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nd independence there is nothing wrong with teaching reading in sunday school think we try to move away from a mentality of us serving them homeless individuals want a sense of community more than they want to be your mission field preach often from james 2 use the arts music drama poetry paintings and such have an amazing effect on people who are not used to long lectures god gave us the arts and they definitely can be part of our worship create a living room have an area in the church where homeless people can sit relax converse and generally mingle with the rest of the body of christ before and after the service such a setting helps build community communicate with local campuses get the word out to students at local colleges through the ministry services department or campus ministries i e intervarsity the navigators and cru about what you are doing without a doubt many will want to join such a faith community being with the poor is where many of their hearts are don t attempt to handle recovery love them first don t try to cure them from their addictions that is something that takes training and expertise beyond what most if not all members of your church have partner with a local rescue mission agrm has two member missions in kansas city they know addiction recovery get to know those who minister at the missions and tell them who is attending your church it s likely that they know some of the folks and they would be happy to offer some insights we weren t done following the leadership meeting we went to the worship center where another 50 or so people had gathered pretty good for a wednesday night these days to talk about invisible neighbors everybody who came received a copy of the book my 30 minute talk was followed by another hour of questions tearful testimonies and fellowship i deeply believe that what redemption church is doing is a foretaste of things to come why do i think this every week at agrmwe receive multiple inquiries from churches wanting to know how they can serve the poor in their communities and bring them into their fellowships they ask can you help us with resources or give us advice they lament we have no place else to turn in your next executive staff meeting imagine what it would be like to have 10 20 or maybe even 50 churches in your community really partnering with you on a redemption church level it certainly isn t far fetched read agrm s vision statement and concentrate on the final phrase as we approach our 100th anniversary in the association i urge you to make this a matter of prayer agrm will foster and feed a movement of diverse energetic disciples who will see the practice of hospitality to the destitute as both a catalyst for life transformation in jesus and a fundamental expression of their christian faith thus propelling the church into the lead role in society s quest to alleviate homelessness there is definitely more to come posted by scott savage at 6 29 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels association of gospel rescue missions homelessness john ashmen poverty redemption church friday april 26 2013 bottom line the rich have to share back when i was a bellman valet it was the middle class working people who were always the best tippers seriously living in kc whenever there was a nascar race we were stoked the same with a big event in the convention center where the vendors needed help unloading their stuff we gladly gave up two hours to help because we knew the payoff would be worth it working for tips always felt like a kind of slave labor but somehow in our capitalistic culture we ve figured out a way to make it work at least for the time being i have serious reservations about how sustainable is such a way of life in other words ultimately i m not convinced that a better wage labor system is the answer to our problems what got me thinking about these things was a recent pew research poll indicating that from 2009 2011 the rich got richer and the poor poorer this won t surprise a lot of us of a middle lower socio economic status but numbers always help when it comes to seeing how things really are i imagine these numbers vary from poll to poll but i think it s right to recognize an increasing wealth gap in the u s the bottom line is i think until the world changes or something other better than capitalism comes along the rich have to share for those already doing this you re awesome teach your other weatlhy friends that it s not the end of the world that they can be responsible with their hand outs so that they are not wasted perpetuating a cycle of poverty or better yet just become friends with the poor themselves you might actually find yourself on the receiving end of something greater the just wealth redistribution posted by scott savage at 9 51 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels capitalism economics nascar pew research poverty share wealth redistribution wednesday december 26 2012 2012 in music several years ago i started to drop songs into a folder in itunes songs that stood out to me for various reasons throughout the year some were brand new songs i had never heard of before others were ones that for various reasons i found myself returning to i didn t grow up really listening to music except in church but somewhere in seminary music started to really matter to me perhaps because it became another way for me to pray i hope you enjoy my 2012 in music lineup drop me a post and let me know if you liked any of this or even make a few suggestions of your own 1 led zeppelin good time bad times 2 abney park the wrath of fate 3 adele someone like you 4 buddy guy damn right i ve got the blues 5 the avett brothers at the beach 6 shelby lynne willie and laura mae jones 7 the dave brubeck quartet take five 8 the national about today 9 lowercase noises a highway shall be there 10 the avett brothers the once and future carpenter 11 all the bright lights wilora lake 12 reverend jon birch when i lay my burden down 13 radiohead packt like sardines in a crushed tin box 14 john mckenna band beautiful dangerous 15 the album leaf we need help 16 david bazan curse your branches 17 yo yo ma unaccompanied cello suite no 1 in g major bwv 1007 prélude 18 shelby lynne heaven s only days down the road 19 matt redman 10 000 reasons 20 cambridge king s college choir peter scorer stephen cleobury tobias sims liturgy of st john chrysostom op 31 xxiii dismissal and blessing 21 kaki king skimming the fractured surface to a place of endless light 22 mumford sons below my feet image posted by scott savage at 8 34 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels 2012 music thursday september 27 2012 monk habits for everyday people at a certain point during our weekly worship gathering i get to stand up and lead our church in a modified version of the prayers of the people we always begin this movement of worship with silence and then confession the silence lasts somewhere around fifteen seconds although i always shoot for thirty as little and insignificant as that may seem it s intentional and because it s a part of the liturgy of worship it s deep with meaning chapter three of dennis okholm s book monk habits for everyday people is called learning to listen read my first post here silence is not just about not talking in fact benedict never urged for total silence the