Archive for the ‘sam’ Category

SAM - Why Bother?

Monday, September 8th, 2008

question mark Church. There’s that word again. Church.

My life started in a church. My parents were, and still are, pastors of a local church out in California. The experience growing up in a church was not a good one. In fact, it was a nightmare. Today, I barely speak to them and they really don’t like me. Even less do they value my spiritual experience. For many years I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the church, yet today I work in ministry, at the risk of subjecting my kids to a blotched faith experience liken to the one I had as a kid. I’m hopeful it will be different for them. In any case, that’s gist of what lies at the foundation of my tension with faith. As a result of that, I’ve not been very fond of church for as long as I can remember in any form. And believe me when I tell you I’ve tried many different kinds. To sum it all up you could say that my overall experience with church has been a rocky one.

As much as this has been my story, I’ve somehow found a way to value and honor the church experience for God’s family, though it hasn’t been easy. Part of my role at Mile High Ministries is to connect with churches all over Metro Denver. I’ve found myself teaching and engaging churches all over the city in various conversations and seeing written on the hearts of many the desire to serve the poor in profound ways as a church. I’ve been moved by that so much that I can’t seem to easily discard the church experience, which for me and so many others like me, is a serious point of apprehension.

In addition to that, as the program coordinator for the Issachar Community where our charge is to prepare young leaders for faith-based leadership in an urbanizing world, the concept of church is always challenging. Young adults who find themselves wanting to be the church, rather than be part of a church is characteristic of our culture. Though it isn’t true of the global culture. The church in many part of our world still represents a significant safe haven for many people who are hurting, starving, oppressed, and experience life through the lens of terror.

At the Issachar Community we cite the following quote to make a point of why we’ve created a space for young leaders of Issachar who would understand the times, and know what God’s people should do (1 Chronicles 12:32):

“Much of the future of the inner city will depend upon the women and men of the community who have the vision, spiritual depth, street smarts, and skills to midwife new ways of being church, of pastoring amidst suffering, and of generating alternative neighborhood visions and narratives.” - Mark Gornik, To Live in Peace

New ways of being church. I often try to posture that phrase to suggest that the church as an institution is a product of the Modern Era, thus making way for a new type of church peoples, one where being part of a church isn’t as important as it used to be. Though if honest, and if I am to learn from those who have come before me, simply rejecting the models of the passing era doesn’t give way to new models as much as it gives way to new institutions. The church of the Modern Era in the age of the energy of the Protestant Reformation rejected the Medieval institutional church and exchanged it for another. Might we be in danger of doing the same with a new language, a new method, and a new format, yet all the while abdicating our invitation for true unity and momentum for a future not of our own?

I’m not sure. Today I’m just asking questions. I haven’t figured out what I’m supposed to do about this yet, and I’m fine with that. Though I do know that places like the Refuge give me hope. Losing money, giving away power, asking hard questions, and still trying to be the church together. We have lots to talk about at Issachar. I’m not sure where we’ll end up, but if we are to prepare our young leaders for an world where Globalization, Urbanization, and Postmodernity are shaping the next era we are to be ushered in to, then we can’t ignore the things that have made life hard for us. Which for some of us, or should I just say for me, has been this issue of church.

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SAM - We Carry Around Both

Monday, May 5th, 2008

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:10

Both the death and the life of Jesus Christ live within us.

tree and cathedral

Think about that for a second. We walk around each day carrying the death of Christ with us all the time. The pain, the suffering, the agony, the misery, the lashes, the thorns, the gasping. the trauma of Christ’s experience of death rests within us. We are never without it, for it is always in our body. Thus, we must never ignore it nor should we ever reject it, for it has a purpose.

Yes, there is a purpose for the death of Christ to live in our body. This is so that the life of Christ may be revealed. The death experience of Christ is embedded in our bodies and will always be with us. Perhaps in some way it is us. As we search and explore the depth of this reality we find the life of Christ is revealed by way of it.

Hence, the two are inseparable. We dare not experience the revelation of Christ’s life extended to us unless we are willing to experience the death of Christ that is always with us.

So are you willing to experience the pain, the suffering, the agony, the misery, the lashes, the thorns, the gasping. the trauma of Christ’s experience of death?

Regardless of your disposition, you carry it in your body everywhere you go.

It is always with you so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in your body.

Get to know it, get to feel it, get to own it, and through that the life of Jesus will be revealed.

