I’ve found myself reading and learning broadly about theology and geography in recent months.
Part of this comes from the deeply place-oriented theology of early Celtic Christian spirituality, where pilgrimage and sacred sites are important and prayers abound for milking the cow and for launching the fishing skiff.
I’m not the only one ruminating in this field. Len Hjalmarson at NextReformation is also. His post is very worthwhile.
It’s coming to rest in a deep desire to feel grounded in geography – something like what the wandering Celtic monks called “finding your place of resurrection”. I can’t say that I’ve found it yet, but I trust that the desire is a good thing.
I’m feeling drawn to space and land, partly as we’re thinking about buying property to put a cabin on that is warmer and sunnier than where our home is, and which has trees and fishable water and access to good motorcycle roads (whether dirt or street).
I’m noticing that I feel drawn to plants and birds, watching both from my back deck as I look at the mountain and listen to them all speak. We’ve put up four bird feeders and are cleaning up the landscaping in our overgrown backyard jungle, and even in the midst of being eaten by thornbushes, I feel a sense of accomplishment.
These books have been especially helpful to me recently:
- Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation (Resources for Reconciliation) // (Goodreads)
// I’m also thinking hard about the themes in work by Wendell Berry and by Kathleen Norris. Place matters. Dirt matters.
I’ve been working a lot lately on personality, introversion and quiet. Both Adam McHugh’s Introverts in the Church and, more broadly, Susan Cain‘s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking are impacting a lot of people. I’m happy to say that there are many of us, in many walks of life, who are finding in this conversation a simple permission to be ourselves in a culture that demands us to be very different.
That’s the topic of painter Amanda Clyne’s post as well, and she takes an interesting view from her view as an artist. Be sure to click through to see the paintings she selects, which are a helpful meditation and discussion on our culture, which dislikes quiet so much.
Cain doesn’t vilify the extrovert, but rather makes the case that introverts offer different strengths that are too often overlooked and undervalued. And I began to think how this introvert-extrovert paradigm may help to explain not just the struggles with how we introverted individuals may relate to the world, but also the struggles of so much introverted art that must contend with our cultural “bias against quiet”.
If you put a celebratory Beatriz Milhazes next to a poetic Giorgio Morandi:
I heard this afternoon that there’s a possibility that I’ll be teaching a course on Celtic Christian spirituality at a local grad school, following in the footsteps of my mentor and soul-friend who retired from teaching the course.
I’ll say more here when I get confirmation, but I’m excited to continue with this content in this institution, and am very excited to have the opportunity to dig deeper for my own understanding as well.
Leadership is one of the most over-used and overwrought topics in Christian ministry today. Yet for all the books, blogs and conferences, there are two staggering realities we must come to grips with: First, while most churches believe they have leadership development programs, in actuality they have programs that recruit and train volunteers. A volunteer is someone who executes someone else’s vision. A leader is someone with a vision of his or her own.
In truth, there are often only a few leaders in the average church, and everyone else is simply executing their vision. It’s the “genius with a thousand helpers” paradigm Jim Collins uses to describe organizations that are good, but never become great. This is the leadership movement widely espoused in the church today.
Let’s be very clear: A volunteer pipeline is not the same thing as a pipeline that multiplies leaders. These are two different things. You need both. Currently, most churches have only one.
[...]
via Why the leadership movement is leaving your church leaderless | Mike Breen.
Excellent post by Mike on this topic, which I was discussing with a good friend this past week. I haven’t thought about the distinction between volunteers and leaders, and Mike’s thoughts here are very helpful.
A week ago, I skipped church and went for a short run along the river near our home. Although I live in a suburban neighborhood in an exurban/commuter town (this is how I avoid owning up to the fact that I’m a ‘burbanite) half an hour’s drive from Seattle, I am surrounded by mountains and am no more than a five minute walk from the river. It’s a nifty blend.
In any case, I ran a couple of miles on the trail along the river. The sky was gloriously blue; the river was speaking loudly after spring rains and the birds accompanied me with their improvisations.
After the hard left turn where we often take our lab, Hope, to swim, I spotted decoration in the path. One of the local elk herd had left large clumps of hair in the center of the wide path. I stooped to explore the first-sized collection. Perhaps it was the combination of the sun, the river and the birds as a background track, but I found that moment of holding a few scattered hairs to be profound.
Earthy and practical and simple. Much like I’m finding my faith journey transitioning these days. For a guy who lives in books and thoughts and ideas, the reality of simple moments with my hands in the dirt is a wonderful surprise and a gift of grace.
So, how is God surprising you recently?
I am writing a post with the token ADBK3BE5FATF. Now it’s 2QMCAUNEYK67 .
For the rest of you, ignore this and just know that I’ve been rebuilding the structure for this blog, and generating some ideas about what I may be writing about in the near future.
Via Wayne Park, here’s an intriguing article by Roger Olson comparing the Emerging Church movement and the Jesus People movement. Good response from Mike Clawson as well.
For those of us with Vineyard roots (which grew out of the JPM), this is doubly fascinating.
Though in recent times I find myself in a different world than either EC or JPM, I love seeing the colors of the quilt that is the Church.
Now be silent. Let the One who creates the words speak. He made the door. He made the lock. He also made the key.
- Rumi
From Richard Twiss of Wiconi comes this fantastic little (3 min) film titled FROSTY MAN AND THE BMX KID:
PS: I’ve been recently introduced to the New Zealand Book of Prayer (New Zealand Prayer Book -Rev ed.: He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa
I’ve spent a bit of time tidying up around here. I updated the About me and About this Blog pages, updated the site’s look and feel, and simplified a few things.
I’ll probably be around here more often.
