Looking Back With Fondness and Gratitude.

It's been almost a month since we moved from our office space on Main Street in Northampton, the location where we prayed we'd be once we made the trek north from Simsbury. Almost a 2 months before, we moved from the apartment above our office space. Two moves, both stressful -- and for me, disorienting. Disorder loves to dance with my ADD; I'm just left overwhelmed.

As things have settled for the most here in Shutesbury, I've had a chance to start reflecting on what it meant to be able to live in the center of town on Main Street for five years. While folks have heard me say before this church planting adventure we embraced was one of, if not the most challenging, exasperating, even bewildering (at times) ministry effort we've ever been a part of, it also was exciting, fulfilling and full of delightful surprises. They demonstrated God's blessing to us. We had the privilege of experiencing new ways of connecting with folks, new ways of serving others and getting to meet lovely people who express pleasure with what imagine was about.

While I have some regrets and realized how frightfully naive I was about the challenges I'd face, I want to celebrate some things we did as a church plant which were very meaningful. I'll talk about the regrets in my next post.

Here are a few of the most notable to me.

1. Feast: Feast was the first major event we did to connect to the community. Our idea was to connect with townsfolk, especially those who wouldn't have the opportunity for an Easter dinner. We wanted  it to be extravagant so people could experience the lavish love, grace and hospitality of the Resurrected Christ. So Tricia came up with an exquisite menu. We raised funds from folks mostly not from our church, and received all we needed to put on a magnificent spread. We had many volunteers from other churches to serve food and take care of our guests. They did a marvelous job. Chef Eslie made exquisite desserts. We had gifted jazz musicians Kris and Jen Allen join Jim and I to play as people were eating. Then, Michael Kelly Blanchard shared his unique style of musical story. People feasted and were blown away by the beauty of the tables, the remarkable quality of the food, and the way they were treated as honored guests. The volunteers serving were astonished by how well it was done and they had the chance to be a part of it. The Lord was very good to us.  

2. Halloween: This was an unexpected surprise for us. We figured we'd have a few kids and parents trudge up the stairs 4 years ago for our first attempt at connecting with families this big way. I thought all the businesses on Main Street would be pulling out the stops to give kids a fun time, so we had loads of candy to give, took free pics of the kids in costume, had a crafts table as they waited to get their picture to take home, and offered various refreshments for the parents. We were mobbed! People were telling others they had to go to that imagine place because we were doing way more than any of the other establishments in town. We ended up doing 2 more Halloween events just like the first, and people remembered. Some even brought the pictures they'd had on their fridge to show us. It was just a fun time for everybody, and again people who volunteered made it a special time for the families. We'll miss that, but are grateful for "stumbling" into another means of being over the top to open people to God's unmerited favor.

3.The imagineART Gallery: What unanticipated pleasure and joy it was for us to launch and do the imagineART Gallery. We'd never run a gallery before. I was especially taken by how good Tricia was at creating the atmosphere for the space, getting the artists, hanging the work and putting on, by far, the best fine dining spread on Arts Nights Out that anybody had experienced - we know because so many told us that was the case. Some people were actually astonished! God allowed us to become a destination with a reputation for outstanding art. We were able to support the artists by having some of their work purchased. Most importantly, the gallery was by far the venue where we connected with people from Northampton and beyond. They knew or quickly found out we were Christians and our space was also a church. It made for conversation, a few uncomfortable moments and the meeting of many wonderful people, artists and otherwise. Most delightful for us was the fact we got to give some of the art its their first individual show and it inspired them to press on as never before! While it was very sad to have to say goodbye to the entire adventure, but are grateful for the opportunity.

4. Meeting and getting to know some remarkable young women at Smith College: Another very pleasant surprise has been the opportunity to meet, get to know and even baptize 2 Smithees. Many of them belonged to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at Smith, but not all. Remarkable about them is how bright and vibrant many of them are. They have a can-do attitude. One of them (Crystal) even served on our Leadership Team before going off to grad school. Some have helped with worship (Hannah, Angela and Angelica); and others have joined us serving at the Interfaith Shelter. Others (Nhung and Angelica) participated in our first Cohort. Getting to know these young Christian women as they prepare for careers and service has been a unique delight. We're not sure it will continue as we have no permanent home right now, but if it was merely for a season, we were blessed just the same.

