lifeasmission

I received my Economic Stimulus Payment the other day and wondered what I would do with it.  As I thought and prayed, I decided to join the ranks of those who called the whole premise of the program into question.

Feel free to accuse me for oversimplifying things if you want, but bottom line, the whole point of the Economic Stimulus Payments that virtually everyone received this year, was singular, “The economy is hurting, so please go buy stuff.”

Sadly, this advice just doesn’t square with those of us who live in a new reality under the Kingship of a God who says, “a man’s life does not consists in the abundance of his possessions” or whose dream for people is to live lives of sacrifice, sharing, generosity, and stewardship.

God’s economics fly in the face of the dominant American addiction to consumerism illustrated perfectly both by the opening line of a recent credit card advertisement, “We are a nation of consumers….and there’s nothing wrong with that.” (ht: Grete), as well as our President’s advice to the country after the 9/11 attacks of, “Go shopping.”

So, 1/2 my check went to Geronime, a woman in Benin, Africa, a fruit vendor through Kiva - a group (you definitely need to check out) that makes micro-loans to “entrepeneurs in the devloping world, empowering them to life themselves out of poverty,” and the other 1/2 went to pay down debt.  Guess I will just have to go without that gizmo, gadget, or do-dad that I probably needed sooooo badly.

This is a brief piece I wrote for the Living Hope community as we continue to explore what it means to embrace a missional identity as a church community - specifically with regard to how we understand the place of children.

The first church I served at as a pastor was very large.  We had all sorts of programs and services for people to choose from.  We invested a great deal of time and energy as a staff in trying to figure out the best ways, times, and methods to get people involved in church activities.  One of the things we were constantly wrestling with was how to have the necessary volunteers to pull everything off.  No area of ministry struggled more for consistent and dedicated volunteers than our children’s ministry.  My good friend Cyd, our children’s pastor, would ask the staff every single week to please talk to others about serving in the children’s ministry.  It was an area of constant need and an utterly shameful reality which screamed of just how far off course we were in living out God’s dream for his people.

In retrospect, I am able to see that this need was a direct result of the skewed understanding we had of what it meant to be the church.  We approached the church as though it were a volunteer organization.  Basically, our mentality was, “People have busy lives already, we need to do what we can to make it easy for them to participate in church activities and be careful not to ask too much - lest they leave.”  But the church is not a volunteer organization - the church is a family, a community invited by God to embody God’s good news of the Kingdom to the world around us.  This makes all the difference in the world in terms of the way we approach how we live, worship, and share life together.

Children are God’s gift, not only to parents, but to the community of the church.  In the context of this community, it’s not that we need volunteers to care for kids.  Rather, it’s that part of the identity of this new community is a mutual concern for each other, including a vested interest in the care for each other’s children.  In a culture so thoroughly individualistic, where we are led to believe that it is ultimately to ourselves that we are accountable and responsible, the church stands as a contrast.  In the community called church, we find our true identity not in ourselves, but in our relationship to others.

For Living Hope, our desire to be a missional church community means that we are seeking to live out a peculiar existence; an existence in which the needs of others come before our own and the care of children is seen as a communal, not private, affair.

Practically speaking, here’s what this might mean and look like.  Each Sunday morning people gather to worship - some gather at 9:00, others at 10:45.  During these times, children who can’t or don’t participate in the corporate worship gathering, meet in age specific groups.  This is our divine opportunity to experience what it means for the church to be different - to reject the dominant consumer culture.  This is our opportunity to invest a little bit of time with the children of our community - to show mutual (and opposed to individual) concern and accountability.  It’s not about volunteerism; it’s about Kingdom community.

Of course the ways in which we ought to show mutual concern and accountability run far deeper than this Sunday morning opportunity.  There are implications for our small group times, for sharing meals, for sharing resources, for taking vacations, for involvement in extracurricular activities, and so on, but there is something unique about the significance of caring for the children of our church community during those times that we are gathered corporately.

Shoot… looks like Santa has been checking my blog.  Maybe he has elves to do that!?!

