Posts Tagged ‘giving’

Hurry! Make all your purchases today! … uh.. err… yesterday. Yesterday was FREE shipping day! I missed it. Dang! If only I would have gotten free shipping on all the things I need to buy then I could have bought THAT… MUCH… MORE!

Isn’t it sad that we think like this? I am not suggesting that we frivolously go spending our money without a single care about the responsible use of the green and plastic in our pockets and handbags. If a purchase is necessary for an item that is needed (redundancy intended for emphasis) then I always look for the best price or attempt to have the best timing for a purchase to get “a better deal.” If I buy something just because it’s a good deal am I being responsible at all? And how often does that happen this time of year for so many of us?

That’s the whole point of Black Friday.

“If we can just sucker these suckers into the store because of a few good deals on something they think they need, then we can throw a few more average ‘deals’ out there where they have to see it and they won’t be able to resist.”

And how much do we add stress and dysfunction to our lives thinking, “This is my last chance to get something for this person!” or “I have to hurry and think of something to buy… and I just don’t know what to get!”

What if we spent as much time thinking of creative ways to serve others? To invest our time in relationship? To create? To love? Love in a manner that does not involve our addictions to consumption.

One idea: Give life. Give the financial ability for loving families to adopt children. If interested, please Click the ADOPTION DONATION link HERE or the button in the far right hand column. Your entire gift will be designated to our adoption fund.

Also, if making purchases now or anytime, you can purchase through Amazon.com. By linking to Amazon from subversiveREFORMATION.com, we will earn up to 15% of all purchases (current rate is 6% increased from 4% with future increase based on volume). Click the STORE tab and continue or click links to the right.

It comes down to this: What story are you going to embrace? The story of the popular culture? Or THE story? What’s your new tradition for Christmas? How will you celebrate the coming of God to earth in the person of Jesus? He offered salvation and freedom. How about you? Will you share the same message or remain a slave to deadening consumption and commercialism?

What story are you going to embrace? The story of the popular culture? Or THE story? What’s your new tradition?

“All I Want for Christmas.” It’s an interesting title isn’t it? As if Christmas is about me. As if Christmas should be about what I want. Well, I suppose it depends on what one wants for Christmas. I have a hard time accepting things for Christmas that either specifically benefit me and not those around me or perpetuate a cycle of entitlement, greed, and the desire to consume. So… all I want for Christmas is for our celebration of God coming to earth to reflect the love for all people that is demonstrated in God’s self-disclosure as an act of giving. As the popular saying goes, “‘Tis better to give than to receive.”

“If anyone is looking for any last minute gift ideas” (for me or for anyone else) here is what I recommend giving. The idea is that the reception of a gift is actually centered on giving to another.

Scarf
Purchase of a hand-crafted/crocheted scarf from Kelly Smith to help our friends James and Kelly bring home the newest member of their family. Every dollar raised will be used toward adoption expenses to give one Ethiopian orphan a home. Customize your scarf by choosing your color (most colors available) and style (skinny, wide, fringe, no fringe). Skinny scarves are $15 and wide are $20. To place an order today email Kelly at: ophelia2377@hotmail.com. Sarah and I both would not only each like one but also hope that you will enter into the Smith’s story and consider supporting them financially and in prayer. Visit their blog.

Beads for Life
90% of the cost of a Beads for Life product go directly to the females in Africa who create the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

Books from Amazon
If you are purchasing anything from Amazon.com then please link to Amazon through any of the Amazon widgets or lists located here at subversiveREFORMATION.com. Each purchase referred from subversiveREFORMATION.com earns Travis, Sarah, and Kyla a percentage of the cost which will be deposited into their adoption fund. Additionally, what better gift might there be than a book which is used for the learning and teaching about the church and the way of Jesus? You may also search Travis Keller’s Wish List using the “TEXT” tab on ssubversiveREFORMATION.com.

Manure
This green gift transforms waste into power—agricultural power. Organic manure increases crop yields and is cheaper, greener, and safer than chemical fertilizers. So, show your loved ones that you really “give a $%@#” for our planet. The gift goes directly to improve the lives of people living in poverty through OxFam America Unwrapped.

World Food Programme Feed Bag
The FEED 1 bag is a stylish, well-designed and reversible burlap and 100% organic cotton ladies’ carrying tote bag sold to help raise awareness and funds for child hunger. When you purchase a FEED 1 bag, you will guarantee that ONE child is fed in school for ONE full year through the United Nations World Food Program. To date, FEED Projects various partnerships have led to over $4 million for WFP school feeding.

ONE.org Africa Shirt
The tees are made of 100% organic African cotton and were made in Uganda. Shirts are available in both men’s and women’s sizes. ONE is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African policy makers and activists.

