Names.

I once had the privilege of walking with a dear friend through a time of transition into a new, paradigm-shifting and intensely challenging ministry. By walking I mean laying in a makeshift bed in the back of my 4Runner, under the glaring light of a parking lot, in the middle of Boston's North Shore, at about 2:00am, for about 3 nights straight. The time change was a little bit in her favor, and its a long story :)

And we both sort of got a word from God about what it means to love on kids and do life with them: learn their names, and the rest will follow.

Learn their names.

Listen to their stories.

Do life with them. Let every word and movement communicate that they are dearly loved by the Lord, and accepted as a son or daughter of the God who created them and continues to fight for their restoration - that they would become more and more the unique individual he created them to be.

This is the rest that follows.


Then I get prideful. And feel like I should be a part of something bigger. Something structured. Something with blueprints and a plan - some kind of righteousness factory where the perfect ratio of Christian teaching to relational contact work will *poof* produce a lifelong lover of Jesus.

In these moments I try to remember the better way, the one where the Law of Love rules:

"More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them." - Henri Nouwen

Creeds.

I've been thinking about how we talk about what we believe - those things that are perhaps intrinsic to who we are, those things we rarely attempt to articulate.

I have the honor of getting to learn and articulate Christian faith with a group of amazing high school freshmen, and we've explored the Apostle's Creed and talked about what it means to say "I believe..."

And something in me gets it, but isn't moved by it. I believe...a)...b)...c).

It's all too formulaic for me. God is too massive for adjectives.

Then I found the "narrative theology" of a church community I greatly resonate with, and it reflected the God I know - the God I can't fully understand or describe, but the One I've seen in this world, interacting with his creation.

And so maybe it helps me know HIM...not just more ABOUT him:

"We believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak to all generations of believers, including us today. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative communally and individually to faithfully interpret and live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit of God.

"In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers and a missional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created human beings in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation. The enemy tempted the first humans, and darkness and evil entered the story through human sin and are now a part of the world. This devastating event resulted in our relationships with God, others, ourselves and creation being fractured and in desperate need of redeeming.

"We believe God did not abandon his creation to destruction and decay; rather he promised to restore this broken world. As part of this purpose, God chose a people, Abraham and his descendants, to represent him in the world. God promised to bless them as a nation so that through them all nations would be blessed. In time they became enslaved in Egypt and cried out to God because of their oppression. God heard their cry, liberated them from their oppressor, and brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity and a mission as his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy people. Throughout the story of Israel, God refused to give up on his people despite their frequent acts of unfaithfulness to him.

"God brought his people into the Promised Land. Their state of blessing from God was intimately bound to their calling to embody the living God to other nations. They made movement toward this missional calling, yet they disobeyed and allowed foreign gods into the land, overlooked the poor, and mistreated the foreigner. The prophetic voices that emerge from the Scriptures held the calling of Israel to the mirror of how they treated the oppressed and marginalized. Through the prophets, God's heart for the poor was made known, and we believe that God cares deeply for the marginalized and oppressed among us today.

"In Israel's disobedience, they became indifferent and in turn irrelevant to the purposes to which God had called them. For a time, they were sent into exile; yet a hopeful remnant was always looking ahead with longing and hope to a renewed reign of God, where peace and justice would prevail.

"We believe these longings found their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, mysteriously God having become flesh. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and set captives free, proclaiming a new arrival of the Kingdom of God, bringing about a New Exodus, and restoring our fractured world. He and his message were rejected by many as he confronted the oppressive nature of the religious elite and the empire of Rome. Yet his path of suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our only hope for bringing peace and reconciliation between God and humans. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and brought into right relationship with God. God is now reconciling us to each other, ourselves and creation. The Spirit of God affirms as children of God all those who trust Jesus. The Spirit empowers us with gifts, convicts, guides, comforts, counsels, and leads us into truth through a communal life of worship and a missional expression of our faith. The church is rooted and grounded in Christ, practicing spiritual disciplines and celebrating baptism and the Lord's Supper. The church is a global and local expression of living out the way of Jesus through love, peace, sacrifice and healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a broken and hurting world.

"We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God's original intent. God will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth's groaning will cease and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves and creation will be whole. All will flourish as God intends.

"This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we are giving our lives to living out that future reality now."