Opening Night – Stations 1-7

Opening Night – Stations 8-14

Naturally, we’ve had a couple great BBQ meals and checked out the coffee scene in KC.  Speaking of the coffee scene, Church of the Resurrection (COR) has a great coffee/espresso bar right in their hospitality area.  I met Lance, the bar manager and he and I are going to chat about coffee and ministry sometime this week.  I’m continuing to look for ways we can engage our students in Radical Hospitality and Social Justice by way of excellent coffee.

We’ve also connected with Rob Webster, Director of Video Production, at COR.  I’m looking forward to learning more about this area of ministry from Rob that I’d love for us to grow into.

We’re looking to visit the International House of Prayer and KC Boiler Room

I’m posting some photos on my Flickr account as a visual record of our trip.  Check them out here.

Lots of great stuff happening… so exciting!

Why am I fed up? There are three basic reasons.

1. Too distracting!

2. Too polemical!

3. Too consuming!

So what am I going to do about it? I’m going to spend the month of December pondering the place of social media in my life. The specific proposition that I’m considering is something of a social experiment.

What would my life and ministry look like if I abstained from social media (specifically Facebook & Twitter) for one year? The WF has a wonderful new intern (Bethany Daniel) who will become queen of WF social media communications, so that arena will still function in my absence.

I’m hoping I will be able to write more (blogs, articles, book?). I’m hoping to be less distracted, more present, less polemical, more nuanced, less consumed, more discerning.

Can I do it? Is it even possible to function in 21st century society without accessing Facebook? Sure, I could do away with all digital media, like I do for one month a year. But can I still email, text, and blog without utilizing explicit social software? How will it effect our ministry with college students?

I’ll be considering all that and my reasons for quitting during this month. I’d love feedback too, because while I question the veracity of social media I still value being social.

So here’s the thing.  I know there are faithful campus ministers on each of those campuses.  I’d take time to list them, but it would be a long list (if you need a connection to one on a particular campus, let me know and I’ll hook you up).  Most of those campus have multiple leaders, ministers, and missionaries serving on them.

We in the church spend, it seems, a lot of time wringing our hands and worrying about where all the young people went.  We fret, “Why aren’t they in church on Sunday morning?”  Justifiably older members tend toward fears of whether their beloved local church (or denomination) will even exist in the next 20-30 years.  They reason, understandably, that if the next generation aren’t in the pews there won’t be people to carry on once they’re gone.

My friends, them there colleges and universities are filled with young people!  In fact, taken together just the campuses I selected (ones where I know one or more campus ministers/ministries) would total a population of more than most cities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky or the Greater Cincinnati metro area!  Only Lexington, Louisville have more than 134,532 in Kentucky and, in Ohio, Cincinnati.

If we gave up on our campus ministries at these institutions of higher education (AKA “mission fields”) it would be akin to abandoning a major metropolitan area.  (Not that I’m expecting that to happen…. I’m just saying)  I know we must continue to re-envision what it means to be effective and successful in our ministry endeavors – much less faithful – but we mustn’t stop trying.  Whether or not our job is to get those young people into the pews on a Sunday morning (and I’m pretty sure that’s not our main job) or however we define success.  We must keep being creative, innovative, and experimental in our mission to be a sign, instrument, and foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

Finally, I think there’s work to be done on how we understand our role on each of these campuses.  I’ve written before about conceiving of success ecologically in a ministry/mission environment and I think there’s more to delve into there.  Likewise, if we consider network theory (social networks both digitally and geographically contrived) we might begin to see our role as a campus minister as more of instigator and seed distributor than as only a chaplain or shepherd.  This is where 5-fold ministry, the empowerment of the laity, and flexible structures of mission come into play in a big way…. but that’s for another post.

This morning I dropped Cloey off for school, she’s a big 1st Grader now, and headed to NKU.  Today was the first day of class and the campus was a buzz with new sneakers, backpacks, and “Ihaven’tseenyouallsummerhowareyou!!!!”  It was great to be on campus as life returned from the summer slowness.  Even better was to sit at Starbucks and constantly greet students who I’ve come to know and with who I have nurtured meaningful relationships.  Three years ago my first day on the job was the first day of class and I sat in Starbucks not knowing anyone.  Today was markedly different.

