Posts Tagged ‘community’

Hopping through the Blogosphere

September 20th, 2008

Ok, so today I have spent a lazy morning/afternoon catching up on blogs from some of my favorite bloggers. Because the rhythms of my life have changed a lot since the end of July I haven’t spent as much time reading people’s blogs and I realized today that I have missed out on a lot of great thoughts and ideas. It was fun to rediscover some blogs and to see what God is stirring in people. So, here’s a little round up of some of my favorite blogs from this week:

I was very moved by this Broken Blessing posted on Jonny Baker’s site. I have always been inspired by Jonny and his community’s creativity in engaging with God and with each other and I was especially touched by this blessing which was improvised during a gathering they had where they gave each person a broken piece of ceramic and then had them put it on a table making a table top out of all their broken pieces. They then served communion from the broken table. I just loved this imagery and loved the idea of giving tangible expression to inner truth like that.

I love anything that speaks about community and ways in which community is formed and things that contribute to authentic community, so it’s no surprise that the post “How Do We Form Community?” on Christine Sine’s blog caught my attention. Just last night Bryan and I were talking with some friends at dinner about interdependent in community and what community can look like. I don’t know exactly how community is/should be formed in this unique urban cross-cultural setting we live in, but I think that Christine points to a good starting point that works in any setting – cooking and sharing a meal together.

I recently read “On being a Neighborhood Church” on Jesus Manifesto where Mark Van Steenwyk explains their rather “narrow” ministry focus. They have chosen to focus their ministry on just one neighborhood in Minneapolis and I found his explanation for why to be really interesting. The thought of living in close physical proximity with the people of my spiritual community has always been appealing to me. The other day I was talking with a friend after yoga and she made the remark “it’s too bad that we don’t all live closer to each other” and I realized that it really is too bad. Engaging in true authentic day-to-day interdependent community becomes a lot harder when your community members are spread all over the city, even when that city is a city like Prague, which is fairly small and manageable with great public transportation.

I also discovered today that Amber at Homeschool Diva is “Calling All Artists”. She wants to start an Etsy store with a collection of creative work from different artists and then donating the proceeds to Lemonade International. So, if you like creating things and are interested in an opportunity to collaborate with other artists in creating for social good, check out her site and drop her a note.

Here are two companies that I found today that I thought were interesting. The first is an accessory and jewelry seller, called Sweet Notions. They clean up and repair old donated accessories to resell and then they donate the profits to charitable and socially responsible, sustainable enterprises. The second is an eclectic enterprise call The School of Life which I found INCREDABLY interesting. They describe their shop by saying it is “a place where you can try out a variety of cultural solutions to everyday ailments.” They “sell books, artworks, courses, holidays and therapeutic services.” They even offer something they call Bibliotherapy – where they will meet with you and recommend/”prescribe” books that they feell will be perfect for you. They also offer organized group meals with strangers, because they believe that “knowing how to have entertaining and meaningful conversations is a skill worth practicing.” During these dinners they provide a “specially-designed conversation menu, an easy to use guide that helps you get the most from talking to a stranger.” I found their site and the concept very entertaining and interesting.

 Well, that’s it for now. Enjoy blog hopping! J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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“Bethany Was Here” – Desiring to be Known

September 11th, 2008

On Tuesday I went with my friend, Kara, to photography the Lennon Wall. I had walked briefly by the wall in the past but had never really stopped to look at it. I really enjoyed reading the things people wrote on the wall and the pictures people drew. It really was beautiful in its own unique way.

I was thinking as I took my pictures about what makes people write on a wall like that. Many people who write on the wall do nothing more than sign their name and that’s it – “John was here”. I think there is something in the human psyche that desires to be known, to leave a mark on the world and the people around them – something in us that wants people to know “Bethany was here.” And so even though we long for our mark to be bigger than just a name on a wall, and we desire to be known by people in a more intimate way then just our name, when faced with a chance to do something even as little as writing our name on a wall we’ll do it.

I think that’s why blogging has taken off so much. I think that desire is a lot of why I blog – it’s a way of leaving my mark. It’s a way of being known and saying “I was here.” It gives a little fuller picture of me then if I just wrote my name on the Lennon wall, but in a lot of ways it’s still pretty shallow. Blogging is still just a mark on a wall. It paints a picture of who I was at a certain time in my life and who I am now, but it’s not a full picture. “It’s true but not complete” as my friend, Tara, says. It might be a fuller picture then just my name on a wall, but it still doesn’t satisfy that deep need inside to be known and remembered – to belong and matter.

Today I met for coffee with some friends. They are probably my closest friends in Prague and currently my closest friends in the world (besides my husband). But, there are days, like today, when I still feel very unknown by them. There are times when I withdraw and don’t fully reveal myself, there are times when I show only a half true, manicured picture of myself and my heart. Why is that? Why is it that we have this deep longing to belong, to be known, to leave our mark, to matter and be accepted and reveal ourselves to other human beings, but that we often run from that desire? Why is it that especially in those moments when I so deeply want to be known I pull away? Is it fear? Is it that I don’t feel valuable enough to share with another? Or is it something else entirely? Does anyone else do this or feel this way? Or is it just me?

Maybe part of why we leave marks on walls and write blogs is because we long to be known and remembered, but maybe part of it is that it’s safe. It’s easier to leave a mark on a wall and feel like you made a mark on the world, than it is to actually go out there and make a mark on the world. It’s easier to write a blog and reveal a little part of yourself through the privacy of your own home and the small window that is cyberspace than it is to actually reveal yourself when face-to-face with another human being.

So, there’s my mark, for today, this is where I was at on September 11, 2008.

“Bethany was here”

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Photographs by Beth Stedman

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“Naked” Church: Church in a nude art exhibit

September 8th, 2008

Our Church moved to a new location yesterday and I loved the new venue, but it made me laugh a little. You see most Sunday’s our church meets in smaller separate groups either at the Springer’s house (an English speaking gathering) or at the Flek’s house (a Czech speaking gathering), but once a month we all come together in a larger venue to talk and worship together as a community.

So, yesterday we had our common gathering in a new location at this great little café right by Old Town Square. So, what made me laugh about the location? Well, the room we were meeting in was also used to display art and the art it is displaying right now is a nude exhibition. All of the pictures on the wall were black and white pictures of nude women. Some were tasteful and just slightly suggestive and others were full frontal nude shots. What a setting for church, right?

Honestly when I first walked in I didn’t even notice the pictures because I was busy setting up some crosses and candles on the tables. When I finally did notice them I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable. I live in Europe and I have seen some pretty risqué things since moving here. I try to be open-minded. I love art and have often admired nude sculptures and works of art. But, looking at these women completely exposed in newly taken black and white pictures I saw myself. In a weird way I suddenly felt very exposed as I looked at them and that made me feel very uncomfortable.

Throughout the course of the night something changed, though. By the end of the time I could look at these pictures full on and see not only beauty but freedom. By the end of the evening I didn’t feel uncomfortable looking at the pictures any more, instead I could genuinely admire them.

It got me thinking about nakedness, and vulnerability, and openness, and authentically. It got me thinking about being who you are and allowing others to genuinely see who you are. Honestly, even though I would consider myself fairly cultured those pictures on the wall last night were some of the first truly nude pictures I’d ever seen. And it makes sense that they would make me feel uncomfortable and awkward at first. But, as time went by the shock factor wore off and I was able to really look at them and appreciate them for what they were. I wonder if the same is true with being vulnerable with another person or another person being vulnerable with us – at first it feels really uncomfortable and awkward, we’re not used to it, but then after a while it becomes more natural and we can be more vulnerable and accept another’s vulnerability more fully the next time we are faced with it.

Here are a few other reasons that I like the pictures on the wall and a few other things that it got me thinking about:

  • It reminded me that when we come before God we do so naked. There is nothing we can hide from Him. He created us and He knows us intimately. We are always as exposed before God as the women in the pictures were before us. And yet, God doesn’t look on our nakedness and feel uncomfortable (like I did at first) and he doesn’t look on our nakedness and judge all the little faults and failings and love-handles and wrinkles, instead he looks on our nakedness and calls us His beloved.
  • It also reminded me that I want to live authentically before God and others. I don’t want to try and cover myself up and be something I’m not. I don’t want to try and hid my true self from others and make myself look better than I am, or even just different than I am. I want to be free to fully expose the person God made me to be at my core. I want to allow others to see my true self and live from a place of deep authenticity.

So, overall I liked “naked church”, as my husband nicknamed this week’s gathering, and I’m looking forward to next time.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

Photographs by Beth Stedman

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Theology Thursday: Needing the Body of Christ

July 31st, 2008

I have been feeling very needy lately and honestly I don’t like it. I don’t like feeling needy. I like feeling in control (as I have mentioned before). I like feeling capable and able and independent and have a difficult time admitting that I need other people’s help. In fact I have a hard time even asking people to pray for me even though I know that I need their prayer.

