out on a LIMB

I don't want to be that church; the one I described in my last post. I don't want to be irrelevant, hypocritical, or dispassionate. I want to go out on a LIMB and invite us to be a living hope inspired to serve in a trying time. I want us to embrace the missional way of Jesus and be the church that responds to our changing and challenging context with passion and grace. (Maybe I should go to work for LDR or LWR or GM; three wonderfully responsive, yet publically unrecognized parts of the Lutheran church.)

Are you feeling any of this too? Like God expects more from us? I want us to go out on a LIMB together. LIMB is an acronym for Lutherans as Intentional Missional Bodies. LIMB. It's a gospel image from John 15, the vine and the branches. The church as Jesus' limbs--His hands, His feet. Bearing the marks of the cross and yet going out, reaching out, walking together with people. Going out on a LIMB means taking risks, being bold, bearing fruit!

Here's what I propose. if you are interested in discovering ways to go out on a LIMB as Jesus' called disciple, email me. We will get started. I envision a learning community, mission driven and committed to practicing a spiritual way of life for the sake of the world and the coming kingdom of God. We will gather for a meal and an initial discussion this summer.
This is open to lay people and clergy. Its ecumenical too. So invite a mission-focused friend.

synod assembly

The Lutheran Church is a corporate body of believers with multiple expressions of one faith. There is the congregational expression, the conference expression, the synodical expression, the regional and churchwide expressions. What I mean is that as a church with a mission and a message (Jesus' way, truth, and life) we visibly express ourselves in communities. My congregation is one way. Another way is when synod's assemble annually---usually in the spring. We gather the 260 plus congregation's together by sending clergy and lay voting members to Gettysbuirg,PA to be the church for a few days. About 800 people gather. Our tasks: Worship, edification, and business. Here's what actually happens.

Pick a topic of global import today, something you'd like to think maybe God is attending to or dealing with in a hopeful and good way, through the work of the spirit in the church. What did you choose? Hunger? Poverty? Homelessness? War and peace? Care for creation/global warming? Deforestation? AIDS? Malaria? Sexual exploitation of women and children? Education in developing nations? Technology/media/business ethics? (Think isolation, privatization, outsourcing/slavery). Medical/health insurance ethics? (Think major profits vs. uninsured and underinsured Americans). Not too difficult to think of a few major issues facing our world today. Wonder if God cares? Wonder if God is doing something about the mess we're in?

Now for the major disconnect! In assembly we addressed none of these things. Not one. We did take a couple of offerings to continue supporting a school in Tanzania. But we said nothing about global warming and our culpability as carbon emmitters, wasters, and contributors to greenhouse gases. We said nothing in protest to the war we are fighting; not to mention anything remotely interesting about interreligious relations/dialogue. We did not take a stand on health insurance, technology, or sexual exploitation of anyone.

Now, I am guilty too. I did nothing, said nothing, enacted nothing. I regret that very much and intend to respond. I intend to call the synod to account. And I intend to take action to say something about these things which matter to most people.

What did we do? We argued about homosexual clergy and whether or not they should be allowed to serve, be ordained, and be in a mutul and faithful relationship. We argued about gay marriage. We argued about whether the church should discipline gay people who are practicing ordained ministry and are not celibate.
The closest we came to dealing with God's justice rolling down was when we decided to make "Fair Trade" a missional priority. (Mennonites have been hip to it for years.) basically you pay a fair price for goods sold through a non-profit coop in oder to assure that farmers receive a fair wage. It increases local economies and unfetters farmers from corporate fat cats who squeeze them to death. But other than fair trade, a non brainer issue, we said and did nothing.

So why didn't we take action? Our vision is too narrow. Pharisaism is rampant among leaders. Our grace is not grace. It is conditioned by a puritanical legalism that is not Lutheran. I am no antinomian. I believe the law is good.But not when it injures the neighbor. Mostly, we don't really care about what most people care about---thus reinforcing the dual claims of irrelevancy and hypocrisy.

