Stewart 5

Today, I had lunch with a man that I had spoken with, but never actually met, until this morning.  I was asking his thoughts on leading our team, particularly on how I can better provide some of the care our staff needs.  You see, I’m a vision person.  That’s how God has wired me and it’s the greatest contribution I can make in our community.  But no one wants to follow someone that they aren’t sure cares for them.

“Be yourself.”  That’s all Hal told me.  The best thing you can do for your team is be yourself.  That doesn’t mean NOT loving and helping your team.  But they need you to be who you are meant to be.  And vice versa.

Is it really that simple?

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Continuing my never-ending reflection on quotes from Peter Rollins’ “How (Not) to Speak of God“…

Some people of our faith are dedicated to having answers.  The generally philosophy is, “If we can answer every question a person has, they will certainly see that what we are saying is true.”  This, of course, will then cause a person to believe what we are saying and decide to follow Jesus…

Undoubtedly, this approach has actually worked for someone somewhere.  Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many books and programs based on this approach.  And while I readily acknowledge that reason is definitely a way in which God speaks and people connect with God, I really wonder about how we encourage that.

Pete Rollins suggests, “the job of the Church is not to provide an answer…but rather to help encourage the religious question to arise….one of the roles of the Church is to provide a sacred space for this exploration” (p.40-41).  Well, that sort of changes everything.

Could it be that more people would come to faith if they were able to ask questions, even if we don’t have the answers?  Can we affirm questions and seeking, even if we don’t know ourselves?  This obviously assumes that we don’t have all the answers – something the modern church just can’t live with.

But I’m ok with it.  How about you? What do you think the Church would really look like if we were to encourage this?  I don’t mean philosophically (wouldn’t most of us think this is a good idea?)  I mean, any ideas or suggestions of practical ways to go about it?

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For the past little while, I have been faced with a strange dynamic – too many good things in my life!  I hope this doesn’t sound trite, and I definitely say this with an awareness that many/most people wish for ANYTHING good in their life.  But for a plethora of reasons, God has given me a full, abundant, joyful life.

And with so many things being well, I find myself most often needing to choose which good things I can receive, and which I have to say no to.  Example: I am currently working out my responsibilities and personal covenant commitments with my team here.  In making my list of things I want to do, I am realizing that there is too much.  Too many good things.  So, I am going to have to choose some and not others.  That’s a hard decision for me.

It would be easy if there were things I like, things I don’t enjoy, things I have to do.  But I am faced with a list of fantastic opportunities, and I can’t possibly do them all.  And so, I must sit with God and ask my friends for counsel.  I trust God has amazing things in store for me – His beloved – this year.  Can’t wait to see which pieces He is giving me to work with now.  I will keep you informed.

May He bless you with too many good things as well.  He wants to

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“Spiritual formation” is one of those oft’ used, but generally undefined terms. I can think about several different ways we in NieuCommunities use the idea. In the end, though people may differ on describing the process & goal, but wouldn’t you say the idea is, by definition “the process of being formed spiritually“?

So, yeah, I have lots on both the process and goal, but those are for another time. I really wanted to share a quote from Spiritual Direction, a book of Henri Nouwen’s thoughts and works published after his death. We are using it connected to our community’s Listening posture.

“Spiritual formation is the ever increasing capacity to live a spiritual life from the heart.”

What do you think? I know this isn’t a technical definition, but more of a picture. But isn’t it a great picture? Who wouldn’t want to grow in their capacity to live a spiritual life from the heart? I also like that it centers the idea in our heart, rather than the mind. Not to be dualistic, but rather to recognize that this is about inner transformatio

n, not just more info to make us better.

btw, I HIGHLY recommend this book

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so much for writing more blog posts….  friends, i’m sick.  going on a week.  if i don’t get better by Friday, i will see the doctor.  i think it’s due to exhaustion.  so, theoretically i should be able to rest and get better.  of course, rest means not doing so much – always a challenge for me.  and, exhaustion turned to sick may now have morphed into something that requires medicine…

in other news, i was going to get a tattoo today.  but, the roof collapsed at Ant’s house, so he had to attend to that and couldn’t come into work.  Rescheduled for the 26th – will keep you updated.

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(soccer tournament)

1. This serves as reminder that Egypt is part of Africa.  I think most people consider it “in the middle east.”  Hey, look at a map.  Egypt is on this continent, at the top.
2. Connected to this, most AFRICANS don’t think North Africans can play soccer well.  Hmmm.  Egypt won the 2006 AFCON.  Egypt has won more AFCON titles than any other country in the tournament’s history.  North African teams consistently win the African club team cups.  And yet, Egypt was not a favorite in this tournament?
3. Egypt is loaded with great players you have never heard of.  Some play in professionally in Germany.  Most play professionally in Egypt and Morocco.
4. Mohamed Zidan.  Watch this kid.  He created the winning goal tonight by outworking a veteran defender (Song from Cameroon).
5. They have an Egyptian coach.  Rare to find a coach these days who is from the same country as the national team they are coaching.
6. Egypt played some fantastic soccer throughout the tournament.  Definitely deserved to win.

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Clever Peter Rollins likes to play with words by writing words with slashes “/” in them, thereby giving double meanings. Anyway…

One of my favorite quotes from the whole book has to do with God’s transcendence. Rollins makes a fantastic argument that we generally misinterpret the concept. How many of you have learned/believe that God’s transcendence means He is other than us, different, even distant? This is often contrasted to God’s immanence = God is close, near, available. Rollins says:

“God ought to be understood as radically transcendent, not because God is somehow distant and remote from us, but precisely because God is immanent. In the same way that the sun blinds the one who looks directly at its light, so God’s incoming blinds our intellect” (24).

In other words, God’s transcendence is like the sun – massive, overpowering. In fact, it is too much to look at – we have to close our eyes or turn away from God’s blinding brilliance. Rollins calls this hypernymity: God gives “too much information” for us to handle.

So, transcendence doesn’t mean far away. In a weird way, it means “too close.” Rollins is essentially trying to redefine the seeming paradox between immanence and transcendence.

I like it. Try it out – face the sun, eyes closed. This is God. He is transcendent. But he is a flaming supernova who warms your skin and shows through the skin of your eyelids, no matter how tightly you shut your eyes.

He loves you.

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Wow.  I’ve now read several books I had hoped to comment on here.  So, let me go back to the first – How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins.  It’s been a while since I’ve finished, but let me post a few more comments on this book before I move on to the others I’ve been reading.

“While all of the Church has maintained that there is a revealed and hidden side of God, the difference here [the emerging conversation] is that we are rediscovering the Barthian insight that EVEN THE REVEALED SIDE OF GOD IS MYSTERIOUS.  The emerging Church is thus able to leave aside the need for clarity and open up the way for us to accept the fact that what is important is that we are embraced by the beloved rather than finding agreement concerning how we ought to understand the beloved (as if a baby can only really love her mother is she understands her)” – p.18.

Must we understand God to love God?  Or can we actually embrace the One who loves us in the dark?  God’s mystery, I think, may draw us into loving God all the more.

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