5. Making friends with vibrant people in town: Because I was "cloistered" at a retreat center and most of the folks I knew were involved with the church where the retreat center was, or people who came for counseling etc. I didn't connect very much with anyone else for the most part. When I came to Northampton, I began to get to know people of different spiritual views or no such views at all. I got to know Christians with differing theological bents. Most were much more political than I. Regardless of all that, I was graced with new friends; many of them uniquely interesting, funny, kind, brilliant, creative, quirky, even fascinating. Their thoughts and opinions challenged me to contextualize what I hold to be fundamentally true in the world of ideas and beliefs around me. All of them are engaged in what matters to them. They have integrity. A few are very funny which always draws me. Some have become friends we don't ever want to lose.

6. Working with talented, loving and gracious Christians: Whether it was an arts event, a project to serve the poor, or people who have graced the doors of imagine and hung around for awhile, we had and still have the privilege of working with Christians of substance. They tend to be full of grace; people of goodwill who are dedicated to serving others. Beginning with the team of folks who came up here from Simsbury and people who joined us later, we have been loved well. God has sent smart and gifted people to our community, whether they stuck around for long or not. Also, I need to say we've had faithful donors who have for years always cheerfully and with grace given to our work. We have an accountant who is generous and smart as a whip. He has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us. We've had a Board who've always been willing to help and have graciously put up with my introverted quirkiness by offering counsel and help when we asked. and I can't say enough about the current Leadership Team of Tricia, Jim LaMontagne, Kevin and Janet Williams all of whom are dedicated to imagine/Northampton and it's Christian life and Kingdom mission. Each one is a treasure. I need also to not overlook Karin LaMontagne who pulled up stakes with Jim to come up here and has made many sacrifices to stay the course. Her friendship, gifts and influence are of the kind that doesn't seek the spotlight while blessing others, which she does in her own gracious way.

7. First times and new experiences: Some of this I have written about, but I need to mention it again in hindsight because, in hindsight, I saw each one as as gift even if they ended in loss or failure. Here are just a few:

• Launching a missional church.
• The privilege of leading imagine's first person to Christ.
• Doing my first baptism, participating in another, and observing another.
• Participating in co-officiating my first wedding.
• Meeting and serving homeless people and chronic addicts.
• Helping Tricia launch and operate an art gallery.
• Being a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
• Working at the Interfaith Shelter.
• Helping plant and cultivate the FOG Garden.
• Speaking to a Town Council Committee about the Open Table.
• Playing with One Flight Up.
• Handing out Christmas gifts to homeless on the streets.
• Being seen as a pastor by others. 

9. My spiritual growth: If you've followed the blog, you've read about the challenges and hardships I've had to face. They increased with each year we were in Northampton with the last two being the toughest. I could actually write a book about how I've grown through it all, but it will have to wait. For now, I want to mention two of the most important ways. They are related. They are faith and trust. So much of what we've experienced has been exasperating, even bewildering at times. I had very high hopes which seemed to be frustrated increasingly as the years went by. Certainly, I was naive about the substantial spiritual and practical obstacles we would face, but believed deeply, and still do, that we have an important mission to accomplish concerning grace, forgiveness and navigating mutual brokenness with love because of what Jesus did for us. In fact, as I've become aware, the result of having experienced all of it has yielded a more robust trust and faith in God's love regardless if I end my days in failure. I abhor failure, but I trust God's wisdom about what He asks me to endure, let die or persist through. I have a more vigorous faith if I can say it that way. I'm grateful for His love toward me through training me to believe and trust regardless of the messages to the contrary my experiences were sending.

For awhile now, the enduring question I hear from Him in the quietness of my heart is: "Will you trust Me anyway?" I have so far answered "yes." May He help me keep it that way rain or shine; life or death. Sometimes His love comes in ways we prefer to dash past but might cause us to rejoice in when our world is finally set to right.

21 Thoughts on Planting imagine/Northampton after 27 Months.

Recently, Jim, Tricia and I were chuckling over all the wide-eyed assumptions we made in our living rooms in Simsbury about what planting imagine was going to look like, and how our little missional church was going to function. We had charts and diagrams. We wanted to be ready for the people God was going to send us; not a bad thing, just largely irrelevant to what we are experiencing in Northampton so far.

So in the nether world of half asleep/half awake this morning, a number of thoughts drifted through from our experience here for a little over 2 years.

1.  Planting a missional church is much harder to do than we could grasp (and we did not think it would be easy), and will take focused patience and persistence for many months. I think we thought more people would've stuck at this point. Keeping after it for the long haul will be required.



