Monday, April 26, 2010

Music from Convergence

Thanks to all my new friends at Trinity UMC Homewood for a great weekend. I had a great time getting to know all of you and I appreciate you helping me find my new calling as a songwriter.  We'll be cutting a demo soon and sending it to various record companies to try and get signed.  Here are the lyrics for your special song to help you never forget what you learned at Convergence 2010, you truly had to be there.

Fight Naked


Fight Naked
In the shower with your mother in law
Fight Naked
With Proper boundries we can all belong
Fight Naked, Fight Naked

Reptiles have reptilian brains
Tim's skits make us go insane
Fight Naked, Fight Naked

Bob exits through the closet door
Playing games waiting out the storm
Fight Naked, Fight Naked

Eat, Sleep, Poop
Eat, Sleep, Poop
Eat, Sleep, Poop
and Fight Naked


Eat, Sleep, Poop 
Eat, Sleep, Poop 
Eat, Sleep, Poop 
and Fight Naked

Purple eggs and 100 babies
Sleep deprived and going crazy
Fight Naked, Fight Naked

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Welcome to Easter

Welcome to the season of Resurrection, where all things are being made new and anything is possible!

We live in a world where we seem stuck on polarization. Left or right, liberal or conservative, it’s either up with the democrats or you’re down with gop, fundamentalist or emergent, calvinist or arminian, predestination or free will, and the list just goes on. And this affects our outlook on life as well. Either everything’s great or everything’s horrible. Often we can fall toward a blind optimism or dark cynicism. If we fall to the blind optimism we turn a blind eye at the things that go wrong and it’s all just a party in the USA. We fail to take head to the negative, thus doing nothing about it, letting the negative grow. But, if we fall to cynicism then we find ourselves helpless and hopeless. We acknowledge the wrong, but have no hope of a better future thus fail to move things forward and improving little to none. Often because of our dark outlook we simply make things worse.

But, the story of resurrection, that is a different story. That is a story that faces the pain, faces evil, faces the darkness, the negative, the hurt, but continues forward. And, just when all hope seems to be lost, when the one who raised the dead is now three days in the grave and you are left with no hope, in that moment you find that the tomb is empty of bodies and filled with hope.

When we fail to acknowledge the negative we’re left with a bubble gum, pop version of hope. It’s empty, it’s shallow. But, when we can make it through Friday and hang in long enough to experience Sunday, then and only then, suffering can take on meaning. Hope can become significant, weighty, real, beautiful, true. In that moment, the moment of true resurrection, anything becomes possible and life can move forward beyond the negative toward things more beautiful than anything anyone could have possibly imagined. Easter can only come after Lent if it’s going to be something of true worth.
I hope that you have enjoyed the parables as much as I have during lent. For me this was a very specific discipline and I decided to invite others along with me (probably against my better judgment).

If you go to any bookstore and enter the Christian (which is a horrible adjective) section, you can easily notice a plethora of books about the church, what’s wrong with it, and how young adults don’t want anything to do with it. I’ve shared many of the sentiments and read many of the books. For me, I wanted to sit with some of that for a while during lent so that with Easter I could move beyond it. It was a process of letting go. On one hand, I’m really thankful for all the books because there are many within the popular christian bubble who are oblivious (or at least seem to be) to many of the issues. On the other hand, I’m kind of getting tired of hearing about all the problems and issues. In Rollins parables I found a double edged sword of personal and corporate critique packaged in a creative and thought provoking way. These stories are almost like a rorschach test, they read you more than you read them. This is why I wanted to sit with them, to challenge myself.

When I found myself in my first appointment I found myself in a strange position. I had always assumed the church did what it was supposed to do, otherwise it would be doing something different. But suddenly I was supposed to be leading a church and I didn’t know what I was supposed to be leading it to do. This crisis took me on a personal quest to try and understand for myself why the church exists, what it’s supposed to do.

I have come a long way, but along that way I’ve learned that the more answers you get the more questions you have. Therefore, while I could give you several pithy, simple answers and probably either make them all rhyme or start with the same letter (not quite good enough to make them do both yet, but here’s to future divine revelation), I won’t do that because I don’t presume to know all the answers. But, I’m inspired by the traction I’ve gotten along the way.
Lent was my opportunity to sit with these stories, work through some issues (being a preacher’s kid they are many), and move toward Easter where I can let go of the issues and move forward, beyond the complaints, toward re-imagining and re-discovering the possibilities of what can be.
I hope this has been a great experience for you as well. Welcome to Easter, where all things are being made new and anything is possible!

Slavery Today

Monday, April 5, 2010

New Music From The Innerchange

My friends over at the Innerchange have recently released some great new music.
Here's a sample.  If you like check out their website and request a disk www.theinnerchange.org

http://www.mediafire.com/?hozxjmwztcz

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter Bonus Parable: Being the Resurrection

Late that evening a group of unknown disciples packed their few belongings and left for a distant shore, for they could not bear to stay another moment in the place where their Messiah had just been crucified. Weighed down with sorrow, they left that place, never to return. Instead they traveled a great distance in search of a land that they could call home. After months of difficult travel, they finally happened upon an isolated area that was ideal for setting up a new community. Here they found fertile ground, clean water, and a nearby forest from which to harvest material needed to build shelter. So they settled there, founding a community far from Jerusalem, a community where they vowed to keep the memory of Christ alive and live in simplicity, love, and forgiveness, just as he had taught them.

The members of this community lived in great solitude for over a hundred years, spending their days reflecting on the life of Jesus and attempting to remain faithful to his ways. And they did all this despite the overwhelming sorrow in their heart.

But their isolation was eventually broken when, early one morning, a small band of missionaries were amazed at the community they found. What was most startling to them was that these people had no knowledge of the resurrection and the ascension of Christ, for they had left Jerusalem before his return from the dead on the third day. Without hesitation, the missionaries gathered together all the community members and recounted what had occurred after the imprisonment and bloody crucifixion of their Lord.

That evening there was a great festival in the camp as people celebrated the news of the missionaries. Yet, as the night progressed, one of the missionaries noticed that the leader of the community was absent. This bothered the young man, so he set out to look for this respected elder. Eventually he found the community's leader crouched low in a small hut on the fringe of the village, praying and weeping.

"Why are you in such sorrow?" asked the missionary in amazement. "Today is a time for great celebration."

"It may indeed be a day for great celebration, but this is also a day of sorrow," replied the elder, who remained crouched on the floor. "Since the founding of this community we have followed the ways taught to us by Christ. We pursued his ways faithfully even though it cost us dearly, and we remained resolute despite the belief that death had defeated him and would one day defeat us also."

The elder slowly go to his feet and looked the missionary compassionately in the eyes.

"Each day we have forsaken our very lives for him because we judged him wholly worthy of the sacrifice, wholly worthy of our being. But now, following your news, I am concerned that my children and my children's children may follow him, not because of his radical life and supreme sacrifice, but selfishly, because his sacrifice will ensure their personal salvation and eternal life."

With this the elder turned and left the hut, making his way to the celebrations that could be heard dimly in the distance, leaving the missionary crouched on the floor.

Rob Bell Resurrection Video

Resurrection: Rob Bell from The Work of Rob Bell on Vimeo.