restraint of speech was a matter of hospitality because they all lived together in a monastic community silence was encouraged over an excessive amount of talking thus one should speak only when words were necessary of course this begs the question as to how one knows when words are and are not necessary this is partly why this community practiced intentional times of silence if you never stop talking then you are not able to know when is the right time to be silent by practicing silence we learn when to speak and when not to speak of course when they spoke intentionally it was in the form prayer specifically reading the psalms this says a lot about how we learn to speak as christians when you begin to follow jesus you are just not able to speak maturely about him you have to learn how to speak and the psalms for example can train us in this consider that paul spent fourteen years after his conversion learning before he spoke in any sort of public and authoritative way this should make us pause okholm quotes michael casey on this a point speaks to north american cultures situation of just utter noise talk restricts our capactiy to listen it banishes mindfulness and opens the door to distraction and escapism talking too much often convinces us of the correctness of our own conclusions and leads some into thinking they are wise it can be a subtle exercise in arrogance and superiority often patters of dependence manipulation and dominance are established and maintained by the medium of speech in case you re ever wondering this is why we take time to be silent in worship too much is riding on the church s capacity to know when to speak and when to be silent as well as how to speak and how to be silent image posted by scott savage at 10 54 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels benedictine spirituality dennis okholm discipleship michael casey monk habits for everyday people practices silence spiritual disciplines the rule of saint benedict wednesday september 26 2012 public jesus chapter one last week i mentioned that every year our church does something called the blitz this year were using public jesus by tim suttle in hopes of priming the pump for this conversation i thought i might post a few thoughts and questions from the book chapter one of public jesus is called to be a human being in the world here we encounter several things 1 being born and becoming conscious of a world that was here before we were 2 the christian version or story about how we got here and why specifically related to the book of genesis and person of jesus as it relates to the creation and redemption of the world 3 being salt and light which is about the public nature of christianity at one point near the end of chapter tim says the church is the way god is now physically present to the world i m curious how this sounds to north american protestant evangelicals or napes as i like to call them of which i am one who are typically prone to view god as utterly accessible we have a personal relationship with jesus god hears every single one of our prays and answers them and speaks to us in the process with an uncanny kind of clarity napes lean into the utterly accessible and often times instant side of god s relationship with the world it tends to be that napes overplay the instant and accessible card to the detriment of a more robust ecclesiology that speaks of god being present to the world through the church i think there s a good conversation waiting to be had here about what it means to say to put it another way a la steve mccormick and the orthodox tradition that the church is god s new epiphany in the world i e that the church is the new way through whom god is primarily related to the world for most napes we want to recapture a more robust ecclesiology but i think not without losing the sense that god has not limited the way he is present to the world in other words can we not also say that god does in fact move redemptively outside of the church as well what do you think posted by scott savage at 1 49 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels ecclesiology public jesus redemption church the blitz tim suttle tuesday september 25 2012 top ten mitt romney solutions to our problems on facebook this morning i took a jab at obama saying what do you think will be talked about more today 1 the controversial seahawk touchdown or 2 that as the foreign heads of state were gathering for the united nations convention the obama s went on the view see dana milbank s article here i really should of jabbed the nfl refs as well oh well next time for the sake of being fair here s a jab for mitt as well and no i m not crossing sports references check out juan cole s top ten mitt romney solutions to our problems posted by scott savage at 3 10 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels barak obama humor juan cole mitt romney nfl politics monday september 24 2012 in the interest of have a better political conversation it s all political this is part one in a serious of posts i m calling in the interest of having a better political conversation so in the interest of having a better political conversation it s all political politicians will typically pivot to blame their opposition for saying or doing things merely for the sake of playing politics case in point mitt romney s criticism of barak obama s response to embassy attack in libya to which ben labolt obama s campaign spokesman responded that he was shocked that during a time like this romney would choose to launch a political attack while it s not shocking to me that people blame other people for merely playing politics when there are real issues at stake because it happens all the time it s frustrating that this kind of slam goes on often times without regard to the fact that it is all political and it can t be any other way and that this is not a bad thing or something to be feared politics as such isn t the enemy and shouldn t be used as a means by which one politician asserts him or herself as better than another in fact when you hear a politician blaming another politician for merely playing politics you should assume that the politician doing the blaming is trying to get their agenda over on you with you know it that s deceiving politicians all over the place stand up and tell you why their plan is better than the other persons but it s so duplicitous because as soon as they see an opportunity to take political advantage mostly in regards to winning an election they blame the other person for playing politics thus setting themselves up as being more like the average person who apparently is not political this is demeaning inherent in the slam that someone is playing politics is this notion that that person has some kind of secret agenda that s working you over which is why you shouldn t trust professional politicians who spend their lives playing politics just so they can stay in power however inherent in the slam itself that someone is merely playing politics is also the notion that the one doing the slamming has a secret agenda as well that s working you over this is what the person doing that blaming doesn t want you to know because then they can t try to back door you with their agenda why not be forthcoming with it in the first place it s all politics which is not a contested idea it s regularly assumed by political scientis...