The Justice Project and Holy Bible: Mosaic

My chapter is dealing with exorcism as a form of racial justice...gotta get it!

There are two projects, that I am a part of, that I’m very excited about.  The Justice Project, which is a collaboration of many different authors writing about the relationship of the justice issue and the Christian tradition. I’ve contributed an essay on racial justice that I hope will provoke, in a good way, conversation and faithful action in our communities.

 

The other project is the Holy Bible: Mosaic . Its a Bible with rich study resources (images, ancient and contemporary commentary, study notes, etc.). I have a reflection on Pentecost in the text.

I will be giving updates on these two projects as the months roll on.

Stop by your local bookstore or order online. I’m sure they will be a good resource for your walk with Christ and/or your community seeking to be more faithful the cause of the kingdom.

On Pilgrimage In Scripture: Mile One

Recently I was challenged to not quench the Spirit with my mind. That I tend to overthink the things of God with my intellect. I repent and confess. I have overthought the fragile wind of God’s voice in my soul from time to time. And most of those times were during moments when someone needed a simple word from God and I gave them more of my thoughts than what was actually needed. So…I’ve been called out. What to do? I have found solace in a passage that has led me to this point:

12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

- I Corinthians 2 TNIV

When I read this passage in meditation something burst within me. A desire to have my words to no longer be carried by the power of my mind but that my words would be carried by the Spirit. Its simple really: I want to be taught by the Spirit so that my words are Spirit-taught words. And this is all by the grace of God. So…I’m taking advantage of this precious grace that has been given to me in this season of my life. With this revelation I’ve been further instructed to go on pilgrimage into the depths of scripture. To enter the strange and beautiful land of the Bible.

Typically pilgrimage is about actual travel to a geographical location. In this case I’ll be traveling into the geography of the Spirit…into the depths of God’s heart. No GPS required except an open heart and bended knees.

To all my friends that may be reading this pray for me. Pray that I get all that need from this pilgrimage into scripture. Thank you.

We begin our journey with I Kings 17 and I Corinthians 1-2.

Closing Prayer:

Bless you God.

All of my soul bless your Holy Name! 

Fix me O’God.

Go into the depths of my being and make straight every crooked place that brings pain to myself and others. Spirit climb into the dark places of my soul and bring precious beautiful light. The light that brings redemption, salvation, wholeness, peace, and love.

Let me be just to my own soul! I cannot be just towards others unless I’m first just to myself.

Teach me oh God how to love myself! Teach me how to love my enemy and neighbor. More importantly teach me God to love You.

Let your wonderful Spirit teach me precious words. Let my words be Your words. Let my desire be Your desire.

All that I have is Yours. I am Yours. Let your kingdom come!

Amen

Death of Autotune Xtianity…becoming truly missional (Scene 1)

“No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put your wine in cracked bottles.”

– Jesus, Gospel of Mark 2:21-23 (Message)

“This is anti autotune, death of the ringtone, this ain’t for itunes, this ain’t for sing alongs”

–Jay-Z, Death of Autotune

I here folks say they ‘are’ missional. I am not missional. I am becoming missional. Because partnering with God’s redemptive mission in the world is a dynamic reality not a static one. Who knows where the wind of the Spirit is taking us beyond subtle (sometimes obvious) profound theological hints? As I’ve reflected on what it means to be on mission with Jesus I hear a distorted sound that often tries to thrown me off rhythm from the missional heartbeat of God. I call it autotune xtianity.

If you keep up with trends in the hip-hop and R&B world then autotune will not be alien to you. Recently hip-hop artist Jay-Z released a lament on the pervasiveness of the use of autotune in the world of hip-hop. Listening to his latest single “Death of Autotune” along with reflecting on Jesus’ dirge on religion without a kingdom of God pulse in Mark 2 I hear a word for those of us that are simply tired of what I’m calling autotune xtianity.  But let me rewind a second and explain autotune. Autotune is a device used to distort one’s natural voice. Hip-hop artist T-Pain popularized this intentional distortion in many of his hit singles. Now everyone is using autotune. What started out as a very creative way to distort one’s singing and rapping voice has now become annoying and old. I sympathize with Jay-Z ‘s lament. Partly because I’m tired of everyone using autotune in their music but also because I find parallels with some forms of Christianity that I regularly encounter on the daily.

Let me make it plain: autotune Xtianity attempts to distort the natural voice of the Spirit calling us to gospel faithfulness in God’s world.  This distortion, I believe, has many elements. Autotune Xtianity, like hip-hop autotune, is a pervasive reality. Its everywhere. From how we understand leadership in Christ’s body to how we understand the mission of God to how we form communities that are supposed to be rep’n the kingdom of God.  This series of dirges over the next couple of days will be a call for the death and funeral of autotune xtianity. Of course there will small hints of new possibilities offered for alternative reflection. But I’m always hesitant to speak on behalf of the Spirit in your part of the world. We’ll see what the Spirit says…barring we can hear what the Spirit is saying for our communities.

