E-pistle January 2006: Speckled Bird Flies Beautifully

Beloved,

Tonight I visited one of our VC house churches. The Speckled Bird House Church meets on Weds. nights in Northside in Ryan and Jesse’s artful and hospitable home. I went so I could get to know them and their community better and so they could ask me questions about what it means to be part of the Vineyard Central network.

I want to talk about that first part…. them. This was such a beautiful gathering of passionate, loving, caring, grace-full, heart-felt people. If someone were to ask me… “what is a house church?” I wish I could bottle this group and then give them as an answer! Jill and Jona led gently and beautifully (I know I’m overusing that word, but it is just so true). Jesse and Ryan offered hospitality with such natural grace and ease that they literally disappeared into the woodwork and everyone felt so at home. Everyone else pitched in, participated fully, and engaged deeply with all that was going on.

I hope it doesn’t bother them that I’m bragging on them like this – publicly, but both our network and the world should know about this gracious community of faith that is faithfully living out the Gospel. They are presently reading the book Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning. I was pleased to get a copy tonight and Sarah and I are going to read it. It looks really good. You can tell a lot about a book when Richard Rohr, Larry Crabb, Michael Card, and Rich Mullins are giving it high praise on the back cover. Anyway, what matters for the sake of our present conversation is this – the discussion of this book sparked intimate, vulnerable, heart-felt sharing tonight. Transformation into the image of Christ was taking place tonight. As Paul aptly says (and tonight Drew so very aptly proclaimed), “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Redemption was breaking old patterns and forging new ones. It was beautiful.

One of the questions that was asked tonight was about how Vineyard Central was part of the larger Vineyard Association. One of the things I have long admired about John Wimber and the Vineyard movement he birthed was the re-discovery of that oft forgotten member of the Trinity – The Holy Spirit. Too often churches have focused on Jesus or the Father and let the Holy Spirit just kinda slide by as a mere afterthought or nuisance. The Vineyard changed that in a big way. Our network stands in that same stream and re-members the Holy Spirit as essential to the Trinity (or maybe the Holy Spirit is re-membering us…). Tonight I experienced that at the Speckled Bird House Church. The Spirit was manifest… in simple ways – the humor and joy of friends together, the play of children, “Black church” reading of scripture (you had to be there!), and the sharing of lives.

It excites me to see such healthy churches gathered, like Speckled Bird. They remind me why I do this house church network thing. But more importantly, they remind us that there is great power in these little bands of Christ-followers who gather in living rooms, restaurants, coffee shops, and the like. I continue to see our network maturing … house churches and clusters of house churches all over Greater Cincinnati. All of them living out the simple, profound, and beautiful Kingdom-oriented life that I saw tonight at Speckled Bird. It is in these little missional communities that real lives are changed, where mission is birthed, and neighborhoods transformed.

I’ll close with this, if I could offer anything to those who gathered tonight it would have been a blessing. While sitting in the back, during the book discussion, I had a picture of myself standing in the chancel (front) of St. E’s, arms outstretched, in priestly garb, blessing this group of believers: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

Peaceably,
Aaron

Klinefelter Family 2005-2006

Klinefelter Family 2005-2006
Originally uploaded by aaronklinefelter.

From my Uncle Danny:

“People both embrace and react against parental teachings. It helps to understand your parents, if you know their parents.

In the Old South, families had traditions and reputations to maintain. Children often heard, “Remember who you are”. In a mobile society each generation reinvents them selves. Most of my friends, try to start fresh once they leave home. I too focused on creating a fresh start,
until about age 40. Then I started looking at the ways that I chose to be free. I saw that they were influenced by my childhood home life.

In cultures with no written language, people have oral traditions. These oral traditions helped people know how they fit into the world. This year I discovered that my clan lacked oral traditions. I knew almost nothing about my great grand parents. When I was 20 I didn’t ask,
and now at 55 my parents are no longer able to tell me stories of their grand parents. So this Christmas I decided to help my niece and nephews avoid my mistake. Larry, Nancy, Connie and I told stories of our grand parents, to their children, at the Christmas dinner table.”

I recorded that conversation so as the oral tradition is now digital and preserved for future generations. You can download the mp3 audio file here (17 MB, 37 min.).

VC Weekly Worship – Epiphany 2006

Yesterday was our first Weekly Worship Celebration/Gathering/Thingy. It ROCKED!

I don’t even know how to describe it…. It was simple, profound, moving, meaningful, normal, and hopeful all at the same time. I would love to reflect more on it… to talk about how it was a great start to what promises to be a very significant corporate spiritual practice for our community… or about how it was a wonderfully collaborative effort of many people using their gifts… or about how edifying it was to be in St. Elizabeth’s worshiping in the footsteps of where others have worshipped for the last 103 years… or the wonderful food and hanging out afterwards… or so much more, but I’m really tired… drained actually.

I’m sure some readers would love to hear about “Why”… why is this organic network of house churches having weekly worship services?! I could ramble on and on about that, but it would be best to just listen to what Kevin, Janet, Thurman, and I shared yesterday at the gathering. We had a “Town Hall Meeting” where we addressed that question and more. The audio file is here (21 MB, 43 min.).

Some other folks might be curious as to “what exactly are you doing”? Well, here’s our skeletal structure of our liturgy (the whole of our gathered time, our “work of the people” – which is what “liturgy” means):

• Greeting and Announcements for the Community
• Worship in Song and Prayer
• Hear the Word of the Lord
• Learning as a Community
• Thanksgiving and Communion
• Sending blessing

Also, if you are so inclined… you can download The Whys Behind VC Weekly Worship Gatherings (a document, pdf, I created mainly for my own “thinking through” of our gatherings) and VC Weekly Eucharist Liturgies (three different Eucharist liturgies that I created/adapted/re-mixed for our community based on the Episcopal, Anglican, and United Methodist liturgies).

Peace to you. Much Peace.

Genesis 1:1-5

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. 3Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” Together these made up one day.
BibleGateway.com – Genesis 1:1-5

I’m back. This is a scripture that I’ve been reflecting on today. It is one of the upcoming week’s lectionary readings and approrpriate for this New Year.

This New Year is full of vast expectations, hopes, dreams, and excitement… a few fears and worries (to be honest), but mostly good things.

Lots on my mind today… grieving for a friend’s loss of a child (his neice and god-daughter), thinking about connectivism (a learning theory), trying to get back in the swing of school, excited about our upcoming VC weekly worship gatherings, and generally reflecting on the most significant events of the past year… something I’d like to spend some time on later.

I’m glad to be back blogging. Taking a break was good, though to be honest, I feel significantly “gun-shy” (which is a poor metaphor).

I’ve also been thinking about switching to WordPress… but need $166.00 for 2 years of hosting, which I don’t have. Perhaps Ryan Hale could cut me a better deal? I’ll have to ask (or maybe I just did).

Peace to you all as we ease into 2006. I excited to discover what God unfolds in and through us this year!