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June 28, 2007
Four Years Today
Today Laura and I celebrate four years of marriage together. Unfortunately, she is in Oklahoma, en route to Denver for her brothers wedding, and I am here in Brussels.
As we were reflecting together the last couple of weeks on this year and the last several years of our marriage, we've made several concrete decisions on making sure we are being very deliberate with our planning of time together, on our resting together, and on learning more and more about each other.
We're young still in marriage compared to many, but, we're excited about where we are and who we are becoming.
enjoy life. enjoy your unions. love together...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 05:26 PM | Comments (5)
June 27, 2007
Brussels, Children's Books, and Leadership
Over the next few days my blogging maybe more sporadic. Maybe not, but maybe so.
I am spending the next three days in Brussels with a few other people working in ministry in the European context. Maybe I can share more later...but for now, that'll just serve as a teaser. I'll also be staying on to work with the Serve the City project here next week.
What I will suggest though is a few books that have read that may feel a little like a 'childrens' book plug; however, it really serves as a way for deep lessons in leadership are conveyed quite simply.
Book One: Animal Farm, by George Orwell. A major work on leadership. More than political, it demonstrates the way that we all respond to leaders, to being followers, and to systems which we either like, or dislike. A good, reflective read year after year after year.
Book Two: The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I've just started this one recently. It has amazed me. Very well written. Simple, profound, and deeply reflective. It'll make you ask yourself all sorts of questions about how you see the world, whether you are orthodoxically stuck or open, whether you are known for your words or deeds, and maybe most importantly, where are the weeds growing out of control in your life. I highly suggest it.
Ok, all for now. Hope to check back soon.
peace...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Sign-up for engage today!!!
Just another plug. We're all working hard here on enabling people to engage with the city! Lots of projects are coming together and we are confirming partners and projects with lots of support from the community. As an association, movement and initiative...engage is coming to life!
For instance, we have help from:
Rohan Throssel, golf professional
Theren Bullock, former Head coach for the Geneva devils
Mr. Pickwick Pub, for hosting our closing event (and possibly our kick-off)
Stop the Traffik (international)
Carrefour Rue
Geneva Online, for promotion among their community
....and many many more!
We're all getting excited to see the way the projects are coming together. So if you are in Geneva, sign up here for engage. You can make a difference. You should blossom where you are planted!
peace....engage...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2007
Surely Not?!
Surely it can't be an accurate reflection? Eh?
Then again, truth in all jesting...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:54 AM
June 24, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
A few seriously good conversations from this week. Thoughts for the week to come.
Global South Anglican Blog's interview with Rowan Williams
Greg Boyd's Determinism is Ugly
Peter Rollins 'Is this for Real?'
Fernando Gros' 'Untouchability And Glocalisation'
Guy Kawasaki's 'The Art of Creating a Community'
Andrew Roger's "Reading Scripture in Congregations: Towards and Ordinary Hermanuetics'
Posted by joshuacase at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
Prayer for Simple Way community and those in its 'parish'
Yesterday, a fire consumed several of the buildings of the Simple Way community. You can read about it here.
Many of us first heard about this community via one of its leaders, Shane Claiborne's book 'Irresistable Revolution'. A definate must read.
While as a 'simple' community they do not place a very high value on material possessions, such a diaster must not be taken easily. Even as the blogger wrote, 'this fire will forever change the fabric of our community'. If you are interested in partnering financially with them in rebuilding, you can check out how to do here.
Here is a video of the blaze and photos of those in the area awaking to see what's happening:
prayerfully....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:02 AM
June 20, 2007
Christian Condoms?
Mike Clawson posted about these for me.
What in the heck?
jeez...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:46 PM | Comments (3)
An Uncle
Early this am, I became an uncle (again). This time, it was my brother's wife (Selena) who had the baby.
Get ready, because this is going to happen a few more times this summer! Not to mention the friends who will name me honorary 'uncle'...joshing...
congrats to us!
jc
ps. thanks to james for posting these photos!
Posted by joshuacase at 09:22 PM | Comments (33)
June 19, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas, Time, and Training
Thomas Merton once wrote, "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." I agree. And in many ways i think life is like art. Especially when we are giving our time to the service of others.
This morning at our weekly prayer and training time at YFC Geneva, Lammert led us in a discussion based on Peter Rollins' thoughts on 'Turn the Other Cheek'. Think you've heard it? Read again!
