(e)mergent Voyageurs

Tomorrow morning, my wife & I will join hundreds of others to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Harry Lehotsky, friend, pastor and urban hero. Over the last few days since he died, I have been considering all the ways Harry has impacted my life and ministry. While I couldn’t recall in this post all that he has done for us, one aspect that has been most significant is his community/neighbourhood centre model for church ministry.

When I asked him how he would best define his approach to being a church in our West End area, he cited Dr. John M. Perkins’ book “Restoring At-Risk Communities: Doing It Together and Doing It Right”, specifically focusing on the three R’s of community renewal- Relocation, Redistribution and Reconciliation. Relocation calls people to live their lives in the communities they seek to impact (what the New Monasticism calls “Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire”). Redistribution is about the intentional investment of our lives, resources, skills, etc. into the community (including how and where you spend your money, where you work, etc.). Reconciliation is about loving your neighbours as Christ does, overcoming the barriers that divide us (race, religion, economics, etc.). While the model isn’t flawless, it has deeply shaped the way we live and serve.

Perhaps what I have most seen as a result is how deeply urban planning (or lack thereof) has impacted our ecclesiology, yet how often we fail to recognize it. Take, for example, the emergence of mega-stores, such as Walmart, allowing consumers to get all their shopping needs met in a single location. We think very little about commuting to these locations for the convenience and savings. In the same way, when we choose a church, we approach it with the same perspective- willing to travel outside of our neighbourhoods to connect with churches were we establish our a new network (or networks) of relationships.

While this could be challenged on these merits (and I believe it often should be), we need to look at how this ecclesiology impacts our communities. Winnipeg’s West End is a prime example. While it is known throughout Canada as an example of inner city problems, many experts of urban renewal see within it seeds of great potential, in large part due to its layout as a city within a city. Clear residential streets flank strips of small businesses, schools, hospitals and community centres. Sadly, our participation in the socio-economic shift (as seen in the Walmart trend) is contributing the demise of this potential as urban housing is abandon for the suburbs, businesses are boarded up, torn down or, at best, languishing, and where churches shut down, leaving the inner city behind.

I truly believe that the role of the church in the community formation and urban renewal is critical (one of the redemptive elements of the parish model), in fact, I believe it to be a sacred responsibility. Imagine communities within communities, where we live our lives, invest our resources and build our relationships. How much more authority will the Gospel hold to neighbours who see how much we care for them, their children, their neighbourhood? How much more accountable will we be to “practice what we preach” when our churches are within the very personal spheres in which our lives are rooted?

Further, what if our missional commitment would be to patronize, invest it and even create businesses in the community? In addition to being a source of income, it could provide jobs and create a third space for building relationships. This example of redistribution and relocation is daring and demanding, but an entirely achievable project, especially when done with the support of a truly missional church community working together.

Another example is the powerful impact of and the desperate need for public spaces, such as parks, community centres, drop in centres, public markets, etc. The development and creation of these areas, aligned strategically with a broader community/urban renewal, is so critical to our missional vocation as the Church. Urban specialist are increasingly seeing how significant these spaces are to the well being of communities. If your urban renewal centres around streets and traffic lights, you will see renewal in how much traffic moves and perhaps how efficiently it flows. However, by investing in those space most intimately connected to people and shared community, the renewal you will see will be reflected in revitalized neighbourhoods in so many respects. Further, no matter how important our government systems are, urban specialists also see community volunteerism to be THE critical element for making this shift. Who better than the church to lead that charge?

I have seen inner ciy communities across Canada, the US and throughout the world, and one thing remains true of all examples- there is a tragic lack of vital Christian community living within these neighbourhoods. This MUST change. I am not saying that life in rural communities or the suburbs is evil and must be abandon- by no means! However, without question and without apology, I believe that there are far too many Christians who are ignoring their responsibility to these communities. This will only be reconciled through people choosing to sacraficially embrace the three R’s- relocating, redistrubuing and reconciling on every level- and not just individuals and families, but entire local church communities! Imagine the possibilities!

I have only brushed the surface here, but these are some of the seeds planted by Harry, my friend and my hero. Harry is the best kind of hero was so real, so flawed, so frustratingly human. His example does not allow us to excuse ourselves from similar commitment and sacrafice, because he was a person just like you and me. The difference is found, not in his character, but in his obedience. I can only hope my own obedience can have a fraction of the impact that Harry’s has.

So, what do you say? Where do we go from here?

