I Love Them Whores

Great post from Erik Guzman, The Merry Monk over at Burnside Writers Collective. This will provoke you in the best possible way.

ESSAYS, FEATURED — BY THE MERRY MONK ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 AT 5:27 AM 

“I love them whores, they never judge you. What can you say when you’re a whore?”

- Jane’s Addiction

I’ve been thinking about whores, church and Jesus lately (not necessarily in that order).

There’s a story in the Bible about a prostitute who just had to get some time with Jesus (Luke 7:36-50). She wanted to get close to him so bad that she went to a dinner put on by a religious bigwig.

Think about that scene. Hooker hygiene must have been atrocious back in the year zero. So you have this stinky whore who crashes the party of a priest who is probably trying to impress all his churchy friends by having the people’s prophet over for a meal at his house. Imagine the stares and the whispered comments. Imagine the condescending tone of the servant sent to show her the door. Imagine this woman’s determination to put up with all these religious pricks so she can weep and pour expensive oil on some preaching carpenter’s feet and wipe them with her hair. Imagine the smell of hooker stank mixed with the fragrant mixture from her alabaster flask.

What was it about Jesus that attracted her? Maybe she saw him treat the drunks, outcasts and the diseased with dignity and she wanted some for herself. Maybe it was because he told her she was clean in spite of all evidence to the contrary and it gave her hope. Who knows for sure. But one thing is clear, this woman wanted to be with Jesus bad and the priest was a hindrance, not a help.

I feel like that a lot of the time… a whore in church.

Why is it that the people who claim to follow Jesus have created churches that hookers don’t feel comfortable in? They were certainly comfortable around him. I tell you what, you show me a church that can’t keep the whores away and I bet you Jesus is in there. If you find a place like that, let me know. I’d rather be in a room full of forgiven sinners who love God than at an uptight priest’s house any day.

Don’t get me wrong, not all churches are repulsive to us whores. Christians get a clue from time to time. I recently came across a quote from Eugene Peterson (he and God wrote The Message). Peterson was talking to NPR’s Guy Raz about how his experience working in his father’s butcher shop impacted his idea of church. (No, it didn’t have anything to do with slaughtering sheep.) Peterson’s dad treated everyone with respect, including the prostitutes:

“The brothel was just about two streets down from our shop. And there was always talk on the street about the whores. But when they came into our store, people knew their first name, they treated them with dignity.

They were in a safe place. Later, that translated for me into a congregation. When you come into a sanctuary, it’s a safe place.”

A safe place. I used to have a safe place. I experienced it in a small church for eight simple, glorious years. That church is gone now and I’m mourning the loss. While I don’t feel comfortable around a lot of other Christians, I felt at home there. You know what made the difference? We were all whores and we knew it, but more than that, we were Jesus’ whores.

St. Augustine is reported to have said, “The Church is a whore, but she is my mother.” Yeah, Jesus loves whores so much he married one. You know, bad things happen when the Church forgets she’s Jesus’ whore bride.

First, this bad religion has a deceptive way of lulling us into a false sense of security. We believe all the right stuff and do our best to avoid our religious community’s “big sins” so we figure we’re not as bad as all those sinners on the streets. It’s dangerous to live up to our own selective standards while forgetting God’s law of love. I forget who said it, but it’s true, “Self-righteousness is like bad breath. Everyone knows you have it except you.” Whores don’t have this problem. They know they’re nasty.

“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many…” (Luke 7:47). If the Church would remember that she’s a whore, she’d get over herself and her “righteousness” and start obsessing on Jesus’ righteousness. But we can’t stop there.

Seeing that we’re bad and he’s good only deals with the first half of the problem. We also need to see that Jesus’ righteousness is 100% free and ours for the taking. The whore and her Husband are now one flesh. “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven…” (more of Luke 7:47). Believing that we’re made clean by union with Jesus, despite all evidence to the contrary, strikes at the second half of the problem.

When the Church forgets she’s Jesus’ whore bride, she’s not only lulled into a false sense of security, she also loses her ability to love. “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (even more of Luke 7:47). When we forget that we are forgiven much, our love grows cold. That’s why Steve Brown says, “The worst thing you have going for you is your goodness… when you know it. And the best thing you have going for you is your sin… when you know it.” Knowing our sin, acknowledging it as such and turning to God in faith for his free righteousness creates soft hearts of gratitude where once there was only stone. We love him (and others) because he first loves us. Get that backwards and you get loveless religion.

