Personally, I am struggling a bit in my own devotion/prayer life and am working to try and reestablish a pattern that helps me to stretch and grow.  One of the ways I hope to do this is to write here a bit more regularly – looking at once a week or twice a month minimum. I am also looking around for a new spiritual director and seeking new community and friends in the Portland area.

With that, I must head off to work today.  I hope you’ll pop in to say hello!

The seasonal pattern that he structures his prayers and poems through is a wonderful resource that offers us a “quick peek” or a longer, more reflective time of soaking in the beautiful words he shares. I have read bits from each of the “seasons” and am excited to use this as a resource for my personal prayers, as well as incorporating them into the life and mission of the community I serve – through worship, devotions, and times when they will just sing.

Well, I am never one to look away from a controversy, and I love the style and questioning of Rob Bell – so I bought the book and am now in the process of reading it. I will share some quotes and commentary on this book as I go, Chime in and let me know what you think!
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Referring to the story of the rich man in Matthew 19, Bell writes,

“When the man asks about getting “eternal life,” he isn’t asking about how to go to heaven when he dies. This wasn’t a concern for the man or Jesus. This is why Jesus doesn’t tell people how to “go to heaven.” It wasn’t what Jesus came to do.”

We often get our heads wrapped around a word and how we interpret it and understand it, but there are other meanings that must be taken into account.  Words are not static, they don’t mean one thing and one thing only, they don’t convey one thing and one thing only.  Words are fluid and responsive to the world and society in which they are used, and the way that people use words is just as varied.  I think Bell engages a good conversation around the meaning of the original Greek words here that sheds some light on the conversation – doesn’t put a “final” meaning down, but shows another facet.

Another piece that caught my eye is Bell’s attention to the “separation” of earth and heaven.  He writes,

“What Jesus taught, what the prophets taught, what all of Jewish tradition pointed to and what Jesus lived in anticipation of, was the day when earth and heaven would be one.  The day when God’s will would be done on earth as it is now done in heaven.  The day when earth and heaven will be the same place….Revelation 21 (says): “God’s dwelling place is now among the people.”

And then a bit of commentary on wealth that I think so greatly frames the struggle in our over-stocked and cluttered worlds,

“There’s nothing wrong with possessions; its just that they have value to us only when we use them, engage them, and enjoy them.  They’re nouns that mean something only in conjunction with verbs.  That’s why wealth is so dangerous: if you’re not careful you can easily end up with a garage full of nouns.”

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I’ll add more comments, quotes and the life as I continue to read this book. So come back and check it out.

Life at church is fast and furious.  I am knee-deep in an experience called, “20 Ways to Get to Know Pastor Kim” and this is a gift, but one that comes with a price.  I am running, running, running.  I am meeting a lot of people and learning a lot about the life of this place – actual and perceived, which is priceless.  But not setting a “routine” is shaking my brain and causing my “J” tendencies to react and try to hold on. I am very excited about the work that I am already doing and the work that is ahead.  There are two things I need right now – prayers for stamina and vision, and ultimately a master key to help me remember names and faces.

I am also going to be using this blog a place to reflect on books and bits I am reading, sharing provocative commentary, and observations of life, and asking hard questions.

So change is in the air, even here on this blog, but there is wonderful stuff ahead and I hope you will continue to journey with me in this way.

Peace!

So soon enough I will be traveling across the country and happily I will be joined by two great friends – Kate & Stephanie, and my dear cat Nico.  The four of us will journey to Portland via a very southern route in order to avoid as much snow in the mountains as we can.  I hope that each day one or more of us will post some rambling thoughts  about the journey, the conversations, and the company – and I hope you will come back and check in on us.

I also ask for prayers as we travel, prayers for the community I have just left, and prayers for the community that I am heading to join in mission with.  Then shortly after getting my feet on the ground I hope to return to some regular postings – and am discerning the close of this blog and the birth of a new blog – but we will see.

Peace,

Kim

Kim Conway A question at a brief conversation just before I got home tonight: Is the Church still relevant? (I was trying to get the person to define church – aka, structure…body…universal…) What do you think? Is the Church still relevant?

Griffin…

it is debatable. many people’s understandings of/expectations of/desires for the church are utterly irrelevant. certainly the beauty, grace, and love of god are relevant. there’s a short circuit somewhere.

Jim…

If we believe it is the Holy Spirit that calls, gathers, and enlightens the whole Christian church on earth then the body of Christ in the world, The community of faith, is still relevant. I am not sure we are responsible for its relevance, God is. I think we are called to be faithful with what the Spirit calls us into and calls us to do.

Julie…

I think the better question is “what is relevant?” Usually that means “can it do something for ME?”

