For everyone who couldn't make it to evening chapel, or just wants to hear "Dirt and Water" one more time, it's here on my blog. I hope that this message brings freedom and healing to broken hearts.

Have fun digging... come back Wednesday.

Pictures from Evening Chapel

Last Wednesday night I had the opportunity to speak at Evening Chapel @ Gordon College... here's some of the pictures Scot Huber took. Thanks Scot... visit his blog.

This Is The Thing About Jazz Clubs

"Nonbelievers watch to see whether the followers of Christ will ever make a difference outside the walls of their churches."

~ Joel C. Hunter

"The world is desperately in need of people who will break themselves open and pour themselves out for the reconciliation of all things -- that's what the world needs."

~ Rob Bell

Guest Blogger: Leslie Paul

The Church is the only institution on the planet that exist solely for the benefits of it's NON-MEMBERS... not it's members... Only if we made that true, maybe the secular world would actually respect us and listen to what we have to say. 

As Dr. Marv Wilson would say, "Put that in your theological pipe and SMOKE IT!"

...that's the truth and this is the thing!

Leslie Paul and Manny Arango 

This Is The Thing About the NYTimes

I'm about to blog for the first time about myself...

So I've only told a couple of my close friends this, but last week I entered a contest put on by the New York Times to win a journalism trip to Africa. A couple of years ago a journalist by the name of Nicholas Kristof returned to New York after reporting about the atrocities he had seen in Darfur. Upon returning he experienced thousand of New York citizens in an uproar due to a company displacing a bird's nest.

"The spark wasn’t genocide, war or poverty, but rather homelessness — of a red-tailed hawk nicknamed Pale Male. Managers of a Fifth Avenue apartment building had dismantled his nest.Fury! Television cameras! And public pressure that led to a solution for rebuilding the nest."

Nicholas Kristof wondered how people could care more about birds than dying children in the Sudan, he figured maybe it was because people had never seen human suffering face to face. Therefore he starting this competition where he would choose one college student and take them on a trip to the most poverty stricken areas of Africa.

To enter people have to submit a video describing why Nick should pick them. Below is my video. I really hope I win. This will be my first experience outside the country with a non-Christian organization. I'll also get to blog for the New York Times. Talk about being an influence on secular society, and bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular. Check out my response video...

Guest Blogger: Jason Webster

Hey all... last week Jason Webster spoke in chapel. He rocked the place so I'm letting you all in on the controversial Black History Month chapel. Since he rocked chapel, I figured he could rock the blog too. So Jason is my guest blogger today. See below...

Manny

This Is Thing About Black History Month

Why do you care about black history? What makes it relevant for you, a typical Gordon College student? You are probably an intelligent woman from a white family who carries a Nalgene bottle to her Old Testament class, all while singing the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s Love Story. Of course you are God fearing, friendly, and beautiful. Growing up, you’ve learned about America’s difficult history, taking time to discuss the key figures and moments; from George Washington and the American Revolution, to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, to FDR and Pearl Harbor, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. But these bits of knowledge about our country’s past don’t really mean that much to you; they play out like old black and white movies that occasionally peak your interest on certain holidays, but for the most part, they seem distant, out dated, and irrelevant in our rapidly changing world. Now, if the details of our collective American history are left muddled as we rush toward inevitable progress, what happens to “Black History”, what happens to the story of African Americans and their experience in this young country, a story that is sometimes told to supplement the narrative of our fore fathers and their American Dream, a story that seems so separate from our July 4th barbecues and Thanksgiving feasts.

Now to be fair, if I am going to stand up here and ask why you care about black history, the least I can do is talk about why I care about it. Now, I think the answer is pretty obvious to everyone in here but I will tell you anyway. I, Jason Webster, am a great dancer; I like fried chicken, I am good at basketball, and I am the first person to die in any movie that I am in. All jokes aside, I am what Gordon refers to as multicultural. My father is Jamaican and my mother is Jewish. Growing up, I would refer to myself as Jew-maican and that made caring about black history difficult for me; in my mind, I could not associate my past with African slavery or Jim Crow laws because I was neither black or white; I was Jason.

