God is in Cervinia

Got back late Saturday night after seven days in Italy. The trip was tough on many levels but perhaps the most personally satisfying too. We were hit with a lot of set-backs. Back home Hailey, watched Eoin contract a muscle virus (giving him sore legs) along with scarlet fever (again!) and Moia battled a head and chest cold giving them all many sleepless nights. In Cervinia we had injury after injury - one student sprained their wrist, another tore his ligament, one knocked himself out cold, another found it hard to walk after he popped his hip and yet another found it hard to sit after severely bruising his tail bone. Perhaps the crescendo was when the rescue helicopter had to be called in to save two of our students from falling into a large crevasse in which someone had died just 30 minutes earlier. They hung on to ice for 20 minutes before being rescued.

Midway through the trip Cormac and I looked at each other and asked, "Can we afford to do these trips?" By the end of that night our question was "Can we afford to not do these trips?" So many of these university students have questions, deep questions, life questions. Our theme was "living life to the full," and we looked at the many ways Jesus reorients our life not so he can rule us like a tyrant but so that we can become our true selves and join him in his plan of world reconciliation. We were reminded that these lads don't often get to wrestle with the deep questions of life. Like many of us, it's not often that they stop and ask why they're living their lives they way they do.

It was such a blessing to be able to hang with guys who have become good friends and meet others for the first time. It was encouraging to see some of the lads desire to pursue God more for the first time. It was good to know that even with all the hard times this trip endured we could say at the end, "God is in Cervinia."

A few pictures from the trip.

Technorati Tags: Travel, Youth Work

In Manchester

Yesterday I awoke at 4am to join six others from Dublin jumping on a plane to Manchester for the day. We were there for a conference put on by RUN on cafes as ministry. While I appreciated the conference and was introduced to some new resources I'll be honest and say I wasn't that impressed. What was valuable, however, was the time spent with others of like-mind. Not only did we have a great laugh but we were able to encourage one another and share our visions for working in the cafe culture emerging in Dublin. Although only seven of us flew over from Dublin I was shocked over the past few months to meet individual after individual who had similar visions. I think we counted 10 different initiatives to start cafes in Dublin! Each vision is different but the heart is the same - to see God's kingdom realized in the lives of Dubliners. We were able to visit Nexus, a new cafe focused on art culture and also the meeting grounds of Sanctus1. While there we bumped into Mark Berry who a few knew from Sojourners this past summer. He was randomly speaking that night but we decided to miss it in favor of some lovely Chinese food.

All-in-all the trip was fantastic and much needed. I'm excited to see where these initiatives go and how we might be involved in the process.

The Journey Feb Snowboard Trip

We made it back from Italy (well almost - more on that later). The trip was amazing. Any time you spend seven days snowboarding over 6 hours each day and incur no major injuries, it's amazing. The beginners did well and kept up with those who'd been before though they took many a fall (two finally gave up and went back to skiing). The weather was phenomenal. We had 7 days of sun. This meant we didn't have much powder but to be honest it allowed us to enjoy ourselves that much more. The night discussions we especially powerful this year, with each of the students feeling free to share and engaging deeply from their hearts. I was on holy ground hearing what they had to say. Thank you to those who helped make this trip possible and who prayed for it.

Towards the end of the week I was thanking God that no major problems had occurred. A few hours later a student walked up to me and informed me he didn't have his passport. We ran back to the hotel, looked everywhere but found nothing. Once at the airport, we were informed that we needed police approval to fly. After speaking to the police they (he) said it wouldn't be possible to fly (the stewardess told us contrary - hmmmm). So, after much debating we had to leave the student and Cormac back in Milan. They made it home the next night just before midnight.

We're running this same trip again in March with another 20 students. Can't wait.

Check out some photos of the trip.

Matt

Advent Conspiracy

Well, we're signed up. Advent Conspiracy is advocating that we spend worship more, spend less, give more and love all this Christmas. Churches from all over the world are signing up and seeing as this has been a major theme for us at The Journey this Christmas, I thought I'd add our name to their list. Check out their brochure and resources (podcasts, videos, etc.) for encouragement and info.

Technorati Tags: Justice

What is The Journey?

It's been a long hiatus on the blog scene for The Journey but we've still been active. As I look back through the posts it's fun to see how we've grown. Along the way each member of the group has come up with ways of explaining to people just who we are or what it is that we do. This is my standard answer to the question, "What is The Journey?":

