Recently in Church of the Saviour Category

The story of the Potter's House holds the key to why the Web and Blogging are important.

Gordon was telling a vistor from Kansas about the roots of the Potter's House, and how it was designed to take the conversations and the lives of the people of the Church to the people in the neighborhood and the city.

Yes, the Internet is full of what's wrong in the world, because it is a part of it. Becuase it is a channel to carry communications, it is used to push products, serve the commercial interests, and manufacture false needs.

It is also a way to create a place to tell stories, and by virtue of it being online, searchable and indexable and "taggable". It becomes a way to link together related stories, related resources, and compare notes on what we have received from those resorces.

Just as Elizabeth O'Connor's books were a way of telling the story of the Church of the Saviour, it was also a part of that story that God used a bunch of ordinary people in the nations' capital, but this is meant to say that God is at work and calling for participation all across the world. People who "came to see" or came in search of signs that such things were possible sometimes come to stay, but more often they are seeking new and faithful forms for God's People to take to where they live. This would be my hope for a Web-based narrative and resource aggregation in the tradition of the Servant Leadership School; a Seminary for the Church.

The start of a "Web presence" for The Church of the Saviour has gone live. A new friend, Gentry Underwood, has been talking to CoS people in Washington for some time, and we actually met via my contacting Cos prior to my last trip there in March. Kayla McLung told me that had been getting some help in envisioning what they could do to utilize the Web to help enable scattered pilgrims to seek out Authentic Church wherever they are. So, in the tradtion of their Wellspring efforts, which have been helping people across the world explore the process of becoming church and what structures nurture faithfulness on that journey, this website is hoped to be a tool in that regard; to encourage many conversations and invite scattered pilgrims on the journey to seek out what God is doing where they liove, and where God may be calling them to embody authentic church.

What is inward/outward? at inward /outward

What is inward/outward?

inward/outward is a space set apart to wonder, dream, explore…

what it means…

why it matters…

how it works…

…when ordinary people come together in pursuit of community, justice, forgiveness—set free for the sake of Love.

inward/outward grows out of The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., where at the heart of being church is the desire to discover how to be on an authentic journey with others - inward toward our true selves rooted in Love - outward toward whatever blocks Love’s entry.

Even though we are scattered around the world, our hope is that we will use inward/outward to find each other and emerge from our aloneness, sharing our insights and questions, our ideas and doubts, lighting fires of hope and loving action.

I will be involved in any way I can in helping and participating in this Web vision. While I have had thoughts and hopes for such a thing over the past 10 years, I am perfectly happy to be a "plugEE" into these happenings, as opposed to a "plugER" in this effort. It takesd a special, unique set of planing skills and project directi on skills to do this in a way thatis faithful to the community that is behind such a project, and no more is this relevant than in the case of The Church of the Saviour. It is importaant to keep in mind what this ministry/calling is for this expression of the Church's ministry. Gentry seems to have arrived and fit this bill, and has done so with the same hunger to help tell the story of this unique expression of church, and to communicate it faitfullly in the Web medium. I find this to be an exciting and fascinating and hopeful effort, as you mihgt surmise from all my personal testimony and theologizing over the past 3 years as I share about how the Church of the Saviours vision has captured me; and given me a hunger to be in such a formative and faitful community of God's people.

In my previous post, I was talking about the topic of conversation. But of course, "conversation" is not all there is. There is "life together" that is mission, discipline, accountability, and responding to call, which involves us in the world at the point of our gifts. This journey together is about enabling those gifts, and working together to break our addictions to culture, a culture which tells us that we as individuals have within us all it takes to "succeeed" and be a worthwhile person in this world. As we sever our bonds of depending upon the ideologies of this culture and the "promises of comfort" from this culture, we are doing this in community, depending upon one another to discern God's activity, and where our calling emerges from this.

There is a "tradition" for all this in the life of The Church of the Saviour in their relatively short history (since 1947). But it is a tradition that reaches further back into a variety of sources. Their work in carrying on a "People's Seminary" such as in their early "School of Christian Living" and in the present day "Servant Leadership School", they have been an "aggregator" of great resources for the lifestyle of church and its people. They have always grappled seriously with the issues of money (and so there is a "Ministry of Money" which offers these insights around the country, to the many who realize the captivity to "capitalism" and all its ideological consequences and enslavements.)

These things are just more example of the kind of "Resource Aggregation" could be taken to the Web and discussed via blogs, etc. I feel like I'm about to burst for lack of having an outlet to let flow all of this. I've never been able to get over that hump where ideas and passions for this are "implemented". And so many times what start out as beginnings of conversation that I want to lead into a dialogue on this vision of mine are either not communicated very well, or "sidetracked" into the underlying needs I have to be in such a community. That "sidetrack" is not really a "side issue". But where it concerns my sense of call to be an enabler of the "structures" through the provision of "content" via online means (ie. blogs and RSS and Databases and their capacity to "store" conversations, links, data relationships, etc.), it seems that the physical, face to face community may well be waiting to be discovered as all of us "ruined" by CoS can find each other in a given locale and actually seek to try this.

