The Zine?

Okay, so I really like the idea of a Zine. Its relatively easy to market, and could possibly be a simple way of generating momentum and revenue. But in our internet world having it be something that people actually would visit and care to read anything on it must have some 'hook.' You can have great content but who cares? There must be something about it that gets into peoples heads, causes them to come back. Or else we'll have a really cool, incredibly intelligent, and articulate website that nobody freaking cares about. But having it be something people care about and not comprimise our principles is also another thing to ponder. But here's some ideas about what it could be like, and what I would hate for it to become. It could be something that is a place for people to get info about what's going on in the kingdom here in our area and what also is going on around the globe. It could be somewhere where (a la Justin) reviews, commentaries, thoughts, miscellanies, editorials are published. But it could also be a place where people check out the culture scene (music, art, philosophy, nature, etc...) It could be a place where bands could get their names out, dates when they play, etc... I don't know these are just some ideas. I don't want it to turn into some myspace thing, I don't want it to feel like c28, (Shaun here's where you'd come in because you have a great crap detector). It literally could be something like The Reader or something but our own online version. Also check out Books and Culture the Christianity Today publication, it has some good stuff. Mostly I guess I just don't want it to be lame. But I don't know what the hook would be. All these might work but why would people want to come? Here's some stuff to ponder, and maybe we can start making some steps toward Jed's proposition of converting knowledge into output.

Converting Knowledge Into Output

This is the body of a letter I wrote to Dad a few years back (2003 I think) that had to do with some fundamental issues for our family business to contemplate as we were in a period of trying to figure out what we should be. Unfortunately things didn't quite happen the way Dad or I had envisioned for a variety of different reasons, as is prone to happen in this world, but I think there was definitely some value in this communication as we begin to contemplate what the Jubilee Project might be:

Creation Theology, Wisdom, Redemption and the Formation of a Corporation

From the very beginning man’s high purpose and dignity is made clear – he is made in the very image of God, and endowed with a God-like role in the created realm. Man was to be a highly functional being, entrusted with a God-ordained representative kingship over the earth and its wealth (Gen. 1:28). God’s own rule was extended and carried out on earth through the rule he had given to man. The creative nature of God was then placed in man, a God-given creative impetus to make, build, and harness the resources of this world to bring it under man’s careful dominion, and ultimately to hand that dominion over to his Maker. The glory of man’s role was carried out through a harmonious relationship to the Creator.

Man’s ability to carry out his role was dependent on an abundant and crucial resource: knowledge. Knowledge was the fuel that enabled him to carry out his office with competence. The watershed issue in the creation drama was not if man would acquire knowledge, but how he would acquire it. He was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…God forbade it upon penalty of death. What must be noted is that there is significant textual evidence in Genesis 1-4 to indicate that this knowledge of good and evil is not to be taken in moral categories (although it’s consumption had moral implications on an eternal scale), rather on functional and cosmological scales. God harnessed His knowledge of good (function) and evil (chaos) to create and order the world from a chaotic state to a functional and harmonious state. So, essentially the created order was a manifestation of His divine wisdom (Prov. 8:22-31). This knowledge is what man needed to carry out his role as steward, he had to acquire it. He could acquire it in one of two ways, in harmonious proximity to his Lord, or through rebellious consumption of the fruit. Man could gain knowledge through revering the Lord and honoring his ultimate Kingship (Prov. 1:7), or he could steal this knowledge and become a king unto himself without acknowledging God’s supreme Lordship (Gen. 2:17).

The fall centered on how man would know, and then extend his rule. He acquired the cosmological wisdom he needed through rebellion and at great cost. In his knowledge there would be progress…great progress, but also futility and ultimately death. The kingdom of man and the Kingdom of God were thereafter sundered and at odds. Man was both wise and cursed; all his creative efforts would succeed only through great strife. This was not as it should be, man was to create in a fashion that God did in Genesis 1, competently, beautifully, and without struggle. However, in addition to condemning man to death for his sin, God in his mercy cursed the earth and its resources rather than let man exist upon it comfortably as a usurper and a rebel. Man from his knowledge made the implements of civilization as early as Genesis 4 when Cain’s sons became the fathers of human shelter, animal husbandry, music, and tools. However, even as civilization developed it did so with violence and discontent. The creative impetus in man became a liability that drove him from God into vanity, ambition and uninhibited pride (Gen 6:5-6). Man indeed could do anything he purposed to do (Gen. 11:6); he built a Tower to the Stars as a way to establish his dominion (or name in the Babel Narrative). But again God, who would not have a rival to His Kingdom or His Name, thwarted men upon the plains of Shinar by confusing and scattering them. These issues are fundamental concerns at the heart of what scholars would classify as Creation and Wisdom Theology in the discipline of biblical theology. I am inclined to take this a step further and assert that these issues are a powerful current in the flow of Redemptive History and are fundamental concerns of the Biblical metanarrative (the underlying story of the Bible).