Emerging Church, Missional, Harry Lehotsky, Urban Renewal

As I was sorting through some books donated to our used book project, The Dusty Cover, I came across “From Beginning to End: The Rituals Of Our Lives” by Robert Fulghum.  Flipping through the book, I came across some basic ideas he puts forth about rituals:

The propositions

• To be human is to be religious
• To be religious is to be mindful
• To be mindful is to pay attention
• To pay attention is to sanctify existence

• Rituals are one way in which attention is paid.
• Rituals arise from the stages and ages of life.
• Rituals transform the ordinary into the holy.

• Rituals may be public, private, or secret.
• Rituals may be spontaneous or arranged.
• Rituals are in constant evolution and reformation.

• Rituals create sacred time.
• Sacred time is the dwelling place of the Eternal.
• Haste and ambition are the adversaries of sacred time.

Is this so?

This past week, Ellen, a member of our YWAM community returned to Winnipeg from a month long trip to Uganda. In addition to her desire to spend some time serving there, she went as a representative for our ministry to help set up contacts for our Discipleship Training School (DTS) outreach there. She was meant to travel with another staff member, but due to passport and visa challenges, she ended up going alone. She came back with some powerful and challenging stories.

I want to encourage you all to spend some time visiting her blog, where she has several posts written during and about her travels in that troubled, but beautiful country. You can scan through them at her blog, Fidgety Feet. However, I want to highlight a few posts. First, I want to feature her post entitled “Saddest Part is What Stops Being Sad After a While”. Here is an excerpt:

Everyone has a story.
Eventually the poor, the widows, the hungry aren’t enough to wrench your heart.
You need to loose limbs.
You need to have stepped on a land mine.
You need to be an orphan and suffering from AIDs, because there are so many orphans how will you stand out? Even in giving misquito nets to the orphans, they selected the most vunerable, needy orphans.
Living in an IDP [Internally Displaced People] camp isn’t enough, you need a sob story along with it.

This is risk of a faith that engages justice issue on a regular basis. You begin to grow callous to the suffering of humanity, and while we function at times with a necessary “triage” approach to meeting needs, we can too quickly dismiss “moderate” suffering in favour of “real” suffering. This is real challenge, both in our engagement with global issues, as well as those within our own communities, families and lives.

In another post entitled “What More, What Next, What is Left After This?”, Ellen shares:

The saddest statistic I heard the entire time I was in Gulu was 4. I heard numbers of orphans and widows reaching thousands. I heard amounts of displaced persons in percentagest of a million. I heard of the number of abducted children, of the years they spent in the rebel army. A decade in an IDP camp. The number of kilometeres walked.
What rips at my heart is 4.

Watching clothing distribution at an IDP camp with the ministry I was helping in Gulu I wondered what help we were by being there. We were just sitting around, just watching while others worked and distributed the donated clothing.
Why did these white people need to be here, making it seem like we were ‘do-gooders’, we hadn’t even donated these clothes.

Then a member of our group told me some information; he said a resident of the camp had told him they love it when visitors come to the camps during distribution time because they recieve 4 times as much.
Because unsupervised, the distributers often only give 1/4 of what they should be. Corruption within the NGO’s and ministries is a problem in the north. What hope is left if even the ministries and charities are taking advantage of these vunerable, oppressed people?

Here is a powerful and very real challenge- in the face of the global justice issues we seek to engage, we cannot blindly give money. Something more is needed, something that will personally invest our physical presence into the lives of the people we seek to love and serve. Ellen continues by affirming all the good that is happening, not wanting to paint a bleak picture or give anyone an excuse not to give. However, her honest requires us to look deeper at how we give, serve and relate to the people of the world, across the street and around the world.

Thanks Ellen.

As many of you know, our friend, neighbour and urban hero, Pastor Harry Lehotsky of New Life Ministries, has been battling cancer since earlier this year. This morning at 12:30am, Harry died peacefully. We are grieved at the loss of our friend, but celebrate his life, legacy and faith. Please pray for Virginia, Matthew, Brandon and Jared as they go through the challenges of the coming days, weeks and beyond. Also remember the many friends and family whose lives have been touched by Harry. Kim & I grieve the loss of our friend, to whom we owe so much.

