soupablog

rewind

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; being of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made;

Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the Heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man;

And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried;

And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures;

And ascended into the Heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father;

And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end;

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life; Who proceedeth [from the Father]; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets;

In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

I look for the resurrection fo the dead,

And the life of the age to come.  Amen.

hesychia, control freak paul

tomorrow morning i go in really early and finish up designing a guided silent retreat booklet for a couples' weekend up in the texas hill country. i'm really looking forward to it because it'll be one of the first times in a long, long time that I'll be able to catch up with and play music once again alongside my good friend Chris Taylor

He and I and Travis and Martin will be leading worship for the retreat starting tomorrow night. we practiced last night and that was rewarding. we realized noodling around how closely matt redman's worship hit takes its cues and cadences from U2's 'with or without you' -- so we're going to quote the latter song heavily during the arrangement for th former.

but the highlight of the retreat for me will be waldemar's leading the group in a silent retreat.

i've done this with other groups, and i'm pleased to be a part, but i'm most interested in taking part myself. not meaning to sound selfish, but after a draining lunch with cliff where we plumbed the depths of my sinful soul (a sound like i'm being facetous, but trust me, i'm just being alliterative), i'm looking forward to some reflection, to hear from God, or at least wait upon His name. i think some big changes are in store for me. and maybe not even the ones i had in mind. :)

see, i gotta let go.

i'm a control freak. my closest friends know that about me. i'm just learning it.

it makes sense. i control photos down to the pixel. i nudge type to the ten-thousandths of an em-space when called for, i edit words until they are distilled and clear (okay, maybe not here on the blog, but stay with me here)... I rehash lyrics and chords in my songs and am a tuning nazi; i battle the canvas for control and give up time and time again because painting and control are antithetical in my world. and i probably edit my own blog postings (one word here, one word there) about as often as george lucas revises his star wars scripts. in fact, that last sentence and this one was part of an edit to this original posting. you'd never know that if i hadn't just typed this.

part of my growing up in 2004/2005 is to learn to give up control.

because i control to garner acceptance.

and i garner acceptance because i fear i don't measure up.

this blog is even a control device. it allows me to present a filtered version of me for posterity. life-caching is by its nature prideful and revisionist. white washed tombs.

and it all boils down to not trusting that God is good, present, capable and able.

i believe, Lord, but help my unbelief.

Recap: Emergent values for a church planting mode

this is a frist stab, about four hours of wordsmithing. i'm posting it in loose draft form in hopes that i can get some feedback. this would be an emergent values set for a church plant. this takes my last 7 Values Set and distills them, and fills in some missing holes, and more importantly, fits everything on a single page.
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Recap: Emergent values for a church planting mode
paul soupiset

1. Unity amidst diversity.

~ We value the whole Church as the body and bride of Jesus Christ our Lord and long for a recovered apostolic tradition.

~ We seek to recover a Spirit-led, healing unity that allows for the Church’s myriad differences and complexity.

~ We value and welcome people regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey, offering them a safe place.

~ We welcome the diversity of our God-given humanity. We value a spirituality which seeks not to conform nor limit but seeks to embrace the mosaic of race, gender, age, giftedness, wealth, poverty, ethnicity, language and culture. Our leadership must also reflect this diversity.

2. Experiencing God in worship.

~ We value worship that is God-centered.

~ We value proclaiming the story of God, remembering thankfully His saving history, His action to rescue and renew Creation, and anticipating His final redemption. We seek to embody God-centered worship through a liturgy of shared lives, the apostles’ teaching, the sacraments, prayer, silence and meditation, the proclamation of the Word, incorporation of the creative arts, poetry, parables, laments, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs —and other participatory, scriptural means.

~ We value freedom in worship and seek to cultivate engaged worshippers that are authentic, participatory, contemplative and multi-sensory.

~ We value worship which honors, communicates and invites us to particpate in the Holy Trinity. Our worship aims to reflect the mystery and trancendence of God the Father; to proclaim the story and bear witness to the incarnation and redemptive acts of God the Son in Jesus; experience the presence of God the Spirit through community and symbol.

3. A missional community.

~ We value neighbors. We strive to prefer others before self.

~ We seek to be a missional community, distinctive yet culturally-engaged and culturally-sensitive. We seek to be a permeable community that never insulates, protects nor isolates itself from life in the world. We value the laity of the church as the primary means to accomplish the messy, work of the kingdom, reproducing believers, fostering spiritual disciplines, and multiplying churches.

~ We value Jesus Christ’s call to follow Himself back into the margins of society to proclaim and embody the Gospel. We value sharing the gospel primarily by telling our stories with sympathy, patience, and creativity to an audience for whom our examples, terms, language, prayer might be a foreign tongue. God can use our stories in transformational ways.

4. Authenticity.

~ We value honesty, brokenness and confession before Holy God, desiring to be similarly transparent with and accountable to others about our inmost struggles, doubts, thoughts, hopes, transgressions and struggles. We will regard others’ stories and confessions with grace, patience, confidentiality, and love, emphasizing healing and inward transformation.

~ We seek to recover an ethos of mystery and paradox, living with hard questions that have no easy answers, and to live within and minister amidst the tension that Jesus Christ told us to expect.

5. A (generous) orthodox Tradition.

~ We value and affirm the view of God as laid out in the Nicene Creed, which is rooted in sacred scripture.

~ We value the inherited Tradition of the church, including the classic spiritual disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, study, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, and the observance of the christian calendar.

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saints

June 29 is the commemoration of the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul.

St. Augustine wrote of today:

Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.

^{(sermon 295)}

daily office, common prayer, help

sorry, but I'm not Anglican, and I have some questions:

Okay, there's the Book of Common Prayer, and then there's the Daily Office, with mulitple year's worth of volumes; then there's the revised Daily Office; then there's some new lectionary for Sundays only.... then there's the Daily Office online here at St. Clare (Rite I & II, plus devotionals for many mainline Protestant traditions). The online offers PDFs and PDA downloads, etc.
another great site is oremus.org

Is there a single volume containing the content of the Book of Common Prayer plus the Daily Office books? Or, better put, the Mission of St. Clare describes the morning and evening Rites "as published in The Book of Common Prayer." -- but my Book of Common Prayer must be truncated or something. But the lady at the bookstore assured me that my BoCP is the same as everyone else's. Am I merely confused or missing something?

Phos Hilaron

O gracious light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of Life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

here's me almost 15 years ago. i turn 35 tomorrow. time does fly.

in the declarative

To whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life,
and we have believed and have come to know
that You are the Holy One of God.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ,
King of endless glory.

creation is full of light

from the Syrian Orthodox Church:

"Open to us, Lord, your great door; O Fountain of all mercy, hear our prayer and save our souls. Shine upon me, Lord, and I shall be light like the day; I will sing your praise in light while I marvel; may the morning awaken me to the praise of your Godhead and I will pursue the study of your word all the day long. With the day may your light shine on our thoughts and may it drive away the shadows of error from our souls. The creation is full of light, give light also to our hearts that they may praise you with the day and the night."

Evening Prayer

Yours is the day, O God, yours also the night; you established the moon and the sun. You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:15,16

for my grandmother, Geneva:

Look with mercy, O God our Father, on all persons who have become ill, weak, distressed, or isolated. Provide for them homes of dignity and peace; give them understanding helpers, and the willingness to accept help; and increase their faith and their assurance of your love. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

from the Book of Common Prayer

Holy and Gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and when we had fallen into sin and became subject to evil and death, you in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal son, to share our human nature, to live and to die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, then God and Father of all.