• Evangelism as the Sharing of Ache and Hope

    August 14, 2010 0 Comments

    I love it when objects of two different worlds come colliding together.  Think “Say Anything,” “Bringing Down the House,” or “The Toy.”

    In each instance people who have virtually nothing in common are thrust into one another’s lives creating the opportunity for, to borrow a phrase from my friend Geoff, “generative tension.”

    This happened in my life recently.

    To the list of ‘socially awkward misfit meets valedictorian,’ ‘lawyer meets convict,’ and ‘poor black adult meets rich white kid,’ I can now add, Dan Allender meets Eminem.

    A few days ago I began listening to a series of talks offered by Dan Allender, a Christian counselor, author, speaker, and the President of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, WA.

    In one of his talks, he offered this little nugget,

    Evangelism is essentially sharing our stories long enough to discover a common ache and a common hope.

    Now, as my friend Annie pointed out in a conversation about this sentiment, it doesn’t capture the full scope of what might qualify as evangelism (and I don’t think that was Dan’s intention anyway).  However, I do think it pushes us to a place of realization that, inasmuch as Jesus was God’s way of entering into the story of humanity’s deep aches and fulfilling its greatest hopes, we are called to do the same for others.

    Somewhere in the course of listening to these talks, I came across a new music video by Eminem featuring Rihanna entitled, “Love the Way You Lie.” (ht: Jonathan Brink)

    I’ll embed it below, but let me offer 2 things first, a disclaimer and a reflection.

    Disclaimer: The video contains language and imagery that some might find objectionable.  If you can’t get past that, please do us both a favor and skip it.  I’ll say this though, the language and imagery is far from gratuitous.  I think it is used appropriately and poignantly to convey the weight of the issue.

    Reflection:  The song and video tell the story of a couple who quite transparently have deep aches and deep hopes.  The tragic irony of the situation is that they are trying to come to terms with both through a violent and endless cycle of love and hate, truth and lies.

    I think the reason that I like this quote from Allender so much is that it asks us to be come alongside people as guides as opposed to stand at a distance and offer directions.  There is this great tendency we have to get so focused on telling people that they need to arrive at a particular destination that we completely neglect the more important matter of identifying the “You are here” spot at which they stand.  Directions, after all, are of little use unless you know where you’re starting from.

    The last observation I’ll make as a result of the generative tension between Allender’s quote and Eminem’s video is that without the right direction, we create our own personal hells – something that is visually captured at the end of this clip.  As people of ache and hope, when we try to alleviate our aches and fulfill our hopes in ways that God never intended, we suffer.  All the more reason for those of us who have been met by God at the point of our ache and who place our hope in God’s salvific work in the world through Christ to listen to the stories of others as we share ours and allow God to do that same work all over again.

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    Posted in: God, Jesus, evangelism, hell, salvation, stories, truth, video

  • Tweets for the Week : 2010-08-09

    August 9, 2010 0 Comments

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    Posted in: weekly tweets

  • JR’s Career Path

    August 2, 2010 7 Comments

    **I owe everyone an update on our support raising effort for the Lausanne Congress in South Africa that’s coming up in October and I promise to do that soon, but I wanted to throw out some exciting news regarding my career path first.

    Tomorrow, I will begin in a new role as Associate Director of Advancement for Northern Seminary.  In this PT position, I will be cultivating relationships with alumni and other supporters of the school and its mission.  On top of this, I have been hired as a communications consultant to do Internet Presence Management for the school and its programs.  Among other things, I’ll be creating and maintaining social networks for the school and its programs.

    For those of you who have been tracking with us personally, I want to try and articulate how Amy and I see this evolution of things.

    When Amy and I got engaged (Feb. ’09), we knew that it was going to mean one of us leaving a job that we loved.  I was a pastor to young adults in Memphis and she was a mobilizer for International Teams here in Elgin.  Through much prayer and support, I resigned my position and moved up here to Chicago (May. ’09).

    Though I’ve applied to no less than 36 jobs in the last year (3/month!), the bulk of my time has been given to largely unsolicited opportunities that have come my way and, I believe, have paved the way to this new position and consulting work.

    Over the last year I was asked to teach a class for Fuller Theological Seminary, TA a class for Talbot School of Theology, build web sites and create communication pieces for International Teams, do quality control work for christianaudio.com, lead an alumni project for Northern Seminary, write articles for Jovia Web Studio, and assist on Information Architecture projects with Uzify.

    The structure of our first year of marriage has been non-traditional I suppose.  Amy has worked full-time while I looked for work and gave my time and attention to these contractual jobs that just kept coming my way.  It’s very true that she’s been incredibly supportive and my biggest cheerleader.  She was often upset on my behalf when I was passed over for a position.  But I don’t want to paint a picture that the last year has been a struggle.  Quite the contrary, we’ve quite enjoyed the structure of our life for the last year and the flexibility it’s brought.

    For us, my saying yes to these new opportunities isn’t so much the end of a year long search for a job as much as it is another step in our ongoing attempt to be open and faithful to God’s work in our lives.  I am receiving these job opportunities not as relief after a year of drought, but as a new kind of gift in an ongoing succession of the same.

