• Archive of "Amy" Category

    A Look Back and A Look Ahead

    January 17, 2012 // No Comments »

    Whoa, where did 2011 go? I suppose time seeming to run in fast forward when you have a baby for the first time is just an inevitability, but man, that really snuck up on me.

    Looking back over what I posted in 2011, I count about 32 posts, not including my weekly auto-posting of “Tweets of the Week” that gives me (and others if they’re interested) an overview of things (thoughts, pictures, links, etc) that seemed worthy of mention.  That doesn’t quite hit the 1/week rhythm I’d like to keep up with, but didn’t fall below 1/every other week either.  Hoping for some more consistency here in 2012.  We’ll see ;)

    As I survey what I did post, I spent a lot of time writing about theological education from a missiological perspective (initially in March, April, and May and then in a more focused manner in August, October, November, and December). The bulk those thoughts got encapsulated in a paper and video that I had the opportunity to contribute to that will hopefully continue to spur on some conversation over at thefutureoftheologicaleducation.com.

    Theological Education wasn’t the only thing I wrote about however.  Among other things…

    So if that’s a brief look back, what’s in view with a look ahead?  Near as I can tell, 2012 will be punctuated by three major developments.

    1. A Major Job Change

    As of the first year, I’ve resigned my position at Northern Seminary in order to begin working with a new initiative named the Missio Alliance (no website quite yet, but it’s coming).  The basic purpose of the initiative is to bring together a cadre of theological and missiological voices from various streams of evangelicalism in order to begin to offer training and resources for the theological and pastoral formation of Christian leaders.  I’m excited about this opportunity not just because I’ll find the work personally gratifying, but because I think there is a major need for an initiative like this, one that seeks to be theologically centrist, relationally oriented, and structured around the tight integration of theology and practice.  If this sounds like something you’re interested in knowing more about or participating in, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

    2. Giving Ourselves to God’s Work in Elgin

    For over a year now we’ve had the sense that God might be calling us to give more of our attention and energy to the people and needs of Elgin.  We are just as enamored with our church community, Life on the Vine, as we have ever been.  But, a huge part of what it means to be committed to the vision of Life on the Vine is maintaining a sense of openness to God’s leading for mission and this is what we feel like we’re responding to in faith.  While what this might mean is still very much up for discernment with others (including the pastors of LOV, our close friends, and those we feel like God has brought into our lives as friends and partners here in Elgin), our sense is that God is leading us to begin cultivating what we would call a “missional community” – a group of 20-50 others who identify with a common sense of mission and seek to invest in one another through common rhythms and practices around that mission.

    3. Prayerfully Moving Forward with Adoption

    Amy and I have talked about adoption for several years now, since before we were married as a matter of fact.  The big questions for us have been, “when will be a good time?” “and “where might we adopt from?”  We are still talking, praying, and asking questions about the various factors to consider in terms of domestic vs. international adoption, but at this point it’s fair to say that this is something we feel committed to and will perhaps formally begin the process of here in 2012.  Potentially, this could even mean moving to another home in Elgin that offers the kind of space that we might need as we consider getting a home study done.
    ——

    I’m sure that I’ll be posting much more about all of these things through this next year, but for those of you beautiful people that regularly ask what’s going on and how you might pray for us, near as I can tell, these are the things that will factor most substantively into the shape of life for the Rozko’s for the next 12 months.

    Posted in Amy, blogging, chicago, church, church planting, decisions, discipleship, Ecclesia Network, elgin, family, kids, LOV, missio alliance, missional, missional theology, Northern Seminary, parenting, post-christendom, theological education, theology

    The Hawaii Two-0 Challenge

    September 27, 2011 // 10 Comments »

    I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii.

    For a long time, I swore up and down that if and when I got married, the only place I would agree to go on a Honeymoon was Hawaii.  Well, after 32 years, tons of traveling all over the world, and my honeymoon behind me, this is a dream yet to be realized.  My good friend Sarah took the better part of a summer to travel around the Hawaiian islands not too long ago, and more recently, my friend JR Woodward posted a bunch of pictures and videos from the time that he was spending there.  Thus, I’ve found this interest and dream rekindled.

