(e)mergent Voyageurs

While I have thus far focused on officially canonized saints, I also want to focus on other people worthy of our examination. To that end I want to introduce you to someone whose life and writings have deeply impacted my life and continue to do so: Dorothy Day. The cause for her canonization was opened in 2000, but it is not likely to happen any time soon, nor, given the quote above, would Day have been much interested in the honour.

Though born in Brooklyn in 1897, Dorothy Day was raised in Chicago, returning to New York years later to begin her career as a journalist, with an emphasis on issue of social justice issues such as poverty, suffragism and workers rights. A believer in free love, she had a series of lovers, one from which she became pregnant. After an illegal abortion, she attempted a marraige (in fact, she had two common law relationships), but given her bohemian lifestyle, it barely lasted a year.

In 1926 Day became pregnant again by her atheist companion. Determining to keep the child, the pregnancy and birth of her daughter Tamar began a spiritual awakening in Dorothy that was inaugurated by her decision to baptize the child Catholic. Deciding that she too wanted to convert, she ended her relationship with the child’s father and was also baptized.

Dorothy’s life was forever changed in 1933 when she met Peter Maurin, a Frenchman who was filled with revolutionary ideas that he wrote and preached with passion, practicing generosity, poverty and hospitality. Together they formed the Catholic Worker newspaper dedicated to be a pacifist voice for the marginalized in a war-torn time. Within three years, it had a circulation of more than 150,000. Charging only a penny per issue, the paper drew people into a community around them.

From this growing “family” they formed a “house of hospitality” to feed, house and care for the poor of the New York slums, sharing what little they had. Soon they added a number of farms where the poor could live together in community, working the land and sharing the fruits of their labour with the urban houses. This pattern repeated itself throughout the US, Canada and the UK.

Day and the other Catholic Workers distinguished themselves as selfless champions for the marginalized, fearless and outspoken activists and an all too common thorn to the establishment, be it government or church. While clearly left in much of her politics and activism, she remained a faithful and “conservative” servant of the church. Often called the “grand old lady of pacism”, Dorothy Day died on November 29, 1980 at the age of 83.

It is my hope that you will take the time to learn more about Dorothy Day and her extraordinary life. I warn you, though, that her example and her words will leave little room to excuse our mediocrity in service to Christ. I hope my life will reflect just a fraction of her selflessness and love.

Dorothy Day Quotes:

I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

It is easier to have faith that God will support each House of Hospitality and Farming Commune and supply our needs in the way of food and money to pay bills, than it is to keep a strong, hearty, living faith in each individual around us – to see Christ in him.

The bridge – it seems to me – is love and the compassion (the suffering together) which goes with all love. Which means the folly of the Cross, since Christ loved men even to that folly of failure.

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart.

There is plenty to do, for each one of us, working on our own hearts, changing our own attitudes, in our own neighborhoods.

Together with the Works of Mercy, feeding, clothing and sheltering our brothers, we must indoctrinate.

Tradition! We scarcely know the word anymore. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them. We scorn nobility in name and in fact. We cling to a bourgeois mediocrity which would make it appear we are all Americans, made in the image and likeness of George Washington.

We are the nation the most powerful, the most armed and we are supplying arms and money to the rest of the world where we are not ourselves fighting. We are eating while there is famine in the world.

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.

Other Resources:

-Film – “Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story”
-”The Long Loneliness” by Dorothy Day – Amazon
-The Catholic Worker Movement

Missional, Saints

Previous Post – Blood On Our Hands: A Missional Challenge

I just received the following sad email from Ashley Gieschen:

Dear friends,

Bob Webber died Friday at 6:10 PM (Eastern time) in his wife, Joanne’s arms, after his 8 month battle with pancreatic cancer.

A public memorial service in the Chicago-area is being planned, details will be posted on Northern Seminary’s website: www.seminary.edu.

Please keep Joanne and the family in your prayers.

“Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world; in the name of God the Father Almighty who created you; in the name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you; in the name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. May your rest be this day in peace, and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God. Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Bob. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.”

We love you, Bob. Go in the peace and joy of the Lord.

Robert Webber was a brother in Christ that has given incredible gifts to the Church in so many ways. His impact for the Kingdom will outlive us all.

Robert Webber, Missional

For those who enjoy my Friday Art Reflections, I apologize for (again) skipping it. However, recent events in our neighbourhood take precident. Last night, local police descended on our block like we rarely see. As I stepped out on the front steps to see what was going on, I realized they were stopping only 100 meters or so from our house. Before long a crowd gathered along the police tap that had closed down the street, so I wandered up to find out what was going on.

