I was just in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco over the Thanksgiving Holiday with a couple of high school students and about 40 people from a church that is actually concerned with the “least of these.” Our desire was to prepare a home-cooked meal to bring to the homeless instead of preparing it in some church building somewhere and inviting them “in” to ours.

Here are some snapshots…

I saw a little boy (2 years old) of an affluent family playing tackle football with a homeless little boy (2 years old). Unlike I had ever experienced before, I watched as two people couldn’t care less that one was affluent and the other wasn’t. I watched two little boys love each other and speak the love language of physical touch (along with uninteligable grunts and giggles). I watched a mom with tears in her eyes and a proud dad get it.

I saw families serving together. For these families, no longer is spiritual formation being outsourced to the church. Instead, they are taking the responsiblity of spiritual formation back into their homes. Is there anything more powerful than kids watching their parents follow Jesus?

I heard the inhabitants of Hippie Hill become inspired by a rag-tag group of Jesus-followers.

I watched tears form in homeless people’s eyes as they were asked, “Light meat or dark?” and actually got to choose.

I leave on November 27th for Arizona. They’ll train us for a day and then we fly to Isalmabad by way of Hong Kong.

I’ll be there until the 11th of December. If I have the chance to get to a computer while I’m there, I will update my blog instead of trying to email the stories to everyone. If I do not have computer access, I will upload the stories after I get home.

During the interview between this service organization and myself, they asked me the following question:
What are you doing to prepare emotionally, physically, and spiriutally for this trip?

I answered:
Emotionally–How do you prepare emotionally for seeing the devastation of a 7.6 earthquake that leaves 3 million people homeless in the mountains? I guess I’m sharing the story with my communities and asking them to help me prepare.

Physically–I run, cycle, and swim a lot. I’ll keep doing that. I’m also pretty comfortable in high alpine situations.

Spiritually–God has been preparing me for this for 25 years. If I just started to prepare now, I’d be in big trouble!

Conisder this: What will it be like to offer a hand of friendship, brotherhood, and compassion to those that the American media would identify as our enemy?

Let this story be told!

What do you do when you find you heart continually breaking because of something that is happening in our world?

How do you handle hopelessness–the sense that there is nothing that can be done?

Can love really speak an international, multi-“religious” language?

I am faced with an opportunity to go to Pakistan in the next couple of weeks. The project would be to hike to the mountain villages, find people who are trapped and build shelters for them. They might survive the winter.

Pakistan is a closed country to foreigners, yet they are throwing open their boarders because they can’t not. Is it possible that Jesus-followers could go into the heart of the Muslim world–in the neighborhood of where Sept. 11, 2oo1 was likely planned–and love people?

Pray for me–it’s decision time.

God is mysterious.

I was riding the other day and came to a stop light that prohibited me from going anywhere. This cracks me. You’re in a rhythm, you’re clicked-in, you don’t want to have to stop (sometimes you don’t).

I stopped.

There was another cycler there, waiting patiently to proceed when I pulled up. He looked at me (more specifically my cycle because it is a lot more attractive than I) and said, “Don’t I know you?”
I said, “I’m not sure.”
He said, “Yeah, I think I recognize your Giant” (the brand of my cycle).

The English language is an interesting thing isn’t it? He asked if he “knew” me but what he was acutally asking was, “Haven’t I seen you riding on this path before? I recognize your bike.”

It makes me wonder how many people we actually “know” or that “know” us. I’ll save that for another day.

We begin to cycle together. Usually conversation goes from how incredible the day is to how long we’ve been cycling. Sometimes it goes beyond small talk and you begin to learn about the person that you’re cycling with. That’s what happened with Chris….

Our conversation started with the small talk but quickly went to a place that suprised me. We started to talk about when we take our weekly long ride. He took his on Sunday and wanted to know if I wanted to join him this week.

How cool is that? We had just met and already he invited me to share an experience with him that he was passionate about.

I told him that Sunday’s are usually busy days for me.

Here’s the tension: I have found that because I happen to work in a church, it often disqualifies me from relationships with people. Thus, I have found ways to be in their lives for an extended period of time before they know. If they can get to know me and experience Jesus loving and serving them through me before they find out I’m a pastor, I have earned the right to continue as a friend in their life. On the flip side, if they find out I work in a church first, the relationship doesn’t have a chance.

Why is that?

He asked me why. Here it comes—“I’m a pastor,” I say.

“Oh, I don’t believe in organized religion,” says he, “But I do believe in God.”

“Huh,” I say, “That is what you and I have in common.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I hate religion. I think God hates religion. I don’t think that Jesus came to bring a new religion, but instead, he came to bring a new Way of life.”

“You know, I agree!” says Chris. “Why is it then that the church is about religion?”

Isn’t it crazy that in our post-Christian/post-congregation world, people are interested in God and Jesus, but not church. If it hasn’t already, this should make us think long and hard about the reality of North America’s church!

The conversation ended by Chris giving me his number and asking about what kind of church it is that I am a pastor of. He said that he and his family would be interested in a church that followed Jesus and made a difference in the world.

Reflect with me:
Would you have the courage to have that kind of conversation with Chris or are you more interested in “converting” him on the spot?
What if the church Chris and his family are looking for looks nothing like what you go to on Sundays?
What if the church that the new world needs looks nothing like what you go to on Sundays?
What would that church look like?

Why did the family out-source the spiritual formation of its children to other people?

How has that perpetuated the church being a dispenser of spirtual goods?

What if we pushed the main responsiblity of spiritual formation back to the family?

“Heaven have mercy on us all — Presbyterians and pagans alike — for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”– Herman Melville (from Moby Dick)

“God, I don’t love you and I don’t love people. I can’t. I’m not capable of it. But you are. So, I would like to trade my inability to love with your ability to love. Amen.”

IT’S ONLY A QUARTER!Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks afterhe arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to thedowntown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver hadaccidentally given him a quarter too much change.As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give thequarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, “Oh,forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this littleamount? Anyway the bus company already gets too much fare; they willnever miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handedthe quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”The driver with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town?I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I justwanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.”When my friend stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearestlight pole, and held on, and said, “O God, I almost sold your Son for aquarter.”Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.

“Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society.
Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. ‘Neither. If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.'”

One of my best friends is 66 years-young. He lives in an unconventional reality–one that has been breathed into him through life…and death.

He desires to honor his World War II buddies even though he didn’t go to war. He has.
He has a vision to celebrate his friends on his birthday. He does.
He wanted to have live Jazz music at his wife’s funeral and celebrate her life. They did.
He bought me golf clubs because he thought it would be a great way for me to get in the lives of other guys. It has.
The name of his very successful company is PTLA (Praise the Lord Always). They do.
He heard an African American Jazz singer at a club one night and decided that he was going to help make this man’s musical dreams come true. They are.

Jesus becomes real to people because of him. He doesn’t invite them into an institution or a religion. He invites them into a Way of life that is better.

I get the privilege of watching this man live–I follow Jesus better because of him.