The Freeway is starting a collaborative gardening project this spring. Basically we will harvest and share vegetables together, learn from one another about gardening properly, and work together on a project that makes a difference... and tastes delicious.

We created a community blog to publish our journey, offer tips and advice, and tell the story of a community learning how to share in an amazing project together: http://afewlittlegreenspots.blogspot.com

If you want to be part of the action, drop us a line.

Labels: community, friends, the freeway

As I sit in our coffee house today in downtown Hamilton taking advantage of the free wireless internet access, while enjoying the best cup of fair trade coffee on the planet, I can't help but notice the diversity of the crowd who has gathered here today [not untypical of other days], and wonder if we are not "on to something" in our effort to be part of Christ's Kingdom on earth in this little corner of The Hammer.

There are a few developmentally challenged adults [a couple of whom are employed at the coffee house], a discussion group of twelve individuals with various mental health issues, four university students using the wireless internet - likely enjoying the remaining days before classes start up again, two retired widows enjoying coffee and cookies together, an elderly lady in a wheelchair, a guy who is clearly on some narcotic which has altered his thinking quite significantly, a young rock star wannabe who has performed on our stage in the past but today is simply enjoying conversation with an elderly gentleman who happens to be a retired University professor from McMaster, two kids playing in our children's area while their mom interacts with adults and takes a break while enjoying a "frosty coffee".

The barista today is my wife, Margie, who works for children's aid society, is a mom to our three young children, has adopted many of the folks from our church community and befriends them by offering an open house and meals whenever they want... and they often do... yet still finds the time to serve coffee and hang out with those who frequent this third place in our neighbourhood.

There is hustle and bustle and yet a great sense of calm, peace and home here today. I guess I am just taken aback once again with how significant what we are doing is.

Similar stories I have shared:
Coffee House As Community Commons, Music & Art Space, Funky Cafe
Coffee House Barista Duty, & A Home Away From Home

Labels: community, the freeway, writing

According to M. Scott Peck, here are the stages of community:

1. Pseudo-community - An initial state of "being nice". Pseudo-community is characterized by politeness, conflict avoidance, and denial of individual differences. Let's be honest - most of us can't keep this up for long. Eventually someone is going to speak up, speak out, and the dam breaks.
2. Chaos - In the stage of chaos, individual differences are aired, and the group tries to overcome them through misguided attempts to heal or to convert. Listening suffers, and emotions and frustration tend to run high. There are only two ways out of chaos: retreat into pseudo-community [often through organization], or forward, through emptiness.
3. Emptiness - Emptiness refers to the process of recognizing and releasing the barriers [expectations, prejudices, the need to control] that hold us back from authentic communication with others, from being emotionally available to hear the voices of those around us. This is a period of going within, of searching ourselves and sharing our truths with the group. This process of "dying to the self" can make way for something remarkable to emerge.
4. Community - "In my defenselessness, my safety lies." In this stage, individuals accept others as they are, and are themselves accepted. Differences are no longer feared or ignored, but rather are celebrated. A deep sense of peace and joy characterizes the group.
   

Everyone's experience of these is obviously unique. Where are you according to these stages? Where do you see your network/church/community according to these stages?

"In and through community lies the salvation of the world."
--- M. Scott Peck [The Different Drum]

Labels: community

Just wanted to share three posts by some of my smart friends that have got me thinking...

Jordan Donald is talking about sharing stories and community:

"One of my favourite things about community and the sharing of stories, is that as we do it and as we allow people to enter our lives and journey with us… the things that weigh us down and make us ugly, are transformed into the very attributes that make us beautiful and provide hope. Community takes deep wounds never spoken of and transforms them into what makes us uniquely beautiful. We need look no further than the scars on Jesus hands that he reveals to his disciples. The scars that had earlier symbolized abandonment, death, betrayal, brokeness and failure... were now the very symbols of hope, grace, love, sacrifice and victory."

