community
We spent the weekend in Flagstaff with our faith community. 10 adults, 7 kids, a puppy, and 8 inches of snow made for some crazy, but cherished times. The highlights included the guys beating the girls (once again) at "Scene It", riding the Polar Express, and building the sled hill Kirra's rockin' in the video below.
In my previous post, I forgot to mention one of the biggest and most daunting projects taking up my time these days – starting an alternative arts venue in Downtown Mesa. We're calling it "Found Arts" and it's will be a space devoted to the dreams of artists and non-artists alike. The hope is for it to be a place where new and emerging ideas are created, expressed, wrestled with, and discussed through various forms of creativity. Looking forward to this one – now all we need to $75k and we'll be on our way.
Seriously though, if you have $75k and are interested in sending it our way, we are all ears :).
Thanks to all of you who joined us last Friday for the advent gathering. I've put some of the pictures online that my wife, Kelli, took during the night. Check them out.
And if you have some pictures you took during the night, we'd love to see them. We've created a group photo pool where you can upload them.
The "Symbol Communities" Flickr group
….. until next time
There are a number of us here in the Phoenix area who are together exploring the tradition of Advent this holiday season. Most of us, while people of faith, have little experience in the holy seasons. Our goal is to dig deeper into the spiritual side of Christmas while steering clear of the rut of meaningless tradition. In a sense we are on a much-traveled journey, but are committed to forging our own path. If you're interested in participating you'll find some details here. Or email me at znewsome@mac.com.
Travis and I started talking about counter-cultural living today and ended up at this deeply troubling (at least to me) question – "As followers of Jesus are we called to be counter-cultural or to engage the culture?" The two ways of life seem contradictory at first, but can they be? I think the answer to the question is "yes" – Yes, we are to live counterculturally as citizens of a kingdom that is counter-cultural to our present world AND yes, we are to flesh out this faith within the culture we find ourselves in.
There is much to say here, but I want to let it brew a bit. In the meantime….I would love to hear your thoughts.
The best show on TV starts another season tomorrow. If you're a fan, you've been waiting all summer for this event. Kelli and I are fans and we've decided to make it a party every Wednesday night for friends and fellow fans. Shows like these are always better watching them with others (as long as "that guy" who talks throughout the whole show doesn't come – we won't invite him).
So tomorrow night @ 8pm (come earlier if you want) stop on by and watch the season premiere of "Lost" with us. It is in HDTV – did I mention that? Everyone's invited (minus the guy mentioned above), and bring something to share with the crew – drinks, popcorn, gummy worms whatever.
Hope you can make it.
Last week I started a new book called "Simply Christian" by one of my favorite author/theologians, N.T. Wright. Wright has challenged my thinking in so many ways and that has made me a huge fan. So While I was killing some time recently at our local B&N, I picked up this book. I have heard this book described as similar to C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity – which is a bold claim.
As I read the introduction, I became more excited than I have ever been to read a particular book. As Wright is explaining his purpose in this book, he explains that he has broken it into three parts. He starts by describing the first part. Here's the passage that hooked me:
"First, I have explored four areas which in today's world can be interpreted as "echoes of a voice": the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty. Each of these, I suggest, points beyond itself, though without in itself enabling us to deduce very much about the world except that it is a strange and exciting place."
Community/spirituality/beauty/justice are aspects of the Kingdom, but are also as Wright calls them, "echoes of a voice" that the world hears and longs for, but doesn't understand. To help them understand is what Kelli and I do. That is our profession; our calling.
This book is so exciting to me because we for over a year now have felt these exact things. Check back for updates on this book as I finish it this week.
My good friend Josh just left our house and my mind is racing. Kelli, Josh, and I talked for the past few hours about life, faith, and how well the two are working together. What came to my mind, as it has seemed to so many times recently, was how much we talk big of living differently, but in reality, we aren't that much different. Blame part of it on the fact that we are as flawed and hopeless as any other human on this planet, and put the rest of the blame on us directly. We have gotten too busy, too comfortable, too lazy, too casual about this Jesus we claim to follow. Something has to change. Something has to be done. Not just for the sake of doing, but for the sake of balance, for the sake of justice, and for the sake of integrity. So here's where we're headed, a life lived centered around community, Christ, creativity, and compassion. No other distractions, no other agendas – just figuring out how to live in these ways – community, Christ, creativity, and compassion. We'd love to share this life with others, learning from them along the road. If you resonate with this simple, yet serious way of life, you're more than welcome to join us – the more the merrier.
Matt and I just got back from the Soliton Sessions on Sunday. We had a great time and met some new friends. These are some of the "tricksters" we shared the weekend with – Shane Claiborne, Greg Russinger, and Si Johnston – each brilliant in their own right. Matt and I had some great chances to talk about ourselves as well as about the community we are a part of here in Mesa. I am still processing a list of concepts – most of which were stirred by dialogue with Kester Brewin about "dirt" and the boundaries we create around us that keep us from all things dirty and from thus becoming dirty ourselves. Interesting stuff. Also thanks to Gareth, Pagitt, Travis, Andy, Rob & Angela, Jon, the people of the bridge (way to practice what you preach), and most of all Miki for letting us stay on your floor.
