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  Mark 5:42 pm on May 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Strawberry Revolutions 

  The Gospel is a strawberry plant.

  Plants are generally grown from seed, or by transplant.  We’ve got a nice healthy basil in our kitchen window, but it was bought full-grown at Home Depot and we started enjoying it immediately.  It fills our little ceramic pot and our Italian dinners are made even more special when we simply pluck a leaf or two off to enjoy with pasta.

  But strawberry plants are different.

  They don’t generally grow from seed, or through transplant – though it can happen.  That might be how a strawberry field begins, but it propagates naturally with “runners.”

  Strawberry plant runners are like little arms of the plant that shoot out from its base, and find a nice healthy spot of soil about 6 inches away from the original plant.  There may be 4-8 runners coming off of every plant.  The interesting thing about these runners is that they are not extensions of the plant, or branches off the plant, but a brand new plant! Even if you were to cut off a runner, if it successfully embedded itself in some good soil, it would start a new strawberry plant and begin spreading all over the place.

  

  Christians fear that their mission work, their sharing of the Gospel, has to be bought at a Home Depot of sorts.  They spend all their resources in evangelism on getting their friends to “come to church” so that the moving church service will convince them to become a Christian too.  This is like buying your basil at Home Depot. Nothing wrong with it – basil tastes great on pasta!

  But basil will never cover the earth on its own…only strawberries, mustard, and maybe kudzu can.

  Sharing the Gospel like a strawberry plant means putting out feelers into your local context (don’t try stretching too far at first!) and planting the full Gospel in the soil all around you.  You are never too far from your mission field, and you’ve got it in you to plant not just seeds, but whole new plants in God’s garden. Where are your feelers now?  Where are your church’s feelers planting themselves to make new churches?

  Plant strawberries – don’t buy basil.

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  Godgrown » Blog Archive » The Insidious Infection of Love, and Rusty Wimberly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Rusty Wimberly 8:11 am on May 28, 2010 Permalink

    very interesting! Isn’t it great how God speaks to us, declaring his purposes and plans through nature? This is a great illustration and not to mention good explanation about how to plant strawberries! I like the vine illustration Jesus uses better though….its a lot more wild, un-predictable and puts a tight grip around its everything it comes into contact with. lol

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  Mark 9:58 am on April 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Eckhart Park   

  …Only Family Can 

  I spent yesterday morning doing some work out in our sunny neighborhood park, pulling weeds and weeding-out trash from blossoming bushes and flowers.  There was quite a crew there yesterday too – some folk coming from the far-corners of the city to help out (about a dozen from a global consulting group showed up for “Earth Day.”)

  I’ve been given a section of the park with a few patch-gardens!  This has been a dream of mine for quite awhile, both to do some real-deal urban gardening, and to break into the neighborhood’s action group (volunteering gardeners, park council, etc).  There are more plants than I can give names to, or certainly more than I can spell.  There was even a secret stash of mushrooms hiding beneath a bale of hay over in one corner of my garden.  It wasn’t until THIS year that I finally saw my first flowers bloom from seed.  I planted some bulbs last fall and to see tulips popping up this past week has been tremendous.

  Being a part of such a tangible day of transformation in my own neighborhood reminds me a bit about why we’re here – we’re here to see vibrant families of Jesus grown in every people group in Chicago!

  Vibrant families centered on Christ is not only critical for individuals living the abundant life, but whole cities are desperate for it too.  No city law can make its citizens love each other – only family can.  No religious creed can reconcile broken marriages, or end homelessness – only family can.  No gang can decrease violence or increase High School graduation rates – only family can.

  Watching folks come together for park transformation pointed me back to this truth – that our goal is to see vibrant families of Jesus in close reach of every person in Chicago — but the OUTCOME of that goal is personal and city-wide transformation.

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  Mark 7:31 am on February 25, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: chinese, corporations, iraq, Lent, life purpose, mustard seed associates, stimulus   

  Lent 2009: To Live in Heaven, right here on Earth 

  This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Lent

  

  Today we enter into the Lenten season.  While I admittedly don’t dive deep into parts of the traditional Christian calendar, I find Lent to be a perfect time to “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  If ever there was a time to consider my own mortality through God’s eyes, its now.

  We live in a world where we can simply ask for close to a trillion dollars from the Chinese and they will give it to us, (though they say they “hate us for it, but are forced to comply.”)  We live in a place where at the stroke of a pen, tens of thousands of lives are put to death, others sent to war, still others put to work without pay.  Mega-Corporations are the bullies of the whole earth, on panels with national leaders, deciding our fate on issues they seem interested in so far as it affects their bottom line.  This is the world where we live – where we dominate nature and forget the poor.  Where we play god until we die.  Where greed and security are penultimate values.

  This is not the season of Lent.  Lent brings sanity, it brings reflection, finiteness, humility.  This is why I love and need Lent – because in me is the same vices plaguing the entire earth.

  —

  SO!  This year I’m focusing in on how my life affects the whole world.  A “footprint” in the dust I suppose.  Each Wednesday, I look forward to fasting and living into different aspects of my life -

  • my marriage
  • politics
  • finances
  • environment
  • “the others”:  enemies/immigrants/nations at war
  • my witness

  Each of these reflections will be done under the lens of what I’m recently calling “my purpose in life”: 

  “To live in Heaven, right here on Earth.”

  How might experiencing the Kingdom affect my finances?  What might it have to do with the environment?  I look forward to reflecting on these issues on this blog.  I welcome any feedback – and I’d love to know what others are doing for Lent!

  BTW – Our house church is using a simple worship guide this Lent – you can find it here.

  BTW2.0 – Here’s posts on previous Lents:

  Lent 2007 – Oil Fast; Reflections

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  Mark, and josh are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    josh 1:45 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink

    i’ve never really seen Lent as something for me. growing up in the Christian church, especially in the midwest, it was never a discipline. i didn’t even think Catholic churches existed, i thought they were the religion of tv. i guess that’s what you get growing up in the bible-belt.
    i’m going to try and discipline myself to go through a Journey into Wholeness. and maybe drag some others with me. thanks for the spark.

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    Mark 2:58 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink

    Josh,

    Thanks for the note! If you feel comfortable – head out to an ash wednesday service. Its an important “kick-off” for the Lenten season. I’m with you on growing up without an awareness of the Christian calendar. I realize the abuses that caused it to be wiped clean, but I’m also very interested in how God uses special events in our lives to shape us. Keep on kickin!