2. God brings the people and moves them to stick around or get involved no matter what we do or don't offer on Sunday morning.

3. Focus on mission is how all Christ-followers should live. We're all missionaries and the Kingdom of God is our prime directive no matter our jobs, talents or resources.

4. As an introvert, one of the ways I'm summoned to carry my cross is to engage people I don't know, and open myself to what others need of my time and energy.

5. The challenge, pressures and stress of planting imagine/Northampton are forcing me to fan into flame gifts I've let sit dormant and exercise public leadership beyond where I'm naturally comfortable.


6. The strategies and methodologies I studied in the church planting books I read have fallen by the wayside in favor of simply engaging people on their terms and listening to their hearts with the possibility of sharing the hope that's in me because of Jesus.

7. Being involved in imagine/Northampton has opened me to all sorts of experiences I never had in my previous 20+ years of ministry. At the same time, the training I had as a counselor, spiritual director and retreat leader has been extremely useful to God's purposes here.



8. My drumming is deepening technically well beyond what I thought possible. God is opening and returning creative/improvisational  sensibilities I let go of when I laid down music as a profession at age 30. I don't know why God is doing so just yet.

9. I'm supposed to write at least one book.



10. My understanding of church has been revolutionized and drawn away from cultural trappings I took for granted for 35 years.

11. We have miles to go as a church, but all of us know we were called here and have a desire to see people open to Jesus. All of us are being stretched, and are learning to keep going in the face of substantial and persisting difficulties.

12. People consistently affirm what we are doing which buoys our spirits.


13. We still have gifts missing in our community and wait eagerly for them to arrive.

14. We've made a tangible difference in the lives of some folks here.  There is much more to be done, but we are doing some of what we purposed to do. That's wonderful.



15. Money is a great lever for ministry. It expands the possibilities. Lack of money increases resourcefulness and sometimes creativity, but its lack does limit range influence at any given time.


16. Prayer opens the way and creates possibilities beginning only as dreams and wisps of visions.

17. I still can't believe we are actually here after all we've endured, and still endure, but here we are!!!


18. My love for the people God has brought to imagine deepens. I want them to know Jesus and be alive in him. I've gotten to know some amazing folks.

19. I still believe that creativity must be cultivated and unleashed in the church to reflect the wonder, beauty and truth of God. We have the sensibilities and gifts to do so, but need more courageous creatives willing to make a new way with us. We need fearless "wonderers!"


20.  If we do not engage people who do not follow Christ, we miss the point of imagine/Northampton. Our call is to them and to broken believers who need time to heal and re-focus.

21. imagine/Northampton is still a wicked cool name for a church!


Them's my thoughts and I'm stickin' to 'em.

What "Going Missional" Is Doing To Me.

It's a cloudy, Friday afternoon and in a 21 hours or so, Tricia and I will head down to Ventnor, NJ for a much needed rest and refreshing. We will be there 4 days. The house we'll stay at belongs to her mother, and it has been a place of many growing-up memories for Tricia and for our family as well. The walls bear witness to the memories of summers, and holidays.

We're only a block from the Boardwalk and beach. It's a time of year when the place will not be swarming with sunlovers unless we head up the Boardwalk to Atlantic City, about 2 miles, I think. We'll walk the Boardwalk and beach with our old dog Tiger. We'll read and talk. I plan to outline the concept for a book I will write over the next year. The project is one percolating in me for a year or so, and I've been getting encouragement to undertake the task. I think I have the words in me to do so. God will need to help me collect and line them up into something useful for his Kingdom. I really desire for such use to be so from the words he's entrusted to me.

We'll also catch up on some sleep and just lollygag, thank you very much. Ministry leaders need oases of time to lollygag. It's good for the ministry and marriages and spiritual well-being.

So lollygag we will.

But before we go I want to reflect on how I'm experiencing the imagine/Northampton mission of late. I've been noting to others what seems to be changing subtly in me because of planting imagine, and learning to interact with the people of Northampton and the Pioneer Valley. In general, it feels a deepening as in growing closer to what it means for someone like me to follow Jesus. I'm gradually beginning to get what it might mean to care more for his interests than my own. I've not arrived by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm closer; its in view with a distinct shape.

I'll give you a few examples to explain.