But there was more to being Jason than I had even understood, and it had everything to do with the history we focus on in the month of February. My parents met in 1980 at a non-denominational church in Brooklyn, NY, started dating soon after and got engaged in 1985. Now the pastor of this church had known my parents for quite some time. But she did not think they should be married because they were an interracial couple, which, in her opinion could bring some type of social blacklash, both against my parents and the church. Therefore she refused to perform the ceremony, and even went as far to deny permission for my parents to use the church for the wedding at all. I could not imagine being denied something because of the color of my skin, especially something as sacred as marriage and especially by someone so respected as a spiritual advisor. But that was a reality for African Americans, even as recently as 1986 and knowing that I was born amidst that pain and frustration has colored how I see myself. I had not wanted to recognize my place amongst those who were sprayed with fire hoses or refused education; it’s a difficult and confusing legacy to deal with. But it was only because of their story that I could exist, and I mean that in every sense of the word. Knowing history gives me an appreciation for the America I live in today, and gives me hope and guidance for the America I will live in tomorrow.

I felt conflicted about speaking today for two reasons. One was the complexity of my experience, as I have just shared. The other reason is that in the years that I have been here, these chapel services have not been the most popular on campus; by these chapels services, I mean the ones that make us more “aware”, both of how diverse the world around us is and how diverse we aren’t. Now, some of us do enjoy them and sit in the front row, excited and eager to hear interesting stories about a world past the Bennett Center. But learning about black history can be frustrating process (process, undertaking); we, as Gordon students, may learn the tragic details of that history and feel some empathy toward the current situation of minorities in our country. But there are still 40 minutes between Wenham, MA and Lynn, and while our noble efforts to help any way we can must be commended, we have yet to realize Dr. King’s dream “where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.” While we have affected tremendous waves of change, especially in these past few weeks, there is a distinct undertow of physical separation that threatens our well being as one nation, under God.

There are others of us that sit respectfully but mainly out of fear of being “racist” or closed-minded. We don’t want to offend anyone, but we aren’t exactly sure how learning about another race’s past applies to our lives; we are busy thinking about that pretty girl we keep seeing in the library, wondering if she has a boyfriend or if she’ll go out with us this weekend. We hear these same tragic stories with a sense of apathy or indifference. We were not slave owners; we did not stand in protest against the desegregation of schools or the congregation of hundreds of thousands in our nation’s capital on that warm August day in 1963. But to deny responsibility in our nation’s darkest times while still basking in the sunlight born of those struggles would be selfish and ignorant on our part, just as it was on my own.

History has created our present, and it speaks to our future. If we allow ourselves the opportunity to hear what it has to say, we, as a community of students, as a body of believers, and as participants in this social experiment known as the United States of America, will be better for it. We all stand on the shoulders of history and need to have the moral maturity to enjoy the walk through not only the green pastures, but the muddy, unsure, and blood stained trails. And even though we have still further to go until we realize a dream of a more perfect union, we must continue to listen to our history so that we do not become easily lost along the way.

I’ve given reasons why we should care about history in all its parts, not just white, Latino, Asian, Black or Jew-maican. But the decision is yours of whether you WILL care about it or not. It is a difficult step to take but one that we can make together. Besides, that girl who keeps looking at you in the library? She does have a boyfriend, so you don’t need to figure out a way to ask her out anymore.

Jason Webster

This Is The Thing About President Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech

President Barack Obama’s words will echo for generations as a testament of faith, hope, and love for all that choose to take seriously his challenge of re-shaping our country’s focus and identity. All Christians that listen to President Obama’s words should take his inaugural address not only as a call for America to return to greatness, but also the Church to arise and provide not only a foundation of ideals for America to stand upon but also an example of hope, belief, selfless love, and unity. Christians should take President Obama’s speech as a call to truly live out the words of our Bible. There is no greater, or more opportunistic time to truly be Christ-like. In our country’s current spirit of hope, acceptance, cooperation, unity, and a realized need to put our hands to the plow and make the world a greater place, the Christian faith has the chance to flourish and build bridges across religious lines in order to sow the seeds of the Kingdom of God. President Obama’s speech was not only littered with Christian ideas and ideals and was a challenge to every American to take their part in shaping our country around those ideals, and we have the opportunity to lead the way.