Joe Manafo is talking about leadership in the new economy:

"in contrast to our present image of leadership (where the leader is often served, and his/her style is often top down), when the apostle paul spoke of leadership in his writings, the image or idea of a leader always carried the overtone of servanthood - one who’s role was to spend him/herself on behalf of others. (david fitch has a great chapter on leadership in his book, the great giveaway which, incidentally, was my best read of 2005) perhaps this observation is not a new one for you, but maybe a gentle reminder that the essence of leading as a servant is not a technique to grow a church, but rather an opportunity to model a Christlike example; an opportunity to influence and nurture the body of Christ; the opportunity to work as a facilitator, connecting people with biblical purpose and passion; and perhaps even an opportunity to save our own souls…

practically speaking, the root of the question for leadership in this new economy remains: ‘who’? here’s what i think and practice:

• invite people into positions of leadership that ooze the gift.
• pull people in who will probably benefit more from the experience than the other way around. seriously. try it.
• be on the look out and identify potential leaders.
• men and women: equals!
• live in the headspace where you’re constantly reproducing strong leaders (you never know the effect that this may have on the community, on them or where these individuals may eventually end up).

Dan Sheffield is talking about evaluating local theologies:

“BUT, is this local theology, Christian?”

1. Cohesion
Does this theology give importance to the central truths of the Christian faith, rather than peripherals? Does this theology have a logical, cohesive fitting together? Or do people constantly say, “yes, but what about this…?”

2. Worship
Does this theology resonate with the presence of the Lord in word and sacrament? When the community gathers to worship, does the theology fit there? Can we sing the theology and preach the theology?

3. Praxis
Does this theology translate into practical actions that produce change in lives? What happens to those believers who follow through on the implications of this theology? Do they grow and change, become more and more like Jesus?

4. Unity and Relationship
Does this theology separate us, or cut us off from other churches, believers? Do we allow our theology to be critiqued by the wider body of believers and churches?

5. Challenge and Mission
Does our theology challenge us to move out beyond ourselves? What contribution does our theology make to the wider body of believers; to the world in which we live?

Labels: community, friends

You have to read this post by my friend, Bill Kinnon. Brilliant stuff. Here's a couple short excerpts from the rant:

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn't seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes - or curse us if we didn't. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common - you might be accused of being a socialist - and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God.

And this:

We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter's words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.

Labels: community, friends, leadership

A couple days ago I gave some suggestions of things folks in our community at The Freeway could do to help the community continue to become more of a missional presence in our neck of the woods and help curb the "us and them", "in and out" dividing line in the community [cliques]. I did so in a post called, The Freeway Is Becoming Institution-y.

I would like the opportunity to elaborate further as I think some folks got the wrong impression, and also because perhaps these thoughts could benefit communities elsewhere as these issues are certainly not unique to us. Keep in mind, these are only suggestions. I do not expect everyone in our our community to do all of these... though that would be great. I think these are all really important in the shaping of things to come. That does not mean that if you don't do these you will somehow not be included in our community [of course not], but if we are to be serious about creating missional community and not just establishing another churchy church to attend, we all must think these through and make adjustments as Jesus leads us individually and as a community.

The four suggestions were:

1. Hang out with and be generously hospitable to those on the fringe of the community, and those who you wouldn't normally associate with.
2. Be present more.
3. Consider being involved in our guiding / coaching / mentoring initiative... or adding another person to your network if you are already involved.
4. Move closer.

I will elaborate on one of these per day for the next four days. Here we go:

Hang out with and be generously hospitable to those on the fringe of the community, and those who you wouldn't normally associate with.

We have been talking about and exploring this idea for some time at The Freeway. This is not an "out of the blue" idea for us. For five years we have been "beating this horse" and have made huge strides in terms of seeing deep community with a diverse community come to fruition [although we sometimes don't see it - forest for the trees?].

Granted, human nature is to stick with those who we have affinity with or who are like us [age, culture, socio-economic status, interests, etc.], but that is simply not the Kingdom Way. The Kingdom Way welcomes the stranger. The Kingdom Way cares ridiculously for those who Jesus places in our path. The Kingdom Way levels the playing field so that we are all brothers and sisters, and therefore need to love each other generously. the Kingdom Way sees no "us and them."

