The 2010 Cure for the Maturity Disease

I forget who said it, but here's a good New Years' Quote: "Youth is when you're allowed to stay up really late on New Year's Eve. Middle Age is when you're forced to."

I'm 30 years old. Have been for 8 months now. Maybe it's just because I hang around a lot of college-aged and mid-20s types that the late night thing hasn't worn off on me. And maybe it was because I didn't wear out the party urge in college the way many people do. It's true that my wife and I were definitely the oldest in our group of friends that rang in the New Year last night, if only by a year or three.

But I can look down the tunnel of middle age from where I sit, and I can see how pointless the party thing will look in retrospect. (Note: I advise everyone to drink with caution, and I will be the first to set that example. I only "party" to be with friends, and perhaps make some new ones. But the party atmosphere can be a bit infectious while you're young, and that's the thing that can wear off, even if drinking was never an issue.)

I'm sure that when I'm 40, or maybe even when I'm 35, I'll look back at the way I spent some evening weekends with friends, and regret having invested so much in something so silly. Nevertheless, I can say one thing: all the silliness was with friends. I wasn't trying to be someone I'm not, or trying to cozy up to a crowd that I don't belong in. I was spending real time with real friends, and whether the time was loud and crazy, or quiet and dignified, doesn't change that fact.

But there is one benefit, one insight, I receive from being part of the loud and crazy, and I think if I wasn't sober I wouldn't notice it. I have observed that every desired result of what some call "nightlife" seems intended to restore something in childhood that's been lost in the maturation process.

Think about it... how do little children party, when they're left to their own devices? If they hear music with a beat, they dance. If they see a food or treat they like, they eat it. If they hear a funny joke, they laugh uproariously. They make up stories and play games and talk loudly and run around and make new friends, and if they party hard enough, they'll collapse and fall asleep wherever they land.

But maturity doesn't stand for this. There is a standard of dignity and propriety that causes us to forget what it means to enjoy ourselves, to celebrate, to bind ourselves together in happiness and a recognition of blessing. We grow up, and we mature. But the fact is... the child never leaves us. It simply hides behind a veneer we call "sobriety," which can only be removed by alcohol. (That children's party I described above? Just add sex and booze, and I've perfectly described a frat party or a bachelorette party or a 21st birthday party.)

Might there be another way to remove it? What if we just started accepting each other exactly as we are? What if those around us had our affirmation in advance, and knew that had nothing to prove? What if we learned how to stop taking ourselves so damn seriously?

Because alcohol doesn't cure the maturity disease, it only relieves the symptoms. Perhaps the cure, if we're ready to accept it, is plain, old-fashioned Love.

Happy New Year.




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The Future is Facebook

I'm really thinking about making my weekly newsletter a monthly newsletter.

One of the main reasons for this: Facebook. The Core Fellowship has a group for the worship gathering, and the Front Porch has a group for events. On top of that, Socrates Cafe has its own group. The Front Porch events group is one I use every week to invite people to weekend events. The other two I don't use much at all.

I have to remember that the whole purpose of writing a weekly e-newsletter to begin with, was to remind people about the upcoming weekend's events. Now I'm finding that only 15-20% of the people who receive that letter actually open it, and I think part of the reason is that it's redundant. So many people are getting their invites from Facebook, that there's no reason to open a newsletter. Once a month should be plenty from here on out.

Now that I've touched on how Facebook is the future, I'd like to air out some ideas on the future of Facebook. I think if they're smart, they'll will start enabling users to actually create their own websites on FB. Similar to Myspace, but cleaner, with options for multiple pages and a higher level of user interaction. Let me break it down:

1) For a small monthly or yearly fee, allow users to create a page for themselves (or their company, church, band, organization, etc) that retains Facebook's clean interface, but provides numerous customizable graphic options, content possibilities, and user-friendly video and audio players.

2) Allow the creators of these pages to set up multiple tabs, just like a website would have multiple pages. For example, a band could have a tab for their schedules, one for mp3s and videos, one for bios, etc.

3) One of these tabs should be a "members only" page, where people can "join" the website (much like pages have fans, now) and take part in discussion boards or chat rooms. People then would not only be able to see what other fans are online at the moment, but could engage them in conversation, either one-on-one, or in a group conversation setting.

I think these opportunities would have a huge appeal for many different types of Facebook users. Think of it...

-Bands could finally abandon the pain-in-the-arse Myspace, and help their fans to really network with one another.

-Many churches and small organizations wouldn't even need a website anymore, or at least not a very complex one. I know lots of church websites that have tried to have chat rooms, discussion boards etc, in the past, but found that they were too small to make it happen. On Facebook it might actually work, and it would take the burden of the technology off the church itself.

-What else? There's a lot of possibilities here... how do you see the future of Facebook?



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The Office: Beauty is in the Eye of the Boss

NBC's The Office
"Business School"
Episode 3017 | Season 3 | 02/15/2007

Abridged Synopsis: Roy stops by Pam's desk to let her know how excited he is to see her art show. She reminds him that it's just a small show being put on by her art class. Pam later admits she's very happy to be back together with Roy because it shows maturity. Jim feigns indifference to the reconciliation.

Ryan discovers that he can get bumped a whole letter grade if he brings his boss in to speak to the class. Michael makes a fool of himself in front of Ryan's class by taking a student's textbook and ripping the pages out to make a point, a la Dead Poet's Society. Michael further humiliates himself in front of Ryan's peers by tossing candy bars at them during his speech.

Michael is then shocked to hear from one of the students that Ryan was harshly criticizing Dunder-Mifflin just minutes before he arrived. Michael tries his hardest to defend the company, then derides Ryan's failure at sales, before ending his speech by telling the class that Ryan didn't know anything, and neither did they!

Pam is excited to show off her artwork at the show, but a little disappointed when nobody seems to care. That changes when Roy showed up and brings his brother, Kenny. However, Roy unwittingly rubs salt in Pam's wounds when he brings up the fact that nobody from work bothered to show up. Later, Oscar and his boyfriend to stop by to discuss Pam's art, not noticing that she is standing behind them. Oscar does his best to say encouraging things, but his boyfriend is hopelessly critical.

After moving Ryan's desk to the annex to work next to Kelly, Michael goes to Pam's art show. She is already fragile after overhearing Oscar's boyfriend criticize her artwork, But Michael had nothing but praise for Pam's work. He is so impressed, particularly with her painting of Dunder-Mifflin's building, that he buys it to display at the office.

__________________

This is another one of those beautiful little Office episodes that could easily slip by as a touching, Michael-gets-it-right-for-a-change scenario. But once again, there is a very deep social message here that I'm sure is often missed.

Oscar's boyfriend, Gil, represents the artistic establishment. When Oscar reminds him that Pam is only a beginner, Gil compares her to Van Gogh, in his not-so-humble beginnings. According to the establishment, the artistic community if you will, greatness is always the goal. And greatness can only be achieved with impeccable skill, and unparalleled imagination and ingenuity.

This goes for music, too... and dance and drama and literature. To be accepted in the eyes of the elite, one must break the mold and constantly chart new artistic territory. Many an album has been lauded, and many a film critically acclaimed which was fresh, original, imaginative... and bad. Unentertaining, unrealistic, and unable to connect with anyone's actual emotions or experiences. Gil had unfortunately lost the ability to interact with art on a human level, and Pam's confidence suffered the blow.

She was about to give up when Michael arrived. He paid a few modest compliments and began to brighten Pam's outlook, but when he saw the painting of Dunder-Mifflin's building, he gushed. "That's my window! And my car! And there's your car! Wow..." he said slowly, "this is our buiding. You nailed it, Pam. You nailed it."

Certainly the aftertaste of Business School had not left his mouth... his favorite employee attacking his company, his loyalty, his livelihood. Michael's pride had surged as he vehemently defended Dunder-Mifflin as a personal place. A relational place that offers something the big box stores never can. And the pride that surged into shouting and name-calling in the lecture hall, surged again now in a quieter way.

"Pam..." Michael intoned with sincerity, "I am really proud of you." Michael and Pam connect in a way they never have before, and probably never will again. And both their needs are met.

For every one thing that Michael gets, there are 99 things that he misses. This is a one-percent moment, but it's a big one. Not only does he see that the value of art is in those who are moved by it, those who can connect with it, he knows the most important thing of all is simply showing up.



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The Office: Games in Real Life

NBC's The Office
"The Coup"
Episode 3002 | Season 3 | 10/05/2006

Synopsis: Michael had made it a point to have Movie Monday every week. He called the office into the conference room to watch a 30-minute installment of Varsity Blues, but Jan made an unexpected visit and did not like what she saw. Angela had Dwight thinking that he could run the office if Michael was fired.