I've noticed I don't really care about whether imagine/Northampton becomes this big church with all the trappings of big church. So, it's not about programs or yowsa-yowsa Sunday morning gatherings. Sunday service is not the spiritual bulls-eye of the week in my mind. Nor are great programs and activities the life of the church. Actually, in my mind, what happens during the week are the most important days in the life of the church. It's what we Jesus followers do out in the company of everyone else that is the heart of our following him.  Worship happens daily by giving our lives as a sacrifice of praise. I want the Kingdom to come in a way that truly settles into the lives of the people who are not spectators or spiritual consumers. It's the Kingdom which matters most to me; the lived-out Kingdom in the midst of people who can't see Jesus yet.. These days, I think, the Kingdom outside the walls most reflects the Church of it's life and purpose. I didn't always.

Something else that has gathered my attention repeatedly since being here is the pain and sorrow of peoples' who've been deeply wounded and scarred by injustice or oppression. I feel the sadness of lost dignity, trampled dreams, smothered identity, and the sheer rapacity of human pride and lust for power. I get with more acuity Jesus living amongst and ennobling the least of his loved ones. I notice the ways people are dehumanized by prejudice and sheer meanness. I feel it all more in my gut. I find myself looking for ways to be a part of healing and restoring. I'm not particularly interested in the politics of it, just the offering of  grace and drying of tears; the unlocking of a person who's disappeared sometimes for decades with no one noticing. I see now to a depth I'd not before.

I want imagine/Northampton to be full of people who lost their way or left their hopes and dreams on the trail years ago. I want them to discover this God who is far more than they imagine and calls them to a way of life full of meaning, freedom and worth, just waiting for their gifts to be given in the manner only they can.  I feel a strong longing for these people's unlocking and opening into life. It's like a straining toward their unbinding.

Then there's the matter of what's happening to my faith and trust. I've become aware of my faith being tested to limits, and with an intensity different from what I've experienced. Like all believers I've been tested many times before in my 37 years of learning to follow Jesus, but never with such a relentless frequency or to the degree I now experience often. It feels almost as if what lies ahead will require a vigor and durability of faith unlike what I've known. I am having to hold fast to my faith almost everyday in ways not required of me before. Tricia and I are brought to the brink, and I must fight to believe in the face of what sometimes looks like potential ruin. Jesus keeps up the pressure, and provides the release for a time, then we're back at it again. It's not fun or "awesome, dude." It's hard and spiritually hardening (as in how muscles harden due to being stressed by exercise), for the journey ahead.



Lastly, I have a growing love for the people God has gathered in our little band of imagine/Northamptoners, the team and new folks alike. I like being around them. I want them to flourish in their following of Jesus through this mission. I'm enlivened by watching them when they have the courage and faith to step of out of safety and connect with people. I have great compassion for the sacrifices the team has made in moving from Simsbury to the Pioneer Valley. I respect that no one up here has decided to leave even though they all are being "sorely tried" in our mission together. These people are what Samuel Chadwick called "saints of the fire-heart." Their sacrifices help me shoulder my own.

I need to add, my wife, Tricia, is one of the most gifted people I've ever known. This mission has only highlighted that reality. Her courage and mental toughness is humbling to me. Watching her shoulder the burden of our call with grace and spirit is one of the greatest teachers of my life. She's a true Proverbs 31 woman. I don't deserve her.

I know there will be other spiritual eye-openers down this missional road. The tests of faith will continue and if I cooperate I'll grow nearer who I'm supposed to be. My hope is that when I breathe my last breath I will have done what I was made for, or at least most of it. I hope Jesus and his Kingdom came a little into view because I said "yes" more than "not now."

Following Jesus into the Mess Until the Cross Wears a Groove in Your Shoulder.

"The the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was stranger and you welcomed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." (Matthew 25:34-6)

"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body." (Hebrews 13:3)

"And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it? And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; "do this and you will live." But he desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?"Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I get back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers/" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

When I first came to Northampton in the summer of 2008 I grew aware of feeling displaced, a stranger in a strange land, a foreigner on the outside looking in. I likened it to what missionaries must feel when starting out in a new culture. It seemed as if I couldn't find the door into becoming a genuine part of the unique life of this small, tribal city. I must admit the experience was really disturbing. I'd only been there before when I first moved from Albuquerque to Newbury Street in Boston in the early 70's. I felt a kid amidst sophisticated grown-ups (actually I was). The Boston and Northampton experiences were disorienting.