Lack of love leads to a multitude of sins, including creating whitewashed tombs and calling them churches. They’re pretty on the outside, but they’re full of death. No wonder the prostitutes don’t darken their doors. They can smell the stench miles away, and the last thing they need is more stank.

Sorry for the rant. I’m just really sad about losing my safe place.

Engaging Secular Culture

I just read a thought provoking article in the Summer 2009 edition of Cutting Edge Magazine. It's a church planting publication put out by The Vineyard. The article titled "Engaging Secular Culture" (found on pages 19-23) is an interview with Charles Park. Charles pastors The River, a Vineyard Church in NYC. It's a bit long but well worth the read.

Here's a few questions for you...

• Which box do you want to be in?
• Do you want to swim in the Red Ocean or the Blue Ocean?
• Do you want to be Dell or Apple?

I'd love to know your thoughts.

Enjoy,

Tom

"Gifting" by Halcyon

I begin my journey back to Burning Man in about a week. This is my third trip t the playa and I'm thrilled that Nadine finally gets to join me! Gifting is one of Burning Man's cultural distinctives. In the video below halcyon describes it extraordinarily well, enjoy.



"Gifting" - by Halcyon from Belief Buffet on Vimeo.

The Shrinking 40%

The Shrinking 40%

by Tim Stevens


In the book, The Forgotten Ways, author Alan Hirsch identifies a problem that I’ve been wrestling with for several months now.


He says that the way we do church is working with fewer people all the time. What does the way we do church mean? It means the model of Christendom that has been followed for the past 1700 years or so and that most of us are a product of is becoming quickly ineffective in today’s world. I’m not talking styles of worship, high church or low church, mainline or independent, protestant or catholic. I’m talking about all of those churches combined. Just about every church in America can be described by three words: “Come to us.” That is it. We put on amazing services and do everything we can to communicate truth to the people who make the effort to come to “the box” for worship.

Let me explain it this way…


The Shrinking 40% - these are people for whom the “come to us” model works. We can put on great weekend services, and 40% of the people in our community are still attracted to, or at least not repelled by, that model. For some communities on the left or right coast—this may actually be 20% or less. Hirsch believes it might be 35% for America overall. For our church in northern Indiana, we are still relatively insulated from the coastal influence—and we believe it could be around 40%. Whether the correct number is 40% or 50% or higher—there probably isn’t a place in America where this number isn’t shrinking.


The Growing 60% – these are people who believe in God (whatever that means for them), have a respect for Jesus, and are on a spiritual journey, but they don’t consider the church (as we know it) as a resource to help them take steps. And it is likely they never will. They pursue their spirituality through culture, friendships, music, TV personalities, their own study of the Bible, self-help books and more.Research indicates “young adults today are less church-connected than prior generations were when they were in their 20s. But…they’re just about as spiritual as their parents and grandparents were at those ages.” An even newer study published a couple weeks ago indicates if the current trends continue, “the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships,” this according to Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group’s survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they’re “really more spiritual than religious.”


Here’s what I think we should do about the Shrinking 40% — I think we should still create amazing church services and knock the ball out of the park on everything we do inside the box. Why would we not? It’s working for a huge percentage of our community! We should do whatever works to attract them, introduce them to Jesus, help them grow in their faith, and motivate them to make a difference in the world.

But I don’t think we can ignore the Growing 60%. Up until now, I honestly don’t think I ignored them. I just didn’t think about them. I’m a statistics guy, and it is the statistics (that I talked about earlier) which are waking me up to a missional problem. Now that I’m aware of the Growing 60% –I can either ignore them (and in reality tell them to go to Hell), or I can do something about it.


I don’t even know what that means. I just know that as churches we have to figure out how to deliver the gospel of Jesus in a way that doesn’t require them to come to the box. Because attracting people to come to the box is only working for a Shrinking 40%. And the Growing 60% will never be reached that way.

It’s not either/or. It’s finding the genius of the AND.

A PASTOR ON THE PLAYA?

Why I Go To Burning Man

by Randy Bohlender

I've noticed a thread on the e-playa recently...one where people are swapping stories about what they tell non-burners about Burning Man. Part of the discussion has centered on trying to explain why we go to the Burn. I've faced this question more than my share of times. To a certain extent, I fit the mold. I'm an adventurer. I love travel. I have an auxiliary hole in my head from which dangles the obligatory gold hoop. At first glance, I meld into the Burning Man crowd quite well. Still, if my college graduating class would have had the foresight to vote, I would have probably been voted "Least Likely to Burn".

