64259

giving_thanks


grateful for many, many things today (including but not limited to these pies). actually it's been a crazy year with many ups and downs, but in all of it so much to be grateful for. so, time to give much thanks for it all. 

64159

action


here are some of our UMB students in our "office" space on campus which happens to be right out in the open with all the other campus organizations. it is a great place to be and wonderful conversations and life happen right here. i appreciate our students so much for being present and for being fully "in" at school. love these kids!

64059

appreciation


amy and i took andre and aleyda to providence on saturday to see rob bell. andre and aleyda have been super instrumental as student leaders for our community at umass-boston. saturday was a good time to appreciate and honor them for their hard work this semester. we had an awesome time and rob blew our minds!

63959

after_sunday

what a strange weekend it's been for the boutry's. amy and i had our world's rocked on friday (perhaps more about that in a future post). bottom line: it was really unexpected and hard. and yet, life doesn't stop...we both had significant assignments: amy helped lead and teach at Sojourn's women's retreat and steve taught at REUNION on sunday morning. both went well and were really good to be invested in, even in the middle of pain.  

two thoughts come out of that: one is, we are so glad for our friends and community who walked with us through this weekend. the other is that giving yourself away, even when it would be easy (and excusable) to think about yourself and your problems is helpful and healing. probably in more ways than i realize right now.

so, thank you to our friends and family for being there for us this weekend.

63859

read_retreat_serve


i love our ReadRetreatServe experience. once a semester we do a mash up of the typical campus ministry retreat/service project in a way that is disruptive, refreshing, and challenging. i've written about our fall/Halloween/salem experience here and here, so i won't go in to the logistics of what we do. what i will say is this: one, it's fun to see how this experience has grown over the past three years. more importantly, we have an AWESOME group of students this year. i am continually amazed at their depth of insight, their level of maturity, and, this weekend especially, their courage, their servant posture, and their flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances (and weather). i am so proud of them and honored to work alongside them on campuses and in neighborhoods around our city.

63759

open_mic


we held our first ever open mic night on friday in an event titled: perform*. there is a ridiculous amount of talent in and around our community, so it was fun to watch that blossom. the night was also a success in that it brought attention to and raised some money for Amirah House. Amirah Boston is doing some good work and i'm stoked we were able to bless them in some way.

63659

fun_with_photos


some edited pics from our trip this weekend to ludington, mi and chicago, il.


enjoy!

63559

leadership_network


as i said last week, sojourn was selected to join leadership network's first University Leadership Community. we gathered with 8 innovative ministries to spend three days learning from one another and moving towards some goals for the future. interesting, challenging, and affirming all at the same time. this community last 18 months so still a long time to see what comes, but a good start!

63459

Quick_Hits

Just a couple of thoughts at the beginning of another full week. I have two exciting happenings to report on.

1) I am going to start shifting more of my time and attention towards Boston University. I am definitely excited to "come back" in some ways to where I started with Sojourn. I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time on campus last Friday. I had lunch with some of Sojourn's students, then I spoke at InterVarsity's large group gathering that night. Both got me excited to spend more time with students on this campus which is a lot different from UMB! 

2) Sojourn has been selected to take part in the Leadership Network's first University Leadership Community (scroll 2/3 of the way down to read about "University Ministry - New Approaches"). This is an affirming and humbling opportunity for us. Affirming in that we were selected as one of the most innovative collegiate ministries in the country. Humbling because we still have a ton to learn, are a young organization, and it feels like we are a long way from being "experts" on any of this. I leave Wednesday morning to be a part of the first round of conversations between ourselves and 8 other ministries. Can't wait to write more about this experience, and to see the ways God uses this to challenge, grow, and sharpen us.

63359

leadership_community


first gathering of our entire leadership team (sojourn wide) to celebrate all that has happened over the first four weeks. lots of laughing, spontaneous applause, story telling, and marveling at the people God has brought our way so far this year. i am amazed at the energy, quality, and commitment of the students we have leading with us. what a great group!

63259

Monday_Reflections: New_Is_Better

Amy and I enjoy the show "How I Met Your Mother". (For those not familiar with the show, it's a sort of "Friends" for millennials). One of the main characters is an extreme philanderer named Barney. Barney is prone to outlandish statements and proclamations of ridiculous rules that explain the world from his perspective. One of his favorite sayings is "new is always better." (I try to invoke this rule with my wife when I get tempted to buy some new piece of technology...it doesn't really work). 

A few weeks ago someone was telling me about a situation he was dealing with. Another someone had a brand new "theological" insight regarding a controversial issue within the church.  

As I was listening my intellectual side was tracking with the argument...even though it was new, it kind of made sense, and I could follow the logic (to a degree) that had led to the conclusion.

But something didn't sit well with me.  

I couldn't figure it out for a while, and I felt like the only response I had was "well that's wrong," or "we don't do it that way." The issue came up again recently in a conversation about the passage in Luke on new and old wine skins.

Admittedly, I gravitate towards the new most of the time. I like new ideas, new gadgets, new books, new music, etc. 

But the rhetoric that goes along with new (i.e. progressive) ideas is often one of convenience. As in: how convenient that you found this new idea that justifies your world view, that's awesome! 

But convenience is never the path that Jesus took, and that is ultimately what didn't sit right with me as I listened to my friend. The new idea was cool and interesting and definitely worth a serious conversation.

But it lacked sacrifice. There was no laying down of lives or taking up of crosses. Stories of convenience lack any kind of power. Stories of sacrifice stir the soul and inspire action. 

It wasn't even about whether the issue at hand was right or wrong (at least for me)...the serious point that was being missed was the exchange of sacrifice for convenience. 

There is a part of me that wants to declare "new is always better," but I am learning to weigh the "new" with a lens (a hermeneutic) of sacrifice and cross bearing. Of course, on this point, I can always be accused of spiritual masochism or a joyless theology, so I will acknowledge that danger. But I will always trust "new" ideas that have passed through the crucible of suffering and sacrifice and life-laid-down-experience over a theology of convenience.