"With $14 billion spent on Mother's Day, have we've lost touch a bit with the Mother's Day story? Pastor Ron Lewis looks into the beginnings of America's Mother's Day and invites us to reclaim it's original proclamations."
The short video is here: "Mother's Day Movement"
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
50 Ways to Become the Answer to Our Prayers
These are posted on Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's site
Below are a few that stood out to me. Jonathan is a cofounder of Rutba House, a community in Durham, NC. I'll be spending a weekend with these guys in October; they might just kick my tail.
1. Fast for the 2 billion people that live on less than a dollar a day.
13. Look up the closest registered sex offender in your neighborhood and try to befriend him.
14. Throw a birthday party for a prostitute.
15. When you pay your water bill, pay your neighbor’s too (they’ll let you… really).
17. Ask the next person who asks you to spare some change to join you for dinner.
22. Give your winter coat away to someone who is colder than you and go to a thrift store to get a new one.
32. Go to an elderly home and get a list of folks who don´t get any visitors. Visit them each week and tell stories, read the bible together, or play board games.
36. Give your car away to a stranger.
45. Visit a worship service where you will be a minority. Invite someone to dinner at your house or have dinner with someone there if they invite you.
46. Help your church congregation create a Peacemaker Scholarship and give it away to a young person trying to avoid the economic draft, who would like to go to college but sees no other way than the military.
49. Serve in a homeless shelter. For extra credit, go back and eat or sleep in the shelter and allow yourself to be served.
Below are a few that stood out to me. Jonathan is a cofounder of Rutba House, a community in Durham, NC. I'll be spending a weekend with these guys in October; they might just kick my tail.
1. Fast for the 2 billion people that live on less than a dollar a day.
13. Look up the closest registered sex offender in your neighborhood and try to befriend him.
14. Throw a birthday party for a prostitute.
15. When you pay your water bill, pay your neighbor’s too (they’ll let you… really).
17. Ask the next person who asks you to spare some change to join you for dinner.
22. Give your winter coat away to someone who is colder than you and go to a thrift store to get a new one.
32. Go to an elderly home and get a list of folks who don´t get any visitors. Visit them each week and tell stories, read the bible together, or play board games.
36. Give your car away to a stranger.
45. Visit a worship service where you will be a minority. Invite someone to dinner at your house or have dinner with someone there if they invite you.
46. Help your church congregation create a Peacemaker Scholarship and give it away to a young person trying to avoid the economic draft, who would like to go to college but sees no other way than the military.
49. Serve in a homeless shelter. For extra credit, go back and eat or sleep in the shelter and allow yourself to be served.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Missio Dei
Brazilian "crazy pastor" Claudio Oliver brilliantly and beautifully brings together mission, salvation, sin, church, nature, work, Jesus, mankind, the cosmos - pretty much everything.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Church in a Brewery
Love it.
www.thewellatbillings.org
This is the church plant of a close friend. If you live in/near Billings, Montana and you need a place to discuss faith, here ya go.
www.thewellatbillings.org
This is the church plant of a close friend. If you live in/near Billings, Montana and you need a place to discuss faith, here ya go.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Shane Claiborne at Duke
Shane gave a 15-minute sermon (see if your pastor can beat that) at the Duke Chapel last month. It's posted online, so I transcribed my favorite parts and included them below, interspersed with my photos of the Chapel. I guess I should give some background. Shane is the author of "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" and coauthor of "Jesus for President." He is one of the best-known practitioners of "New Monasticism," and cofounded a community in Philidelphia called The Simple Way. The premise of New Monasticism, or "intentional community," is that a group of Christians would share living space and work together on Christ-inspired projects centered on issues such as poverty, justice, peace and racial reconciliation.
“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away – and that seems to fly in the face of so much that we hear in our culture and even the church, with this self-centered, blessing-obsessed, gospel of prosperity that’s about what we can get from God. If we’re not careful we lose the secret of God’s liberation which is: if you want to find your life, you have to give it away.”