How? Start off simple: Sit and talk with someone new. Engage in conversation. Accept their quirks. Hear their story... it will change you. Invite someone new over for dinner. Invite yourself over to someone's house you haven't been to. Have coffee/tea with someone new. When you are going out for food, ensure you include people regardless of whether they have enough money to go.

Don't wait to be invited into someone's life. Invade their space with friendship and hospitality. Look for those who are excluded, and include them. Make a way... in fact, bend over backwards for them to be involved.

And hey, when you are feeling like you are being excluded or shunned, like you are on the fringe, if you have the where-with-all, speak up. We have to help each other learn to love each other better. It will be messy and hard, but necessary. We must inspire each other to love more. No one can apologize for - and subsequently learn from - something they don't know they did worng. Allow people to become better.

Our community must continue to be about creating a safe space for people to engage in deep community. No more superficial bull crap. No more individualized consumerism. No more thinking only about ourselves in a self-centered way. We have to engage with Jesus and learn how he interacts with people... all people... and incarnate that as a community.

Labels: community, leadership, the freeway, writing

I am becoming more and more aware [and concerned] that our community has to work really hard to be missional and not just become institution-y these days.

What I mean is, when we first began it was much easier to remain organic, non-hierarchical, Kingdom-focused, big on community, and natural. But it becomes increasingly difficult the longer we've been around, the more people we gain, and the more projects we undertake.

Some observations about what I see as signs that we may be losing a bit of our loose, organic, movement vibe:

1. Cliques - They have existed within the community for some time, but they are becoming increasingly divided. There are pockets of friendships... which is great... but there is also dividing lines drawn as to who is "in" and who isn't. We will need to make conscious, intentional moves to embrace more people into our networks / friendships if The Freeway is to remain a missional presence in this neck of the woods. Suggestions: 1) Hang out with and be generously hospitable to those on the fringe of the community, and those who you wouldn't normally associate with. It takes a big effort, but it is super-duper-important. There are lonely people in our community who need to be embraced. 2) Be present more. And I am not talking about church services here either. I am talking about making more of an effort to be involved in people's lives. Pick up the phone. Drop by. Send an e-mail. Hang out at the coffee house... whatever it takes, but be involved. 3) Consider being involved in our guiding / coaching / mentoring initiative... or adding another person to your network if you are already involved. Intentionally investing in someone as a spiritual friend will change you... and us as a community. I can't say it any stronger: if you're not involved at present, you should seriously consider being involved. 4) Move. Live closer. You will be part of deeper community partially by proximity. Seriously, if you could walk to someone's house, you would see them far more and be able to inspire each other to live the lives that God intends for us. It's really not rocket science. If we are serious about this community, this neighbourhood, then more of us need to live here.
   
2. Strategy - We are beginning to have to be more strategic in our planning and development as a community. We can "fly by the seat of our pants" less and less. That sucks. It sucks because that's where we have pretty much always existed as a community... not planning months and months ahead, just living and going with the flow as we follow Jesus. And while I do think we do need to formulate some ways of reaching community goals and continuing to foster a learning environment that will work better for us as a community at this point, I am concerned that we don't lose our "fly by the seat of our pants" way of life. We will need to remind each other of this along the way. We will need to stop along the path we are journeying on and smell the flowers, watch the sunset, and have play fights and parties now and then.
3. Complacency - We don't seem to have the same passion for Jesus or each other that we once had. It seems like we are often "getting by". Not cool. The Freeway was a community built on the idea that we didn't want to sit around and consume Christianity anymore. We wanted to do something. We wanted to get involved. We wanted to shake things up. We wanted to be part of the revolution of the Kingdom. We can't become complacent. We can't sit around on our arse's getting fat on our cozy leather couches. We can't "attend church" week after week and leave the same. We have to be about the Kingdom... and we have to inspire each other in the same.
   

Well, that's my Monday morning two cents worth any way.

Labels: community, leadership, the freeway, writing

Last night we had a free concert at the coffee house. "The 4 voices" performed in a singer/songwriter circle, and it was a stellar show, to say the least. Amazing vibe. Incredible music. Good times.

