Todd P Paul

Maine

I just posted some of the pictures up on Flickr of our Maine trip last week.
We finally got home on Tuesday, after missing our Monday night flight. It was nice to have an extra day of vacation, subsidized by Southwest.

Maine, New Hampshire, and Airports

Vacation is that time of year (hopefully more often than yearly) where life changes pace and energy is revived. For the last week, I have been lounging around New England and loving it. This trip makes my first time to the area and my heart is in love. The ocean and the nature around Maine and New Hampshire is amazing. These two things come in second only to the food, which I have eaten more than I care to admit. We had the great pleasure of reuniting with some Lexington friends for the week of exploring. Vacation time has now come to an end and life in Chicago starts bright and early in the morning. Hopefully that is, we missed our first flight out of Manchester, so we are waiting on standby for a 8:25 flight. We are crossing our fingers! I took almost 500 pictures of the last 9 days, which will appear on Flickr in the next day or two. Enjoy what is left of your Labor Day Weekend.

New Beginnings

As we have started working through what community life looks like in Chicago over the last few weeks, I am both encouraged by what I see and sadden. Encouraged because I see endless opportunity, which for me is refreshing and full of hope. There is already a lot of great work going on in the city and in our area. We have meet a few people interested in new ways of doing life, but fewer than I thought. I am sadden by this and honestly, very shocked. Having walked with great and challenging friends for the last six years, I thought these ideas for community and a new Christian life together were more wide spread than it turns out they are. This is not to discount the great work people are doing, just to say it is different than I expected. What I have found is myself and the story of Communality as a spectacle for all of these new names for Christianity and the church. The story that Jen and I have lived for the past few years, seems to be more compelling than the work of doing it together. Which I guess I should not be surprising.
In my typical analyse and fix mode, I have been trying to decipher why this is the case. I did not realize the ideas of our local and global community where so different than that of the mainstream and popularized Christian life. Maybe I assumed too much and that it was a more "natural" approach, than it is in reality. The story seems to be interesting to others, but the praxis seems foreign. Why is it so foreign? My only guess is because it is so simple to state and so hard to put into practice. Especially when your passed context has been a sermon where someone told you the three "nuggets" and to go home and pray about it in solitude.
Live a rich life deeply connected with others and partnering together to do kingdom work where you find it. Seems clear enough.  I guess our culture is missing a context or experience with what it means to be deeply connect, let alone, living a deeply connected missional life together. I can understand why that is tough to take, as it always is for me too, but I did not think it would be disabling.

Communal Living

I would encourage you to read the FT article on communes in the weekend paper. It looks at a brief history of intentional communities and talks about the modern movement.

They were the perfect homes for the hippy movement. Loosely structured and easy-going, communes in the late 1960s and early 1970s offered young people shelter, warmth, food and company without any of those annoying constraints of the nuclear family and suburban life. In a commune you could get up late, spend the day doing whatever you wanted and even sleep with your best friend’s partner, all in the name of rejecting conventionality. And it hardly cost you a penny.

Well, at least that was what the view was from “straight” suburbia and it provided plenty a pursed lip and sharp intake of breath around the dinner tables of provincial Britain and middle America.

Full article, free, here = FT - Commune Article

Recycling the Financial Times

On of my chores around here, is to load up the Burley Trailer and take the recycling to Uptown Recycling Center. I was over there sorting out my colored glass from my newspapers the other day and another couple drove up to drop off their recycling as well. The lady and I were both at the newspaper/ magazine recycling bin when she said, "I didn't know people who read the Financial Times recycled." I laughed to myself and responded, "Yea, we're a strange breed." She proceeded to comment on my other newspaper recycling, the Wall Street Journal, with, "I hope you don't read the editorials." I was a little thrown off by the whole conversation I was having with this total stranger. Your recycling is a personal thing and here this lady was giving me a running commentary on my reading habits. I respond, "Yea, I generally do everyday, mostly online. I think it's important to be well-rounded." She didn't respond for a while, so I finished up at that station and moved over to the cardboard bin. I was about halfway through putting my cardboard products in the bin when she came over with hers. Her husband/ boyfriend/ life partner joined her to help her finish up. I was throwing stuff in the bin right and left, when I came to a condom box. So, I threw it in the bin and said, "Yea, readers of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal also have a lot of sex." Her husband/ boyfriend/ life partner laughed and she turned about 4 shades of red in about 2 seconds. Nobody responded and they quickly finished up and left in their car. It was all a rather surreal experience compared to my usual conversations at the recycling center with the men working there about bicycles and the Cubs. Stereotypes are fun things sometimes.

