Lessons in Christianity from Witch City

Jesus without strings: a look back at 2011

2011-12-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

Having a church in Salem, Massachusetts is considered by some to be adventurous enough by itself. Having that church downtown along the historic walk which all the visitors follow, and in the midst of the plethora of witchcraft shops, haunted houses and Halloween knick knack shops, is even more adventurous. Making friends with the Witches, the musicians, the artists, and the homeless in Salem is downright dangerous - or some believe it is. But, Jesus lived dangerously, and we expect that following His example might occasionally have the same adventurous results.

This year there have been some new and adventurous things happening at the church.

There is a a Open Mic every Thursday evening, and a group of local musicians have made the event a regular experience, and it has become a place some have found a home away from home.

Our creative style of outreach reached out as far as northern Nevada this year. With a team from around the US, we led an art installation at the Burning Man Festival. Like Salem, Burning Man is a strange and crazy place. A video of our project, with interviews from the people who came to experience it can be found on Youtube.

Like each of the last 13 years, October was a wonderful time of outreach and stories of redemption. People came from far and wide to minister with us once again - from Texas, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the UK were just some of the places represented. The Vineyard, the Association of Bridge Churches, the Assemblies of God, Youth with a Mission, and people from Baptist and Episcopal churches were just a few of the groups represented. Our desire to become a place for people of all Christian traditions to minister in a unique post-modern, post-Christian environment is becoming more and more of a reality each year.

We believe in Jesus without strings.

The Gathering has also experienced a little growth. New faces, new people, and a sense of excitement with it.

Melissa and Jodi are re-starting the Women's Bible Study on Tuesday evenings. Ian has been recording the services and posting them on our Facebook page. The worship team is an amazing group of musicians, and help make the Sunday services both comfortable and fun. (The song link is Pastor Phil leading worship and Ian says this song sounded like an Irish Pub Song, because we were laughing at the fact that Jonathan stumbled on his way to the piano.)

Thousands have been touched in a variety of ways this last year through our outreach projects here in Salem, and now as far away as Nevada.

Many of you have been part of the support of our unique missional community over the years, and our thanks and appreciation go out to you. May the Lord bless you abundantly this Christmas Season, and in the New Year.

If you would like to help our small church with an enormous mission continue reaching the world with the message of God's abounding love in this coming year you can give securely online on our website.

Salem Outreach 2011

2011-11-03T12:28:00.002-05:00

This was a fast paced month with every weekend busy with outreach, visitors from distant places who joined us for ministry, and some wonderful results in the busyness of it all.

The month started off with Mark and Anthea Searle joining us from Cheltenham, UK. They walked with some of the people of our church through "More Light" ministry sessions, and taught a short workshop on the basics of the ministry.

Dennis Huxley was here on that second weekend as well, and would return every weekend - even staying for a full eleven straight days at one point. In the end Dennis was with us in Salem for more days than he was home in Rome, NY.

John Harding joined us from the Bridge Church in Ipswich and led a couple local teams through Dream Interpretation and prophetic outreaches at The Gathering.

Andy Gamble joined us from Pennsylvania on four different weekends, and brought people with him - lots of people with him - and different people each week.

Brandon and Grace Crummer helped lead teams in Dream Interpretation, prophetic ministry, and healing prayers. Matt Keating joined us from Ohio and brought a team with him on the fourth weekend. We were also joined by Jamie Dickson from Crave Ministries, a YWAM missions team, and a variety of people who flew in specifically to join us: April Alario, Alan Drake, Christopher Gaston, Allen Henninger, Peter Parkas, Debora Spotted Eagle, the Matthews family from British Columbia and Enrique who is from Honduras even joined us during his travels across the US.

Here are a few highlights, and strange events from the month:

Enrique tells the story of his interaction with a man with a severe case of arthritis who was prayed for by one of the prophetic ministry teams. He started off with constant pain which he described as "10" in severity, and in a few short minutes of prayer was experiencing painless freedom.

A man from Philadelphia sat in to receive ministry from one of our teams, and told them that he returns every year to Salem specifically for this experience. His wife was not quite as zealous as he was about the experience and wondered at her husband's zeal.

A number of people made solid steps toward walking with Jesus. They made confessions of faith for the first time, and asked for more information on how to get involved with the kind of outreach we are doing. Deliverance prayers were offered at length for people struggling with depression, or temptation to fall into old habits or lifestyles, and by the end of the month a whole crew of friends was part of our little circle at The Gathering.

To make such festival evangelism work properly it requires hard work, creativity and sensitivity.

I can not thank the members of our small church enough: Joyce, Jeff and Diane, Rennie and myself put people up in our homes throughout the month. Carlos organized the crazy schedule of visiting friends. Paul and Carrie handled organizing the massive task of serving free hot cocoa next to our outdoor stage. Jane was there just about every day, making food and filling in wherever she was needed. David helped run the sound on the stage, and performed a couple gigs as well. Jodi helped arrange a concert with the worship band Aradhna, and it was a smashing success. These are just a few examples of the hard work necessary to put on such a large number of events in the month of October.

The creativity this year seemed to be flow beautifully and naturally. Christopher Gaston brought dozens of his pictures to give away to people who came to us, and personally signed them. The music from our outdoor stage was exciting and the number of local bands who show unbelievable talent was striking. Ian Bennet worked hard on video taping responses from some of the people who came to minister alongside us, and soon we will putting together a video of some of our work here in Salem. April joined the festivities by dressing the part, and came in costume as "the fire of God." These are only a few of the creative expressions found this month at The Gathering.

Of course, there is always a necessity for sensitivity. In a small tourist city with over a dozen Witchcraft shops, and a tourist season dedicated to Halloween, one must be sensitive to many things. The Gospel is in its own right offensive enough at times, but there is no reason for us to add to the offensiveness by either rudeness, or a lack of understanding the cultural dynamics we are facing. During the last week we were faced with blaring bull horns and preachers standing outside the church shouting to the crowds about their sins, and telling that they were going to Hell. As every other year, we try to help them see that there might be a better way to reach people, and often we do so in vain, but occasionally some of them understand our concern. This year was as crazy as usual on the final few days of October, and some of our new friends who had just decided to follow the Jesus Way were themselves quite offended by the antics of the noisy street preachers.

Such are the challenges and the joys of ministering at the Haunted Happenings festival in Salem, Massachusetts in October. Please keep us in prayer as we seek to help those who are now recently following Christ to grow in their new faith.

Too many stories to tell. More coming soon, and videos as well.

Coming Up: Last Weekend of Halloween Outreach in Salem, MA

2011-10-26T14:36:00.001-05:00

Update on happenings at The Gathering
October 26th, Two-Thousand Eleven in the year of our Lord.

The last four weekends we have held outreach events at The Gathering. Hundreds of people have experienced gracious words of blessing, and received interpretations to dreams. Teams of "prophets" have spoken words over them. This is Halloween in Salem. Our small church has become a major player in setting the tone of Halloween events in the city because of our location, and because of the fact that the city has graciously allowed us to use the fountain on Essex Street to help set a tone of fun and blessing.

Free Hot Cocoa has been active and serving up cups by the thousands on the weekend. Fair Trade Cocoa has been served as a message about the necessity of breaking away from slave dependent sources. We were able to serve out of biodegradable cups for the first few days, but the cost has been prohibitive for doing this throughout the whole of the season. The costs for serving free hot cocoa have increased almost four-fold since choosing the fair trade method, but we are committed to the purpose and its important message. Deep, deep thanks to Carrie Erwin and Paul Drake for making this cocoa service run smoothly. You rock like organic beans.

The Fountain Stage is now moving into its fourth week of music on the streets of Salem. Christine Cooper the Welsh Celtic Fiddle Champion, and storyteller was on the stage and performed from The Vault. She is now a favorite of some locals. Aradhna was here for a weekend concert and brought Christina worship music in Hindi, and some of the best musicianship we've seen here. Paul Duffy, Sarah Van Wyk and others brought us good music over the last few weekends on the Fountain Stage.

Dream Interpretation and Spiritual Readings were happening over the last three weekends. We saw some physical healings when people were prayed for. Gracious words of encouragement brought tears of joy to many people. Many were encouraged in their search for God and truth. This is what the heart of our investment into the Halloween season of Salem is about. It is our desire to impact as many of the 500,000 people who visit Salem in October as we can. The only way to do such a thing year after year is to make sure that Christians are embedded into the fabric of events like this, and that we learn to work with leaders of the events in ways which are beneficial to the event itself, and sensitive to the culture around us. John Harding from the Northshore Bridge Church and Carlos Zeisel from The Gathering will continue to help lead these outreach projects.

This last weekend friends will be joining us from around the US. Allen Henninger is here now from LA. Dennis Huxley is returning. More friends from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, California, and Texas are coming as well.

College groups from Boston are joining us for outreach, and will walk the streets dressed as monks offering free blessings. The last two years, these events have greatly blessed hundreds of people. A Youth With a Mission Team has asked to work with us this year, and Pastor Phil will be training them in how to minister in unique environments like Salem, MA with large numbers of Witches and other types of Neo-Pagans.

April Alario has been attending a school of ministry at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and will be coming home to lead all night prayer as well. If you are interested in joining the all night prayer contact us and let us know.

Please join us in prayer for this last week of outreach as we seek to serve people from Friday through Halloween Day (Monday).

Jeff shares his experiences in Salem with us

2011-10-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Our new friend Jeff spoke on Sunday last week, and blessed us. This week he shares a bit of his story of the experience in Salem during Haunted Happenings and all the outreach activities of The Gathering.

"Our front door - Half a million, that’s 500,000 if you are counting – people that is, that walk by the front door of the “Vault” – a former bank that was here for 200 years and is now occupied by the “Gathering,” a local church. I say “our” because the pastor assimilates people easily into the local body of believers and extended culture of Salem – so for two weeks, it’s been home.

Home includes extended normal conversations with a gnostic quoting random literature, a local witch who comes into use our wifi and loves just hanging out, a nationally known warlock who rides into the building on a Segway, some really smart intellectuals (Boston area has highest concentration of colleges and universities in the world), and a really diverse collections of people who believe a lot of different things or nothing at all – some come for internet, some for lecto divana a form of meditation on our Scriptures – the Bible – some come for Thursday open mic night, or movie night …

… and as I mentioned 500,000 tourists walk by the door and hundreds have sat for Spiritual Readings – simply asking the Spirit of Truth from the Creator to speak to us on their behalf so we can comfort, encourage, and build them up – and hopefully they catch a glimpse of a loving God who really really Loves the people He created. By the end of the month, the Gathering will have touched the lives of several thousand people thru Spiritual Encounters and dream interpretations, hosting kids day at the park, hosting a stage with eclectic choices of artists from opera to country to a Beatles cover band, hosting an Christian band doing Indian fusion and singing about Jesus in Hindi.

Just a question, but how can you find a way to interact with the lives around you? I am not content to go into a building, sing a few praises, to simply do it again in a local house mid-week. A friend of mine bought a house in the inner city of Durham, is rehabbing it as simply a space to have a presence in the community and interact with those who live there – no other agenda but to provide love encounters – and those go both ways. She gets it. I don’t always get it, but I am growing in walking in God’s grace, practicing mercy, and loving people. God’s truths about eternal live, need for redemption from sin, live in the Spirit now, and even the consequences of avoiding God’s love are real – how we as Christians or the “Church” haven’t always been.

500,000 might not pass by your door this month, but who are the 50 or so you pass by and maybe might touch with new love this week?"

Thanks Jeff. We really appreciate you and all you've done. May God bless you in your coming travels. You are always welcome to make your home here for a few days, a few weeks, or however long.

Update on The Gathering

2011-07-29T16:52:00.001-05:00

The Gathering: an update on activities, outreach, finances and life.

Hi Friends!

As is the case for many of us in these wild times, The Gathering is going through wild times. Changes, challenges and gloriously wonderful experiences.

The Gathering has never been, since our inception, church as usual. Our friends are unique, our way of doing things is open and invites questions and responses, our outreach is innovative in this unique and world-famous small city, and our location is even weird and wild. We have had a great group of people involved in our lives over these first 12 years of our existence, and are thankful for every one of them. We would not be here without you. Each, and every one of you who have made this home - even for a season.

Here is the latest in brief:

• new faces are appearing almost every day at The Gathering
• an outreach to Burning Man is coming up in less than a month
• we have a new member - born today
• finances are as tight as they have ever been

Okay, that's the short of it. Here's the longer version:

New Faces from The Vault Alarm! Open Mic Night each Thursday

Thank you Chris Reiss, Dan Kupka, Will Spreadbury, and David Gerard. These four guys have been instrumental in starting an Open Mic night at The Vault. It was the brainchild of Chris Reiss, and Dan Kupka added his skills and influence and the first night 50 people showed up. It is quite fun to see the community arrive at The Vault and experience some fun, music and friendships. It's not a church service. It's not a evangelistic outreach. It's just a community event, and our friends are enjoying it. After three weeks some of them like it enough to check us out on Sundays or at the Lectio Divina early Thursday PM service, and of course everyone is welcome to everything we do - but never pressured!

Burning Man Outreach

Matt the Pirate and Pastor Phil are headed to Burning Man deep in the Nevada desert. They are part of an art installation team which was Pastor Phil's crazy idea. They (along with other team members from around the U.S.) raised $5,000 on kickstarter.com, and will be erecting pillars in the desert which will be used to allow people to meditate and listen for "the voice of the Spirit." Please keep this project in prayer. They are hoping to film it and turn it into a short film documenting the voices people hear today.

New Member - Aria Marie Bennett

She was born to Ian and Brittany Bennett at 2:48 this afternoon. Yeah!

Finances

Many people have been asking how we are doing, and if we are still surviving. The answer is we are still here, and believing that we shall be able to increase to a place of stable financial support. So far, so good, but like many people in our country today the belt is tighter than usual.

Our space has allowed us to do things most churches only dream about in regards to reaching a community. In fact, many churches have joined us over the years to help us serve the city of Salem and it's 500,000 visitors. We have been able to hold this spot in a strategically beneficial location on behalf of many others over the years. Yet, it has not been without great cost, and just as it has been at some other points in the past our finances are crucially tight.

Our location and our unique and creative ministry have become a model for thousands of people over the years, and we are dependent on the prayerfulness and support of others often, because our church is so small; but our dream, our mission, and our work has been so large.

If you have been blessed by The Gathering over the years - please keep us in your prayers, and if you are able, we are most indebted and thankful for your financial support.

Blessings in most abundance upon you, and the God of Grace give you rest for your soul,
Pastor Phil

Friends create great open mic start!

2011-07-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I posted about the friends of The Gathering creating a weekly open mic night each Thursday at 8:30. Well, musicians were playing 3 song sets from around 8:30 to 12:30 last night, and throughout the evening about 50 people attended.

Chris, Dr. DK, Big MC LargeHuge did a great job of pulling this together. Thanks guys. You are awesome.

We Have Friends! Rock On!

2011-07-14T14:59:00.000-05:00

Friend can seem like such a distant and benign term in the world of Facebook and distant, sometimes only "virtual." Lately, "friend" has been meaning something else to me, and some of us at The Gathering. Our little church, has a rather large mission in the city of Salem, and we are parked smack in the middle of downtown able to interact with visitors and locals with regularity. October (of course) with it's 500,000 visitors makes us one of the most active little churches in the world.

That is all to set the stage for the story of our friends.

Lately, money is tight. Okay, that's an understatement. It is always tight, but lately it is brutally tight - like many of us are experiencing. So much so, that there is concern about the ability to maintain our mission in our current location at The Vault.

Enter stage left our friends. People who are either very new to this little church called The Gathering, or friends in the community who simply like us are concerned, and want to help us out so that we can survive here and do well.

Tonight, some of those friends - those people simply "liked" are proving that friendship and liking are more than a distant facebook phenomenon. They are beginning a weekly Open Mic at the Vault to raise a few bucks to help us out. So to, Dr. DK, Big MC LargeHuge, David Gerard and the initiating force of all this - Chris! Thanks. You guys are awesome.

See you tonight guys, and to everyone else - hope to see you there too.

Pub Theology solves world's problems every month

2011-07-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe not, but we sure have fun sitting around the table and discussing theology and life. June we discussed the question of "Why?". Our question for the evening was "Why Why?" That is, why do we ask the question "Why?" and why has this question plagued humanity throughout history.

This month we forgot to order fried pickles. That is critical, because we've decided that ordering fried pickles is the solution for world peace.

Here's the gang sitting around solving the problem:

The discussion led to the consideration of the difference between good and bad questioning. We discussed when the question leads us to a place of stagnation, and when it leads us to personal growth.

This month, on July 26th, we will consider the most important event or movement of the 20th century. What is the premier defining event of the 20th century and why? Join us for this consideration on July 26th at The Old Spot.

Burning Man Art Project

2011-06-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

Pastor Phil has designed and is leading a team of artists to build an art installation at Burning Man at the end of August. Below is a video prepared for the project fundraising, which will give you an idea of what it is like:

David Gerard, one of our own from The Gathering has provided an ambient music meditation CD to help raise the funds for this art installation.

Consider helping to support this project, and keep us in your prayers.

Pastor Phil

No Pharisee would disagree with Jesus that...

2011-04-28T15:40:00.006-05:00

No Pharisee would disagree with Jesus that the nation of Judah-Israel renounced it’s privileged status during the time of Nebuchadnezzar through horrible acts like sacrificing their children in fire and shedding innocent blood. What was up for debate was which “system” was better at restoring "Israel’s" rightful place as God’s chosen nation: the Parasitical-system or the Jesus-system?

It might not be too far of a stretch to say that the Jesus-system was no better, at least at first glance, in itself, then the Pharisaical system. The Pharisees believed, and succeeded to some extent by Jesus’ own testimony, in escaping the committing of many sinful acts. However, Jesus had two things going for him and his system that the Pharisees didn’t. When the Pharisees asked Jesus “what makes your system better than our system?,” Jesus’ reply was “no one can prove me guilty of sin.” And “believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” Sinlessness and miracles kept Jesus untouchable, even to the moment he was before Pilate. But Jesus, by telling the truth, committed the ultimate sin (I am not attempting to address the “unpardonable sin”). Jesus ultimate “sin,” which he did not reveal until his blameless walk of love and miracles on earth was complete, was to claim to be God. Pilate even gave Jesus an “out:” [loosely translated] “C’mon… just say you’re not god. No one’s god. It’s easy to do and I can free you…”

But Jesus chose to commit the “sin” for which his critics had no greater hatred and for which even those among his critics who admired Him could not believe and accept - though they could not understand the miracles and the sinless transcendence of his earthly walk (“No one could do the things He does if God were not with him...")

So I have a better understanding of why Jesus was so untouchable here on earth (sinlessness, miracles) and a better understanding of what Jesus did that even sinlessness and miracles could not atone for, at least in the eyes of his detractors.

-j

Left Behind: The Party! May 22nd - rough draft poster

2011-04-28T15:16:00.002-05:00

I have determined that the DOR [date of Return] is July 12, 2024. Or maybe that's 3024...

2011-04-26T20:29:00.003-05:00

Since 7, 12, and 24 are the numbers most prevalent in Scripture and the Revelation of John, and God speaks the [calendar] language of any era, I have determined that the DOR [date of Return] is July 12, 2024. Or maybe that's 3024... (throw in a "3...") Call me sloppy but if I'll stick with either date, at the very least, I'll be closer than Camping... (plus my numerology is more "sound"/"heavy..."

The more important and difficult task I want to set my heart to is to live both as if Jesus would come at any moment and reminding myself continuously that I will be living in heaven and heaven is in my heart now. It seems that living as a Redeemed Recreation is both harder and more fruitful even if the DOR is 4/27/2011. (If you are left behind tomorrow, wish my wife a happy birthday, we'll talk to the Man with the Beard. Some millennialist theory holds we can still come back for you... =p )

Good Friday Service 2011

2011-04-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

Good Friday musings at The Gathering today:

Gathered by candle light around the reproduction of the celtic cross from Drumcliffe, Ireland.

"Cast a cold Eye on Life on Death, Horseman pass by" These are words upon the grave stone of William Butler Yeats who is buried in the graveyard at the church in Drumcliffe, Ireland. They were not a focus of our time together tonight but they do highlight some of our thoughts.

We talked about the revolution which is the cross - a revolution which eventually shall overthrow all the Kingdoms of this world through a violent sacrifice of love.

Jew and Gentile, Church and State, You and I are responsible for the death of Christ.

Heather Leigh asked a what if question - what if the end was not determined or known by God, but it was big chance He was taking? This is a great Good Friday question, because we are faced with that same question every time we are forced to live out the revolutionary nature of the cross of Christ.

We also talked about the dead tree which the Lord was hung upon, and how it seems to speak of this earth day. The dying Creation was used by humanity to torture and kill the shepherd of the earth. How apocalyptic can it get?

David Gerard helped organize the service - thanks David.

The Gathering through the year in a glimpse

2010-12-23T15:38:00.005-05:00

This year at The Gathering may one day be viewed as the year of blind survival. We continued in many of the same community outreach projects as we have for many years now. Christmas Tree Bonfire with the free hot cocoa, Fourth of July face-painting for the kids of the city, the month long Halloween outreach were among the many things we have once again done in our city.

Along with the standard yearly projects The Gathering has seen new faces, written new music for the Advent season, made new friends from far-away places, and like many individuals during this difficult economic season - we have struggled along and yet survived with gentle smiles at the end of the season.

The story of struggle and survival, and of grace in the midst of difficulty is the story of scripture. It is the story of redemption, which is the story of Christ. Each of us live through this story in our own way, as God works in our lives over the years.

This year we have stories of blessing which come from those who joined us from afar, and those who are members here at The Gathering.