It turns out that a 20 year old man, who I have since learned is a local gang member, was shot on the sidewalk near a busy cross street. I later learned that the young man was in stable condition, but was refusing the cooperate with police. That last bit of information made my heart drop- a refusal to cooperate generally means retaliations. Seeing the cautious tension of the neighbourhood today, it seems the rest of the community is fearing the same.

Over the last year we have seen gang activity in our community (Winnipeg’s West End) increase. Typically gangs function between two major areas in our city- the West End and the North End- migrating back and forth depending on police activities, “business”, etc. When we first moved here five years ago, they were firmly in our neighbourhood (in fact, our house had been one of the city’s worst gang houses prior to being abandon and restored). However, after a year or so, we saw the shift towards the North End. It seems the tide is turning again.

While I am grateful that Canadian cities have been able to keep a (relatively) firm hand on the number of guns that hit the street- usually resulting in a much higher rate of stabbings and beatings than shootings- we are not sure this will last for much longer. Poverty, racism, and substance abuse are just a few of the major contributors to gang violence. However, even the simple increase in male illiteracy can be tracked along side petty and then violent crime. As a result, fewer people choose to live here (with many locals fleeing), businesses dry up and, sadly, churches disappear or become bunkers.

There are a few note worthy exceptions to this urban church abandonment, such as the incredible commitment of New Life Ministries, but I fear our response to this crisis is the very antithesis of what Christ calls us- commands us to be. Being missional quickly loses its “sex-appeal” when the implications of what it demands of the Body of Christ becomes clear, but the power of the Spirit discovered in the sacrificial obedience drive us further to those places where God is already at work.

I am not trying to be judgmental or to inspire guilt. I stand convicted of this message too, having resisted those next steps to further obedience beyond the comfort of the familiar. Neither am I suggesting that every Christian should end up here. I have said it before, but I feel it needs to be said again- given the tragic imbalance of Christian involvement, proximity, giving, etc. when considering the abandon places of our world, clearly many Christians are failing to hear and/or respond to the commanding call of our Lord, to whom we (should) have given over our live and our rights to His purposes.

And so I say this not to blame or guilt or judge, but to articulate what I hear so strongly in my heart today:

The blood on our streets is blood on our hands. Unless…

Emerging Church, Missional

A great deal of discussion on the blogosphere these days has been about ecclesiology. This is such a crucial topic, as I believe that the emerging missional movement is define more by its ecclesiology than by its theology. Recently, my friend Len sent out a question to several people about the interplay or relationship between ecclesiology and missiology (the first reply is posted on his blog here). While I am not confident about the hasty answer I sent his way, it has had me thinking a great deal.

As many people talk about the ecclesiology of the emerging missional church they make the common mistake of over simplifying it down to “how we do church”. While there are elements of that in ecclesiology, it robs it of its deeper meaning and purpose. I began to wonder if the Church is the medium for the Message- that is, as Christ embodied the Truth and we are His Body, then our very embodiment as the Church is defined by the nature of Christ (Christology) and His ultimate purpose (missiology).  In that respect, the medium is the Message, at least on one level.

When I consider ecclesiology in respect to missiology and Christology I begin to see how intrinsically these three elements are tied together. I am not sure if we can say that one precedes the others without robbing them of their complex interconnections, though it can be helpful in understanding how we are shaped together. Therefore, as I seek to understand what it means to be the Church, I look first to God, first as Trinity, then specifically to Christ and His Lordship. Out of this it seems to me that the Missio Dei is vitally central to God’s nature, shaping my own missional emphasis, both as an individual and as a member of the Body. It is out of this that my ecclesiology is formed.

Do you think it is right to see the Church as the medium for the Message? How does your ecclesiology find formation? Be sure to head over to Len’s site and interact there too.

P.S. Check out the new addition to my sidebar- a fully editted “Exploring The Community Coming To Be Known As Missional” in PDF format. Check it out.

Emerging Church, Missional

Ten years ago Manitoba was hit by such an intense flood from the overflowing Red River it has become known to locals as “The Flood Of The Century”. The province suffered waters of 7.5 m deep, causing 28,000 people to be evacuated and $500 million of damage. Even Winnipeg, despite the millions spent on flood protection, was almost completely overwhelmed. In the face of such widespread destruction only one other aspect of the flood captured peoples attention more- the incredible solidarity and generosity that people across Canada & the US- but especially Manitobans- demonstrated in response.

