This past weekend, I spent about 3 days in the beautiful knob country of Nelson County Kentucky in the monastery of Gethsemani. It’s located about 12 miles south of Bardstown, KY on about 12,000 acres of beautiful land. After talking about a pilgrimmage to Gethsemani for several years, I finally made it down there.

Usually, retreatants spend either Monday thru Friday or Friday to Monday at the retreat house. You need to call several months in advance to schedule a spot in the retreat house. Or if you’re a dude and don’t plan quite that far ahead, you can stay in the “south wing” which is part of the monastic area where they’ve designated a couple of floors for male retreatants. Accomodations (including meals on the weekends only I believe) are offered for a free-will donation which you can tuck in an envelope and leave on your way out or mail to the Abbey.

The monks gather in the Abbey Church 7 times a day for prayers which begins with vigils at 3:15 am. I never actually joined them that early, but I did make it for Lauds at 5:45 am both mornings. The prayer liturgy combined with the sense of sacred space added much to my experience.

During the morning I set off on a couple of hikes and enjoyed absolutely perfect weather for the whole weekend.

As my retreat time came to a close, I sensed that God was teaching me about my need for contemplation, silence, prayer, and a more disciplined life/schedule in general. Returning to the world of common daily tasks, obligations, and routines…I hope to implement a kind of monastic “Rule” for living this Fall. Two days into the new routine, I can say that I’m batting a thousand! 

A View of the Abbey/Monastery from Monks Road

But whether or not a particular schedule is sustainable or not doesn’t change the fact that I need to be much more disciplined and intentional about my daily times of prayer, reading scripture, contemplation, worship, service, etc. With a new quarter of ministry to college students at UC right around the corner of the calendar, I know that my best hope of impacting and influencing college students will be to model a life of faith that demonstrates intimacy with God, compassion for those around me, and authenticity  with students.

Here are a few quotes which stand out:

“It’s about talented people committed to perfecting their art as far as possible.”

CCM is about “an excellence that communicates, spreads out and contributes to its community.”

“In a culture awash in mediocrity, CCM is a place where people can strive for nothing less than their best – and remind the rest of us how high the bar should be.”

As a novice musician myself, I have a particular interest and passion for connecting with CCM students and seeing them integrate their calling as musicians & performers with their faith. Recently, I met a grad student in the jazz studies program who is a fellow saxophonist. His life was transformed by God through an Inter Varsity campus ministry during his undergrad years in New Hampshire (one of his classmates is pictured w/ the tenor saxophone to the right). Jon is not only passionate about being an excellent saxophonist, he has a tremendous calling to share Christ with those around him. So several weeks ago, I came alongside of Jon in a supportive/mentoring role as he launched a new bible study to CCM students at UC.

Although the CCM culture is mostly antagonistic towards the Christian faith, Jon is being faithful to this calling and drawing students to God’s word through a study of the life/ministry of Jesus each Monday night on campus.

I’m pretty excited that I get to be a part of Jon’s faith journey for a couple of years here in Cincinnati. There’s no doubt that he will leave Cincinnati with some serious musical credentials. But I also pray that he’ll leave a legacy of transformed lives as he pours his heart into this unlikely kind of “music ministry.”

Our Formed collaborative gathered this morning to put the finishing touches on our “Work”-themed seminar this weekend. More info about that here. Our meeting location has been on my list of cafes to visit for several weeks now.

Park+Vine is what you would call a Green General Store with a cafe. They are located off Main Street in the Over The Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. The old Kaldi’s coffee shop is their new home, and the place looks great. Although they have a variety of interesting products, the cafe was my main interest today.

Featuring an old-world Victoria Arduino 3-group machine and espresso from La Terza (a local coffee roasterie in Northside)…you can get some of the best capps and lattes in the city right here.

(Pictured to the right is a 2-group version of their espresso machine.)

Although they have a limited amount of seating, there’s a large table that is great for groups of 6-8 and a couple of smaller tables as well.

You could also pull up a seat on one of the bar stools and have a friendly conversation with the barista as s/he steams up some great soy for your espresso beverage (the store and cafe is totally vegan).

