Out of towners

Last week was quite a busy week, we had alot of teams in doing stuff all over the city...this week is a bit calmer with the arts camp going on (because i'm not involved with it) but still busy with other stuff...we have our dear friend stacy and baby leila in for the week and tonight some friends from minneapolis are coming through to stay the night...

this is all very exciting, but also very time consuming...we are also on the time crunch to purchase out tickets to go to london and i am having to coordinate finding prices for people in chicago, NY, and Hydrabad...i hate when everything is last minute, but for some reason it seems that i always find myself in these situations...

anyway, i have a pretty chill week ahead of me and i plan on enjoying it...more later

Are we closer or further away?

i was at dinner last night with some friends and an old question resurfaced in my head...as we were all enjoying the hard work and delicious cooking of danny, each others company and the joy of joshes little kids running around, i had one of those moments where i realized that something deeper than just dinner was happening...there were new relationships being built, old relationships being furthered, there was laughing and learning, community was being realized, and dare i say that church was spontaneously happening...

which brings me to this question...are we (in the west) closer to or further away from the original model and intent of what church is supposed to be...this is the reason that i ask...for most of our culture, church is the sunday thing with "professional christians" teaching and leading the "non-professional" christians and seekers in a ritual that has become how we define what church is...dont hear that as a slam on those who make a living in full time ministry or even on sunday congregational gatherings, but simply as an observation of what we (i) have come to see church as...

now i know that to some extent, this model of church on sunday morning and night, is a direct result of early agricultural practices and just became how things were done, again, nothing wrong in and of itself...in the biblical sense, sabbath was on saturday, this to seems to be a cultural thing...

then, as jesus enters the scene and the early church starts to emerge, we begin to see church happening in a much more spontaneous and holistic way...we read that they shared meals and everything else together and that there was no need among them...we read that they met together daily and that daily there numbers where added...we see how they were meeting the needs of their neighbors...we see a very revolutionary way of life begin to take shape...

i guess, in my often incoherent way of rambling, my question is this...if we as christians begin to facilitate church happening in our daily practices (where 2 or more are gathered) would we still operate in the same way that we do now? would we rely on our once a week teaching and gathering as our lifeline to faith, God, and each other?...is there a reason that Jesus didnt seem to emphasize church as a place that you go but rather as a way of being and doing? is that the original intent? is either model more important than the other? are we on the brink of a revolution occuring in our midst that will change the face of how we live/work/eat/sleep/breath the kingdom of God on earth? are we willing to make changes if we are called to? does the church need her walls, or are they there because of our own fears and insecurities?

i dont know...

New Resolve

i know, i know...it has bee quite some time although i said that i was going to update regularly...leave me alone...

so, just to get back in the swing of things, this will be a short little guy...

i made the mistake of going to the mac store the other day with a friend, and now i want an i-phone...here is me drooling over the thing...




what am i supposed to do? oh, and in case you haven't heard, on july 11 the new i-phone comes out and it is twice as fast at half the cost...booya!

we will see

On Violence

i guess that i am a weekly blogger, at least it feels as though i am only able to do so once a week because i am so busy with life...

so, amanda and i have an old friend living with us now for a while which is always nice...oh, and this should be of interest to anyone who has known me for a while...i now officially hate cold weather...i used to hate the summer, but now i dont want to be awake for the rest of winter...bears have it pretty nicely with the whole hibernation thing...

well now, i guess to start with, i should respond to the part of my last blog that caused such opposing reactions, my stance on war and violence...for the record, i want to lament that for the most part, people that have called or just said in passing that they agree with or at least see my point of view as far as my opposition of war and violence, have been non christians...

the reason that i lament is because the idea(l)s of peace, compassion, limitless grace, and unconditional love seem to fall under the condition of human pragmatism...the problem with that is they are by their very nature not always pragmatic, then again, neither were alot of Jesus' teachings...it was never said, "bless those who curse you, unless..." , or "turn the other cheek, but..."

the thing is, the people that i have talked to that have disagreed have almost always quoted something from the old testament, which is okay, but you can't pick and choose from some obscure passage, almost looking to justify what we wish were true, and not take the rest along with it...what i mean is this...if you want your justification for war to come from the old testament, you also need to observe other old testament standards...for starters, lets get rid of all of our clothing that is woven from 2 different materials, next we should make sure that when our women are on their periods, we should send them outside of our city walls and declare them unclean, after that, let us all take our finest calf or lamb and slaughter it to atone for our sins...do you see what i mean?

