you know, in the last year... in the past few years, I've gotten several whiffs of "he's a cult leader" from the grapevine around the Cincinnati ministry scene.
you know, that's more than ok with me. it's great! Didn't Jesus say, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you?"
But what fools these people are, really. They literally shake my hand and bob their head, saying, "man, you're cool...you're alright... good to see ya... bless you..." And go away telling their proteges not to get involved with us because we seem like a cult... Then I see them again and they're all, "Heeeey brother!" again...
Man, ask me some hard questions! Grill me on theology. Confront my fruit--do people in my ministry live lives of sin, unconfronted? Do we teach falsely? Do we speak against God somehow? Are we bitter in any way that's inappropriate in view of the heart of God for a backslidden church?
Not once. Not once has one of these guys ever asked me anything challenging about my life, doctrine, practise, teaching, family... nothing. I'm available, but nothing. They just stay busy working, try to ignore me, patronize me when they see me, and then slander me subtly, "you'll want to watch out for that. It sounds cultic..." then, "heeeey, Lew how's it going, brother?" Well, get to know me.
If i were a false teacher, If I did tell lies, if I were an elitist snob, if I did work contrary to the Word, would you be faithful to raise a call to the Body? No. You would just skulk around the edges of it, too. I'd go unconfronted. It wouldn't matter unless it touched "your territory"... Well if I am, you'd better stop me. Because Jesus will hold you accountable for letting me go unchallenged to my death. He'll hold you accountable for my death and the death of many others...
There's no integrity in it.
Hey, if someone leans over to you and tells you that someone might be bad, ask them why they think so. Do they have a real reason to slander? To judge? Have they learned, listened, and discerned something real? Do they know what they're talking about, or is it just slander...
Hold each other to this.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Posts at Lewminator, Zach Cornelius
Hey folks, check out the links for Lewminator and Zach Cornelius. that's where there are personal news items from the folks who live here... The whole GK concept isn't to found some organization, but to provide support for the coalition of christians... the coalescence of christians into service of Jesus in the world...
To help us shake free from the stuff that is holding us down and run the race.
To help us shake free from the stuff that is holding us down and run the race.
Corner guys and conscientious objectors
Went on a 10:45pm skate tonight down chase ave. Longboard. Bout twenty miles per hour, just cruisin... Two passes of this north end: about a half-mile distance, maybe less... got a water at the UDF. Got yelled at by the guys on the corner... These corner guys are supposed to be drug dealers. This summer, there have been muggings, robberies, shootings, beatings... All at these two corners...
Last night I was practicing the preached things Jesus taught, and I was walking with Zach and I offered my hand to the corner guys... they wouldn't shake... "sorry man, I don't shake"
then on the walk back the same guy got me while he was walking alone and apologized! He said he was going through a really hard time because his girl was PG and didn't want anything to do with him... I was honored that he would apologize to me, a "rich cracker" in the eyes of this neighborhood. Needless to say, it was a great time of Jesus hugging on me. It's easy to preach the Word to a guy when you're the first preacher who has met him on the street and loved him at risk...
I'm installed in this neighborhood, hoping to really see Jesus more clearly. He's in the corner guys. Mt.25
Zach is applying for conscientious objector status. That's really unpopular. When he asked his former pastor, whom he helped to found a young adults ministry (Zach was the right hand man, there), the guy Blasted him. something about war, masculinity, violence and christianity all being one big ball of... being the thing... or something.
I don't know what I'd do in Zach's shoes. He's really, truly the stuff of a Conscientious Objector (CO). He's had an extreme, even traumatic change of values and views in the last year, starting with exposure to the emergent/postmodern movement, continuing with the influence of JP, Matt, John Wallis, among others... It continued and intensified last winter when he went to visit The Simple Way and The Camden House. Now he's ruined for military service by the firm conviction that physical violence and human force aren't the path for his Christian witness.
If I were Zach, I'd be right where he is right now. I'd be him, darn it! There is no way I could judge him wrong today, from here. What's more, the more I am exposed to his journey, the more I question the things I've been told on the TV. I no longer feel unmoved...
I said the other day, "It's not that I'm changing my opinions, I'm just getting some!"
I am sad about (understatement) our state of war. We are losing so much in spending so much on war. We have lost the image of God's creativity in dealing with the world... We've been lied to. I believe that. And I believe that we are wasting the hour of opportunity. anti-personnel bombs. on a hospital. on more than one... laser guided? exportation of torture?
Oh yeah, that's just war. I know.
sad? No. Horrified.
And Hopeful. I'm more hopeful now than ever that the sleeping giant of the church can awake and shine light in this darkness... There are hundreds and thousands out there who will jump at the chance to answer the call of Jesus to sell all and follow. I'm hopeful that many will lose it all to follow him.
before the "all" is lost to upheavals that we cannot foresee...
