eBay Atheist coming to up/rooted June 18

Many of you will have already heard of Hemant Mehta, the eBay Atheist. Last year Hemant offered to "sell his soul on eBay" (really just go to church for the highest bidder), and our friend Jim Henderson from Off the Map took up on the offer. So last year Hemant visited ten churches around the Chicago area (including my own) and blogged about his experiences. He was kind of a "mystery shopper" for churches. Since then Hemant has been busy doing national media interviews about his experiences, maintaining his Friendly Atheist website, and writing a book about his impressions of Christian churches and how well they do at reaching people like him (appropriately titled, I Sold My Soul on eBay).

And now you have a chance to meet with Hemant in person to discuss his book and his experiences. up/rooted.west will be hosting a discussion with Hemant at the Socall home at 26w325 Torrey Pines Ct in Winfield on Monday, June 18 at 7pm. This is your chance to hear an atheist's first hand impressions of our best efforts to reach "seekers" like him. BTW, while not at all necessary, I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy of Hemant's book and reading it before the discussion. It's well worth the read.

Hope to see you there!

Technorati Tags: eBay Atheist, Hemant Mehta, atheist, up/rooted

Jubilee Grassroots Conference

2007 Grassroots Conference

Jubilee USA will hold its Second Annual Grassroots Conference and skills training on June 15 to 17 in Chicago, Illinois on the beautiful Loyola University Watertower Campus.

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman will be among the featured guests. The conference will include speakers from the Global South, skill-building sessions for grassroots economic justice activists (advocacy, media work, engaging congregations, etc.), and workshops that will deepen participants' understanding of debt and economic justice issues. And of course there will also be down time for networking and having fun with global economic justice activists from around the United States.

The cost of the conference is $35 before June 1 and $50 after June 1.

My wife Julie will be attending the conference and commuting in from Yorkville by Metra each day. If you are from out of town and would like to stay at our place and commute in with Julie, just email her at JulieClawson(at)gmail(dot)com.

For More Information Click Here.

To Register Online Click Here.

The Pulse Artist Gathering in Chicago

Larry Kamphausen from Reconcilers sent this invitation:

The Pulse Artist Gathering in Chicago

A city-wide gathering of Christians who are involved with the arts.
With Brennan Manning and Phil Keaggy.

Monday, May 21st, 7-10pm
at the Chopin Theatre
1543 W Division (1 block west of 94)
in Wicker Park
only $10

thepulsechicago@gmail.com

Hang-out, Network, Collaborate and Be Inspired!

up/rooted concert with the Psalters

You're invited to our next up/rooted.west gathering this coming Monday, May 14th at 7pm, the Socall house (26W325 Torrey Pines Ct. Winfield, IL 60190). We are again pleased to host the Psalters for a concert on their new tour with two new members joining the group.

You can find their music at http://www.psalters.com and http://www.myspace.com/psalters.

About the Psalters:
As followers of El Elyon, the Suffering Servant, we seek not to make music for music’s sake, but for God’s sake; hrough His Grace, for His Glory. We wanna be like the temple musicians who first performed the psalms over three thousand years ago. Occasionally scholars refer to these temple musicians as ‘psalters’. They were people intending to glorify God through music. They did not perform for the sake of entertainment, utility, or artistic expression. These functions, though important, were subordinate to the primary vocation of making prayers to the God of the Exodus. Prayers of lamentation over the various enslavements of this world; and prayers of praise to the God who liberates and will continue to liberate us out of our enslavement. The artistically entertaining social functions, which are usually the main goals of musicians, were merely welcome by-products of the psalter’s music. Their music was prayer and song united into one word: tehillah (translated as psalm)

We pray to be psalters rather than musicians.

Join us as we make music and dance for His Glory.

This will be our monthly up/rooted.west gathering for May. I hope you'll also join us on June 18 for a book discussion of I Sold My Soul on eBay with special guest Hemant Mehta, the author of the book and original eBay atheist! Location TBD. (BTW, I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy of the book and reading it before the discussion, but feel free to come even if you don't.)

See you soon!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator


P.S. Don't forget to register for the Midwest Emergent Gathering. You only have a few weeks left to get in at the reduced rate.

Bob Webber: Into your hands we commend his spirit

Bob Webber passed away late last week. I know many of you, like me, knew him personally, and many more knew him through his writings and tireless efforts for the church. He'll be truly missed. Dave Fitch has written a fitting post on his blog if you'd like a little more information and reflection.

Peace of Christ,
Jon Berbaum
-coordinator, up/rooted.north

Washington D.C. Events this Summer

If you're passionate about poverty and social justice issues and want to visit our nation's capital this summer, then the following events are for you:



The first is Sojourners/Call to Renewal's Pentecost 2007. For more than ten years they have been convening a major conference of church leaders, service providers, anti-poverty advocates and "emerging leaders" from across the country to mobilize the church in the fight against poverty. This year Pentecost 2007: Taking Vision to the Streets will be held from June 3 – 6 at National City Christian Church in Washington D.C.

There will be a presidential candidates forum with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton & John Edwards at the event (candidates are not doing bi-partisan events yet, so a forum with the Republican candidates will be later in the year). This year they've also added an emerging leaders track with special guest Shane Claiborne.



Then, the following week (June 9-12), also in Washington D.C., Bread for the World will be hosting their annual Gathering: Sowing Seeds - Growing a Movement. From their site:

Activists with decades of experience will join with young people just beginning their public life and political involvement. Rural leaders—newly energized with a heart to help hungry people—will meet longtime urban anti-poverty workers. Parents will bring their children to show them that anyone has the chance—and the responsibility—to speak to their representatives in Congress.

Campaign leaders from developing countries will meet with development practitioners, to share stories and successes in fighting poverty worldwide. People will reach out across the religious spectrum—evangelical and Catholic, ecumenical Protestant and historic African American denominations, Latino Christians and other people of faith—and join hands with other people of faith at the Interfaith Convocation.

Everyone has a story to offer. Visionaries, theologians, academics, church social action directors, and leaders from student, grassroots and national movements are coming together to build and to strengthen relationships, and to learn from one another.

