Worldly Holiness

  Downtown Office Building. Can you find me in the picture above? How many times?

One of our friends is actually going to study Arabic so this will be a chance to support him in that venture and get him kind of set-up. I mentioned Nate in my last post. He will be returning to Barcelona after his busy summer which includes–language learning in Morocco, then back in the states to be with family and friends for a short break, then back to Barcelona to support the Latino cell group we have been working with this year. Nate also wants to learn more about the Mosaics project we are working on. So God is supplying more personnel as we transition back to the Seattle for a year. Pray for Nate, for his language and culture learning. He is excited but this will be a big venture none-the-less. We are excited for him. Before I sign off to go finish packing, I wanted to share this photo with you as a way of saying essentially. "I will be out of the office" for awhile. I may be able to post some stuff from Morocco but don't know yet for sure.

We had about 20 in our cell group last night night. A lot of energy and interest is growing with this group. This is the Esparcidos project that I mentioned several months ago. After our study and short time of worship I visited with some of our new people. One guy shared that he is agnostic but open and inquiring. I had a wonderful time sharing with him about the Mosaics project and my desire to build bridges of friendship with our focus friends. This guy was visiting from Holland where they also have many immigrants from our focus areas, similar to Spain. Anyway, he was intrigued with what we are doing and seemed challenged to reach out in friendship to focus people that he knows back home.

After our study I went to hang out with our colleague from La Coruña, Rob Reed, who was visiting Barcelona and this cell group. We both had a great dish of patatas bravas [spicy potatoes] starting around 10:45 at night, out in the open air of the evening at a sidewalk cafe. After a great time of visiting I looked at my watch and said, "hey, I got to catch the last train home!" I madly rushed and got the first two trains but the 3rd one was already out of service for the night. No problem. I popped my head out of the subway at a different place, got my bearings and headed up the hill to our apartment, about a 25 minute walk. Rolled into the house from the office, I guess you could say, about 1 am. But don't get me wrong. That sounds like I am addicted to work. I am not. I just love what I do and what God has called us to. It is a wonderful journey and the adventure is really, really fun.

By the way, keep our little travel team in prayer as we poke around Morocco. It is a fascinating country with many, many focus friends. Pray also for my Pakistani friends as they have their first event while I am gone. They have had a glitch with the logistics so pray that will be ironed out. Pray also for Carol and the kids in their places of life and activity, that God would show his love and grace to us all as we seek to follow. Thanks. 

Pakistani Friends, originally uploaded by papalars.

Dear Praying Friends,

It has been too long since I last wrote with my regular prayer requests. Previously, I had hit a good monthly rhythm until last month, just before the reflection about the Lord “bending but not breaking” us. That post was kind of ironic because since then we have experienced some good bending. Maybe God was preparing us for some challenges. And He remains faithful. In recent days, God has directed me to Psalm 25:1-4. “To Thee O Lord, I lift up my soul, O my God, in Thee I trust. Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed. Make me know Thy ways, O Lord; Teach my Thy paths.”

I have some big news for you and then I will give my prayer list. After much prayer and consideration with our Covenant member care team, including the director of Covenant Missions, Curt Peterson, it has been decided that we will change our venue this coming year for ministry. We will be returning to Seattle for the next school year. Without going into extensive detail, you can know that we have to attend to family needs. No scandal, just needs of a normal family that cannot be addressed adequately in Spain. I will continue to focus on the Mosaics Project, conducting research, networking and engaging in direct ministry with our focus friends. I will also visit churches to share the vision of what God is doing and recruit shamelessly.

At first, this was a significant adjustment in my mind but I see the wisdom in this decision. From this vantage point I also see how God is opening up some doors to expand the reach of the Mosaics project in North America as well as other parts of the world. As I speak with younger people [more and more are younger than me each year…how did that happen?] I am beginning to see that God has placed our focus friends on their heart. The end of this month I will be in Morocco with two of these younger crowd [both in their 20’s]. One will be starting to study Arabic for 6 weeks this summer [Our friend Nate Finch: see his blog here: Nate]. The other is a North Park Seminary student who wants to explore potential ministry in this region. So God is clearly calling and I sense that we are to help mobilize, train and lay the ground work for those coming behind us. I will unpack more of this new direction in forthcoming posts on my blog and further prayer lists. So keep posted.