At the Potter's House on Monday this week, we visited some with Gordon Cosby (pictured on the left, me on the right) and Kayla McClung of CoS, and Gentry Underwood showed up (Gentry is from Nashville, and had flown over for the weekend with his wife, and so he was visting as well) There's a lot to sort out about what I will blog on this couple of days in DC. I hope that as I learn more about some of the ideas Gentry has for CoS, I can be of use. What Gordon was telling me in these photos is also worth quite a bit of coverage, and it has to do with what community (and its structures for building and maintaining community life) is behind the stories that go online.

Click any of these images to get a slightly larger one in a separate window.

Internet Efficiencies p.41----see later post

Blogging is word of mouth on steroids p.43

"Blogging is faster and more effective than walking from village to vilalge and knocking on doors" p.44
Welll, not exactly (perhaps for products...not for the fuller engagment whcih leads to community, and more specifically, the type of community we are about).......the aim I have is to draw people to where conversation takes place and desires physical prescence in order to more fully know the human behind the stories; and perhaps to try to discern how we might "give a go" to the vision of church that happens when a particular two or three or more are gathered.

ACADEMY OF HOPE
1501 Columbia Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 2029
202 328 1044 (fax)
aoh@aohdc.org
www.aohdc.org

ANDREWS HOUSE GUEST HOUSE
2708 Ontario Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 483 0799
office@surfglobal.net

BETHANY, INC.
Good Hope House
1715 V St. SE Washington DC 20020
202 678 4084
Admin:202 889 5000 x 115
bhiggins@bethanyinc.org
www.bethanyinc.org

CHRIST HOUSE
1717 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 1100
developmentoffice@christhouse.org
www.christhouse.org

CITYWORKS
1526 14th St. NW #308 Washington DC 20005
202 667 1502

COLUMBIA ROAD HEALTH SERVICES
1660 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 3717
202 588 8101 (fax)

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CARE
1201 Brentwood Rd. NE Washington DC 20001
202 832 8818
www.unityhealthcare.org

CORNELIUS CORPS
614 S St. NW Washington DC 20001
202 232 9745

DAYSPRING RETREAT CENTER
11301 Neelsville Church Rd. Germantown MD 20876
301 428 9348
301 428 0567 (fax)
dayspringretreat@verizon.net
www.serve.com/dayspringretreat

THE DIASPORA
2025 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington DC 20036
301 762 2420
tchubers@aol.com

DISCIPLES HOUSE
3321 16th St. NW Washington DC 20010
202 232 6519

DISCIPLESHIP YEAR
1640 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 1102
mstubbs@slschool.org

EMMANUEL HOUSE
2735 Ontario Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 745 2657

ENTERPRISING STAFFING SERVICES 614 S St. NW Washington DC 20001
202 232 4830
202 232 5683 (fax)

THE FAMILY PLACE
3309 16th St. NW Washington DC 20010
202 265 0149
202 483 0650 (fax)
www.thefamdyplacedc.org

THE FESTIVAL CENTER
1640 Columbia Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 0072
202 328 7483 (fax)

FOR LOVE OF CHILDREN
1816 12th St. NW Washington DC 20009
(202) 462 8686
www.flocdc.org

GOOD SHEPHERD MINISTRIES
1630 Fuller St. NW # 105 Washington DC 20009
( 202) 483 5816
( 202) 986 6921 (fax)
www.goodshepherdministries.com

HARVEST TIME
11315 Neelsville Church Rd. Germantown MD 20876
301 601 9400
301 601 2931 (fax)
harvesttime@starpower.net

JOSEPH'S HOUSE
1730 Lanier Pl. NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 9161
202 265 7174
202 588 7097 (fax)
www.josephshouse.org

JUBILEE HOUSING
2482 Ontario Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 299 1240
202 299 1246 (fax)
jknight@jubileehousing.org

JUBILEE JOBS
2712 Ontario Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202 667 8970 202 667 8833 (fax)
info@jubileejobs.org

KAIROS HOUSE
2544 17th St. NW Washington DC 20009
202 328 6155
202 328 6148 (fax)

L'ARCHE
2474 Ontario Rd. NW
Washington DC 20009
202‑232‑4539
Res. 1:     2474 Ontario Rd. NW
                202‑462‑3924
Res. Il:     1724 Euclid St. NW
                202‑387‑1179
www.larchewashingtondc.org

LA CASA
1812 Ontario Pl. NW
Washington DC 20009
202‑232‑3416

LIFE PATHWAYS
c/o The Potter's House
1658 Columbia Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202‑332‑0599 (phone & fax)
etetaz@msn.com

MANNA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
614 S St. NW Washington DC 20001
202‑232‑2915
202‑667‑5196 (fax)
www.mannadc.org

MANNA, INC.
828 Evarts St. NE Washington DC 20018
202‑832‑1845
202‑832‑1870 (fax)
www.mannadc.org

MINISTRY OF MONEY
11315 Neelsville Church Rd. Germantown MD 20876
301‑428‑9560
301‑428‑9573 (fax)
office@ministryofmoney.org
www.ministryofmoney.org

MIRIAM'S HOUSE
PO Box 73618 Washington DC 20056
202‑667‑1758
202‑667‑4638 (fax)
www.miriamshouse.org

NEW COMMUNITY CHURCH AFTER‑SCHOOL & ADVOCACY PROGRAM
614 S St. NW Washington DC 20001
202‑232‑2915
202‑332‑9798 (fax)
ncasap@erols.com
www.ncasap.org

PASTORAL COUNSELING & CONSULTATION CENTER
2025 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20036
202‑234‑0202
202‑234‑0185 (fax)

THE POTTER'S HOUSE
1658 Columbia Rd. NW Washington DC 20009
202‑232‑5483
202‑2324055 (kitchen)
202‑232‑5493 (fax)
administrator@pottershousedc.org
www.pottershousebooks.org
11 am‑3pm, M‑Th; 11 am‑ 10pm Fri. (live music 7‑10); 10am‑6pm, Sat.