ONE Campaign & up/rooted - update

Annie Gill-Bloyer's presentation this past Monday at up/rooted was informative and challenging. As we talked about the reality of extreme poverty and what we can do about it, I was personally struck by the simplicity of the solutions. For a relatively tiny fraction of our federal budget we can save the lives of millions. Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day, and thousands die every day from the effects of poverty, hunger and disease. And these things are entirely preventable!

One of the key points that we discussed the other night was that the solutions to extreme poverty have to include both governmental and faith-based involvement. We all expressed our desire to see the church lead the way with giving and service and compassion for the poor. However, Annie also made the point that governments are too powerful of a tool to leave out of the equation - not to mention the fact that when it comes to things like debt relief and trade justice, there are certain structural/systemic things that have to be changed on the national and international level beyond what individuals and churches are able to do. As we learned, the Millenium Development Goals, which are the United Nations' blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty by 2015, include both issues of charity and justice - i.e. addressing both structural injustices and material needs. The eight Goals are:

Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

Target 2: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education

Target 3: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Goal 4. Reduce child mortality

Target 5: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

Goal 5. Improve maternal health

Target 6: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target 7: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Target 8: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources

Target 10: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

Target 11: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development

Target 12. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction — both nationally and internationally Target 13. Address the special needs of the least developed countries Includes: tariff and quota free access for least developed countries’ exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPCs and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction Target 14. Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing States Target 15. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term. Target 16: In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth. Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries Target 18: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

To achieve these goals, every member of the United Nations (including the United States) pledged a certain portion of their national budget towards these projects. The ONE Campaign's purpose is simply to hold the United States accountable for actually doing what we said we would do, which is to devote an additional 1% of our federal budget towards these goals. (Right now less than 1/2 of one percent is given towards global poverty reduction.)

The good news is that even if you weren't at up/rooted this past Monday, you can still get involved simply by going to ONE.org and signing the petition to our government, as well as making your own personal contributions towards the goal of ending extreme poverty in our lifetimes. You can also obtain resources to inform others at your church or school about these issues at Bread for the World.

FYI

The Community Church of Wilmette
Invites You to Hear

Dr. Ghada Talhami
D.K. Pearsons Professor of Politics
Lake Forest College

“ Islamic Societies Here and Abroad:
The Challenges of Assimilation”

Please join us for an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the ancient religion of Islam and a greater appreciation for the challenges faced by the American Muslim community in coping with the pressures of a secular and multi-ethnic society and outside calls for reform. Learn what life is really like for most Muslims, particularly women, in a world dominated by religious laws and strict traditions. Grow in your awareness of the common goals we must seek together to achieve a world where all views are tolerated and respected.

Wednesday, May 16^th
7:00PM

Community Church of Wilmette
1020 Forest Avenue
Wilmette, Illinois
(847) 251-4370
www.communitychurchofwilmette.org

Midwest Emergent Gathering

Finally, an emerging church conference is coming right here to Chicago! This summer up/rooted (with the help of several other Midwestern Emergent cohorts) will be hosting the first-ever Midwest Emergent Gathering. Here's what we said about it on the website:

A church of 10,000 people that meets in a mall...
A small urban community that meets in an art gallery...
An African-American church on the south-side of Chicago...
Web communities that connect tens of thousands of people...

What do all of these have in common? They are all emerging faith communities discovering what it means to be missional in their own unique context. AND they will all be represented at the first annual Midwest Emergent Gathering, July 20-21 in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. Come learn from Tony Jones (Emergent Village), Denise Van Eck (Mars Hill Bible Church), Spencer Burke (theOoze.com), Nanette Sawyer (Wicker Park Grace), Doug Pagitt (Solomon's Porch), and Alise Barrymore & James King (The Emmaus Community) and many other missional practitioners from a wide diversity of backgrounds as we learn together about "Creating Missional Communities".

Contribute to the conversation as we discuss, network, and learn in community together via fast-paced mainstage sessions, interactive workshops, and unstructured times for dialogue with old or new friends. Whether mainline or evangelical, emerging or traditional, high church or de-churched, you will find inspiration and ideas to help you and your faith community become more effective agents for the mission of God in this hurting world.

I hope all of you with up/rooted will consider attending. Cost is only $40 before June 1st and $60 after that.

Also, if any of you would like to be involved with helping us make this conference happen, please let me know, as we'll need plenty of volunteers during the event and before.

And please help us spread the word. Email other pastors and friends who might be interested, tell people at your church, and post an announcement and banner ad at your own blog/website. (You can get the code for our banner ads by clicking here.) We also have a poster/flyer available if you'd like to put it up at your church or school. Just let me know and I'll email you a .pdf to print.

Click Here to Register for the Midwest Emergent Gathering!

Technorati Tags: Midwest Emergent Gathering, emerging church, Emergent, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Nanette Sawyer, Denise VanEck, Alise Barrymore, James King, Spencer Burke, Emergent Village, Solomon's Porch, Wicker Park Grace, theOoze, The Emmaus Community, Mars Hill Bible Church

Don't miss the ONE Campaign & Bread for the World!

Our upcoming up/rooted gathering on Monday, April 23rd is a really big deal. So big, in fact, that we've decided to offer it as a collective gathering of all the up/rooted branches. Not north, west, or south - just up/rooted. That's how big this is.

What's so big about it? I'm glad you asked. We've invited Annie Gill-Bloyer from Bread for the World and the ONE Campaign to join us and speak to us about how we can all be involved in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. Over a billion people still live on less than a dollar a day, and millions are dying of the AIDS pandemic every year. These are issues that we can't afford to ignore as people who claim to follow the risen Christ. And you can't afford to miss this presentation if you want to learn more about the issues and more specifically about how to get involved.

In an effort to make this gathering as accessible to as many as possible, we've gotten permission to meet at Northern Seminary on Butterfield Rd. in Lombard, conveniently located off of I-88 & I-355. The presentation will be in the chapel at Kern Hall at 7pm.

Even if you rarely make it out to up/rooted gatherings, I hope you make it to this one. See you there!

Mark Van Steenwyk at up/rooted.north

Don’t miss a chance to be with Mark at Life on the Vine, Friday, April 20^th at 7pm. Mark is a part of Missio Dei, a missional, neo-monastic community on the West Bank of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. You can read about Missio Dei, their rule of faith, and their gatherings here. To quote them, “Missio Dei is committed to following Jesus' way of peace, simplicity, prayer, and radical hospitality.”

