a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

God closes one door, and... closes another door....
(and why I'm OK with that)

     So, here's the promised column -- a tad late, but that's fitting in a way too. I'm not sure even where to start, so I'll just let it fly until I stop, and likely throw in a booklist or two in the process....

     Bottom line: I've given up looking into new and interesting movements, which really aren't moving much at all. I've given up trying (emphasis intentional) to get more involved at my church. And I've also given up trying to find another church.

     Thus, a year and a half later, I'm still just another visitor. And right now, I'm good with that. Some quick scattershot whats and whys:

     1) To paraphrase my former senior editor, "Don't you think the 'Emerging' movement should have emerged by now?" I appreciate their desire to do things differently. (And BTW, Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy is a pretty good primer -- if you don't know it, look it up and check out the subtitles; it literally says it all.) But well-placed and well-earned criticism of "the way things are done" aren't solutions. And neither is dwelling on any number of peripherals rather than on God, which to be honest, I think a lot of the Emergents are guilty of.

     2) Likewise, the Church for Men movement (as referenced somewhat here), and moreso in David Murrow's dead-on-but-again-somewhat-short-on-solutions Why Men Hate Going to Church) seems headed down a bad path. Specifically, the non-CfM-sanctioned but nonetheless supported GodMen. Could overstating the point open the door to more sensible stuff? I suppose. But I've never been an ends-justify-the-means kind of guy. (And may I gratuitously but sincerely add: **** John Eldredge and the man-box he rode in on and wants to stuff everyone else inside.)

     2a) It's worth noting that I've been most responsive as of late to "success stories" of how some churches have done things differently and seen lives changed as a result -- not in a how-to way (well, maybe a little), but more in a "here's what's worked for us -- take from this what you will" kind of way. Of particular note in the department are Erwin McManus' An Unstoppable Force (and yeah, I get to hump my own company here, but it's well worth yr time), and Neil Cole's Organic Church. Both books have moved me and caused me to keep hoping in something better, even on this side of glory. So, with that said, let's go closer to home...

     3) I simply have not been able to make any headway at all in getting more involved at my current church. The doors just keep shutting. But likewise, neither have I made any headway in my search for a new church home elsewhere. As Marion says, I'm a doer, so this isn't easy for me. I've gone from being Mr. Everything back in Jersey to Just Another Guy here in Colorado. Hear a bit of residual pride there? Yeah, so do I.

     4) In the meantime, though, things seem to be changing at said current church. I had written something noticeably more candid here and chose to remove it, but suffice to say problems are at least being acknowledged. We'll see if they're actually addressed or whether they wind up falling more under points #1 and 2 (albeit on a more personal level), but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt just now.

     5) And, last but not least, our friends are still here.

     Thus, to quote John Lennon c. 1975, "The divorce isn't working out."

     I've come to the conclusion that all these closed doors are God's way of saying, "Chill out, Doer-Boy. Try hanging with Me for awhile." And as much as it pains Doer-Boy to hear that, it sounds like pretty good advice right about now. I've been in spiritual drift for awhile -- arguably since first touching the glimmering shores of Lake Loveland -- and probably don't have any right to be doing anything just now, resume be damned.

     For now, I think it will help a lot just to spend more time in the spiritual disciplines -- which, to be sure, are no assurance of anything but are nonetheless effective in getting the crap out of the way so that one might actually hear God over one's own internal noise. And as studying/reading is the discipline that comes easiest to me, I'm restarting my way through my favorite re-reads, which again, always have a way of cutting through my crap and getting me where I can actually hear something.

     For the morbidly curious among you, the following list is in order of reading, not preference (it's actually a bit cyclical, from mystical to devotional to practical and back again), but really I'd recommend these to anyone:

C.S. Lewis -- Reflections on the Psalms
Richard Foster -- Freedom of Simplicity
Richard Swenson -- Margin
Peter Kreeft -- Christianity for Modern Pagans
Andrew Murray -- With Christ in the School of Prayer
C. Jack Miller -- Outgrowing the Ingrown Church
Watchman Nee -- The Spiritual Man
Thomas a Kempis -- Of the Imitation of Christ
J. Oswald Sanders -- Spiritual Leadership
Thomas Merton -- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
A.W. Tozer -- The Knowledge of the Holy
E.M. Bounds -- Power Through Prayer
Richard Foster -- Celebration of Discipline (yr one-stop shopping place on said
disciplines, BTW)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Life Together
Watchman Nee -- Changed Into His Likeness
Richard Foster -- Prayer
Neil Cole -- Organic Church (I gotta read this again, down the road)
C.S. Lewis -- Mere Christianity
Dallas Willard -- The Divine Conspiracy
A.W. Tozer -- The Pursuit of God
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- The Cost of Discipleship

     Obviously, I'm still kind of all over the place, but it feels like square one maybe for real this time (at least until I discover where square one really is :)). Which is also to say, I go in with few expectations other than if I show up, so will God. I've been around my own bend too many times not to think otherwise. From there, maybe I'll begin to figure out where I'm really headed. So, until next time (and probably back to tuneage by then)....

Posted by: burninglight at 03:01 | link | comments (3)

Shameless Plugs #10 & 11

     Might be the last couple of these for awhile -- as the stuff I'm working on at the moment consists of revisions to existing curriculum and thus harder to take credit for -- but this will suffice probably until the next writing assignment and/or project comes along....

     So: Edited this 'un...

    

     And wrote for this 'un...

     I'll probably be back with something a bit more personal later this week, as I think I've come to some resolution concerning one of my quandaries of the last several months (actually, it's not so much an answer as a shift in perspective, but baby steps... baby steps...)...

Posted by: burninglight at 23:34 | link | comments (4)