Introduction

What is a young family to do with a desire to follow Jesus more radically? This series of email exchanges I had with Paul Munn over a year ago (starting in April of 2009) attempts to explore some of that. To get caught up with the series, read question #1/response #1, question #2/response #2 (which are one post), and question #3/response #3.

Question #4

From: Jason
To: Paul
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 11:02:03 PM
Subject: RE: work, gift, prayer

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the delayed response. By looking at your blog, though, I suspect your enjoying other kinds of activities besides “computer time” anyway. We are actually still in Peru, although we were supposed to leave last Sat. My son (Santiago) came down with Bronchitis, so we decided to get him treated here before trying to fly home. Internet access since then has been a bit challenging, but now I’ve found the perfect spot to use my laptop (the bathroom!) now that my sister-in-law got wireless internet. My wife’s family is numerically rather large. Julissa is the oldest of 8 kids. Her youngest sister is 8-years-old, just to give you an idea. So, needless to say, getting a few minutes apart from the group (and getting access to the internet) can be an amazingly difficult feat.

Staying in Lima these extra few days, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about some of the immediate consequences related to following Jesus in his radical way of life. This whole trip, in fact, was designed to give us space to wonder about and consider our so-called “next step” (as well as to introduce Santiago to my in-laws). It’s been very enlightening to have conversations while here with my father-in-law, for example, who has been unemployed more than he has had a job income for about 3 years. Today, he and I talked for about two hours. He said some profoundly wise things. Things like: “Jason, you ought to spend more time praying. Jesus told us to ‘Pray always’ [I’m not really sure who said it actually. Was it Jesus or Paul?] and he went away from the crowds, on the mountains, to be alone.” He told me the story of an old lady who came to a church talk that he attended with some of his fellow seminary students. Whereas seminarians tend to get a big head pretty quick here in Peru (for lots of reasons too long to list), this old women from the mountains (the total opposite, in terms of status and respect) told a story about how she had been in the hospital about to die but felt called to go (on foot) to the villages around her village, sharing the Gospel, taking no money with her. She did, in fact, leave the hospital, made her trip, and came back (without any sickness either). More importantly, I think, the story she told and lived represents a different kind of hermeneutic than most seminarians or ministers are accustomed to knowing. She was a woman from the margins, with nothing special to show, no privilege or money. And in spite of her lack, she became an example for studied people like me (and my father-in-law), which is why I’m glad he told me her story. My father-in-law did at one point suggest that behavior like hers and Jesus’ perhaps isn’t the norm (”Jesus was God. We are not.”), but he wasn’t discrediting the goodness of such a hermeneutic.

I got a potential job opportunity with a language institute here in Lima. My wife and I have been talking about moving here/living here for a long time. On the one hand, it’s exciting to think we could be getting closer to our goal. But it’s also hard because I have seen, over the last year or so, how seductive and compromising city life can be (in the States too, for that matter). It all seems to revolve around money and what you can buy or pay somebody to do. In that light, I’m not sure if we’re all that prepared (spiritually, emotionally, culturally etc.) to live well under those kinds of pressures.

Do you think taking a paying job is distrustful of God’s strength to be our bread and to provide for our daily needs? Is it possible to accept a wage and experience/know it as a gift? Is it possible to sell our possessions (like Jesus asked his disciples to do) and have an institutional-type employer? If we stayed here in Peru, we would almost literally have no possessions. But Julissa wouldn’t ever (I don’t think) say yes to me rejecting a formal get-paid-for-work-kind-of-job or to us living poor without some plan for our economic situation to someday improve. Any thoughts or ideas on all this?

By the way, I have eaten cuyi (Guinea Pig)! Julissa and I were celebrating something (I think it was an anniversary) in a posh 5-star restaurant and they had it on the menu. I couldn’t resist. I’m not sure if it tasted like the actual paisanos (country people) make it, but it was pretty good.

Cheers,

Jason

Introduction

What is a young family to do with a desire to follow Jesus more radically? This series of email exchanges I had with Paul Munn over a year ago (starting in April of 2009) attempts to explore some of that. To get caught up with the series, read question #1, response #1, question #2/response #2 (which are one post), and question #3.

Response #3

Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 12:07:03 -0700
From: Paul
Subject: Re: work, gift, prayer
To: Jason

Jason,

Peru, eh? A college kid from here was just down there on some sort of mission trip. He visited a number of guinea pig farmers, and even ate one (a guinea pig, not a farmer). Ever try it?

