xPosure

This spring break I spent most of my time in Memphis, TN. I was on a mission trip with an organization called SOS. We worked on a home in the Binghamton neighborhood. This area was once a thriving community that has since been left to crack dealers, prostitutes, unemployed, and unfortunate people. It could be called a 'white flight' neighborhood and was an interesting experience. While the neighborhood isn't extremely different from neighborhoods on our own doorstep in places like Decatur, IL, what is changing is fascinating. A high concentration of ministries have teamed together and exist separately to influence the community for the message of Christ. Many of my thoughts that will come to you soon come from that trip.

One of the most eye-opening experiences was our xPosure visit (I know, cheesy spelling, right?). In this time on Tuesday night, we went to the home of a 'strategic neighbor' in the community. These are people that are passionate about building up the community and are willing to live there despite gunshots and killings only blocks away. The family we met moved from the suburbs of Memphis to this inner city neighborhood in crisis. Their passion for their neighbors is a fantastic witness to the power that God has in this place. They built a new home with wide open rooms so that they can host a house church and truly build up the community. They have Burundi refugees in their neighborhood and in their church. Their neighbors are people with real struggles and in this neighborhood all problems are out in the open.

Witnessing their lifestyle choices truly gave me a sense of how much God can move when he puts a passion in our heart and we follow it. They are helping to bring this neighborhood back to a place to be proud of by encouraging those who go off to college to return and help people believe in Binghamton.

I wish I could better articulate how incredible these people were. They chose to leave a life of American dreams in the suburbs to live in a neighborhood where they, white middle class people, should not fit in. Their daughter just graduated from college and had as much passion for her neighbors as her parents. The father still works in the swimming pool business and is an encouragement to those who don't work in the neighborhood. They have brought hope to Binghamton through Jesus. They also were able to do so without traveling thousands of miles on a mission to Africa or some far off land. There are people on our doorsteps that need Christ's compassion as well. Let us be aware of them.

What can I learn?

Last week was Spring Break for me and the weeks before had been busy, so I have not posted with any level of faithfulness that would approach February. For that I could apologize or you could be happy that my random writings didn't appear in your reader feed.

Anyway, I'll have plenty to write now as I have lots of thoughts from my break that I need to write down, and stories to tell.

I was talking with my buddy Casey last Saturday and we were talking about my getting older within the campus church. I think I've had a cynical attitude at times and I really have not been able to pin down how to get rid of it.

He reminded me of a man in our church who is definitely an older guy and yet he takes notes feverishly for everything. He's married and yet will be fully engaged in a teaching about dating. His attitude of, "What can I learn?" strikes me very powerfully. What can I learn in any situation. Continuing that mantra has truly helped me even in this past week. There were many things that I experienced that I had not experienced for the first time by any stretch of the imagination, and yet by having an open ear and a soft heart, I was able to absorb new thoughts and perspectives.

Those perspectives will be shared with you, I promise...

But remember, no matter how mundane the situation, no matter how much older than another person you are, etc...what can you learn?

Cooperation with Grace

I'm taking a Religious Studies course here at the U of I called Intro to Christianity. What a fascinating course this is. We've spent the semester talking about what Christians have done. Just as simply as that. it is taught from an objective perspective and I'm pretty sure the professor himself has no religious affiliation. So while I must protect against slander to the church and things that would be wrong, I welcome the challenge to my faith, and I am getting a chance to see some of the great moments in the 2000 year history of Christianity. A very small number of the things I've learned or had confirmed include...

• The Catholic church was not always the Catholic church by name
• It was however the strong force for Christianity during the years up to the Reformation
• Christianity DID exist in the Middle Ages (that sounds like a stab, but I'm ok with it)
• The Papacy in Avignon was legit...for a while
• Aristotle plays a pretty large role in Christian thought
• The East-West Schism was caused by celibacy, unleavened bread, and "the son"...plus other things, but it seems so trivial to think that these things divide God's Church
• The Church hierarchy took a lot of liberty to anathematize people left and write
• The formation of the Canon of Scripture is far more complex than Protestants would believe...wow I sound SUPER Catholic today
  
• Christian theologians are fantastically deep people

That last point is my point of focus today. We've had to read documents of the Christian Church and a few of these have been from some of the greatest thinkers in the history of the faith. They include Augustine of Hippo, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, and soon, Martin Luther.

To read the very thoughts of these great men and to see how much their interpretations of Scripture influence the modern church fascinates me. I really look forward to someday taking classes, maybe at a seminary, to better understand these writings from a Christian perspective. To read Aquinas' writings on the Eucharist fascinates me and helps to flesh out the thoughts of the church at that time and what my Catholic background teaches.

My thoughts tonight focus on Augustine and his discussions with his contemporary, Pelagius, laid the groundwork for thinkers like Aquinas, Anselm of Canterbury, and John Calvin.

These two men discussed predestination and Grace's role in salvation. Pelagius has been ascribed with thougths that humanity must work for their salvation, while Augustine presents the opposite extreme speaking of man's inability to earn salvation and it was dependent on Grace completely and he even spoke of predestination.

So, I find myself falling into moderation. I think I am pretty semi-Pelagian at this point in my life. (ICK, I hate labels. And if I totally butcher this, let me know). This concept came as a middle ground between the claimed extremes of the two thinkers. The Synod of Arles, c. 473 lays this out fairly well and says

Mans effort and endeavor is to be united with God's grace; man's freedom of will is not extinct but attenuated and weakened, he that is saved is in danger, and he that has perished could have been saved.