As I sat there sipping a delicious tea and sharing the experience with about 40 or 50 others, I realized again how special what we have is. It's a dream come true, really. Here are some of the things that really made it an incredible night... and make the coffee house an incredible place to be.

The Music
There is just no getting around it, really good live music does something to you. It takes you somewhere. It lifts you beyond life-as-usual and inspires you. One line from a song last night has been churning in my brain ever since the show: "now the pain is gone". Beautiful. That's how I felt.

The 4 Voices are incredibly talented musicians in their own right, but when they combined and performed in each other's songs it was diverse, rich and magical.

We have the opportunity at the coffee house week in and week out to meet, listen to, encourage, and be inspired by amazing musicians and artists. Some have become our friends. Others play as they are passing through. The moments of musical greatness, giving the stage to an emerging performer, and the friendships with many of these folks elevate us to a new plane. They change us.

The Community & Diversity
Last night there were old friends and "first timers" all together in one place. There were older people, teenagers, and everyone in between. There were other musicians and artists, people with physical disabilities, mental health issues, the poor, the rich, the lonely, suburbanites, urbanites, professionals, students, etc. There were people of Asian descent, African descent, Indian descent, Australian descent, etc. people from all over and from right here. Everyone was smiling. Everyone had a place.

We have the opportunity at the coffee house week in and week out to serve a very diverse community. On any given day, at any given time, there is no telling who may make The Freeway "home", if only for a few minutes. It's amazing.

The Ambiance
The coffee house is a beautiful place. Gorgeous furniture, amazing art on the walls, dim lights, warm colours. At this time of year with the big windows, from inside you can see the lights of the city [and Christmas lights in the trees in the park across the street], the action, the hustle and bustle; from outside you see a warm and inviting place to be. We fit perfectly at the corner of King & Wellington - the entrance to downtown Hamilton.

I was online [free wifi rocks], I perused some magazines, I chatted with friends, I met some new people, I enjoyed fair trade yummy beverages [that alone can change your day], and I sank into the leather couch I was sitting in and just plain relaxed.

We have created an amazing place to be at the coffee house. What once was a cold, institutional bank, is now a funky, comfortable non-profit community commons. And we did most of the work ourselves, which feels very rewarding. It's still such a great feeling... even a year later.

New Lifestyle Choices
It may seem small and insignificant, but we took donations for the local food bank as the cover charge to get in to the concert last night. We encourage very diverse people [particularly those who are vulnerable people] to have a space and journey with others. We recycle... and we have taken measures to cut down on waste. We welcome everyone. We always promote fair trade products, organic choices and friendships, healthy food, ecologically wise decisions, etc. whenever we can.

The combination of deep community, music, art, and social justice is a powerful one. We will continue to strive as a community to live differently. To treat people better. To subvert systems that oppress and hold back. To become wiser consumers of goods and services... and to not consume relationships. Basically, to live out the gospel.

Conclusion
For us, this is church.

Labels: community, justice, the freeway, writing

About 6 months ago [shortly after hiring a coffee house manager] I took a break from barista shifts at our coffee house. Life was busy, and we seemed to have enough help. Back when we launched the coffee house [in October 2005] I was the manager and worked 2 or 3 shifts a week for several months.

It got to be too much with everything else that was happening in my life. I really needed a break.

Last week I started volunteering again on Monday afternoons. Today was quite busy at the coffee house. I am tired now. And I realize that I am not as good at serving customers as I once was [although there are a lot of new menu items to prepare since I worked a shift last]. But I am inspired too. I love meeting new people and serving them. I also love seeing familiar faces.

There are many, many people who frequent the coffee house on a regular basis. Interesting people. They seem to love it here. They feel at home.

I had a conversation with someone who used to come to the church community worship gatherings, but hasn't been to one in a while. She said she didn't feel like she needed to go anymore. She's here pretty much every day of the week. This is church I guess... without all the... er, ah... formality.

As I sit here in the coffee house now and type this [using our free WiFi... very nice] I am sipping a delicious fair trade cafe mocha and looking at probably twenty people. Some are playing board games, some are chatting, some are reading, some are surfing the web. But all are here... in a safe space... a third place... a hang-out... a church... together. And it's a nice feeling.

