“On November 16/29, 1979 they burst into the monastery and with a hatchet butchered Archimandrite Philoumenos in the form of a cross. With one vertical stroke they clove his face, with another horizontal stroke they cut his cheeks as far as his ears. His eyes were plucked out. The fingers of his right hand were cut into pieces and its thumb was hacked off. These were the fingers with which he made the sign of the Cross.”

The holy martyr of the 20th century, Philoumenos the Cypriot, came from the village of Orounta of the province of Morphou. From a young age he along with his brother Elpidios were apprenticed in the sacred letters of Christ by their grandmother. They mainly studied the lives of the Saints and hymns of the Church. The Saint at the time, along with his brother, left for the Monastery of Stavrovouni and stayed there for five years. Afterwards, they both left for Jerusalem. Saint Philoumenos stayed in Jerusalem for 46 years. The Saint found a martyric death by fanatic Zionist Jews who massacred him in the evening while he was doing vespers at the Well of Jacob where he lived, a loyal guardian of the Holy Places and traditions of centuries.

The Church of Cyprus and especially the Holy Metropolis of Morphou today celebrate the memory of the martyr Saint Philoumenos the New, the Cypriot. The neomartyr was born in 1913 and was a child of George and Magdalene Hasapi or Ourountioti , and the twin brother of Archimandrite Elpidios. Even though his parents come from the village of Orounta of the metropolitan area of Morphou, they lived at the parish of St. Savvas in Nicosia, since his father had his own inn and bakery there. Together with his brother Elpidios, they showed a particular enthusiasm for prayer and read the lives of the Saints, particularly they where touched by the life of Saint John the Kalyvitis, who in some way made an impact on them, to the point of desiring to follow the life of monasticism. Also, apart from their mother, their grandmother Loxantra, had in particular influenced them in learning the ways of the Church and in developing a truly Orthodox conscience. At the age of 14 , the two brothers left for the Monastery of Stavrovouni and then left for Jerusalem, where they attended High School there. After they finished High School in 1939, Elpidios served as a priest in different places and died on 29 November 1983. Philoumenos remained in Jerusalem and in 1979 was appointed as caretaker of the Monastery of Saint Jacob’s Well. While living there, on November 29, 1979, during the time when the Saint was doing vespers, he was murdered by Zionist Jews with an ax.

The week before, a group of fanatical Zionists came to the Monastery of Jacob’s Well, claiming it as a Jewish holy place and demanding that all crosses and icons be removed. Of course, the Saint pointed out that the floor upon which they were standing had been built by Emperor Constantine before 331 A.D. and had served as an Orthodox Christian holy place for sixteen centuries before the Israeli State was created, and had been in Samaritan hands eight centuries before that. (The rest of the original church had been destroyed by the invasion of the Shah Khosran Parvis in the seventh century, at which time the Jews had massacred all the Christians of Jerusalem.) The group left with threats, insults and obscenities of the kind which local Christians suffer regularly. After a few days, on November 29, during a torrential downpour, a group broke into the monastery; the saint had already put on his epitrachelion for Vespers. The piecemeal chopping of the three fingers with which he made the Sign of the Cross showed that he was tortured in an attempt to make him deny his Orthodox Christian Faith. His face was cloven in the form of the Cross. The church and holy things were all defiled.

The body of the Saint was handed over to the Orthodox six days after his massacre, but retained its flexibility and was buried in the cemetery of Mount Zion. After four years, as is customary, his body was exhumed. It was found to be substantially incorrupt and had the smell of a beautiful fragrance. Then, the tomb was closed and was reopened during the Christmas of 1984, when the body was found to be partially incorrupt and was placed in a glass shrine in the northern part of the sacred Holy Altar in Mount Zion.

Hieromartyr Philoumenos was ranked among the Saints of the Church of Jerusalem on 30 August 2008, and hence then, his incorrupt body was transferred at the pilgrimage site of Saint Jacob’s Well where he found martyrdom for the love of Christ. His memory is honored annually on November 29, especially in the community of Orounta with an all night long church service.