Dwight thought about it and decided to meet up with Jan. He lied to Michael and then told Jan to come to an outlet center where they could meet privately. Jan informed Michael that Dwight was trying to take control of the office. She warned Michael to get better control of his staff. Michael couldn't believe Dwight's nerve to go behind his back.

Jim's branch, in Stamford, CT, became obsessed with playing the computer game Call of Duty II while at work. His boss was infuriated when he found out that Jim was the reason why their branch was losing the game. Jim is beginning to like his co-worker Karen, but is also feeling very out of place in such a video-game-obsessed office.

Michael fooled Dwight into believing that he was going to take over the office. Michael told the office that Dwight was taking over, who immediately began implementing his leadership strategies. But when Dwight refused to take the keys to Michael's Sebring, insulting it as beneath him, Michael told Dwight he'd found out about his betrayal through Jan, and that the whole promotion game was a test. Dwight pleaded with Michael to trust him again. The office watched as Dwight got on his knees and begged Michael not to fire him. He offered to do Michael's laundry for a year, and Michael accepted.

Back in Stamford, Jim is putting on his jacket to leave and turns at the door to face Karen, still sitting at her desk. He makes a motion as if pulling out a hand-grenade, pulling the pin, and tossing it towards Karen, who grabs a handful of paper clips and tosses them into the air in a mock explosion. Jim smiles happily for the first time all day, and heads home.

___________________

This is easily one of my favorite episodes, mostly because it sends a message about the difference between virtual reality and old-fashioned reality, and how hard we've fallen into the former, at the expense of the latter.

Jim loves to play games. Pranks, tricks, hoaxes, jokes, all of it. Life is a game to him. Even his job as a paper salesman can occasionally bring him fulfillment when it allows him to stretch his imagination and add some competition, strategy or intrigue to the daily interactions of life.

But when he gets promoted, and transferred away from Scranton--away from his favorite partner-in-crime Pam, and his favorite nemesis Dwight--Jim loses much of what made his occupation worthwhile. Make no mistake... there's no lack of competitiveness at the Stamford branch, it's just just that they express it in a computer game instead of real life. Naturally, Jim is out of his league in the virtual world of gaming, and starts to feel homesick.

Meanwhile back at the Scranton Branch, Michael is playing head games with Dwight... testing his loyalty by fooling him into thinking he's going to take over management of the branch. It's a tense and intriguing interplay as the lies slowly take shape, culminating in a humiliating endgame for Dwight.

Although Jim is starting to worry about not fitting in at Stamford, there's a glimpse of hope right at the end, when he plays a little miming game with Karen, and she takes the bait.

As dysfunctional as the Scranton office is, we're given a dose of perspective by Jim's experience at Stamford. Pranks and games may not be good for productivity at Scranton, but at least they're real. At least they're relational. Stamford, by contrast, is trapped inside someone else's imagination... in a highly-polished, fabricated world of World War 2 violence.

Most people's lives, anymore, are like the Stamford branch. Our realities exist largely on flickering rectangles: TVs, Computers, Cell Phones, iPods, GPS screens, and all our myriad products endowed with LCD displays.

Have we really forgotten how to play a game in three dimensions? How to chat in a room with actual walls? How to see a show live, that isn't broadcast live?

And of course, the more I type this blog, the more hypocritical I get. Swing by the Front Porch tonight, and you can hear me ramble on and on in real life.




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The Soma Center (part 2)

Continued from Part 1

This network would be the heartbeat behind the Soma Centers. And the Centers would be a tangible manifestation of a unified network of believers. Here are some potential details for the network, apart from what I wrote in the post I just linked to.

1a) Members - Individuals who feel a solidarity with the Network, and feel like they can both benefit from it, and serve through it. Membership with any particular church is not necessary, although intentional fellowship with other believers is strongly encouraged. The payment of minimal yearly dues would be required, except in the case of financial hardship, in which case volunteer effort may be substituted. Members would have privileged and discounted access to Soma Centers.

1b) Sponsors - A Member can choose to be a sponsor by increasing his or her commitment to contribute to the Soma Network and/or Centers through extra financial donations, or volunteer efforts. A Sponsor would have priority access to Soma Centers, in many cases free of charge. This is not special treatment for the rich (especially since volunteer effort is an option,) rather it is an incentive to encourage an extra level of commitment, which will be necessary to make the whole operation possible. Nevertheless, Sponsors will never be considered a higher class of individual, or be given any kind of public praise.

2) Member Churches - Denominational or Non-denominational churches who wish to identify with the call for unity in the body, and participate in the "body life" made possible by the Soma Network and the Soma Centers. The payment of a small percentage of the church's budget would be required, except in the case of financial hardship (in which case volunteer effort could be substituted,) or a decision not to make use of the Soma Center's facilities. A Member Church would have privileged and discounted access to Soma Centers.

2a) Sponsor Churches - You get the picture by now. Sponsoring would involve a higher level of giving and/or volunteer effort from the church itself, and priority/free use of Soma Centers.

3) The Public - Anyone desiring to use the Soma Center for a purpose that fits within the general scope and guidelines of the facility will be welcome to do so, at full price, and after full consideration is given to the needs of Members and Sponsors. Ideally, though, "full price" would still amount to a lower rate than one would encounter at the average community rental facility.

I know a lot of this sounds like just another megalomaniacal ordeal; a victim of the Edifice Complex; a mammoth project worthy of the Bible Belt. And it would be a large undertaking, without a doubt. But in the end, the purpose is not just to throw money at one more program or building fund. Ultimately it is to allow each church to do more with less, to be who God has called them to be, and avoid the pressure to meet every need and run every program.

It's ok for each church to be quirky and unique and gappy. In fact, it's perfect. But when those gaps start to become obvious to those with real unmet needs, that's where the larger body has got to be able to step in. Why should a loyal member of a house church with a unique need have to choose between defecting to the local megachurch, or seeking secular gatherings in order to find what they need? The Church needs to be there for them, and it needs Unity and Intentionality in order to do so. Those are two characteristics I imagine for the Soma Network.

With something like this in place, eventually more and more gatherings of believers would become satisfied with simplicity, with meaningful fellowship and organic worship, not having to wonder if they're missing out on the diversity and complexity of the larger body, but knowing that a vibrant, dynamic connection exists at all times to truly flesh out the body of Christ.

Here is my silly little dream sketch. Enjoy!




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The Soma Center (part 1)

"If God is with you, make your plans big." -D.L. Moody

Ever since God steered me away from the path of professional music ministry, and toward the ideals of The Core, I have been steadily losing my far-sightedness. In other words, I'm still not sure I know what I want to be when I grow up. Graphic design makes a good day job, and I enjoy it. It can even pay well if you're lucky. Pastoring The Core feels like a good fit for me, too, but I don't really know what The Core will look like in 5 or 10 years, and I don't think I'm cut out to leave it and plant more churches, and many, many other churches already in existence that I could pastor would probably want me to be something I'm not.

But today, I feel like I got a glimpse.

Even from early on in the operation of the Front Porch, I've had a "wandering eye" of sorts. I tend to leer at these big, old buildings in broken down industrial areas that are obviously longing to be gutted and remodeled. Springfield has no shortage of them. God has got to have something in mind for these monsters... but when I start the infill in mind, I run out of dreams before I run out square footage, and it just starts to seem like a project for a project's sake.

Meanwhile, in another sector of my mind, I look at all the wasted space inside church walls. Basketball courts that get used twice a week, if that, and probably less than once a week for basketball. Auditoriums that sit empty 85% of the time; Classrooms that get more attention from a housekeeper than a class; Dining areas and fellowship halls and multi-purpose rooms that just seem to be twiddling their thumbs, dying for a little action.

Don't get me wrong. In the context of our current faith culture, most of these churches are doing a fine job maintaining and using their facilities. But isn't it possible that there's a better solution? Large churches nearly always have more space than they need (even if the surplus is on weekdays) and small churches lack the amenities and ministries and facilities that draw so many to "Six Flags Over Jesus."

I am not against megachurches. However, there is a special place in my heart for those smaller bodies who truly believe in holistic fellowship, and relational discipleship, yet always struggle to gain a foothold in our society due to a lack of resources, connections, or both.

You may love the prayerful atmosphere at the House Church, but they can't remedy the constant distractions your children create.

You may love the spiritual growth at the Simple Church, but you feel isolated as the only single person over age 25.

You may love the sense of community at the Coffeehouse Church, but you can't get past the memories of support groups, mission trips, book studies, youth events, and basketball clubs at your old megachurch.