• As I write this, I am about to leave to go have lunch with Miguel and my Pakistani friends. You have been praying for them the last several months. They continue to have a vision to reach their immigrant community here in the Barcelona. Today, we will be meeting to discuss how we can best support their vision and put feet and hands to some practical ministry initiatives. Pray that we can discern ways to best help. I do praise God for building trust with these guys from Pakistan, and for making connections with Miguel.

• Guess what. God is already moving. We had a wonderful lunch together, the 4 of us in the picture above along with Miguel, my friend from Argentina. These guys have a Pakistani, Urdu speaking pastor friend coming to visit from Rotterdam in two weeks. Did you get all that? They want to have a worship service for their extended network of more than 50 Pakistani families in the region. Miguel is networked with the local churches, having served here for 10 years. He immediately knew of a church that might work, called them, and secured the place. So, pray for the first worship service in Barcelona for the Urdu speaking Pakistani community. Miguel says this would be the first in recent history, maybe ever. This is an immigrant community that are resident aliens, needing support, encouragement and Christian nurture. They also want to reach their co-patriots. In fact today I met several of our focus friends where we ate. The owner is Pakistani, so they feel comfortable eating there. I have an open invitation from the owner to come and chat with his clients whenever I have time.
• So where am I in all this? I was simply the guy who was in the right place at the right time, trusting God to lead and then introducing friends that I had made in the Pakistani community to Miguel, the resource and logistics guy here on the ground. Crazy thing about all this is I will be in Morocco when they have their first worship service. God is amazing.

So pray for us as we trust God for our move back to Seattle this coming school year. Pray that we find housing, that Carol finds appropriate work and that re-adjustments go well for all of us. Pray also for my focus friends here in Barcelona. Pray for the pastor from Rotterdam who is coming to preach and begin to shepherd the Pakistani community here in Barcelona. Pray also for continued development of relationships that I have with other focus friends, that God would build bridges of trust over which an encounter with Christ can be experienced.

Thanks for praying. God is good, sometimes mysterious, but always faithful. It is good to be in his company.

Genetically Altered Tree Farm, originally uploaded by papalars.

I am currently writing a section of my dissertation on the spiritual disciplines. Someone mentioned to me the other day that everyone and their cousin are writing today about everyday spirituality. Yeah, I’ve made that observation too but I think many miss the point. My general feeling is that when we typically think of spirituality in the church today, we think of the experience of connecting with God, of having that spiritual high, in our own quiet time or personal retreat. We like the spiritual encounter, the epiphany, but prefer to avoid the disciplines, the dark valleys, or the part that requires some exercise of the will, mind, and body. Additionally we don't seem to connect the inward part with the outward fruit and witness in the world. To change the metaphor, we want the goods in the drive through at church, not out in the work-a-day world, or struggles of life where we have to apply some effort.

This is a prime example of the syncretism I was referring to in the other post before my Mother’s Day greeting to mom. I think I frightened people away with that word. It was a big word and helpful concept but I think I lost some readers. Bear with me a little more on this string. It is crucial to recovering our vitality in our personal lives, the church and witness in the world! Currently, I think we practice a form of genetically altered faith, an Un-Mere Christianity if you will. I'm not using this to express my pro or con opinion about genetic research. I'm merely [there is that word mere again] mentioning that we have tinkered and manipulated a biblical practice that has produced a different kind of faith. It is NOT mere Christianity. Our spirituality is syncretistic. It has been mostly influenced by our culture and less by scripture and Jesus.

The word discipline seems to be currently a bit out of fashion. And with that word, also the notion of discipleship and the binding of our lives to Jesus or his will in our lives. We don’t find these ideas much in our Christian lexicon and actual practice within the church. There are books written about it, yes. But it is not translating into common practice. Maybe this says something about the state of our condition. It appears we approach spirituality today with a general hankering for the experience of something new and deeper, but without any desire or will to pay the dues for that experience. We want, as Bonhoeffer once so eloquently said, a “Christianity without the living Christ” or the demands He makes of us. However, we must realize also, this “is inevitably Christianity without discipleship and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth.” It also has little impact on the world around us and marks us “Christian” in name only. I will post more about this in subsequent reflections. Meanwhile enjoy this funky photo that I engineered yesterday to get the effect of genetically altering something. I think we have done something like this with our spirituality.

