Tag Archives: Vineyard Boise

Some Of My Favorite Blog Sites…

A site I have been following recently asked for blog suggestions as they were looking for some new sites to follow. In thinking about that, I decided to list out some of my favorite blog sites for your reading pleasure. Note however that this is a very small list as I have over 80 sites on my RSS feed… yeah, I’m strange that way!  😛

Vineyard Related:

  • Jason Clark – Jason is a Vineyard church planter in SW London, UK, as well as a teacher at George Fox Seminary and a PhD student in theology at Kings College London. He has some great thoughts and conversations on the church, culture, mission, and theology in general.
  • WordHavering – Written by Mike Freeman, a Vineyard Boise (Idaho) pastor, this blog full of amazing “musings/haverings on God, theology, the Bible and the occasional movie.” While it may sound cliche, I would have to say that Mike’s style of write is refreshing and warm to the eyes.
  • As I See It… – Marty Boller is the pastor of the Cedar Rapids, IA, Vineyard church and has been exploring ways to move from focusing on size of a church building, money in the bank account and/or the number of folks attending to really, truly following Jesus and being missional to our communities
  • Peace Catalyst International – Peace Catalyst is an organization seeking to “stimulate peacemaking between individuals and between peoples.” Most of the articles are written by Rick Love, a truly peaceful and loving man, who severs as a consultant for Christian-Muslim relations in the Vineyard, USA.
  • Brambonius’ blog in English – Brambonius is a Belgium Vineyard guy who writes some eye opening posts about Jesus, Christianity and the Bible through a European worldview.
  • Carl Medearis – Carl is an international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations as well as the author of “Speaking of Jesus(one of the best books ever!). The thing I love about Carl is his passionate love for Jesus and the ability to separate the culture of “Christianity” from following the person of Jesus. Well worth the read!
  • Verse&Verse – A wonderful blog full of heart felt poems and deep views on following Jesus. It is written by Steven Hamliton who currently in the process of launching a Jesus community in urban Pittsburgh. He is also deeply involved with the Vineyard Anti-Slavery Team.
  • Captain’s Blog – Written by Chad Estes, this blog just oozes the freedom, mercy and love of Jesus to all people at all times. It is definitely a good site to have on your RSS feed.

Continue reading Some Of My Favorite Blog Sites…

Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil

Tri and Nancy Robinson (picture courtesy of trirobinson.org)

There is a lot of fear in the world today about the future. People are scared of earthquakes, super volcanoes, political shutdowns, and the apocalyptic Second Coming of Jesus.

Some of this fear is good as it prompts us to prepare both our hearts and our lives. Yet, unchecked fear is a bad thing.

It is to this unchecked fear that I would like to highlight Tri Robinson’s recent article entitled, “Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil.”

This article captured my heart on the subject of global turmoil so beautifully I had to share it with you all.  🙂

Here are the five points Tri makes:

1. Simplify your life – “Physically, emotionally and spiritually. Most of our lives have become cluttered with material things, out of control emotions and wrong choices which have not only complicated our lives but caused a form of paralyzing dysfunction.”

2. Be prepared for short term crises– “Having the experience of working in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina it became evident to me that people who took basic steps of preparedness recovered much quicker than those who became dependent on government help. Not only that, but many of those with the mindset to be prepared also became the workforce that served others in the aftermath of the crisis.”

Continue reading Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil

Seeing Kidneys; Healed Emotions

kogbooksSunday evening after church and nice nap, I wonder down the mountain to a “Kingdom Theology for Reluctant Charismatics‏” meeting at the Vineyard Boise. The meeting was for those folks who are feeling a tad apprehensive about the move of the Holy Spirit – either because of past hurts, abuses, being a afraid of the unknown, theological misunderstandings or simply because it is new.

The meeting was powerful! One of the pastors shared his testimony about the being unsure about the whole Holy Spirit deal – not because of theology (for he recognizes that God still does miracles today), but because of past abuses and hurts. Having grown up in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, I can relate to this pastor’s story as I have seen more then one person get beat up and thrown to the wolves due to their lack of ‘faith.’

This is the dark secret of the Pentecostal/Charismatic world. If God’s healing and blessings are contingent on your faith, then when you are not healed or you do not get that ‘thing’ or ‘ministry’ you prayed for – then you must not have enough faith. Therefore, you must somehow build up your faith so that God will answer you prayers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work, meaning that people are left feeling like losers and second-rate Christians.

