Knowtown...

the ramblings of an ecclesial dreamer

for amphetadesk users:
Other rss readers: *RSS FEED*

"We must not be afraid to dream the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality."
Vaclav Havel

Ecclesial Dreamer

My name is James Mills.

I am married to Janell and
we have three kids--Jarod, Matthew and Teryn. We live in Parker, Colorado.
In addition to this blog you can find out more about my ecclesial dream at Knowtown or Missio Dei.

If you would like to add your thoughts to a rambling,
click the "Talk Back" link at the end of each post.
If you would like to talk IM (MSN) me or send me an email at: jmills@knowtown.com

..::Favorite BLOGS::..
Andrew Hamilton
Andrew Jones
Doug Pagitt
Dry Bones Dance
Emergent Group Blog *NEW*
Dwight Scull
Fluid Faith
Jason Clark
Jason Smith
Karen Ward
Katy Raymond
Maggi Dawn
Michelle Bainbridge
Rudy Carrasco
Scott Holden
Scott Raymond
Tony Rodasta

..::LINKS::..
My Personal World Clock
Ekklesia Project
Emergent
The Holy Observer
The New Pantagruel
The Vine
Reconstruction
Observing Differently
Open Source Theology

..::Previous Ramblings::..

giving up Blogger for Lent... I think I mentioned before that I was interested in participating more in the special days throughout the year in the liturgical calendar. With Lent right around the corner I was reminded of some Catholic friends I grew up with. They would spend a lot of time trying to think of things that they could give up for Lent that would really not be too difficult. As kids this is a lot harder than it sounds. Eventually they would come up with something that was not to signifiant and you would not hear any more about it for a year. As a good, non-denominational protestant I thought I would get into my first celebration of Lent with baby steps. My plan was to give up blogger for lent. But, the truth of the matter is that I am not really giving up blogger for Lent. I am giving it up to try my hand at Movable Type. I am experimenting with a new blog which can be found at www.knowtown.com/james. This is a work in progress but I am hoping I can work out bugs as I go along. From what I've seen Movable Type is an awesome blog package. I hope to see some of you on the new blog. I will need some constructive criticism and a lot of prayer if I am going to figure Movable type all out. If I can't figure it out I may be back. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/16/2004 07:25:00 PM	Monday, February 16, 2004
Christianity Rediscovered... I have been re-reading Vincent J. Donovan's great book Christianity Rediscovered. I liked it a lot the first time I read it and I like it even more when I was preaching through some of it at my last church but now I absolutely love it! This book is powerful in several ways. For me it was good to read a "missional" book written from a Catholic perspective. Anyone ecclesial dreamer who hopes to embody church in a new way in their own context needs to read this book. This simple, easy to read story has a ton of good theology hidden in it. I will be sharing some thoughts from this book over the next few posts as it is one of the books that has had a profound influence on how I view the church, leadership, mission, etc. I wanted to post a few quotes from the preface to get the ball rolling but the whole preface is so good it is hard to pull out just a few quotes. For example: "A very interesting response to the book was been the observation that there is in it traces of a movement away from the theology of salvation to a new theological stance, a movement not so much articulated in the book as acted out—something like the melody of a new unwritten song that haunts you, with the notes and the words not yet in place. It is there just out of your reach and the melody haunts you because it is not yet complete, but you will recognize the song when it is complete: a new song that many are trying to sing today in Place of the ancient hymn of salvation." or: "And whether in the mission field or on the home front one cannot rest one’s missionary eyes. Missionaries looking at the church in America would be worried by what they see. Because what they see is a bad missionary situation. Not just the sharp decline in active participation in church community and the draining away of the young, but a church life that is not much more relevant to the human life lived in the neighborhoods surrounding it than the mission compound was to the tribal life of the Africans. The parish church could very well be the mission compound of the American scene, a beleaguered, outpost colony in an alien world." and: "When the gospel reaches a people where they are, their response to that gospel is the church in a new place, the song they will sing is that new song, that unwritten melody that haunts all of us. What we have to be involved in is not the revival of the church or the reform of the church. It has to be nothing less than what Paul and the Fathers of the Council of Jerusalem were involved in for their time—the refounding of the Catholic church for our age." more to come... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/15/2004 01:04:00 PM	Sunday, February 15, 2004