I didn’t think very hard before listing work, gift, and prayer; they’re just what came to mind. But now that I consider it some more, maybe I do think they are especially important. When people get together and live together and work together, “groupthink” is always a danger, and it’s especially dangerous when the group consensus is considered to be the truest indicator of the will of God. We need to nurture other ways of sensing and knowing God’s will, so we don’t get swept away by the group (and so we can help correct the group when it errs). Prayer is an important help here. Also scripture and the counsel of Christians outside our local group. I think God tends to speak to us through a variety of ways, harmonizing them, so we get the message.

Groups and especially institutions also tend to absorb people and want to put them to work for the purposes and goals of the group. Sometime people are drawn in for just that reason, because they want to be useful to “something greater than themselves.” But I think it’s important to have our own sense of who we are and what God has created us for, including the work(s) we are being called to. A good community of Christians can help us discern this, but I don’t think we should rely on that completely. Heather and I came to Plow Creek with a definite work that we wanted to do, that was our main purpose in coming. The community here embraced and supported that, which has been great. But there are continual (perhaps unconscious) pressures pulling us to farm, bakery, bookkeeping, hosting visitors, and other work required for the upkeep of the organization. Having a clear sense of calling helps us avoid getting too drawn into those things (which I think are much less important than the retreats, or prayer, or writing to you).

And the gift thing has been big for me. How Jesus offered his time and work as a gift to people, asking nothing in return (and then also being dependent on their gifts to sustain him). Totally revolutionary. An economy of mutual giving, prompted by God’s spirit. One of the greatest lessons for me from Jesus’ life and my experiences on the road. There’s more about it here: “work” (I see work and gift closely connected; you might also find the posts after that one interesting).

As this applies to community life, I think a big advantage of living closely with others is the many opportunities to share and give to one another. So it’s a good place to practice a gift economy. On the other hand, communal groups often give freely within their group, but much less so to those outside the group (that’s one aspect that I think falls short of Jesus’ example). If finances are shared, there may also be pressure to “pull your weight” financially. Which could push you towards a better income-producing job (I’ve seen this). So I think a strong commitment to giving freely (along with living simply so as not to be a burden on others) can also help resist the communal pressure to work for income rather than offering your work as a gift to others, including others outside the group. This may not be much different than the usual pressures within a family to pay the bills, though the bigger the group gets the harder it is to resist. Anyway, this has been an important part of following Jesus for me.

That’s probably enough, isn’t it? By the way, we’re friends with a couple at Sojourners. Dan and Katie Piche (Pishay). Great folks. And I’ve heard good things from them about their community. So, yeah, that would be a good place to visit, if for nothing more than meeting Dan and Katie. Tell them hi for us.

peace,
Paul

Introduction

What is a young family to do with a desire to follow Jesus more radically? This series of email exchanges I had with Paul Munn over a year ago (starting in April of 2009) attempts to explore some of that. To get caught up with the series, read question #1, response #1, and question #2/response #2 (which are one post).

Question #3

From: Jason
To: Paul
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 5:41:37 PM
Subject: RE: your JM post

Paul,

Well, that makes a lot of sense. As difficult as it can be to discern what following Jesus might mean in each individual person or each context, I can certainly appreciate that “community” (especially by itself) won’t guarantee much for us as a family or anyone else for that matter.

Actually, I’m going to start a new job (as a school-based Marriage and Family Therapist) when my wife and I get back from South America. (We’re here in Peru visiting her family, introducing them to our son, etc. Julissa was born and raised in Lima. We’ve talked about moving here someday…who knows, right?). So, perhaps now is a pretty good time to start re-exploring the radical nature of following Jesus in the areas of work and gifting. Could you say a little more about them? For the benefit of a “just beginning” Jesus radical?

As for “prayer life,” I take that to mean making space for God through regular daily rhythms of silence, solitude, the divine hours, etc. What are your thoughts there? How can that kind of radical prayer life be related/integrated into a “rat race” type job like the one I’m going to start come Monday?

Also, why did work, gifting, and prayer life make your (explicit) list of additional areas to explore? Sorry to bother you with all these questions. I haven’t met many people like yourself. But if you want to stop answering them, I’ll really understand.

I’m glad you told me some about how you and Heather have negotiated your commitments at Plow Creek. I was going to ask about it, but I wrote what I wrote in the last email instead. I’m reading your journal from 2005 right now…it’s good. There’s some stuff in there about raising kids in radical Christian communities. That will be good for Julissa and I to explore as well.

