My church

I've been attending a gospel Catholic church in my neighborhood. I really enjoy the service, the music is great and the message often has some kind of tie-in or application to issues facing the area. Once the priest actually asked people to raise hands to attend a meeting on development affecting the neighborhood!

This week I met people for the first time--and got invited to join the young adult choir!

Here are some pictures from the church.

It's called St Teresa's of Avila. My mother especially liked the picture of the black Jesus above the altar.

Gracism: inclusion and love

I often write in someway inspired by a book I've read. It helps me summarize and think through the book.

This book I'm still thinking through, this may just be a way for me to remember key points to myself...so bear with me if it's therefore boring.

Gracism: the Art of Inclusion by Anderson
This book says what if we combined the terms grace and racism--we'd get gracism. When trying to combat racism in society, as Christians we bring the grace of Christ into a situation, looking to include the person who might otherwise be left out.

Sometimes this has to do with race--sometimes it's martial status (like when I'm the only single person at the IV christmas party....) or gender or some other factor that might leave an individual feeling left out in any given situation.

I was excited by the book's emphasis on how we can give people places of honor and concern in many situations--to me if parallels some of the themes of "Love is the Killer App"--saying that rather than erring on the side of giving/loving/sharing less we as Christ lovers should err on the side of giving/loving/sharing more, even when it's uncomfortable--and sometimes when it can be controversial. Choosing to operate on the abundancy, gracious side of God is something I'm learning to do daily.

Seven Sayings of a Gracist:
1. "Special Honor"--lifting up the humble among us. I will lift you up.
2. "Special Modesty"--protecting the most vulnerable among us from embarrassment. I will cover you.
3. "No special treatment"--refusing to accept special treatment if is is at the detriment of others who need it. I will share with you.
4. "Greater Honor"--God, as a gracist, has given greater honor to the humble. I will honor you. 5. "No division"--when the majority helps the minority and the stronger helps the weaker (gracism), it keeps us from division within the body (an opposite view than normal). I will stand with you.
6. "Equal Concern"--having a heart as big for our neighbors as we do for oursleves. I will consider you.
7. "Rejoices with it"--when the humble, or less honorable, are helped, we are to rejoice with them. (It's easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice). I will celebrate with you.

Some quotes I liked:
"wouldn't it be great if our natural reaction and impulse was to include rather than exclude?"

instead of an "us versus them" mentality--choosing an "us" mentality--us, we're in this together.

It's ok

This is a short thought.

But recently I've been thinking alot about how we phrase forgiveness.

Often we have a tendency to say to those around you "it's ok" or "don't worry about it"....hoping to forget the wrong.

Why don't we say "will you forgive me?" or "I forgive you" as the response. To me that seems to take much more commitment--it's a little riskier and scary to me to actually say the word forgiveness---it acknowledges that there was a sin, a wrong done.

When we go on just saying it's ok all the time we tend to start to forget that wrong has been done, that we do live in a world of sin where we wrong others all the time.

I'm going to try to challenge myself to use the language of sin and forgiveness more--willing to acknowledge the wrongs I do rather than just hope myself and others can forget about them.

Noon on Tuesday

I realize some of my reader-ship may be a bit scandelized by this post--but bear with me.

As I visited many of you in Texas I talked about how one of my greatest personal needs right now is friendship. And to some I probably related that I had by chance (and you know I don't believe in chance per-se) run into and befriended a member of my old 3rd grade elementary class from Princeton, NJ.
This friend is a a bartender in Eastern Market, a "hip" section of town that's actually close to where I live! We've begun to spend time together quite frequently.

I joke that with the hours in my job I need friends that are "free at noon on a Tuesday,"--only we odd-job types, the ministers and restaurant folk seem to fit the bill. Working nights and weekends can do a toll on your social life.
Little did I remember that this "noon on a Tuesday" is a friendly reference to a Sheryl Crow song "I just wanna have some Fun"--"We are drinking beer at noon on Tuesday," where she talks about watching the working folk wash their cars and do socially acceptable things while she and her friend sit by. I sometimes feel that way about the scheduling and off-nature of my life.

