a well respected carpenter is invited by the king of the land to come to his home to have a feast with the king. upon receiving the invitation this carpenter sets off on his pilgrimage to the house of the king. along the path, he is tired and needs rest, but he has no place to rest. the carpenter, being very skilled, breaks out his tools and builds himself a shelter. the carpenter begins to live in this shelter, soon after, forgetting of the invitation to feast with the king. one day, a man shows up at the carpenters house, he tells him he is the unbuilder and that he still has an invitation to the feast with the king, but he must continue his pilgrimage... as the story goes the carpenter continues the pilgrimage and sets up house a time or two. the unbuilder remains with the carpenter, not pressure, but to remind him of his pilgrimage. from the book "the carpenter and the unbuilder"
my last post just highlighting the "youth ministry and spirituality project" has gotten me much razzing by my contemporaries that i feel the need to give a full posting attention to it. i have actually been aware of the ymsp, in that i have read a number of mark yac's articles expressing contemplative practices within the church context. i never actually read them to be a part of youth ministry, but i liked them non-the-less. with them in church context, and we know how easily a youth minister changes the vision of the church, i never went further into what mark was doing than reading his articles.
still, these articles were not what started me down this path of contemplative ministry. it was more seeking something deeper in my spiritual life i found the contemplative life housed in the monastic traditions to nurture my soul. up until this point i was caught up in a model of ministry that i was modeled for so long that was theologically incorrect and harmful to the soul. i beat myself up in so many ways in the name of ministry. luckily, with time apart, i found the monastic spirituality and wisdom to bring me back.
in this new finding came "insearchof" mine and jonathon's contemplative worship ministry (but no one knows it by this name, just by 'its jonathon and gavin'). we talked, retreated, led retreats, organized worship services, read and read.. all to take in this longing for a spiritual life that i had beat up for so long. after awhile we (jonathon and myself) found alt. worship and small fire and were like, holy crap! these folks have been doing what we've been doing. and now, i find again the ymsp saying.. how cool! these folks are doing the same thing i am doing.
so what if i am a couple of years behind yall (and you know who you are).. i knew about ymsp, i just had to do some serious unbuilding before i could continue the pilgrimage.