My question: Why should these two problems continue to exist? Why should resources go wasted at large churches, and go lacking at small churches?

My answer: A large, urban Church Co-Op Center. For now, let's imagine it would be called the Soma Center (Soma being the Greek word for "body".)

Before I go into any detail, let me paint a few pictures for you:

Imagine a small network of House Churches. Each one functions well on its own, but they love to get together once a month to stay on the same page, and broaden their circles of fellowship. They can reserve an auditorium at the Center for just such an occasion. Or even for other occasions, such as a wedding, baptism, funeral, or just a big party for no good reason. And if one of the House Churches in this network doesn't have a suitable home to meet in, they can take advantage of one of the Center's several cozy meeting rooms.

Imagine a small traditional church nearby, which has recently gained a few youth members, and an energetic youth leader, but has no money for a youth facility. They could reserve a space at the Center, and run a shuttle back and forth. Or maybe all they need is a basketball court once a month, or a venue to have occasional concerts. Perhaps the church doesn't need space for youth so much as for children, and a teacher can chaperone the children as they board the shuttle for the ride to and from their church building.

Imagine a small group of divorcees who all go to small or medium-sized churches without a DivorceCare ministry. This group can organize itself, and rent out a space at the Center. Perhaps one or more of their churches would even choose to help cover such a minimal expense. Or it could be a child-rearing club, or a discussion group, or a prayer gathering.

Imagine a church plant just barely off the ground, meeting in a high school. They've got their worship space, but they can't run the office out of the pastor's house anymore. They can rent one or two rooms of furnished office space at the Soma Center, much more affordably than anywhere else. And they may even decide to move their Sunday morning service to the Center's Auditorium while they're at it.

Imagine a church that's got everything they need except for storage space for some of their seasonal or cumbersome items. The Center can provide that to them, as well.

I think we've concluded as Americans that the only way to get all the "amenities" of the Christian Life is to grow churches that are large enough to pull them all off. But is there any reason that people from two (or more) different denominations can't share a building, especially when it is owned and run by an ecumenical and benevolent third party? I don't see why not.

Here is a list of a few features I envision for this Center:

• Auditorium for 200-400 people
• Chapel for 80-120 people
• Gymnasium
• Concert Venue
• Coffeehouse
• Office Space
• Classrooms / Meeting rooms
• Youth and Children's Education space
• Daycare
• Storage Space

This is not to say that the church has been necessarily been going the wrong direction... in fact, it has done many things right. But it has done these right things separately, individually, rather than corporately. And each church winds up feeling like jam spread over too much toast. Why not re-introduce the terms of first century church, when there was a "Church in Smyrna" and a "Church in Sardis" and a "Church in Corinth". Likewise there could be a Soma Center in Cleveland, and one in St. Louis, and one in Minneapolis, each representing the geographic and cultural unities that were present in the time of the first apostles.

And yet, a facility alone (or 100 facilities alone) would not amount to a very big dream. Because ultimately the vision is to unify. To repent for our divisiveness, and return to the unity Jesus called us to exhibit. And I believe a beautiful expression of such a historic turning point would be an ecumenical network (I wrote about this idea in a past post called "One-ity".) Let's call it, for our purposes here, the Soma Network.

Read part 2.



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A Picturesque Weekend

This was a rather full weekend for the Front Porch.

Friday night was a packed out concert feature Mike Zalewski, Baked Alaska, Benefit of a Doubt, and Vacation Tee Shirt in that order.

Saturday night was our Community Christmas Dinner, which was also packed (although you may not be able to tell by the photos.)

For the rest of the story, I defer you to the following photographs. Enjoy!

FRIDAY NIGHT

Baked Alaska...

Benefit of a Doubt...

Vacation Tee Shirt...

SATURDAY NIGHT

Community Christmas Dinner

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One Girl Army

Recently the Front Porch team has been joined by a young lady named Stephanie. She is very active in her efforts to reach out with compassion to needy young people in center-city Springfield. And that was the topic of an e-mail she sent to me and others this morning, which she gave me permission to publish here:

Hello all.

I wanted to shoot this e-mail out as soon as I got the opportunity to. So, I would firstly like to say a big thank you for everyone's emotional support yesterday at church. I wanted to clarify that it was not necessarily a bad cry, or an upset thing I was feeling. It was more of an "It's gonna be ok" thing.

Ryan, your message yesterday absolutely hit the point that I had been wrestling with in my mind. Though I don't feel a call for foreign missions, I have for a long time known that I am called to work with people of the streets. It's been something I have run from, and often times felt I was alone in my battle for this group of people. And selfishly, I have been acting as such.

Yesterday, It really hit me at home that I am not waging this war on my own. That I belong to an army of people that are raging for the same thing I am. Since I have conditioned myself to believe that I was in this alone, that I could never allow myself to break down and take a break. Unfortunately, I don't believe anyone can do this. I had been specifically struggling with what would happen to [name removed] when I took my step back for a little time of respite. I was not trusting my team and I most importantly was not trusting God.

It came together yesterday that I realized it was ok for me to take care of my wounds, and that even though, as selfishly as I might have been thinking that I was the only one doing anything. I have a lot of people on my team that are ready to step in and hold me up when I need it. And that no matter what, there will always be hope.

It's been so long since I've had the opportunity to be frail and at the same time have hope for what God has called us all to do. I realize now that I am part of a magnificent team, and for that I thank you so much. No words can express how I feel this morning.

Thank You
Stephanie.

I don't feel the need to add anything further to this, except perhaps to share my brief reply.

Stephanie,

This is such a beautiful realization in your life. Although I had no idea you were struggling with this, it becomes clear in hindsight. I'm so glad we could be there for you, and I'm absolutely thrilled to think that we are really beginning to gel as an authentic community! Sharing one another's sorrows, and joys...

I wrote a short blog post a long time ago entitled Let Jesus Be Jesus To You. I think it speaks to exactly your type of situation.

This Advent season, I hope you can allow Jesus to be Jesus to you, and rest in the knowledge of his absolute goodness.



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Clubbing at the FroPo

Clubbing is a big deal in downtown Springfield. It's been going on all around us, and we're finally giving in. We fought so hard for so long, but finally figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

The result: you can now go clubbing at the FroPo!

Lest I cause any confusion, allow me to elaborate. It seems that people come to the Front Porch with all variety of skills, hobbies and interests. Sometimes they bring those things with them, whether it's materials for making hemp jewelry, art supplies, packs of UNO cards, or just an idea that's worth a good debate.

So we've decided that it's high time to make it official.

What I mean is, we're going to start forming some common-interest clubs, and the Front Porch needs you! Tell us what you love to do and what time you think you could do it, and we'll do our best to help you form a club for it.

For now, if it's going to take place at the Front Porch, it will need to be at a time that fits well into our current schedule. The best times are: Wednesdays or Thursdays at 6, 7 or 8 pm, and Fridays and Saturdays at 6 pm. Other times might work, but we'll have to have those conversations as they come.

Time to get creative, guys! I want to see book clubs, chess clubs, spades clubs, apologetics clubs, green clubs, random-acts-of-kindness clubs, hand-percussion clubs, Ryan Wiksell fan clubs, drawing clubs, jewelry clubs, or whatever you love to do, and would like to build a community around... have at it!

If you have ideas, just add comments to this post, or e-mail me at ryan[at]thecoredowntown.com.

Walking Abbi

Yesterday the weather was perfect, and my wife was sorely in need of a quiet house for a nap. So I took our perpetual puppy, a black lab mix named Abbi, out for a long walk.

Usually when I want to take her for a long walk, I'll go to Commercial Street. It's the most interesting neighborhood that I can walk to and back without developing blisters on my feet. It's kind of a weird place to walk a dog, since there is really no grass along the whole stretch of C-Street, but she gets plenty of pooping opportunities (pooportunites?) on the way there and the way back.

So it's not really for her, it's for me. I'm not terribly routine-oriented, and I like to pepper the routines I do have with some kind of variety. Commercial Street is one of those places that you can walk over and over and see something different every time. Some people would say it has a sense of place. But it certainly helps keep me sane in the mundane.

I just wanted to take a casual post here to share a few observations I've made from walking Abbi. Here goes...

The Smell of Weed

Even though Abbi is technically full-grown she still acts like a puppy in most ways. One example of this is her difficulty remaining focused on the sidewalk. We may walk by acres and acres of grass in an hour, but she will find the ONE BLADE OF GRASS that for some reason, just smells amazing. And for a 15-pound creature, she can be remarkably hard to pull away from her discovery.

