Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Between Two Kingdoms

My book - Between Two Kingdoms- is now available for pre-order on Amazon, though it won't be coming out until March/April. If you'd like to pre-order your copy you can click on the link below. If you never ever buy one, we can still be friends - just to let you know. I always feel a little funny about marketing my stuff, but lots of you have been asking about it. I wanted to let you know it is available.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Remembering Charlie this week

Here are the details:

Visitation:

Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 4pm to 8pm
E.C. Nurre Funeral Home (Amelia)
177 W. Main Street
Amelia, OH 45102
513.753.6130

If you have a favorite picture of Charlie you would be willing to share with his wife and family, please bring it to the visitation and help us create a photo collage of the people, places, and activities that he loved.

Funeral:

Vineyard Community Church in Springdale
Thursday, Nov. 5th at 10:00 a.m. in the main Auditorium

A note from Dana Cochran: Some of you have been asking if you can bring food, etc. At this time they have plenty of food scheduled for Angie and the kids. If you would like to contribute in other ways, gift cards would be great. (dining, groceries, etc.) You can bring them to the Vineyard Resource Center (offices) and leave them at the receptionist desk. We will also have a basket on Thursday at the South Lobby Info Desk. We will make sure that Angie receives them. In lieu of flowers, Angie has asked that contributions be sent to the Mason Vineyard where Charlie poured his heart into the last 6 months. Mason Vineyard’s address is 808 Reading Road, Mason, OH 45040.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Hitting the Nuts Trailer

Some of us could use a little funny about now anyway...

Words from Henri Nouwen

As I look for words to respond to members of my community over the sudden and early loss of one of our friends, I have found myself turning back to a mentor of mine. Nobody I have read faced death as honestly as Nouwen. He took the time as he was dying to write for those of us he knew would face our own death and the deaths of those we love. I have few answers, but Nouwen helps me process:

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who care

Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it. As busy, active, relevant ministers, we want to earn our bread by making a real contribution. This means first and foremost doing something to show that our presence makes a difference. And so we ignore our greatest gift, which is our ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer. Those who can sit in silence with their fellowman, not knowing what to say but knowing that they should be there, can bring new life in a dying heart. Those who are not afraid to hold a hand in gratitude, to shed tears in grief and to let a sigh of distress arise straight from the heart can break through paralyzing boundaries and witness the birth of a new fellowship, the fellowship of the broken.

When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.

Every time there are losses there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Charlie Matthews

We lost Charlie this morning. Here is a note from his wife, Angie:

Charlie passed away peacefully this morning with family and close friends by his side. His 37 years were packed with so much life and joy. In the coming days we will be sure to post information about services and funeral arrangements. It would mean so much to mean for all of you to be there to remember him.
Thanks for your support through this. He fought a good fight.

With love,
Angie


Charlie loved God and the church. He worked hard at everything he did including this fight in the hospital. All we can do know for Angie and the kids is pray. I will keep you posted here with ways to reach out once I know more.

And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me... Philippians 1

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Jeremy.

Over a decade ago I met the electrician of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. We went on a wild kingdom-seeking ride together that nearly cost us both our sanity. I think we'd both say it was worth it. Jeremy spoke at my home church in Las Vegas for a few minutes recently. Nobody talks about Jesus exactly the same way Jeremy does. I'm proud of him.

Monday, October 19, 2009

the jesus underground: church

(That's my buddy Jim Zartman's voice you hear in the video below...feel free to pause it. I won't tell him.)

This weekend I spoke from Acts 2:42-47. I'd say that no other section of the BIble has messed with me more than this one. The picture painted of the early church in action is mesmerizing in its simplicity. Strangers from every nation suddenly thrown together radically sharing all they have within the reality of a supernatural visitation from God himself. Who wouldn't want that? To know that there is a God and that He is present. To be fully accepted and valued within a generous family. To see others join the community everyday as Jesus draws them in. To me...that's the Kingdom come. To me...that's church. Or at least what church can be or will be.

This understanding led me to reject the "organizational church" for about half a decade of my life. On my most frustrated days, I was overstated - condemning those who do the sorts of things I do now - things like taking a paycheck from a "church" or encouraging what I called "program centered ministry." On my better days, I was rather level headed about it all. I knew that I did not have to be part of a 501(c)3 organization to be the church. It was ok for others, but I was done with it all.

Overtime I became more comfortable being around organized Christianity again. Today I'm part of the system. When I came back to vocational ministry, those who thought I "went off the deep end" sent me notes saying that they had been praying that "I would return to church." It was OK that they didn't get it...

Today my more staunch anti-institutionalist friends likely see me as a bit of a sellout. I can understand that. We were on a crusade to prove it could work without all the fringe stuff - we'd wax poetic about churches without buildings, budgets and big shots. I still respect them. I still hope what they are doing works. And whether they see it my way or not...I still think I'm one of them.

In my early twenties I began to see myself as a missionary called to North America. Since then I have, for the most part, lived up to that calling. It was primarily missional thinking that brought me to reject the way I had always thought of church. I simply didn't believe that the institutional church was on track to see a redeemed North America. Somebody had to try something else. It was my missiology (in conjunction with some burnout and restlessness) that fueled my second career as an actor. And it was another missional conviction (in conjunction with some unexplainable Holy Spirit stuff) that brought us back to Cincinnati.

My life vision is to see a church (defined as one of God's new families on a mission) within walking distance of every person in North America. A big organization like The Vineyard can encourage that in significant ways. I've thrown my whole heart into the mission of the Vineyard so easily because it fits perfectly into my personal vision and mission. Personally, I'm not all that into the idea of big churches unless they can produce small ones on a daily basis. And call them what you want - small groups, house churches, church cells, ministry teams...I don't care what you call them. I call them churches. And I want to see one in every neighborhood in Cincinnati as soon as possible.

When it starts to really happen it will be too messy for any organization to control it anyway. That's how we'll know it is from God.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Charlie Matthews Update #2

Sean Michael and I just returned from visiting Charlie and Angie at the hospital. Angie was overwhelmed, but in good spirits. Charlie's vitals were not stable this morning, but they have now regulated. He is sedated and may be for a long while. As we were leaving they were putting Charlie in a special bed that would rotate him and help his lungs to heal. It looked like something from the NASA Apollo program.

Here's a more official statement:

Charlie is now stabilized, and the pulmonologist believes that “he will continue to improve at this time, but not sure how fast that will happen”. They believe that the aggressive treatment they have him on will continue to add to his stability. He is currently being sedated so that he can heal and rest.

Mason Vineyard has set up a webpage to give daily updates. Those of you interested can sign in and get daily info there. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/charliematthews

Urgent Prayer Request


Please pray for our friend Charlie Matthews. Here's a short update from Dave Workman from a few minutes ago:

I have a critical need for your prayers immediately. The pastor of our Mason churchplant, Charlie Matthews, began feeling flu-like symptoms last week. I spoke for him this past weekend at his church, but a couple of days later he went into the hospital with double-pneumonia. Yesterday they put him on a ventilator and suddenly this morning he “coded”, was revived, and now on life-support. Please pray for him; the Mason church just had their new “re-launch” in a new building, with Charlie as their new pastor. Please pray for his wife Angie and their two young children.

Thanks,
Dave Workman