But back to this friend. I'm very thankful for having him in my life. I think we both can suffer from a little loneliness--so it's nice to have someone who lives close--and is likely free. Even this weekend, I went with one of my girlfriends from college to his bar Friday night--and this afternoon I skated at the Sculpture Garden where his second job is a rink guard.
Most of my friends live in suburban Virginia--this aftenoon I took all of 2 hours out to see him and back--whereas getting out to my other friends might take that time alone.

I've been thinking about this friend also in relation to my ministry at Georgetown. We encourage the students we spend time with to think about how they can share Jesus with their friends and love their friends who aren't Christians (some call it evangelism, touchy subject and I have a hard time articulating--so hope I don't offend with my language).

But at a leadership meeting on Saturday I asked each member of the team to think of one friend in their life who didn't know God--who they'd like to see know God. We did this exercise then called "Glimpses of the Gospel" where we thought about our friend, prayed for them and considered how God was already working in their lives---considering what kind of gospel values and pieces of Jesus we saw in them.
As the staff person, of course I participated and talked about my elementary school friend. I talked about his generosity and inclusivity--he's very friendly, of course and sharing as a bartender. He's befriended a local homeless man---who now I've met as well who comes in during happy hour. He listens to his stories and treats him with dignity and respect. Christ did that---he treated the poor as people worthy of love and consideration.
We finished by praying for each other's friends--and considering how we can continue to be praying for each other's friends.

It was exciting for me even today, skating around the Mall on a Sunday afternoon, watching my friend then attending someone who'd fallen and had a serious injury on the ice, to be able to pray for him and watch God work in his life. Pray for my friend!

Waiting to Live your Life?

I work with college students. College is supposed to be a time of learning and training--for our future careers right?

But what if we also looked at this time our lives as a time for living....not just preparing to live later? I think many people--over all of their lives fall into the "next thing" trap--I remember a poem I got from my high school senior year english teacher called "the odyssey" expressing this idea. It challenged us to not live waiting for life to come--the next job, when we had kids, when we took a vacation--because then life would pass us by! Such a simple concept--but how I see myself and those around me falling into this trap of living in the future.

It's similar to a parable in he bible--the one with the "talents" where a master leaves servants to care for his money--each receiving 1,5, and 10 talents. The one who receives one talent buries it--at least it will be there with the master gets back! The others take a risk and bring back multiples of what was given to them. I'd usually use this as an example of "blessed to be a blessing"--but I think it has some lessons about wasted potential.

I see the same thing often on Georgetown's campus. Some of the world's best and brightest come to spend four years there--for many, thinking they're preparing for a lifetime of service--service in health, in politics, in education. But a challenge I always want to pose to them--what about if they started trying to serve now? Not just wait until after graduation to think about serving the poor, or changing their spending habits. If they plan to one day be able to wake up and selflessly attend to the needs of those around them--in a slum, a hospital, or the political arena---what kind of practices are they developing now?

We all know we can't just one day wake up and be able to pray intimately to God for hours on end if we haven't been developing spiritual disciples of praying, reading our bibles and knowing God for time before that (hard example--know there could be exceptions!).

Similarly--if we want to be living as Christian people, loving the poor and lame--how are we doing loving our neighbor--in a dorm? a worker at the cafeteria? Our friend who is depressed? The needy are not always this "other" far away on the other side of the globe.

He who is faithful with the little will be faithful with the big.
Let's start practicing with the little bit in front of us now---rather than dreaming of the big that we will encounter "someday."

InterVarsity Staff Conference 2008

I just got back from a 5 day all-InterVarsity staff conference in St Louis Missouri.

There are about 1,200 people on InterVarsity staff--from people working at the national service center in Wisconsin, people working for InterVarsity press and people working at the more than 550 campuses where InterVarsity exists in the United States and Internationally with the ministry called LINK.

Every 3 years all InterVarsity staff gather for encouragement, prayer and teaching.

Some highlights:
-hearing again the history of InterVarsity as a movement, entering the US about 1940 until now where our ministry is at more US campuses than any other.
-hearing the "field intiatives" for 2004: growth, evangelism, leadership development, fund development, alumni, and multiethnicity. These 6 commitments are a good eye into the core values of InterVarsity.

