Vision Poem

What I'm seeing:

Homes.
Christian Homes.
Radical Hospitality
Christianity
Missionality

Neighborhoods with Christian Community
Christian Communities made up of saints
who are equipped
by leaders who increase people's
dependence on the Spirit
by their teaching.

Neighborhoods, City-Wide.
City-wide community
Community in Christ
the Church.

FROM WHICH
From which proceed
arise
emerge
Servanthood to Christ

in the form of...
the manifestation of the Spirit's gifting in the People
Servanthood to Christ
in the form of the Church
the gifts of the people
equipped
released
empowered
matured and sure

I see households living
INTERDEPENDENTLY
I see wealth set free
I see poverties destroyed
poverty of debt
loneliness
incapability of income
deficits removed
by sheer SHARING

Interdependence in SHARING
sharing wealth
food
sorrow
joy
posessions (think of the savings on lawnmowers, alone!)

Organization
administration
creativity in developing
new ways to share!
maximizing JUBILEE!

leaving stewardship in the dust, as we
embrace the
endless possibility of
Jubilee!
JUBILEE.

Christians loaning each other
Large sums of money
shifting debt from the
world's banks to the
father's family.

Christians banding together,
forming neighborhood
care
groups.
ministering to the poor,
the shut ins
the elderly...

It's hard for someone to kill you
when you love their grandma
so much
so well
so often...

a daily life that includes
neighbors
each other
the poor..

A Ring of Fire!

Christians leaving the false comforts of the suburbs
for a life of SHARING.
mission
life
love
service

our gifts being poured out
in our sphere of influence
daily...

our family life salting the earth
our city shining brightly
our community salting the earth
our love warming the world...

goodnesses will abound.

I see the warehouse... the warehouse I have feared
for the drain it's been.

finally born, again
of a new seed!
the Spirit.

I see the Warehouse emerging,
fully supported
well focused
from the communities of the city.

I see the ministries to youth and young adults
I see the community coming together there
I see the skatepark
the basketball courts

and Isee a higher way
a better course

instead of buying and
building the warehouse,

infusing our society and community even more thoroughly!

infusing all the civic spaces
with our presents
our presence...

instead of clubbing up
enclaving
forming ghetto
protecting ourselves
insulating
isolating
elevating ourselves

instead of forming up
by mammon and money,
being formed as the invisible church
the peculiar people...

why would we own something?
where is the need?
there is NONE.

there are 5 skateparks!
there are 100 basketball courts out there,
not including
our own, in the backyard.
(some boys came to the backyard
and asked if Chris
would form up ANOTHER 3-on-3 tournament)

There is no need.

There must be another level of renunciation.
We must leave behind the idea of ministering from our wealth!
We must learn to
serve as Jesus did
as jesus died
in a poverty
born of humility
never forgetting that we
are fundamentally
divine,
the judges of
angels.

and we are called
to lay down
our potentials
our divininty!
the power of the kingdom

to bear
sorrow
lack
need
infirmity

to sow
the word
in the soils
rocky
thin
choked
and fertile
of the world

we are not called
to a kingdom
that is of
this earth.

made of the things of the world
made of mammon
made of owning
controlling
running
setting up

but a kingdom that is of the
SALT.
the kingdom that changes
everything
by disappearing...
that brings joy
through
sorrow...

If His kingdom is not of this world
why do we try to further it
through buying up this world

today, no, last night, I realized that I DON't want to obtain the church building next door. you see, Joseph from YWAM asked me why I don't ask for it and use it to start something of our next steps.

But I see our next steps as people COMING. Moving into the city to LIVE. Renting, not owning stuff... Living as aliens and strangers in the world...
I mean, maybe owning a house, but not a bunch of facilities.
Focusing on being a community of love
becoming vulnerable,
healing one another...

Giving the world a glimpse
of the ministry of Jesus among the sick, again.

Coming
Living
Being
Becoming

Opening
Healing
Receiving
Giving

Showing the world.

I am hearing this.
I am seeing this...

I'm seeing the FARM.
I see a farm
within an hour's drive of the city.

I see a farm
with lots of acres
and cabins
and work
and people living there...

I see retreat
i see healing
i see silence coming
i see rest
i see green
i see space.
i see recovery of sanity
I see what was stolen given back...
i see recharging
refillling with life.

i see a family
of people
who live there
a year at a time, some.
fully, some others.

I see a family
of families
on a farm
that isn't an escape,
but is an embrace.

i see the poor at their table.
always enough
i see people working
i see weeklong retreats
i see weekend retreats
i see workshops

week-long
weekend
workshops

i see kids breathing free
summer camps...

camping
bonfires
big tables

I see a retreat...