Taloa Gibson joined us from Tulsa, Oklahoma during the summer and we created a podcast with Taloa reading Bible passages, and singing in his Native American tongue - Choctaw. Mark and Anthea Searle joined us from the UK during the first days of October outreach, and were a greet blessing to the members of our church with their "More Light" ministry activities. Mark and Anthea created a wonderful blog about the experience. (user: salem, pass: letmein)

A few of the stories from our Halloween outreach have been compiled here on The Gathering's blog, and include those who joined us from other churches and other states, as well as thoughts from our own gang at The Gathering.

Pub Theology has continued on the last Tuesday of each month with a group from The Gathering as well as friends from outside the church discussing relevant theological issues. People from every perspective of life have joined us for these discussions, and it continues to be one of ways we network with the people of Salem and share our faith.

Our small church in the heart of Salem, MA continues to be an pilgrimage location for people who travel from afar, and for locals in need of a simple touch from the Lord. People have found their first touch of God and have experienced His loving grace. People have discovered an unencumbered and simple Christianity. People have worked together as a family, and been servants of hospitality to others from around the world, and this is at the heart of this small community called The Gathering.

Our members are learning to serve, to teach, to offer hospitality, and to do this toward all people. In a city known for its history and its contemporary expression of witchcraft we have had the unique opportunity to accepted by the many different groups in Salem, and still be recognized for our simple unwavering devotion to Jesus.

As this year ends and the next begins we are embarking on a recording project of chants and worship music we have written, and hope to have them available soon in the coming year.

We recognize that it is many of you: our friends, family, and fans who help us continue forward in our service. Thank you for your prayer, and support through 2010. We are ever indebted to you.

For those who would like donate to help us in our journey of serving the city of Salem you can donate securely online through Paypal on our website at http://www.salemgathering.com

Unedited reports from October

2010-12-23T15:35:00.001-05:00

Stories from October:

OK John here goes. I was teamed with Nelleke and Allie and a couple came in visiting from Chicago. She was kind of jovial and talkative and he was non-verbal and somewhat melancholy. After hearing her we turned to him and he told us about a dream he had and it involved at the end, him chasing,with a stick/staff, rodents that were surrounding him. He was also wearing a helmet. Allie determined that the rodents had something to do with depression or mental illness, which he said he had for some time. This is when we asked him if we could pray for him, and I asked if I could pray in the name of Jesus and he okayed that request. We then layed hands on his head and put some anointing oil on his forehead, which he also okayed. Now he had NOT been smiling at all up to this point and we asked how he felt and a great big smiley face came upon him, his countenance totally changed, Praise the LORD. After this, girl A and B came to us. They were visiting from a college. Girl A had a pocketbook with three straps on it and it seemed to me that they were tangled and the word entangled came to my thoughts. I left it alone for a while because I didn't know what exactly what that meant and if it was for her. Another word came to me about girl A, afraid, and I asked her if she was afraid of what was going on and she said no, but immediately girl B said to her, "You lie". We didn't say anything about it. The word entangled was still with me so I asked girl A, not B who owned the pocketbook. if she was entangled in something or with someone and immediately girl B leaned towards her and whispered into her ear. Girl A started to let us know about some guy she was involved with but wanted out of it and he wasn't leaving her alone, so we began seriously praying for this to end and that he would be out her life. After this girl B said to her friend " Do you feel better now" and the answer was "Yes". I did ask if she had been a little afraid of this all the time and she did admit it and that was all that was said. See you Sunday and say hello to Sabrina for me. Jerry. PS There is one thing I said to the man who was wearing the helmet in his dream which he agreed with but I could have maybe said it differently. I said that the helmet was probably keeping your head on straight. What do you think.

Hi John,
Jim said you were asking about what happened to the Saudi guys in Salem yesterday. I was on a team with Fotios and Barry when a Saudi Harvard professor M- in psychology came in with a friend Ma-, an MA student in business. M- said that he had been in the gathering for a spiritual reading last year and this year he brought Ma- who had just arrived in the US. We first gave Ma- a spiritual reading. Unfortutely Barry and Fotios treated both guys like new age people, talking about the Creator in front of these Muslims. M-, the prof, said to Ma- 'they mean God' but Barry and Fotios did not pick up on it and kept talking about the Creator. They both got very good words for Ma-: they saw him as a royal person who takes good care of others. Ma- said that he doesn't like to be higher than others. We could not understand why that was a problem for him so there was a pause. Then I asked them straightaway if they were Muslims. They said yes. I said that we both believe in Jesus, except they call him Isa al Masih. M- said 'yes but he is a prophet for us but not for you Christians'. Fotios said 'he is the son of God for us' and then the conversation went on another topic. Ma- also asked if there was a spell on him as he has many enemies who are into black magic. (At this point it should have dawned on me that Ma- was afraid of being a royal person as this would attract the jealousy of his friends, or the evil eye or whatever but I only realized this hours later). Fotios said that he saw that Ma- was well protected. Ma- said that that that makes sense as he has had the impression since age 5 that there is some being from another dimension standing behind him, protecting him. Fotios and Barry tried to tell him that that is the Creator who wants to have a relationship with him, and that Ma- can take the initiative to make contact with him. I was afraid that this would affirm them in their belief in Allah so I became more and more nervous. Ma- said that he could see I wanted to say something. So I said that, according to the Quran Jesus will judge the world, so he is very important, so he can protect Ma-. I did not get any further. I'm not sure if I got the order right here, was I first or was Fotios first? Anyhow, I regret that I not having said that the person protecting him was Jesus in my view but on the other hand I cannot disagree with Fotios in front of them. I was also too slow to react because I was intimidated by the idea that I was talking to Muslims. We gave M- also an encouraging word but made no spiritual connection. I will just keep praying for them.

I learned from this that on the one hand I should not be intimidated and take more initiative, but on the other, I don't think we could improve anything as we were trained to help ex Catholics and new agers but not muslims as they are so rare. If you were to train us for Muslims as well the training would take a few more days... Besides that, we cannot correct each other in front of the clients, can we?

Thank you for your training and for leading us. We enjoyed the outreach very much and learned a lot.
Blessings,
Nelleke

Here's a little description of my last two sessions, which were such a blessing to me.
- JJ

Last Two Ministry Sessions, 2010-10-31 (around 9:00- 10:00 PM)

Team:

April (leader)
Dennis (with red headscarf & moccasins)
Jim Johansson

1) To M- & J-

M- was coming back after getting prophecy last year because he got such accurate revelation last year. He definitely wasn’t disappointed this year in that department. I have seen by now a lot of accurate revelation, but the accuracy and confidence with which things were delivered here went beyond anything I had seen, and really left me in awe, both by Dennis and April.

April described very accurately J-'s personality, even noting that “someone with horns” (M-’s costume) teased her about some to these characteristics. Basically she was very childlike and starry-eyed.

Dennis described M- in great detail, how everything he does is focused on the future, at the expense of enjoying the present, and how he could correct this. Everything was extremely accurate and detailed.

We did a “spiritual encounter” for both of them. J- felt tingling and some heat. M- got some revelation, seeing a forge, and something being built, and some other things.

In the end M- revealed that he believed in the Norse gods. April talked some about this, apparently ineffectively. I wished I had asked him, “You’ve seen that the God of the Bible can give you accurate revelation, and solutions to your problems, showing that he loves you. Could the gods you are now following do that for you?” Unfortunately I didn’t ask that.

2) D-

D- was quite a case, and quite a gift from God as my final Halloween experience here. He apparently slipped by the screeners, and suddenly just plopped himself down in the chair in front of us when the previous couple got up. He talked very much, and obviously used it as a defense mechanism as well. He turned out to be an ex-con, and he clearly had the ex-con ways of both manipulation and looking for someone’s tricks in everything, not trusting anything you say, always looking for your “angle”. He knew AA inside and out, plus NA (narcotics anonymous). He was using come-on language with April, which she of course ignored. He got up to walk away, when April called out to say we really wanted to do a reading for him, and he came back and sat down again.

April told Dennis to go first, apparently knowing he had something. D- jokingly asked, “So, are you going to tell me about my future?” When he saw how burdened Dennis was to give the word, he said, “Don’t worry, if you see me going to jail, I’m used to that. I’ve been there many times.”

Dennis told him, “I’m not going to tell you about your future, but about your past.” Then he said, with an obvious emotional struggle, “This is totally outside of what we do, but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. When you were a little child, someone beat you brutally. You can do all the AA you want, but until you deal with this, you ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Finally D- was caught by surprise, and sat briefly with his mouth open. It turned out even worse that stated. After he had done something naughty, his grandmother told him to come to her, promising that she wouldn’t do anything to him. When she got a hold of him, she beat him bloody, to within an inch of his life. So she had betrayed his trust as well as nearly killing him.

Dennis told him that he would have to forgive his (dead) grandmother. Very surprisingly, D- was not only willing, but seemed to do it quite easily.

About that time, the Spirit came very powerfully on me, in a slightly different experience than I had ever had. It was like a freight train passing thru me, headed for David. As soon as I was about to say something, April said, “Jim, I think you’ve got a word for D-”.

I released this word, “God says he is going to grow you up into the full stature of the man he designed you to be.” I could barely choke out the last words with the overwhelming emotion that gripped me. I expected to see this freight train bowl D- over, but I really didn’t seem much impact on him. I repeated it to try and get him to remember it. I still couldn’t believe how he didn’t appear to be impacted, as it had totally penetrated my soul, and was still doing so an hour later.

After that April revealed that he had made some inner vow that kept him from getting married. It turned out he had done that in 11th grade after an unrequited love, and had dropped out of high school as a result. April discussed some psychological ins and outs with D-, showing, I thought, great insight.

Sometime in there there was more discussion of the abuse, and God gave me a second word; again I was very powerfully gripped by it. I delivered it, with somewhat less emotion than the first, but still it was very powerful in my soul. It was something like, “God says it ends with you. This generational curse of abuse ends with you.” (I motioned a horizontal cutting-off motion with my hand.) I then explained that he could get married with confidence, because now the abuse cycle was broken, and would not go on to his children if had had any. He then told us he had traced it back to his great grandmother; he assumed that it went back for many more generations, but he couldn’t trace it back any farther than her.

They led him to renounce that vow, and break the power of it. Strangely it turned out to be harder for him to do that forgiving his grandmother, but eventually he got there.

At this point Dennis suddenly says, “Now I’m going to reveal your future to you. You are going to be in demand to speak at AA meetings because of your powerful testimony. You will be travelling to different places to give your testimony.”

Several times D- showed he couldn’t believe what was happening, couldn’t believe April and I had just met, etc. His mind seemed to be wildly searching for some “angle”, and coming up blank. I trust eventually he concluded that there was no “angle” – we really were who we said, and were really getting revelation, and communicating the love of God.

Somewhere in all the talk, he had revealed that he prays to Jesus, but we didn’t explore where he was at spiritually beyond that while I was still there. Hopefully April and Dennis did more when I left. I felt I had to leave to get Byarta back home, as well as my wife, so I left D- in their hands.

From Dennis:

Hi, Phil. Here's a write up of a ministry experience I had on Sunday.
Wishing I was still in Salem hanging out with you.

It was late Halloween night and another successful, fulfilling season of ministering to people at Salem was just about over. The team I was ministering with at the time was just finishing up what seemed to be an effective session with two people, a couple. We had said our goodbyes, and they had no sooner stood to leave when a very animated man, gesturing and talking nonstop, came over and sat down, and began flirting with April, the lone woman on our team of three. April tactfully excused herself and walked away, saying she needed a short break, but would be back. The other team member and I (Forgive me, whoever you are, I forgot your name. You’re from the North Shore Bridge and you look a little like Brian McClaren) tried to engage the man in conversation. He never stopped talking in his nervous laughter kind of speech, and never stopped moving either. He sat, then he stood, then he was leaving, then he was walking back, talking nervously and waving his arms the whole time. It sounds like I’m describing someone on drugs, but I was certain he wasn’t. Eventually, he told us he had been shooting heroin prior to going through rehab. He told us how long he’d been clean, but I don’t remember what he said. Around ninety days, if I remember right. He also said he had spent much time in jail. All the while, he kept saying he had to go, he couldn’t stay.

April came back and sat down, and the monologue continued, with April interjecting as often as she could for the man to stay and sit. Eventually, he did sit, and we were able to get him quiet long enough to go before the Father for him. I immediately got a picture of him as a child and an adult was severely beating him. I didn’t feel the most prudent thing to do would be to just blurt that information out, so I asked Father what I should say to the man. He said, “Tell him you see him as a child and someone is beating him”. I decided that couldn’t be God, so I asked again and didn’t get anything. Experience has taught me that that means I need to do the last thing God told me to do. But I was wrestling with it.
April noticed I was agitated, and suggested I speak. So I said to the man, “I see you as a child, and someone is beating the crap out of you”. The man’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened. He stared at me, and said, very slowly, “Woooooow!” He repeated it several times. He even said it backwards. He told us it was his grandmother who had beaten him, and that there had been a lot of blood, and he had been injured badly. April and the other man on the team got very comforting, loving words for the man. We all had tears in our eyes. We were able to demonstrate to the man how to release his grandmother by forgiving her, and to ask the Lord to forgive her also, which he did, in his own words.
As we continued to minister to him, he, in his own words, repented of a vow he had made as a child. He had earlier expressed faith In Jesus, whom he had met as a result of the twelve step programs he was using to get clean and sober. The man was transformed before us. His whole demeanor changed. The agitation was gone, the façade was gone. There was peace on his face—all over him, in fact. He talked about Jesus, about recovery, about plans for his future, about bettering himself. April told him about churches he could attend, including The Gathering. Before he left, he hugged us all—big, tight, bear hugs that lasted a long time. Only a few minutes before, he had not been a man you could hug—well, maybe April could have! He left, not with April’s phone number, but mine. He called me yesterday, which was Tuesday, November 2. He was still amazed at all that had happened, particularly that he had forgiven his grandmother. He had told friends about all that had happened, and his friends had not believed it. But he said, “I was there! I know what happened”. He said that the next day would be the anniversary of his grandmother’s death, and that he planned to go to his mother’s to see if he could e a comfort to her, and to tell her he had forgiven her.
Father, you are awesome! Thanks!

Solstice, Advent and New Year all offer hope

2010-12-21T14:50:00.004-05:00

As the end of the year nears, once again I look back at and consider the things which have happened here at The Gathering.

This year has been most trying, and without a question the single most difficult year of my life, which is saying a lot for those who have walked with us through the last 5 years. Yet on the other hand, it has proved itself to be a fruitful, and faithful year as well. How these elements of opposite value can trend together I am not sure, but this is not the first year I have seen struggle and blessing go hand in hand.

The fact that the Winter Solstice, the Advent and the coming of a New Year are positioned so close to one another is the perfect alignment for rethinking life. The Winter Solstice marks the ending of shortening days and lengthening darkness. This night points us toward Spring, new life, and dawning of longer periods of light. It is a birth of hope. The Advent calls us to consider the place of God in our hearts, and reveals the deepest place of God's interaction with humanity. It is a second birth of hope. The New Year completes the passage of a season of life, and enlivens our hearts with the potential for new things. It is a third birth of hope in this short period of only a handful of days.

How will you re-position your life in order to take full advantage of the grace afforded us in changing seasons? This is a question I ask myself for this coming year. May the Lord bless us both with the proper response to this season of transition.

To learn more about The Gathering you may visit us on our website.

Holiday Mead Making Event

2010-12-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

So, this last Sunday Ian Bennett from Isaak's of Salem joined us at 2pm to teach us how to make our own mead at home. Here are some photos of the event, and, of course, since we meet in a old bank building there is only one place to keep our three gallon container of mead - which will be ready right around Easter time. Photo of the secret and secure mead location follows as well.

The Halloween Cleanup: Stories to Come

2010-11-05T16:44:00.001-05:00

This morning the last Essex Street evidences of Halloween were loaded onto a flatbed truck. A man named "Wind" and myself loaded scaffolding from the Fountain Stage onto the Lynn Ladder and Scaffolding truck. This is the hard mark of the end of Haunted Happenings events for me each year. It's not really over until the stage rolls away down the street - not to return for another 11 months.

This is also the time I look back and reconsider the events over the last month, tells the stories, and publish the adventures.

From the first weekend on Saturday, October 2nd the crowds were heavier than usual for the beginning of the month. The final weekend Saturday crowds were estimated at 40,000 by the police and 60,000-70,000 on Halloween Night.

For four weekends we ran live music on the streets of Salem, we sponsored the 15th annual Salem Halloween Children's Day, we had teams of people doing dream interpretation and "spiritual readings" for four weekends, we gave away free hot cocoa, and hosted the international photography project WDYDWYD? by asking people "Why do you do what you do?" and taking pictures of them with their answers.

People who have served alongside us this year came from as far away as Cheltenham, England and Caernarfon, North Wales to as close as Beverly, Massachusetts. Many of these people are writing their stories and sending them to us so we can share them with you in the upcoming days.

For now you can see a few favorite moments from our barefoot monk in residence - Jeff Gentry on his blog.

If you would like to see pictures from the Salem news and read about the Halloween season from the perspective of the city newspaper go here.

3 weeks of Outreach and one last week to go

2010-10-25T19:16:00.003-05:00

October is the busiest month of the year in Salem, Massachusetts.

This is also true for our little church, which is situated on the red lined Heritage Trail in downtown Salem. In the last three weeks we have set up a stage, hosted live music from local entertainers on it, organized and ran a Children's Day event on the Salem Common, given away free hot cocoa, offered free dream interpretation and "spiritual readings," and have hosted the international photography project "Why Do You Do What You Do?"

Visitors have come from near and far to participate with us in outreach. Included in these participants are John Harding and the gang from the North Shore Bridge Fellowship; Mark and Anthea Searle from the Cheltenham Bridge Fellowship in Cheltenham, England; The Streams Ministries internship from New London, New Hampshire; Danette Strandell (a fellow Burner) from St Joseph's, MO: our longtime friend Dennis Huxley from Rome, New York; another fellow Burning Man outreach team member Alan Drake from Dallas, Texas; and of course the wonderful people from The Gathering.

On Saturday, October 16th we held the 15th annual Salem Halloween Children's Day. For the last 9 years we have been in charge of it, and sponsor the day with the help of Domino's Pizza. We organize it, promote it, and run it on the day of the event. The event is one of the few large events in the city of Salem in October targeted to reach the children of Salem. This year we were almost rained out. Instead we were winded out - which meant the wind was too strong for some of our large rides to make an appearance, but we still held the costume parade, and thanks to Brian O'Maerlaigh we just had some plain old fun with the kids on the common.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of people were touched by the personal ministry of the spiritual counseling we offer for free from The Gathering, and from our location near the music stage near the Peabody Essex Museum.

Hot cocoa began its service this last weekend, and at least 1,500 free cups of hot cocoa were passed out on Saturday and Sunday thanks to the teams from The Gathering of Jeff and Kellie Gentry, Carrie Erwin, Rachel and Jonathan Meharry, Paul Drake, Elizabeth Steadman, Joyce Greer, Chris Dugan, and Linda Quadros. (Hopefully I got everyone!)

Local musicians performed on the stage,and they included: Paul Duffy's group from the Front Street Coffee House Open Mic Night, Via Perkins, Sarah Van Wyk, Yvan Pierre Marlier, Lily Press and her husband Simon, Black Dog Brother, The Dejas, Clay Ventre, Julian Baptista, Deb Crosby's Talent Show, and Honour Havoc.

The stories of people who were deeply touched by the personal ministry of our spiritual counseling teams came from the interns at Streams Internship, our own members at The Gathering, and our visitors like Dennis Huxley. Dennis commented that this might have been the most significant weekend of the last 4 years of visiting he has been a part of.

Along with the Spiritual counseling we have been taking photos of people who are answering the question, "Why do you do what you do?" This project was started by Tony Deifell at Burning Man about 7 years ago. I met him at Burning Man this year, and asked if we could do the project in Salem during the Halloween festivities. Thanks to photographers Deborah Twombly, and Ben Corey, we got to the artistry of WDYDWYD? this last weekend.

People who do not have a Christian background have been touched by the gentle guidance of God's Spirit. We work hard to bring blessing to everyone whether they are Christians, or of other spiritual persuasions, or even perhaps no spiritual persuasion at all. With the belief that God loves all people regardless of their beliefs we are attempting to show the love of Jesus without bias, and it has been having a positive effect on all who come our way.

Special thanks goes out to The Gathering members who have provided a place for people to stay, and food for the spiritual counselors. Thank you Rennie Treantos, Joanne Joyce, Carl and Melissa Nystedt, Joyce Greer, and Jeff and Diane Menasco.

This is a short report on the activities of outreach during the last three weeks here in Salem, MA. Your prayers, and of course, your support in even a small way help make all this possible. If you would like know more go to The Gathering Website. There you can make a tax-deductible donation, or find our email address and sign up for our ministry mailing list.

First Weekend of Outreach in Salem, MA

2010-10-11T18:18:00.001-05:00

October 9-10 marked the first weekend of outreach and community service by The Gathering during this 2010 October season.

The Fountain Stage held 4 hours of music in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday. Via Perkins from Salem State College was the first performer. I met Via some months ago while she performed at Gulu-Gulu cafe, and decided we needed to get her great voice and engaging personality up on the stage. I didn't realize that she was part of the Christian club at Salem State, and her songs were about relationship with God. So, I was surprised by the wonderful spiritual motif of her music, and impressed by the crowd's interest. Sarah Van Wyk is a gothic/classical/industrial music with themes on prayer and seeking God - Sarah will be back, including Halloween Night. These are just two of the artists who played this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon John and Sabrina Harding brought a encounter team from the Bridge Church in Beverly, and they interpreted Dreams and held spiritual encounters Saturday afternoon and evening.