Yes, our opinions would be diverse about many issues. How might we come to consensus? Discernment--a spiritual practice that requires prayerful listening to God's Word and the word on the streets wuold have to be practiced. We would have to view ourselves as a missional body with a message pertaining to the world's concerns. We would have to want to engage the world, actual people. We would not be allowed to create straw men to distract us from the real issues.
We would have to listen to Jesus. Perish the thought!

monday monday

So I go to visit the sick mother of a community member today at the county home. I can;t find her. I run into, however, a young woman from my previous pastorate. She's working there in admissions. She's living in the city with her cat. We chat for a few minutes. Mostly small talk about life. I think she's an occasional attendant at the church I used to serve. Maybe more than occasional. We didn't talk about that. I wonder why I ran into her. Was she merely a distraction from some other tasks? There were more distractions today than actual work. What does it mean when I have time to spend chatting in a nursing home lobby for twenty minutes on a Monday afternoon? And I had already spent over an hour at the mall with my wife, kids, and mother-in-law. I went to get lunch with them and the women thought I might get some new slacks and shorts. After that,I stopped at Cokesbury for some more books. Four more books. All good reading, I'm sure. Somedays I don't know what I should be doing.
I have taken to handwriting simple, personal notes to people. I'm sending cards and messages to folks as a means of contact. I wonder if it might be effective? In this culture of email and cell phones, it is insteresting to write and send a badly handwritten little note to someone. My handwriting sucks. I wonder if people will care? I send little words of encouragement, prayers, God's Word. Years ago, correspondence like this might become a treasured possession. Will all of these notes and cards end up in the trash seconds after opening/reading?

emergent emergency

So I've read the books. Hell, I breathe missional ecclesiology. I recognize the need and the opportunity within our small mainline Lutheran congregation to be transformed by the Spirit of Jesus to love and serve the world. I'm into the whole global justice/ local missions thing. I seek to offer worship that is inspired and inspiring, collecting the deep spiritual gifts of the great evangelical, catholic, apostolic, and sacramental tradition into a kairos experience of liturgy. I desire koinonia, the mutual sharing of all the gifts of Christian faith and life, among a diverse body of believers, practicing the faith in the midst of a cracked (broken and fragmented) world. I long for peers relationships with fellow disciples.
So why isn;t it happening? This is a God question, I suppose. What am I not doing as a spiritual leader?
I would like to be part of a vibrant spiritual community. I would like to be a leader in such a community. I feel called into that. So what must I do? The books can paint a vision of such a community and the transformation needed to get from here to there. How do I move the system?

June

Luke's first birthday (May 30) came and went faster than the virus we're passing around the house. High fevers, body aches, and fatigue are the symptoms. Luke had a rash, too. How nice for him. Happy 1st Birthday. And I gift you with...an infection! Think of the accompanying rash as "icing on the cake". Welcome to the human body, susceptible to attack without warning.
Jonah watched "Wizard of Oz" for the first time this week. His response was not what I expected. No fear of witch or fying monkey. I still shudder when Elvira Gulch transforms into the wicked witch as she flies outside the Gale house during their journey inside the cyclone. Not Jonah.
And I still shed a tear when Dorothy says farewell to the Scarecrow, just before the ruby slippers carry her home to Kansas. JOnah could have cared less. Maybe he's not old enough to appreciate it. Maybe the context has changed too much. He's already seen "The Lion King" and "Finding nemo", two great Disney films about coming-of-age and finding one's way, one's identity, one's gifts in family and community. Maybe Oz pales in comparison to "Pride Rock" or "the great barrier reef". Or maybe they are OZ for Jonah. Every generation needs an OZ, a kind wizard, a colorful world where good triumphs over evil. Most obviously, Harry Potter and the wizarding world of Hogwarts symbolizes the multivalent story of good v. evil, coming-of-age, and the "magic" that accompanies such an experience.
Nevertheless, an annual trip down the yellow brick road is good for the mind, the heart, and the "inner Lion" seeking courage to serve bravely in a world where wicked ones roam.