Gradually in Northampton, God began to open a way to connect; it turned out to be a willingness to go into the mess of people's lives and on their terms. Mind you, I'd been a lay counselor for 20+ years, being in the mess was my daily experience - and I was intimately connected to my own. Be that as it may, the Northampton disquiet felt and still feels somehow different. Perhaps, I view it as messier in a peculiar way. The problems and dilemmas I encounter in people's lives here seem more labyrinthine with multiple layers of unhealth, tragedy and sorrow interwoven from decades or even generations of trouble. Whether its the story of the alcoholic Vietnam vet who broke his back, never had it fixed and now lives in chronic pain, or the Level 3 sex offender who's lost everything good in his life and lives on the street 24/7. Or it's the big-hearted, abused woman who tries valiantly to keep a semblance of normalcy and order in her life, but fails more often than not, The issues I encounter feel overwhelming, and the mess too great to walk along side in hopes of bringing redemptive change.

At the same time, I realize for all sorts of complex cultural reasons we're living through a period of tremendous strain and turmoil affecting large people groups on every continent. Northampton is merely a microcosm of global upheaval. It's in this personal and global context the Holy Spirit faces me with unsettling questions to reveal the actual state of my heart toward his Kingdom mission I've said I wanted to help shoulder (his light yoke?) He's asking questions such as:

• Do you really want to follow me into the mess everyday?
• Are you willing to sacrifice your comforts, resources, dreams, time and energy to walk in the mess with the most broken and beaten of my brethren?
• Do you merely want to talk and write about it while staying safely aloof and in control of your own Kingdom?
• Do you want to carry your cross, enter more deeply into my suffering, and die daily to yourself as your preferred way of living?
• Will you go further in with people and not look back even if it costs you everything?

My answer most often to these and related questions turns out to be varying degrees of "yes": "Yes, as long as you'll help me," "Yes, but," "Yes, oh, you mean right now?", or "Yes, maybe (which usually means not so much)." I know I don't want to live pursuing the American dream of wealth, power and prestige. I've never wanted to do that, although having some financial security, and being able to travel with family occasionally, or take time off, see more plays, concerts and arts events still has their charm to me.

By nature and motivational design, I'm motivated by values, they drive me instinctively, but I also have the same character flaws, selfish desires, blind-spots, and frustrating weaknesses (aka sin), as other Jesus followers. I hate that I have them (pride?), but they live in me, and I need daily transforming, lavish grace to cut through their substantial influence. Oh yeah, and I've a large, much practiced "gift" for wandering - some of it's my ADD, and some my motivational bent for exploring. The problem is when sin and design hold sway, I avoid the mess and pursue more pleasant activities and amusements.

The fact of the matter remains, I know if I'm to fulfill the summons to this imagine/Northampton mission my King has given me with Tricia and my teammates, I must make an avowedly consistent beeline for the mess and then linger there with Jesus. He always goes to the mess in people's lives - although they may not let him in - and he wants us to be with him there every day. We're not to be silent in the face of suffering, distant from the tragedies and sorrows of ruined lives, detached from the cries of the voiceless and oppressed, or too busy with our pleasures and securities to let our hands get dirty in someone else's chaos.

Cutting to the bone, we are to do things like:

• sit with and dry the tears of the abandoned (radical empathizing).
• feed the hungry as much or more that we feed ourselves (radical sharing).
• comfort and ennoble the discarded, warehoused feeble and dying (radical re-humanizing).
• give away more than we keep (radical giving).
• befriend the wearisome, smelly, dirty and obnoxious (radical befriending).
• give our money more to the Kingdom mission than ensuring comfortable lives for ourselves (radical financing).
• teach what we know to the ghettoized and disenfranchised who have no teacher ((radical equipping).
•  disarm hate with tenacious love so courageous and unexpected it shames and neutralizes the tyrant (radical peacemaking).
• pursue  and care for the addicted even when he or she is in the depths of using (radical care).
• downsize, simplify, embrace redemptive downward mobility (radical sanctification).

You see, the mess is the earthly dwelling place of Jesus. In becoming a mess-dweller by choice, you walk in solidarity with the One who came to seek and save the lost, crushed, abandoned and dying here and now. You actually find your true life there and come to know him in the face of the forlorn. You see his beauty in lives filled with trouble, sickness and death. The broken, bleeding and crucified Christ is mysteriously recognized in the deformed and hardened. By being at home in the mess, you can see and hear him in the lives of these people. You learn to notice and sense without shying away instinctively.

