're going to continue to be a passive observer," says Cavey.

Go read the full article here: Church uses "Purge Sundays" to send non-committed elsewhere.

Thanks to Jordon for the article link.

Missing The Point?

While driving in to work this morning I noticed that I was singing worship tunes from the late 1980's. In my devotional time I sing songs that speak to my soul and encourage my spirit. Yet these were mostly songs from my early Christian experience.  I began to wonder if they had made some special imprint on me? Why was I singing them?  My music taste is much more contemporary than the 80's

Just look at what I'm listening to on the left side bar. In a brick-and-mortar church setting I prefer a music sound that is somewhere between  "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls and "Seventeen Days" by 3 Doors Down. Yet I was singing vintage 80's worship stuff. This started me thinking about the preferences we all have for "worship music" in a church setting.

Why do we have the fights over worship (church music wars) so often? Could it be that the issue is not just an issue of style at all but also one of meaning? In my personal times of reflection and worship, i often make up songs as I go or sing songs that have some personal meaning. They help me to connect with God in these times. This phenomenon could be the heart of the discord in many churches. Those who complain about a "worship style" or choice of songs could really be asking for us to sing songs that help them connect with God.   

Toward Keeping the Balance

Rather than do all the stuff I had planned tonight, I took my wife on a date. With our more hectic schedules, taking time out for a date is even more important.  We are planning a date night about ever 10 days or so.

Tonight we went to the "Olive Garden" for dinner. Cheryl had the Three Meat Ravioli and I had the Crab and Shrimp Ravioli. It was a great date. We talked, cuddled and generally acted like teenagers out on a date. A very fun and very relaxing way to spend an evening.

After my overworked exhaustion several years ago, I'm determined not to make the same mistake twice. Life is simply too short to be chasing money, success, fame and notoriety. I'd rather spend my time with my family, friends and those I love.

Adusting To My New Life

Today I was given my own cube to work in. I'm no longer a "squatter" in the nearest available working space. My first week of work was rather uneventful. Sure I'm learning new things and meeting my co-workers but I'm not encountering anything that will make this assignment sheer drudgery.

I'm working on the re-design team for a rather large company. We are using "TeamSite" to plan, design and implement a corporate extranet. I'm officially a "Content Entry Specialist." In other words, I build the website using their template system and the approved documents.

Working in a large corporate environment is very different than what I'm used to. In the past I was a generalist who was in on every aspect of site development. Now I'm a contractor working on one stage of the development. Before getting this assignment I was working on my own site(s) so doing content entry is like getting paid to do my hobby. Too bad it is only a contract job.

The hardest adjustment for me is the rescheduling of all the "stuff" I used to do. I simply don't have the time available to do what interests me. Now I'm stretching out my timelines for things and taking it slowly.  What I miss the most is the time to contemplate. Those slow morning talking with Christ, reading, thinking, processing. Now I'm out of the door and on my way in 45 minutes. (And no, I don't want any cheese with my whine.)

Saturday, I spent time with friends, gave away Easter flowers, practiced other "random acts of kindness," and tried to get my "honey-do" list taken care of.  The next time I'm out at a restaurant, I'm going to pay for the meal of a complete stranger and see how they respond to a random kindness.

Tonight I plan on spending some time with my wife, reading some blogs (I'm so behind on it.) and working on my book.  Overall, I'm adjusting to being yet another drone in the American life. ;-P

Suffering Friday

Tonight several of us watched "The Passion" as it is Good Friday. As I watched, I kept thinking of the lyrics to a song from the album Coram Deo II. They lyrics seemed to catch the mood of my soul this evening...

Christ - Communion - Acceptance - His Suffering.

----Lyrics of the Song----
Breaking this bread I remember the wounds you received
Broken and torn, enduring the world's unbelief

Crucified, crucified, sweet suffering Christ
Oh the lamb who was slain
Humbly accepting the weight of my sin, sorrow and pain

Drinking this cup I remember Your blood freely shed
To ransom forgiveness for souls under sentence of death

Crucified, crucified, sweet suffering Christ
Oh the lamb who was slain
Humbly accepting the weight of my sin, sorrow and pain

Crucified, crucified, sweet suffering Christ
Crucified, crucified, sweet suffering Christ
Crucified, crucified…

Nailed to the cross I remember Your last anguished cry
Utter forsakenness rending Your heart as you died

Sweet suffering
Sweet suffering Christ

Performed by Margaret Becker

Having a Bad Day?

If you are having a bad day may i suggest you go and read Brandon's post on his really bad experience. I could only imagine having a day this bad. Even though you will "feel for the guy," you may just find yourself appreciating your day a whole lot more. Go read the entire article here.- airing my dirty laundry

"NOTE: This is a long entry, but I encourage you to stick it out, it's worth the price of admission. It's a bit on the gross side of things, but it's a true story." -- Brandon

For Good Friday

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
     That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
     And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
     Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
     Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
     Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon-
     I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
     But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
     And smite a rock.

Kahlil Gibran on the crucified Christ

Source: "Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter"
From: Daily Dig - For Good Friday by Christina Rossetti.

Have you ever had a morning when your blog post just sounded dumb when you edited it? I'm having one of those days today. So i decided to kill it and post my disgust.

Letting Go Of Our Communities

Idealism is such a driving force in our lives at times yet we may never fully realize or acknowledge its presence in our thinking. It becomes a blind spot that colors our notions of things like family, work, education and even the church. I’m defining church loosely as a “gathering of believers.”

These notions or ideals of how the church should be, often serve as barriers that keep us from experiencing the church. We look for our ideals in a community and when we do not find them we either try to create them or we move on to a new community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls this our “wish dream.” It is the dream of a community that we hold higher than the actual community.

I’m an idealist by nature. In my journey with Christ, one of the hardest things for me to do is to hold to an ideal seen in the Bible while accepting the church where it is faults and all. Our communities are imperfect and do not always reflect the nature of Christ. If you have been in the church for any length of time I’m sure you have seen it yourself. Faults and all, we are the church.

For real community to thrive, we must set ourselves free from our idealistic notion of how a community should function. In doing so we are able to live in our communities as they are. This does not mean that we endorse their faults. We confront them with the love of Christ and seek to let the Holy Spirit transform us.

When we let our notions of community die (Even the emergent ones) then we open ourselves to the community that God intends us to be. Community life is never easy, clean, neat, and free of conflict. Developing deep relationships requires that we open ourselves up to the possibility of pain and learn to trust others as they are.

It is only with this type of honesty and acceptance that we can risk ‘being ourselves’ and become the community we call the church. If we refuse to let go of our ideals of what a community/church should be then we doom ourselves to that insipid, shallow communities that many churches have become.

The Rat Race---

The new schedule takes some getting used to. I wonder how people do it and keep up with all of the activities that most "brick and mortar" churches have going? How do you keep a healthy family and do all the activities? It seems like a daunting task.

Take my new schedule for example. With all of the driving and what have you, I'm away from home for 11 hours a day. It is now 8pm and I'm just getting to relax a bit. I'll go to bed in a few hours so my days just whiz by.

I realize that after I adapt, this will be a normal situation but currently I find it to be very strange indeed. No wonder the American family is an endangered species. Who has the time anymore! Our lifestyle is so "anti-relational" as all of the activities we do crowd out relational time. I think that we forget that life is about enjoying your time with those you love. The rest is just …think about it …a dying man regrets the dreams and relationships that have slipped away not things or a job.