The Invitation and Some Thoughts on How to Fast

This past Saturday I invited everyone in Blacksoil to join in a corporate fast together during the season of Lent. There were two parts to this invitation:

1. Pray for God to reveal something particular to your own growth that you should “fast” from this Lent (e.g. electronics, Facebook, alcohol, bitterness, TV, etc.)

2. Fast from food for 24 hours each Wednesday during Lent. (Stop eating after dinner on Tuesday, break your fast at dinner on Wednesday).

My sermon (audio here) covered a theology of fasting–why we fast, what fasting means, the effects of fasting–but some folks approached me afterward with questions about the specifics of it. So I’ll try to flesh some of that out here.

Kinds of fasts

Total fast. The most basic kind of fast is simply going without food of any kind. If you are able, this is the kind of fast I’m encouraging for Wednesdays. Not everyone is physically able to participate in a total fast (nursing mothers, diabetics, people who have struggled with an eating disorder, etc.), but I would challenge those who are physically able not to let others hurdles be an excuse. For example, the fact that you are really busy on Wednesdays or that fasting makes you cranky and irritable. These are reason to fast, not reasons to not fast.

Juice fast. Fasting from solid food and drinking juice allows those who need caloric intake to still feel hungry, but get the nutrients they need. I recommend juices with low glycemic index to avoid blood sugar spikes. Apple juice mixed with vegetable juice is a good option. You can even add a little protein powder if you need to. Avoid downing a big glass of juice every time you feel hungry, as this kind of defeats the purpose of the fast, and you can actually consume more calories than you usually do if you drink too much juice.

Daniel fast. The prophet Daniel fasts from “fine foods and wine” and eats only vegetables and drinks only water. This is essentially eating vegan with the additional restrictions of no sweets and no alcohol.  A stricture version of this fast is to eat only bread and water.

If your health precludes all of these fasts, you can still fast from food by giving up sugar or pop or your favorite comfort food. If you are interested in some kind of modified fast from food, Nikki McCabe and Renee Goble would love to discuss that with you.

Preparing for/Breaking a Fast

A 24 hour fast probably won’t require a special meal before or after, but if you are going to fast for longer, it is a good idea to eat a light, vegetarian meal before and after. Loading up before a fast will only make the transition that much rougher, and fatty or heavy foods after a fast might make you sick.

What to Do on a Fast

In Acts 13, they are worshiping and praying and fasting. The point of fasting is not self-denial for its own sake, but to grow closer to God and our brothers and sisters. The time that you don’t spend preparing and eating food should be spent in prayer and worship. Their are two ways to do this: One is to take what would’ve been your meals times and spend them in prayer. (I recommend this option if you don’t normally eat on a regular schedule or “forget” to eat). The other is to be mindful throughout the day that each time you feel hungry or think about food, you will turn your thoughts to prayer/worship/those in need. (Of course you can do both).

If you’re looking for specific guidance on how to spend those times, I would suggest studying the book of Acts or meditating on the verses in Acts that have most struck a chord with you, and praying for Blacksoil’s mission and your role in it.

How do I avoid others finding out that I’m fasting? Jesus’ command to fast in secret means to avoid hypocrisy or prideful piety in front of others. This is a heart issue. As long as you are not operating out of pride or seeking spiritual brownie points, it’s OK to talk about your fast with others, share how God is working through your fast, or to sit through a meal with family who aren’t fasting.

What does it mean that this is a “corporate fast”? It means the fast is sponsored by McDonald’s. Just kidding. It means that over the course of Lent, we expect God to work in and through all of us, and we hope that he will speak to individuals in such a way as to guide us as a community. In Acts 13, the Holy Spirit, told the church of Antioch to send off Paul and Barnabas. We will be providing opportunities throughout Lent for people to share testimonies during worship and keeping our ears open for what God might be saying to us as a church.

Acts 11 & 13: Fasting Toward the Kingdom

In this week’s message we look at the continuing story of the kingdom of God in Acts, how fasting fits into that story, and what fasting means for us today. You can listen or download here.

Acts 16: How to Be Missional Without Being Obnoxious, Timid, Tricky, or Mute

I guess it’s a two-fer Tuesday. You can listen or download here.

Acts 10: The Kingdom Crosses Borders When We Cross Borders

You can listen or download here.

New Floor is Poured!

The new “sanctuary” floor is in and will be usable in about 24 hours!

I have created a new blog exclusively for the Renovation Collective, so that Renovators and those of us who are obsessed with firehouse progress updates can stay informed without bugging the rest of Blacksoil. I’ll post other information and “minutes” from the business parts of our meetings there as well, so it will be a way for Renovators to stay informed. You can access it at: renovationcollective.wordpress.com.

Renovators Rocked It Out!

If you weren’t at Saturday night’s Potluck Worship service, you probably haven’t seen the completely painted main room at the firehouse. At their first work day, members of the Renovation Collective got a ton of work done in the big room, the bathrooms, and the kid’s room–painting or re-painting about 90% of the interior surfaces in the building.

