FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

Living Room Gathering - Between Death and Resurrection: Where Did Jesus Go?

Between Death & Resurrection: Where Did Jesus Go?

Faith House Living Room, April 11, 2009

Follow the program online at home or feel free to adapt it for your local community. 

Welcome & Announcements

1st Silence – 1 Minute

What does the Bible tell us? 
Ephesians 4:4-10
Mark 15: 25, 33-39
1st Speaker –  Reflections from John Snodgrass
2nd Silence – 2 Minutes

What about Christians who follow Jesus’ way and don’t believe in the resurrection?

Reading from an Ikon Service from How (Not) To Speak of God, by Peter Rollins

It has been said that on the day Christ was crucified a group of followers packed their few belongings and set off to find a new home.  They were so distraught that they could not bear to stay in the place where Jesus had been executed.  So they left, never to return, and after travelling thousands of miles, they set up an isolated village far from civilization.  Once settled, they each took an oath to protect the memory of Jesus and live by his teaching.

Then one day, after 300 years of solitude, a small band of Christian missionaries reached the isolated settlement and were amazed to find a community of people living the sacrificial way that Christ had taught, yet who possessed no knowledge of his subsequent resurrection and ascension.  Without hesitation the missionaries called the entire community together and taught them what had occurred after the crucifixion.

That evening, there was a great celebration in the camp.  Yet, as the night progressed, one of the missionaries noticed that the leader of the community was absent.  This bothered the young man and so he set out to look for the community elder, whom he eventually found in a small hut on the fringe of the village, praying and weeping. 

‘Why are you in such sorrow?’ asked the missionary in amazement.  ‘Today is a day for great celebration!’

‘A day for great celebration and great sorrow,’ replied the elder, who was all the while crouching on the floor.  ‘For over 300 years we have followed the ways taught to us by Christ.  We followed his ways faithfully, even though it cost us deeply, and we remained resolute despite the fear that death defeated him and would one day defeat us also.’

The elder slowly got to his feet and looked the missionary compassionately in the face.

‘Each day we have forsaken our very lives for him because we judge him wholly worthy of the sacrifice, wholly worthy of our being.  But now I am concerned that my children and my children’s children may follow him not because of the implicit value he has, but because of the value that he possesses for them.’

With this the elder left the hut and made his way to the celebration, leaving the missionary to his thoughts.  

2nd Speaker – Pastor Samir Selmanovic

3rd Silence – 3 minutes

God Is Not a White Man

~ by Samir Selmanovic

Here is the video that is as comforting as it is challenging. Any thoughts? Thank you Rev. Vince for sending this to us.

Becoming a Modern, Urban, Mystic

~ by Bowie Snodgrass

I bought my copy of Mark Scandrette’s Soul Graffiti: Making a Life in the Way of Jesus (Jossesy-Bass, 2007) on August 1, 2008.  That date and “Church Basement Roadshow” are scribbled on the front page of the book; underneath it says, "Finished March 2, 2009".  This is book I read slowly and savored for seven months, as I settled into a new apartment in Harlem, a new ministry with Faith House Manhattan, the arc of a historic election, and the maturation of my still-new marriage.

Mark opens up his journey to us and in doing so invites us to delve deeper into our own.  Much of the best of this book shares stories of people (and characters!) Mark has met through his life, ministry, and “experiments.”  The author’s straight-through, authentic, probing,compassionate voice was what kept me coming back.  For the forum of this blog, I’ve selected seven little segments that I underlined over the course of the last seven months to share… pebbles on the path to becoming a modern, urban, mystic.

1… there is more than a little irony in the fact that we sat passively in a regal sanctuary listening to messages based on the adventures of a homeless bearded prophet who wandered the cities and countryside caring for the poor and healing the sick and inviting people to follow his example.  How exactly were we seeking his kingdom by gathering like this?  For me these environments functioned like museums displaying spiritual realities as exotic specimens in a cabinet of curiosities… The context conveyed more about the dogmas of tradition and region than the revolutionary life of the master.  (Page 25)

2 Pilgrims always have a lot to talk about.  There are stories to tell, advice to exchange, and plans to make about the best way to reach the next vista.  Revolutions are often planned in cafes and begin with talks among friends.  Great social and spiritual movements germinate when a few isolated people find one other, share deeply, and dream out loud about a different and better future.  Through generative friendship a collective voice becomes stronger, and what was once timidly whispered in private emerges to become the topic of public discourse and reform.  Dialogue creates resonance that fosters grass-roots energy and initiative.  Conversation at its best is never just talk; it is the means by which we kindle imagination and gain the courage to take action together.  (Page 47)

3 … a quest for continuity: between what we have been taught about God and what we may have yet to learn; and between what we say we believe and how we actually live.  By examining our windows to God and by learning to embrace all of life as a gift and sacred trust, we take steps to navigate making a life in the Way of Jesus. (Page 103)

4 Jesus was a mystic in the sense that he lived in conscious awareness of the transcendent reality of God.  Everything we admire about the life of Jesus – his compassion, wise teaching, mighty acts, and sacrifice – were funded by the private disciplines of his inner life – how he learned to be tuned into the presence and power of God’s song. He demonstrated that the transforming power of God’s kingdom is accessed through receptivity, mindful surrender, study simplicity, silence, and solitude.  Through the example of his life, we are invited to follow the path of a mystic.  (Page 207)

5 My good friend Darren Prince, who is part of an urban order among the poor, is fond of saying, “The spiritual life is more about subtraction than addition. Most of us don’t need anything more added to our lives to be fulfilled. It is more likely that what we really need is to subtract from our schedules and possessions to have more space for God and people.” The quest for simplicity and contentment, rather than being legislated by rules, can be guided by a question: “How can I manage my life to be the most free to hear the voice of love?” You will find the best rhythm of simplicity through careful experimentation. (Page 215)

6 “Mark, my impression is that you are more Buddhist than Christian.” “What do you mean?”  I asked. “Well, your spirituality seems so much about awareness and practice – embracing all of life as sacred.  Those aren’t things I associate with Christianity.” (Page 237)

7 I want to experience the goodness that money cannot buy, resisting internal and external forces that pressure me toward greater security, control, and conformity.  I will remember that life is ultimately about risk and adventure and that we die a certain death when we resign ourselves to propriety and convention.  I will affirm, perhaps only in symbolic gesture, the spirit of the wandering Messiah-prophet, spreading the propaganda of hope, like soul graffiti, on the canvas of Earth and eternity.  (Page 245)

New Life

~ by Samir Selmanovic

This has been the longest winter in New York that I can remember. It is officially Spring now ... and soon we will see the blooms and blossoms. We look forward to seeing signs of life in many other ways, like being a better country, better believers, and a better humanity. New ideas, energies, and movements are still under the ground but the seeds are moist and will sprout in their time. Life always finds a way. Blessings to those of you who are Christians observing Lent and are waiting for Easter morning to break in!