School Shooting

Described as the worst school shooting in US history, on Monday April 16th a lone gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech. A population of 25,000 was rocked by this senseless violence, perpetrated by a VA tech student, a senior. Students and teachers were among the victims. Two dozen people were injured, a dozen remain hospitalized. The gunman ended his own life.
What motive, what evil, what struggle explains such an act?
People will seek answers. People will seek justice. People will seek comfort.
All I know is that Jesus was executed unjustly too. God is hidden in suffering. Tragedy, though part of the divine drama we call existence or life, is not the last word. It is a penultimate word. What greater good comes from senseless violence and tragic murders? God only knows. Maybe a community can identify ways in which they can embrace people who are struggling, depressed, lost, angry, fragile, desperate etc...Maybe we can build spiritual communities where no secrets are hid and people are encouraged to live in peace and hope. Maybe we can teach young people how to cope with the demons that surround us, who promise us false comforts, false justices, false power. My guess is that this person had lost some power somehow or some postive self-identity. After all, he killed himself too.
Maybe we learn that violence plagues humanity. It is only by believing in a God familiar with violence, as victim and perpetrator, that violence makes any sense. The God of the Hebrew bible does his share of wrathful smiting. But the God of the Gospels finds Himself weeping from a cross. This God suffers a violent death. Why? This God seeks to end violence, to root it out by replacing it with a way of life so non-violent that only grave,criminal injustice moves practicioners to abandon it in defense of self or neighbor. That way of life is called 'LOVE'. "Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you." --Jesus.
God be with the families of those who died and comfort all who mourn. be with the students and faculty of Virginia Tech as they cope with the events that are shaping them. Show us all how to make sense of such violence, how to embrace your radical ethic of love, and how to be merciful to one another. God of new life, hear our prayers. Amen.

prodigal/beloved son

Lost. Forsaken. Damned. Separated. Segregated. Walled. Left out. Left behind. Missing. Missed. Stranger. Foreigner. Alien. Refugee. Homeless. Rejected. Dejected. Downtrodden. Torn apart. Isolated. Denied. Broken. Excised. x-ed out. Excommunicated. Ex-con. Aimless. Rootless. Wasteful. Wasted. Refuse. Trash. Undone. untied. Unyoked. Unemployed. Uninsured. Insecure. Unsafe. Unknown. Unhealthy. Misunderstood. Miscreant. Misguided. Disregarded. Disrespected. Disenfranchised. Dismantled. Disintegrated. Dehumanized. Degraded. Demeaned. devalued. Derided. Lonely. Suffering. Cursed. Cross. Dead. Jesus.

Jesus. Risen. Alive. New. Whole. Healthy. With. For. By. beside. Insider. Within. near. Intimate. Dear. Beloved. Embraced. Kissed. Accepted. Included. Invited. Personal. Known. Safe. Received. Welcomed. Precious. Treasured. Honored. Blessed. Revered. Worshipped. Adored. Family. Friend. Neighbor. Brother. Citizen. Community. Home. Beloved. Child. Daugther. Son.

fruitless trees, good gardener

As I prep to preach the Gospel for this Sunday, I am struck by Jesus' serious tone. "If you do not repent you will all perish as they did." To turn from the sinful life to the life of Jesus is not easy. We can't do it alone. We need others to help us, to tell us the truth about ourselves, and to help us seek Jesus' way in all things. I think the following article from "Pulpit Resource", a journal I read for sermon help, says something about us:
"We were watching a TV program on "New Paradigm Churches", those burgeoning churches, many of whom are found in Southern California. A young man was being interviewed, a pastor of one of those fast growing churches. His church gathers each week, led in music by a rock band, a church with a median age under thirty.
The reporter asked the pastor to what did he attribute the phenomenal growth of his congregation. The pastor replied,"I think you've got a generation of young adults that never had anybody look them into the eyes, and say directly to them, in love, 'You really, really suck.'"

Jesus knows that God desires to spiritually nourish us for an abundant life. But we choose the "food" that doesn't nourish. We make idols, we lust, we test Christ, we complain. What our the American idols? Money, cars, sports, home ownership, entertainers. how do we test Christ? We keep on sinning, knowing full well what we do. But trusting that God will forgive us forever. But what if judgment is real? What if God won't put up with our crap forever? "He will come again to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end." We profess it as truth.
Jesus tells a parable about an unfruitful fig tree. The vineyard owner wants it cut down, but the gardener pleads to give it another year. He promises to dig around it and fertilize it. If, after a year, it still does not produce, cut it down. How are we like the unfruitful fig? How has Jesus interceded for us, tended and nourished us? Bad news: We suck, we are fruitless. Good news: God doesn't suck. God loves sucky people. God won't tolerate people who know they suck and reuse to stop sucking. We are meant to bear fruit. We are meant to offer ourselves to the creative justice/mercy/love mission of God.