Caught something about “Walkable Neighborhoods” over on Joe’s blog today.  He pointed to walkscore.com - a site that will tell you how walkable your neighborhood is.  On the site, they have this to say about walkable neighborhoods…

Walkable neighborhoods offer surprising benefits to our health, the environment, and our communities.

Better health: A study in Washington State found that the average resident of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood weighs 7 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood.¹ Residents of walkable neighborhoods drive less and suffer fewer car accidents, a leading cause of death between the ages of 15–45.

Reduction in greenhouse gas: Cars are a leading cause of global warming. Your feet are zero-pollution transportation machines.

More transportation options: Compact neighborhoods tend to have higher population density, which leads to more public transportation options and bicycle infrastructure. Not only is taking the bus cheaper than driving, but riding a bus is ten times safer than driving a car!²

Increased social capital: Walking increases social capital by promoting face-to-face interaction with your neighbors. Studies have shown that for every 10 minutes a person spends in a daily car commute, time spent in community activities falls by 10%.³

Stronger local businesses: Dense, walkable neighborhoods provide local businesses with the foot traffic they need to thrive. It’s easier for pedestrians to shop at many stores on one trip, since they don’t need to drive between destinations.

My new neighborhood scored an 82/100!

Also, in my ongoing effort to try and make as many of my normal purchases from people and places that make positive and conscientious contributions to society, I wanted to point out betterworld.com.

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.

Yeah, I am gonna spend a little more on books from this group than Amazon or another group like that, but I am always reminding myself, low costs almost never come without someone else paying the “price.”

Disclaimer:  This post is not (really) about cars.

On the heels of that last post, I thought I would throw this out there and say how glad I am that most of the folks in my life seem to be those who are really trying to press into the full implications of what following Jesus means and looks like right here and now.  They are not, for the most part, Christian Escapists - those whose value for Christ primarily has to do with their get-out-of-hell-free card.  They want to live out lives of discipleship for the sake of their neighbors and the world.

Anyway, that being said… I caught this in a parking lot the other day, read it, kept walking, and went back to take a picture once my internal annoyance-o-meter reached its peak.

This bumper sticker perfectly illustrates the degree to which a subtle neo-gnosticism has seeped into how we understand the Christian faith.  The idea of gnosticism is simple: eternity has nothing to do with here and now.  Therefore, for example, I can “have my treasure in heaven,” and live however the heck I want.

I am reminded of my friend Wess’ post, “How Do We Look for the Theology of a Church?“  One of his suggestions was to check out the cars in the parking lot on Sunday morning.  Now, this may not be a perfect gauge (and Wess doesn’t suggest that it is), but in terms of a non-gnosticized version of the Christian faith, it is a valid point.  That point being, if we understand the good news of God’s Kingdom as something we get to participate in and live out for the sake of the world here and now, then guess what, it will envelop every aspect of our lives, including (perhaps especially including) the economic dimension.

The gospel aims to get a grip on not just our hearts, but our whole lives.  Imagine the visible impact of church communities which aimed to live well below their means because of their rejection of consumerism and materialism, or, even better, because they so badly wanted to experience the blessing of sharing and giving - of living lives unencumbered by extravagance and luxury.  That seems like a way of being the church that is more worthy of a crucified and risen Messiah.

God has done some kind of number on me.  In days gone by I would have described me (and I am pretty sure others would have as well) as a guy who primarily loves to talk.  While that may still be true, I am way more interested in listening these days.  Wednesday night, therefore, was an unbelievable time.

Once upon a time there was a small group of friends that began to grow.  Over time that group has become three (probably soon to be more).  On Wednesday, those groups got together for an evening of sharing stories and praying with one another.

For several hours people talked about what God has been doing in their life, what challenges they are facing, what some of their hopes and dreams for the future are, and prayed with and for one another.  I shared in this time from 2 points of view.  First and foremost, I am a part of one of these groups and I was overjoyed to count myself among these people who are trying to follow God in their lives.  Secondly, I am a pastor on staff with the church community all these friends are a part of.  It is really this 2nd perspective that I want to comment on briefly.