No Fear

Another surprise for such a small dog is that she is freakin' fearless. I used to think she was afraid of heights, but once she got used to us that went away. I even took her across the Jefferson Avenue footbridge, and she readily hopped up the steps, although she occasionally hunkered down into an army-type crawl when she got a sense of the height.

But one thing she is never afraid of is other dogs. Once I was leaving the Front Porch with her, just as a man was walking two Akita dogs down the sidewalk. These dogs are humongous, and it was all the man could do to keep them both in check as they vigorously sniffed out Abbi. And although each of them could have swallowed her whole, she didn't recoil for a moment, but pulled toward them. It worries me a bit, frankly.

I'm certain that she views most dogs she encounters as potential friends, unless they have two characteristics: 1) they are bigger than her, and 2) they are black. It's obvious that our dog is not racist, since she is black as well. But she just doesn't trust those big black dogs, and has, on occasion barked wildly at them if they get too close. One time she lunged for the neck, and I was barely able to restrain her in time. Fortunately her teeth aren't terribly sharp, but once again, she probably needs to get a better sense of her size if she values her life.

The Puppy Jackpot

I talk a lot about building community, and stepping out of your comfort zone to meet new people. If this is the least bit difficult for you, and I would say that applies to most of us, then get a cute, friendly dog. Abbi draws a lot of attention when she's around people, even before they learn that she's full-grown. But when they discover that she is a perpetual puppy most people are astounded. Yesterday someone on the footbridge said I had hit the puppy jackpot. One guy at Missouri State proposed that she was part black lab, part hamster.

Back Alleys

One of my other ways of keeping things interesting while walking in a very familiar area is to take the back alleys. Our neighborhood was built up between 80 and 120 years ago, and at the time they firmly believed that most houses should have an alley in the back. The majority of them are gravel, but we're actually fortunate enough to live in a house with a paved alley. I've even noticed a few houses that are located on alleys, and usually have addresses ending in 1/2. When I pass those houses I always wonder what it would be like living in a tucked-away house like that.

But there's a reason why I like the alleys besides the simple aesthetic variety. I guess it's because I get to look at the part of people's houses I'm not really supposed to see. I've always been a little bit that way. The funny thing is, I'm not a gossip or a particularly nosey person when it comes to people's private lives. But I've always enjoyed exploring, and finding ways to see what's off the beaten path, what doesn't show up on Google Maps Street View.

And in a neighborhood like ours, where there are huge discrepancies between one house and the next, walking the alleys is an even greater exercise in incongruence. There's so much variety that I don't even want to give examples. The backyards I see run the gamut from impeccable landscaping with swimming pool to absolute wilderness. One moment you'll hear automatic sprinklers gently showering an English garden, and the next you'll hear monkeys and macaws screeching from somewhere deep within the uncharted morass.

Of course, all Abbi notices is the blade of grass that a squirrel peed on.



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La Comunidad Autentica

Several weeks ago, my boss hired a new employee named Diana to help out with the increasing workload. She is from Mexico, and has been a legal resident of the United States most of her life. Fortunately, she's happy to answer our questions about her home country, and her first language.

A week or two after she came on board, Andy (my boss) asked her if there were any truly authentic Mexican restaurants in Springfield. At first she said no. But then she changed her mind and said there's a place called Tamale King that's pretty close.

Christina and I actually ate at the Tamale King once. It's remarkably bare-bones, with linoleum floors, fluorescent lighting, and cafeteria-style tables and chairs. Two clues as to its authenticity were its wall of Latino grocery items, and the TV suspended over the counter playing Univision non-stop.

I'm not sure how many Mexican restaurants there are in Springfield, but there's at least several dozen. Of course the majority of them aren't even trying to be authentic: Taco Bell, Taco Bueno, Chipotle, Qdoba, Carlos O'Kelly's, etc. These are the franchise eateries that have stuck to the formula for success... put a lot of fattening American food in a tortilla, dip it in cheese, and give it a Spanglish name.

After that you've got your independently-owned places that are shooting for authentic... Tex-Mex, that is. It's still pretty Americanized, but closer. These are the joints that are always trying to convince you they're authentic. It's a great PR word. They play canned Mariachi music over the speakers, they hang ponchos and sombreros on the wall, and they may even sell funky sodas you've never heard of.

According to Diana, we've now described every "Mexican" restaurant in Springfield but one. And that one, Tamale King, doesn't seem to care if anybody thinks they're authentic. No wacky red-green-and-yellow decor, no trumpets and giant guitars, not even a fully Spanish name. Nevertheless, the proof is in the Mexican Bread Pudding.

It's obvious by the sincere attempts at authenticity in the restaurant industry that customers care about getting "the real thing". But why? It seems like a perfect world for an epicurean white guy like myself. Dozens and dozens of restaurants, all lined up to give me something spicy and exotic, but catered specifically to my caucasian sensibilities. What could be better?

So I think the restaurants in the Tex-Mex category have discovered something significant. White people don't really want authentic Mexican food. They just want to think they're getting authentic Mexican food. Why else would they go to all the trouble to dress it up, instead of just calling it what it is? You know... Spicy Burger Chopped Up Inside Taco Shell. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)

Where am I going with this, you ask? Authentic is not just a buzzword in the culinary arts, it's practically a movement within the Church. Indeed, it's become a veritable silver bullet. "Let's all be seeker-sensitive, I mean let's have a revival, I mean let's be postmodern, I mean let's be missional, I mean let's be authentic! That's all we really need!"

Check me out, I'm guilty too. What's the unofficial slogan of the Front Porch? "Arts, Culture and Authentic Community." Not even a complete sentence, is it?

I am not writing this post to say that we are the Tamale King of churches (there's a slogan for you.) We are not a lone reed of integrity in a sea of spiritual pretenders. But if I can blow the horn in my sleep, perhaps I can give the whole Church a wake-up call.

Whether people really want authenticity, or they just think they do, the fact is that they need it. We need it. The temptation, as a church leader, and especially as a church planter, is to get a focus group, figure out everybody's preferences, and then create an experience especially for them. Just like the Taco Bells and Qdobas, it's a proven success strategy, and everybody wants to be a winner.

But what does it cost? Yes, the Chalupas are cheap, but the identity crisis is out of everyone's price range. Because the most fundamental human need is to know who you are... whose you are. And what you're worth. And every step we take toward a plastic spiritual utopia is a step away from that ultimate goal. It's a concealing, not a revealing, and down the road I get to find out just how many layers I've managed to wrap around the real ME... the person God created me to be.

So the question is out there... Do you really want Authentic Community? Because you have to take the sides that come with it, namely Repentance, Transparency, Intimacy, Forgiveness, even Awkwardness... ew. All concepts which can be pretty hard to swallow.

So... no room for dessert? Check please!



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Starbucks: A Follow-up

This post is a continuation of Starbucks: Keeping a Tight Lid on Freedom of Speech.

Following is the overly tactful and judicious e-mail I received from Starbucks Customer Relations:

Ryan,

Starbucks is committed to contributing to our communities and to the environment. We provide our support through monetary contributions, product donations and through The Starbucks Foundation.

Starbucks provides donations and sponsorships to nonprofit organizations in the following areas: the work of young social entrepreneurs, literacy, the environment, local communities, and programs in coffee-growing communities.

We believe our partners (employees) are the best resource we can offer, therefore we also support organizations in which they are active volunteers. This ensures that our investments touch the neighborhoods where Starbucks partners live and work.

Please note that as a rule, Starbucks does not donate to individuals, programs that promote or endorse a specific religious affiliation, political candidates, or for-profit organizations. This includes the donation of space inside of our store locations (ie: community boards).Sincerely,

Julie S.
Customer Relations
Starbucks Coffee Company

And here is my response:

Julie,

It is obvious that Starbucks is trying to make a positive impact in the communities it occupies. However, I am very sad to hear that you consider the usage of your community board as a "donation of space" and therefore something that cannot be extended to religious or political entities.

Although this type of policy is certainly within your right as a private corporation, it is nevertheless an attempt, in my opinion, to homogenize the atmosphere of dialogue within your restaurants, and avoid anything which might run counter to the beliefs or loyalties of your customers. The only possible result is a bland environment which insults people's intelligence by assuming that they cannot co-exist with ideas which are not complementary to their own.

I say this not for my own benefit. (There are plenty of other places to put up my harmless and extremely unoffensive posters. In fact, not only have I lost interest in promoting our worship gathering at Starbucks, I've lost interest in your company at every level.) I say this because I believe the public deserves better, and that Starbucks has failed to live up to the culture of insightful and challenging dialogue that has characterized the coffeehouse environment for centuries.

Sincerely,
Ryan Wiksell.

Center-City Springfield: West Commercial St.