it seems that so many things from the old testament are not even thought twice about by the church anymore, but all of a sudden, when we are challenged to live the very counter cultural lives that Jesus teaches us to live, we go scurrying around to try and find every reason we can to not...

dont get me wrong, this is something that i struggle with too...what is my reaction to a person who attacks me on the street? in what way do i react if someone were to harm my wife? i can tell you that my initial reaction would probably not be to turn the other cheek, and i would probably forget Jesus saying blessed are the merciful, but that does not mean that i cant strive for those ideals...i will resonate with shane claiborne when i say that i believe that another world is possible...

think of this...Jesus said "my kingdom is not the kingdom of this world", he later told his disciples that when they pray, one of the things they should pray for is "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven"...that says to me that i should be doing all that is in my power to change the current condition of violence that we all live in...in the words of Paul, "though i live in the world, i do not wage war as the world does", and to start living like i believe that "my fight is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities"...

let me assure you that sometimes when i take a look at how i am supposed to live as opposed to how i am living, it scares the crap out of me...it is not a comfortable thing to daily die to fleshly desires, it is not nice to be the last, or "the scum of the earth for the sake of the gospel"...these are not easy ideas to wrap around, however, i do not believe that because they are not easy ideas to grapple with that i should throw them out in an effort to live a more comfortable life...

it is easy for people to demonize another person or group of people and in that forget that they are human too...they have a mother, father, maybe children and siblings...when they are cut, they bleed and feel pain...to top it off, they were created, like me, and are loved, like me...just thinking about that, and remembering that there is no longer "jew nor greek, slave nor free" and remembering Jesus' words makes it difficult, no, impossible for me as a christian to support any violence of any kind to anyone for any reason...

hope that answers that...

Intro to the Stockman

sometimes when i say tomorrow (in my last blog) i mean five days from now...i would apologize, but im a busy freaking person...anyway, this will be the first of (hopefully) alot of a series that introduces what i do/think/believe to those of you who dont know me super well, and will allow those of you who have known me for a while (like my parents) to give me feedback, help me formulate some incompletes, etc.

I am also excited for some healthy debate that may arise out of this...everyone is welcome to disagree or agree, or to offer alternate points of view. for this first part i am going to offer a brief intro to my life...

I was born in Ft. Polk, Louisiana on the 19th of January 1981...i was a military brat so we moved around alot until, when i was 8, we move back to the states from germany, and called maryland our home for the next 10 years...3 days after i graduated from highschool, i packed my bags and headed to chicago...i fell in love with that city and called it home for 7 years...during the last 2 years that i lived there, i had become engaged to the most amazing person alive, my wife, amanda...she is what drew me away from chicago and into minneapolis, my home for the last 2 years, and home for only 3 and a half more months, when we will move to portland....

so, i am married...this is one thing that still takes me by suprise sometimes...it has been the most wonderful year and 9 months of my life...i know alot of people say that, but i really do mean it...i am grateful that i am in a relationship with someone with whom i love their company over anyone elses, and that we still enjoy each other...i have some married friends that we wonder why they even got married sometimes because they dont seem like they even like each other often times...i guess we are just lucky, or maybe we just prioritize differently than some, but we really dont argue about much at all, and for that i am grateful...anyway...

i am also a christian...most people reading this already know this, but this may be news for some as well...now, before anyone (christian or non) jumps to any conclusions, let me explain what that is and what it isnt...

1) it does not mean that i hate gay people or that i want to bomb abortion clinics.

unfortunately, these are 2 very hot issues with those on opposing sides of the field. i just dont see them as important as alot of christians...now, dont hear me wrong, they are issues, i just think that there are more weighty issues to consider (i will get into those later)...i offer neither my support, nor my disapproval on this particular forum (as that is a discussion to have face to face) on these topics because of the vast complexities...

what i will address is the absolutely disgraceful, shameful, and most un-christlike way in which these people have been treated by those who claim to follow a teacher who said that to love God and to love people is the most important commandment...i will go out on a limb and say that unless you can do that, you have bigger battles to fight than homosexuality and abortion...so to the women in difficult situations that made difficult decisions (whether you regret it or not) and to those that live a homosexual life, allow me to be (hopefully not the first) the christian who says that i am sorry...i am sorry that some misguided people have chosen to treat you as less than themselves...If they read the Bible, they would understand that Jesus called people like that a "brood of vipers"...i will go no further on the subjects, as this could easily go into a heated rant...