(this man must be taken seriously!!!)

Mark is also a consistent blogger at jesusmanifesto.com. I encourage you to check out a bit what he has to say.

Mark will be speaking on the Jesus Manifesto (and Manifesting Jesus), concerning how the church lives a missional, incarnate, and political (in the broader sense) community of Christ. So if you are interested in the life of the church as a missional, incarnational, and political community (is anyone not?), come and join us. Bring your experience, your critical ideas, and your idealistic hopes. It should be a fantastic time together!

Jon Berbaum
-coordinator, up/rooted.north

(Also, don’t forget the joint up/rooted on April 23^rd. It’s a full week for us!)

Re-Enchantment - Art & Religion Discussion

Caleb Spencer, a classmate of mine from Wheaton College and occasional attender of up/rooted, works for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and passed along to me information about a really interesting event going on next week. He says:

There is an upcoming event at SAIC called Re-Enchantment that is all about the relationship between contemporary art and religious conviction. Some of the people in Uprooted might be interested in checking it out. There are two major events, a talk by the art historian and theorist David Elkins on Monday, April 16 (he wrote a great book called On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art), and then there is also a roundtable on the 17th from 10:00am-4:00pm with a panel of artists and guests talking about this topic. Anyway, just another possibility for those who are interested.

up/rooted.north recap

A really diverse group gathered Wednesday evening to reflect on Brian McLaren’s lectures. The breadth of viewpoints and backgrounds made for a great conversation. Thanks to everyone who came out.

Dave Fitch spent some time re-presenting a piece of Brian McLaren’s lecture from earlier in the day that dealt with possible responses of the church to globalized capitalism. Dave outlined how historically the church has existed through several shifts in the world: (I wish I had a cool diagram like Mike, but you'll just have to imagine).

1. In Medieval times, the church was the main power in the world, and states functioned within the realm of the church’s existence and power.
2. In Modern times, the nation/state was the main power in the world, and the church functioned within the realm of the state’s power.
3. In Postmodern times, the Theocapitalist Empire (McLaren’s term) is the main power in the world, and both the state and the church function within the realm of its power.

The Theocapitalist Empire represents, of course, multinational corporations who intentionally shape culture (particularly youth culture) and spend massive amounts of money and energy in politics. But it also represents the larger (and smaller) systems and subsystems of global capitalism that influence the world profoundly in terms of lifestyles, values, personal aspirations, family systems, international politics, and the list goes on and on.

The three negative responses of the church in such a setting according to McLaren are:

1. Dominance-Empire: The church seeks to influence those in power or gain power. Think Dobson or Falwell in relation to the nation state, and all the corporate mimicking and emphasis on successful CEOs, efficiency, and size in relation to the Theocapitalist Empire.
2. Revenge-Victimhood: Think terrorism. Shooting abortion doctors. You get the point.
3. Isolation-Abandonment: The church isolates itself, abandoning the larger culture. (Isn’t it helpful to use all the same words in the definition? I thought that one seemed pretty self-explanatory.)

Our discussion tried to address our “Now what?” response to these ideas. We shared our impressions of our own churches, and discussed what a fourth, “Kingdom” alternative would look like in our own settings, living between dominance and isolation in the subverting way of life shown to us and enabled in us by Jesus. Through a lot of great conversation, I came away very aware of how much thoughtful and critical reflection is necessary to identify and address the shaping forces we find ourselves living within.

So I pass on the conversation to the rest of you. What negative response does your own church lean toward or struggle with? How can we resist the shaping forces of global capitalism in our own lives and the lives of those in our churches without seeking dominance, revenge or isolation? Perhaps as an entryway into that huge question, what do you identify as the shaping forces of capitalism in your life and the life of your church?

Because knowing is half the battle! (G.I. J-nevermind.)

Blessings!

Jon Berbaum
-up/rooted.north coordinator

up/rooted.west recap

We had a great discussion last night at up/rooted.west as we discussed the three major streams of the emerging church, as well as many other streams that are feeding in to the conversation. About 14 of our gathered at Giordanos in Glen Ellyn and feasted on deep dish pizza as we talked about worship, ministry and theology (among other things).

I spent much of the time explaining my model for understanding the emerging church movement (which I describe in more detail here). Essentially I describe three streams (borrowed, in part, from Ed Stetzer): the Relevants, the Reconstructionists, and the Re-Envisionists.



Relevants are primarily concerned with how we can make the church and the gospel more relevant to a postmodern culture. The focus is often on worship styles and interacting with pop culture. Key influencers have been people like Dan Kimball and Bob Webber - and they have helped lead emerging churches in to being very experimental, creative, artistic, and willing to reclaim ancient and liturgical worship practices as well.

Reconstructionists are more concerned with how to do church as a whole, not just the worship service. They are questioning the traditional methods and structures of institutional Christianity. Some, like Eddie Gibbs, seem more interested in reforming the current system; while others like Doug Pagitt are reinventing a whole new system. And on the far edge there are a lot of anti-institutional folks like Spencer Burke who want to disconnect from the system altogether. Watchwords of this stream are "organic", "authentic", "incarnational", and "holistic".

Re-Envisionists, in contrast to the previous two streams, aren't just interested in rethinking the methods, they want to rethink the message as well. This stream is focused on theological dialogue, and many are rediscovering a fuller gospel of the Kingdom of God. Missional church theology underlies much of this re-thinking, as does a generously orthodox approach that seeks to appreciate the diversity between different traditions of the Christian faith. Much of the theology of this stream has been pioneered by people like Lesslie Newbign and NT Wright, and has been popularized by Brian McLaren.

As I outlined these three basic streams, I was careful to point out that emerging people exist in some, and sometimes all of these streams, but there is no litmus test for how emerging one has to be to be included in the conversation - because it is, at heart, a conversation.