Changes and new life are also underfoot in Faith House.

   1. After serving as Faith House Director I am transitioning to the role of Christian Co-Leader. This will better fit my gifts and skills, needs of my family, and my ability to work on the publication and promotion of my upcoming book this September.

   2. Bowie Snodgrass, after serving as Christian Co-Leader is now transitioning to the role of Faith House Director. She has been the heart and hands behind much of what we have done since our launch last Fall. I will assist her by working shoulder to shoulder with other co-leaders as we forge a diverse network of friends in the city.

   3. Jill Minkoff, our Jewish Co-Leader has to attend to her full time Rabbinical studies and her work at the Board of Jewish Education in New York City, so she is not staying with Faith House in this capacity. She will assist us as a supporter and advisor.

   4. We have a new face and passionate heart joining our team. Rabbi David Ingber from Romemu Congregation will serve as an acting Jewish Co-Leader. We are thrilled to sit at his feet and learn! Read his bio HERE.

   5. Rabia Gentile, a hub of kindness and calm for our team burning with the fire from above, will continue to serve as our Islamic Co-Leader.

Our seeds are in the ground. Thank you for watering us, and warming our soil by watching and praying over us.

Interreligious Prayer: Suggestions from Catholics

~ by Father Francis V. Tiso. Father Tiso is Associate Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he serves as liaison to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Sikhs, and Traditional religions as well as the Reformed confessions. A New York native, Father Tiso holds the A.B. in Medieval Studies from Cornell University.  He earned a Master of Divinity degree (cum laude) at Harvard University and holds a doctorate from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary where his specialization was Buddhist studies. He translated several early biographies of the Tibetan yogi and poet, Milarepa, for his dissertation on sanctity in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.  He has led research expeditions in South Asia, Tibet and the Far East, and his teaching interests include Christian theology, history of religions, spirituality, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Father Tiso has written and lectured widely. He is the recipient of grants from the American Academy of Religion, the American Philosophical Society, the Palmers Fund in Switzerland, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, CA.  He is a musician and paints in acrylics and watercolors.

Samir Selmanovic: When people ask me how to begin an interfaith ministry I usually direct them to their family members, neighbors and friends (where life is), and then to Interfaith Youth Core (where action is). Here is another way to begin. Where prayer is. I meet wonderful Father Tiso at our regular gatherings of National Council of Churches (Interfaith Relations Commission). Following are suggestion for churches (and other faith communities) that want to organize a meaningful interfaith prayer service.These suggestions were drafted by Father Tiso with consultation from a large number of theologians, practitioners, and diocesan officers for ecumenical and interreligious relations. They have been published in Walking Together series by USCCB.

- Interreligious ceremonies grow out of and reflect respect for all traditions present.  This respect should find expression in collaboration in the planning as well as in the actual event.  If it is not planned interreligiously, it is not a genuinely interreligious event, but a service planned by one group with others invited as guests.-We advise in any interreligious worship event that each group present clearly distinct and separate moments of prayer, meditation, or reflection.  Those preparing the event should communicate clearly the amount of time allowed for each contribution to those who are invited to lead the different parts of the service.

-We advise careful attention to those prayers that come from one tradition, but which refer in some way to other traditions, present or absent.  Only those prayers that refer to other traditions in a respectful way should be used.

-Presentations should avoid proselytizing or "advertising" one's religion to the attendees.

-Ritual gestures that are alien to the presenters and/or to the congregation should be avoided.  Whereas some groups have the practice of using silent prayer at interreligious events, long periods of silence at a large public event might evoke distraction rather than unity.   Music is an integral part of prayer for many religious communities, but not for all.  Therefore, musical contributions should be agreed upon in the planning process by all participating groups.

-Participants should be informed before they arrive about dress requirements such as head coverings, shawls, or whether they are to remove their shoes. 

-Key positive beliefs of the traditions present are allowed (Christians can mention Jesus as God, Trinity; Jews and Muslims can speak clearly but non-polemically about the unity of God, etc.) as long as others who do not so believe are not singled out for disagreement, etc.  Some prayers express particular, creedal beliefs with which some participants may not agree.  However, such prayers may also offer valuable insights into the worldviews of the various traditions present.

-In the use of symbolic objects, there needs to be sensitivity to traditions that avoid iconic forms; this is particularly true of the house of worship in which the event is held.  The house of worship does not need to change its configuration, but the groups hosted by a particular house of worship should respect the sensitivities of the host community.  The treatment, handling, and position of sacred books or scrolls are important to many religious traditions.  Care should be taken to see that scriptures are handled only by those authorized to do so. 

- A printed order of service is recommended because the content and sequence of the celebration will most likely be unfamiliar to many of the attendees.  Translations of prayers said in languages other than English should be provided.

- Attention to political repercussions, through consulting with leadership.

-There is to be respect for people who have chosen freely to convert to another religion, but there is also to be a sensitive "reserve" towards them in dialogue and public events.  Normally persons who have changed religious affiliation do not lead ecumenical or interreligious prayer events, nor do they represent their communities in dialogue with representatives of their former community of religious adherence.

-Inclusive language is acceptable only if the participating religious bodies are in agreement on this concern; no one should be required to use inclusive language in violation of religious beliefs or liturgical norms.

-If there is a reception after the event, those preparing the refreshments should assure that the dietary regulations of different communities are respected and, if necessary, that the foods be clearly labeled so that their contents are known.