Yes – I know that this doesn’t happen at every Pentecostal/Charismatic church in the world. I know I am making a strawman – but I am doing so on purpose because it is a large strawman build on facts that needs to be talked about and addressed.

But, alas I am allowing my fingers to go off topic – back to Sunday evening. Continue reading Seeing Kidneys; Healed Emotions

The Wind Is Blowing And The Wild Goose Is Coming

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” –John 3:8

I don’t know what is happening – but the Wind is blowing.  It feels strange to day that as I used to criticize folks who say things like that – shoot, I did it a few weeks ago… (sorry God).

Yet, something is happening. The Wild Goose (i.e. the Holy Spirit) is coming and we better be ready to let Him move.

Here’s what God’s been doing in my life:

  • 1) I’m talking about things of the Spirit on this blog. For years I have used this blog as a platform to express my thoughts about various theological issues as I read different books across the spectrum of Christianity. “Requisite Danger” was a safe place where a place to get things out of my brain; a place to  struggle and wrestle with theology. Yet, in doing so, the blog became unbalanced as I did not write about the move of God in my personal life – so the simple fact I’m writing about the move of the Spirit is huge.
  • 2) Over the last several months I have talking with Chuck at the Vineyard Meridian about the movement of the Spirit. He challenged me on some stuff – and invited me to come and hang out with him at some of the conferences/meetings hosted by his church.
  • 3) God sparked a fire at the Vineyard Boise about a month or so ago – leading to a series of guest speakers and a movement of the Spirit that I have not seen there in a long time.
  • 4) Last night during Robbie Dawkins‘ sermon at the Vineyard Boise, God showed me a series pictures from my life – pictures of when He touched me. It was an amazing journey!  I’m not quite sure the meaning of it all – but something is going on…
  • 5) Today during lunch I felt like I should go to my local coffee shop hang out even though I was pretty swamped with work. Walking into the shop, I started a conversation with the owner (who is a solid Believer) about all that God has been doing (i.e. #1-4). We talked for an hour and a half – all the while, no one came into the shop, which was highly unusual (bad for business, good for God). Several times throughout the conversation, God spoke directly to my heart through the shop owner – laying me bear and encouraging me to walk the road laid out before my feet.
  • 6) Sunday morning is coming up quickly – and I’m preaching at the Payette River Vineyard. While in and off itself, this is not a strange event, I’m a little nervous because of #1-5. Going back to work from the coffee shop today, I called Emily and asked her to rally the church’s prayer warriors. Something is in the air and I want to make sure that we don’t shutdown or pass on the blessings that God has for us. I also need a lot of prayer as I have a ton of things flowing through my mind and heart – which part(s) do I share? How much do I share? Questions and prayers…

Like the title says – the Wind is blowing and the Wild Goose is coming… Come Lord – breath on us!

Growing Legs – Bone, Blood and Flesh

leg18 days.  That is how long it has been since God grew my leg out.

Yeah, I know – I’ll wait while you read that last line again.

Finished?

Great. So how is your modernity mind working? It is freaking out with all kinds of scientific data with words like “bone”, “blood veins”, “nerves”, “flesh” and “cells”?

If you can control your skepticism a bit, I will tell you my story.

I was born on May – oh, sorry, wrong year…let me reset my time clock……..ok. I think I’m ready.

Let me see – yes, now I know. It was May 2, 2010 in the evening at the Vineyard Boise. There was a guest speaker that night (who’s name does not matter) who gave a wonderful talk about how God is a God of generations. He is the God of Abraham, Issac and Jakob – not just one generation, but multiple generations. This gives me hope as I know He will work in my generation as he has in the past.

At the end of the service, the speaker asked everyone to wait on the Lord and see what He wanted to do. After some silence – the speaker begin to call out some words the Lord gave during the quiet time. One of the words was “snapped” – the speaker thought it had to do with a bone – yet, they also recognized that it could be a mental ‘snap.’ Yes – that was a joke….. sigh Continue reading Growing Legs – Bone, Blood and Flesh

Sex Trade and Human Trafficking

Last night was powerful! A few of us gathered in our basement to watch some videos about human trafficking and the churches response.

Wow… talk about a deep evening.

