Connect, Grow and Serve, the Small Group

A group of friends and I have started a Connect Grow and Serve small group. Connect Grow and Serve (cgs) for those of you unfamiliar cgs is a way that I think about my Xn life. Basicall,y that I want to...

• Connect with God and with others
• Grow as a Xn and as a human
• Serve God and others

As a small group we looked at...
What cgs things we are doing now?
and
What cgs things we have some expertise in?

Then we looked at...
What cgs things we would like to start doing?

and
What cgs things would we like to learn about?

Finally, we worked out what to do for the next few sessions, the "living simply" Tear study. The document with all the thoughts from this session will be made into a Google document that we will keep updating.

Poem by Gary at "Beyond Black and White"

Gary at Beyond Black and White recently published and excellent poem which nicely captures how I am feeling at the moment.

In the absence

I have a yearning for a community, but nothing to fill it.
There is an abundance of churches in this land,
but they are like the mirage in the desert.
And so I wonder, maybe this is what I need right now,
to be in perfect oneness with the Divine,
to need nothing, to want for nothing,
to be at perfect peace with nothing.
Is my highest bliss to be found
in the space of absence?
Am I called to monasticism in the city,
as the hermit in his cave?
I yearn for grace,
and realize you were here all along.

Me on the News

If you've ever wondered what I do for work here's your chance to find out. This is a news story on the program I spend about 50% of my work life coordinating.

Tom Sine - A Call to a Pre-Industrial Village?

Thursday night I went to see tom sine speak. I've been a big Tom Sine fan for a while have 3 of his and Christine’s (his wife) books, and have often quoted passages in talks I’ve given. It was a little disappointing that the night was more of an intro tom Sine than a now you’ve read the book kind of talk. Probably the hardest thing was looking at the four types of "new conspirators" and realising I wasn’t even close to being one of them. The four types (with examples from Tom) are.

1. Emerging. Tom described this mostly in terms of groovy inner city types coming out of the alternative worship (I’m pretty sure the U.S emergents would consider themselves much more diverse than this) eg: Johnny Baker, Prodigal Project, emergent village.
2. Missional. eg: Lesley Newbigin, book "the missional church", Forge, Allan Hirsch. Often the groups have a worship time and small groups and no other programs for people in the church.
3. Mosaic. Multicultural church planters eg: the church "sanctuary covenant" and the book "the hip hop church"
4. Monastic. UNO, the book "companions with then poor", Viv Greigs, Word made Flesh, The Simple Way, Shane Claiborne and Camden house. Where people live on the same economic level as the poor.

The way I see these four is...

1. Emerging. I'm not sure if Perth has one and I'm not sure if I quite got Tom's definition (i'll have to read the book).
   
2. Missional. There are a couple of conscious missional things I know of in Perth in Brighton and Banksia Grove.
3. Mosaic. I don't think this exists in Perth .
4. Monastic. Perth's Peace Tree community is probably the only community Perth has like this.
   

The problem I have with these four types of community are...

• I can't afford to be a part of these communities, especially 1 & 2. Even the 4th one can be hard as the rent in some "poor" suburbs in Perth is more than the mortgage I am paying at the moment, and I'm not keen to get a job which is just a money job.
  
• It can be harder than it needs to be for others if they become Xn, when it involves being part of one of these communities.
• I already have too many people in my life and these communities would be adding more.
  
• People are slippery and move on. So what happens when people move out of the communities?
  

I can't help but think that all of the four models work on the basis of a geographical community of some sort and by default a desire to be part of a pre-industrial, pre-urban sprawl life. I’m not in a community in the above four senses. I’d love to be but I feel like I would be spreading myself too thin and would have to give other things up.

Below is a quick picture I drew representing many of the significant people and communities in my life.

As you can see it's a friggin' mess. I link with people from school four different work places including my current one, church, uni, school, various networking groups. On top of this there are clients I meet through work and people who I am trying to connect with in my local suburb (which at the moment is proving difficult) and people through the web. My relationships with people non Xn and Xns alike tend to out last the community in which they start whether that be geographical or work or another interest. This is just a reality of the society I find myself in.

In my very first post I said that a churchless faith meant that I would still be part of a community. But, by the above four definitions I fail. My life is more like a node or a website than a community. Tom said you can't be an effective Xn without community, this is something I stewed over for a long time. I wonder if it might be that we not called to be in community but to be love. Don't get me wrong community is great and I'd jump at the chance to be a part of any one of the above models but not at the sacrifice of the relationships and people I am serving at the moment.

I wonder if one of the reasons why the mega church works is because it works (probably not consciously) in an suburban sprawl environment.

Anyway, these communities are great but I'm looking for something that will transcend my current environment and I will be able to live a meaningful impactful counter cultural life without having to also be part of a pre-industrial village.

