We went camping on Sunday and Monday, near the Hood Canal Bridge on the western side of Puget Sound. We had a great time, and I’m sure we’ll Flickrize some pictures fairly soon. Fire is a lot of fun. Goofing off around a campfire with guitars and stuff with absolutely no structure or agenda (other than eating) is a good way to spend a holiday weekend. Yeah baby.

We got a new computer today (for Amy - the desktop died). I’m using it at the moment because it’s vastly faster than my old laptop.

It’s a WinXP PC, but came with iTunes, which I used to play some downloaded music from Sigur-Ros. Imagine my surprise when I see a “Speaker” option in iTunes, and one of the choices is “Living Room.” Aaron had plugged in his Airport Express, and with a quick stereo cable connection, I was streaming music into the living room via wifi. Awesome.

The cool thing is that I had to do nothing to enable this feature on my desktop - I didn’t even tell the new computer it was on a wireless network - it just happened. That’s good design.

I’ve been at my school’s 6th grade camp this week, hence the light blogging. I took tons of pictures with my digital camera, and some students wanted to look at them. No problem. I get the camera back a few minutes later, and the pictures are all…BALETED! Ugh. All I had was a tiny little blue screen that said “000000″.

My church is encouraging us to take a fast from something this week to focus on direction and so forth. My fast is from blogging, so all I’ll say today is that I’m busy working on the Simple Church Manual over at the Urban Monastery Wiki. Join in the fun - anyone can edit.

We’re trying to be both experimental and ancient-future with our Contxt bible study. This week we’re examining Luke 6, and one practice I’d like to use is Lectio Divina (or a modified form of it). We’d like to have a repertoire of practices to engage a biblical text, so it isn’t so much work to plan something unique each week.

What other practices have you heard of or used for engaging the scriptures in a small group?

Dear person who is new to the emerging church conversation,

Welcome to RadicalCongruency.com. I’ve discussed and thought through a lot of the major transitional issues regarding the modern/postmodern shift here, and to some extent I’m ready to get on with it - the living of the Christian life in the world I find myself in.

I sometimes blog about Christian-ghetto stuff like the Christian Affirmation, which I may find interesting or relevant to my own faith, though it may be neither to you and your life. My heritage and history are an essential part of my future, and I hope that each of us on this journey will not forget the past, but carefully keep it in mind as we travel onward.

I’ve found that I get the most comments on issues that people new to the conversation are working through, such as the status of women in the church, homosexuality, pastoral/lay leadership, definitions and boundaries of the emerging church, politics, and so forth.

But I’m getting bored with these “Where do I stand?” issues, and I’m trying to leave them behind in favor of attempts at answers to questions like:

• What is it like in this new place where we’re going?
• What does it mean to be a person of faith - and, in particular, faith in Christ - in this new world?
• How do I relate to others respectfully in a pluralistic society while holding views that have fairly absolutist assumptions?
• How do I go about representing my faith tradition well and encouraging others to explore it?
• How do I go about following my faith’s mandates to care for those around me and make the world a better place?

See you around,
Justin

I wrote this prayer a few months ago over at Urban Monastery. The list of prayers - traditional, Celtic, modern - is growing and becoming a valuable resource.

Prayer for Life with God
Father, take my life
My fast-paced life
And insert yourself in it
Not as a component or an activity
But as the foundation of all that I am.
Show me Life that transcends life,
And let me live it out.
Let me find you, be yours, be real with you,
With no other motive or pretense
But to be your child.

You can contribute your own prayers or the open-licensed prayers of others on the Urban Monastery wiki.

In an attempt to be a halfway decent son and son-in-law I setup A New Kind of Ogle to help keep our friends and family in far off lands informed and involved in our day to day activities. I bought the domain name over a year ago but I can’t decide if I still like it. But it’s paid for so that’s what you’re getting until it’s time to renew again. Enjoy!