It's not my appearance that makes me an unlikely burner, it's my paradigm. Prepare your hearts for a shock, gang. I'm a born-again Christian. Even stranger (or some would say even worse), I'm a pastor...have been for years. I've made it my life, and will continue to do so.

2002 was my second trip to Burning Man. Back in 2000, acting on what we would call prompting from God, a team of five of us brought 5,000 bottles of water to give away. It was our way of making a prophetic declaration of what God wants to do in people's lives; bring water to the dry places. We were wonderfully received - burners are great hosts. It was more than a fluke that Renee Roberts was shooting footage for her documentary Gifting It...we spent a good hour on the playa discussing giving, altruism and art. This year, I returned with a larger camp...five people became twelve, one vehicle became three, and five thousand bottles of water became ten thousand. We spent the week gifting water to fellow burners, as our practical demonstration of the love of God. A few folks differed with our philosophy, but none argued about the practicality of the gift, and all were grateful receivers. We became Burners and lived among friends for the week.

As we talked with passing Burners and word got out that "the Christians" were camped at the corner of 225 & Forecastle, we were frequently approached by pleasant people with an innocent question: "Why are you guys here?" It was never asked in anger...just curiosity. People honestly wondered why we would choose to spend so much effort and resources to give to a group that, at least on the surface, seemed to be proudly at odds with much of what the church has stood for down over the years. Our standard answer was "to show you God loves you in a practical way!" Driving the 2200 miles home, covered in dust, I asked myself the same question, and came to the following greater conclusions.

I go to Burning Man because the playa puts me in my place.

I spend entirely too much time in boxes. I have a ranch style, suburban box, where I keep my family and most of my stuff. I have a small, German-made box with wheels where I keep most of my CD's and spend a lot of time on the phone. I have another box where I keep coworkers. In those boxes, I am someone. I have the power to change the climate. I can manipulate the auditory environment. I crown myself king of my boxes, and when my boxes wear out, I will get new ones. The playa is the ultimate out of the box experience. In our boxes, we are in total control. On the playa, we are at the mercy of God (some would say the universe, but remember...I've got a paradigm).

It's on the playa that I realize my finiteness. Only when I'm on the vast expanse...so flat that I can see a storm coming, feel it engulf me, and watch it pass...that I realize that life happens to me much more than I happen to it. For all of the control that I think I exert, it's all on the micro level....where I live, Mac or PC, whether or not to supersize.

The greater matters - disappointment, elation, health, danger, death and the like - race towards me like a playa storm. I can anticipate and prepare, but cannot stop them. On the playa I find my place, and it's not the place of a player who influences a game, but more like the ball itself. The playa makes me yearn to know the coach. It makes my need for God much more evident. I need Him whenever I get out of my box.

Historically, God has chosen the desert as a backdrop when He wanted to strip the peripherals away. He sent John the Baptist as a man burning in the desert, rejecting the traditional luxuries he would have known as a priest's son in favor of a minimal existence and maximum impact . The ancient seer Isaiah prophesied of "a voice calling out in the desert. " As the crowds are drawn to the playa, the crowds were drawn to the desert of Judea to see a man burn, and those who heard his words and took them to heart found new life represented in the ritual of baptism. The 2002 Burning Man theme of life on water couldn't have been more appropriate for John, who knew that the man who left his sins in the water rose alive like never before.

The Spirit of God drew Jesus into the desert for a time of proving and returned Him to the masses full of power. It was in the desert that He faced his own nemesis and discovered the strength held only by those who know self control and God-reliance. Scripturally speaking, time in the desert was never wasted. God draws me to the desert to remind me of who I am, of how little influence I have apart from His plan, and the power He holds over all of us. The playa puts me in my place.

I go to Burning Man because creativity points to a Creator.