Local art which has been created mostly with reclaimed materials adds an extra creative vibe to the space as well.

Although I never had the opportunity to visit this location when it was the old Kaldi’s, I’ve heard that Park+Vine made some great improvements by brightening and livening up the decor. Come check it out for yourself soon.

Faith & Repentance are the mechanisms by which we grow. Our guest speaker, David Kim from Gotham Fellowship in New York City (out of Redeemer Presbyterian Church w/ Tim Keller) pointed out that sanctification is the process by which we become more like Christ.

For some reason, images of Tony Horton and flashbacks of P90X workouts popped into my head. Tony calls it “muscle confusion.” That’s why those P90X workouts have so much variety and a 90-day rotation system. To make a muscle grow, you must force it to encounter resistance and in every-increasing doses. In addition to that, varying your routine keeps the muscle from becoming comfortable with a particular movement which results in a plateau.

This can certainly happen within the context of our sanctification and spiritual growth. Unless we are continually coming to a place of faith & repentance, the stream of our spiritual life becomes stagnant. Stagnant water stinks. There’s no flow…direction…energy.

Just a couple of evenings ago, I set aside some time for prayer and repentance. Over the past few months, for a variety of reasons, my sense of God’s presence and my own willingness to engage the Scriptures and prayer had become quite weak. This very lesson was being spoken to me by the Spirit and thankfully I responded (this time). The extent to which that time of prayer on Sunday evening restored my soul and transformed my mind continues to surprise me. In describing the experience to a friend, I likened it to the feeling of responding to God at a Thursday night youth camp service…when you walk away from a time of prayer and repentance feeling about 50 lbs lighter!

In order to continue a trajectory of spiritual growth…we must continually engage our faith muscles and do the heavy lifting of repentance.

The story of Arthur Guinness and his faith is one that could inspire anyone to search for the secret of integrating vocation, calling, and work. As I disciple college students, one of the values I hope to instill in them is a grand vision for integrating faith with their academic and vocational pursuits.

For the past 250 years, members of the Guinness family have pursued various careers in brewing, banking, ministry/missions, etc. What most encourages me from their story is the redemptive use of wealth and commitment to leverage their passion and their lives for the benefit of others.

I began reading this book while flying to Atlanta for a marathon last month and nearly finished it on the plane. Even as I often see something as so-called  “secular” as running to be a spiritual endeavor, I was certainly challenged to think about brewing beer as a calling and a craft. This is probably not hard to believe given my own view of coffee, espresso, and hospitality.  Here are a few lines from the book which especially caught my attention:

“They did not see themselves as secular, but rather as called.”

“It seems that Patrick [Saint] understood godly hospitality and captured many an Irish tribal chieftain with his tasty beer before he won the man for God.”

“…the firm promised to hold the job of any man who enlisted in the armed forces and to pay him half his salary while he served.”

This last statement is one of hundreds of examples of corporate responsibility which Guinness pioneered from the early days. From providing health care, housing, financial assistance, and many other services during the most devastating times in Dublin, the brewery set amazingly high standards for the treatment of employees and their families.

Mansfield’s book tells a great story of faith and craft while inspiring one to search more carefully for God in his/her vocation as well.

At the first worship gathering, I saw some old friends and connected with people in a way that was familiar, comfortable, etc. Since I was meeting up with a student and his mom, it was also a great opportunity to build relationships and connect with someone that I am discipling. During that service, the pastor brought some challenging and inspirational thoughts about ‘church’ from Hebrews 10. Interestingly, embedded in this passage is a set of verses which I’ve been recently trying to commit to memory.

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts psrinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

These couple of verses (vv.22-23 of chapter 10) have been part of my “freedom journey” over the past few weeks as I continue the process of living completely in the awareness of God’s grace and not out of any ability to live righteously on my own.