-seminars on recapturing student-led ministry where the leader challenged us to think is our ministry more about seeing InterVarsity be programatically perfect or about being good stewards of the leadership development of our students?
He challenged us saying are you living as more: chapter program keeper-together?
loose end tier-upper?
Large group coordinator? Small group coordinator?
Fire fighter?
Keeper of the secret vision?
Or would we rather be: discipler, counselor, scripture teacher, shepherd, minister to campus, vision-caster, model to students for witness, leader builder, empowerer.
***In this model, our end goal is to strengthen churches, Christian communities and turn out graduates who know how to lead!

*Another Seminar on "recruiting male students" that went well with the seminar I went on experiential learning.
--A challenging question here: Is InterVarsity's understanding of the gospel big enough to love Alpha males? we talked alot about the alpha male personality, how to create space for and empower these natural leaders who can sometimes be arrogant and pushy.
--We also talked alot about visual and kinestetic learning styles and how men responded better to visual aides or getting up and doing something--especially in response to a message. This is something I want to be thinking about more!
--suggested taking any opportunity to create competition, make spirituality fun

Other things:
-getting to meet IV gurus on urban and international mission
-meeting someone who will be moving to DC to help expand our urban missions there next year
-the single staff gathering!--actually was done pretty well, basically mixer games.

Good time of renewal and refocusing.

Church Hunt

In earlier posts I've said that I've actually found two churches in DC--I split my time between two congregations--an gospel-style Catholic congregation in Anacostia and a non-denominational, contemporary congregation that meets in movie theaters near Georgetown University.

While this is true--when I'm back in Southlake at White's Chapel I'm struck with how not "mine" these churches--and the church I went to in college was.

Will I ever be able to really be involved in the community of a congregation like that again? Especially now that I'm in a ministerial occupation--I feel so stretched thin, especially when it comes to ability and free time to lead evening or weekend activities.

But being home, I think about how my family has really invested in the life of our home church--for one we've been going there since I was 10 years old--soon to be 13 years. We went to Sunday school, did Vacation bible school, I was an accolyte, I worked in the church nursery, was the receptionist for awhile, active in the youth group, mission trips, my mom teaches Sunday School, my dad's a communion server, my mom's in the choir, we usher and serve communion. While there are certainly more visible, involved families--a large portion of our life's energy goes into that place. Even when things happen there we don't like (as will happen in any church situation)--we don't leave, we commit to being part of the change.

But getting to that place took a lot of energy. Maybe it's because we were a family--my parents worked on a generally 9-5 schedule, making them available for weekend and evening functions. They didn't get this involved in a church until they started having kids--it's a place for kids to grow up in (that's a whole other blog topic on what we go to church expecting to "receive"--but for another day). But I don't want to be someone who doesn't commit to a church significantly until I have children--that could be over 10 years!

But I see myself caught in a difficult place--I want to know people at church. I want to have the time to do that first.

But also I want to know that I've chosen the place I want to settle down and commit to sticking through difficult times, being part of the change again. But now, when I go to two congregations--and really have no friends in either--it's difficult to think I'm in a great place ot start making those decisions.


But then given my job--working nights, being gone weekends and long school breaks--will this ever happen? It speaks to larger issues of having trouble getting involved really anywhere or making new friends or even getting to know my housemates.
-But really my job effects my choice in church in more than a scheduling dillema. This is where I'd start to take issue with someone who is so thoroughly convinced that InterVarsity is not a church--it is a gathering, a body of believers. And I am appointed to help shepherd this part of God's flock. Or something like that.

And beyond that I'm heavily involved in a community--the community of my house--and the larger network of DC area community homes. I see that really as my church congregation if anything--I have leadership and contribution there--but it's not a formal organization, there's not a weekly meeting in a specific building.

It's somewhat like a relationship--you have to commit and see it through. At this stage it looks like a lot of time and alot of work--and when I can see some of the later stages (my church in southlake)--it's hard to remember what the beginning was like....

But still I have trouble when pondering how this fits in with my parachurch job and community living?

Please comment! email! anything!

Sharing Stories

I'm back in Texas now, having ended my first semester as InterVarsity staff at Georgetown University.

Being at home so early in the holiday seasons, I've taken most of this past week to devote to visiting donors who helped get me "on the field" in DC.

I spend most of the day making candy and cookies to bring people people and then about 4:30pm set out in the car to visit people all around town!

It's been an awesome week--going around sharing stories of the semester.
I get to talk about the bible studies I'm a part of, how i've gotten to help out at the elementary school down the street, share the struggles of life transition, answer questions off of my blog or emails, have people pray for my spiritual development and ministry.

