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August 17th served as a reminder in many ways at once that we are made in the image of the creator. We hosted a creative arts showcase which provided under one roof on one afternoon a place for 3 broad colorful areas of expression–writing, stage performance, and visual art. This was The Refuge’s 2nd annual Word in Art event filled with music, images, dance, drama, poetry, and people.

What place do the arts have in a community based around faith?
What is the connection?

I believe events like the artists showcase, arts workshops, and artistic expression during gathered times of worship and community life are integral to our development as God’s people. Art is a way of telling the human story, seeking revelation and inviting response and participation. As much as art is connection with our story, it is also a vehicle of transformation. It can bring greater understanding, clarity, openness, and even a call to action. Artistic mediums affect us in powerful ways that go beyond our intellects and touch our souls and spirits. I believe this is God’s way. This is how we are made to receive glimpses of truth on many levels as whole people.

In Exodus 35 God directed the craftsmen in every detail to make the tabernacle skillfully worked and strikingly beautiful. Even the vestments of the priest were exquisite. Despite the intense beauty that would reflect the very essence of God, there must have been other intended results such as instruction and invitation, reflection and transformation.

Each of us is touched in our own particular way. One person may strongly respond to music, one may be awed by depiction of the magnificence of nature, one may have epiphanies from illuminated writing, one may find visual imagery most powerful, and another is moved as they watch a dancer portray hope in the midst of suffering. Perhaps God comes closer and clearer to us in these languages of the soul. Art is a reminder of a greater realities. And we need reminders.

photo gallery from Word in Art coming soon.

On the campus of my small non-denominational Christian college were two paths. They formed a circle between the residential and academic sides of campus. Attending the college were about 1,000 students, mostly out-of-state kids excited to ski for Jesus. There was a custom that was quickly learned by each student: correct path etiquette. Although there were 2 paths one was bigger and well-traveled while the other one stunk like goose poop. If you wanted to see and be seen, you took the bigger path. If you wanted to hide - you breathed in fumes of digested goose food.

While on the main path when encountering another student you looked up to catch the eye of the oncoming student and you smiled a nice, healthy smile (teeth please) and you said, “Hi, how are you?”. All of this happened without stopping motion and the encounter was therefore brief.

2 Things You Did Not Want To Do:

1. Don’t look up too soon - timing was important because if you caught the student’s eyes too early then you would be stuck looking up and down and smiling until the appropriate time to talk and this was…awkward.

2. Do not forget to say your line, “Hi. How are you?” Always. One line. Easy to memorize but like all acting challenges difficult to say with truth.

When I first had this path encounter I thought it was great. It made everyone seem so friendly. It made everyone connect. But, slowly my anticipation of these encounters wore thin. I began to see that although a very important question was asked no one stuck around to get an answer. Everyone now seemed a fraud. No one really wanted to be my friend, no matter how many times we passed each other on the path, nothing was really happening. No connecting.

Fast forward to my first year out of college. I’m jaded and cynical and have a really bad attitude about Christian education and my first job post-graduation was as a receptionist. A church receptionist. For a really big church. With lots of money and lots of people. And my attitude worsened. The same thing was happening here , and with adults who should have known better! I couldn’t believe that adults with degrees in people and God were asking me “how are you?” and walking away before I answered. I began to try and answer honesty, but with efficiency, sharing things like, “I’m tired” or “I have to go to the bathroom” and I also began to try and just say, “Hi” and it was difficult. I didn’t realize how linked the greeting and the question were.

They are still linked. People still ask without the time or desire to hear a real answer. And often…people don’t even answer honestly…even if there is time…

I’m still tired of this path experience. For too long I’ve wanted to be known and so have chosen to walk the big path only to be smiled at without truth and listened to without ears. For too long I’ve wanted to hide and have breathed in lies about my ability to walk with others in the sunshine and clean air.

There is no easy solution. No “steps” to take but the step…a step…I’m talking about an actual physical step. A step forward to stand next to another person. The step that takes you out of the house toward the car toward your community of friends and faith. The step that takes you out of your seat next to your close friend and across the room towards the face you’ve never seen before (or have seen a million times). The step that brings you to the front of the room where you can tell your part of our story that will connect us all more deeply.

Community. I’m discovering that this word is so much more than a walk around a path with pre-scripted lines and eye contact. I think it’s about improvising. A quick nervous hug here, an intimate soul baring conversation there, In a coffee shop, a bathroom, after a movie night, in a car singing “Old MacDonald had a………” and sticking around to hear just what that old farmer was keeping around his barn. Hopefully it’s not goose poop.

as you all know by now, i have a lot of issues with “church.” i love love love people gathered together in all kinds of ways to learn and practice loving God, our neighbors, ourselves. it’s the programs, the inauthenticity, the power b.s., the unnaturalness of it all that i can do without. i believe wholeheartedly, in every fabric of my being, that without community and deep connection with other people (whatever that may look like) we will never be able to live out the ways of Jesus and experience the fullness of relationship with God. i am fairly convinced typical church systems that feed inspiration addiction provide a false sense of spiritual maturity where learning “about” certain things becomes enough and we are never forced to actually be in meaningful intimate connection with the people we sit next to week after week. lives need to be rubbed up against other lives. that’s where the real action happens and we learn what it means to really love & be loved.

