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

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.

How Green is God? Pub Theology Discussion

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.

Last Night at Pub Theology

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.

Sunday, June 7th Morning Service

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.

Latin Tongues at The Gathering Tonight

Tonight we had a unique experience in glossalalia (the gift of tongues) at the Gathering. I was leading a song of worship at a particularly small service this evening. During one of the songs, I did something which is common for me to do on the evening service. I continued playing the chords of the chorus to the song, and broke into spontaneous worship created by singing words of praise which flowed improvisationally from my heart. This is something we have encouraged others to do as well, and so it is a regular practice during our Sunday evening services.

Being a good ol' Pentecostal boy (well, that is I believe that all the gifts of the Spirit are active and alive today, and I "speak in tongues"), I began to express my worship in Tongues.

I thought to myself at one point that the words seemed somewhat familiar, but being monoglot American with only a smattering of understanding in Spanish, a few short years in High School (32 years ago) trying to learn French, a familiarity with Koine (biblical Greek, which I taught many years, Prof. Carlos Z., Pastor Phil Wyman, ago, but being a dead language is not something I ever spoke), and struggling to learn Welsh I put the thought out of my head. This expression of worship lasted a couple minutes, and when it was over the Prof. Carlos Z. said to me openly in front of the group, "You were worshiping in Spanish. Did you know you were worshiping in Spanish?"

My response was, "Wow! What did I say?"

Carlos responded by telling us some of the words, and thoughts which were expressed, and then we discussed this gift of Tongues for awhile.

Now that was pretty cool, and something which I have desired to see happen for many years - Thanks God!

I suppose some might say that my subconscious harbors an understanding of Spanish, which was somehow brought out at this particular moment, but that seems as far fetched to me as believing that this gift of Tongues exists supernaturally. I'll stick with the act of God theory here.

By the way, the book pictured above was written in the 60's but is still the best read on the subject I've ever read.