one of the things i came away from Q with was a desire to start praying for a different point area church each week. this wasn’t actually a part of Q but something that hit me from one of the presenter’s “throwaway comments.” so here’s the list of all the point area churches in the yellow pages and when i will be praying for them. all you threads are welcome to join me in doing this. i’m thinking of sending the prayed for church a card or a note each week and i am considering placing the card on the back table at tapestry each week so that any thread who wants to can also sign it.
good news fellowship church apostolic bible church frame memorial presbyterian church community church st. bronislava catholic church st. peter catholic church seventh day adventist church st. paul united methodist church st. stanislaus catholic church woodlands church st. joseph parish berea baptist church redeemer lutheran church first english lutheran church celebration church greater point baptist highland church st. paul lutheran church evergreen church divine word lutheran church good shepherd lutheran church plover united methodist church hmong alliance church grace baptist church peace united church of christ first baptist church church of the intercession st. stephens catholic church
so why is this an experiment? well because i’m not sure what the result will be? will i be changed? will tapestry be changed? how will these churches respond? i have my thoughts but i am not sure.
SIDE NOTE – if you find yourself wondering about the obviously random order of this church list the answer is that i didn’t want to pray for them alphabetically. therefore i put the list through a random generator to mix up the order. 🙂
i made it back home form DC for Q last night. i have about 40 pages of notes in my journal that i need to go through to fully debrief. my thoughts on what i learned and experienced this year will probably make it up on my blog eventually. for now i’ll just post some quick final thoughts concerning my three days in washington.
why do this conference the week immediately after resurrection day? i am worn slam out. holy week was pretty busy and then leaving the monday immediately following kicked my butt. i am pooped right now. should make for a fun weekend catching up.
big ideas and questions matter. one of the things that i have loved about Q the past four years is that it has consistently made me ask questions like “what do i mean by that?,” “why do i think that,” or “what is …”. i am still challenged by two presentations that i heard four years ago (one on nuclear disarmament and the other on the education reform) that were from two very different ideologies (one quite liberal and the other quite conservative) because they both asked the same question in different ways. the question i heard was “we have thought this way for 50 years without many asking what if it is wrong or if there is a better way … so what if we are wrong or there is a better way?” it has been challenging to me in how i lead tapestry. we’ve done church this way for a very long time. what if it is wrong? pamela posted her thoughts on “less learning, more thinking” which i think is very similar to my thought concerning big ideas mattering though she does a better job of writing and therefore you should go read her thoughts. you should pretty much read everything she writes.
i really want to do something like Q in stevens point. i think it is something that would really connect with our community and i believe we have the resources in point to do it. between the university, our local businesses (sentry, travelguard, and noel, and smaller startups to name a few), our thriving arts community, and our churches i think we can put on a day of wonderful presentations concerning faith and culture that would be thought provoking. i have started asking a few people who’s opinion i really trust to consider this to help me determine if this is a good thing or just something i want to do.
i’m not a very good tourist without pam. when we go on trips she does a great deal of planning on what we should see and when we should see it. though i am sure i don’t say it enough i am very thankful for her tourist planning. i wouldn’t see and experience half as much without her. without her on this trip i spent most of my free time in DC sitting somewhere around the washington memorial, eating hotdogs, and people watching. i’m really pretty boring without her. of course, my thoughts here exclude the great devastation of the pre-chicago marathon tourism of ‘09 which i am convinced slowed my marathon time by 2 hours. 🙂
i think this was the last Q for me for at least a little while. i need a new conference to help me to think in some different ways. i’m not sure what conference i will do next year so i am open to suggestions. i’ll also add that Q being in los angelos next year made this decision a little easier. Q takes a lot of personality from the host city. this year in washington was VERY different from last year in portland. i have no interest in what i think will be the flavor next year. sorry to my friends who love the area but southern california and i are not great friends.
for me miroslav volf’s comment that GOD should always be our end and not merely our means was probably the most powerful statement of the conference. how often do people, do i, employee GOD for our own goals? how often do political parties do this? how often do churches do this? often we functionalize our faith by treating GOD as a butler WHOSE purpose is to help us reach an end that is not HIM. in fact, those ends are often religious ends which makes them even more deadly because they resemble the character of GOD but they are not GOD. when a means becomes an end it becomes a false god no matter how good its original purpose is. thus such religious ends become merely idols that resemble the true GOD. they are the most dangerous false gods because they are more difficult to spot as idols.