Mark and Anthea Searle have joined us from the Cheltenham Bridge Church in Cheltenham, England. They shared "More Light" ministry with us, and have been holding spiritual counseling sessions with people from our church. They have also joined us for Dream Interpretation and "Spiritual Readings."

We have had people share dreams with snakes, or the death of loved one's, and those who shared their dreams felt encouraged, relieved, and helped toward a deeper relationship with God.

Danette Strandell joined us from Missouri Saturday Night. Danette and her husband Tom are starting a church in St. Joseph, MO. She led us through communion on Sunday morning, and joined us in outreach on Sunday afternoon.

Jeff MacDonald, a reporter for a Christian publication has been talking with us over the last few days, and learning about our outreach. He has been talking with myself, Danette, Mark and Anthea, and the people we minister to.

This is the first of four weeks of outreach. Next week we will run a Children's Halloween Festival on Saturday the 16th - Hopefully we won't be rained out. Stay tuned for more information through the week.

What we do, and why we do it each October - a podcast

2010-09-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

People want to know what we do each busy October here in the city of Salem, and why we do it. The month is now upon us, and so here is a description of the events we are involved in, and a few reasons for doing them.

October in Salem (a podcast)

2010-09-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

This is a short description of what it is like visiting Salem in the month of October. Some people think of it as "the world's largest Witchcraft festival." That's not an accurate description. So, you might want to get a feel for what it really is like.

Not a Cult. Really!

2010-07-01T14:21:00.000-05:00

No. We are not a cult, but it does look like it when the ladies all arrive dressed identically on Sunday mornings.

They went shopping together the day before and then arrived on Sunday wearing their Macy's sale purchases. At least that is what they told me.

You can see that Heather Leigh in the background did not get the memo, and none of the guys were wearing this outfit - so for now, we are safe.

Pastor Phil on Doug Paggit Radio talking about Witches and Salem

2010-05-04T14:04:00.001-05:00

I (Pastor Phil) did a 8 minute spot with Doug Pagitt on his radio show while in Washington DC at Wesley Methodist Seminary at the Transform East Conference. Here's the embedded YouTube video of the show. We don't actually look like we are facing each other in this interview, but that's the angle of the cameras.

Pub Theology and Easter Eats

2010-03-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

Here's what happens this week with The Gathering:

Tuesday we are meeting for our last Tuesday of the month Pub Theology gathering. The subject will be: Where does faith end and stupidity begin? It is bound to be a controversial topic - like always. Join us at The Old Spot - 121 Essex Street in Salem, MA 7pm Tuesday, March 30th.

Sunday is Easter Sunday, and we are meeting 30 minutes earlier than usual for service. Well actually we are meeting at 9:30am instead of 10am to eat. It will be a potluck Easter breakfast - bring something to share, and share in what others bring. The service will actually be starting late due to the fact that we will be feeding our faces. Look for the actual service to begin around 10:30am.

Ben rocks.

2010-03-21T18:44:00.010-05:00

A visiting preacher to the Gathering today, Ben (see previous post), spoke and rocked the house. This was not necessarily in a "volume" sense but in a sense of profundity. Such is not unusual for sermon-givers at the Gathering, whether regular or visiting. And thus, I was not surprised and pleasantly touched.

The text was the parable of the unmerciful servant. Along the lines of something Pastor Gentry noted during communion, when one preaches on the Gospels, there is a chance that neat things will happen. Not that that does not happen as frequently when one preached on texts other that the Gospels. Enough with the disclaimers.

The reason Ben's preaching on the parable of the unmerciful servant stood out to me as one who has been reading this parable for about 35 years, and who has probably read it over 500 times, and who, at last check, has memorized it, it that at this point in my life when I too easily forget God's limitless love, grace, and mercy, and abundant blessing, even as we all move through whatever struggles we may face an any point in our lives.

Ben accentuated the need for forgiveness and reconciliation, either together, or, when reconciliation does not or cannot occur, to walk in forgiveness and a sense of gratitude to free ourselves from the torture of being confined to our book-keeping. Not that book-keeping is not absolutely necessary (didn't I say enough of the disclaimers?) but it is when we are slaves to the keeping of the record of rights and wrongs, whether done by us or by others, to us or to others, for us or for others, that we find ourselves trying to pay back/keep track of an impossible debt to pay and a debt fall smaller then the one Our Master has already paid for us. And He has given back to us so much more.

For me, a way to stop keeping track of rights and wrongs - a hard thing for all of us to do - is to count my blessings, however meager or spectacular. It reminds me that the "spiritual pennies" I try to pinch from others or hold others accountable to pale in comparison to the riches in Christ.

-posted by "Jeremiah..."

Our buddy Ben preaching this Sunday

2010-03-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

Ben Corey is the speaker this coming Sunday morning. He joined for outreach this last October, and was a perfect match with the wold encounters, which occur every Haunted Happenings season. You may remember Ben from his connection with us in October, are if you have been a part of the Emergent Cohort, you may also met Ben. Then again you might also remember Ben from the short clip below which was part of a series I created at my Square No More site asking for definitions of the Emergent Church. Here's Ben again - don't miss him on Sunday morning.

I'll be with our friends at CotC in Carsbad, CA and Tom Conlon is there doing a concert as well - hmmmmmmm...traveled 3,000 miles to see Tom who lives in the town next door - funny.

Dunkin' like David (last year...)

2010-03-14T09:57:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSOEEOOOF0E

St. Patrick was a Welshman...

2010-03-14T09:48:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHSGZGrorJM

Moses struck the rock...

2010-03-13T19:55:00.006-05:00

Numbers 20 (New International Version)

Water From the Rock
1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"

6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."

9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

13 These were the waters of Meribah, [a] where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.

-----

Sermons from the past given at the Gathering sometimes come back to me out of nowhere. A couple weeks ago, I watched as an under-30 driver sailed through a red light, jeering at pedestrians crossing the street in the cross walk. It did not look to be a mistake -- simply a young driver who didn't want to stop and new they wouldn't hit anyone.

"What a good time for a baseball bat," I mused after I continued down the street. This may surprise some who know me but you probably remember, too, that I have a strong sense of justice and grew up playing competitive sports. I am always ready to put in my $0.02 and teach a lesson -- whether or not the "lesson" is warranted or wanted.

I imagined if I were carrying my baseball bat and "that driver" (reminiscent of the abrasive McCain's, "that one...") sailed through the light within range of me and my bat. I do not know how wise it would be explaining to a police officer that I dented their car because they came to close, or if the driver would, in a rare moment, pull out, say, a handgun... Regardless, what came to mind was a sermon Pastor Phil had preached on Moses, instead of speaking to the rock as commanded by God, struck it in the presence of the obstinate, rebellious nation of Israel.

Forgetting that I, myself, all too often am like the obstinate, rebellious nation of Israel, I was still reminded that Moses "fault" was not necessarily due entirely to disobeying God but also due to the rage he displayed through striking the rock. Thank God that He does not strike me as a rock. Moments like these help me on my fast which I hope will not just be confined to this Lenten Season - that of becoming kinder and gentler (which invariably will, ironically, make me stronger...)

-j

What's in the narrative? Help define our Church! Please!

2010-03-11T16:02:00.001-05:00

During the counsel meeting on Monday evening there was a discussion on the narrative we weave around who we are as a church. Otherwise, what is the best way to describe The Gathering. This was not an easy thing to do.

It was not easy, because we do so many things outside the box of traditional church life. Yes, we have Sunday morning services, and Sunday evening services. Yes, we have people who donate their money to help support The Gathering. It keeps us in a church building on the main thoroughfare of public foot traffic in downtown Salem - well, at least our hearty little band is trying to do that.

BUT (yes I used the taboo big yelling letters, because it is a big but):

We also get involved helping with community events (still good so far).
We organize a large missional outreach to the 500,000 visitors and the locals who spend their time in downtown Salem every October (still easy enough to fathom).
We have taught hundreds of people to do this work in a post-modern, post-christian setting (now we are stretching and looking like something which would be defined as "parachurch" - otherwise not church but helping it).
We have become a place for missionally minded people to travel and work on a volunteer vacation - a type of pilgrimage of their faith, and we put them up in our homes! (okay, now we are stretching the boundaries of description!).
We have become a location for a number of city events, and want to see this increase as well. (and I know some churches do that, but it has not been my experience that a lot do it.)
We have been growing in the number of social justice educational activities we perform (now that adds a new twist).
And we have befriended people not normally attached to typical evangelical or pentecostal churches - like witches, GLBT, atheists, and whoever typically doesn't like doctrinally conservative Christians (and I don't know what to do with that myself - except appreciate it a whole lot).

So Jeff Gentry described who we are as Open Source Christianity. Well, that went over great with people who understand social networks and other computer jargon. Joanne doesn't have a computer at home, and some others only just use their email. It was a great way to say that everyone involved has something to share and contribute to the life and definition of who we are, and it describes well the fact that we are a place for others to come learn and also share. Yet the terminology only works for the social networking and computer elites among us, and those who are growing up with this stuff (except even Melissa was lost in the Open Source narrative.)

So I suggested the abbey narrative. Perhaps we are like the old abbeys, which became the center of community life for a region, places for the poor to be received, centers of worship, places of pilgrimage, training grounds for new ministers of the Gospel, and sending centers for missionaries. This narrative works well for those with a knowledge of church history or a background from orthodoxy, but for evangelicals and those not brought up in church an abbey seems like a big old church building, which at one time had monks in it. Today you visit, and throw a couple bucks in the kitty to keep the pretty old building from falling apart.

So, the question is: What narrative works best to describe this crazy community of faith? Is there a good and accurate one - one making sense to young and old, educated and uneducated, those with a background in church and those new to Christianity alike? Or must we use multiple narratives to describe who we are: the Open Source and abbey Christianity, and a few other descriptive story lines as well?

Do you have a narrative to describe us? Is there an illustration from church history, everyday life, car repair, garbage retrieval, or knitting to define us? If you have ideas send please comment below. We-a needs-a the help-a! (Pentecostal accent applied to the last line.)

"Mary the Werewolf" preached a few Sunday nights ago...

2010-02-06T11:57:00.018-05:00

A few Sunday nights ago, Mary "the Werewolf" preached. Let me explain and you will see that this 'nomer I have come up with is intended to be the greatest of compliments, along with adoration...

Mary is totally Goth. Somehow, when she preaches, she also assumes the mantle of a brilliant, amazing, Harvard DMin. grad, communicator, and preacher who she is, complete with (though she'd hate to admit it) a light melodious Virginian southern drawl which would make Billy Graham jealous. Note that this is not incompatible with Goth, merely uncommon with Goth. Probably somewhat to my shame, I cannot generally listen to Joyce Meyer for more than 30 seconds at a time. I could listen to Mary preach forever. When Mary speaks, she is not loud but she is absolutely clear. I think of Jonathan Edwards, too, whose great sermons, often filled with dynamic imagery, were said to have been delivered in a quiet, reading manner.

The material she covered was pretty straightforward: in general, (a) repent of blaming God, though misfortunes occur. (b) Look towards yourself. (c) Accept responsibility for your sinful nature. (d) Submit to God. (e) Remove yourself from situations of temptation.

I began to think of "your enemy the Devil prowls..." when Mary mentioned (d) but, instead of the traditional Hollywood bloodthirsty, murdering werewolf, the totem protector/vanquisher of vampires werewolf, who defends those who the Devil wants to devour, came to mind... Go figure. I probably lost one too many combats to Mary's werewolf avatar on facebook...

The Incarnate Word

2010-02-06T11:14:00.004-05:00

A little behind on GatherGang updates...

Apologies! Here is one, starting a few weeks back...

Pastor Jeff Menasco preached a few Sundays ago on the way the Apostle John, born and bred a Jew, crossed cultures and crossed centuries by describing Jesus to - at the time, a Greek audience - as the Logos. For John, from what we can tell from what he wrote in the first chapter of the Gospel of John...

[not to be confused with the letters attributed to John, also in the Bible: 1 John, 2 John, or 3 John - or the Book of Revelation - nor should the Apostle John be confused with John the Baptist - the man described by the Apostle John in the Gospel of John as a "man who came from God whose name was 'John...'" - who should also be differentiated from "the disciple that Jesus loved..." which is John the apostle self-referencing himself in the Gospel of John - but I digress in all this...]

...again, from what we can tell about what the Apostle John wrote in the first chapter of the Gospel which bears his name, he identified Jesus as the "Logos" who John presents as not only being in the beginning as with God but also, at the same time, as God (not "a" God as some mistranslations of John's Gospel would have us believe...)

For the Greeks, the Logos was the embodiment of Absolute Truth. As Pastor Menasco described, not only does John's use of the word, "Logos" transcend the typical Greek meaning attributed to the word, "Logos," but, because language are limited by words and description themselves, even a spiritual or "super poetic" use of language to describe all God/Jesus/(Spirit), falls short of who God/Jesus/(Spirit)... who JESUS is...

But what does this all mean? Well, other observations from the congregation prompted by Pastor Menasco's preaching were...

-Jesus the Logos inspires me to bury my nose more in the Bible...

-Jesus the Logos reminds me of the goodness of God, sometimes like the goodness of parents who we don't necessarily agree with...

-It all sound good but I'm just not there yet - i.e., even coming close to being able to grasp the whole meaning of Jesus the Logos...

-I don't think we'll ever grasp the meaning (of Jesus as Logos) this side of eternity...

-I don't get it...

-You know what's really cool, when you see someone who comes to Christ and does seem to get it (Jesus as Logos), at least some of it, even if they don't really know what it all means...

All in all, a good Sunday. Stay tuned for our next installment when Mary the Werewolf preached...

Be blessed...

-j

Haiti and coming to grips with grace...

2010-01-13T21:04:00.020-05:00

If there's one thing the economic crisis of '08 taught me, it was that things could get worse. The recent earthquake in Haiti, unfortunately, is just one of many catastrophes that plague us of national, international, and not-so-international scale that remind me of this truism. One of the things that struck me (read: "way I cope?") about the recent earthquake in Haiti and real-time coverage (regardless of whether or not millions more have died in shorter periods in more gruesome ways) is how, in "Jobian" fashion (like in the book of Job), the disaster centered on people who were very much already down (similar to flooding in Bangladesh and the recent Tsunami caused by a "perfect" earthquake...)

It struck me, not because I feel "the powers that be" or God is an impersonal sadist but, because, it really struck me that no one is exempt from life's tragedies, whether they are rich or poor. For this reason, in the midst of suffering not just in Haiti but worldwide, from our families, to our local communities, to places around the globe that are considered "far reaches" from where we call home, I have become more keenly aware of grace that I have been blessed with.

Furthermore, I am struck by how world passions have mobilized, regardless of successes or failures in the delivery of aid, or regardless of whether or not Haiti as a whole emerges from this tragedy like a Phoenix from the Ashes. Perhaps the Master is looking towards Haiti to see, whether He tarry ten years or ten thousand years, whether He might "find faith on earth when he returns?..."

At what cost?...

2010-01-01T22:10:00.009-05:00

I have been wanting to write a post titled, "at what cost" for a while now. But I am still not sure what I should write - even as I type these very words. Sometimes, tragedy defies definition (as does joy, and redemption, and healing). We all know joy comes in the "morning" - often after a long, lonely, dark "night." At other times, however, this is to be cast aside, as the suffering only elicits a response of a hope of instant deliverance or being pulled into merely slog-like continuing just to try to put one foot in front of the other - simply existing, surviving, or, as Tom Hanks put it in Sleepless in Seattle, "breathing in and out..."

God knows there's been moments in my life where the current blessing I experience was not even conceived as a possibility, let alone a hope. And God knows that trials are a part of life. God also knows that the "equation" of blessing for people in never balanced in this life. But perhaps that is good news?...

The term, "at what cost?" bemuses at what cost do we attempt to serve, follow, trust God. Or, how much suffering can one person take when serving, following, and trusting God? This musing does not apply solely to myself or to friends or family but to each of us who seek to follow God and even those who do not seek God but who God pursues...

I began this post, and the words above, on January 1st. Today, January 10, regardless of circumstances before or after or between now and then, I am still convinced that God is a good God and God still delivers miraculously today. -Perhaps not in the way we expect - but this is also good news. Sometimes, he blesses us beyond our wildest dreams - his faithfulness despite our faithlessness.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, and when we cannot rejoice, let us, like Jacob who wrestled "the Angel of the Lord," hold onto God until he blesses us. Even if all we feel is darkness. Even beyond our wildest dreams and expectations.

-j

End of the Year at The Gathering

2009-12-30T00:46:00.002-05:00

There are far too many friends we have made in the last 11 years to mention, but if you are one of those who has been a part of this ministry - thank you. May blessing return upon you in great abundance.

The Gathering has been serving the city of Salem, MA since 1999. During this last decade we have developed into one of the most unique missional communities in the United States.

Why?

For the entire month of October we serve the community of Salem, and the half a million visitors who come for Halloween experiences. The Gathering has become one of the top spiritual experiences in our city.

We train and equip Christians from around the world to help serve in mission alongside us teaching them to serve creatively during America's kooky, second largest holiday of the year.

We have made friends with the Witches of Salem (and in fact Witches around the world) without compromising our Christian faith, and we have trained thousands of people to navigate living their faith authentically in a post-Christian world.

We have been meeting for the last 4 years in a prime location in downtown Salem, allowing us to better serve the community and the tourists who visit here.

Our Most Challenging Year Yet?

Financially this has been our most challenging year, and we are entering the new year in our most vulnerable position yet. If you have been blessed by the work of The Gathering, or have participated in the outreaches we have been doing for the last 11 years in Salem, MA would you consider helping us as the New Year dawns?

The year before us will perhaps be our most challenging yet, and we may not be able to continue as we are currently serving without your help. You can give through paypal by following this link.

I see Jesus in Santa Claus...

2009-12-25T14:37:00.007-05:00

Last night, I had "an interview with (a) Santa Claus..." Not only am I going to write a book and sell the movie rights, but I learned cool things about St. Nick. Apparently, Santa Claus developed time travel around the 19th Century, and obtained 25th Century technology, including the ability to make clones of himself (c.f., THE PRESTIGE) who all often use a Star-Trek-like TRANSPORTER BEAM for houses without chimneys. He consequently went back in time, recreating gift deliveries for children all over the globe in different guises since roughly the 5th Century. All this, apparently, my cat, Kitten, The Apprentice, was well aware of which explains a lot since she claims to rule the world (and talks via telepathy - something that should have tipped me off months ago...)

The Santa Claus clone I interviewed, whose name was Ralph McManus, also shared with me something earth-shattering: Apparently, the Risen Christ appeared to the original 19th Century Santa Claus and asked if one of his clones could go back in time to assume the role of St. Nick in roughly the 5th Century, establishing His (Jesus') work in a way that would be more culturally received in the "second" time-stream (of which, apparently, you and I are a part of). It seems, Ralph, who proclaimed himself a Christian, related to me, in the "original"/"first" time stream, the legend of Santa Claus was not perpetuated and, since the love of Jesus and Santa Claus and general good-will was not extant in the "original" 19th or 20th Centuries, it appears that Nazi Germany was - in this alternate universe - successful in invading Britain, was the first country to developing atomic weapons, and successfully established the 1000-year Reich...

-----

Now before anyone issues a fatwa against me from blaspheming the name of Jesus in a tale about Santa Claus, I would like to pose the following hypothetical(?) question: If the Risen Creator of the Universe chose to perpetuate the "image" or "persona" of Santa Claus, at least for a time, if the Sovereign Lord in his wisdom saw a greater chance of infiltrating the world with the love of Jesus - his love - in a guise that was more readily accepted by the culture of the modern era, who am I to argue with the Almighty? I am not saying that Santa Claus is a post-resurrected, pre-rapture incarnation of the Lord Jesus. I am not even saying that there was (or is) actually a (good) angel (or bad demon) named Santa Claus. But let us remember what writers of holy scripture said: "How great is the richness, majesty, mystery, and wisdom of God - so beyond searching out..." and "Some unawares have entertained angels..." If one holds to an evangelical worldview - and I personally do, to a large extent - if even one, and only one, person was 'saved from hell' through a good use of the "tool" of Santa Claus, does that not speak against "anti-clausism?..."

=p

><>

Sleep in Heavenly Peace...

2009-12-20T13:28:00.007-05:00

This year, for me, has been one of the most tiring on record. With the delayed adoption of our son (we thought his adoption had been a fall-through), right during the stock market crash of October 2008, applying to multiple jobs all over the country - only to receive an 11th-hour job offer a week before my contract-ending date from the place where I've been working, to being a part of a team during a two-month 100,000 volume library move, to attempting to downsize from our house - only to find ourselves possible, though not guaranteed, unintended recipients of federal stimulus aid, to serving two disenfranchised friends and wading through their misadventures, the year has been exhausting.

Most, if not all, of the Gathering immediate family, extended family, country, and world has experienced the same. For some reason, God has chosen to bless our household in tremendous ways, through family, friends, and circumstances. This has not been true for all around the globe. Regardless, whether we feel God's blessing or not, most, if not all of us, are tired.

I awoke this afternoon with prayer on my heart and mind, particularly for my Gathering family, all of who have been through so much together this year, both in our individual lives, and in our corporate lives - often serving the City of Salem. If there is one Christmas prayer I would offer to Santa this year (I, personally, see St. Nick as a cool revelation of the person of Jesus in a culture that often tunes out Jesus - but that is for another post), it would be for sleep in heavenly peace for the City of Peace (Salem) and for my friends (and family). May this Christmastime, despite the storms of life outside our doors and all around us, be a time of sleep and rest. And may we huddle close together, as we are able, against the cold.

