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The Jet Set

Seems like Evergreener Caleb Crider is in a different part of the world every other week! But these are no pleasure trips... Caleb is a driving force behind the Upstream Collective, a group of people and churches trying to catalyze "a missions movement uniquely focused on Europe, mobilizing missional churches and church plants in North America to engage Europeans (both indigenous and immigrant) with the Gospel in relevant ways." 

And now, it seems like they are setting their sights beyond Europe! Caleb is in Taiwan right now with missional superstar Ed Stetzer and others, learning from the church in Asia- they call these "Jet Set" Tours- Why?

Caleb writes: 

"We’ve had a few people ask us why we call the Upstream Collective vision tours “Jet Set” trips. Here’s an explanation:

The term “Jet Set” was coined in the late 1960s in reference to a wealthy class of socialites who had the time and money to hop a jet for lunch in Rome, shopping in Paris, and stopping for drinks in Prague on the way home to a penthouse apartment in Manhattan. Of course, these privileged few were interested in little more than their own social stature, their gallivanting around the world had a surprising side effect- The “Jet Set” learned about culture. As it turns out, visiting other countries affects how you see your own.

We would never condone such waste and frivolity. But relative to the rest of the world, we have ridiculous amounts of money and free time. We have access to places that we’ve never heard of. The opportunities are unprecedented. We want to redeem the term “Jet Set.” We want to bring responsibility to the opportunities we have. When we hop on a plane to see what God is doing among the nations, we do it not o climb a social ladder, but to get a glimpse of how God might use us outside our own cultures. We want to experience life from someone else’s vantage point. We want to cross cultures with intentionality.

These trips aren’t just for us. They’re for the people we lead and the partners we join. Jet Set vision trips are a privilege that bring tremendous responsibility. We want to be good stewards of what we see and do here. We feel an obligation to apply what we learn, to pray for those we meet, and to pursue the vision God gives us as we walk among unreached peoples."

You can follow the Upstream Collective on Twitter here, and Ed Stetzer has been blogging this recent adventure here 

Rescue Mission

For the past few months I've been taking the family down to the Rescue Mission on the 3rd Friday to serve. For awhile, I wondered if this was really worth it- it was far from the Mission scene in Dr. Horrible- you know, kindly indigents quietly eating their soup with thankful, beatific looks on their faces. This was more like a bunch of people who knew how to work the system (many were coming from one meal a few blocks over and many more were preparing to go just a block down for yet another meal after- with it possible to get free breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week now in PDX, no one needs to go hungry here).

But, slowly, I've come to appreciate, and even look forward to being there. 

I think it's impacting me in a very good way. 

1st, there's the compassion thing. I recognize that there ARE a lot of folks on the street who for one reason or another choose to be there. Yeah- it's a hard life, but being a "normal" to them is probably harder, so this is what they prefer. But in spite of those folks, every time I'm there, my heart is captured by someone's face, someone's story- someone who clearly would rather be elsewhere- who's either been beaten down by life, is suffering mental illness, or has just gotten old and finds that it's a hard life to make your way in. I love those folks, and more and more as I'm around them I am learning what it means to just sit and talk, listen, pray for and with them. 

2nd, there's the family thing. They LOVE our kids. We bring all three, with Jack and Jane serving on the line in aprons and Josie usually riding on my back in the pack. They smile to see a baby, have a small child serve them. And, our kids love going- they are learning to serve. They are learning that not everyone lives the kind of life we do. 

I think a lot of people come down to the Mission and see the line of guests come through, realize they will be served and eat whether we come and volunteer or not and so wonder if it's really worth it. 

It is.

It's worth it to them to be served by someone who cares, who smiles, who offers them kindness when what they normally get on the street is contempt, who will pray for them, look them in the eye and treat them like a person...

And it's worth it to us- but not immediately. I think the "magic" of serving in a place like the Rescue Mission is what happens over months and maybe years of regularly showing up- learning names, hearing stories, offering kindness and prayer- having your views change and your heart moved. That won't necessarily happen the first time you come or even the 4th or 5th time... but like our friends in the recovery community say- "Keep coming back- It works if you work it." 

And it does work...

Janie at the Zoo

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Bill Kinnon Calling Me Out! (or the problem with Internet Church/Many house churches)

Here to what I wrote on I wrote here on Out of Ur (pt 1, pt 2) about some of my thoughts on Internet Church.

Okay- so he's not calling me out, per se- but kind of! :) 

We're really saying the same thing, each of us in our provocative way. And actually, I appreciate this kind of dialogue. 

Of course, there is some pushback that's less appreciated. Perry Noble has also responded, mainly about Video Venues... 

(Is it just me, or is this the ecclesiastical equivalent of the gun-safety cop shooting himself in the foot?)

