Our pastoral team overseer just called me to do a very nice thing. He meets with a bunch of other pastors in Seattle and they are about to sign a petition. See, the King County Executive, is getting sued by 8 homosexual couples for not issuing them marriage licenses. So this group of pastors, they think that marriage isn’t just a legal/civic rite (okay, I’m with them so far) and so they would like to be heard in the matter as well. So they are basically taking a legal action to make sure they get to be a part of the suit against Ron Simms. They want to have a voice of some sort within the hearing process. So our … {read more…}

A Lisa Loeb song is in my head:

It’s a bad day.
It’s a train ride.
It’s a bad day.
You’re my medicine.

Don’t know what that means..but it seems appropriate.

One of my friend’s children is so ill that she’s going to be in the hospital for a long long time. Another friend is 8 weeks pregnant and throwing up so badly that she’s already got the nurse coming to her house twice a week for IV treatments and she’s been in the hospital three times. My sister has extra fluid on her brain and spinal cord, which apparently has no known cause, so the doctors just throw random pharmacuetical treatments at it and tap her spinal fluid like a beer keg when the pressure … {read more…}

My friend Jim does this thing he calls “blame someone else for being successful,” which just basically means giving someone else credit for saying something brilliant, rather than always spouting your own opinion. Jen Lemen is really good at this over at her site and has directed me to lots of helpful info, funny laugh-at-ourselves moments, or just beautiful little pieces of life. So today I wanted to “practice the practice” (term courtesy of Barbara Henderson) of blaming someone else for being successful.

If you want to both laugh and say wow check out Lindell Alderman’s site and read about his crazy bubble bath baptism ritual. If you want see some practical steps … {read more…}

A lot of my church-type friends have been going to pubs, or parties, or what-have-you’s lately and then gushing, ‘And you wouldn’t believe it…church happened there.”

Well, I went to a ridiculous party last weekend…but I couldn’t say church happened there. It was my friend Emily’s birthday party, and it was also her friend Lee’s birthday – a joint birthday party. They decided to throw a “trashy birthday,” replete with costumes ripped from the racks of value village, bowling, cheap beer, and of course, karaoke. It was a mixed crowd – part church friends, part work friends, part neighbors. Em was dressed as a biker chick with her short hair teased out to there and a My Pretty Pony tail … {read more…}

For awhile now, I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to form a neo-monastic order. I’d like to be an Abbess. Urban Abbess, isn’t that cool? (I didn’t think of it, but I still think it’s cool.) I mean, we’re all floating around out here in this urban landscape and we sort of need a taproot, a house to call home. I think Paul and I and the kids can be that for people. I think some other people might come be that with us. I think still others might move in and out of the circle and be a part of us to.

In a lot of ways we already are doing this.

We have a worshipful rhythm to our year and our week. We celebrate the seasons of the year in little ways – throwing parties, cooking seasonal foods, hanging out on the front porch, switching out the floral and fauna in our little shrine. We practice the Christian and Jewish holidays that are significant to us (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Passover, Easter…and sometimes Sukkoth and Pentecost). We step out of the mayhem each Thursday and into a little bit of Shabbat Shalom. Someday, we may even have a daily rhythm of celebrating together …right now; for instance, we all have the option of meditating on the same piece of art each day during Lent. Maybe someday we’ll try reading the same compline service, the same vespers prayer. Who knows?

We share a common meal, say a common prayer, break bread, drink wine. We commune with God and each other. We have an informal examen, hearing the ups and downs of each other’s week, learning what we felt the most grateful for, what we struggled with the most. Again, maybe someday we’ll get more formalized about this. Maybe someday we’ll all practice the Ignatian examen more formally in our homes, bring our observations more carefully to the group. Is it necessary? Let’s see.

I’m really pleased with all of this–happy and comfortable and well fed.

But there’s something that’s knocking around in my brain, and I think it’s this idea that monastic orders had a Rule. ….
{read more…}

My sinuses have revolted and taken over my whole brain. It’s a whole sinus coup. So I’m putting out the no blogging today sign. However, my pal Lindell has some good thinkin’ over at his house on atonement theory, if you’re bored.

Disclaimer: This is a series on Postmodern/Emergent theology. These are just ways in which my theology has shifted or expanded as I’ve been engaged in the postmodern missional community that is ThPM. This is not an attempt to write a comprehensive emergent theology because:

1) you can’t have a systematic theology in the postmodern world (it’s antithetical to the term)
2) stuff is still forming and reforming so you couldn’t get it all together right now anyway,
3) in emergent life things are very context driven and theologies will probably be different in different contexts.
4) I’m not that smart with the theology (that’s more Paul’s gig.)

So, please, nobody send me emails about how I can’t possible be speaking for the entire … {read more…}

About two years ago, something about how I was living my life with Jesus, especially how I was “doing church” started to feel not quite right. At first I just thought my nose just itched. But then I reached up there to scratch between my eyes and realized that somehow I had ended up with postmodern lenses fairly permanently attached to my face. I wore those around for awhile saying, “Hey, do you dig my new postmodern lenses? They’re green plastic cat’s eyes. Cool, eh?”

Too many people freaked out at me. Too many people told me I was being “liberal” or “relativistic” or “trendy.” But at the same time, things were working really … {read more…}

For safety reasons, we don’t post pictures of our children. But Eden did this very lovely self portrait at school which I think captures her essence quite well.
Ain’t she a darling?

And Cate did this one of herself.

Here’s Eden’s portrait of our family.

All of the lovely little Jesus Tree ornaments are now scanned in and available for viewing as this week’s art-for-meditation offering. (Well, most of them. One or two were too 3D to scan.) Skip on over to our Sink In link and scroll down to have a gander. Hope they remind you of the Jesus you remember too.

I met with our Hothouse group yesterday. Dwight Friesen is always a source of inspiration and guidance to me. The thing I dig about Dwight is that he is a thinker and a practioner, so I get good emergent/incarnational theology and good pracitical field-tested advice. It’s a rare combination. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with him, Lynette, and … {read more…}