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...

Talking about Jesus

This last week at F2:19 we worshipped on the circular drive outside the church offices, the doors to which open onto the main street in Southside Birmingham. In the message grounded in Revelation 7:9-17, we hear the absolute affirmation "Salvation belongs to our God alone" and that affirmation is made with the promise that every tear will be wiped away, that all suffering will be transformed into comfort, and that all the hungry will be fed. Salvation becomes more than a spiritualized hope that can only comes to fruition after we die. It happens in this world as we become more aware of God's presence in the world. Salvation is liberation and deliverance from actual death and from the powers of death in this world: the apparent obsession with sex and the compulsion to hoard money are just two of the obvious deathening worldy influences. They pull us away from the human satisfaction that comes from being in communion with God. God saves us from the temptation to clutter our lives with those temporary and short-lived satisfactions. To understand that we are saved is to take delight in what could God has done for us that we could not do for ourselves. That kind of delight cannot be met by the worldly investments that we make but only by the sincere love of a God who sacrificed his son's life in order to have ours.