-Whenever possible, the Catholic portion of an interreligious prayer event should make use of the approved liturgical resources.  Some interfaith prayers are given in the Book of Blessings, sections 570-573.  The Orders for the Blessing of Pilgrims (Book of Blessings sections 590 – 616), the Liturgy of the Hours, and the votive Masses for Peace and Justice are recommended resources. 

Living Room Gathering: LENT - 40 Days for Learning to Let Go

~ by Bowie Snodgrass

On February 26, in our regular space at Intersections, we participated in an interactive and experiential Living Room gathering, designed to introduce the Christian season of Lent to non-Christians and Christians who do not observe Lent.  Members of the community came early to help set up the space, practiced singing the hymns beforehand, read the scripture readings and litany, participated in the stations, and shared afterward. The program lasted about an hour and 20 minutes, including prelude, followed by time for socializing around food and conversation. You can follow the program below as an online Lenten mediation at home or adapt it for your local community.

Prelude Music: David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes” and J. Snodgrass “If My House Burned Down”
(or select other modern songs or music from your community with Lent-like themes)

Welcome & Family Time
(announcements, new people introduced themselves, overview of gathering, etc)

Song: “The Glory of These Forty Days” 

Mathew 3:13-17; 4:1-11 (this was read by three youth: one read words of Jesus, one read John the Baptist and the devil, and the third was narrator)

Psalm 19:7-14

Lent 101 - Bowie Shared About the Forty Days of Lent & Learning to Let Go (there is good, basic info on Wikipedia) followed by personal stories and insights from things I’ve given up in past Lents…including going Vegan in 10th grade, giving up processed sugar in 12th grade, allowing myself a final 40 days to finish “getting over” an ex-boyfriend in my mid-20s, and quitting cigarettes (with a lot of preparation, will power, and nicorette gum) the Lent before my 30th Birthday. What are we called to give up to create new space in our lives for God and Love? 

Interactive STATIONS

* LISTEN Psalmi poenitentiales: VII. Domine, Exaudi (Psalmus 142)
Composer: Orlande de Lassus, 16th Century
(or select 15+ minutes of some other meditative music to play during Stations)

* ASHES Meditate on the words “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Ask someone to mark an ash cross on your forehead or you can put ashes elsewhere on your own skin.

* LETTING GO Take a stone, imagine the pressures, cares, and worries you are carrying.  Drop the stone in the water as a way of letting go of them and offering them to God.

* OFFERING Support this Faith House community by giving a financial offering.  No amount is too small or too large.  Take a small sandalwood soap Bowie brought from India as a tangible gift back . . .  

* PROSTRATE In the designated area, prostrate in the Eastern Orthodox style.  Feel free to kneel, do salat, assume the Yoga “child’s pose,” etc. or to ask someone to show you what they are doing.

Community Sharing – reflections on what you’ve heard or done today

Litany from Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church

Jesus you fasted alone for 40 days
You pushed yourself to the limits
You faced your demons and
met  your angels
We ask you to be in our fasting
Jesus give us courage
Jesus give us courage   

Jesus you feasted with outcasts
You broke down the barriers that
divided people
by sharing food and drink
We ask you to be in our feasting
Jesus give us courage
Jesus give us courage   

Jesus you had a passion for a life of extremes, you taught us that to live we have to be prepared to die, to eat we have to be prepared to fast, to love others we have to learn to be alone.  We ask you to be in our living
Jesus give us courage
Jesus give us courage

Closing Song: “Forty Days and Forty Nights”

Answering Christian Critics of Faith House (Part 3): Great Commission or Great Invitation

~by Samir Selmanovic

A thought experiment: let’s imagine the whole world has converted to Christianity. Every group professes the Apostle’s Creed, the classic statement of Christian belief. There are no mosques, synagogues, temples, or altars of any kind—just churches. Governments are run by Christians, corporations are run by Christians, all art is Christian. Every teacher of every school is Christian, every politician of every party is a Christian, every owner of every business is a Christian, every book, every movie, every event—all Christian. A question: “How does that make you feel?”

I suspect increasing numbers of Christians feel as scared about such a possibility as everyone else would. But to be a Christian should mean to strive to make this scenario a reality. The Christians’ mandate to go to the world and convert it is based on the last words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Standing on a hill with a handful of His disciples, frightened and disoriented by the swirl of events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection, before leaving them, Jesus finished His call with the precious words of comfort, “Go and make disciples of all nations … baptizing them … and teaching them … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age” (Matthew 28:19,20). Christians have dubbed this call of Christ the Great Commission. No commandment can be more important. Why then inside many of us who love Jesus does something recoil against the fulfillment of this mandate?

The most obvious hesitance comes from history. Christians have had the chance to organize communities, nations and even empires, and have been found wanted. But there is a reason that goes deeper. The world is interdependent. A multiplicity of atoms and variety of life forms are necessary for our world to exist and function. Nobody has life independently. Without the intrinsic and intricate complexity of all life, there would be no life. Reality itself is interdependent diversity.  None of us simply “exists;” we all “exist with.” Cut off the “with,” and there would be no existence for anyone one of us.

Every once in a while I go to Christian conferences, places where Christian leaders explore, evaluate, and equip each other for “impacting the world.” These days, my friends and I leave these conferences increasingly empty. I think it is because we are living under the assumption that while the world needs Christians, Christians don’t need the world. There is no reciprocity or interdependence. We don’t expect to be impacted. The world and its religions have been left out of God’s consideration to give them any significant commission to us. 

Something feels utterly wrong with a claim that we Christians are in charge of God. When Jesus told His disciples “And surely I am with you always,” did He also mean “And surely I am not with anyone else”? Does my mother’s love for me depend on her withholding love from my siblings? Does God’s saving presence among us have to mean God’s saving absence among them? For Christianity to be true, does every other religion have to be wrong?

Christians and Christian churches are not exempt from the dynamics of all known existence that allows nothing to be—let alone thrive—in isolation. Instead of designating the call of Christ as the Great Commission that establishes us as brokers of God to the world and Christianity as a form of God-management system, perhaps we should embrace the call of Christ as the Grand Invitation. 