As we talked, many people in the group raised excellent questions: Do emerging Christians care about evangelism? (yes, but not in the way it's typically been practiced over the past half-century) What about the global church? (see Amahoro.info) What about ethnic diversity? (It's as much of a challenge for the emerging church as any other part of Christianity these days) Is the goal to reform existing churches or to start new emerging churches? (yes... both/and) What about women in the emerging church? (see EmergingWomen.us) Etc... We probably could have kept talking for a lot longer (and some did), but we cut off the conversation at 9pm so that people from further away could get home (we had visitors from as far away as Rockford and Homewood - near the Indiana border - in the other direction!) Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion!

Next month's up/rooted gathering will be a joint one (west-north-south) at Northern Seminary in Lombard on Monday, April 23 at 7pm. We will be hearing from Annie Gill-Bloyer from the ONE Campaign and Bread for the World. She'll be teaching us about global poverty and what we can do about it. This will be a very important gathering and I hope you will all plan to attend! We want to make a big deal about this one, and we could really use your help getting the word out, so please tell people at your churches, in your neighborhoods, at work, etc. Anyone is welcome... you don't have to be especially "emergent" to care about ending poverty. In a few weeks I'll send out a .pdf poster that you can put up at your local coffee shop too.

Thanks, see you then!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator


P.S. Don't forget that up/rooted.north is meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 7pm at Northern Seminary to recap and discuss Brian McLaren's lectures there from earlier in the day.

Human Trafficking & Chicago Green Festival

March 28 – Wednesday 12:30pm
“Human Trafficking and Forced Labor: Achievements and Challenges”

with Ms. A. Yasmine Rassam, vice president of foreign policy and international women's issues for the Independent Women's Forum. An attorney by training, Rassam concentrates on international and human rights law and foreign policy matters. In 2002, Rassam served as the director of the Human Rights Clinic in Tashkent, Uzbekistan for the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative.

In 2004, as Director of Women’s Programs for the American Bar Association’s Iraq Initiative, she established the ABA office in Amman, Jordan and held several conferences on the status of women’s rights in Iraq for Iraqi NGOs, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and key members of the Iraqi government.

Most recently she co-authored a comprehensive study on the Status of Women’s Rights in Iraq for the American Bar Association’s Iraq Legal Development Project.

International Human Rights Law Institute
DePaul University College of Law, room 805
25 E. Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60604

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chicago "Green Festival" - April 21 and 22
(from $ 5 to $ 10 admission each day)

Take in more than 300 exhibits in the nation’s largest eco-mall:
* Hear great, live local music.

See more than 150 dynamic speakers on 5 stages:
• Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
• Greg Palast, Armed Madhouse
• Paul Stamets, Fungi Perfecti
• Frances Moore Lappé, Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
• Richard M. Daley, Chicago Mayor (Invited)
• Judy Wicks, White Dog Enterprises, Inc.
• David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
• Omar Freilla, Director of Green Worker Cooperatives

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren Winner speaking in Chicago

Author Lauren Winner will be the speaker for North Park Theological Seminary's David Nyvall Lectures to be held April 26. The lectures will be given at 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. in Isaacson Chapel, and are free and open to the public.

Winner is the author of three acclaimed books, Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and, most recently, Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity. She spoke at the Evangelical Covenant Church's Midwinter Pastors Conference in February.

The former book editor for Beliefnet, she has appeared on PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and Christianity Today. Her essays have been included in The Best Christian Writing for 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Lauren Winner has degrees from Columbia and Cambridge universities and is currently at work on her doctorate on the history of American religion. She lives in Durham, N.C. with her husband, Griff Gatewood.

The David Nyvall Lectures were inaugurated at North Park Theological Seminary in 1951 in memory of the pioneer Swedish American educator who served the school both as teacher and president. The purpose of this lecture series, held each spring, is to stimulate interest in the interpretation of the Christian message for the contemporary world.

N.T. Wright speaking at Mundelein Seminary

Hey up/rooted folks! If you're free this Friday N.T. Wright will be speaking on Sacramental Theology in Mundelein. The lectures are during the day: “Biblical Foundations for Sacramental Theology” at 10:15am and “Sacraments of the New Creation” at 1:15pm. The lectures are free, but registration is required.

Directions and such are all in the link. Blessings!

Jon Berbaum
-coordinator, up/rooted.north

up/rooted.west: What is the Emerging Church?

Don't forget, our next up/rooted.west gathering will be Monday, March 26 at 7pm at the Giordanos Pizza on Roosevelt Rd in Glen Ellyn. We will be discussing the question "What is the Emerging Church?" with a particular focus on the EC as a convergence of many different contemporary streams of faith. This will be a good conversation both for those who are new to the conversation and would like a clearer picture of what it's all about, as well as for those who have been around for a while now, but who would enjoy a chance to get "back to basics" and talk about what is really at the core of this movement - to remind ourselves why this is important and why we're a part of it. Maybe you'll even gain some fresh insights into the EC too!

If you'd like to read ahead, we'll be using my two recent articles as the catalyst for our discussion:

What is the Emerging Church?
The Converging Church

Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

-Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

(BTW, bring some money for pizza if you'd like to share a meal as we discuss.)

Up.rooted/north meets "with" Brian McLaren

Up/rooted.north is meeting on Wednesday, March 28^th at 7pm at Northern Seminary, which is, ironically, south. We will be gathering around the thoughts of Brian McLaren who is unable to be with us that evening.

But never fear! Earlier in the day McLaren is presenting at Northern’s Brady Lecture series. His topics are "Ancient Paths: How do we intergrate historic continuity with contemporary reality?" and "Contemporary Crises: How do we bring the ancient gospel to bear on today's global crises?" If you’d like to hear McLaren, go here to register. Deadline is March 23^rd. Northern students go for free; all seminary/college students can go for $25. If you're interested, get in touch with Dave Fitch or me (jberbaum@hotmail.com).

If you’d prefer something in the evening and something free, up/rooted.north is gathering for a summary of and response to McLaren’s lectures by Dave Fitch (pastor, professor, and author). We’ll use McLaren’s lectures and Dave’s presentation as a starting point for what is sure to be a lively and provocative discussion on the ancient/future and modern/postmodern tensions in the contemporary North American incarnation of the gospel.

Directions to Northern are here. Once you turn in to the campus, follow the road as it bends around to the right. You should end up in front of Kern Hall. Head upstairs and you’ll find us.

