Battle Creek/Kalamazoo, MI

Restoration . Community

1. We need some Celtic Christians
   Celtic Christians adopted the principle of indigenous Christianity from St Patrick and even extended it. They learned about 'monasteries' from Eastern Christianity, perhaps through visits to Gaul and the Eastern Church. Then they radically adapted the idea of the monastery to their own context. The resulting community was so different from the eastern monasteries that they needed a distinct term monastic communities. These communities produced an unusual approach to the living out of Christianity, that had a sharp contrast to the Roman forms and rituals.
   
   First, the monastic communities produced a less individualistic and more community-oriented approach to the Christian life. Their Christian faith and community addressed life as a whole and as interdependent. Celtic Christians especially engaged barbarian imaginations through storytelling, poetry, music, and visual arts.
   
   Secondly,The Celtic Christian movement proceeded to multiply mission-sending monastic communities, which continued to send teams into settlements to multiply churches and start people in community-based life and full devotion to the Triune God. The strategy of these monastic communities varied from one context to another, and yet all looked similar to each other.
   
   They multiplied then sent apostolic teams from the community to reach settlements within the region. These teams would engage the local culture, establish relationships, and form a new community which would then send out apostolic teams from the new community to reach other settlements within the region.
   
   The Roman model for evangelism consisted of presenting the Christian message, inviting people to decide to believe in Christ, and welcoming them into the church and its fellowship if they decided positively, similar to the Western church in the modern era. The Celtic model for evangelism, on the other hand, took this in pretty much the opposite order, allowing them to belong before they believed.
   
   In other words, the first step was to establish community or bring them into the fellowship of the community of faith. Then, within the fellowship, the next step was to engage in conversation, ministry, prayer and worship. Finally, in time, as they discovered that they now believed, they were invited to commit themselves.
   
   The relevance of the Celtic Christian story to much of what Western Christianity faces in the twenty-first century should be apparent. First, a host of new Barbarians populate the our world once again indeed, they are all around us. Second, these "barbarians" are increasingly similar to the "barbarians" that the movements of Celtic Christianity reached. Third, most churches think (though it is seldom verbalized) that these new "barbarians" are unreachable, because they are not 'civilized' enough to become 'real' Christians."
   
   I believe we need a new generation of Celtic Christians to launch a new generation of urban monasteries.
   
2. Who gets in?
   Let me begin with a couple of cheesy jokes. These are jokes a speech maker (preacher) would traditionally use to get a little laugh out of his audience before carrying on with his sermon, but I think they also illustrate a much deeper point about our version of Christianity here in North America.
   Joke 1:
   
   

   A woman died and went to heaven. Upon arriving at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter tells her she does not automatically get into heaven by the way she lived her life, but that she must simply answer three a questions.
   
   She is relived that she has a chance to get in despite her mistakes, and so she takes a deep breath and says "OK ask away". St. Peter asks her "Have you lived a good life?" She answered "um I did the best I could..." I see said Peter. "Do you think you deserve to get into heaven?" "Yes Please?" The woman answered.
   
   Then with a solemn face St. Peter asked Her The final question "spell Love." She answers "Loev.. no wait..." Laughing St. Peter says "Good enough your in. Hey I've been here awhile, could you please watch the front desk for a few minutes while I take a break?"
   
   Not wanting to seem ungrateful the woman agreed.
   
   As soon as Peter walked around the corner the Woman's ex-husband appeared at the gate. "What am I doing here? Did I die?" Then he fell silent when he recognized his ex-wife manning the desk at the Pearly Gates.
   
   "Don't worry all you have to do is correctly answer a few questions my dear," the woman said with a sly smile on her face.
   "Have you led a good clean life?"
   "Not exactly."
   "Do you think you deserve to get into heaven?"
   " Um, Yes."
   "Spell Chrysanthemum." The woman smiled at the worried expression on his face and said "sorry I guess you can't come in."
   

   
   
   Joke 2:
   
   

   One day the St Peter noticed a line up of people waiting to enter the pearly gates of Heaven. He approached the angel he had left in charge and asked "whats the hold up, why are these people standing around? Ether their names are in the Lamb's book of life or not. Lets get them moving."
   
   "Oh they are definitely all in the book." said the angel. "But, the gates won't open, apparently Heaven is full."
   
   "It can't be full," replied St Peter incredulously. "If there names are in the book then there MUST be room for them."
   
   He called the other angels over and asked them to investigate. After a short time it was confirmed that Heaven was indeed full and the names of the people waiting were in the book.
   
   Finally an angel came back with the answer," I know what the problem is" he said "It's Jesus, He keeps sneaking people in over the fence!"
   

   
   These are both common enough jokes for a speech maker to use. But I think they tell us a lot about our indoctrination in a certain way of reading the bible.
   
   For instance I'm pretty sure we can all think of someone who is not going to "get in to heaven." Considering none of us get to sit on the judgement seat, this judgement is based only on our own perceived concept of what a good person is. Humans are very good at creating in and out groups, cool people and losers, hot and geeky, popular and well you get the idea. Unfortunately that carries over into our christian lives too.
   
   Despite Paul declaring "there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." We seem to be comfortable with the boundaries that have been laid out by those who came before us.
   
   It would appear to me that we have become far too religious and have let that sap our faith. A religious person is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a person who has faith, who explores first and then considers weather or not he wants to accept the ramifications.
   
