Archives For Community

Repaso: April 12, 2013

April 12, 2013 — Leave a comment

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1. Two global churches
Eastertide is a season of resurrection, of new beginnings, of new life. And as two churches find themselves with new leaders, Timothy Sherratt sees reason for hope:

Both the Roman Catholic Church and the smaller Anglican Communion are global churches. That feature is perhaps an under-appreciated blessing in the Christian community. What it brings into view is the reality of our membership in the Body of Christ. When membership is global, questions of diversity, evangelism and service take shape as present reality, not abstract aspiration. Global neighbors really are neighbors, who read from the same liturgy and share in the body and blood of Christ… Both Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby have, by actions and words, taken a critical stance towards the institutions they now lead. If I read them correctly, their message to the Churches is an Easter message: Institutions matter, but health requires that they be tailored to their mission, taking risks rather than taking refuge.

2. Plumbing the depths
Singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson (@AndrewPeterson) said this about art, work, and community in a recent interview:

Christianity was never meant to be experienced in isolation. It requires community and interaction on an intimate level with human beings. Songwriting or art or work can’t be isolated from any other part of my Christian life—like taking communion. It’s all best experienced in community. And I can’t overstate how much I have been wounded and then healed, how much I’ve experienced God’s pleasure and then God’s discipline, through the community to which I belong. I am not trying to say that you can’t be a great artist and still be a loner; I just don’t want to be one.

3. Socially engaged art
Randy Kennedy writes about an interesting arts and activism trend:

As the commercial art world in America rides a boom unlike any it has ever experienced, another kind of art world growing rapidly in its shadows is beginning to assert itself. And art institutions around the country are grappling with how to bring it within museum walls and make the case that it can be appreciated along with paintings, sculpture and other more tangible works. Known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among object making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art that often flourishes outside the gallery and museum system. And in so doing, they push an old question — “Why is it art?” — as close to the breaking point as contemporary art ever has.

4. The right questions
Fieldnotes Magazine shares ten good questions from Max De Pree that leaders should ask:

Leaders have an obligation to ask the right questions on behalf of the organization. One of the advantages of age is that it finally dawns on you that questions are more important than answers. Questions either determine or lead to such things as quality, appropriateness, who should be involved, and what’s right. The leader has a role in initiating and examining and testing questions.

5. Little Man by Little Dragon
Thanks to Tala Strauss (@talastrauss) for tweeting this great video.

[Photo: Roman Catholic devotees hold candles as they line a procession route for an icon of the Virgin Mary outside a Catholic church on Easter Sunday in Quezon City, Philippines on April 7, 2012. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images) via boston.com]

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Celebrating God’s goodness where we are

October 24, 2012 — 3 Comments

Adam and Christine Jeske love adventure. They sought it out while college students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and then, after getting married and graduating, their pursuit of adventure took them to inner city Atlanta, Nicaragua, South Africa, and China, all over the course of many years. And then one day they found themselves back in Wisconsin. And life suddenly felt terribly… well… ordinary.

I can relate to Adam and Christine’s story in many ways. My own adventures over the past decade have taken me to several continents for various lengths of time, from living with Buddhists in Cambodia to backpacking across Italy to an unnerving run-in with Somali camel herders to hitching rides across Guatemala to living in a formerly abandoned house in the jungle in Costa Rica (with vampire bats!). Each of these experiences has left an indelible mark on who I am and on how I see the world. But each time, sooner or later, I’ve returned to “normal” life at home. And each time I’ve wrestled with what that really means.

In their new book, This Ordinary Adventure: Settling Down Without Settling (IVP/Likewise), the Jeskes tell their story of seeking to hold onto their ideals while adjusting to a much more “ordinary” life in the United States. Using the “Amazing Days” mantra they touted throughout college and their years overseas, they settled into the spiritual discipline of celebrating the amazing in the midst of the ordinary.

Covering a variety of issues, including work, identity, suffering, money, marriage, fear, and community, they tell stories at turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the kinds of stories that emerge from those dedicated to lives fully lived. I don’t want to give away the ending, but I must say the final chapter’s account of La Celebración is my favorite story in the book, painting a beautiful picture of how rich and spontaneous everyday life can be when we cultivate the imagination in community.