What other creative gift ideas do you have?

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Our celebration of Christmas has become the commercial exploitation of Jesus. God showed up on earth to bring that which is wrong back to rights and we attempt to honor that God by misusing our resources and giving ourselves to the commercial entities that prey on the human bend to “need more.”

“I have to have it. It’s bigger. Its’ better. I have to have it. Or… I have to give it. Because then I can mend a broken relationship or show love by filling someone’s longing or addiction to have more stuff. It… completes…. me.”

Is there a better way? Is there a better way to worship the coming of the King?

How are you celebrating Christmas?
Black Friday shopping?
Spending time at a nursing home offering time and attention?
Going to see A Christmas Carol in 3-D?
Sending life-giving resources to children who do not have food?
Carving the holiday ham?
Watching Christmas Vacation repeatedly?
Black Friday shopping?
Buying stuff?
Using vacation time to read to your child?
Attending a religious gathering?

Is there a better way?

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

The Invisible Children and Remember Nhu Clubs at MVNU are hosting an Art and Poetry awareness and fundraising event tonight (Wednesday) in the student union. Kyla will be presenting her piece of art that she and I composed this weekend. Her piece is called “Red and Yellow, Black and White” in reference to the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” As we talked about “all the children of the world” and our need to show and express love to all, Kyla used her hands and fingers to paint red, yellow, and black around a cut-out of Africa that I drew, cut out, and taped to the canvas board making a white silhouette of the country where the dehumanization of children continues through militarization and exploitation. Though I cannot talk with Kyla yet about child soldiers and sexual trafficking, she can begin to understand that love and kindness for all of humanity. Eventually, she’ll hear their stories.

We are incapable to loving absent from relationship. We are incapable of relationship absent from the context of story. We have to learn about each other. We have to be aware of the formative life experiences that make us who we are both individually and as a collective group of people in a global community.

The world is our canvas. May we cover it with strokes of love.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

The Extended Melody Project benefit concert is tonight in just a half hour. Admission is a $5 donation (though you can give more) and all monetary income from admission, concessions, and shirt sales is donated to an orphanage in Cambodia through Asia’s Hope. Shirts cost $10 U.S. Dollars and are sweet as evidenced below. It is a new cut and fabric from Gildan that is very similar to American Apparel.

Do you like music? Do you like orphans? Admittedly, the second question is awkward. Awkward and real. Awkward even in three senses: 1.) Most people reading this blog probably do not like the fact that any child would be orphaned; 2) The term and idea of “orphan” is not the core identity of any child; and 3) Questioning one’s commitment or lack of commitment to acting on behalf of the fatherless may create some discomfort and/or conviction.

Two students at MVNU approached me last year with the idea to do a benefit concert as a social event in order to raise money for resources needed at an orphanage in Brasil. I said “do it.” The short version of the story is that they did do it and they are doing it again. Please visit the Extended Melody Project (EMP) page and become a Fan on Facebook. EMP will be held at Ibiza 33 in Mount Vernon, OH on Friday, October 30. (4) or (5) bands will be playing and all funds from admission and t-shirt / concession sales will be donated to an orphanage in Cambodia.

The church is being the church.

Anyone want to sponsor the event? Any creative ideas?

Informational video to be posted after editing and processing finalized. Updates to our adoption page will be posted soon as well.

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

Kyla now begins all her prayers by saying, “God, thank you.” That’s it. “God, thank you.” When is the last time that has been your prayer? Are your prayers prayed out of worry? Selfishness? How about gratitude? Thankfulness for the activity of God amongst his people.

When Sarah and I purchased Kyla’s bed to transition her from crib to awesome Malm from Ikea, I finished putting it together and Kyla looked up at me from a little less than a meter high and said, “Sank you, daddy.” She had a bed. And she was thankful.

Since then there have been a number of times that Kyla has surprised me in her simple statements of “thank you.” For what are you thankful? To whom are you thankful? Are you satisfied with what has been provided for you or do you normally feel ripped off? Like you drew the short straw. Like things never go your way. Or… like you deserve more? What gives us that sense of entitlement? What makes us so centered on having more? What keeps us from being grateful?

Is Kyla’s gratitude actually something that exists due to what she receives or possesses? How has she learned to be grateful? How do you exemplify gratitude and for what are you grateful?

