The Christian Imagination

I saw Black is for Sunday last night, the latest from Invisible Children. Northern Uganda has Africa’s longest running war:

The war in northern Uganda has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today. For the past 21 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The Ugandan government has failed to protect its citizens from this rebel militia that has murdered mothers and buried the young, leaving an entire generation of youth that has never known peace.

The war has displaced a large number of Ugandans. In Black is for Sunday, a few people from Invisible Children go there to live among the Displaced to get a brief glimpse into their plight.

One of the advantages of globalization is that we now have a better idea what is going on in the rest of the world. While it can still feel overwhelming to do anything about it, people are finding ways. Not only that, but a lot of the people finding ways are the youth and young adults in the land. No one is too young to charge the world…

Paste Magazine is one of the fastest growing entertainment publications in the US. Based in Decatur, Georgia, the magazine was founded as a quarterly in July 2002 by Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy, and Tim Porter. The magazine’s mission is to discover and champion Signs of Life in Music, Film & Culture, introducing its readers to inspired and inspiring music, books, film, games and other art forms. In 2005, Paste was listed at #21 on The Chicago Tribune’s list of “50 Best Magazines.” It was also named Magazine of the Year by the PLUG Independent Music Awards in both 2006 and 2007.

Paste Magazine is available nationwide, including every Borders and Tower in North America. They even followed in the steps of Radiohead and let readers choose their own price for a limited period of time. It’s primary focus is on music, most noteably adult-album-alternative, Americana and indie rock.

One Paste writer, Andy Whitman, had this to say about Paste:

A few months later the first issue of Paste Magazine showed up in my mailbox…It was a slick, professional-looking magazine, printed on nice paper, with color photos and an eye-catching layout, and a bunch of genuinely well-written articles on music, film, books, and popular culture….

They had a vision for something a lot better than a photocopied fanzine, and a vision for engaging the culture as Christians. They didn’t put out a “Christian” magazine. That was never their intention. But they put out a magazine that was true to its tagline: “Signs of Life in Music, Film, and Culture.” By focusing on what was excellent, creative, thought-provoking, beautiful, challenging — wherever it might be found — they tried to raise the level of general cultural discourse.

Paste Magazine. Quality publication. Founded by Christians. Part of the conversation with the culture at large.

Everyday Joe’s Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado. This is the outreach ministry of Timberline Oldtown Church, which meets in the coffee house on Sunday mornings. It’s the coffee house and church of which I am a part.

What does it mean to do ‘outreach’ and ‘ministry’? They are two words that have gained a fairly negative reputation among non-Christians…and even among some Christians. While noble in intent, they sometimes end up being nothing more than one-way communication from Christian to non-Christian, where no real communication takes place, and no relationship is built. When we talk and fail to listen, it can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

What does it mean to be a coffee house, run by Christians? Everyday Joe’s Coffee House is a place people come to. Conversation takes place. Walls come down. God works in our midst. He works in people’s hearts here, but not because of programs, but more because we provide a space where we get out of the way, a space where people can be themselves, a space where we can listen and gain understanding with one another. We have concerts on Friday and Saturday, but the concerts may or may not be performed by Christians. We have art on the walls, sometimes by Christians, sometimes not. We have little to none religious imagery. Is this our philosophy of ministry? No, it comes from our heart of who we are.

It’s a crossroads that not everyone is comfortable with. For some who favor an overt Christian message, we’re not Christian enough. For some who know we’re affiliated with a church, the fact that we’re Christians is enough for them to distrust us. But for others, there’s dialogue…and community. We learn from each other and get closer to each other as fellow humans.

We strive for quality too, because people are important. Sometimes in Christian circles we are cheap, really cheap, all while telling people how much we love them. We have our financial limitations, but even so, we have a quality espresso machine, use high end coffee, make homemade chai, and train our mostly volunteer staff how to pull quality shots. It’s good coffee. If you’re ever in Northern Colorado, please stop by.

For more information visit our website at www.everydayjoes.org.

Our executive director maintained a blog for a few years that has a number of details about Everyday Joe’s.

Our event coordinator just started a new blog to go along with our e-newsletter called Appendix E-J. The latest post, written by me, is here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Ruminate Magazine is “a quarterly magazine for those who desire the space to share short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art that resonate with the complexity and truth of the Christian faith.” It is produced locally in Fort Collins, Colorado, and distributed nationally.

If you are a Christian and a writer or visual artist, you may be familiar with literary journals and magazines. Some colleges and high schools produce them. My Alma Mater did. The number of literary magazines produced by Christians is small, and of those, the quality of both the writing and production varies. Ruminate Magazine is not a magazine of Christian cliches and simple answers, but a thoughtful and well-put-together magazine of the highest quality.

As they say, “A good word, in and of itself, can be a spiritual endeavor expressing the beauty, creativity, and ironies of the human experience. Because of this, RUMINATE publishes work with both subtle and overt associations to the Christian faith as well as work that has no direct association.”

I’ve subscribed to their magazine myself, and we carry it at our coffee house. Check out their website to learn more about them, to subsribe, or to submit work of your own.