pensees

Now on WordPress

2009-08-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

I've switched to a new blog on WordPress set up by Jane Johnson (she's pretty amazing at this stuff).

From now on head over to mypensees.com or simply kenwytsma.com.

Kip's Toyland

2009-08-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Shot this picture of the girls in the Hollywood flea market a few days ago.

Kip's Toyland belongs next to the other great "Kip" posts of years gone by :)

(If you don't know who Kip is he is Antioch's High School Pastor and all around fun guy to joke with. Just click on the "Kip" category and you'll see some great past pictures!!)

So Cal

2009-08-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Checked out of the blogosphere for a while...

We're on vacation first in So Cal and then up to a week long camp at Mount Hermon.

A few things I've learned in the last couple of days:

1. 10 hours in the car is too long with 3 kids and a baby

2. In N Out Burger still tastes amazing

3. Napa Valley is pretty cool

NEXT on Vimeo

2009-07-29T17:52:00.001-07:00

Check out the World Relief NEXT videos on our new Vimeo account!!

http://www.vimeo.com/5763792

DR CONGO from World Relief NEXT on Vimeo.

Esther's Birthday Breakfast

2009-07-27T12:09:00.001-07:00

Saturday Night!!

2009-07-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

The best spot to be Saturday night in Bend is the dinner / live music / silent auction fundraiser for Kilns College!!

Just come anytime after 6:00 to the Kilns Bookstore in the Old Mill and enjoy catered food along with music by the Eric Tollefson Band and Avenue H.

Other than the $10 for dinner, there is no need to buy anything or give any money - simply join us for a great evening out.

The only thing better than joining us yourself, is to come and bring some friends!!

Here are just a few of the organizations donating to the silent auction:

Inn at the 7th Mountain; Exhale Face and Body Spa; Allyson's Kitchen; Baldy's; Ben Edwards Photography; The Old Mill Shops; Maya Moon Handbags; Nashelle’s Fine Jewelry; Regal Cinemas; Jones Fly Fishing; Starbucks; Ethni Photography; Tetherow; Tony's Deli; Cascade Flights; Mint Blossom; Cheryl Harris Pottery; Plethora Salon; The Lofts; Emerald City Smoothie and more!!

Elly David Special Music

2009-07-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

Elly David, who is from Tanzania, joined us at Antioch last Sunday and shared this song.

Enough Project Finalist!!

2009-07-23T14:59:00.001-07:00

World Relief NEXT and Emote 360 teamed up to enter a video in the Enough Project's Congo Video Contest.

We just found out this week that our video was chosen to be a finalist. The three celebrity judges that picked the finalists were Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling, actress Sonya Walger from ABC’s "Lost," and Oscar-nominated director Wim Wenders.

The winning video is picked by public vote with the winner being flown down to see a viewing of the video at the Hollywood Film Festival.

Please take the time to vote, help raise awareness for the Congo and support World Relief NEXT and Emote360.

Click here to go to the contest home page, select "vote" and then cast your vote by clicking the thumbs up on our video. Our video is the one titled in all caps with a picture of Micah Bournes (one of Antioch's interns from Moody Bible in Chicago) in the video player.

Too Tired to Desire God

2009-07-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking the last few days about when you're too tired to desire God.

When this is the case, I think we usually focus on the desire part -- I don't desire, don't feel like I have it in me to desire, don't want to desire, am guilty that I don't desire etc.

The funny thing about this is that the grammar of the initial sentence shows us that this is misplaced energy.

Too tired to... implies that tired is the problem, not desire.

We tend to focus on the output not the input. We tend to misdiagnose our problem as spiritual when its root is physical. We think that God is hard to keep up with instead of realizing sleep is hard to find.

We hear failure... God says sabbath.

Peaches

2009-07-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

The video says it all...

Stampedes

2009-07-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

I like the word stampede.

Dan Leonardo (neighbor and friend) and I were talking this morning about life, money, raising kids, what really matters in life etc. etc.