Then tonight the university hosted a movie on the Science Center lawn.  The Baptists provided burgers, a new church plant provided water bottles, we made lattes.  Oh, did we make lattes!  We used 4 gallons of milk, 5 pounds of coffee beans, 2 bottles of syrup, 5 gallons of water.  Guessing we did upwards of 200 drinks.  The students LOVED them (and they are probably still wide awake from them too)!  Extra special thanks to Chris Bean and the Espresso Guild for helping us out with equipment and set-up and La Terza Coffee for wonderful beans.  It was a great way to bless the students with hospitality and presence.  It was also a great way to get to know students and start conversations.  My friends, I’m pretty sure God showed up.  Really.  I think I served him an iced vanilla latte.  And to top it all off I got serve with a whole host of NKU students who make the Wesley Foundation home and a couple Asbury Church folk, all of them worked and played together wonderfully and intently.  It was awesome!

Did I mention, I love my job!

We’re talking about Vision, Successes, Challenges, and Recommendations.

As United Methodists we live by the Book of Discipline, the governing document of the denomination.  There is a section (about 6 pages worth) on campus/collegiate/higher education ministry.  I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do this, but I’m posting a PDF of this section.  There is a lot there, so I doubt any/many of you will read this whole document, but if you get a chance to skim it – I would love to know your thoughts, impressions, and reactions.

Here it is - The Book of Discipline 2008 – Part V – Organization and Administration – Chapter Four – The Conferences – Section IX. The Annual Conference – Other Conference Agencies - ¶ 634. Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 flyer

(post updated 1/23/12 with new links)

Well, I’ll admit it.  I’m procrastinating.  I should be writing a seminary paper on podcasting.  But at the moment I’m pondering more about non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient music.

Yeah, I know.  You were thinking the exact. same. thing!

Specifically, I’m looking forward to Via Crucis :: Immerison 2010 that we’ll be creating this Spring. (if you want to play, let me know)  Every year we’ve had some kind of opening night event.  In 2006, Aradhna played a beautiful concert in the round.  In 2008, Isaac Karns (of the Pomegranates) conducted an ensemble of brilliant musicians who created a fantastic musical happening (I’ll repost the mp3s that we recorded soon.  I finally posted here them in 2012!).  In 2010, I’d love to push the envelope a bit further and create music together as a gathered body – but do it in a non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient way.  I’ll attempt to delineate deliberately in reverse:

Music

It matters.  As much as worship isn’t only music – a helpful corrective from folks like Lilly Lewin – music remains a powerful and visceral way we connect with God, the world around us (in a sonic, vibration sorta way), and one another.  There is something about music that quite literally rings in our ears and penetrates to the heart.

Ambient

I’m thinking here of the musical genre, which our friend Wikipedia defines thusly:

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an “atmospheric”, “visual” or “unobtrusive” quality.

As such, this would be building on the work and thought of Brian Eno.  Deep resonances and earthy electronica that evoke (and perhaps, provoke) more than they instruct, lead, or demand.  Allowing the space between to be attended to as much, if not more, than the actual notes, sounds, or chords.

Participatory

One of the bones to pick with typical “worship music” – be that “traditional” (hymns, organs, choirs) or “contemporary” (bands, guitars, drums) is how non-participatory it actually is.  In both cases we watch the professionals/experts on the stage conduct us to minimally participate at the lowest common denominator.  Sure, we may sing – or some do – but that’s it.  Deciding what we sing, when we sing, how we sing and the notes to which we sing – that’s the expert’s job.  So, what if Via Crucis :: Immersion was a deeply participatory event?  Not just those who create the stations and engage the stations – but what if the music that is generated on opening night is fully participatory.  What if what existed that night would not exist if not for each person gathered – not merely in the spiritual presence sense – but in the actual live creation of music.  I’m thinking here of an Aural Event – that resonates from our the soles of our shoes to souls of our brains.  Sort of like a musical wiki.