   My point is that just because someone thinks that certain kinds of people are excluded from faith, doesn't mean God agrees with their interpretation. Who gets to decide who is in? After all we are only human. Our best guess is probably laughable from Gods view point.
   
   For example a person living in the southern parts of the US 200 years ago would have believed that slavery was a foundational christian belief, and that only Anglo Saxon men were getting into heaven. I believe they would have a stronger (and better) faith for questioning that "fundamental truth."
   
   Questioning our religious beliefs and doubting our man made doctrine is a far cry from doubting God. It is perfectly acceptable, maybe even necessary to question the thoughts, opinions, and understandings that past generations have formed into religious doctrine.
   So:
   
   What people or groups of people are excluded toady?
   
   Why?
   
3. Do we show that we are thankfull?
   "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." -Jesus
   
   
   We have committed to serving the "the least of these brothers of mine" (Matt 25). As part 0f this some of the folks we are in community with, poked around and discovered that of all the soup kitchens and places that serve meals no one serves any food on Thursdays. And so we agreed to serve the homeless and nearly homeless dinner every Thursday. Its a small thing to us but we found it to be huge to others.
   
   
   Folks came prepared to serve, but soon found themselves being served. One man took time to listen to a homeless man and was blown away as the second man described his life and explained that this was the first hot meal he had had in days. A woman was moved to tears as people gratefully accepted her home-made meatloaf. Another woman found herself so identifying with these brothers and sisters that she felt offended when she perceived that someone had offended one of them.
   
   
   When it comes to Thanksgiving...
   
   Almost all of us "give a dinner or a banquet" each year on a Thursday in November.
   
   How can we really say we love others if we are unable, or unwilling, to interrupt our comfortable lives to be with them?
   
   How could we refuse to eat with them on this Holiday?
   
   How can we call ourselves followers of Jesus and yet ignore his instructions on this?
   
   
   And so if you are looking for our community this Thursday you will find us with turkey, pie, and everything in between eating together with our brothers and sisters who don't have as much as we do.
   
   **Christmas eve also falls on a Thursday** ;-)
   
4. new format/purpose
   The format/propose of this blog to date has served its purpose... That was to communicate the radical actions that have sprung from the dreams God has layed out before us.
   
   But
   
   We feel that we NEED begin new conversations (or perhaps join others in very old ones) in our city/area/world.
   
   I resonate with several others in our community as they express the calling they feel that this the time is ripe. I have had that same thing breathed in to my soul, and we have had it reinforced over and over in the last couple of months. Forming an alternative community has been a burning desire that has now reached a boiling point for us. We can no longer wait around, for what has become the institution, while our generation and the next stumbles through the darkness.
   
   We do not think we are ready, we have not arrived. But I once heard it said that if your vision can be done with out God's intervention, that is if you can do it on your own, then it's not big enough. I have also heard it said that you should look for where you see God at work and and join him there. Well we see God at work in the hearts of our generation, but that has not yet translated into a substantial local manifestation of the body.
   
   SO
   
   We seek to become a body that will allow us to gather and organize in ways that are new (or ancient), worship, teach, and live in ways that are different than the way the local church meets currently.
   
   We also seek the guidance and wisdom that we have yet to gain, that we believe only a our elders and those of past generations who have walked this path before community can provide for us.
   
   We will hold all of that in tension as we move forward.
   
   We are now one part cohort (hosting monthly open-source conversations in the community), one part church (living and serving together).
   
   How does all of that hit ya?
   
   At the end of the day we cannot ignore what we believe to be the call of our King, to gather and begin the conversation.
   
   And so this blog will henceforth be the official web presence (at least until further notice) for the restoration.community Emergent village cohort. We are glad to be called a friend of emergent village, and look forward to living the dream God has inspired for us.
   
   Grace and Peace
   Tom
   
5. The new house
   

   So it has been a while since I posted, because of all that has happened, so I will try to recount what has been developing.

   After much searching, we found a house a block and a half away(perfect location). We put in an offer and negotiated a deal with the bank that owned the property. It was a long and difficult process... I was often reminded that I was to act like Christ even in the face of the junk the world throws at us.

   My parents used a vacation , and then all of their time too (no seriousul they worked every day all day) and my wife's parents loaned us the money so we could fix the house up. Once again My Dad proved to be the most resourceful and able handyman the world has ever seen.

   We prayed and prayed that God would prepair the "road" ahead of us so that we could transform the lives to our new neighbors. As we began conversations with the neighbors we learned that most of them didn't even know the house was empty. There had been no sign in the front yard, even though the house had been empty for almost a year. That tells you how many people in this area know their neighbors.

   There has been much copper thevery in our city in recient times, yet this house remained untouched. The roof had alot of damage, yet the leeking inside had caused minamal damage. I get the feeling that God had placed a sort of vale or protection over the house, because it's where he wanted us to be.

   So we spent about a month and a half, renovating almost every room in the house. We found mold in a bedroom wall and in the basement. We fixed some plumbing and electrical issues. We had a roofer reshingle the roof.

   And then moved...

   All of our students came out to help. The realestate agent gave us a moving van for two days. And God provided clear weather. No seriously it poured the minute I shut the back door of the moving truck. And not like a little sprinkle eather, it was the long torent of an angry storm that has been pent up waiting to rain for two days. It caused big time flooding all over our city ( I was ready to build a boat and start looking for animals).

   So far the house has been wonderful, providing us with more room, and it has solar heat and room for a garden :)

   I'll write more as I am able.

   Grace and Peace