Tuesday, June 19, 2007

What is God Up To? a letter to a friend

I thought I'd post some thoughts I sent to a friend of mine who expressed some wonderings about what God is doing as he waits to see what doors will open up for his future. It helped me express some of my own musings about discerning what God is up to.

---------------
It is a time of trying to read not only the times, but how God is moving in these times, particularly how he is readying a group of people to be ready to move when God is set to do what he's planning to do. If that sounds circular or somewhat complicated, I guess what I am trying to say is that I get a sense that all this ambiguity is something I sense the Spirit doing to raise up a people who will live missionally in the contexts we are in.

That does not make things clearer, but it gives me a sense that all we have left is to trust the Spirit believing that the Spirit knows what he's doing. So whether we should press on "closed" doors, or step through ones that seem to be open ("least resistance") -- I am not sure - except that we are living in times when our eyes and ears are being cultivated/atuned to the things of God in the world.

I am still involved with sacred space and that is developing slowly, but it is developing. My part-time consulting is developing slowly also. So what I am seeing is that things are developing slowly -- so maybe this is a time for something to be developed in me as I trust God to lead me forward (I do know I want to move forward, rather than backward -- one of the reasons I said no to Vancouver).

There are plenty of open doors which I am exploring, but do not get a sense it is time to go through any of them.

Actually last week my wife asked me if there is any "gypsy" blood in me, since I am in this state of "wandering." I do have some East European blood in me, so maybe . . . . In all this I am sensing that rather life being something that we take control of, take charge of, there is a growing group of people (some of us were together in last semester's class at Elmbrook) that God is preparing for something really wild. So somehow we need to stay in touch and support one another -- perhaps to move ahead together.

So how does that put bread on the table? I have no idea -- It seems I am nickel and diming my way forward, but each day I realize each nickel and dime is a gift from the Lord who is supplying not only my needs, but my family's needs, according to his riches in glory. So yes I'd rather have a steady place of employment, but if God lets me walk through two or three of the doors/opportunities he is opening up, there will be nothing steady about this.

Another "door" has recently opened up. It is what I have talked about as "businesses that are churches" also known as "third places." First and second places are home and work environments, but third places are places where people gather, relate, connect, places that are safe, etc. What if churches were not places, but people in places, places such as these third places where coffee, sporting goods, books, shoes, etc are sold, but people are attracted to them not only for the products (as in our hectic paced world), but also come there to be with others. So when we are there, we are there as those who incarnate the presence of Christ connecting with people in our communities, etc. I heard about third places from Pernell Goodyear, one of the pastors of Freeway Cafe in Hamilton, ON Canada, who got the idea from reading Ray Oldenburg's book The Great Good Place.

So maybe the next generation of churches in the North American culture has to do not with building churches, but being church in such third places. I'd like to be involved in something like that and I am discovering in the past week that there are more people open to an idea like this than I thought. I have already met with someone about buying a coffee shop and turning it into a third place, and this afternoon meeting with someone to talk about a biking, hiking, kayaking store that would be a third place for the outdoor crowd. This idea intrigues me and I plan on exploring it more as I teach a course in Madison this Fall entitled Social and Cultural Exegesis through Trinity's Extension program.

I just think there is too much the Spirit is doing for something not to be happening. I want to get on board with this, rather than settling for something steady and regular.

It reminds me of the Parable of the Sower (perhaps a somewhat allegorical interpretation) -- but most of us enjoy walking on the hardened path (where God's seed does not grow to well) and we are working hard to make something happen for God. I sense God is calling me (and I am sure plenty others) to take a look beyond the shallow soil and weedy soil next to the hard path to the tilled, ploughed soil (where the seed does grow well) and begin to walk in it. Yet to walk in this soil (especially if has been recently ploughed up) makes for difficult walking. So is the ambiguity, the uncertainly, the difficulty of this time our learning to walk in soil that has no pathways in it? Yet here is where if we remain in it long enough we will see shoots sprouting.

Thanks, this has helped me process some stuff that has been sitting in my head and heart. Any responses to any of this?

By the way -- I would love it if God were to lead us to serve together in some way -- maybe God is trying to keep us connected.

Roland