Writing every spare minute …
I'm deep into revisions for A New Kind of Christianity, due out next March, and I'm feeling "in the zone." The first draft is done, but I revise first drafts like Chuck Norris unleashes roundhouse kicks, so the really intense work is underway.
Speaking of writing ... Samir Selmanovic has an amazing book coming out this fall with Jossey-Bass. I just finished reading the manuscript. I laughed out loud near the beginning and shed some tears at the end. (When you read the story of his parents coming to church, you'll know why, but it won't be for the reasons you're now guessing it will.) It's a powerful, needed, and brilliantly-written book.
I spent Monday through Wednesday at the Sojourners mobilization in DC. What a great group of people came together there! Jim Wallis never ceases to amaze me with his ability to articulate the biblical call to social justice, and to discern the times. I think you'll appreciate this brief video interview here. There were tremendous lectures and workshops - Rich Stearns of World Vision and Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA were sparkling, and of course Rev. Freddy Haynes takes the term "preachin'" to a whole new level.
This weekend I'll be in Portland, Maine, then next week in Dominican Republic, then in Portland, Oregon for my youngest daughter's college graduation. I can't wait to see her and celebrate with her. Then I go to Korea with Youth Specialties and then to Atlanta later in May. But you can bet that every spare minute I'll be writing. If you think of it, say a prayer for me ... to be well-guided, appropriately bold, and appropriately understated.
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Links …
A quick note from Little Rock, Arkansas, where I've received a warm welcome and gracious southern hospitality ...
Nicholas Kristof gives an important update on dialogue within Islam about the Koran that corresponds to important dialogue happening in the Christian community about the Bible ...
Muslim fundamentalists damage Islam far more than any number of Danish cartoonists ever could, for it’s inevitably the extremists who capture the world’s attention. But there is the beginning of an intellectual reform movement in the Islamic world...
If you haven't heard about the Texas-sized island of trash floating in the Pacific, check this out ...
Cathleen Falsani talks about one of my favorite musicians, Bruce Cockburn, at the Sojo blog ...
Speaking of favorite musicians, Dave Wilcox and Nance Petit joined us in North Carolina last week at the sacred activism conference and Kanuga ... Dave was kind enough to play a song from Open Hand, his new CD.
Also at Kanuga was David Korten, brilliant economist/thinker/activist whom I quoted prodigiously in Everything Must Change. I'm reading his new book on the economic crisis ... really worth reading. I hope to post more on it in the weeks ahead.
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a couple more emails … crises of faith
The phrase (or idea) "crisis of faith" came up in some emails I received this week. Here are a few of them (edited for privacy) - after the jump.
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Earth Day … want to get involved?
One of my favorite organizations is Floresta, or Plant With Purpose. They make the essential connection between three things ... 1. care for the poor, 2. care for the land, and 3. love for God who created all people and the land in which they live.
Here's a 3:30 video that will do your soul good on Earth Day 2009, and teach you some important things about poverty and the land:
OK, now how about doing what I just did:
Go here, and then press donate and then support Plant with Purpose with $50 as a way of planting some trees, caring for the earth, loving your poor neighbors ... and joining in solidarity with the Creator who loves both.
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A note for critics …
Although I'm happy and eager to participate in respectful dialogue, I generally avoid trying to defend myself to critics, especially in the blogosphere. Doing so, I've found, is bad for my own spiritual health and generally only serves to disturb the peace even more. But today I received the email below and felt a gentle nudge to offer it as a gift to my critics - not to defend myself, but just to let them see that there's another story going on that they may not normally see. I always edit emails I pass along to protect the privacy of those who send them, but other than those edits, the email is presented in its entirety. A few links are included below the jump.
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Dear Brian,
My husband and I were in ministry for about 10 years (... as church planters [with an Evangelical-charismatic denomination]). We left, tired and burned out and hurt and with a lot of questions about our faith. (I’m actually not sure what came first the questions or the unraveling of our church.) I won’t bore you with a story that you’ve heard a version of over and over – but we spent many years in ‘no man’s land’ trying to put the pieces back together. I feel like we threw the pieces of our evangelical faith up in the air and waited to see what came down. We waited a long time (searching, crying, ignoring, searching again…etc) and it didn’t seem to me that enough pieces came down to put a faith back together. I was afraid it was over for me and my faith. Interestingly, I felt God’s presence through most of that. Confusing. In the end because of your books and the emergent church movement I began to see that there might be a place for me and my limping faith after all. My husband and I also attended an “Everything Must Change” weekend in D.C. Our first Christian event in about 10 years. You were instrumental…hugely instrumental. I have now been attending a United Church (Mainline) in Canada for about 9 months. I’m finding the conversation much more interesting than I have in years. This weekend the church is sending 5 people on a retreat that the United Church is holding with Tony Jones! I’m amazed. Who would have thought. Somehow I’ll have to express to him what his writing has meant to me as well.
I write to you today because I’ve been on You Tube, looking for something or other and have come across so many nasty, nasty clips about you and the Emergent Village. It made me profoundly sad and I wanted to make sure that my voice added into the song of encouragement to you. You lead the way for us to be able to return to our faith, with our unresolved questions, with our desire for social justice and with our limp and know that we’re not alone. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Most sincerely...
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