Tricia (lately through the life of St. Francis of Assisi) and both of us through the persistent inviting of the Holy Spirit are being asked to shoulder our crosses in a manner which inevitably invites us to share in the suffering of Christ in the suffering of humanity. We are not in any way special in that regard. This call is the call to all people of Christ. It is the Way of the Cross, the hard way, but the way freedom for the world. Grace makes it possible to respond and grace makes it possible to persist wholeheartedly. Amazing grace; grace of the life in the mess with Jesus.

PRAYER

Holy One, Wondrous One, Son of Man, Son of God, Suffering Servant, Christ, my magnificent King, make us able to prefer living and serving in humanity's crushing mess with you. Enable us to shoulder our crosses until it wears a groove in our shoulders and we bear the marks of unconditional love. Give us uncommon courage, the love of heaven, Spirit-soaked creativity, and humility able to connect with people who frighten and repel us. Give us hearts that long for justice, mercy, and redemptive freedom for even those who mistreat and despise our solidarity with you. Let the mess in people be our healing ground and setting-free place. Deliver us from the world's enticing addictions to pleasure, amusement, wealth, power and selfish gain. Fill us to bursting with the Holy Spirit's love for you, and what you love that our days may see love triumphing over death in all its rotting malevolence. 

 

I'm Pretty Sure We Don't Have REDEMPTIVE TRACTION Just Yet.

traction, n 1. the adhesive friction of a body on some surface, as a wheel on a rail or a tire on a road. 2. the state of being drawn or pulled.

adhesive, adj 1. clinging; tenacious; sticking fast.

friction, n  1. Mech., Physics. the resistance of a surface to the relative motion, as sliding or rolling of a body moving a long a given surface.

Been thinking of late about what if any Kingdom effect we actually have on the people of Northampton, especially those who disdain calling themselves Jesus-followers.

Another way to put it: Do we have any discernible REDEMPTIVE TRACTION?

Not just yet . . . if you measure it by adhesive friction which enables gaining forward movement because we are sticking fast in the consciousness of the city, i.e, we are becoming known and accepted as Jesus-followers. And because of that, people are opening to the One we follow.

Case in point: yesterday after a brief breakfast at Sylvester's with Tricia, I stopped by the Chamber of Commerce to inquire as to how to become a member. I was right there, so I popped in. I introduced myself to the Member Services Manager. She asked who I was with. I told her imagine/Northampton, a new church in town. She said, "Oh, I have not heard of you." We've been here 2 years in July.

I've heard the same response a number of times. Our advertising budget has been a pittance at best so we've not used the usual channels to get the word out. We've not had a familiar presence to most people in town. Our presence is better recognized by the Christian community here, but they're not the people we are most trying to serve.

To be fair, I should note we're recognized by a small number of street musicians and homeless folks because we talk to them often and serve them at the Interfaith Shelter monthly. There are few others in town as well. But that constitutes little traction in my estimation.

So what do I think redemptive traction would look like? Before I tell you, I'm aware much redemptive traction is more than likely developing beyond our sight where the Holy Spirit is putting necessary pieces in place before the observable manifests. I know the Kingdom works that way.

Here are a few markers:

1. We become familiar and safe enough that people talk of their spirituality with us. They see us as people like them with weaknesses, hopes, passions, convictions, losses and sorrows.

2. They invite us into their worlds. We work together on voluntary efforts serving the people of the city or help them do something they need doing.

3. We have more conversations about why we're convinced Christianity is true. Our relationships with people in town evolve to that level of discourse.

4. Some of them become intrigued enough to come to worship. They see us as authentic and humble, so trust grows into real relationship and they want to discover our world because we've taken their world seriously.

5. They come to know Jesus and learn to follow him with us. Slowly, they are inspired to invite people they know to open to Christ and follow him because of how he changed their story.

6. They grow to develop and use their gifts in Kingdom loving and serving with us.

7. They embrace being a follower of Jesus in Northampton as their Primary Identity.

8. Over time, imagine/Northampton grows in numbers to the point where we have a physical space on Main Street, a "third place" for students, artists, intellectuals, business people, musicians, young families, street people and older folks to find refreshing, conversation, and, oh yeah, a church happens to meet there too.

So there's a little of what I mean by redemptive traction. We would be making a substantial difference in the lives of people who Jesus loves and desires for them to know him. In addition, we'd be characterized as a group of people who love and serve "the least of these," Christ's brethren whether they chose to follow him or not. He is the one opening people's eyes and convicting them of a need to change. We just live focused on loving and serving.