The speaker was Rob Morri of Love 146 (a Christian organization working to end child sex slavery and exploitation) – and was given at the Vineyard Boise’s Re:Form conference in Sept 2008 (Em was there…but I was at a missions conference so I missed the “live” event) Frown

Back to last night..

Two couples from church joined us in this event to learn more about human trafficking – plus we had a very special guest!  This guest was a young lady who just returned from five weeks in Southeast Asia working among the prostitutes…[@more@]

Speaking of this guest… God is so good! Over the last two years, I had a deep desire to remodel the basement – sooner versus later. Now, as soon as we completed the remodel, God has been sending us young ladies to stay with us…

It’s like we have become a retreat center for those looking to get away from the busyness of life and re-center on God. Talk about a God thing! Laughing

Sigh… the videos….how can one describe the emotions and thoughts associated with such a topic?

The crazy thing is that this topic isn’t just a “topic” – it’s real life. I personally know people who have been trafficked across national borders against their will. It is a very real threat – one that is happening here in the USA.

Believers need to open their eyes and quite trying to sweep the “bad stuff” under the rug where they can pretend it’s not there. We need to turn the lifeboat around and go back to the sinking ship – go back with goal of transforming lives (spiritually, emotionally, and physically).

oh- by the way, you can buy the Re:Form videos online at VineyardMusic.com. Laughing

Sojourners: The Printed Article

A while back I mentioned that I was interviewed by Sojourners Magazine for an article about young evangelicals and politics. Today I’m proud to bring you the completed article as reported online (the printed magazine won’t be out for another few weeks).

Warning: the article is quite long as it was written for a magazine not a blog… But I’m sure you all will enjoy it. Cool

FYI – you can listen to my interview with Sojourners online here. Note that you have give them your name and email before you can listen to the interview…but it’s there. Undecided


The Meaning of 'Life'

Once thought to be in the pocket of the Religious Right, many American evangelicals today are discovering a deeper understanding of what it means to be pro-life.

by Jim Rice and Jeannie Choi

Joshua Hopping of Sweet, Idaho, helped put George W. Bush in the White House, and four years later helped keep him there. As an evangelical Christian, Hopping was part of the so-called “values voters” bloc that some pundits credit with Bush’s electoral success.[@more@]

But this year, Hopping isn’t a lock to support the Republican ticket. He says he’s open to consider which candidate best embodies his Christian values—and that very openness represents what could be one of the most significant shifts in this election season, because evangelicals, especially those under 30, are no longer a safe bet to vote for the furthest-right option on the ballot.

Why the loosening of party attachment? The questions that matter most to Hopping, 28, aren’t as narrowly defined as they used to be. He says he’ll be paying close attention to what the candidates are saying about the issues most important to him, which now include not only abortion and same-sex marriage but also the environment, poverty, and immigration—“and that’s not even counting the war in Iraq, health care, social security, and all those other things that are important,” Hopping told Sojourners. Looking at the records of the two parties on those issues, Hopping says, gave him pause about the unquestioned convictions he held in the past. “I said, ‘wait a minute,’ I want to take another look and see who’s out there, who actually cares about life beyond the womb.” Hopping says this line of thinking feels outside of his conservative comfort zone, but he cannot ignore his new convictions, particularly about the environment.

“Eight years ago, I began working in the environmental field, and it really hit me that God tells us to take care of the environment. The more I read the Bible, I see that the environment affects the poor, the young, and the old—the same people God said to go reach,” he says.

While Hopping may seem like an anomaly, recent reports show that he is not alone. “Since about 2005 we have seen a sharp decline in the number of people calling themselves Republicans,” reported Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, based on surveys released in early September. “Evangelical voters have displayed a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current state of things, including the Republican Party,” said John C. Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

And while polls showed a surge of evangelical support for the Republican ticket after the nomination of Sarah Palin, Keeter said that it was unlikely to last: “Some of what we are seeing now may be, if not ephemeral, subject to change with further events in the campaign.”

Since there has not been a correlating increase in young evangelical affiliation with the Democratic Party, some observers feel that the evangelical vote is much less predictable than in years past—and may hinge on the question of whether a narrow concept of what it means to affirm life is enough.

To get a better picture of how evangelical views are changing, Sojourners interviewed 21 people from nine cities—including Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Leawood, Kansas; Atlanta; Houston; Pittsburgh, and Boise, Idaho—representing six different ethnicities and ranging from ages 26 to 66. The conversations suggested a significant shift in evangelical viewpoint—a transformation with the potential to shake up not only political assumptions but the very face of evangelicalism in the years to come.