    Making it to Hawaii isn’t the only ambition I’ve been thinking about recently.  Three months into being a new dad, I’m realizing that time is marching on and this body of mine just isn’t going to perform the way it once did.  The knees are a little more sore, I actually have to stretch before I play sports, and those late night snacks seem to have 100x more impact that they once did. Gone are the days of enjoying 1/2 a large pizza without so much as a thought to the consequences ;)   Such is life right?  Fair enough, but I’m waking up to the reality that my ambition for really dropping my weight down is going to require some concerted effort and incentive.

    I trust you see where I’m going with this.  Desperate to get to Hawaii and need some incentive to shed some pounds – perfect!

    My next birthday is coming up toward the beginning of March.  Though I’ve been as high as 235 and flirted with 200 around the wedding, generally speaking I have hovered right around 205 ever since my sophomore year of high school.  I;m right around 210 right now and would really like to make it to 190.  That would put me 10 pounds south of anywhere I’ve been in the last 15 years.  20 pounds in about 5 months – seems achievable right?  Here’s the deal Amy and I have stuck.

    Hit 190 by March 9, 2012 and we book ourselves a trip to Hawaii to celebrate.

    But, fail to hit 190 by that date and there’s a penalty.  The penalty is that it will be a minimum of 5 years before we can even talk about the possibility of making a trip to Hawaii.  Not the end of the world, but honestly, that would be a pretty huge blow for me.  Let’s face it, it will probably never be easier for us to think about making a trip like this together.

    So there it is – the Hawaii two-0 challenge.  Gotta admit, I’m pretty nervous, but hey, life gets more interesting when you set some goals for yourself right?

    Aside from the basic wisdom of eat healthy, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep, who’s got tips?

    PS – I should mention that ultimately sheer weight loss isn’t what I am really interested in.  If it was, I’d live up the next 4 months and then just suffer through about a month of Atkins to make the weight goal by my birthday.  More than anything, this is about developing new eating and other habits, the fruit of which, I hope, will be becoming a 190 lb. version of myself by my 33rd birthday.

    Posted in Amy, travles

    The Ride for Refuge 2011

    September 23, 2011 // No Comments »

    On Saturday, October 8, for the third year in a row, Amy and I will be participating in the Ride for Refuge, a bike ride that is meant to raise awareness and funds for the millions of people around the world who are displaced, vulnerable, or exploited.

    Those words can be pretty tame if you just gloss over them, but the reality is that they speak to actual lives, for example, of families who have been torn apart and rendered homeless by war, kids who have been abandoned by their parents, and girls who have been sold, like a newspaper (and sometimes for less than one costs), to be used as sex slaves.

    The ride is actually in Elgin this year which we’re really excited about (more specifics here).

    Want to ride with us (the most awesome option) or sponsor our team (the slightly less, but still awesome option)?  You can do both here: http://j.mp/rozkoriders2011.  If the cause itself doesn’t do it for you, maybe the fact that you’ll get to hang out with the newest addition to the Rozko Riders team will!

    Here’s a quick video that will tell you a bit more about the ride.

     

    Posted in Amy, refugees

    “Going to Church” Is Not A Reality I Want For My Daughter

    July 26, 2011 // 6 Comments »

    I am one of those people who happens to believe in the importance of words.  While it’s a good thing to have a broad vocabulary, that’s not what I mean.  I mean that I think words are powerful.  Words aren’t just symbols and they certainly aren’t neutral.  Words actually DO things when we use them or hear them.

    Ever been called an idiot?

    Ever made a verbal promise?

    Ever double-dog-dared someone to do something?

    Yes?  Then you get what I mean.  Words are powerful tools.  I would even go so far as to say that words contribute to the shaping of our realities.  Just ask any teenager whose parent has told them on a consistent basis for years that they’re worthless.

    This is why I have abandoned the language of “going to church.”  This language reinforces a false reality.  A reality in which church is understood to be a place or an event rather than a Kingdom community or family of disciples.  I would submit that the idea of “going to church” is a chief hallmark of cultural Christianity, the sort of thing that, while having a ring of sincerity to it, actually reshapes our imaginations and our reality in ways counter to the biblical narrative and the purposes of God.  So, a few weeks ago, as Amy and I prepared to take our daughter to a gathering of our church community, she and I had one of our first father-daughter chats.