SAMARITAN INNS
2523 14 th St. NW Washington DC 20009
202‑667‑8831
202‑667‑8026 (fax)
hope@saminns.org
www.samaritaninns.org

SARAH'S CIRCLE
2551 17 th St. NW
Washington DC 20009
202‑332‑1400
202‑667‑9529 (fax)
info@sarahscircle.org

SERVANT LEADERSHIP SCHOOL
1640 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009
202‑328‑7312
slschooi@slschool.org
www.slschool.org

SIGN OF JONAH
248016 th St. NW, Ste. C
Washington DC 20009
202‑667‑9195
202‑667‑2844 (fax)
signofjonah@starpower.net

SITAR CENTER FOR THE ARTS
1700 Kalorama Rd. NW #101 Washington DC 20009
202‑797‑2145
202‑483‑0789 (fax)
www.sitarcenter.org

TELL THE WORD
2025 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington DC 20036
202‑387‑9300
office@surfglobal.net

WELLSPRING
11411 Neelsville Church Rd. Germantown MD 20876
301‑428‑3373
301‑428‑3374 (fax)
missionwel@aol.com
www.wellspringministry.org

WORLD PEACEMAKERS
11427 Scottsbury Tern Germantown MD 20876
301‑972‑4041
worldpeacemakers@compuserve.com
www.worldpeacemakers.org

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR
Ecumenical Headquarters
2025 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20036
202 387 1617
office@surfglobal.net
9:30 a.m. 3:00 p.m., M F

Worship Sundays 11:30 a.m.

COVENANT COMMUNITY
Meeting at the Festival Center
1640 Columbia Road NW
Washington DC 20009
Contact:
Allen & Phyllis Holt
holtallen@earthlink.net

Worship Sundays 11:00 a.m.

DAYSPRING CHURCH
11301 Neelsville Church Rd.
Germantown MD 20876
dayspring5@verizon.net

Worship Sundays 10:00 a.m.

EIGHTH DAY FAITH COMMUNITY
Meeting at the Potter's House
1658 Columbia Road NW
Washington DC 20009
Contact:
Marcia Harrington
mharr927@yahoo.com

Worship Sundays 10: 15 a.m.

FESTIVAL CHURCH
Meeting at the Festival Center
1640 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009
Contact: Margie Ford
margie_ford@hotmail.com
or
Jerry & Carolyn Parr
carolynparr@hotmail.com

Worship Mondays 6:00 p.m.

FRIENDS OF JESUS CHURCH
Meeting at the Potter's House
1658 Columbia Road NW
Washington DC 20009
Contact: Sydney Johnson
sydneyj2003@earthlink.net

Worship Thursdays 5:30 p.m.

JUBILEE CHURCH
Meeting at Sarah's Circle
2551 17th St. NW
Washington DC 20009
Contact:
Kurt Finsterbusch
kurt@socy.umd.edu

Worship Mondays 6:00 p.m.

LAZARUS CHURCH
Meeting at the Ritz in the
Primary Plus Center
1631 Euclid St. NW
Washington DC 20009
Contact:
Mike Little
mike@samaritaninns.org

Worship Thursdays 7:00 p.m.

NEW COMMUNITY CHURCH
614 S St. NW Washington DC 20001
202 332 0220
info@newcommunitychurchdc.org
www.newcommunitychurchdc.org

Worship Sundays 11:00 a.m.

POTTER'S HOUSE CHURCH
1658 Columbia Road NW
Washington DC 20009
202 232 5483
administrator@pottershousedc.org

Worship Wednesdays 6:30 p.m.

SEEKERS CHURCH
276 Carroll St. NW Washington DC
20012 202 829 9882
www.seekerschurch.org

Worship Sundays 10:00 a.m.

The Potter's House
202 232 5483

Dayspring
Retreat Center
301 428 9348

Festival Center &
Servant Leadership
School
202 328 0072

On this shelf, at top center is the place of honor on my bookshelves, where books by Gordon Cosby and Elizabeth O'Connor sit.