Joseph, repentance, and a reason I love my dad...

2009-12-13T19:33:00.007-05:00

Gentry preached on John the Baptist's call to repentance and various responses in light of what God has done, is doing, and is going to do in the lives of all. As I thought of repentance in my own life, I began to think of Joseph, earthy father of Jesus. Let me explain:

Even though we know very little about Joseph, this obscurity, itself, is one of the qualities that endears Joseph to me. Joseph was a trustee, albeit a temporary one, of God Incarnate. Yet Joseph seems content to serve God his earthy son, in quiet humility and strength, and what little we do know of Joseph indicate he was a gentleman of consistent character, though surely with faults as we all have.

Most of my good qualities I attribute to my parents - at least half to my (earthly) dad. I understand many do not have the same relationship with their earthly dads, to which I would add my prayer of blessing and restoration. When I think of my dad or, for that matter, my wife's dad, I think of greatness without notoriety. When I get to heaven, in addition to my mom and, if he passes before me, my dad, Joseph, dad of Jesus, will be one who I would like to spend some time conversing with.

And now for something completely different...

2009-12-11T19:59:00.009-05:00

Green Man [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man] is a magnificent, if not relatively recent, religious syncretism. "His" motif (there are female versions of Green Man, from Asia to North America, though they are rare...) touches history (medieval art on churches) older and newer fiction (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tolkien's Tom Bombadil), and religion. Before I am able to complain about the infiltration of supposed and actual Pagan symbology, of who, in the dead of winter, fills me with new joy and hope and promise of spring. The evergreen, lights, even Jolly Ole St. Nick (Santa Claus), and Greenman actually bring me closer to Jesus rather then shutting him out...

But, I think Jesus can take it... Not that all should not stand for what we believe in... But didn't this happen once to the Master before (shut out of the inn?... ;-)

And I wish I had been one of the few shepherds (other "shut-outs") who had the privilege of the greatest rendition of "Handel's Messiah" ever "recorded..."

=)

Grief and sorrow...

2009-12-11T18:55:00.005-05:00

Grief and sorrow...

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Grief and sorrow...

"My soul is in anguish.
How long, O LORD, how long?
Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love."

Grief and sorrow...

"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Grief and sorrow...

"In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help."

Grief and sorrow...

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.'

Grief and sorrow...

"Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron."

Grief and sorrow...

"...for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again..."

Grief and sorrow...

"An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him."

Grief and sorrow...

-j

The Incarnation in the Stars

2009-12-05T20:30:00.014-05:00

Pastor Phil has given a tremendous meditation on how the constellations of the Zodiac (including the Decans) portray the Gospel of Jesus Christ, described in a work called, THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. I will attempt to later post a link if it becomes available. This teaching might be akin to what a friend of the Gathering engages in when they use a "Jesus Deck" - playing off the "Halloween" theme of the Tarot Deck - as a bridge to talk about what God may be doing in someone's life.

I am not an astrologer. I am an astronomer. I know, for example, that the universe is estimated to be 15 billion (not 20 billion, as it was when I was young) years-old and that the current "initialization theory" holds that the Big Bang (or the last Big Bang) occurred because there were slightly more matter particles (perhaps even just one more) than anti-matter particles.

As a child, at the Boston Museum of Science, I heard an interesting theory that the Magi from the East of the New Testament account were, at the very least, STARTED on their journey due to a triple planetary conjunction (not a direct line-up - just close movement/proximity of three of the visible - at night - planets) in the constellation of Leo. Though these gentlemen were probably adherents of Zoroastrianism, Astronomers, Astrologers, and Sorcerers, I find it interesting that God felt them worthy of a specific invitation to His birthday (regardless of the specific details of "clues" He gave them). I also find the reaction of these Magi (the English term I, myself, prefer for "wise men"/"kings") compelling: they worshiped Jesus. One may say they were simply worshiping another divine being of their pantheon, though Matthew seems convinced of their joy and sincerity. Also of note, God saw fit to speak to them in dreams.

I love how even when being born Jesus was reaching out to others...

To walk and not faint...

2009-12-05T20:17:00.004-05:00

Isaiah is a powerful book to me (whether one contends for one, two, three, four or more parts of Isaiah). One part of Isaiah (or one part of one of the theorized "books") is Isaiah 40. I think if I had one chapter of the Bible to carry with me, it would be Isaiah 40. Not only does it begin with tangible, divine, comfort from God, it has an interesting verse of how God relates to us in our time of need. Let me "pen" (via electrons) some of the chapter here...

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

I know, just as it tortured God the Father to call His Son to die for His obstinate Creation who He loved, I know God was tortured from the wrath unleashed upon Job. And I know when God says, through Jeremiah, "...they will walk and not be faint..." God knows sometimes it is all we can do to walk and not faint, let alone run.

This verse and my musing are not for me, per say. These days represent a memorial stones of blessing and praise that I am erecting, as the Patriarchs did, to remind myself when times get tough again. But, during a season where there is not much light, in the spirit of Santa Claus and the Spirit of Isaiah and the Magi, I hope you find hope in Isaiah that one day, you will "run and not grow weary" and "rise up on wings like eagles."

The little boy that santa claus forgot...

2009-12-03T19:42:00.009-05:00

Without sharing details, serving the disenfranchised has been particularly draining these past few months. But all it took for God to encourage me to hang in there was one timely rendition of this song on my mp3 player. Not only am I so blessed but there are so many are the little girls and boys, who could be just like my son, who santa claus forgot...

---> click HERE for the Nat King Cole version and a video. I first heard the Vera Lynn version ---> here.

The Gathering: Offering Peace, Welcoming Pilgrims, Pursing Gospel Mission

2009-12-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

More than a Local Church: A Community Peace Project, a Pilgrimage Location, a Gospel Mission.

Over the last couple months The Gathering at Salem has been engaged in some of the most innovative and culturally appropriate missions work to be found in the United States.

Every October a half million pilgrims pour into our city to celebrate Halloween, experience alternative spiritualities and party with their friends. Every year we welcome these guests by extending hospitality, offering spiritual counsel and inviting them to experience the incredible grace of God. We could not maintain this mission without the hundreds of people serve beside us throughout the season, or without your generous prayer and financial support.

The rest of the year we continue to impact our city through community service, events designed to reach the city of Salem with lovingkindness, which we believe God has expressed to us through His Son.

Although we have been serving the Halloween pilgrims for 11 years, the last 3 we have had the great privilege of serving them from The Vault – a unique location at the very heart of the city. Since The Vault is a “safe place” for people to experience the hope of Jesus, our location has magnified our ability to introduce the city and its pilgrims to the mission of God.

Over the course of these 11 years, hundreds of people have expressed a desire to meet God, and we have helped them to meet Him. Tens of thousands have been counseled about spiritual issues as we teach them to know the voice of God. They have been served free hot cocoa, entertained by live music, and been blessed freely by our roving "monks." They have received apologies for the times when churches may have hurt them. They have learned about some of the most compelling challenges to social justice in our day, and we have all been gently touched by the Gospel of Love.

Preparation for the Coming Season:

Now, we move into the quieter Winter season. We will gather cold weather clothing for the poor. We will serve the families of Salem with music, and free hot cocoa during the holiday season, and we will create opportunities to meet the community in discussion groups and events in The Vault.

Our small church has become a place, which has been utilized for evangelical mission and social service by dozens of churches and hundreds of individuals each year. Our little group has sacrificially responded to make this mission a reality, but we are in need of help from our friends and those who believe in our mission in order to be able to continue the mission.

Would you consider helping to support the work of The Gathering at Salem this season by offering a one time gift, by joining list of friends who support us monthly and pray for us as we serve both our city and its pilgrims, perhaps with an offering at your church on Sunday morning, or adding our mission to the list of missions your church supports throughout the year? We are confident that God has placed us in Salem for such a time as this and we would deeply appreciate your support.

Miracle sunday at the gathering...

2009-11-30T06:10:00.004-05:00

This Sunday, just another Sunday at the Gathering, as always, is a miracle. I want to thank everyone and mention how I was touched by Sunday's service, from the worship, through the message, through the sharing, (and through the bulletins!; eternal kudos to Melissa and Carl! =) both prior to, and prompted by, Greg's sharing.

Each person in the room that Sunday (including the kindly gentleman who snores! =p ) - and out of the room - has touched me and my family so much these past few months and prior to these past few months. I have been overcome, in a good way, by gratitude and a deep sense of worship in November through December - during Thanksgiving and Advent - because of not just the music and the messages (and the printing of the bulletins!) but also because of the worship demonstrated by each one of you, not just on Sundays, but all during this recent "season" of my life (and the lives of Stef and Levi).

Some of us (as myself) may frequently enjoy climbing the "high mountains" of worship. Others spend their time worshiping in the towns and the foothills. Regardless, it has been neat to experience both thanksgiving and worship, not just in moments, but over days and as a process with each one of you and together as a Body.

The question now is what is Gentry, self-admittedly not a Jazz Hands frequenter ( =) ), is going to do now that his preaching has led to a Pentecostal e-testimony?... =p

In Him,

Mike =)
><>

"The darkness is here..." - an Advent meditation (partial re-post)

2009-11-27T09:55:00.009-05:00

Some not-so-readily-apparent holiday-related themes stand out for me at the Gathering this year as we head into a season of Advent. They are "re-creation" (along the lines of our daily and, over time, being re-created for new and exciting things), being a servant, and an openness of church life which invite others to co-participate with us, regardless of spiritual label, as we seek renewal together daily and through the seasons of our lives. Along the lines of these three themes, I am reminded of a scene, two thousand years ago, where wise men who sought the creator of the universe, the King, found, along with the Incarnate Creator, great joy in a weary world and among weary souls. The wise men (and wise women and wise men still) are recorded, accurately, as WORSHIPING Jesus. "Worship and Thanksgiving" is a forth Advent theme we have been considering as we move from the Thanksgiving Holiday and prepare to enter the Advent season.

Arriving soon is another season, the Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year. While walking home from the Salem train station one night recently, I noticed Christmas (Holiday) lights here and there. For me, the colored lights, and the white lights, lingering in the eventide, spoke to me as a reminder of the Risen Creator who entered time out of eternity to be with a weary world so many years ago.

Pastor Phil has mused on the godliness of darkness--> [here]. In some cases, we can imagine darkness as a “thin place” – out of which/where, for him, Jesus, the Light of the World, speaks.

"He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky."

-Psalm 18:11 (New International Version)

The title of my post is in quotes because I borrowed it from a facebook friend. My sense is, this friend, too, finds solace in the darkness – maybe because there is sometimes felt power in mystery and secrecy – but also, perhaps, as my friend Phil, because he finds comfort in the darkness. For me, the darkness of Winter Solstice, interspersed with lights, makes me think of my favorite Christmas Carol…

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth…

…Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth…

…He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger...

…Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother...

…A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…

…Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born…

-image found at www.copperflatsfarm.com/babypage.htm

Stories from Halloween (Part 4) Bridge Church Friends

2009-11-24T23:26:00.002-05:00

From a letter to John Harding:

I had the opportunity to be on a prophetic team a couple of weeks before Halloween. Not surprisingly, the people who came for the "spiritual readings and dream interpretations" were very open to and hungry for the supernatural. (This made our jobs easy and exciting!) We were able to give several people encouraging words. They all seemed receptive and intrigued by how we got this insight into complete strangers.

A moment that stands-out for me, was when our team leader got a word for one of the young women who came for a reading. The word was that her view of her future was being limited by past hurts that were still affecting her. He then offered to stand in as the man who had wounded her and apologize. She was deeply moved and I think we all shed a few tears. She and her friends have since stayed in touch with our team and have shown an interest in finding out more about the supernatural.

What I personally took away from the day was a deep sense of the Father's urgent yet patient love for His lost sheep and the exhilaration of being able to participate in the revelation of that love to them. Giving prophetic words puts us in a place where we are given a glimpse of God's perspective and it forever changes our vision.

Olivia

Today's sermon: the s-word (submission...)

2009-11-22T13:18:00.012-05:00

Philippians 2

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

-----

Gentry delivered a timely message with regard to biblical submission today. All of us have opportunities to exemplify biblical submission: at work with a difficult co-worker or boss, on the road, we can biblical submit through stewardship (not just money but time as well - this author saw too much time on facebook or blogging as an opportunity for himself to reconsider biblical submission), we can be thankful/grateful and worshipful for what God is already doing in our lives, not always needing to (scene from Empire Strikes Back) "have our eyes to adventure and the future - not on where we are, what we are doing..."

Jesus, at many times during his life, was not submissive, particularly with regard to unjust applications of God's law. And Gentry emphasized we are not called to be, for example, subjects of abuse in our relationships or guilt-ridden into emptying our bank accounts for the cause. Nevertheless, Jesus granted all of us eternal life through "resolutely [taking] the road to Jerusalem" to submit to an unjust verdict and a deplorable death. Gentry also reminded us that folks such as those pictured below are the true leaders of the Church/inheritors of the Kingdom of God...

Braveheart and Ezekiel 37

2009-11-21T19:49:00.009-05:00

"And now for something completely different..."

I am going to compare Stephen the Irishman with Ezekiel 37. Many might be close to the mark in guessing this is another "close-but-not-quite" typical 'casserole' of mine where apparent connections are found mainly in a slightly-odd imagination. However, I'd like to give it a shot anyway.

Stephen the Irishman guards William Wallace (in the mostly-fictitious account of Wallace's life in the movie Braveheart) from the shadows. Shadows, typically connotate (by Jung, for example) as "dark" or "evil." In this case, Stephen's use of concealment in battle is, from his perspective, less dark and evil, and simply more hidden.

Alot of what occurs in the Kingdom of God, for ill and for good, is hidden and unseen - though just as real as the seen. This is particularly applicable, I feel, in the realm of prayer. We can advocate for friends from the "shadows" of the "forest" or the privacy of our homes. God can direct the trajectories of our spiritual weapons.

Another scene in the bible, Ezekiel 37, begins just as grimly as a hopeless rag-tag band of madmen against the English army. But instead of defeat in the midst of betrayal, as the heroes suffered in Braveheart, Ezekiel 37 describes the ultimate triumph, not only in the next life, but, on occasion, in this life of new life out of something not just from something "mostly-dead" but from something as "completely-dead" as "dry bones" are.

Below are two links that have recently inspired me to pray for new life on a local through a global basis...

***warning - the first link is a video with violence, foul-language, and hunting - things I typically dislike. But I like Stephen the Irishman. Go figure.

***warning - the second link is a video of fantastic artists - though they and the audience could use a little more 'soul...' =p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHH0ih867U

http://www.christiantube.net/video/223-ernie-haase-signature-sound-dem-bones

Even More Stories from Halloween Outreach '09

2009-11-18T12:33:00.005-05:00

Here are three more tales from the October Outreach in Salem, MA. May they bless you as much as the people who were involved in them.

The experience I had at Salem was one of the most challenging times of my life. I tried to force the Lord to work through me and give each person the kind of experience that I wanted him or her to have. The Lord revealed to me the absolute need to trust in Him. Without His Spirit working through me, I am capable of nothing. The times that the Lord chose to use me as his instrument were so powerful, yet humbling. I realized that the encounters were not for me, but were meant for the benefit of the person sitting in front of me. Feeling the love the Father has for his people was so overwhelming and is something that I will never forget.
-Liz Koch
Intern Streams School of Ministry

A young woman came to our team looking to have a re-occurring dream interpreted. She had dreamed several times over the last ten years about snakes in her bed. It would terrify her so much she would jump out of bed screaming. She admitted that she is generally terrified of snakes even in the natural. We felt the meaning of the dream was simply that her general fear was so great it was ruining her rest. Upon sharing this with her, she began to open up to us about her fears. She seemed to have a great deal of trust in us even before sharing the dream but as we talked further her trust grew. After talking through some of the sources of her fear, she explained to us that she has recently left the Mormon Church of which her family is still heavily involved and even has family ancestry that can be traced to Joseph Smith, the father of Mormonism. Upon her sharing this, a marvelous shift came in the atmosphere. Though her experience was marked with harassment for leaving Mormonism both from the people in her life and from the spiritual realm, we suddenly saw in her a courageous and bold seeker of Truth. And in that moment we watched as her concept of God transformed before our eyes. He went from being a dictator that cruelly demanded things of her to a great big Goodness that Loved her immensely and knew her intimately! The Presence of God became so heavy and sweet as we communicated this to her that all of us were moved to tears. I found myself filled with awe as God revealed to all of us (including this precious woman) what He felt about her. It was truly an honor to meet this over comer and to encourage her that, contrary to what others may have pressed on her, she is on the right path as God draws her into her destiny!
-Ali Carter
Staff Streams School of Ministry

It’s October 31 Halloween and the streets are packed with more people than ever. As the night goes on our lines get so busy the wait become about two hours to receive a spiritual reading or dream interpretation. After ministering all day I begin to break down our tents and a man walks up to me. He asked if I could interpret a dream for him. To be truthful I was far too tired and weak to help him but I still agreed. He started by telling me that he had an experience 25 years ago that he has not understood since he has had it. He said others tried to interpret it but did really understand it. Their interpretation didn’t really stick with him. The Dream started out with Him in the back seat of a cop car in hand cuffs. There was also a cop car in front of him. From the side he saw a Buffalo charging the cop car in front and hit it with extreme force. He was so excited and continued to encourage the buffalo to hit the car. Soon the car was off the road and destroyed. A moment later the buffalo was charging the car he was in but just before it hit his car the buffalo changed into the most beautiful Native American women he had ever seen. She stood next to him with a love readapting from her that he had never felt before. He said this love changed him. It was like he tasted of something that was not from this planet. Since that day he has never forgot the Love he felt. He also told me that since then he has never felt a love so real and fulfilling. This man had given me tremendous favor to speak into his life. I then began to tell him that the Holy spirit had given him Justice where he was imprisoned. I was able to share a visitation I had years ago that was very similar to his experience. I told him how God wanted a relationship with him. He wanted to give him the Love he felt from the Native American women. This story taught me a lot, when I am weak and tired God has those he wants to touch. This man had waited 25 years for a interpretation and it amazes me that Jesus touched him so powerfully that 25 years later he was still searching for the answer.
-Lance Carter
Staff Streams School of Ministry

Silence is golden...

2009-11-15T19:45:00.006-05:00

Preaching these last two Sundays at the Gathering by Phil and Jeff (Gentry) has left me inspired...

-----

[One item I left out when this post was originally submitted is how worship and thankfulness (Phil two weeks ago) combine with lamenting in silence before the Lord (Gentry this past Sunday) to enable us to become that refined gold...]

-----

[Please don't let the fact that, in the examples from the Bible below, I'm examining two male characters (instead of gals) distract you; there are just as many, if not more, heroine's of the faith as heroes...]

-----

One man followed God perfectly, even personally atoning for the sins of close friends and family. The other man was used by God in a cosmic display of God's power over the enemies of God.

But when Job, after sitting in silence for seven days with his friends, and after a few dozen chapters of Epic Prose, when he requested an answer from God, along with a few dozen more chapters of God's majesty displayed, as an answer from God, Job received... silence...

(He did receive some careful instructions about how he could save his well-intentioned but misguided friends from cosmic incineration, and Job did receive double back for all he lost, but no answer to his question...)

Elijah, after repeating his lament to the Lord for forty days, and then, when given a personal audience with the Almighty, just as God had granted Job, millennia before, repeated his lament, word-for-word, again, Elijah did not get an answer either -- only a few leading questions and instructions. Elijah also received, for his efforts, and as an answer to his specific complaint, silence...

A moral of these two stories seems to be God cares about our laments but does not necessarily address them directly. He provides us with pathways to new pastures and blessings and rest. But since we generally grow the best this way anyway: God's "answers" and silence always seems to, well, carry us beyond our troubles (not above - ignoring the troubles - just beyond).

Also of note is that Job and Elijah, who at times went to great lengths to "pour our their lament before the Lord" (c.f. King David), spent a significant amount of time in silence. And in spending time in silence, in the midst of distress, before God, is what becomes for us, golden.

Another verse in scripture says, "I charge you to buy gold from me, refined in the fire, and precious silver." It is here where we may get a hint of the fact that silence before the Lord is, in fact, golden. I cannot tell you for how long I've longed to sit in silence before the Lord with Christian friends, not just alone, whether things are going well for me or poorly. That is what we did today at the Gathering. For many, including me, often, silence is troubling. For me, the moments we sat in silence today, if you can believe it, was not quite long enough.

O, how I wish I were more able to cultivate the discipline of silence before the Lord as I am refined as gold and precious silver...

Job did not get an answer - only restoration and blessing (a.k.a "thankfulness and blessing")

2009-11-14T21:33:00.005-05:00

Job didn't get an answer. At least, he didn't get an answer to his specific question, "why did this happen to me?" Sure, we readers, maybe 4,000+ years after the events, got a little backdrop of the cosmic dealings behind the scenes, perhaps "retro-prophetically"
( =p ) - and Job got a RESPONSE - God displayed in all his wonder and majesty. But Job got no answer to his question - and he was, indeed, blameless - at least as far as mortals go.

Job consistently worshiped and thanked God daily, with every core of his being. Job even worshiped and thanked God for his loved ones, in case they forgot to do it. Sure, bad things happen to good people. But catastrophic things good people, perfect as one can be, short of Jesus? I guess we only have to look to recent hurricanes and tsunamis for example...

