oharaville

“God does not ask leaders to dream big dreams or to solve the problems that confront them.  He asks leaders to walk with him so intimately that, when he reveals what’s on his agenda, they will immediately adjust their lives to his will and the results will bring glory to God.  This is not the model many religious leaders, let alone business leaders, follow today, but it encompasses what biblical leadership is all about.”

- Spiritual Leadership, Henry & Richard Blackaby

It’s interesting to me that much of the angst over emerging spirituality is its’ apparent lack of devotion to rationality, objectivity, standards, measurements, limits, etc., combined with an epistemological humility matched with Jesus-directed spiritual mysticism.  When did choosing the dynamic, experiential followership of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, become so heretical?

Wow.  If you haven’t read this opinion piece by TD Jakes, brought to my attention (interestingly enough) by Brian D. McLaren, you need to do so as soon as possible.

Amen, TD Jakes! - Brian McLaren

What an important message for the church of Jesus to heed.  I don’t say this merely as a supporter of Barack Obama, but more fundamentally as a Christian.

Tags: Christianity, Obama, TD Jakes, Jeremiah Wright, Opinion

I downloaded a browser and had something of an epiphany.

Flock is a browser whose sole purpose, it seems, is to keep the user updated with his or her various web2.0 social networks (facebook, flickr, twitter, etc.)  I’ll admit, it’s daunting to see a constantly updating stream of human interaction on the left sidebar of my browser.  I’m beginning to realize that, at 29 years old, I am on the trailing edge of technological innovation and am far less a native to social networking than kids still in high school.  So it took this browser to wake me up to a big turn in the way people communicate: meet-ups can organize in literally hours or less through a network of computers and mobile devices, people can broadcast up-to-the-moment updates of their thoughts, feelings and happenings to friends and total strangers alike, and reactions to these individual and communal happenings can be executed and observed in real time.

Some examples I’ve seen of how this works in real life:

From GodGirl:

A week ago, when I signed on to my Facebook account and saw that Mark’s best friend had written “I’m sad that Mark died in Iraq today” as his “update” message, I hoped it was a joke. Mark and his best friends — two guys named Dave who were his college-mates and, more recently, his neighbors in Laguna Beach, Calif. — have a wicked sense of humor.

When the other Dave sent me an e-mail saying “it’s no joke,” my heart gained 50 pounds and sank in my chest, where it remains, a painful boulder.

How was it possible that one of the most alive people I’ve ever known was gone?

From a friend’s facebook status update:

just wrecked my car and i’m quite tired and sore.

From a friend of a friend who was recently working on a prayer labryinth:
           
            Labyrinth tonight. Come help me move rocks.

Then there are other stories of friends and peers who have recently lit up my phone with text messages requesting prayer, sending blessings, or sharing news.

The question I’ve been pondering is, with the rise of this kind of instant relational networking, how long can church communities keep leaning on routine weekly gatherings that people have attended for centuries out of a sense of duty or habit?  While there is certainly still a place for regularly scheduled programming, it’s simply not how emerging culture seems to be working: we watch TV on demand via TiVo or streaming internet feeds, we listen to customized music playlists instead of pre-programmed CD’s, we arrange gatherings via social networking websites and text messaging instead of by the regularity of the weekly calendar.  Where’s the balance going to strike (and when)?  And in what way does a community lose out by ignoring this trend (or not)?

Tags: web2.0, networking, gatherings

I’ve wrestled for a couple of weeks with the idea of posting my thoughts to the already murky and confusing waters of the Obama/Wright controversy. While I feel like I may lend something meaningful to the topic as a minister and as an open advocate of Obama’s campaign, I have hesitated up to this point because the room is already quite crowded, and it feels like very little of the noise therein has much substance. I tend to err on the side of believing this brand of “gotcha” politics, while a handy helper to the 24-hour news cycle, has very little to offer an electorate that wants to know how a candidate will govern for the next 4-8 years in office. So why add more fuel to the fire, right?

What made the conversation exponentially more interesting to me, and what led me to realize that there is something worth talking about here, was the media blitz conducted by Rev. Wright and the ensuing public renouncement by Obama of his longtime pastor. I was one of those people who applauded Senator Obama for taking the high road in Philadelphia when, during a speech that reflected on the first vitriolic sound bytes that emerged from Wright’s sermons on the internet, he expressed a dual commitment to his pastor and to the American people. When Obama finally said “enough,” last week, formally severing ties to his now former pastor, it revealed a principled position that I believe also tipped us off to Obama’s true religious convictions. I’ll get to that momentarily, but first I’d like to take a moment to suggest that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water when dealing with Jeremiah Wright, either. Keep reading →

For approximately four months, I have wanted to possess and thus wear a funky hat.  For some unexplainable reason, many new friends from ReImagine seem to be fond of the funky hat wearing tradition, which drew my initial curiosity - you know, conform in the interest of flying the flag of funkitude.

Well yesterday I finally had my chance.  Needing to return some gift merchandise that did not fit, I found myself with a little liquidity burning a hole in my proverbial pocket, and I immediately went shopping in the funky section of the male accessories department.  Now in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that my wife was not initially fond of the idea.  And in the interest of continued full disclosure, I should also say at this point that she remains steadfast in her disdain for the hat of funk.

The truth is, the hat is an emblem: a symbol of my fierce grip on a shred of individuality in the stormy sea of matrimonial compromise.  I don’t wear it to spite my beloved… although it is admittedly fun to playfully push her buttons in this harmless way.  One must know at which point to yield and at which point to hold one’s own.  And when it comes to funky head wear, I hold my own.  I’m so grateful that my wife continues to love my hat-wearing head, and I may remove it if at some point in the future it becomes apparent that the hat is driving a wedge in our budding relationship.  Uh-oh, here she comes.  Better take it off.

[This poem was brought on by a term I heard Earl Creps use in describing the challenge of church-starting in Berkeley.]

Berkeley!

Friend of the afflicted,

You pre-paradigmatic primordial soup

Strutting your stuff

Before princes and paupers,

In front of the soiled old man

Pushing his world in a shopping cart

And that clean-cut freshmen

Carting her dreams in a backpack.

You’re creating the world

With neo-synaptic connections

Firing over valleys of indifference

And setting the fires of innovation and conscience

That can’t be extinguished

By cash, oil or holy water.

You are a city set on a hill,

Misguided and delusional as you may be,

Because Jesus is the patron Savior of

The kinds of people good religious folk

Hang out to dry.

Look to the mountains!

Your next great idea won’t come from there

Or from the valley or the sea

But from the sapling that breaks through

The hard concrete of duplicitous idealism

To reveal a revolutionary love

That knows no bounds

And names tolerance

As the clanging cymbal that it is

Yes,

Tolerance is weak street smack

Compared to the love that’s

Flooding your streets