looking for land

the weekend went slightly different......thursday night i was full of angst wondering if i should race on sat. it came to the point where i said i'll see how friday goes and make the decision at the moment i'd have to leave - i ended up staying in SF to continue talking about the non-Emergent 07 event. the meeting was good then there was the fabulous dinner and the even better time listening to the Mariachi band at La Rondalla and the late night discussion about "church" before going to bed. then sat evening there was a geographic gathering of folks interested in the emerging edge of church, then yesterday a leadership meeting at WG which turned out fairly well.

a very full week - intense conversation in philly about culture and theology, another intense time in SF about a festival, church, the arts, a gathering about what people are up to in the bay area, and a leadership meeting.

all this has left me swirling a bit, uprooted, and feeling displaced. Matt asked me last night what have i learned.....good question....i'm working through it.

i'm pondering expressing faith, wondering about the need for the institutional church in my life and in others, what i'm going to do with myself, how will i now spend my time now that serious training is over, where is my life going, where do i want it to go......the most pressing at the moment revolving around life and the place of the institutional church.

if i were to dream up my ideal prophetic community (church) it would be a small group of people, 15-20, that gathered a couple times a week sometimes in someone's home, sometimes in an art gallery setup for an experience, sometimes in a lounge, there would be sharing, breaking of bread, meditation, prayer, blessing, artistic expression, etc. not all of this everytime but some of it. then i'd like once a month or so to get together in a larger setting with more groups of similar size - we'd rent a space for a small learning party starting in the evening continuing to the next day. our "evangelism" would be the very life we live, conscious consumerism, eco-friendly living, as a group and individuals partnering with existing organizations in the blessing of our societies outcasts and poor. then once or twice a year a festival put on by a joint effort between all the smaller learning parties.

at least this is what i think at the moment.

the difficulty with this is it flies in the face of our mobile culture, that is engaged in multiple activities all competing for time.