I’ve been avoiding obviously church-y things for awhile. The whole of organized protestantism has been bugging me, and I cannot trust myself to be nice in those situations. Like Rich said to Rose when she came back from Africa full of social justice vengence — “I think you need to process what you’ve experienced more before you talk to ANYONE.”

But last weekend I dipped my toe into the church-y waters, and really, it was okay. I attended Off the Map’s “Inside the Missional Matrix” mini-conference and coached some folks on how to live in a Monkfish Abbeyish kind of way. All the people who were there were practitioners (not theoriticians), and all of them were truly … {read more…}

Tonight we will celebrate St. Patrick — patron saint of my homeland and beloved reason for people everywhere to drink Guinness. Before dinner I’ll sing this as I light the three-wick candle. Then someone will read this this prayer:

Like the goodness of the five loaves and two fishes,
Which God divided among the five thousand men,
May the blessing of the King who so divided
Be upon our share of this common meal.

Followed by someone reading this blessing:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand

Then we’ll be eating … {read more…}

Today I guest-lectured at Baake Graduate University for my friend Neil Tibbot, professor and missional community specialist. These are the books I recommended: (in no particular order)

The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again

Flirting With Monasticism: Finding God on Ancient Paths (Haven’t actually read but got an advance copy and it looks interesting. A female writer!)

A Heretic\’s Guide to Eternity (one of my favorite postmodern church type books…but then you know how I feel about heretics.)

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (a must for anyone … {read more…}

I’ve finally finished three chapters of my book project currently subtitled “12 Spiritual Practices for Soulful Kids.” This, plus the (finished) introduction and some (unfinished) collateral materials will begin their hopeful rounds of publishing houses in the next two weeks. If you have any contacts you would lovingly like to share with me, now is the time. (publishing contacts? agents?)

For now, you can sample the chapter on the Anger Altar at my other site here. I’ll be keeping it up for two days and then selfishly taking back down again to hoard it for a book offer.

Thanks for reading along faithfully with me until it was time for something good to get born!

-Your Urban … {read more…}

Someone emailed me recently asking me about visiting MFA (this happens a couple of times a month.) This time the guy was flying in from out of town, so I gave him a list of people-I-like who he might want to check out while he was here. (I’m all for getting the biggest bang out of your flying buck.) After I typed it up, I realized other cyberfolks might want the info too. If nothing else, the wide variety of how these folks live as Jesus-y people should inspire you. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the pomo hotbed that is Seattle, but it’s a nice pupu platter. Feel free to add your own reccomended communities in … {read more…}