Our family had a copy of Call to Commitment , that had somehow made it into our home after my Mom's father died (this next November 11 will mark 40 years ago!) . Although basically everything theological and church related from my grandfather's library went to someone's church library or some pastor's library, this book ended up on our shelf. I was to remember seeing that at our house in my childhood, and when I was 20, I picked it up and statrted reading it when some people in my youth group, most of us in college now, were talking about The Church of the Saviour. Our youth minister had told us a story or two about them during our high school years. When a bunch of us started meeting regularly following a MIssion trip, in a couple of years we were, one summer, renewiing those HIgh school Youth group meetings over at the house of one of our members. 5 or 6 of the people in this "Call to Commitment" discussion went to DC that summer (1976) ---we were all 19 and 20---- but I was unable to go with them due to my job, but they came back all abuzz. One guy and his girlfriend, who had gone, asked me over one night and told me of a plan to keep "seeking" into the notion of church that had been given to them from all of our reading and their visit and discussion with Mary and Gordon Cosby. He asked me becuase I had begun reading Call to Commitment with them, and afterwards immediately gone out and bought Elizabeth O'Connor's other books: Journey Inward, Journey Outward (the "sequel" to Call to Commitment, as well as Our Many Selves, Eighth Day of Creation, and Search for Silence, and soon after that , The New Community, and Gordon Cosby's Handbook for Mission Groups.

We proceeded with the misison group idea and took up "Our Many Selves" as a common discipline to work together as a resource for intense sharing of ourselves and our journeys. We met on Friday nights during college, and OUr Many Selves became for me a hugely significant book (It's subtitle was "A Handbook for Self-Discovery", but iut was anything but a "Therapy Model" that one usually gets from titles like that. It was an intense book of exercises and readings from numerous writers on various aspects of discovering the "many selves" that exist in us, the selves that wake up at particular situations and in the face of certain experiences, all of which need redemption and healing. It was in this book that I was first exposed to Dietrich Bonhoefer, and bought copies of Cost of Discipleship and Life Together and Letters and Papers From Prison, the latter of which I don't remember what happened to my copy. I think someone who had been trying to find it offered me some relatively enticing sum of money to the financially strapped seminary student that I THOUGHT I was.

I was also introduced, via Our Many Selves to various of the Christian classics such as The Cloud of Unknowing, The Dark Night of the Soul, Meister Eckhardt and the works of Carl Jung.

More in a bit. This is fun for me, remembering this stuff.

Movable Theoblogical

We continually will seek meaningful ways to bring together whatever has been broken apart and to learn how to love and be loved, even before we are lovable.

This goes for relationships across the board. Our separation from one another due to our being sucked into the hole that is the consumer lifestyle. It grieves me to see and to experience the separation that we have allowed to rule. We need to look and see the "cracks" in that "fake reality" and see ourselves and our fellow humans as gifts meant for each other. It is shameful the neglect that we have allowed to dominate our "church structures" that bear little difference from the ways of the world which , far from "fulfilling" us or making us "successful", have driven a deep gulf between us. In Christ, this division is declared over and done, and we are called to experience and recive this gift.

We identify those cultural systems that obstruct the flow of love and strive to create new structures that enhance it. We practice charity as well as justice, reaching out to those who are down and lending the strength of our voices to those who cry out for change.

Sadly, the church has all too often participated in this obstruction, which blinds us to the dire need for reconciliation that only God through his people can conquer. This "Peace on Earth" is more than a sentiment, as Bonhoeffer said, but is a COMMAND.

The following segment from Servant Leaders, Servant Structures describes the early process of discerning call in COS:
Movable Theoblogical: SLSS: Chapter 1- The Laying of Foundations

Waiting for Call

To help us through our impasse we formed classes in Christian Vocation. In these classes we were taking a deeper and longer look at the whole matter of call as having to do with the transcendent-the being grasped by that which is greater than we. We began with the basic assumption of the New Testament that there was no way to be the church except by the call of Christ, and that there were a number of dimensions to this call:

First, to a relationship with the Father as intimate as the one which Christ knew.

Second, to be persons in community with others responding to the same call, surrendering something of our authority that we might have a shared life and bring into existence a new community where the nature of the relationships would be such that each person would be called fully into being.

Third, to an inward developments call to change. We were to overcome those obstacles in ourselves which held us back and kept us from growing into the full stature of Christ. The call of Christ was a call to die to the old self in order to become the new creation.

Fourth, and not last, the call was to move out-to discover where we were to lay down our lives-to take up the stance of the suffering servant, and make witness to the power of Jesus Christ's work in us.

The class dealt primarily with the fourth dimension. If the church is a sent people, where was Christ sending each of us? To what segment of the w

orld's need were we to make response? We began each session by sitting for an hour in silence, feeling that if any word was being addressed to us we had more opportunity of hearing it in the stillness of our own souls. Part of the work of the hour was to center deeply enough in ourselves to be in touch with our most central wish. Somehow we had then, and have now, the conviction that our wishes lie very close to "who we are" and what we are to be doing, and that to be in communion with them is to have a sense of being dealt with by the One -,who is Other.

We discovered in this class that too many of us had taken up our work without any sense of being called to it. "Vocation," Gordon said, "has the element of faithfulness to your own inner being. You are enhanced by what you do. Your own awareness converges with some need out yonder and intersects with it in such a way that you have the sense that you were born to this." Jesus said, "I must be about my Father's business."* He knew. His knowing was an inner one.

When the time of silence was over we timidly put forward any intimations of direction that had come to us. We were so uncertain and so consumed by misgiving that the question was inevitable: "Is not one's call often shot through with self-doubt?"

