I spent the morning with Todd Hunter and about 20 urban church planters from the Seattle area. Todd was in town for a board meeting with Off the Map and Rose (new blogger alert!) had asked him to stick around for a couple hours of informal coaching. (Wasn’t that nice of her?) I like Todd because even though he’s a big wig he pays attention to little ole’ me and tells me encouraging things like: “Every time I’m around you I think, man, there’s the real thing.” (That kind of thing is really nice to hear, you know, especially in the middle of a two weeks migraine chain. Yeah…a little Todd energy could come in good right now.). … {read more…}

The whole concept of the atonement has been giving me problems lately. Nevertheless, I remain woven together with Jesus. This prayer moves me to tears. It’s from the Children’s Stations of the Cross service at St. Mark’s Cathedral on Good Friday. We’d been standing with our arms out to the side and our eyes closed while someone passed a sponge with vinegar under our noses…

Jesus, we have let our arms drop because our muscles were tired. We remember that your body relaxed as you gave your spirit to God and died on the cross. We try to understand why all of these terrible things happened to you but we don’t really understand. We just know it is part of … {read more…}

“If you don’t give parties that rep-re-sent what God did, you’re no kind of church at all!”

-Eden, age 6

Ready? Go!

Passover
It’s Maundy Thursday, which means Passover at The House on Densmore Street. I’ve been migraine-y all week, and in bed for two days so we are cutting corners. At the prompting of my very shalom-y housemate, Sharon, I’ve ditched the complicated almond cakes, even though they are “tradition” (as my kids would say.) I did cave in though, and I went to “big church” to pick up the four long low tables , rather than just do the thing picnic style on the dinning room floor. Eden will be happy.

I’d love to wax on and on about how much I love Passover, how I was hooked … {read more…}

Crucifix, by Amber Alexander

For a long time we’ve lived under an illusion of separateness….Now we’re learning that the universe is actually constructed as a We.

Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Sue Monk Kidd

I’ve finally finished Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. There are a few books that have created a turning point in my life – titles that helped me to pivot towards something new. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle, for instance, or Not All of Us are Saints by Dr. David Hilfiger, Traveling Mercies by the priestess herself, My Name is Asher Lev by the mystic/artist Chaim Potok, A New Kind of Christian by the … {read more…}

Stan Grenz passed away Saturday morning. It was sudden, a brain aneurysm of sorts. He went to bed Thursday night and never woke up

Dwight called me Friday afternoon with that ominous lead-in phrase: “I have some bad news.” Even when it was just the ICU, it felt like a goodbye. There was definitely an air of inevitability about things. Still, Saturday morning’s definitive news struck and stunned me, as things like this always do.

I saw Stan a few weeks ago at a conference in San Diego. I stuck my head into the meeting room where he was preparing for a workshop. The wall behind him was a screen bearing the images of Neo and Morpheus. It was obvious … {read more…}

So Wordpress 1.5 has been released, and we’re in the process of upgrading to it. Pretty simple process, actually: backup mySQL, FTP down the old site, delete *.*, FTP up the new software, run a magic PHP, and it’s done.

Looks like we have everything working except for the layout. Hmmm.

By the way–if you are unable to post a comment, send Rachelle mail and we’ll investigate. We’ve been trying different methods to keep the baddy spammers away.

-paul (the invisible husband)

This is such a sappy picture of Jesus. He’s so soft and sentimental — as Eden would say “All mushy-gushy lovey-dovey looking.”

I can’t say that I really like this picture…but it I do connect with it somehow.

Most of my adulthood Jesus has not been the main player of the Trinity for me. I’ve been more connected to God the creator, or maybe God the Holy Spirit. Living in the Vineyard, or at least at myVineyard, this was not neccessarily an easy thing. There are lots of songs about being in love with Jesus, and being uber connected to Jesus. Once, when Brennan Manning was at my church as a guest preacher he told this … {read more…}

Cate would like me to show you her Jesus tryptich, which we made to remember Jesus during Lent.

Eden is reading this over my shoulder and would like you to know that, although her tyrptich isn’t done yet, she remembered to make Jesus’s skin “not- white” too.

(Who’s the most devout child in the Densmore house? “Me!” “No, ME!!!”)

:-)

“Hey, did you know we’re having a Feminist Bake Sale at school?”

“Can you do that? I mean do feminists bake?”

Tonya is majoring in Women’s Studies right now and her school just had a Feminist Bake Sale. Each item was given a list price, and then people paid a percentage of that price depending on what social group they fell into. White males paid 100% of the ticket price. White women paid 70%. Why? Because women in America still get paid only 70% of what their male colleagues take home.

I thought the bake sale was a clever way to do a teach-in. Here’s the handout that came with the brownies. The percentages indicate white male earnings. The numbers … {read more…}