Emancipation of the Freed

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 10:42 AM | 2 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Questions

The Dark Side of Submission

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 5:25 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Family, Leadership, Love

I Loved this! Such a powerful portrayal of love shared between The Bridegroom and The Bride.

Gatlyn Wedding Highlights from Dean Kaneshiro on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 2:35 PM | 2 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Love

Some Thoughts to Chew On

Dear Underground. Would you like some meat to chew on? Some controversy that might help you think about who you really are? Then consider the following argument made for the sake of discussion, not conclusion. I want to know what you think. Read carefully, this is critical stuff. Then choose your response below – A, B, C, D or E.

Whatever you do, please don’t label me based on this exercise ☺

(And don’t worry, we will return to more simple fun very soon.)

SCOURGE OF THE EARTH or compassionate lovers of human kind? Depending on where you live and what your experience is, Christians may be identified as either one, and, much to the chagrin of those who use the label to describe themselves, legitimately so. It all boils down to what you mean by the label ‘Christian.’

Regardless of what we think any particular word should mean, it actually means what society interprets it to mean. Linguistics 101. Like the word gay. I’ve been quoted as saying that I could have once properly been branded the gay author because, although I have always been heterosexual, I once was… well, happy. Twenty years ago gay meant happy, so you could say I was gay. Today the term refers to sexual orientation. So although once I could have appropriately been called gay, I can no longer, not because I’ve changed, but because the understanding of the word in our society has changed and it no longer describes what I am.

Fine. The word is only a label and the meaning of labels change with time and culture.

So it might be with the word ‘Christian.’ For many years following the death of Christ, his followers did not use the term at all, and even then the term was coined by the world to, not the church, which at the time referred to their faith simply as the Way. As far as we know, the term Christian was inspired by heathens in Antioch and eventually stuck. The first twenty years of Christ’s followers, those closest to his life, never even heard the term.

But none of that really matters, it is, after all, only a label. The question is, what does that label mean today. And more importantly, does it describe your life?

Jesus summed up his message as follows: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Armed with this simple mandate of love, millions of his followers have forsaken the relative safety and affluence of a comfortable life to extend love and hope to the downtrodden over the centuries. Much could be said to explain how and why Christianity has embodied compassion in a world torn by war, terror, and heartache. It’s all about love, my friend.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of many, the religion of Christianity is now far better known for much more and much less than love. Not all of the associations are bad, mind you, but they are a far cry from the message of love that ultimately cost Jesus his life. Ask any pedestrian and, depending on where they live, they will tell you who Christians are. What they tell you may not describe you at all.

Ask the question in the Middle East and you might be told that Christians are killers whose bombs have killed thousands of innocent bystanders in Iraq; murderers who have brutally killed thousands of Muslims in Lebanon. Christian militia entered the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut in September 1982 where they raped, pillaged and murdered with impunity for three days during what became known as the Shatila massacre. The first suicide bomber in Lebanon was a Christian, blowing up Muslims. The scourge of the Crusaders is still alive in the Middle East. This is what ‘Christian’ means to many in that part of the world. Does this describe you?

My father once visited a town in India where Hindus had killed many Christians over the previous months. He was surprised to learn that they were being killed for their association with the West, not Jesus. In that part of the world, Christian means ‘Western’ not follower of Christ.

“So then,” my father said, “if you are dying for a term that doesn’t describe you, are you not dying in vain? If Christian means western to them, not follower of Christ, then to call yourself Christian to them is deceitful, is it not? To the Romans, become Roman. Speak their language, don’t impose your language on them.”

If you ask a pedestrian in Seattle who Christians are, they will likely tell you that Christians are judgmental, insensitive, hypocrites who are out of touch with reality. Or worse, angry right-wing bigots willing to resort to hate speech and violence to protect their narrow way of life. That they are a political group committed to a particular platform, even willing to take up the sword or home-made bombs to defend that platform.

The last thing that will come to their mind is the concept of sacrificial love or Jesus who showed us that love. Just like the word ‘Gay’ the meaning of the word has changed, like it or not.

