kingdom travelin'

at Covenant tonight, Friday and Saturday… my annual review will be posted later!

I have been thinking about the church. What is the embodied church? At what point does a gathering of humans constitute ‘church’? How do we know when we are in church? on a bus? at a pub? in a building with a steeple? in a school? at lunch with colleagues? Which of these constitues the gathered church? Is it only when the believing few are focused on a ‘service’ or ‘ceremony’? Or is it bigger than that??? Looking down the blog at the pix, which of the instances constitues being in church? What think ye? Why do you think such?

I stole this pic from Mark’s blog… He took this when we were leaving Angol Est to hang with some people… There is something about this pic that resonates with me… its cold out, I have on a warm jacket, I am in Bp, it is a great memory. It is the kind of moment when we should be grateful for the everyday blessings… but then Bp isn’t an everyday blessing, is it?

forgive the nostalgic moment…  I’m really not trying to turn this blog into a diary.

Dallas Willard says that “The process of spiritual formation thus understood require precise, testable, thorough knowledge of the human self. Psychological and theological understanding of the spiritual life must go hand in hand. Neither of them is complete without the other. (The Great Omission, p. 74) This made a great deal of sense to me… its like, I need to be a student of God and a student of people and their behavior and this will help me help them see how the Gospel can impact their heart and then from hearing the Word, receiving the Spirit and becoming changed from the heart, we show the effects of the Gospel in our outer lives: the Fruit of the Spirit. (from ideas on Willard, p.75)

I was dealing with a student today who displayed what a friend of mine used to call passive-aggressive behavior. I asked another guy what it really meant (he had a degree in psychology). He explained it to me (see the link below)… I said, “but don’t most people do this from time to time?” He said, “yeah, but there are some people who make it their primary means of dealing with problems with others.” I went “Oh, okay.” [BTW, there is a definition and description on an NIH website HERE.]

So, here’s the deal, I was teaching recently about the need for confrontation and confession in community and was asked if a person really needed to go to the person they had offended, I said “well, Jesus told us not to bring an offering to the Lord until we have gotten right with an offended brother (my paraphrase).”  When I do or say X to get around talking straightforwardly to a brother about an offence, I am being unbiblical and manifesting passive aggressive behavior.

So when I act in avoidance of clear speaking with my brother, when I manipulate, when I coerce, I am acting out of a spirit that is not in tune with the Spirit and I need to have the Gospel afresh in my life. Then I can be real and up front with my fellow humans. For me to see this in my self, my brothers need to be real with me and I with them.

On an unrelated note, I just stole these pix from Utazni.com… the first is me sharing with a group of university students about ‘calling’…

I really enjoy dialogue with these university students when I am in Bp. I look forward to meeting with them on my next trip. Perhaps next time we’ll talk about passive aggressive behavior as a window to the soul.

Not much to say this morning, I’m home in the ‘ville, glad to see Sweet Anna. I miss the snow. Gotta get caught up while fighting the jet lag.

I love snow… and I have been pleased to walk through snow in one form or another, under foot, on hillsides, in the grass, or falling lightly from the sky which I have seen everyday since Friday afternoon! Today was no different, this was the scene as I left the building… 

another busy one of recycling the princess’ plastic, shopping for a dinner tonight, including a trip to te butcher where he ground the beef when I ordered it!

then after having a couple of conversations, and trying to be helpful with dinner prep… some of the gang came over and enjoyed Joanna’s cooking and she knows how to cook!

So now, with the kitchen cleaned and the bags packed, I sleep, for tomorrow at 0630 the taxi will be blowing his horn outside for to take me to the airport for the long journey home. The prayers asked for good conversations, effective speaking and travelin mercies have been answered, now I beg your prayers for the ride to the airport and the three flights home: I leave Obuda at 12:30am Eastern time and arrive at CHO at 7:00 pm Eastern time, ugh.

Now for a question: Would you rather be a Nouwen or a Williard? If you’ve not read them enough to know, you really should…