Brought To You By The Letter M

I actually started writing this post as a comment on Matt's latest post with the crazy title: Dreamscape something something something. I decided to post it here becaus it got really long for a comment and plus this way I get all the credit...mwahahahahaha.

I don't totally agree with your assuming that there were "non-Christians" in the Corinthian church, just as I don't agree with those who assume that there weren't. As you said, that is not the point of Paul’s speaking on communion in this passage. I think what is more prevalent is Paul's teaching on the Law and faith in Christ, namely that those who are still under the Law will be judged by it, while those who know of the freedom in Christ are judged by their faith (whether they choose or reject Christ).

As to how this relates to communion, I think that the Great Banquet, which is what the Last Supper foreshadows, is open to all who come in the name of Christ. Here on earth the table of fellowship is a way of celebrating that "not yet" event in our "already" saved state, a way of partaking in our inheritance now. God wishes this inheritance to be shared among all his children and the invitation must be extended to all.

How can we invite people into something without showing them glimpses of it? "Come into the blessings of God...oh, wait, you can't come in until you sign this contract...hey, no peeking"

I think the crux of the matter, and I guess the real point I'm trying to make, is that the banquet table is to be inclusive not exclusive (as Matt said). Does this mean that I have the same understanding of communion as a non-Christian or that we gain the same benefits? May it never be (actually, I guess I would want it to be at some point)! While I, as a Christian, share in the suffering, death, and resurrection of my Lord when I partake of communion, a non-Christian still participates in the communal aspects and learns the patterns of Christ. It's the same with prayer, worship, and service. In a way, they need to try on the things of Christianity, learn their significance and explore their meanings.

In the end, all people are judged on their knowledge, understanding, and conviction by the Holy Spirit: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48).

Quotation of the Day:

Innocence is a splendid thing, only it has the misfortune not to keep very well and to be easily misled.

- Kant

The Lost Art of Buddyship

So it turns out that I'm a hypocrite. Who knew? After preaching vehemently to Erika (sorry) about how we need to be more intentional with relationships at The House and how we need to place Christ's love as our default setting instead of humor and sarcasm I went and left my phaser on stun (or is it kill) with my buddy Jorgen. It really got me thinking about the nature of relationships and how they change as people grow closer.

It all reminds me of the lost art of buddyship, a concept by I can't remember who. Essentially, relationships start based on common interests and progress to the point where a crisis of some sort takes place. While some relationships stay in the common interests stage or the second, I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine stage, these don't get very deep. Friendships that turn into intimate relationships (I won't say always) always (oh...look at that, I said it) require a point where both parties need to decide if the relationship is worth the effort and potential pain.

Now somewhere along the line things change from a place where jokes and sarcasm are fine because there is enough distance in the realtionship to avoid hurt to a place where those same harmless jokes become scathing jabs. Where is this line? Is it before, after, or is it often the cause of the crisis that forces introspection? Whatever the case, it is vital that we are aware of this change because the closer we are to people the easier it is to hurt them and the deeper those hurts can reach.

Sadly, this whole issue was one of the causes that led to problems at the Sol Cafe: people wanting to build meaningful community but not putting in the effort required or changing settings on the old phase pistol. I also feel it is going to be one of the key factors in the health of The House as I have already seen glimmers of it in the cramped space of my apartment as we try to build this community.

Taking a Page from Pagitt

So I've decided to start blogging about the book that has inspired much of what The House is about: Reimagining Spiritual Formation. It was written by Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, and the rest of the congregation. Many of the thoughts and ideas resonnate with things Matt and I were thinking beforehand and many others are welcome additions in forming a diferent view of spirituality. The book works through a week in the life of the church, using each day to illustrate a different part of our spiritual selves. It starts on Sunday with worship and so shall I.

At first glance, worship seems to be a large part of churches. Large worship bands writing new, meaningful songs with heart-tugging music are all the rage today. But that's just the problem. Even as you read this many of you are thinking what's wrong with that? Isn't it great that we're getting back to a strong music-based worship focus? Yes, it is. I love music and I find it very easy to encounter God through music, but music is only a small part, one way of worshipping our God. And the fact that worship is confined to a six song set (seven or eight for pentecostals), once a week adds to the feeling that I have one shot per week to worship and only one mode in which to do so.