    I began to speak the kind of words to my daughter that I want her to grow up hearing – words that I want to shape her into the sort of person capable envisioning and receiving the story into which she has been born and invited – words that I hope will instill in her the sort of sorrowful/sick feeling that her father gets when he hears people relegate the Church to something we merely “go to.”

    I said to her,

    Daughter, you are a part of our family and our family is part of a very special group of people.  This group of people has a long, long history, filled with incredible stories that you will get to hear as you get older.  But here’s what you need to know.  God loves this world – everyone and everything in it.  He loves it more than we can even possibly imagine.  He loves it so much that he actually gave himself up for it – can you believe that?!  He did.  But lots of things are wrong.  Not everything is quite the way that it is supposed to be.  But don’t worry, God is at work.  He will see to it that in the end, all things will be made right again.  And guess what, God has invited us to join him on this mission.  He wants us to be a part of it with him as his people.  With God’s help we try to live out God’s dream for the world.  And because God’s own son, Jesus, did this better than anyone else ever did, we always try to follow his example.  That means that in many ways, the way we live is very different from the ways that other people live.  In fact, and this is difficult for me to say to you because I love you so much, it means that the more you live your life for God, the more likely it is that some people will not like you, maybe even hurt you like they did Jesus.  Even still…

    Like Jesus, we talk to God and listen as he speaks to us rather than living life on our own terms.

    Like Jesus, when people do mean and bad things, we offer forgiveness rather than hold grudges or try to get even.

    Like Jesus, when people are hurt or in need, we offer to help rather than let them suffer or assume that it’s their own fault.

    Like Jesus, we go out of our way to be friends with people who don’t like or make fun of rather than ignore them or do the same.

    Like Jesus, we give our money and things to people who need them even if they can’t pay us back rather than keeping everything for ourselves.

    Like Jesus, we will lay our lives down for our enemies rather than try to injure or destroy them.

    And that’s just the beginning!  These are just some of the ways that we get to enjoy God’s dream for the world.

    Now listen, there’s a special name for people who live this way together, they are called “Church.”  They are the people who have been called out of the ways of the way the world is, in order to live out God’s dream for the way the world should be and will be someday.  Some people think that Church is some thing that you go to, like going to a movie or a restaurant, only religious.  But that’s not what it is, not at all!  I know you won’t really understand all this quite yet, but the Church is a group of people who embody a whole new world!  Nothing you ever do will be more important than being part of this people and adventure.  Now, let’s go meet some of the people we’re on this mission with.

    The first of many more conversations I hope to have with my precious daughter along these lines.

    Posted in Amy, christendom, church, culture, discipleship, God, gospel, Jesus, kingdom, LOV, love, narrative theology, parenting, reconciliation, salvation, spiritual formation, stories, theology, truth

    A New Rozko: A Sign of Our Hope

    June 23, 2011 // 4 Comments »

    As you lifeasmission readers out there may or may not know or remember, Amy and I found out that we were expecting our first child on our final day at the Lausanne World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa last October.  Our due date was June 29 (actually we found out last week that a more accurate due date would have been today, June 23), but our baby decided to make her way into the world just a little bit early, sneaking up on us yesterday.  Allow me to introduce you to Aubrianna Mae Rozko.  7 lbs even.  19.5 inches.  Born at 11:58 AM on 6/22/11.

    This is her contemplative face.

    I wanted to offer this update here as this little girl will of course be a MAJOR part of “life-as-mission” for me from now on, but if her sweetness and beauty are any gauge, she could easily become the ONLY thing that I ever write about.  So, for those of you who may frequent this blog just to keep up to speed on our family stuff, you’ll want to make note of another blog we’ve begun here.  There are already several posts up chronicling the last 9 months as well as some more recent stories and pictures.  Our little girl will of course make her way into posts here from time to time as I/we work through what it means for God’s kingdom to come in and through our emerging family, but we’ll undoubtedly add a lot more “day to day” stuff at the other blog.

    For now, I’ll just offer a quote by a favorite theologian of mine and Amy’s, Stanley Hauerwas, that gets at the the attitude and approach that we desire to have toward this new identity we have as parents…

    For Christians do not place their hope in their children, but rather their children are a sign of their hope, in spite of the considerable evidence to the contrary, that God has not abandoned this world.