    Having this sort of posture toward God and God’s work has been incredibly formative for us and it instills in us an even greater sense of excitement and anticipation for the future.  To all those who have been praying for us, your labors have brought us not to a finish line, but simply to yet another stage in a life-long race of openness, faithfulness, and discernment.  We thank you for that.

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    Posted in: Amy, Northern Seminary, chicago, decisions, marriage, prayer

  • Tweets for the Week : 2010-08-02

    August 2, 2010 0 Comments

    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: A War Over War http://bit.ly/9OT9it #FB #
    • Art & Soul in downtown Elgin on the Fox River. http://twitpic.com/2ahnbu #
    • And the meals – whoa! http://twitpic.com/2af0sk #
    • Brunch at Perennial across from Lincoln Park http://twitpic.com/2aex9f #
    • In the city w/ @amyrozko to hear Francis Chan say stuff ab. church planting. Quick stop @ uncommon ground. http://twitpic.com/2adaoi #
    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: The Power & Promise of Regional Gatherings for the Equipping of Missional Churches http://bit.ly/cHIqao #FB #
    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: Concert http://bit.ly/9IFnIB #FB #
    • A bight & shining light has dawned on the future of theological education! http://bit.ly/bZr7Ty #FB #
    • If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate. – Elbert Hubbard #FB #
    • RT @bensternke: Why higher education in the US is doomed – http://j.mp/9BH4fH // everyone should read this article! #
    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: A War Over War http://bit.ly/9OT9it #FB #
    • Bye bye Google Buzz. You're just too redundant and hard to manage. My blog, twitter, & Facebook are all the mediums I can manage. #
    • Just played a couple games of Ultimate Frisbee w/ @amyrozko and some other great friends. Love that game. Perfect night for it. #FB #
    • RT @ElginIL: Walmart Superstore will open in Elgin by the fall of 2011. http://bit.ly/amg9CT // crap. I love Elgin a little bit less. #
    • "America's god is dying." Penetrating & provocative article by Stanley Hauerwas. http://j.mp/do6bPU #FB #
    • shared: Why Pre-Labeling A Church Community’s Stance on Same-Sex Relations is a Bad Idea: Mission and GLBTQ Relati… http://bit.ly/9R0Moa #
    • Listening in on a conf. call w/ the ex. chairman, program director & chairman of the board for the Lausanne Movement re: Cape Town 2010 #
    • shared: Love Your Enemies http://bit.ly/aypRea #
    • shared: On failing to be a good preacher http://bit.ly/apcKrS #
    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: Truth and Freedom http://bit.ly/dtBzoZ #FB #
    • A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs. – Mark Twain #
    • "Violence is not the inevitability of human nature, but only the normalcy of human civilization." (God & Empire) #
    • "…This lesson was learnt very painfully in the 1st 1/2 of the 20th century, at a cost of some 80 million lives." (God & Empire) #
    • "Violence is bred by injustice, poverty, inequality, & other violence…" #
    • No you listen to me Day, I am going to read and write today. I don't care what you throw at me, I am going to read & write, so there! #FB #
    • lifeasmission ReDeux:: The Guys http://bit.ly/dxV9hT #FB #
    • anyone know how to link 2 instances of firefox to diff. profiles & run em simultaneously on a mac? #FB #
    • How is it possible that American Express doesn't have an iPhone app? #
    • Tweets for the Week : 2010-07-26 http://bit.ly/9dWcRB #
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    Posted in: weekly tweets

  • 1st Anniversary Trip to Pelee Island

    July 27, 2010 0 Comments

    Whoa, 2 full weeks since I posted about the beginning of our 1st anniversary trip to Ohio for a wedding.  Time flies…

    On July 4, like good American patriots, we left Ohio for the promised land of Pelee Island on the Canadian side of Lake Erie.  I get excited for weeks beforehand when I know that I am gonna be able to get up to Pelee.  I love it there.  No hustle, no bustle, no cell phone reception or email.  Just the beach, the water, books, and people I love.

    This time around, our friends Matt and Sharon and their son Deacon were among the number of loved ones that we got to share some time with.

    The weather was hot, but gave us plenty of reason to lay on the beach and play in the water.  We did some boating, some tubing, made smores, shared stories, watched movies, and soaked in the enjoyment of fun and relaxation throughout the week.

    On top of all this, Amy and I continued to celebrate our anniversary.  Here’s our attempt to capture the specialness of the occasion.  Between the hitting, crying, bugs, and neighborly interruptions, I’d say we pretty much nailed it ;)

    We also managed to successfully tote the top of our wedding cake (which had already made its way from Davenport to Elgin), to our hotel in Ohio, in the car to Sandusky, and then on the boat to the island.  It was a well traveled cake, but tasted amazing. Every layer of our wedding cake was different and the top was no exception – tie-dye!

    So here’s to an unbelievable and unforgettable 1st year of marriage that was capped off by helping one couple celebrate the very beginning of theirs and spending time with another couple on the doorstep of a decade.  Cheers!

    Some additional pictures from the trip here.

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    Posted in: Amy, love, marriage, travles, video

  • Tweets for the Week : 2010-07-26

    July 26, 2010 0 Comments

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    Posted in: weekly tweets

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