In my last update, I was thrilled to report Jessica’s (not her real name) progress going into the holiday season. My wife and I were honored to join her family for Christmas dinner at Betel‘s town center church in Birmingham, England. We drove two hours on Sunday morning, 23 December 2007, and eventually found our way there. Over 200 people gathered for the occasion and shared a wonderful meal cooked by “the boys” from Betel’s men’s program. As I sat there watching families relish those few hours of joyful reunion with their wayward sons, daughters, and spouses, it occurred to me that I had never been in one place with so many drug addicts, ex-offenders, alcoholics, and prostitutes. Jesus loved to party with people like this—the broken and the outcast—and it was thrilling to meet many of them and hear their stories. Continue reading
Back into the darkness :: Update on Jessica
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One Jewish carpenter. A hand-picked team of twelve working class Jewish men who were required to leave their occupations and follow the carpenter around the regions of Galilee. A message about the present reality of God’s kingdom. Miraculous cures of the sick: people raised from the dead. Spiritual eyes and ears opened by the life-changing message and the power of an unseen member of the Trinity accompanying them. Religious systems overturned and conservative theologians of his day unmasked as religious bigots, blind charlatans, imperialistic traditionalists. The weak, marginalized nobodies given priority over the powerful and wealthy elite of his day. Imagine being part of it all!
It seems that a lot of marginalized people have intersected our lives since we moved to Wales, and in almost every case it’s been a good experience for everyone involved. We met Steve, a 32-year-old heroin addict a couple of years ago who had become a Christian but just couldn’t shake the habit. He lived with us for awhile and we helped him find a residential rehab program in Birmingham, England, with 
I hope to interview a new friend of mine named Ben sometime next week: we might even do a podcast together and let him share his story of homelessness as a 21-year-old young man estranged from his family in England. I’ll keep you posted on that development, but he told me today that he would be willing to do it.
This morning I ran across an intriguing statement written by a British colleague in ministry. He writes, “the theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice.” It really made me stop and think. Most of us already know more than we actually put into practice, so one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to read less theology and live a more theologically-aware life. This will require a painful adjustment to my lifestyle. Yes, the dreaded “C” word (“change”) must become a reality if I want to transition “what I know” into “what I do.”