Lastly, have you ever heard of Sojourners in SF, Ca? I’ve been in contact with someone there about going for a visit to get a feel for how they live community life and follow Jesus. Maybe that contact or visit will take us somewhere good in this journey. Also, Julissa and I were recently introduced to and then “invited” to do a time-limited stint (3-6 months) with a newly formed “neo-monastic” community near our hometown (Chico, Ca). It would be, in terms of expectations for what community life will do, probably the least ambiguous let-down since they are just getting started. Joshua, the leader-guy/friend-of-mine, has told me a few times that since they came together their Christian standards have actually mostly gone down hill. I don’t know what that says about whether or not to join them, but anyway…

Cheers,

Jason

I listened to Obama’s recent acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. It was eloquent, as usual. He, in fact, performed some fine rhetorical gymnastics as he contradicted himself on at least one very important point. Brian McLaren unpacks it for us:

Two paragraphs in the president’s speech struck me in particular. After acknowledging with humility the complex circumstances around his being named the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, he said he was:

mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago — “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence. I know there is nothing weak — nothing passive, nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King. But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

The unresolved irony of those two paragraphs wrestles under their composed and muscular syntax. On the one hand, “there is nothing naïve in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.” On the other hand, “I face the world as it is … evil does exist in the world.” It’s hard to read the latter in any other way than denying the former: King and Gandhi were naïve, underestimating the reality of evil in the world.

That’s a difficult point to deny, right? Wrong. A commenter takes McLaren to task on it:

Man, this whole argument of McLaren’s rests on the assumption Obama was calling Luther King “naive”. He wasn’t. He was saying it was naive to believe that nonviolence would always work as a solution to radical evil. Um, he mentioned Hitler, didn’t he? You missed that. How would nonviolence have stopped the rampaging Hutus in Rwanda? It is just self-serving one’s own ideology to think Obama was making an either/or statement.

So, against my better judgment (they can get a little feisty), I weighed in:

I think I remember reading a story in Claiborne and Haw’s book (Jesus for President) about a Rwandan man whose family was murdered and, essentially, became a target himself as he began to directly forgive his enemies. His example, of self-sacrificial enemy-love, is far more powerful and intelligent than any “smart bomb.” Of course, one only has to read the Gospels and learn the stories of early Christians to understand how this works. I suspect there are some situations where Christians cannot do anything to stop “radical evil,” that is, aside from giving one’s own life. But shouldn’t that be the call of those who follow a resurrected man?

Now, mind you, I have no personal experience with that kind of stuff. In fact, I doubt I am strong enough to die for most folks, much less my enemies. I just can’t seem to justify a behavior that Christ and early Christians so readily condemned (both in behavior and teaching), simply because I suck.

Anyone want to take me to task?

I recently met up with the Jesus Center director, Bill Such, for a cup of joe and to chat about some of my favorite subjects. This is the second coffee conversation he and I have had since we were connected via our mutual friend Ryann earlier this year. After only a few conversations, I must confess, I like Bill very much–in no small part because of his ability to inspire some holy un-rest among Chico, California’s sedated middle-class.

At the tail-end of our conversation (which took place on election day, no less), I asked him why we (the established churches in Chico) don’t support more, both financially and with our lives, the kinds of programs he has started and will continue to bring to fruition. I mean, how can we spend so much energy and time and money on elections, for example, and then have nothing left to give when it comes to poverty and homelessness in Chico? He rightly told me that individual Christians actually do form a large base of the donations they receive, but that business folks and secular organizations/individuals also pick up a significant share. (Aside: one of the youth I used to work with really loved going to serve with me at the Jesus Center. He saved up his money for weeks and then gave more than what was required for him to participate. The fact that he was not a Christian (at all!) did not matter much for his motivation. His reasoning was much more concrete than that: after having been homeless, he wanted to give back to the community!) Perhaps the “secular” community actually keeps alive the work they do at the Jesus Center more than we think.

Bill made the point that the Jesus Center isn’t simply a place for folks who are hungry to eat food, but also a place where the community is engaged and, ultimately, is imagined differently. Rather than offering a specialized definition of what it is they do, Bill has attempted to assert a more holistic and radically-shaped mission: hospitality in the name of Jesus. The whole of the community, to make it plain, is involved in that, not simply the homeless. As Shane Claiborne has said, the way of Jesus offers liberation from the ghettos of wealth as well as the ghettos of poverty. It takes place through friendship and community, and, most obviously, through service to one another.

One of the most exciting new ideas Bill mentioned during our conversation had to do with employment and housing partnerships among community members. He dreamed that one day the folks who need a hand (but don’t have all the necessary paperwork or history or addresses) will be able to get connected with local apartment owners and employers/apprenticeships (all vouched for and subsidized through Jesus Center staff). I was literally stunned when he said that. For starters, what a completely revolutionary and subversive idea. How unlike the ordinary political and, dare I say, governmental approaches. I know there are similar programs available for, at the very least, our area’s youth (funded through our county governments) and those folks do a great job. An awesome job! But in order for that to happen, an enormous amount of red tape and rigmarole must take place. With Bill’s plan the local community funds the endeavor and, even better, gets to participate.