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from geography of grace: believing in people like jesus did

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008


we love the geography of grace blog that sam trujillo edits. it is really worth checking out. there are two recent posts that we’d love for you to read.

the first is about NAN (never be fake, always feel pain & never turn down healing), the mom’s group that tiera trujillo facilitates at joshua station. check it out here. a few refuge folks are helping babysit the kids the first saturday of every month while the moms are participating in NAN. if you want to be part of this team, email tiera.

the other story is a recent post by bob ekblad, who is part of tierra nueva, an ecumenical ministry that seeks to share the good news of God’s liberation in Jesus Christ with migrant farmworkers, new immigrants, and permanent hispanic residents in western washington. he the author of reading the bible with the damned and a new christian manifesto: pledging allegiance to the kingdom of God. we loved what he shared about believing in people like jesus did.

here’s just a taste:

The story of Jesus’ healing of the paralytic in Bethesda never fails to bring healing and hope in Skagit County Jail and other places we at Tierra Nueva minister. Jesus heals a man who for many reasons cannot succeed. This inspires me as I feel drawn to people who the world has given up on. Jesus heals him by knowing him, respecting him, believing in him and calling him to do something humanly impossible: to stand up and step out of his debilitating circumstances into a new life. Jesus is on his way to a religious feast in Jerusalem—kind of like the priest and the Levite of the Good Samaritan story. Jesus stops at a pool by the sheep gate, where “lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters” (John 5:3).

“What would be the equivalent of the pool today?” I ask a group of inmates. The first man mentions hospitals. Others say “bars,” “drug houses” and “right here in this jail.” They talk about being sick and paralyzed by addictions, negative emotions, charges, imprisonment, debt and fines. The inmates have no difficulty envisioning themselves there among the multitude of those desperate for a breakthrough.

read the rest of the post here.

Posted in community, healing, injustice, sam, spiritual formation | No Comments »

SAM - Less is More

Sunday, November 18th, 2007


I’ve used this video recently in a church classroom from You Tube titled Shift Happens to create conversation about globalization and explore the truths about our ever increasing globally connected society. Of the many mind boggling statements in the video, one of the most notable in the video was, “Did you know…we’re living in exponential times.” This was followed by example after example of where our current state of consciousness globally is to make more, create more, dream more, have more, produce more, see more, more, more, more. Well, you get the point. Which leads me to the conclusion, that since we live in Exponential Times we must be headed for an Exponential Faith. But what does that really mean?

Sunday night I sat in on a “Bible Study” that was all about Jesus. The topic of discussion was “Learning to slow your busy life down as Jesus did and make time to connect with God and/or be in God’s presence.” Not a bad topic at all. Scripture gives us examples of Jesus “getting away” to pray and such in Luke 4:42, Luke 5:15-16, Matthew 14:22-23, Luke 6:12…and I’m sure you could find more if you studied the Bible or just Googled it. Given all that good stuff, the reflection about Christ finding time to “chill” was a good one, until half way into the study I heard the magic word, the global word, the exponentially suggestive word…more. Once that word more is introduced in a faith study it’s like the shifting of the tectonic plates for some reason. The conversation shifted from an acknowledgement and identification of Jesus’ human need to take some time to step back from “busy life” to a formula of how we could have an exponential faith. And this is where I start to get uncomfortable.
Perhaps it’s the type of Christian I am, or lack of being a real Christian for that matter depending on how you receive the rest of this post, but I cringe at the idea of more of anything when it comes to looking at one’s spiritual life and thinking it’s not good enough where it is. I’ll admit I am an advocate for growth, absolutely without a doubt, though I advocate for a transformational learning approach towards growth, versus a transactional learning approach towards growth. The difference is this (defined in oversimplified terms):

Transactional Learning approach: a process becoming changed primarily by gaining factual knowledge.
Transformational Learning approach: a process of getting beyond gaining factual knowledge alone to instead become changed by what one learns in some meaningful way.

In my experience, when you engage Scripture to extract from it formulas to have more faith, more love, more trust, more healing, more strength, more Jesus, more God, more, more, more…in the least of these it produces more guilt. I would venture to say, that not simply for the least, but for most of us it produces more guilt somewhere down the road. More than likely it’s when we come to the realization that most of us can’t take these formulas and create more of anything. Consequently we’re left with ourselves and our ordinary faith. Then we feel like shit because we couldn’t be like Jesus.

I must confess I do believe we are living in exponential times, and therefore more of some things are needed. I would argue that we need more opportunities to engage in spiritual formation, which come forcefully through transformational learning. Primarily through engaging the kinds of people Jesus did, the least and the last, whatever that looks like in your context. I would challenge us all to go for it, but have no expectations of yourself, of others, or of Jesus. Just enter into community with others and be…then be yourself. Remember, you are loved wherever you are, and then remember you are invited to go a little further. Accepting that invitation will lead you to take one step forward, two steps back, and that’s just fine. Just start walking and remember, transformational learning is a two way street, which is best experienced when it means something to you, not some formula someone gave you.

Sam also blogs at www.geographyofgrace.com.

Posted in sam, spiritual formation, theology | 3 Comments »