One insight was that wise decisions are usually the ones where you sit down and think them through. Wisdom doesn't get caught up in circumstances, but tries to understand choices and consequences.

In short, wisdom doesn't follow the hysteria of crowds -- it doesn't get caught up in stampedes.

So I'm sitting here wondering what stampedes are around me... what is the crowd doing that feels urgent, but might not be?

What are the things we should be sitting down and thinking through?

Affirmation

2009-07-21T09:18:00.001-07:00

We've been doing this little affirmation thing at the staff meetings for a couple of weeks with the interns.

It's been amazing to hear people share thoughts and encouraging stories about one another. The surprising part for me is how much I've learned about everyone through the experience.

It really goes to show that there are so many things that we can share that we usually don't share. Observations, insights and appreciation for others is a continuous part of our day, but rarely do the other people ever get to hear or know about the encouraging things we see.

On the flip side, I firmly believe that we are all affirmation junkies and need a steady dose of encouragement and appreciation. Somehow, we need to build individual and corporate habits so that the things that can be said and ought to be said actually do get said.

We need more affirmation.

Antioch Romania Trip

2009-07-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

So there's actually a blog for the high school team that has been in Romania the last two weeks -- who knew!?!

Click here to see some pics and read what they've been doing.

Collaboration

2009-07-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

Matt Smith asked me to write this little piece on collaboration for the World Relief NEXT website and e-newsletter. I thought I'd post it here as well!!

**************

Collaboration is simply a word. It stands for the act of working together.

Collaboration, however, can also be a philosophy – a way of thinking, planning and doing. Likewise, it can be a theological term that speaks to the original working relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit – where difference in function doesn't diminish equality in worth. This theological aspect is also seen in the metaphor of a body that works together even though comprised of distinct parts.

Words can have different types of meanings. They can have simple ones and they can have formal ones. Paul utilized the second type when he took the Greek word for church, ecclesia, which simply meant “a gathering”, and lifted it to a higher theological level.

I believe, what we need today is to baptize the word collaboration much the same way Paul baptized the word church.

Collaboration seems like a great choice for elevation to theological status. It isn’t overused. It has a positive motivational quality to it. And it already has the core theological principals inherent in its definition.

Collaboration helps us understand the necessity of harmony, unity, partnering and encouraging while still maintaining individuality and distinctiveness. We don’t want uniformity – the absence of diversity, but unity – the joining of diverse parts. Collaboration doesn’t destroy the dignity of ownership; rather, it harnesses and maximizes it through common calling and purpose.

What does collaboration look like? Collaboration is the diminishing of boundaries and the promotion of mutually beneficial relationships. It is the absence of direct competition and the building of win / win paradigms. Collaboration is solidarity.

It is churches, organizations and individuals working together because of the commonality of their cause rather than the dictates of their job descriptions. It is the highlighting of the needy at the end rather than the institution in the middle. It is the spotlight on the widow receiving rather than on the CEO giving.

Collaboration is the recognition of humility. It is the desire for greater good than personal gain. It is the understanding of our call to justice, the benefit of the poor through our cooperation and the joy of the orphan maximized through synergy.

Collaboration is love in working clothes.

Collaboration is the act of working together as philosophy and dogma.

With Collaboration, 1 + 1 = 3.

Money

2009-07-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ministry takes money. Often, ministry is money (see Acts 2 and the idea of charity and benevolence).

I've always hated this. Money has got to be my least favorite aspect of being a pastor and church planter. I hate it so much that I more often get criticized for not talking about it than talking about it. (Imagine that!)

Anyway, money has gotten to be such a big headache and hindrance in my primary ministry areas of Antioch, Kilns College and World Relief NEXT that I thought I'd write about it.

My thought was that there might be a millionaire out there (or even someone with 500 dollars) who is willing to help out.

If you woke up in the middle of last night feeling like giving to a worthwhile cause, let me know.

If you'd like to help out or see a list of different needs that you can contribute to... e-mail me at ken@antiochchurch.org

Summer Swamp Plug

2009-07-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

Tamara showed me this video a little while ago... Sara singing a little diddy about Summer Swamp - the kids summer camp that started this morning at Blakely Park.