Our camp consisted of two teams - an advance team that piloted the stuff out from Cincinnati, arriving Sunday, and a fly-in team who joined us mid week. While the newbies who arrived first acclimated by mid week, we all enjoyed watching the fly-in team's reaction to things we'd grown accustom to. Thursday evening, the fly-in newbies were still buzzing. They'd endured 24 hours of airplanes, rental vehicles, desert roads, and the amazing first-glance of Burning Man. My friend, Robbie, turned around to see the huge harvest moon rising behind The Man. Keep in mind that he'd spent the day looking at whale-buses and lily pads that weren't really there. After staring at the moon for a moment, Robbie asked "Is that the moon or is that something somebody's doing?" I laughed manically; not because it was silly, but because it was plausible. Only at Burning Man could one consider that it really wasn't the moon...that perhaps someone had fabricated it. After all, isn't everything fabricated by someone? From hand painted, fish shaped bicycles built lovingly in people's basements to large scale installations taking a crew of fifty all week to assembe, everything points toward the inner part of man that says "I can make something special...".

What is it within the heart of a man or woman that leads them to create? Why must we augment our reality with our depictions of it? That thing that has driven us to scratch the outline of a wooly mammoth on the wall of a cave, that has pushed us to build pyramids, paint pictures, and build flamethrowers...it is evidence of an aesthetic drive that prohibits us from leaving well enough alone. The animal kingdom has no such compulsions. Never in history has a yak shown interest in sculpture or a chicken so much has strewn straw in a intentional pattern. Why is mankind so different? What is it that is stamped upon our spirit that causes every culture in the world to spawn painters, poets, and sculptors? Inuit or Slav, Semite or Anglo, one cannot find a culture in the world with no appreciation for artistic expression. Theologians would call it 'the image of God'.

The story of Genesis describes the Spirit of God as brooding over the chaos of a preconceived cosmos, and He acted on it. He said "I can do better," and He did. His artwork incorporated elements of color, shape, texture, sound, force, and life itself. Then, from the elements He created, He created a composite, and blew life into it. It became him, and He was in him. Since that day, he has been driven to create just as He did, and so we create...because on our spirit resides a Creative Force.

I go to Burning Man because gifting looks a lot like God's idea.

Giving was a part of our group's ethos long before Renee Roberts released Gifting It. Our church is known locally as the church that gives away Cokes at intersections, gives free newspapers in city parks, and goes door to door in residential areas to wash cars free of charge. We do it as a demonstration of God's love that will make sense to people...a solo on a pipe organ might be hard to relate to, but a clean car in the driveway is something that people find intensely practical.

Our church was founded in the early eighties by Steve Sjogren. Early on, he felt impressed that rather than build a traditional 'come and see' church, he should build a 'go and do' church. A 'come and see' church is based on programs that bring people into the building. Christmas pageants...puppet shows...concerts...none of these activities are inherently bad, just geared for those who are already on the inside track. A 'go and do' church draws people out of their own four walls and into the community. A 'go and do' church brings value to a community by bringing the best of faith to the faithless who need it the most. Just as God has always been the consummate artist, so has He served as an example of 'go and do'. Jesus was constantly moving among the people, doing things like giving people sight and providing the extra wine for a wedding celebration. His message was not merely "the Kingdom is coming", but "The Kingdom is here." He valued action. Jesus was God, going and doing.

It doesn't surprise me that gifting is taking an increasingly high profile at Burning Man. In a large concentration of seekers - people aware of their own spiritual journey - it only makes sense to me that the image of God that has been stamped on humans from the beginning of time would manifest itself, and that in the act of receiving, some would find more than the gift itself.

Wednesday morning, as the last of the rave goers stumbled back towards their camps on the outskirts of the ring, we stood giving away bottles of water. Behind us loomed our camp, complete with a large sculpture we called "En Gedi". En Gedi depicted a huge boulder with a spring flowing from the top. The name En Gedi refers to an actual place in the mid east - the oasis in the desert where David hid from Saul. The name is also referred to in the prophetic writings of Ezekiel as the headwaters of God. Our En Gedi featured a beautiful angel on top, bowing low before a golden throne.

A young guy wandered into our camp for some water, and found himself resting in the shade, trying to build up his strength for the final walk back to his tent. After hearing the explanation of our artwork, he asked "Who sits on the throne?"

I told him "God sits on the throne."

The guy glanced up and grinned back at me, "I don't see Him!"

I asked "Where'd you get the bottle of water?"

For a moment, time stood still as he stared at God as represented by the free gift in his hand. He took a swig, looked back up to the throne and quietly said "Thanks, God."

I go to Burning Man because the church has spent too many years at the trailing edge of society.