Upholding All Life

For most evangelicals, being “pro-life” continues to be the central factor in their political discernment. That fact has led some political observers to declare that evangelicals will once again support the Republican ticket this fall in overwhelming numbers (in 2004, George Bush won 79 percent of the 26.5 million evangelical votes, according to exit polling).

But this year, many evangelicals, especially among those born since the 1970s, are coming to understand “pro-life” in broader ways, and the impact of that new perspective remains to be seen. As Time Magazine’s Amy Sullivan put it in early September, “While Palin is inspiring rhapsodies from the lions of the Christian right, her appeal to more moderate and younger evangelicals—as well as independent swing voters—may be limited.”

For instance, a self-described anti-abortion evangelical commenting on “Jesus Creed,” a leading blog of the emergent church, wrote that policies that fight poverty, work for health-care justice, and generally improve economic conditions for poor and working-class people will likely result in the number of abortions decreasing much more than under an administration that simply declares itself opposed to Roe vs. Wade—and thus supporting the former initiatives should arguably be considered more “pro-life” than the latter.

Those efforts to address the root factors that have been shown to contribute to increased numbers of abortions—“abortion-reduction” measures—speak to the desire of many evangelicals to move from divisive rhetoric about abortion to actual results. Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resur rection outside of Kansas City, Kansas, says a key question is, “‘Are you interested in actually reducing the number of abortions even if you can’t completely sway people to your opinion?’ I think that’s where the abortion debate needs to move.”

The abortion-reduction issue became a focal point at both of the national conventions this summer, with the parties moving in opposite directions. The Democrats, pushed by evangelicals, Catholics, and others, added abortion-reduction language to their platform: “We also recognize that … health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. The Demo cratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-n
atal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.”

The Republican Party, on the other hand, took a step back from abortion-reduction language. As The Wall Street Journal put it, “For all their pro-life pieties, the Republicans at this year’s convention, while asserting their opposition to Roe, dropped platform language that invited ‘all persons of good will, whether across the political aisle or within our party, to work together to reduce the incidence of abortion.’”

Commenting on the party platforms, Cameron Strang, editor of Relevant Magazine, said that commitments to reduce the number of abortions could appeal to young evangelicals who have a more “holistic” view of the meaning of “pro-life.”

For some evangelicals, even those who consider themselves strongly pro-life, the issue of abortion doesn’t have a lot of influence on how they vote in presidential elections. For example, Bo Lim, a member of Quest Church in Seattle, said that abortion, along with several other moral concerns, “don’t rise to the top of my list of issues in regard to the election because of the limited role the president or our government can do in regard to these issues.”

Evangelicals across the country tell stories of their own transformation from a narrow concern for one or two issues to a broader understanding of the Christian call. Eugene Cho in many ways exemplifies these “new evangelicals.”

When Cho started Seattle’s Quest Church in 2001, he began with a handful of people meeting in his living room. Quest Church has grown to a congregation of more than 500 members, many of them young evangelical Christ ians.

“Personally, I don’t want to be defined by one or two issues,” Cho says. “Obviously two of the bigger issues that are highlighted by certain groups of the Christian segment are gay marriage and abortion. And while I acknowledge that they are important to me, I simply don’t elevate them over other issues. I must juxtapose them with the war in Iraq, local and global poverty, and human rights.”

That opinion is shared by Rich Nathan, pastor of Vineyard Church of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, and host of last spring’s Justice Revival, co-sponsored by Sojourners. As the pastor of one of the largest churches in the Vineyard movement, with more than 6,500 members, Nathan considers the importance of the sanctity of life and the “least of these” when thinking about the upcoming elections.

“I believe that the measure of a culture is how we treat the weakest person in the culture, the most defenseless,” Nathan says. As a result, a serious abortion-reduction plan remains one of the most important issues for Nathan as he decides whom to vote for in November. But the weakest and most defenseless people in a culture do not only include unborn children, Nathan says.

“God is always on the side of the marginalized, the people who are the weakest and poorest. That includes the unborn and their mothers, but it also includes people who lack health insurance and folks who can’t find jobs in a global economy. It includes children and women who are being trafficked into sex slavery, and it includes the people of Darfur,” Nathan told Sojourners.