Nicely done, Renovators. Thanks for your hard work. I know it made for a long weekend for many of you.

Next stop: a new floor!

Closing a Lansing High School is a Really, Really Bad Idea

If you have seen yesterday’s LSJ or been listening to NPR, you know that the Lansing School Board is seriously considering closing either Eastern or Sexton at the end of this school year. The district has been closing elementary schools for years, and now, in a attempt to make a bigger dent in the budget, they want to get rid of a bigger, older building.

First, I have to say that what follows is largely just my personal opinions and only connected to “matters of faith” to the extent that Blacksoil Church is called to love this city and to seek its prosperity, and I think closing a high school will not do anything to help the city flourish. As tempting as it was to title this post “Which High School Would Jesus Close?,”  I am not speaking “prophetically” here. Although this is a justice issue inasmuch as it impacts access to education for poor and working-class students, I think that most of the parties involved genuinely want what’s best for those students. I’m not writing this to condemn the school board members or Superintendent Wallace. I have sat through six-hour board meetings with school closings on the agenda, and I do not envy any of them. And what follows does not represent the only “Christian” way to think about school closings in Lansing.

Second, by way of transparency, I have to confess that I am an Eastern alum and I had a great experience there. I have Quaker blood in my veins, so I can’t claim to be unbiased. But I am concerned about the city as a whole.

Here are a couple reasons closing Eastern is a bad idea for the district and the city:

1) Of the three Lansing high schools, it is the most desirable. Eastern has 231 schools-of-choice students. 209 of them are students who live in the attendance areas of the other two high schools. 156 of them are from Sexton’s area. Sexton, by contrast, has only 61% of the students who live in its attendance area choosing to go there.

2) Of the three Lansing high schools, Eastern has the most robust school culture. Historically it has had the least problems with violence, the most involved parent population, and the strongest alumni association. It is also the most diverse school both in terms of its ethnic mix and the cultures and languages represented there by refugee families and other first-generation immigrants.

3) Eastern houses the district’s prestigious IB program, one of our success stories, and a program that initial reports seem to indicate could not be transfered to another school without a long and costly process likely to bleed the program of students and perhaps even cause its demise.

4) Data seems to indicate that closing Eastern would actually COST the district money–even in the short term. If we assume that the district would lose the 231 school-of-choicers at Eastern, plus another 15% of the students there (a conservative estimate given the historical data from our elementary school closings), the district will lose a minimum of $2.5 million in funding in year one. The savings from closing the Eastern building: only $1.2 million.

I don’t say any of this to pit the high schools against each other. I don’t think Lansing should close ANY high school. I just think closing Eastern is the worst possible idea we’ve come up with. Closing any high school is going to create a downward spiral. Some students who prefer that school will leave the district, the remaining schools will be short those students and their funding, and be that much less attractive to the remaining potential students.

Clearly the city demographics and the way that families think about educating their children have changed a lot since the 30′s, 40′s, 50′s and 60′s when the infrastructure of the district was designed and built. So something has to be done to “right-size” the district. We simply do not have as many students in the city as we once did, and the plethora of educational options available to students means that even if we did, not nearly as many would choose the Lansing public schools. Something’s gotta give.

But is consolidating and closing the right approach? It seems to me that the fewer schools a district has, and the further those schools are from students’ homes, the less likely the students are to choose the schools in that district. If I have to drive my kid 15 minutes across Lansing to get them to the closest school (or the closest good school), why wouldn’t I just drive 20 minutes and take them to East Lansing or a suburban school of choice or a charter school? (I mean, I can answer that question, but you get the point.)

Maybe what Lansing needs is more schools, not less. If our buildings are no longer filled to capacity, maybe we need to think of creative ways to capitalize on their unused space. Maybe we partition off half of Eastern’s building and rent it Sparrow. Maybe the elementary schools could partner with non-profits, churches, and community agencies to share facilities (and the cost of their upkeep). Or maybe we sell off the building but keep the school running in portables or rented space or cheap modular buildings.

Maybe we should start blurring the lines between charter, public, private and home schools (that seem to create so much division and finger-pointing in our education debates) with some creative partnerships and resource-sharing. I’m sure there are homeschool associations who would pay for lab time or gym time–or maybe even teacher time. What’s to keep a charter school and public school from meeting in the same building?

I don’t know which of these ideas is realistic and which isn’t. But I do know that we need a paradigm-shift in the way we think about funding, buildings, and efficiency in the LSD, because this close-and-consolidate strategy is going to run us into the ground.

What is Jubilee House? Part 2

As promised, here is a continuation of the Jubilee House series from an actual member of the house, Nikki McCabe:

The mission of the Jubilee Community is to be an intentional, proximal Christian community so that we may better follow Jesus through accountability and environment, and to help meet the needs of the surrounding neighborhood. We are a ministry of Blacksoil, and all members of our community must be active participants of Blacksoil. We have our own leadership, but are ultimately subordinate to the leadership of the pastor and the Vision Team (elders) of the church.

