The Supreme Council of the House of Jacob in a Radiohead t-shirt

[Tony]After 180 on Sunday morning, I decided to come back to the pad to relax. I initially had a strong desire to take a righteous nap before Sanctuary, however, I also felt God asking me to use my time to go wandering. So, I gave God my feet and started walking. I actually had thought a few days earlier that it might be in my own interest, and the interest of those of us here in the house, to get involved in a church community here in our neighborhood. So, I began my walk hoping to come across a church close by for us to try down the road. I walked down the street, and immediately walked by a church called “the Supreme Council of the House of Jacob.” There were a whole bunch of people outside who were dressed up in suits and dresses and I almost walked straight in. However, since I hadn’t even walked far enough to not see my own bedroom, I decided to keep walking. I walked a few blocks, through some houses, parks, and around Dayton’s Bluff Elementary School. Oh, how the hood comes alive on Sunday afternoons. People were out walking, like me, saying hello as they walked by. There were a whole bunch of people out exercising in the football field and as a rounding the corner and heading back to my house I noticed that some of the people who were outside of the church were sitting across the street listening to the football game. I decided to start a conversation and asked them if they went to the church I mentioned earlier. They said they were and started talking all about it. They told me it was a non-denominational Christian church, asked me where I was from, where I went to church, if I was trying to find a new church home, and then told me that they had a service starting at three o’clock. Then they insisted that I come in with them. Keep in mind that I was wearing blue jeans, a Radiohead t-shirt, and a baby blue bandana while they were wearing suits and ties. I asked if I would be okay and they told me that I could wear whatever I wanted. So, I went inside and sat by my new friend who told me to call him “Bonzo.” To say the least, I got my fair share of attention when I walked in with Bonzo, considering the blue jeans and Radiohead t-shirt and the fact that I was the only white person in the entire congregation. The worship that was happening was so alive and electric. People were dancing in the aisles and singing as loud as they could for their God. There were only a select few song books floating around, but as soon as people noticed their new visitor, the song books started migrating my way. I sang with them and I clapped and swayed with the rhythm and then I listened to the speakers. At the end there was a time for members of the church to “testify” before the congregation. The last person to testify finished his prayer with this praise “Dear God we thank you for bringing us a new visitor. He didn’t know any of our songs but he was trying so hard to sing with us and praise you, so we thank you for bringing him to us today.” Then he looked at me and said “Brother, would you like to testify today?” To say the least, I was not ready for that one. I hesitated for a second and then told him that maybe I would in a few weeks but first I wanted to get to know them. Bonzo leaned over and told me that that was a good answer. After the service a whole bunch of people came over and introduced themselves and told me to come back with my roommates, which I fully intend on doing ….

Hood Steals Emergency Fire Extinguisher... No Fire Reported

[James] Well, my brother called it. He told me that the first thing that would be stolen from our house was the emergency fire extinguisher that I keep on the roll cage of my Jeep. It is strapped in, but not locked in place. This morning I woke up to realize that there must have been a terrible fire that required the use of my fire extinguisher. I am so glad that I was able to assist somebody in this desperate time of need. The fire extinguisher meant little to me, and if anything was of mostly pure aesthetic value. Many off roading vehicles keep a fire extinguisher to put out engine fires.

I know that no one would just steal something like this for fun or for the mere fact that they could... right? I wish now that I could place 100 fire extinguishers on the sidewalk next to my jeep with a free sign. Because apparently there is a great need for them. hmm....

Seminary

[James] After a God-series of events, I was led to return to school this fall. Although this is something that I had always wanted to do, I didn't think that it would be happening so soon!

On Monday I had orientation at Bethel Seminary where I will be completing my Masters or my Masters of Divinity over the next 3 or 5 years, respectfully. I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity to learn, to grow, to be challenged and to be surrounded by life minded/hearted people. I know that it will most certainly stretch me, pull me, tear me, but I pray, it won't break me. As a pastor I know that this will give me so many awesome tools for ministry.

My concentration is a major entitled, "Master of Arts in Ministry and Community Leadership." I was so happy to hear that my first two courses this fall were to be "Church History" and "Compassionate Urban Ministry." Being in the classroom, studying the Christ centered hope of Urban Ministry and living it out each day will be one of my greatest journeys!