at the refuge, we are not trying to be anti-institutional for the sake of being anti-institutional. it’s just that we are dreamers. we dream that the body of Christ would look much more like a family than a business or a production. after spending last weekend at the 3rd annual refuge camping trip at jackson lake i walked away with this thought: church should probably be a lot more like camping! really, it has all of the elements that i love & value about “church” the way i dreamed it could be:

• all the cover-ups are stripped away - camping is a great equalizer. a tent’s a tent. no one cares about what you wear or what you look like. every person trying to pull themselves up on a tube in the middle of the lake looks awkward, no matter how much money they make or what job they have. in a good way, camping (especially when there’s water because that means bathing suits!) exposes us in a safe container because everyone else is equally exposed, too.

• everyone shares - that is one of my favorite things, when we are camping there’s an incredible sharing of “stuff” with each other. we had 14 sites all to ourselves and there was zigzagging all over the place… ”need an extra tent? want some eggs? i’ve got some bacon! come over to our place and we’ll cook up the food.” needs get met. openhandedness abounds.

• conversations flow - fire, time and space creates a container for relaxed & meaningful conversation. no one’s rushed, hurried, has an agenda, or always has the floor.

• playing & more playing - little kids playing with big kids, big kids making new friends, games around the picnic table, balls getting tossed, splashing in the water, silly songs around the campfire, people trying things they don’t normally try, laughter everywhere. that’s worship.

• the little ones are a part - kids & grownups together is really important to me. we’re supposed to know each other’s kids & look after them & help them & love them instead of keeping them safely put away while we “do our thing”. when we’re camping, we’re all together, eyes and hearts and hands all over the place making sure everyone’s known & taken care of.

• relaxed instead of rushed - hurriedness is what messes with community. rushing in, rushing out, going from one thing to the next and never being able to be present in the moment. the stress of time and responsibilities and pressures really rob us of peace & connection. when we’re camping, we’re chill. we’re present. we’re unwound instead of wound up. we’re glad to be here instead of thinking where else we have to go next.

i could go on and on about all the cool parallels and i am sure i missed some other big ones, but you get the point. yeah, to me, camping really is “church” at its finest.
here’s a photo collage from our time together:

roy soto of via del red camino, a network of communities in latin america, wrote these. we thought they were so appropriate for the refuge commmunity. may these kingdom principles be part of the fabric of our community.

1. blessed are those that share what they have, for they will be a community of life.

2. blessed are those that are able to enjoy the fruit of their labor, for they will be a community of honesty.

3. blessed are those that stand together for equality, for they will be a community of justice.

4. blessed are those that release their grip on their possessions, for they will be a community of freedom.

5. blessed are those that feel the pain of others as their own, for they will be a community of mercy.

6. blessed are those that teach their children kingdom values, for they will be a community of hope.

7. blessed are they that show love instead of the law, for they will be a community of grace

we love the geography of grace blog that sam trujillo edits. it is really worth checking out. there are two recent posts that we’d love for you to read.

the first is about NAN (never be fake, always feel pain & never turn down healing), the mom’s group that tiera trujillo facilitates at joshua station. check it out here. a few refuge folks are helping babysit the kids the first saturday of every month while the moms are participating in NAN. if you want to be part of this team, email tiera.

the other story is a recent post by bob ekblad, who is part of tierra nueva, an ecumenical ministry that seeks to share the good news of God’s liberation in Jesus Christ with migrant farmworkers, new immigrants, and permanent hispanic residents in western washington. he the author of reading the bible with the damned and a new christian manifesto: pledging allegiance to the kingdom of God. we loved what he shared about believing in people like jesus did.

here’s just a taste:

The story of Jesus’ healing of the paralytic in Bethesda never fails to bring healing and hope in Skagit County Jail and other places we at Tierra Nueva minister. Jesus heals a man who for many reasons cannot succeed. This inspires me as I feel drawn to people who the world has given up on. Jesus heals him by knowing him, respecting him, believing in him and calling him to do something humanly impossible: to stand up and step out of his debilitating circumstances into a new life. Jesus is on his way to a religious feast in Jerusalem—kind of like the priest and the Levite of the Good Samaritan story. Jesus stops at a pool by the sheep gate, where “lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters” (John 5:3).

“What would be the equivalent of the pool today?” I ask a group of inmates. The first man mentions hospitals. Others say “bars,” “drug houses” and “right here in this jail.” They talk about being sick and paralyzed by addictions, negative emotions, charges, imprisonment, debt and fines. The inmates have no difficulty envisioning themselves there among the multitude of those desperate for a breakthrough.

read the rest of the post here.