As we read it, made us all think carefully about what it looks like for us not to be the victims, but, to be the oppressors. To be the ones with the upper hand. And the reality is, most of us have...the upper hand.
One group who will not have the upper hand over the next month is a group of young women from Seattle Pacific Univeristywho are here in Geneva helping us to serve young people, and the city. While we are giving them an opportunity to discover the way of faith in Jesus from within the context of Geneva (or how we seek to engage geneva with an generously orthodox faith), they will also get a taste of reformation, theological, and art/culture history. They are doing great so far, but its just day two.
Merton said, "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." Think about. Whether you'd consider it or not, you're life is a work of art. The way you live, gives people the opportunity to find themselves...and lose themselves. You are art. Be art, for them!
enjoy...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
Shema, Hares, and an Angel
What a Sunday it was...
At Shema we discussed and explored the story of Moses and Joshua. Retelling it to each other in community was a rich learning experience. Lammert then led us through an exploration of our own timeline, thinking about our personal stories in the context of: transitions, key lessons, critical incidents, and influential people. It was rich.
We also had someone from Voix Libres come and share with us how they 'train' people (children and women mostly) in Bolivia. Their work is quite amazing, and all of it takes place with local people. As we had been discussing understanding who our 'masters' were and how we were 'apprentices' the woman presenting simply said, 'These kids live in hell. With no birds or flowers or grass to show them there is a God. But there is a spark in the darkest mine. And these kids, they are my masters'. She also described the work of Voix Libres as 'transforming the ugly into the beautiful...the pass it forward multiplication in action'.
Towards the end we watched this video by Alanis Morissette and reflected on the 'promise lands' or 'utopias' or 'nirvanas' we were each (and communally) being called to. Keeping in mind that its 'easier to take a people out of egypt than to take egypt out of a people'.
It was also an interesting day for the people of the Milan airport. Check out this video of them catching what has been described as 'a plague of hares' who were 'mating'. Yep, thats right, these some 80 rabbits were disrupting the landing of planes and the ground radar images. Some were even being, 'caught in the tires of landing jumbo jets'. OUCH.
And finally, Tiger's negative streak continues. He has not won when not in the lead after the third round. This years US open, goes to an Angel. Still, Tiger took second! Well done.
enjoy your day..today..for a day..till tomorrow..
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2007
New hairless (almost) me
in the name of love...
jc
oh yeah...who do i look like now, Andy?
Posted by joshuacase at 04:04 PM | Comments (2)
Seriously good conversations...
Since i was en route last week back to Geneva from Indiana, I missed the opportunity to post my SGCs. So here are a few from this week, with a little carry over from before.
Alan Mann's 'Watered Down G8'.
Between Two Worlds' 'The Ethics of Controversy'.
David Wilcox on 'TrustedPlaces offers lessons on community: it's all about passion, or problems'
Prodigal Kiwi's 'On Earth as it is in Heaven- Practicing Theology'.
Mike Clawson's 'Ethic Clothing' spot. You can also follow his conversation on "Why Aren't Atheists Republicans?' Great title!
Rupert on 'New Earth or Renewed Earth' on Jason Clark's site.
Enjoy...engage...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
Obama and A Prayer for America (Voters & Policies)
If you are not an american, its still worth a watch. And by the way, I believe your voice matters!
As one friend pointed out in a recent discussion, 'the presidental election matters to the world because the election has the capacity to influence lives that have no say in who gets elected'. Oh the beautiful tragedy of global politics and policies.
A Prayer for America, American Voters, and American Policies
Dear God- Let the American people understand the importance of their policies and politicians. Let them come to understand how to vote responsibly in Presidential and local elections. Let all who can vote, act justly in voting even if it means going against long held family convictions about 'party'. Let America once again understand how to bless the world even if it means not being the best, most talented, largest, most economically rich country in the world. May America humbly empower through policies of selflessness and sacrifical acts of globalized empowerment.-Joshua Case, Geneva, Switzerland 2007
peace, grace, and justice for all...
joshua c
Posted by joshuacase at 03:45 PM | Comments (1)
Shema gathering this Sunday
This Sunday, we continue in our series entitled 'Engage'. We'll be highlighting the 'Train'-ing aspect and looking at the lives of Moses and Joshua. You can see more at the Shema site or on Lammert's blog.
Hope to see you there!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:38 AM
June 14, 2007
Team life and Leadership
The last few days I have been away with our team at YFC Geneva on a year-end retreat. It was good, healthy, painful, exciting, and reflective. We were in Ovronnaz. Small, but good.
