Real Church

Well, life happens so so much for extra posts this week ...

Last Saturday was our first meeting of a new church, one trying to be "organic" as it is labeled. Being our first meeting, we shared a meal, talked about what brought us to Colorado, which one story had God so much in it it just prompted other stories of God acting. A couple of people had stories on how Satan tried to block their participation, either in the conference that we initially met at or that week's meeting.

I think to the passages that talk about the purpose of gathering -- to encourage one another, to edify one another. These stories and time with people ... this was great. Never went to a "service" like this. And for those who insist that meetings are for "worship" (find a scripture that says that that applies to the New Covenant): Real honest stories that I think glorified God more than a song, a prayer, three more songs,a sermon, another song, song, and closing prayer.

The weekend before I was at a Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp. I was on the work crew. We went out on Wednesday, and met as a group daily in our time there, twice on Saturday. Our Friday-Sunday morning meetings were practical matters, prayer, and talking about how we felt the Spirit moving, while Thursday's meeting did the same with some more stuff since we had more time. We had an extra meeting Saturday to talk about how we saw God move that weekend. Smaller groups met at other times spontaneously, and we had our work together too. Again, for a weekend we were a "church" that met daily. And again, I think was more glorified than a month of Sundays in a typical traditional church.

That's not to say a group gathered for traditional church couldn't experience the same -- there just has to be as much time if not more looking into the faces of your brothers and sisters than staring at the back of their heads while the professionals and semi-pros "perform", time spent talking about God and what he is doing in lives today and what he has done this year (not what he did in the first century and before), in a way that encourages and edifies.

New post

Got back Sunday from my fourth Wild At Heart Boot Camp. You think, why four? Well, of course there is the first, and way back there once was a requirement to make two boot camps to go to the Advanced Camp. That's two. The last two I've volunteered at, first in Oct '06 and then last weekend on the work crew.

Great time hanging out with the work crew members in down time, what little we had. Some great guys. There's talk of a reunion next month for those of us along the front range. I assume the guys from Oregon, NY and Arizona are welcome to fly in if they wish.

I think there were three great "wows" from the weekend. Fourth if you count John Eldredge's great quote "Rescue sex is almost as good as makeup sex". Now how many "men's retreats" can you go on and hear that kind of advice?

Great "wow" number one: the fall foliage was peaking. Such beauty. I'll probably edit this post later or add one to embed some photos I took of it.

Great "wow" number two: God speaks. Actually I hear his voice regularly, but usually something extra comes through at these boot camps. I don't know why God doesn't speak these kinds of things elsewhere -- is it something with me that I'm only willing to listen at a Ransomed Heart event? Or is there something about the situation that God just can speak clearer -- is the lines of communication clearer? Really need to figure that one out, because I can't wait between events like this to hear like that.

Great "wow" number three: Such men on the work crew. There were two men on this crew I knew before -- Bill from Castle Rock who I met at a previous event and had lunch with a few weeks back, and one of the leads Scott who was a "wingman" on my previous volunteering with Ransomed Heart. In no time we bonded. Why can't the church be more like this? Well, in part, we were the church of course. But why can't the "church" as most think of it be like this? I cling to the belief it can ... and continue to suspect the "institutional systems" about her interfere with her full functioning. But I love how she often performs despite those handcuffs.

Boot Camp

Well, a week from today I'll be helping prepare Frontier Ranch to host another Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp.

For those unaware of what a Boot Camp is, I believe the best selling Christian book title this century outside of some Bible translations and Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life is probably John Eldredge's Wild At Heart. Years ago, John and his ministry, Ransomed Heart, started offering men's retreats in the mountains of Colorado to help men explore more deeply what it means to be a man and to become fully what God intended. These have helped hundreds if not thousands of men, and the impact of these men have improved the lives of thousands more. For example, if you read Donald Miller's To Own a Dragon (Miller's more famous books are Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and one of my favorites Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance), you see his journey in dealing with an absent father and realizing the impact of the lack of a male influence had on him. He specifically mentions Wild At Heart and his trip to a boot camp in that book and the impact it had in sorting out his journey.

I first made a boot camp in May 2004. Great time of listening to God, and unpacking who I am and how the events of life have shaped me. I went back in January 2005 and volunteered in a role for the October 2006 event, and a few weeks back got recruited to return as part of the work crew (the manual labor for the event).

The power of the event seems to vary for each man. I think the honesty of each man who speaks (John, Craig McConnell, Bart Hansen, and in the past Gary Barkalow) in their journey holds the greatest power to me. I've gained from each time I've gone, first with the teaching and stories, then as a volunteer with the interactions of others and their stories. This is a weekend into what the movement of Christ should be.