Christians are sent to the world with an extraordinary message: the self-giving God calls humanity to self-giving love! However, instead of having a commission to bring God to the world, we are invited to the world where God already is, expecting us to bless the world with our teaching about Christ, as well as receive the blessing from Christ that is already in that same world. Not only to go, but to welcome; not only to teach, but to learn; not only to give, but to receive; not only to change, but to be changed. In a Great Commission, the world needs us and we don’t need the world. In the Grand Invitation, we humbly embrace our creaturehood. The Great Commission demands conversion from them; the Grand Invitation demands transformation from us all.

In an interdependent world, truth cannot be captured, portioned and delivered, it must be experienced relationally. Christianity is a religion, a window into the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of God itself. Jesus has repeatedly called us to enter this kingdom and sit at the large table, as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy says, “not to preside—for there is Another who presides unseen—but as one of many guests.” God is greater than us! For me, the Good News just got better!

(adopted by the author from Signs of the Times, Australia, June 2008)

Answering Christian Critics of Faith House (Part 2): God Our Stranger

~ by Samir Selmanovic

Throughout the history of human interaction, we have been faced with the problem of the stranger. For every “us” there has to be “them.” To describe ourselves, we have to differentiate ourselves—me and you, kin and non-kin, friends and enemies, neighbors and foreigners. Without dividing the world, we would have no identity. Since the beginning of humanity, belonging to a group has been a matter of survival and, over the ages, multiple identity boundaries have been drawn—gender, tribe, race, religions, nations, possessions, political parties. The stranger is different from us.

We are engaged with strangers in inverse proportion to the distance that separates us. With globalisation, however, the distance between “us” and “them” has been rapidly vanishing. Through the media, in our workplace and in our families, the stranger has come close. Now, the other is not only “out there.” They have moved into our physical, intellectual and emotional neighborhoods. The distance that used to separate us is being abolished and our perspectives are changing.

In this new relationship, we are confronted not only with a new view of those we used to consider “outsiders” but with a new view of ourselves. They see in us what we could not recognize in ourselves and, when we let them, they tell us what we cannot tell ourselves. They have arrived into our daily lives with their beauty, wisdom, and vulnerabilities, as well as their suffering, grievances and aspirations. Like an uninvited company consultant who can see what the company cannot see, the stranger reveals. And that’s the problem of the stranger. To survive we need to protect ourselves from the stranger; to survive we need the stranger to help us see.

In the Scripture, this problem has been inversed and transformed into one of the most potent commandments for God’s people. While the Hebrew Bible commands, “you shall love your neighbor” only once, it commands no less than 36 times to “love the stranger.” For example, it demands, “When a stranger lives with you in your land, do not ill-treat him. The stranger who lives with you shall be treated like the native-born. Love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:33). In the New Testament, Jesus insists the ultimate judgment of our acts will come from the way we treat the stranger (see Matthew 25:31-46). In the Muslim world, informed by the Quranic texts, one is expected to take a stranger into one’s home and treat him with honor and care no less than three days, even when one is considered an enemy. This may seem as nothing but a simple invitation to a virtue of neighborly love, but there is far more to this insistent call of God.

Abraham, the father of three monotheistic faiths, was ordained by the priest Melchizedek, an outsider to the covenantal family. Although a stranger, he was called “the priest of the Most High.” We have no idea where and how he became a priest before Abraham was called to follow God. Later, Abraham and Sarah were visited in their tent by three strangers to whom they offered hospitality, only to discover they were God’s angels. In what is generally known as the Christmas story, “wise men” from the East who look to the stars for answers—outsiders to the race and religion of Israel—after following an unusual star to Bethlehem, visited baby Jesus to confirm the identity of Jesus as Messiah. The entire history of people who follow God has been held together by the visits, wisdom and care of strangers, people who were not “us” but “them”—the other. Why the other? Why does God insist on speaking to his followers through strangers?

Because understanding our relationship and life with the Divine Other—the Holy One who will always confound us—is inextricably intertwined with our relationship and life with the human other—humanity that also confounds us. God comes in the form of and works through a stranger because the otherness of a stranger is akin to the otherness of God. The human other is a trace of the Divine Other in whose image the stranger has been made. The challenge God poses to us is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image. The less strangers we know the more truncated out vision of God will be.

The blessings and corrections of God come to us from the outside of the boundaries we have made for our groups, through those who can tell us the truths we cannot tell ourselves.  If we could know these truths on our own, they would not be strangers. Strangers bring not only danger to us, but also advice, solutions, beauty, opening for us new vistas into understanding the humanity, the world and God. But the blessing of the stranger goes deeper. When encountering another, we also encounter ourselves in a new way. Each encounter challenges our isolated and ingrown ideas and helps us become our better selves. And this is where the grand invitation of God to humanity lies: without knowing and caring for the other, we cannot know neither God nor ourselves.

Religion has been one of the most potent identity-forming mechanisms. It has bound people together in common purpose, joy and action as well as contributed to the prejudice, exclusion and violence toward the outsider. Now when globalization has turned our societies into societies of strangers, every religion has a chance to transcend its own limitations. We live in a society where relativism—claim that no differences really matter—is too weak to stop the aberrations of religious or anti-religious fervor. Mere tolerance of the other will not do. As Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of England, points out, “Only an equal and opposite fervor can do that. Healing . . . must come, if anywhere, from the heart of the whirlwind itself.”

We are all part of a larger web of life in which “the other” is part of our own life. Those not in our image are, however, in the image of God. In the past, the whirlwind of religious passion came from our experiences of being visited, corrected, and blessed by God. Today, God has not withdrawn Himself. He is calling us to a profound experience of meeting Him in a stranger. For those open to the strangers, the whirlwind never stops.

(from Signs of the Times, Australia, adapted by the author)

The Story of "God In the Other"

~ by Sheryl Fullerton (article from www.readthespirit.com)

It seems everywhere I look these days, there is talk of interfaith this or that, for or against. The impulse either to strengthen boundaries or breach them seems intense, maybe because of the general feeling that change is in the air, that an era is ending and we need new ways forward—or, as some feel, we need to do everything in our power to resist the changes.

It’s from such times of tension and uncertainty and passionate discussion that books are born. And that is the case with a new book we’re publishing next fall by Samir Selmanovic, tentatively titled for now “God in the Other.”