Read more

Orthodox America: personal reflections

Orthodox Wikipedia: St. Philoumenos

Apolytikion in Tone One
The offspring of Orountas, and from the root of Cyprus, and new Hieromartyr of the divine Well of Jacob, O faithful let us honor Philoumenos as a defender of our faith, and as an eternal soldier of Christ’s truth, we fervently cry out: glory to Christ Who glorified you, glory to Him Who kept you incorrupt, glory to Him who revealed you as our benefactor towards heaven.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
Vanquisher of demons, dispeller of the powers of darkness, by thy meekness thou hast inherited the earth and reignest in the Heavens; intercede, therefore, with our Merciful God, that our souls may be saved.

source: Noctoc Blog

• Jesus timed his arrival there to meet a certain Samaritan woman of ill-repute.

A Jewish prayer goes like this: “I thank you that I was not born a Gentile, a slave or woman.” Rabbis (Jesus was one) were forbidden to speak to any woman in public, even their own mothers or sisters (Jesus came to break off all shackles that bound people and he was often found in mixed company).

Samaritan women were regarded as ritually unclean from birth. To top it all, the Samaritan woman in question was immoral – she had been through five husbands, and currently had a live-in boyfriend!

She was also an outcast. In a small town like Sychar, she would be viewed as a threat to the other married women, so she was probably ostracized by them. For one thing, there was a well in Sychar, but she was coming almost a mile to this well. Furthermore, most women drew water in the evening or morning when it was cool, and made it a social occasion. But John 4 vs 6 says she came to the well at noon, in the heat of the day–probably because she was ostracized by the other women of the community.

Related posts

Reaching out to Christians -http://travancoreann.blogspot.com/2009/11/reaching-out-to-christians.html

 Samaritan flaskback -http://travancoreann.blogspot.com/2009/11/samaritan-flashback.html

• Jesus took the unpopular route to Samaria, John 4.3

The rabbis taught it was ritually defiling to touch a Samaritan or any utensil handled by a Samaritan. Since Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea , pious Jews normally walked the 20+ extra miles around Samaria rather than go through it.

We too must be willing to walk paths that are not often trod to reach out. Thru his Good Samaritan’s parable Jesus urges every disciple of his to reach out to nominal Christians with love and concern.

http://travancoreann.blogspot.com/2009/11/reaching-out-to-christians.html use this link to go to the original master post – - Reaching Out to Christians. this and some other following posts are small postcripts. read more

A closer inspection of Biblical New Testament text would readily reveal the Gentile arguments, offered to Jewish people, as lies not based upon Biblical facts.  A closer inspection of the New Testament would also reveal that the original Apostles, hand picked by Jesus, depended solely upon the Old Testament for their teachings: which ultimately became known as the New Testament.  Simply because the New Testament did not exist when Jesus was alive and teaching.

Therefore, the New Testament did not exist and at best, it is a history of Jesus’ attempt to reform the perverted Judaism of His time; but because the New Testament is founded and rooted in Old Testament teachings, it rears itself as a vanguard to the testimony of the Old Testament of Judaism.

In fact, the New Testament does more to promote the truths of Judaism, and the teachings of Moses, than the writings of the Old Testament itself.  Therefore, the New Testament demands the church that Jesus gave to the world was pure Judaism; and not the Gentile Church that came into existence a mere thousand years ago under the control of Rome, which is known as Christianity today; which teaches the Gentiles to either tolerate or hate Jews!

In fact, this excerpt (from Acts Chapter 7, verses 37 and 38) in the New Testament teaches, the exodus of the twelve Tribes of Israel by Moses from Egypt, were called Jesus’ church in the wilderness of Sinai.

The New Testament also tells us (in 1 Corinthians Chapter 10, verses 1 to 4) that all our Jewish forefathers, who came out of Egypt, were all baptized in Moses and in the Red Sea by Christ, 1,500 years before Jesus was born.  Proving the original mind of God is the Jewishness of the church Jesus gave to the Jews and the world 2,000 years ago, which church was genocided by the Romans and replaced with their own brand of Christianity, which prevails by deceiving people today.