Dumb and Dumber... click on picture to purchase from www.despair.com Quitters never win Winners never quit But those who never win and never quit are idiots. Last night as I struggled to sleep I was troubled with thoughts about Missio Dei. Others in our group may have a different view on what I am about to say as I can only speak for myself. Lately it has been very difficult for me to pick up our pulse. It is hard to figure out why this group is not coming together as I hoped it would. My hunch has been that we are all asking similar ecclesial questions we are unable to find consensus on an answer. While that alone would not be an insurmountable obstacle, the fact that we cannot seem to communicate our answers to each other has us, for the moment, at a standstill. I have this nagging suspicion that our group is about to change in a profound way. I am afraid to predict what the results of that will look like. This is troubling me at some very deep levels in ways that I don't think I can articulate just yet. We'll all know soon enough if we keep faithfully following the path we are on. For the past several years I have been chasing an elusive ecclesial dream. For I while I thought perhaps I was being too idealistic--Dreams are called dreams for a reason, right? But a few years ago it was so close I could see, hear, feel, smell, and taste it. The only thing I couldn't do was hold on to it. It came undone faster than Janet Jackson's outfit at the super bowl halftime show. But being that close has me believing that the dream of a different kind of Christian community is possible. The problem is getting all of the right ingredients (core leaders, shared vision, common context...) into the same bowl at the same time. I am beginning to wonder if you only ever get one good shot at this. Maybe I already had my chance at my last church and the combination of my inability to communicate and ineptitude in "leadership" that helped ruin that opportunity is destined to spoil every attempt I make. Maybe this poster has it right. Or maybe if you keep dreaming seemingly impossible dreams long enough the seemingly impossible can become a reality. I think I am just stupid enough to keep dreaming boldly. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/13/2004 09:18:00 AM	Friday, February 13, 2004
Good stuff in strange places... My friend let me borrow his copy of the Us Army Survival Manual a couple of years ago. I still have it. If he reads this post I am busted. Anyway, while I was at my former church I used portions from this book as illustrations in a sermon. Something reminded me of this the other day and I pulled it out and read it again. Now that I find myself once again in this strange place of trying to plant something new with some fellow missiologist I find these quotes to be relevant reminders to me. They come from the first chapter which is titled the will to survive: "You should learn how to maintain your health, how to avoid environmental hazzards, and how to doctor yourself. Most important, you should learn that rest can be more valuable than speed. Whether you are struggling through jungle undergrowth, facing a dwindling water supply in the desert, or making you rway across arctic ice, you should plan and make your way carefully; do not dash on blindly. You should learn about the natives in the area(s) where you expect to go. This knowledge and common sense will enable you to make contact with them. If you reach an area where the natives are not aligned with the enemy, you will have little to fear and much to gain by thoughtful contact with them. By knowing their customs in advance and by being courteous by their standards, you may be able to get their help. ...Two of the gravest general dangers to survival are the desire for comfort and a passive outlook. You must recognize that these dangers represent attitudes--attitudes that follow lines of least resistance, that overrule your effort or desire to cope with stress, that make your primary concern the immediate situation rather than the overall problem of survival." Most of this is just common sense but I think its interesting that if you change one or two words in this you could turn the Us Army Survival Manual into a Church Planters Survival Guide. Maybe church planters should go to "boot camp" after all. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/11/2004 08:16:00 PM	Wednesday, February 11, 2004
WOW!! Special thanks toJonny Baker who always shares great stuff. He is pointing folks to this great post from Jonathan Finely. I hope everyone who reads my blog reads his post. Read it twice!! It's that good. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/11/2004 07:22:00 PM
Play that funky music... Tonight while watching TV with Janell I heard the Wild Cherry song, Play That Funky Music, being played over and over again on the computer. When I went to check it out I discovered my daughter at the desk working on little crafts and singing the song as loud as she could. I loved it. That little girl knows how to wrap her dad around her finger. Play that funky music indeed. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/08/2004 09:22:00 PM	Sunday, February 08, 2004