This broader perspective has loosened party attachment for many evangelicals. As Marlon Hall, pastor of The Awakenings Movement, a Houston church, put it, “I’m not voting for a candidate or a party; I’m voting for principles.”

Similarly, for Teresa Norman, a member of Cho’s Seattle congregation, being pro-life is more than just a side to take in the abortion debate; rather, it is a consistent ethic with which to consider other issues.

“To be consistently pro-life would mean being pro-everyone’s-life, not just the lives of the unborn and not just those who are demographically, economically, racially, culturally, or religiously similar to us,” she says.

The Impact of the War

Support for the sanctity of life affects the views of many evangelicals on the Iraq war. That’s the case for Sokol Haxhi nasto, a member of Park Street Church, a historic evangelical church in Boston, founded in 1809, where William Lloyd Gar rison delivered his first major public address against slavery. Since 2003, Haxhinasto has been dismayed by America’s presence in Iraq.

“From the Christian point of view, the war does not send a message of loving your enemies,” Haxhinasto, a doctoral student at Harvard Medical School, told Sojourners. “The war is certainly not pro-life, and so I wonder, how can you be pro-life on abortion and then go into a war that isn’t pro-life?”

Pat McWherter, a member of Vineyard Church of Columbus and a retired Vietnam War veteran, agrees. For McWherter, his Christian convictions and his firsthand experience with war are enough for him to believe that the war in Iraq must end.

“We got into the Iraq war, right or wrong, and now we have an obligation to develop and execute a political and military endgame that will ensure that the Iraqi people have a stable and viable government to conduct their country’s affairs and provide for their sovereignty,” McWherter asserts. “Once accomplished, U.S. troops should be compelled to come home.”

Haxhinasto and McWherter are not lone voices for peace in the evangelical community. For Cho, dissatisfaction with the Iraq war grew over time. “This issue has become increasingly important over the last four years,” Cho says. “I am eager to carefully scrutinize not only the respective candidates’ views on the war, but their overall vision in engaging the larger world—both friend and foe.”

That raises an issue that many evangelicals consider equally important to a timely exit from Iraq: fostering improved relations around the world. For Dan Ra, 26, a member of The Living Room, an emergent community in Atlanta, U.S. foreign policy in recent years has altered his political perspective. “Eight years ago I was a freshman in college, and I didn’t know who to vote for,” Ra says. “Most of my Christian friends were voting for Bush and my non-Christian friends were voting for Gore, and I guessed it would have been appropriate to vote for Bush, since I had aligned with what my Christian friends believed. Since then, though, the more aware I became, the more upset I became.”

Ra says that he’s “tired” of U.S. militarism. “I am tired of an America that plays the bully,” he says. “America needs to re-establish itself as a fair country, and what we’re doing in Iraq and what we’re not doing in Sudan, and what we’re not doing even in our own country by not closing down Guantanamo Bay, is sending a message to the rest of the world that we are a bunch of militaristic cowboys.”

For Nathan, pastor of the Columbus Vineyard church, improved foreign relations is as much a concern for the church as it is a concern for the government, and he says he’s troubled by “surveys that the rest of the world hold America in almost complete disdain. We rank lower than China and Russia across the globe as threats to global peace. As a result, it’s increasingly difficult for American missionaries to gain a hearing in and around the world, particularly in Muslim countries.” Missionaries recently came to Nathan to plead with him to tell American Christians to have a more balanced perspective regarding Middle Eastern policy, and particularly to urge Americans to care about the rights of Palestinians. For too long, Nathan says, U.S. Christians have maintained a narrow view of the world. Today, their ideas of justice and mercy must expan
d beyond this continent, into the furthest reaches of the world.

“I am a citizen of the kingdom and a citizen of the world before I am a citizen of America,” he says. “As a Christian, I can’t think only in terms of narrow American self-interest. I really do need to think about what will promote the kingdom of God and God’s agenda.”

Caring for All Creation

Considering oneself a citizen of the world, as Nathan says, has compelled many evangelicals to also view the environment as an important issue for the upcoming election—an issue that has, until recently, been largely considered a “liberal” cause. For many evangelicals, caring for the creation is inextricably linked to God’s mandate to Adam and Eve in Genesis.

“Creation care has certainly grown to become an issue of greater importance for me, more so than previous elections,” says Jason Chatraw, a member of Vineyard Boise church in Boise, Idaho, “but it has for every candidate in every local, state, and national election—which I believe is a good thing and probably a result of the growing number of evangelicals involved in this movement.”