For the first time in my short history, the Church has come to a place with our country where there is a mutual dependency. Our country needs the Church to provide a loving non-threatening example of our true mission, and we need the country to believe in us once again. President Barack Obama’s Inauguration speech highlighted several areas that will hopefully help in advancing the mission of the Church and America forward.

President Obama spoke directly to nations gripped by poverty and promised, “to the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.” The Church can no longer afford to let it’s own members be it’s primary focus and responsibility. The Church must be the forerunner in the world of global responsibility. The Church must begin to be the only institution on earth that exists primarily for the benefit of her non-members. If not the world will not respect of follow her, for “the world has changed and we must change with it.”

President Obama honored our troop for “they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.” That is a central theme of the Christian faith. There was a revolution started two thousand years ago by a radical Savior who decided and determined to love, and that revolution of love is bigger than any Christian. The Church is a part of something bigger than her, and therefore sacrifice is necessary. No longer can we embrace a self centered and privatized faith. President Obama acknowledges the fact that leaders are not the only one’s who bear the burden and hold the responsibility of our ideals, because,

“For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job, which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.”

The responsibility lies not with our pastors, clergy, or those with titles, but we must all do our part being the hands and feet of a God who cares about the orphan and the widow, who’s heart breaks over injustice and suffering. We must embody a spirit of service and sacrifice in the name of the One who is the epitome selfless love, service and sacrifice. A faith that can mobilize the Church to embody those ideals will also be the faith that attracts Muslims, Hindus, and Atheists. These people’s intellect will never be compelled to believe in our message. But their hearts will not be able to deny or ignore the spirit of love that we embody and will be inevitably drawn to it.

If one thing is true, it’s that the eyes of the entire world are upon us, “to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.” President Obama has given the Church a global stage to exemplify Christ’s love not only at home but abroad. If the Church acts now in relentless and far-reaching love, the entire world will notice and respond. President Obama has opened a window of opportunity for the image of Christianity to be repainted in the true image of Jesus. Not only does America have an opportunity to reestablish her identity in the world, so does the Church.

The Church also has the opportunity to deal with the racism embedded in it’s past if it will ever lead the world in the reconciliation, peace, and unity that it desperately needs. Equality, unity, and reconciliation are not peripheral tenets of the Christian message; they are central and essential to the Christian message, yet for so long they have been pushed aside as non-essentials. President Obama has renewed the hope that all people really are created equal and celebrates this by asserting,

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth. And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace… And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”

There is persistent racism towards darker-skinned people in China, Russia, Europe, India (high caste Hindus (Brahmins) associate themselves with the color "white" & the lower the caste, the darker the color associated), and the Arabic-speaking Muslim world. Now world leaders will face the most powerful nation on earth through their relationship with an African American man. President Obama’s presence will elevate the image of not only African-Americans but also all discriminated against minorities. This directly effect the world of missions, because these people groups who are treated as inferior because of the color of their skin are those people who the Church will target as mission fields. If missionaries or America Christian don’t ever deal with the prejudices they hold, how will they minister effectively to darker skinned people around the world? If the Church doesn’t heal the racism in its heart how will it eradicate the racism found around the world? If the Church cannot reconcile or unite across racial lines at home how will She promote this abroad?

If you haven't read a transcript of Obama's speech please do. READ OUR PRESIDENT'S SPEECH.

While your at it watch it too...

This Is The Thing About Relationship

The other day my friend said that it seemed so weird when people expressed they were angry, upset or confused with God. It just didn't seem like the way to relate to God.

