Meh-himm. Mey-hihm. Maih-hehm. May-ee-hemm.

Mayhem.

In fact, there's no such thing as lone-ranger Christ-followers or stand-alone churches. That's why by innocent proxy or in our arrogance we suffer in relative isolation.

As our world slides headlong toward oblivion while calling it progress, Jesus still walks our bleeding streets and hearts pointing out the crumpled human mess and refused lives laying in the gutters, imploring us to come on out with Him.....to see what He sees and to be instruments of His love and wholeness.

Some have jumped ship and are treading icy, shark-infested waters. We suspect God poked a hole in our dinghy somewhere when he said for us to go, but we're not for sure. But there are others out there and we're pulling together and mounting the debris for this final voyage because there's a storm ahead.

Mayhem. Called....commissioned.....together.

This past Saturday night was definitely sweet. Anytime you gots the impeccable Kopp Farm cabin, a thunderstorm popping bolts and thumping the atmosphere, Veritasians and Kevin and Tracy Rains, you gots a good time.

After we determined that the unending parade of wasps were not actually from the yawning pit of Gehenna and were not out to peg us, we were able to proceed with eatage, hang-outage, verbally blessing one another and listening to the Kev and Tracy impart some wisdom to our green souls on the timeliness of intentional simple churching and its significance in our particular setting.

Lots more to be said lata.

Music currently impressing upon my tympanic membranous receptors.......as if you care a bit.

INFINITE KEYS.....ester drang......its the drang, what else to say?

REGIONS.....jacobstone.....this album comes off initially as oddly disconnected when you ponder why there were only 4 songs with lyrics and the next 11 are a cacophonous collection of shackles, planes, spoken word, music and more. Then it makes sense when you understand the thrust behind the album is reconcilitation between competing communities in the war-ravaged Balkan region.......the more I listen, the more it haunts. More to check out here

Check out the newest sunspot 484 (directions here)- largest in several years and as big as Jupiter.

For all you chit-rens out there, DON'T-LOOK-DIRECTLY-AT-THE-SUN!

Post-Hester-Community-Gathering-Post.........

Just what I needed.......a little infusion of the sweet, yet fascinatingly convoluted life of our church in all of its wildness and unpredictability.

Lasagna......brownies out the wah-zoo.........Southern sweet tea that a freekin' northerner from Waldo, Ohio makes (northerner at least to a Tennessean) -who incidentally is getting good at it............conversations happening all over the household (including the loud one outside that continued through the open kitchen window from dinner THROUGH the still, quiet moment after the worship music subsided)..........a spontaneous drum circle and rhythm worship session erupting...........Joe blurting out his approvals and spontaneously welcoming Jesus to the living room on our behalf.........hearing the words "dragging" and "ass" used in the same sentence (a first for me) in reference to witnessing to/inviting a recalcitrant unchurched friend to our community........this by a very precious Veritasian, whose continued presence with us and growing trust in the God-stuff going on here continues to unfurl, amaze and warm me. I am thankful to God for the chance to show love right where this person is at. To hear this person talking about inviting a friend to what we are doing here has God written all over it.

And I would not have it any other way. Raw, uncut, uncensored, amorphous, unplanned- pure life on the cutting block. This is Veritas. Not neat, incessantly messy, not boxed, not cozy to yours or my sensibilities, not keen to imposing impractical piety and sometimes unapologetically irreverent to my puritanical persuasions. It is people where they are at spiritually, emotionally, physically- minus the false pretense. Certainly, it all does not surprise our God who never slumbers, though we be as perpetually wide-eyed and befuddled as a calf at a new gate.

Tonight, we dreamed a little bit together of what it is going to mean to go deeper as a community. We dreamed of being more intentional with communal housing as a natural outcropping of what's been happening, of an invitation to a journey to more effectively shepherding this city into relationship with Jesus and what that entails for us. What a joy it is to see and hear the coming-alongsidedness of our people.

And so, like the ditzy Molly Shannon Saturday Night Live character, I point my legs skyward, crying, "I luhvitt, I luhvitt, I luhvitt, I luhvitt- AH LUHVITT!!!

Just a teensy post prior to our gathering at Hester tonight..........

The Church just took in a deep breath of life this weekend and is in exhalation mode. The fall 2003 version of the Regional All Group is past, yet the Kingdom connections still infuse life-blood into our veins. For me, the faces of soul friends existing only neural synapse and bloggable cyberspace incarnate for too brief a time. But it is a time to be relished and an investment well worth the energy that, incidentally, seems to be Otherworldly.

Having been in North Carolina last week and missing my very own community of faith, I find myself curiously longing for their touches, both physical and spiritual. Regional All Groupings tend to make me especially fond of these Veritasians and puts me into dream mode. The big picture with other brothers and sisters on this train from around this nation puts the wind in my sails even though I sit marooned in the doldrums at times. It gives me license to dream again and that is the food from God that mobilizes.

I was reminded of- or rather, apprehended by- a feeling this weekend while in the Brownhouse. It was a feeling of belonging that I used to feel when I would visit my grandmother's house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her house was the only place I would have to get to feel this way. I haven't had that feeling since I was a child and since my parents divorced when I was in first grade. It was a feeling that washed a warming acceptance over with a promise of "more to come." As a relational vagabond of sorts, it is a God-oriented innoculation toward my inward selfishness. It was more than a feeling, in truth. Better stated, it was the promise of a coming Kingdom that spoke to me through the language of the memory of a lost family, but in the context of a newer family in the making that'll never call it quits.

Sorry.....again........for not being up to snuff on my blogging (or lack thereof). I hope all 8 of you can forgive me........HAHHAHAHAHAHA! My dog has, so there.

Was in Winston-Salem speaking at a youth retreat last weekend........went great, with some decisions made to follow this Christ, of whom we talk, live, breathe and have our being. Cool stuff.

All Group this weekend and my man, Kevin Rains comes to Oxford next weekend to facilitate a conversation and bequeath upon our green-eared Veritasian souls the sage-like wisdom needed for a doing church like this. So there'll be more to come on these tidbits.

I'll see some of you goobers at da Brownhouse soon, so see you there.

Okay....been a lil' bit since I blogged. So watchee gonna do bout it?

Tell you what I'm gonna do about it.....I'm gonna blog.

I'm supposing at this juncture that we have a lot going on. The Hester community is talking about birthing another church, which is all-out sweet. Pretty much right now we're just trying to get our peeps in the package so when the "go" order is given, we're ready. We'll culminate the conversation amongst ourselves with an amazing friend and compadre and pioneer in the ministry on October 25th at the Kopp Farm just north of Oxford. Kevin Rains will make the trek from Norwood to spearhead this conversation with our young church as we reflect on what it means to dream big for God. Heck, just to get to hang out with the guy and whoever he brings is food enough.