Updates from May, 2006 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Mark 9:25 pm on May 22, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    Moving, Shoes, Grass and Faith 

    This evening we started officially packing our stuff, preparing to make the voyage 1 mile due south.  We’re doing this because we are moving in with another family to participate in Christian communal living.  What an opportunity!  How often are we denied the chance to actually know one another on a deeper level in our culture?  We’re looking foward to the switch.

    But what will it be like for our marriage?  We’ve only been married a year and a half, and still have a lot to learn about each other.  Almost daily we’re having those “big conversations” where paradigm shifts are happening, and more light is being shed on our relationship that we have committed to for our entire lives.  She and I have already proven faithful in these small steps into community, and now we’re asking for God to protect us as we move deeper into his called-out people.

    I guess you could say its taking what we “do at church” down to the everyday life.  I’ll tell you one thing, if church is going to last all week, I’m loosening my neck tie.  I’m putting my socked feet up.  If our families are going to experience life together, it will be done with no masks to hide our true faces.  If nothing else, it will teach us daily what it means to be church – an authentic faith community.

    A related thought I’ve been recently mulling over.  Ever noticed how a gardener’s yard has little to no landscaping or trimmings?  Remember the old truism that states that it is the cobbler’s children who go without shoes?  Why is it that so many “preacher’s kids” (PK’s as they’re affectionately called here at ACU) have no faith?

    Unfortunately, I don’t have a good solution – excpet to say, “spend more time with your family!!!”  Not JUST quality time, but quantity time too.  They want to see you at home with them, even if that means your home is a bit smaller.  And when you’re home, they want to see you making them the same or better shoes (yard/faith/etc) that you made the stranger down the street.  What message does it send if we’re willing to be paid to preach the Gospel when we won’t do it for free for our own family?

    How do I preach the Gospel to my wife?  How does she preach it to me?  How are we preserving each other’s faith?  Guess I’d better stop writing this blog tonight and get started…

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  • Mark 12:23 am on May 21, 2006 Permalink | Reply
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    The Kingdom of God is like… 

    Found this from a friend. I’ll throw this out there and see what you all have to say about it. I’d also love to hear your scores! What is the Kingdom of God?

    You scored as Kingdom as a Christianised Society. Christians shouldn’t withdraw from the world, but by being present in it they can transform it. The kingdom is not only spiritual, but social, political, and cultural.

    Kingdom as a Christianised Society
    		92%
    The Kingdom as a counter-system
    		75%
    The Kingdom is mystical communion
    		67%
    The Kingdom as Earthly Utopia
    		67%
    Inner spiritual experience
    		33%
    The Kingdom is a Future Hope
    		17%
    The Kingdom as Institutional Church
    		8%
    The Kingdom as a political state
    		8%

    What is the Kingdom of God?
    created with QuizFarm.com
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    • Katrina 3:18 pm on May 21, 2006 Permalink

      You scored as The Kingdom is mystical communion. The Kingdom is mostly mystical communion. You place a strong emphasis on continuity with those who have gone before you in the faith, and you might see the Kingdom of God as primarily a matter of spirituality.The Kingdom is mystical communion67%Kingdom as a Christianised Society67%The Kingdom as Earthly Utopia58%Inner spiritual experience58%The Kingdom is a Future Hope42%The Kingdom as a counter-system42%The Kingdom as Institutional Church33%The Kingdom as a political state17%What is the Kingdom of God?created with QuizFarm.com

    • Trey 1:01 pm on May 22, 2006 Permalink

      I scored the Mystical communion, then christian society, then institutional church.

      -Trey

    • Trey 1:02 pm on May 22, 2006 Permalink

      I don’t think the test is refined enough to really distinguish the types. Too many types, not enough questions. Good concept, though. Made me think.

    • Jared Cramer 10:32 pm on May 23, 2006 Permalink

      yeah, i agree with trey. i took it several times trying to get it to come up with what i thought was an accurate picture of what i think. maybe we should have aquino tweak the quiz for the author?

    • Mark 11:47 am on May 24, 2006 Permalink

      Jared – that would be totally cool! Not only to have Aquino put together a test like that, but then to see his/all the GST faculty score on it! I wonder what the KoG will be like in its fullest expression…some say it is going to be like leaving this demension, others say that it will be a complete transformation of the world/the very LAND we are living on right now! Amazing!

  • Mark 3:15 pm on May 19, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    Our Shaman 

    cave_painting_l.jpg

    Katrina and I have been enjoying a PBS Documentary entitled, Joseph Campbell: The Power of the Myth. Campbell was not a historian, though he did study history. He spent most of his life digging deep into the realm of human consciousness, and seeking out the mythological stories that sustained mankind throughout the millenia. You can read more specifically about his life and work here. Check out the videos here.
    In the third episode, Campbell mentioned the lack of stories or myths in our own society today. The interviewer, Bill Moyers asked what happens when a culture does not subscribe to a myth, and Campbell said, “Just read the New York Times! No one feels responsible for anything, especially today’s kids.”

    I beleive this wholeheartedly. Much like my boston-bound friend, I feel one of my major callings is to help bring a story to the “story-less”. Many third-worlders have left their poverty-stricken countries to come to America, only to find that it exhibits a much deeper kind of poverty. They have called it different things, but the root of our lostness comes from not subscribing to a meaningful story.

    Much of our told story comes from what we hear from an average of more than 4 hours each day – the Television. The media has convinced us that we each hold the pen to our own stories, and that no one else matters as long as we continue to be satiated. When the story is no bigger than me, I find all sorts of ways to condone any and all of my actions and feelings…yet I will never be satisfied – I will always be alone. We as a culture in this nation will never be fulfilled until we join a story that MATTERS to everyone.
    Think about it – who are the storytellers in our world today? It is the artists! The artists are the shaman, the prophets of our day. They and the poets – they depict, just like the Native Americans did so many years ago, our story. On the walls of museums and galleries we find remnants of the cave markings of the Native American folklore. The spirits of the horses and the buffalo dance wildly throughout the cave as the torchlight flickers beside our eyes. In the darkness we are initiated into the story – our fear compells us forward, we must see the end of this story. It is the artists who show us the way further into the cave, it is the artists who aim us toward seeing the unseeable; the unseeable which sustains all that we can see. That is the goal of the story. Just like Joseph Campbell tells us, the artists are the storytellers.

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