Worship

Today's schedule looked loosely like the following:
8:00a - Roll off the bunk after cracking lighthearted retort from a groggy stupor towards Wes who prepares breakfast more than...
8:05a - Pancakes
8:30a - Intercessory prayer for neighbors, neighborhood, and other loved ones.
9:00a - Swing by the office for a final run at lesson plans before being nearly late to the class I teach.
10:02a - Be nearly late for the class I teach.
10:03a-330p - Teach and talk, jest and joke with middle school students about causes and effects of both drug abuse and violence
4:00p - Home to make a third attempt (in as many weeks) to finish watching Ed Norton save Liv Tyler and the world as "The Incredible Hulk"
4:05p - Zzzzz
6:00p - Roll off the couch in the office, stumbling instead of standing only to flop and smash into nearly every wall or door on the way to the kitchen.
6:30p - Watch the procession of children march resolutely toward the house.
6:45p - Set up for dinner
6:55p - Corral everyone into the dining room for prayer
7:00p - Hold Donovan by the hand during prayer so he doesn't leap face, preventing disturbing amounts of forehead carpet-burn
7:01p - Remove someone else's cup from Donovan's hand, get him his own cup of water
7:05p - Toss D. over my shoulder in order to slop a spoonful of Speedy Gonzalez into bowl
7:15p - Finally arrive at the table, D. on knee placing a straw cornucopia bowl from his head to mine back to his on to Conner's finally back to his.
7:25p - After many surprisingly successful attempts at feeding, D. needs a new activity unrelated to the dinner table.
7:30p - Step inside to induce dance party, watch the nearly 3 year old Donovan commence various maneuvers similar to break dancing.
7:45p-9:00p - Follow in D.'s every footstep as he finds a skateboard to scoot up and down the driveway on, scoot under the picnic table on the patio, crawl up an incline and release into a board slide that would have otherwise been fearfully harmful had there not been supervision, attempt to ride the board out the door down an 18 in. fall onto concrete, play with the pieces from Sorry, Operation, and Connect Four, all among other less notable activities.
9:00p - Drag children out of the house back to their own home
9:15p - Drag children out of the yard back to their own home
9:30p - Drag ourselves away from the children, back to our house
9:45p - Relearn how to play 42 (dominoes)
11:30p - Realize I haven't eaten dinner
11:32p - Eat dinner while listening to Wes and Connor jam
11:45p - Rediscover Ariel's homemade Incredible Oatmeal Banana Bread
12:15a - Begin writing about the rich day in the Kingdom I was allowed
1:03a - Realize typing an "a" next to 12:15 means I should finish writing and fumble through the dark towards a bed.
1:04a - Shower and sleep, at the same time?

Questions and Discussion

For everyone who attended the Summit talk today, I want to invite you to continue the discussion with us by posting any other questions or reflections as comments on this post. Hopefully we can keep the conversation going! Here are some questions for you to consider and respond to as well:

1. What were some things about our story that were meaningful to you, and why?

2. What were some points of tension where maybe you disagreed with something?

3. What do you think new monasticism has to say to today's church?

4. What walls stand in opposition to the Kingdom coming in your community of faith? What walls do you see God breaking down already?

5. Share your stories!

Summit

Hello everyone! Next week is Summit at ACU! Summit is a three day annual gathering at ACU that includes great preaching, incredible key-note speakers and featured guests (this year: Shaine Claiborne, Derek Webb, and Kathleen Norris to name a few), and many varied classes throughout the day. I would encourage any of you who can to come on out for all the great speakers and events at this year's Summit.

Specifically, you should come to the class that Allelon will be putting on! It will be on Monday, Sep. 20, at 4:00pm, in the Biblical Studies Building Room 112. The title of the class is "Radical Love and the Coming Kingdom: A year in the life a new-monastic community."

I hope you can all come out and celebrate with us the many things God has done in the Allelon community over the past year.

Prayer Vigil

I want to invite you all to participate in the 48 hour TXA prayer vigil coming up this next Monday and Tuesday. It will kick off with a prayer walk around campus, which will begin 48 hours of constant prayer. There will be a prayer tent on campus, manned by TXA guys, where anyone is welcome to come and pray, so if you are in the Abilene area and have a heart to see God's kingdom come, please join us in prayer.

For those of you who are not familiar with TXA, it is a covenant group of about 20 guys seeking to live out the sermon on the mount together. They live under a common rule of life, participate in community, and are on mission together. They are dear friends to the Allelon community. We cannot wait to see what God will do through this time set aside to seek his face together.