But the encouraging words the pastor shared today emphasized what we can experience as church based on the reconciling and priestly work Christ finished on the cross for us. A priest builds a bridge between people and God. And Jesus did that once and for all so that we have direct access (in the context of community) to God. This access doesn’t legitimize the individual attempt to live a life of faith, but should increase our awareness of what it means to belong to one another IN Christ.

Often times, pastors come across as desperately trying to convince people to come to church for trivial reasons:

• for the sake of numbers
• or to sustain the church financially
• perhaps to feed the pastor’s ego for “success”
• etc

But this morning I heard a passionate and scriptural call for believers to be engaged in the community of faith. It’s a two-way street. We don’t just go to church for what we can get out of it, or because we desperately need it even. And in fact, when we think of it in terms of “going to church” we’ve already betrayed a lack of understanding in what it means to BE the church…to intimately BELONG with a group of people who share in this transforming journey of relationship to God through faith in Christ.

Having had lots of knee pain and a drastically reduced training schedule, I was really unsure of how my body would respond to the 26.2 mile test this time around.

Greg and I arrived downtown Atlanta with plenty of time to park and find the starting corrals. We made the mistake of waiting to use the restroom near the start area though and the lines were backed up to a ridiculous point. After scouting out a restroom in the restaurant of a nearby hotel I made it back to the start line just in time to see the initial festivities. I watched a few thousand people pass by before I spotted Greg, my running buddy from Athens, GA. The ING Georgia marathon experience was underway for both of us.

For the first 6 miles of the course I ran at Greg’s pace and we enjoyed some occasional  chatting. Between mile 2 & 3, Greg stopped for a potty break and I noticed that my knee pain was already flaring up. Not good! But we were having a good time running figure 8′s, hopping curbs, and generally goofing off…which helped distract from the belligerent knee.

As we came up a hill on mile 6, the course split and separated the half from the full-marathoners. Greg and I exchanged some “skin” and went our separate ways. He was shooting for 2:20 or less on the half and I was hoping for anything sub 4:30 on the full. It must have been between mile 7-8 that we ran through the Candler Park area and I noticed the left knee was quieting down. Hmmm…that’s a good sign, right?! There were several nice stretches of course that went through beautiful/historic neighborhoods and college campuses. I especially remember downtown Decatur as a nice spot along the course with plenty of cheering crowds to keep the spirits high.

Dedicated Decatur Fans

Coming out of Decatur I remember thinking “Hey, I feel pretty good! This might actually end well.” At mile 14 I started a split time on my watch planning to run the next six miles in less than an hour. But at mile 17 I had to take a walk break and the left knee flared up once again as we meandered through a very nice residential area. I was climbing a hill to the 18-mile marker when it became quite clear that pain was going to be my companion all the way to the finish. By the time I got to mile 20, I was having difficulty putting much weight on the left knee. So my right leg was really taking a beating.

After passing the mile 21 sign we came into a park and ran a little loop that turned around at the 22 mile marker. I was walking a good bit during this stretch and met a guy from Wooster, OH who was also trying to manage some discomfort. At this point I also caught up to a guy named Kevin who kept me company and offered some encouragement for a little while. He was from Atlanta and actually running his 26th marathon. Originally I had noticed Kevin because he was wearing a knee brace. Somewhere between miles 12 and 16 I asked him how the knee was holding up as I passed by. He and I exchanged multiple conversations throughout the 2nd half of the course.

A Picture of Pain

Just before mile marker #22 I went from a hobble-walk to a hobble-jog and had hopes of running out the final two miles of the course. But the legs were spent and the left knee continued in its degradation while the back of my right knee started stiffening up severely. I geared down to a shuffling pace once again. The frustration was mounting as I sensed the weight of my own disappointment with the day’s effort. The 5-hour mark was getting dangerously close and I certainly did not want to breach that old performance threshold again.

Just after passing the mile 25 station, I stretched out the stride and set my mind on a sold finish. Fortunately the noise and cheers of the crowd always energize me and I saw the last turn coming up on my left. As I neared the corner some guy cheered me on saying, “Just turn the corner and you’re done.” Sure enough, I turned that corner and the finish line was downhill and less than 100 yards away. There was my buddy Greg…cheering me across the finish line.