Since Jesus is the Christ, which means the Messiah, Jesus is directly referred to in these passages. Add to that, the chief instruction Jesus gave to original Apostles: Go forth unto all the world baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; which was spoken of as having been the angel who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, in Acts Chapter 7, verse 38.

Therefore, the exodus of the Jews from Egypt was the baptism of them into Jesus’ church 1,500 years before the human prophet Jesus was born, who was promised (in the New Testament book of Acts, Chapter 7, verse 37) to the Jews by Moses.

Once again proving God had, and still has, a plan for the Jewish people who do not need any help from the Gentiles to know and worship their God!  Even Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet of Israel, taught us about New Testament times (in Jeremiah Chapter 31, verses 31 to 34) saying, that two parts of Israel would receive the promise of the New Testament, not the Gentiles only; and that it would not be necessary for Jewish people to teach each other the Bible; but that those commandments would be written on the hearts (brains) and minds (spirits) of the Jews, by God Himself.

Therefore, it is the Gentile Christian Churches who need the Jews, who are God’s chosen people, to teach the Gentiles about the God of Israel.  Hence Jesus’ message to the Gentile Samaritan Woman by Jacob’s well: Salvation is of the Jews!

The reason for the Jews being the Chosen People was, and still is, to teach the Pagan Nations of the world about God, which is why Jesus both said: We Jews know what we worship and you non-Jews do not know what you worship!

Therefore, salvation is of the Jews!

To be continued…

The following sermon was preached by Rev. Calum I. Macleod at the Wednesday night prayer meeting 30th September 2009. At Sychar’s well the Samaritan woman was converted but what resulted from her conversion? A sermon under three headings: Christ’s Mission, Christ’s Mandate and Christ’s Magnetism. Multitudes of Samaritans came to Christ on account of this woman’s testimony. His mission was, and is now, to secure the salvation of His people. A harvest of souls was reaped on that day; and today his mandate is the same; “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” To her neighbours she gave testimony to the saving power of Christ and, like a magnet, He drew them all to Himself. Remember, dear Christian, His words to us, “I sent you to reap”.

The text is John 4:39…And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

the saying of the woman, which testified

by Genevieve Long for The Epoch Times READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

WEST BANK—Jamal Serahan has spent 29 years of his life watching over a well in the Middle East. It might seem like an odd job, but for Serahan, the well is a precious part of the region’s history. It is fabled to be the same well that Jesus was offered a drink from by a Samaritan woman during a long journey 2,000 years ago.

Jacob's Well, in the West Bank near Nablus. (Genevieve Long/The Epoch Times)

Today, the well is housed deep in the caverns of a massive church near the town of Nablus, in the Central West Bank. You can still draw water and drink from it. Before the 2nd intifada in 2000, busloads of tourists visited the area and the well. According to the middle-aged Serahan, who lives in the nearby Balata refugee camp, the numbers of visitors fell off when fighting started and access in and out of the area was restricted 10 years ago.

The numbers have yet to recover, mainly because even though travel restrictions have eased and it is much safe, whether checkpoints will be choked or access will be stalled is still a day-to-day guessing game. But during a recent month-long festival in Nablus some outside life was brought back into the area.

“The tourists are starting to come—now [there are] about 20, sometimes 50, sometimes 70, sometimes 10 [tourists per day],” said Mr. Serahan by telephone from the West Bank, who added that even with easing security restrictions, smooth travel is still uncertain. “They don’t know if the checkpoint is open.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true…”

…Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4:7-18, 27-30

How refreshing that water drawn from Jacob’s well must’ve been. As I think of the Samaritan woman, gripping the rope and lifting the full jar from the dark, cool hole and into the afternoon’s heat, I am sure that well-water was better than I’ve ever tasted. The accomplishment of it, the work and the thirst for the drink is such that I’ve never known.

