Temporarily Insane.

Instead of trying to welcome people to Connection, what about being able to be welcomed by our community? Instead of trying to fill out our building with people on Sunday, what about trying to have a strong representation of us in the midst of the place we live? Instead of planning for Sunday, what about planning for every day of the week? What if instead of programs we create events where the arts in all its forms can be share to every person and we become comunicators of diversity, justice, and harmony among each other? What if we can be an influence of education and acceptance in our city?

We, as Christians, are usually described as closed minded people by others outside of our belief and I truly agree with them, because for a moment I can be temporarily insane when I am not willing to think and re-think. Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it” Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. So why we keep doing the same? How can we become open minded people willing to rethink, recreate, rebuild, and re-transform? and leave the “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” mentality.

Are we really willing to change? I am, but I do not know where  and how to start.

Re-Think..Re-Create,

I have been introduced to the music of Zakir Hussain an Indian tabla musician who can do wonders with his intrument, and for the last day I have been enjoying the great music he brings to me. It as a very energetic rhythym but at the same time it can bring a sense of peace to my soul. While I listen to it, I keep thinking about the conversation I had with a friend yesterday when he told me that in order to become a place open for everybody we needed to recreate the concept of what church means for us. Then I realized that we not only we need to recreate, but we need to rethink what we are doing. Another friend told me “we need another reformation” and I absolutetly agree with him. Rethink and recreate are  intrinsic parts of changing the way we do things, but we also need to learn how to face resistance to be able to welcome anybody. I will also say that we don’t need just to welcome, but to go out and become part of this changing community.

What is wrong with what I believe?

“When we have no project to finish, no friend to visit, no book to read, no television to watch or not record to play, and when we are left all alone by ourselves we are brought so close to the revelation of our basic human aloneness and are so afraid of experiencing an all pervasive sense of loneliness that we will do anything to get busy again and continue the game”
–Hernry Nuwen

I wake up with this question specially because I am in a stage of doubt about many things I have been believing for the last 18 years. Suddenly I realized that my faith has been based in what others have told me about how Christianity should be, but the more I read the Gospels and the more I know about Jesus’ culture, the more I realize that I may have many things wrong. For example the concept of early church and today’s church or even what was church for Jesus? Or what about Christianity, what is exactly to be a Christian? The apostles never called themselves Christians. What we have as sacraments of the church and many other traditions came originally from the Roman Catholic Church. I saw the news that some experts have come to the conclusion that Jesus was not born in December but in April (I have heard that for a long time), so why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December or why do we even celebrate the birth of Jesus, because the Bible doesn’t say anything  about how to celebrate this festivity. These are the many questions I have right now wondering in my mind and I know that when I give myself the opportunity to doubt and think I can be able to strengthen my faith.

“If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?”

—  Douglas Noel Adams

Religious Experience

Last Wednesday I went to Nashville for a “religious experience” according to myself.  Yes I drove one hour in a very foggy night with the company of good friends to be involved in the release of the CD of Danny Salazar and Trova Urbana. I met Danny a couple months ago when he came to play at Connection in our first cultural night. The night was amazingly awesome; his music is a combination of all the rhythms of Latin-America passing through bossanova, salsa, cumbia, bachata, etc. The miracle during this night was that Paula danced for almost two hours with me!!! wow!! Let me tell you that in itself was the religious experience, being able to enjoy with her one of my most enjoyable passion: dancing. I have always say, If your feet can not dance; Let your spirit and soul do it for you”, but you better take some classes.

Let me just explain why I said it was religious. Something is religious to me when I am able to experience the magnificent awesomness of God through the many manifestation He has given us. I experience that through the music, work of art, writings ,good reading, good friends, when I can be hospitable towards others, on good and deep conversation, when I laugh until I can no more, or through the sensation I feel when the congas, trumpets and rhytms flow trhough my body and touch my soul and spirit. How can I keep wanting to place Him inside of four walls?….Think about it for a moment and let you mind and hear be open to what is outside waiting for you.

Not “to”, but “with” and “among”

The first snow at Cookeville brought me this sense of calmness to my soul and spirit. After almost two months of trying to find a common place for these two to meet, the whiteness of grass and trees woke me up and brought me into finding the quietness of Christ in me. All these time of supposedly absence of myself from university and ministry work due to the hypothyroidism made me realized that as a pastor “we don’t minister to; we minister with and among others” (Henry Nouwen). I really don’t want to be paid to minister “to”, church is about everybody, even people outside of our own believe lifestyle, race or legal status.

For the last 3 months and in the most difficult moments of my hypothyroidism I have been encouraged, helped and be befriended by two foreign students who have become like brothers to me. They have put up with the lowest of my emotional moods, but they have also brought a new sense of  life to me. I was honored to be invited to the new fraternity they crated: Theta-Theta. For one moment I was not minister to, but we were ministering with and among others. Ironically we are representing a great picture of what church should be: one Catholic, one Protestant and one free spirited; one Mexican, two Spaniards and many years of difference. Just for you to know, they call me godfather.

“Ministry is not something we have and offer to another in need,most of the time this is the concept we have or what others think church should be, but something offered and received in mutual vulnerability and benefit. Ministry is a communal and mutual experience” (Henry Nouwen. Italics are mine)

La primera Nevada de Cookeville me trajo una especie de calma a mi mente y espíritu. Después de dos mese tratando de encontrar un lugar en donde estos dos se pudieran encontrar, la blancura del pastor y los árboles me han despertado y me han llevado a encontrar el silencio de Cristo en mi. Todo este tiempo de una supuesta ausencia de mi mismo en la universidad y en el trabajo del ministerio debido al hipotiroidismo me hicieron darme cuenta que como pastor “no ministramos a, sino con y entre ellos” (Henry Nouwen). Me di cuenta que yo no quiero que se me pague para ministrar “a”; la iglesia es un “todos”, aún gente que esta fuera de nuestras propias creencias, estilos de vida, raza o estatus legal.

Por los últimos tres meses y en los momentos más difíciles de mi hipotiroidismo he sido animado, ayudado y hecho una fuerte amistad con dos estudiantes extranjeros que se han convertido como unos hermanos para mí. Ellos han aguantado los momentos más bajos de mis crisis emocionales, pero también me han dado una forma diferente de ver la vida. Fui grandemente honrado cuando me invitaron a ser participe de una nueva fraternidad que ellos crearon: Theta-Theta (Letra Griega). Por un momento yo no estaba ministrando “a”, pero ministrábamos “con” y entre “nosotros”. Irónicamente estamos representando una hermosa pintura de lo que la iglesia debe ser: un católico, un protestante y un libre de espíritu; un mexicano y dos españoles.

“El ministerio no es algo que ofrecemos a la gente en necesidad, como muchas veces pensamos o creemos que la iglesia debe ser, pero algo que se ofrece en mutua vulnerabilidad y beneficio. El ministerio es tener experiencias comunales y mutuas” (Henry Nouwen. Itálicas mías.)