My New Friend

Today I made a new friend. His name is not important, but his story is. You see, he is important. He is important because he was created by God; in fact, he was created in the image of God. He is human, with a heart and soul and emotions and a story to tell.

My new friend and I have much in common. We are both caucasion, close in age and even wear similar clothing. We sat across from one another on couches, each of us taking a break to catch our breath. The cold from the rainy day outside would not stay outside the walls of the humble room in which we sat, a room built to be a basement but without any floors above. As we spoke we could see our breath as it left our mouths.

My new friend and I lived our early years in “Christian” homes. In fact, we both attended a Calvary Chapel in our formative years of our journey. Both of us taught in Sunday School at a young age. Both of us witnessed division, gossip, controversy and infighting of the worst kind in our little congregations, a way of life to contrary to that great Sermon on the Hill.

I witnessed deacons frustrated with a new senior pastor and division all around. Eventually my family left the church where my Dad was an elder over some disagreement with this pastor. This was the same pastor whose family I drove to school with and the same man whose daughter I was dating at the time…good times.

My new friend saw church gossip about something else…him. His parents told the church leadership that he was gay. He was quickly pulled out from his Sunday School class and his spot on the worship team. Soon the pastor announced in a sermon the evils and dangers of homosexuality just so everyone knew where he stood and knew how to act. My friend was ostracized, banished, tossed aside as quickly as possible.

Only recently has his bitterness started to fade. He has since moved from Idaho to San Francisco. As we are interrupted by the wonderful woman who spent time in a Nazi concentration camp when she was thirteen, I have not recovered from the pain I have seen in his eyes. I wonder how the church could have better loved him. I wonder exactly how the conversations went down behind closed doors. I wonder what my friend was thinking the in the minutes before as I told him about my pursuit of Jesus. As I told him about my love and devotion to Jesus and all that He taught, what was he thinking? After we help for a moment he offers me a cigarette. I turn him down but then wonder if I should have smoked my first cigarette just to continue the conversation and tell a better story of Jesus, a story of forgiveness, compassion, hope for a new way of a life of love. I’m hoping to talk more about his journal he just showed me. In his journal he speaks of a refining fire he longs for, a fire that will purify him and make him new.

There is so much I want to say, so much I wish I could fix with the wave of a hand. For now I will have to wait. I ask God to allow me more time with my friend in coming weeks, but I really do not know if I will ever see him again.

The night before I met my new friend I spent some time reading a blog debate about homosexuality. A well known pastor and writer argued for a halt in judgment on homosexuality for a few years, to let things calm down and let us find a better way to love. Half of the responses praised his words, while the other half denounced him as a heretic or an idiot. You see, he had not clearly pronounced his belief that homosexuality is a sin in the article…really an intentional vagueness to make people think, a tool this writer uses often. The theological battle lines were quickly drawn, and the battle raged on in cyberspace, even drawing the interest of a certain well known proud to be reformed pastor in Seattle who used some incredibly crass remarks to make sure everyone knows how conservative he is. There was an implication about an acquaintance of mine and sex with farm animals in his witty shredding of the original post.
The dialogue raced on with people quoting verses and accusing each other of taking verses out of context. It all seemed so intellectual and interesting (well, other than Mr. Reformed Pastor and his derogatory comments). It all seemed so hypothetical, but now it doesn’t seem so far off. It is so real now, and our beliefs, thoughts and comments affect real people in a real world, a world in which the Kingdom of God is breaking forth. How can the Kingdom break forth in real situations? How can we be a part of the action?

Great Sermon

I'm really not a huge fan of the communication that takes place in your average sermon on a Sunday morning...but...

Download this sermon by Rob Bell right now…seriously…do it right now.

November 13
Sheep and Goats and You and Me

http://www.mhbcmi.org/listen/index.php

Big Weekend

Big Weekend

We have a big weekend over here in the East Bay. I’ve set up some experiences/projects/initiatives for Community Life Groups (small groups) at Creekside.

Friday night (January 27th) – Some folks are headed over to City Team in Oakland to serve food to around 100 people.

Saturday morning (January 28th) – Some other people are headed over to City Team to be a part of the Bags of Love program. They will take groceries to an apartment complex and distribute them to people who need them.

