Community 2

I'm blogging this without commentary--not to say this remotely is currently going in my life, but aspects of it caution me wisely regarding the not far distant future.

Stages of Community: Stage 2

Richard Rohr in Sojourners, 1980-81?

The community is imperfect.

And so is the leader, the vision, the structure, the timing, the theology, the initial call, the present situation, and the tuna casserole that was served for lunch. ...

It must come if love and light are ever to happen. ...

Stage 2 is a period of non-listening to others, to the Lord, and even to ourselves. It is a state of alienation and discouragement, in which we should never make major decisions or too quickly trust our first emotional responses.

Body Image

Today I'm re-blogging this from one of my Commonplace Books; even though I've blogged it at least three times in various places, including here on this far by faith, it always has been in the context of a much longer blog.

Body Image, where:

• body,
• mind,
• psyche,
• spirit and
• culture

converge.

Its impact reverberates in all areas of life:

• mental,
• physical,
• emotional and
• spiritual.

Friday Five: Whatcha doin'?

Whatcha doin' for this Friday Five

According to ReverendMother,

Well friends, this is one of those weeks when I simply must work today, which is normally my day off. I know, I know. We may tut-tut all we want, but the fact is, some weeks are like that. So, this week's F5 is simple.

Name five things you plan to do today.

Bonus: If today is about "have-to" for you as well, share up to five things you'd like to be doing today.

My real today is both mundane and heavenly; in short:

1. More or less finishing and emailing to the church the handouts for Class #4 in the Theology of the Cross series I've been teaching;
2. Making notes for the presentation about my graphic design I'll be doing this evening—yesterday I burned ("Authored" is the technical term) a DVD to go with my presentation; a Quilter and a Photographer will round out the creative evening, all in the context of the program that accompanies a monthly potluck I often attend;
3. Since historically Friday has been my day off (though in reality it hasn't been happening for what feels like forever), I hope to take an hour for a special lunch before continuing with:
4. The dreaded Friday afternoon piano and organ practice session for the church where I'm still one of the pair of interim keyboard persons;
5. Actual presentation about suntreeriver [persistent biblical images!] design (that's me), in which I'll display some of favorite finished work and projects in process and describe some of the ways I imagine a New Creation in my design and in my more formal theology.

Yearning for another time and place, I'm thinking through Possibility Day at the Beach, but don't have time to blog it right now.

Sensate!

Several RevGals posted this on their blogs, so I decided to try it. I think it's amazingly accurate, though (of course) I wanted to explain and expand upon most of my answers. I've reordered the quiz result they gave me from highest to lowest.

From South Albany [Oregon] Community Church--
Sacred Pathways Worship Style Assessment.

They informed me, "Based on your responses to the Sacred Pathways Assessment, your temperament favors a Sensate approach to worship." With "Ascetic" as my lowest score, it looks as if I don't qualify for life as a medieval saint!

Sensate 25 Loving God with the Senses
Sensate Christians want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendor of God. They are drawn particularly to the liturgical, the majestic, the grand. They want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. The five senses are God's most effective inroad to their hearts.

Traditionalist 24 Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol
Traditionalists are fed by what are often termed the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. They tend to have a disciplined life of faith and have a need for ritual and structure.

Activist 23 Loving God Through Confrontation
These Christians define worship as standing against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They are energized more by interaction with others, even in conflict, than by being alone or in small groups. Activists are spiritually nourished through the battle.

Enthusiast 23 Loving God with Mystery & Celebration
Excitement and mystery in worship is the spiritual lifeblood of enthusiasts. They are inspired by joyful celebration; cheerleaders for God and the Christian life. They don't want to just know concepts, but to experience them, to feel them, and to be moved by them. They like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe.

Intellectual 23 Loving God with the Mind
These Christians live in the world of concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about Him.

Contemplative 20 Loving God through Adoration
These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly Lover and give all of themselves to God.

Caregiver 18 Loving God by Loving Others
Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.

Naturalist 16 Loving God Out of Doors
The naturalist seeks to leave the formal architecture and the padded pews to enter an entirely new "cathedral", a place that God himself has built: the out-of-doors.

Ascetic 13 Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity
Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.


Summary of spiritual temperaments borrowed from the book, Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas © © Copyright Zondervan Publishing, 2002

Friday 5: Matters of Taste

Rev Gal Blog Pals Friday Five: Matters of Taste

According to Songbird,

My mother loved figs.

I only like them in a Newton.

It's all a matter of taste.

Name five things you like a lot that some close relative or significant other did/does not like. This could be food, movies, hobbies, music, sports or whatever springs to mind.

I'd hoped today's Friday 5 would give me some fodder for my theology blog, but this one clearly is a matter of testimony, so I'm playing on this far by faith. Here goes my Heretical Friday 5, plus today I'm not exactly following the rules, since three of mine are negative to positive and only two the suggested (or maybe that's "requested") positive to negative:

1. Coca-Cola - I love Diet Coke, though I don't like the over-sweetness or the calories of regular Coke or even the Passover version made with sugar rather than corn syrup; my late grandmother – with whom I shared many tastes and preferences – detested any Coke product, claiming it tasted "like medicine."
2. For a generic reverse example, I loathe the color pink, which most women seem to like, either as an icon of being a woman or as whatever. Of course I totally support the Breast Cancer Campaign, but cannot and will not be caught with any of its related paraphernalia or memorabilia or ephemera, since it's all pink.
3. For another generic reversal, in general I don't care for chocolate; countless times eating any form of chocolate in the evening has caused me to wake up with a migraine the next morning, so I tend to cringe and shudder whenever I see anything chocolate.
4. Here's another reverse one! Most people seem to love the song "Amazing Grace!!!" As I always explain to people, "No theology and no Christology!" One person rejoined with, "At least a little soteriology..." to which I had to reply, "Disembodied soteriology? There's no such thing!"
5. Finally ending with a specific positive: I love love love LOVE love Photoshop!!! Carla, my close friend who lives in Tucson, hates it, calls it "a liar" and won't even look at the artistic stuff I do in Photoshop.