If you live in the north suburbs and you’d like to carpool to Northern, meet at Life on the Vine Church by 6:20pm. Those of you who live in the west and south, we’d love to have you join us. See you there.

Jon Berbaum

-coordinator, up/rooted.north

Where is the intersection of Urban and Emergent?

Yesterday I had an excellent conversation with Chris Brooks at the Caribou Coffee in Wheaton. Chris is the Pastor of Family Life at River City Community Church, an urban multi-ethnic faith community in inner-city Chicago.

He came to me with a difficult question: where is the intersection of the urban church and the emerging church? Do the two worlds intersect, and if so, why is it so hard to find much evidence of this intermingling on either side?

I suspect there are many answers. In large part it's probably because the emerging church conversation is so decentralized and amorphous. It only consists of what the participants bring to it, and thus far, not many of the participants have been from an indigenously urban context. (Though I suspect this needs some definition. For instance, both Wicker Park Grace and Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler are indigenously urban emerging churches, and yet I'm not sure they're quite what Chris had in mind.) At any rate, this is a gap in the emerging church conversation that sorely needs to be filled, and I wonder if up/rooted can play some role in filling it.

So I'm throwing this out there for conversation, and I really want to encourage the readers of this blog to participate:

Have you seen intersections of the urban church with the emerging church? If so, where? What do they already share in common? How can each enrich the other? And what needs to be done to continue merging the two?

Worship With Imagination…and Sitar

Make sure to mark your calendars, because on Sunday evening, April 1 at 7:00pm, as a preview of their Re-Imagine Worship roll-out, Redeemer Church will be welcoming the musical group Aradhna. Aradhna means “worship” in the Hindi language, and the music we’ll be hearing consists primarily of bhajans (traditional devotional songs) addressed to Jesus.

Led by Chris Hale, an extraordinary musician who was raised by missionary parents in India and Nepal, Aradhna uses a sitar, guitar, and tabla (small Indian drum) to create an evocative and worshipful atmosphere. You can hear a sample of their music by going online at aradhnamusic.com

Part concert, part multi-sensory worship experience, part sneak preview of Redeemer's new Sunday evening “emerging” worship gathering – this promises to be a very special evening. There is no admission charge, but a free will offering will be taken. Redeemer Lutheran Church is located at 1016 Gillick St., Park Ridge. For details and directions, call 847-823-3634 or visit them online at redeemer-changinglives.com.

Updates!

Hey up/rooted!

We had a great time hanging out with Doug Pagitt last Tuesday evening at up/rooted.north. Thanks to all of you who attended and contributed to the discussion!

Doug began by leading us in a Body Prayer dealing with the idea of "re-creation", and then guided us into a discussion about "a bright, hopeful, optimistic vision for Christianity in our time." The central idea we explored is that there is no better time or place for full on Christian practice than right here and now - that the Kingdom of God is now!

BTW, Doug recorded the conversation and put it up on his podcast site. You can find and download it here.

For those of you interested, our next up/rooted.west gathering will be Monday, March 26 at 7pm at the Giordanos Pizza on Roosevelt Rd in Glen Ellyn. We will be discussing the question "What is the Emerging Church?" with a particular focus on the EC as a convergence of many different contemporary streams of faith. If you'd like to read ahead, we'll be using my two recent articles as the catalyst for our discussion:

What is the Emerging Church?
The Converging Church

Hope to see you there! (BTW, bring some money for pizza if you'd like to share a meal as we discuss.)

Blessings,

-Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

Technorati Tags:

Doug Pagitt returns to up/rooted!

Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch and author of Church Re-Imagined, will be visiting us again at up/rooted on Tuesday, February 27th. up/rooted.north will be hosting him this time at Life on the Vine in Long Grove at 7pm.

You may remember that Doug was with us this past September at our up/rooted.west location in Winfield. We had a great conversation and we look forward to chatting with him further. I hope you can all make it.

BTW, due to a scheduling conflict Brian McLaren will unfortunately not be visiting up/rooted in March. However, he will be speaking at the Brady Lectures at Northern Seminary on March 28. Cost for the lectures is $60. Click here for details.

up/rooted.south

We had a great time at the inaugural meeting of up/rooted.south last night. Eight of us gathered for good pizza and good conversation in downtown Mokena. Pictured below are the guys that were there. Two other young ladies from Trinity Christian College had to leave before we got around to taking pictures.



I'm excited to see how this new up/rooted branch will develop. John Morlan, the coordinator should be posting a summary of the night soon, and letting you all know when the next .south gathering will be.

Kendall Environmental Coalition

My church, Via Christus, has recently gotten involved with a local Environmental Coalition in Kendall County. This really fits with our desire to be missionally involved in our community, and especially related to issues of social justice like caring for God's creation. We've taken an active role and we're helping to plan several events coming up over the next two months. In particular, our church is the spearhead for the Faith & Our Environment Forum on March 5. It's a follow up to the Faith & Immigration Forum we did back in October. We hope to do a number of similar "Faith & Politics" discussions over the next few years together in partnership with other area churches.

Below are all the Coalition events going on in the next few months. If any of this sounds interesting and Yorkville isn't too far to drive, you should come on out!

February 18, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth

Watch the movie that has sparked an important discussion about Global Warming and the future of humankind. Time: 6:30 p.m. Yorkville Congregational Church 409 Center Parkway Yorkville, IL 60560 Contact: 553.5073 / 553.5188

March 5, 2007
Faith & Our Environment

Local pastors, scientists & activists share a discussion about caring for God's creation. 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Yorkville Congregational Church 409 Center PKWY Yorkville, IL 60560 Contact: Mike Clawson 630.742.4062

March 24, 2007
Environmental Fair

- Building awareness of local recycling programs - Teaching energy efficiency - Exploring new technology - Local recycling programs and you - Cars and fuel for the future - Children and families: tour the nature museum - Electronics recycling drop-off 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Old Kendall Courthouse 110 W. Madison St. Yorkville, IL 60560 Contact: Danielle 630.553.4111

Technorati Tags: Kendall Environmental Coalition, faith and environment, Inconvenient Truth

A few new blogs

I've come across a few cool new blogs lately. The first (thanks to Tripp Hudgins for the link) is presbymergent, a blog for those involved in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Emergent conversation.