Sadly, however, it did occur to me that, given the fiscal budget of each Christian community in Chico, we could have easily funded this project already. This is the Big Elephant shitting on the carpet, my friends. I found myself asking, Why hasn’t this happened yet? Why haven’t we even thought of supporting this kind of economy (versus our blind allegiance to the consumer economy)? I think it has to do with imagination. Right now, our imaginations are captivated by youtube, NBC, and national voting. Never before in history has there been a culture so defined by mass media and the cult of imperial consumerism. If we weren’t given the options (on our voting day’s ballot) we apparently wouldn’t know how to embody the peculiar politics of Jesus. Kind of sad, don’t you think?

The more I think about it, Bill’s approach represents a completely different way to do church. Moreover, like I imply above, it’s a different way to go about politics. It is a body politic so to speak and it centers itself on the enemy-loving, self-sacrificing way of Jesus. This won’t go over well with folks who want America–”the Christian nation”–to be great. But the world and every kind of household within it seems to be urgently waiting for a response from Christians who seek the Gospel of the Kingdom–the true gospel of “hope,” “change,” “reform,” and “security”!

Like was already said, as a nation, we just got through spending an obscene amount of time, money, and energy both loving and hating national politics and its politicians. Frankly, it’s disgusting how little of those efforts will find their way into our local communities, not to mention into our debts or toward loving our enemies. And how shameful is it that our distinctive Christian imagination has lost its radical nature in the allure of totalizing politics, economics, and faith? I suspect the only way to get back our captivated imaginations is to re-member the peculiar Way of Jesus as local members in communities and places of faith. Perhaps then we won’t look for a savior on Capital Hill, but instead will look, with the folks at the Jesus Center, to the least among us. Perhaps, instead of wanting to elect a candidate, we’ll have an encounter with the difficult-to-elect God of grace, becoming rooted and secured and at home with our Commander-In-Chief and His peaceful Way.

Update: This post was republished over at Jesus Manifesto.

I’m back in Lima. We’re visiting my in-laws for Christmas. Getting here was a disappointing process to say the least (complete with a travel agency ponzi scheme), but we are here now and feel deeply grateful to God and everyone else who prayed for us.

On the Ground: SNL Insults Hipsters Everywhere

1. I wrote a little commentary about an SNL digital short on Jesus Manifesto. I started thinking about the short a tad more seriously when my always clever and sarcastic friend Quinton told me, after I showed him the video, that he thought those wily folks in New York had done a fantastic parody of me. So I wrote it up. The article opens with a question that one of my very hip baby-boomer friends put to me after watching it. The article has got a few comments; they’re pretty funny, worth reading, I think.

The Jesus Center Community Garden or The Community Garden at 14th & Mulberry…which ever you prefer…actually, which do you prefer? It would be nice to know…

1. Read the Chico News & Review write up about the garden here. Sena Christian did an excellent job at capturing an important aspect of the story, having to do with what inspired both Stephanie and I to get our hands dirty with gardening. Hopefully, it inspires other kinds of gifts to the community. The GRUB Cooperative wrote up a story for the garden as well. They were the primary instigators and talent in moving this garden from idea to fruition.
2. Pictures I took:

Occasionally, I feel greatly inspired. Perhaps it doesn’t take much, but I appreciate it when it happens. The idea was to spend the day mostly “taking it easy” with my family and some church friends. Julissa and I had a super long, but amazing day yesterday with a newish group of lively rabble rousers for our Saturday “Coffee & Theology” gathering and then spent the rest of the day with the Price family walking at the park, taking pictures, cooking Lomo Saltado (and, later, creme brulee, thanks to Joshua!). So, today was meant to be restful. And it was. But it was also inspiring.

I had some beautiful conversations with friends about life and pain and friendship and trust. I may have convinced the church I go to to stop using styrofoam cups for coffee, in favor of the hospitality volunteers washing some thrift store mugs I promised to provide for our coffee drinking pleasures. Julissa and I had a great time earlier in the afternoon playing with our son, Santiago, who has totally gotten away with my thinking/feeling/love/heart.