2) it does not mean that i support our president or his "war on terror"

nor do i support any of the presidential candidates that we have now...as a general rule i tend to stay away from politics as a whole...this has more to do with my opinions about our government than it does with my faith, although my faith does influence those opinions...on that note i can not support war or violence of any kind (capital punishment is included)...when Jesus spoke on things like this, he often said, "you have heard the old teaching...an eye for an eye, etc., but i give you a new teaching" he said that we are to "bless those who curse us" and said things like "blessed are the merciful" and on and on...i cant seem to make this idea that alot of christians have called "just war" (which btw is not directly from the bible, but from the summa theologica by thomas aquinas that was meant to be a set of rules for treating the enemy fairly, but was never intended to be a justification for war...let it be noted that thomas aquinas was not pro-war, as well,(thanks, sasa!)) and the teachings of Christ line up...i cant read "blessed are the merciful" and rally behind capital punishment...i can't understand how many of the pro-lifers among us can preach sanctity of life (which i agree with) when it comes to an unborn child, and then turn around and not defend to the teeth, the life of another...i believe in sanctity of life, period...

3) it does not mean that i can't get along with people that disagree with me

this should go without saying...if you know me, you know this...most of the people that i hang out with don't see eye to eye with me on alot of issues...

well, now that you know i'm not a fanatical follower of jerry falwell or anything, let me briefly tell you what my faith does mean...

1) it does mean that i have a responsibility to love

like i mentioned before, the most important thing taught by Jesus was to love God and to love people...this does not mean that i always succeed in this area, but it is what i strive for...

2) it does mean that i have a responsibility to social justice

not to quote tony campolo, but there are around 2000 verses of scripture dealing with the poor, the marginalized, and the downtrodden...this, to me, starts to illuminate a very big message that sets a standard and a place of importance on the christians responsibility to take care of the marginalized...in fact, one of the only times that Jesus spoke of the "end times" or judgement, this is the standard by which he said that we would be judged:

i was hungry and you fed me
i was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
i was homeless and you gave me a room
i was cold and you gave me clothes
i was sick and you visited me
i was in prison and you came to me.

then the people said "master, what are you talking about? when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? when were you sick or in prison and we came to visit you? He replied:

"i tell you the truth, whenever you did these things to someone who was overlooked or ignored, you did it to me" (matt. 6)

we live in a world where thousands of people die every day because of lack of access to clean water or malnutrition, yet we have multi million dollar church facilities that we can sit in one day a week to hear about Jesus, and then leave in our SUV to go buy a meal at a restaurant where the same amount of money could feed a family of four for a few weeks...all the while quickly forgetting about the Jesus we just heard about and the thousands of people that will never wake up in the morning, because when it comes down to it, "they" are someone elses problem, some one far away, not ours...don't hear me wrong on this issue...i do not think that money is inherently wrong, but what you do with what you have is what makes it right or wrong...

3) it does mean that i believe in moral and ethical absolutes

yes, i do...i know that in a world where everyone wants to always be politically correct, even if that means selling out what they really feel, this is not a popular stance to take...in that, i also realize that there are lots of grey areas, there are cultural differences as well that need to be taken into account with these things...but at the end of the day, truth is truth...and within that, lastly,

4) i believe that the environment is a MORAL concern

in the Bible's rendition of creation, after God made something, "he saw it and saw that it was good" the bible is riddled with instructions on how to care for the earth (alot of the weird hebrew laws were directly about being a good steward of creation) and that we are expected to do so...anyone who thinks that taking care of Gods creation is not a moral issue, i challenge you to read your bible again...this is why i have certain convictions...this is why i choose to recycle and compost...this is why i choose used stuff over new and why i am vegan...i will pause right now to make clear that i dont think that comsuming animal products is evil (although probably not great for your health), but i do think that the means by which those product are had, is...i will say it outright, i think that it is morally reproachable to support Mcdonalds or similar fast food, even more than that, i think that it is a crime against creation to support anything factory farmed...the toll that big industry meat and dairy take on the animals, our environment, and our health is absolutely a moral issue...i choose to abstain, but if you don't, and you consider yourself a christian, i would strongly recommend that you do your homework and learn about where your food comes from and at what expense...support a local farmer or at the very least go to a co-op or somewhere that has at least some ethical standards in place...

well, enough for now...if you knew how bad at typing that i am, you would appreciate how long this took me to do and my fingers are getting sore...i will go into some other (hopefully lighter) subjects on my next post...have a good day...

its been a week...