I’ve had water purified, bottled, and nearly frozen, but I just don’t think I’ve tasted what the Samaritan did. And yet, as good as that hard earned well-water was, it just wasn’t enough; she was tired of drawing and carrying and still thirsting.

And so I’ve thought about the Gospel-water offered to the thirsty Samaritan at Jacob’s well. John tells us she drank it and it must’ve drenched every bit of her brokenness because at first taste she ran right through town and gathered a redemption-ready crowd that returned to Jesus for some teaching.

I know I haven’t tasted that well-water, though I’ve had some from my Great-Grandma’s Starkville, Mississippi well. And when I read about the Samaritan, I begin to wonder whether I’ve really tasted the Gospel-water. I know I’ve sipped on that Gospel-water, but there are still lots of dry parts in me.

On most days, I don’t realize how thirsty I am. And so I pray. I pray for recognition of my deep need for living water and of my deep need to expose new parts of me to the Gospel each day. Lord, make me thirsty; so thirsty that I leap into your living springs and let the waters cascade right on over me.

It is no secret I’m a music geek.  It is also no secret that I am in love with words.  When I was in high school a great deal of my life was determined by music.  My friend Scott Beimler and I would listen carefully to all kinds of music, mining the lyrics for kernels of truth that would “relate” to our present life.  We would spend hours picking through his expansive music collection, browsing sleeve inserts and reading through the printed materials that came along with some of his best boxed set collections.  We were fascinated with lyrics.  We would find words that possessed power, and those words were heightened by instrumentation and music that would resonate with the present state of our soul, whether we were soaring at our highest heights or had plummeted to our lowest of lows.  I have continued to have friends with whom a shared love of music has been important to the relationship, such as Scot Huber or Mike Hibit, and I have been thankful for the sharing of harmony, rhythm, truth, and beauty that music has the unique power to convey. 

Last week I had the opportunity to share the music of a community that has blessed me in recent years, and I took great joy from the conversations and shared passions which were born through those conversations.  I asked a handful of students whom I walked alongside last week which musicians they listened to, and I came home with a list of 15 to 20 bands or performers they found compelling.  I had work to do on iTunes.  I also shared some of my musical preferences, most notably the work of Mike Crawford and His Secret Siblings.  It was particularly exciting to share “Words to Build a Life On” and see the students incorporate that anthem into our camp worship experiences.

If you haven’t heard of Mike Crawford, check out his work at his MySpace page, and if you’re interested in learning how to play a couple of the songs that have been born out of the Jacob’s Well community, check out Mike’s YouTube Channel.  You can also check in with Mike Crawford’s website, which is under construction, but according to Mike’s comment I found on this blog post, it is forthcoming soon and will feature charts and tabs.  If you’re interested in picking up their two CD collection, you can click here or wait till mid-August, at which time you can purchase it through iTunes.  Both the music and the lyrical content are fantastic.

Mike’s music is stuff I would recommend.  I particularly love the way in which the words of Scripture are sung throughout the album, which, at this time in my life, are the very words upon which I feast.  Mike’s music also allows for the Word to be heard in fresh ways, and, in a sense, recaptures the narrative of Scripture in a manner that ignites the imagination and opens up new possibilities for how that Word may be born in us as followers of Jesus.

T.S. Eliot, in his poem “Ash Wednesday,” observed:

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

We live in a world where the Word is unheard and unspoken.  But Mike’s music points to the Word, the light which shone in the darkness, which stands silent and waits to be spoken, and, even when it is unspoken, still stands at the center.  Mike’s music is witness to truth and beauty that has a name, Jesus the Christ.

If you haven’t already picked up Mike Crawford’s work, do it, and let it bless you.

Have you heard about Derek’s latest project?  I CAN’T WAIT to get my hands on it!  I’ve heard rumblings from a certain Chris Hess at Everyday Joe’s that he’s jamming the tunes to his crowd as part of a buzz creation…wish I didn’t live 2 hrs south!