Several years ago, while flipping through a fine art book at a bookstore, I came across the painting “Las Meninas” by the Spanish artist Velasquez. I pointed it out to a friend with me, who casually shrugged, saying that she had seen it before. As I had seen this painting during my visit to Spain, I was excited to learn that they had done so as well. Confused, she corrected me. She had never been to Spain, but had the picture in a poster shop, wedged between Sponge Bob and a scantily clad Pamela Anderson. Whether it is through t-shirts, posters or screen savers, popular culture has made some of the greatest works of art into pop icons and marketable fashion.

While we can enjoy art in many forms, with the internet an excellent way of opening a whole new world to us, please don’t forget to go an engage art first person. Check out your local museums. Plan your vacation near sites where art is available for viewing. Nothing can compare.

Having said that, here are a few paintings that have been important to me:

As my wife will tell you, I can be something of a packrat at times. I have odds and ends I have collected throughout my life. While she rolls her eyes and keeps me balanced, she tolerates this idiosyncrasy of mine. Last night, unable to sleep, I remembered something I had “tucked” away and forgotten about. Needless to say, I wouldn’t sleep until I found it.

This time, however, I did not need to dig through any closets, because what I was in search of were files on my computer. Having grown up in a family of writers, I was taught to keep everything I ever wrote, regardless of its quality. And so I did, some on paper, others as computer files. Sadly, many of those were stored on floppy discs that have long since corrupted beyond repair. Of dozens of files lost, a few survived. However, they were all in a format I could not convert, thus rendering them useless. Of course, I kept them anyway.

Ok, so back to last night- I got up and hunted through my files until I found the folder containing the files. On a whim, I decided to see if Open Office might be able to open them. Sure enough, it worked! As a result, I was able to read through some of my earliest writing. One short piece is a study of Erasmus that I wrote as a teenager for- well, I wrote it because I loved to write. It isn’t very good, but it is always interesting to get a glimpse of my younger self. Here are some excerpts:

All to often, Desiderius Erasmus is known by his one time comment: “I will put up with this church until I shall see it better.” It is unfair to judge a man by one comment, a comment which can be interpreted several ways. He was not saying he wants to establish a church separate from both the Catholic and the Protestant, nor does he want to choose one or the other. He is saying that he is waiting for a church which is as Christ intended…

And my favourite:

In my opinion, Desiderius Erasmus was a man who lived up to only half of his potential. Unable to grasp the fact that the church is the body of believers, he refused to abandon the prison of Catholic and papal control. If he could have seen that faith and obedience in God must come first and foremost, he may have made twice the difference than Luther or Calvin or any other reformer. Instead, he choose an uncomfortable compromise. As my grandfather always said, the man who straddles the fence gets a sore crouch.

The biggest find, however, was a full length fantasy novel I wrote when I was fifteen years old. While it wouldn’t merit publication, I am impressed that I was able to write something like that at that age. I even have the hand drawn maps of the world I created for the book. The most interest aspect of the book is how overtly “spiritual” I was in my writing. No one reading it would EVER mistake that it was written by a good Evangelical Christian. Alas, you live you learn.

Increasingly, the church in North America is beginning to see our need to develop and mature in our relationship to the First Nations/Native American peoples. Historically, the history of Christian missions to these diverse people groups has been that of oppression, subjugation and even genocide (be it cultural genocide or complicit in physical genocide). Over time, this improved, though still maintaining a paternalistic condescension, in part expressed in seeing them as a “mission field”, but rarely fellow Christians, bearing equal responsibility in our global missional vocation as the Church.

Over the last decade or so, YWAM in North America is increasingly becoming aware of the challenge of relating to the indigenous with integrity and care. One aspect of this has been the increasing awareness, development and use of traditional protocol as a means of relating missionally to different groups. In most indigenous cultures there are clear cultural customs and protocols that must be observed in order to respect the people, the elders and the chiefs of any given tribe. Whether this is done in a gift exchange, a traditional welcoming ceremony or some other practice, it seeks to honour the history, culture and authority structures in place. Of course, this requires careful humility, careful research and a redemptive integrity that is mindful of possible syncretism in our involvement. While I cannot go into too much detail here for the sake of space, let me ay that it can be a truly beautiful and humbling experience to be involved with such approaches.

Interestingly, those YWAM groups who most seem to be engaging with this model are either indigenous peoples themselves (such as my good friend from the Polynesian islands) or charismatic Evangelicals. The danger I have seen in this later group has been, at times, an infatuation with ceremonies (along with their interpreted spiritual understanding) that distract from the deeper roots and purposes for the protocols themselves. Increasing energy, time and resources are invested into these protocol events, seeking to involve indigenous leaders of “higher” authority (i.e. the National Chief of Canada’s Assembly Of First Nations). While these event can be important, meaningful and impactful, many of us who minister daily within First Nations communities are beginning to see some problems with this approach.