And it’s not just Lebanon or Seattle. According to a Barna Group poll, only 9% of those outside the church think Christians in America are nice, loving people. Whatever happened to ‘you shall know them by their love?’ Throughout most of the world Christianity is simply no longer associated with the core beliefs of sacrificial love that birthed our faith. It has become like a large vessel of dirty bathwater, full of nasty associations that fly in the face of Jesus’ teaching which centered on love and the cry that ‘we judge not lest we be judged.’ A Newsweek cover story cited the dramatic decline of Christianity in the United States. We live in a post Christian world, many would say. They might be right. And who’s to blame them? No one wants to swim around in dirty bathwater.

But wait a minute. There is more than dirty bathwater in this vessel. There is something precious and live-giving! And there is a rising generation of thinkers who are as eager to protect and cherish that life as they are to throw out the dirty bathwater.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, we say.

It’s interesting that Jesus’ first recorded miracle was turning dirty bathwater (in this case water used to wash dusty feet) into precious wine, a beautiful portrayal of purification. My generation wants that wine back and many are willing—check that, eager—to rid the vessel of the bathwater and replace it with that wine, that truth, that core message of love that Jesus gave his life for.

If Christian means judgmental or bigot to most or even many, then perhaps it is wrong for us to use a willingly use a deceptive label. Perhaps to them we are no longer ‘Christian’ in as much as I am no longer ‘Gay.’

I and my kind are neither bigots nor hate-mongers nor killers nor whatever else those in Seattle and Lebanon might think Christian means. Rather we are passionate believers in a person who came with a message of love, and his name was Jesus.

Question: Why are we so beholding to a manmade religious label even when that label now distorts the original meaning behind it? Crusader and Christian were once synonymous in many parts of the world. If you were transported back to that time, would you have proudly call yourself a Crusader, knowing what you know today?

Our identity is not stamped with any specific political party or ideology however good or bad they might be, but to the man who avoided being identified by any political ideology whenever possible and offered only the sage advice to give unto Cesar what is Cesar’s.
We are not defined by any specific social agenda, however necessary or good, but by the love that embraces the downcast in need of a helping hand.

We do not follow any moral creed invented by man however honorable, nor spit in the faces of those who struggle to put others before themselves however deserving, but we carry the burden of forgiveness and step aside so that he without sin may throw the first stone, if indeed such a man lives.

Our stories are not about pot-lucks and Sunday school playground squabbles, but about that monster called hate and his futile attempts to dash the hopes of the Great Lover.
Perhaps you could call us post-Christian Believers, defined solely by the man we follow, not the institution that bears his name.

We believe that our first calling is to love God with all of our hearts, and that our second calling is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and for us that is a difficult enough task to waste the rest of our lives on.

We are not partial Christians, not red-letter Christians, not a new kind of Christian, not non-Christian; we are far more and far less than Christian, children of an unfortunate but very real phenomenon that has dirtied our bathwater so now we want out, but out with the baby, please. The baby the whole baby, nothing but the baby, so help us God.

We are many, very many, millions of many. This is the way we roll and we are on the rise.

Tell me what you think. What best describes you:

A) The term ‘Christian’ as understood by much of the world no longer describes your faith. You want out of that dirty bath water with the baby, the whole baby, nothing but the baby. You do not or would not call yourself Christian unless speaking to a person who understands the term clearly to mean what you mean.

B) The term ‘Christian’ as understood by much of the world no longer describes your faith. But you would cling to that term because it means so much to you, and you would try to change the world’s understanding of what it means. Teach the Romans English, so to speak.

C) The term ‘Christian’ with all of it’s socio-political associations actually describes you pretty well, so you will not worry yourself with this issue.

D) The issues and arguments above ring a bell but they also make you very nervous and so you would distance yourself from them, afraid of what others in your circle might think. You will go with the flow and rest in that current.

E) You believe the term is sacred and that all those believers who did not call themselves Christians in the early church are probably in hell.

I personally am not fully decided. But I must hear from you. At any rate this exercise will make you think about who you are, really are, and that is invaluable.

Think carefully. Let you opinion be heard.

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 3:26 PM | 3 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Change, Freedom, Prophetic Voices

Awoke at 3:00 AM, can't seem to sleep.

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 3:12 AM | 5 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Cancer, Ethos

Here is Johm Wimber at some of his very best, enjoy...

Part 2 of 8

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 3:40 PM | 0 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Prophetic Voices

Why I Go To Burning Man

by Randy Bohlender

I've noticed a thread on the e-playa recently...one where people are swapping stories about what they tell non-burners about Burning Man. Part of the discussion has centered on trying to explain why we go to the Burn. I've faced this question more than my share of times. To a certain extent, I fit the mold. I'm an adventurer. I love travel. I have an auxiliary hole in my head from which dangles the obligatory gold hoop. At first glance, I meld into the Burning Man crowd quite well. Still, if my college graduating class would have had the foresight to vote, I would have probably been voted "Least Likely to Burn".