I think it's hilarious!

Better Every Time!

2009-07-13T17:29:00.001-07:00

It gets better every time I listen to it!!

Justin, Conor and the others did an amazing job on the Antioch CD.

(This isn't a sales pitch, so I won't tell you how to get one!!!)

Tape and Glue Required

2009-07-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Matt Smith, Antioch's College Pastor, and I have been having a lot of discussions this week on the nature of community and the identity of the church. Far too often, we overlook community and focus only on the function of the church.

However, doing comes out of being and function follows form.

Being in deep relationship with other Christians is essential to our calling.

Matt has some amazing insights on what that looks like and how the church can get there.

This morning, however, I found myself thinking of the other side -- the side of disappointment and failed effort.

What do you do with the hollow demoralizing feeling when others let you down?
How do you keep giving when you begin to realize that others are just taking?
How do we pursue lasting community when people often don't shoot straight and many times don't tell the truth (including ourselves?)
Where do we get filled up when we continually get drained?

I've got a bunch of thoughts on this, but I'll just put down a few.

First, expectations... if we expect perfection or easy results then we are certain to get disappointed or frustrated. We paint because it is worth doing, not because we're Picasso's. Likewise, we live in community because it is worth doing, not because we'll do it perfectly.

Second, forgiveness... if you have lots of kids you will inevitably need tape. Forgiveness is a kind of spiritual or relational tape. Without it we can't get over things. With it we can repair stuff and move on. Church is a glass house with lots of kids - tape and glue required.

Third, fluid categories... if we are all different parts of a body, then we will all have different strengths and, correspondingly, different weaknesses. Extroverts will hurt you in a different way than introverts. Creative people will let you down in different ways than organized people. Laid back people will disappoint differently than strong ones. Be gracious where people are naturally weak so you can appreciate where they are naturally gifted. Don't spotlight the messiness of others the same way you don't want your junk magnified. Evaluate people according to how God made them... not according to your own values and priorities.

Lastly, hang out with more people like Matt Smith... if we are going to grow into community, we have to have people we can learn from.

Sara's 4th

2009-07-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

So Beth Fischer hooked us up with this pretty stellar keepsake. Here's Sara's 4th Birthday Party.

Thoughts

2009-07-09T19:41:00.001-07:00

So a couple thoughts from today:

Conflict often leads to clarity (that makes conflict a potentially good thing, who knew?)
Restless Wrestling (a term Matt Smith gave to his spiritual musings... I like it!)
Marriage riddle #86 - What do you do when one spouse wants to lounge around and the other is full of focused energy?
The interns went white water rafting (I wish I was an intern...)
Americans are ranked #26 in the world in health by the World Health Organization (I feel average, which means I'd be healthier if I lived in any of 25 different countries.)
I don't like Twitter (please don't hate me.)
I do like the Old Testament... Just in the mood these days for raw and authentic.

Conference Transcript

2009-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post the transcript of the talk I gave at the conference this week. (Of course, it won't feel the same without Beth's video's playing before and after!!)

***************

One of the things you get to do when you start a church, as many of you might know, is rethink many things that we do and try to do them better than the church has done them in the past. (Of course, we've probably messed up more things than we've improved!)

Anyway, as a church we wanted to be involved in a global cause and realized that there are two things that Christians have typically done in the area of missions and development that present problems.

The first one is that we spread ourselves too thin. It’s like we hit twelve nails one time rather than hit one nail twelve times – and drive it in.

The second is that we don’t realize the destructive potential of compassion.

We can’t even get churches to collaborate with each other in a recreation spot like Bend, Oregon — how do we think we’re really going to change complex socio-political and religious issues half way around the world with two week trips once a year? And when we drop into these places with our money and our influence we often create jealousies, dependencies and rivalries that do more harm than good.

