At the heart of the nature of things, there are always the dream of youth and the harvest of tragedy. The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic beauty. This is the union of Zest with Peace: – That the suffering attains its end in a Harmony of Harmonies. The immediate experience of this Final Fact, with its union of Youth and Tragedy, is the sense of peace. In this way the World receives its persuasion... Read more
( Mary…East Vancouver 2007 ) It’s late Sunday evening and I’m working on the computer and I get a text from my daughter, ” help!” She has to give a reflection at chapel the next day around Advent. My daughter works at christian based Drug and Addiction Rehabilitation Center for young women. So we start the ball bouncing, me sending it across the ” net ” and her returning it. Suddenly something profoundly redemptive starts to unravel…it may not be... Read more
When Doug and I started The JoPa Group, it was an effort to resource the missional church for a sustainable future. We’ve been running social media boot camps and some other events over the last couple years. But we’re especially excited about what we’ve got planned for 2012. We’ll be hosting two consecutive events in Minneapolis in May: Funding the Missional Church will take place in Minneapolis, May 1-3. It’s a conference to explore the best thinking and practices in... Read more
As an addendum to last weeks post on the conversational element of Emergent, I want to assert my belief that when it comes to voices in the conversation, more is better. In one of our Twin Cities Emergent Cohort meetings several years ago I remember Tony Jones saying that the fear of many concerning open discussion in biblical or theological small groups is that heresy will rule the day. “If everyone has a say,” the argument goes, “there will be... Read more
Starting a blog for a new “audience” is awkward. This first post feels a little like a Match.com-ish plea for you to like me. Just so you know, I really do want you to like me. I love the approval of strangers. That said, I will pretend like I don’t care what you think of me. My shrink calls that instinct “self-preservation” and I am really good at it. I’m thankful that Doug Pagitt invited me into the conversation on... Read more
I have suggested in a series of books recently that we live in the Inventive Age. I believe a have moved from the Agrarian Age, through the Industrial Age and the Information Age into the creative Inventive Age. These ages create the context for all of cultural life and every part of society is part of the cultural reality. In this video from my weekly Sunday radio show I give a few reasons why I think this matters. Read more
Christmas just isn’t so much my season. I’m not a Scrooge exactly, but maybe just his first cousin once removed. In sum, I hate the whole thing, except for the Christian part of it. But every time I lay claim to the beauty of holy nativity, I sound to myself like one of those annoying, holier-then-thou, put Christ back in Christmas folks whom I dislike more than I dislike the whole secularized mess itself. What it all finally boils down to, in... Read more
This Advent we are looking at the Christmas story through the lens of the Mission of God. So, this last Sunday we got to walk through parts of Isaiah asking, “What will this Kingdom God is bringing thru Jesus look like?” We want to know, if God is about the rescue and renewal of the world, what will that encompass? And more, what’s OUR part in the story? Words like peace, justice, fairness, wholeness and flourishing (shalom)… This is what... Read more
Is God coming? God is here! Can’t you see him all around you? From the first light of creation, To the moment that he found you. We’re not abandoned or left comfortless. But Scripture reveals a pattern that we’ve missed. His comings aren’t limited two, the bridegroom hasn’t been “delayed”. Comings run through Scripture like a thread, our perception needs to be remade. Not all comings were in his body, to be seen and touched and heard, He was in... Read more
I recently had a near-miss opportunity to have my memoir Flunking Sainthood featured on a prominent evangelical website. Apparently the two editors there who had read it really enjoyed the book and thought its themes of finding joy in spiritual failure would resonate with their readers. They began the process of scheduling an author interview. And then someone found out the dirty truth that I am a Mormon. Not only that, but a “vocal Mormon,” as an embarrassed, kind editor... Read more
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