Oasis

I've just watched the film "The Oasis". The story of the Salvation Army Oasis Youth Center shot over 2 years, it is marred by both tragedy and hope and for me really captures what it means to be Christ in the world, and has inspired me to check out the Salvation Army church. You can watch or download the film here.

Exhausted

All last week I have felt friggin exhausted (this is not unusual for me). I have felt like this for a week or so, last week couldn't face going to church. I hate the way that depression seems to lurk in the shadows. It was only a fortnight ago when I caught up with an old friend and while talking about the over medication of West Australians, I was considering trying to stop taking my anti depressant medication. I’ve worked seven days straight and I've had to do my work in a way that I'd rather not. I find it really hard when I’m asked to do something or work in a way that clashes with my own values. I wish I could just ignore it but I can’t. This is why I hated being a telephone sales person, I would rather clean toilets than sit in air conditioned call center and annoy people and trying to sell them things they don’t want to buy and don’t need. This week I’ve just had to ride through this. I'm feeling better now but I wish, I could just ignore my conscious and values and just get on with buying a big plasma screen TV.

Homelessness

Western Australia continues to enjoy an economic boom. This has meant more people in the state with the same amount of housing and consequently more homeless people in Perth and no available emergency accommodation. About a week ago on Friday night I got to meet about twenty people who were homeless. I've been doing work with people on our city's streets for the past five years. Often people I've met who are homeless also have some accompanying mental illness, drug issue or at the very least some kind of obvious social dysfunction. Of course they are just as deserving of housing as anyone else but none the less I can understand why they might not get first pick for a rental application or why they might find it hard to organize other accommodation.

Some of the people I met on Friday night did not have any of these kinds issues. To me this just shows how dire the current housing situation is. It was a bit like meeting a talented musician without a record contract or an experienced worker without a job. Two people in particular stood out. One was a tradesman who had had bills to pay and customers who had refused to pay and another was a acquaintance of a regular client who looked more like an accountant I might meet at a fund raising event than someone needing a home.

Since regular channels to find people emergency housing just isn’t working I'm not sure what to do. I could make a room for the strangers in my house on the outer edge of suburbia. I could write letters to politicians. But these feel like gently shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. I’d rather do something like build a small city of tents in the middle of the city or find some sea containers and turn them into rooms and dump them on a vacant lot in the City. I am so frustrated and ashamed of how we collectively treat each other.

Critical Child Rearing Mistake No. 9 - Real Coffee

I've tried to teach Scarlett what makes a good coffee, and now she's becoming a coffee snob.

Just look at the look she's giving me once she's realised I ordered a decaf late.

Podcast Junkie

As I look at my iPod I have 27 podcasts to listen to and probably more to download. I am a Podcast junkie. So, I thought I'd share my top ten podcasts, in no particular order.

1. Father Bob Show - everyone needs a liberal free thinking catholic priest with a passion for social justice.
2. Sunday Night Safran - John Safran and Father Bob talk religion, politics & ethics. Always hilarious.
3. Kevin Smith - writer director and all round funny guy, not for kids or grandma.
4. Emergent - great podcasts, mainly talks from various American Emergent types. A lot more wrestling with theology than than your average Australian emergent type who seem to be much more conservative in comparison.
   
5. Point of Inquiry - intelligent, secular and atheist podcast from the center of inquiry - often challenging if your a Xn.
6. Wired Jesus - Infrequent but some great reflections on being a post modern Xn
7. Speaking of Faith - American public media radio on religion and ethics
8. Doug Pagitt - Xn author who likes to think outside the evangelical box
9. The Nick & Josh podcast- an often amusing podcast from the emergent conversation who keep people from taking themselves to seriously.
10. The Religion Report - Stephen Crittenden's excellent half hour of religious news from Australia and the world. Stephen Crittenden really makes this podcast great.

Critical Child Rearing Mistake No. 8 - The Protestant Work Ethic

I like to think that I have a reasonably good work ethic and drive to get things done. My Daughter certainly thinks I shouldn't be sleeping on the couch.

I will have my revenge when she is a teenager.

What makes a man a man and why you should read the King James

Last night I showed this fantastic you tube clip to my small group. Hamo had it on his blog a while ago and Tom Lyberg has just put it up to. the second time I saw this I thought it was just a joke but no, this is a real preacher from a real church. So, sit back and prepare to learn the value of the King James Bible and what makes a man a man.

My favorite You Tube comment on the video was...

What if you pee on the wall while sitting down in a chair?

Nuts Again

Well it's finally happened again. The church I'm hanging around has asked me to do another sermon (here's a link to the first one). I've got a lot more preparation than last time (2 months instead of 2 weeks). The title I've been given is "Encounters with God – a New Age Guru" and the passage is Acts 8:9-25. It should be fun, I think. Any helpful suggestions are welcome .