But one thing's for sure: I'm proud of Zach. I'm proud of the God of Zach. He's the God who takes a spoiled, well-groomed, taught to conform, worldly guy, and undoes the devil's job. Now he's blowin' in the wind, ready to serve Jesus in risky circumstances.
Did you ever wonder if Jesus really meant it about the whole "sell all" thing? Well, when you find love, you find out. Love, people. find love and run with it. I truly look to the Father to show more people how to find love and run with it all. That's gonna free us of the shame of our affluence and complacency...
...i'd feel sad for someone who gave up all but didn't have love, though.
Last night I was practicing the preached things Jesus taught, and I was walking with Zach and I offered my hand to the corner guys... they wouldn't shake... "sorry man, I don't shake"
then on the walk back the same guy got me while he was walking alone and apologized! He said he was going through a really hard time because his girl was PG and didn't want anything to do with him... I was honored that he would apologize to me, a "rich cracker" in the eyes of this neighborhood. Needless to say, it was a great time of Jesus hugging on me. It's easy to preach the Word to a guy when you're the first preacher who has met him on the street and loved him at risk...
I'm installed in this neighborhood, hoping to really see Jesus more clearly. He's in the corner guys. Mt.25
Zach is applying for conscientious objector status. That's really unpopular. When he asked his former pastor, whom he helped to found a young adults ministry (Zach was the right hand man, there), the guy Blasted him. something about war, masculinity, violence and christianity all being one big ball of... being the thing... or something.
I don't know what I'd do in Zach's shoes. He's really, truly the stuff of a Conscientious Objector (CO). He's had an extreme, even traumatic change of values and views in the last year, starting with exposure to the emergent/postmodern movement, continuing with the influence of JP, Matt, John Wallis, among others... It continued and intensified last winter when he went to visit The Simple Way and The Camden House. Now he's ruined for military service by the firm conviction that physical violence and human force aren't the path for his Christian witness.
If I were Zach, I'd be right where he is right now. I'd be him, darn it! There is no way I could judge him wrong today, from here. What's more, the more I am exposed to his journey, the more I question the things I've been told on the TV. I no longer feel unmoved...
I said the other day, "It's not that I'm changing my opinions, I'm just getting some!"
I am sad about (understatement) our state of war. We are losing so much in spending so much on war. We have lost the image of God's creativity in dealing with the world... We've been lied to. I believe that. And I believe that we are wasting the hour of opportunity. anti-personnel bombs. on a hospital. on more than one... laser guided? exportation of torture?
Oh yeah, that's just war. I know.
sad? No. Horrified.
And Hopeful. I'm more hopeful now than ever that the sleeping giant of the church can awake and shine light in this darkness... There are hundreds and thousands out there who will jump at the chance to answer the call of Jesus to sell all and follow. I'm hopeful that many will lose it all to follow him.
before the "all" is lost to upheavals that we cannot foresee...
But one thing's for sure: I'm proud of Zach. I'm proud of the God of Zach. He's the God who takes a spoiled, well-groomed, taught to conform, worldly guy, and undoes the devil's job. Now he's blowin' in the wind, ready to serve Jesus in risky circumstances.
Did you ever wonder if Jesus really meant it about the whole "sell all" thing? Well, when you find love, you find out. Love, people. find love and run with it. I truly look to the Father to show more people how to find love and run with it all. That's gonna free us of the shame of our affluence and complacency...
...i'd feel sad for someone who gave up all but didn't have love, though.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
coffee, longboard, laptop
got up
read some more of my book (i'm trying to finish a piece of historical fiction).
SETH started watching batman, xiaolin showdown...
judy came in, layed down, rested... phone rings and she's off. I'll see her again a little around lunch, then after 11pm she'll be done for the day. Just a few more weeks and all the xchange students'll be placed and we'll have a more domestic tranquility... our tranquility now is more of a "HECTIC" tranquility... Seriously. House is messy, we're exhausted, but we're really happy with what we're in... placing students, teaching english, helping families find their students, schools their families...
anyway, Judy comes to me with the phone on one ear and mouths, "would you make me some coffee"... So I set up the wonderful coffee maker that Brother Bobby floated to our household last year (i really miss ya, Bobby), got the pot on, and got out my longboard.
I did about 25mph all the way to and from the UDF 4 blocks down. What a smooth ride! Almost effortless... I'm still a little sketchy on ollieing up things and all, but I'm really lovin' the board... I'll work hard to see if I can get some pics on the blog this week...