The second is Theolog, the official blog of The Christian Century magazine. Thanks to Jason Byassee, an editor at The Christian Century, for the heads up on that one.

up/rooted.west update

Hey up/rooted friends!

Last week up/rooted.west gathered in Winfield to watch the 30 Days episode "Muslims & America" and discuss the issues with the help of Pastor Fred Nelson from Redeemer Lutheran. The show was provocative, and the conversation was wide-ranging. Fred pointed out that there are big difference between Muslims living in Western countries and Muslims in Islamic countries. We discussed some of the differences of belief between Christians & Muslims, including the big question of whether or not we worship the same God (interestingly, we learned that Muslims don't believe we can know God's character at all, only his will as expressed in the Koran - so it's difficult so say whether Allah and Yahweh share similar characteristics ). From there the conversation ranged into how to reach out to Muslims and whether a Muslim-Christian convert could continue to pray at the mosque while directing their prayers to Jesus instead. While we didn't settle on any definite answers to these questions, I think we all learned something new.

We have a lot of exciting up/rooted gatherings coming up. Don't forget about the innaugural meetings this week of up/rooted.north (Wednesday, Jan 31, 7pm at Life on the Vine in Long Grove) and up/rooted.south (Thursday, February 1, 6:30pm at Aurelios in Mokena).

We'll also be having a special joint gathering in February with Doug Pagitt (pastor of Solomon's Porch, founder of Emergent Village, and author of Church Re-Imagined), who was with us back in September as well. This time we'll host him in the north suburbs at Life on the Vine on Tuesday, February 27, at 7pm.

Also, towards the end of March up/rooted.west will likely be hosting another gathering with Brian McLaren out at Northern Seminary. We're still finalizing the details on that, so stay tuned.

And we've been talking with a representative with Bread for the World and the ONE Campaign about speaking with us sometime in the next few months as well. She'll be able to share with us more about the Millennium Development Goals and give us practical action steps that we can take if we're concerned about those kinds of justice issues. We're still working on finalizing the dates and location for that event as well.

Oh, and ladies, don't forget to register for the Emerging Women Midwest Gathering coming up March 16-18 out at the Stronghold Conference Center in Oregon, IL (only about 2 hours west of Chicago). This will be a great experience that you won't want to miss.

So yeah, it's going to be a great couple of months. Hope you all can make it out for at least a few of these events. See you there!

Blessings,


-Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

up/rooted.south - Inaugural Meeting!

A discussion of the Church in the south suburbs

Thursday, February 1, 2007
6:30pm
Aurelios Pizza
19836 Wolf Rd
Mokena, IL

4 years ago, a discussion began in the northwest suburbs of Chicago about the Church and how we should interact with the culture and world around us. Since that time, up/rooted has spawned another group in the west suburbs and is now spreading to the south/southwest suburbs. We are open to anyone, regardless of church affiliation or theological views. Our first gathering will be at 6:30pm at the Aurelios in downtown Mokena.

Contact Matt Cavanaugh (mattthetroll@hotmail.com) with any questions. Also, please RSVP if you can so we can make sure Aurelios has enough room for everyone to sit comfortably.

Need Help with Brian McLaren Conference

Thanks to all of you who sent me suggestions for our Emergent Midwest Gathering this coming summer. Now I need help planning another conference. Brian McLaren contacted me to see if we might be able to find a venue for his "Everything Must Change" conference that will be coming to Chicago sometime between January-May of 2008. The conference would be a Friday evening to Saturday afternoon (so not very long), and they need an auditorium that will hold 500-1000 people. They will also need additional break-out rooms and food service for a meal or two. Brian is asking that the host institution sponsor the event, which means they would offer their facility and help for free. Also, needless to say, whoever hosts will need to be okay with being associated with Brian McLaren (keeping in mind that they could potentially take a lot of flak for doing so).

Do any of you have ideas or suggestions for a venue that can accomodate that many people? Any schools or churches large enough that wouldn't mind associating with Brian? What about you folks from Christ Church of Oakbrook? I think you have the space, right? Is this something your leadership would welcome? Anyone from Willow know whether they'd be willing to host someone like Brian? How about those of you from various academic institutions? I know Northern isn't large enough. What about Judson? Or Garrett? Or North Park? (I'm assuming that Wheaton and Trinity aren't Emergent-friendly enough to foot the bill for something like this... but I could be wrong.)

Are any others of you from large churches that might be open to this?

Help me brainstorm and let me know if you have any options I can look into.

Thanks,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

Ray Aldred comes to up/rooted

up/rooted.north starts up again!

Up/rooted is branching out to an old location in the Northwest suburbs. (If you remember back that far, cause I sure don’t.) We will be having quarterly meetings with emerging-style theologians, and monthly regular gatherings in-between. Expect reflective, theological conversations engaging our post-Christian culture.

I’d like to extend a special invitation to all of you in the northern parts of Chicagoland who find the drive down to up/rooted.west daunting, but everyone is welcome and encouraged to come.

Our first gathering will be on Wednesday, January 31^st at 7pm at Life on the Vine Church in Long Grove. We will be joined by Ray Aldred, speaking on Christ and Culture, and what the Native American Theologies teach us about community, justice and living for peace in the world. Ray is the founder of My People International, a cross-cultural ministry to Native North-Americans. If you’d like to get a handle on Ray’s thought, check out the transcript of his keynote speech at the Urbana ’03 Mission Convention. I think you’ll find his stuff thought provoking.

Hope to see you on the north side!

-Jon Berbaum

This past Saturday I had the privilege of being interviewed on a community radio program in the Nashville area called "Brightly Speaking". "Bright" is a new euphemism that some atheists are trying to appropriate for themselves, and "Brightly Speaking" is a radio talk-show done by an atheist friend, Wendell, that I met this past year through the Off the Map message boards.

You can read more about my experience here, or download the podcast of the interview by clicking here.