Like me, both Adam and Christine studied international development at Eastern University, so our paths have continued to run parallel in certain ways, but like them, I’ve also settled into a more “ordinary” way of life — in Phoenix, in my case, where I live with my amazing wife of nearly a year. And I’m finding that ordinary adventures truly are available to us wherever we are.

Yesterday morning I set out for an early morning walk around the palm-tree-laden apartment complex where we live, to think and pray. On my iPod I was listening to a collection of songs and prayers from Taizé, which take simple phrases from the Psalms and other parts of scripture and put them to music. The temperature had gotten down to the upper 60s (frigid, I know!), providing perfect sweatshirt weather.

As I made my way around the perimeter of the complex, nodding at the occasional dog-walker, I was able to focus my attention on the good God who created palm trees and sunshine, the God who causes cold fronts (relatively speaking) to pass through, the God who gave us the gift of song. And I was reminded that these good and perfect gifts come to us from the same One who created humankind in his image — those men, women, and children who collectively comprise the cultures of Nicaragua, South Africa, and China, and of Italy, Guatemala, and Cambodia. I’m thankful for the chances I’ve had to see the world, for the people I’ve been privileged to know. Likewise, I give thanks now for a place to call home, and a woman to make that home with.

And finally, I’m grateful for the Jeskes’ new book, which reminds us that while there is a time to travel and a time to put down roots, ordinary adventures are possible anywhere for those who celebrate God’s goodness whenever and wherever it shines through.

Christine and Adam Jeske, authors of This Ordinary Adventure from InterVarsity Press on Vimeo.

To learn more about This Ordinary Adventure and to participate in (what’s left of) “31 Amazing Days” visit the book’s site. The Jeskes blog at Patheos and have created a budding Facebook community focused on the ideas of this book. They’re also good people to follow on Twitter, at @AdamJeske and @ChristineJeske, respectively.

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Repaso: October 5, 2012

October 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

1. Thinking as Christians in an election year
Stephanie Summers and Steve Monsma write this timely essay for Q Ideas:

Great are the dangers of dishonoring our Lord and being used by political operatives more worldly wise and cynical than we are. Instead, we must practice slow politics: renewing our minds and making every thought obedient to Christ by careful study and deliberate thinking about our aims before we act. In this essay we focus on two basic, underlying, biblically grounded truths and how they lead to what we term “principled pluralism.” Together, these truths lay what we are convinced is the foundation for a thoughtful, God-honoring approach to the political realm.

2. Creating places where people can flourish
The architect David Greusel was interviewed for the Faith & Leadership blog from the Duke Divinity School:

From ballparks to churches, architecture has a significant impact on people’s lives and should therefore be about the creation of places where people can flourish, said David Greusel, an architect who specializes in the design of public buildings. Unfortunately, much architecture today, both sacred and secular, has not been about human flourishing, Greusel said. Instead, architecture in general has been about originality at the expense of tradition, while church architecture has been marked by mediocrity born of pragmatism.

3. Discipleship for faithful service in the city
David Kim of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York explores how the church can best disciple her people for faithful service in the city:

One quickly discovers that there are, in the geographic space of this one city, two realities representing two very different loves—eloquently stated by Augustine as the “City of God” and the “City of Man.” There is common grace and antithesis in New York City, and it is critical for the church in fulfilling the great commission to prepare her people to engage this fearfully and wonderfully made city. Discipleship, rooted and flowing out of the gospel of Jesus Christ, must find its mature expression in the engagement of our world, taking seriously the sin and grace that pervades every inch of our world.

4. Monkey bars of the kingdom
Kyle Bennett invites us to spend more time at the park:

Parks force us to truly interact with others in and as a community. Those we meet at the park are created in the image of God. We were created and called to interact with them and live with them. Sin doesn’t change anything in this regard. We must learn to live with them as creatures of our God, even if they are morally bankrupt individuals, incompetent parents, obnoxious neighbors, unfaithful friends, or irresponsible citizens. This can be the space for us to practice what we preach. It can be the place for testing, implementing, and applying love of our neighbor or enemy.