In an attempt to overcome our inherent failures, we have implemented a structure of rhythms that work to unite us as a family and propel us forward toward Kingdom-building. These rhythms fall within the categories of living together, praying together, working together, eating together, and serving together.

Jubilee community members desire to be affected by the greater community and to learn from our neighbors—especially from those traditionally thought to have little to offer. We also hope to positively impact our neighborhood through service, prayer, and presence. We want to break down barriers that arise through a false sense of autonomy and division. One essential way we do this is the practice of intentional poverty/simplicity (not to be confused with destitution). That means we reinvest any surplus we have by giving to those in need. This is in keeping with the spirit of biblical jubilee, Jesus’ teaching in Luke 3:11, and what the church has traditionally called the works of mercy.

We are committed to radical nonviolence that values every human as the image of God (Genesis 1:27), sees Christ in the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40), and takes seriously Jesus’ command to love our enemies and not seek power over them (Luke 6:27-36).  So we try to call out violence where we see it in our own relationships and in the workings of our world, and seek to submit it to the power of Love.

We strive to embodied all these values through hospitality. That means we show grace to one another and extend our table and home to others with the attitude of Bishop Myriel, who said “This is not my house; it is the house of Jesus Christ.”

Living in community is often idealized, but in reality it involves a painful, perpetual striving towards something that will never be perfectly realized. We want to live with intentionality, mindfulness, presence, and simplicity, but too often allow our impatience and impertinence get the better of us. We want to practice peacemaking, hospitality, service, and community-building, but often fail to recognize Christ in others. In sum, we’re just a group of folks who find living together challenging, who have been on a journey of discovery and growth, and who believe that taking this journey together will be ultimately more valuable than going it alone.

We host occasional events at Jubilee House to engage our Bingham neighbors alongside Blacksoil members. This Saturday (January 28) we will be having a [Fire]house show, where Thom McAlvey (Blacksoil member) and Travis Williams (neighbor) will each be playing some songs. Please join us!

New Small Groups

The Renovation Collective has spawned three new small groups. These groups have been formed under the umbrella of Renovation with an eye toward some aspect of its mission, but they are open to non-Renovators as well, so information about them is listed below.

Violence of Love (Joshua Barton)–The group will read and discuss Oscar Romero’s The Violence of Love, a book which has been formative for a number of us and embodies some of our core theological convictions. More on him here. The first meeting will be Thursday 1/26 at the Thom McAlvey’s and will meet on the off weeks thereafter. This group will be having snacks and tea (not dinner). In keeping with the RECONNECT aspect of the Collective’s mission, this group has resolved to each invite someone who might be interested in reading/discussing the book.

Dirty Hands (Dan Goble)–Focussing on the REBUILD aspect of the mission, this group is for people ready and gifted to do the actual physical work on the building. It will have a spiritual component, but spend the majority of its time actually swinging hammers. The first meeting will be Sunday 1/22 at 11am at the firehouse. Thereafter this group will be at the monthly Collective workdays (usually Saturday ams) and at one other time each month (usually a Sunday am) to either prepare for the workdays or follow up on work that did not get completed at them.

Leadership/Discipleship (Jeremy Dowsett)–For those who want to develop the character and skill needed to disciple others or lead future collectives or small groups. We will focus on growing in our own relationships with God (RENEW), how we can help others grow (RECONNECT), and some of the practical skills that come in handy in leadership roles. Our first meeting will be Tuesday 1/31 from 7-9pm at 1010 Morgan St. We will start with a potluck meal. We will be meeting on the off weeks thereafter.

There is some interest in starting a healing prayer group, but apparently not enough to launch a group at this time. These would be gender-specific groups that learn about and pray for emotional and spiritual healing in each others lives. If this interests you, let us know. Any questions can be directed to Jeremy @ 507.9698 or the respective group leader.

What is Jubilee House?

If you’ve been to worship at Blacksoil, or even walked by our firehouse, you’ve probably noticed that there are people upstairs, and you may have wondered, “Who are those people?”

“Those people” are Jubilee House, the realization of one aspect of the vision God gave us that led to the purchase of the firehouse: an intentional community of Blacksoilers rooted in a neighborhood.

I won’t try to say too much about what JH is, since I want to let them speak for themselves–and in the coming weeks, we will have a post or two from the Jubes themselves (oh yes, I did)–but let me give just give a few handles for the uninitiated.

Members of Jubilee House commit to practicing certain “rhythms of life” together. They pray together, eat meals together, and open up the house to guests on a regular schedule.

The JH community is an expression of our value of Incarnation. House members take a “vow of stability,” a commitment to stay rooted in that place and those relationships for at least three years.

Jubilee House draws inspiration from intentional and monastic communities both old and new (Catholic Worker, Rutba House, Benedictines, Simple Way), but have worked hard to discern the way this particular group of people is called to live in this particular context.

Right now, the JH community is contained in within the firehouse, but the long-term vision is that the community would spill out into the neighborhood and include families with children and people in diverse life stages.

Look forward to a post from them soon. In the meantime, be aware that the house/community currently has an open spot. So if you know of someone interested in laying down roots and living in community, please let us know.