“I find it funny when people see that we’ve left a lot of this stuff to follow Jesus. They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s so heroic, you know, you take a vow of simplicity…’ And I’m like, ‘You must have never seen the pearl that we left everything for.’ We said no to some things, but we’ve said yes to something so dazzling and so beautiful that it makes all the other stuff look like dung. We’ve said no to the counterfeit peace of Rome, but we’ve said yes to the perfect peace of Jesus. We’ve said no to the myth of redemptive violence, but we’ve said yes to the truth of redemptive grace. We’ve said no to the illusion of independence, but said yes to the beautiful interdependence of the family of God. We’ve said no to the American Dream, but we’ve said yes to a dream that burns much brighter. We’ve left everything for the pearl, but the things that we’ve left, they’re like fool’s gold, like cubic zirconia, the counterfeit pearls, the stuff that’s just gaudy and clutters us. It’s not about what we’ve left; it’s about what we’ve found. We’ve found a love that’s worth saying yes to. That’s why they left their nets, that’s why they died – they died because this Jesus is so beautiful.”
When a fire destroyed many homes in Shane’s neighborhood, displacing about a hundred families, the Red Cross set up a shelter. But the Red Cross reported to them, “Nobody stayed in the shelter because everybody in your neighborhood opened their homes up.” Shane’s friend made a mural showing a house burning to the ground, allowing the moon to be seen behind it - which actually happened. The caption read, “Boy, isn’t the moon beautiful?" Shane concluded, “It’s that kind of freedom that we hear called to in the Corinthian reading that teaches us to live as if none of the stuff around us even existed, to live as if the world around us is fading away and won’t last.”
“As liberated people I think that frees us up to laugh a little bit. … We can laugh at the recession because we know our providence comes from somewhere else. I love that story in Revelation about the fall of Babylon. As Revelation tells of the fall of Babylon it says there were two responses. There was the response of the merchants, who looked up and wept and beat their chest and said, ‘Oh, how could great Babylon fall!’ And then there’s the response of the angels; it says the angels rejoiced, and they said, ‘Fallen, fallen is the great whore, Babylon.’ Maybe the big question for us is, are we weeping with the merchants or laughing with the angels today.”
“Our hope today does not lie on Wall Street, our hope doesn’t rest in America, our hope does not come from a new Caesar or even a new president (even a good one). ‘Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.’ Indeed as we look around, all other ground is sinking sand. But Christ will live forever."
“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away – and that seems to fly in the face of so much that we hear in our culture and even the church, with this self-centered, blessing-obsessed, gospel of prosperity that’s about what we can get from God. If we’re not careful we lose the secret of God’s liberation which is: if you want to find your life, you have to give it away.”
“I find it funny when people see that we’ve left a lot of this stuff to follow Jesus. They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s so heroic, you know, you take a vow of simplicity…’ And I’m like, ‘You must have never seen the pearl that we left everything for.’ We said no to some things, but we’ve said yes to something so dazzling and so beautiful that it makes all the other stuff look like dung. We’ve said no to the counterfeit peace of Rome, but we’ve said yes to the perfect peace of Jesus. We’ve said no to the myth of redemptive violence, but we’ve said yes to the truth of redemptive grace. We’ve said no to the illusion of independence, but said yes to the beautiful interdependence of the family of God. We’ve said no to the American Dream, but we’ve said yes to a dream that burns much brighter. We’ve left everything for the pearl, but the things that we’ve left, they’re like fool’s gold, like cubic zirconia, the counterfeit pearls, the stuff that’s just gaudy and clutters us. It’s not about what we’ve left; it’s about what we’ve found. We’ve found a love that’s worth saying yes to. That’s why they left their nets, that’s why they died – they died because this Jesus is so beautiful.”