Feel free to leave a comment or your opinion. Have a great start to the week. 

Happy Mother's Day. Always Bringing the Honey Home!, originally uploaded by papalars.

I'm far away from my Mother this year, who just turned 80 in February. She will probably see this tomorrow on Mother's Day back in Seattle. So this is for her principally. Mother's day here in Spain was last Sunday, as in most of the other parts of the world. So belated Mother's day to those other moms out there.

I was born on mother's day many moons ago. Sometimes I felt like she had to compete for attention on her special day because she always focused on me somehow. How selfless and noble she was and is! Add the fact that she has often said I was her best mother's day gift. Well, I'd like to say she is the best mom in the world! And I feel that more being separated from her this year on her special day. Mom always has believed in me, encouraged me, loved me and laid a foundation so I could do well and go far in life. Here is just a little recognition of how much she means to me. Happy Mother's Day Mom! I took this photo in a park close to our apartment and made this magazine cover just for you. Love ya gobs!

Hagia Sophia, originally uploaded by papalars.

Syncretism: the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.

Leslie Newbigin made an important observation after returning from missionary service in India about his own cultural form of Christianity in England back in the 70’s. Europe in general is ahead of American culture in many of these kinds of trends, the relation of Christianity to culture, immigration patterns, the role of Islam in society, etc. Anyway, Newbigin observed that instead of confronting the culture with the Gospel, he found Christianity in the West, especially in its Protestant form, perpetually trying to fit the gospel into his native post Enlightenment culture. This was characterized by Newbigin as an advanced form of syncretism. Our form of Christianity may not in fact be genuine, let alone Biblical. In my opinion, we have, ironically, advanced the idea of a cultural form of faith even further. It has a different feel in America, my native culture, but it is there if you really want to see it. In common terms, what does this mean? I posted a photo here of the Hagia Sophia church to help us think about the premise. Is it a church? Wait…no, a mosque! Well no actually, today it’s a museum. What is this building? What was it in time past? Can we still tell? To me, it is a metaphor for the topic of syncretistic Christianity. What are the layers and identities that others see in our expression of Christianity? Don't worry, I don't think our churches will become mosques in the future. I'm just using the idea as a metaphor for the concept of layers of identity and perception.

Well, that is the same set of questions many have of Christianity today in America, especially my focus friends. Is our faith about attending the most hip church with contemporary music? Is salvation about guaranteed entrance into heaven? Is our faith about a conservative political agenda, or a liberal one for that matter? What is the Gospel all about and are we living it? I’d love to ask my blog readers some of these questions? Someone has already gotten the ball rolling in responding to my last post. They began to wonder about the notion of syncretism in Western Christianity when I made a reference to my dissertation. We normally reserve that epitaph for situations on the mission field but I’d like to turn this one around on us. So, here are my questions: 1) Is American Christianity syncretistic? 2) If so, in what ways do you see that to be the case? Maybe we can work on the follow-up suggestions to these questions later on.

Please respond by hitting comments below. I’d love to know your thoughts.

Here is some interesting information about the Hagia Sophia that I got from Wikipedia. It might help in understanding the basic assessment about syncretism. This building (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία; Holy Wisdom) is now known as the Ayasofya Museum, but was an early Christian Church and later an Eastern Orthodox church which was transformed into a mosque in 1453 by the Turks, and converted into a museum in 1935. Get the point? It is located in Istanbul, Turkey, on the Turkish Thrace. It is regularly considered one of the greatest and most beautiful buildings in history. Its conquest by the Ottomans at the fall of Constantinople is considered one of the great tragedies of Christianity by the Greek Orthodox faithful. The name comes from the Greek name Ἁγία Σοφία, a contraction of Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, meaning "Church of the Holy Wisdom of God". It is also known as Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish. Although it is sometimes called "Saint Sophia" in English, it is not named after a saint named Sophia — the Greek word sophia means "wisdom."

It was constructed in five years, from 532 to 537, at the orders of Emperor Justinian I and designed by Isidore of Miletus.