Hamilton, Church of the Resur rection pastor in Kansas, sees this election as an important opportunity to address issues of waste and consumption in the United States. “People want to think differently about the environment, and it’s a wonderful moment to retrain people’s habits,” Hamilton says.

Tri Robinson, pastor of Vineyard Boise, began to see environmental matters in a new light after an eventful conversation with his two young-adult children. “They came to me and said, as Christians, they had nobody to vote for,” Robinson remembers. “On the one hand, they would have to vote against the sanctity of life, and on the other hand, they would have to vote against caring for the environment.” This conversation launched Robinson into a deep and careful look into the scriptures, where he was surprised to find an overwhelming call from God for creation care. This led to his writing several books about the Christian call to creation care, including Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environ mental Stewardship.

Several formative trips he took to Burma from 1982 to 1985 also informed Robinson’s understanding that the issue of creation care was linked to problems of poverty and even human sex trafficking in developing nations abroad. “There wasn’t a bird chirping or one moving or living thing in that land,” Robinson says, “and I realized that a bad environment leads to polluted water, which leads to infant mortality, world hunger, illiteracy, and even human trafficking in the face of a dying economy. You can’t deal with isolated issues. All of these problems are related.”

An Interconnected World

Robinson represents many of the new evangelical voters who are coming out of their conservative traditions and challenging themselves to see the world in a different way—as a world where one issue is connected to another through a series of systems. The fragile environment contributes to a broken economic system that creates a society of haves and have-nots. The resulting injustice is what is compelling most, if not all, of these new evangelical voters to look beyond wedge issues to fight for the rights of all people.

Social justice, then, remains at the heart of the new evangelical voters’ focus in this election year, as demonstrated by Irene Yoon, a member of Quest Church in Seattle and a fervent advocate of efforts to help African peacekeepers in Darfur and to aid people in North Korea, China, sub-Saharan Africa, and elsewhere.

“We must pursue justice to the best of our ability in our day-to-day lives. As we must love our neighbors, to me, that means taking care of each other,” Yoon says. Caring for our local and global neighbors is a more vital role for government to play than policing the issues of gay marriage and abortion, she says, which are personal issues between individuals and God. “God decides in the end who is righteous and who is not.”

For Emily Brixius, a church mate of Yoon’s at Quest Church, one of the key ways to care for our neighbors is adequate health care for all. “I really view health care as a moral issue,” says Brixius, 27. “If a country is going to uphold an ethic of life, then health care has to be a part of that.” Christian Chin, another member of Quest Church, agrees that access to health care is a central moral issue for Christians. “It’s a disgrace that nearly 50 million people do not have any coverage in a nation as wealthy as ours,” Chin says. “We need universal health care now.”

Nimma Bhusri, a member of The Vineyard Church of Ohio, thinks that issues such as the global AIDS crisis, genocide in Darfur, and particularly child prostitution and human trafficking are important to consider in the upcoming elections, a realization she has come to in her own devotional life and in her career as a fashion designer.

“Living in central Ohio can become a bubble, but Darfur has been a huge issue that has been on the radar. I’ve been much more exposed to the cause, and also to the cause of human trafficking,” Bhusri says. “Therefore, I understand that even though I am a fashion designer in Ohio, I am responsible for AIDS in Africa and for caring for the global poor.”

“Social injustice is near to the heart of God,” explains Chatraw of Vineyard Boise. “It’s when as a Christian that I feed the poor, tend to the sick, and care for the orphans and widows that I fully embody the love of Christ.”

It is precisely this inclusive thinking that exemplifies the remarkable transformation that has come over a demographic whose votes in previous elections were predictably based upon two wedge issues. Many evangelicals today are no longer comfortable voting on a narrow understanding of what constitutes a “pro-life” stance.

“God is always on the side of life,” Rich Nathan insists. “Jesus said, ‘I am not only the truth, but I am the life.’ And so we always press for the preservation of life. We always press toward the inclusion of our neighbors.”

Jim Rice is editor and Jeannie Choi assistant editor of Sojourners.

I’m Being Interviewed by Sojourners Magazine!

