huh...

yeah, so I just posted this new blog below.

I am not near as depressed as it sounds.

I promise.

I am in the middle of something SO MUCH BIGGER than me...

...and I dig it...

-rc

when life and job intersect...

I was thinking.

I was thinking about the fact ministry is a strange animal. There are vocations in the world that you go and do and then when you're done, you flip the switch off and you go home. Some jobs aren't like that. Ministry is not one of those jobs.

A former colleague said once that they loved ministry because you enter into the lives of people, sometimes at extreme ends of the spectrum, and they let you. God allows us all to be parts in each other's story. My lot in life is no different...and then some. I've performed a wedding, been part of funerals and committals, walked with kids through crud when their parents divorce...walked with kids when a parent dies suddenly.

I live my life along side the very people I serve, and when things get sticky or daunting, the line gets blurry.

For some reason, it feels like pockets of my life are heading on some collision course. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just different. I think that we all have different circles where we see people. For instance, I've got church people. Then there's family. Then there's my jOURney life. College friends/life. In fact, there's even a certain set of people that I only see at the chiropractor.

They all seem to be converging. It's strange. It's kinda like if a college friend married a family member. One side of the room people know you one way, and the other side have seen your bare butt from when you were a baby.

The more I think about it, the more I'm gaining confidence that we weren't meant to live compartmental lives. It's all converging at a time where God is teaching me that being the body is not about learning with your head about something, it's about conforming to someone. Perhaps I, we, whomever need to quit relying on our mouths so much and conform our lives to that of Jesus. (see jOURney january newsletter)

And I don't know where the line is between Ryan and Pastor Ryan...

I think God's erasing it...

...hmpf...cool...

I thought this was a good way to spend a few minutes. It made me laugh.

juggling act

So, these last few days have been crazy for me. Between a ski trip being planned and the jOURney launch just a few days away it's been crazy. I find myself in a strange place (kinda). I know that I am living a life, but it doesn't feel like mine. But whomever it belongs to...it rocks!!

Never have I been involved in such a widespread...well...whatever it is you call what I'm in. I can say that there is going to be a tremendous outpouring of God sometime soon. All roads in my life are heading in some general direction, and that's good...I just don't know where that is.

I have been spending the last few days getting re-connected with lots of folks from different 'pockets' of my life. It's been great and surreal all at the same time. I miss everyone I don't see with any amount of regularity. That's the truth.

I am awed by the breadth of God's scope and plan. and God's faithfulness. and God's love.

the support of my family. A. and the boy, they rock.

this is short, introspective, ramble-ish...

...and honest

peace out, yo

a couple of new additions

I wanted to take the time and update some of the links on the bottom left of the page. Some of the newer links are jOURney's home on facebook and a link to the Journey Newsletter, which gives a great look at what we're about and who we are.

If you are reading this and find the time, I'd invite you to check them out as well as the other links listed.

later...

Thanks for everything...

Most overused statistic (in my opinion)

I heard it again. Tonight, I heard it again. I heard what I think is the most overused statistic that 'church folk' use to plea for the those in the flock to 'reach the world for Christ.' The stat? Polls show that a majority of Americans are open to spirituality more than they have been in for some time. It's true. The stat, I mean. Many folks are.

Why is it then that most people that quote this particular piece of info often follow it up with some statement about how the world needs Jesus or that we need to preach the good news to everyone in our de-Christianized society. I heard it spoken again tonight. That exact same stat with that exact same line to follow it. I found myself asking...what exactly does that mean? If I told you to preach the gospel or the good news, what does that mean?

People may be interested in spiritual things, but I'm sure they're NOT open to the pre-packaged answers that accompany our efforts to 'reach the lost.' I think the mainstream church has lost the ability to desire even to embrace the mystery of the gospel. Even our mystery is pre-packaged.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to teach a world religions class, and the first thing I had the students learn were the major factors that make something a religion; one of the key components was mystery, that is to say that there are elements of a belief system that simply cannot be known. We haven't taught people how to be okay with mystery, or even more how to embrace it.

I think that folks are ready to explore the mystery of spirituality, and our church speak is confusing. Why? Because it sounds like an answer. There comes a point in time when we have to be okay with having frank and open conversation about matters of faith. Our doubts, fears, the things that make no sense...all those things and more. We are going to have to live in the tensions of human minds trying to articulate something that we simply can't.

We can only articulate what God is like. Anyone that has encountered the one, true, living God knows what god is like. The only ways we can begin to articulate the way that God is, is by emulating what God is like. It doesn't even really help, or at least it never helped me, to simply say that I'm 'messed up.' What does that mean? We all are. Messed up people don't need folks to reciprocate their wording. We talk about being 'messed up,' but we never actually say to what extent we're 'messed up.'