As a child, I went to church in the fifties, which is only interesting when you realize that I wasn't born until 1967. It wasn't that the actual decade was that of the fifties...just that the church never left it. The music, the style, the attitudes all screamed of an age that I did not know anywhere else other than within those four walls. Although I grew up in a devout Christian family, it was often difficult to take what we were living within the walls of that church on Sunday and make them fit into the culture where we lived the rest of the week.

Because of it's unwillingness to embrace the present, let alone the future, the church has shown itself to be irrelevant to my generation. As a result, when people need help, they rarely turn to the church, even though helping people is what the church is all about. It's not that there's an animosity towards the church; just an ambivalence.

While Burners often take an element of pride in being 'out of the norm", I think they do themselves a great disservice when they fail to realize that they are dragging culture their direction. We may or may not see a national trend of green hair or public nudity, but I do believe that our culture is moving towards the mores of Burning Man. It is the Petri dish of postmodernism...and what is growing on the playa will spread like crazy throughout our world. I want a church that will be there, so I go to Burning Man to grow in my knowledge of the future.

I've learned much in the 2 years I've been associated with Burning Man. Some of it may surprise you. For example:

• While I have a deep seated sense of right and wrong, Burners aren't interested in it. My sense of values cannot be forced upon people. All I have to offer is life and experience...and if I can show them life, they may be interested in my values.
• Given a choice of A, B, or C, most Burners will pick D (all of the above). Creative people refuse to be pigeonholed into given answers. They value the journey of discovery as much as the arrival at fact.

In these two characteristics, I find truths that the church must understand in order to be relevant to post-moderns. First, that people cannot be argued into a system of faith, only drawn in by what they see in others. This is why the Bible tells us that people are drawn to God by His kindness. Second, that if Christianity is going to appeal to people of the future, then the church has to make room for people in process.

I go to Burning Man because I want the church of the future to learn lessons that can only be learned when one goes to where the future is headed.

Finally, I go because I have something to offer.

It didn't take me long to acquire the burner's innate disdain towards spectators. Consuming social capital while contributing nothing to the greater good of the whole, they are societal parasites. We received an incredible variety of things on the playa. Our neighbors made us homemade ice cream. A flamenco guitar player named Tao favored us with a song. Three hilarious young men located somewhere above 255 entertained us with a tag team story telling session that remains so vivid an experience that I laugh out loud when they appear on our video tape. It seems everyone had something to offer, and my 'something to offer' is what brings me the Black Rock City. My gift, though taking the form of a bottle of water, is really much more than that. I come to present hope...a bite sized morsel of grace that people can take home to chew on for themselves.

Towards the end of the week, one young man approached me and said "can you confirm a couple of rumors I've been hearing? "

"Sure" I said.

"Word on the playa is that you guys are all from a church."

The way he said 'church' led me to believe he probably didn't believe the rumor. "Yep," I said, "We are."

His eyes grew wide. "And I also heard that you are a pastor."

"Again, confirmed."

He then moved in for the kill. "And I heard you came out here to convert us all."

I looked both ways as if to see if we were being spied on, leaned forward and asked "Do you own your own home?"

He seemed a little stunned. "Yeah. Bought it last year."

"How long did you look for a house?" I continued.

This line of questioning was not what he expected. "I don't know - maybe six months."

I smiled. "Okay, so it took you six months to find a place to live. That's not unusual. Some people look for a year or more and no wonder...it's a huge decision. If it seems normal to look for a house that long, don't you think it would be arrogant for us to anticipate that you would make a major religious paradigm shift out here in the desert in just one or two short conversations?"

"Uh, yea" he said. By this time, he was more puzzled than he had been when he walked in.

"We're not so arrogant as to expect that you're going to change everything about what you believe just because we told you...but we do think that if you walk away from this experience thinking a little differently about God or the people who claim to serve Him, that's a good thing. Drink our water. Hang out. Be our friend. Then go home and make your own decision about the God that motivates us."

I go to Burning Man because I have something to offer...a fresh perspective of an old institution. An image of the church rising from the ashes of hypocrisy to prove itself relevant to the age...an image of a church made of servants, in the model of Jesus, caring for people and loving God.

And that's why I go to the Burn.