We are here for this.

And I realize we are on the way.  Even though, sometimes spiritual friction seems to nullify the traction needed to move forward, in reality, it doesn't. I know the Holy Spirit eventually overcomes all that stands in the way of establishing his mission in Northampton - on our watch or later.

He is the ultimate REDEMPTIVE TRACTION.

Reflecting Our Very First Ever Worship

Someone asked me a few days ago why I had not blogged immediately about imagine/northampton's very first worship gathering. Part of my tardiness in the matter had to do with a strong need to recover from the sheer effort and hard work necessary to actually pull it together and pull it off. We knew it would be a mountain of work to be a "traveling roadshow" of sorts, setting up and tearing down everything, but "WOW!" This old man's body sat me down and had a spirited chat with me along the lines of "Do you realize what you're putting me through, cowboy?"

The second reason I didn't put down my thoughts sooner had to do with the tangle of ideas and emotions careening in my head after the event like quanta. It began on the Monday-after with being pulled every which way from, "I have to get new music together for the team to rehearse this Thursday," and reflecting on all sorts of comments people were invited to offer about how the gathering was to them, to "How are we going to solve some of the problems we encountered on Sunday?" There is so much to learn, and so much to get better at. And that's just with the worship piece of imagine/northampton! I felt that weight right away.

Gladly though, I have had time to think about the day and I have a few observations:

1. I can't say enough that even in the "hurry-up" of creating the worship space with the team that morning, I was filled with life at the notion we were actually finally doing worship, and people were gathered. There has always been something very lively to me about getting ready for a public worship event, perhaps its the wait-and-see potential of it all. The energy is infectious and uplifting. The anticipation of how the day will play out captivated my wondering and hope.

2. When the atmosphere was created it looked beautiful and different for a church "service." The ballroom was lovely and light. The tables, centerpieces, and food, and the stage filled with drums, instruments and mics intensified the energy for me. It felt good and right for that day. There was a place for the kids to go and good stuff for them to do around the idea of wonder. They would be engaged (the 20+ of them were, I understand).

When people began to come into the space, many I recognized and some I didn't, I felt the realness of what we were doing differently from other efforts we had made in the mission of imagine. People were gathering with a "come and see" anticipation and seemed engaged from the git. I was amazed people were there at all, frankly. I'm being honest.

Another remarkable part of the day for me was being once again able to help lead worship. Most of you know I had been on the Worship Team at the Barn for 15+ years as a drummer. The last 2.5 years before we moved to Massachusetts I was on the Worship Design Team at the Barn also with many of the same folks now on our current Launch and Leadership Team. Last Sunday, I was finally doing it all again, only this time with a church I was a part of launching. It felt very natural, like being in very familiar surroundings, but now in Northampton and at the very beginning.

An experience not as pleasant was the tension of trying to stay on top of all sorts of set-up details (nowhere near my gift), and last minute logistics needing attention. All kinds of work was getting done by team and imagine group members, but I was still trying to stay on top of musical details, drum equipment details, plus everything else from "are the greeters in place," to "are we going to get all the tech stuff ready before 3?" I was not at all solely responsible for that, but my mind was still racing with everything needing to come together for the gathering to go well, at least with our part of the bargain. I wasn't worried about God.

All in all, the essential minutiae were distracting me from completely savoring what was about to happen. Still there I noticed

MANY WONDERFUL MOMENTS:

• Seeing people milling about before the worship eating, greeting one another and talking together.
• Seeing the team pull it all together under pressure.
• Having our son, Dan, daughter-in-law Lindsay, and grandchildren Conor and Taylor there with us.
• Watching Jeanne Dubuque make her acting debut in the opening sketch (with very short notice, mind you), and do it well.
• Seeing Tricia do a bang-up job drawing people into reflection after Jim's talk even though her mic was off, and seeing people engaged with the questions she gave them.
• Hearing Jim preach again after almost 2 years. Seeing him in his element ably handling the Word of God for us.
• Hearing Silvana nail the reflection song after Jim's talk.
• Experiencing Maureen's servant heart and can-do spirit as she helped us set it all up and then greet people.
• Watching Karen and her dad set up the imagine Kids room, knowing they would be in great hands. Having Ophelia from Amherst College help with the kids.
• Getting to sit at my set of Gretsch drums behind a group of talented singers and musicians taking our worship maiden voyage together, and despite not having enough time to do a run-through, keeping it together and helping people worship God.
• Getting to hear Jen and Kris play.
• Hearing Mike pull people into worship with the songs he sang lead on.
• Playing with Jim again.
• Seeing Matt Bayne's smiling face at the back of the room knowing he had been substantially ill.
• Knowing a number of pastors were with us to give support
  
• Having some of our family and guests stay after to help clean up.
  

