Viva Mexico!

Been away from the game for some time... trying to recreate and recast this blog with some thoughts...we'll start here:

In a couple weeks Watermark will depart for Mexico for its third trip to the area as a church to build homes with what is really THEE house-building non-profit for the region-Baja Christian ministries...  During a recent drive down to San Diego I'm reminded of just how easily accessible a Mexico trip really is. It also makes me think of the disparities between our home here and that place that we drive down to for a weekend trip and its THIS that begs the question: do we take these trips lightly or for what they are: an intentional opportunity for new life and new worldview...?

What are those 'disparities' anyway? For me I recount images of dirt roads, tires, trash, re bar, pieces of plywood scraps laying about as you wind your way through tight corridors of what we'll call series after series of 'unengineered' roads (and obviously this is not all there is, but allow me to make a point.) Meanwhile, in our world's north of the border we have very basic things beginning with track housing, intersections, waste systems and all other manners of 'modernization' and, of course, ending with what my friend Gala Rodriguez once noted after a trip, "paved roads." Reflecting like this also makes me a recall what my associate and fellow youth pastor, Nicole Rowan (you can find her blog here: www.nicolerowan.com) has been banging on about since the new year, that is: being intentional…

On this trip to Mexico, like all the ones before, opportunities for intentionality abound… there is at least one simple and clear (one might even say obvious) way to be intentional and that's through what Powell and Clark (from the book "Sticky Faith") call the "before, during and after" approach of justice work. We need to have conversations, reflections and story sharing before during and after our journey south of the border-intentionally creating pause to make room for these things. Like the images that we saw, the people that we met, the relationships that we hope to continue to build and the partnerships that will hopefully last a lifetime (maybe also thoughtful conversations about the reasons why their homes, communities and country look the way they do).

However pause must be created in order to have those conversations, facilitate those conversations and be very intentional about using those conversations as takeaways for our lives and the faith journeys of travelers and lay people left behind. From teenagers to young adults to parents and families that go on this trip we all have an opportunity to have our faith and worldviews shaped by Missionary trips like these even though they seem like a quick trip below the border there are two completely different worlds that exist...
Let's not just go down for us (our individual experiences) let's go down  with intentionality-bring back the stories bring back these lessons...
After all we are not Tourists, we don't just go down there Willy nilly-to see some sites, we are missionaries even if it be short-term missionaries...
We have purpose, we have a plan, we have a map and we absolutely seek to believe that changing lives is our business...
If you're going on this trip don't shortchange yourself; you are a missionary you are going down to Mexico to do justice work-building homes and giving new life so take the time to be intentional... ...conversations before during and after the trip, share stories so that the rest of us can be mobilized to do the same work…

"Sacrilege:" A Book And A Way of Life

Here is a little something I wrote reflecting on the church we have attended since moving to Denver (the pastor of which is the author of this book-"Sacrilege").

Beware of a movement.
It's more of a group actually, a band of people moving about as would-be Christ apprentices and God-fearers.
Be aware of their way.
They are not like so many of the ones who came before them. In exchange for judgement and condemnation, you may just receive compassion and grace from this bunch.
This tight-knit band of peace-makers can also be rabble-rousers in that they suggest a way that is considered radical, revolutionary, subversive and very much in opposition to the status quo. This is part of my warning, they will see to it that your life gets jacked up with this radical nature, but they will actually hang with you and they will share in it.
They believe in communion and community and mission to be sure, however theirs is a communion that welcomes anybody to the table; theirs is a community that is intentional, vulnerable and honest about the hurt, brokenness and despair that we all share; theirs is a mission not to convert or die, not to judge, but to be received and to receive others right exactly where they are in the questioning and the pain and the discomfort that comes with the first two-communion and community.
Beware of this group for they will trick you.
They will invite you over, with no precondition, with no reservation, with no requisite and with no test to follow.
They will listen to you and they will think of you often, in fact, they will bring your claims before their daddy, their Abba.
They will receive you and all your stuff with a grace and a love that has not oft been witnessed before in any kind of community that you have known.
They will ask your forgiveness for the transgressions of their forefathers and the ones that have proclaimed the way before them.
They will serve you.
They will wash your feet... literally.
You see their trick is to show you love and acceptance and truth and guidance when the world would not.
They may not expect anything in return, this is their folly and it is what may be baffling to you so be aware.
All of this so that one day and perhaps time and again, someone will clothe them and lead them where they will not want to go...

This should give some insight into what kind of place Adullam is and what kind of content this book is filled with; its a different kind of place, a different posture of doing "church"-widely and radically different, in fact, from probably most churches. Adullam encourages giving money away to whatever religious or secular causes outside the church that members feel led to give to instead of filling its own coffers for buildings, staff and stuff; Adullam encourages its members to sometimes not come on Sundays, i.e. instead we are to fill the streets and break bread with the hungry as an alternative sort of Sabbath; Adullam encourages all people to come to the communion table on any given Sunday who are ready to acknowledge the mercy and grace that has once and for all been poured over them. These are the types of subversive claims that Adullam is laying claim to and they are the same shared in the book that is meant for all manner of Church leaders and small study groups alike; it is perfect material for these settings as it poses serious challenges to our status quo assumptions on the whole concept of "church." For the believer and non-believer alike, this book will clear the air on sanctimonious, pious, pharisaical religiosity once and for all as it suggests becoming more like the God-man who once walked the earth and radically (sacrilegiously) challenged the religious system and elite of his time.

For more on this material and this way of life you can Check this Sacrilege Video
For study questions and group stuff you can check in HERE
Or check this blog for the actual source himself...

When Life is Like a Movie

Coming home Thursday night after a fairly mild Saint Patrick's day bar shift, I had a made-for-t.v. (or movie) type moment. I was heading up the off-ramp at our Hampden exit and at this point of the freeway, the light rail perfectly parallels vehicles getting off the freeway. Sometimes, like this time at night, you will see the light rail connecting rod flash brightly against a connecting cable intersection and it sparks quite brilliantly almost like a firework or maybe even lightning...at least out of the corner of your eye-your periphery. This is what happened Thursday night and it caused me to look over and see that not only was I traveling at the same speed as the ongoing ligh trail but I was level with it and could see right in to the cabin with all the sleepy-eyed Saint Paty's day revelers; it was a moment. It was a brief and relatively inconsequential moment but a significant one nonetheless.

I've been telling random people for sometime now of a growing sentiment of mine that I believe that I sometimes think in the form of movies; I get movie nostalgia almost where in a moment of life I will think about a particular movie and even a specific scene and I will recall it with pretty great fondness and warmth. I don't know, I suppose that's just the impression that movies have made on my psyche, but this was one of those moments with the only exception that this time I did not recall a specific movie or movie moment; instead this time the scene was the moment-it was unraveling before my eyes. And I feel that sometimes that's what life can be: a fond, nostalgic possibly romantic moment if we just stop for a second; if we wait and listen and lean in and embrace that moment as if it were our last it can become something kind of special.

This last weekend was a bit of all this with family in town, we took the time to fellowship, to eat and walk and enjoy each other and it was truly blessed. It was a gift, it was a picture and for that I am very very grateful.