If you approach a relationship with Jesus in any other way than you approach your relationship with any other person, than your missing it. We can all pretend like we have a relationship with God, when truly we treat God as if He's completely transcendent, totally somewhere else, and the truth is that's not a relationship. God created us human and relates to us on human terms. His desire to relate to us on human terms was so deep that He became one of us, and still is. Jesus knows what it's like to be angry, so you can get angry with Him. He knows what its like to feel disappointed, unsure and afraid. Therefore you never have to pretend like you have it all figured out, or as if everything is OK. God not only understands but has a solution.

Have you ever been in a relationship with a person, and they're mad at you but won't tell you why. Isn't that a frustrating feeling. Have you ever been in a relationship and you feel like the other person just never really expresses how they truly feel. Maybe that's what it feels like for God when we refuse to just be real, and honest with Him. He's not surprised, intimidated, or offended by any of your questions, fears, insecurities, doubts, misconceptions, or issues.

God is not the God that says we have to meet Him half-way. You don't need to get your act together before you can come to God. He's the God that comes 100% to where you are and starts a journey with you exactly where your at. There's nothing you need to achieve or fix, God only needs you to be honest about where you are. That's it...

Just because Christians don't always receive and accept people the way they are, doesn't mean that's true about God as well.

Come as you are... I bet He's waiting to hear your voice. His primary objective is not to fix your life or deal with your issues, God's primary objective is simply to have a relationship with you... no ulterior motives. You don't have to be an atheist to be far from God, being dishonest and fake is just as harmful to ANY relationship... especially yours and God's.

Manny

Rick Warren is the MAN!

Happy Inauguration!!!

The Third Blog Post Today...Wow!

This video is from Sunday...just thought the people who haven't seen may want to.



and this quote/picture is just cool...

Happy MLK Day!

Enjoy the video...



now read the next post...

Happy MLK Day!!!

I just got back from a MLK Day breakfast in Lynn, MA and was reminded of how great our country can be. Three high school students read essays on how Dr. King's life and legacy has affected them. As I listened to the words of teenagers a couple of years younger than me one theme rang through loud and clear. Every single teenager was filled with an undeniable sense of hope. As they spoke about MLK and Barack Obama the faith they had in our nation was evident. They spoke of America as a place of endless possibilities, as a "promised land", as a country of freedom, equality, diversity,  justice, and opportunity. 

Despite where you may stand politically, nobody can deny that President Obama has inspired hope, not only in the hearts of the African American, Guatemalan, and Dominican teenagers I heard speak today, but millions of young people all across this country who for the first time believe they can achieve their wildest dreams. "Yes We Can" has become more than a political campaign -- it's the chant and creed of the next generation of Americans who have the odds exponentially stacked against them. 

Tomorrow will be the beginning of a long road towards a better America. I'm filled with hope not only because of Barack Obama but because the indifferent and apathetic group of African American teenagers lead by Lil' Wayne and Allen Iverson won't be the group building the America of tomorrow. That group has been transformed in one election into a collection of diverse young people chanting a message of faith and holding a message of hope in their hearts. The "Yes We Can" generation will build a better America and I'm quite happy about that and so should you. 

I sat at a Martin Luther King breakfast, celebrating our country's achievement in the area of racial equality and justice, and the part that made it great is that I sat there with one of my best friends in the world -- Leslie Paul, a white female. This is not an African American achievement alone. It's an achievement of the true American dream. If you don't have something to celebrate this MLK day, then I'm afraid you've missed it! I'm celebrating the fact that not so long ago, me and Leslie wouldn't have been friends... or at least not so easily. I'm celebrating friendship, diversity, unity, and love... in the name of the One who created them. 

This isn't the end... it's just the beginning! 

Are you ready?

Happy MLK Day!

Congrats President Obama... couldn't make it to the inauguration, but I'll stop by the White House later this week for lunch... with Leslie

This is the Thing...We're Coming Out!!!

Please sing along with us...and dance...