Everyone in leadership knows the experience of group reflection.
Everyone in leadership understands the critique of work that is different from the evaluation of self.
Everyone in leadership has epiphonal moments of 'wow' i am glad i am learning this now.
Everyone in leadership knows that you are not perfect, and neither are others (but you can never say that out loud).
It was good, and forming. It was good to have team there, but also, it was special to have Laura, Phil, Bethany, and Lammert to process with. As people who will be around the organization for the next few years, It's good to be on the same page together.
Leadership is the ultimate test of self. Agree? Disagree?
peace...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2007
Could you imagine?
This is an amazing story. Makes me wonder if we all were to be alive, but not active in the world for about 19 years what changes might happen around us? What would surprise us? What would be better or worse about the world if we were to be asleep for almost two decades only to wake up?
What are your dreams for two decades from now? What are doing to make them come to fruition? Are you awake or sleeping as the years pass by?
be active...create change for the sleeping, the dreaming, the hurting...the alive!
jc
Pole wakes up from 19-year coma
Mr Grzebski's story
A Polish man has woken up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed, Polish TV reports.
Railway worker Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988.
"Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he told Polish television.
He credits his survival to his wife, Gertruda, who cared for him.
Doctors gave him only two or three years to live after the accident.
A comatose patient is in a profound state of unconsciousness which renders them unaware of both self and the world around them, and from which they cannot be roused.
Although those in a coma do not respond to stimuli in a meaningful way, contrary to popular belief they do not always lie quiet and still - in some cases they can move, open their eyes and even talk.
Fall of communists
"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Mr Grzebski told news channel TVN24 of his recovery.
Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour to prevent bed sores.
"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot," Mrs Grzebski said on Polsat television.
"Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead."
When Mr Grzebski had his accident Poland was still ruled by its last communist leader, Wojciech Jaruzelski.
"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," Mr Grzebski said.
The following year's elections ushered in eastern Europe's first post-communist government.
Poland joined the Nato alliance in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning," said Mr Grzebski.
"I've got nothing to complain about."
Posted by joshuacase at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)
engaGE-geneva.com
Please consider joining us for our week of engagement. Below is the promo video, and here is the link to the website where you can sign-up for the week. Again, join us for engage during the 8-15 of July!
If you are interested in coming to Geneva from abroad for this week, or if you think you'd like to bring a group from your part of the globe, let us know! We'd be happy to help facilitate this, if you are happy to help us engage the city in which we live, work, laugh, and play.
engage...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:30 AM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2007
Fun for funds...
Not sure if I mentioned it before, but on the first night of our fundraising events last week, there was a surprise item added to the auction. The starting bid was for 220...and it kept going. Finally, by the end of the evening, it was the highest autioned off item of the night, and even became the highest bidded item for both nights...what was it and what did it go for?
The photo says it all....1/2 of my beard for a week for 1080 CHF. Thanks to my board for their faithful support in making this happen...ahem, or should i say, for even suggesting it. Thanks to Conny Vrieling for the rough shave, and to Lammert for the detail work. And to all the people who put in 20 or more to make it happen. Oh the joy.
Rumor has it a video will show up at some point...
enjoy....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:58 PM | Comments (4)
Happy Sunday...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 05:34 PM | Comments (1)
June 08, 2007
Micheal Frost on 'Jesus Etiquette'
Here is a video of Micheal Frost. Pretty good examination on Jesus' model of etiquette. It's pretty good.
enjoy...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 03:10 AM | Comments (1)
June 07, 2007
Why I love America...
Today, I witnessed this video during one of the sessions here at SI. It's hilarious, and I believe it typifies problem solving as many would say, 'American-style'.
Wow...enjoy!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:13 AM | Comments (2)
June 06, 2007
Current travelings...
As you may or may not know, I am currently in America attending a yearly summer training in YFC called Summer Institute. Here as both observer and trainer for the interns coming to Geneva, it has been a great experience so far in as much as, I have met some interesting people and been part of some great conversations.
For instance, yesterday I was able to participate in a conversation with several of the people on the City Life and Teen Parents teams. It was a good conversation. They were throwing around terms like 'holistic' and 'expression' and 'development'. It was good as one who has by and large been away from the USA side of the organization for some time to hear these words being used in a similar way that I would use them.
