Tomorrow live streaming video from my backyard

Tomorrow night at 6:30 pm pacific time Dave Andrews author of Christianarchy, Not Religion but Love, and We Can Be will be sharing with some of my friends and neighbors at our house.  We will be streaming this talk on community, Christian anarchy and whatever else comes up so that you can enjoy it as well.

The stream will be on Justin.tv on channel rev3j please join us if possible, and share this with whomever you can.

Dave has been an incredible influence on my life and ministry.  In fact he has profoundly shaped the way we understand and do "church"  Here is a quote about him:

"There is one thing you need to know about Dave Andrews. He is dangerous. For example, after Indira Gandhi was shot, two or three thousand people were killed in twenty-four hours in the riots that followed. Mobs rampaged through streets looking for Sikhs to murder. Dave convinced Tony, a friend , that it was their job to go out and save these Sikhs. Finding a besieged house, they put themselves between an armed mob and a Sikh family and saved them from certain death. That's why Dave Andrews is dangerous. He is ordinary, yet believes ordinary people should take extraordinary risks to confront the cruelty in our world."

so be afraid, be very afraid :)

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Books that inspired me (will be an ongoing series)

I read Christianity and Anarchy, by Jaques Ellul, many years ago. It was an amazing book, it made so much sense, and helped me to understand many things I had seen over the years. This book suggested that what God actually desired for us, was to live in an anarchic, mutually subordinate and loving community. That throughout the scriptures we see this. And that in imitating the hierarchy of the world, we were in fact rejecting God.

This book changed my life, my mind, and my heart. What it didn't do, was show me what to do with it all. How does this effect my church, missional work, social work, and even parenting? I did not feel like I knew, but had to just struggle with the ideology and try to figure out my own way. This was a wonderful book, and I think everyone should read it. However, the books I want to talk about today are "Christianarchy" and "Not Religion, but Love" by Dave Andrews

In Christianarchy Dave basically speaks about how Christian Anarchy is lived out in an empowering community. He gives examples of how our current structures hurt people, and how we can live out an alternative. It is a controversial book, as he names names, and expresses his own alienation and hurt. But this book changed my life and ministry so much. Dave, gave me encouragement for what I had already started doing, and encouragement to imagine ways to go much further, and a history to associate with. What was really wonderful, was when I needed help figuring some of this stuff out, he made himself personally available, to help me.

In Not Religion but Love, Dave takes that theme even deeper. He talks about how we live in a community, and work for the empowering of that community. Not spreading our religion, but spreading the empowering love of Christ to all, even those of differing faiths, or no faith. He speaks about working for justice from a place of love, not power. For being alongside of rather than reaching down to. He talks about being the change you want to see in the world. Many people think this book is more important, and better than Christianarchy. I think they both are brilliant, and stand on their own.

Both of these books have changed my life, as has Dave and the waiters union, and I love them dearly.

not religion but love

Christianarchy

I also have a few copies of each of these that I would like to share with people, I will send them to the first four who ask for each, but I would ask you pay for postage, and then if possible make a donation, as I paid quite a bit to buy them and ship them over.

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