But Job wasn't Jesus. And his response, which I wish was more like mine when God moves in my life, with blessing to blessing, should be repentance in awe and reverence. And to always remember, to who much is given, much is required - particularly thankfulness and worship.

rehashing halloween by g13

2009-11-13T21:03:00.001-05:00

so i'm way behind on the halloween rehash and i'm disinclined to write at the moment that i have had to bribe myself with the king of kong in order to push this puppy out. so please forgive my errors, failure to praise everyone and any other unintentional offense.

first, it was a remarkable halloween season. on the first saturday i served (10/16) i had my requisite, "oh God, i really don't want to do this!" moment, but thanks to the steady presence of rennie and old practice, i quickly got in groove and enjoyed the season thoroughly.

for the first time, this year a number of our friends and family invested in our efforts. dozens of our friends partnered with us to raise $800 so that we could match equal exchange's gift and make our hot cocoa slave free. that was excellent (and expect the ask will be repeated next year so that we can take our cups down the bio-degradable route)! my own family and close friends donated $1100 in operating support to our little adventure. those dollars came in quite handy during a year when The Gathering has found it difficult to keep our heads above water, much less purchase supplies for the outreach. we were seriously humbled by the generosity of our friends and family. thank you for honoring God by setting us free to serve!

we also had a wonderful, diverse group of friends serve beside us throughout the season. for the first time in six years of serving at haunted happenings several friends from our christian churches, churches of Christ tradition came out to serve beside us. i hope that tim and the sojourn crew as well as jessica from manchester know that their presence meant the world to me. deep down in the part that i don't like to talk about at parties, i think i wrestle with rejection issues, so the distance that has developed between me and the ccoc has often pained me. so the presence of these friends was nothing short of sacramental.

jessie and libby browning and the good folks from their home church in beverly monked up on halloween and spent six hours in the street laying hands on and blessing people they had never met. i didn't have the courage to do anything more than serve hot cocoa during my first experience in 2003, so i was amazed by their boldness! i am also thankful to my hetero-life partner james for reprising his rector role and accompanying this group for the first couple of hours. james, you are the only one i want wearing my habit.

on hallows eve and halloween the incomparable anita coco and her not for sale crew offered people an opportunity to experience "death by chocolate" for a second year. this was the second year to host this event, we had over 300 guests attend and many, many more folks than last year were interested in discussing fair trade and acting upon what they had learned. extra props to the guy whose name i'm forgetting who made the kickin' sign for this event. it really made a difference.

did i mention how amazing carrie erwin was throughout the whole halloween season? i had no idea how she would take to it, but within minutes of starting she was barking at guests in the street, anchoring the cocoa booth, dancing with strangers dressed as gasoline. seriously, she was amazing.

paul, joyce, jeff c and other first time volunteers were amazing as well. did i mention how impressed i was with carrie erwin?

ben corey, the independent baptist from maine carved an unexpected niche by becoming the master of the Jesus deck and a spot on dream interpreter as well. i wasn't sure how much time he could commit, but he consistently under-promised and over-delivered and we were all so blessed by his presence.

joe riffe, who i think is mortified by the picture above, led a prayer room for us, stepped out of his comfort zone to bless strangers and talk to reporters and provided some of the vital, Spirit-filled energy we needed to make it through the last two days of the season. thankful for him.

my remarkable Friends' friends callid (like "salad) and kristina worked beside us on the big day. kristina works for an organic farmers cooperative in upstate new york so she was a perfect facilitator for death by chocolate. callid has treasures of past experience that i was unaware of - such as performing street magic - so he was a wizard on the streets. for instance, callid composed my favorite bark of the season: "come to death by chocolate. a terrifying experience that will completely change your life! or not." there were a number of small moments, such as kristina's discussion of the almost paramilitary training that activists from the civil rights movement had to go through in order to be assigned to a lunch counter, that i treasure from their visit. they also left us with a bottle of amazing upstate new york wine. please come back soon.

this season i realized, much like i have been realizing at work lately, that my days as a non-stop, hands-on street minister or service deliverer are on the wane and i am being led into more of an administrative role. this transition is bitter-sweet for me - right now it's much more of the former than the latter - since i have grown to love laying hands on strangers*, helping young adults find jobs, finding the perfect h1 n1 pitch that simultaneously repel and attract people to our cocoa booth. however, it is clear that my role is more about training and deploying than about being front line all the time. a friend named tim hawkins recently quoted another friend who said that discipleship, or training up people in the way they should go, is 99% encouragement. if that is the case, and i suspect it is, and administration has any part to play in discipleship, and i think it does, then i have a lot of growing to do.

i could go on, by explaining in great detail what an honor it is to serve beside pastor phil wyman or outlining the many, many unexpected lessons i have learned from my benediction laden brethren from the bridge church and streams ministries, but that is enough for now.

i hope that gives you a little taste of what the season was like. now that we're a couple of weeks beyond it and i've had a chance to rest, i cannot think about october without cribbing little preston: "again, daddy. again!"

* that doesn't sound quite right.

Stories from Halloween (Part 3) Three short stories

2009-11-12T14:39:00.003-05:00

Today's stories come from Mike Crockett from The Gathering, and from one of the Bridge Church gang in Beverly. Below are the posts as they were sent to me. They exemplify the change which often happens in us as we seek to help others.

From Mike Crockett:

Dennis and I (dressed in a Monk’s robe) met with Nancy, who asked for a “spiritual reading.” Nancy was a committed Christian who was going through a difficult period in her life, caring for a loved one. She also was distraught about what she felt were failures in her life and had been teased and bullied by fellow classmates years ago in High School, something that was difficult to get over. Nancy was also in her 30s and wanted to have children and didn’t see this as a possibility with her spending so much energy caring for a loved one. I shared with Nancy that sometimes, life just stinks, without rhyme or reason. I mentioned the FOOTPRINTS poem and the passage in Isaiah where sometimes all we can do and all God asks us to do “walk and not faint” instead of “run on wings like eagles…” I shared with her the difficult adoption experience my wife and I had which turned out for joy and shared with her that I had gone through difficulties similar to hers, particularly after graduating college, and described God had brought me through. She was so encouraged to know not just I but millions of Christians around the world often feel, like Nancy, that they suffer in silence. Dennis prayed with Nancy and we talked for a while longer. Nancy left the Vault overjoyed. -----

Diane shared with me a dream of her and her two youngest daughters driving in a car. In her dream, a boy her older middle school daughter liked waved from the side of the road. Her daughter, who didn’t want to be embarrassed by having a boy she liked see her, hid in her seat. Suddenly, in Diane’s dream, the car went in reverse spontaneously and landed in a lake. The car began to sink, and water began to come into the sinking car. Diane was afraid. The boy her daughter liked called from the side of the lake, “You guys need help?” Then Diane woke up. She shared with me she was afraid of the dream, and felt it might mean a bad event in the future – event death. I shared with her that even though, in her dream, the car sinking in the water, that it did not mean death. I demonstrated that a dream with an encounter with water, particularly a large amount, even a fearful encounter, can speak to a significant spiritual encounter in ones life. The boy her daughter liked could represent someone, or even multiple individuals, such as a community, who are ready to help her and her family through life’s difficulties. Diane left greatly encouraged, feeling her wonderful experience with us in the Vault was worth any amount of time waiting in line.

From one of the Bridge Church Gang:

I was able to minister to an older military vet who had been through a lot in his past in the war.
He was testing the ministry team to see if we were accurate or not. After we ministered to the others in his group we asked if we could get a spiritual word for him. He agreed and we all were able to connect and give him some encouraging words from God that were accurate. This opened up a little discussion afterward and we were able to encourage him to be the man of God that God had made him to be. We were using his language and I believe that all three in their group were blessed by our encouraging and life giving ministry to where they were in their walk with God that day.

Stories from Halloween (Part 2) from the Prof. Carlos Z

2009-11-11T15:11:00.003-05:00

The following stories come from the Prof. Carlos Z., one of the crew from The Gathering. Carlos worked with the Bridge Church gang from Beverly interpreting dreams, and doing what we call Spiritual Readings. Here is what Carlos had to say about his experiences:

Two stories come in mind when looking back and reflecting on Halloween.

The lst instance occurred on Saturday the 24th. I was on a team with Drew and Beth from the Bridge Church and we were doing Spiritual Readings for about an hour. A woman came who said that she had a dream. The dream was an invitation from God to join him on his earthly kingdom. I did not realize that she connected with me, and Drew said "Carlos why don't you begin and help this woman invite Christ into her heart." She had already agreed to accept Christ because of the revelation from the dream and the spiritual readings. You must understand I had never said the sinners prayer or accepted Christ in the typical way, so I felt awkward in trying to do it with this woman. But I went forward like a child trying to not look stupid in front of a class. I was blown away and she thanked us. A week later she returned and thanked me again. I was in awe how the Holy Spirit helped move this woman into a relationship with Christ.

The other story occurred the following evening. Two young ladies from Americorp in Maine had come to us. They wanted a spiritual reading. They had waited almost 30 minutes since I did not feel comfortable doing one by myself. No one was around at that time. because they were tearing down the sound equipment from the stage. I asked Matt the Pirate if he could jump in since these women had waited and I felt bad. He said that he had not done anything like it in almost a decade. I him it was okay just to give it his best shot. I explained to the two young ladies what a Spiritual Reading was as we started. The moment Matt looked at them and opened his mouth the Holy Spirit surrounded us. Unbeknownst to us these ladies needed spiritual healing from a lot of pain. Both the words from Matt and myself helped these girls heal. Tears rolled down their faces and ours. They had pain from their work and from personal issues in their lives. We inspired them to turn to Christ as the Redeemer and Comforter in times of trouble, and we spoke blessings them to continue their work in Maine. I was left speechless and felt blessed to be able to help these two girls. Also I thanked Matt and told him he has gift that he should open.

James Shewey Talks about Mormonism

2009-11-05T18:58:00.005-05:00

Tonight is a teaching and discussion on NRMs (New Religious Movements) and world religions. Tonight the discussion is on Mormonism.

It is 7pm. The Gathering gang is typically a little late so we are waiting a few minutes to jump into the teaching. Nancy is here. Tim is visiting, because he liked the topic and he is quite eclectic in his view of religion. James, and his wife Nicole who will teach on Jehovah's Witnesses are here. Mike and Will are here as well.

7:09 and Joanne just arrived, and Mike followed by bringing in popcorn. Oh yeah! Popcorn and a Mormon. Carrie arrived just in time for the popcorn.

7:15 and we are off and running.

James worked with LDS kids in California, and took them to Utah and was involved in interfaith dialogues at BYU.

He asked the question about what we had heard about salvation. Not much was known by the group except by Mike and I. Currently the church teaches that salvation is "by grace alone."

There is now a wandering dialogue about the beliefs and practices of Mormonism.

James has brought the discussion into the point of Christology. The Triune nature of God is being considered against the Mormon idea of God being triune in purpose. A review of church history and the Trinity is following the development of the doctrine of the trinity.

7:37 James just read the Nicene creed.

Monarchism is being discussed: That the Father is above in power and authority over the other members of the Godhead.

Modalism: There are three faces to God, masks we might say, which show the different characters of the trinity.

After some debate between a couple people about whether it is important believe some of the specifics of Christianity, or whether all people have the Spirit of God.

I jumped in and mentioned some of my disagreement with some very harsh Church Fathers who established hard lines of heresy, and potentially kept very well meaning seekers from being seen as followers of Christ.

A discussion is now going on about relationship as a means of pursuing sharing our lives with one another. Mike asks what the dynamics of that relationship looks like.

8:13 After James mentions the Mormon belief that all people can become gods, Tim excuses himself. He has been a little uncomfortable since he had a little debate with one of the others about what constitutes true spirituality. I saw this coming about 5 minutes before it occurred.

Follow up and concluding discussions include dealing with Mormon missionaries, and the Mormon belief that the Fall of Man was necessary and good for humanity.

Stories from Halloween Outreach in Salem (Part 1: those who joined us this year)

2009-11-04T13:20:00.009-05:00

Over the next 2 weeks I will relate some short stories, and give thanks to the people who have helped us make this year's outreach over the month long Halloween season in Salem, MA.

Halloween in Salem began on October 1st with the Halloween Parade. We handed out fliers to invite people to the Halloween Children's Day we host each year. During this same time friends from around the United States were preparing to come to join us for outreach at the end of the month during our most busy days.

This year we were joined by Steve Pate and Justin Henk from Church on the Coast (The Carlsbad Foursquare Church) in Carlsbad, CA. Steve has been here on and off since the second year of outreach in 2000, and Justin was here for the first time. Allan Henninger was here as well. Allan is a former YWAM leader, and also a former Foursquare Pastor now living and serving in the Los Angeles area. If it was not for these three guys we would never have been able to accomplish the task of running the stage and live music we provide for the city as smoothly as it went.

Janine and Laura who are teachers of the Streams Ministries Internship Classes were here from Tennessee. The Streams Ministries Internship from New Hampshire, and some of the interns from Canada joined us for three weeks of outreach. Together the internships sent about 15 people to help serve. The Bridge Church from Beverly Massachusetts led by John Harding sent prophetic teams to serve throughout the month of October. The Bridge Church in New London, NH came with their Pastor Scott Evelyn. Pastor Scott is one of the initiators of the dynamic outreach to The Burning Man Festival. Rob from Coeur d'Alene, ID who organizes The Burning Man Festival outreach also joined us. These people were involved with prophetic ministry, healing prayer, and free spiritual counseling services to the thousands of people on the streets of Salem.

Grace Fellowship (a CMA Church) in Danvers, MA under the guidance of Anita Coco sent a group of people to run a Not for Sale event in the basement vault of The Gathering.

The First Church of Salem and their pastor Jeffrey Barz-Snell organized a 350.org event on the 24th.

Other friends who came to serve included: Tim Hawkins and Nine of his group from Sojourn Collegiate Ministries in Boston. Jesse and Liby Browning an Marcos Reyna from a house church in Beverly, Ben Corey who was an awesome Jesus Deck reader from Grace Chapel in Lexington, and of course the infamous James Wilcox.

The musicians who played on our stage included Mamadou Diop and his band (as well as the drummers he has trained who formed a drum circle), Grateful Ted and Peter Tintendo, Paul Phillips with Tom Conlon and The Petty Thieves, Judy C(ooper), Jim Trick, Lisa Press and her husband Simon, Sarah Vanilla who goes by Lush now, Paul Duffy and the Front Street Coffeehouse Open Mic gang, Debra Crosby's Talent Quest TV Show, Hail Plankton, Dave Mangione and the Vic Morrows, Eric Brown and his band Phatmaxx, and Brian Serfes and DJ Xpress with the Salem Beatbox Championships.

The next post will give thanks to all the gang from Church on the Coast who made this year come together, and have been the backbone of outreach for 11 Halloween seasons now.

Letter to Our Friends and Partners

2009-10-15T09:43:00.003-05:00

Greetings Friends,

It is impossible in the space of a short post to communicate the number of ways The Gathering reaches out to the city of Salem, MA, it's 500,000 October visitors, and the people seeking out alternative spiritualities like Witchcraft and Paganism. There is no other location in the world with the unique opportunities which have been provided to our small church. Our website says it well: We're a small church with a big mission.

Pastor Jeff Gentry blogs about some of our activities at his site: http://gentry13.blogspot.com/

• We will serve thousands of people free hot cocoa, and this year Equal Exchange has joined us to help serve Fair Trade (that means not produced by slaves) Hot Cocoa.
• We will personally minister to a couple thousand people in spiritual counseling opportunities, and they will stand in line to sit down with us.
• We will train people to understand and communicate with the unique culture around us in Salem, MA.
• We will help sponsor 350.org's sustainability event day on October 24th.
• We will provide the largest free outdoor entertainment venue in the city.
• We will take people through an experience of death and afterlife to allow them to consider the ramifications of eternity.
• We will send people onto the streets dressed as monks to offer free blessings.
• 7/24 prayer will join us for two nights of prayer at The Vault.

... and yet, there is still more happening.

Please consider praying for us each day this season. We are dependent upon the good graces of God, and freedom of His Spirit.

Also consider joining us as partners in support of the ministry at The Gathering. We have recently set up a paypal link on our website which allows you to set up a monthly debit from your account. Some of you have asked me about this in the past, because you wanted to give regularly in an automated manner. You can find the link to this partner support page here:
http://www.salemgathering.com/Friends_of_the_Gathering.html

You are our friends, our acquaintances and a large part of our success. Thank You.

Salem (Peace) to You,

Pastor Phil
The Gathering at Salem
217 Essex Street
Salem, MA 01970

Trick or Treating on October 2nd?!

2009-10-02T16:57:00.006-05:00

Mayor's Night Out is a time when people can go to a number of events, haunted houses, and wax museums for free, and there is a trick or treating event for the kids of the city. The Gathering has been involved in this for about 5 years. The crowds of kids are getting thicker each year. It has been going on this evening for about 30 minutes now - here are scenes from the Trick or Treating outside the Vault:

Does your town look like this on October 2nd?

This is one of the ways we make sure that the city views The Gathering as a safe place to be in October. Future postings this month will show the ministry we do in both proclamation of the Gospel, and social action.

You can help support our work by visiting our website and giving through paypal.

Gathering Update, Oct. '09

2009-10-02T16:30:00.002-05:00

I just finished building the duck house for our five "girls," only to find out that the five female ducks we have been raising since they were one day old are not all girls. Despite having them "sexed" before they were sent to us, one of the girls turned out to be a boy.

Last week the hot water heater in our house gave up the ghost, and leaked all over the basement. $800 later all is well - everything except the checkbook.

The stories which come from home mirror the stories of life at The Gathering. We are on the verge of the most fruitful season of the year - October is almost upon us, and we will start an extremely hard working time of planting the seeds of a harvest of grace and peace.

Like our growing ducks, new life springs up around our ministry each year in October. Like the one boy duck, who we thought was a girl this new life comes with surprises, and does not look like we expected. Like a new hot water heater this outreach comes with a cost.

Unless you have visited Salem, MA in October you can not imagine the potential for touching people with God's love. Over the last 30 years Salem has grown into one of the foremost destinations for people who enjoy Halloween, and for those who are interested in alternative spirituality with 500,000 visitors coming in the month of October.

Often Christians have avoided the festival, believing that the ground was "too hard" for effective outreach. But, 10 years ago we arrived in Salem, and felt that we had a responsibility to touch the multitude of celebrants with the Good News of God's grace and love, and we were surprised to find a welcome reception for the Gospel amidst the October crowds.

So it is that we have found ourselves with great favor in the city - partially due to the interactive, fun and non-confrontational approach we take toward the Halloween season.

Our festival outreach has grown to serve well over 5,000 people in face to face interaction each year, and another 40,000 to 50,000 people who experience our festival and live music events. It has been noted by local Christians, even by the politicians and most surprising to us - even by the Witches - that the work of our church has been influential in establishing an environment of peace, which had not existed 15 years ago during October in Salem. These are a few of our activities this year:

• Hosting Children’s Day – which provides low-cost food and family friendly entertainment for about 3,000 people
• Participating in innovative evangelism by offering P(s)alm Readings from the ancient, mystic wisdom of the scriptures and donning monks robes to go out 2 x 2 offering free blessings to thousands of people
• Serving 8,000-10,000 cups of free hot cocoa throughout October as an act of hospitality
• Partnering with organizations like Not For Sale – a non-profit that speaks out on behalf of the 27 million people who are currently in slavery today (see http://www.notforsalecampaign.org )

Our small church has been a sacrificially serving and giving group of people, and because of the sacrifice we have been able to support this prime location where we meet in downtown Salem. From this remarkable place so many people (Christian and non-Christian, both from near and far away) have benefited.

It is this time of year in which we typically feel the pinch of financial stress. But this year has been more stressful than most, and we have seen a difference between the giving and the bills, which amounts to about $8,000 deficit over the summer. Like our deceased hot water heater, there has been a rather quick financial leak in the house of the Lord here at The Gathering this summer, even in the midst of a continued surge of God's warm grace and power.

In the past it has been many of you, our friends, who have been part of the sustaining dynamic, which has allowed us to retain this outreach location in downtown Salem. On a daily basis I am reminded of the power of this place. The doors are opened and the passing people (both locals and visitors) wander in to talk, to ask questions, and they consistently find a combination of peace and amazement here.

Please join us in being a part of this life-changing, year round outreach. Especially at this time we need your help in prayer, and in giving. You can join our partners in giving by visiting us at The Gathering Website.

This year Church on the Coast, and Oasis Bridge Church from Carlsbad, CA; The Movement from San Marcos, CA, The Northshore Bridge Church and Harbor Light Church from Beverly, MA; Streams Ministries from Lincoln, New Hampshire; Dennis Huxley and Friends from upstate New York; the Massachusetts branch for Not for Sale (an international anti-human slavery movement) and Allen Henninger from Pasadena, CA should be among the many who join us to help reach Salem and its 500,000 visitors with blessings and good news.

How Green is God? Pub Theology Discussion

2009-09-29T21:42:00.004-05:00

Tonight was a bit o' Pub Theology lite, but that doesn't mean that discussion points weren't thoughtful, and observant.

Some points from the evening:

Elizabeth made note that texts from the Old Testament such as the sabbath rest for the land, and God's call to man as caretaker over the earth seemed to mark a distinct call from God for humanity to care about this planet, and therefore it was evident that God cares. Yet, she noted that it is not as easy to find a Green theology in the New Testament. Jesus, and the apostles who write the epistles appear to aim the primary concern at our behavior toward one another almost at the exclusion of the previous OT commands which might have been somewhat more focused on caring over the earth.

Carlos had just returned from lengthy walking trip through Spain. In his discussions with Spanish farmers (mostly Catholic) he found that they considered earth safe farming techniques (organic farming, and the avoidance of over poisoning the land) to be part of what it means to live a life of Christian faith.

Adam noted that he had grown up with some particular biases which now followed into a consideration of the current trends toward a Green lifestyle. he does not own a car now, and uses public transportation. He is careful about using energy at home, and consequently has a low carbon footprint. Nonetheless, as a good evangelical he does have the opinion that there is a chronic and irredeemable problem with the world. If it is gonna burn, he wonders how much effort saving it is worth.

