Jan 15
One of these days I’ll actually write something of my own, but for now I’ll just let others do the writing. This tragic event occurred up the road the other day. I really don’t know what to say…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008627109_webcopshooting14m.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/396211_shooting16.html
Jan 9
Currently, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development is working with members of the emerging Aurora community, including participants in the Aurora Avenue Task Force, on the Aurora Avenue Land Use Visioning and Urban Design study.
The first two community meetings took place in November and December. There were additional meetings with the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association. Much of the information is now available online. See the links below, including a link to a survey. The third community meeting will take place on February 9, 2009 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Greenwood Senior Center 525 N 85th St.
Dec 23
It is the season of waiting…
Aurora is waiting for some good news.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/388333_brothel19.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008547431_stripclub22m.html
Dec 5
This month, Awake Church is partnering with the Green Bean Coffeehouse to raise awareness about the situation of families who call Aurora motels “home”, to raise money (from a portion of the tips) to provide housing assistance to these families , and most significantly, to give these families an opportunity to tell you their stories.
It is our hope that this simple, yet stirring display will help fill in the answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
So come check out the “Aurora Motels” photography and display at the Green Bean Coffeehouse in Greenwood (210 N. 85th St.) during the month of December.
For more information, please read the “Aurora Motels” description below, written by Jay Stringer and Heather Smith, members of the Awake community who brilliantly and with great kindness facilitated this endeavor for our Aurora neighbors.
This Christmas season, we invite you to get to know the stories of some of your neighbors. They don’t live in Greenwood, Ballard, or Greenlake. They live in the motels scattered throughout the Aurora corridor. They aren’t drug dealers or women involved in prostitution. They are families who shop in your grocery stores, attend your children’s schools, walk to your libraries, share your concern about the economy, and believe it or not, may have called their motel “home” for almost three decades.
This December, the Green Bean, in partnership with Awake church has selected five families to be blessed from the generosity of your tips. These five families are beautifully unique and yet strikingly paradigmatic of your neighbors who live in Aurora motels. A few of these families hope each month that the city of Seattle will select them for low-income housing, and at the same time, are filled with anxiety that they may not have enough money to afford first and last month’s rent to qualify. They are neighbors who have fled other states from domestic violence, work several minimum wage jobs to pay their rent, and have had photo albums of their children destroyed or abandoned. And still others use these motels for a temporary respite from another cold, damp night of homelessness.
Proceeds from your tips will be used for a two-fold purpose. First, to build a financial reserve to assist families in providing first and last month’s rent when they are chosen for low-income housing. Secondly, tips will be used to give cameras to families in order that they might preserve memory, and therefore, be spurred on to hope.
As you drink your coffee, we invite you to take some time to look at the photography (taken exclusively by Aurora children, mothers & fathers), gain a new perspective from the audio on the personal CD players, and allow your minds to wander about what it means to see your neighbor, not as you have defined them to be or by what you think they might need from your advocacy, but as neighbors who glow as they give and laugh as they receive.
Dec 5
If you haven’t heard of Rev. Billy, it’s about time you have.
If Rev. Billy’s method is getting in the way of hearing his message, check out Shane Claiborne’s similar, though more seriously delivered, thoughts here.
Nov 26
This Sunday at our worship gathering we have a lot going on. We’ll be preparing for a photography/art show that we’re facilitating on behalf of some Aurora neighborhood friends at the Green Bean in the month of December. Additionally, along with the Embrace AIDS campaign, we’ll pray and observe two minutes of silence for those suffering with HIV/AIDS in light of World AIDS Day, which is on Monday. Finally, we’ll join the Advent Conspiracy (see video below) as we prepare for Christmas.
With all of this stuff going on, it sounds like we’re a really big church. But we’re not. Awake is a small, little community… but we’re part of a really big network of people following Jesus.
It’s called the Church.
Nov 18
I wonder if every weekend there is a little spike in the sales of grape juice at the local grocery store because, except for when we buy bulk, Awake purchases grape juice every weekend for the Eucharist (a.k.a. Lord’s Supper a.k.a. Communion), which we share every Sunday night as part of our worship gathering.
I think we used “spiked” grape juice (yeah, wine) for the first few Sundays when we began gathering weekly back in April, but I’m not sure. All I know is that almost immediately we realized that having wine with the bread probably isn’t the most hospitable thing to do when you meet in a space that is otherwise used for AA and NA meetings.
But, obviously, we only replaced the wine with juice, we didn’t replace the Eucharist. In fact, it is the pinnacle of our gathering. The Word never runs out, but sometimes words do. And so God graciously stoops to the level of our senses and lets us smell and touch and taste the gospel.
It is delicious.
When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection and who we are as a result. We remember our identity – that we are forgiven, that we belong to God, that we are one with Christ, that we are part of a new community, and that we have a special destiny.
That’s a lot to remember!
Perhaps there’s a word that could capture or signify all of this, that would come to mind every time we partake in the Eucharist, and that would help us remember this new identity.
This past Monday a two year-old boy from Awake was eating breakfast at home. He probably was wearing a onesie, drinking out of a sippy cup, and had serious case of bed-head.
His mother was drinking water out of a wine glass. This curious little boy noticed and wanted a drink of her water. After he took the cup, he proceeded to take every single piece of his broken toast and dip it into the water-filled wine glass.
He looked up at his mom and said, “Church!”
Church…
At least someone has an idea about what’s going on in the Eucharist.
Nov 11
Nov 1
The theme is Psalm 139.
Nov 1
The last few months have been, well, interesting… Again and again I find myself in situations that I never could have anticipated, and I find myself at this stage of church planting doing things that seminary never prepared me for.
And I like it.
One moment I’m a preacher; an hour later I’m a custodian. One afternoon I’m encouraging and equipping leaders; that evening I’m contemplating starting a professional moving company as I carry boxes and bags out of an Aurora motel room. One day I’m reading Greek; the next I’m reading something even more complex – state and federal tax forms. Specifically, there have been countless administrative tasks lately. We’ve registered as a non-profit, we’re in the denominational “Yearbook”, we’ve opened a bank account, and we’re developing a new logo as we prepare to get on the web.
Now with all of these things happening, it would be easy to start thinking that we’ve arrived, that we “count” as a church. After all, Washington state documents say so, the Christian Reformed Church recognizes us, and the bank formerly known as WaMu sent us checks with AWAKE printed at the top! But guess what? The kingdom of God – God’s way, God’s dream for the world – is not a matter of talk. It’s not a matter of logos or yearbooks or bank accounts or non-profit status. Nor is it a matter of merely going to a worship service or attending a small group or talking about God. It is a matter of yielding to the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.
This news is a, well, powerful reminder for the church as a whole and for any Jesus follower that embracing God’s way is a matter of the heart. And it is an invitation to those who have kept their distance from God because of hot-air-filled Christians and showy churches to enter into the grace-filled and Spirit-filled way of Jesus.
So while some of the external features of AWAKE may change over the months and years, this is what we’re about!
© 2008–2010 Awake Church