Finally (and I could say more, including a short bit about how awesome it was to hear some old Kevin Prosch played for worship this morning), Julissa and I watched a film short by some of the folks who participate in the 24-7 prayer movement (think UK/Pete Greig/ Boiler Rooms…not IHOP/Kansas City/Mike Bickle) in Germany. Anywho…it documents a few community rhythms that I am more and more fascinated with: hourly prayer, co-housing, and service. It’s inspiring to think of other folks doing things that I am only starting with and hoping to engage. It’s (en)couraging because I need examples of life-giving community to strengthen my faith (not just for me, but also for our family). It’s beautiful because I could see the gleam in Julissa’s eye as she saw how the rhythm was worked out with so many different family types and singles.

I hope/pray our household/family dreams becomes a true incarnation of Christ’s love for the Chapman/Mulberry neighborhood. It’s inspiring, you see. More to come on that later…

All in all, I’m feeling pretty good…weird, huh?

Hello all,

I’m having people over on Sat. 11/21 at 9am for coffee and conversation/theology (14th & Mulberry, Chico, Ca). We’ve done this before, with a small (mostly Paradisian) group of friends who are interested in this sort of thing. Depending on how many people make it, we might spend some time outside around the garden or with kids playing etc. Feel free to join us.

Cheers,

Jason

Paul Munn says in his post “technology and the collective”:

…our mechanized and technologically-driven society tends to dehumanize us and detach us from the natural way of life God created us for. And much of our technological equipment even seems to push us further from each other and from God. But I’ve heard many people blame this on technology itself, as if it is somehow inherently evil, and I don’t agree with that. I think the problem is deeper.

I’ve written much about the idolatry of the social collective, how we organize and institutionalize gathered human beings to form “We, the People,” a power much greater than any one person, a terrible substitute for the Body of Christ. I think our technology, as it has developed, has become a clear reflection of the evils of the social collective. No advanced technology can develop apart from this organization of people, and it necessarily reflects the values of the group. Technological developments have to be funded and so are driven by money and the purposes of the group, because what serves them well is what sells. Technology doesn’t drive itself, though it seems to (yes, I’ve read Ellul’s book). And it doesn’t drive people. People are driven by the power of the collective, driven to develop technology in a certain direction and driven to use it and serve it—or be cut off from the group, the source of life.

I think technology (broadly defined) and the power of “We, the people” are almost the same idea (which is to say that both technology and “We, the people” are ideas). Wendell Berry, a good Luddite, demonstrated how his refusal of a certain technology (a computer) amounted to a great social rejection/offense/marginalization, even among otherwise sympathetic environmentalists. Foucault utilized the term “technologies of the self” to describe this similarity. Wikipedia explains the interaction or overlap like this:

According to Foucault, technologies of the self are the forms of knowledge and strategies that “permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality”…

Foucault argued that technologies of the self must be understood as inextricably linked to his notion of governmentality: the guiding rationalities whereby individuals and social structures regulate and police norms of thought and behavior. Burchell states, “government, is a ‘contact point’ where techniques of domination and technologies of the self ‘interact’.According to Foucault, this “contact point” is where “technologies of domination of individuals over one another have recourse to processes by which the individual acts upon himself and, conversely,…where techniques of the self are integrated into structures of coercion.”

Anyway, I’m not sure I necessarily disagree with Paul’s clarification about technology (not inherently evil), however, its connection and perhaps even similarity to the collective seems to merit more than just a toss-out neutrality.

Hello,

I suppose every garden has a story. Maybe it’s about weeds and keeping every pathway neat. Maybe it’s about fresh produce and eating right off the vine. Maybe it’s about learning to recognize life and watching things grow. No matter the particular language, every garden seems to give its people meaning: family, community, hope for things not seen. The newly planted Jesus Center Community Garden at 14th & Mulberry tells us a unique story as well. It is one of many hands, most not knowing what the other was doing, putting together a beautiful plan to create the roots of food on an unused lot near the Jesus Center.

The idea came about after David Kim (the owner of the property) got in contact with Stephanie Williams (from GRUB), who had already been plotting a similar type of plan. And a seemingly random guy (that’s me…Jason Winton) jumped on board and decided to rent the place, coordinating the site. It’s enough to say all of us had been thinking the same thing: give volunteers the opportunity to work together, alongside the very folks who need fresh produce, to create a garden that would provide healthy food for the Jesus Center Food Pantry. Everyone involved would get to experience “giving back.” And it would constantly remind us of the meaning we started with, this garden’s beautiful story.

Our next workday (the last one for the initial set-up) will be Sunday November 8th from 2-5pm (14th & Mulberry, Chico, Ca). We still need compost donations in order to fill in all the beds (10 yards would do it!). Please contact either Stephanie Williams (530-354-1646), Jason Winton (530-592-6589), or Debra Howell (530-345-2640) for more information.

Plotting Goodness,

Jason Winton