It's not my appearance that makes me an unlikely burner, it's my paradigm. Prepare your hearts for a shock, gang. I'm a born-again Christian. Even stranger (or some would say even worse), I'm a pastor...have been for years. I've made it my life, and will continue to do so.

2002 was my second trip to Burning Man. Back in 2000, acting on what we would call prompting from God, a team of five of us brought 5,000 bottles of water to give away. It was our way of making a prophetic declaration of what God wants to do in people's lives; bring water to the dry places. We were wonderfully received - burners are great hosts. It was more than a fluke that Renee Roberts was shooting footage for her documentary Gifting It...we spent a good hour on the playa discussing giving, altruism and art. This year, I returned with a larger camp...five people became twelve, one vehicle became three, and five thousand bottles of water became ten thousand. We spent the week gifting water to fellow burners, as our practical demonstration of the love of God. A few folks differed with our philosophy, but none argued about the practicality of the gift, and all were grateful receivers. We became Burners and lived among friends for the week.

As we talked with passing Burners and word got out that "the Christians" were camped at the corner of 225 & Forecastle, we were frequently approached by pleasant people with an innocent question: "Why are you guys here?" It was never asked in anger...just curiosity. People honestly wondered why we would choose to spend so much effort and resources to give to a group that, at least on the surface, seemed to be proudly at odds with much of what the church has stood for down over the years. Our standard answer was "to show you God loves you in a practical way!" Driving the 2200 miles home, covered in dust, I asked myself the same question, and came to the following greater conclusions.

I go to Burning Man because the playa puts me in my place.

I spend entirely too much time in boxes. I have a ranch style, suburban box, where I keep my family and most of my stuff. I have a small, German-made box with wheels where I keep most of my CD's and spend a lot of time on the phone. I have another box where I keep coworkers. In those boxes, I am someone. I have the power to change the climate. I can manipulate the auditory environment. I crown myself king of my boxes, and when my boxes wear out, I will get new ones. The playa is the ultimate out of the box experience. In our boxes, we are in total control. On the playa, we are at the mercy of God (some would say the universe, but remember...I've got a paradigm).

It's on the playa that I realize my finiteness. Only when I'm on the vast expanse...so flat that I can see a storm coming, feel it engulf me, and watch it pass...that I realize that life happens to me much more than I happen to it. For all of the control that I think I exert, it's all on the micro level....where I live, Mac or PC, whether or not to supersize.

The greater matters - disappointment, elation, health, danger, death and the like - race towards me like a playa storm. I can anticipate and prepare, but cannot stop them. On the playa I find my place, and it's not the place of a player who influences a game, but more like the ball itself. The playa makes me yearn to know the coach. It makes my need for God much more evident. I need Him whenever I get out of my box.

Historically, God has chosen the desert as a backdrop when He wanted to strip the peripherals away. He sent John the Baptist as a man burning in the desert, rejecting the traditional luxuries he would have known as a priest's son in favor of a minimal existence and maximum impact . The ancient seer Isaiah prophesied of "a voice calling out in the desert. " As the crowds are drawn to the playa, the crowds were drawn to the desert of Judea to see a man burn, and those who heard his words and took them to heart found new life represented in the ritual of baptism. The 2002 Burning Man theme of life on water couldn't have been more appropriate for John, who knew that the man who left his sins in the water rose alive like never before.

The Spirit of God drew Jesus into the desert for a time of proving and returned Him to the masses full of power. It was in the desert that He faced his own nemesis and discovered the strength held only by those who know self control and God-reliance. Scripturally speaking, time in the desert was never wasted. God draws me to the desert to remind me of who I am, of how little influence I have apart from His plan, and the power He holds over all of us. The playa puts me in my place.

I go to Burning Man because creativity points to a Creator.