It’s a miracle!! Someone ACTUALLY wants to hear my views!!!  I mean, come on, lets be real – most of you all read this blog out of guilt placed upon you by the editor (which is not me..really….I’m being serious here…the editor is a non-partisan, non-bias individual who’s main job is to get people to read this blog. Nothing more – well, except to apologize to those people the writer offends time to time…wait…I’m the writer and I’m offended!Surprised

Hmm – back to the main story folks…

Sojourners Magazine contact me for an interview – granted they tried to reach my pastor first…BUT he DID recommend me for the interview!! (which makes me wonder if he really knows me?)  NOdelete that remark.  Ok – truth be told, I’m in a really nutty mood and my fingers keep taking control of the keyboard. Undecided

If you are like me, the first thing you must be thinking is who in the world is “Sojourners Magazine”? and what kind of material do they publish? Well, according to my recently research, Sojourners Magazine is “a progressive Christian commentary on faith, politics and culture.”[@more@]
 
The magazine started in 1971 from a Christian commune under the name “The Post-American”. A few years later, both the magazine and commune changed it’s name to “Sojourners” as a connection back to the biblical metaphor identifying “God’s people as pilgrims-fully present in the world but committed to a different order-and reflects their broadening vision.” Anyone can get a magazine printed by using a company like Printivity. But for it to be successful for over 35 years, it’s got to be a very, very good one. Evidently this is the case with Sojourners Magazine.

As for my connection (notice that my mind has regained control?) to the magazine, they are looking to interview people with a passion for or involved with different types of social issues – and who are willing to talk about them. Maybe my pastor knew me too well after all?

In case you’re wondering, here are the interview questions I will answering this afternoon via phone:  

In the recent past, some evangelical Christians have focused primarily on two issues as singularly important in deciding how to vote in presidential elections: abortion and marriage. Recent polls indicate that many evangelicals are also concerned – and deeply involved – in other issues, including care for God’s creation, Darfur, the movement against human trafficking, poverty, and others.
 
What are the most important issues for you in the upcoming election? Are these different than the issues you might have named four or eight years ago? Why, as a Christian, do you consider each of these issues important?

Can you say: “How much trouble can Ardell get into?”  Tongue out

Brandi Swindell – Follow Up

Brandi SwindelAs report here last week, a follow Believer and friend journeyed to Asia to protest China’s human rights policies. This friend, Brandi Swindell, was arrested twice for 1) unfolding a banner in Tiananmen Square that read “Jesus Christ is King” and 2) for holding a prayer / news conference in said square. Brandi and two other teammates where held for 10 hours by the Chinese police before being returned to Los Angeles.

Mahoney (Editor: one of Brandi's teamates) said uniformed Chinese officers confiscated the banner and escorted them out of the square.

"I asked, 'Are we under arrest?"' Mahoney said. "They said, 'No.' I asked, 'Can we leave?' They said, 'No."'  (source: AP)

The full follow up story can be read here.

Boise Vineyard Highlighted on the 700 Club

A few weeks ago the 700 Club came to Boise and interviewed some of the folks at our church about our community garden, the Garden o' Feedin'. I would enbed the video, but for some reason I can’t get that part to wok.. sigh…  so you will have to follow this link to watch the clip.  Laughing

Mean while – here’s some written info on what the Garden o' Feedin' is about:

The Garden – O – Feed'in is Part of the Vineyard Boise’s benevolence ministry and is located on the north east corner of the 22 acre campus. The Garden-O-Feed'in began as the vision of Rick and Diane Roberson in 1998 with just six raised beds. Due to their hard work and the perseverance of many volunteers we are presently farming one third of an acre and this fall developed another one third acre for farming in the spring. [@more@]

The vision of the garden is to supplement, with healthy organically grown vegetables, the pantries of those in need. Two benevolent farmers markets are held each week, Wednesdays and Saturdays under the garden arbor.

In 2007 the garden produced and gave away over 20,000 lbs. of produce, feeding approximately 1281 families, representing around 4108 individuals.

Not only does the garden feed those in need, this year we've started holding classes to educate it's volunteers and the community about gardening’s value to the environment and the many different ways to enjoy meals with garden produce. Wise water usage, organic methods of soil and crop development, pest control, composting and the benefits of mulching are some of the classes planned for next season.

It took 3782 volunteer hours and 115 volunteers to make it all happen this year. But there are still plenty of opportunities available to help out and to learn and grow. For more information about the Vineyard Boise Benevolence Ministries can be found here.

Disclaimer: the above pic is not from Idaho..it's actually from Paraguay..but it seem to fit so well… Undecided