Fun With Facebook

Will turned me on to this thing called Facebook yesterday, apparently it is all the rage. So, I ventured over to see what it is all about and next thing you know I have a Profile. So, if you are on this thing, stop by and say hello (I am not sure how you do that, but you are smart). It seems like the adult version of Myspace, which is a pain in the ass. This is my take after less than 24 hours.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Profile, Todd Paul

How will the religious right get on without Jerry Falwell?

This is a continuation on the Economist article mentioned earlier.

The evangelical movement that was prodded out of its slumbers in late 1970's will remain a powerful force in American political life. It will continue to put abortion and gay marriage at the heart of politics. But it needs to broaden its agenda to include issues like the environment. And it needs to embrace a new generation of leaders who are cut from a rather different cloth than Mr. Falwell.

I think this is the major tension point of the Christian church over the next twenty-five years and beyond. Can the institutionalized church move past its present state, toward a new movement that works contextually in Generation Y? The track record with Generation X has not been so good, and the traditional church has not seemed to realize. As traditional churches become more and more cultural irrelevant institutions and the mega-church thrives with a specific demographic, what happens to the rest? The writers of this Economist article have an important point. The need to broaden the cognitive bandwidth of the western Christianity is direr at best at best.

God without the godfather

Interesting social commentary from this weeks Economist.

What do you hope people say about you?

This week has been full of historical events. The passing of Jerry Falwell, the resignation of Wolfowitz, and the resignation of Tony Blair. With all of these events, there has been a cloud of speculation around how history will judge these people. While I have varying opinions about each, I am sympathetic to each of their plights. I am also reminded of two quotes, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton) and "With great power comes great responsibility." (Superman).  Each of these individuals have done great things and less than great things, but what has me thinking is how will history remember them? Which leads to the same question about myself.
As I was watching Tony Blair's speak yesterday in the rose garden of the White House. I could see his conviction, character, and courage. I was also able to remember some of his great accomplishments, also some failures. Jerry Falwell - which Will wrote a good piece on - has a similar story. Although, I am less inclined too appreciate his good accomplishments, I still recognizes some value added. But how will these stories be recreated over time? Will Blair be able to raise above the Iraq war? Will Falwell be able to rise above his comments after 9/11 (among others!)? Only time will tell with these individuals but it is not too late for the one individual I have the most control over - me. So my question to you is how do you hope to be spoken of?
I will post my response over the weekend. I am still struggling with some perception/reality problems. I would love to hear so of your thoughts.

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As I thought about this more over the last few days, I came up with a list. This list is more what I hope to live myself into, because I am well aware I have and continue to fail in quite a few of these (okay, all).

Direct

Hopeful

Caring

Loyal

Straight Forward

Church?????

This has been one of the most frustrating things about the move to Chicago. What to do about Church, etc... I hate the idea of "church shopping" it feels like cheating on a lover every time you go somewhere new. On top of the inherently weird nature of the event, I have high, unrealistic standards. I have been spoiled over the last five years. I think the hard thing to work out about my expectation is the lack of perfection. I don't want perfect, and worse, I don't want a group trying to be perfect. This seems to be the major issue with the places we have visited so far. The expectation of "church" and all it should be has to happen every Sunday morning in an hour and a half. (Which is to damn long to begin with!) Most places in our area, just have one event - Sunday morning. So, I guess they feel obligated to get everything in during that time. Everyone has been nice and friendly, but it feels forced and superficial. I don't have any answers, only frustrations. Stay turned, it is bound to get worse before it gets better.