From the fall God has been on a redemptive mission to recover His wayward stewards, to bring them back into a harmonious relationship with Him, and to restore them to His everlasting Kingdom. He has withheld nothing in this pursuit, even His own life He has surrendered to recover His beloved rebels. However, He will not surrender His glory, and He will not surrender His rule. There is but one everlasting Kingdom in His Cosmos, which is most certainly not the kingdom of men. He exerts His kingship through His Anointed King, and will utterly destroy the kings of the earth with a rod of iron and the word of His mouth (Ps. 2:8-9, Rev. 19:15). Their dominions, and their knowledge, their work will perish as His Kingdom endures in this age and all the ages to come.

What strikes me is that in my studies, the principles of business are simple, and stem from one fundamental issue: Who is in charge? The answer determines which kingdom we labor in, how we acquire knowledge and then execute it. Many of the books I have read wrestle with the question of endurance and greatness. It is bound in the heart of man to build lasting institutions, great institutions; we obsess and labor to that end so that in the end our knowledge and our efforts were not squandered. However, through the fall our aspirations were distorted, turned away from God and toward ourselves, so that all our labor in the end furthers our own interests and not His. Thus, the kingdom of man still wars against God, seeking its own greatness, longing to endure without Him.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras state in their seminal work, Built to Last, that their book is fundamentally “about building something that is worthy of lasting – about building a company of such intrinsic excellence that the world would loose something important if that organization ceased to exist.” They speak accurately of values, vision, adaptability, and dedication as the keys to endurance and back their findings with hard data. It is probably in their concept of vision that the cosmological knowledge of Genesis is most organically related in our contemporary setting. From vision, or perception will flow the critical organization and harnessing of human, material, and capital resources toward the end of enduring greatness. It is with the modern sense of corporate vision that these companies can navigate through and utilize the cosmic principles of good (function) and evil (chaos) to create the companies that they envision – ones of lasting greatness. Sadly, even with the most accurate, compelling, and inspiring visions of these companies they cannot escape their blindness. Even if these companies were to endure to the end of the age, they wouldn’t even be an afterthought in eternity, precisely because they start with a finite and corruptible vision, and then harness finite and corrupt resources that can by their very nature never escape their finitude. The knowledge and vision of men will pass, their capital, material, and human resources will pass…none of it will last. No man will endure meaningfully in eternity unless he has been made anew in Christ. As the grass of the field we will fade and our world will fade with us.

So maybe the main issue is not only building something worthy of lasting, but also building something that is sure to last. It is so easy to become intoxicated with vision, to seek an understanding of what our business is and where it is going and then furiously go on pursuing what we are convinced our destiny is. Vision without a wholesale acknowledgment of God is one of Hell’s most potent lies and the harbinger of doom for the kingdom of men. We are simply to acknowledge and submit to God (Prov. 3: 5-6), to be wise with the resources he has given us, and allow his vision to guide us…he will make our paths straight. There is but one thing in this world that will last – the Kingdom of God, and His resources will not fade or be forgotten, and it is above all things worthy of lasting.

It seems clear to me that the opportunity in front of us is immense and compelling. We have the opportunity, in part at least to operate in a redeemed fashion as stewards of God’s resources, investing what he has given us to further and advance His Kingdom. This can be done through example by business practices that honor Him, all the way to investing our capital returns into the work of the saints around the world, and I am sure much more. What we seem most reliant on is a vision from God of where he wants this business to go, and what sort of business we are supposed to be. I don’t think that a vision, if it is God-honoring is a concoction of ambition, delusion, and pride, but rather a divinely motivated direction, in which we would be compelled to walk. As he grants you that vision, clarifies and refines that vision, I believe our efforts will be to the end of His glory, and will have a lasting impact on His Kingdom.

Edit: I guess I forgot to get to the point and ask the question... I believe that our efforts will be sourced in some sort of knowledge - we've got to know something of what the Jubilee Project is and how we are going to go about carrying out its purpose before we can actually do something with it. Knowledge has to be effective and functional for it to be of any value, hypothetical knowledge and and endless preoccupation with theories and possibilities gets nothing done, no matter how much fun it can be to talk about over a couple of beers. So the bottom line is how are we going to convert what we know into results?