Here is the info you need:

To participate in the prayer walk, meet at the tower of light at 12:01 AM on Monday, Sept. 13. After that, we would encourage you to set aside blocks of time to pray over the next 48 hours (Monday and Tuesday). If you can come to the prayer tent, that would be wonderful. If not, join us in prayer from wherever you are.

To learn more about the TXA Monk Warriors, check out their blog: http://www.monkwarrior.org

"But I tell you, Love your enemies..."

There are no “teachers” and “students” in the Allelon community. There are no “ministers” and “ministered-tos.” Distinctions like this become irrelevant when true community breaks out. We are all teachers and we are all students – if we have the courage to teach and the humility to learn. We are all ministers and we are all ministered to – if we are intentional about reaching out in love and aware of our own need to be loved. When community breaks out and the love of God changes our hearts, it quickly becomes apparent that any such labels are just walls that divide us from God and each other. And let’s face it: We have enough walls already. We are all in this together, learning to follow Jesus, seeking God’s kingdom, loving each other – together.

An example, you ask? Let me tell you a story about Poon, one of the most courageous eighth graders I know. This story starts several months ago, and just like every other good story from our community, it starts around a dinner table.

We were just pushing away our empty bowls, moments ago filled with beans and rice, and I was just leaning back in my chair, when Poon began to tell us about one of her teachers. Poon and many of her friends had begun to wear Christian bracelets and t-shirts at school. I don’t know why they started, but apparently, once they did, no one wanted to stop. So they continued wearing them and even began writing Christian buzz-words on their arms. Of course, like any fad, it got really popular once a teacher – we will call her Mrs. Smith – started objecting. Who knows what her objection was? It doesn’t really matter. Poon told me she was giving students ISS and detention for wearing those things and for writing on their arms.

Well, Poon was up in arms; and let me tell you, that is a sight to see. Poon is a poet, and she has no trouble making herself heard or understood – there is a special rhythm and style to her speech, eloquent in a unique way. This particular night, she had had enough of Mrs. Smith and was letting us all know just how mad she was. Apparently, with her natural leadership abilities, Poon was finding herself in a face-off with Mrs. Smith, whom she did not like and who did not like her. And let me tell you, Poon is not one to back down.

So, there we were. I did not really want to choose sides, but I also did not want to shut Poon down or fail to really listen to her. I let her talk it out for a while, and then I decided to do a crazy thing – talk about Jesus. They were wearing the bracelets, so how about it? What would Jesus do?

Poon rarely misses the irony in a situation; it only took a little nudging from me and the others around the table for her to see the contradiction in failing to show love to a teacher in defense of Jesus t-shirts (I wonder how many of them mentioned loving your enemies…). Mostly I just asked Poon questions, crazy “what if” questions that basically amounted to “What if you loved Mrs. Smith in such an extreme way that your kindness would be unmistakable and utterly disarming?”

Remember I said that Poon never backs down. Well I meant it – not from a fight and not from a challenge. So we challenged her. We challenged her to put her money where her mouth was (or in this case, where her t-shirts and Sharpies were) and to give the love of Jesus a chance to transform her relationship with Mrs. Smith.

Ok, fast forward about five or six months. It’s the first day of the fall semester, and Poon walks through the doors of her junior high. She is greeted by all her friends, and just like any first day, it is a day full of joyful reunions. But on this particular first day, two very peculiar things happened.

Another person greeted Poon that day, and she greeted her as a teacher would her favorite student. In Poon’s words, “Mrs. Smith came up and gave me a big hug!” That’s right. Love prevailed. All those months ago, when Poon decided to love Mrs. Smith instead of hating her, it completely transformed their relationship and the whole atmosphere in Poon’s class. I don’t remember exactly how Poon demonstrated love, but it was extreme enough that I remember thinking it must have given Mrs. Smith whiplash. And praise God, Mrs. Smith responded in turn.

The second peculiar thing has to do with a young lady we’ll call Tarsheka who just moved here from out of state. I don’t know exactly when it started or why Tarsheka decided to mess with Poon, but by the time I was sitting with Poon after her fourth day of school, she was on her last nerve.