Time & again, we see this incredible human response to crisis and suffering, such as in the 2004 tsunami, hurricane Katrina and the increasingly promising response to the HIV/AIDS crisis throughout the continent of Africa. Despite the realities of human weakness and failings, people seem to increasingly demonstrate their commitment to the greater good, especially when there is nothing in it from them.

Now, I am not suggesting that crisis and suffering should be a strategy for human unity and service, nor that they are, in themselves, effective foundations to build such generosity. However, we cannot ignore the two significant common factors- first, that we have no end to very immediate and critical human suffering across the street and around the world; and second, that there is an exponential power and impact when people collectively rise up to face such challenges.

This is why we so desperately need to confront the culture of comfort and entitlement that we are fed from the cradle to the grave. While I could argue that, intrinsically this culture is flawed, even if it were a valid lifestyle to pursue I believe it to run entirely contrary to the very heart of the life Christ led and called us to follow without consideration of the cost. In fact, in the words of Bonhoeffer, when Christ bids us follow, he bids us come and die.

The beauty is that, as we resist the self-serving lifestyle the world tells us is our right, we begin to not only discover God’s purposes, but we also begin to discover each other. Suddenly the limitations that seemed to hold us back from truly making a difference fade away through the collective and collaborative power of true community. The solidarity we see in the face to these major disasters does not have to be a rare and fleeting experience, but a way of life born out of shared purpose and love.

While we are beginning to see this disconnect between a culture that teaches us to insulate and isolate ourselves from discomfort and a Christ that calls us into a glorious hope through suffering and sacrafice, have we really gone far enough? How many of us are truly willing to ask the difficult questions about how and where we live; what and why we do what we do; and all the other questions that Gospel demands? Are we willing to make the changes that could cost us our financial security, hard earned comforts and even family safety to follow Christ?

I hope so.

Emerging Church, Missional

Over the past week, given the lovely Spring weather we are enjoying here in Winnipeg, Kim & I (and Dino) have been out a lot more, working in the yard, chatting with the neighbourhood kids and walking through the community. As much as a I love our community, these recent outings have stirred in me memories of Harry. Harry (along with the rest of the New Life Ministries crew) are largely responsible for us calling Winnipeg’s West End home. I missed him this week a great deal.

So I wanted to do something a little different today for this “Tuesdays With Harry”. Rather than post one of his many excellent columns, I want to draw your attention to the Wikipedia entry about Harry & his life. It is understandably brief, but fairly accurate. For those who do not know Harry, it might be a good place for you to start to get an idea about the man behind the columns I post here each week.

For those who knew Harry, perhaps we can all work to making this article more full. Given his appointment to the Order Of Canada, he is without question worthy of a fuller biography. If you are unsure how to use Wikipedia, feel free to send info to me and I will add it for you, as long as you can provide citation and that it is relevant to the article.

I hope those people who you look up to and draw inspiration from do not simply make you feel good or challenge you intellectually. I hope, like Harry did for us, that they disrupt your life on such a fundamental level that it changes the course of your life- or at least a change of address.

Missional

Given that today is Earth Day I could think of no better saint for todays reflection than the patron saint of nature & animals, St. Francis of Assisi. I recently had the chance to watch his 1972 classic film biography “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. While somewhat cheesy for the hippy factor, many Franciscans say that it remains one of the best film portrayals of their founder. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

Francesco (Francis) was born in Italy (1182) to a French mother and an Italian father who was a wealthy business man. Born to privilege, Francis enjoyed an excellent education, a bookworm at heart with a gift for languages. His propensity to party with his friends caused his father great anger, while Francis’ natural generosity to the poor seemed to anger him even more.

In 1201 he joined the army and was captured, spending a year as a prisoner of war. He eventually returned home and, while obviously matured by his hard experiences, returned to his life of pleasure and wealth. However, a few years later he was inflicted with a seriously illness that forced him to start to reconsider his life. Upon recovering he left to enlist for another military campaign, but received a vision that brought him home in deep spiritual reflection.

It was upon his return that Francis began to reject his life of wealth, often speaking romantically of his true love- poverty. After years of prayer and seeking God, he received a vision of Christ calling him to rebuild His church. Thinking He meant the ruined Church of San Damiano where he was praying, he sold his horse (along with clothes from his father’s shop), he gave his money and time to serve this purpose.