We decided that doubt is a dimension that oftentimes is there, and that there is a time to move on in spite of it. In fact, we agreed that if anyone were too dogmatic about call, he or she needed to question it because there is always the possibility of acting out of some compulsive need rather than genuine call. Frequently along with the Call comes the feeling that one is not up to it. There is a sense of unworthiness in relationship to what one sees. "Who am I to be called to bring into existence anything so significant? Surely there are other people more qualified to do it." This is what Moses felt. He was forever protesting that Yahweh could choose someone better equipped for the job, someone who talked more convincingly than he did. Jeremiah said flatly that he was too young, even going to the extreme in that declaration, "'I am only a child.' But the Lord said, 'Do not call yourself a child; for you shall go to whatever people I send you and say whatever I tell you to say."'* All of us resist in some way the new thing into which we are drawn that demands a whole new dimension of creativity on our part. We do not want to be responsible in this way. "It may be," says Gordon, "that if a person responds too eagerly, he is not seeing the whole picture and is not aware of the problems of implementation, so that he goes into it with large areas of unconsciousness."

Despite our expectancy and all the assurance and encouragement we gave to each other, no one was addressed by a Voice, which is the real meaning of having a vocation. Perhaps it was because we were too disbelieving, or too unpracticed in the process in which we were engaged, or perhaps we were too literal in our understanding of call-expecting somehow that God was going to descend out of heaven and summon us as we sat with heads bowed. Actually call was to come to most of us through the ordinary events of life, which were to be extraordinary events because we brought to them a new quality of asking and listening.

Inside the Servant Leadership School, Sat. Nov.12, 2005 (Click to see larger image in a popup)

The following segment from Servant Leaders, Servant Structures describes the roots of the Servant Leadership School, begun as "The School of Christian Living", and envisioned as a "Seminary" for the local church. The tradition of "Seminary Education" in the Church of the Saviour was so central that it evolved into a mission which resulted in the building ofg their first "ground-up" structure, down the street from The Potter's House, Columbia Road Health Services, and Christ House.

The School of Christian Living opened with one student, a slow, conservative and unlettered lad whom they had known in Madison Heights, Virginia. Billy had no idea of what he was getting into when he moved to the Washington area and looked up his old friends. Ernest Campbcll, at that time the minister of a church in Alexandria, made the living room of his house available as a classroom. For six months Gordon met with Billy to teach him doctrine, Christian growth, and Bible, meantime they struggled to determine what gift he might exercise on behalf of the new church. At long last they enthusiastically decided that it was running the mimeograph machine. Thereafter Gordon taught him as they worked together on mimeographing. When the year was over Billy was transferred by his employer to Iowa, leaving Gordon to wonder whether that first tone recruit might not have effected his own transfer in order to be free of involvement in an enterprise that was always slightly bewildering. In any case, Billy's departure did not lessen the ardor of his instructor, who remained firmly convinced that the school, or "little seminary," was essential training ground if the church was to have an inward life and move with any force in the world.

This from today's segment from Becoming the Authentic Church:

Movable Theoblogical: Getting to Know (Really Know) Each Another

when we see that the same cultural systems that have so deeply hurt some have made life easier for others we begin to recognize how much we all need healing.

We are the injured and the injurees. We need to receive and extend that which leads to reconciliation. We are the Fellowship of Reconciliation as a worldwide body. The ecumenical group by that name takes that name only to emphasize their reason for existence, but this also is one piece of the mission of the whole church. This is why war is the anathema of the church, for it is a sign of abandonment when the people founded as the fellowship of reconciliation turn to the world's ways of relating. This is what is being approached here, on a small group level. The power of this fellowship comes from the activity of God that manifests itself in reconciliati on that happens amongst them.

See Flash Video of part 3 of my conversation with Gordon Cosby, where he talks about how he thinks I've been "ruined"

Eric commented on the post below that includes the section on Extreme Diversity. re-reading it once again, it is truly an important section of this striving to be and to embody authentic church.

Movable Theoblogical: The "Basics"

The world has told us that we are "opposed" to one another because of our differences, but this is an illusion. We are liberated as we come to know each other more deeply and are able to transcend the illusion of "opposites." Reconciliation requires finding common ground on which we can both transcend and embrace our differences. The authentic church provides that common ground.

The "pieces" that make a whole people are found scattered amongst us, it seems. This is what I gather from the message of the above. The idea that we cannot do it alone is to bring home the truth to us that we not only need companionship and support, but those "other" experiences that bring us closer to knowing all of God's family; all of God's people.

Someone took this picture for me, but the camera took so long to actually take the picture, that I got caught with my eyes closed, and Gordon quit smiling, but ......well, there it is.

Movable Theoblogical: Addiction to Culture, In Need of Redemption
I just put up my very first VideoPodcast. It starts out cutting Gordon Cosby's head out of the frame (sorry, badly placed camera.....it was taken with my Canon A80 in AVI mode. It goes with the post in the above link.

See Flash Video of part of my conversation with Gordon Cosby, where he covers some of this , referring to the latest thinking of theirs on the way their support groups work

This is crucial to get hold of:

WE ARE CULTURAL ADDICTS AND WE CANNOT BREAK THIS ADDICTION ALONE.

Finally seeing this truth really "getting it" that we are addicted to the very culture and the very way in which we live is the beginning of true freedom.

