We took a field trip to IKEA last weekend to do some furniture reconnaissance work. (Side note: I had never been to an IKEA before. Wow. Place is crazy.) For some reason this swedish furniture giant sells a number of adorable, super soft, “pets”. When I saw this one, I said, “Our child needs this awesome thing.” At some point, while wandering around the vast, endless displays of furniture, it hit me: this is the first present we have bought for our child. Another milestone on the journey to parenthood. Hopefully, as parents, we will provide many good gifts, gifts that far surpass stuffed animals, but for now I’m pretty stoked about this puppy.
Leadership, Stories, Imagination, and Truth (week links)
No Locked Doors
Continuing the Acts theme this week:
“There are no locked doors in the kingdom of God.”
From NT Wright’s commentary on Acts 5:17-26
Acts, Church, Tension, Beauty, etc
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Acts recently (see yesterday’s post). A common reaction to Acts is to look at all the exciting and crazy things that happen (3000 people joining the movement, healings in Jesus’ name, angels letting people out of jail) and to ask: “Why doesn’t the church look more like this today?”
I can sympathize with that a bit. But, I also am overwhelmed with how little has changed. People fight, disagree over little things, lie, criticize, and quit. The mission is always in danger of getting derailed by something that, in the grand scheme of things, is not all that important.
When I look around today and hear some of the criticisms about the church, I hear, at times, the “We just need to go back to Acts” sentiment. To people who say that, I ask: “Have you been involved in a church lately?”
When you are deeply involved in a community, and when you are a healthy person, you should see both sides of the Acts coin…the good and the bad…the beautiful and the ugly. Churches can be amazing: people finding their way back to God, great stories of transformation, miracles, serving the community, and on and on. But church can also be agonizing: fights, losing the mission, distractions, criticisms, and on and on.
Acts makes it clear that both of these realities are true of the church in a broken world. The challenge for me, as Acts has reminded me, is not to let idealism or cynicism win the day. The beauty is in holding the tension of these two realities. Church is where the miraculous happens and it can break your heart. God help me to live in to that truth.
Summer Projects
One of the big projects for the summer is to help REUNION write another round of community group curriculum. I do like this process a lot, and I am especially grateful for the partnership that will be involved in this summer’s effort.
The first time we did this I didn’t do much writing (mostly picking and pulling from other sources); the results we called “The Story of Scripture.” Last year I helped write “The Story of Jesus” (a much more original effort). We are using that method again this year for “The Story of the Church”. I am excited to see what comes from this and how it will be used in groups to help people grow and act more like Jesus in their neighborhoods in Boston.
Progress
Doctor visit on Wednesday went well. Everything seems to be progressing normally. Mom is doing great and the kid is a kicker!
In other news: we have plenty of reading material to keep us busy until september!
Letters From the Past and Future, Questions of Science and Progress, and Other Notables
- Gary Molander on “what I would tell my 20-something self.” Interesting stuff…I wonder if I would say similar things?
- Michael Ruse claims that science can answer many questions, but it cannot answer this one: “Why is there something rather than nothing?“
- Interesting letter from Ronald Regan to his son. Love the line: “how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life.”
- Tyler Braun on the 5 shadows of leadership.
- Steven Johnson (one of my favorite social commentators) wondering if Facebook will turn out to be its own worst enemy.
Don’t Be Complicit
Here are a couple of intertwining thoughts from two different books I’ve been reading. In Safe People (by Cloud and Townsend) the authors write: “An important question to ask (when discerning if a person is safe or unsafe) is: what does this person do with my no?”
Saying yes and no (being truthful), and how people respond to that, is a theme that keeps showing up in a number of places.
In The Bottom of the 33rd, Joe Morgan (no not that Joe Morgan) is the manager of the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox. As a AAA (closest minor league level to the major leagues) manager Morgan saw a lot of guys who went on to play in bigs, but he also saw a lot of guys who were good but not quite good enough.
These not quite good enough players would hang around and hang around hoping against hope for their break. At some point they would come to Joe and ask: “What do you think, skip? Am I going to make it?”
And Joe Morgan was honest with them. He told them the truth. Sometimes that was a really hard, even brutal, assignment. But, and here’s our quote of the week:
“Morgan never wanted to be complicit in another man’s delusions. He felt morally required to provide either encouragement or release. To say yes or no.”
He wasn’t a jerk about it. He didn’t take delight in crushing a man’s dreams. But he didn’t lie to them either. This is a hard lesson of leadership, but, as I am learning, it is important to tell the truth.
Resurrection (Thoughts on Teaching and 35 Weeks of Luke)
This past Sunday our church partner, [REUNION], wrapped up a 35 week series on the book of Luke. It was long, but fruitful journey. I had the privilege of teaching 5 or 6 of those weeks. Most recently, week 34 to be exact, I got to speak on the resurrection.
Now, in some ways this is a home run for preachers…who doesn’t get excited to teach the resurrection?! On the other hand, there is a good amount of fear and trembling that goes along with the subject matter. What if the skies don’t open up? What if people shrug their shoulders and say “that was nice”? What if no one is moved?
This is not meant to be a critique of sermons or preachers, but as I was preparing I knew we needed a story. As it turned out there was a great story in our community that couldn’t have dovetailed any more perfectly.
Nancy told her story and she told it well, and probably the most important thing I said all day, and the thing people likely remember the most, was “that’s the power of the resurrection” after she had finished.
We need good teaching and people who can sermonize well, but how powerful and effective is a story? Amazing. And humbling from a teaching perspective. But, so important to the life of a community. Thank you Nancy!
*you can listen to it all here.
Summer
The school year is winding down and the pace of life is changing, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening with Sojourn this summer. Here are a few highlights:
- I will be helping REUNION write some community group curriculum
- We are going to hold a city-wide weekly (thursday night) get-together for students who are still in the city
- Fundraise (see friday’s post)
- Teach once a month at REUNION
- Plan and scheme for the fall
- Go to a conference I’m really excited about
- A couple of weekends away for Amy and I
- Get ready for the baby!
