genesis911's Xanga

Moved

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:40:33 GMT

Hey, I've moved.

www.genesisdetroit.com
http://genesis.voxtropolis.com

Detroit Divided

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 01:00:35 GMT

Just finished reading an excellent book by that title. It speaks to the history of this fine city and also to many of the factors act as barriers to the city’s future health and growth. Last night I had opportunity to dream with some friends of mine about God’s vision for Detroit.
We spoke of a place that’s:
A city where all students have a chance at excellent and safe education.
A city where economic development comes hand in hand with neighborhood development.
A city that’s experiencing healing and reconciliation from generations of division.
An area where homes are affordable and basic goods are available at fair prices.
A place where hope lives and justice rolls down like a mighty river.

We believe that this is more than fanciful, youthful idealism.
We believe that when God dreams of Detroit, this is what the Almighty has in mind.
And we want to be about seeing God’s kingdom come to Motown, a place that, according to her city motto, “hopes for better things” and promises “to rise again from the ashes.”

New site (with Genesis podcast)

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:07:01 GMT

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Don’t forget to do something cool for the people you love. Kelly and Grace brought me special cookies at the office to remind me that I’m loved. And I am.

There’s a recurring refrain in the story of David. It goes something like this:
“David inquired of the Lord.” Sometimes it’s “he inquired,” others it’s “Once again David inquired.” Regardless, there seems to be a lot of inquiring. ( 1 Sam. 23:2,4; 30:6-7; 2 Sam. 2:1, etc.) Every time David has a major decision to make, every time he stands at the crossroads of life, he “inquires of the Lord.”

Here’s what I love about David’s prayers: they are simple, clear and direct.
Once he asks “Should I go attack the Philistines?” Easy enough.
All God has to do is say “yes” or “no.” (In this case, he says ‘Go.’)
So I’m thinking we usually get stuck in two ways when it comes to mastering the art of inquiry. The first is that we fail to ask at all. We relegate God to the sidelines of our lives
and, to our detriment, call our own shots.

The second issue is that we don’t inquire with the specificity of David.
Do you ever get frustrated because you don’t feel God spelling things out for you?
Is it possible that we don’t get clear answers because we’re not asking clear questions?
Or could it be that God is waiting for us to utilize the creativity and wisdom at our disposal to develop a next step on our own?
And all we need to do is inquire to insure that we’re on the right track?

Note that David doesn’t pray: “God what should I do today?” Or “What’s your will for my life?” Based on what he already knows about who he is, who God is and what needs to be done to advance God’s purposes in his unique context, David says “I’m thinking about doing this… Should I?” My hope is that we could start to do the same.
And, in doing so, we become perfectly proactively and totally surrendered.

Podcast is finally up

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 13:18:29 GMT

Sorry I've been out of the loop. I've been working on a new site with a podcast.

Genesis Podcast

Let me know what you think. I'm a little new to this whole thing. So if you have ideas on how to do it better, please let me know. For you Alex McManus fans, the "Our Mystic Story" is an unpacking of his 4 turns concept.

peace
Steve

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 02:18:16 GMT

The Art of Inquiry

I'm reading the story of David in 1 & 2 Samuel. Two observations are jumping out at me:
1) The people that are drawn to David while he is on the run from the reigning king, Saul, are misfits. They are renegades, maybe former mercenaries, anti-social desert dwellers, and counter-cultural dreamers who didn't fit any of the established military or government structures of his day. What draws them to David? His character? The excitement of living life on the run? A burn for the adventure of raiding enemy outposts for survival? This was no small band. During his season as a fugitive, David gathers at least 400 fighting men and their families to be a part of his family/ army.

The author says this: "All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around them and he became their commander." (1 Sam. 22:2) It doesn't really sound like David was working with a bunch of National Merit Scholars or West Point Grads. But because he's running for his life, he doesn't get to choose who's on his team. Actually, I find it fascinating that he let any of them stick around at all. It seems like it would be much easier to hide one guy in a desert than it would a few hundred.
So David is stuck with emotionally, financially and socially unstable people… who carry weapons.
But my guess is that over time, the skills, stories and relationships that they all developed together bonded them around common cause and mission. During their travels, shared meals and combat, they developed uncommon loyalty to one another and simple, but fierce, set of shared values.

On the day David finally came out of hiding and became king, who do you suppose filled the positions of military and government influence and power? All of his misfit friends, who were misfits no more.
God has strategically filled your life with people who drive you crazy. They have consistently proven themselves to be irresponsible, frustrated and immature types with a penchant for drama. Could it be that God wants transform them into champions and heroes under your influence? Sometimes we don't get to choose who gathers around us, looking to us for guidance and leadership, but we can choose how we lead them. We must determine to live our lives for something so great, so transcendent, so mystic that others cannot help but follow us on the Way.

(The second observation? It's coming soon.)

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:40:59 GMT

Throwing Stones

I read about the tragedy in Saudi Arabia this morning with great sadness.
It's heartbreaking to hear about people who are inadvertently killed in an attempt to honor their faith and seek out redemption.(110 Dead in Stampede on Last Day of Hajj)

To those of us who don't understand the ritual, or the emotional impact of the hajj on it's participants, the whole thing seems foreign. And yet, every religion has a purifying ritual- penance, confession, absolution, deprivation, baptism, meditation. And each one carries its own weight. The hope is that the taking up of one weight, the heaviness of self-redemption, would free us from another, the crush of guilt and shame.

