lucas and evelyn took us to one of their favorite spots and helped amy and i partake in our first real brazilian meal. we ate here, and it was awesome. and lucas and evelyn are awesome too...super talented and humble and using their gifts to serve the church in great ways. thanks guys!
ctk-dorchester the last two days have been dedicated to current events, now back to my real life. i had the chance to meet with dan, the lead pastor of ctk-dorchester. yes, that is correct, there is a church plant in dorchester called Christ the King. happens to be presbyterian and planted from a church in cambridge which was planted from tim keller's church in new york. they are here for good reasons and are clearly doing good things in the neighborhood. they also have a few members who live on our block which is kind of fun. the best part of the conversation was when i had a chance to talk about i/we do with sojourn and i was able to draw out our "missional map". he was really impressed with it and said: "i've seen a lot of people get really excited about campus ministry and they always have some new idea, but it is either not that new or not that interesting...this, though, is really interesting to me." awesome!
in an attempt to provide students with "mini" opportunities to engage new ideas and missional practices in a way that is compelling and that sparks deeper thought and imagination for what is possible on campus, we created a one-day learning experience dubbed read.retreat.serve. we would love to do a couple of these each semester, so this was kind of our trial run, and i'd say that it was a huge success.
we spent the morning at the bethany house of prayer in arlington, ma. what a beautiful oasis in the middle of boston. we engaged in some directed reading and then we came together at the end of our time for a great reflective discussion.
then we headed up to salem, ma, to help out a church there that is doing some exciting "out-of-the-box" ministry in a pretty weird town (salem, for those history buffs, was at the heart of the "witch trials" and is still a big hotbed of witch activity). the gathering, as this church is called, does some pretty creative stuff to reach out to people during this time of the year, which, as we near halloween, is a big moment of spiritual seeking in the community. i've lived in or near some weird, funky towns with strange spirituality's and faith expressions but i think salem at halloween might take the cake for me. i had a chance to go to "witch school" and basically ask this master witch any questions. what an amazing conversation we had! some in our crew were able to offer people blessings, while others passed out free hot chocolate and raise awareness about fair trade. all in all it was a very cool experience and i think students left challenged to think about creative ways to communicate the gospel in their own contexts on their campuses.
tonight i "interviewed" shane and celie (two undergrad students at Boston University). we talked about the spiritual climate at BU, the book sex and the soul, what the ideal campus ministry at BU would look like, our spiritual journeys, heavy Jesus and light Jesus, and whole bunch of other things. i LOVE these conversations. and this is why i love campus ministry.