Here is how City Life describes itself:
My time here has been good so far. I am listening, watching, and hoping to see how the organization in America is reacting or responding to the various new inputs of theology, development, and globalization. Indeed, nothing in America can stand alone in itself. All things are connected, and this is a good thing for the world to realize...especially when one thinks they can stand alone... YFC, politics, global warming, G8, and even the practice of our belief in God are necessarily linked. How we inform each other is what relationship is all about. How we listen, paramount.
More later....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 12:59 PM
Brian McLaren on Justice, Power, and the Kingdom
Here is a new video with Brian. Pretty good. Enjoy.
blessings...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:05 AM
June 05, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote:
There is no such thing as a prayer in which 'nothing is done' or 'nothing happens,' although there may well be a prayer in which nothing is perceived or felt or thought. All real interior prayer, no matter how simple it may be, requires the conversion of our whole self to God, and until this has been achieved-either actively by our own efforts or passively by the action of the Holy Spirit-we do not enter into 'contemplation' and we cannot safely relax our efforts to establish contatct with God.
The turing of our whole self to God can not be achieved only by deep and sincere and simple faith, enlivened by a hope which knows that contact with God is possible, and love which desires above all to do his will. For if we can, by God's grace, turn ourselves entirely to Him, and put aside everything else in order to speak with Him and worship Him, this does not mean that we can always imagine Him or feel His presence. Neither imagination nor feeling are required for a full conversion of our whole being to God.
The 'eye' which opens to His presence is in the very center of our humility, in the very heart of our freedom, in the very depths of our spiritual nature. Meditation is the opening of this eye.
meditate...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:38 AM
June 04, 2007
G8 summit: more than just riots and anarchy!?
I've been following the various stories about the rioting at the gathering of the G8. As experienced in Geneva a couple of years back, these gatherings always bring collateral damage to the cities where they are hosted. But why? Why is it so violent? Why are the protestors so passionate? Is this the way? Will the protestors accomplish what they are looking for?
In surfing around youtube, I found this very interesting video. It reminds me very much of V for Vendetta. Very interesting and...well...in some ways, inspiring?
What do you think?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:52 AM | Comments (2)
June 03, 2007
One more 'Seriously Good' i forgot...
There is one more conversation that I forgot to highlight that is happening at Open Source Theology. It's on "Belief in traditional Christianity'.
I wanted to highlight it, because I realized not only had i missed it, but what Andrew Perriman and others are doing over there is a great thing. And while i may not say it is the only demonstration of wikinomic's principles in Christendom, I do think that there is some definately unique open source exchange happening!
Let me also once again use this to plug Danutz blog, and Andrew Perriman's ground breaking work 'The Coming of the Son of Man'. Very excited to see the next book which is coming!
participate...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)
Seriously good conversations...
Here are a couple of conversations that made me laugh or, that i enjoyed following this week. They are not all funny, just like me;) I did need a little bit of lighter stuff this week as we had two major fundraising events on Friday and Saturday. They were good, but there was quite a bit of busyness going into them.
Enjoy and reflect:
The Tall Skinny on 'Offensive language: I Think My Mother Taught Me'
Josh Brown's honest reflection at 'I'm Back'
Thinking Outside the Bunn's 'memorial tournament's fashion critic'. All I can say is LUCKY!!!!!
SmuloSpace's "Questioning the logic of not drinking'.
And last but certainly not least: PrezVid's 'More mouths, more babes'. Wisdom of youth?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)
June 02, 2007
Rating Churches?
Helen has posted a blog at jasonclark's site about a new system for rating churches around the world. Put together by Jim Henderson and Off the Map, the system allows people from inside or outside the church to rate them. It's called 'Church Rater'.
Helen asks some good questions on the blog. Part of me says 'watch out' because i have the feeling it could become one of those pastoral competitions. You know, where on sunday you might hear: "so get online vote and lets make sure the world knows we are a great community for Jesus".
Alternatively, i see the value if votes for non-christians count more. You know, if they have particpated in a church and had a bad experience, their 'i felt completely judged and unaccepted' ought to count for more than a person from within the church who says, 'the church meets all my needs'.
Maybe it's wrong? Maybe it's just another way of measuring things that don't need to be measured? Your thoughts? Here, or there...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
Shema Community's EngaGE
This Sunday at Shema, we are looking at our passion to 'Inspire'. We'll be looking at the story of Daniel, taking a 'inspired walk' around the city, and thinking about how we can inspire people with an ancient way of life in Christ.
We're definately looking forward to it. It's been good to process it together as a team the last week.
Watch for more here.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)