When I think about the darkness in my own heart, the image of a stone makes sense. And if I could lift it and throw it at a symbol of the devil to be free, I would. But here's my reality: I cannot lift my stone. It towers over me, imposing, immovable.

And here is the miracle of grace that transcends institution, religion and the concept of merit. Because of the perfect life, horrifying death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus, he moves the stone. And because he has, I don't need to try to lift mine any more. Something about His burden being light, his yoke easy. The good news is that our redemption isn't earned, it can't be. We need not lose our lives (literally or figuratively) in the pursuit of our own atonement.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 02:39:46 GMT

Rings and Things

I was officiating a wedding for a friend of a friend this fall. Before the ceremony, the groom and his friends were waiting in the lounge of the exquisite country club hosting the evening’s festivities. Because the groom’s family were regulars at the club, I guess I was the only person huddled around the TV watching the Michigan game that the wait staff didn’t recognize. One of the servers asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m the minister. I get to do the wedding.”

“So you’re the priest?”

In response I held up my left hand, proudly displaying my wedding band.
It was time for the ceremony to start outside, so my conversation with the server ended abruptly. When the service was done, I came back to the bar to get my usual post-wedding Sprite and cranberry juice. I ran into the same serve and it was then that she asked me a honest question that caught me off-balance.

“So, when you pointed to your ring, what is that supposed to mean?”
“Umm. It means that I’m not a priest … priests can’t get married.”
“Oh. I had no idea. I thought all maybe all ministers have a special ring or something. I’ve never really been to church.”

The more people I meet, the more I realize how few know, or care, about the minutia of cultural and institutional Christianity. I think it’s a good thing. Ten, twenty years ago church leaders were talking about reaching people who had been turned off by or had negative experiences with the church. But now, as we enter into a truly post-Christian (or at least post-Christendom) society, most people don’t know enough about the church to have any baggage. As a result, we can get back to “prime,” the person and message of Jesus.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:23:19 GMT

The Innateness of Praise

OK- I think I had one of my most festive Christmas Eve's ever this year. During the closing set at the Genesis service, while Ryan and Co. were cranking out simultaneously fun-loving and reverent renditions of my favorite Christmas songs, Grace (17 months) was in her full glory. In fact, the very instant the bass line for "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" kicked in, she bounced so hard in Kelly's arms, Kelly almost dropped her. We put her down and all throughout "Joy to the World" and the rest of the songs she danced with all of the joy and fury she could muster. Our favorite moment was when she, uncoached and unprovoked, raised both of her hands as she tried to leap and sing.

It was a brief window into the reality of the soul. I think our burn to praise, to adore the True Mystic and One Divine is innate, and in the presence of the Almighty, it cannot be contained. I'm thinking that we might not need to try so hard to worship, but simly remove the things that seek to restrain our expression of inexplicable joy.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:07:18 GMT

Things Still Are Not What They Seem

A few months ago we were taking communion at Genesis. As is our practice, we have "servers" waiting at table to distribute the bread and the cup. Almost everyone took the bread and cup quietly, until one young woman adamantly whispered "Is this wine or grape juice?" When I hesitated, she earnestly repeated the question. In my mind I'm thinking "Of course it's grape juice!" And then "Does it really matter? You'll only ingest about 4 drops." My answer, that it was indeed a non-alcoholic communion, seemed to satisfy her; she received the elements and walked away.

It was only after the service, when she came to introduce herself, that the nature and intensity of her question made sense. She briefly mentioned that she'd been introduced to Genesis by her friends in recovery and was currently experiencing some good breakthroughs in her NA meetings.

Again, things are not always what they seem. In our initial interaction, I had pegged her as a highly legalistic, super-traditional, lifelong church attender who had no intention of imbibing any alcohol, ever. In truth, she is in the formative stages of her spiritual journey, has never officially attended church and is only concerned about the alcohol content of communion because she's a recovering addict. I guess it all goes to show that until you know someone's history and their heart, you know nothing about them at all.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 03:53:17 GMT

Sights and Sounds

I went to court with a friend a few months ago. He had to be there for a hearing and I came for the moral support. While we waited for the procedure to begin, I heard something that ripped me to the very core of my soul. It was the sound of chains.

A distant rattle continued to crescendo to a deafening clank until the defendant entered the otherwise silent room. And I thought about the kind of things God hears when mortals walk.

Everybody carries chains. Remember Jacob Marley of Dickens fame? In the movies, he’s so engulfed in his bonds you can hardly distinguish a human form. Spiritually, many of us are in similar straits. The casual observer will never see them, but the mystic ear can detect them with every step. Chains of anxiety, despair, lust, insecurity, a misplaced quest for significance, an obsession with human approval, shame from our past, fear of our future, constantly hinder us from becoming the people long to become and are destined to be.

My hope is that, by the grace of God, we could identify our bonds, so that we might become truly free. Carlisle Barney writes, “You will know the truth. And the truth will make you flinch before it sets you free.” It’s true. Freedom requires us to acknowledge those things that enslave us. So listen for your chains. And let’s beg God for the grace to be free, so we might know the joy of walking silently.