imagining how the church can reorient around mission

There’s been a ton of talk recently about what is happening at Asbury University. It’s been called a “revival” by some. It’s been called an “awakening” by others. To be sure, something extraordinary happened. The last thing I want to do is take away from the wonder of what transpired. It is marvelous and has seemingly impacted tons of people.

But, there is a revival going on in our church community (Immanuel Church, Spokane), as well. read more

The following are prayers we offered at Immanuel this morning, the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The text this morning was Mark 8:27-38. Feel free to pray along with us. Peace.

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A beautiful and moving prayer from Walter Brueggemann that I used in my sermon this morning.

Before the Day is Out  read more

I wanted to put this out before it moved from the front of my thinking. A few of us have been very concerned about the increase in violent activity in our city (here is a different recent post about this). The question I have been grappling with is what is the church’s response to such issues. To be honest, the complexity of urban violence is beyond me. What can be done? What can I do? I am not sure.

Liv Larson Andrews

One thing we (Eric Blauer and Liv Larson Andrews) arrived at was we did not want to become desensitized to how these brutal acts fractured shalom. I believe many Americans are becoming fatigued by the constant cascade
of news of this kind; that they are in a way de-selecting it for their possible choices of issues to be concerned about.

What we concluded was we wanted to publically grieve and
passionately intercede. In real time, that meant that we would go humbly stand in front of “The Hop” (the location of a recent murder) and do a Liturgy of Peace. It wasn’t against anyone or even to gain some attention for our
activism. It really was for us (because our hearts are broken) and for God
(because we believe that prayer is more than just aligning ourselves with God’s
way – it actually is efficacious). We wept…we interceded and we marked the spot with the sign of the cross.

I have to admit, I am a person of great inner tension. Sometimes I come from some activity and wonder what it was for? Was it for me or for Jesus? Was it healthy or stilted. In short, I’m a bit of a tortured soul. But I want to testify that praying for our city on Monroe St. on Friday at 5:30 with two fantastic ladies might have been one of the “purest” acts of Christian service I’ve been involved with for some time. I’m grateful.

Christ have mercy! May shalom rest on Spokane.

r

I've been writing the last couple of weeks about the discipline of listening. I must again admit that I'm a novice at this discipline.

This week I've been trying to put into practice the spiritual discipline of “Indifference.” “Indifference” doesn't mean anything like “I don't care” or “It doesn't make any difference to me,” but has more to do with the idea of holding things lightly. As Ruth Haley Barton puts it, read more

Here is a liturgy I wrote for our new group, Immanuel to attempt to put into practice what I have been talking
about the last two days.  Enjoy!

Note: I passed out the
texts in advance to others so I was not the only one leading. read more

As
I mentioned yesterday the idea of listening for God's direction in ministry and
mission is something that is critically important, but quite difficult.

In
thinking about how we are to listen it seems like there are three components
that have to be grappled with. read more

I have started on one of those “Read Through
the Bible in a Year” programs for 2013. I have done this annually for many years but
have dropped the practice in the last few for a variety of reasons.
Nonetheless, I believe it is vital to get the full scope of Scripture and there
are no shortcuts in getting there. You just have to sit down and read. I
believe that the Gospel is found in the entire Bible, not just in select verses
that evangelicals have hyper-focused on for the last several decades. It was
NT Wright and a few others who have asked the poignant question: Do we actually need
to read the whole of Scripture to arrive at a clear and full understanding of
the gospel?” Sadly, most will unequivocally say that you need to engage the
full corpus of Scripture, but in real time their lives deny the fact. 

Okay, to my point… while reading through the
Pentateuch I was once again arrested by the narrative of how God led the nation
Israel with a “Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of fire.” These two images represented God’s
presence for the people. To simply state the scenario, God firmly instructed
them that their role was to unreservedly follow Him in fire and the cloud. When
the cloud and fire moved, they all were to “Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies” and follow (sorry, I could not resist the temptation to quote a Neil
Diamond song). When it was stationary, the nation pitched their tents and
hunkered down. Pretty simple, right? I am being serious when I say that my dog
Buckley could track with those commands. Buckley come! Buckley stay! Bam. This
is easy stuff. read more

My mom has had cancer for almost five years.  She prays that she will live to see her three
daughters get married.  Last summer, the
first one of us daughters had her wedding in our front yard.  My mom wept: It was like God was giving back,
gift-wrapped, her deepest desire that she had surrendered fully to Him.

 
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