I remember when I first opened up Samir’s proposal. His opening statement hit me right between the eyes: “For years I’ve been talking about three monotheistic religions to nonbelievers. And here is what I hear: ‘At best, Jews, Christians, and Muslims look like three religious stooges in a slapstick comedy. At worst, they look like three brothers with hands clasped in prayer and soaked in blood.’ We have littered history with incredible amounts of stupidity, injustice and suffering. The world has simply had it with us. They are not listening anymore… Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have painted a picture of God that is difficult to admire, much less worship….Either monotheism will die, or evolve.”

When I read that, I nodded.

To continue reading The Story of "God In the Other" click HERE.

Advent Conspiracy

Thank you Alvin for sending us this link!

Living Room Gathering - Season of Waiting: Advent

~ by Bowie Snodgrass

Yesterday we had a wonderful, meditative Living Room based on Advent, the season in the Christian calendar that precedes Christmas.  In American consumer culture, the Christmas shopping season begins after Thanksgiving (or even before!), but in the Christian calendar, Christmas begins on December 25 and the feast continues for twelve days.  The four weeks of Advent are a time of preparation, penitence, expectation, anticipation, pregnancy, darkness, quiet, silence, and listening… 

You can go through the service we did yesterday by yourself at home.  You just need a computer with internet, speakers or headphones, and a couple of candles to light.  In this modified “Lessons and Carols", you will read the first chapter of the gospel of Luke (the silence of Zacharia, the song of Mary, the birth of John the Baptist, etc.), selections from Isaiah (a prophetic vision of social justice), a psalm and the beginning of the gospel of Mark.  Interspersed are verses of O Come O Come Emmanuel, which you can sing aloud or read along, and “anthems” you can watch or simply listen to on YouTube. 

Enjoy!

Instrumental Prelude: Isaac Everett
[at home: listen to “Incarnation” at www.isaaceverett.com/listen]

Welcome  [at home: think about what this time before Christmas means to you]

“O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Luke 1:1-25

Isaiah 11:1-10
* Note: we used the JPS translations for the Hebrew Scripture readings in the service, but this translation is not available online

Young@Heart Sing Coldplay

Answering Christian Critics of Faith House (Part 1): Cherishing the Gold of the Golden Rule

~ by Samir Selmanovic

We have come to a time in history when religion is involved in more killing than any time since the Crusades. According to the United States’ State Department, more than 70 per cent of world conflicts are fueled by religion. Although most of these conflicts have dynamics that are fundamentally economic, environmental or political and would have happened outside of a religious context, religion is still partly to blame. The question all religious people need to be agonizing over is “How can religion become a bulwark against violence, injustice and oppression, instead of an ally?” This question applies to our personal lives, family lives, workplace, citizenship, art, politics, everything. And no religious person can afford to ignore it.

To Christians, like to all religious people, some things matter deeply. These convictions vary in substance and expression but through their uniqueness hold our communities together. Our religious imagination spurs us to proclaim our unique message to the world and work hard to embody this message in the way we live. Yet our aspirations have not protected us from harming others. What can we do to withstand the destructive economic, environmental and political forces around us? And more importantly, what can we do to protect the world from our own good intentions?

If all we want to do is tell others what we think they need to know or change them into who we think they should be, we as Christians—or religious people in general—will inevitably stop treating people as subjects with whom we relate and begin to treat them as objects—no matter how noble our intentions. Some years ago, while pastoring a church in New York City, our cause was to reach people in the city and offer them what we have experienced as the best thing in life—God. One of the ways we did that was by organizing a series of public meetings that would convert people.

In order to accomplish this, the church board would meet regularly to discuss the strategy. Meeting after meeting however, I felt uneasy about talking of people as objects to be targeted by our efforts. However, such talk was so deeply rooted in some of the members’ psyche that none of my pleas against objectifying people came through. So I decided to bring two of these “objects” to the next meeting.

“OK, let’s discuss how we are going to convert these people in their presence,” I invited everybody. Some thought I was making a circus out of the meeting, but I persisted. For several church board members, this was nothing but a difficult evening. But for others, this experience was a door into new relationship, not only with people outside our religion but also with God. The language changed. The tone changed. The goals changed. The methods changed.

For me personally, as a Christian, everything changed. While Christ tells me to go out to the world and spread His teachings, He also teaches me that the primary way to do so is to treat others the way I want to be treated (see Matthew 7:12). This command, which has come to be known as the Golden Rule, excludes making other people the object of my best intentions. This is at least a part of the core, if not the heart, of the Christian message. I would not want to be objectified by their efforts to convert me, so they should not be my objects either.

To follow the Golden Rule, I need to learn compassion—meaning to “feel with.” As such, the Golden Rule turns the tables on many of our religious impulses. If we want them to attend our events, we must attend their events. If we want them to be spiritually open to us, we must be spiritually open to them. If we want them to change, we must be ready to change. If we want them to read our Scriptures with trust and respect, we must read their Scriptures likewise. We are interdependent.

And this can be expanded to the national and international level. Imagine all Muslims treating converts to Christianity the way they want Christian converts to Islam to be treated. Imagine Christians reciprocating. Imagine faith leaders standing up to politicians saying, “Your enemies are not our enemies. Any method you want to use on them, you will first have to use on us.”

If we want to convert people, we must be “convertible” first. Concerned believers would say that to live such open Christianity would first undermine our Christian identity and then halt the impact of Christ’s teachings in the world. I passionately disagree. To respect others, to be interdependent, to receive, to refuse to be in charge of God, to be humble and teachable by them, is to be our identity.

As we go to the world with our message, to neglect the Golden Rule would be to betray the teachings of Christ from the start. I would say that the following stands: “To be a Christian means, among other things, to seek God in the other as you want the other to seek God in you.” Just imagine, as Karen Armstrong suggests, if we would interpret the whole of our Scriptures as a commentary on the Golden Rule and read the whole of their Scriptures with Augustine’s rule of always seeking the most charitable interpretation of the text. Not only would this reflect the best of our traditions, but it would paradoxically work to preserve our own religion. 

The Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism are a case in point. The Chinese government has built a train from Beijing to the small Tibetan holy city of Lhasa and has committed demographic aggression, not only by settling twice the number of Chinese in Tibet than there were Tibetans, but by opening 238 dance halls and karaoke parlors on the main street along with 658 brothels, turning Lhasa into an Asian Las Vegas. To top it off, the sacred Potala Palace, which has been home to nine Dalai Lamas, is now mockingly surrounded by an amusement park. 