In spite of the pain and damage which would take several weeks to fully recover from, my goal of running another 26.2 in a new state was accomplished.

It’s easy to see that when forced to convey the most dramatic parts of the Christian story in a short period of time, parts of the story are easily overlooked. In the process, Christianity was losing its profound and life-giving answers to central questions no longer representing an entire life-system and worldview. It had become relegated to a personal, spiritual decision about where you would spend the afterlife.

This is a theme and over arching question which is driving many Christians to re-think what the “Gospel” is all about.

The title of the article is INFLUENCING CULTURE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CHURCH.

Gabe makes a correlation between the personalization of the Gospel and the influence of Christianity on the broader culture. As the former increases the latter decreases.

He goes on to say,

When Christians dismiss the cultural mandate as an insignificant part of the Christian life, separatism and piety increases and cultural influence fades, But, if Christians learn and embrace the full story gospel and partner with God in restoring and redeeming his creation, their cultural influence will follow and the Good News will spread.

Later he challenges those of us in the church by saying “This vision demands that leaders in the church wrestle with the complexity of embodying the Gospel in culture. As the church rediscovers its unique role in culture, and supports the calling of their cultural influencers, it will be a force for good in our communities, cities and the country.”

The weather is extremely fabulous today as well. That brings me to the front steps of the Edge House where I like to sit and watch the traffic and pedestrians.

The view is nothing that you would find on a postcard at the University bookstore, but it’s OUR view…from the steps…of our little place…on the Edge of campus.

From left to right it looks like this…

Especially at this time of day, (between 3-6pm) there’s a constant flow of traffic…and people walking up and down Clifton Avenue. Ocassionally I convince a random unsuspecting student to stop for a latte or shot of espresso. I think I’m getting a reputation for dealing Java here at three-double-0-seven Clifton Ave.

Some of our usuals are here…Kelli is on the porch with me sipping a iced white mocha. Paul and Andy just walked up with their laundry baskets (which probably saves them $5 or $7 compared to the dorm option).  The open grassy spot across the way beckons my inner frisbee self. It’s simply a beautiful day…in the Fall…it’s warm…and we’re all feeling a bit fuzzy about it.

On most days I can generate enough reflection and focus to bring one event or thought to the surface.

Rarely are there days like today…I have about five different directions to go and the inability to filter or patiently tuck something away for tomorrow.

At her blog, Karen Spears Zacharias interacts with an emerging Christian and Donald Miller’s new book to provide some insights regarding holiness, hope, and transformation.  I especially liked this statement:

“Hope is a great thing,” I added. “But it’s like Pastor said this morning, the thing Christ offers us that we can’t find anywhere else is transformation.”

She goes on in one of the posted comments to share a good word of caution. Sometimes in our attempt to steer clear of fundamentalism, we may actually lose sight of  a few fundamentals of faith.

Another direction I was interested in taking the blog today has to do with my ministry among students at the University of Cincinnati. Although we are encountering a few challenges to this  ‘missionary’ adventure, some huge affirmation came my way as I was meeting with a couple of students today.

As goofy as it may sound, attempting to follow Jesus’ model of intentionally discipling a few people has not been an easy sell. Whether the ‘resistance’ comes from internal insecurity, ministry supervisors, pastoral or congregational expectations…I have to commit to the vision and strategy repeatedly.

During the lunch conversation with my discipleship group today, we read this powerful truth about Jesus:

“Jesus had enough vision to think small”

I love that statement. It is so counter intuitive. Especially in the church, at pastors’ gatherings, etc…the usual mantra is dream big, plan big, and succeed in those terms. Jesus succeeded by limiting the scope of his ministry in order to expand his impact. Being intentional with a few could lead to so much more lasting spiritual impact than we often experience in our discipling efforts.

Reminds me of some other great experiences and adventures I’ve had in ministry with just a few guys at a time (like a little campout with Witten & Scott–pictured). In all those experiences and relationships, there were a few common ingredients: intentionality, God’s Word, genuine friendship.