5. FLW and PHX in the NYT
Off and on over the past couple months, Katie and I have been doing a Frank Lloyd Wright architecture tour, checking out the many homes and other buildings he created iaround Phoenix. It all began when we learned that one of the homes he designed was in danger of demolition, and we wanted to see it while it lasted. The story got picked up by the New York Times this week:

It’s hard to say which is more startling. That a developer in Phoenix could threaten — by Thursday, no less — to knock down a 1952 house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Or that the house has until now slipped under the radar, escaping the attention of most architectural historians, even though it is one of Wright’s great works, a spiral home for his son David.

6. Skateistan
This is a fascinating nine-minute short film called Skateistan: To Live And Skate Kabul, following the lives of young skateboarders in Kabul (thanks to @talaazar for the link).

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: The David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix, by Scott Jarson via nytimes.com]

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Theological reflection for community development practitioners

September 19, 2012 — Leave a comment

The good folks at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) have been helping Christians to engage their cities and communities holistically for nearly 25 years, especially through their three Rs: relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution. And they’ve just taken another step to engage us further in thinking about what it means to seek the shalom of the places God has called us.

For those less familiar with CCDA, the network was formed in 1989 by John Perkins, an evangelical leader who was active in the Civil Rights movement. In Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community (IVP), Perkins argues that after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the movement largely lost touch with its deep Christian roots. He writes:

Only as long as the Civil Rights movement remained anchored in the church — in the energies, convictions and images of the biblical narrative and the worshiping community — did the movement have a vision.

Robust theology, in conjunction with the importance of thick Christian community, has been a core tenet of CCDA since its inception, and I think that’s a significant part of what’s kept this movement on track for these 25 years.

In keeping with this key value, CCDA has just published the first edition of its very own theological journal:

The Theological Journal is designed to enable our practitioners to capably integrate theological concepts into their practice. The articles are written by CCDA members and will challenge us to go deeper theologically, while giving us language that will allow us to dialogue outside of The Academy. Theological reflection and engagement among practitioners and with our neighbors can often be strange bedfellows, but this should not be the case. A significant focus of this first edition will speak to why we need more theology and dialogue, giving historical and Biblical precedent for engagement, helping us explain who we are and why we do what we do. Building on that foundation, the journal will then address the theology and practices of reconciliation, shalom, self-perceptions of the oppressed, and multiculturalism within churches. Contributors include Vince Bantu, Soong-Chan Rah, M. Daniel Carroll, Chris Jehle, Sydney Park, Randy Woodley, Chanequa Walker-Barnes and Curtiss Paul DeYoung.

The journal is available for free as a PDF, and can also be viewed online using Uberflip.

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Bonhoeffer on visible signs of the cross

March 19, 2012 — Leave a comment

One of the books I decided to read this year for Lent is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic on Christian community, Life Together. This was my fifth time reading it, if memory serves me right. Each time I’m struck by something different, and each time I’m both challenged and encouraged.

I’ll just share one passage that stood out to me this time around. It seems to me that our spiritual lives and our churches are to a large extent shaped by cultural norms like individualism and efficiency in significant if subtle ways, and our understanding of faithfulness (or success) in those areas take shape accordingly. I think that’s concerning. Consider Bonhoeffer’s take on “interruptions” and what Christian community and service really mean:

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps — reading the Bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done. It is strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s “crooked yet straight path” (Gottfried Arnold). They do not want a life that is crossed and balked. But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.

In the monastery his vow of obedience to the abbot deprives the monk of the right to dispose of his own time. In evangelical community life, free service to one’s brother takes the place of the vow. Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God’s love and mercy.

- Life Together (HarperOne, 1954), pp. 99-100.

What can Western Christians in the twenty-first century do to pinpoint and correct the ways in which individualism and efficiency have undermined our ability to proclaim and embody God’s love?

[Image credit: "Parable of the Good Samaritan" by Jan Wijnants, oil on canvas, 1670 via Wikimedia Commons]

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