Questions

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. After a whirlwind at finals week, graduation and the awkward-feeling summer schedule so far, I guess I just sort of took an unofficial break from blogging. I guess this is partly because I also haven't felt that I've had anything particularly interesting to say.

For the last month or so, as we look forward to our (hopeful) church plant, I've had tons of questions. But strangely, they've not been "church plant questions" per se. They've actually been some real questions and struggles over the ways in which we "do church." After three years at Fuller and a whole lot of reading on the Bible and theology, I guess I'm really hungry for more - not only for more learning, but more in the church. The kind of community and sharing and mission I see in the pages of Scripture has left me wondering how we can actually new realities embodied in the church. I've also wondered if sometimes the ways we "do church" might actually hinder us from achieving some of these ideals. But then, I'm not sure I have any answers either - only plaguing questions about what church should actually look like.

I've also been teaching this week at Oasis. I've been leading the interns through a three day study on the kingdom of God. This is a topic I have become really enthusiastic about, but after going back through a lot of literature and wrestling with some biblical texts, I'm left unsatisfied again. I keep thinking that everyone one I read is just not quite getting something, but then, I don't know what they're not getting either! Once again, I'm left with more questions than answers.

So here I am, nearing the end of my time at Fuller, and I'm wrestling with excruciating questions about church and the kingdom of God. Though it's frustrating, it's also a pretty exciting place to be - hoping that my questions and my searching will lead to discovery.

Carry Nation

I'm cramming for an American Church History final I have tomorrow, but I wanted to take a moment to mention a particular person I found to be...well...interesting.





Carry Nation - a woman on the forefront of the temperance movement around the turn of the 20th century. Her method? She "smashed" saloons! Direct quote:

"I threw as hard, and as fast as I could, smashing mirrors and bottles and glasses and it was astonishing how quickly this was done. These men seemed terrified, threw up their hands and backed up in the corner. My strength was that of a giant. I felt invincible. God was certainly with me."

Yikes! A little piece of advice for men and women thinking about going into ministry: hatchets, though persuasive, are not optimal "ministry tools."

The Kludts

When Maria and I moved here to Pasadena nearly three years ago, Dave and Krissy Kludt were some of the very first people we met. They too had recently married and had come out for Dave to begin Fuller in the same quarter as me. During the last three years we've shared a lot of meaningful experiences. Dave and I took at least one class together almost every quarter of our M.Div. degrees, and over the past two and a half years, we've wrestled through challenging ideas together, celebrated together, ate together, had lots of talks over coffee where we dreamed about our future in ministry.

Today the Kludts are moving to East Hollywood. I know it's only like 15 miles away, but I'm sad about it. For the first time since September of 2006, I won't expect to see Dave on campus, be able to run by the Kludt's apartment to borrow a book or to say hi, or easily set up one of those early morning coffees at the last minute where I share all my thoughts/struggles/questions with Dave. So in some ways, it's a sad day.

But on the other hand, I'm really excited for Dave and Krissy. Of anyone I know, they truly reorient their lives around what they believe to be right. They're moving to East Hollywood to be a part of a unique community, and they're largely influenced by their understandings of community, mission and simplicity. You can read about what they're doing here. It's actually not to far from some of the ideas we would love to see happen in our church plant. I think it's awesome. I think they're awesome.

So in some ways, with our time here at Fuller nearing an end and seeing such close people move onto the next step in their lives, it kind of feels like we're nearing the beginning of a new era. It's exciting, even if some of the changes can be a little bittersweet.

Interesting

So, as is my usual habit when I'm feeling kind of busy, I'm posting something that someone else wrote!

So a few of my friends are in a class on the Gospel of John this quarter, and their professor is probably one of the top people in the world right when it comes to scholarship on John. A couple of days ago my friend Dave posted some reflections on Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet in John that I thought were pretty interesting.

If you have a couple of minutes, you can check it out here.

Some Updates

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I guess I just haven't been able to find the right times. When I've had a moment to two, I've been basically uninspired to write anything interesting. When I've had something interesting (or at least that I thought was interesting) to say, I haven't had the time.

