i'm tellin' y'all it's existential sabotage!

so more than a couple of people have checked out the lounge blog here and wondered what 'existential sabotage' means ... is it a threat?  am i a threat?  or is it just a weak attempt at sounding somewhat intelligent?

yes, yes and yes.  

i don't know if i made the phrase up or if i heard it somewhere before, but it runs along the lines of the mandate that some of us feel we have to 'comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable' ... emphasis on the latter.  i believe that many of us become 'reactants' to life - rolling with what it gives us, waiting for the next situation that demands our attention or yanks us to one side.  and we stop being the 'agents' in life - making deliberate and bold choices that not only determine our life's trajectory but also create a positive ripple effect that travels beyond us.

yes, yet another feeble attempt to sound like i have more than a few working brain cells.

but i think i know what i'm talking about.

too often we trade in our destinies for monotonies.  and we end up living with a whole list of 'what could have beens'.  when i think about what the Scriptures say, i often think of Paul saying that he's learned to be content in every situation.

it wasn't that he sought contentment, but that he was able to apply the discipline of knowing contentment instead of anxiety.  still, he believed that his life could accomplish something great.  so he tried to save the world.

existential sabotage is about challenging others in their life's journey.  it's about shaking things up where they are not settling into letting time drift away.  it's about picking up the hero's torch and running hard and fast into the future.

and i can see that i'm messing people up already ...

i'm tellin' y'all it's existential sabotage!

i wish i'd written this stuff

i'm finally getting down to reading "organic community", and really digging it. joe myers is one smart writer imho. i'd love to see him speak some time.

and my good friend carey nieuwhof (whom i have had the great privilege of seeing speak on many occasions) pointed me to an article that resonates with the ethos of the voodoo lounge. check it out here.

i wish i'd written this stuff

the soul of the voodoo lounge

i thought that it might be time to start discussing what it is that fuels the soul of this venture that i've named the voodoo lounge. the whole idea of this kingdom experiment is to try to cultivate something that is responsive to God's movement and presence in the world today ... and it begins with my admission that i don't know everything. hey, some days i wonder if i know anything at all ... but i am confident that if the voodoo lounge is an 'open source' initiative - that it is attentive to voice of Jesus speaking through the voices of others who are also desperately seeking after Him - that it will take on the kind of shape that will profoundly impact our community.

let's give credit where credit is due ... my taking-off point is the work of my friends at the mosaic alliance. i've had the privilege of conversing with them on a number of occasions and in a variety of settings. their approach to the Jesus-following community has resonated with me at the deepest levels - those places where you don't 'process' but where you 'feel' and 'just know'. but don't get me wrong ... believe you me, they're as smart as anything.

they describe 5 core values, and i want to share my thoughts on them one-by-one. each one is described in elemental terms, and the first platform is "wind" - mission is why the Church exists. for a while now, i've held to the belief that the Church is not an institution but a movement. easy for me to say, I know. what it means is that what holds it together and what propels is a commitment to follow ing Jesus.

following ... a verb.

it's as we focus on where Jesus is going, whom He is healing, where He is teaching, what He is resurrecting that we are His people. Jesus started this whole deal by calling people to follow Him. to tag along for the ride. to press forward together.

moving on mission is how the Kingdom of God takes shape in the world today. and i believe that that is what Jesus came proclaiming - the realities of God's presence in the here and now. if the church simply becomes an enclave for religious observers, it runs the very real risk of becoming an impotent assembly.

Jesus was all about power and transformation, not impotence. and i'm not sure that He cared much for assemblies ... but He sure did have a lot of people mobbing Him - as He went.

if the voodoo lounge is at all going to be connected with the Church, it will be a place of intersection for heroes and revolutionaries. people who believe that the world has a future, and that God is desiring to map that future with us. we will gather, but only because in gathering we will find the common strength and desire to catapult each other out.

my hope is that even people who never step foot into the voodoo lounge will know the life-changing impact of those who have been sent out from it.

the soul of the voodoo lounge