Come join me in becoming missional and calling for the death of autotune…a moment of silence.

Scene 1 – Leadership: Building Pyramids when we descended from slaves

I’ll think of some more later. 

This is anti autotune, death of the ringtone, this ain’t for itunes, this ain’t for sing alongs

Slow your roll Emergent morticians…

My friend Steve Knight tells me I should keep an eye on the blogosphere. Apparently there’s been buzz surrounding disappointment of Emergent Village. I’m writing this as I prepare to missionally engage my community this morning. Hoping to spark good conversation and dream up kingdom experiments with a group of folks I’ve been meeting up with here Salisbury, North Carolina. Ever heard of the city? So…I’m getting ready to fuel discussion and nurture an environment for creative kingdom activity in a community that has a gang problem. I’m stoked for the Jesus movement that is emerging here where I live…I’m also excited about the recent activity of Emergent Village 2.0. Alot of planning and strategy going on. I was one of the 24 that met in DC some months ago. So…there’s activity taking place. Christianity 21 with Jopa productions (Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt). And I’m sure many others are doing something emergentesque and missional in their parts of the world. The shift is taking place. Folks are out and about playing their role in this emerging Jesus-movement in the United States and abroad. That’s why I’m curious about the disappointment people are describing with Emergent Village. Emergence are everywhere in the kingdom of God. So…as I step out into the missional stream this morning looking for God’s activity @ the local hub I will pray for those who are disappointed. I pray they find their place in this wonderful Jesus-movement that is sprouting up all over the country now.

Emergent Village DC Gathering: Reflections

Friendship, Perepeteia, and Emergent Village  2.0

Several months ago Emergent Village sent out a survey to capture the rumblings in those places where signs of life were emerging. The survey was about the future of Emergent Village. A leading voice in what many folks call the emerging church movement. Months later an email/newsletter went out announcing a gathering of EV participants in D.C.. The weekend before last 26 people converged on D.C. to dream, dialogue, and listen about the future direction of Emergent Village. I was honored to be among this group of kingdom co-conspirators. The gathering would be facilitated by Pam Wilhelms and Dwight Friesen. We were taken through an interesting process called the “U”. This was more than reaching a consensus. It was digging deep for an innate collective wisdom that we all shared as a group. It was collective discernment regarding the future of EV. We went through a fairly intense process of exercises, dialogue, and testimony. And when I say intense…I really mean a good spiritual, emotional, and intellectual intensity that I’ve only experienced a couple of times in my life.

It was great meeting folks I’ve only dialogued with on the web. Putting names to faces. Oftentimes in these kinds of meeetings its like you’ve known a person for a long time. I won’t recount blow by blow what  happened. Many other EV bloggers have done this. I’ll post their links at the end of this post.

My thoughts during this process:

Friendship. This word was used a lot. As it should. EV has always described itself as a generative friendship of missional Christians. During our gathering we talked alot about friendship. And what I witnessed was the beginning of many life-giving friendships. This aspect of EV I hope will never go away. I was refreshed and encouraged by the rich diversity of friends present. My hope that the diversity of friends will become a harbinger of things to come for EV. Diversity of race, gender, and Christian traditions. My thoughts would go to Aristotle’s notion of friendships of virtue.  Good friendships, we are told, encourage virtue. Of course, in the kingdom of God we know that true friendships does encourage good virtue but it also brings one in greater unity with God’s Spirit…good friendships do this I believe.

Perepeteia. In every good story there is a turning point. EV has a story. We talked about this story. A good telling of it you can find in Tony Jones’ recent book The New Christians. We recognized that our gathering represented a turning point for EV. Which gave all of us pause. When one considers the  story of emergence  that Jones narrates in New Christians humility is the first posture required when venturing into these waters. There were no elaborate concrete projects planned for emergent.  But there was something new that emerged. What that is will be coming out in a more collective voice than I could represent here on a personal blog. I’ll say though that EV will be more localized than before. I believe there will be more of a harnessing of life from the various nodes spread throughout emerging church culture than we’ve seen before. In other words, I believe we’ll see more of a public grassroots movement emphasis than we’ve seen before. But these are my observations. I could be wrong. As far as turning points are concerned that’s a major one I anticipate.

Emergent Village 2.0. Expansive, more localized, more prophetic , more provocative, and definitely more diverse than before. With this upgrade I believe it will be hard to make the case that Emergent is a gathering of white 20-30-something Mac-users. There was a beautiful diversity in our gathering. But it was a harmonius diversity…I didn’t detect any scent of tokenism. There was a shared ethos present which made it easier to discern the collective wisdom in the room. 2.0 will be more diversity or at least the diversity already present in Emergent will be more public than before. To be honest I had this sneaky suspicion that EV was going to die. Which is partly true. Something did die during our gathering. But something also emerged. A more diverse, prophetic, organic, kingdom collective voice emerged to life. We shall see.

Sweet home Alabama!