Coffee House Conversations begin in April

Postmodern Culture/Christian Spirituality
Coffee and Conversation every Wednesday at 6:00 pm
Javáteas Coffee Café; N. Reading Rd. Ephrata, PA
Topics: (likely to evolve, because stuff happens)
April 18---can I be spiritual and not religious?
April 25---Who is my neighbor?
May 2---Why is prayer hard?
May 9---How can I experience God??
May 16---why do we keep breathing?
May 23---what is peace?
Come for the conversation, the community, and the coffee…Open to everyone

Postmodern Experiential Worship

Postmodern Worship Gathering
Sunday Night, March 25, 6:04 pm
Javáteas Coffee Café; N. Reading Rd. Ephrata, PA
Encounter the mystery of GOD in
Candlelight, acoustic music, silence, incense, prayer, water, listening for GOD,
The Lord’s Supper, peace, art, truth, beauty, faith, hope, love.
For the Spiritually hungry person.

FLAME

Family
Life
As
Mission
Education

God has a mission. To reach every family on earth with the message of the Gospel and to invite them to participate in the new life that is offered in it.
The Gospel is about love for God and neighbor that is put into action through words and deeds that build up, benefit, and beautify community. JESUS shows us how to love unconditionally, sacrificially, and completely.
Christians are called by the Spiirt to love others, by following the way of JESUS, who empowers us and inspires us to follow. Everyday we can make the world better for someone else. When we do, we participate in the ongoing creative healing of creation. GOD's justice/love is the disciples' calling.

A Christian life is learned and shared by adults and children in daily activity. We are made disciples as we learn the way of Jesus and practice it at home, work, school, in in neighborhoods.

You are invited to a new community of families devoting themselves to his way of life together. Together we will explore worship, learning and equipping, family mission opportuniites, and spiritual practices for daily family life. Our goal is to find common ways to practice our faith together.

Join us for a family lunch on February 18th at Zion Lutheran, Akron. 12:30 pm. RSVP at 859-2100 or pastormattl@dejazzd.com

Disaster in Fla.

Central Florida was hit by several tornadoes this weekend, killing as many as 20 people, and destroying a lot of property. To assist in the recovery and restoration efforts go to www.ldr.org. Lutheran Disaster response is on the ground and will be for a long time. Anyone want to go help?

weddings?

Say you're 20 something and you haven't gone to your traditional family church in a couple of years---you've been a Christmas/Easter person. Your parents don't get you. You were raised as a "churchgoer" in a church going family. Your parents go religiously. You have never been given a relevant alternative in which to be faithful. Its always been 'church' or nothing. In or out. After so long, being out wasn't so bad. And you were busy enough living life. But something was missing.
But then, a crisis! You want to get married. In church. You believe in GOD. Maybe even in Jesus. You pray. You want to live a life that is meaningful, spiritual, and hopeful. You want to help people in your community. You have no church affiliation, but you want to be married before God and faithful Christian witnesses. You call around. You pick the Lutherans because they're sort of catholic protestants. Fewer rules, but still sacramental and generously biblical. Yet not pretentious or judgmental like some bible churches might be. But every Lutheran church, every Catholic, everyone you call gives you the old church rule: Non-members cannot be married here! Membership gives one access to a Christian practice you expected. What do you do? Do you dance and "join" in order to meet the requirements? Or do you go to the justice of the peace and get legal without the blessing of God's Word, community prayers, and the unity of the Sacrament? What do you do? Membership has its privileges. Non-membership can have painful, unexpected consequences.
Gen xers are facing this reality. Some are feeling it more seriously than others. They want to be in, but they're not connected. They are prodigal, lost. And it ain't all their fault. maybe if the church found a way to really welcome them. maybe if the church wasn;t so concerned about worship attendance and membership. Maybe if the church was concerned about daily spiritual Christian formation---how to follow Jesus on the ground, in your home and work place. maybe if an alternative community was born for these people.
What if gen xers just revolted and formed a community of believers outside of 'church', who can become church for each other. A new fellowship of believers with all of the gifts and dreams of GOD within.
I, for one, do not reject anyone who calls seeking to be married in the church. I know that it's code word, sometimes, for people of faith living outside of Christian community, seeking a way in. Sometimes its not. Sometimes its people who just want to get married with no strings. But often its people who want the strings, the community, the spirit-filled life, the hope and love of God, the Word, the sacrament, the meaningful missional life to care for the world. When it is, I want to help them be faithful!