Last thoughts on Volf... I finished Volf's book towards the end of last week and have been sitting with the thoughts all weekend. This book was really, really good. I am still amazed that people like this are not being heard by more people and I can't believe this is the first book of his I have read. I will definitely read more of his books. He ends the book well talking about the "catholicity" of the church. This ending was powerful, especially following the view of the church as image of the trinity he lays out so well in the book. This book raised some powerful questions for me as I am really trying to figure out what it means to participate in "the church". I am begining to understand just a little bit about what that means for me and to be perfectly honest it is making me a little uncomfortable. I am beginning to see that I need things that I thought I already had. I am learning that my faith has very little to do with me as an individual and a lot to do with me as a person before God in relationships with other persons before God. As I have been thinking through this book I am troubled about where I am right now. At the moment I feel very disconnected from the "Catholic" church and I am not sure how to get reconnected. I feel like it is time for me to begin doing something different than what I have been doing but I cannot quite put my finger on what that is. It feels like a lot of relationships that make up my faith support structures are unraveling and it is making me feel more alone than I have felt in a very long time. This sense of loneliness was made more accute by reading Volf's book. It feels like my advent season is going to be a lot longer than I anticipated and I am still waiting. And when you don't know exactly what it is you are waiting for it is a lot harder. But I have it on good authority that those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. Time will tell. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/08/2004 09:17:00 PM
Web hosting... Does anyone out there have any recommendations for a web host provider? Leave a comment or shoot me an email. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/05/2004 05:13:00 PM	Thursday, February 05, 2004
The Un-Church Phenomenon... Thanks to my fellow ecclesial Dreamer, Tre Cates for bringing this article to my attention. As I continue trying to find my way through these confusing times I found the lexicon alone worth the read. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/04/2004 12:33:00 PM	Wednesday, February 04, 2004
More Volf... I realize I have not commented on Volf's book in a while. I have been trying to finish it so I can give it back to Scott. I have covered too much ground in the book since the last post on it to comment fully. I can say that this book just continues to get better the further you get into it. It is getting slightly more technical as well, but I think it is still pretty readable for those who are used to reading theology. He introduced me to a new word, "Perichoretic" (which refers to the reciprocal interiority of the trinitarian person), and is bringing some depth to many scriptures that I had not seen in a full trinitarian sense before. One of the things that hits me about this topic is how truly generous the orthodox Christian faith can be. There are several views of how the trinitarian persons relate to each other that get into some pretty deep philosophical/theological waters. Some of these views are stronger than others but there is room for all of them with in the "generous orthodoxy" of our faith. So one might ask, "why bother trying to articulate a holistic doctrine on this?" Ultimately, Volf is showing how connected all of our various branches of theology (soteriology and ecclesialogy, in particular) are rooted in how we understand the trinity and the relationships that make it up by exploring hard questions. How is salvation mediated to human persons? How are we to relate to individuals, our community of faith and God? What does it mean to have ecclesial unity? I witnessed this first hand on Sunday while I was at my former church (sitting in for their missing bass player) and the sermon just so happened to be on the trinity. After reading most of Volf's book I was able to make connections with the pastors understanding of the trinity and why that church is structured the way it is. It is a very interesting observation when you are conciously aware of it. At any rate it also has made me accutely aware of just how hard it will be to participate in a community of faith that has a "perichoretic" understanding of the trinity. It will require a new understanding of ecclesial leadership and structure (to which Volf will turn in the next chapter). Pastoring a trinitarian church in this model will prove to be very difficult if it is not communicated clearly and held to by the community. Here is a short quote from the last chapter I read, titled, Trinity and Church: "If one starts form the trinitarian model I have suggested, then the structure of ecclesial unity cannot be conceived by way of one, be it the Pope, the patriarch, or the bishop. Every ecclesial unity held together by a mon-archy, by a 'one-[man!]-rule', is monistic and thus also un-trinitarian." More to come... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/04/2004 10:40:00 AM