So, now i'm checkin' email and bloggin. I set seth up on an old broken laptop across from me, that was fun for him. Thanks for that old set of laptops, Phil. They were great for the couple of years I was using them... Now I'm on a 1999 apple g4 laptop. It's a 667meg processor (slow now is a gig or so)... I love the simplicity and durability of its design. Thin, light, made of metal, not plastic. Just pop off the keyboard to clean...
I hope you're well, readers. I hope you recognize all the goodness that God has embedded you in, no matter how difficult the surface of it may seem.
read some more of my book (i'm trying to finish a piece of historical fiction).
SETH started watching batman, xiaolin showdown...
judy came in, layed down, rested... phone rings and she's off. I'll see her again a little around lunch, then after 11pm she'll be done for the day. Just a few more weeks and all the xchange students'll be placed and we'll have a more domestic tranquility... our tranquility now is more of a "HECTIC" tranquility... Seriously. House is messy, we're exhausted, but we're really happy with what we're in... placing students, teaching english, helping families find their students, schools their families...
anyway, Judy comes to me with the phone on one ear and mouths, "would you make me some coffee"... So I set up the wonderful coffee maker that Brother Bobby floated to our household last year (i really miss ya, Bobby), got the pot on, and got out my longboard.
I did about 25mph all the way to and from the UDF 4 blocks down. What a smooth ride! Almost effortless... I'm still a little sketchy on ollieing up things and all, but I'm really lovin' the board... I'll work hard to see if I can get some pics on the blog this week...
So, now i'm checkin' email and bloggin. I set seth up on an old broken laptop across from me, that was fun for him. Thanks for that old set of laptops, Phil. They were great for the couple of years I was using them... Now I'm on a 1999 apple g4 laptop. It's a 667meg processor (slow now is a gig or so)... I love the simplicity and durability of its design. Thin, light, made of metal, not plastic. Just pop off the keyboard to clean...
I hope you're well, readers. I hope you recognize all the goodness that God has embedded you in, no matter how difficult the surface of it may seem.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
St. Bernard Mini-Park
these are the street 'stacles here. crowded and too close to the bowl, much fun can be had. the park's micro small and a lot of folks hate it, but it has its place in our world.
One big deal is that there's a whole bunch of grafitti on it, now. all the signs are defaced, the garbage cans are messed up... it's a mess. I wonder if the city won't 'doze it in a year or so if there's no improvement.
I'm contemplating getting under an effort to create a skate park here, in Northside. I'd like to push for the creation of a concrete park in a drainage area, somewhere. I'd go for classic, with large, loping lines, a simple, classic bowl with a pool-shape.
I'd love to start a non-profit skateshop to fund the extension of the park's phases, too. Something high quality, with a lot of old school/new school fusion. Best of both worlds-style...
And I'd love to equip a demo-team out of local hardcores, too. Get some of the guys to put Northside on the map. That way we'll "capture" skate culture and Northside will become central in a skattered scene.
Do I dare hope? All tell me I'm gonna waste time.
One big deal is that there's a whole bunch of grafitti on it, now. all the signs are defaced, the garbage cans are messed up... it's a mess. I wonder if the city won't 'doze it in a year or so if there's no improvement.
I'm contemplating getting under an effort to create a skate park here, in Northside. I'd like to push for the creation of a concrete park in a drainage area, somewhere. I'd go for classic, with large, loping lines, a simple, classic bowl with a pool-shape.
I'd love to start a non-profit skateshop to fund the extension of the park's phases, too. Something high quality, with a lot of old school/new school fusion. Best of both worlds-style...
And I'd love to equip a demo-team out of local hardcores, too. Get some of the guys to put Northside on the map. That way we'll "capture" skate culture and Northside will become central in a skattered scene.
Do I dare hope? All tell me I'm gonna waste time.
St. Bernard Mini-Pk.
Local spot, about 7 minutes from my house. worth the trip. this is it's run-in bowl. It's about 3.5 feet deep and has a slow, easy transition. Still good for airing out, with a nice hip and smooth coping.
Anderson OH Skatepark
Anderson Park is really good. Nice lines, good 'stakles...
I got into a conversation with a guy there last month or so... He is a "pagan". Had a lot to say about nuthin'. Got down to it and we really chatted about Jesus. His kid was there, wife, too. He had just gotten off crack like a year before... I would love it if he came to our house to eat.
I'll keep going around to all these parks and spending time there. Salt in the stew, eh?
I got into a conversation with a guy there last month or so... He is a "pagan". Had a lot to say about nuthin'. Got down to it and we really chatted about Jesus. His kid was there, wife, too. He had just gotten off crack like a year before... I would love it if he came to our house to eat.
I'll keep going around to all these parks and spending time there. Salt in the stew, eh?
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