Boots and Bibles

How It Went on Friday

Today has been a monumental day for a number of reasons, and I'm hoping things continue this way for a while. Before this day slips through my fingers, however, I thought I'd tell you lot how it went on Friday.

In short: quite well!

There were more people there than I expected by a wide margin, and Christine was awesome as an hostess, even going so far as to order pizza for us. This in turn led to an impromptu communion meal.

We used Christine's telescreen as a dry-erase board. Flat screen TVs work just as well evidently. We studied the fall of Babylon from Revelation 18, as I mentioned we would on Friday. The discussion over the text went on four several hours, and I certainly aided the length of time at the end by getting a little dictatorial and long-winded. No one seemed to mind too much, thankfully.

It felt... right having everyone in the room there again. There was a great mix of Olde Garde UGC people there as well as new faces, some of whom I'd never even met before! There was no awkwardness. We took to one another naturally. I felt at home.

It felt good to teach again, too. Graffiti has definitely helped me prepare for this re-awakening, but it's great seeing just where the Holy Spirit can lead when there aren't any concrete time constraints. Hopefully we'll also have some praise and worship thrown into the mix, and of course the Eucharist helps round things out a lot.

So, I hope to see everyone again this Friday at the same place and time. This week, we'll be studying Luke 21:5-19.

See you then!

"Welcome to Trader Joe's – I Love You"

I tend to see grim, dystopian predictions of the future as the most valid and accurate. Nineteen Eighty-Four rightly predicted the surveillance state and institutionalised disfiguring of language. Brave New World foresaw mass-market streamlining of existence coupled with a society exploited and controlled by its most petty desires. Then there's another brilliant work of dystopian satire, which while perhaps not as weighty as the two aforementioned novels, still bears heeding and attention: Mike Judge's Idiocracy. In particular, while at Trader Joe's today, I was reminded of a scene where the movie's protagonist, played by Luke Wilson, goes to one of the Costcos that have overrun the future. Upon entering, a greeter hails him and every other customer as they come into the store, saying "Welcome to Costco - I love you." This is not a genuine proclamation, but something spouted out by a blithering moron whose capability for experiencing or expressing true affection ends with their paycheque. She is someone too stupid to even understand what she is saying - or why it is so ridiculous.

From the moment my wife and I walked into Trader Joe's we were bombarded with greetings, smiles, questions as to whether we needed any help. These are all a part of any decent retail experience though. To whit, I've always appreciated Trader Joe's dedication to customer service. The employees have always been considerate and polite, but this went beyond either considerate or polite. It was intrusive. It was irritating. The employees weren't helping anyone or anything, they were getting in the way, and worse, making me sick to my stomach by even having to be around them.

Tonight's the Night

It's hard to determine exactly what it's going to be like, what the feelings will be, what will come of it. We're studying something that we should all at least be glancing at momentarily, namely, the End of the World™ and the impending doom of its unjust systems. It brings a smile to my face, a spot of warmth to my cold, jaded heart... I mean, thinking about the End of the World™ does. Hopefully this Bible study will, too.

I haven't blogged about much else for a while now. I'm sorry about that. My mind, as it were, has been slightly overtaken by this development. Well, this and making arrangements for August Wahnsinger. I've indicated before how much the end of UGC has affected me and continues to affect me. It's not like I miss being a pastor or a leader or anything (really, I don't, and even if I did, I know I'm not really up for the job), but I do miss cavorting with the Spirit-filled ne'er-do-wells that made that place like family. And I miss being able to exercise that one spiritual gift I have. Hopefully this study can be a harbinger of those aspects of UGC's return.

I'm slightly nervous about how well it will go. My recent ventures in teaching Bible studies have, as I've indicated, not turned out all that well. At all. I'm hoping something clears this up, starting tonight preferably.

No One Likes Us – Continued

So it seems there is a noise, a rattling sound.

Good. This is most encouraging.

As I mentioned previously, there are two things keeping my bones dry right now: that I cannot fulfill my calling to teach, and that I have to go all over the place to be with the old UGC family again, and even still I miss a whole slew of you.

But you see, UGC family, God is breathing life onto this wasteland with more than just the knowledge that you want to see something happen again. No, what's best of all is that something is already happening. 

Perhaps you have heard me mention the Porch. Some of you, perhaps, have even gone to outreaches or services with me. The Porch is an interesting phenomenon in light of this whole wilderness I've been making my way across. It was started by a family who uprooted themselves from across the country to reach out to the underground and the outcasts here in NYC. They started with amazingly little, but God has secured their place here (mostly through the agency of Christian and Missionary Alliance establishments, I should also note).They do extensive work in the East Village, especially to travelers and squatters. Brian and Kelly, the Porch's leaders, are thoughtful, passionate individuals upon whom the L^ORD has placed a great burden. And on top of that they've somehow figured it's worth it to extend the right-hand of fellowship to me.Now with temperatures rising and outreach opportunities returning, they're also wanting to kick it up a notch.

They have also stated that they would let me teach a Bible study.

And I want you people to be there.

I feel in my heart that the Porch is moving on from where UGC left off many, many years ago. Brian and Kelly's vision is refreshing, and even startling in its similarity to the burdens that initially drew me up here and drew us together years ago.

I don't know when this Bible study will be (I'm thinking Friday nights?), or even where it will be (my place? Sandy's? Davis's? The Petersen's?) But I feel the time is coming night. I feel that sooner rather than later, we will need to re-connect and rebuild that community that was a haven to us. Brian and Kelly have set the foundations. I want to invite you now to raise up the house.

No One Likes Us, We Don't Care

You ever get that feeling like you just don't belong anywhere except, well, where you belong?

3 September, 2006. I remember the date well. It's where belonging ended for me. It's where I had to destroy my family, my mission, my life – everything I'd fought for in the previous four years. It was like losing a war. And I suppose as a natural corollary to charging from victory to defeat, I began the most difficult period of my life to date, a time of depression and confusion; a time where I let down everyone who hoped in me, disappointed everyone who believed in me, and abandoned all those who looked up to me.

Yeah, it had to be done. Yes, everything that church stood for had been twisted or undermined by the time it was over. It still doesn't change the fact that there was a purpose in all of it. Underground Church, NYC acted to reach out to those not affected by the popular efforts of the church, and to bolster the faith of those who were. What I re-learned in the years that followed was that sometimes it is outcasts in the church themselves who are the most neglected and marginalised.