Technorati Tags: atheism, Brights, Brightly Speaking

Emerging Women Midwest Gathering

Emerging Women Midwest Gathering
Beyond the Castle Walls—Re-Imagining the Kingdom
March 16-18, 2007
Stronghold Conference Center
Oregon, IL



Emerging Women are gathering again this March in a castle retreat center outside of Chicago to “Re-imagine the Kingdom.” This gathering is open to women of all ages and cultures, ministers and lay-persons, from all denominations, and at all points on their journeys of faith. You are invited to a weekend of reflection and worship, theology and praxis, teaching and learning, and (of course) friendship, food, and fun.

We will explore the stories of women who re-imagined the kingdom by challenging the dominant assumptions of their cultures in order to serve God. We will re-imagine our worship as we explore our spiritual voices and how we connect with God. We will examine how the church is being re-imagined in our emerging, postmodern world. Our time there together will refresh us and give us a vision (a new imagining) for our spiritual lives as we serve in God’s Kingdom.

We invite you to add your voice to the conversation. We expect to learn from and encourage each other – through our stories, our knowledge, our questions, and our passions. This is a gathering of community and its outcomes will rest on what the community has brought to it.

The Emerging Women Midwest Gathering will be held March 16-18 (Friday evening til noon Sunday) at the Stronghold Conference Center in Oregon, IL. Oregon is in NW Illinois, about two hours from Chicago. Limited airport runs from the Chicago area airports (Rockford, O’Hare, and Midway) will be provided. We will be staying in dormitory-style housing in a modern-day castle. The cost for the gathering is $140, which includes the registration costs, 2 nights lodging, 4 meals, and snacks. There are a very limited number of private rooms and family accommodations available (at extra cost), so please contact us as soon as possible if you require either. Some scholarships and student rates are also available.

To register click here.

Get the word out, tell your friends, help us let others know about this gathering. If you would like to be sent a file of the event brochure to print out for your church, cohort, school, or friends please let us know.

We hope to see you at the Castle!

For more information contact –
Julie Clawson –
630.742.7443
emergingwomen@gmail.com

Sarah Notton
sarahnotton@hotmail.com

next up/rooted: Becoming Conversant w/Islam

Hope you had a happy Christmas!

I wanted to let you know that our next up/rooted gathering will be Monday, January 22 from 7-9pm at Kristine Socall's home (26w325 Torrey Pines Ct, Winfield, IL 60190) to learn about and discuss Muslim and Christian relations. We will begin by watching the "Muslims and America" episode of Morgan Spurlock's (creator of Super Size Me) TV series, 30 Days, and then discuss the issues raised by the episode with the help of Pastor Fred Nelson from Redeemer Church, who spent 15 years lecturing at churches on this very topic of Islam and Christianity.

If you want to know more about Islam, and would like to talk openly with other missional, emerging Christians about we should think about the current tension between the Muslim world and the vestiges of Western Christendom, you won't want to miss this stimulating event. Hope you can make it!

Peace,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

Bob Francis on God's Politics blog (again)

Our friend, Bob Francis, has had another chance to post an entry at Jim Wallis' "God's Politics" blog entitled "Religious Correctness on Campus" responding to Mark C. Taylor's New York Times op-ed, "The Devoted Student". Check it out!

Technorati Tags: Bob Francis, God's Politics

Another "Mary" review

My wife, Julie, has posted her own reflections of our discussion the other night about the "real Mary". Her thoughts focus mainly on how Mary is depicted in art.

A Call for Links

I'd like to update and expand our links section here at this blog. If you are connected to up/rooted in some way (i.e. you've joined us at an up/rooted gathering sometime in the past four years, or you're a regular reader and identify with the emerging church here in Chicagoland, even if you haven't made it out recently) and would like me to post a link to your blog, church, organization, etc., please let me know, either in an email to mike(dot)clawson(at)gmail(dot)com, or in the comments of this post (don't forget to include the URL of the site you want linked to).

Regarding churches, please let me know if you want it listed as an "emerging church" or just as an "other chicagoland church" (a new category I'll be adding). I'll trust your own judgment as to whether it is truly an emerging church, but if you're uncertain, a good rule of thumb might be to consider whether or not the leadership of the church would consider it a compliment to be called an emerging church. We don't want to cause any trouble by inadvertently identifying a church with a movement that they don't really support. :)

I'm hoping by including more links to what you all are involved in we will be able to expand our network of connections here in Chicagoland and provide more resources for each other to benefit from.

Thanks!

-Mike

(Finally!) my own up/rooted update

We had an excellent time this past Monday with Scot McKnight and about 25 others out at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Park Ridge. The first half-hour we spent mingling and connecting with all the new faces. Having up/rooted on a totally different side of the city brings a lot of new people out of the woodwork. Among many others, I was especially excited to connect with John Armstrong from Act 3, Nanette Sawyer from Wicker Park Grace, and Helen Mildenhall from Conversation at the Edge. I also enjoyed meeting Michelle Van Loon, an author and playwright who actually named one of her books after up/rooted!

Pastor Fred was making some excellent coffee on his church's espresso machines, and there was a full spread of Christmas cookies and other snacks provided. After we filled up our plates we migrated from the lobby to the back of the sanctuary which was set up with round coffee-shop style tables. As we were there to discuss Scot's new book, The Real Mary, we began with some opening thoughts from Scot about the book and why he wrote it. He says he consistently gets the question of why a Protestant would want to write a book about Mary. He responded by asking why evangelicals are so afraid of Mary.

Much of his comments and the subsequent Q&A revolved around the Magnificat, Mary's song recorded in Luke 1:46-55. He suggests that, in contrast to the passionless, pensive, pious, passive, ponderous... Mary that we see in Christian art and popular conception, the Magnificat actually paints for us a picture of Mary as a woman with fire in her eyes. She was a woman who longed for justice and liberation for her people, and agitated for the overthrow of the established political and religious order. Her words were revolutionary, and it is likely that she had a huge influence on Jesus and his brothers/cousins (e.g. James, John, etc.)

One of the more interesting points that came out, however, is that Mary had to undergo a transformation in her own faith in her son, and her expectations for what the Messiah was supposed to be and do. She believed that the Messiah would lead a violent overthrow of the Romans and reestablish the political kingdom of David. When Jesus started deviating from this script Mary began to fear that he had lost his mind, and even showed up with his family to "intervene" in his ministry at one point. However, as Scot reminded us, later on we see Mary at the foot of the Cross, and Acts 1 portrays Mary as part of the earliest gathering of believers at the day of Pentecost. Obviously she had to go through her own process of re-discovery in her faith. As an emerging Christian whose own faith has undergone a radical transformation in recent years, I can really identify with and take inspiration from Mary in this regard.