Being a barista rocks. You should give it a try.

Labels: community, justice, the freeway, writing

Perhaps I should be more specific about the quotes in my last post. These were quotes that were used to get discussion going on the panel at our worship gathering. They are quotes from various bloggers on the subject of community in general. [Note to self: I guess I should not post late at night anymore - I leave out important details.]

The stories and thoughts shared by the panel: Adrian, Gail, Amber and Jason [and led by Steve] were amazing to hear.

• Some were stories of the struggle to find community at The Freeway, others were stories of finding a "home" very naturally as part of the church community.
  
• Some were stories of needing to make a decision to stay and make it work, others were stories of inclusion and embrace from the get-go.
• All the stories we heard were from very unique people with unique backgrounds who have found their way into our community within the last couple years, and now make The Freeway home.

I am always intrigued when I get to hear people's perspective on their experience at the church community. Often, as one of the leaders, I think I am blind to how things really are sometimes. I have not in all my life had to join a church community. I don't know what it's like. I am not sure that I would ever be able join a church community. And as friendly and welcoming as I think The Freeway is, there are people who, for various reasons, have a very difficult time making a connection.

To say that The Freeway is a story about successful community building would be a lie. Although, we have definitely been able to to find healthy community to some extent, and continue to try and invite others to be part of healthy community as we learn what that is... but it also the story of failure in community.

Melissa and I told the story of community at The Freeway recently to a bunch of church planters and other assorted riff raff, at the Cultivate Gathering. You can listen to the podcast of that talk courtesy of Resonate, if you want.

We will host part two of the panel discussion on community in a worship gathering in early January, as there was just so much we couldn't talk about in one night.

Labels: community, the freeway

Here are some quotes from our worship gathering tonight. We had a panel discussion on "community":

"Community is a sense of place, or in more intimate circumstances, a sense of home. Shared experiences... to me, that's the part that needs the most emphasis."

"A community is often difficult to really join. It has rules that can be enforced, and occasionally cheated. It means something to its members... they're invested in it, via cash, sweat or time. It feels like a territory worth defending, if necessary."

"A community is a place that feels like it's been around for a while. The place has a back story that you want to discover."

"I suspect a community is a group of people who combine selfish motives for the common good."

"The highest ideals of community involve classical ideas like loyalty, sacrifice, trust, respect, and unconditional commitment."

More on our "community" panel tomorrow.

Labels: community, the freeway

This morning at eleven o'clock we have all the folks who are involved in our mentoring initiative at The Freeway coming to our place for a party. We will swap stories, experience a few rituals, enjoy some tasty food and beverages, and just have a good time. I am really excited about our mentoring initiative... we are simply fostering organic relationships of accountability, growth, and guidance with one another... and then all of us are getting together periodically [every three months or so] to tell our stories and encourage each other.

Then tonight after our worship gathering, we have invited all the new students over for a party at our place. There are have been quite a few students [maybe 20] join us this September. I am looking forward to getting to know each of them. It can be overwhelming for new people to join a community such as ours... and overwhelming for us to try and really get to know several new people at once.

It will be a busy but amazing day I am sure.

Labels: community, the freeway

Cultivate Gathering was a learning party we did in August at The Freeway in order to encourage church planting and new forms of church in a Canadian context. I previously posted a low down of the gathering.

Here is a podcast of the segment Melissa Burleigh and I did on telling the story of community at The Freeway:

The Story Of Community At The Freeway [mp3]

Labels: church planting, community, cultivate, leadership, the freeway

The problem is, I have a very, very hard time accepting it from others... and an even harder time giving it. There are many people who I deeply love, but I louse [is that a real word?] things up so badly with my words, actions [or lack thereof], attitudes, etc. that they may not even know how I actually feel about them.

I suck at communicating love much of the time. I am far too self-absorbed, way too concerned about how I "come across", too prideful, too "busy", and frankly, too worried about what people might think, to really recklessly, unselfishly love people that I actually like [never mind my enemies and those I don't have a connection with].