Most of my undergraduate education, internships, and church experience has taught me that the paid pastors/professionals are charged with the task of developing vision for a church community and then laboring to help those who comprise the body get on board.  Ugh.  This is a methodology I have been happy to wave bye-bye to.  Instead, I would rather spend my time listening to peoples hearts and stories as we, together, try to get a handle on what God is doing and saying in our midst.  This is intrinsic to how I have come to understand what it means to be a truly missional church community.  It drastically changes how we go about being the body of Christ and I am all for it.  Here’s to the journey my friends - allelon!

After 4 months of getting to know Memphis, living with various people and in various places, and living out of a suit case, I have found a place to hang my hat - at least for the next year.

here for more pictures (not my stuff in the house)

Here’s what metropolitan Memphis looks like

Downtown Memphis is actually to the west of “the loop” between the Mississippi River and 240.  Inside the loop is generally referred to as midtown, though it has more specific designations in certain parts.  To the east of the the loop is Germantown, Cordova, and Collierville.  Piperton, where our church community has purchased land for some future use is a little more east than Collierville.  I considered living in virtually all of these places.

Living subversively in a suburban context is something I care deeply about and feel like a good portion of my life will probably go to, but for a smattering of reasons, it doesn’t seem that now is the season for that. I mentioned a slew of factors in the decision making process in my post about being scared to live in the suburbs and I don’t really think that any decision I would have made would have been THE right decision, but here’s why I am pretty excited about this place.

1) Location.  This house puts me within walking distance (less than 1/2 of a mile) of coffee shops, restaurants, shopping, the largest park in the city, the playhouse, and the only theater I am aware of in Memphis that shows Indy films.  Here’s a little map I started to put together of all the stuff I can walk to easily.  There’s a ton more that is easily within biking distance (1-3 miles) such as the YMCA where I’ll work out and my bank.

2) Set-up.  The house is perfectly set-up to invite others to explore intentional community.  There are 3 huge bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms on the 1st floor as well as a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with its own kitchen and a separate entrance on top.

3) Neighborhood.  The neighborhood is both racially and socio-economically diverse and by virtue of living here I will be part of the “Tucker-Jefferson Neighborhood Association,” an active group which aims “to maintain and improve the dignity and integrity of the residences and businesses in the area, to preserve the diversity of the area, to insure orderly an compatible land use in the area, to encourage homeowners living in the area to improve their homes, and to work together on problems and issues of certain concern.”

4) Opportunity.  Living Hope is a primarily white, affluent, suburban church that is asking God how we might engage and be a blessing to urban Memphis as well as to where we are.  Having more people move into urban parts of the city will inevitably be a big part of that.

I am truly grateful to have found this place and am really looking forward to having a context to engage on a more constant basis.

I have been sitting on this post for a while, but thought it related enough to the previous one to go ahead and throw it out there.

Recently, some friends here in Memphis have been discussing the possibility of moving towards engaging in a lifestyle of intentional community.  This is an unfamiliar topic to most, so I thought I would offer some word of introduction.

Intentional community is not new, hip, or faddish.  It is an old practice, but largely lost within our Western framework of individual autonomy.  One type of intentional community goes under the title, Neo-Monasticism, but there are many varieties of it.

Across the board, however, I would say these varieties share a few things in common.

1) It is a means to an end. The point is not community in and of itself.  Rather, it is one way of practicing community (something we all, created in the imago dei, are designed for), so that…  And while the “so that’s” may vary, there is always a “so that.”

2) It is a means of spiritual formation. Sharing the totality of our lives and the experience of whatever the “so that” is - is spiritually formative in many ways, but especially in that it is a true opening up of ourselves to others.  An intentional effort to say, “I refuse to allow my life to be about me - it must be about us.”

3) It makes life both harder and easier. As my friend Matthew has commented, if we move into intentional community and our lives don’t become less hurried, less stressful, and less overwhelming while also becoming more exciting, joy filled, and transformative, we have missed something, missed the point.  At the same time, it is not easy to open your life to others, to depend on them and have them depend on you.  This is a foreign way of being for a great many of us.

Stepping into Intentional Community as a way of life is also not without its risks.  What if it’s not what we expect?  What if some who make the initial commitment bail?