Now this led to a short description of different eschatalogical views by me. I quickly and simply outlined pre-millennial, post-millennial, and a-millennial views of millennium and how these worked either toward, or in opposition to developing a green theology. Without going into the discussion here, and assuming many of you readers will understand the distinctions it was observed that a pre-millennial position naturally leans away from a green theology, and since most evangelicals are of a pre-millennial disposition it is problematic for the evangelical church to develop a concerted effort toward limiting our carbon footprint.

Mary noted some of the scarier elements of the science behind global warming. We discussed the idea of "saving the earth," and playing devil's advocate, I posed the question "who or what are we saving it for?" - especially if we have a pre-millennial theological position. If its all gonna burn how can we really do anything anyway?

Carlos suggested that we are saving it for our children. Adam mentioned that if the rapture was to occur they would miss that future anyway. I ended by noting that at the very least our society believes that true spirituality cares about saving the earth for our children and grandchildren, and a church that does not care does not appear to be serving humanity. Mary had noted earlier in the evening that some of the things evangelicals believe make a green theology nearly impossible to develop.

Although the evening highlighted this fact, we were a greener thinking group than might have been discussing theological issues when I first joined this Christian tribe 30 years ago.

Monday-night bible study...

2009-09-21T19:46:00.004-05:00

Monday-night bible study will reconvene in November. All of the past discussion-studies have been great. About a month ago, we chose one of the more easy, light-themed books of Bible to digest - Revelation ( :P )... The questions in the first five chapters of Revelation which we have considered include the following...

Are the messages to the seven churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation intended primarily for Jewish Christians? Do these exhortations, commendations, and warnings transcend time and space? Does the book of Revelation, as prophetic literature, jump back-and-forth in time - past, present, and future - and not necessarily in order? Is Revelation "intentionally" (who's intent) ambiguous? Will Enoch and Elijah be the Two Witnesses of Revelation? Since there is a representative from a tribe of every nation at the end of Revelation, does this not necessitate, at the very least, a nominal representation of folks from pre-Christ cultures, including cultures which Ancient Israel warred against? Why does the last of the last of the "pre-patriarchs" of Genesis die the year of Noah's Flood?...

You can see we jump around a bit but we have a lot of fun. The next study is scheduled for Monday November, 2, 2009.

=)

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October Coming! Get ready to Perform!

2009-09-18T13:37:00.005-05:00

Taking a Page from Welsh traditions, The Gathering is arranging for a series of talent competitions this October. Although talent competitions are fairly universal, they are also strangely Welsh in feel. Following the Eisteddfod model we will be organizing (or organising for you British isle types) three competitions during the October Haunted Happenings season.

1. Salem Children's Day Talent Show - Saturday, Oct. 10th 2pm to 5pm on the Salem Common. This coincides with the Salem Halloween Children's Day. Typically 2-3,000 people are in attendance. Registration fee is $5, but sponsorships are available for those who can not afford the registration fee. Children up to age 12 are eligible for this competition.

2. Beat Down Salem! Salem Beat Box Championship - Thanks to Brian Serfes for his inspiration and work in pulling this great show together. Saturday, October 17th from 1pm to 5pm. This is an all age competition for the Salem Beat Box Champ. Free Registration.

3. Ysbrydnos: 2009 Salem Bardic Competition - calling all poets, storytellers, musicians, and any combination thereof. This is the event to win the bardic staff and the title 2009 Bard of Salem. Special consideration is given to creativity, originality, and a certain spiritual je ne sais quoi. Registration is $10. The event will take place over October 30th, and 31st with the winning of the Bardic Staff taking place on the Fountain Stage at the Museum Place Mall on Essex Street on Halloween evening.

For more information on any of these competitions call The Gathering at 978-744-8444, or e-mail pastorphil at salemgathering.com. You could be the next Bard.

The Vault in The Vault

2009-08-29T23:14:00.003-05:00

Yes, we call our meeting place The Vault. But we call it that because the big old vault is the main piece of furniture in the room. That room is now completely empty, and ready for painting.

Thanks to Mike Pelletier and his hard work, and for that old forklift he owns. Thanks to his hired help. Thanks to the guys from church who helped out. Glenn is a beast of a worker. Tom has been there for some good old dirty work, and yep that's me with with the crew. Jeff Menasco is not pictured, but he helped Glenn level the floor.

These pictures were taken by Kirsten who was visiting Tom and Mary. Thanks Kirsten.

I sure am looking forward to what this old vault space will become.

Service - Sunday, August 16th

2009-08-16T09:48:00.006-05:00

This morning Carl lead worship. We began with a recitation of the Apostle's Creed (the Lutheran Version), and the Celtic Prayer "Come I This Day."

Carl and Melissa ended the worship music with the song "Continue." Oh my gosh they are good together, and this was one of the sweetest worship songs I've heard done in quite some time.

I preached my portion of the message first (Pastor Phil writing here). We have been talking about Knowing God for the month of August, and this week we are talking about that very Christian word "sanctification."

I outlined a history of sanctification very briefly, and hopefully with a minor degree of accuracy. I will outline that later, as Ryan is preaching now, and I want to capture his thoughts.

Ryan started with an illustration from the movie "The Mission." If you are familiar with the moment the pack off armor is cut off "the missionary" you will know the illustration.

After this beginning Ryan takes us to the story of The Good Samaritan, and has told that Jesus will turn the idea of sanctification upside down. The religious leaders pass the guy who has been beat up, and Ryan ties this into the laws of sanctification - the fact that you can not touch the dead or you will be unclean, and so there is this complication with helping the guy who might be dead on the side of the road. But the "syncretist," outsider comes along and helps the guy left for dead.

So the Samaritan is more an instrument of reconciliation and the ways of God than the religious leaders.

So, in conclusion Ryan asks, "what does this say about how we live?"

The religious leaders tried to serve God in sanctification from unclean things. He loved God, but did not love His neighbor, and therefore served God in a faulty, broken way.

Reaching out across barriers to serve people with mercy is part of being set apart for God - sanctified.

Now 6 hours later I am completing the part of the message I promised earlier:

A quick breakdown of the some thoughts about sanctification in different Christian traditions:

Roman Catholicism: Sanctification is received as a divine gift. This shows itself clearly in Augustine's confession. The idea of suffering as part of the path of our drawing close to God also plays a part in the Catholic concept of sanctification.

Orthodoxy: (I know a bit too generic to place it all in one big box, but hey, I'm a Pentecostal boy. This will be the best I can do.) Theosis (partaking of the Divine nature in oneness with God is the dynamic reality of our sanctification. There is an impartation of divine life into the human being.

Lutheranism: Luther spoke of the work of the Spirit through the power of God's Word as being the transforming element.

Reformed: Jesus is our Sanctification, and our union with Him is what creates dynamic character change in movement toward honoring, loving, serving God more fully.

Methodism and John Wesley: Wesley's thinking sparked the transition toward what become the Holiness and Pentecostal movements. Sanctification was viewed by many proponents of his theology as a second work of grace. This occurs instantaneously and is an experience happening to believers after their salvation. Others view the work as ongoing through life with moments of seeking God and receiving transformation in sudden releases of grace.

These views of sanctification were shared with the approach that none were wrong, none were the full picture, but that each presented elements we can value and incorporate into our belief system, and spiritual practice.

Join us in Prayer, Service and Giving this October

2009-07-29T21:38:00.005-05:00

Here in Salem Massachusetts the coming months are our most active. With the onset of a revival in alternative spirituality, and the increased commercial success of the Halloween holiday Salem has become perhaps the world's most visited place for people interested in the occult and Witchcraft. This fact also places our small Christian church front and center in providing guidance to spiritual seekers in this new age of postmodern spirituality.

Our location on the Heritage Trial - the red line running through Salem's downtown, ensures that most of the million people who visit Salem each year walk by our front doors. While the tourism increases from the beginning of the summer, and peaks throughout October our location becomes more dynamic as an outreach center. This is why we are here - to touch our world with grace as it searches for meaning.

Our mission has expanded each year, and we now minister to thousands of people. Of course the cost of maintaining this ministry is significant, but our small group has done remarkable things in the ten years of ministry in Salem. We have accomplished outreach goals unheard of for churches much larger.

Below are highlights of our halloween events are discussed below in this YouTube clip:

People from all over the US, Canada, and even the UK have been participants in the our outreach programs. We have become a small church with a global impact.

Christians from across the globe come to learn new ways of impacting our rapidly changing society, and visitors from around the globe stop in to experience God in ways they have never before known.

Of course this comes with a great price. Time, energy, and money are sacrificed year after year by our small and committed group who hold fast to the belief that there is a God Who cares for all people, and wants to touch them with His love.

This is the time of year when the outreach expands beyond the capacity for us to carry by ourselves: a Children's Day with 2,000 to 3,000 locals in attendance, a stage with 10 days of live music, ministry tents with free spiritual counseling touching thousands of people who will stand in line, free hot cocoa to chilly visitors, and lessons with dramatic social commentary are all part of our upcoming Fall Outreach. In terms of time, energy and money we are stretched beyond ourselves.

And so it is at this time that we reach out to our friends and ask for your prayer, your consideration to join us in these labors of love during the month of October, and in financial support. Our small faithful group continues to hold a unique and significant place of prominence in a time, and in a place often thought to be devoid of Christian influence, and thousands of Christians and non-Christians from outside our four walls are influenced for the better by our outreach.

Like most of our nation during this current season, we too have been crunched by the financially challenging times. Your prayer, your words of support, the rolling up of your sleeves for those who can join us this October, and your generous giving continue to be the things which get us over the hump each year.

Will you join us in concern for our world, which passes by our doors in these coming months?

If you would like to be part of this October's Prayer Team simply e-mail me at pastorphil (at) salemgathering.com request to be added to the list.

If you would like to join us in October as we touch the world, which comes to our door, you can e-mail me at pastorphil (at) salemgathering.com asking for more information about joining the outreach this Fall.

If you would like to give toward this grand project and help fund these endeavors you can go to our website at www.salemgathering.com and click on the make a donation button to reach the secure Paypal giving page.

May the Lord be Your Peace and Your Strength. Thank you for being part of our strength in Him.

Gwyn Eich Byd (A Welsh Blessing),
Pastor Phil

Last Night at Pub Theology

2009-07-29T09:37:00.004-05:00

Slade, Matt the Pirate and Mary the Goth Theologian, James (who had the ultimate statement on entropic spirituality for the evening), Mary the posh bathroom model/salesperson, Tom the chess-king, Elizabeth the violist who keeps us on track, The Prof. Carlos Z. who is heading to Spain tomorrow with 15 students for three months , and myself were the crew for Pub Theology last night.

We started by asking whether our philosophies dictated our actions, or whether it is possible that our experiences and actions informed and transformed our philosophies and theology. Of course, the answer was yes, but to varying degrees with each person. The discussion then migrated to the subject of entropy - I gave the 2nd law of thermodynamics definition of it, to which Slade my fellow anarchist (a title I only half jokingly apply to myself, but that's another long post to be sure, and it is tied to the idea of Christian Freedom, and the activities of God) added his retort on increasing disorder. This then moved to a discussion of spiritual entropy. James kicked this off by stating that unless we worked on serving others spiritual entropy was inevitable. I asked if he would either like to share that at church, or if I could steal it. I prefer the former.

James asked us why we were Christians at one point. That was a rather cool exchange. So often that discussion can be rather canned, but in a Pub it takes on a new life. We were loud, we were animated, we had fun, and we hung out for about 2 and a half hours - Nice.

Pub Theology with The Gathering occurs once a month on the last Tuesday of the month at The Old Spot in Salem.

10 Years of Service in Salem, MA

2009-07-16T13:18:00.004-05:00

As of June this year we began celebrating our 10th year living and ministering in Salem, Massachusetts. It has been a wild adventure at times, and we are thankful to the people who have blessed us during this season. The following is a press release which has been sent out, and we would love to have you join us as we do celebration 2.0 on Sunday, July 26th. (We will be doing a celebration in honor of some various aspect of our community life once a month for a number of months.)

The Gathering: Celebrating 10 Years of Service in Salem

On July 26th at 10am The Gathering will be celebrating 10 years of service in the community of Salem. The celebration will occur at the church's 10am Sunday service at The Vault - 217 Essex Street in Salem.

The Gathering began in the summer of 1999 with two families from Southern California. From the first year this new church had established itself as an organization dedicated to serving the city of Salem.

In their first October, they provided free live music on the streets of Salem, began to give away free hot cocoa, and offered free spiritual counsel to visitors and locals alike.

From this simple beginning the outreach of The Gathering has grown to include 40 to 50 hours of live music at The Fountain stage on Essex Street each October, organizing and sponsoring the Annual Salem Halloween Children's Day on the Common, serving up to 10,000 cups of free hot cocoa each October, offering free dream interpretation and spiritual counsel to thousands each year, painting children's faces during the city's 4th of July celebration, serving the crowds during the Christmas Tree Burning each January, supplying sound for community events, and collecting and distributing warm clothing to those in need each winter.

The story of this service has appeared on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, on syndicated radio programs, and across the nation and in the Caribbean in local newspapers.

Pastor Phil Wyman has estimated that The Gathering has contributed $750,000 to the city of Salem and its visitors in the last 10 years in donations, and volunteer labor. "I have been a pastor for 24 years, and I am constantly amazed by the dedication of our church members and the constant hospitality we have extended through them and through our extended Gathering family far and near in service to our community." says Pastor Phil.

The celebration will relive the stories of this service to the community. For more information, you can call The Gathering at 978-744-8444, or e-mail at pastorphil@salemgathering.com.

Face Painting on the Fourth of July

2009-07-06T23:05:00.004-05:00

For the last 5 years (I think) The Gathering has been painting faces for free for the children of Salem on the 4th of July. Down on Derby Wharf during the day, before the fireworks happen there is a kids fair, asnd we paint faces. Fortunately there are some of us (well, "us" in not an accurate term, because I am not one of the "us") who are professional artists. Jeff, Brian, Kay, and Adam were our professionals this year. A high school girl from Ipswich named Rea spontaneously joined us this year, and she was good too.

Below are pictures from the day. Thanks to all who helped out: Jeff M, Jeff G, Carlos, Jodi, Brian, Diane, Mike, Kay, Adam, and Rea. They made a great team. As you can tell by the pictures below there were quite a few faces wanting to be painted. The size of the line is not at its peak, and it looked like this non-stop for 3 and a half hours.

Free is just too good to pass up.

Salem Living Green Fair

2009-06-13T09:15:00.015-05:00

The Salem Living Green and Renewable Energy Fair has begun. We are the location for the speaker series, and it will begin at 11am.

Rinus Oestrook from the Salem Chamber of Commerce began by declaring this Salem Green Day.

I introduced the first speaker, and before doing so I highlighted the Free Washington DC Conference on June 25-26, Convergence on Zero, and mentioned that if we get a good Boston area turnout that Paul Allen the leader of the Centre for Alternative Technology wants to meet with us.

The Green House Doctor

Paul Marquis is the first speaker. He is the "Green House Doctor," and was voted "Best Green Consultant" by Boston Magazine in 2007. He is talking about Green materials for your home - especially dealing with historic restorations.

Paul is talking about recycled content and is considering other issues - such as using wood may require treatment, and that treatment may be harmful. Products need to be considered for being made from recycled products, if they can be recycled later, how long lasting they are, whether they need treatment during their life. In such considerations materials made from recycled plastics may be better than wood, because of the need for regular harsh treatment.

Now he is talking about the standards for historic homes. Everything on the outside of the home is subject to the historic commission's jurisdiction, unless hardship can be declared in that restoration to historic levels. So if you have clapboard siding, and need to replace it you may not be able to change it to something else, but you can make sure to use FSC certified lumber.

When you are choosing green Products there is no Gold Standard: General criteria though:

Lumber: FSC certified, torrified wood (in New England there is a company called Cambia Lumber which makes torrified lumber), another product Pure Wood.

Paints: Hey, I paint my house with C2 - it is on his list! Yeah. Then he mentioned milk paint. Rinus sitting next to me here has used it, and says it is the best thing for furniture refinishing.

Raw Food Discussion

Kristen Overlook and Anna Forkan from Revitalive Health and Wellness, LLC are talking about Eating Green, and they are raw food people. They both studied under the mother of the raw food movement Dr. Ann Wigmore.

This discussion has none of the "Don't kill animals!" type of guilt inducing perspective. They are talking about the fun side of Raw food! that's how they put it.

American's eat 8oz. of beef a day. Hmmmm...you could power a house off that kind of energy - that is their point.

Now - to "unfired foods." Reference to "The China Study". Also a reference to the Pottenger Cat Study. Now there was some debate about Pottenger's Cats on NPR this week, and it seems that not everyone thinks the study has accuracy, and applicability to this issue.

Protein? From where? Greens - Juiced Greens - Wheat Grass is high on the list. 75% of their diet is greens.

They are talking about good bacteria now. Quote from Louis Pasteur "The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything." Kristin says this was a late in life quote from Mr. Pasteurization. Otherwise, if we had listened to him, we may not have pasteurized everything, because there are positive healing enzymes in "living food." It is not getting rid of them, but using them properly.

Now Kristin is giving testimonies of people who have been healed through a raw food diet in Central American missions they have been on.

Now - contrasting thee digestive tracts of carnivors and and humans. 33ft of GI tract or us. 6ft for a big cat. Carnivors have other enzymes we do not.

The FDA allows milk to have a certain number "puss sacks." Yummmmmmm.

Now there is a discussion of coffee - heavy metal, cadmium is in coffee. Steak: vacuum sealed left on the counter for three days --> it had worms! from where? they were already living in it.

Now they are talking about poop! Colon discussion. Jeff Cox asked if they believe in enemas. Yes they doo, uhm I mean do. They like to talk about poo, because the colon is so important to our health.

Solar Energy Incentives by Sunlight Solar

Nick and Ryan from Sunlight Solar are talking about incentives for solar panels. In MA, there are great incentive programs for both commercial, as well as private homes.

The basics is that the sun rays received by the panels is converted in an inverter and thus connected to the home. Helps roll back the meter saving monetary levels.

PPA(Power Purchasing Agreements) or third parties are involved with no up front costs with 10 or 15 year buy out options. The rationale is both environmental and financial. For example the installation of a 5kW system would amount to planting 30 acres of trees or not driving 237,000 miles. The end result is the removal OF 190,000 lbs of CO2 gases.

In MA, 4 rebates that individuals can qualify for

1. $ per $ subtract from the invoice
2. $5 per watt(performance based)
3. Maximum, about $50,000
4. Adjusted for orientation, shade and tilt angle

Federally, $2000 max for residence systems and operating prior to Dec 31, 2008

Ysbrydnos 2009 - an Eisteddfod coming this October!

2009-06-11T21:09:00.004-05:00

We will be looking for musicians, poets, and storytellers for the October Spirit Night 2009 bardic Competition. Ysbrydnos (euhs-bruhd-nos) is one of the Welsh words for Halloween Night. It means Spirit-Night, and this October the the Fountain Stage sponsored by The Gathering will be hosting an Eisteddfod (a Bardic Competition). There will be a Children's Competition in a couple age groups, and an adult competition. The winning adult will be crowned the Bard of Salem for the year. More information to come later. For now, keep your calendar clear enough to compete!

Today Jeff Menasco and I created the logo for the event. Well, actually, I simply came up with the idea of the first letter as a harp, and sketched it out, then took it to Jeff, and he banged out this cool logo in a little over an hour of work with me looking over his shoulder, and giving my two cents here and there. I am pretty darn happy with it.

Salem Summer Solstice Fair - sponsored by The Gathering - Looking for Dancers, Jugglers, Spinners, Drummers...

2009-06-10T12:59:00.005-05:00

Click on the flyer below for a full size image. Come join the party on June 21st!

Tonight - Halloween Prep Meeting

2009-06-10T12:53:00.002-05:00

It is time already to prep for Halloween. Okay that's not accurate, we've been talking for over a month now. Tonight at 6pm the group of outreach preparers will gathering at The Vault to plan for the month of October.

Sunday, June 7th Morning Service

2009-06-07T09:11:00.006-05:00

10:10 - Small churches usually start late. Lyle Schaller said so back in the 70's with his book The Small Church is Different. It is still true for us in Salem today. But, now here I go to pull this talkative crew together.

10:17 - He says that but we still didn't start church until now. The Gathering starts really late. This is Gentry by the way.

10:20 - There is a pretty full house here today and a good energy is pervading the place. Maybe that energy is the Holy Spirit. Hopefully it is.

Phil invited everyone to participate in the service today in the way that they feel led. Usually that just means that a couple of extra people play drums or something and maybe a few extra prayers are prayed. But with this crew, you never really know what an invitation to contribution will bring.

10:25 - After a few community recitations - "Come I This Day" and "The Beatitudes" - we are going to sing one of Phil's original songs, "Fall From Heaven." I am glad to be a part of a church where we have so many musicians and artists who bless us with their creative contributions. Carl writes great songs too, btw, and Phil's scripture chants are available for use in your church or community worship.

10:31 - I just ran into a family of tourists who were taking pictures of the outside of our building. Since the doors were open and we welcome interruptions, I invited them in to take pics. They politely refused, but we always welcome that sort of thing.

10:37 - Teaching time. We'll see what Phil has to bring today. The bulletin text is I Corinthians 15:12-19.

We're starting with a Scripture chant. Thank God. Sing along at home: God be merciful unto us and bless us. And cause His face to shine upon us..."

Today really is one of those days where it feels like anything can happen.