Furious, his father ranted against him, beat him and brough him before the bishop to demand recompense. Renouncing his father and his claim on his inheritance, Francis even returned to his father the clothes on his back, standing naked before everyone (some traditions say he wore a hair shirt, others say he was left naked). He spent the next few years begging, rebuilding ruined churches surrounding Assisi.

After hearing a sermon on Matthew 10:9, Francis decided to commit himself fully to a life of poverty and service to God. Preaching repentance as he begged for alms, he soon found he had drawn a following. Despite their poverty, they could be seen travelling together singing songs happily, sharing the Gospel as they went. While none of them were ordained as priests, they gained repute and authority among the people.

In 1209 they traveled to Rome in order to request permission from Pope Innocent III to found a religious order. While they were refused entrance, tradition says that Innocent received a vision in the night that God was sending him a poor man to help save the church. The next day the Pope sent for them, granting them permission to found their order. Many women were drawn to the teachings and life of Francis and his followers, including a young woman named Clare, who later formed the Order of Poor Dames (better known as the Poor Clares).

For the rest of his life, Francis and his fellow friars increased in number and influence, drawing many nobles to their ranks despite their marraige to “lady poverty”. Stories of his ministry are filled with miracles and wonders (though many are likely hagiographic embellishments), including a mystical connection to Creation. He is also the first documented stigmatic in Catholic history, though this was only reported after his death. Francis died October 3rd, 1226 singing Psalm 141. His feast day is observed on October 4th.

This covers only a few highlights of a remarkable life, so I encourage you to dig deeper. A fourth century collection called “The Little Flowers of St. Francis” is the best known and most popular record of his ideas and life. It is worth checking out.

St. Francis quotes:

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.

For it is in giving that we receive.

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Trivia: “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words” -St. Francis… or is it? St. Francis never actually said this quote so often attributed to him. It is close to what he said in other situations, but instead he said, “But as for me, I desire this privilege from the Lord, that never may I have any privilege from man, except to do reverence to all, and to convert the world by obedience to the Holy Rule rather by example than by word.”

Other resources:

-St. Francis – Catholic Encyclodpedia
-The Prayer of Saint Francis – Wikipedia

Missional, Saints

Several people have been asking me for a personal ministry update, so Kim & I are working on our next newsletter (hopefully available soon).  In the mean time, I just updated our Friend Raiser website.  Check it out here.  Let me know if you have any questions.

I am also happy to announce that Kim & I are escaping the rat race for a few of days alone as a couple.  As a result, after my next Sunday Is For Saints post (a favourite this week), I won’t be posting for a couple of days.  I should be back by Wednesday at the latest.  In the mean time, since Sunday marks Earth Day, you could check over my old posts on Creation and ecology:

-Sacramental Ecology - What Is The Gospel? (Part 4)

-A Reverence For All Of Life

-How Should Christians Love Nature? Sallie McFague (Review)

I hope to do something more in depth on this topic next week.  Have a great weekend all!

Emerging Church, Missional

This week my good friend Dana Ames drew my attention to a very interesting article (via ysmarko) about an experiment done for the Washington Post. Read it here. Reading the whole article is worth it, but it is quite long and for those who don’t have the time, watch the video (below) before reading on. Go on, I’ll wait.

When I consider the fast pace of our lives coupled with the increasing disinterest and ignorance of art and beauty, I was not all that surprised by the outcome of this experiment. Saddened, but not surprised. After all, in my inner city neighbourhood, the 7-11 plays opera from the New York Met to discourage loitering. And, well, it works (except with me).

In case we comfort ourselves as Christians by keeping this sad realization in the easy framework of “the larger culture”, it is also true within the Christian community, perhaps even more so. How often do we rush around, pursuing admirable missional purposes, failing to see the beauty all around us? We all do it and we all have good “reasons” for it. This should change.

Over the last few days I spent some time in the backyard, tending to the plants, listening to birds (I usually do yard work with my iPod listening to N.T. Wright) and reflecting on the beauty of Creation. I realized that if I love this beauty, I must protect it, nurture it and articulate the inarticulate praise to the Creator with that beauty.

So what are you going to do to change it? Be tangible, specific and do it within this week, but decide on something(s) and follow through. Let me know how it goes!