The first place our photographic tour of Center-City Springfield will take us is West Commercial Street. If you have not read the introduction to this tour, now would be the time for that.

Here is a street shot from the west end of what you might call "Historic Commercial Street", looking east:

Commercial Street is a funny character. The occupancy rate is still quite low, and there are miserable-looking vacant or neglected historic buildings everywhere. And yet... there are tons of first-class residential lofts, and numerous photography studios, design & marketing firms, art galleries, top-notch office spaces, beautiful streetscaping, and several classy entertainment establishments. Really, the best word to describe it is "weird".

The first thing we'll come to, starting from the west end, is the Belmonte, which is run by Springfield's Vineyard Church. The Belmonte started out right downtown, where it had a slightly larger space, and was known for fairly regular weekly concerts. It was, and still is, a pretty hip place... some say too hip. But they're good people, and they really want to reach out to their generation of skeptics and agnostics through the use of a common, comfortable, creative space. As it is now, I'm still trying to figure out what their goal is for the current facility. But still, I feel like I have more in common with this group than most Christians in Springfield. Here's two shots of the Belmonte:

Next is a dual shot of Lindberg's (left), the oldest continually operating pub in Springfield (over 100 years) and a future photography studio. Although it's had some straggly years along the way, Lindberg's is now beautifully restored, with wads of gorgeous hardwood. It's truly a classic pub. The only drawback is all the smoke, and the too-loud blues jam stuff they like to play live.

On the right is the up-and-coming Freedom Photography, the studio of my cousins, Matt & Heidi Giles. The upstairs is nearly finished, and ready for them to move into with their adopted son, Isaiah. If you go to the website, you'll see some stunning pictures of the work they've done. Downstairs has a little ways to go yet, but you can already tell it'll be a first-class studio space.


Here is an example of what Commercial Street is known for: Flea Markets and Second-Hand Stores... although this is definitely the classiest example: The Style.


One excellent addition to the Commercial Street scene recently, was that of a cozy coffee house. This one is called Big Momma's, and it's got great food and coffee, and is extremely cozy up front, where the coffee bar is. Fortunately, they have a big room in back where there's plenty of space for concerts, dramas, and other events. The Core has even put some thought into establishing a second Worship Gathering here.


To end our tour of West Commercial Street, I'll take you to the Firehouse Courtyard, where our friend Kelly Stevens will be marrying her German fiance, Julius, this September. Apart from all the other things I mentioned, C-Street has several funky open spaces, some elegant like this one, and others



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The Zero and the One

I wrote this little allegory in 2001. Enjoy!

Once, there was a Zero. And this particular Zero had a lot of things going for him; a perfectly smooth, round shape, nice clean center, and a long life ahead of him. But unlike the other Zeros he met, he was not at all happy. Certainly he was thankful for his blessings, but he knew for sure that there was something more to life than this. He wanted, more than anything else, to be worth something.

So one day he’d had enough sulking and worthlessness, and he determined to find a way to make his life worthwhile. First he tried rolling around till he was upside down. No one even noticed. He turned around backwards. Same result. Then he thought, “Perhaps if I get enough others like me together, and we work hard and arrange ourselves just right, we can be worth something together! So he sent out an invitation calling all the Zeros he knew together in one place. To his delight, several dozen came, and they stood beside each other, on top of each other, and every which way. But alas, they found that it all came to: Nothing.

Not to be deterred, our hero the Zero decided that what was needed were some tools; some outside implements to give him value. After talking around a bit, he was able to procure a plus, a minus, a multiplier, and a divider. Then he found one of his better friends who wasn’t too turned off by the last attempt, and they went to work with his new tools. They tried Zero plus Zero. Zero. They tried Zero minus Zero. Zero. They tried Zero times Zero. You guessed it. His friend remarked, “What do you even need me for? Get all these new Zeros to help you.” But our Zero pleaded with him to at least try the last tool. He agreed, so they performed Zero divided by Zero. “Undefined?” His friend exclaimed. I’m outta here!

Disappointed, but not dejected, the Zero tried some more tricks over the next few weeks. Powers, Logorithms, Matrices… he even dabbled in some Calculus, but always with the same worthless result.

Just about to throw in the towel, the Zero took a long walk. He walked past a dumpster chock full of all his previous experiments, and it only depressed him more. “Is there no way for a Zero to be worth something?” he cried to the air. He continued walking, out of his little community and into the country, where he’d never been before. He was so sullen, he stared at the ground when he walked, and scarcely looked up. Suddenly, he bumped into something. It looked like a tree, but without branches. Just then, he felt a tremendous sense of value and purpose flow into his empty soul. It was the tree! Or whatever it was. “What are you?” the Zero asked. “I am The One,” it proclaimed with a booming voice. Follow me.

Without hesitation, The One started moving to the left, and the Zero was right behind. As they came back into town, the Zero started shouting out to his friends. “Come here, everybody! I’ve found The One! Follow Him with me!” So many of his friends came behind him. And every zero that joined multiplied the total value by ten. Before long they felt more worth than any of them had ever dreamed of. Sadly, some Zeros were too skeptical of it all to come out and join them. Others tried to walk in front of The One, but added no worth to themselves or anyone else. But those who followed were glad they did.

And so, the Zero, and his friends, found that there was value and purpose to life after all.

THE END

I Would Have No Problems If There Were No People

Sorry if the blog posts have been a little sparse. Unfortunately, that is likely to be a trend for the time-being. My advice is to write something yourself, and then read that. ;-)

But I will share with you a few thoughts I had yesterday.

Imagine you're a photographer going out to shoot long, gorgeous vistas of the mountains. The weather is perfect, the sunlight is perfect, and you're already pumped about the finished result.

But everywhere you try to point your camera, trees get in the way. Every kind of tree imaginable seems to be looking for opportunities to ruin your sight line. You take the pictures anyway, and come home disappointed.

But when you pull up the images, you're astonished to see frame after frame of stunning photographs of trees. Every variety, all mingling harmoniously together, lapping up the sunrays. It's not even fall, but the colors are ravishing. At once you realize that you had gone out looking for one thing, but found something much better.

Those trees are the people in your life. We all set out looking for something for ourselves. We know what we want, and hell if we're not going to get it.

Ambition is fine in and of itself, but what do you do when people get in the way? If we are wise, we will see them as God's objective from the beginning, and that we should see them as the subject, not the obstacle.

May your heart (and mine) be molded to the purpose of God today.

Deuce: Leadership vs. Community

There is a post-modern tension in the church when people look at community on the one hand and leadership on the other. It's like watching people watch a tennis match. They look back and forth, and begin to be troubled by the seeming necessity to pick one and abandon the other.

Community is fluid. It is mutual submission and love. It is not controlling or power hungry. It is spontaneous and organic and beautiful.

Leadership is structured. It is wisdom and responsibility. It is not fearful or timid. It is intentional and heirarchical and beautiful.

Quite a quandary, indeed... so long as we're trying to line up organic community with hierarchical leadership onto the same plane--that of relationships.

But Community and Leadership do not belong on the same plane. Community is indeed a function of relationships. God has called us all to submit to one another in love. Husbands to wives, wives to husbands, pastors to parishioners and parishioners to pastors. They will know we are Christians by our love for one another. And this commandment of love does not shift and change with positions, promotions and power. It is an interconnected web of equality.

So what about Leadership? The fact is that leadership does not belong on the plane of Relationships, it belongs on the plane of Objectives. Tasks. Roles.

Becoming a leader should not change the nature of your relationship to others. It should change the nature of your relationship to the task at hand. Naturally, that will affect the context of your relationships to others, but not the nature of them, which is love and mutual submission.

There is no leadership position which mandates, or permits, controlling others. And there is certainly no rationale for abuse or power-mongering.

I can sense some of your misgivings, and I'll address them here:

Guidance - Since Jesus is the true shepherd, and we are his sheep, we are called to follow him alone. Paul says that no one should identify themselves as followers of this person or that person... only Christ. So be a guide to others is, once again, a responsibility to represent the guidance of Christ, and not to be controllers of others.

Discipline - Similar to guidance. When someone in a church requires discipline, the leader's responsibility is on the plane of infraction and correction. When the leader and the wayward member can come together on that plane to each exercise their own roles (the leader to administer discipline, and the member to receive it graciously) then they have behaved as equals in Christ.

Can you see how this frees us up to accept our God-given roles without becoming arrogant, or resentful, toward one another? We can rejoice in the fluidity of community and the structure of leadership without constantly being pulled back and forth.

Now the trick is... doing it.