And what was the response of Dalai Lama? He refused to call the Chinese an “enemy.” In fact, to preserve the value of compassion at the root of the Golden Rule, for the Dalai Lama it hardly matters whether the position of Dalai Lama, Tibet or even Buddhism continue to exist! For the sake of compassion, no sacrifice would be too great. Isn’t that what Jesus Christ was about?

And what is the result? In 1968 there were two Tibetan Buddhist centers in Western countries; today, there are 50 in New York City alone, and 200 in Taiwan. More French people call themselves Buddhist than Protestant or Jew. Not to count all the Chinese who are becoming Tibetan Buddhists.

The Dalai Lama said that calling others your enemy and calling your own people friends would be as crazy as calling your right eye your ally and your left your adversary. It used to be that victory could be identified as destruction of your enemy, but in today’s world, we increasingly have to see destruction of our enemy as destruction of ourselves. The Golden Rule is not just nice thing to practice, a mere virtue. It is a matter of survival, not only for the world at large, but for every religion that has aspirations to thrive in the future. By respecting and loving the other, we are open to the influence of The Other. Going deeper in loving God, now means nothing less than going deeper in loving all of humanity.

(from Signs of the Times, Australia, May 2008, adapted by the author)

Academics and Faith House

~ by Samir Selmanovic

Ever since Professor Jon Paulien and other faculty from Loma Linda University initially inspired me to take this journey off the maps, I have met some trail-blazing academics who have added to the fire. Foremost among them is Professor Paul Knitter from Union Theological Seminary and Rabbi Or Rose from Hebrew College in Newton, MA. Their exceptional writings have been outdone by their personal, warm, constructive, and tireless spirits. We shared a teaching experience at Envision 2008 conference at Princeton University earlier this year, organized by another inspiring and spirited professor, Peter Heltzel from New York Theological Seminary. And now as more opportunities to teach together in New York City appear, we find ourselves excitedly talking at the same time about this expanse of the sacred that does not know boundaries made by humans. At times, I feel like a beginner on a very long journey, seeing no more than three feet forward, sitting down with people who have been scanning the horizon for many years.

So, I am glad to report that this week Faith House has received wholehearted endorsements from Professor Knitter and Rabbi Rose. You can find an article about some aspects of their work, as well as some information about Rabbi Justus Baird from Auburn Seminary, who is a member of our Advisory Council, in a recent article by Sojourners magazine entitled Many Mansions: Seminaries Teach for a Multifaith World.

"This is exactly the kind of inter-religious dialogue that we need today! For too long, “dialogue” has been primarily the business of academics and religious leaders. Without in any way neglecting sound knowledge and respect for tradition, Faith House seeks to bring the meeting of faiths (and non-faiths!) into our living rooms, workplaces, and local neighborhoods. It shows that people who share the same neighborhood and city can also share what keeps them alive spiritually. And in the process they become better neighbors and better citizens. My hope is that Faith House will become 'Faith Houses' all across our city and country."

Paul F. Knitter
Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture (short bio)

"Faith House Manhattan is a noble undertaking that seeks to bring together people from different faith traditions to heal our broken world. This innovative project serves as a model of creative and purposeful inter-religious collaboration."

Rabbi Or Rose
Director of Interfaith & Social Justice Initiatives at Hebrew College in Newton, MA
Rabbi Oris the co-editor of Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice and God in All Moments: Spiritual & Practical Wisdom from the Hasidic Masters (both from Jewish Lights Publishing).

Burning Rage Meets Burning Grace

~ John Hubers is currently a PhD student at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago concentrating his studies on the history of Christian-Muslim relations.  Prior to this he served as the Director of the Reformed Church in America's mission program in the Middle East and South Asia as well as pastor of international congregations in the Arabian Gulf states of Oman and Bahrain.  I (Samir) met John in Boston at the meeting of Interfaith Relations Commission of National Council of Churches held at Harvard University this past June. He told me this story and later send it to me.  It first appeared in a shortened form in the Other Side Magazine, October, 1997.

It’s the summer of 1981. I’m sitting with my missionary mentor in the book- smothered office of a Coptic Orthodox bishop downtown Cairo, Egypt.  He is speaking of the riots still smoldering in a slum not far from where we were sitting. 

He tells us how it started. 

A fanatical faction of the Ikhwan al Muslameen (Muslim Brotherhood) discovered that a Christian landowner had not properly registered a piece of property in the local deeds office. Seizing the moment, they occupied the land, planted a flag on it and announced their plans to build a mosque.  The Christian went to the police to protest.  They made noises, but did nothing.  The stage was set for a drama that no one saw coming and few wanted. 

It happened when the heated exchange reached a boiling point.  The spark was the squatters gathering a mob at the owner’s home with hostile intent.  The owner came to the door with a pistol in his hand.  He said, “leave!”  They said, “no!”  He fired a shot in the air.  Someone shouted:  “Christians are killing Muslims, Christians are killing Muslims.”  And the fires started burning.

For three days violent gangs bearing the name, but not the spirit of Islam, ran wild through the warren of streets targeting Christians and their shops.  A priest from Upper Egypt in Cairo visiting his brother had his head split open with an ax.  It was a low-level massacre.

At the height of the riots a gang approached the local church with gasoline cans in their hands and arson on their minds.  The parish priest saw them out of his office window.  And there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop them.  He had been praying for an end to the destruction and murder; now he prayed for a miracle. 

As they got closer he noticed another group of men gathering in the street; neighborhood shopkeepers, Muslims he knew as friends. His heart sank.  “Dear God, not them, too!”

Then he noticed that the shopkeepers weren’t joining the mob.  Instead they were forming a phalanx around the church.  He opened his window to listen to the exchange.  What he heard assured him that God is good . . . God and his neighbors.

“This is our church,” said the shopkeepers, “these are our friends.  If you want to burn it down, you’re going to have to kill us first!” 

Burning rage met burning grace.  And grace won.  The church was spared.

Thank you!

The first big news is that on June 14 about sixty of us had our first preview gathering!  Next week, expect a special newsletter about the event. For information on July 26 and August 23 preview sessions click HERE.