When we "wake up" to the fact that we have been distorted as human beings by the culture; that we have been "drugged" on a chemical which is culture, and are very much like the addict who is hooked on alcohol, then we see the need for a community whose narrative is wholly different from that in which we have been intoxicated. We have to "detox" from the culture of individualism and violence.

When we finally see that we are addicted to a culture of comfort, security, competition, praise, staying busy, controlling people, being in shallow relationships, having too much or too little money, worrying, seeing ourselves as superior or inferior to others that a vast assortment of sensations, behaviors, substances and activities keep us disconnected from our real feelings and needs and disconnected from God we can then unmask the false nature of this cultural system and see that it can never give us what we long for. We will be able to see at last how much we have depended on this false system, and how utterly helpless we are to break our dependence and to heal ourselves.

Then, together with every alcoholic or drug addict who has hit bottom and cried out for help, we too will cry out for a Saviour and for a faithful community to save us from our cultural addiction. At this point, humbled and ready to receive mercy and healing love, we see the truth and commit ourselves to becoming recovering cultural addicts and to being used by God in whatever ways God chooses.

See Flash Video of part of my conversation with Gordon Cosby, where he covers some of this , referring to the latest thinking of theirs on the way their support groups work

The coffeehouse/bookstore of The Church of the Saviour

I just realized, in looking up the section of Servant Leaders, Servant Structures where the purchase of the "Headquarters" building for Church of the Saviour was done, that I omitted several sections of chapter one when I copied the book into blog posts. I have added the missing sections to the Read More section of this post

Here is the relevant passage to go with the picture above:

The community's first purchase was an old rooming house complete with housekeeper and several roomers who stayed on and were caught up in the contagious exuberance of the new occupants. The previous residents helped with the painting and cast their lot with the odd but captivating band of newcomers. The question then was: Would there be money enough to buy the paint to carry on the next day's work? That question still comes up as paint is needed for the restoration of apartments in the inner city. We know now that the community being born then was always to smell slightly of turpentine and have paint on its shoes. For more reasons than one, one of its missions bears the appropriate name of Jubilee Housing.

In those days we were blissfully ignorant of the houses for which we were to be the agents of transformation. Only a few years went by before the first quarters were obviously inadequate, and we acquired a twenty-three-room house and began again to scrub, scrape and paint. This old Victorian mansion still remains the headquarters and place of worship for the whole community. The corporate indebtedness was huge. We were then about thirty-two persons, probably twenty of whom were employed, and we owed about one hundred thousand dollars. Our distinction at that time was that we probably had the highest per capita indebtedness of any church in the country.

The work of renovation on the new building was scarcely completed when the group further increased its indebtedness by the purchase of 176 acres of land in the country. The membership had grown to thirty-six, and there were another fifty or sixty persons taking classes. Again there was a farmhouse to restore and the Lodge of the Carpenter to build. The large living room, kitchen, and dining room made it possible for eighteen persons to make day-long retreat. As we became more involved in the outward journey, it became more essential to give equal attention to the inward journey, and we began to think about weekend retreats that would give us more time in the silence. finally, we built behind the Lodge overnight facilities for eighteen retreatants. Each room has a single bed, a washbasin, a desk, two chairs, and a lamp. All the windows look out on woodland.

As we grew in our understanding of silence, we gave more emphasis to the contemplative life. When we become too busy, Dayspring is always there as a reminder that there is no true creativity apart from contemplation.

Most churches claim to follow Jesus, but not all are following the authentic Jesus. Too often we fashion Jesus in our own image and then wonder why there is no radical world change. The authentic Jesus is not in pursuit of privilege and power and prestige, but makes his home among the lowly. The authentic Jesus does not condone violence but is the embodiment of love, embracing all people equally with mercy and the hope of transformation. The authentic Jesus confronts cultural addictions and the systems that create and sustain them. The authentic Jesus says no to the world's power and yes to God's power. There is only one real Jesus into whose being we hope to abandon ourselves, dying to our false illusions and letting our true selves be resurrected in him, who is the world's hope. Together we seek to discover and live his nonviolent, healing nature.

from Becoming the Authentic Church, p.7

The cultural addictions. To whom/where do we turn to break free of this? Part of what they go on to say is that "Extreme Diversity" is neccessasry to open us to other realities of life, and that the spirit dwells in those places where our differences are freely explored and recognized as gift. It is in overcoming the fear of the "other" that reconciliation is possible, a reconciliation that is beyond the means of the world to know, except in the beloved community which is the church.

I vistied Dayspring, the retreat /contemplation center for the Church of the Saviour near Germantown, Maryland communities on Sunday Nov. 13, onthe way back to Rolling Ridge.

how to become so much like Jesus that our very way of life comforts the world's brokenhearted and confronts the world's broken systems-is a key question for all who seek authentic, faithful belonging.

This little snippet that I have now placed up in my banner points to the Journey Inward, Journey Outward duality/reality in which The Church of the Saviour has been so unique and successful in keeping a healthy tension/balance. While the quote would seem to emphasize the Outward Journey, the Inward Journey is sought as an "antidote" to the ways of the culture which would oppose and prevent the comfort and the confrontation from happening.