Saturday (January 28th) – A couple of groups will work with me as we have a picnic with some people at Baldwin Park in Concord. I have spent a few Saturday’s with some wonderful people from Good Shepherd Lutheran who serve food in the park the 3rd Saturday of the month, and Creekside is now going to serve food the 4th Saturday of every month. I hope that it truly is a group picnic with people from Creekside making new friends as we eat together. I pray that it doesn’t rain, or at least not too much. My friend Dana from Good Shepherd tells me they have been doing this for years and during the winter they pray that it won’t rain. It hasn’t rained in 5 years now.

Surrounded by Women

Lately I've been surrounded by women. I live with my wife and my daughter. A group of people we call our "Jesus Dojo" meet at our house on Wednesday nights, and there are far more women than men. Yesterday I set up a trip to the Bay Area Rescue Mission with the Women's Ministry at Creekside and spent the day with them. Many of us ended up working on...surprise...a dorm for women. There were women everywhere. I'm just thankful my little girl is nowhere close to hitting puberty. I figure I've got a good decade before I have to think about that. As my Week of Women comes to an end I am thankful for what I am seeing God do around me.

The group of women I took to the Bay Area Rescue Mission were impressive in many ways. They seemed eager to think about life outside the Danville bubble. They seemed eager to help. One old friend told me about her horizons being broadened by reading Brian McLaren books and watching videos about the children of Africa. Another told me of her weekly trips to the jail to visit women who have been incarcerated. Throughout the day I had to check myself. It can be easy for people who spend a good amount of time with the poor and homeless to swiftly and ruthlessly judge middle aged women from Danville. It can be easy to be shocked by new SUV's and fancy rings. But I must choose love, and spending time with these women as we drove through a community that has been ravaged by violence in recent months was good for all of us. My Creekside friends love Jesus, and they are trying to follow Him. I love my Creekside friends just like I love my friends who live in Golden Gate Park or rundown apartments in Concord.

Our Jesus Dojo is back in full swing, and I am blessed to have a wonderful group of people meeting at my house (even though there are more women than men). We are taking two months to wrestle with Exploring the Story. What is the story of God and this world? Where do we fit in the story? How do we tell the story? How do we learn from the imagination Jesus displayed to speak of the Kingdom of God? Each week we have, for lack of a better term, homework assignments, to complete. This past week we each wrote a short story of our lives focusing on God's provision and care through the years. After each person read their story we prayed for them and thanked God for His love and provision. I am so impressed by the creativity and honesty of the group. I'm looking forward to these two months.

Last but not least, my two most important women are my wife Andrea and daughter Kayla. As I wrote down my story to share with the group, I felt like God woke me up to His blessings. It was as if he threw a bucket of cold water onto my face, and it felt so good. I was reminded of how precious my wife and daughter are. I was reminded of how much I love them. As I typed on my computer I got some serious moisture in my eyes. I was reminded of how blessed I am to have a family that makes me so happy. My wife and daughter are the most precious gifts He has given me on this earth.

Everybody wants to talk

It's Monday morning and Mark, Adam and I are getting some work done together at Ritual Coffee Roasters in the Mission District. A man sits down next to me on the couch and overhears us talking. He asks if we are Christians. He asks what exactly we are planning together. As we tell him about our dreams for communities of people throughout the Bay Area who love Jesus and follow Him, people who are truly His disciples in every way, he is more than just a little interested. He wants to know what we think. He wants to tell us about the spiritual journey he has been on his entire life. He went to church for a time with a girlfriend. The only Christian who had ever made much of a positive impression was a pastor who, he said, really lived the way Jesus talked about in the Scriptures. We talked about Buddhism and the gospel of Thomas and the teachings of Jesus. He was a filmmaker and thought it would be fascinating to make a film about early Christianity and the effects of Constantine. Our new friend was eager to hear our thoughts and share his. We had a wonderful discussion, and he is interested in checking out things we do in the future. After he moved on, a slightly younger man with some sweet Gucci glasses, a sweatshirt and a cool hat walked right up. He asked us if we were Christians. It turns out he is looking for a church community with his wife. We spoke for a few minutes before we had to leave to meet someone for a lunch appointment.
On BART today Don sat next to me as I waited for the train. I was holding the notes from the meeting on Monday. He asked me what I was looking at. When I told him I was looking over some teachings of Jesus for a gathering in San Francisco, he wanted to know all about it. He had a slightly different tone...for a while he bordered on rude and I thought he may be mentally ill, but he definitely wanted to talk about Jesus, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk.
These last few days make me think that so many of the books I have read the last few books have hit on something true...people today are interested in spiritual things. People are interested in Jesus. If we are open to where the Spirit of God would lead us, and if we speak with a spirit of love and respect, people want to talk. People are yearning for hope, meaning, community, truth. People want to talk. May God speak through our lips.

