With So Much Drama in the NPC...

Well, not really. Not much drama yet at the NPC (National Pastors Conference) which I'm currently attending for class and spiritual growth and training...etc. San Diego is cool, with a spring/fall type weather right now and I'm excited to be in Snoop Dogg's home state and bring some love from the East to the West.

I've nearly been up 24 hours as I write this, and I told a few people that I'd try to share some of the in's and out's and going-on's as I hung out in San Diego and got to be with some emergent type folks for a few days, and figured I better start today posting or the week will slip by.

honestly, with the last month off of school, and having finished a few books in the month off, I feel like i've had a lot i've wanted to share, yet haven't found the words for a lot of it. maybe part of it is that i'm still figuring out what is good for me to share on the blog. maybe part of it is that i've been taking pictures of birds? part of it is that i put a lot of pressure on myself to say something significant that will contribute to "the conversation" but sometimes i have some processing to do before i say anything out loud. and part of it is that i finished a collection of essays by Wendell Berry titled Sex, Economy, Community, and Freedom: Eight Essays that was humbling, convicting and contextually appropriate for much today's issues (war in Iraq, globalization, local economy, sustainability). all i'm saying is that if you haven't read any of Wendell Berry's stuff...you should start soon.

i'll post more on Berry maybe tomorrow, since i finished that book as the last of my "i'm not in school right now and can read whatever i want list" on the plane this morning. but tonight, i'd like to stir the pot a little with a metaphor from the critical concerns course i went to today and will finish tomorrow led by Brian McLaren and Richard Twiss called "Return to the Bible". Twiss, a Native American of the Sioux people is co-leading the seminar with Brian and the first 5 hours of the course have been great thus far. they started with taking questions and surveying the group to learn about where many of the people at the seminar were coming from and then went on to first describe the need to move out of a foundational epistemological system in a more post-modernist epistemology that constructs a web of knowledge and understanding rather than a wall or foundation.

beyond all that came what i thought was a profound missiological insight and metaphor recalled by Twiss and told by many as a Mission Legend: Bring the gospel as a seed into an indigenous culture, rather than as a potted plant, so that when the gospel which was planted as a seed begins to surface it will be expressed and understood as a manifestation of the indigenous culture. I think that this is a truly beautiful and wonderful metaphor, and offers profound insight into the necessity of preserving the relationship between culture, theology, and the gospel. this is especially true in light of Twiss' heritage and story riddled and tarnished with the story of "Christians" destroying much of his community and chance for redemption of Native American practices, not to mention the need for a contextually appropriate mission amongst the people first occupying the country to its own people without being oppressed. any thoughts?

thanksgiving reflections...

I know this is almost a week late, but I have some time to write a little tonight so my Thanksgiving reflections are finally coming out. A couple of months ago Shey got me the above t-shirt after seeing it at a very random experience in rural Ohio. We were with Shey's grandparents in a poor coal mining and river town for a visit, and our first night out we went to an auction for the possessions and estate of a woman who had recently passed away. It was the event of the little town that night, and it was a very surreal experience. Things were being sold that most people would never think of ever buying, i.e. boxes and cartons of little trinkets, broken stuff, lots of little pieces of junk, and eventually the woman's house. It was kind of a crazy event, with various people buying lots of junk...but I happened to look over at one man who was standing on the outskirts of the event with a couple of people talking and caught a glimpse of this shirt, and was floored.

It's such a powerful and wonderfully insightful shirt. He and his shirt just didn't seem to fit in with the American-flag lined streets, the poverty, and small rural town vibe. Nevertheless, we chalked the whole night up to one of those weird experiences, that just happened to give us insight into some deeper stories that run through the history of our country. And Shey in a great surprise, didn't forget that night or that shirt and bought me one of these shirts a couple of months ago.

All this to say, that over the last week, and with the students I work with, we began to talk about you know "the meaning of Thanksgiving" and all that jazz. And as I told some of the students about this shirt, we began to discuss how it would be good if we began to tell the story of the plight, genocide and racism that informs (yet does not tell the whole story) of Thanksgiving. How powerful would it be for us to begin to incorporate in our traditions at this time to include and give voice to those whose voice was taken away, and certainly cornered onto reservations...How can we make sure that their story is not lost or forgotten? One of the ways we discussed is to simply tell their story, to recall the sin that took place in the plight of many Native Americans. Another was to continue to build awareness with our family and friends.

This t-shirt is a simple way to continue to tell their story, and much of the proceeds go towards work in bettering reservations, and giving them a voice...to check out this shirt, and many other mediums of the same message go to: The Native Press.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Sorry for the late post. I'll try to post about Christmas by February.