So be praying for me as I begin this radical endevour. It will be by His strength that I proceed.

"Ekklesiah" a language history lesson

[Tony] The name Ekklesiah has become both symbolic and personal here in our new home. We have dubbed our home with the name “Ekklesiah House,” which is a term based closely on the word “ecclesia.” If you were to look up the word “ecclesia” in a dictionary you would find two definitions which seem vastly different from one another. The first definition will probably be related to a division within the government of ancient Athens. The ecclesia, to Athenians, was “ the political assembly of citizens of an ancient Greek state.” The ecclesia was an organized gathering of Greek citizens who assembled in accordance with their respective states to discuss political issues, leadership, laws, etc. This was a political function and was essential to the statehood governmental system of the Greeks. Ecclesia was also a term that applied to Roman politics before, during and after Jesus’ life. In his book Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne spells the word “ekklesia,” and illustrates its influence in Roman political systems: “Ekklesia: A local public assembly within the greater Roman Empire, much like a town meeting. These assemblies bestowed citizenship, discussed local political concerns, assigned ’elders’, and offered prayer and worship to Caesar. There was no separation of religion and secular political business.”
The word “ecclesia” also carries with it another connotation that seems unrelated to the first, however, compared in a social context, their relationship is not only important, but as Jesus has shown us, dangerous to the survival of the other. The second definition of “ecclesia” is “a church, either as a building or a body.” This was a word that applied to another assembly of people who were followers and supporters of their own sets of laws, rules, traditions, values, and politics. This body of people was the church. In the earliest period of the church, followers of Jesus showed that their ecclesia was just as political as the ecclesia of the Roman government (check out the Book of Acts if you want a few examples). This definition of ecclesia clashed dramatically with the first. One definition represents the power, authority and culture of the Roman government. The other definition represents followers of an ultimate authority and a set of rules and culture that follow the will of God instead of aligning with the will of the Roman government and its leaders. Claiborne defines this body of followers as follows: “Ekklesia: word used for the early church. ’Emphasizes that the followers of Jesus were called to participate in their world as local communities of an alternative society to the Roman imperial order.’ Bestowed alternative citizenship and assigned elders. Though it discussed its own political and religious concerns, it was understood as separate from, and in contrast to, the state and the other ekklesiai, their politics, and their religion.”
The key words of the second definition are words like: “alternative,” “its own,” “local communities,” “separate from,” “in contrast to.” Given these two definitions and knowing that both operated and were used within the same language at the same time in history implies the drastic social contradiction that was at hand. Here, in our own home, in our own time, we believe that this social contradiction is still very alive. We believe that we have a choice of which authority we subscribe our allegiance to. We believe that their Rome is our America. We also believe that our lives, our actions, our beliefs, our values, and our desires resemble which kingdom our allegiance lies. We have slightly altered the word again, in order to personalize it, to make it our own, and in turn, to be able to more closely relate to its meaning. “Ekklesiah” has become a symbol of our function here in Dayton’s Bluff. “Ekklesiah” is a place in which and through which followers of Jesus embody the values, politics, culture, and society of God. In comparison to the culture we have become a part of, we hope that our devotion to divine authority offers others an “alternative” to what they know without God. We hope to separate ourselves from the idols of our culture- from our pursuit of money, power, pride, self indulgence, and so many other common goals which our dominant culture has taught us to pursue. We pray that we will be a contrast to the desires of our culture here. We pray that we will be light in times of darkness, that we will be a voice in and for the silent, we will be a community in an economy of self-fulfillment, our love will be paralyzing in the ears of hate as it manifests, we will replace guns with shared meals, replace greed with jubilee, and replace our idols with worship of God. “Ekklesiah” is the embodiment of an alternative, separate, and intrinsically different way of life that is devoted to allowing the spirit of God to work through us by dying internally to our desires to subscribe to the ways of the Rome we need to separate from. When separated, Ekklesiah will spread like mustard seed through a garden, or like yeast through bread. I leave you with a visual example of what we pray we will be in our new home and community.
--- take a cup and fill it with water. The water inside the cup is made up of a collection of hydrogen and oxygen atoms (two hydrogen atoms to every one oxygen to be exact!). These atoms together make water molecules that become the water inside the cup. Without contamination, the water is clear as every molecule becomes part of what collectively becomes the water you see. If you take a drop of that water out of the cup, what is left inside is that same as before, just less of it. However, if you replace that drop of water with a drop of food coloring, a single drop will transform the appearance and structure of the entire cup of water. It is still water inside the cup, yet the water looks different and is different from its original state. Now, if you take a society of people who live their lives according to a general set of cultural values, then you have a society that will look like whatever those values are. Like the hydrogen and oxygen, if the values of your culture are money and power, then together a culture is formed that resembles those values. But, if you put one drop of something else into that culture, something that is fundamentally different, something that looks different, lives different, and submits to an entirely different set of values, you will change the appearance of the entire culture, like the food coloring did to the water.