Well, for my own buzz, haha, here’s a super un-mixed rough rough rough party of a song that will likely be the finale to the upcoming partner to the Elephant album – Birds!  Enjoy the scenery shot while I was traversing Kansas City on my last tour, cracked windshield and all. 

1. Just heard about the Girls Gone Wise website.  I think from Tim Challies.  Looks like a terrific resource.  Anything Mary Kassian has going on is beneficial for women, I find.  I once sat in on a radio show she did with Al Mohler and was impressed with her wisdom and comportment.  It’s no small thing being in the booth with RAM…

2. Malcolm Gladwell, professional geek/writer, has a fun article out about what happens when “underdogs break the rules”.  He applies it to basketball, which, as readers of this blog know, is a friend to this blog.

3. 9Marks, under the leadership of Greg Gilbert, just sponsored a contest to see which three people could best articulate the gospel by “tweeting” it.  I loved the idea, and I found it surprisingly moving.  Honestly, seeing a ton of people run through the gospel is a beautiful thing.  Check the post and scroll through the responses and see if you aren’t edified.

4. It is a good thing to celebrate the gospel.  Not to simply repeat it, but to talk about it with other people.  Turn it over in your mind.  Consider the different models of the atonement presented in Scripture: penal substitutionary (the heart), exemplarist, moral influence, Christus Victor, and more. The Bible is glorious, the gospel is the heart of the Bible, and Christ’s work on behalf of His people is the center of the gospel.  These are things worth celebrating, talking about, praying in response to, reveling in, shouting over.  The gospel is real.  Right now, as you read this little blog, the gospel is real.

I recommend Graham Cole’s forthcoming Christ the Peace-Maker, an incisive study of the atonement from an eminent theologian, for those who want to savor the gospel (no link available).  I just took a doctoral class on the atonement with Cole and found it illuminating and doxological.  Buy that book when it comes out, and use it for your preaching, your teaching, your daily living.

5. My buddy Reid Monaghan, plowing gospel ground in New Jersey through a great church called Jacob’s Well, has a great blog and recently featured a funny video by Rhett and Link, two guys from Campus Crusade who are quite amusing.

–Have an atonement-glorying weekend, all.

Friday – Page, Arizona

Well, time to ride, I have had enough walking for a while and my calf muscles are sore as well. Packed up and ready to roll by 8.30.

First stop was a place where I could get my bike in the shot for a change, instead of my ugly mug.

Just down the road “ I Tawd I Taw A Puddy Tat” Well, not really, I did not see one and I like cats as well, even feeding them, but not with parts of me

I had decided that I would go and have a look at the road to the north rim, I know it was closed, but the guys the other night had said it was a great road to ride. Coming out of the canyon area and into some nice corners, I also saw this suspension bridge on the way down and also lots of Indian stalls on the side of the road.

These are where they live, just houses stuck out in the middle of the desert.

I got to the junction of Page and had to go there for fuel. I had miscalculated and picked a town on the map at that junction called Bitter Springs, but it turns out they had no servo at all, so I could have gone on to Jacobs Lake, and hope there was fuel up that way, but I decided not to. Anyway, it turned out for the best as after getting fuel I went to the library and finally managed to print out and fax the workshop repair form to Erick at Elka Suspension, another saga nearly fixed While having some lunch I watched a couple of wranglers loading up a stack of utes with hay from a semi trailer.

After that I went back down to Bitter Springs at the junction and headed up 89A which goes to Jacobs Lake, there was some nice corners and a view of the Vermillion Cliffs in the distance, which is where I was headed.

Up the road a ways and the cliffs are a great sight, with small villages nestled in amongst them, that is the green bits.

I took this one because the road went up real close to this cliff point where a whole stack of large boulders, some small house sized had come down, I would not like to be here when one does come down!

After that the road veered away and started to head uphill again, I had previously gone down from the 7000ft to 4000ft so it was quite warm down here. But, now I was heading uphill again, I could feel the change in temp and nearly stopped to add another layer, but kept on going through the trees until I reached Jacobs Lake. I passed three small towns and all of them had a servo and fuel, go figure, I could have saved the back track I did earlier, oh well it worked out in the end!