Phil is interspersing the chant above with the prayers of the people. People are asking for the end to war in Iraq and Afghanistan; parenting two year olds (namely mine); for a member's parents who are going to work with the Mennonite Mission in Indonesia for four years.

10:47 - Now Phil is starting teaching. Sorry for the false alarm.

Phil is starting by contrasting times of worship that try to replicate heaven on earth - extremely high church, beautiful cathedrals, professionally produced evangelistic/healing services, the mormon tabernacle - with worship gatherings which welcome the chaos of ordinary life - where we don't necessarily try to control people's weaknesses, awkward social interactions, the banging and clanging of real life interactions. Phil says that he prefers churches where anarchy, hopefully God's, breaks out and faith is worked out in the context of the mess.

Carlos quickly asked: "how do you know when the anarchy is God's or Satan's?"

Jeff M responded: "look at the outcomes." James S responded: um, actually I was typing, not listening.

Took a bathroom break. Who knows what I missed.

Phil: "When we get together in these moments, we should experience real life. Praying for two year olds in the midst of our frustration is real life. That's the way it ought to be."

A lot of joking about children, "spiritual warfare," murphy's law, etc.

Phil: "Through stories I want to give some philosophical background to who we are and what we do." Phil then identified a guest and asked if we could pray for his pain. The man said yes, he has a broken shoulder. We stopped and prayed.

The first story I'm going to tell...Phil is telling his story about God slapping him, which is also his conversion story.

"I want to explain how my story has influenced my view on this idea or concept that we call evangelism.

* Evangelism has become one of these terms that is loathed. According to recent studies, Evangelicals, who take their name from this emphases on the proclamation of the good news, are trusted by others about as much as prostitutes or lawyers

* One of the things that makes evangelism so hard, that makes it feel forced on people, is that Christians think they are solely responsible for the work of proclamation or evangelism. But, as my story suggests, God is already working in people's lives. We should never judge people based on what we think God is doing in their lives. We don't know what God is doing. So one of my assumptions in our work in Salem is that God is already working in their lives and we just need to trust his work and accompany people. Maybe we can help people interpret their experience or help them in other ways

* When I was younger I had the strong sense that God was more interested in my hereafter than in the here and now. I think that is true in a sense, though every single moment has the capacity to be an eternal moment. By opening myself to these eternal moments I am making my way to the great eternal moment in his presence. However, by focusing too much on people's hereafter we can put too much pressure on them to make choices in keeping with our hope for their eternal life

* James S - "When we went on mission trips to Utah we were always asked this really awkward question on our return: 'How many people did you convert.' That's an extremely awkward question, because I was out to sow seeds, to produce or reap the harvest is not something I can make happen."

Aside: there is the sound of a trumpet wafting through the streets. I don't know if it is recorded or not. Is this the weekend of the jazz festival. Btw - this aside was interrupted by someone asking for the men's room. There is always a lot of traffic around here to and from the johns.

Aside, Aside: More people are just wandering in and sitting down. That's cool.

* Sometimes in caring for the world here and now, we can lose sight of the eternal implications of what we are doing. We tend to have this pendulum swing as believers between coming too focused on there hereafter or, on the other side, of becoming too focused on the here and now. We need to find the terrible tension and balance between the here and now and the hereafter. Phil gives the illustration of a tightrope walker, who is balancing between his right and his left. As evangelistic Christians we have to be able to balance on that line.

* Reading of the scripture: "If Christ is not risen, your faith is future; you are still in your sins...If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable." Phil - If we believe in the resurrection and it did not, in fact, of occur, we are following an empty hope. I Cor 9:23 - "I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some." In my case, I study witchcraft and other religions in order that I might serve and know people well.

11:38 - Turn to Eucharist.

12:01 - this is Phil typing after the service now. Wow, I went really long compared to usual. I like the service to be about an hour and fifteen minutes, including fellowshipping and starting late. We started on small church time - 15 minutes late, and then went about an hour and a half, and so it was a really long service for us.

10 Years!

2009-06-05T09:20:00.003-05:00

The Gathering has been in Salem, Massachusetts for 10 years now. On June 21st, we will be hosting a Summer Solstice Fair on the streets near the church with a drum circle, and British Rock from Brittanica. We will tell our story on that Sunday morning service as well.

Then more to come in July, August, September, and... as well.

Come hang out with us on June 21st!

10am - service
noon to 5pm - Summer Solstice Fair
6pm - An evening of thankful reflection

Sunday, May 31st at The Gathering - evening service

2009-05-31T18:02:00.006-05:00

Just as we have been splitting the messages into two parts with two preachers in the morning service, we repeat this pattern in the evening as well. So once again Jeff Gentry and myself (Pastor Phil) are doing the teaching. Jeff is teaching on the first half of James 5, and I and teaching on the last half.

It is slowly growing darker now at 7:05 after we sang together, and prayed about needs. Only the smallest lights in the room are on, and candles are lit. At the communion table there are four candles on candlesticks, and a black box with with an orthodox icon and a candle in it, and a Celtic cross about 16 inches tall.

The evening service is a very small group often, and tonight there are about 10 of us.

One guy, who is a part of the church is sleeping in the back. He's sleeping off a drinking session. It's probably safer here than out on the street.

There is a pile of books on the floor in the middle of the room. It represents our attempt to find answers to life in black and white. A small beautifully carved wooden cross sits atop it.

Jeff is teaching again on patience and gossiping from the text of James 5.

"Patience in suffering" is a part of the text being developed here. Job, Moses in the desert, Abraham, Joseph imprisoned.... Now we are discussing personal models. Jeff suggests Mother Theresa, and James Shewey mentions a professor he had who told his students to prepare for the last days by taking the garbage out for mom when she asks - otherwise live our life now in preparation for the future. The guy in the back mentions Bev and I. He says that from time to time, and Bev an get embarrassed a little but love him a lot.

Now at 8:15 - I taught and connected Pentecost, and the openness of sharing the gifts of the spirit as discussed in ! Cor. 14:26-33 with James 5. The Carlos (the Prof. Carlos Z.) presented communion. Our sleeping friend woke up, and was a little trouble during communion because he was "sauced."

The service was a nice open service with good discussion times, and a little male heavy tonight, which is unique for Sunday evenings.

Sunday, May 31st at The Gathering

2009-05-31T09:38:00.006-05:00

This morning it is a nice day. Our doors to the street are open wide, and a few people wandered in while Carl Nystedt led the worship. Carl is good, and people like to stop and listen to him. So if we can open the doors (which face to the walking mall) everyone likes to visit in downtown Salem.

Jeff is preaching now, and started by saying that "eschatology" is a $5 theological word that you don't need to spend $30,000 at seminary to learn.

I teaching through the first part of the 5th chapter of James, Jeff tells about living at Larche, and learning to cultivate life and spirituality by cleaning toilets, and putting away his Merton.

Attendance at service this morning is smaller than typical. Are you a member of a small church? How does it effect you when the numbers are smaller on a Sunday morning? Does it effect you?

Now Jeff is on the subject of gossiping - now he's meddlin'! James meddles. I guess we need to meddle like he does as well. So Jeff is calling us to repentance on the subject of grumbling and gossiping. "Nothing about us without us," is a quote he brought up as a good rule of talking about others - say nothing about them with out them present.

Okay, now Jeff is talking about gopher wood, and wondering how gophers make wood. Hmmmm, what happened to that $30,000 seminary education.

Hey there, it's Jeff now. Phil started finishing up James by pointing us back to the openness and power that is evidenced in Acts 2:41-47 and encouraged in passages like I Corinthians 14. Phil noted that for all his tough talk and assumed heavy handedness, in passages like I Cor. 14 Paul encourages the church to a radical mutuality in which more than one prophet speaks, praises and tongues are encouraged and interpreted and the church shares all good things with one another.

In closing (a phrase that preachers use at their peril, btw), Phil reminded us that James has commissioned us to do what he was attempting to do. Namely, to turn one another from sin and death and so save one another. Hmmm...saving one another...it sounds like Martin Luther had more than one reason to hate this book that he both wanted to strip from the canon and effectively commended in his writing and preaching on a number of occasions.

Paul Drake anchored the service by leading our celebration of Eucharist. In a reading of Mark that I have never thought up myself, Paul reminded us that the first Eucharist was kept among a community that was broken and disintegrating as the disciples worried that they would be the one to betray their Lord. Paul mentioned that his reading of the text was influenced by the relationality that was emphasized in the two former sermons that were preached this day. Maybe we have multiple prophets speaking during our services after all. I wish more of these prophets were women. We've got enough white male middle-class prophets around here.

Another Great Pub Theology

2009-05-26T23:13:00.003-05:00

Tonight - May 27, 2009 a group of us met at The Old Spot, just like we do once a month for Pub Theology night.

Topic: Faith and Works how they fit together, and how they determine true spirituality.

Attending: Tom and Mary, Erin and Jim, The Prof. Carlos Z., Slade, Jeff C #3 (he's only the #3 Jeff because it rhymes with C), Mike C, and me (Phil).

Some random thoughts for the evening:

1) Mary and Tom capsized their canoe and lost their phones and wallets, and piles of other stuff, which is now on the bottom of the Atlantic. Somehow the canoe story became an illustration of faith and works. You know - storms of life, how we respond to them....

2) Mary's story about a relative who went to church all the time, but was as mean and cruel as anyone you ever met was a bit chilling.

3) Jim and Erin gave an illustration from personal life which was beautiful, on point, and you can ask them more. :-)

4) Slade called up James 2 first - "faith without works is dead."

5) Tom did not mention Obama until nearly the end of the evening! Wow, now that was restraint.

6) Jeff did not fall asleep. He wanted to I think, but he played the man, and actually was coherent.

7) Mike connected faith without much in works as a type of predeterminism, or fatalism; and works without much in faith as a type of legalism. This made the discussion take a robust turn for the good.

8) We ended by having everyone in a short phrase describe their idea of God's Government: The answers were Federalist Republic, Monarchy, Tyranny (actually something like a Kingdom Monarchy was meant I think), a Government to help the Weak, Anarchy (2 times), a Government run by the Military (Jeff called this a Hunta and laughed), and Socialism (of course this was the Prof Carlos Z., but you knew that didn't you?). So, if this was a democracy then Anarchy was the winner. Hmmmmm...

But, assuming that the government of God fulfills all the deep needs of humanity, and has all the best dynamics of any government we can imagine, then all the good things of all the kinds of government are a part of God's Kingdom, and all the bad elements of all the styles of government are lacking in God's leadership. Somehow that all tied into the topic of faith and works, and we all walked away feeling like the evening rocked.

Okay, I guess you had to be there to understand the Anarchy thing, but trust me it was cool. Peter Rollins gets it, I know that. Thumbs up Pete.

Strange Things on Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T11:04:00.004-05:00

Oh my Gosh! Ben wore a tie - no way! Yes it's true, and here is the evidence. Look how surprised everyone is!

Other things happened of course. Glen led the communion service at the end - that's him sitting with the pirate there. Does your church have a pirate? Every church should have a pirate.

After the service was over, a young guy who played the guitar, and was busking on the streets outside the church came in, and we asked him to play. He played, everyone clapped, and we had a good time overall.

Yes, of course there was a message, and it was centered on the story of Jesus walking the Emmaus road with His disciples. The focus was that Jesus rose for the purpose of relatioship, and this desire to relate with us on an intimate level was expressed in the Emmaus Road story.

We also decorated thee place up - banners, Easter Lilies, eggs all over the floor for the kids.

"In wrath, remember mercy..."

2009-04-11T19:58:00.004-05:00

Years ago, I learned a song from a friend, from the Book of Habakkuk...

Hab 3:2
"LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy."

As a child, raised on the stories of Jesus, I was always amused at the befuddlement of the disciples - not understanding and, later, not believing things too wonderful for them to imagine and things that, later, would become too mundane for me. It was not until college that it began to sink in that Jesus' disciples did not have my benefit of 2,000 years of 20-20 hindsight.

The Old Testament stories, too, amused me as a young Christian. The Jews, after experiencing wonders and miracles galore, so quickly fell into idolatry and wandering. Even Moses, a Prophet, Priest, and King who would - for many - foreshadow Jesus, not only was not allowed to enter the promised due to a fit of rage (footnote - Phil Wyman ) but outright refused his divine assignment ("O Lord, please send someone else!...; footnote - Jeff Gentry In 40 years, only Joshua, Moses' successor, seems to have "gotten it right" consistently and he is seen today by many only as a bloodthirsty warmonger.

But as I got older, I realized how difficult it is, trapped in space and time, to dwell in the presence of He who has infiltrated my heart in the divine conspiracy 24-7 and how easy it is to betray, fail, rage, and be unmerciful. Ultimately, the stories of both Easter and Passover are just that: Grace and, most of all, Mercy...

Pine Sunday at The Gathering

2009-04-08T22:11:00.004-05:00

I've struggled with Palm Sunday since moving to Massachusetts almost 10 years ago. (June will mark 10 years, and the church will be having a 10 year celebration.) The reason for my struggle was based upon the lack of palm trees in Salem.

It is true that each year the Catholic, Episcopal and sundry other higher church traditions celebrate this holyday with far more specificity, and liturgical preparation than any of my fellow Californians ever did, but they bring in wimpy little leaf segments, which they call palms, and make crosses out of them. Then they typically save the those crosses to burn and make ashes for the following year.

Now this is all fine and dandy, but when we celebrated Palm Sunday in California it was that time of year when the large Mexican fan palms, which decorate the dry landscape of San Diego County are pruned. We would either precede the landscapers, and follow closely behind them, and make sure to gather up dozens of palm fronds. These fronds were often 5 feet across. We would carefully shave the large thorns off the branches, and children and adults would be waving them in the service. Now that's a Palm Sunday!

So this year I thought to myself, "Self." I asked, "If Jesus were to ride into to Salem on Palm Sunday what would we be doing to prepare the road for the triumphal entry of the King into our city?"

I walked through our neighborhood. I looked around as I drove through town practicing hypermiling I noticed that only green trees are the evergreens. I concluded that if Jesus were to ride humbly in on a donkey that we would probably keep our coats on, because it has been so cold, and we would cut down pine branches, because they are the only greenery we have for another month or so.

Well, it might seem a bit silly, but this is an example of contextualizing the Gospel to the times and places we live, and this last Sunday we celebrated Pine Sunday (NOT Palm Sunday!), because we ain't got no outdoor palms here in Salem, and I've not felt so good about celebrating this day for at least ten years.

Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, and Phil (a Sabbath meditation...)

2009-02-22T13:54:00.008-05:00

Not meaning to be chauvinistic by focusing on some recent messages from some guys (as opposed to gals - they will come next), Jeff-cubed and Phil have recently/not-so-recently touched on some topics that have been very meaningful to me.

A friend of mine, one of the three Jeff's, mentioned one Sunday long ago, the significance of memorial markers - often, in the OT, made up of altars of unhewn stone(s). This year has been a year of tremendous blessing for me out of hardship: the greatest example of which has been the privilege of adopting our son, Levi. How easy it is for me, trapped in space and time as the Israelites and all humankind throughout history, to frequently forget God's frequent gifts.

This leads me to the next insight, recently shared by another friend, Jeff: Though blessing has come through tremendous hardship, I have been reminded not only to remind myself that it is only by the grace of God I am enabled to work for my daily bread, but also to the mindful of the poor, as well as be wise with the "Talents" God has entrusted to me:

PROV 30: 8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

DUET 8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

A third friend Jeff, today, shared a Lenten meditation which connected to Israel's wanderings in the desert to the "freedom of liturgy" we have in Christ. I thought to myself, as I meditated on the communion elements later that morning, "isn't it neat how the bread and the grape juice accomplish everything the OT sacrifices did and more?" We should really read the OT sacrifices and all they accomplished - of course, always with eyes to the New Covenant...

Finally, I've recently received two reminders from my friend Phil:

First, God, who appeared to lose patience with both the Israelites, as the people rebelled ten times - as many times as the Lord forgave the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, as well as Moses and Aaron - the double-edged messianic foreshadowing they were - when, as I often do too often, allowed their anger to "better" their honoring God, still always thought of Israel with everlasting Grace and Mercy.

And second, a reminder in my heart, from a song written long ago, of an everlasting process/discipline I seek: to be recreated - embracing both God-given weaknesses and God-given gifts. And, as my friend Jeff reminds us as the Apostle Paul does, to always remember the poor and the great gift of the riches, grace, and mercy of God's great salvation - a holistic salvation (Phil), not just "fire insurance," but an entry into the Shalom Sabbath Rest of Jesus.

God had the Israelites wander in the desert just for me...

2009-02-15T22:12:00.010-05:00

I can't take credit for this insight. Pastor Phil preached another sermon I would easily pay $50 for. Instead, Phil settles for about 25k a year - if that - but I digress...

-[IMAGE RETRIEVED FROM http://generationtocome.com/2007/02/21/building-a-tabernaclewith-legos/]

So I always knew the Old Testament had loads of imagery and - the word used today was "typography" - for the new testament, Jesus, and all he did for us. There's always comparisons of Moses and Jesus, and the passover and Jesus, and the Tabernacle and Jesus and, I must say, after 20 years of the stuff, I've gotten pretty good at drawing the connections. But, as Phil did this afternoon with us, let's revisit these typographic ramifications for just a moment. Every one of the [613 - give or take a few] laws, every rebellion, deliverance, and miracle in the desert, every sacrifice, every minute detail of the Holy Spirit-Creativity-Driven tabernacle is an intimate window in to the person and being and Godhood and Godhead of Christ and everything he does, has done, is doing, and is going to do in my life. I'm serious. This is not just a connect-the-dots, scavenger-hunt-type Mystery Religion. This is real stuff. I mean REALLY, real stuff.

One goat sacrificed, one goat goes off into the wilderness - never to be seen again. Blood is required for the forgiveness of sins, God separates our sins as far from the east is from the west. Sound familiar?

Candlestick, show bread (12 loves), incense. Even using "basic" Old Testament symbolism, one easily gets "Light of the World," "Bread of Heaven," "Prayers of the Saints (Revelation) flowing before God as incense" - just for starters.

And when you're feeling blue or down or guilty - not that change of heart and character and, if possible, restitution, and confession should not take place, but there were (are) fellowship sacrifices, thanks sacrifices, praise sacrifices, sacrifices for sins you know about, sacrifices for sins you don't know about. Too often we forget how much Christ has done and is doing for us and how NEAR and PRESENT he always is, especially in our prayers. Not only did God have Israel wander in the desert for me, he wrote Leviticus and Numbers (e.g., Balaam's Donkey) and Deuteronomy for me too (and Exodus, Genesis, etc.)

God could have annihilated Israel and remained completely faithful to all his covenants by starting over through Moses after the Golden Calf. Ok, you just see the Red Sea divide and you walk through it like Niagara Falls times ten on either side, reach the other side, turn around, and then see the largest army of the greatest superpower of the day wiped out. And then, because Moses is given superhuman strength and wanders away for 40 days (without food and water), you decide to have an orgy [I love Aaron's response, "...and this calf (just happened to come/) came out..." Aaron was lucky Moses overlooked BS. God didn't when the earth swallowed up a couple of Moses's antagonists. Don't get me wrong - I'm as fickle as Israel - but we are all probably better off that Moses reminded God other nations might give God a bad rap if he zapped about 2 million Israelites (men, women, and children) after doing so much for them. This was probably not a surprise to God but I'll bet it sure pleased God to hear Moses stand in the breech (the same flawed Moses both before and after the Exodus - you think he would have learned God "enabled" his staff pretty well before he struck the rock a second time...)

How do I take church "home" with me, to others, to myself, throughout my week of wanderings? Every step, even the mis-steps, can be an offering. Phil remind us not to forget God's divine decision to operate through us for believers past, present, and future. I am also reminded, too, of not only God's grace in working through decisions I make and ways I spend my time, but giving me the grace to be healthy and a call to be healing to others.

So think about how our actions don't just have eternal ramifications in the heavenly kingdom. Just like the Israelites, our actions and inactions have ramifications for those who come after us in history in THIS WORLD as well as the next for them. Man, I am glad God take my puny little sacrifices of praise and service and worship, along with my mistakes, and makes it part of his perfect love. The grace of the choices we make... interesting thought.

The Infinite Authority of Ev'ry Believer?

2009-02-08T18:38:00.007-05:00

Even with tremendous worship, dynamic sermons, deep and meaningful communion, and awesome fellowship, some of the most spiritual moments occur in casual conversation on Sundays. A friend of mine and I were talking after a good annual meeting about the nature of church congregations and organization structure (among other things). We observed how at the turn of the century, the worldwide church of Jesus Christ was very participatory. Many depended on the church, for example, for vital social services and this required much congregation participation in church life.

Today’s church is no less participatory. A rage around the early 90s in church was Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King’s book and series, EXPERIENCING GOD. This powerful study encouraged believers, through prayer, contemplation, meditation, scripture, and church life to see what God was already doing around them and in their lives and encouraged believers to, even kicking and screaming as Moses, to join God in his work. Sometime, however, in the late 90s and into the turn of the millennia, after beginning this wonderful discipline, churches seem to forget to revisit Blackaby & Kings exercises and continue to go, go, go with plans and strategy without listening or asking to what God is going around them.

A military unit uses the eyes and ears of each and every soldier, as well as the eyes and ears of each and every civilian, to gain an overall picture of the landscape. But as the church has adopted a corporate model, folks in churches seem, at times, more confined to certain “roles and responsibilities” and, perhaps, less flexible.

Without going into “stadium church: or “pew-warming” commentary – and most churches have no problem with participation and activity – part of the lack of communication with each other and the communities we serve and are served by might be an view of authority. We need to remind ourselves frequently that each and every person we meet in church, whether a regular attender or not, is, in many ways, God speaking to us. And we are called to listen.