First, because we often begin and end with these ceremonies, we do not look deeper into the origins and define wordlviews that gave birth to the actual protocols. As a result, at times we unknowingly interpret these events as though they have some kind of “magical” power to them. These physical ceremonies, divorced from their traditional meanings, are largely empty, but when understood as sacramental icons of broader truths, they offer a great deal of wisdom and promise to both parties. Therefore, the event orientation of our Western culture can often attribute too much significance in a given scenario without integrating the meaning of that ceremony into our larger worldview and daily practice of missional living. It is too easy to get caught up in the drama and emotions of these ceremonies, while neglecting the incarnational expression of their meaning in our lives and communities.

Second, while First Nations culture is tribal, thus very hierarchal as a result, their understanding of leadership and hierarchy is uniquely shaped by their worldview, making it significantly different from our own, Western models of leadership and hierarchy. Therefore, in our attempt to practice these protocols with higher levels of impact, we seek out people of higher positional authority. Though these leaders are important, we often spend more time and energy into networking with leaders whose high position actually distances themselves from the very people we seek to connect to at the grassroots.

As I have been considering this, I recognized a parallel in the emerging/missional church’s exploration and engagement with ancient aspects of Christian faith. While it is significantly important to draw from the rich traditions throughout all of Christian history, we must have the wisdom and patience to explore and understand the roots of these practices, so as to allow them to have more than the emotional impact of a spiritual novelty. Further, we cannot deny or divorce our own cultural worldview entirely from our understanding, recognizing that our own biases can often distract us from the more significant aspects and relationships that we should be pursuing.

Finally, we need to recognize and be intentional that our pursuit of the beautiful diversity around us, be it cultural, denominational or historical, is not a selfish collection of self-serving Christian beliefs and practices. Rather than this shallow consumeristic approach to faith, our pursuit of diversity should be out of a genuine desire to understand and embrace as much of the fullness of God as we can, as seen in His Creation.

While the blogosphere has been abuzz with the Ted Haggard news (understandably), I have been surprised how little is being said about the judgment brought down in Saddam Hussein case.  For those who are unaware, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.  The verdict and sentence will be reviewed by the nine-judge appellate. The appeal court’s review has no time limit, but the earliest likely date that the execution might go forward is next Spring.

Few are surprised that Hussein has been found guilty.  For most of the world, that was not at issue. However, a great deal of speculation and fear centered around the nature of the sentencing.  With today’s death sentence, reactions worldwide are all over the map.  However, the speculation of wide spread violence in Iraq has not (yet) materialized.  There have been protests against the sentence, as well as celebrations.  Needless to say, it is an incredibly complex situation that is far from resolved.  It is going to get a lot more chaotic before it gets better.

Of course, the issue of the death penalty has begun to be raised, especially throughout Europe where it has been largely abolished. As Christians, this issue is not less controverial than for us it is in the arena of world politics.  While I will by no means settle the issue here (nor will I try), here a few thoughts that have crossed my mind.

First, as a Christian, the question is by no means an issue of what Hussein deserves.  Of course he deserves death.  If the wage of sin is death, he was working serious overtime.  That isn’t the real issue.  Further, it is not whether the death penalty is an absolute evil or not, as we have seen God allow for it in Biblical history (of course, some may argue this theologically, which is their right).

It should also be said that this is a decision for the Iraq people and their system of justice.  Sadly, that is a fairly convoluted situation in itself, but we do ned to keep that in mind.  Yes, when it comes to certain aspects of global justice and human rights, we must speak up regardless of nationality.  However, this must be one respectful of the nations and cultures in which each individul scenario plays out.

That being said, I am quite torn on the issue.  Given the dynamics of the previous paragraph, I am left wondering where I stand.  While I can acknowledge that, in the large scheme of things, there may be (or may have been) a place for the death penalty, I am less confident that in this day and age that it is a viable option, especially as we see it generally practiced.  I also cannot help but feel (and hope) that the transformational grace of God, especially incarnated in Jesus Christ, offers something more than what is deserved.  I honestly don’t know where I stand on this issue, but what I can say is that, right or wrong, the idea of Hussein’s execution deeply grieves me.

