JaredSiebert.com

I have recently had the pleasure of reading Donald Miller’s new book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”.  In this book Donald Miller explores the connection between spiritual principles and the basic structure of story telling; a theme that Miller explores in other books and lectures.  The book is structured as a narrative that follows the life-changes he personally undergoes while turning a previous autobiographical book “Blue Like Jazz” into a movie. 

Exposition
Miller begins to discover that his life is boring and directionless.  Miller sets the stage of what a writer’s life is like after writing a successful book.  The depressive funk, the inability to make deadlines, the lack of direction.  He begins to wonder if he could turn his current life into a better story.  “I wonder whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally.” (p. 39)

A Character
Miller discovers that characters in movies are about action.  Books can delve into the thoughts, feelings and motivations of character but film is about action. A Character is what he does.  “The stories we tell ourselves are very different from the stories we tell the world.”  People only see the surface; they know us from what we say and what we do. 

A Character Who Wants Something
Miller realized that, for life to have meaning, he needs to decide what he wants.  If he wants to live an interesting story he is going to need to go after something important.  Miller sets out on his first life re-write:  to get the girl and go on an adventure (in this case it was the Incas Trail). 

At risk of retelling the whole book and spoiling it I’ll stop here.   I will continue by saying I have always enjoyed Millers earthy yet spiritual way of approaching life and Christ.  His call to consider and possibly edit your own story has been a helpful way of me considering new possibilities for myself.   

This presentation was a tag team presentation.  I loved it.  Again really good stuff. Some take aways for me:

• The difference between the dechurched and the unchurched.  The dechurched are those that have had bad experiences in the church and have left.  Most of the reaching out we do is to this shrinking subset of the population.  Canada is seeing growth in the unchurched population.  Unchurched people are those who have never had a church experience (outside of weddings and funerals). 
• Christendom has trained us to look for the large and successful edifaces of the empire.  Contrast that with the fact that Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed - not a cedar of lebanon - a mustard seed - an extremely small networked plant that is extremely hard to get rid of (like a weed)
• Snowball research - discover/follow the threads of your neighbourhood network with the question "who makes things happen around here?"

They ended their presentation with a very powerful poem/imagination.  I can’t find who wrote it but here is a copy.  I hope to write one to Kitchener with my church and neighbourhood someday.

A New Glasgow
I saw a vision – it was last Thursday at 11 O’clock in the morning:
I was standing on the Necropolis, looking down over the city;
And the cold blue winter sky broke open above my head
And the spirit of God breathed on my eyes
And my eyes were opened
I saw Glasgow, the holy city, coming down out of heaven;
Shining like a rare jewel, sparkling like “clear water in the eye of the sun”;
And all the sickness was gone from the city,
There were no more suburbs and schemes;
No difference between Bearsden and Drumchapel
I saw the Clyde running with the water of life,
As bright as crystal,
As clear as glass,
The children of Glasgow swimming in it.
And the sprit showed me the tree of life
growing in Glasgow Green
I looked out and there were no more homeless people,
No more women working the streets,
No more needles in the alleys,
HIV and Aids were things of the past,
There were no more racist attacks,
No more gay bashing,
No more rapists,
No more stabbings
No more Protestants and Catholics
No more IRA graffiti, no more Orange marches
Because there was no more hate!
And I saw women walking safe at nights,
Saw the men were full of passion and gentleness,
That none of the children were ever abused,
Because the people’s sex was full of justice and of joy.
I saw an old woman throw back her head
and laugh like a young girl;
and when the sky closed back, her laughter rang in my head
for days and days
and would not go away.
This is what I saw, looking over the Gallowgate,
Looking up from the city of death;
And I knew then that there would be a day of resurrection,
And I believe
That there will be a day of resurrection.

Glenn Smith’s session was powerful.  His theme was about moving faith from being privatized to one that interacts with the public sphere.  He gave an excellent overview of some of the ways Canadian cities are different than American cities:

• poverty is diffuse in Canadian cities - it is not localized to a few neighbours
   
• 1 in 3 Canadians is from either Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto
• we use public transport more than American
   
• we have greater ethnic diversity
• we have more traditional family structures
• we have stable growth
• we live in safer cities 
• Our governments structures are more complicated
• 52% of city revenue comes from taxes (in the US it’s 27%)

His definition of neighbourhood was also useful.  Volumes are written about how to define neighbourhoods (Physical? Architectural? Geographical? Cultural?  Economic?) however for him neighbourhoods are places that do something.  Neighbourhoods act upon residents and function technologically, politically, demographically, or sociologically.  They possess a specific way of doing life.  They have specific imaginations.  It is our task to become students of these realities.
However for me the big mental grenade came from a word that he passed along to us via "A Secular Age" by Charles Taylor:  excarnation.  Excarnation, according to Taylor is "the transfer of our religious life out of bodily forms of ritual, worship, practice, so that it comes more and more to reside "in the head".  Christianity was born, literally, out of an incarnation.  God incarnated himself through Jesus.  Another way to say this is that Jesus embodied God.  The church, is supposed to be the body of Christ.  However, through the influence of modernity it has become disembodied or excarnated.  We live in our heads.  Our faith is a series of propositions rather that trust in a person.  Jesus did not teach that his ideas were the Truth, he claimed to BE the truth; the truth personified; the truth incarnated. 

