few thoughts

A while ago I read the book "City of God, City of Satan" b y Robert Linthicum and my own summary is this: cities can be either a blessing or a curse and after having visited Washington, D.C. I'd say that's one of the cities that is closer to the curse designation. Having grown up in Atlanta through its population explosion post-1996 Olympics, I found that D.C. had a similar curse: traffic. On top of clustered, time eating traffic jams, there was the "if ur my neighbor I'm gonna act like u r an alien" disease which I have discovered is actually an extremely contagious viral infection. Unfortunately, the city has yet to discover the immunization equivalent of the cooty shot which worked out pretty well until I hit the age of 23. i don't think my shots were up to date and so I ended up married. That's turned out pretty well I think.

i was in d.c. for a lead now conference and it gave life to dry bones. Speakers like Donald Miller, Dan Kimball, Rob Strong-just to name a few with whom I had some interaction- were there. The purpose of the conference was to learn to do ministry in a fragmented and, most times, fractured world. It seems to me that after giving some thought to ideas presented there, relationships and experience are key to anyone's ability to have faith. I think I've always known that faith does not mean much to me if I cannot experience the movement of God's Spirit in my life. You could talk to me about doctrine and other stuff but if I can't experience what you are talking about, you might consider stoping talking. But you don't have to.

Something else I found interesting is that with clergy who are below the age of 45, you may find more personal sharing. I think that in a very general way these folks realize that even if you are in the church, we all share in joy and sorrow, purity and flaw, redemption and sin. So it's like...let's be honest and then let's worship the one who meets us in the middle of the imbalance we know so well.More to come...