We hope to be that food coloring here.

First visit from the 5-0

[James] We were all plesently surprised by the front page article in the Dayton's Bluff newspaper this week. There, in full dress standing in front of his own new squad car, was a very familiar face...

One of the greatest perks so far here in Dayton's bluff is the fact that one of Ryan's and my best friends from high school is a police officer here on the East side. Mike McNeill has been with us from our later years in high school, drama with girls, late night hysteria, my move to Montana, his time serving in Kosovo, our transitions into adulthood; including his marriage and the beginnings of our full time careers, and then now, with our move here. Even though Mike strongly discouraged us from moving in here from the beginning, after a surprise visit yesterday he started getting excited about us being in the area. But even be it that our place is so fun and full of life, it doesn't remove us from the lives around us and the risks that we are taking.

Last night Mike stopped by again later on his shift. He informed me that he was outside by shining his spotlight in through our window. Ryan and I jumped with greater joy than Mr. Rogers when Trollie came through his little door. Kelly, Ryan and I stepped outside to hang with Mike. We were sitting and shooting the breeze until he was notified that there was a gun shot reporting just two blocks away. He jumped into his car and Dukes of Hazarded it out of here. It turns out that someone did get grazed by a bullet. The shooter ran off on foot succesfully evading the officers. After Mike returned, we all shared a mix of laughs in thinking just how cool it is that Mike has grown from being the one being pulled over by cops for our games and wrestless behavior to patroling riots, arresting people and keeping peace in a neighborhood such as this. But at the same time it was a reminder that living here is not all fun and games.

I am so excited to be able to see Mike more and to serve side by side with him. Even though we work in two different capacities, our house's hope is similar to that of the laws. I am not sure yet how the neighborhood will respond to us being "in" with the cops, but I'd rather be friends of the law than foes. Time will tell how this will all play out or for what greater purposes God has for us. I can say that it's prettay shweet having a police officer lookin after us.

In the beginning...

On September 1st of 2008, four guys from the city of Cottage Grove Minnesota moved into an apartment on the bluffs of downtown St Paul. After moving back from college, each of the four lived with family for the purpose of convenience, frugality, timing or just lack of better options.
That was until God began to stir a dream in our hearts...

[James] After college I heard the phrase, "Welcome to the real world." more than I cared to. It's as if college life was some fairytale that we all have to wake up from eventually, as if living in community among friends and peers is just a phase, as if being a part of active and alive fellowship was unrealistic, as if learning, being challenged and living with a purpose greater than ourselves were all causes that you only get to be a part of between the ages of 18 and 22. Well, maybe I am just one of those boys that doesn't want to become a man. It is entirely possible that one day I will wake up and realize that I have been the last to jump on the "real world" band wagon and it is my time. But for now, I know that I am more alive and filled with wonder, purpose and passion than I have ever been.

Moving to Dayton's Bluff was only partially intentional but fully divine. There is no doubt in my mind that the reason I could not find another housing situation for the past 6 months was that it is all part of a greater plan. There is no doubt that having three amazing brother's of mine willing and able to live in this place, at this time, is all part of a greater plan. There is no doubt that the reason I happened to stumble across this amazing remodled church for a reasoable price in an absolute ideal location is that it is all a part of a greater plan. And to top it all off we arrived here to discover that the name of our housing complex was "The Ecclesia Apartments"...