The Propaganda of the Christ... I have been looking forward to Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ ever since I heard about it many months ago. I know many people who have already seen it and say it is a very powerful work of art. I have heard many say that it is so honest in its portrayal that it makes them uncomfortable. I have heard others say it is very important not to take young children due to the graphic nature of the execution. (I guess the flannel board version of the wholesome, family-friendly crucifixion is not as accurate as it could be???) I have followed the news of the controversies, the trouble in finding a distributor due to the questions of language and subtitles. I would guess based on the trailers I have seen and the things I have heard that watching this film is going to be a very powerful experience. But what I did not know was that this is not just a film about the last 12 hours of Christ's life made by many gifted actors, actresses, writers, producers, editors and director all exercising their talents to produce a work of art. It is in fact becoming propaganda for evangelicals who do not know enough about the story the film is based on to embody it in their own life. Apparently we have forgotten that our job as the church was to be a witness to this Christ to the entire world. We should all be thankful to Mr. Gibson for giving us a way out of our responsibility to be the body of Christ. According to The Passion Outreach Project mailer I got today, this film is, "Perhaps the best outreach opportunity in 2000 years". And if you purchase the direct mailers, banners, door hangers, invitations, church bulletins (and more!) you could participate in an unprecedented youth outreach opportunity". Prices for a "neighborhood bundle" start at just $1395.00! Now I have no problem with using all of our means to creatively tell the story of Christ. I am only troubled that we have reduced this work of artistic filmmaking and reduced it to a form of propaganda that diminishes both the message and the medium. It is hard for me to swallow quotes like: "This movie gives us an incredible opportunity to transform youth culture. If we seize this moment, a phenomenal awakening will be unleashed on this nation and the world. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by." (Ron Luce, from the Passion Outreach website) "I believeThe Passion of The Christ may well be one of the most powerful evangelistic tools of the last 100 years, because you have never seen the story of Jesus portrayed this vividly before." (Greg Laurie, from the packet I received in the mail today) If our commission as the church is to embody this story--to BE Christ's witnesses--than how can we be proud to say that we have never seen the story of Jesus portrayed this vividly before? And why does it take a film to give us an incredible opportunity to transform youth culture, this nation and the world? And why do we act as if the story is only one of antiquity that we must recapture in our day? Don't we have amazing opportunities every day to be ambassadors of reconciliation? Is it that we have no poor people or widows today that need good news so we have to keep talking about the ones who lived 2000 years ago? Maybe if we took the story more seriously and played our part in it more faithfully we would not need to steal every piece of art that does a better job than we do and use it for a distorted purpose. Maybe we know that being the church is hard and we would rather just leave it to someone else. Christy convicted me with a great post on an unrelated topic containing this extremely relevant quote (which I am taking out of context and using as propaganda for my own post): "...I've found that jumping into the fray of hot button issues generally isn't healthy for me, as such discussions tend to generate a lot of talking and not much listening. I'd rather talk about the stuff that doesn't get much mainstream press, like pain and the church's racism and people doing great stuff as they work for social justice. Today, maybe I'm tempted by my rock star aspirations to jump in and add my thoughts. (I find it interesting that my post on dating tips got more hits than any other post by a WIDE margin. For some reason, writing about pain and brokenness and social justice and racial equality doesn't seem to bring in the crowds. Hmmm....what's that say about what we think is important? I'll leave it to you to interpret.)" Maybe instead of paying $1395.00 for a "neighborhood bundle" to spread propaganda, we could find those in our neighborhoods who are working with the poor or the homeless and help them continue telling a powerful story of our own. (Thanks to Robbymac for kindly pointing out I was missing a link. I have included it above as well.) posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/02/2004 07:32:00 PM	Monday, February 02, 2004
Dennis Miller on CNBC... Dennis Miller has a new show weeknights on CNBC. I was a huge fan of his old show on HBO but not sure yet about this new one. Seems to me like he is half-stepping but I have only seen it 2 times so far. Anyone have any opinions on the new show? posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 2/01/2004 07:52:00 PM	Sunday, February 01, 2004