Emergent

Imagine an aural event of ambient music created together by active, live participation that EMERGES out of a set of simple rules that everyone follows.  I’m thinking here of the complex behavior of ant colonies or bee hives.  All created by leaderless systems of autonomous individuals following specific behavioral codes.  This music would be birthed out of people following a simple set of guidelines.  Nothing pre-ordained, no sheet music, no conductor.  Rather when the gathered assemble we would instruct them of 3 rules about how, what, and when they can play (this might be vocal or instrumental) – out of this social matrix (something that is intentional and crafted) the musical aural event would emerge.  Think fractals.  See also emergence on Wikipedia.

non-linear

- This would not be a 1, 2, 3 process.  Sure, the Stations of the Cross are linear – they follow a path that leads from point A (Jesus’ condemnation) to point B (Jesus in the tomb).  And the music event would have a beginning and an end (though you could debate that to an extent).  But within the (parenthetical) confines of the Aural Event the music would follow it’s own path – not one that we predetermined.  It would be the Worship Music equivalent of a Spirit-led walk in the woods.

So, what do you think?  How could we pull this off?  What would we need to pull this off?

TANK WI-FI Bus

This is a follow up to my post, On Success, and it has generated some good feedback and dialog (note the comments, good stuff there).  Benson Hines posted some other links around the same topic.  Here’s an excerpt:

defining success in college ministry: Quite providentially, several college ministry thinkers have turned their attention simultaneously to the very important topic of how we define success in college ministry. (God is a gracious Synergist, isn’t He?) HeartOfCampusMinistry began a weekly series on the topic – with a post by the much-respected Dean Thune. (I’ll be posting in that series in a few weeks!) Aaron Klinefelter wrote a great (and interesting) post on an “ecological” understanding of college ministry success. I posted on why aiming for numbers isn’t (usually) a good college ministry priority. And Ian Clark is asking the same question about how we define success.

Be sure to check out those links.

I have also been pondering “modalities” and “sodalities” as they relate to the structure and success of campus ministry.  The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission by Ralph D. Winter is a must read for this.  Here’s a post about Ralph D. Winter (who died this past summer) from the Tall Skinny Kiwi.

Essentially the article deals with “Modalities” and “Sodalities” as two complementary structures for God’s Mission in the world.  This has been helpful as I think about what the WF is and how we come alongside Asbury Church and the other churches (UMC and otherwise) in the region.

Intervarsity thinks of itself this way, as do CCO and Campus Crusade, but we can also see this in the new monasticism of late with folks like Shane Claiborne and Communality (not to mention traditional Monasticism and those early Methodists).

Here’s an Intervarsity link about the topic:

Put simply, “modality” refers to the permanent structure, the local church. Multi-generational and geographically limited, a congregation puts down its roots and makes a long-term commitment to its community. As theologian Darrell Guder observes: “The parish must always be looked upon as the central and continuing form of the church.”

The second structure, “sodality,” focuses on a specialized aspect of the Lord’s purposes on earth. This “laser vision” may target a particular people group (e.g. Laotians), age group (e.g. high school students) or spiritual discipline (e.g. prayer).

Parachurch ministries like InterVarsity are sodalities—expressions of the local church, but not churches in themselves. “Para” means “along side.” Historical examples of such extensions of church ministry include first century mobile missionary missionary bands and medieval Catholic orders.

See also, The Order of the Mustard Seed.

My hope and prayer is that this will spur our minds as we consider what God is birthing at NKU and how the WF fits into the overall ecosystem of the Kingdom in our neck of the woods.

(oh, and I wrote and posted this while on a bus from NKU to downtown Cincinnati.  how cool is that?!)

But, I digress.

I’ve had the hankering of late for some networking road trips.  I’d love to go with a small group of folks from NKU/Cincy and meet-up with folks in other churches/campus ministries.  I’m thinking day trips or possibly staying one night if someone wants to put us up.  If you want to go, let me know!  Here are some of the folks/communities I’d love to meet-up (feel free to suggest more).

Road Trip #1
Lexington, KY
Aaron Mansfield and the instigators at The Rock/La Roca
Alan Creech
Kevin Clark and the folks at Vineyard Lexington
Bill Hughes and the faithful at UK Wesley Foundation
Lisa & Will Samson and subversives at Communality
and we may just sojourn to the (un)holy of Wilmore to visit the Asburians – here or there.

Road Trip #2
Columbus, OH
LoveOSU
Father Larry Rice & The Newman Center
Jacob’s Porch
Landing Place

Road Trip #3
Indianapolis, IN
Lockerbie Central UMC and Earth House Cafe
Englewood Christian Church and Doulos Christou Books and The Englewood Review of Books