So in my last post, we had a church of 3 (Maria, Isaiah and me) planning on heading to Chula Vista. But not long after I made that post, our church grew to 5! There's an engaged couple here in Pasadena who are about to finish up at Fuller, and they committed to come with us. We were so excited - our church grew by 40% in one weekend! If you're thinking about joining us, now is the time...this church is booming!

I'm a few weeks away from finishing up my last full-time quarter at Fuller. Then the summer is starting to look pretty full - 3 classes, Maria working full time, Zay's birthday, and a week-long trip to Guatemala and a relentless search for a J-O-B.

I'll try to be a better blogger then.

Irony

So this past weekend was pretty eventful for the Carrs. I've been trying to write about it all week and am just now getting the chance. On Sunday morning Oasis had a special baby dedication service, and Isaiah was dedicated in our community to God, and others committed to helping raise Isaiah in the Lord. Then that night, Isaiah worked out his new dedication to God by helping us get ready for our first church plant meeting - by which I mean he opened cabinets and threw bowls and pots and pans all over the kitchen floor while Maria and I cooked frantically and tried to straighten the place up. Oh, and he also knocked over a small file holder, dumping papers and folders everywhere - quite the little helper!

So we had our first info meeting the for the church plant in Chula Vista. A handful of people came, we ate some tacos, and I shared the vision over coffee and some dessert. I thought it went pretty well, and when it was all over, everyone had gone home except for our friend Elijah. Before leaving, he looked at me and said that the vision for our church plant is very close to the type of church he has always dreamed of being a part of. Then he told me he was going to go home and pray and even ask God if he should just quit his degree program and Fuller and come with us. Needless to say, I was encouraged and moved.

So then Elijah came back the next night to talk with us. He told me that he had gone home and prayed, and to his surprise, he felt that the Lord spoke to him very clearly. He said to us, "There have only been 3 or 4 times in my entire life where I have ever felt that I truly heard from God clearly and powerfully. Last night was one of those nights. It was amazing." Excited, I asked him what the Lord had said to him. His response? "Wait." In essence, Elijah sensed that the Lord has something like this in store for him, but he's pretty sure God is telling him not to go with us.

So all that to say that we had our first meeting, and afterwards, God spoke to someone very clearly...and he told him not to go with us! I thought that was pretty funny. God is answering people's prayers, and he's telling them not to join us! Actually, I never thought I would be so encouraged by someone feeling led to not go with us. Elijah wrote about it on his blog. You can get to it here. I thought he had some really nice things to say.

Thoughts on Church Part V

I have been learning quite a bit lately about the Greco-Roman world in the first century. With regard to social and economic relationships, the Romans had a strong notion of what's called reciprocity. It's a pretty simple idea: if one person gives to another person, then the recipient owes something to the giver in return. So when someone of higher status gave to another person, the recipient was in some way in debt (or sometimes in servitude) to the other person. But the interesting thing is that within families, things worked differently. In families, resources were shared in love, and nothing was expected in return. Sharing was normative.

This idea isn't so foreign to us right? If an acquaintance buys me coffee, I say, "I'll buy yours next time," but if my brother Blake buys me coffee, I say, "Thanks," and that's it. No big deal. But here's the interesting part. As the church, we are called to operate not like acquaintances but as family, even with regard to resources. One author I'm reading claims that Luke 14 (esp. vv. 12-14) calls us to break down cycles of reciprocity among God's people. We're to invite outsiders to the inside, and the inside works like a family...well, because we are family!

This kind of idea sounds nice and easy when it relates to cups of coffee. But when it comes to bigger resources like cars, homes, college tuition, etc. it gets more challenging, and this kind of sharing would certainly make us more radical. But the principle is true nonetheless. Maybe Christians are simply called to be more radical than we are...and maybe our perceptions of practicality are not always with Christian spirituality. So why don't we give it a try? Why don't we try to financially relate to people in the church like we do our sisters and brothers and parents and children? Why don't we begin to give and share with other believers like we do our families? It might get a little messy, but at least we'd be taking steps in the right direction.