On Bill's post, Bill- I appreciate your response, but you are WRONG (make sure to read Bill's post to get this...)

And now I'm not going to point out just what you said that was wrong, while agreeing with the entire thrust of your piece!

:)

I kid, I kid...

Seriously, though- we are saying the same thing.

And please don't misunderstand my appeal to Calvin- his markers weren't meant to be an inclusive list of characteristics of the NT church. But rather, a number of things that if ABSENT, indicate that "Church" is not what you are doing.

My point was just to say if you want to have an internet ministry that's there for people, fine- but DON'T go calling it "church" and give people (whether implied or inferred) the idea that sitting in front of your computer screen watching a sermon is somehow equivalent to actively participating in a real community- it's not.

And here's where I'll go ahead and tick off the other side of the spectrum.

Me and my buddies sitting around the firepit in my backyard is not church either- absent things like praying together, teaching the Word to one another, the sacraments, some sense of accountability and discipline, biblical eldership (and many other things)...

What I'm saying is that it's easy to look at the internet church and call it lacking and silly. Shooting fish in a barrel. 

But I think the "de-churched" movement makes the same exact mistakes (albeit in a less technophile way) and just doesn't see it. 

Birthday Morning the 40th

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The Nines Comment Thread

Go ahead and watch the other post above but open this post in a separate tab for comments- that way, you can drop insights/comments/questions/pointy jabs here on this post without interrupting the video!

Closure

I want to thank everyone who's prayed for me over the last few days. What could have been a hard and "low" period for me has ended up actually being a good time of closure and of thankfulness for my life.

I flew down to San Diego yesterday to bury my father. He died and was buried just how he lived, how he liked it- alone. 

I wish I could say my dad and I had a complicated history, but we don't. Far from it- it's pretty simple, actually. He was never really interested in being a dad, so he wasn't. End of story. 

I used to expend a lot of energy wishing it was different- but over the years learned to make peace with his total absence. Yes, there would be the occasional flare-ups, like when I flew the family down to San Diego last year because I wanted him to meet his grandchildren at least once in his life- and he didn't show up. 

But all in all, I've gotten to a place where being a dad has superseded having a dad in my emotional hierarchy- and yesterday was a good time of cementing that and saying good bye. 

I flew down early in the morning, got a rental car and after driving by the house I grew up in, drove to my aunt and uncle's. I bundled them in the car and we headed to the funeral home. 

This is the same place where I said goodbye to the grandparents who raised me- the same funeral home, the same chapel room, the same wooden stand their coffins sat on. 

The difference was, there were people there for both my grandfather and grandmother's funerals. Not so with this one. 

 No friends. No neighbors. No acquaintances... no family other than myself and his sister and brother-in-law who'd done the hard job of taking care of him for almost a decade now. 

Depressing, but not surprising. He cultivated no friendships, didn't seem to have spoken to his neighbors at all- he lived only for himself- his next meal, his next TV show, whatever...

So in the end, he got what he wanted. 

To be alone. 

After my aunt and uncle paid their respects, I sat with him for awhile, silently saying some things. Mostly just letting go. 

I realized as I looked at him in that box that I wasn't angry, I wasn't bitter... I wasn't even sad. 

I forgave him. I forgave him and prayed that God would too- that He would have mercy on my dad, even then knowing that my dad wouldn't want or take it if it was offered. That even in the end, he would choose what he always chose- himself. To be alone. 

But it was good closure- sitting there I realized my heart was light- not happy, but simply unburdened. Closure. 

We drove to the cemetery and re-enacted what we'd just done at the funeral home. The three of us sitting there, saying a few things about my dad- but what is there really to say? 

"Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.

After all, everyone dies— so the living should take this to heart."

I was exhausted  coming home and decided to upgrade out of cattle class to 1st class for the ride home. First time I'd ever done that... but very glad and thankful to have dinner, some space to stretch out and even this: 

When I got home, Jack and Jane ran and grabbed me shouting "Daddy, Daddy! We missed you!" 

Ahh... to be missed. 

My dad won't be. 

I hope to keep living and fathering so I will be.

Lesson for the day: Live so that someone shows up to say goodbye

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Recommendation: The Forgotten Ways Handbook

It's difficult to think of a more influential voice in the missional church movement at this than Alan Hirsch. Maybe his writing partner Mike Frost? 

Their books have not only defined the questions we need to be asking about church in our time and context but gone a long way towards providing the answers. 

The Forgotten Ways Handbook is a crucial piece of that. The original volume, The Forgotten Ways was an erudite discussion of the shape, structure and direction of missional church. The Handbook is a down-to-earth, practical guide to putting the ideas of missional church into action. Whether as an individual or a community, this resource will help you think through contextualizing the Gospel and shaping your life along the path of the missio dei, the mission of God in this world.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.