lifeasmission

Life on the Vine

May 6, 2009 // 10886 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F05%2Flife-on-the-vine%2FLife+on+the+Vine2009-05-06+16%3A40%3A43JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D1088

As of last Thursday, I live in Chicago!  Not quite Chicago-proper, but in the area nonetheless.  I have been staying with my cousin and her husband for the last few days and am in the process of moving into my finace’s place while she stays with some friends for the rest of the month.  The apartment and job hunts are in full swing!

Life on the Vine is a church community that I nearly moved just to be a part of about a year and a half ago before I accepted the invitation to pastor young adults at Living Hope in Memphis and Sunday was my first opportunity to attend a worship gathering with Amy.  It may have been one of the most meaningful worship gatherings I have ever been a part of.

Once a month the community gathers an hour before their regular meeting for a corporate time of celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  People gathered in the lobby area to meet and catch up.  An order of service was personally handed to each person as we were asked to prepare ourselves before entering the sanctuary.  Upon entering, each person recited, “He is risen” to one of the pastors who was handing out matches for each person to light a candle on their way in symbolizing the presence of Christ.  The service was a combination of prayer, silence, Scripture reading, and reflection.  Finally, we served communion to one another, offering the elements in a communal fashion as opposed to taking them individually.

There was a little bit of time inbetween the communion service and the regular worship gathering to meet some people.

What was most striking about the gathering of the LOV community was how intentional and theological all the elements of the gathering were.  Here were some of the most meaningful elements of the worship gathering.

To communicate our unity as a body and the communal nature of gathering, we sat in concentric circles, thus able to face one another rather staring at the back of peoples heads.  As opposed to people, the candles symbolizing the presence of Christ as well as the communion elements were intentionally placed at the center.  When people spoke, it was always from a side.

We were joined by all the children for the beginning of the service and when they were dismissed/blessed to their time together, not by a pastor, but by the entire community, they in turn blessed us in ours.

Scripture was read by both men and women, young and old from the four “corners” of the circle – surrounding us with the Word of God.

A weekly part of the gatherings at LOV is someone sharing a “story of wonder.”  A story of something God is doing in the life of a member or members of the community.

David Fitch offered the message for the morning.  Because the community gathers together at the same time, and because they understand the formational purpose of the gathered church, he was better able to bring the text for the morning into a direct intersection with the life of the community.

Prayers were offered at different times in the service and we were invited to personalize them out loud with our own thoughts and longings as the Spirit led.

The musicians stood in a corner of the room so as to help people devote their full attention to the words we were singing.  Songs were placed strategically within different elements of the service to serve either as preparation or response to something.

Perhaps the most meaningful part of the gathering came at the end.  As we sang a final song of joy and celebration, some children, a few with disabilities, spontaneously began to dance in a circle around the candles and communion elements at the center of the room.  They led as a few adults joined in with them. Truly beautiful.

I can’t even begin to tell you about all the various artistic elements that enhanced the space we met in or the service we participated in.  Really, the whole thing was like living art, not the sort that can only be enjoyed by overtly artistic people (hello?!), but the sort that connects with the creative part of God’s image in which we’re made.

The fact that Life on the Vine embraces a more participatory form of gathering as a community really contributes to their identification as a missional church community and after finishing up another year as a pastor on staff at a church, I am really looking forward to rediscovering my identity as a “normal” part of a church community.

Posted in Amy, LOV, chicago, church, community, liturgy, living hope, missional, preaching/teaching, spiritual formation

Chicago

April 9, 2009 // 10678 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F04%2Fchicago%2FChicago2009-04-09+15%3A48%3A26JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D1067

I proposed to Amy at the end of February and ever since the main thing on both our minds and the question we were asked the most was, “So where are you going to live?”

It was an ineviatble question (well, for most people anyway) and one we were anxious to hear from God on in the context of community.  We prayed a ton, talked a lot, asked those we respect for wisdom and advice, and in the end, felt like we had our answer, Chicago.

This was a really, really hard decision for both of us.  Neither of us had a good reason to leave the places we were.  I have been in Memphis for just a year, Amy in Chicago since October.  Both of us liked where we were living, our jobs, the people around us, and the opportunities God was giving us to serve.  We kept hoping something might happen that would essentially make the decision for us, but that never really came about.

