My friend Jason is part of the Ecclesia Collective. Here is a link to an ugly reality they are facing there: discrimination against latinos affected by the fires. Makes me wonder about the similar racial divide in Reading and the outlying region.
Here’s the link: SD Fire Harrassment
John Powell (he’s in the middle facing the crowd, looking like a rock star. Actually he’s leading a hymn) will be speaking at Oley Valley Mennonite Church this Sunday. He’s been a church planter and encourager of other church planters for many years. In my experience, whatever his role in a service, John leads us into God’s presence. I’m looking forward to it.
Anxiety has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m on hold waiting to find better health insurance even as I write this.
From individuals to systems like congregations and denominations, anxiety is a big issue. I have a friend who actually attended a conference (church people are big on conferring) about managing denominational anxiety. Freaky.
Conversations about church in the 21st century, whether among emergent-ish people, missional church-ish people, or just regular-ish people all seem to come down to anxiety.
What does being a Christian mean when neither social norms (going to church was much more of an expected behavior a generation ago, whether it meant anything to you or not,) nor family pressure (multiple generations in one congregation are becoming less and less common) are not prodding us into the fold?
But it’s only people enmeshed in church systems that care about anxiety at that level. Individuals carry around the baggage of anxiety as well. Can I make it in college? Can I make it in my job? Will my family be safe? That guy getting on the plane with me is freaking me out.
So what makes you anxious? Where is God in the midst of all this anxiety? Hmm…
The name “experience GOD project” comes from a visit several years ago to Experience Music Project, a very cool music museum in Seattle (I think there’s a boatload of somebody’s Apple or Microsoft money in the place).
Anyway, the mystery of what moves us in music is pretty remeniscent of the same mystery that moves us when (in those all too infrequent moments) we connect with God.
So that’s the kind of thing we’re exploring with eGp. That’s what’s in the name.
Blind Beggar has some excellent reflections on Luke 10:
“One of the spiritual disciplines that we have been practicing during the Missional Order gathering is to spend time in Luke 10:1-12 and plumb its depths both as a group and in pairs. It has been a rich experience. In the first part of this passage Jesus talks about the rich harvest around us. This brings up some vivid imagery, imagery that helps us understand our calling and patterns. It also brought out a great observation from one of the participants today (Glenn Hatcher) about how the modern church has distorted this image. It was meant to be light hearted, but also insightful.
If the farmer worked like the current church, he would:
Plow in the barn;
Plant in the barn;
Pray that it would rain in the barn;
Harvest in the barn;
then burn down the barn and call it revival!Let me contrast this with what you find in the passage.
We go into the neighborhoods. We share peace and where it is returned we dwell. In this dwelling among others, we first share hospitality (best around a meal), then we minister to needs including a focus on healing (physical, relational, physiological), then we bring the kingdom message.”
Can experience GOD project be a place where we experiment with what it means to live Luke 10:1-12? That’s my prayer.
There’s a church in England called Moot. They have some great ideas, resources, etc. around alternative, artsy, funky worship.
Looks like fun!
Here’s a bit of help in navigating the site: Mostly self explanatory, but there’s some churchy language over there on the left.
Missional Order: These are groups that are trying their best to live out the gospel in a very specific geography, a neighborhood. Many live in intentional community. Most are small. All are guided by common practices of prayer, getting hands dirty, etc.
Soul Tending: These are sites that offer assistance in specific ancient/future spiritual practices: Daily Office, Lectio Divina, Examen, etc. Don’t know what the heck those words mean? Check out the soul tending sites! (more to come soon.)
Church of the Savior in D.C. has a great online ministry called “inward/outward”
They send out a daily e-mail that has some pretty good substance to it.
Here’s the latest:
God Moves
Benjamin Chavis, Jr.
God moves
in all of human history
God moves
on the side of the oppressed
God moves in Jesus Christ
to liberate
to justify
to sanctify
God moves through prison walls
to comfort
to sustain
to free
God moves on all levels
simultaneously
God moves.
Source: Psalms From Prison
Hi everybody. Welcome to the experience GOD project blog. We’ll post upcoming events, generate conversation about gigantic and small GOD questions, and generally stir the waters up.
The goal of experience GOD project (currently a monthly gathering, but hopefully to become much more – it’s up to yous guys) anyway, the goal of experience GOD project is to create space for exploring what it means to be a Jesus follower in this time and place (21st century, East Podunk, Pennsylvania).
This will become a team blog as people step up and join the conversation. The next event will probably be Sunday evening, November 11. It’s held at the Adam2 Center Cafe in Kutztown, on Highland, near Pine Street (a few blocks off Main Street, near the park.)
New categories will be added to the sidebar shortly. Can’t quite figure out how to get what I want there. I’m a former Blogger, new to WordPress. So hopefully, someone else on the team can figure that stuff out.
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
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