When a fire destroyed many homes in Shane’s neighborhood, displacing about a hundred families, the Red Cross set up a shelter. But the Red Cross reported to them, “Nobody stayed in the shelter because everybody in your neighborhood opened their homes up.” Shane’s friend made a mural showing a house burning to the ground, allowing the moon to be seen behind it - which actually happened. The caption read, “Boy, isn’t the moon beautiful?" Shane concluded, “It’s that kind of freedom that we hear called to in the Corinthian reading that teaches us to live as if none of the stuff around us even existed, to live as if the world around us is fading away and won’t last.”
“As liberated people I think that frees us up to laugh a little bit. … We can laugh at the recession because we know our providence comes from somewhere else. I love that story in Revelation about the fall of Babylon. As Revelation tells of the fall of Babylon it says there were two responses. There was the response of the merchants, who looked up and wept and beat their chest and said, ‘Oh, how could great Babylon fall!’ And then there’s the response of the angels; it says the angels rejoiced, and they said, ‘Fallen, fallen is the great whore, Babylon.’ Maybe the big question for us is, are we weeping with the merchants or laughing with the angels today.”
“Our hope today does not lie on Wall Street, our hope doesn’t rest in America, our hope does not come from a new Caesar or even a new president (even a good one). ‘Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.’ Indeed as we look around, all other ground is sinking sand. But Christ will live forever."
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Lent
Alright. Enough about "secular" holidays. Lent is around the corner beginning Wednesday, February the 25th. With this pregnancy I've let my sweet tooth run a little wild so I will probably reign that in and take the traditional - give up all refined/processed sugary things - plan this year. (It actually works out well because my son's 5th birthday party and my baby shower are both scheduled for Sundays - so I won't have to avoid temptation at big events - and they will be all the more celebratory!)
But "giving up stuff" is hardly the purpose of Lent. It is a season to draw closer to God. Sacrifice is only one way to accomplish this. No matter what, my family will inevitably be drawing closer to God as our custody trial falls within Lent, but I still like the idea of adding something in during Lent - like a special study.
So - what Lenten studies are out there and come recommended?
But "giving up stuff" is hardly the purpose of Lent. It is a season to draw closer to God. Sacrifice is only one way to accomplish this. No matter what, my family will inevitably be drawing closer to God as our custody trial falls within Lent, but I still like the idea of adding something in during Lent - like a special study.
So - what Lenten studies are out there and come recommended?
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy Valentine's Day!
From past Valentine's posts we know that I am pro-Valentine's and Chris is anti - I'm guessing all that is still unchanged especially since Chris recently posted a facebook update about being up for going back to some old nasty Roman Valentine custom. And I know I haven't changed! I maintain that holidays serve as reminders to do more, love more, be more - and yes, as Christians this should be the reality of our everyday but let's be honest... it isn't. So even though my everyday these days involves talking to attorneys because of an upcoming custody battle I face in March and sleeping more because of an upcoming birth I face in May - today, Valentine's Day, we stopped neglecting Miss Lucy, our 80-year-old widowed neighbor, and brought her a home-made Valentine made by my 4-year-old and homemade chocolate chip oatmeal bars made by me. (And perhaps even better, me and the boys just sat and hung out with her in her house for almost an hour this morning.) In other Valentine's related loves acts, I created a Valentine mad lib for my son to pass out at his class Valentine party. We made more homemade treats for his teachers. Tonight we are bringing dinner and yet another batch of baked treats to a church family that just had a baby. And my husband and I, who really are great about showing physical and verbal affection daily, took the time to go on a date last night, write out some of our ooey gooey thoughts in cards and did a few other acts of appreciation for each other that we may or may not have taken time to do on a non-Valentine week. The kiddos are surely feeling loved as well - they got to eat giant Reese pb hearts with their breakfast, got Todd Parr* books as Valentines presents that we all sat together and read after breakfast, and tonight after our traditional Valentine meal (a shrimp pasta dish) we are making smores in the fireplace.
What's not to love about Valentine's!?
*The Peace Book
The Family Book
What's not to love about Valentine's!?
*The Peace Book
The Family Book
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