theothegrey

The week we moved and spent just about every evening in our old home packing, cleaning and preparing it for a new family. I’ve been waking up every morning surrounded by moving boxes. I also taught four workshops, one at a youth camp and the rest at a conference. I taught our regular Pathways class as well as hosted our Sunday panel on “Building Better Relationships.” And I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it all.

I’ve been trying to savor various moments throughout my day by being fully present and by being thankful for God’s gifts. It’s made what could have been a stressful and tiresome week, a week that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve been trying “experiements” like this since I read Practicing His Presence years ago. Many of my attempts haven’t been as memorable. I struggle with a disjuction in my head that says that work is work and play and enjoyment come after work. But on occasion it all comes together and I have a week like this last one.

Here are a few things that have been putting a smile on my face.

We’ve been listening to Jack Johnson’s “Curious George” soundtrack all week. The whole family loves it. On the right, I’ve got my iBook playing iTunes on my NHT superzeros. I love these little speakers.

Miss Goofy and Miss Serious. (Actually, Mia’s been learning to laugh a lot more lately. She can be really funny!) I’m loving the new wood floors. We can also see the sky in this house. We’ve got a lot of windows. We’ve got garbage bags for drapes on the other windows to block out the heat.

Here’s our front walkway. Two kids rang our door bell tonight. When I opened the door, they both ran in, went upstairs, and started playing with some toys. It was a bit surprising, but the intrusion led to a series of apologies and introductions with our neighbors. We’ve already met four households — Chinese, Indian, African-American, and Latino. I love this street! I’ve been praying for just such a setting and an opportunity to make new friends. God answered tonight.

Wood floors aren’t just nice to look at, they’re meant to be enjoyed.

We’ve been busy moving. We are about 95% in the new home. We’re almost there. Next Monday we close on our previous home so I need to get that last 5% out this week. That last 5% is the hardest. It’s the stuff that you keep wondering about. “Should I bother with this or should I throw it away?”

Through this move I’ve realized how much stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. It’s annoying. I have about 30 ties in my closet! I wear a tie maybe less than ten times a year, and usually it’s the same one. The local mission and thrift shop is about to get a fresh infusion of ties. I’m keeping 8 of them.

I’ll post some pictures soon…when I can find where I put that camera cable.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has a short video clip on the emerging church movement, identifying four different streams within it. Check it out, Driscoll Video. You can also find a bunch of short clips of Tim Keller on the same site here. It’s all part of conference on postmodernism/emerging church issues. (I found this through DJ Chuang’s blog. Thanks DJ)

If I lost you in the first paragraph, the emerging church discussion basically boils down to this question, “how do followers of Jesus carry on the church and their faith in a post-Christian, postmodern culture?”

Driscoll’s breakdown of the overall emerging church conversation and my comments:

1. Emergent: the liberal stream of the conversation that is re-examining substitutionary atonement, biblical authority, the exclusivity of Christ.
Comment: This is the most controversial of the four because it re-examines core theological issues. But, this is an important conversation. I have found these discussions good for my head because they ask questions that I wrestle with.

2. House Church: basically evangelical at its core, but radically re-examining how we structure the church, re-organizing church in small communities.
Comment: I find this fascinating, but I know the least about this discussion.

3. Church 2.0: evangelical churches that are redoing worship services for the younger generation.
Commnet: Funny label. I’m the least interested in this.

4. The Missional Church: a movement among certain reformed churches asking this question, “how do we go enter our postmodern culture and serve it as missionaries?”
Comment: I think Driscoll’s descriptiong is a bit confusing here because there are a number of “missional church” movements. Emergent also talks about the Missional Church. Brian McLaren, of Emergent, is part of Allelon, a missional church network. (Allelon is a great site BTW).

[Edit July 13, 2006]
Thanks to Dan for his comments. Here are a few other names for the movements named above.
Revisionists: Emergent
Reconstructionists: House Church
Relevants: includes Reformed Missional Church movement

I tried taking a couple of storytelling pictures over the last couple of months. I came up with a title for each of the shots. You can see them on my flickr page. But I’m not that satisfied with the description. I’m open to suggestions. What do these pics say to you?

Edit: I wanted to try out a holga look for the dance picture so I replaced it. You can still see my first take on flickr. That image was desaturated to get a certain gloomier feel, but I like my second attempt better.

There’s an article in New York Magazine about the ascending generation of young parents and a disapperaing generation gap. Up With Grups.
Note: If you get tired of pressing the buttons for the next page on the NYMag site, just scroll to the bottom and press “print page.” It’ll pull up the whole article on a single screen. And don’t let the minor profanity deter you.

Quotes:
What is a Grup?
“If being a Grup means being 35, and having a job, and using a messenger bag instead of a briefcase, and staying out too late too often, and owning more pairs of sneakers (eleven) than suits (one), and downloading a Hot Hot Heat song from iTunes because it was on a playlist titled “Saturday Errands,” and generally being uneasy and slightly confused about just what it means to be an adult in these modern times—in short, if it means living your life in fundamentally the same way that you did when you were, say, 22—then, let’s face it, I’m a Grup. The people in the pictures accompanying this story? Grups. In fact, take a minute and look up from the magazine—if you’re in public, you’ll see them everywhere. If you’re in front of a mirror, you might see one there too.”

The Vanishing Generation Gap?
“Once upon a time, pop culture, and in particular pop music, followed a certain reliable pattern: People listened to bands, like the Doobie Brothers or Cream or Steely Dan, that their Frank Sinatra–loving parents absolutely despised. Then these people had kids, and their kids became teens, and they started listening to bands, like the Clash or Elvis Costello or Joy Division, that their Cream-loving parents absolutely despised. And, lo, the Lord looked down and saw that it was good, and on the eighth day, He created the generation gap.
And then these Clash-listening kids grew up and had kids of their own, and the next generation of kids started listening to music, like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol and Bloc Party, that you might assume their parents would absolutely despise. Except it doesn’t really work that way anymore. In part, because how can their parents hate Interpol when they sound exactly like Joy Division? And in part, because how can their parents hate Bloc Party when their parents just downloaded Bloc Party and think it’s awesome and totally better than the Bravery!
This, of course, is a seismic shift in intergenerational relationships. It means there is no fundamental generation gap anymore. This is unprecedented in human history. And it’s kind of weird.”

Grup Ethos: Passion
“There’s that tricky word again: passion. What’s with the Grups and passion? It’s all anyone wants to talk about. Passionate parents, passionate workers, passionate listeners to the new album by Wolf Parade. Even Rogan lights up when he talks about touring Japanese textile factories to find the perfect denim for his jeans. And I start to realize: Under the skin of the iPods and the $400 ripped jeans, this is the spine of the Grup ethos: passion, and the fear of losing it.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if you don’t get through the whole aritcle.
Is the center of your ethos passion and the fear of losing it?
I thought the pictures and the illustration were amusing. Do you identify with Grups?
Any thoughts on/for the ascending generation of parents?