This feels like it still doesn't completely describe how Grace works, and I wouldn't expect it to. However, I think I agree with it. God makes the first move towards us. He draws us in, sometimes even when we don't want it, but he still lets us decide. He allows us to cooperate with him and buy into his plans for the world. I'm also pretty convinced that if we completely set ourselves apart from Him, he will step out of our lives for a while until he comes to draw us to him again, ala in the book of Hosea. So, once Grace presents itself, we must live our lives in cooperation with it. This has definitely become a life verse to challenge me and I'll use it again and again.

James 2:14-17 (The Message)
Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

So, that's a lot of writing and complicated thought. I know it isn't even complete, but it is a working model so to speak. Does it completely address salvation? Not really, and I think it is better that way. We must continue to live worthy, turn to God, and know that The King will bless us. I look forward to continuing to be baffled by God and his ways...

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Oh, and lots of new pics on flickr

Shawn McDonald - Roots

New music dropped today. Finally, the long awaited (at least for me) album "Roots" by Shawn McDonald has hit shelves and digital libraries. I've listened to it a couple times through by now and I thought I'd clue you in on something. It is good.

Laced within the album are sections of funk, inspiration, challenging thought, chill, and plenty of Scripture turned to song. In the song Shadowlands, Psalm 23 speaks in a way I've never felt it, and in Hallelujah, the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 shine through. I understand there are even more references, but I've yet to pick them out completely. They are definitely there.

My loving sister introduced me to Shawn McDonald and I thank her for that moment. He ranks right up there with my favorites (Christian or not) and he is a great song writer and musician. A very gifted and passionate soul.

Roots is titled in such a way to point to his return to his own roots musically and this album definitely does sound more like Simply Nothing than it does Ripen. I'd encourage you to check it out. And I say that because typically I don't play up Christian music, but this is that good.

Disclaimer: I really hope that in a few months, I will like this album as much as I do now. I can tend to get hyped up on stuff and then feel it slip away.

Pointless thought...

Just found out Brett Favre's middle name is Moses...

Aaron Rodgers is his successor as QB in Green Bay

So, what does the Bible tell me but more of the same success will come as Aaron continues the legacy of Moses...They worked together for a while at least.

Rose Bowl Road Trip: Post 5

Day 6: Today was the day we looked forward to. The big game. We arrived in Pasadena before sunrise. There was already a mass of people parking in the lots around the stadium as we arrived. This was an intense scene where we saw people polarized in their maroon and opposing orange. We walked ourselves over to the grandstands for the Tournament of the Roses Parade. It was nuts seeing people who had slept on the street for as much as a couple days before the parade to make sure they got the best seats. The parade was a slight disappointment, although the floats were out of this world complex. Check out this Germany tribute...
After the parade ended, we returned to the stadium park. There we grabbed some food, changed into wonderfully warm weather clothes, as it was in the 70s. What a glorious piece of weather we had. We got a chance to interact with a lot of different people outside the stadium before stepping into The Rose Bowl itself. What a antastic piece of history that stadium is. It is absolutely incredible inside. You see palm trees from the inside peeking over the edge and it has a neat shape to it. However, it is no Memorial Stadium...:)
Once in the stadium, we got a chance to see the place fill up and had orange poms on our seats from the U of I alumni association. Our seats were near the Illinois end zone, and were actually pretty fantastic. Well, the game went uhhhh, uhhh, well, Rashard Mendenhall had an awesome game, and now he's projected to be a top 15 pick int he NFL draft. That was nice.
OK, the game was a blowout. USC destroyed Illinois, but it was a lot of fun to be there still. Once we left the stadium, we avoided some of the more obnoxious USC fans and hightailed it out of town. We ate at In and Out Burger and ran off to Kingman, AZ, where we stayed at my buddy Chuck's house. His parents were fantastic in letting us stay and I still thank them so much.

The End of an Age

Well, the NFL has just ended up with one less legend within it. Brett Favre has retired. The NFL's all time leader in consecutive QB starts, touchdown passes, passing yards, interceptions, and more has told the Packers that he will hang up his hat. While he said that he was physically able to keep playing, he was mentally drained.

For the avid sports fan, the obvious commentary would be that Ted Thompson (the Packers GM) failed to pursue free agent Randy Moss. This would send a message to Favre (who wanted to play with the all star wideout) that he isn't too concerned to have him back.

This leaves us with one of the most passionate players of football watching the next NFL season off of the field.

Thanks Brett, you have been an inspiration and a joy to watch...

Jon Foreman

I am a music guy, at least an appreciator. I was a player of music in jr. high and high school, and I still love the idea of being involved in it. I don't think I realize that there are some people that don't just go head over heels for music, which is a development that highlights the importance of my love for that form of art.

Recently, Jon Foreman, the lead singer for Switchfoot, has started a new music project that I've found fascinating and engrossing. He is in the process of releasing four EP albums themed around the four seasons of the year. He is releasing each throughout the seasons this year. The first two have already been released. These are Fall and Winter, and Spring and Summer are to come. They are 6 song albums with a softer sound, much like 24 off of The Beautiful Letdown. They are such heartfelt songs and the lyrics strike me so much.

Equally Skilled (snippet)

And both of His hands
Are equally skilled
At ruining evil
Equally skilled
At judging the judges
Equally skilled
Administering justice
Both of His hands

The thing that gets me about that is the "ruining evil." I think that simple word choice feels very powerful to me. Anyway, I really look forward to his next two EPs and I encourage you to check out Fall and Winter. They're totally worth the 5-6 bucks you're going to pay for them. I also look forward to the next Switchfoot album if this stuff is any indicator of direction for them as a whole.