Randy Bohlender's blog

Burning Man 2008 Report

By Rob Mazza

These times are so uncertain
There's a yearning undefined
... people filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?
- the Eagles "The Heart of the Matter"

"Thank you for a wonderful experience connecting with Jesus. I feel my feet are stronger and my heart is warmer. Thank you healers who sat by me as I broke down and felt a new kind of love" - anonymous entry in our Burning Man guest book

Friends,

I'm with a small team kneeling on a alkali dusty carpet embracing a woman in a black neglige. She's coughing out unwanted demons. We're quietly reminding her Jesus -perfect love is here - the fear must leave. "I can't feel my hands" They have become twisted claws. We hold them and they relax and color returns with love and power. At some point her mind returns and she is tugging at her hem. The team smiles at modesty returning. I give Em my best father's hug. My shirt is a mess with tears and snot. Em and friend Tyler will be back several times with friends who want to experience this Jesus. They are shepherds and don't know it yet.

I'm honestly a mess. We have crossed another invisible line into this desperate culture where we are loved. Speaking for an amazingly stretched in love team - thirty three of us miss our reality. The author of Acts (a healer himself) talks about Moses and a church ("called out ones" remember the Greek meaning?) in the wilderness and the angel who spoke and gave him living oracles to give to the people. We feel this passage in this strange land. Our Native friend and team member Elmer said he saw the silent angel at our encounter tent entrance. Linda Prince, Native leader protocoled our team and during her drum prayer she spoke of "God being a fire over us" Mid week, we hear a guy has asked where our camp was located. A fellow sojourner answered "The camp with the halo over it" He found us. Fire by day.

We have crossed over. Supernatural experience grounded in sensitivity and Dad's love have morphed into the next stage of council, teaching and pastoring. This has not been easy or perfect or flawless. It has been faith and all God. We now have a "church" and it's not pretty. It's beautiful. One day, I go to lunch an hour late because there's a line of hungry post encounter young people waiting to talk - about God, about spirituality, about how things work or what the h--- just happened?. Our team fields similar questions from the undefined yearning. "Well who would have thunk it? These people are really real. Thanks, thanks, thanks" writes a guy named Bear.

Monday, day 2, we were hunkered down in wind gusts and swirls of dust. The only safe place to go was our dome. Loaded with guests dancing and lying about, our worship drummers lead the atmosphere. Lisa Matschek & I walk in, look at one another and start laying hands on our guests, then we impart to our team our traditional way to start the week's ministry. God does the agenda, Burners and believers in swirl of worship. We noted no religious opposition.

In the waiting room the thickness of Spirit's presence causes interesting dynamics to those who wander in. One young woman says to us before her encounter "How do I meet this God you know?"

Tom has an encounter with the Spirit of Truth that goes into eternal overtime at an hour and three quarters. A trance/dance of love he does not want to leave. He returns again the next day changed.

I have this consistent urge to tell our team "We are the mother's and father's of the playa" I actually say it at least once... Darren Zinn has a healing encounter with Sandy in the dome. He sends her to the encounter tent. Her world is rocked. A day or two later he brings tools to do bike repair at her Snake Camp home. She pauses, looks at him and says "You guys are the mother's and father's of the playa" Prophesy like the dust swirls about us and finds our every crevice.

So many human stories woven in with your prayers answered. I wish I could write more. An older guy in his late 50's early 60's claims he is an agnostic priest (How does that work?) comes to the Way of salvation. An ornery guy from Israel loud and confrontational "Are you Christians going to baptize me?" leaves shaken, quiet and thanking us.

Thank you for praying. Thank you for the generous financial support. This is a Lewis and Clark investment in a frontier of promise. A trade route for those to follow us. The grapes, the land and the people are worth it. Thank you Native peoples for teaching the ways of God in honor and protocol. Thanks to wives, husbands and children for releasing and enduring our absence so we can pursue the unknown over the last five years. You are all co-working to uncover the gold of hearts. As the Moravians would say on missionary journeys; "May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering" Gold is the reward of kings.

Malachi 4:5,6 May look like this:
In the last days a fathering prophetic generation will be sent to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart's of the children to the fathers. At dinner we have many burner friends. Our neighbors comment on our laughter.
I don't know. We could do a lot worse.

Rob Mazza
Destiny Workshops

Burning Man 2008

In the morning I leave for our 2008 Burning Man Outreach. I'm privileged to serve on a team of 35 amazing men and women of God. This year's team led by Rob Mazza & Lisa Matscheck.

I'm going back this year for two reasons, no make that three...