But actually my favorite part of the whole things has been hearing other people's stories.

I wonder sometimes if it's the title of my job as a "religious" profession that allows people the license to talk about God in a more explicit way than they would otherwise--some might say that's just the holy spirit working, opening up two people to hear his presence period.

But regardless, many people I visit take the time to tell me about how God's been impacting their live this year--how they've seen changes in their family, felt God move in dreams, been impacted by encounters in their neighborhood. I've heard about all kinds of mission work as well--an orphanage built in Cambodia, family mission trips to a racially divided town in the deep South.
I sit back sometimes and think that people might look at these visits and think--wait, weren't you supposed to get a "report"--almost financial accountability of what's been going on in the ministry all semester? Sure, I get a chance to do that some--but what really interests me is seeing how God's impacting the lives of people here in Dallas just as much as people in Washington DC.

They say it to us over and over again in InterVarsity training "fundraising is ministry....fundraising is ministry." Sounds like they're right.

Since I last wrote

Since I last posted, I've done some traveling and made it back to Texas.

My last weekend in DC we had a Georgetown visioning retreat for InterVarsity.
The students looked at a lot of materials, prayed, and found a vision they would get behind for the coming semester. Current goals/vision includes focusing on prayer, increasing student involvment and leadership, and inviting more friends to fellowship events.
It was a very successful day and it is exciting to see them all be happy and energetic about this vision!

After that, I went to a WM alums party at Tom and Sara's apartment, great to reconnect with that crowd!

Sunday after church at St. Theresa's, my local Catholic parish (where the priest is on the board of Sojourners!), I got an interesting visit from some friends of the Catholic volunteers down the street. I classified them as "Christian anarcists"--because of all their anti-politics talk. They want to start a Catholic worker house that serves more as spiritual renewal for those people out "serving in the field" more.

Monday through Wednesday of last week I went to another installment of New Staff Training--this time on New Student populations. We talked about how to expand our InterVarsity chapters to include different kinds of students than we've included in the past.
My coworker and I focused on Catholic students and athletes.
My favorite exercise we talked about looking for "glimpses of the gospel" in the cultures and actions of our student populations. For instance, when talking about trying to include GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) students in our fellowships--one staff person talked about admiring the group's willingness to be unashamed in their identity. This is something we would want Christian students to feel more about claiming their faith.

Thursday we had a spring break bible study planning meeting at our house, talking about several sections from Luke.
I left early to volunteer at International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org)'s annual benefit banquet. I got to bring 7 students and friends alongside me. During my time at William and Mary I was heavily involved in a campus chapter of IJM. It was a lot of fun to connect students to some of the people working for IJM and other justice-related careers. One of my students had never heard of IJM before! That was a lot of fun to see her discover it for the first time.


Friday was my last day on campus. Friday evening we had our staff Christmas party.

Early Saturday morning I flew back home to Texas.

Being home has been great.......
Got to attend Nikki's graduation and post-parties.
Lots of time to bake, visit donors and get moderate amounts of sleep. I've found some free-week offerings at local gyms I'm enjoying.

I'm also starting a 4-week "back from college" bible study with students from my home church. This past sunday's first study was well attended and people really enjoyed talking about Jonah 1 and whether they were running from God. Great time!

A December Visit

I got to pop down to William and Mary for a whirlwind 36 hour visit this week.

When I work everyday of both last weekend and this one--well I decided it was ok to take my "weekend" in the middle of the week.
Beating the snow, I got down late Tuesday night.

With so many people at school, I feel like each visit I get to see either people I didn't see the time before or people I haven't visited yet all semester.
This time I got in the first professor visits all semester.

I also got to attend the alternative gift fair--one of my favorite things I got to particate with during my time at school.

Overallgood visit.

Each time helps me take a step back and realize what's going on at Georgetown IV by contrast....and how God's moving in my own life and heart. How much I'm changing--and both how similar and different college students can be from one place to the next.

Circle of Hope

While visiting Philadelphia, I visited this church Circle of Hope. http://www.circleofhope.net/blog/

I'd heard of the church through New Monastic connections--it's a church many of the "simples" in the philadelphia area attend and a favorite in "Emergent" church circles as well.

Definitely an interesting, alternative service.