More thinking and processing needed on that one! 

Mike Frost was his usual powerful and profound self last night.  He is a great story teller and has a knack for cutting through the cruft.  One of his cast-off comments last night has been rolling around in my head… he talked about "being purified by the missio dei (mission of God)".  How does mission purify those engaged in it?  For me it calls to mind the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.  The goats are people that engage in religion but never turned those beliefs into actions.  The sheep are those that turned belief into action and realized that Christ could be found behind the eyes of "the least of these".  Jesus, the sent of God, requires that we his followers be sent.  It would seem that eventually Jesus stops attending religious services.  Perhaps out of boredom? Perhaps because he is out searching for the one lost sheep?  Given this Christians at some point must leave the safe confines of the church in order to re-establish contact with God.  At some point we must establish contact with him behind the eyes of marginalized, the oppressed, the outcast, and the discarded.  The purification comes through re-establishing contact with God out in the world.  Speaking personally, something happens to Christians when they engage with people around them.  We learn to love.  We learn to extend ourselves for other.  We learn to see the world differently.  We learn to, with full self-confidence, make ourselves less than others.  We develop a deep and profound respect for the powerful way that God engages with our neighbours before they even know what is going on.  We develop confidence (some call it faith) in God because we have watched Him work first hand.

This week I am at Renov8 in Calgary.  I will be participating on a number of different levels:  as part of the executive of Church Planting Canada, as a denominational leader, as learner, and as a workshop leader.  I plan on blogging some thots and reflections from the event.  Stay Tuned.

This Sunday will mark a month since our little church went public.  I had intended to post some photos and reflections much sooner but life at work has been a little busy.  So without further adieu here are some pics of our tiny little band of Jesus followers.

Evan bringin’ the good word.

A Shot from the foyer of the Community Centre.  I love the huge windows and the natural light.  The architect of this building really has some chops.

This month has been a big change from the living room at the Garst’s.  But we are slowly getting used to our new digs and are excited about all the other folks that have decided to join us. 

I am part way through Among the Thugs by Bill Buford.  This is an older book (1991 or 1992) I discovered going through back programs of This American Life (a public radio show out of Chicago I highly recommend).  What an amazing read.  Buford is funny, gripping and insightful in they way that he explores life among soccer hooligans.  It’s one part sociology, one part journalism, and another part novel.  Bill wrestles openly as an American with the confounding link between the world of football supporters and violence.  His thoughts reveal the visceral reaction we often feel when we encounter difference and “other”.  His struggles to comprehend and his natural curiosity are inspiring. 
I had a great conversation with a friend from Britain about the phenomenon.  He assures me that it still exists today.

Tuesday night we hosted 17 people from our church, at our house, to talk through what we each wanted/needed from a small group.  Quite obviously 17 people is not a small group.  The hope was that from that large group we could create at least 3 small groups.  As each person spoke to what they were looking for some interesting themes and personal preferences emerged.  We seem to divide into 3 camps:  structured, non-structured and balance.

For the structured among us we are looking at the following stuff for future consideration:

The Reason for God:  Belief in an Age of Skepticism

I’m pretty pumped about this as a series.  Tim Keller, a Presbyterian pastor in New York City, addresses the most common doubts and questions of his largely 20 something and 30 something congregation.  I like his approach:  solid theology delivered with profound respect for those that disagree.

Where Faith and Culture Meet

A six-session study designed to help a group of Christians think through meaningful and positive interaction with their neighbourhood or city.  There are some good Canadian stories in this series.

If you’re interested in being part of my group we intend to meet at my house on December 16th.

I have had a busy time lately and my twitter updates don’t seem to be working at present so news has been a little sparse lately.

I took my entire family with me to Montreal this past weekend to meet with Quebec pastors and families.  The meeting was designed to be an end of the year get away for the families.  The Burgh and I got the chance to teach in tandem.  A new experience for us.  Our boys spent the day as the only English speakers among 15 other kids from Africa, Haiti, and rural Quebec.  A new experience for them.  They got the chance to watch all their favourite movies in French.

On our way home that night we got to hang out with Kim and Syl Reid from the Open Door church in Pierrefonds, QC.  The next morning we stopped in to visit the Rustle Street Church and spend part of the afternoon with Al and Shari Doseger.

In other news I have received my official acceptance into the Masters of Divinity program at McMaster in Hamilton.  My classes will start in January.  Should be interesting days as I juggle the Dad/Husband role with work and school.
 

The Burgh and I are spending a quiet evening in tonight.  We’re watching the latest offering in the Ocean’s 11 franchise.  I don’t know what numbered installment of the franchise we’re watching but based on the well worn groove’s in the script I assume it’s somewhere in the mid 40s.  Did they make an Ocean’s 45?  I kinda lost track.  I’m not sure if this helps identify the one we’re watching but this the one where we are cheering for the thieves.  Their wit and excellent shirts have won me over and I have chosen to overlook their life of crime.  Their plan seems doubtful.  No.  Impossible.  I secretly hope/know they will succeed.