So, Amy was in Memphis this past weekend and was with me when I shared the news with the body of Living Hope.  This was very hard to do, but brought with it a sense of relief as we begin to make plans for the future together.

I am in Chicago as I write this – we brought all my stuff up here this past Monday and have been busy looking for an apartment since then.  I have no leads on jobs as of yet, but I’m actually kind of excited for the search (networking and connections always welcome!)

Amy and I are off to Davenport, IA (her hometown and the location of our wedding) for Easter weekend to see her family and do some wedding planning and then it’s back to Memphis for me to enjoy the remainder of April with good friends and the Families on Mission Seminar that we have been planning for the end of the month.  I will be in Chicago full-time as of May 1.

So the really big question, do the Bears, Bulls, Cubs/White Sox have what it takes to make me a true Chicago convert?!

Posted in Amy, chicago, living hope, memphis, wedding

A Kenyan New Year

January 7, 2009 // 9132 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F01%2Fa-kenyan-new-year%2FA+Kenyan+New+Year2009-01-07+19%3A39%3A43JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D913

I am recently back from a 10 day trip to Kenya in Africa.  Though the entire trip was incredible from beginning to end, the highlight just might have been ringing in the New Year by participating in African tribal dances around a huge bonfire (which featured the stylings of Ben K. who introduced our Kenya friends to the timeless art of “the robot”).

I am really at a loss for how to summarize the trip.  It featured stops in Lagos, Nigeria, Nairobi, Kenya, and Dakar, Senegal.  We got to go on safari and see all sorts of beautiful African wildlife.  We attended a crusade, visited slums, drove through a market (which, by the way, was meant to be walked through), visited with local pastors, enjoyed local cuisine, helped to run a summer camp, and entered into relationship with an incredible bunch of orphans.

I had been dreaming about visiting Africa for a number of years and I’m already anxious to return.  The landscape, both cultural and spiritual, is something I long to further understand.  The marks of Western colonialism are painfully obvious and though I was overjoyed to hear one pastor speak openly against it (he preached a message about faithfulness being the mark of true success – a message I implored him to share with his bothers and sisters in the US), the prosperity gospel is sadly entrenched amongst African Christians.

I loved getting to travel and serve alongside the other guys on the team.  I could go on for a long time about the great stuff I saw out of them, not to mention stories of all the various Africans I got to know while we were there.  But I think I will leave anything further to these pictures (which I have tried my best to add helpful descriptions to) and any specific questions you might have.  I hope to share more pictures and links as others on the team post them.

Here’s some more from John.

Posted in africa, kids, living hope, travles

Young Adult Picnic

November 28, 2008 // 833No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F11%2Fyoung-adult-picnic%2FYoung+Adult+Picnic2008-11-28+22%3A39%3A54JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D833

This is about a month old, but better late than never right?

At the end of October one of the small groups at Living Hope, comprised mainly of young adults, hosted a picnic at a local park as a way for other young adults to make some connections.  It was a really fun afternoon consisting of game playing, chili eating, and much conversing.

The event was significant for at least two main reasons.  First, it was a great example of the people of the church (as opposed to merely church staff) taking responsibility and initiative for ministering to others.  Second, the event succeeded in a number of these new young adults committing to meet for a number of weeks to discuss issues of life and faith as well as to pray with and for one another with a view toward connecting to a more permanent small group.

I was really excited about the event and look forward to helping people and groups host lots more stuff like this in the future.  Here’s a little slide show of great pictures that Brian took.

Posted in community, living hope, young adults

Scared to Lament

September 18, 2008 // 7075 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F09%2Fscared-to-lament%2FScared+to+Lament2008-09-18+21%3A41%3A17JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D707

Our church community is spending three months wrestling in and through the Psalms.  It is our hope that this time would be much more than a simple sermon series, but a season of spiritual formation for us as a community.  As part of that desire, we have created a blog and various people are posting entries in an effort to stimulate discussion.  So, whether you are a Living Hoper or another friend, hop on over there, check out the first couple of posts and share your thoughts.  Here is my recent submission…

Posted in community, kingdom, living hope, sermon

Childcare or Kingdom Community?

July 23, 2008 // 6133 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F07%2Fchildcare-or-kingdom-community%2FChildcare+or+Kingdom+Community%3F2008-07-24+04%3A07%3A24JR+Rozkohttp%3A%2F%2Flifeasmission.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D613

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.

Posted in church, community, individualism, living hope, missional