The music was generally hymn-based--though some songs were in other languages--something, when I sit back, I realize I've never seen done much in a church context. (FYI: It is an InterVarsity value that in order to express and understand God's love for people of "all cultures" that we embrace multicultural worship that honors that God is God of the whole earth and all its people).

Besides that though it gave the guise of a regular contemporary-type service that--sometimes painstakingly attempts to do.

However--there was no "talk" or sermon. I found this really refreshing.

Instead someone--who must've been a leader stood up and talked about how she was going to answer a question from the "question box," probably something they had at the back of the church.
The question was "Is it easier for "N" people to come to faith than "S" people?" This was referencing the Myer's Brigg's type indicator--N people, intuitive versus S, sensing refers to how we take in information. Usually we are dominate one or the other--or on some kind of continuum. N people are more drawn to theories, overarching ideas and connections where as S people are more drawn to concrete facts and details....or something like that.

She said the question had an assumption within it that faith was something intangible and whimsical--that only those who live in the world of theory would be able to grasp it.
She said that yes, we do often choose though how we relate to God, whether dominating in the S or N territory of our spiritual lives.

Following this we did two prayer exercises---one that allowed us to use our S side, another that allowed us to use our N side.
For the S side we prayed, considering everything that had taken place that day--thinking about when we'd felt most/least loved, grateful.
For the N side we prayed, the leader read a passage from Matthew 6 3 times through, we concentrated first on a word, then a feeling, then an invitation.

After this there was a time to "talk back"--and much to my surprise (I've seen the audience participation thing attempted many times in church with no response)--people really responded, questioned her logic and arguments. How exciting! It was great to see people so engaged with the subject!

This was a great church example to see and pushes me to continue to be very thoughtul about my own church placement--not just settling but really searching out the place God wants me to be.

Thanksgiving Break

It's been awhile since I've done a general life update kind of blog entry.
Here's one.

Thanksgiving break was great. Tuesday evening I left campus earlier than any Tuesday this semester (our usual large group night has me at campus until almost 10:30/11 most weeks). I met up with a friend from elementary school who's now a bartender at the only mexican food happy hour joint near my end of DC. There I got to meet some great characters--a homeless man who sells the paper made by homeless of DC, the blind jazz singer Banana Cafe hires).

Next I got to spend the evening with a great Texas friend Nikki and her boyfriend. Along with her brother who I hadn't seen in at least a year! I'd heard about her boyfriend for a long time before and it was great to meet someone who exceeded expecations and thoughts I'd had before about him. Really great!

After spending the night at Nikki's UT housing spot, I took the train up to Philadelphia where WM roommate Janelle picked me up. We spent the afternoon hanging around Camden, NJ looking around her ministry with Urban Promise. I got to meet the old regional director of Mid Atlantic InterVarsity, dedicated administrative staff and talk to other interns--including one from Malawi!

Janelle and I took a longer-than usual (busyest travel day of the year!) trip up the NJ turnpike to her home in Little Falls, New Jersey.

While in Little Falls, we got to go into New York for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (a 2nd for me--but this time 60 degrees outside! great day!). We went to a close family friend's 25th wedding anniversy celebration which was a wonderful celebration of family and loving life together. We also spent an afternoon with Rebecca, a girl who'd been in the small group Janelle and I co-lead for all 3 years we lead it.
Just spending time with Janelle's family was great--good to see where she gets much of herself from--from her sarcasm to attention to detail and the needs of others. Hospitality is something she's learned from those closest to her.

I ended off getting dropped off by Janelle in Philadelphia for a short visit with a couple of friends there.
My friend Sean is investment banking in the city center, it's great to experience city life with him! I also got to see my friend Evan from college who's doing Americorp's "City Year" program in Philadelphia this year. They begin each day doing cheers and jumping jacks outside the city hall area of town. A lot of fun to see him enjoying this position so much and embracing the multifaceted sides of this city!

Great break!

Communicating Values

Lately I've been thinking alot about my time spent with students.

Much of my time as "campus staff" for InterVarsity is spent one-on-one with students, essentially talking. Talking, eating, listening, drinking coffee.

So either I have a very vibrant social life (which I wouldn't totally deny on some days)--or there's something else going on there--something a little deeper and possibly more spiritual than just hanging out.

But what is it? What exactly is my goal in this "relational" discipleship process?