It's not often that I feel hesitant about what I want to say in writing. But as I have been posting the sections of the booklet The Authentic Church, I am only in awe of the images these words evoke. Gordon Cosby and Karla McLung have written about their vision for the church and what might help it to become what it is meant to be in our time.

This segment from Kayla's Introductory statement:

At the heart of each of us is a driving hunger for ways to five and be in relationship that are genuine. So it is with churches as well. As unique and different as churches are, the ones that are authentic hope to bear a striking and clear resemblance to Jesus, to be so much like Jesus that people sense they have encountered him when they encounter the church. How to facilitate such an encounter-how to become so much like Jesus that our very way of life comforts the world's brokenhearted and confronts the world's broken systems-is a key question for all who seek authentic, faithful belonging. If ever there were a time for the church universal to become more truly the body of Christ, to find ways to embody the life and ministry of Christ for the sake of the world, it would be now as violence and despair grow. We desperately need an authentic encounter with Jesus, an encounter that will shake us at our foundations and compel us to become the loving, reconciling people we have been created to be.

The bolded section , which Karla identifies as the key question, is also dear to me, and scary, and constantly nagging at me. Gordon Cosby told me "it sounds like you've been ruined". I told him I often use the word "spolied". Since 1976, when I am remembering what had been brought close to me via the words of Elizabeth O'Connor, some in-depth discussions with friends who were also struck by this community, and in countless times since then when I "wake up" for a little while and realize that I have slidden back into a "staying afloat in the culture" mode, this community's journey in being-becoming-renewing church has been a source of calling back to me from the depths.

The most recent years, particularly in the past 4 years, since my "negative" result on a Prostate biopsy, I have returned to what I have and have not accomplished in the way of a more intentional journey to discover, participate, and struggle toward church. A good deal of this has been seemingly fruitless. I am presently trying to figure out who I need to invite to look at this "Authentic Church" with me, and see if this addresses the longings of the heart and also sounds like good news to them.

The bolded section in the quote above is going up in my banner---- it is a significant piece of all this, along with the idea of our being "cultural addicts in recovery".

Movable Theoblogical: Becoming The Authentic Church

For me the central question is what it means to be the authentic church of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. What is its nature? Its essence? And how can that essence be structured and expressed so as to become a healing agent for the world?

It's not a question any longer of which issues are of primary concern and what kinds of programs might best serve those issues, but a question of being. How are we to be in the world so as to live the Jesus life with greater boldness and passion?

Whoa. How are we to BE in the world? And the other questions, such as what to do as "Recovering Cultural Addicts". This is a major reason why God calls unto himself a church. To BE together against the snares of the culture that knows not God. Gordon told me when I spoke with him MOnday that an alcoholic can go to an AA meeting for help staying sober over the weekend. Where do we go to "get sober" from our addiction to culture? Rare is the church which takes us somewhere else that is OTHER than culture. Only God can lead us there. Only the prescence and being of Christ can do that.

I have a few video avi clips of that conversation that I will share along with the text from this wonderful booklet , Becoming the Authentic Church. For anyone who wants to comment on any of this, Gordon Cosby and the people with whom he is on journey with want to know what you think, and what some of this means to you.

The items in Authentic Church are lifted entirely from the Booklet, and my comments will be set apart with a different format, like this , for instance

THE "GIVENS" OF BEING AUTHENTIC CHURCH

THE.AUTHENTIC CHURCH IS AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION OF GOD, WHO IS LOVE.

In love and through love, the new community is created. God, who is by nature unlimited love, draws us to let our partial, limited love unfold in depth until we reach our full capacity for giving ourselves to God and to the totality of everything and everyone that God has created. In our present wounded, damaged, distorted condition, it is difficult to imagine what this sort of beloved community might look like or how we even would begin to commit ourselves to it, but we open ourselves to the impossible, trusting the Source of love to show us the way.

THE AUTHENTIC CHURCH FOLLOWS THE AUTHENTIC JESUS.

Most churches claim to follow Jesus, but not all are following the authentic Jesus. Too often we fashion Jesus in our own image and then wonder why there is no radical world change. The authentic Jesus is not in pursuit of privilege and power and prestige, but makes his home among the lowly. The authentic Jesus does not condone violence but is the embodiment of love, embracing all people equally with mercy and the hope of transformation. The authentic Jesus confronts cultural addictions and the systems that create and sustain them. The authentic Jesus says no to the world's power and yes to God's power. There is only one real Jesus into whose being we hope to abandon ourselves, dying to our false illusions and letting our true selves be resurrected in him, who is the world's hope. Together we seek to discover and live his nonviolent, healing nature.

The items in Authentic Church are lifted entirely from the Booklet, and my comments will be set apart with a different format, like this , for instance

At the heart of each of us is a driving hunger for ways to five and be in relationship that are genuine. So it is with churches as well. As unique and different as churches are, the ones that are authentic hope to bear a striking and clear resemblance to Jesus, to be so much like Jesus that people sense they have encountered him when they encounter the church.

How to facilitate such an encounter how to become so much like Jesus that our very way of life comforts the world's brokenhearted and confronts the world's broken systems is a key question for all who seek authentic, faithful belonging.

If ever there were a time for the church universal to become more truly the body of Christ, to find ways to embody the life and ministry of Christ for the sake of the world, it would be now as violence and despair grow. We desperately need an authentic encounter with Jesus, an encounter that will shake us at our foundations and compel us to become the loving, reconciling people we have been created to be.