Not diminishing God's individual touch with individuals, another friend of mine writes, about their vision for the Church, “…a place where the common man is king…” If my weakness is another’s opportunity to have their gifts used by God in my and other’s lives, does this not speak to a sort of Infinite Authority of Ev’ry Believer?

Peace, healing, and Bush's finest hour

2009-02-06T20:41:00.009-05:00

Shimei Curses David

5 As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. 6 He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. 7 As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! 8 The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"

9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."

10 But the king said, "What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?' "

11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. 12 It may be that the LORD will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."

13 So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. 14 The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself.

-------

People are in need of peace and healing today. It does not take a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an economic crisis, to realize this. These events are simply "symptoms" of what people have been needing, deep down, for years. I see it on the train and in the streets every day. The economic prosperity (both real and perceived) of the past few years merely covered over the surface.

A man who had lost everything threw a shoe at Bush. He is one of thousands in Iraq, in Palestine, in Israel, in Bangladesh, in Detroit, in Boise. I stop and think of the "low" "cost" of war (to America). 4,000 lives lost. So many fewer than were lost in all the tyrants overthrown of decades past. Yet it did not take my first born son to weep at the prospect of him dying in a foreign war for the 4,000 (plus) to grow larger to me in my heart. And, after all, what is 4,000 compared to the thousands lost in the last Tsunami, millions starved or killed in genocide, child-solders and child sex-slaves, slaves of all kinds, disease, poverty, lack of clean drinking water and education?

Don't get me wrong. There will always be "hard decisions" to be made. The Right will always justly and unjustly be accused of not caring enough and Left will always justly and unjustly be accused of allowing a license to real and perceived "lawlessness." But I think to myself, in my last few years of blessing, with so many in need and, more than likely, greater suffering (for not just America) ahead, when did I lose sight of peace and healing?

Stef and I felt called by God to our neighborhood. Like so many neighborhoods, it is both bright and in need of peace and healing. And our future here is uncertain. As Jacob did, we may need to travel to Egypt to buy grain (hopefully, there won't be four centuries of slavery awaiting...) But I hope not. We've planted seed here. We continue to contend for and pray for - if it's the Lord's will - to be peace and healing in our neighbors' and friends' lives as they have been peace and healing to us. We know the worldwide church of Jesus Christ is a large body and the love of God not confined to perceived "boundaries." And I hope to tarry for many years year or, at the very least, carry the peace and healing of the City of Peace and Healing to the nations.

-------

Bush laughed it off and chalked the "shoe-toss" off to democracy. Some may say callously laughed it off. The administration insisted, however, that the video be released, though tribute sculptures have been torn down. One day into his administration, I wanted to throw a shoe at Obama - I swear I would - for reasons I will not go into here. But whether Obama or Bush, if one listens closely enough, one does, indeed, hear the weight of hard decisions weighing them down, even if Bush kept fit by his almost-daily jog or bike ride or even if Obama, a young man, has just started his term.

When I look at my son (it would be the same if he were a daughter), it is a daily reminder of peace and healing, as well as hope. There are multifaceted consequences to decisions, but my son is a nice reminder for me, not abandon high and lofty thinking and prayers, but to not forget the living prayer in front of my face. Almost as if a shoe were thrown at me.

-j

Snow and Forgiveness in Witch City

2009-01-11T07:50:00.002-05:00

Well, here I am down at the church a few minutes before 8am, and wondering if anyone will be coming today. A parking snowban is on, and it's still snowing away out side, but it was a nice walk from home (about 12-15 minutes).

It sure is pretty outside, and resembles comments from scripture about sins being forgiven and being made white as snow.

“The Darkness is Here” – an Advent Meditation

2008-12-20T21:05:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year. While walking home from the Salem train station one night recently, I noticed Christmas (Holiday) lights here and there. For me, the colored lights, and the white lights, lingering in the eventide, spoke to me as a reminder of the Risen Creator who entered time out of eternity to be with a weary world so many years ago.

Pastor Phil has mused on the godliness of darkness--> [here]. In some cases, my friend “imagines” darkness as a “thin place” – out of which/where, for him, Jesus, the Light of the World, speaks.

"He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky."

-Psalm 18:11 (New International Version)

The title of my Note is in quotes because I borrowed it from a facebook friend. My sense is, this friend, too, finds solace in the darkness – maybe because there is sometimes felt power in mystery and secrecy – but also, perhaps, as my friend Phil, because he finds comfort in the darkness. For me, the darkness of Winter Solstice, intersperse with lights, makes me think of my favorite Christmas Carol…

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth…

…Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth…

…He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger...

…Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother...

…A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…

…Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born…

-image found at www.copperflatsfarm.com/babypage.htm

"Money" Part Deux (an Advent Meditation)

2008-12-07T14:43:00.011-05:00

“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

-Luke 16:9

At the Gathering this Advent season, we have been meditating on ways to break out of the common economy of the season – using cash or debt to purchase commodities – and “exchanging” gifts of a different “economy.” I heartily agree.

Yet, as I was trained as a strategic resource alocator, I often consider the verse above when speaking about “worldly mammon.” The “excuse” typically pointed out a “used to justify vast accumulation of wealth” at the expense or omission of self or others is often this verse – use money to save souls.

There have been two interesting occurrences this past couple years or so in the realm my finances. The first was a financial event I witnessed when I divested (along with about 100 million others worldwide) from a small 401k fund that had shares in the Chinese oil company which continued to do business with Sudan. Though great changes have often occurred in the past with folks voting with their dollars (Nestle boycott, McDonald’s menu becoming healthier, a demand for alternative energy vehicles), I was still surprised when my 401k company published a statement that they had eliminated the Chinese oil company from their portfolio. Though, as the 401k company claimed, the decision was a “financial” one and not a “political” one, it was easy to see that the financial company could not ignore the one-billion-dollar plus political statement of those 100 million shareholders worldwide.

The second, more recent event, occurred when my 401k fund plummeted to two thirds its value in October (on its way to just over half its value). My 401k is greatly detached from my everyday finances and its management, though fine-tuned by myself, it largely out of my, and everyone’s, hands. It’s not that I don’t care about my 401k. But, effectively, I don’t care and am able to “compartmentalize” it without worshiping it.

But as it’s value began to drop, I began to search, in vain, for a way to cash it out and use it take care of our churches meager finances for, say, the next year. Unless I was able to absorb the tax penalty, and ignore the fact that holding onto shares is the best course of action as, a 50% loss it typically made up in 7-10 years – fine for me but not for those looking to retire in 7 – 10 years, the “strategic” decision was to hold onto the shares.

I am not saying it was the right decision. Though highly unlikely, the fund may never recover. If the global economy collapses and is later resurrected in new form, we will require our relationships to help us survive, not 401ks. We require our relationships to survive regardless of “economy” but the “mercenary Christian” in me notes I have “bought” enough Christian on non-Christian friends to get by (obtaining vital resources in a collapsed economy is another matter…) as the Shrewd Manager bought his friends. And even though people always let each other down and fail, myself included, Our God is a God of Miracles – expected or unexpected.

So in this season of “stopping the insanity,” somewhat mandated by the economy, but countered by continuous television commercials encouraging the season of Buying/Giving/Debting/Using Tax break in Advance (where does "Secret Millionaire" fit?), this Cindy Lou Who (me) hopes for something more to Christmas than presents – having received the second-greatest Christmas present ever in the form of my baby boy.

However, even if we divest from the consumer economy for a time, to the point of using our dollars to cast votes, is their room for strategic “friend-winning?” You can’t make money without spending money, and our church has already embarked on a “season of giving” in terms of a vision of festival evangelism (see one of Pastor Phil’s blog). Pray for the Gathering as we consider how to use our Meager “Talents” in festivals of relational Jesus Love, like the one tonight at the Gathering, at 6pm.

Bev: Post Surgery

2008-12-02T19:03:00.002-05:00

This morning Bev (Pastor Phil's wife) had hand surgery. After an hour and half of surgery in Boston, we were home before noon. It is early evening now. Bev is sleeping and has been doing fine all day. Her thumb (where the work was done) looks good, and she's snoozing with a little smile. Venus and Jupiter are bright in the early evening sky and everything in the world is alright - okay, not everything is alright. In fact the world is a mess, but things are good at the Wyman house.

Thanksgiving/Being a blessing

2008-11-28T16:44:00.007-05:00

"David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God."
-1 Samuel 30:6 (New International Version)

This Thanksgiving, my wife and I look back at a long and difficult year. However, it was also a year filled with blessing beyond our wildest dreams - particularly with the birth of our baby son, Levi. Friends and family, both at church and not at church, over the years, have showered blessing after blessing on us as we have travelled through a long adoption processes. Nevertheless, though blessed tremendously, life, as it is for all of us, can be difficult. This is not only true for our household, but also for the Gathering, as a congregation and church family, our nation, our world, and the worldwide church of Jesus Christ.

I have heard the passage above spoken on in the past, and I find it a tremendously refreshing passage, but also a difficult one. Some translations read, "And David encouraged himself..." How the heck to I do that? Particularly when, on difficult or even easy occasions, it feels as if my very desire to read the bible or pray is a gift from God, and not of myself? But somehow, this Thanksgiving, I've stumbled across one part of the equation, at least for me for a time: Though I may not have the strength to, as I perceive, encourage and bless others, isn't all I need to do is bless to encourage both them and me, in my inner being?

Pete Rollins - Sunday, December 7th

2008-11-26T00:07:00.004-05:00

We're just a week and half away from our Sunday evening visit with author, pastor of the Ikon community in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Doctor of Postmodern Philosophy Pete Rollins.

So here's the deal. He will be with us at 6pm on Sunday evening at The Vault - 217 Essex Street in downtown Salem. This is our standard Sunday evening service time. We will have a smidgeon of music (that means a little bit, smidgeon is not a relative of the pidgeon), and then Pete will do the Pete thing and speak to us. Then following the service it will become a food and drink event. We call it the "Pete Rollins End of the Book Tour Party!"

We'd love to see you. It will be a great time to hang with friends, maybe meet Pete (if you're interested in that kind of thing), maybe hobnob with some seminary professors, or just learn some good stuff about the Christian faith.

I hate church council meetings...

2008-11-24T23:37:00.007-05:00

No, this is not airing dirty laundry. Rather, it is an opportunity for me to share the love and joy at the Gathering, and why I am proud to call it my church home.

I the world of e-information, I have found far away places, similar to ones Jesus went do, I feel, when his soul was downcast. The Gathering blog has proven to be a realm just enough far-out-of-the-way to avoid ruffling too many feathers, but public enough, to many I don't know, to keep me honest and fair - at leaset relatively.

No, nothing spectacular happened tonight. No multi-million, or even multi-thousand dollar projects were discussed - especially not at our church. No, instead, feeling a little fatigue and frustration, along with the joy, of parenting my first-born son, I opened my big mouth yet again, and, as I had e-mailed our pastor previously, made some "observations..."

First, for those of you who don't know the Gathering well, just a bit of background. The Gathering is a sort of Neo-Emergent-ChariCostalGelical-Cessationist-LiberalConservative-Tribe of Jesus Freaks who don't necessarily, though often do, enjoy looking/behaving "freakish." All that to say that our church family probably pushes the diversity envelope further than many churches, at least in the EvanPentaMatic camp.

So, as I shared an "observation" (or lament) at the fact that Sunday mornings, which my attendance I have been limited to, joyfully, because of aforementioned first-born son, were less than inspiring for me, it brought up some tremendously meaningful, yet painful, insight. Sisters and brothers like me have, for months on end, endured our "sometimes-haven," "sometimes-experiment" of a church to a point where they felt it was "a complete waste of time." This, to me, was nothing new. I have been with the Gathering almost from its inception, for close to ten years. Thousands of dollars and hours - everyone back to me more than ten-fold in spiritual (not financial) fruit - have gone from me - to the church - and back to me. I have felt my share of time-wasting.

Then, when one of the dearest sisters in the Lord shared that she would utter those words in moments past, out of her despair, not so long ago ("utter waste of time"), it hit me. That is exactly how I feel and have felt for the past months. Sunday mornings (only a microcosm of our church-life) have been, for me, an utter waste of time.

Don't get me wrong. Though this is, in some respects, a true observation for me, there have been more miracles these Sunday mornings than I can count. But I feel handcuffed, I feel uninspired, I feel unused, unwanted, and I feel that others are handcuffed. As our church seeks to make itself real, TRUE reality hits in. The church is not perfect. Though, by the Lord Jesus, I need feeding and inspiration at this point in my life, there is no other place to go.

I visited - via the web - churches and faith-families of friends - remembering time and love and Jesus that has been invested in me over the years. And still, there they were. The unmistakable words. "Where shall I go?" This is not to say - in any way - the Gathering is the only way to do church. Those of you who know me through my pen name know that a passion of mine is "denominationalism" - denominations, and their kin, show Christ's diversity, beyond the division. And there, like a beacon, was a not-yet-but-hopefully-soon forming a warm embrace, and the call. Real church. Real life. Real Jesus. Even with the "handcuffing" (my words - they show how I feel, but it is just me) Sunday mornings, and my church-dreary life with (only!?!) my wife and my son and my family, friends, home, blessings without number to comfort me, I continue on, from Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory, even if I can't feel it or see it.

A new day will dawn. Some of my concerns are justified, and action or adjustment may (or may not) take place. It doesn't matter. My sister encouraged my yet again. This is part of my cross for this time in my life. It's just a little heavy right now...

-j

Halloween Outreach '08 Update

2008-11-07T11:30:00.006-05:00

I am just now getting to telling our Halloween story for this year. The month-long experience of Halloween in Salem is remarkable to behold for those who have never experienced it. Many visit us for a week or a weekend, but for those of us who live here, and serve throughout the month of October it has become commonplace to view Salem as Halloween Town. Like Jack the Mayor of Halloween Town in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" many people in Salem work all year toward October, and Halloween becomes a month long event with its 500,000 visitors.

We have rushed headlong into the middle of the celebration with the hope of being a blessing to all, and this year the event was as spectacular, and life-changing for people as any of the previous nine. Yes, this is our tenth Halloween in Salem.

Trainings occurred, and over 80 people were trained to learn how to treat Witches and Neo-Pagans as regular people. This is not something we as Christians do well. There were returning friends who helped interpret dreams from a biblical perspective, and offered spiritual advice to passing Halloween partiers. Others played music, or served free hot cocoa. Others still served food to those who came to be part of this massive outreach, or provide background support by setting up the outdoor stage, run the sound system, raise money to help support the event, or clean the carpets of the church.

We organized and ran a Children's Day event with the help of Domino's Pizza and had 3,000 attendees. We held a feast based upon experiences of Heaven and Hell, we ran 6 days of live music, gave away 3,000 cups of free hot cocoa (this number was down by 5,000 cups, because it was such a warm year!), counseled or interpreted dreams for thousands of people, gave 800 people an educational experience highlighting human slavery in the world today, and sent young men dressed as monks to offer free blessings to the people on the streets.

Each year this event grows. It seems to have legs of its own, and is moving faster than we can keep up with it. All these things are accomplished by a small church of about 45 people, and the friends and other churches who like to hang out with us.

The AP Press called me and asked for a phone interview this year. You can access the by following podcast of the short radio segment here.

The number of people who spoke of being touched by the gentle presence of God's blessing are beyond the scope of our ability to count. Even the simple gesture of giving a cup of free hot cocoa can illicit a generous response. One college aged young man replied, "This is the best idea I've seen out here." There are new faces visiting the church since the October outreach - locals who were significantly touched by the "spiritual readings," dream interpretation, and blessings from our wandering monks are visiting the church on Sunday now.

In the Old Testament we find the children of Israel gathering in Jerusalem for the feasts. Passover, Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles brought the people together into one place to worship and celebrate. This was the manner in which they gathered for "church." Today our society is running to festivals to celebrate, party, and vacation. Haunted Happenings in Salem is one of the great festivals in U.S culture. It has been our goal to "crash the party," and make our little festival within this larger festival called Haunted Happenings one of the "places to be." In a sense we are bringing church to the partying public, and offering gentle touches of God's grace. They effect has been dramatic.

After ten years of serving in Salem in this manner, hundreds of Christians from near and far gather to help us serve. Thousands of people experience the ministry outreach we offer, and now are beginning to return each year to looking specifically for us. These returning people are not necessarily Christians. They come from all walks of life, and have simply recognized that there is acceptance, love, and peacefulness in our presence. This has become our way of bringing the power of the Old Testament festival life to the city of Salem, and the people who visit us from around the world.

For those of you who have supported the large efforts of this little church financially or in prayer - thank you. You are at the base of our ability to continue in the footsteps of our gracious Savior on these cobble-stoned streets of Salem, Massachusetts.

Included below are some photos of the streets of Salem during our month long Halloween season. Notice the unbelievably warm temperature for this time of year. It is on the digital clock above the church. Then you will see the massive crowds in the street, and lastly one of our roving monks - Jeff Tang, who blessed the crowds is standing in front of our century old vault.

May God's Love Be with You,
Pastor Phil

Kevin Menasco in Surgery Today

2008-08-14T13:52:00.001-05:00

Today Kevin Menasco is in the midst of perhaps as much as 10 hours of surgery for his jaw. Please keep him in prayer for both the surgery today, and his recovery.

Thanks for your service and love,
Pastor Phil

The perfect church...

2008-08-06T21:10:00.009-05:00

...doesn't exist.

Tuesday night, a friend was in town. It was an informal "pub theology" night. With three pastors, and about three graduated or almost graduated seminarians, and one "honorary seminarian," the ale was cold and the fire warm. There was even... if you dare to believe it... a woman present... I was disappointed she wasn't smoking a cigar.

Somewhere in the middle of critiquing dispensational theology and trying to determine if Jesus had long hair, the question came up of ideal church organizational models. I had to bite my tongue. My friend, a visiting pastor at a church, still in the denomination that booted the Gathering, is still probably the pastor I most respect short of those at the Gathering. He is a dear friend, even if he is a Dodgers fan. Our friend made the appeal that the dysfunction we encountered in our former denomination could be widespread, but also could be localized. Another astute pastor, also a friend, observed the abuse of authority that lead to the Gathering's disenfranchisement was due to the corporate, episcopalian hierarchy of the denomination, and the double-blind good 'ole boys club mentality (episcopalian in structure - the denomination is Pentecostal, not of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion).

Then, a wise man spoke. I must say for myself, even though I was ready to tell everyone how convinced I was that the district supervisor that unleashed his paranoia on the Gathering years ago needed a physician for himself, not to run a church for others, I thought the following to myself as the wise man spoke: "No church has been accused of doing more harm, justly and unjustly, or accused, correctly and incorrectly, of being more dysfunctional than the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, I have friends who are dynamic Christian leaders and friends in the Roman Catholic Church - woman and men, laypeople and priests... And then the wise man spoke: [loosely paraphrased] "No church can escape dysfunction. There will always be abusers of power and poeple and structures that abuse power in "church" becuase even the most experienced Christ-follower sins...

Then we continued on to critique dominionist theology...

The moment and the thought, however, for me, lingered. I went back to enjoying the fire and friends. Then, became painfully aware of my own inadequacies, "accomplished" as I may think of myself in this Christian walk. Then it was time for bed and a bike ride home and a word with my friend - he saw me to the door - about how there is still hope for the National League...

-j

Passengers Back Osteen - Say They Saw No Assault

Speak - friend - and enter...

2008-08-03T18:49:00.010-05:00

Mark 10:13 "People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."

Today, we reminded ourselves that too often power structures that exist in today's world, whether religious, political, corporate, or other, are governed by a "survival of the fitest" mentality. It's a "dog eat dog" world, and the church of Jesus Christ has been no less guilty of destroying lives in the name of "brotherly love" as any of these other organizations. This habit started in the Church of Jesus Christ long ago, when Jesus's first disciples rebuked an intinerant exorcist for casting out demons in the name of Jesus without proper authorization.

In the first book of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Fellowship of the Ring, we learn that Hobbits, later described as "...they would not be noticed by your men - no larger than children..." are not only the only ones who can withstand the corrupting power of the Evil Magical One Ring, but are the most suited to sneak behind enemy lines into Mordor - the heartland of Sauron's foces of evil. With cataclysmic and epic battles continually being waged all around them - all amounting to little consequence - it is the Hobbits' ability to throw the source of evil power in Middle Earth into a volcanic lava pit, deep inside a volcanic mountin, which ultimately decides the fate of the Kingdom of Middle Earth.

If we are honest with ourselves, nothing we do has very much tanglible ramifications in this world more than three generations after we enter eternity. Whether one is a great theologian like Luther, a great spiritual leader like Pope John Paul II, or a great musician such as Mozart, the folks we really affect and effect most are those handful of souls with whom we enter into close friendship and relationship. No one else remembers us, even if we a great according to this world's standards. If we are great, we are only remembered as history books or history open source wikis remember us.

At a critical juncture in the Hobbits' quest, it was Frodo, part of the community of Hobbits, who, like children, were masters at games and riddles, who figured out the password to the secret magical door to the dwarven kingdom, the Mines of Moria. This password had eluded even Gandalf, the greatest seer Middle Earth had ever known, and who had lived for over than two thousand years. Only one who was like a child, Frodo the Hobbit, in Tolkien's work, was able to 'see' the answer that was 'right in front of his face...'

-j

Pub Theology and the Politics of God

2008-07-23T07:18:00.004-05:00

Last Night we met at The Old Spot once again. There were eight of us for this discussion on "The Politics of God." It was heated but friendly, and eventually redirected to consider what God wants from us personally. A good time all in all, and Mary saved us from looking like a good ol' boys club.

You can read more on the interactions at one of my personal blogs Square No More.