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

The Silent Historical Framework of the Emerging Church

Recovery of Genuine Wesleyan Theology in Postmodern Context

Travis Keller

02.29.08

A Condensed Book Review from a Wesleyan Theological Perspective on

“Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures”

by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K Bolger

“Common needs often create strange alliances.” Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger begin the preface of their book entitled “Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures” by addressing their seemingly implausible ability to write a book together. Strange alliances, indeed. Many hear the words “Christian community” and “postmodern cultures” used in conjunction with each other and immediately assume that the two are being juxtaposed one against the other. The same may be true for the terms “Wesleyan theology” and “emerging church.” While the connection between the two may never be verbally stated, Wesleyan theology may very well be the silent historical framework of the emerging church.

It is noted in the book that the process of dismantling the modern (referring to a historical era and philosophy) practices of Christianity “is a fragile movement that can be marginalized by denominational leaders and killed with criticism by theological power brokers.” Churches that are “emerging” in their practice are faced with great degrees of resistance. To associate with any certain theological tradition would be suicidal to a hopeful movement. The labeling system within the Emerging Church has caused immense confusion so a further label would arouse criticism growing from its current level of existence into a destructive force from both opponents to the noted tradition and adherents to that tradition. Opponents would continue to oppose that which they already oppose and adherents would defend their tradition in an attempt to preserve it from a supposed threat and distortion. The reality of the shift in church practice, however, is ultimately going to reflect certain roots in the history of the church. The ideas for ecclesiological method offered by Emerging Churches closely align with the thought of John Wesley.

The emerging church is difficult to define. Moderns may desire a clear, definitive statement but as noted by Doug Pagitt, the church is “not necessarily the center of God’s intentions. God is working in the world and the church has the option to join God or not.” By avoiding a precise definition of emerging churches, Gibbs, Bolger, and company allow the church to function as a moving organism whose missional direction is dependent on its own choice. What may be criticized then as a low view of the church is actually the highest view imaginable. The church is dependent on grace when it chooses to follow its own way rather than the way of Jesus. Wesley, an advocate of the free will of humanity trusts in means of grace gifted by God when the church moves in a manner that reveals the imperfect people that it is.

Wesley contends that the church is not to be separatist or divisive. The emerging church is distinctively Wesleyan then in that it does not merely get caught up in argument or exchanging critique with its opponents but rather focuses on the person of Jesus and the love for others that he offers. Gibbs and Bolger note three core church practices from which other practices are created. They are “(1) identifying with the life of Jesus, (2) transforming secular space, and (3) living as community.”

The message of Jesus was not a message about going to heaven. His was a message and demonstration of enacting the Kingdom of God on earth. To live in a manner that reflects the life of Jesus is to truly embrace what Wesley termed “entire sanctification.” The Church is the people who are called out and set apart to enact the Kingdom of God on earth. To do so requires a confrontation with the risk and cost of following Jesus and thereby necessitates a grace that precedes (preveniant) the Church, enabling it to embrace the fullness of the mission of God by entering into that which may be considered “secular” and living in a “sacred” manner. Such living entails relinquishing one’s “unlimited sovereignty over his or her individual person” in order to “create missional communities” that may only exist within the context of love. Wesley states, “By this let all men know whose disciples ye are, because you ‘love one another.’”

Gibbs and Bolger proceed with more practical examples of Emerging Churches that very distinctively reflect Wesleyan theology. Wesley continually references the need for the Church to care for the poor and marginalized. Contrary to the quite exclusive appearance of many church gatherings, Emerging Churches are to be accepting and inclusive. Not only does inclusivity include people from other traditions, cultures, and even faiths but it also extends to the poor who are otherwise considered strangers. Central to the gospel message is that those who “don’t have” are invited to share in the “having.” The stranger is to be invited into the community. He/She is to receive that which is given generously. Hospitality remains a key component of helping others to honestly accept themselves as true members of a community for a generous gift is much more useful, according to Wesley, when it is personally delivered. Giving accompanied by shared relationship is invaluable to the message of Jesus. It removes the thought of needing to receive in return.

Emerging Churches concludes with sections devoted to the concept of the body of Christ producing and creating. There is reference to the same passage in Ephesians that Wesley uses in his address “Of the Church.” In order for a community to function in full health each member must use his/her talents and giftings as he/she has been granted. “Full participation is an alternative to [modern] consumer church” which is founded ultimately on fulfilling a selfish desire. Emerging churches seem to pursue the concept of the priesthood of all believers where all members of the community are contributing. No one is being served any more than he/she is serving.

“Emerging churches are communities that follow Jesus into the kingdom and the far reaches of culture. [They] destroy the Christendom idea that church is a place, a meeting, or a time. Church is a way of life, a rhythm, a community, a movement. Emerging churches dismantle all ideas of church that interfere with the work of the kingdom.” With Gibbs’ and Bolger’s representation of Emerging Churches, Wesley cannot argue. The way of living taught by Wesley and the way of the Emerging Church is the way of Jesus.