Leaving Today

A number of us from the Wine Before Breakfast community at UofT are heading down to Michigan today for the Festival of Faith and Music. I woke up this morning feeling alright, knowing that it was going to be a good week-end, but now, by 10:36am, I'm a little nervous. Part of the reason we're going is to lead worship at the Festival on Saturday morning, which is going to be cool, but it's been a long time since I've played music in front of a large group of people. Playing bass in a worship band is certainly different from playing a rock show - but the nerves are still a little shaky, even though what we're doing is not at all about "the show," and all about helping direct worship, musically, towards the creator of the universe. Still - the nerves! Part of it, I think is the nerves of playing on the same stage as Sufjan Stevens, Neko Case and Emmylou Harris. Part of it is leaving home, that is, Ericka, for a few days. We really haven't had to do the whole "apart" thing since we've been married, and so that's a new experience for us too. I am excited about the festival, the performers, the speakers, the workshops, and the chance to catch up with Liz, a friend I met in Kolkata a few years back. It'll be good to go down and see her, since she only updates her blog every six months or so, and really, I have no idea what's going on with here these days. For anyone out there reading, keep the band in your prayers, please. We would be ever-grateful.

Mercenary for Hire

This morning I read Jordon's post describing the incredulity with which people are responding to the fact that the Church of the Exiles does not receive funding from any denomination or agency outside of her membership. The assumption today, mostly in the West, is that outside funding inputs are necessary to successful church launches. Captivated by technology, sometimes it feels as though vital, agrarian church planting has been replaced by the modern industrial complex - which has, not-so-incidentally, replaced our understanding of how food is grown. For the most part, our food is grown in large industry-run factory farms with large inputs of fuel (to keep the tractors running), fertilizers (to stimulate growth) and pesticides (to kill the undesirable elements). Having spent a great deal of time over the past months reading the agrarian essays of Wendell Berry, I am convinced that the experience of replacing vital, soil-conscious farming with the industrial variety can be seen just as much in the area of church planting as in the ecclesial arena. Where once church planting came out of a knowledge of the neighbourhoods into which they were planted, we now prefer to launch them with large industrial budgets, hoping to compete against anything else vying for our culture's attention. Such an industry leads to the employment of ecclesial mercenaries whose job it is to go in and all the latest gadgets to catalyse a church into existence. Attending a conference in Toronto some weeks back, I shuddered to hear a church planter from Texas claim that you needed to set aside a significant budget for musicians in order to successfully plant a church. If worship is about more than performance or attractionist technique, perhaps we ought reconsider such necessities... I've always been suspicious of this industrial approach, which is probably while over the next few weeks I'll be devoting most of my time to writing it out in some (hopefully coherent) manner in order to graduate. And once I graduate, well, I don't know what will happen, but if there's anyone looking for a church planting mercenary, I come at a very reasonable price...

One Hot Preacher

It turns out that my wife is a brilliant preacher. Which makes me wonder why people seem to need seminary in order to be turned into preachers. Without the benefit (?) of systematic theology, comprehensive introductory courses in the New Testament and Pauline theology, she adeptly unpacked the section of Romans 15 wherein Paul insists on the duty of the Roman church to send money to the Christians in Jerusalem. Discovering that koinonia, the Greek word for fellowship, inherently implies the idea of gifting as proof of such fellowship. It would seem that community is about more than a gathering of people, but also (and explicitly demonstrated in Acts) it's about mutual sharing and the giving of gifts as proof of that communal commitment. How well do we do that? How often do we think of gift giving and tithing as an expression of community? I know this sermon will definitely push me in that direction... Monday she started a new job, Tuesday she preached a killer sermon. I wonder what Wednesday will hold?

Lenten Reflection

A Meditative Reflection on Romans 15:1-13 Jesus cries out, battered and bruised in the garden of torment, sweat, and blood in the garden he prays: Take this cup from me. Will you take the cup? [silence] I know he thinks we're worthy of trust But I'm scared And I'm scared we'll get scared And nail him up again [silence] Two thousand years and an atom bomb away We once used wood and nails And now, we turn out hate in factories [silence] Who among us can bear the cup? [silence] And yet Jesus asks again: Take this cup from me. Will you take my cup? [silence] Two thousand years and a lifetime away We once divided the world Gentile from Jew, Slave from Free And now, will we divide it by sexuality? [silence] Who among us can bear the cross? And Jesus asks again: Take this cross from me. [silence] Will you carry my cross? [silence] And I know he thinks us worthy I know he thinks we're strong But I'm scared And I'm scared we'll get scared And nail him up again Scared of insult and ridicule Scared of bearing the pain Scared of the strength it will take [silence] But strength, it seems, is made perfect in weakness And in weakness, we find our strength. [silence] Jesus asks us again: Take this cross from me. Will you carry my cross? Will you trade dignity for unity? Will you carry the cross that brings new life? Will you drink the cup to bring the reign of peace?

Jesus Christ

I'd love to hear "Jesus Christ" by Brand New done as a Lenten Reflection. Excerpt from the last verse: I know you'll come in the night like a thief But I've had some time alone, To hone my lying technique. And I know you think that I'm someone you can trust. But I'm scared I'll get scared. And I swear I'll try to nail you back up. So do you think we could work out a sign together. So I'll know it's you and that it's over, so I won't even try. I know you're coming for the people like me, But we all got wood and nails; We don't turn out hate in factories. But we all got wood and nails; We don't turn out hate in factories. But we all got wood and nails; And we sleep inside of this machine.

Internet-Creating Hippies

Call me a tree-hugger, a liberal, a hysterical alarmist, or call me Satan, but I say that global warming is real. Not so, our dominionist friend Jerry Falwell, claiming that global warming is a tool of Satan used to distract churches from preaching the gospel. Another communist conspiracy to add to the list. Thanks Jordon for this. I'll be sure to repent, now knowing the error of my ways.