Our camp consisted of two teams - an advance team that piloted the stuff out from Cincinnati, arriving Sunday, and a fly-in team who joined us mid week. While the newbies who arrived first acclimated by mid week, we all enjoyed watching the fly-in team's reaction to things we'd grown accustom to. Thursday evening, the fly-in newbies were still buzzing. They'd endured 24 hours of airplanes, rental vehicles, desert roads, and the amazing first-glance of Burning Man. My friend, Robbie, turned around to see the huge harvest moon rising behind The Man. Keep in mind that he'd spent the day looking at whale-buses and lily pads that weren't really there. After staring at the moon for a moment, Robbie asked "Is that the moon or is that something somebody's doing?" I laughed manically; not because it was silly, but because it was plausible. Only at Burning Man could one consider that it really wasn't the moon...that perhaps someone had fabricated it. After all, isn't everything fabricated by someone? From hand painted, fish shaped bicycles built lovingly in people's basements to large scale installations taking a crew of fifty all week to assembe, everything points toward the inner part of man that says "I can make something special...".

What is it within the heart of a man or woman that leads them to create? Why must we augment our reality with our depictions of it? That thing that has driven us to scratch the outline of a wooly mammoth on the wall of a cave, that has pushed us to build pyramids, paint pictures, and build flamethrowers...it is evidence of an aesthetic drive that prohibits us from leaving well enough alone. The animal kingdom has no such compulsions. Never in history has a yak shown interest in sculpture or a chicken so much has strewn straw in a intentional pattern. Why is mankind so different? What is it that is stamped upon our spirit that causes every culture in the world to spawn painters, poets, and sculptors? Inuit or Slav, Semite or Anglo, one cannot find a culture in the world with no appreciation for artistic expression. Theologians would call it 'the image of God'.

The story of Genesis describes the Spirit of God as brooding over the chaos of a preconceived cosmos, and He acted on it. He said "I can do better," and He did. His artwork incorporated elements of color, shape, texture, sound, force, and life itself. Then, from the elements He created, He created a composite, and blew life into it. It became him, and He was in him. Since that day, he has been driven to create just as He did, and so we create...because on our spirit resides a Creative Force.

I go to Burning Man because gifting looks a lot like God's idea.

Giving was a part of our group's ethos long before Renee Roberts released Gifting It. Our church is known locally as the church that gives away Cokes at intersections, gives free newspapers in city parks, and goes door to door in residential areas to wash cars free of charge. We do it as a demonstration of God's love that will make sense to people...a solo on a pipe organ might be hard to relate to, but a clean car in the driveway is something that people find intensely practical.

Our church was founded in the early eighties by Steve Sjogren. Early on, he felt impressed that rather than build a traditional 'come and see' church, he should build a 'go and do' church. A 'come and see' church is based on programs that bring people into the building. Christmas pageants...puppet shows...concerts...none of these activities are inherently bad, just geared for those who are already on the inside track. A 'go and do' church draws people out of their own four walls and into the community. A 'go and do' church brings value to a community by bringing the best of faith to the faithless who need it the most. Just as God has always been the consummate artist, so has He served as an example of 'go and do'. Jesus was constantly moving among the people, doing things like giving people sight and providing the extra wine for a wedding celebration. His message was not merely "the Kingdom is coming", but "The Kingdom is here." He valued action. Jesus was God, going and doing.

It doesn't surprise me that gifting is taking an increasingly high profile at Burning Man. In a large concentration of seekers - people aware of their own spiritual journey - it only makes sense to me that the image of God that has been stamped on humans from the beginning of time would manifest itself, and that in the act of receiving, some would find more than the gift itself.

Wednesday morning, as the last of the rave goers stumbled back towards their camps on the outskirts of the ring, we stood giving away bottles of water. Behind us loomed our camp, complete with a large sculpture we called "En Gedi". En Gedi depicted a huge boulder with a spring flowing from the top. The name En Gedi refers to an actual place in the mid east - the oasis in the desert where David hid from Saul. The name is also referred to in the prophetic writings of Ezekiel as the headwaters of God. Our En Gedi featured a beautiful angel on top, bowing low before a golden throne.

A young guy wandered into our camp for some water, and found himself resting in the shade, trying to build up his strength for the final walk back to his tent. After hearing the explanation of our artwork, he asked "Who sits on the throne?"

I told him "God sits on the throne."

The guy glanced up and grinned back at me, "I don't see Him!"

I asked "Where'd you get the bottle of water?"

For a moment, time stood still as he stared at God as represented by the free gift in his hand. He took a swig, looked back up to the throne and quietly said "Thanks, God."

I go to Burning Man because the church has spent too many years at the trailing edge of society.