As you can see the road to the north rim is closed and so was the campground, which is probably not a bad thing as I was nearly at the 8000ft mark now and it was near zero C overnight on the south rim, so I can imagine how cold it would be here over night

Onwards and enjoying the ride all the way to the Utah border where I started to look for accommodation, it was middle afternoon and a Friday, so I figured I could have a shower, do some net stuff and have a few beers

But, while travelling through Kanab, I realised I was now in Utah again, the Mormon state with strict alcohol laws and no pubs, so let’s get the heck out of here on a Friday night

Heading east towards Page again and I had a choice, stay there which is a very touristy town because of the lake and all the water sports, or head to the next town of Kayenta, but that was another 300km, so I chose Page as a place to stay and this is a better sight at this time anyway.

So, I finally went past the lake near Page and grabbed a motel where I started to charge a few items of need.

As it happened, no planning involved, I noticed a pub across the road, so that was good and after a few emails etc I wondered across for a beer, and as I crossed the road, a custom car procession came down the road, old ones and some muscle cars as well.

I even took a small movie of the rest.

I went into this small bar where I had a beer, but as it was small and they had a tour bus coming soon and they had county music, yuck, so I decided to try a different one, the bar girl said there are 4 around this area , pub crawl

The next one (Ken’s) seemed OK at the start but the bar ‘bloke’, not bargirl kept stuffing things up so I left and went to another. As I left Ken’s I heard a surprising sound, a didgeridoo being played and it turned out to be a young American bloke who is drifting around the country and liked to play his home made didge as he walked. He did a pretty good job of it, but apparently does not like playing when standing still, go figure. I took a small movie of him, remind me NOT to rotate the camera in movie mode

We chatted while walking up to this other bar where I ended up having a few beers here. Now, for the Aussie beer drinkers, this is how they clean the glasses over here, no fancy glass washers because they do not get the crap off the glasses properly, like lipstick and fresh orange juice etc. These would be a good idea back home I reckon, a bit more labour involved, but a whole lot cleaner.

As you can see I rediscovered movie mode today I ended up having a few beers, and played some pool with a group from Pittsburgh who had flown in and hired some Harleys for a week, I am actually really sorry I forgot their names, I knew I should have written them down, contact me dudes and I will fix it.

I had a great time, it is really strange actually, I have not seen any other Vstroms riding around but of course heaps of Harleys and Goldwings who are always ready for a drink or two. Never mind, I am sure I will see some eventually

Day – 342 miles and 550 km
Trip – 6,839 miles and 11,006 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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While we were in Wales we took the opportunity to meet up with a very good friend of ours. Mike Endicott has a worldwide healing and wholeness ministry based at the Well Centre in Cwmbran. It’s a ministry we are increasing involved in, so watch this space!

As part of the research for my book, I’ve been visiting churches all over the country over the past year—a tour of “America’s hippest churches,” you might say (though soon to expand to Europe as well). The goal is to gain a good bit of qualitative data on the subject I’m writing about, to understand firsthand how various church bodies are fitting in to this whole thing. I have stopped at dozens of churches in many states and talked with countless people, and every now and then on my blog I will describe in depth my various observations about these churches.

Keep in mind a few things: 1) I love Christians and have greatly enjoyed all the services I’ve visited. They are all genuinely worshiping God. 2) Calling these “hipster” churches does in no way elevate them above other churches nor does it denigrate them; It is not meant to be any sort of value judgment at all. “Hipster church” is simply a designation for a particular type of contemporary church that, above all classifying criteria, tends to attract large numbers of hipsters.

With that said, I’d like to start this series with Jacob’s Well—a church in Kansas City which exceptionally high hipster cred. Because I’m from Kansas City, I think it’s fitting to start this journey there.