First and foremost, I love the burners. It is an honor to serve them in the midst of their culture. I love to love them! Loving these people makes it all worthwhile.

Next reason is, in a vision God told me to go because I was going to have a significant encounter with a young Asian woman. Lord please bring this divine appointment to pass.

And finally, third - to support the leadership and the team. These people are lovers. To the extreme they love God and the people He created. Just being with them is a gift.

Please remember us in prayer this week. Intercession is life support for us out there on the playa. We covet your prayers.

So, tell me, do you like ORANGE? I was shooting for red but oh well, it came out orange. According to the Seven Fold Spirit of God listed in Isaiah 11 the Spirit of Understanding is represented by the color ORANGE. May I posses the Spirit of understanding for this entire trip - I'm going to need it.

I'll be away for about 10 days. When I return I'll fill you all in on the dramatic changes in my life including my new position and our big more to the big D.

(C) Tom Zawacki 2008

Why We Go

Burning Man 2007 was an amazing, inspirational, exhausting yet exhilarating experience. I had the privilege of serving with a wonderful team of 50 extremely gifted people. For six days we gave away 20,000 bottles of water, espresso drinks and the unconditional love of the Creator to some of the 47,000 “burners” who annually descend upon Black Rock City in the Nevada desert.

Streams Ministries has been sending teams for the past four years but this was my first Burning Man experience. In the dessert I discovered in the most practical of ways that Light always overcomes darkness and Love does indeed cover a multitude of sins.

On Friday afternoon we offered Mother and Father Blessings. The Burners lined up eager to receive. One young woman came to us seeking a spiritual cleaning as well as a father’s blessing. She had been raised Mormon, rejected her parents faith and subsequently her parents had rejected her. While I blessed her, as a father I asked her to forgive me for squeezing her into my mold. Tears filled her eyes then rolled down her cheeks and on to my shoulders. I held her for a long time silently asking The Father to heal her wounds and capture her heart. I’ll never forget her.

Another young man entered our tent also seeking a spiritual cleansing. He wore a large black and white spiked wig, a multicolored vest decorated with buttons and pins and a large bandana like scarf tied around his waist. We chatted for a few minutes to make him feel more comfortable and to hear his heart. When it came time for his spiritual cleansing he abruptly stopped us saying “wait!” With passion and intensity he removed the wig from his head and threw it on the floor - quickly followed by the vest and scarf. He then shook himself from head to toe saying “OK, that’s better, now I feel more real, let’s go.” With his vest removed we could see many self inflicted cutting scars on his chest. As we poured a bottle of spring water over his head we asked the Creator to cleanse him, heal him and set him free. More tears and long hugs followed, again my heart was captured.

I can hardly wait for next year and another opportunity to love on those very people Jesus came and gave his life to rescue.

© Tom Zawacki 2007

Burning Man

For the better part of the past six years my church has been on a prophetic journey. God started it all when He spoke to my heart and told me to invited Larry Randolph, John Paul Jackson and Paul Cain to our church. God initiated and God has sustained.

From the beginning of this journey I wanted our expression of revelatory gifts to have an outward focus and it has. For years now we have been reaching out to our local community via dream interpretation and what we call “life readings”. A life reading is simply a prophetic word. We use non religious jargon and terminology such as "life reading" to more effectively reach the un-churched culture around us.

This week we have multiple teams hosting a booth at our local county fair. By all reports it has been one of our best events ever. Throughout the week I’ve heard great stories of powerful encounters. People are so touched during an encounter that they bring back their children, friends, parents and even grandparents to get their dreams interpreted or lives read. You know you must be doing something right when they bring back the kids and grandma!

Nadine has writted a fine post about this year’s fair outreach. I stole the picture below from her blog. You can read it here.

Well, this year we are kicking it up a notch. We’ve been invited to join a team of 40 people who will hand out 15,000 bottles of water, interpret dreams, offer life readings and much more at an event called BurningMan.

BurningMan the largest pagan festival of the year here in the United States. At this event we get to be light in some very dark darkness. We have the privilege of showing the extravagant love of God to people who desperately needed it.

We leave today for this 10 day adventure. If I can find wi-fi, I’ll post from the playa. Please remember me, my family, my church, our BurningMan team and the burners in your prayers, thanks!

© Tom Zawacki 2007

Art Credit: “Fire Dancer” BurningMan 2006 by Tristan Savatier