The Journey is a church of mission. To be a part of the core means that you too have a mission. On the broad scale this is obviously the mission of Jesus but how that plays out is different for each of us. Each year we let the community know where we feel God is calling us, how the community can pray for us and how they can become involved in our mission. Missions range from joining local neighborhood councils to befriending our neighbors to raising our kids in the Way of Jesus to coaching basketball, etc. After this we live out these missions and come alongside one another in support, weather it be child minding, house cleaning before a party, praying, financing, etc. In this way our missions become intertwined as well as our networks of friends. We have values as a community too. We value the centrality of the Bible and how it speaks into the life of our community. When we gather on Sundays for brunch someone usually has prepared to lead a discussion centered on a chapter or two of Scripture. In discussion we try to work out how the passages apply both to our last week and our next week of ministry. We also value our involvement with those who normally wouldn't find themselves in institutional churches. We each aim to have about 50% of our network be people who would not yet consider themselves followers of Christ. To do this we tend to live life outside the institutional church and become intentional about spending free time in third-spaces such as pubs, coffee shops, etc. We also value service and believe that unless we serve our local community in tangible ways we are not actually following Christ. We value fun and believe that life in Christ is exciting and fulfilling (even though it can be extremely stretching and challenging) so you will often find us hosting or attending parties, concerts and pubs. As a group we hold each other accountable to these values as well as try to encourage and support one another as Christ would. I have never felt so alive in church then I do now. This is because church is not a noun but a verb. We never go to church, we just church. When one of us is life-coaching, she is churching, when I'm meeting with a teen, I'm churching. When we party with our neighbors, we church. Church has become alive and vibrant and integrated into our daily lives. What's more, if I don't church then The Journey suffers. I have never felt more empowered of enabled to be a disciple of Christ than I do now.

Technorati Tags: Church, Theology

Easter: We Are Brought Back

“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7-8

The brief moment has passed. Sunday is here. The Christ is alive. We are gathered back. Scattered humanity is returned to their appropriate place through the power of Jesus' resurrection. We had abandoned God and He brought us back.

The real truth of Easter is that God holds us fast, whoever we are, whatever we've done and whatever our situation, however you and I may feel or whatever we may think, no matter how bad a mood we're in, God chooses us. He abandoned Christ and now will never do the same to us. This is the good news. And this is good news for me by the very fact that I still choose again and again to abandon Him. In spite of this, He is present, he does not abandon us, even when we cannot help thinking ourselves abandoned. The truth is that He is completely and utterly ours and we may be completely and utterly His.

He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Technorati Tags: Missional, Theology

For a Brief Moment: Good Friday

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Ps. 22:1; Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34.

Easter is on the horizon but we have nothing to celebrate on Easter if we have nothing to contemplate on Good Friday. We can not understand the joy, the glory and the hope of Easter if we do not dwell on Good Friday. What will happen on Sunday is the explanation, the revelation, of the mystery which takes place today on Friday. But it is a 'Good' Friday because we know our Friday has a Sunday. It would be a day of mourning if there were no day of resurrection ahead. By the same token however an Easter without a Good Friday could only be a day of empty festivity, which it has become to so many these days. So let us celebrate Easter properly and remember his death today.

What do you think it was like on Good Friday? What was the moment like when God breathed his final breath? Matthew describes it this way:

"From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And then later,

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit."

Now I've often been shocked to think that in the last moments of Christ's life he'd cry out these words of abandonment, especially considering he'd just previously prayed, "Not my will, but your will be done." But I believe that we must hold on to this cry of abandonment, that to remember Friday as Good is to hold on to this abandonment. Here's why - Jesus shouted out that question in that way at that point because he literally could not help but feel and experience the abandonment of God for a brief moment. And this abandonment was horrific. It is the father turning his back on his Son, knowing the Son has done nothing to deserve this and knowing that he could stop it and knowing that his Son knows that he could stop it. It is the Father choosing to abandon a Son who has done everything he can to follow and obey Him. It was not Jesus abandoning his Father. No, in fact by being willing to be abandoned Jesus was determined to let only God's will be done. Christ set upon a journey that could only lead him to the place where God wanted to, and only could, abandon him, and actually did abandon him.
This is Friday. This is that brief moment.

So what journey was it that led Christ to this abandonment? Why would a Father choose to abandon his innocent Son? It was his journey to humanity; his journey to you; his journey to me. He journeyed into darkness, where Israel remained because of their great unfaithfulness, where all of humanity belongs because of our constant rebellion in the face of our Creator. It is His journey to us who have chosen to abandon Him and abandon Him again and again. God defies our decision to abandon Him and in Jesus, God entered into our godforsakenness.

Why does He do this? Why does He journey to those who have chosen to abandon Him? The answer is simple and profound and why we can call Friday 'Good.' God is for his people Israel. He is for the whole of humankind. He is for you and He is for me. And in the place of us He is the one struck by God's wrath and abandoned by God so that apart from Him no one need suffer again in the same way. He journeyed into our willful abandoning of God which should have been our due, to take it upon Himself and in the divine power granted to Him, to remove it, so that it would not be necessary, or permissible to come our way again. Jesus shouts the question, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" so that neither you or I would ever be able to.

Today is Friday and, “For a brief moment I abandoned you..." Isaiah 54:7

Technorati Tags: Missional, Theology

Dáil30

Ever wonder who's representing you in the government? A new site hopes to interview and podcast each of the elected TDs for your viewing pleasure. Check out Dáil30 and see who you voted for.