Fighting is in Poon’s blood. She comes from a culture and background where if you don’t hit, you get hit. Unfortunately – well, actually, fortunately – the school district just instituted a new zero-tolerance policy. If you fight, you get expelled. So for four days she had been backing down, even though it went against her every instinct. Tarsheka was in five of her seven classes, and, to hear Poon tell it, was making her life a living hell. Poon said she was ready to blow and that unless her friend Mrs. Smith (remember her?) was able to change her schedule, Tarsheka was going to get beat up the next day.

Mrs. Smith did eventually change Poon’s schedule, and I don’t think that Poon and Tarsheka are friends today. But before her schedule got changed, Poon taught me something about loving enemies.

After school on that fourth day, when Poon was about ready to blow, I listened to her and commiserated with her, but Poon was not there for those things. She has a host of eighth grade friends who will do that. Poon came and talked to me that day already knowing what I would say. That is what is so beautiful: Poon wanted to be challenged. Of course, on some level she wanted to punch Tarsheka, but I think – and this is just my impression – that she really wanted something more.

So I challenged her again. We talked about the final verses of Romans 12. We remembered together her relationship with Mrs. Smith. And we wrestled with those “what if” questions. It didn’t take long before Poon was brainstorming ways to go out of her way in loving Tarsheka. She recognized that Tarsheka probably felt lonely and awkward, having just moved here, so she decided to say kind words to her and invite Tarsheka into her group of friends. Then we talked about the fact that Poon wouldn’t be able to genuinely love Tarsheka on her own, not in her current state. We talked about praying and asking the Lord to change her heart and give her love for Tarsheka. Poon decided she would spend time that night praying for Tarsheka and for a heart full of love.

The next day, Poon repeatedly showed intentional love to Tarsheka. It only took two periods before Tarsheka was no longer saying any mean things, no longer threatening Poon, no longer making snide remarks behind her back. They weren’t besties, but they were no longer open enemies. I personally wanted to see love reach its goal in that relationship, but I guess the Lord knew something I didn’t because by the end of the day, Mrs. Smith had changed Poon’s schedule.

I learned a lot about the power of love because of Poon’s courage to walk the way of the cross. And the beautiful thing is that this story is not over. Poon and I will both face countless situations in our lives in which we are forced to choose between love and what is easy or what feels good. We are both teachers and we are both students, but most of all we are both disciples, learning what it means to follow Jesus.

A Good Day

Smiles invite rest.  A glowing face eliminates fear.  Today, I sprawled the future contents of a do-it-yourself shag carpet across the floor of our recently reorganized living room.  As my t-shirt weaving began, the rolling of rocks and gravel greeted my ears.  Shortly thereafter in the door stood clean cut Carl, hair freshly buzzed.  And a quiet smile. 

 "Carl!" Wes trumpeted - a righteous reunion.  Blessedly meek and mumbly as usual, Carl returned a greeting.  No sooner had Carl plopped down then had Vlad popped in the door with characteristic impromptu.  Conversation commenced.  A touch of small talk preceded Carl's underlying reason for his visit: he'd just returned from his wife.  "She should be out in December."  He couldn't hide the hope in his voice.  Carl, to my knowledge, has sparsely been much of a prayer instigator, yet on this day he led the charge.  "I'll start and one of you guys can finish," he eagerly delegated without a pause to decipher who would officially end the prayer.  We joined hands and talked to God.  Fewer prayers have I felt so privileged to be apart of.

A new kind of Worship

God wrote the story of this trip to Brasil, and he wrote the story of camp. That's the only way the camp theme of "Viver Coisas Novas" could possibly have succeeded. "Viver Coisas Novas" translates to "live new things," and this is what God wrote on us at camp. We went deep into the heart of our identities, only to find the creator himself in each of us. We were all the teachers and we were all the students. We were all fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers and one love one heart to hold us together. It's the most liberated I've ever felt in worship, and it wasn't even because the songs were good - though the songs were very good. I've never been to a camp where the singing was both sooo profound and soooo full of life and joy. Thank the Lord for His son Logan Pringle. But it wasn't the singing that made worship so good, it wasn't the guitar riff, and it wasn't the slides on the overhead. Camp was worship, all of it, every last blessed bit. Life itself is worship. You can love with your every second, and you can do it just being who you are. We made journals for school kids and shirts for homeless people and through it all opened ourselves to a world full of purpose and opportunity. Every moment is a chance to worship; every second is a time to dance. If we want to run we should run, if sing than sing, if dance than dance - all for the worship of our King.

Viver Coisas Novas!