While some will consider moving into the same neighborhood to more easily share life with others, there are also those who might embrace communal living, where those of various seasons of life - singles, couples, those with children, actually share the same living space as an expression of intentional community.  For these folks, there are of course other risks.  What if an affair happens?  What if a kid gets abused?  What if people simply can’t get along and the experience becomes awful?  I think we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t own up to the reality of any of that.  Which is why the whole process ought to be bathed in prayer, discernment, and wise guidelines.  However, to a certain extent, the “What if…” questions, while important, are akin to those we could ask of nearly any Kingdom enterprise.  If living Kingdom lives came without risk, then we’d do well to worship a savior known for anything other than his embrace of a cross.

On top of that, we also need to consider the risks (though they be less evident) of not finding significant ways to live in community.  How many lives are torn apart, figuratively and literally, because their lives are so private that no one ever knows what’s going on behind closed doors and closed lives?  What about those whose lives of extravagance and luxury trap them into a seemingly endless cycle of greed and gluttony?  What about the millions and millions of Christians who will never engage their neighbors and neighborhoods in any meaningful sense because the task it just too daunting to take on alone?  What about those who, if only they had partners, would feel the freedom to engage the dangerous, violent, and dark parts of our world?

Intentional Community as a way of life is an attempt to address these sorts of questions.  It is not glamorous, but living into the way of Jesus never is.

Update: Just after I posted this, I happened to come across a few relevant posts on this subject.  Be sure to check out David Fitch’s - “The Middle In: The Unique Missional Opportunity,” and Joe Thorn’s, “I Love the Suburbs” on a brand new blog about the gospel in the suburban context, SubText.

I hear people talk quite frequently about the “dangers of the city” and how unsafe certain parts of town are.  But if I were being honest, I would tell you that I am far more scared to live in the suburbs than I am to live virtually anywhere else.

By design, suburbs are places of isolation, disconnection, and compartmentalization.  Their very existence is predicated on cultural values of materialism, consumerism , and individualism.  All of this makes it much harder (not impossible mind you) to follow the way of Jesus - a way of simplicity and interconnectedness with those on the margins of society.

I bring this up because I will very soon need to decide on a more permanent place to live.  I have been looking in mid-town which is more urban, racially mixed, threatened by crime and violence, accessible to pedestrians, affordable, and artistic.  All of this most naturally appeals to me.

But, I have also been looking in the Germantown/Collierville area which is suburban, predominantly white, relatively free of crime and violence, necessitates a car to go anywhere, more expensive, and culturally bland.

Complicating these basic dynamics are factors such as these…

– most of the folks at Living Hope are suburban people thus I feel I should live among them

– I am a young adult pastor and mid-town is more attractive to young adults

– we gave bought land and are discussing the potential of building a gathering place on it even further east from urban Memphis in Piperton

– the idea of our church planting or having more of a presence in urban Memphis is something we are discussing

– currently, the people I am aiming to really share life with live predominantly in suburban Memphis

– it maybe the case that more of our folks would head toward mid-town if a few more folks blazed that trail

… and I could probably list more.  I have been basically paralyzed by this decision of where to live and why.  Maybe I can just rest in the fact that no matter what, I am looking to rent and not buy, which ties me down probably for a year at the most. On top of this, where ever I wind up, I am seeking to be there with the express purpose of taking Jesus’ command to love my neighbors literally and seriously.  So, whether in mid-town or the burbs, I am sure there will be folks who are hurting and in need, and I find some solace in the primacy of this calling.

So there ya have it - with all the transparency I can muster, the suburbs scare me.  I would much rather live in a place where I could be shot or robbed than in a place that has the potential to chip away at my soul and spiritual sensibilities every so slowly and subtlety.  I welcome your thoughts.

If I had to guess, I’d say that I’ll be posting on “the scandalous impracticality of all that Jesus stood for” really soon as I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.

As a prelude to that though, I wanted to point to a message Gib offered to the Living Hope community this past Sunday when I was away, “Riches in Poverty.”  Probably my favorite line, “Every time currency changes hands, I am making a spiritual decision.”  How different our lives would be, how different our very understanding on what it means to be a gospel people if we embraced and lived out this Kingdom truth!