Church Name: Jacob’s Well
Location: Kansas City, MO.
Head Pastor: Tim Keel

Summary: I’ve attended services at Jacob’s Well on three occasions, which is more than most of the churches I’ve visited (simply because I’m in Kansas City a lot). Jacob’s Well has been a fixture on the “emerging church” landscape since the early 00s, largely because pastor Tim Keel is on the board of directors for Emergent. It’s a church that feels totally new and fresh, but which upholds tradition and history and all things “vintage.” It’s a hipster church because it has a large, young hipster contingent in the audience, but also because it fits firmly within the hip tradition of usurping the establishment. As described by Christian Century, Jacob’s Well is “a rebuke to those churches that, in imitation of cutting-edge 1970s evangelicalism, deliberately strip themselves of historical symbols, creeds and practices in an effort to grow. [Jacob’s Well] is succeeding by moving in precisely the opposite direction.” For example, JW embraces things like read prayers, weekly communion (by intinction, and with the option of gluten-free bread!), and lectio divina. It’s all very mystery-minded and aesthetically pleasing.

Building: A formidable old Presbyterian structure from the 1930s, renovated but retaining many traditional and ancient elements like stained glass, pews, candles, and churchy vaulted ceilings. On one wall in the building you will see this quote from Stanley Hauerwas: “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

Congregation: Granted, I’ve only ever visited the evening (5:30pm) service, which probably skews especially young, but the JW congregation is remarkably youthful. There are some older people scattered throughout, but for the most part the crowd seemed college or twentysomething. Lots of guys with beards, girls with tattoos, and skinny jeans everywhere. Mix of yuppie-type hipsters and more organic, indie types. Not particularly high on the friendly-to-strangers scale, but twentysomethings rarely are. We all did hold hands for the last song, however, which was a cheerfully sung benediction.

Music: Led by worship pastor Mike Crawford, the Jacob’s Well band is youthful, loud, but worshipful. It seems less performance-oriented and more a facilitator of community singing, which is not to say that it isn’t good. It’s quality indie rock, and largely original. Crawford writes many of the songs himself, such as “Words to Build a Life On,” which features the lyric “Sing your freaking lungs out / Jesus Christ is King!” When they play the music of others, the JW band is more likely to do a Sufjan Stevens song during communion than any sort of “Jesus is my girlfriend” chorus. On one of the Sundays I visited, they played the Welcome Wagon version of the nineteenth century hymn “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” mere weeks after the Welcome Wagon CD came out. Their style is a bit grungy, imperfect, and unpolished, in true hipster fashion. Slick, overproduced songs with crazy lighting and fog machines are nowhere to be found at Jacob’s Well.

Arts: Arts are huge at Jacob’s Well. There are frequent gallery shows displaying the art and photography of the congregation. During worship services, the congregation is encouraged to take one of the “community journals” to write doodles, art, prayer, thoughts, or poems, as they sit through the service.

Technology: Like most hipster churches, technology is important at Jacob’s Well, but not in an over-the-top way. They do encourage texting in questions or ideas, and the church has a large online presence (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Neighborhood: The heavily hipster midtown Kansas City area—near Brookside and Westport. Lots of artists, bohemians, and Democrats in the area. Far from suburbia, which is important.

Preaching: One interesting thing about the preaching at Jacob’s Well is that the speaker preaches on the floor, at eye level—not elevated on stage or behind a pulpit—in a conversational style. The preacher invites comments and questions from the audience throughout the sermon, steering the sermon according to where the congregational conversation goes. On one of the Sundays I visited, the topic of the sermon was child sex abuse—a topic rarely discussed in church but which is a problem made all the worse because “we let dark places remain dark.”

Quote from pulpit: “We at Jacob’s Well are trying to move away from a belief-centered community to a practice-centered community.”

Quote from website: “Jacob’s Well doesn’t have a mission; it is mission.”

