Cultures as Different, Not Better Than

I enjoyed a special treat this morning at a breakfast hosted by friends Joyce and Greg Millikan of Working Faith. They invited C. Peter Wagner to speak on the workplace.

I found particularly helpful his distinction between the church gathered and the church scattered as the two contexts where the people of God live out their discipleship. These two contexts have two distinct cultures with their own "rules" of operation. Christian leaders in the church scattered know both cultures and their respective rules and function in either. Christian leaders in the church gathered know only the one culture, and consider it the "right" one, and the other "wrong" (e.g. the world, worldly, secular, etc.)
That has helped me see why most church leaders don't understand what I'm doing as anything more than trying to start my own business. (And that over professional pastoral ministry. Imagine.)

The main books he referenced if you're a reader:
The Church in the Workplace: How God's People Can Transform Society by C. Peter Wagner
Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life by Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan

New Venture

Rising early to launch new ventures. Off to record my first podcast. Drum roll please.
It's a nice combination of something I want to do in terms of putting my thoughts out on the public table, and what I need to do in terms of expanding the number of people with whom I am in relationship. I'm hoping the process is fun and energizing. It'll be interesting to see how it feels to be recorded. I assume the comfort will grow with experience. I really hope that the editing process isn't a time and energy sponge. These are all unknowns this morning that will be knowns this afternoon.
I love new ventures.

The Wind Blows Where It Will

Turbulent winds stir up as much as they sweep away. Hence the risk inherent in walking out in the wind. Is the risk of what might be stirred up worth the potential benefit of what might be cleaned up? One doesn't negotiate with a storm. The last person to give orders to these gusts of pure power was King Lear. We all know how that story ended. The wind is not a nuisance which we can compartmentalize or ignore, but a landscape altering reality with which to come to terms.

Any Thoughts?

What are exercises that strengthen one's ability to focus? What processes facilitate transforming valued but neglected "shoulds" into driving and schedule dominating priorities? What means lead to increasing self-awareness—especially of unmet needs that sabotage intentions and undermine one's capacity to choose well in their quest for acknowledgment and legitimacy? Any thoughts?

Receiving Life

I cannot understand how one as good as he would seek to dwell within one such as me. Forgiveness stood on its head. Righteousness turned inside out. Love exploding through all boundaries even as it encompasses more.
Without sin and yet indwelling those addicted to sin. Reconciled in the midst of rebellion. Extended in love, received in fear. It is the path of the cross. Misunderstood while understanding. Resisted while sustaining. Compartmentalized while integrating all.
I cannot understand. May there be grace to receive this life.

The Realm of Forgiveness

Living out of forgiveness is dangerous. To partake in a redemptive story so much bigger than myself is to wander lost even while the story line asserts I'm found. To be significant in the story without being central is easier to preach than navigate.
There are no markers. The roads aren't paved. The travelling companions are few, and the guides are non-existent.
Forgiveness speaks of an orientation toward life, hope and the pervasive devastation of sin, by which the reality of sin does not dominate the story of life (i.e. make the story line one of overcoming sin), but is yet another venue for the redemptive power of God to manifest itself on behalf of those he loves.
How can I be so fully, perfectly, and unconditionally loved and not have the focus of the story shift onto me and the adequacy of my response to this love? And how can the story of my response to this love fail to turn on the never-resolved problem of my sinfulness?
Hence the disorienting mystery of forgivness and the meta-story of redemption. The very framework of how I perceive reality itself has failed me and all I serve. And while I feel my way along the outskirts of this realm, all is a blur of swirling and undulating impressions. Maps and roads and markers are not the tools of navigation in this world. I am beginning to sense that forgiveness and prayer are key, and that the overarching schema is a redemptive one.
Forgiven. I am just beginning to comprehend its implications.

Four Word Prayer

Deeper, richer, stronger, sounder.
Words that are prayer for me. I need express nothing else. Further words would only distort and diminish their scope and import. Drag them from the realm of prayer and confine them to tyranny of precise meanings and proper syntax.
Left alone, they steep, infusing flavor, aroma and texture as well as content. They roll around in my mouth and quickly penetrate my being. Each encompasses more than it contains; expresses more than it says; solves more than it resolves.
Deeper, richer, stronger, sounder.

Who We Really Are

"Love is who we really are." A soul-provoking word from Richard Rohr this morning. Even as I begin to learn that I need to take myself less seriously, the suggestion arrives that while the story includes me, it is not about me.
The route toward a more grounded, secure me is one of freedom. Not the freedom characterized by license or contrasted to constraint, but freedom informed and fueled by love. The best definition one could provide for the responsibility of being free is love.
The inclusion of my very identity in what I have heretofore considered a directive for my will—that of loving, love, lover—gives pause. Something resonates, though I'm not sure I yet understand what or how. Of this much I do know, that I have been given a gift this morning.

Focus and Push

Time to focus and push. Good projects. Exciting directions. Concrete initiatives. Let's do it. Time to make it happen. Happen in a concerted, concentrated way.
No excuses. In spite of fears. In the face of disbelief. Undeterred by any obstacle. Facing down all opposition.
It is time. Focus and push

Podcaster Insight

I was at a podcasting convention recently. (Yes, audioKarl is coming.) Much is happening in this new, but fast developing world of self-published content. Needless to say I learned a lot.
More significant than the technical learning, though, was the conversation with one guy who had his own video podcast on repairing computers. His publishing breakthrough came when he learned not to take himself too seriously.
Not the lesson I was expecting. Certainly not the lesson for which I drove all the way to Ontario. But even as he spoke, I sensed this was a gift message arranged by another and especially for me. Somehow and in some way too much is at stake as I offer my services (sell myself) to those I know... as I move toward speaking and publishing my ideas for more public consumption. But I am not at stake. I'm simply quirkly ol' Karl—an enigma in many ways to be sure—but no more and no less than me.
I could feel myself relax inside even as I absorbed this stranger's story. And to think, I almost walked right past that guy. There's just no telling where the next blessing might emerge.