Goal 1: build a relationship. Before any person--college student or not is going to share intimately of their personal life or spiritual being--the person inquiring needs to show genuine interest in them as a person. Interest in what their passions are, their past, their friends, their desires. There's a prerequisite of simply taking the time to listen to someone and befriend them.

But once it goes beyond this--often the waters become murky. With some wise guidance I've begun to think about the kinds of values I am imparting to others. Essentially thinking of these times with students as potential one-on-one teaching opportunities.
But what am I teaching?
I think we all teach lessons we don't always think too deeply about. I know in the past I've show people who've respected me in similar form to students now the importance of worrying about academics or obssessing about relationships, fearing the future, etc. Of course these weren't the lessons I really wanted to teach or communicate--but by talking about these things constantly--I showed what really mattered to me in life.

So this process is two-fold. One, searching, praying and seeking for what I really do value when it comes to the Christian life. Is grace something that I see as essential? I say it is. But do I live that way? Do I teach that? So discovering what values I find essential to a healthy Christian walk.

Then discovering ways to communicate these values to others. Probably this takes many formats--reading books related to the subjects (books about grace, social justice, whatever I know to be truly important), praying for growth in those areas, Asking students questions about these values--and learning to talk about what God's teaching me on each.

Maybe first I should choose a few values.....or even just one thing I'd hope students who spend time with me even after a semester would walk away having learned about being in relationship with God.

What's important to know/exercise as a Christian? open to thoughts and suggestions......

Commitment

Our community House came together this weekend and put down some of our commitments to one another.

When we moved in almost 3-4 months ago now we all came in not knowing each other before. Each of us had different expectations and hopes about what living in Anacostia and together in an "intentional community" might look like.

Over time, it's been difficult to realize that we did have differing ideas.

To start to resolve this, in the tradition of monastic communities we began to formulate a rule of life. First this was going to be a rule of life that we created together. However, over time, it's appeared that before creating one together we should each sit back and pray to consider what we could commit to personally.

We each came to our community meeting Sunday bringing a list of the commitments we were making to ourselves, to God, to others in the community house and to the neighborhood.
Over our time sharing, some themes began to emerge. Our common rule of life and vision statements will likely come from the result of this.

Major values
A. Seeking to be students of the city & of poverty
1. Regularly discussing and educating ourselves about issues facing the city, our neighbors and those living in poverty.
2. prayer walking around the neighborhood
3. volunteering in organizations that help the city
4. church involvement
5. civic involvement
B. Being Good Neighbors especially our immediately surrounding neighbors
1. Regularly speaking to our neighbors, inviting them over when appropriate, asking about their lives and sharing about ours
2. Involvement at the local elementary school
3. Financial and business investment in the area: shopping at the local grocery, using the library
4. Caring for those who care for the area: building relationships with people who serve in full-time volunteer status in the neighborhood, Simple House volunteers who care for housing projects in the area or friends who work for after school programs or as teachers.
C. Bridge Building
1. Thursday night dinners where we invite friends from other parts of the DC area to our house
2. Area college student involvement in our house and neighborhood
3. Sharing what we're learning in the area with each other and friends
4. Valuing our outside of community relationships
5. bridging the economic and racial divisions in the city
D. Community Life and Intentional Spiritual Formation
1. Active involvement in each other's lifes
2. Being present at home together
3. Commual living-sharing our finances and property with each other
4. Daily morning prayer together
5. Sunday community nights: we eat, pray, share and study together
6. Daily personal devotional time, keeping that seprate and valued
7. Regular Sabbath-keeping by members
8. Submission of personal concerns to the community

Theology of Abundance versus Theology of Scarcity

I've had this idea floating around in my head for weeks now.

I'm thinking about this idea that God is a God who gives richly, his gifts are abundant....more than we could ever ask or imagine.

However, we as people often get stuck in a scaricity mentality. Either we think we must hoard what we have or we start to believe in a world of competition rather than abundance.

Let me throw out an example. My home church.

My home church White's Chapel UMC in Southlake Texas is a large, hometown congregation. A few years ago another large church planted in town. I'm sure at the time many people were worried that the new church would "steal" all of our members.

But with a couple of years under out belts now--this has not happened at all. Both churches....I believe...have grown. Each have several thousand members.