Members of church communities may gather regularly to pray. They may hope for a more authentic community and witnessing church. Tim Keel, author of Intuitive Leadership and pastor of Jabob’s Well, writes: “Discernment, accountability, and wisdom are integral aspects of listening personally and collectively for the voice of God revealed in the Scriptures, through history, and within ourselves.” Rather than merely dream of an ideal community, Bonhoeffer charges us to “be that community.” Emerging churches understand the gospel primarily as something to be embodied and proclaimed, rather than a set of beliefs that people assent to intellectually.
To foster a new kind of emerging church, a new leadership posture is required. The emergence of new leadership gifts within community will require  a more adaptive leadership approach. If “ecclesiological structures always manifest our theological imaginations,” it is clear that new church leaders will need to do some deep theological reflection.  Neil Cole writes, “Emerging church leaders understand the very nature of the church is organic and must therefore contain within the smallest grouping the complete DNA for reproduction.”  To adopt emerging church patterns, Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs say church communities will need “to dismantle all systems of control and to reconstruct a corporate culture according to the patterns of the kingdom.”  What I have been saying is this:  A mid-sized evangelical church can take steps to reform into a new kind of emerging church by fostering several smaller “churches” or Commission Groups.

Okay, so technically this isn’t much of a traditional read at all, consisting as it does mostly of color-coded maps, but that didn’t stop me from reviewing it, along with Andrew Sansom’s field-guidey Water In Texas: An Introduction, in the current issue of the Texas Observer (go ahead and SUBSCRIBE — you know you want to).

My review is HERE.

The atlas addresses itself to everything from historical flash-flooding (central Texas being the most flood-prone part of the entire country) to artesian springs (the one in San Marcos, where the geography department spawned the atlas’ authors, marks one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in North America).

Daunting factoid: Rights to surface water — i.e. river and lake water — in Texas are so over-appropriated that if all the water rights already granted were actually engaged, there would be no water left in most Texas lakes and rivers.

Oh, and the state’s population is supposed to double by 2035.

Meanwhile, Texas law still imposes a false legal distinction between surface water and (under)ground water (even though it’s all the same water), meaning that while you could sooner expect to land a 200-lb. channel cat on a fly rod than acquire a new river water right in this state, any industrial yahoo with a drill bit can take as much as their pumps will suck out of the ground without paying a penny for it.

No, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. And it’s one reason that Jacob’s Well — another bit of artesian magic down the road from San Marcos in Wimberley, at right — has been recently reduced to a trickle.

Talk about sucking…

And, uh, no, that’s not me.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
-Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry

I’m working with an incredible group of like-minded individuals at our church to try to promote better stewardship of the earth and its resources. We’re calling our newly formed group the “green team” (we’re open to suggestions tho) and we met recently to discuss our objective, priorities, and how to get others on board. What we don’t want to be is another recycling bin and paper coffee cups… we’re thinking baby steps aren’t working and it’s time for some serious changes. Some things we’d like to tackle are disposable dishes (one team member wants to shoot for zero waste), energy efficiency, productive/edible, low maintenance landscaping, and promoting transportation alternatives. A few of the obstacles I’m already encountering are convenience, aesthetics, cost, and vision casting. We certainly have our work cut out for us, but I believe we’re up to the task.

Jacob’s Well, an emerging church community in Kansas City, has a mural with the constant reminder that, “the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.” (Tony Jones, The New Christians, 2008: 178) To fully embrace this pattern, local communities must dismantle the idea of church as a place, and reform it with the clear understanding that church is a people with commitment to community. The gospel message is best presented through small groups with genuine friendships, authenticity serving, loving, and giving. “The ideal size for effective fellowship and ministry,” is where “reproduction is easiest and community, accountability, confidentiality, flexibility, communication, direction and leadership are strongest.” (Cole, The Organic Church, 2005: 100-102)

Not all members are typically in one of their church community’s existing small groups. Why? Because it is difficult for people “nurtured in a culture of modernity and the unlimited sovereignty of the individual” to make themselves vulnerable within authentic community. (Bolger & Gibbs, Emerging Churches, 2005: 92) Emerging churches recognize the gospels are stories of “missional formation experiences” within small communities. (2005: 105) For them church is less about meetings and places, than an expression of kingdom values in a witnessing community.

Next week’s Emerging Church Pattern: Serving with Generosity