:: Excavating the Kingdom through brainstorming ::

I don't know about those who try to find a lazy way and shortcut toward change by just applying formulas that mimic a movement, be it post-bs. I just hope they'll find their own footing and be "inspired" and not just copy. However, I also think we learn by models, and so there's validity in labels.

I personally believe that we are just a bunch of people connecting together, sharing our journey and not wanting to label our quest other than that we felt lost in the ocean of visions out there, or lack thereof. We felt processed like rats in a maze toward the collective purpose to bring souls to the church. And many feel we don't even know what the kingdom should look like in a western contemporary media civilization. We're struggling to see the tree in the forest. To hear when it falls.

Other than that, of course labels are what we need to define where we're at, in relation to others. The challenge, to me, is to find a way to hold them loosely, from generation to generation.

Of course feed the poor, pray for the sick, intercede for the family and the nations. Go and preach the gospel. But before you do, like the rest of us, you surely had a time of reflection over what it would look like, taking baby steps, growing up as you went. I can't invalidate anybody's verbal outpouring over a life of faith lived in community, because I myself have babbled before I could speak. And it's all about blessing each other's journey in integrity and honesty.

I was tired of NOT reading anything alive concerning the focus group the Church had become. I really want to articulate where things went wrong because I want to leave a legacy for other generations so they don't have to get stuck like we were, without having relevant material to ponder. I want to see what went wrong in my life so I learn from my mistakes, and hopefully next time embrace the way of the kingdom and not just blurt out my own immaturity, waiting for the world around me to adjust to my tunnel vision, or waste away isolated from real people with real needs, while I got water that's stagnating in my cup.

And it's nice when the people I disciple don't have to stay beneath my own limitations, but I can bless their unique adventurous spirit and learn from them too, validate their own journey as they experiment. It's not just about the goal, but how we take people to a place where their hearts burn without ceasing to do the deeds out of genuine passion, with the ups and downs that go with this.

We shouldn't be afraid of trying things out in a conceptual conversational way, because even for a moment we believe it would bring something alive to us. Sometimes, we will as quickly distance ourselves from it, and that reaction is a sign of a healthy anchored heart who's looking for Christ to be revealed and the kingdom to advance. Through grace maturity comes, not through fear.

"When a torrent sweeps a man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory." [ Robert Louis Stevenson ]