The conversation naturally got a little bit into the controversial aspects of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox views of Mary. I think the comments were very respectful of differences for the most part, as was Scot's own book in the chapters where he discusses these issues. We also talked about the implications of Mary's example and role in the early church for women in ministry in the evangelical church today. Helen asked the best question of the night when she wondered what would happen to women in evangelical churches who have the same fire in their eyes that Mary did. Though it of course depends on the particular church, sadly the answer often turns out to be that they are squashed, forced out, or otherwise supressed.

We also asked what benefit Mary can have for us as Protestants. What can we learn from her? How can she inspire us? Scot and others gave us some great suggestions. I would open that question up to all of you as well. What has (or could) Mary do for you? Feel free to talk about it here.

BTW, several others have written reviews of the event already as well, including:
Helen Mildenhall
John Armstrong
Scot McKnight

Check them out!

We haven't decided yet on the time, location or theme for our next up/rooted gathering in January, but I'll let you all know as soon as we figure it out.

Happy Christmas!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coodinator

Scot McKnight's review of up/rooted

And now Scot has posted his review of the evening. I'm guess I'm the only slacker left. ;)

Another review of up/rooted

John Armstrong has also blogged about our evening with Scot McKnight at his site. Check it out.

Helen's review of up/rooted with Scot McKnight

Helen Mildenhall from Off the Map's Conversations at the Edge blog has posted a great review of our up/rooted gathering with Scot McKnight this past Monday. You can read it here.

I'll be posting my own update on the event soon. Stay tuned.

Directions to Redeemer Church

I'm sure you all remember that we're meeting this Monday (December 11th) from 7-9pm at Redeemer Church in Park Ridge to talk with Scot McKnight about his book, The Real Mary. Before you come, I need to give you some important instructions on how to get to the church.

On your way to Redeemer Church, do your best to avoid the O’Hare toll plaza on I-90 East. It’s currently undergoing pretty extensive construction, and is a mess. Depending on how you're coming, Mapquest will tell you to get on I-90 East to the North Cumberland exit. DO NOT do this. It will take you at least 30 minutes to an hour just to get through the toll plaza.

Instead, if you’re heading north on I-294, take the exit to River Road. When you come off the ramp, take a left (north). Head north on River Road until you come to Devon Ave. Take a right (east), and follow Devon until you come to Cumberland Avenue. Make a left onto Cumberland (you’ll now be heading north). Go one block until you come to a Shell Station at Talcott Ave. Continue north on Cumberland, crossing Talcott Ave. Go about 7 or 8 houses, and make the first left onto Gillick Street. The street signs in Park Ridge are lousy, so pay attention! Go one block until you come to Clifton Ave. You’ll see the church. Just park on the street.

If you’re coming south on I-294, you may want to exit on Golf Road, head east on Golf, and then head south when you get to Greenwood Avenue (a Best Buy will be on your right). Follow Greenwood into Park Ridge, crossing Touhy Ave. Continue south on Greenwood until you come to Gillick and make a left (east). Go 1 1/2 blocks until you come to the church. Again, just park on the street.
Hope to see you then!

Scot McKnight interview on CBS 2 Chicago

Hey all, you can see an excellent 15-minute interview with Scot McKnight on Antonio Mora's Eye On Chicago program from CBS 2 Chicago by clicking here. The discuss both McKnight's new Mary book as well as the emerging church. Check it out!

November gathering update

Hey up/rooted friends!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this update out. The holiday kind of threw everything off for me. As you know, two weeks ago we were joined by several friend from the Psalters, as well as Melissa DeLong from Camden House in Camden, NJ to talk about intentional communities and radical discipleship.

We began by defining our terms. Jay from the Psalters taught us that radical=root, which means that radical discipleship is about reconnecting to the historic roots of the church. It is a return to an Acts 2 style church in which the disciples shared their resources and ended poverty among themselves. An intentional community is thus a community of people who choose to live according to this lifestyle of sharing. We also talked about how being a disciple means embracing discipline, and thus people who choose to live intentionally in community with one another agree to a particular discipline or rule of life that defines their community. It is a deliberate choice to live differently from the pattern of this world.

I suppose this is why intentional communities are often said to be part of a new monasticism. However, this monasticism is not about isolating from the world, but about being a transformative presence within it for justice.The goal of community, they said, was to be "a shockwave of love in the world", which is why the most successful communities have a missional edge to them.

As we opened it up for questions, most of us from up/rooted wanted to know how the values and lifestyles of these intentional communities could translate into a suburban context. Several of us felt the intense difficulty of living in this way of sharing and simplicity and community when it goes so against the grain of our affluent suburban culture. We talked about the fragmentation of community that we already experience between home and church and work and school, etc., and asked how we could begin to put those pieces together in that setting, while realizing that few of us are going to be able to recreate the kind of intentional communal setting that groups like the Psalters or Camden House have created.

Other questions had to do with how to integrate children into this radical lifestyle, the fine line between discipline and legalism, the tension between being countercultural and being culturally relevant, and also the dangers of spiritual pride or judgmentalism that might creep in to those who practice a radical discipleship. The conversation was animated and free flowing, and I think I can safely say that we all learned a lot from each other. While not all of us may be called to this style of communal radical discipleship, all of us were inspired to creatively discover how we can begin to live radically in our own ways and in our own communities.

Please remember the Psalters, Melissa, as well as Kristine Socall and others from Adventrek who are traveling in Turkey this month (until Christmas). They are working and living with Kurdish Refugees, hearing their stories and learning from their way of life. They also have some opportunities to meet and learn from local musicians and spiritual leaders, as well as visit those ancient cities we read about like Cappodoccia, Ephesus, and Istanbul.

And don't forget that we will be meeting again for up/rooted on Monday, December 11 from 7-9pm at Redeemer Church in Park Ridge (1006 Gillick St) to hear from Dr. Scot McKnight from North Park University about his new book, The Real Mary. Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator