“There’s nothing to do here, some just whine and complain, in bed in the hospital.” - Cold War Kids

The analogy of the Church being a Hospital is a tired one. It rarely conjures images of what a hospital is really like, not to mention if it did, why would people be attracted to Church? On the other hand, its a brilliant metaphor. It is actually a rather unfortunate one for the people who spit this cliche into meaningless jargon. If Church is a hospital, does that make pastors simply educated, better paid, cold and condescending members of a community? That seems an unfortunate comparison and in all honesty, a realistic assessment for a lot of people outside the church.

So does the metaphor then imply the church members are the sick? Are church members helpless and bored, whining and complaining and requiring the simplest tasks to be accomplished by the pastors? Also a realistic assessment to the outside observer, but not a flattering one to the members…who often use the analogy.

One of the reasons people don’t like Hospitals is because they enter into a place where they are told something is wrong with them and there’s an implication that the bearer of bad news is somehow equipped, as a more elite member of society, to help them.

All people are thirsty for affection and affirmation. Maybe Hospitals are a great analogy for modern churches. Maybe the modern church is a noisy place littered with sirens and incapable of real significant service because of deeply tangled bureaucracy, while people who can’t help themselves are dismissed as lazy or selfish. And maybe Priests and Pastors are not doctors and members are not patients whose remission is far past and empowers them to diagnose the new walk-in appointments?

The solid connection might be the hospital bed. A place of care in the midst of sickness, where comfort is provided through the suffering and medication comes by way of someone outside ourselves. The difference between “us” and “them” is we volunteer to lay in the beds and the outsider’s perception is based on whether we embrace our treatment. If it looks like torture, then who would volunteer for treatment? But if it looks like healing, people might just check themselves in. Embrace the bed, others will follow.

Austin Pfeiffer is a 25 year old writer, musician, and film maker. He has lived in 8 states around the U.S. He graduated with an English Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder, focusing on poetry. His multi-regional, move-a-thon childhood and experience working in multiple churches have informed his thoughts and ideas of the America and Christianity. He currently maintains a creative non-fiction blog called Peacemaker Revolution and is in the band Goodnight Man. He has directed and produced numerous short films and is currently working on a creative non-fiction feature on the Ten Commandments (”X”). Austin’s artistic heroes and indulgences include C.S. Lewis, Conor Oberst, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Soderburgh and the Gilmore Girls. You can contact him at austin.pfeiffer@gmail.com

The latest issue of Subversive is now out. Go here and here to find out more details on getting your own copy and distributing in your area.

About a year ago, the members of the Hawthorn House picked up Bill McKibben’s book, Deep Economy. Since that time, economics has not been far from our dialog. A couple months ago, we decided to start a series of conversations that were specifically about economics. We hoped that they would be practical (that we would be able to walk away with applicable information each week), gracious (that we would accept each others weaknesses and be understanding of the different status we each ad across the economic spectrum) and Scriptural (that we would together re-read the Bible through an economic lens). It was decided that we would use Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries‘ sevenfold covenant as a guideline for our conversation (1-surplus capital, 2-debt, 3-giving, 4-environment, 5-consumption, 6-solidarity, 7-work/rest).

Almost weekly, we ask each other what we’re learning and what we’re trying to change. And for a subject that is often quite taboo, I’ve been impressed with how much this community has come around each other and entrusted each other through the last few months.

But a few weeks ago, something caught my attention. As always, we shared a meal together. We read Scripture, prayed and continued our economic conversation. Towards the end of the evening Tim brought out a bag of clothes he no longer needed. Some that needed a new shirt or sweatshirt were able to pick through and take what they needed. I’ve been needing some nicer shirts. I tore one after I spoke last time, which I had already torn twice. While I needed some nicer shirts for when I speak somewhere, we couldn’t really afford to go shopping at the time. Among the pile of t-shirts were two button-down shirts that fit perfectly.

The girls in our community had hosted a clothing swap a few weeks before this evening. After almost 20 women picked through the stuff that each brought, there was still 10 bags of clothes sitting in our house. Along with Tim’s left overs, Anna was able to take the remainder of all of these clothes to the homeless teens she is now working with.

Mike brought a stack of books he needed to get rid of before moving. Paige and Matt found a great little book that they were read before going to sleep. A few other people connected their language skills and passion to another persons new ministry in Tijuana. And so the night went…

To some, this little interaction may not seem all too important. But I wonder if it is. We westerners are so often defined by our property, our possessions. As Tyler Durden said in Fight Club, “The things you own, end up owning you.” While I want to whole-heartedly agree with Ian MacKaye of Fugazi when he cries, “You are not what you own!” my experience is often contrary. Our possessions do identify us, they own us. Yet as I read the Gospels, it seems to me that Jesus calls us to a new way of being human that encompasses everything, including a transformation of how we perceive our finances and possessions. To speak to this, he used the Jubilee and Sabbath language of the Old Testament that most 1st Century Hebrews would recollect.

Have you ever noticed how troubling the passage about Jesus and the rich, young ruler is for most of us (Matt. 19)? “Does he mean that I have to give away all my possessions too?!” we wonder to ourselves. But if we look to how the early church lived our their economics we may see the answer to this question. In Acts (chpt. 2 and 4), we read that as people with property saw their was need, they sold what they owned and gave the proceeds to the needy. This seems to imply that the have’s had relationship with the have-not’s. It also exemplifies a community whose property no longer identified them. Rather their identity was found in this Jesus-centered community that was attempting to re-animate the Jubilee and Sabbath ideals, as a reflection of the kingdom Jesus announced, in their midst.

As Christians, we need to recognize that our contemporary understanding of salvation and transformation have been radically impacted by the consumer culture we live within. Salvation is not a commodity, it is a gift. It isn’t something we can count and take credit for. In many ways, being transformed into the likeness of Christ is similar to the handed down shirt from a neighbor, given to my son. It is something we can only accept and grow into and it looks a little different on everyone who tries it on. In our experience, in order to dismantle the bondage of consumerism, we need each other. We need to come to a place where we can shed the hyper-individualism that keeps us captive to our private domains. We need a community in which we can try and fail, that will challenge us to greater risks, that understands and accepts us. As our identity become less and less typified by what our economic status or what we possess we become more giving and willing to accept gifts. Over time, we begin to realize that the things we own, don’t own us.

Jason Evans is a co-founder of the Ecclesia Collective and a member of the Hawthorn House. He is married to Brooke and has two wonderful kids, Paige and Matt. He is currently a student at Fuller Seminary.

One morning, about three years ago, while riding down a busy avenue on my bicycle, I crashed. Proud and cocky, I was going way too fast for the situation, and hit a parked car. Amazingly, I got off with minor injuries and had to pay only a few hundred dollars for damage to the car. Some would say I was just lucky, but I took it as God’s gracious wake-up call. My bike-riding habits had grown foolish and arrogant. I was in pretty good shape physically, could “crank it” fast, and was taking too many risks. I needed to change my attitude and behavior. I have subsequently become much more careful and cautious. It takes longer to go places now, but I am more likely to actually get there. If I had ignored this “wakeup call” and continued riding the way I was, I may have gotten away with it until now – but, then again, maybe not.

I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. When I asked the doctor about my future, he gave me only possibilities and probabilities. For example, he said that 50% of all men my age (50s) actually have cancer in their prostates, but, obviously, most of these were of no consequence since 50% of men in their 50s (or older) are not dying of prostate cancer. Obviously most of these cancers never grow or spread. So I asked him if I could just ignore it and go on with my life. He said I could do that, but there was a “reasonable chance” that the cancer would “get me” in the next ten years or so. I asked him exactly what that chance was, and he said he didn’t know. I asked him if, in the next few years, a test might be devised to distinguish which cancers were dangerous and which could safely be ignored. He said research was ongoing, but he did not know when and if such a test might become available. For a specialist (urologist), he sure seemed to not know a lot. He recommended I have the prostate surgically removed or undergo radiation treatments. I asked why I should do that when he couldn’t even tell me if this cancer was really important or not. He said that at this point, science has no way to determine which cancers will “get you” and which will just sit there and not spread. So they take a cautious approach and recommend treatment for everyone (except really old guys). I said that they must be treating a lot of people who, in reality, did not need to be treated. He said yes, but this was the best science could do for now. So I decided to have surgery, and I am now “prostateless.” I could have ignored this and gone on with my life, and I might have gotten away with it – but then again, maybe not.

I wonder if global warming and climate change is kind of like my bicycle crash and prostate cancer. In what is obviously a limited and finite world, arrogant, self-assured humans continue to live as though there were no limits. Like my bicycle accident was a wakeup call from God to me about my need for a change of attitude and behavior, I wonder if global warming is a wakeup call from God to all of us – that we are beginning to bump up against the limits of the biosphere’s capacity to absorb our waste – and we need to change our attitude and behavior. Like my urologist doctor who could only give me possibilities and probabilities, maybe the possibilities and probabilities of the climate scientists is the best they can do right now. Maybe they’re wrong – or, maybe they’re right. Maybe in the next few years, they will come up with something better, or maybe they won’t. If we continue living as we are, ignore the scientists’ warnings, maybe we will get away with it – but then again, maybe not.

If you didn’t see our previous post about this, we are attempting to find 50 supporters who can give $50 a month to the Collective to help us continue the campaigns and projects we have going on. We already have half of this for the month of July already! Thanks to everyone that has pitched in!

Also, we have been talking with a few different magazines about Make Something Day. Two well distributed magazines have shown interest in helping get the word out! We still need help with a website, more contributions towards a budget (see above) and would like to start collecting MSD stories. If you have an MSD story from last year of years past, leave them in the comments, or email us at ecclesiasd@gmail.com.

Cheers!

For a recent college graduate like myself with no job, no prospects and no defined future, any discussion on calling will get me interested. Of course, there are many varied opinions on the subject, and in Hokey Pokey Matthew Paul Turner manages to discuss the idea with a bit of maturity, balance and evenness. His thoughts are not earth-shattering, but much of his discussion provides helpful bits of advice as people attempt determine what kind of life they should lead.

At first glance, Hokey Pokey appears to be cut from the all-too-familiar mold of Christian books that attempt to connect with young people in a “relevant” way but come off as artificial and shallow. The cover suggests people discover “what life’s all about,” as a pair of legs emerge from a hedge in one of those absurdist pictures that young people have been guaranteed to like. The back cover plays up Matthew Paul Turner’s association as a former editor of CCM, “Christian entertainment’s premier publication.” The inside liner notes peg Turner as someone whose style “should especially endear him to those under thirty-five.” Those kinds of descriptions immediately create an unfair bias against the author’s perspective, because for the most part Turner is quite genuine and likeable.

Turner’s discussion of calling has much more substance and subtlety, the cover suggests. Certainly, there are those painful moments of attempted relevance - are throwaway references to Avril Lavigne or Paris Hilton really necessary? - but the majority of Turner’s easy-to-read and conversational discussion is simple and down-to-earth. His treatment of calling is mature enough to avoid those all-too-easy answers, but he still recognizes the value of specific and needed advice for a generation of people trying to find their way in the world. So, his suggestions to find a mentor and be open to hearing the unfiltered truth are timely lessons for a generation of people that has been puffed up to believe they are “extraordinarily unique” and “special” without recognizing the harsh truth of how difficult it is to fulfill their dreams.

The primary vehicle of Turner’s thoughts on calling is narrative - throughout the pages he shares his thoughts and ruminations about calling via a litany of stories from a wide variety of friends from various walks of life. He does well to highlight these anecdotes - they provide the bulk of the insight through lived-in examples while allowing for people to realize the difficulty in discovering how make those all-important life decisions.

But for the typical college student, struggling with the harsh reality of graduation and the looming “real world,” his thoughts are fairly helpful. There are no earth-shattering revelations our fresh ideas that cast the idea of calling and vocation in a totally new light. Hokey Pokey reminds me of a simple talk with a friend over coffee - nothing to change your way of thinking, but a nice conversation to help put calling - an idea that is far too often over-thought than ignored - into perspective.

Eric Lange recently graduated from recent Wake Forest University, and is an avid reader of books both ancient and modern on Christianity. His perspective has been shaped by time spent in Christian communities in Sierra Leone,the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and also learning from people in addictions recovery in North Carolina.