I remember reading about the soldiers that liberated Concentration Camps after WWII. The first thing they did out of compassion was to give the starving survivors their food rations – not knowing that this would kill them due to the extreme nature of their starvation. As crazy as it sounds, compassion can kill.

If you're driving along the streets of Burundi and throw an empty plastic water bottle to a five year old (they use them as toys) and then he gets immediately pummeled by three bigger kids - your compassion has done more harm than good. If your financial gifts to a pastor in a village are too extravagant for the context and you destabilize the economic and political equilibrium, create a celebrity, bring disunity and overshadow the spiritual focus of the gospel - your compassion (although rightly motivated) has done more harm than good.

The problem isn't compassion, but how it is channeled.

So as Antioch sought to get involved in global causes we wanted to both go deep and give smart.

The problem we found was that the big organizations who have on the ground projects and do a really good job of missions and development, don’t have the time or energy to talk to small churches like us.

And if we call our own number and go it alone, we ignore the complexities of cross cultural engagement and don’t benefit from the knowledge and experience of those working on the ground.

So the options were either to sit on the bench or go it alone.

Through a crazy series of circumstances, we started a collaborative effort with World Relief called World Relief NEXT designed to reach the next generation of believers and to harness the power of creativity and collaboration.

World Relief gave us a platform to own a cause - to go deep and give smart.

They gave away ownership, allowed creativity and began a dialogue on how to partner in different ways with the North American church. We gave away control and the desire to be at the center of engagement. In short, we committed to serve those who give their lives to serving in a third world context.

When you come up on an accident scene, you don't push the EMT out of the way in your desire to help the victim. Rather, you offer to help the EMT or doctor - to get a bag out of the ambulance or keep the crowd back. Likewise, we should offer to serve instead of asking those on the ground in foreign countries to serve us.

Meaning has become the new fashion statement. We all want to move from awareness of the world to direct engagement - hands on work. Passion, however, doesn't qualify someone to be a doctor. Passion, without education and capacity, also doesn't qualify someone as an expert in cross-cultural engagement.

World Relief NEXT is designed for collaboration... for helping churches engage through the act of working together with missionaries, relief workers and African pastors and leaders already engaged in the Africa Great Lakes Region. It is about win / win solutions. It is about partnerships and creatively helping one another in our shared passion and God given calling to help the world's most vulnerable.

There’s a card in your conference pack that you can fill out and bring by our table to either find out about owning a cause through World Relief or how you can become a World Relief NEXT partner church – we’d love to see this creative and collaborative venture grow to include and bless other churches.

We’re going to show you a video of the Congo now, which is our cause.

Many people don’t know that more people have died the last decade or so in the Congo from war related causes than anywhere in the world since WWII. 800,000 people died during the genocide in Rwanda and we vowed to never sit by silently again in the face of such horrible death, injustice and oppression. However, 5.4 million have died in the Congo since that time due to the aftermath of that genocide – Hutu and Tutsi rebel groups, as well as a dozen or more rebel groups fighting over the vast mineral wealth of Eastern Congo.

We believe that the God who is big enough for us to give our lives to the cause of justice and the God who ought to be big enough for Christians to collaborate together, is also big enough to bring change and healing to the Congo.

Tired

2009-07-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd show you how tired we are waiting in the Grand Rapids Airport.

(Don't tell Ann about this picture though -- she doesn't know I took it!)

2009-07-07T11:39:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of the NEXT banner hung up at the DeVoss Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids.

We had the opportunity to present World Relief NEXT to 1,200 pastors yesterday and have been meeting and sharing the vision with hundreds of them since.

There are some pretty cool church planters and pastors out there!!

All in all a pretty amazing time.

PPP Conference

2009-07-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Up at 3:30 am to make a 5:00 am flight to Portland en route to Grand Rapids.

Shoot me now.

Enough Project

2009-06-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Conflict mineral video for the Enough Project's video contest.

A pretty amazing piece of work done in collaboration over the last several days.

What's best... the people who worked on this video actually care about the Congo.

ENOUGH FINAL ENTRY from emote360 on Vimeo.