The Bizarro Front Porch

I've been aware for some time of a coffeehouse church called The Freeway, in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, which opened in October of 2005. As you'll see in this thorough piece of journalism, it's a great place for building community and "hangin' oot".



I hope there are no hard feelings from our neighbors to the north about the "bizarro" bit... a title's gotta zing, don't it?

Some Thoughts on Merge

I'm gonna tack on another post about Merge to share with everybody some of my thoughts about it so far, and thoughts from a few others who have come multiple times. Two days ago was our fourth Sunday to do Merge in the morning. Turns out my neighbor Andrew is a great jazz guitarist, and he paired up with me to lead the music. He also plans to do it next week. After the Thankgiving holiday, I plan to add some hand percussion, and hopefully some female vocals.

The discussion was about the 10 plagues in Egypt, and how Jesus shows up in the baking of unleavened bread, and the slaughtering of the spotless lamb to save the Hebrews from the Angel of Death. And we had a comfortably large group, not the biggest so far, but probably a tie if you don't count out-of-towners or one-time visitors from other churches.

My thoughts about counting:

I'm finding it harder to stick to my commitment to not count people. I've done well not to count them during the gathering, but afterwards I tend to rehearse my memory of all those who came, and count them up then. In a way, that's not so bad, because it forces me to try to remember each individual who came, and remember their names if I can. As long as I can do it that way, I don't see a problem with counting. But if it gets too large for me to do that anymore, I think we should just guesstimate. I don't want us to do any actual counting, or to entertain questions like "So what are you runnin' these days?" My desire is to share our estimates with those who would honestly like to understand the atmosphere of our gatherings, and what they're like, but not to share them with those who want to gauge our "success" by numbers.

My thoughts about the name "Merge"

I'm thinking very strongly about getting rid of it. As it is, people know they're coming to the "Front Porch" and many of them also know they're coming to "Merge". But I think very few people have any idea what "The Core" is. I believe we're causing confusion. Chances are, within a few weeks, we'll just start calling our Sunday morning thing "The Core Worship Gathering" to simplify things for everyone. Maybe "Merge" will "re-emerge" at a later time, who knows.

Now I want to share some other people's thoughts. Jessica is one of my favorites, because she has come all four times since we began it, and next week will be watching the kids. She's a student at Missouri State. Nate is awesome as well... I met him at the Drury University Student Fair, and he's hung around pretty consistently. We've also jammed on guitars, and I'm determined to get him in on the music part of our worship gatherings soon.

From Jessica:

Yeah, I definitely love Merge. It has been cool to be there from the beginning of the Sunday morning gatherings. I really feel like it is genuine community, and I am all about that. I think the atmosphere is really great, and the people that I invite always really like it.

My friend that I had with me this week was Larry. He was one of my first friends when I came to college. He is a really great guy. He plans on going to seminary after he graduates and serving as a missionary in Japan. He is so passionate about Japanese culture.

But, yeah, I really like Merge. I think it is really inviting for everyone...believers, non-believers, people who aren't sure what they are. I am learning a lot from the discussions. I love the series that we are doing right now. Isn't it great to...you know...actually talk about JESUS, not Paul or Moses or Jessica. I just like it a lot. I also really like the fact that different musicians come in every week to help. I think it is great to see different people, and it may help from some people getting burnt out by doing it every week.

Ryan's response: I agree that it's great to talk about Jesus. But at the same time, I like to talk about Jesus in relation to everything else. I like to talk about Jesus AND Paul, about Jesus AND Moses, or about Jesus AND Jessica, if you know what I mean. As far as the music goes, I do hope it stabilizes at least somewhat. But the variety is definitely good, and I hope we always have some of that.

From Nate:

I really like it. It seems to be a lot more personal than other places that I've gone to. I also like how open ended it is: the different "modes" of seating and involvement, the fact that we can add our own comments, and just the atmosphere itself create a truly personal and worshipful experience. One thing that I've been thinking about are the discussions. I know we're covering the foundations and history of Jesus, but that's not really what is important. And, when one focus of such a worship gathering is to draw non-Christians to a deep and meaningful relationship with Christ, and when just the Old Testament and such are presented to them, all they would see was a history lesson and not the salvation that was established later. I know you talk about Jesus in them, but not really specifically about what he did. Not to say that these messages are not uplifting and purposeful, but they tend to seem more like a bible study and not like a outreach tool. I don't know, just sending some thoughts.

Ryan's response: Thanks also for the critique about the discussions. The Old Testament is a tough nut to crack, and I want to help people a little bit by showing them how Jesus shows up in it. But I definitely won't claim that I'm knocking it out of the park. We'll just be in the OT for one more week, and then we'll be in the gospels for three or four months.

Snippets from QAF

Last night's QAF Session was truly amazing. We had between 7 and 12 people there, as there was always some coming-and-going.

The quotes that follow are not guaranteed for accuracy. That, and privacy, are two reasons I don't credit the source of each quote. Some quotes are actually mash-ups of the comments of two or three different people. At one point, I name the speakers A,B,C, etc. to help explain the flow of conversation.

The central question was "Who is God?", but as you'll see, the discussion ranged pretty widely.

"I don't think you can prove God doesn't exist. I don't think you can prove anything doesn't exist. I could say 'There's no such thing as unicorns' but unless I could scour every inch of the earth at once, I couldn't prove it."

"I'm an atheist. I don't think God would let things get this bad."

"Maybe it's our fault things are so bad. We Americans could just give up ice cream and use the money we saved to completely eliminate poverty in the world."

"If life somehow spontaneously evolved from non-life, it would also have to immediately develop a complex system of reproduction in order to continue life."

"God wanted to create creatures that would love him. But love doesn't mean anything unless there is the free will to not love."

"Gender is a physical designation. God is not physical, he is spirit. God chose to spend 33 years as a male person, and be confined to that for awhile, but if God were confined in his essence to a gender designation, then he could not be the creator of gender. If that's the case then someone else created gender... and that creator would be the real God.

A: "I don't know who my dad is... I don't believe in God."

B: "Maybe those things are connected."

C: "I think my dad is perfect, but I think God is an asshole."

B: "That blows my theory."

D: "My life was perfect, but then I woke up and some doctor was telling me that I was paranoid schizophrenic. I have excruciating headaches every night, but I don't think God is an asshole."

A: "I do!"

E: "I thought you didn't believe in God."

A: "I guess I do. But I don't like him. I don't like him for making you schizophrenic."

"People pre-judge me because I'm a double minority. I'm black, and I'm a woman. Everywhere I go I try to present myself in a way so people don't judge me by their stereotypes."

"I'll never understand why God went through that kind of pain for my sake. I'll never understand how he could take the most powerful bond in the world... the love between God the Father and God the Son, and rip it in half to save me."

"It's like that Petra song... 'Would I die for a person like me?'"

Death of a Salesman

"The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell."

I've been known to say it before, and more and more Christians are beginning to realize it. The concept of Evangelism has been deteriorating into pure salesmanship. The greatest news, the most perfect message humankind has ever heard, and it is relegated to little more than Girl Scout Cookies. And it doesn't even seem to be concerned about the here-and-now... only the afterlife. Do you know if you'll go to heaven when you die? Let's say a prayer and secure your place there right now, ok?

"After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive."

Is a man or a woman merely a soul wrapped up in flesh? Are these bodies and brains simply tools to make sure the soul ends up in the right place? No... God created all of it to glorify him... to express, innovate, create, love, communicate, challenge, dance, rest, laugh. Can you 'love your neighbor' and only care about his or her soul?

"You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away--a man is not a piece of fruit!"

But the modern state of Evangelism is dangerously close to this kind of dichotomy. Ask them if they go to church anywhere. Tell them your testimony... they can't argue with that. Make sure they realize they're a sinner. Then ask them if there's any reason why they shouldn't pray for salvation right now. If that doesn't work, try just being their friend, and keep praying.

Is friendship a stratagem now? Is it the secret weapon in our evangelistic arsenal? To reduce relationship to a step in the three-step plan is to cheapen people... to deny their holistic value.

"I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!"

If we don't come to our senses... if we don't change our course quickly, many of us are in danger of waking up and realizing that all the conversions under our belts have amounted to nothing.

"Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground."

Because we haven't loved. We have set our minds upon a task... a commission, but we have made the very mistake Paul warned us about in I Corinthians 13:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Jesus commanded us to love everyone... and simply that. It is the highest form of human interaction, and the most complete way to be Christ-like. Everything we do, including (or especially) sharing the gospel, has to be governed by authentic love for people, not by strategies or sales pitches.