Strangely, the Scripture keeps coming to my heart and mind is Daniel chapter 4.  Take it for what it is worth.

As a Michelangelo devotee, I passionately consumed Irving Stone’s “The Agony & The Ecstasy” last year. Having enjoyed it so much, I picked up a copy of his other biographical novel, “Lust For Life”, retelling the life of Vincent Van Gogh. While I was passingly familiar with Van Gogh’s life and work, Stone presented the history in an accurate, but somewhat more positively interpreted presentation. What emerged was a man I came to deeply respect.

Without question, Vincent Van Gogh suffered from significant mental illness throughout his life, but in the sterile retelling of the details, we miss the passionate, visionary person that Van Gogh was. He found in the communist artist networks of Europe what he had been driven out of him by the church. At one point in his life, he was a committed, selfless and passionate minister of the Gospel. However, the church put an end to his ministry, declaring him a disgrace to the priesthood. He earned this by choosing to live life alongside the people he was called to minister to, the poor and exploited mining community of the Borinage.

In the end, despite the love the people had for him, it almost killed him. Why? Because society, the social and economic systems, created a world for these people that were impossible to truly live with. Even in his idealism, Vincent bought into many of the lies that attempted to placate people, including an emphasis on the afterlife to distract from the injustices of today. However, he did not do so from the lofty security of his “station”, but did so while sharing in the suffering of the people. And yet the church- a church that was complicit in sustaining the injustice (if only in its silence)- said HE was a disgrace?

We could learn many lessons from this great artist, not the least of which is that, even in the midst of our flawed understanding and theology, Truth can be made manifest when we are willing to follow Christ at any cost. Sadly, we will never know what might have been in the life of Vincent Van Gogh.

A few weeks ago, I posted on some missional wisdom that we could glean from Dr. Phil McGraw. While I meant the post to be in good fun (though still genuinely helpful), I haven’t been able to stop thinking about other parallels in those ever famous “Phil-isms”. Believe it or not, the most impacting book in my life that Dr. Phil wrote was “The Ultimate Weight Solution”, which not only helped me drop nearly 30 lbs, but helped me understand the dynamics my weight problem. As a further endorsement of the book, albeit a sad one for me, is that when I stopped following the very practical and achievable guidelines of the book (resulting in some weight gain), it was for the very reasons he pointed out.

At any rate, this post is not about personal health or weight lose. Rather, there is a lesson I learned on that journey that I believe has application for those of us in the Church. One of the biggest lessons I learned was learning to differentiate between body image and self image. Body image is your view of your body, both positive and negative- I’m too fat, I wish my nose was smaller, I love my ears, etc. Self image is how we perceive and value our whole selves- our identity. The problem is, in our culture, we have too often equated body image as self image. For example, I am fat, therefore unlovable (or the reverse, I am thin and gorgeous, therefore lovable and good). We need to learn to recognize that self image what is most important, as it reflects more truly who we are. This is not to say that we neglect body image, as it can sometimes teach us about ourselves, as well as shows us where we need to grow, heal and work.

We, the Church, are the Body of Christ. What, if anything, can we learn from this simple, yet profound understanding? Body Image is how we view ourselves, both in our own local expressions and larger or external expressions. We can see where we have blemishes, warts and weight gain- be it individualism, materialism or ethnocentricity. We cannot ignore these externals, as they are reflects of what is in our hearts, that which fragments us as a unified missional community of faith- ultimately sin. However, we need to remember an important lesson about Body Image: We are One Body, therefore it serves no one to critique those in other expressions or traditions within Christianity as though they are seperate from ourselves. Unless we are willing to declare others to be outside of the Body, our critique of them is a critique of ourselves.  This is not to say we shouldn’t critique/evaluate, but that we do so as an exercise of shared growth and maturity.

Perhaps the most important lessons we can learn we can glean from Self Image. As we are Christ’s Body, not our own, Self Image is drawn not from that which defines ourselves- our identities- but rather from the Person of Jesus Christ. This, I truly believe, is part of what it means to “die to self”- not the eradication of our own God-given individuality, but rather that we draw our deepest and truest shared identity as the Church from who Jesus is. As we do this, suddenly a hopeful eschatology is inevitable, humility in the face of our own human failure is not threatening, and grace is passionately embracive. And it is in the oneness of our His Self that calls us to the unity of the Body.

What are your thoughts? Any other lessons we can learn that I might have missed? Jump in!