Secondly, after four months of searching, processing a number of applications, and conducting interviews, we have found our three co-leaders!

After the last phone call of this exhilarting and exhausting process, I went to my bedroom/office, sat down and cried. They were tears of happiness and gratitude to God. And to you.

Their names are Jill, Bowie, and Rabia--yes, all women! Click below to read their bios, see their pictures, sense their dreams. They are responsible for guiding, nurturing, and growing individual members and our community as a whole.  Below is a picture taken in my apartment on May 28, 2008, when three of them met for the very first time.

Jill Minkoff (Judaism), READ BIO

Bowie Snodgrass (Christianity), READ BIO

Rabia Gentile (Islam), READ BIO

To support Jill, Bowie, and Rabia, click HERE.

Those of you who have been thinking about contributing but never took time to do it, please take time right now. Click on the link below and help us move the heart all the way across the city!

Samir Selmanovic and Lauralea Banks, New York City

Four Stories of God

~ by Samir Selmanovic

For more than 20 years since my baptism (a ritual by which one signals publicly that one has become a follower), people have often given me the opportunity to “tell my story”—to “give a testimony,” as we Christians like to call it. Despite the fact that my life with God was not only passionate but also conflicted and complicated, the story itself was easy to tell. It was all one story. One life. One song. 

But it is not that easy anymore. Today, as early Hasidic Rav Kook did long ago, I find myself wondering which song I should sing. Should I look into my own soul and sing the song of the struggles and joys I encounter within? Or should I move beyond myself and sing the song of my people, my religion? Or maybe I should rise above my Christian story and sing a song of all songs of humanity? Or should I spread my heart still wider and sing a song with all creation?

Is the story of God a story of my own soul, a story of my religion, a story of humanity or a story of all that is? To accept all these stories as the stories of God is to imply that my religion then becomes only a part of the ultimate story of the world, not the ultimate story itself.

Orthodox rabbi David Hartman, concerned with the perennial conflict in Jerusalem, insists that different melodies of one God must be cherished: “Each group feels that its way is the only way: there is one God, therefore there has to be one truth. Christians build their story on the Jewish story and therefore feel they are inheritors of Judaism. Muslims built their story on the Bible, and therefore they feel that they are the perfect expression of monotheism. Now, we’ve got to get out of each other’s story. We can’t feel that in order for me to tell my story, your story has to end. . . . In other words, affirmation [of my story] does not require that I demonise those who are different from me. I don’t have to build conviction out of hate and fear.” If my identity depends on annihilation of other stories, I cannot really sing all four songs of God.

What if God measures our religion by the way it contributes to stories other than one’s own? What if our religions will be judged by the good they bring to their non-adherents? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says this succinctly: “When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.”

In the same vein, The Quran reads, “Had God willed He would have made you into one religious community; but it was his will to test you in what He gave you. So compete with each other in doing good works” (Quran 5:48). Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University contends that “there’s no more crucial problem for our day than to be able to cross religious frontiers while preserving our own integrity. In fact, I think this the only exciting intellectual adventure of our times.”

So I find it hard to “give a testimony” today without offending people of my own religion whose identity depends on a divided and conflicted world. As a follower of Christ, I have grown to believe in a world that is larger than Christianity. Jesus called this larger world the kingdom of God. It is the symphony made of all stories, individual and communal, our magnanimous God is involved with in this world.

Only God is God. And Christianity is not. Nor Judaism. Nor Islam. Paradoxically, this realization about the greatness of God is a deeply Christian, Jewish and Muslim teaching.

When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I begin with the first word, “Our . . .” (see Matthew 6:9) and I stop and ask myself, “Who do I include in this Our?” I remind myself that the story of God is bigger than my personal story, bigger than the story of my religion, bigger than the story of all humanity, and bigger than the story of all creation. In the kingdom of God, these four stories are all really my stories—all at the same time—woven together, giving meaning and life to each other.

(from Signs of the Times, Australia, September 2007, adapted by the author)

Faith House Writing Awarded

~ by Nathan Brown

An article written for the Faith House website has been awarded by a Christian publication in Australia. "A Letter to the Three Friends I Wish I Had" by Roy Naden was awarded the Hindson Award for "Best devotional article" in Record in 2007. The article was originally posted on the Faith House web site on March 6, 2007, and was reprinted in Record with permission of Dr Naden and Faith House.

The Record editors' comments with the award read as follows:

"As one of our editorial team commented after reading this article at the time of its publication, 'That article made me want to become a better person.' Now retired, Dr Naden reflected on his working years, both professionally and personally, and expressed regrets for some of the opportunities and friendships missed, before committing to using his remaining years to make the world a better place and support younger people who are now trying to live in a different way."

Dr Naden is originally from Australia, but in retirement lives in Seattle area, Washington. Record is the weekly news magazine of Adventist Church for the South Pacific region, based in Melbourne, Australia.

NOTE: To read "A Letter to the Three Friends I Wish I Had" click HERE.

Seeking Good in Good News

~ by James Mills, a husband, father, member of the Emergent Village coordinating group, and pastor of a newly forming community of faith called Straight Street Commons in Colorado, blogging as Ecclesial Dreamer

Almost two thousand years ago, a man was breaking out of his cocoon of faith in pursuit of a more excellent way. He is remembered by many as an Apostle and Evangelist for the Christian faith. But certainly Paul would not have thought of himself as a Christian in the same way we think of Christianity today. Equally lamentable is the fact that the Good News Paul proclaimed has become so transformed into a narrow reflection of what it once was that it leads many who encounter it in its current form to ask, “What's so good about it?”

As a pastoral steward who stands in the Christian tradition I have not always been comfortable with that question. I find that one of the most challenging obstacles to answering this query is that many in my own tradition have taken ownership of faith in such a way that insights from other traditions have been completely excluded from the process. While the entrance of Jesus Christ into human history was originally proclaimed by heavenly host to be “good news for all people,” some have attempted to make it applicable only to a select few. Some have mistakenly come to believe that faith as a communal way of life can only be experienced within our carefully controlled belief systems. In the process we not only expect all people to become like us, but we fail to open ourselves to the redemptive influence of those who are not like us.