I am so passionate about this, I want everyone to have an opportunity to come together and help each other rid themselves of the proselytizing instinct... to let the salesman in each of us die a sudden death. I want us each to devote our lives to true relationship, to caring about people no matter what they believe, and ridding ourselves of the hidden agendas. The times we spend with people in this capacity will communicate the truth far better than any four spiritual laws.

"There's more of Willy in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made."

In the fall, we're going to start getting together on a regular basis to work through the evangelistic misconceptions that have built up in each of us over time. We'll call these gatherings "Death of a Salesman", and we'll have them as often as necessary. If you have any interest in helping The Core build authentic community, or in providing hospitality at the Front Porch on a regular basis... I can't stress enough the importance of this gathering. Go ahead and e-mail me if you would like to take part.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind... and love your neighbor as yourself."

Third Place

I've always wanted to be a "regular".

I want to walk into a place and say, "Hey Don... gimme the usual."

Do you know what I mean? Am I all alone here? Surely someone else out there is looking for a place to go where there are no looming responsibilities, no performance evaluations. Not just that, but you want to see a usual crowd of friendly faces, and meet some new people, too. You want to be accepted for who you are, and expose yourself to new ideas, artistic expression and a sense of community.

You don't have to peer very far into the tomes of history to realize that this is a fundamental human need--to have a home away from home, and a work away from work. In his book "The Great Good Place", Ray Oldenburg calls these venues "third places" and laments their decline in contemporary American society. (Read a great article about this concept by someone who runs a Third Place in Ontario.)

The Village Square

If you want to reach all the way back into history, you will find that the Village Square is the perennial Third Place. When people have "circled the wagons" so to speak, there has always been a space in the center, perfect for interacting and building community. This space was a recognition that no man is an island to himself, and neither is a family. We needed somewhere to escape the mandates of work and family, to play games, to meet our spouses for the first time. There is something in our souls that compels us to relate to one another, and expand our lives beyond ourselves. Although we have largely lost the sense of community we began with as a species, many towns still recognize the importance of the central square.

The Market

It soon became apparent that that open space in the center of town was a natural place to set up shop. People interacted with one another around the table of commerce, and they have been doing so ever since. Although the village square still exists in many of our lives, the vast majority of Third Places now revolve around buying and selling.

The Pub & Coffeehouse

It was the late Middle Ages when our public spaces moved largely indoors, and began to focus heavily on drinking. Coffeehouses sprouted first in Arabia, then Istanbul, and on into Europe to become a cultural force in Vienna, Rome, London and Boston. Pubs, formally called "Public Houses" had in mind from the very beginning to be a place of common gathering and hospitality, oftentimes even renting rooms for the night. There is not space enough to mention here all the organizations, inventions and revolutions that resulted from gatherings in coffeehouses and pubs. Although this list is meant to be chronological, bars and coffeehouses continue to thrive as Third Places (and have seen a resurgence in places like Starbucks and Barnes & Noble) alongside the next several examples.

The Church

For much of America's history, the church was considered a focal point of the community. Especially as Americans brought religion down from the European high church mentality, it became a place where people could meet to interact, to learn and to socialize, not just to attend a fancy service and confess one's sins. The introduction of youth groups, concerts, bingo, bake sales, picnics and so on helped people to see the church as an extension of their lives, rather than a monument in the center of town.

The Mall

Modern society has seen the outdoor market almost completely replaced by the mall. The latter does indeed serve many of the same commercial and social functions, but in a completely privatized, sanitized setting. Adults are largely uninterested in the mall as a social phenomenon--it is rather young people who, needing a place to bump into each other outside the confines of school, tend to flock there.

The Internet

In the 1990's, Third Places went global. Although Third Places have always been meant to serve as level ground, the internet was hailed as a place where that was actually true. Race, age, gender and location have no bearing, unless one wants it to. First with e-mail and IMs, and later with MySpace, YouTube, and Second Life, people have jumped at the opportunity to be part of a digital community.

The Call to Radical Hospitality

Despite my utopian tone, none of these Third Places really serve as God's ideal for a focal point of human community. The Village Square is too passive. The Market is too hectic and money-driven. The Pub is too alcoholic. The Coffeehouse is too expensive. The Church is too culturally exclusive. The Mall is too frenzied, too homogenized and too big. And the Internet is two-dimensional... too flat and too digital to give us real social fulfillment.

Except for the relatively passive spaces of the Village Square and Internet, every one of these examples is fraught with agenda. Get his money! Get his attention! Get her phone number! (Nightclubs... Third Place or Third Base?) Isn't God calling us to something better? Maybe he wants his children to be creators of Third Places that honor him, that welcome everyone, that shun hidden agendas and just love people like Jesus. The institutional church may have yet to serve as a real God-intended Third Place, but who better than a community of Christ-followers to make it happen?

By no means is this an advertisement for the Front Porch. But it is a call to everyone who believes in radical hospitality to come and help us make it happen.

Even with God's help, we have no utopian aspirations short of heaven. But we know we can do better than this. Isn't it tragically obvious how much our society suffers from a lack of community and public life? Third Places have been the scene of revolution in the past... why not create a space to start a new revolution of unconditional love and relational faith?

Right! So who's with me?

100% Human

Whether or not you believe it, you've probably heard about Jesus being fully man, and fully God. Also that he was perfect and sinless.

When we imagine a man like this, I think a lot of us tend to see him as a little bit dull. Sure, he healed people, and drew huge crowds and walked on water and shocked the establishment and drove the crooks out of the temple with a home-made whip. But perfect??? How drab.

I imagine we think this way because we tend to see our foibles, our idiosyncrasies, and, yes, our sins, as the source of our colorfulness. We laugh at each other's stumbles, and in our better moments, we laugh at our own. So how could there be anything funny or interesting about the perfect man?

It's definitely a good thing to celebrate our differences, and come to terms with our faults. But if we take one glance at the word "holiness" and fall asleep, we've probably got some re-orientating to do. Yes! I'll re-orientate myself to holiness! But then I look at all the people who seem obsessed with the H word, and decide I'm not interested in becoming a fellow borg... a mindless conformist, stripped of my individuality and color.

I believe Jesus, in addition to being fully God, was the most human human who ever lived. He was, truly, 100% human. By comparison, I'd say I've never topped 40%, if that. All the things that people are supposed to be, he was (and is.)

So ok, we've established that we're supposed to be "Christ-like". So what? So now we have to break out of that mind-prison that tells us that the result of a whole kingdom of people who are very much like their king, is monotony.

Did Jesus have a personality? Yes. Did he have a unique individuality and creativity? Yes. Otherwise he would have been less than human. Is he calling us to adopt those traits of his, consequently surrendering our own individualities? NO.

To follow Christ, to be found in him, and to become like him, is to simultaneously become your best self--the self that God made you to be. Rather than a church full of a combination of conformists and rebels, I think God envisions a stunningly vibrant and diverse body of fascinating individuals, all bound together for a common purpose.

Because it is not our faults that make us who we are, it is our gifts.

Church of the Open Mic

It was our fourth time doing it, and we were starting to feel comfortable.

But our monthly Open Mic Night is engineered to be unpredictable, not comfortable. And you'd have to a zen master to not wonder each month if anybody would even come... if the food would go bad before you could eat all the left-overs yourself... if the posters you put up all over downtown would mock you until they got replaced by "Battel of the Bands" or "Have you seen this dog??!?" several days later... if you would have to wonder what you did wrong... and if the whole vision is even worth the effort anyway.

Those were the premonitions at about 7:15 that Saturday night, May 5, 2007... when we were 15 minutes into it, and two people had shown up. We did our best to cheer ourselves up. "It's Cinco de Mayo... everybody's pub-crawling and wasted by now. It's ArtsFest weekend... everybody's watching 10 year old cloggers and buying knick-knacks on Walnut Street. It's Springfield Symphony's free-concert-in-the-park night... everybody's groovin' to the oboes."

"We just have too much competition tonight, that's all," we told ourselves. But all that food... and all that work. I noticed a stack of Open Mic Night leaflets on the table, and asked Phillip if he wanted to join me in passing them out around downtown. He said sure... couldn't hurt.

The first people we came to were college preps sitting out in front of a loft building at College & Market. They were, shall we say, not interested. At least not in anything non-alcoholic. Not even dark yet, and they were all plastered. If you need proof, one of them said I look like James Blunt. 'Nuff said.

After that it was a mixed bag. Some sounded excited, some threw our leaflets directly on the ground, some said nothing. On South Ave, right across from the Front Porch, Phillip got to talking with a couple of guys who had a serious interest in The Core. And I met a guy nearby named BroJo who wanted to come to Open Mic right away. So Phillip stayed to chat a bit, and BroJo and I walked on back to the gallery.

