Shane Claiborne in Esquire?

Great article, great audience.

From the guy who brought you Blue Like Jazz

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Youth is fleeting

Wow! From woodstock to middle aged...what will my next 60ish years entail?

(taken from here)

Memories of my youth

When I was little my dad would visit me every Tuesday and take me, my brother & my sister to his house for dinner. For a solid year every Tuesday night we would pick up Little Caesars, "pizza pizza," and watch this:

Still Learning from Hume

God has used many books and people to shape me. One teacher who was influential in my spiritual development was a Hume Speaker, Mike Devries, who spoke at camp the first year I was youth pastor at OVCC. On Mike Devries blogsite, he quote's a friend's posting that I have already verbally shared with many, and that I have found tremendous in helping me to understand church.
In it, Peter Rollin's book, How (not) to Speak About God, is quoted, and I must confess, I started the book years ago, but was never able to finish it. After reading this excerpt, perhaps I'll add it to my summer reading and give it another go.


We Teach Others How to Treat Us
2009 June 8
by Rustin

I’m a fan of what Peter Rollins does with his Ikon ‘community’ in Belfast. This section (below) of a recent interview caught my attention.

I have seen too many people I love get upset at ‘the church’ because, after they withdrew from involvement and disappeared for weeks, ‘the church’ didn’t call them. I could write all day about the consumeristic assumptions behind those kinds of sentiments that I simply don’t share. But more simply, that view lets ourselves off the hook for building authentic relationships and puts all the accountability on others.

The fact is (rightly understood) we teach others how to treat us. We actively receive care and concern from others. We communicate that we aren’t interested in receiving concern and care when we don’t participate, don’t show up, don’t take responsibility, and don’t ourselves call to show concern about others. How others treat us is often an accurate reflection of our own commitment (or lack thereof) to the community.

Here’s Peter Rollins:

Paradoxically, I say, “Ikon doesn’t care about you. Ikon doesn’t give a crap if you are going through a divorce. The only person who cares is the person sitting beside you, and if that person doesn’t care, you’re stuffed.” People will say, “I left the church because they didn’t phone me when my dad died, and that was really hurtful.” But the problem is not that the church didn’t phone but that it promised to phone. I say, “Ikon ain’t ever gonna phone ya.” Pete Rollins might. But if he does, it will be as Pete Rollins and not as a representative of Ikon. Ikon will never notice if you don’t come. But if you’ve made a connection with the person sitting next to you, that person might.
Ikon is like the people who run a pub. It’s not their responsibility to help the patrons become friends. But they create a space in which people can actually encounter each other.

Jesus and Economics

While listening to Donald Miller's book, Searching for God Knows What, I came across the story of "Supply Side Jesus." When I got home I googled it, and found this video: (click here for the comic version)

Excerpt:

Shouldn't you feed the Lepers, Supply Side Jesus?

No Thomas. That would just make them Lazy.

Then shouldn't you at least heal them, Supply Side Jesus?

No, James. Leprosy is a matter of personal responsibility. If people knew I was healing lepers there would be no incentive to avoid leprosy.

Obviously there are political overtones here, but I still like the point, Jesus wouldn't be near as popular today as we would hope.

From the lips of a five-year-old

Sage:

Dear Jesus, please help all of the kids without mommies or daddies, and please help them to if they ever see a coyote to run and run and run, and not stop even if they get hot, and if they get to a house to knock and the door, and to tell the person, even if they are a stranger that they need to get away from a coyote. And please help kids that see mountain lions to go into the house. Amen.