Basically, though lately I’ve realized how desperately I need other people in every area of my life. I need help. I admit that I can’t do life on my own – any part of it really. So, there’s my confession. I know that I need people. The problem is that I have a very hard time actually acting like I need other people and letting that knowledge really sink into how I live my life. So, I need help. I need help needing people. I need help becoming needy. I need help letting people into my life and my heart. I need help needing.

I need help with that because, I am convinced that it is only in community, only through active involvement and dependence on the body of Christ, that we really grow and experience healing and life. I am convinced that the life God calls us to live is a communal life. We need each other. I need you. It’s hard for me to admit and live like that but I know that it is the truth. It is through the body of Christ that Christ reveals himself to us. It is through the Body of Christ that Christ often chooses to meet our daily needs. Christ often chooses to use his body to challenge, instruct, convict, and encourage us. But, if I don’t let others into my life, don’t let them know my needs or struggles or questions then how can they help me? How can they be Christ’s hands and feet to me? If I choose not to share my triumphs and victories and encouragements with them how can they rejoice with me? If I choose not to let them into my life why would they choose to let me into theirs? How can we really be the Body of Christ if we hold each other (and thus hold Christ) at arm’s length and don’t really let each other into our lives?

Those are my thoughts today… I think them, but I have a much harder time living them.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Surrendering Sovereignty

July 12th, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about control lately. Power. Authority. Rule. Sovereignty. Lately I have felt very out of control of my life. Like I don’t have the control, the power, the authority, the sovereignty that I once had over my life and what my life would look like. It’s an incredibly scary place to be.

For as much as I say that I believe I am not in control and that God is in control, I like acting like I am in control. I like feeling like I do have the power to determine my own life. I like being sovereign over my own life and will. But, lately I have had to come face to face with my own limitations and lack of control. It’s been uncomfortable at best.

Then there’s another aspect of control that I have been thinking about and that is relational control, power, and sovereignty.

For a long time I have talked about the value of community. I have talked about the importance of open and authentic community. I have dreamed of a place where people could really belong – a place where they could have fellowship with one another not just as saints, but as sinners – a place where they could be themselves and bring the wholeness of who they are, broken and beautiful, to others and receive love and acceptance and forgiveness – a place where people would meet each other’s needs and really love each other in active and living way, with words when words were needed and with tangible help when tangible help was needed. I’ve talked about this and dreamed about this and I’ve tried to be the kind of person that made other people feel comfortable enough around her that they could share of themselves and their lives. But, I think in many of my relationships in the past I have tried to maintain power and control. Not consciously, but I have done things unconsciously that allowed me to keep control and even power in my relationships.

For example the other day Bryan and I went to coffee with some friends, Bryan offered to treat, but they refused, knowing our situation, and offered to treat for us instead, we refused. The whole thing was pretty little but it got me thinking. I really like treating when we go out with people. I like being able to meet others needs and in the past I have thought that this was an appropriate and generous thing to like. But, I started thinking about why I don’t like to let others pay for me when I go out. In my refusal of their love and generosity I maintain a little bit of control and power. Instead of bowing myself to them and acknowledging my neediness and appreciation, I instead maintain a posture of pride and cling to a posture of power.

I also recently realized that I can be very selective in what I share about myself and my life with others. I am quick to talk about the importance of confessing and of sharing brokenness and neediness with others but I am incredibly slow to practice that. I don’t like letting people know the ugliness that is in me. I don’t like letting people know the real neediness that is in my life. I don’t like letting myself need someone else, or letting myself accept help or love from someone else. I will accept people into my life but only on my terms. I was thinking about this and I think that it is largely a defense mechanism and a way for me to allow myself to maintain some control of my life and some control in my relationships.

Yesterday a friend sent me this article about the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. It was a very interesting article (though it is a bit long), but there was this one quote in it that really struck me:

“The surrender of sovereignty to this particular group of people feels like suicide, but any serious reading of the New Testament affirms that is the deal we take on.”

The surrender of sovereignty… the giving up of power, of control…

It is a difficult step to acknowledging that God alone is sovereign – That I am not sovereign and that I do not have control over my life. Acknowledging this and accepting it and giving myself completely over to the control and leading of God is perhaps a life long struggle… but, I got to thinking that maybe giving myself over to God’s sovereignty is just the start… maybe there is another step that needs to be taken in order for me to really surrender myself and learn to live a selfless life… Maybe I must also give myself over, surrender sovereignty, to Christ’s body. Maybe the degree to which I give myself to the people of God is the degree to which I give myself to God…?

This freaks me out. There is something in me which rises up and revolts against this… but, maybe that is the self that needs to be crucified with Christ…?

These are the thoughts that bounce around my head lately…

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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