Missional acts

Become a big brother or big sister.
Help a neighbor. Paint, cook, clean, etc...
Babysit.
Share your stuff.
Swing a hammer with habitat for humanity.
Make a meal for someone who is sick.
Listen to someone's sad story.
Visit elderly folks at a nursing home.
Give time at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
become a compeer friend (Lancster Co. organization dedicated to mentoring people with mental illness).
serve at a youth center.
pray for people.
buy fairly traded goods.
sponsor a World Vision child. (www.worldvision.org)
collect school supplies, health supplies for World relief. (www.lwr.org)
Make a quilt for LWR.
Give a blanket or a coat to someone who is cold.

Whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus.

worship and mission

i made a kind of discovery reading the gospel this past week. i believe that the church (ecclesiology) is not the church apart from mission (missiology). Its not really a discovery so much as a reminder or a revision of thought. Here's what that means:
We've been taught that the way people come to know Jesus or to be made part of the church is through/in worship. Getting people to "come to church" and "go to church" is the entry way to Christian life. We talk about inviting people to worship. I've been guilty of this way of thinking too---that worship is the Christian life. There is no church without worship. Worship has been the central, and sometimes exclusive, practice of the church. Chruch is defined by us as what we do in worship. We exaggerate the place of worship/liturgy within the Christian believer's life. So we say, Where does one find church? In that building on sunday morning where people are sitting or standing in pews worshiping God.
But what if that assumption about worship being primary is false? What if Jesus and His followers were not primarily worshipers, but primarily missionaries? Jesus calls and sends His disciples before anything remotely like worship occurs in the gospels. And Pentecost? When the Holy Spirit comes, are they driven together to worship? No! Actually, they are scattered by various tongues and languages to share the gospel news. When the church is persecuted, do they huddle together for worship? No. They are scattered outside of the city as witnesses. When Jesus sends the 12 or the 72, does he equip them to be worshipers or worship leaders? No. He equips them to bring peace, hope, healing, justice, food---for people. The early church was primarily a church in mission---A church in action on behalf of the poor, the outcast, the least, the marginalized.

Worship was a result of mission! They gathered for worship to refuel, to rebuild,to revive, for the gifts of faith, hope, and love found in the koinonia--the shared fellowship of believers. Worship doesn't beget mission; Mission begets worship.

Here's the thing. The big machine of Christendom taught us that worship is the heart of what Christians do. Mission is a result of what happens in worship. We think worship comes first for people. Then we are sent out. but what if the Christian life were primarily missional and, out of necessity, worshipful? Its no wonder the early church pieced together worship practice from synagogue practices; Baptism and Eucharist deriving from Jesus' own missional life of cleansing rebirth and sarificial eating and drinking. The church didn;t have time to be overtly creative. They were too busy living out the gospel.
Implications: What if we were called to invite people to live differently first? To live counterculturally, generously, sacrificially, spiritually, marginally? And as a result of it, we are drawn together to worship the GOD who called us and sent us to live in these ways? What if worship is necesary for the Christian who is out there living it because mission-living is spiritually hard? We are drawn together for spiritual food, in order to endure. Word/Sacrament becomes food for missionaries.

a new community?

Tonight we begin a new community. I'm not wholly convinced that anything is going to happen. I have a lot of public communication to do. But, I do think GOD is up to something here. At least I hope so. I'm tired of feeling like a hamster on a wheel. I do believe that I have been sent here to lead something different with church. I'm not quite sure how. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I have no clue about what i'm doing half the time. But I've heard stories like this before. I'm just trying to figure out how to work within the current context of congregational renewal and redevelopment, while also engaging in this external evangelism bit. I don't know. There are some good things happening at ZION. but a radical shift is needed. Kelly fryer identifies it in her book "Reclaiming the 'C' Word: daring to be church again." I think all congregation leaders need to read this book to understand what has happened and what needs to happen now. I commend that book to anyone attempting to lead the church into a missional future and anyone who doesn't know what that means.
In a nutshell, the way things were isn;t the way things are and we need to start operating with new assumptionsnd expectations. More on that later...

Postmodern Questions, Ancient answers

Javáteas coffee house presents:
X’s and Why’s? PostModern Questions for GOD

Are you a post-Christian gen- xer? You believe in God, maybe even Jesus, but you don’t attend church?

You would like to experience the benefit of a spiritually meaningful life, but you’re not sure how?

How can you integrate postmodern culture with ancient Christian spirituality?
Can you be a Christian who is not a religious church-goer?

Is GOD available? Are you available?