And I have become so aware of this as of late [perhaps it was all the time I had to think while on vacation]: I really feel like I am learning what deep community is these last couple years - and even experiencing it - but I have not yet learned how to not hurt people or be hurt myself. I don't even know if it's possible to find real community without the lack of pain, loss, hurt. But I want to move beyond where I am as a follower of Jesus and as a lover of people.

I want to be a lover.
I want to experience deep community.
I want to be part of helping others find it as well.
I want to express to the people in my life how I really feel.
I want to be vulnerable, reckless, unashamed, child-like in my love for people.
I want to allow Jesus to love through me.
I want to.

Labels: community, leadership, personal

In reference to my post about "long winded, old school Bible preach[ing] or collective ignorance", my friend Steve Taylor, had this to say on his blog:

In modernity expounding the Bible usually belonged to one person. But a close look at the Bible makes that problematic: the school of the prophets in the Old Testament suggests a community engaged with the text, Jesus and the Emmaus Road suggests God is revealed not in the expounded words but seated around table, Paul in the lecture halls of Greek culture "dialogued" between text and context. I am not suggesting either/or; replacing one way with another way, but both/and.

One of my students summed it up beautifully: Preaching belongs to the community. But that statement requires the learning of a whole new skill set.

First is the skill of trust: It is much safer for 1 voice to speak. To allow community engagement requires whole new levels of trust in Spirit and trust in people.

Second is the skill of engagement: Ask a dumb question and you are likely to get so-called "collective ignorance." Ask a question that everyone knows you know the answer to and you are asking someone in the group to look stupid so that you can look expert. But in every group are life experiences and insights that out-trump a preacher's limited perspective and experiences. The skill of engagement is the creating of ways for these gifts to be brought to the table.

The image I often use is that of an athelete. The church has trained one muscle well - that of the Bible speaker. In so doing, we have lost the muscles of community learning. It will take a while to recover those muscles. There will be some inevitable ups and downs as we re-learn. Which makes it such an exciting time to be Bible people today.

I couldn't agree more.

Labels: community, leadership, speaking

"Preaching for all, by all."

I like that. It's one of the "essentials" (values?) of a church I deeply respect in my own tribe, The Salvation Army. The church is called Corps 614 (based on Isaiah 61:4). It started in the Regent Park neighbourhood in Toronto and, evidently, the idea has spread like crazy. There is actually a whole network of 614 churches now - not just in Canada either - but in several countries.

I love what they do. I love their incarnational ministry with the poor and over-looked. I love their energy and creativity. I love their commitment to Jesus and his Kingdom. They rock.

The thing I like about their tagline about preaching is that it represents a Biblical idea I believe strongly in: the priesthood of all believers. See, I believe that God speaks into community through community. I believe that each of us has the responsibility to teach and encourage one another. I believe God uses the "foolish" to shame the "wise". I believe the Kingdom has leveled the playing field for all of us. In fact, that's one of the reasons I do not hold to a complimentarian view, or a "one preacher" view, or a "personal" salvation view (yes, I believe that individuals come to faith in Christ, but that Jesus came for the whole world - and we play a part in the proclamation and incarnation of the Good News).

This is what Mark Driscoll says in his book "Confessions":

"We continued to meet on Sunday nights until Christmas, when some of the arty types started complaining that there was a preaching monologue instead of an open dialogue, as would become popular with some emerging pastors a few years later. This forced me to think through my theology of preaching, spiritual authority, and the authority of Scripture. I did an intense study of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament commands regarding preaching and teaching. In the end, I decided not to back off from a preaching monologue but instead work hard at becoming a solid long-winded, old-school Bible preacher that focused on Jesus. My people needed to hear from God's Word and not from each other in collective ignorance like some dumb chat room."

Via

According to Driscoll (or at least, if I read this quote correctly) it's either "long-winded, old-school Bible preach[ing]" or "artsy collective ignorance." I think that's just a dumb thing to say.

Labels: community, leadership, speaking, the salvation army

Yesterday a bunch of our friends came over to celebrate our new house with us. Good times.

Check out all the pics here: Link

Labels: community, photos, the freeway

Yesterday I mentioned that one of the lessons I was learning was that "the act of giving and receiving simple but powerful symbols raises us together to a new plane."