God is a God of abundance. When we think there's a limited pool to draw from--God shows he si God of the whole universe, not just our plot of people.

With a theology of scarcity there is a belief that there is a finite level of resources and that if someone else gets some of those resources, than it means I have less. Everything is always a zero-sum game. This creates attitudes which allow us to justify accumulation and acquisition as a means of ensuring that we have enough. It also has led to believe that God rewards us for faith by blessing us with wealth and things.


In the economy of God everyone has all that they need, there is enough always to go around.

It is a theology of Abundance, which believes that God has given us all that we need. We are called to share all that we have in order to ensure that all have a share in God's Blessings. In the theology of the abundance we are called to recognize our unique blessings from God and find ways to give back that call us in to relationship with our brothers and sisters. In Matthew 25 we are told that whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me. It is clear that Christ calls us to a radical way of relating to the world through our time talents and treasures. We are clearly called to go beyond the law to a deeper sense of giving.

When we know that God gives richly, we want to give richly to others as well.
It's about trusting that when we give God will provide for us in big, more than sufficient type of ways.

look up the concept: theology of abundance versus theology of scarcity.
I'm not sure I've done it great justice here.


But I know I'm constantly finding myself falling into a theology of scarcity that's allowing me to see other ministries, people, charities as competition--and I know that's problematic!

Free School Breakfast

About three weeks ago I started monitoring the breakfast period at the elementary school down the street--Orr Elementary (about a block away).

Most of the kids in the school get free breakfast every morning as part of the free lunch program by the federal government.
During that time period each day the teachers are going through professional development. So the only people monitoring the 200-300 kids from age 3-11 are a few aides. Most disciplinary action includes a lot of yelling, blowing of whistles, etc. Not a lot of positive reinforcement going around--but also the scene is wild--imagine even just a few kids chasing each other in a small room....chaos ensues.

One of my roommates--another IV staff at George Washington University takes a couple of students down to the school to volunteer one day a week. When they were getting to know the principal they asked if there were other volunteer needs. She spoke about how crazy the kids get during breakfast. And how much she would rather have the breakfast be a time for reading quietly rather than crazy running around/getting in trouble before the day even starts.....

So enter me--I can be free from 8am-8:45am most every morning. So at first I committed to two days a week. But starting this week I've been going more often because I really enjoy it.


So several incentives here......
A. We've had trouble getting to know kids in the neighborhood--our street has only older people on it. Elementary schools are local--so all these kids live near here. I've started to see them walking by on the street, they wave, etc.
B. Short time period--I'm not super into kids....but 45 minutes is a great amount of time. lots of activity, smiles, hugs.....and they're on their way.

So overall it's been a great experience, getting to know the kids, the school, the teachers (one's Teach for America program, a girl we're trying to get to know). At first I felt like the kids were stand offish. But by now a few weeks later.....they run up to me, I'm internalizing more names every day and I'm beginning to see them around the neighborhood too.

Weighty Matters

I will be vague here. But just bear with me.

There are times--well often many times in any given day when I realize I need to be so much more a person of prayer than I am. Sometimes it's when I have an awkward conversation with a student, when I reaize that I'm just breezing by people on campus, not thinking about how their expressions really look.
But it also happens when I start to go into deeper relationship with people--that's when I remember I am not here to hang out, shoot the breeze, make friends.......I'm here to help students see God working amongst their lives. Someone shares something personal--or starts asking me really hard questions about how God intersects with life here. And--wow! I'm caught off gaurd. Time to start taking it seriously and remember what kind of responsibility comes with the opportunity sometimes to literally steward people's spiritual lives.

Georgetown Halloween

I just spent a lovely night exploring Georgetown University and neighborhood on Halloween!

Exicting because there are a lot of things that go on here for Halloween--a special showing of the Exorcist (filmed in the area) and mobs of people walking "M" street in costume.

And I even got to spend the night on campus---awesome and fun!

Jim Meets Leadership Theory

The character "Jim" from the Office: who is he? how does he fit in with Leadership models and culture, where are Christian fellowships missing students like him?

OK. So in August a fellow InterVarsity staff said that many students now want to be like the character Jim from the office--Jim isn't the boss, he doesn't make too many waves, he's an opinion leader and a generally funny and likeable guy. However is Jim a leader? What would need to change to empower Jim to be a leader?