Solomon's Porch refers to their Sunday as a worship gathering, with significance placed on both words. The entire time together is seen as worship and that worship is communal. The first idea provides the context for everything that happens on Sunday to be seen as worship: singing, praying, reading, conversing, eating, playing, everything...beautiful! The second part places emphasis on communal worship, both enforcing the need to praise God together and providing the realization that worship on one's own can happen throughout the week (i.e. Sunday is a time when individual worshippers gather to worship God together).

Another aspect of worship that is very crucial to The House, and which resonates with Solomon's Porch, is the modes through which we experience God and offer praise to Him. Creativity will be a big part of this: art, sculpture, poetry, maybe even dance. The physical realm will also be involved, which is a scary thought for many of us when it comes to worship and spirituality in general (more on physicality in another installment), but it has so much to offer us.

The large, over-arching principle for worhip at The House is that it becomes a natural out-flowing of the community. We never want to get stuck in a mode where a few people dictate how we worship. Worship becomes a normal part of how we construct our lives around God. Does this make it harder to ensure Biblically sound practices? Yes. Does it make it harder for Matt and I to control what goes on? Yes. And thank goodness we don't have to. This search for authentic, natural worship puts more of an onus on each individual to be real and, hopefully, produces more meaningful expressions. Not to say that more structured worship can't be meaningful, but I'm excited to see what people bring when they aren't told how or what to bring!

Tune in next time. Same Elf time. Same Elf channel.

Handle On Things?

I finally feel like I have a handle on what needs to be done to establish The House. Matt and I met with Bill Taylor, the superintendent of the Parkland District for the Evangelical Free Church of Canada (EFCC). We went over the constitution for The House and Bill gave us suggestions on how to "improve" it (by improve I mean to jump through the hoops of the government of Alberta). We also went over the other forms we need to fill out and talked about financing our mortgage for the house we want to buy. That part was actually quite encouraging, as there are a number of avenues we can explore; it's not a one shot deal. There are still a number of things up in the air (money and a mortgage being the biggest of those), but all we can do is what's within our power and let God do the rest. Now that's exciting!

I'm also impressed with the amount of involvement and willingness to step up on the part of people at The House. Almost everyone who is part of this fledgling community is involved with official responsibility, whether it be pursuing the building we are looking at, part of the practial group, part of the philisophical group, or part of our leadership. It's amazing to see how people step up when you provide oportunity to use gifts.

Nothing To Do...Everything To Gain

Suddenly I find myself with very little to do. Yesterday saw the end of my volleyball season as our team lost in the fifth set of the finals to a team that I know is inferior to us...ouch! I also had my last class and my final exam for that class is two weeks away. So I will probably slack off for thirteen days and do some last minute cramming. Thus, I am free for the summer! Now to decide if I will get a another job or use the extra time to pour into The House.

Having thought more about the role of physicality in spirituality I keep coming back to the idea that knowledge is not the basis for faith. That line of thinking seems to lead into the idea that I can only experience God if I'm disecting his Word or having theological discussion. What about how I experience God when I'm into music or snowboarding on a perfect mountain? Did David achieve "enlightenment" when he dance unabashedly naked before God? Or was it all the years of Jewish instruction Paul received that lead him to the profound relationshiop we know he had with Christ?

I think God gave us each of our senses to experience things as He does. We are created in His image and intellect and rational thought are only a part of that.

Sporty Theology

My college (Taylor University College) had an awards ceremony this morning and as coach of the volleyball team I presented awards for MVP, Most Improved, and Sportsmanlike (or should that be sportspersonlike...honestly). To my surprise, I also received an award for Greek studies from Zondervan and a free book of my choosing. Mmmmm...free book...aaghalagha!

One of the guys I took Greek with asked what I was doing in the fall (for a while I had been thinking of going to Trinity Western University to take Biblical Studies). I started telling him about The House idea and he was quite excited. Anyway, we started talking about the whole emphasis on education in evengelical thought. Both of us are quite scholarly minded and value knowledge but there is, what I think to be, a serious flaw in the view that education is a prerequisite for faith, or at the very least the best way to ensure strong faith.