SOME FLIES IN THE OINTMENT:

• Terrible room acoustics creating tuning issues and making everything sound jangling and boomy on the stage.
• Schlepping bins of stuff up and down the stairs - being rained on and getting soaked.
• Having to go to our storage shed in Hadley before the worship to retrieve a piece of drum equipment I forgot, and the office to get the Proxima I forgot.
• Not having enough time to do an adequate sound check and sketch run-through.
• Not having enough help with the kids (we didn't really know how many we would have.

So all in all our very first worship in Northampton was good, all things considered. Again, nothing I said can overshadow the fact we got to do it at all, and that God did show up as only he can.

It is a wondrous thing to start a church at my age - at any age, I suspect - and a sobering privilege that God uses old guys like me to create and deepen the Kingdom in the lives of people.

I never realized one sunny New Mexico mid-morning when Jesus engulfed a then, 9-10 year old boy in light, overtook me in a flash with astounding joy I had no name for, and let me know that someday I would truly know him, that at 60, I would be launching a church in his Name and for his glory.

Life is a grand and fitting mystery, indeed.

I hope I miss none of it apportioned to me while I'm here.

For a time like this

I recently mentioned to someone that I believed Tricia and I were made for what we are now doing in Northampton. There are all sorts of reasons why I think it true:

1. We have lived long enough to know something about the vicissitudes of life and their effects on the heart. Change is the way it is. We find ourselves in it.
2. We have been weathered by trials and storms of many kinds so that the fierce spiritual battles of launching in occupied territory do not come as a surprise, and we do not wear rose-colored glasses concerning the rigors of ministry life.
3. We have been in full-time ministry for 20 years working with broken people from all over. We know the chains that bind men and women, and how they can be freed.
4. We have been involved in the arts since our 20's and in creating the atmosphere that facilitates heart and mind surrender to God.
5. We are young-at-heart, especially about living with passion and making Jesus real because of his beauty and truth.
6. We are communicators who know how to challenge people to move beyond their fears, blindspots and comfort zones.
7. We are fully convinced that Jesus is the point of everything which matters and wants to be found by folks. We have always desired to reveal him.
8. We are crazy enough to believe that getting out of the boat and walking on the water for the Kingdom is the normal Christian life. Coming to Northampton has kept us on the pond! It's just normal.

So our seasoning in ministry and life has led us here. Jesus came to do his Father's will. He said that anyone who follows him will be where he is. We are Jesus-followers. He summoned us years ago to leave our "nets" and follow him. We did, and here we are. No time to turn back or look longingly toward Florida...although I am a killer in lime-green pants and white shoes!

Am I too old for this?

Never thought I would be helping launch a church at the ripe old age of 59, nor did Tricia, my wife. But here we are. Northampton MA is not an easy place to do so either. Naming it imagine/northampton adds to the challenge. What kind of church has such a name? Is it a cult? Is it a joke? Where is Jesus in this?

And I am something called a spiritual formation catalyst to boot. What the heck is that? Why aren't I a pastor or reverend, something easy to recognize like that? Why do I have to be so obtuse. so different, so weird?

Also, 59 is not 29, or even 39. Church planting is for young men and women who can handle the myriad pressures and challenges. Old guys need to just be old guys: over the hill, geriatric, addled and preoccupied with old guy specialties like prostates and nose hair.

But old guys can and do plant churches. We have a vision that retirement can't touch. We hear Jesus say "will you go?" And we go, maybe a little slower and having to check our notes to make sure we don't forget stuff, but we go. To not go would be to settle for a lesser life and a sagging faith. Old guys like me are not happy with the spiritual status quo, the "easy does it," lifestyle. We want to finish our race running as hard as gray guys can for the prize of prizes. We want to see Jesus and say: "Pappy, I ran the best could."

So I'm in Northampton planting imagine convinced it will make a difference in a way nothing else I could do these days. In the latter days old men will dream dreams and follow them as best they can...as best I can. See you in Northampton . . . .