Tag: REUNION

Call Me, Maybe and Some Thoughts on Minimalism

There’s a popular pop song at the moment titled “Call Me, Maybe” (if you want to see an incredible version of the song, CLICK HERE). When it comes on the car I don’t change the channel (it is rather catchy), but my curmudgeonly (soon to be a dad) self gets all riled up. I yell at the male character in the song: “Don’t call maybe, DO IT. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no!”

I actually used this very point in my teaching this past Sunday (you can listen here).

We live in a “maybe” culture, and the result is cluttered, careless words. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says: “We choose our clothes more carefully than we choose our words.”

Which, of course, leads to some thoughts on minimalism. For Amy and I this has become our new obsession. We began to have some talks about simplifying our life when  our good friend Ryan alerted me to this blog, which sent me over the edge.

Now, we are adding a child to our family and with such an addition comes stuff. And yet our goal is to simplify, minimize our stuff, and have a more orderly home. Or at least a less cluttered home.

Talking about words this week at REUNION made me think about the beauty of “yes” and “no”. When Jesus speaks about words, speech, and commitments in Matthew 5, I find many connection to minimalism…this is minimalist speech. Doesn’t mean we don’t talk or that we have nothing to say.

But our speech is simple, careful, uncluttered.

This is a goal for all of life, perhaps Jesus was on to something by beginning with how we use our words.

Weddings and Other Updates

A couple of quick updates:

  • I’ll have more to say about this later in the week, but I got to speak yesterday at REUNION on grief. Fun topic! Amy and I shared part of our story of the last year…it was pretty powerful and I think it opened up a lot of stuff for people in our community.
  • On a totally different note: Friday and Saturday were dedicated to preparations and the actual wedding of Dustin and his new bride, Rachelle. Dustin’s been on staff with Sojourn for two school years now, and he’s been an incredible team member (helped get us started at Northeastern and off the ground at UMB). Love these guys and so happy for their marriage. They chose well!
  • Lots of writing and prepping to do before Friday, which is when week one of vacation starts!

Summer Projects

One of the big projects for the summer is to help REUNION write another round of community group curriculum. I do like this process a lot, and I am especially grateful for the partnership that will be involved in this summer’s effort.

The first time we did this I didn’t do much writing (mostly picking and pulling from other sources); the results we called “The Story of Scripture.” Last year I helped write “The Story of Jesus” (a much more original effort). We are using that method again this year for “The Story of the Church”. I am excited to see what comes from this and how it will be used in groups to help people grow and act more like Jesus in their neighborhoods in Boston.

Some Things That Are Awesome…

Another busy weekend as the semester winds to an end…our final gathering of first year/potential leaders was on friday…immediately afterwards we held our final leadership community of the school year…REUNION, our church partner celebrated its 5 year anniversary…and on sunday we honored (slash mourned) our graduates. Lots to celebrate and reflect on!

BU leadership developement:

Leadership Community Dreams:

Easters!

We had a great Easter Sunday yesterday. Unofficially 650 people came to REUNION (Sojourn’s church partner), which will be a record. I love the energy in the Hilton when the room is so packed.

And, we hosted friends and family in our home afterwards. It is always great to bring family, church, students, and Amy’s work together in one place because it doesn’t happen often (or at least as often as we would like). It was on mission, and most of all it was FUN.

One of my all time favorite Easters!

Generosity Multiplied

I had an opportunity this weekend to stand in front of REUNION, our church community, and share about Sojourn’s Joplin trips. The moment reminded me of the powerful multiplying force of generosity.

Both of our teams (week 1 and week 2) had various responsibilities while we were in Joplin, but for the most part we got to see one house through from sub-flooring, to walls, to the roof, to siding, to windows: all of us from Boston were a part of that process. And while we were doing it we got to know the family that will be moving in. A family that lost absolutely every material possession in the tornado.

On Sunday it hit me: a church community in Boston takes up an Advent Conspiracy offering in December, a collegiate ministry sends 30 people to Joplin in March, and both are part of blessing a family through a house and money to furnish the house…a house that will become a home where generosity and hospitality are extended and multiplied again and again.

Our generosity is so much more that checks that we write, or stuff that we sell. They are stories that go on and on and often we won’t know even a fraction of them. Which creates a great deal of humility. God is always at work and we get to be a part of it and that is a beautiful thing.

Some Thoughts on Generosity

I taught this weekend at [REUNION] Back Bay on Luke 16. Which is, like, one of the easiest passages in scripture to preach on. Just kidding. This section of the Good News According to Luke includes: the parable of the shrewd manager (is Jesus telling us to use money to buy friends?), some statements about faithfulness/self-justification/forcing ones way in to the Kingdom/the law never passing away/divorce, and the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (with its interesting view of the afterlife). Light stuff.

The big idea, as best I can make out, is this: use everything at your disposal (including your financial resources) to invest in things that last.

Which gave me an opportunity to share one of my favorite stories: the story of the house I grew up in. The short version goes like this: my parents move the fam to Salinas to plant a church…a contractor friend tells them to find a piece of land and he will build a house on it…they find some land…he builds the house!

The pinnacle moment of the story takes place on May 4th, 1985 when 70+ people wearing bright yellow “Boutry’s Barn Raising” t-shirts come pouring out of a bus to frame, roof, and side the entire house in one day.

It’s a great story. This is what it looks like to leverage your time, talents, resources, money, skills, networks, etc for the Kingdom.

But it’s an even better story when you (I) think about this: for the last 27 years my parents have always treated their home as a gift. They call it the “house that friends built.” And they have hosted thousands of people for every imaginable reason: community groups, newcomer desserts and lunches, discipleship, helping people in need, family gatherings, wedding rehearsal dinner parties, my college friends, missionaries, and the list could go on and on and on.

I think this is what Jesus is getting at in Luke 16 (albeit in an interesting way). And so, the story of my parents house, alongside Luke 16, is an inspiration, but also a challenge: am I using everything I’ve been entrusted with for the Kingdom?

Baptisms

[REUNION] held a baptism celebration this week, and it was awesome to watch 5 students get dunked! I always love these moments, but I found each of the stories to be especially moving this time. One of my favorite stories culminated in watching Eric baptize one of our BU students. Eric got connected to REUNION/Sojourn through mutual friends from California (the Derricos) who has become a community group leader with his wife. So great to watch all of that work together for a great Kingdom story!