As a child, I went to church in the fifties, which is only interesting when you realize that I wasn't born until 1967. It wasn't that the actual decade was that of the fifties...just that the church never left it. The music, the style, the attitudes all screamed of an age that I did not know anywhere else other than within those four walls. Although I grew up in a devout Christian family, it was often difficult to take what we were living within the walls of that church on Sunday and make them fit into the culture where we lived the rest of the week.

Because of it's unwillingness to embrace the present, let alone the future, the church has shown itself to be irrelevant to my generation. As a result, when people need help, they rarely turn to the church, even though helping people is what the church is all about. It's not that there's an animosity towards the church; just an ambivalence.

While Burners often take an element of pride in being 'out of the norm", I think they do themselves a great disservice when they fail to realize that they are dragging culture their direction. We may or may not see a national trend of green hair or public nudity, but I do believe that our culture is moving towards the mores of Burning Man. It is the Petri dish of postmodernism...and what is growing on the playa will spread like crazy throughout our world. I want a church that will be there, so I go to Burning Man to grow in my knowledge of the future.

I've learned much in the 2 years I've been associated with Burning Man. Some of it may surprise you. For example:

• While I have a deep seated sense of right and wrong, Burners aren't interested in it. My sense of values cannot be forced upon people. All I have to offer is life and experience...and if I can show them life, they may be interested in my values.
• Given a choice of A, B, or C, most Burners will pick D (all of the above). Creative people refuse to be pigeonholed into given answers. They value the journey of discovery as much as the arrival at fact.

In these two characteristics, I find truths that the church must understand in order to be relevant to post-moderns. First, that people cannot be argued into a system of faith, only drawn in by what they see in others. This is why the Bible tells us that people are drawn to God by His kindness. Second, that if Christianity is going to appeal to people of the future, then the church has to make room for people in process.

I go to Burning Man because I want the church of the future to learn lessons that can only be learned when one goes to where the future is headed.

Finally, I go because I have something to offer.

It didn't take me long to acquire the burner's innate disdain towards spectators. Consuming social capital while contributing nothing to the greater good of the whole, they are societal parasites. We received an incredible variety of things on the playa. Our neighbors made us homemade ice cream. A flamenco guitar player named Tao favored us with a song. Three hilarious young men located somewhere above 255 entertained us with a tag team story telling session that remains so vivid an experience that I laugh out loud when they appear on our video tape. It seems everyone had something to offer, and my 'something to offer' is what brings me the Black Rock City. My gift, though taking the form of a bottle of water, is really much more than that. I come to present hope...a bite sized morsel of grace that people can take home to chew on for themselves.

Towards the end of the week, one young man approached me and said "can you confirm a couple of rumors I've been hearing? "

"Sure" I said.

"Word on the playa is that you guys are all from a church."

The way he said 'church' led me to believe he probably didn't believe the rumor. "Yep," I said, "We are."

His eyes grew wide. "And I also heard that you are a pastor."

"Again, confirmed."

He then moved in for the kill. "And I heard you came out here to convert us all."

I looked both ways as if to see if we were being spied on, leaned forward and asked "Do you own your own home?"

He seemed a little stunned. "Yeah. Bought it last year."

"How long did you look for a house?" I continued.

This line of questioning was not what he expected. "I don't know - maybe six months."

I smiled. "Okay, so it took you six months to find a place to live. That's not unusual. Some people look for a year or more and no wonder...it's a huge decision. If it seems normal to look for a house that long, don't you think it would be arrogant for us to anticipate that you would make a major religious paradigm shift out here in the desert in just one or two short conversations?"

"Uh, yea" he said. By this time, he was more puzzled than he had been when he walked in.

"We're not so arrogant as to expect that you're going to change everything about what you believe just because we told you...but we do think that if you walk away from this experience thinking a little differently about God or the people who claim to serve Him, that's a good thing. Drink our water. Hang out. Be our friend. Then go home and make your own decision about the God that motivates us."

I go to Burning Man because I have something to offer...a fresh perspective of an old institution. An image of the church rising from the ashes of hypocrisy to prove itself relevant to the age...an image of a church made of servants, in the model of Jesus, caring for people and loving God.

And that's why I go to the Burn.

Randy Bohlender's blog

Posted by Tom Zawacki at 2:00 PM | 4 comments Links to this post  

Labels: Change, Leadership, Love, Outreach