Join the conversation, enjoy the coffee and the new community!

Wednesdays at 6:00pm

Everyone always says that school doesn't train you for the real world. School,at best, teaches you how to think in a way that may prepare you for the real world. To some extent. But it doesn't train you to be creative, innovative, or courageous as a leader. The same is said about seminary training for ordained Lutheran ministry. Sure, the biblical, theological, and therapeutic aspects of ministry are taught and studied. But they never trained me to do mission development, to restart a congregation, or to evangelize within and outside a congregation. And that is what I am doing. This is more like mission work, more like starting from scratch. It's a lot like starting a new congregation. Except that the old congregation has not gone away. Everyday now, I find more and more that I am doing mission development or redevelopment work for which I was not well equipped.
Now, I don't think the congregation really hired/called me to do that either. I suspect they hired me to lead worship, visit them, and care for them in times of need. I think they hoped I would naturally bring some enthusiasm to worship and maybe bring in a few young families to fill pews and plates. But redevelopment? Not so much. Which is precisely why it is a redevelopment ministry.
Here's an example. Lent. In Lent, Christians gather more intentionally to practice a spiritual life in community. It usually includes a simple meal, bible study, and prayer. Three practices that Lutheran Christians have perfected---especially the potluck supper!
I have recently been told that we can't offer a dinner this year because no committee planned it and Lent is only five weeks away. What? Lent is not a new thing. We do this every year, or so I thought. So how is it that we are not able to pull this together? And secondly, when I gave them a plan to consider regarding the week night spiritual practice fo meal, bible study, prayer I was told that it would take too long, that no one would come, that we can'tpull it off so quickly. When offered as a cooperative event with two other Lutheran congregations I was told that we don't want shared ministry.
How do I continue to lead here?

the basics

Daily bible reading, prayer, fasting (abstaining from something), and giving to others. These are the basics. By practicing these ancient Christian spiritual practices, one receives GOD's gifts. And the gifts God gives are that some would be apostles, some evangelists, some preachers and teachers to equip the saints for the building up of the body. Practicing these things gifts us our Christian identity, or vocation, our calling. We discover who we are as Jesus' followers by doing these things. We fool ourselves if we think we can be a Christian and not practice these basics.

the next move

I'll say more about what I've been reading later. Suffice it to say that I am deeply committed to what I am calling the third way or the emerging paradigm. I can't say that it's right, but only that it feels good. My next move is to connect with the people at the coffee shop and get them on board. It will serve as an initial meeting place. I am looking for a weekly Wednesday thing and a monthly Sunday thing. I am open to other weekdays, too. or mornings. whatever. part of this wil be decided by the group who connects to it.Mike Linn is interested, but the question is when can he participate? So today I will meet with Ashley to talk turkey. Each step is key in aligning with God's vision. Last week I met with Dave Fisher and with Katie Sollenberger. Both visits were extremely fruiful. I have registered for this Creative Transformational Ministry gathering in two weeks, too. I hope it bears fruit too. And I'm reading like a fiend.
Step 3a: I will begin to invite others to the conversation. I intend to begin with post-Lutheran Christians, as well as a few others who are floating around in limbo. I believe there are many people who would like to spiritually connect with GOD and a community of friends, but have not found it. Mainline and megachruch have their approaches, their methods, their answers, their practices and doctrines. I suspect that there are some who have disconected from both of those scenes for one reason or another. They are Post--whatever they were. They retain some residue or baggage from those paradigms, but have serious gaps in thier own lives of faith not being addressed. can something like this address them? It's happening in other places. maybe here now too. What might emerge is a new paradigm, a new way of being church or following Jesus in missional living. I wonder what might come of this. I am trusting GOD to provide whatever is needed. I am only trying to plant and water seeds.
I hope to provide a venue for intimate night worship outside of Zion. We will likely do it at Zion once a month too. because there are a few Zion folk who appreciate it or seek it. John is on board musically. The five ancient worship practices are fully experienced: singing, listening, praying, sharing, and sending.We employ familiar, new, and ancient texts in song. We encourage open experiment in prayer. We are sacramental---confessional and communal. We are missional---desiring to commit ourselves to daily intentional practice in following Jesus. I wish i could find my copy of Brian McLaren's "The Secret Messge of Jesus". I lost it when i was half finished with it.
BTW, almost finished with Donald Miller's book "Blue Like jazz". Good stuff.