The idea that we must educate people to death in order for them to have a real faith is very short-sighted. It takes away the mystical side of faith and makes our faith a series of lectures or chapters in a textbook. I do agree that deeper knowledge can bring deeper understanding and a fuller faith, but so can connection with nature, community, family, Oreo on Oreo ice cream action, and even athletics. This lead me to think about athletics and competition in general as it relates to Christian life.

Where do athletics fit into our relationship with Christ? It's part of the whole realm of physicality in spirituality and it's an area where western philosophies, including evangelicalism, have little to say and almsot nothing positive to offer. The idea of having a spirituality that includes physicality is one of the things I will enjoy exploring the most at The House.

Social Justice

Another late, late night (4:30 am). This is becoming the norm when getting together with members of the House to talk, especially when my buddy Matt and I get together (the other pastor). Last night we met with Mac at a 24 hour restaraunt to start talking about the teaching side of things at House gatherings. We are now starting to realize the need for more structure and planning in our meetings as we tend to wander off quite easily. Not that it's a bad thing, we actually have quite meaningful converstaions about theology et al, but we do need to get things accomplished from time to time.

We ended up talking about the documentary The Corporation and what the Christian response to the whole thing should be. It's quite an interesting film that really opens your eyes to the entire system of corporate ownership and the lack of social justice propagated by that system. As with most documentaries (Michael Moore springs to mind) The Corporation is fairly one-sided, illustrating the evils of corporate America while overlooking any resposibility on the part of consumers. It's easy to point at Wal-Mart sweatshops and cry "injustice", but the fact remains that people want cheap goods. Nevertheless, the film really portrays a lot of the hidden evils in corporations that most of us don't see.

So where does that leave us as Christians? Can I sit back and say, "Well, we will always have the poor anyway" or "The world is a sinful place so there's no hope?" Or do we have an obligation to stand up and oppose the injustices, not just against poorer countries, but also against the environment.

Just some thoughts.

Modern Day Legend

Last night I went to see a blues legend live at the Arden theatre: John Hammond. This man is one of the greats of blues and at the age of 63 he's still layin' it down. I mean the guy is unbelievable on steel guitar! He almost owns the W. C. Handy Blues award for Acoustic Guitar and he knows all of the greats: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Sonny Boy Williams, and has recorded with most of them as well.

Listening to someone of that calibre made me realize how weak the music industry is today. There are very few new "artists" (used very loosely) out there that are even in the same league as these guys. I'm sure the lint in John Hammond's navel could play a better kazoo than any of the top 40 artists out there today (and it's pretty hard to screw up the kazoo). Even the guy who opened for John, who was pretty good in his own right, paled in comparison to the master.

All this to say that I was reminded of what real music is and the sad lack of talent being rewarded by record labels these days.

Cautious Optimism

For those of you who don't know me from Adam (who is a great guy, but I don't know how you could confuse us) I am connected to Matt, joined at the hip actually. I was part of the same madness that happened at the Sol Cafe and I am to be one of the pastors at the House (just about called it the Hose, which would be a great name for a bar coincidentally).

Anyway, I had lunch with someone from the Sol yesterday, someone with whom I was just developing a friendship before all this happened and someone whom I don't want to lose as a friend, like so many others there. I think I have been able to escape from the whole dabacle with a minimal amount of pain and I have tried to release my resentment and anger at the whole thing to God. Because of this, I hope to be able to bridge the gap between the two sides as time goes on and this meeting was a small step in that direction.

Most of our conversation yesterday involved answering questions each of us had about things that happened and trying to evaluate the situation as it stands now. I think there is hope for reconciliation but I wonder how much the stubborness of people will play into it and how ready people are to actually extend forgiveness (seventy times seven). Nevertheless, we plan to continue meeting and talking about these things and about church, and where there is communication there is hope.

Well...it's official

I can now become a legitimate part of the emergent church movement as a pastor, for everyone knows that obtaining and keeping up a blog is a prerequisite for such an endeavor. Well, here it is in all its glory.

Although I have never been one to keep up with journaling, I believe myself capable of doing so in this case and I look forward to seeing where the adventure takes me. Oh yeah, and I promise not to include any more cheesy crap like the previous sentence from now on.