This contrasts with another form of leadership, a more traditonal leadership model when in (at least dominant culture)....leaders are those who take risks in public, speak for groups, have a lot of self-initiative and change the direction of a group. That's probably an incomplete model....but in contrast to Jim, a way of seeing leaders as those who continue to "stick their neck out" and put themselves away from the crowd.

I believe many first year students are somewhat like Jim. When I visited last week at William and Mary several students talked about lacking the general motivation to overly involved in much of anything on campus---not only Christian organizations but also fun events or seemingly-interesting sounding campus lectures. They hear about them, they sound good---but then somehow they lacks the motivation. It seems much better to hang around where you are known, loved and well respected among dorm friends.

I think we all have times where we're like the character Jim. Many of my friends in college were like this. They valued time with one another over most everything else--organizational involvment, grades, "outside" relationships. I think this was a good lesson for me in commitment. Probably the Jims of the world--as I stretch the metaphor to oblivion--are very good husbands, fathers, friends?

This must be clarified---to be like Jim is not bad!!! The character of Jim represents a different kind of student, thus who will be a different kind of leader.

But what do we do with this person? InterVarsity and similar organizations have a strong focus on leadership development. But really--when we sit back and think critically about this type of leadership development--it's under the guise that almost anyone can be a leader.

So what kind of leader is the character Jim? Not just how he acts currently---but how could he be grown and molded into a more effective leader? Not one that would look like the boss of the group who was constantly sticking his neck out looking like a fool--but a leader that would be more true to Jim's personality? How do organizations first get someone like Jim involved (remember, he'd rather spend time with those he knows, trusts, cares for)...and retain his membership. What programming and focus makes him interested?


Where's the intersection here though? A friend of mine is doing a study on leadership development, in particular including a case study on a christian leadership conference. The theorized that maybe we have it all messed up--Christians go to leadership conferences really for reasons of personal development rather than for leadership skills. It makes them feel good--but also just focuses on making us all better individuals, more self-aware. It's all about the cultural fascination with the idea of the "self."

So we have: Jim....then traditional enterprenurial leader.
---are these a false dichotomy?
---two different people?
---part of a development continuum?
---do we culturally value or assert one over the other? In different situations?

Does Jim represent the "Bowling Alone" (famous book written recently) theory that Americans now would rather write a check to charity than participate in a bowling league?


SOOOO if everyone can be a leader....what kind of leader will Jim become?

A Prayer Place: Fall Conference 2007

I just came back from our InterVarsity Fall Conference. We had about 150 students from various DC schools come together in the colorful hills of Virginia to hear a speaker talk about Christian living--yes, it sounds broad, but it was about that broad. But not to say that was bad--he just did a really great job of hitting all fascets of Christian life--personal, justice, DC issues, school work, relationships. He spoke for each of four sessions on different Biblical people--Daniel, Ester, Ezra, and Ezekiel.

I got a little push feeling from God a few weeks ago to contribute something to the weekend. Each InterVarsity staff person from the area attends the conference and between us we do a lot of the "putting together" of the details--one person volunteers to put on the coffee, another volunteers to gather books to sell, another organizes the worship team. As the new person, I didn't volunteer for anything.

But I felt like God was wanting me to put together a "prayer room" for the weekend. I've been really blessed by prayer rooms before both at the Urbana missions conference and Orientation for new staff put on by InterVarsity. In a prayer room--well mostly it's set aside as a guaranteed quiet place to meet God. Others have gone before and prayed a lot in the room.

However, it's also a place to set aside some other forms of prayer. I gathered pillows, blankets, art supplies and candles from several staff members for this portion. The candles allowed students to light a reminder of God--or several reminders of God even. Pillows and blankets allowed students to literally "rest" with God if necessary. I also gathered art supplies. Students could write out verses, make a clay model, or create a piece of art to God. Several wrote out bible verses or prayer--complete with visual reprentations. Crosses, crowns, birds, fires, hands, hearts.

We also put up some poster boards--one with "God is" and space to add on the names of God. One with Psalm 100 and space to add things we were thankful for. Another with a generic prayer request and space to add on post-it note names and places.


Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome. Many students--especially those who were less familiar with the idea of a "quiet time" or prayer I think really found sollace in the ability to "do" prayer rather than have their mind wander or sit confused. I hope to be able to put something like it together again.