I’ll be home in Birmingham for the next couple of days seeing about my dad. He suffered a stroke recently. He’s gotten a lot better. Thanks to all my twitter and facebook friends for your prayers.

What’s in my iHymnal?

Something close to home would be The Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill Vol. 1.  I discovered this album the other day. I ran across it looking up an old childhood friend of my mom (Sandra Pigrom), Frederick Knight (aka Ratman). He is known for such songs as Ring My Bell and I’ve Been Lonely For So Long.

I was excited to find out that my mother’s hometown Bessemer, Midfield, and surrounding Birmingham area was a mecca for soul music during the 60’s and 70’s. So much so there is an expression called the ‘birmingham sound’  that goes back to gospel quartets emerging from this region during the 30’s and 40’s. Alot of them touring the United States and world giving gospel concerts and creating their own distinctive gospel sound. The soul music in this particular album is a musical child of the gospel quartet.

There is a distinctive Birmingham sound that I hear when listening to this. Some of these sounds I remember as a child listening to my parents music in the basement while sifting to piles of vinyl records or listening to my uncle P.A. (Presh Alley) in the back room of my grandmother’s house vibing on some Marvin Gaye and sipping on a fresh bottle of Thunderbird (he’s let me get a sip now and then or I’d sneak one). Ah…the good ole days.

But the sound is quite a distinctive soulful sound. You hear in the background a history of gospel, Civil Rights, blues, alive-ness, body movement, finger snapping, street sounds, soufulness, and for me personally it reminds me of weekends on the five mile creek with my cousins, adolescent girl crushes, catching brim-fish with my hands, watching family spats in the summertime, etc.. Nostalgic.

Transforming Theology enters my world

For the next couple of months I’ll be engaging one of my favorite theologians, Joerg Rieger. This will be a part of a larger project titled Transforming Theology. Follow the link to get a sense of what is taking place. From what I can tell this will be a conversation between academia and the streets.  My good friend Tripp Fuller has invited to be a  part of a consortium of theo-bloggers that will be engaging theology from their particular contexts. I look forward to engaging Brother Rieger from my place. My location is that I am an African-american engaged in various kinds of ministry in an predominantly black church context. Of course I have my feet in different worlds. One is the emergent/missional stream and the other is in the world of the black church. This should be interesting.

The text I’ll be conversating with will be Rieger’s God and the Excluded: Visions and Blind Spots in Contemporary Theology.

Lectio Divina – John 3: Wild is the Wind

You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.

- Jesus

In our sacred text intimacy and ‘knowing God’ are one and the same thing. I am usually cautious when using this language to describe relations to God. Largely because words like ‘intimacy’ are wedded to our overly-sexed culture.

 

Knowing God is an intimacy that goes deeper than the intimacy involved in sexual relations. God goes into places, secret places, that no human partner can go. God is never fooled by the various masks I wear to fool people or hide from people. God’s holy kiss is both a terror and a joy. It is a joy because I am held by a love that is more than pure and that seeks my highest good. It is a terror in that it will not let me tarry long in its presence with my false self. I can be false while appearing intimate with another human. But not with God.

 

These thoughts come to me while doing lectio divina in this John 3 passage and listening to a Nina Simone song Wild is the Wind.  In John 3 Jesus describes the movement of the Spirit in our lives as the wind. In particular, the Spirit’s midwifery. We are born from above through the midwifery of the Spirit. The Spirit’s movement is like the wind.  But it is a wind that cannot be easily discerned or named. The Spirit’s movement is unleashable.

 

In Nina’s song Wild is the Windwe are brought into a rapturous recollection of a love shared by two lovers. The lover describes the love for the Beloved and the way the Beloved responds. Of course the lover’s love is wild as the wind. It is un-tame-able and un-domesticated. But while it is not easily captured it is very close. Very close.   

 

These thoughts come to me as Scripture reads me:

 

Wild is the wind…the Spirit’s dance in my life. 

Listing and twirling in hidden places

Turning over lies

Springing forth truth

Lighting my heart

Making my eye single

 

Prayer Offering:

 

My God, with Your holy kiss my life began again.

 

 

 

 

 

Elegy I

Art by Andrea Knarr

I loved. With every fabric of my being I loved. But I have the good fortune of living in a world of flux. In constant shifting. There is this continuum I live in of loss and renewal. It is a loss that seems to have gotten the best of me. Loss is a difficult reality. We hold on to things that do not want to be there. We want to place ‘the leaving ones’ in the deepest caverns of our hearts. But they do not want to stay there. How do you go on? How do you let go? They say time heals the deepest wounds. I agree to a point. Yet the pain still lingers even though it may be a faint whisper in a healing soul. In this season of elegy I’ve come to recognize the pain, wound, loss, and lost love as a true gift. Had I not possessed this gift I would not know ‘me’ or atleast the me that God gazes at every moment and in every breath I take. 

 

Love can be painful.   This is the beginning  of my own elegy.  Confession is good for the soul.

Elegy I