Erik…

the big “C” Church, as the Body of Christ, is and always will be relevant. The little “c” churches become irrelevant when they stop doing the work given to them by Christ a.k.a. love God & love neighbor and start operating as a club or discount service organization where you can get the ritual you want, when you want it all for a low, low price.

Edward…

As long as you’re asking that question, there’s the potential for relevance; I suppose the question/s may be: relevant how, for whom, why.

Me…

Erik – I think that may have been in my mind when I was trying to get him to define what he meant by church!

Me…

Jim I think you hit it on the head for me “The community of faith is still relevant…[but God's] responsible for its relevance.”

about an hour ago ·

Erik …

So I will be posting some thought provoking bits in the near future.  I recently attended another great conference in ABQ called, “Emerging Church: HOW we get there determines WHERE we arrive” and I have a lot of thoughts, notes, and questions.  Additionally I will be attending several bits in the next few weeks and I am sure there will be some coming from those as well.

My passion re: hunger is growing and I am devouring (no pun intended) some great books and am seeking some partners in conversation.  Additionally our movement – A Month of Potlucks to End World Hunger is growing and we are always looking for more partners.  Check out our new website @ www.amonthofpotlucks.org

Peace,

Kim

I do this too – probably each and every day.  Last night for instance, after a friend and I had dinner at a nice Thai restaurant in Old Town Alexandria we stopped in a Starbucks to use their restroom and grab a cup of coffee.  While waiting for my friend to finish in the restroom I was looking at a picture on the wall that showed the 2003 flood of Old Town after a hurricane.  I was caught by the picture that showed our great prosperity being temporarily disrupted by a natural disaster, and two people in a canoe seeming to enjoy the opportunity to leisurely paddle down King Street.  It was then that he called out to me, the 50 or 60 year old man who was sitting in the chair just off to my left.  He called out and began to tell me about the picture and then he began to tell me about his life, bit-by-bit with no seeming connection.  In this conversation I learned that we had several things in common – he grew up close to where I went to college, he had worked in the airline industry, as did my mother, and he was a faithful Christian and proud of his connection with the church.  In the 10 minutes or so we were talking I wondered to myself why he was sitting here in a very dirty coat, with a full backpack on the floor, and the tiredness in his eyes.  He must have sensed this because he told me he was homeless as a result of losing his job, he had tenitis and thus couldn’t hear anything I said nor could he read lips, and he was resting in the Starbucks for a while in order to be as warm as he could be before he headed out in to the cold and wet night.

Then it happened.  He asked me if I could spare a few dollars.  I said that I didn’t have any cash, but that I would buy him something here and now.  He shook his head and said no.  I then offered him our “to-go” cartons of our remaining Thai food from dinner and he said, “I am really looking for something for breakfast tomorrow. He reached out and grabbed my hand and thanked me for spending time with him and said he wished us well.  I said the same to him and we wandered out of the store, while he remained in his chair probably until he was kicked out by the employees.

As I reflect on this experience I am convicted of my own complicity in this situation.  I, after indulging in some fine food, and then overpaying for some coffee had left that man alone and hungry.  And more than that, I hadn’t even learned his name.  He remains a nameless, homeless man to me and to many of us.  This man, this child of God was unknown to me, and in fact I probably didn’t ask him his name directly because it would have committed me to a relationship with him, to a responsibility for him.  Craig L. Nessan writes, “Every day I am tempted to construct such a life in which the poor become absent.  I am also tempted to construct a theology that makes me comfortable in a world where the poor are invisible.” (in Give Us This Day: A Lutheran Proposal for Ending World Hunger, 2003.)

This man’s hunger was real.  Yet I remained largely unmoved.  Think about the number of hungry or homeless people who reach out for change we simply walk by each day as we hustle to make it to our next meeting on time, or how quickly we turn off the television (or flip to the latest and greatest “reality TV” show) when stories of the poor or hungry appear?  We as people of this world, as children of God are bound together and called to live in response to each other.  We, as God’s people who are so richly and abundantly blessed are called to use our resources (which include money and voice) to ensure that all of God’s people are fed, that no one goes hungry, that God’s good gifts are shared as needed.

Hunger is a pandemic in our world today and it shouldn’t be.  In fact hunger should not exist at all!  We have the ability to advocate and participate in the change of institutional and government structures, economic barriers, and educational opportunities in order to eliminate that which needn’t exist – hunger.  We as children of God are called to see, hear and touch the very real people who are affected and impacted by hunger.  In fact we are called to more than that, we are called to see and know, be in relationship with those who are hungry. This is our call.  This is my call.  May we respond and act together in order to end this brokenness known as hunger now!

Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks – by Dwight J. Friesen