We found that not much had changed there... we were now up by one guest, and down by one leader. I started to talk seriously about taking all the food and heading down to the Square, where all the people were. But just a moment later, Vernon showed up... sweet Vernon. Last time he brought his guitar and did some retro music. This time he brought his violin to do some really retro music... meaning, classical. Then Phillip got back, so we went ahead and kicked it off.

First I played an original song... screwed it up a bit. Then a comedian got up and gave us a few yuks. Then a guy named Patrick, who's been showing some interest in the things of The Core lately, shared his "slam" poetry, which, apparently, is a lot like hip hop without the "music". Very ghetto-swagger kinda stuff coming from a very (by his own admission) white guy. But to be honest, he had some pretty quality rhymes... poignant and heartfelt, to boot.

In the middle of that, two guys came in with a guitar. Andy and Tad. Andy said he'd like to have some mic time.

Vernon got up with his violin and played beautifully. Such elegant music in such a humble environment reminded me of a story I read in the Washington Post about world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, and his experiment to play his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin for 45 minutes at the busiest subway stop in Washington, D.C., to see if people would recognize genius out of context (although Bell rejects the word "genius" for himself.) I felt inspired by Vernon's performance to get up and tell the story. I asked if anyone knew who Joshua Bell was, and Andy, who I just mentioned, raised his hand and informed the group. I told everyone that, as it turned out, almost no one gave any notice to Bell or his violin playing... as 1,000 people quickly passed him on their way to somewhere. I encouraged everyone to recognize genius and beauty even in the blandest circumstances, or the most mundane schedules.

Four more young people walked in.

Phillip got up and welcomed Andy Zipf to the mic. Andy Zipf??? Is that who this guy was?

I started to adjust the microphone for him, and he said he would be fine without it. That was an understatement. He told us he had seen our flyer at the MudHouse, and, since he was going to be in Springfield for one more evening in the middle of his tour, he wanted to play a venue that was low-key and intimate.

Wait... He's on tour??? "Where are you from?" We asked.

"Washington, D.C. That's how I knew Joshua Bell... I've seen him play there."

So Andy started to strum his old Martin Guitar and opened his mouth to release his crystalline tenor voice. I don't want to say he "sang" because singing involves lung power and diaphragm and larynx. But none of that seemed to be involved here. His music was the sound of his soul rising... just waiting for his mouth to open.

Phillip later admitted that when he returned from passing out flyers that he was "in a piss-poor mood." I could relate. At the beginning I felt like I might be OK emotionally if Open Mic Night was a failure, but it was hard. I knew that God had every right to set us back a bit and teach us a lesson about perseverance and trust. But listening to Andy Zipf, I felt God speak to my heart and say, "No lessons, Ryan. Not tonight." I think Phillip was starting to come around, too... not to mention everyone else in the room.

After a few of Andy's songs, we took a little break, and I talked to the four young-uns who had just come in. One of them was named Danielle, and she said she was thinking about getting up and sharing something... not a song, not a poem... just some thoughts that had been on her heart. So I put her on the list to come up shortly, before she changed her mind.

After ten minutes or so, I broke the ice again by reading an original poem called "Life Sensory", and a past post from this blog, "I Am a Hypocrite", to set the tone for our theme, "AuthentiCity." Then Danielle came up.

I wish I could remember every word she spoke. I wish I had recorded it. But I remember her heart... her sadness at all the people who get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed... all the people who never really live their lives... who never discover what it means to be human. Throughout several confessions of "I don't know where I'm going with this," she asserted her commitment and passion to rise above the common error of missing life. I did remember one line she spoke, "I am glad that I'm able to have my heart broken." Here is a non-Christian, by her own admission, who has spun extemporaneous poetry to the words of James, "rejoice in many trials." To be human is to smile and to laugh, but also to cry and scream. No one should wish away these things... the essence of joy is to embrace them all.

Phillip took the microphone when she was done, his face red. "That is what tonight is about. That is what we've wanted all along... for people to share from the depths of their heart. That is authenticity." He was crying, and I think all of us were moved. As I said, this was our fourth time to have Open Mic, and we had always tried to set the tone for people to feel free to get up and just share... not to entertain, but just to share from their hearts. We love all those who have participated, and have learned and grown from each one. But Danielle was the first person to really, really get it. Praise God.

Among all this were a few beautiful and unlikely partnerships. Andy asked Vernon to improvise on the violin during one of his songs. Patrick asked Andy to provide background music for his rhymes. The spontaneity and community of it all was just breath-taking. Andy Zipf said it himself, "You guys should be thankful to have a community like this."

Tad, who had come with Andy not planning to share--"I haven't played the guitar for three years," he said--eventually decided to do it anyway. For some reason he picked up my guitar instead of using Andy's. He was welcome to it, and it sang beautifully in his lightly trembling fingers. Although his delivery was humble, even bashful, his worship was not. It was a very quiet expression of a very bold heart, fervently seeking the presence of God.

Vernon and his solo violin returned to the mic, with a disclaimer. "I haven't really worked this one out, yet... so bear with me. I can't believe I'm playing this in public." But he did.

And it was great. Most of it.

He stumbled even farther into the piece than he expected to. But when he was done, he was done. And we applauded him heartily, as he deserved.

I had to get up and say something. "I have to wonder," I said, "what our communities... what our families, our lives, would look like if we were always this... generous with each other. Danielle says, 'I don't know where I'm going with this, but...' Tad says, 'I haven't played in three years, but...' Vernon says, 'I haven't worked this all out yet, but...' It's that word 'but' that makes such a difference in people's lives. What if the people who approached us could know that we accept them in advance? How different could things be? We all know by now how talented Vernon is. But we've shown him that he doesn't have anything to prove. We love Vernon's talent. But not nearly as much as we love Vernon... and Danielle... and Tad."

That was the gist of it anyway. Like I said, I didn't record this event, and chances are that I was not quite that eloquent. But I felt eloquent. I think everyone did that evening. I guess that's what true community does to you.

I called Andy back up to the microphone to finish off the evening. He played three more songs, bringing us into the singing on one of them--"Add some harmony, if you like," he said. And all of us... Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics... I believe we were all in a state of worship.

You may wonder about that, but I'm convinced that everyone has the ability to worship God in one form or another. It may be either vague or specific, mysterious or practical... but even those who don't know his name can find themselves in a moment of otherness... a moment of certainty that it's not about them; that there is a higher good, and a greater purpose. My prayer is that those experiences will build up in all of us, and lead us closer to a real knowledge of who God is, and what he's done for us. But in the meantime... don't miss those stunning moments that tie us together as spiritual beings.

I looked around, and there were more people present than ever before.

Andy finished his singing, and Phillip wrapped it up for us. After talking to a few people, I noticed that Danielle and her friend Katie had left. So I stepped out the door to see if they had gotten far... they hadn't.

"Hey you guys," I shouted. "Thought you could get by me, huh?"

"No, sorry... you were talking, so we just..."

"Well, I had to say thank you because, well... I don't want to be one of those pastors always throwing scripture at people, but you know in James where it says 'Rejoice in many trials', well, you've finally put a face on that for me."

Danielle said she was grateful to have been able to share, and that she never does that sort of thing. That she was just feeling it out to see what the spirit in the place was, and then, just... went for it.

"I'm not religious or anything, I mean... I believe in God," she said.

"This may sound strange..." I muttered, "but I think you've helped me understand Jesus better."

Danielle was almost beside herself. But I was telling the truth. "Thank you," she gushed, "That... that means so much to me."

Christina had caught up to us by now. "I think that was the most spiritual experience of my life," she said. She had been thinking about her friend Melanie, whose birthday was that day. She was one of those people who lived life exuberantly, and gave of herself extravagantly. Melanie died in a car accident at the age of 19, three years ago. "I just... I knew she was there with us."

____________

On the evening of May 5, we had an experience that is likely to make us anticipate our Open Mic events more eagerly in the coming months. We'll be tempted to tell everyone how Andy Zipf came, and so you can never know what minor celebrity you might see at Open Mic Night. We may be tempted to start arranging for them to be there when they don't seem to arrive on their own. I could see us screening the participants to make sure they can provide us with a certain quality experience. After all, if people start to come expecting something... we need to give it to them, right?

Wrong. I will make no guarantees for June's Open Mic Night. There might be a hundred people show up, and then Sufjan Stevens pops in. There might be zero except for a first-year accordion student. I can accept that, because as soon as we start programming it, we lose on two counts... the result becomes fake, and the premise--that magnificent premise of spontaneity, of foregone acceptance, of community--is lost.

So whatever God has in store for us, all I can say is, well... bring it on.