The processes that we try to describe here offer one possibility for how we who care about the church might follow our primary calling to love each other as we have been loved and to create spaces in which that healing love can be expressed and extended. It is an attempt to make Jesus real for all of us.

The church's structures change, but its message and mission do not. Through those who will risk leaving the familiar in order to pitch our tents in the unknown, God still schemes and dreams the new.

-- Kayla McClurg

This is the first post in a series of posts from the Booklet Becoming the Authentic Church: A Guide Toward Being in Diverse, healing Community Rooted in Reconciliation and Justice
. My firend Bob and I have taken these thoughts and begun to take concrete steps toward finding this Authenitc Church (he in his setting and I in mine) You will notice that I have been quite taken with this vision in the next several days, weeks, months, years. I relish your comments. I have a bit of video from my meeting with Gordon Cosby on Monday Nov.14, and wil begin to post some of that over the next several days, along with photos I took over that time.
The items in Authentic Church are lifted entirely from the Booklet, and my comments will be set apart with a different format, like this , for instance

The processes described in this guidebook represent an attempt to follow the simple way of Jesus.

They are not the only way, they merely express one way by which we are seeking to go deeper in order to be freed to love.

Repetition of primary ideas is intentional.
Even as we share the possibilities with you, we too are hoping to hear and understand them more deeply.

This is a work in progress. We welcome your insights as we learn from each other how to live boldly in the not yet.
Together may we discover new life giving ways to be the diverse and healing body of Christ, becoming love on behalf of the world.
-----------

At this point in my life, and at this point in our world's life, I am asking what is to be my focus to what am I to be giving my limited time and energy? What is the new thing, the genuine thing, that God wants me to be learning, doing, being now?

For me the central question is what it means to be the authentic church of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. What is its nature? Its essence? And how can that essence be structured and expressed so as to become a healing agent for the world?

It's not a question any longer of which issues are of primary concern and what kinds of programs might best serve those issues, but a question of being. How are we to be in the world so as to live the Jesus life with greater boldness and passion?

The temptation always is to turn stones into bread. We have tried over the years to be faithful to Christ by loving and serving the poor giving bread. But have we primarily been offering people helpful ways to get their share of the culture's bread, or have we offered the living bread of God?

The church, when it is true to its nature, is God's channel for sharing both kinds of bread. That is what I long for and want to be a part of in the remaining time that God gives me. I want to let go of whatever doesn't take us deeper, whatever takes more time and energy and effort than it yields, and together with others I want to embody that transforming presence in the world. This might not be what is most important for you, but for me, it is all that ultimately matters.

N. Gordon Cosby

The above was taken from Becoming the Authentic Church: A Guide Toward Being in Diverse, healing Community Rooted in Reconciliation and Justice
. Copies of this booklet are available via Potter's House Book Service for 3.00 each (Well worth it. I have been working with this booklet since I picked it up on Saturday. Comment here and I will make sure Potter's House gets it-----right now, I cannot find it on their Web site. I gotta talk to them about getting thier GREAT book store completely online.

I left last Thursday for DC, drove all day (11 hours), and got to Rolling Ridge Retreat Center in the panhandle of W.Va. near Washington DC (well, about 70 miles out) about 1030pm. My friend Bob Sabath now makes his home there. I spent Friday and Saturday night at Bob's old house in Mt. Ranier MD just over the DC/Maryland line, where his son, daughter, and daughter-in-lawnow live. I spent Friday night and all-day Saturday in Columbia Heights/Adams-Morgan, with my "base of operations" at the Potter's House on Columbia Road. I also returned there Sunday morning for 8th Day Community's Sunday morning worship and the "Headquarters" ecumenical worship at 11:30, from where I returned to Rolling Ridghe via Dayspring, the Retreat grounds for the Church of the Saviour communities which they've had since 1953, when they purchased it, about 45 minutes north of the city. Now, "civilazation" is incringing upon their rural retereat. (I have pictures, whcih are forthcoming)

Anyway, I'm back, and I have a booklet that I came away with which is a crucial piece of what I brought back from that 4 days in DC. Becoming the Authentic Church, which seems to be a current statement of the telos of the Church of the Saviour communities. The back of the booklket says this:

Contained within these pages is one simple way we might live more authentically as the diverse and healing communi8ty of Jesus Christ. Journey with us.

I just spoke with my friend Bob, who lives in Harpers Ferry, WV, about 70 miles northwest of DC, on a property that contains a Retreat Center called Rolling Ridge. He also has a house in Mt. Ranier, Maryland , which is about 20 minutes from COS that has a gust room avaialble if I didn't want to make the hour and a half trip up to Rolling Ridge every night to crash at the Retreat Center.

I'm going to check the ads for BestBuy and CompUSA to see what geeky items I might add to my arsenal that would be of use to me (like some extra DV tape, maybe a longer lasting battery for the DV camera, and what kind of MP3 voice recorders there are)

I'm scheduled to meet Gordon Cosby a week from tomorrow.

I will be meeting with Gordon Cosby Monday Nov.14. I hope to have a good conversation about the church. (In fact, I rather expect it)