    Posted in Amy, family, kids

    The President, The Jerk at the Grocery Store, and Me

    February 10, 2011 // 11 Comments »

    Amy and I have been making our way through the former TV series, The West Wing.  If you’re not familiar, the show centers around the lives and work of the President of the United States (Jed Bartlett – played by Martin Sheen), and his key staff.

    Recently, an episode about the President and a real-life encounter with a jerk had me doing some personal reflection.

    The President

    In the show, a situation has developed in the Middle East.  A Palestinian terrorist has attacked a US motorcade, killing two congressmen and a retired Admiral, a close friend of the President.  This attack, it is suspected, is due in no small part to American support of Israel.  The suspected terrorist is then found hiding out in a residential apartment building.  Both Palestinians and Israelis are aware of his whereabouts, but neither side is willing to make a move due to their fear of how the other side will respond.

    82% of the American public, the whole of congress, and the majority of the President’s staff are calling for the President to order an attack on not just the building where the suspected terrorist is hiding out, but the countries suspected of supporting him.  All parties seem willing to accept not just the obvious civilian casualties, but the certainty that this will result in further violence, so long as America, via the President, is willing to exact justice (revenge?) on the supposed perpetrators.

    With blatant disregard for all these factors however, the President decides that the only way forward is to negotiate peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.  He accomplishes this by shrewdly orchestrating the apprehension, as opposed to assassination, of the suspected terrorist.

    Sidenote: This is at least one of the reasons that I have opted not to vote and believe that the prospect of Christians entering into the democratic political system is fraught with difficulty.  In cases like this, to whom do you show your allegiance?  On one hand, you are seemingly obligated to execute the desires of the people you represent, who elected you to govern for them.  On the other hand, if you are a sincere Christian, you are obligated to do justice in keeping with the life and teaching of Jesus.  But I digress…

    Against the advice of his political advisors and the overwhelming majority of Americans calling for blood, the President negotiates peace talks, believing that violent retaliation on the part of Americans will only play right into the hands of the enemies and beget more violence.  I was so proud of my fictitious, TV President!

    The Jerk at the Grocery Store

    The day after we watched these episodes, I had a meeting at a coffee shop and Amy was getting groceries.  She finished and came to pick up – all a-flutter.

    Turns out that the guy behind her in the self-checkout line was passive-aggressively verbally expressing his displeasure at the fact that my wife, who had a cart-full of groceries had opted to use the self-checkout line.  He made comments about her, not directly to her, but to someone else in line.  As she scanned some of the vegetables she had picked up and had to input their corresponding codes to get the right price, he was trying to confuse and mock her efforts.  Again, all w/o addressing her, just taunting her and taking advantage of the fact that no one else was there to defend her.  Amy isn’t really one for confrontation so she just remained quiet and choked back the tears as she grew more and more embarassed.

    Me

    As Amy recounted the story to me, everything in me wanted to drive back there, find this guy, and beat him until he apologized.  There was this raw flood of emotion and adrenaline that overtook me and I felt like it wouldn’t subside until I forcefully dominated the cause of my wife’s pain and embarrassment.

    We didn’t turn around and the feeling subsided, but after it did, I was left with questions…

    Why do I react like this?

    After years of seeking to internalize and cultivate a spirit of non-violence, why do these feelings still come?

    Why is my first reaction to violently end the sources of injustice and oppression rather than to run to the aid of the victimized and opporessed?

    At least in part, I venture to guess that the answer to these questions is that I haven’t encountered nearly enough situations in which I can put my theology to the test.  Sadly, it seems that had Amy and I been together at the grocery store, I would have gotten an even better glimpse into just how much work God has yet to do in me.

    Not to discount the role of personal discipleship in this matter, I am left pondering one final question.  What is the role of the church as a community in putting to death attitudes and actions of violence in followers of Jesus?  One might wonder whether or not our disposition toward Christian faith has become so accommodating to our broader culture that we don’t even know what this might entail.

    Until we do, at least we have Jed Barlett.

    Posted in Amy, church, culture, discipleship, non-violence, politics, questions, theology, war

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