I have spent the last 2 years recovering from that event by being forced through a season of healing, and it was drastically needed. Coming from the very odd faith background that I did (I grew up Catholic and left that faith family to join what was at the time the "hip" nondenominational church in my Denver suburb), my time at APU necessarily deconstructed much of the shallow theological faith life that had become part of my identity. Through APU you all helped give me the tools to engage in a more thoughtful and true ways of a life as a citizen of God's kingdom. However, when I left APU I took all that deconstructed piss and vinegar into a local faith community, where it was not well received. I will be honest and say that part of that was in my presentation, over eagerness and youthful pride but some of it lack of receptivity was because a lack relational trust and the congregation and me were speaking TOTALLY different theological languages. What I have come to see of that time is that my season of deconstruction that began at APU was continuing into the local and actual faith communities. Much of what I had learned in my "hip" evangelical ecclesiology needed to be undone, and it certainly was.

The following couple of years, I wandered quite a bit as to what the next steps in life were for my wife Aubrey and me.  I was, however, tied to living in Boulder because Aubrey was finishing her Masters degree in speech language pathology at University of Colorado Boulder. So, I gave up vocationally working for church and simply worked as a Barista at Starbucks (we needed health insurance). During my time at the starbucks I was introduced  to some local church leaders that were from my narrative of church (i.e. evangelical) and were desiring to be imaginative in how they went about church life in the post-christian culture of Boulder. For the sake of brevity, I will simply say that this group of people have been instrumental in my healing and my ability to trust "church people" again. This community of people disgruntled and frustrated Jesus followers has helped me remain sane. They confirmed that I was not alone in my frustration with the church's inability to be what it needs to be in our current context. Not only did they affirm me but they desired my voice in helping shape a faith community who could humbly be the gift to the world that we believe the Church is to be. So, they brought me on staff. I work 20 hours a week for the church, and actually we only have one full time staff person because we feel like our resources are better used to serve the poor of our city, so the rest of us work in trades though out the city. For example, when I am am doing all the adolescent culture, social media and arts community stuff for the church, I play music in our local music scene and work for Apple Computers. I could spend tons of time telling you about how proud I am of our church community and the beautiful dreams they are dreaming/living, but I will give you just a quick snap shot of some of the stuff we are doing:

- As we got fed up with the pop-christian worship music that we saw hegemonizing the churches around us, we began a process of writing all of our own worship music which encapsulates what the Holy Spirit is doing in the hearts of our local people, we are trying to have songs that are tied to local narratives… don't worry we also sing some hymns…. mainly by Wesley

- We sold our church building in order to launch non-profit ventures that help progress God's Kingdom. The main venture we have undertaken is called "iempathize" and it is an arts based grass roots organization that works for the absolution of the Sex Slave trade locally and abroad.

- We also are beginning a lot of work with the undocumented and spanish speaking community here in Colorado (we have a large migrant community and unseen supporting class in our fairly wealthy city). Our work in this area of the city is new, and I am excited to see where it goes. 

-  I now live a community house with 6 other people. We are exploring what it means to live a life of relational transformation, prayer and radical hospitality. We try to grow our own food, live simply and are giant progressive christian stereotypes (I try to have as much of a sense of humor about my self as possible…)

This is getting long so I will wrap this up by briefly letting you know about Aubrey and I's next steps. In the next year or so I want to go to grad school and get my masters in Theology or Biblical Studies in order to begin a process to teach in the academy. This might surprise some of you because I was not the best student (i was to busy "finding myself" or something like that)  but I think I have what it takes to make an impact on the theological conversation. At the bare minimum maybe I could have a similar impact on some idealistic students in some christian college somewhere like you all did to me.  If you have any advice on perusing higher education it is welcome.  I am going to continue to work for Origins, live in Boulder (I am hoping to climb all of colorado's 14ers in the next 3 years) and hopefully inject some kids into our family in the near future.

The brothers graduation

Our community house (The Hawthorn Farm)

Playing a house show in LA

The view from the community house

The new puppy (atreyu)

Playing a house show here in Boulder… 

Last night we had a dusting of snow here in Boulder, CO, and it made the mountains look amazing. But i was running a little bit late so I cleared my front and side window and left for our staff meeting. 

As I was just finishing parallel parking in the neighborhood just above our church (so i didn't have to pay to park) I suddenly heard and saw my back window getting scraped clear of all the snow. At first I thought it was homeless man needing some money, and I was a little bummed because I had no cash to give them. I was preparing to say "thank you homeless person for clearing my car but I am sorry that i have no cash to give you." But as I get out of the car there is a 60 year oldish man in a snowsuit looking at me very sternly. The conversation went something similar to what follows:

Pt. 1 Coffee and Movie (Frost/Nixon)

 

"Deomocracy don't run the world,
 You better get that through your head.
 This world is run by violence,
 But thats better left unsaid."

Pt 4: buy a board game with lots of dice that takes place in a different time and play it in a coffee shop.

We bought a game called Stone Age… and it is nerdy and sweet. It is like a really intense version of the game of life but instead of getting children in your car after you buy a house… you get level three tools to hunt with so your tribe doesn't starve but that is right after you invent music and pottery each getting you 6 points… you know standard. 

Pt. 5 Get dinner at a restaurant in boulder of someone who is on the current season of top chef.

That happens to be kind of easy because there are two food establishments with cooks who are on top chef (Hosea is at Jax Fish House and Melissa is at Centro) Centro is less expensive so we had our answer… mmm shrimp tacos. 

 

Overall it was one of the best dates we have had… try it: "Don't think just answer!"