Well, later on in the day yesterday I learned it again in a powerful, unexpected way... miraculous, really.

"Donny" (real name changed for privacy, etc.) is a guy who used to hang out with us at The Freeway for a couple years. He was a street kid. He got in some trouble (wrong place, wrong time) and spent some time in jail. During that time we got pretty close (we wrote letters and I visited, etc.). When he got out, he started coming back to the church, and asking tons of questions about faith, and we'd hang out and talk... and well, he seemed to be doing pretty good. He got a job and a place of his own to stay.

Then one day, he just vanished.

Gone.

Well, yesterday he came into the coffee house. I hadn't seen him in almost two years. Turns out he had left town for a while and gotten into some trouble again. He'd been back in Hamilton for a while but I guess he was too embarrassed to come and look us up.

He works at "Up In Smoke" - a marijuana cafe down the street from our coffee house. When he came in, he brought me a "weed cookie" as a peace offering. He asked about my wife and kids and the church.

He seemed strangely hesitant and embarrassed to talk to me at first, like he was afraid I would reject him or something. But I was so excited to see him, I grabbed him and hugged him... he thought that was weird.

Very strange.

His words and gesture with the "weed cookie" could not possibly have come at a better time in my life and ministry. He changed my whole outlook and demeanour. He ministered to me as if he were Jesus himself (well, some would argue about Jesus giving me a "weed cookie", but still). I was raised to a new plane. When he left I couldn't help but cry. I had seen Jesus.

I guess you just never know.

Oh by the way, the cookie was delicious... but I got the munchies real bad :)

Labels: community, personal, the freeway, writing

Last night I went to Krista's photography opening at the coffee house. It was a good time.

I think the highlight for me was seeing Kevin ("the quarter tonner") and Leanne Coghill. They used to be a huge part of our life. They were part of our church community from the very beginning back in 2001 (and I have a video to prove it).

Kevin led worship and was a huge part of leadership in the community. He also cared for our children two days a week (we called him "Manny" - male nanny) for about a year. Leanne always added her smile and beautiful voice to any gathering she was a part of.

They moved to Fergus, ON a couple years ago (or so) and we don't get to see them much anymore. I really miss them and it was good to talk about old times and have a laugh (or five).

It is amazing how much difference a hug and a few laughs makes.

It can change everything.

That's one of the things I absolutely love about being part of FRWY... I am almost always guaranteed a laugh or a hug when I need it.

You know how there are certain people who just make you feel good and allow you to be you? Well, there are a bunch of those in one place at FRWY. It is truly an amazing community. I can tell stories of significant moments when I was at "the end of my rope" and one hug made me know it would be okay... we could get through "it" together. And I can also tell of many, many moments when stress or heartache or apathy or tension were replaced by a good laugh.

I am a lucky guy.

Labels: community, friends, the freeway

Nathan is living with our family for the summer. He moved into our place last Sunday, and will be with us until September when he moves to Sarnia to plant a church with some friends of his (and mine) called theStory. He has willingly moved here to learn from us and be part of The Freeway. We can't pay him. He doesn't care. He will work full-time with us for the next 4 months.

He has so much to teach all of us. I hope I can learn from him how to be so willing to be a learner and to not be so concerned about money. He also has lots to offer me in terms of all-things-internet, creativity, humility, risk-taking, and appreciating louder music - among other things.

Nathan is an all-around great guy, and a lover of Jesus and his way. He is a great role model for our kids... and for us. I can't wait to get to know him better this summer.

He has some thoughts over on his blog on the experience of living with our family so far (here they are). And though he paints a picture of a family who are very together and functional and missional... keep in mind, he hasn't been here long (5 days).

He does, however, make some good points about living missionally when he says:

I am convinced that the kingdom of God is going to advance not by us being comfortable in our big houses separating ourselves away from everyone else. But it will advance by the very, very few people who are actually willing to be uncomfortable, unsafe and living under their means for Jesus. So even if no one else does it, that is not a reason not to do it, in fact it's more of a reason to do it.

Link

Labels: community, personal, the freeway