Emerging Church, Missional

In an attempt to further develop the ideas I articulated in my article, “The Community Coming To Be Known As Missional”, I have been exploring it in more detail what I did and did not mean. I am examining each section, trying to share the heart of what I hoped to communicate, where I think it should go or how it should look and why it is important to me. Here is Part 3:

“We are the Community Coming To Be Known As Missional. Each among us is our leader, each among us is led. We honour the diversity of our community by leading from along side or beneath, not from above. Every gifting, perspective, experience and individual is valued equally, not according to position or power. Each among us is our teacher, each among us a student. We honour the wisdom of every individual, especially those on the margins, as Christ Himself identified with their trials.”

I am not advocating anarchy or anti-establishmentism, but rather challenging how worldy models of power and hierarchy based authority have usurped God’s intended community of mutuality, service and humility. Not surprisingly, the world is beginning to see the wisdom in this, impacting science, business, government, etc. embracing truly Biblical values with stunning positive impact. Recognizing that there are times people need leadership, the nature and excerise of the leadership can be very different than what we are used to.

We recognize that when one leads it does not reflect on their value nor on the value of those who follow. While we would give lip service to such beliefs, (again) in practice it doesn’t always seem to happen. Language of “roles”,”giftings” and “equal but different” can be used to subtly determine who can and cannot lead based on a positional power-based model. We then see language like “anointing” and “chosen” to defend position or silence protest. “Submission” can be robbed of its beauty when used as a weapon to control in worst cases.

Finally, while not creating an equal opposite to this problem by elevating them to sacrosanct level, we acknowledge that those on the margins have much to teach us. By this I am not suggesting that they are better suit to teach or lead (though in some cases that is true), but rather that in relating with them in love and service, the challenges it raises teaches more deeply than any sermon ever could. Those challenges will stem from their sin and brokenness- trust me, many of the poor would not think twice about accepting a gift with one hand, while stealing with the other (sounds like some businesses I know…) and/or they will stem from our own sin and brokenness- such as our complicity with consumerism and individualism or our abandonment of our vocation of missional justice to the state.

“We celebrate the differences amongs, even that which we cannot reconcile, not in denial of the absolute, but in the gift of humility that those differences require of us. Without denying our differences, we no longer allow them to categorize us or divide us. It is in the diversity that the image of God is most fully reflected in and through us.”

This is not the uncritical tolerance that denies absolutes, but the unconditional love that is absolute. It recognizes that, as important as issues of doctrine and theology are, if we define our relationships and missional commitment upon that exchange, we miss the heart of the Gospel. Jesus said He IS the Truth and that Truth will be found (not exclusively) in our missional engagement with the world and service to the other.

We do not embrace uncertainty with the pride of enlightened postmoderns, but humbly in our acknowledgement that Scripture, history and our lives demonstrate time and again that God’s people get it wrong. Yes, this is a dangerous tension to live with, but the false safety of taking refuge in the extreme- be it easy relativism or unmovable fundamentalism- will only kill the seeds of hope that we are called sow. Again, our differences and how we respond to them in loving and godly ways is a reflection of the Trinitarian nature of the God in whose image we are created.

“We are the Community Coming To Be Known As Missional, but we are not there yet. We acknowledge our weakness and foolishness, as it is the weakness and foolishness of God. We are flawed, broken, proud and afraid. While we are committed to becoming this community without apology, we acknowledge that our becoming is dependant on the whole Body of Christ. While we believe we have something to offer the whole Church- something critical and prophetic- we also acknowledge that we need them equally as much. Above all, we need God- Father, Son and Spirit- to complete in us what we are created to be.”

Finally, and most importantly, we end where we began. We are moving towards something on a path that is somewhat unfamiliar to us. We are not masters of our domain, but travellers in a journey towards God (voyageurs, in other words). We are daring, bold and commited on the one hand, but often pushy, cocky and stubborn on the other, for which there is no excuse. Sometimes, however, our foolishness and weakness are the keys to truly being missional- like the shared brokenness of a 12-step program, we don’t have to have it all together before God loves us or we love each other. What a hope for the world to see!

Some may not feel as strongly as me on this point, but I deeply believe that the best future for this community will emerging alongside the traditional church, seeing both sides informed and guided by the other. Most of us would not be where we are without the traditional church, sometime for worse, but more often for better I think. We need each other.

In the end, though, no model, theology, value system or manifesto will truly change anything. Only by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit will any lasting good be birthed from this shared journey towards becoming the community known as missional.

Anything to add? Fire away!

Emerging Church, Missional