“youtube theologian” was my favorite term of the day. it was used in connection with the “i hate religion but love JESUS” video that was so popular in the past year.
good theology hits every part of life. miroslav volf talked today about the fear of GOD and its connections with how to live the good life. it was great. made all the more impact sense i am presently reading his work “embrace and exclusion”. good stuff.
the church has to get more involved in immigration reform. how we treat the “stranger inn our land” is of huge importance in scripture. if we are followers of CHRIST our attitude and approach to this issue should be determined by scripture.
the moral case for free interprise by arthur brooks was very interesting if for no other reason than his statement that “the moral argument will always overwehlm the material argument.”
i need to read some abraham kuyper. how have i missed this 19th century theologian.
there sure are a great number of “beautiful people” who come to and present at Q. makes me feel out of place.
three things i have already come away with are 1) i need to start work on a sabbath retreat for tapestry similar to what i did with youth at parkview in baton rouge, 2) i’m interested in getting together with a group of threads to read the new testament over 8 weeks, and 3) i need to start praying for all the other churches in point more purposefully. i think i am going to pick a different church each week and encourage tapestry to join me in praying for them.
so today was the 1st day of QDC. as usual it was fantastic. the presentations are always challenging and amazing. here are a few thoughts from today.
i have a love/hate relationship with the presentations. i love the ideas and hearing what others have done. i am always challenged to think differently and try new thinks. i hate the fact that hearing the presentations almost always leaves me wondering why i haven’t done anything in my life. that’s not the presenter’s fault. it is just that these people areamazing. it is hard to measure up when you hear a 28 year old who has a phd, developed an entrepreneurial plan in africa, preaches better than me, and runs a 2:45 marathon.
GOD always provides opportunities but for some reason they are very easy to find at this conference. every year i end up meeting someone who does something that i am sure fits withwho we are in tapestry. it happened again last night. i ate supper with a couple who are involved in respite care in their church. has me wondering about us doing something.
it is alway a good thing when people start quoting c.s. lewis. there were 4 quotes today.
GOD is doing some really cool things through HIS people. lots of stories of interesting things being done in and through the kingdom of GOD?
i’ll write specifics when i get back. i don’t really have the time or desire right now. i’m also writing this on my nook color which is a pain.
i have to confess that i have never really understood it when i have heard ministers complain about people who only come to church on CHRISTmas and easter. thankfully i haven’t heard many ministers complain about this phenomenon but i have unfortunately heard a very few. i am honored no matter when someone comes to tapestry to declare the worth of GOD. it doesn’t matter how often. some people come more often than others. others can’t come as often. that is just part of life.
the irony for me personally is that while CHRISTmas and easter are usually large attendance days for most other churches, they are typically days where tapestry has lower attendance. this is because of the average age of the people who are a part of tapestry. we are a young church and this means that the majority of “threads” are usually at the age where they need to go visit their parents’ home for major holidays. we usually have more people at our worship gatherings that build up to the CHRISTmas and easter than we do for the actual holidays. the thing i love is that we care more about making sure we live out the meaning and purpose of CHRISTmas and easter than we do about having a lot of people at those days’ worship gatherings. church attendance isn’t what matters to us.