...since i updated, but also since we joined the gym...we are enjoying it so far, and it feels really nice to be physically active again...

in other news, i think that i am going to start a blog mini series about what i do/think/believe and why i do/think/believe those things...there are several reasons for this...first, it may be interesting (and scary) to find out what goes through my head...second, i think that it will be a good way to hash out a few things that im going through or thinking and to either scrap or solidify those things in my life (it will also be interesting to see who has what to say about what if there is any feedback)...lastly, it will also be keeping with one of my new years commitments of spending more time on meaningful things...

well, i have some guests over and by typing this now i am being incredibly rude...hopefully, i will get my mini series going tomorrow...

Back in full effect

Amanda and I just got home from housesitting for some friends of ours. they live out in a suburb here called golden valley. it was a really nice change of pace, very quiet and peaceful. it is interesting to note the general feeling of safety and security outside of the city. having been an urban dweller for so long, it is just second nature to constantly be aware and on guard, not in a frightened way, just in a "hey-i-live-in-an-area-that-has-a-decent-amount-of-crime-happening-on-a-daily-basis" way. when amanda and i were out walking the dogs one night, it just hit me that my mind was on taking in all the scenery and enjoying the peacefulness of a quiet night, and nothing else. it is interesting that i dont even notice some walls that i put up, until i dont have to put them up. it was a nice mental break...

if any of you out there are readers, you should check out this website.

I set up a personal book profile here.

not sure if i will actually keep that thing up, but we will see. well, i hope all is well with everyone, more later.

Heres to my health

So i am doing a bit of a fast for the month of january...nothing drastic, just eating mostly raw food and then a few days on juice...there are many facets to this fast (spiritual, physical, mental) but mainly just a little jumpstart new years clean up...so far, i am feeling really good...i have had only 3 cooked meals this month, and i plan on whittling that down to none by the middle of the month...why raw food? because it is a good way to cleanse, and arguably the healthiest way we can eat...this also helps on my resolution to cut down on food packaging...

i am also starting our membership at the YWCA today which i am fairly excited about...there are a lot of free classes that they offer that i am looking forward to because most of the time in gyms, i get so overwhelmed that i just end up staring at everything wondering what to do...i also think that they will help keep me motivated...

i will keep everyone posted (if you care) on my progress...

in other news, we are having a potluck tonight...those are always fun and tasty...well, i suppose i should get back to work...

I found it

So i found that website that calculates your ecological footprint...my rating was a 6, see what yours is here...

gotta go...more later

The Vikings Were Stupid

The temp. right now is -15 in minneapolis, dont worry though, it will be warming up to 10 degrees!

This is one of the biggest things that i am not going to miss about the northern mid west...i was in chicago for 7 years and now minneapolis for 2, you would assume that i'd be used to it by now...the only problem with that reasoning is that people should not be living where it is so freaking cold...

I dont understand how places like this get settled in the first place...this is my impression of the first people to live in minnesota...

viking #1 "wow, this place is cold"

viking #2 "yeah, there is also not much hope for food outside of roots and meat, that will be more than enough to sustain a healthy existence"

viking #1 "yes, we will live here as a joke and when people from the future complain about waiting for 20 minutes in -15 degree weather for the bus, we will be laughing at them from beyond the grave"

this is one of the many reasons that i am not a fan of vikings...

anyway, there are only 18 days until the most glorious and important event of recent human history...my birthday, that is...so you may be asking yourself, what can i get my old buddy john for his b-day...well it is funny you ask, because i will now provide you with a few links to stuff i would like, as unrealistic as some may be...

you could get me this

or one of these

or this

or you could just use your imagination for something less expensive and more realistic...

well, i suppose i should look for something to do here at the shop, more later...