When we close ourselves to the other it affects all of our senses. We refuse to acknowledge the diverse scents and flavors found in other cultures and as a result we cannot honestly “taste and see that God is good.” We lose our ability to see the good in those who our own faith tells us are image bearers of God. We reach but fail to touch (or, even worse, to be touched). Thinking we are the only melody of faith, we no longer hear the harmonious voice of the Holy. To those who are seeking Good News it is painfully obvious that something has gone tragically wrong. It is easy to understand why many feel alone or believe that such a community of Good News in our moment of history is seemingly impossible.

Through my involvement with the coordinating group of Emergent Village I have met people who give me reason to hope for my community in Parker, Colorado. People like Samir Selmanovic and communities like Faith House Manhattan are creating spaces for people to seek Good News together. These people take the call to be ambassadors of reconciliation seriously and remind us that it is not good for independent subsections of mankind to make the journey alone.

As we dream together I am beginning to welcome the question, “What’s so good about the Good News?” This change of heart did not come about because I have the answer, but because I am confident that when we ask this question together we discover things we cannot find on our own. Most times, even as you are seeking Good News for your own journey, others discover that you have plenty of your own to contribute. If you have not yet found a place to share it with others, I encourage you to start right here, right now. Leave a comment on the Faith House website and join in the task of exploring, creating, and learning with a community who needs you as much as you need them. I know they will be happy to participate in your conversation. Together you will discover Good News and might come to share these hope filled words of Vaclav Havel:

“We must not be afraid to dream the seemingly impossible
if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.”

The Hole in How We Do It

~ by Nathan Brown, author, Editor (Signs of the Times, Australia / New Zealand)

How we connect our beliefs with our everyday lives and how we connect our beliefs with the lives of those around us in ways that make sense to them and to us, must be a constant challenge to our faith.

And it is in this aspect of Christian religious practice that it seems we have a growing hole. I think for many believers we are victims of history—the history of our belief system itself and of changing social attitudes and beliefs. And it is our success in meeting the challenges of previous generations that has left us exposed when trying to connect in the present.

My faith tradition began in a time and place in which the majority of the population were practicing, church-going Christians of one variety or another. In this environment, the emerging faith community focused on demonstrating to other Christians why some aspects of their traditional faith were not in accord with the teachings of the Bible. We didn’t always convince them, but at least we could engage in a worthwhile discussion and they would have some understanding of our point of view.

In the 20th century, our tradition—and Christianity generally—faced new frontiers. With the growing acceptance of evolutionary theory and atheism, we felt the need to employ scientific methodology to describe our faith and to bolster the foundations of our beliefs. We readily employed the rationality of Christian apologetics and the science of creationism to challenge the assumptions of non-believers. We didn’t always convince them, but at least we could engage in a spirited debate and at least had a hearing for our views.

Today, both these “strategies” have their place and their appropriate audiences. But as the audiences most receptive to these approaches diminish in many societies around the world, the hole in how we do this grows. With an increased interest in spirituality but a declining interest in formal religion, the majority of the population has shifted away from both entrenched Christianity and avowed atheism. This same shift has also been seen as our faith tradition has expanded into non-Western cultures in which these two extremes are not necessarily mirrored.

Reflecting on both of these approaches, it seems we have always been good at telling others how and why they are wrong. In looking for a new approach, perhaps we need to learn to tell others how and why they are right, to share and celebrate their faltering steps toward spirituality as they share and celebrate ours. We bring our treasured beliefs and lifestyle and demonstrate the value and meaning these bring to our lives. At the same time and without compromising our own beliefs, we respect and recognise the meaning others find in the understandings they bring.

This is a challenge, but the scope of our understanding and concern gives a breadth of commonality with a wide variety of people and communities. And from this threshold of shared beliefs, hopes, and life practices, we can set off as fellow pilgrims, trusting the strength of our distinct beliefs and the power of God working in our lives to lead us to a greater understanding of His goodness and purposes in our lives and our world. “His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27, NLT).

Pitching Our Tents

~ by Ryan Bell who is the Senior Pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church and is currently completing his Doctor of Ministry in Missional Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. You can read his blog, Intersections at www.ryanjbell.net

Why should Christians participate in the Faith House Project? I believe that Jews, Muslims, atheist, and others will each generate solid reasons for their participation. Such reasons will be rooted in their story/worldview. For us Christians, it is the incarnation that can most powerfully and creatively shape our imagination towards an answer.

For generations missionaries from the West (the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand) have entered communities of people profoundly different from themselves. These missionaries were taught to enter these communities as learners. This learning encompassed everything from language to food to social norms. Our short hand for this is “culture.” In short, these missionaries knew they were entering a world of which they had almost no understanding. As they learned about the people to whom God had sent them they were engaging the profound theological practice of “paying attention” – paying attention to God’s Spirit, being attentive to their own hearts and souls, and watching for evidence of God’s initiatives in the community.

Naturally, missionary engagements almost never went that smoothly. The modern missionary movement has become known for its arrogance and colonialism. Nevertheless, missiologists and responsible missionaries the world over know that they must be, at some level, anthropologists as well as theologians.

We have assumed that a learning posture toward our own native culture is unnecessary. After all, this is our home. However, as the world has come to us (especially in the urban centers) and the social fabric of Western societies has worn thin and come apart, we find ourselves in a vastly different world than that of our parents and grandparents. The realities of this changed world have led some authors to declare, “The Sky Is Falling” (for a more extensive treatment see Alan Roxburgh’s book by that title on this website).

In the midst of the church’s confusion about its place in this unhinged world, we are (or should be) driven back to our core narratives. And, at the very outset of those narratives we find the story of God showing up in our world at the most unlikely time and the most unlikely place. Theologians call this the Incarnation – divine become human. St. John said this about this mystery: “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

So, the primary mission question of our time is, can we live among the people of our neighborhoods? Can we “pitch our tent” in the pluralistic village as a neighbor and learner without coming with all the answers in our pocket? Can we open ourselves to the possibility of learning as much from our neighbors as they will learn from us? My contention is that much that has passed for evangelism and/or mission work in the US and elsewhere has been shaped more by a colonial than by an incarnational imagination. It’s high time we have our imaginations shaped by the story of God’s missionary encounter with us.

Why then should we participate in the Faith House project? First, to learn and to receive, and then perhaps to teach and to give.