my hope and prayer for you is that you live out easter in your life. the truth behind resurrection day should effect how we live all our days. if you need a church to help you remember this i can gladly recommend tapestry. 🙂
for prayer we did this by putting on a labyrinth for the community. this is hard to explain completely, it is a period of guided prayer that uses a very large marked canvas mat, some experiential stations, a british lady with a wonderful accent to help people pray for 30 minutes to 2 hours. for serving we did this by providing and serving the weekly meal for the place of peace which led to some wonderful conversations and seeing JESUS in some of HIS most distressing disguises (a teresa of calcutta saying). finally we did this for scripture by reading through the gospel according to matthew during lent and then reading through the 14th and 15h chapters of the gospel according to mark during our annual tenebrae.
adam h was nice enough to take some photos. i decided to make an animoto video of them. i’m looking forward to easter.
i just received my bag of crap from woot.com and thought i would share what $8 and three years of effort acquired. it is everything i dreamed it would be.
i just heard this on drew’s blog and then found it on youtube. who knew that will ferrell was actually playing katniss by speeding up his speech? funny.
i saw the above video on a friend’s facebook profile and thought i would comment on it. before i say anything about my thoughts on the vieo though please let me start by saying that i know this is meant to be a humorous attempt to address what is seen as a need at that church. while i have issues with ever using eternal damnation as a punch line i do recognize this is supposed to be a joke and not a theological statement.
BUT …
… i believe that all of our statements, including our jokes, come out of our theology. they come out of what we believe life, faith, and church is all about and what is most important in life, faith, and church. if i have ever had coffee with you there is a decent chance that somewhere during our conversation i have pulled out my journal and drawn the illustration to the right. it is a drawing i use when i discuss how our churches’ architecture and setups reflect what we value the most. i believe you can usually tell what is most important to a church simply by looking at the space they use for their gatherings and how it is setup.
i think this video does the exact same thing. it shows what is most important to this church and how you are supposed to respond to it. just look at the escalation of “fines.” interrupt announcement? throw $25 in the offering plate. interrupt the sermon? i think the punishment is a little worse. yes, i know it is a joke but i do think it shows what part of their worship service they want least likely interrupted?
when a cell phones go off during a tapestry worship gathering, and they do often enough, most people think nothing of it. usually the phone is turned off and every thing continues as before. other times it is such an awesome ringtone that i actually comment on it during the message. finally there are times where it is most GOD-honoring for the person who received the phone call to answer the phone and start a conversation. they do so by moving to the back of the room to carry on their conversation. sometimes after the phone call they actually report on what was said (i remember a baby’s birth being announced during the message). we just don’t believe that a little thing like a cell phone is powerful enough to chase the presence of GOD out of the room.
i think our actions and setup in tapestry show what we believe is most important about our worship gatherings. the music and the message are important but they are not the most important. connecting people with the ONE WHOSE image they bear is what is most important to us. sometimes that involves the sermon, sometimes that involves the music, and sometimes that involves a ringing cell phone.
i have posted before that i am a big fan of the npr radio show “this american life.” i love the way they tell stories. two weeks ago (due to my recent backpacking trip with adam i’m a little behind on my podcast listening) they had to do a retraction of their previous story “mr. daisey goes to the apple factory.” the manner in which they did the retraction makes me like them all the more. instead of doing a small blurb that would probably remain hidden away unread, quietly removing the offending episode, and hoping the whole thing would just disappear they did an entire followup show explaining their failure, confronting the person whose story they had believed and reported, and delving into what the facts really are.
the manner in which they handled their failure makes me trust them all the more. i figure everyone makes mistakes. every person, every organization screws up every now and then. as a matter of fact, if you are looking for a church and one of the prime things you are looking for is a church an/or a pastor that almost never messes up … well … you might want to look at churches other than tapestry. i won’t say that tapestry messes up a lot but i know the pastor pretty well and let me just say that he has a rare talent for doing rather stupid things. just ask pam she can tell you how often it happens. anyhow, as i said every person, ever organization screws up every now and then. my question is “how to you handle it when you mess up?” do you own it? or do you try to hide/minimize it?
i trust people and groups that own it, try to correct it, and do their best to not make the same mistake next time. i believe that is what “this american life” did in this scenario and therefore my trust for them has increased greatly. which is saying something since i already trusted them a great deal.