ntwrightpage.com

If you are looking for something to listen to on your iPod or in your car and you are interested in digging into Jesus in his historical Jewish context and wrestling with what the Kingdom of God is all about, go to ntwrightpage.com and download the first four mp3's in the Audio Section...Jesus and God, Jesus and the Kingdom, etc. Good stuff.

Common Sabbath Retreat

This weekend ReIMAGINE is hosting a retreat to practice Sabbath together and discuss what it would look like to practice a common life in the way of Jesus. What would it look like to be a kind of neo-monastic community throughout the Bay Area. What would it look like to commit to common rhythms, disciplines and values and hold each other accountable to following through with our commitments? Is it possible to have this kind of community without a physical communal living situation? In any case, how can we be a kind of prophetic community that shows the Bay Area that there is a different way to be human than the norm?
As more and more people inquire about being a part of these types of gatherings, may all we say, plan and do be focused on Jesus. May we honor Him. May we serve Him with humble hearts and follow Him wherever He leads.

House in a Box

Over here at Creekside we are going to take part in an initiative to build houses for people in Mississippi displaced after Hurricane Katrina. Throughout Mississippi there are little towns who have added a few hundred or thousand residents, only many of these residents have nowhere to live other than parks, alleys and possibly hotels. A large group of local churches in the Bay Area will build the frames for 1200 square foot houses on their parking lots and then ship the frames to McComb, Mississippi to be finished and sold to families so that they have a mortgage of $150-$200. The big idea is to have the first batch of 16 houses then pay for the next batch and roll this thing forward from town to town. Many towns have actually offered plots of land for free for the next groups of homes. At Creekside we will announce the idea this Sunday and actually build the frame March 4. I am grateful to those who orchestrated this plan to provide long term assistance in the name of Jesus.

A fun day

I recently had the opportunity to participate in receiving a car from one family and giving the car to another family. I have some old friends, a single mother and her son, who desperately needed a car but were not able to purchase one. I have some other friends who told me they would like to donate a car to ReIMAGINE (the non-profit I work with). It seemed like a simple and easy task, but a check engine light that wouldn't stop being lit and coordinating the process with these 2 families and the DMV proved to take a little more time than I had imagined. At some point in the process it started to seem like I was spinning my wheels, putting too much energy into something that wasn't materializing. Finally the day came...I was ready to go to the DMV with the friend who would receive the car. To be honest, I was more than a little apprehensive about the transaction...did we have all the right paperwork...how much would the whole thing cost us...would we be there all day...would I get this woman's hopes up and then make her wait longer and longer???
A miracle happened. We walked into the DMV, and about 10 minutes later we walked out the DMV, the car now belonging to the woman, and she having paid the huge total of $30 for the process. I was stunned. The young lady who helped us was pleasant, maybe even cheery. My friend who now owns the car was ecstatic, and on the drive back to her apartment where the car was waiting, she told me how excited her son is about the car. He had been ashamed of their previous vehicles, but he loves this car. He had taken the time to clean every inch of the interior while they were waiting to take ownership. My friend kept repeating how God had given her the car through the generosity of others, and God will continue to provide for her needs, step by step. We prayed together, thanking God for his provision and love and care.
It was one of the most beautiful moments...I will never forget it, and I pray that God will continue to let me be a part of little things like this.
I pray that this simple story could be repeated over and over again, not as part of a program but as a way of life as people know God's love and follow Him.