Not that we have to know that about each other. It's the mystery of our existence, our lives with each other, our lives as Christians that the world is interested in. How does my doubt and the things I don't get fit into God's redemptive purpose in the world? That's a mystery...

May we be a church that embraces rather than seeks to eliminate the mystery of God and God's church...

Repeated blows to the forehead for 3 hours straight

Just watched my guys lay an egg in Glendale, AZ.

Might have been the worst game I've ever watched from beginning to end.

How long until pitchers and catchers report?

A little less and a little more all at the same time...

Remember my inner conflict? Well, in some ways it's dwindled and in some ways it's become stronger. I am relatively unsurprised that many of Oprah's critics have begun to talk. Most have gone with the 'why didn't she do this in US?' Honestly, I can't blame her for going overseas with this whole idea. For two reasons:

1. Less red tape after the school is open. My hunch is that the South African government would be more hands-off than any type of governing body in the States would be. I'm not saying that's a good thing (or a bad thing), it's just likely the case.

2. Frankly, why should we should we in the US have to rely on people like Oprah's benevolence. It speaks to a fundamental issue, at least it does for me. That is, how did the most wealthy and resourced nation in the history of the world become so crummy at taking care of its own? Any educator can tell you (in great detail I might add) the many holes we have in the ways we fund our schools. In fact, the Ohio supreme court has declared our system unconstitutional and our best solution in recent years has been legalized gambling and the lottery. Great...

So, needless to say for any number of reasons, our government needs some help on this one.

My question, is there any reason that our churches haven't stepped up in overseas efforts to educate people. It seems that we 'educate' people about Jesus (and rightly so) but our efforts in helping people become citizens of the world are falling short. It seems that efforts to educate people about the needs of the 'least of these' worldwide should be higher up on the list than it is.

Don't we have some sort of calling to do something preventative? Isn't that what the teachings of the Bible are? Aren't they on some level efforts to prevent us from going down paths that aren't God-glorifying or efforts to keep us safe in one way or another? Couldn't we look at funding things like abstinence education in Africa, OR putting our massive amount of dollars together to do what Oprah did with no other agenda other than to make people better citizens of the world and to understand how to be someone's NEIGHBOR?

I have an idea why...because we can't agree on how we tell people about Jesus when they get to where they're listening. Some folks think you do it one way or maybe with a tract or even with a megaphone. I happen to remember that there were times when Jesus did things for people and didn't want them to tell who had done it. Education, in this sense, doesn't need a big 'Jesus' sticker plastered on it. People just need educated about some very important things.

Our ability to be unified (or lack of unity) is the single biggest challenge facing the church. We focus more on being right than being Jesus...and being Jesus is inherently right...

Conflicted, but I don't really know why...

This morning on the way home from the Y, a story came across NPR. They were doing a story on Oprah and the $40 million school she built in South Africa. I must admit, I often have a knee-jerk reaction to Oprah and it's often not great. I can't decide how I feel about the school.

Actually, I know how I feel about the school. It's a fantastic thing. Educational opportunites for 150 7th grade-aged girls in Africa. Fantastic. Did I mention that another criteria for this school is that the family has to be under a certain income level. No doubt this school will be a great thing, and since Oprah owns...uh...earth maybe, it's great to see someone doing something with such a possibility of impact.

It's all the peripheral stuff that was in the report (and article in the local newspaper) that stirred the pot a little bit for me. The NPR reporter interviewed a couple of the accepted girls. Yup, Oprah hand selects all of the students in the school...all 150 of them. So, the girls get into the school and are asked a series of questions by the NPR reporters and their responses sounded so canned. Sounds insensative, I know, but they did. Each of the girls interviewed had aspirations to the presidency of South Africa.

On some level, it sounded like the girls knew what to say to Oprah to get in, and what to say to the reporters who were there at the opening. It almost reminded me of being in Mexico and having every person selling something, every child selling something even, saying the same thing. Even when one started to haggle with the owner of one of the markets, the verbage and pace and tone and everything was the same from person to person to person.

From all reports the facility has state of the art everything, and the idea for the place came from a conversation Oprah had with Nelson Mandela. Oprah even said in her speach upon opening the school that its opening was 'her destiny realized.' Of course, a new school should have state of the art everything. The library has books and computers and learning centers for the students to study...and fireplaces for them to read and study by...and a beauty salon...in the library. The rationale was that when you look and feel your best, you do your best. I can buy that...but not in a library. It toes a little too close to Starbucks in Barnes and Noble because people like to read with a hot drink in tow.

So, I'm conflicted, but not sure why. We should all expect a gazillionaire to give a little back, especially an American one since our great nation monopolizes so much of the worlds resources. Oprah gave back, and gives back time and time again. Shouldn't we in our own little corners of wherever we are?

Part 2 comes tomorrow: Why the church in its current state wouldn't probably be able to build something like this...

By the way, you can listen to the NPR report here or you can read the article here.