Too Heavenly Minded and No Earthly Good?

Where do we begin? For an idea so absurdly ambitious as The Jubilee Project this question makes me feel like I have writers block for visionaries. It is dangerously easy to write thoughts and ideas, and an altogether monumental leap to take abstractions and make them concrete. I guess that's why I am writing this, because I need your collective genius to get this idea off the ground. There are so many aspects to consider, for example because this idea is, in part, a business, we need a business plan. A strategic and concrete way of conducting ourselves in the market. We also need to know which expirement we will do first (clothing, publishing, music...?). We also need to establish a some sense of how this will progress, i.e. first x then y then z or first a then b then c... or whatever. That is why I have talked to each one of you and asked you to contribute, because each of you in your own unique way can contribute to each of these; be it the strategizing, the planning, the expirementing, or the growing parts of this Project.
It seems to me that we do need to clarify the abstract so that the abstract can be a light along our concrete sidewalk, if you pick up the metaphor. How do we do this? These are important questions because if these don't happen, this Project will belong to the colossally huge information wastebasket that is the world wide web. So my dear companions, how now shall we proceed?

A Robin Hood Complex and Band-aids Over Cancer

It is not love to give someone clean water yet and fail to proclaim the gospel, "for what does a man profit if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his own soul?" We could do many good things for people, but without telling them they are dead in their transgressions, are perilously close to damnation, and that there is been provided a way out from under the wrath of God by Jesus Christ, we actually would do them a severe disservice. Who cares if their lives are better but their souls shall perish apart from the knowledge of God? To do this would be to place a band-aid over cancer. But clean water is a sign of love that points to the perfect love of God in Christ. Perhaps those who recieve the water (or whatever good work) would look along the sign to what it points to, perhaps they would cling to God and not to their water. We must consider, if ever we give what we have recieved, that all the good we could do is but a sign; for us to cling to the good we do as if it made us something is likened unto the foolish hiker who holds fast to the sign pointing to the summit of Half Dome thinking that the signpost is "really great!" and misses out on the staggering splendor of the Yosemite Valley. What is worse is if we were to gather others to "come see our sign!" How silly! All we do is but a sign pointing to the Majestic God to whom we are but the metaphor. So we must seriously ponder any good we do, and if God grants, any momentum given to this Project.

In addtion to this I feel deep in my heart an affinity for Robin Hood. The Christian story is a story that has as part of its narrative a preferential treatment for the poor. Throughout both the Old and New Covenants God admonishes His people to be mindful of those who are in need. America is an empire of emperors, and kingdom of kings, who to our great shame have hoarded our wealth in vast gilded storehouses and we have not heeded the commission given to the kings of Israel not to multiply gold and horses (see Deuteronomy 17:14-17). Here also we must heed the admonition of Wendell Berry who articulates the nature of a global economy and its damage to the earth, "The name of our present society's connection to the earth is "bad work"... All of us are responsible for bad work, not so much because we do it ourselves (though we all do it) as because we have it done for us by other people... Living as we now do in almost complete dependence on a global economy, we are put inevitably into a position of ignorance and irresponsibility. No one can know the whole globe. We can connect ourselves to the globe as a whole only by means of a global economy that, without knowing the earth, plunders it for us (Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, pg. 36-37). Is this any way for kings to conduct themselves? Do we as Solomon expand our wealth to our shame? Or can we, in responsible, generous ways reverse the damage our society does to its world? Can we steal from their wealth and contribute to the needs of others, especially our brothers and sisters scattered among the nations? Let us remember Paul's admonition to "let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith." In so doing, it is clear, that this will bring great glory to Christ and to His gospel.

Turning Stones into Bread?

So for those of you who have asked me, I will unveil to the degree that it is possible the plans for the Jubilee Project. I begin this with a relatively high degree of ambivalence, because I, in my own heart of hearts am so tempted to turn stone into bread. I am tempted to use my powers/gifts to make life happen for me, to provide for myself. I am also tempted to do this thing "for God" and so step off the pinnacle of the temple and presume there will be God's holy angels waiting to swoop me up and make this "thing for God" to work. And I am also tempted to go on a search for glory, and have power by means of this Project, and yet in attaining this power I would bow and worship the tempter and not the Beloved Son of God. Maybe some of you feel the same ambivalence, maybe some of you feel with fiery conviction that this is the thing for us to do.

The Jubilee Project began as an idea spawned from Jesus' words in Luke 4 wherein He proclaims that the Kingdom which He is ushering in is the substance which cast its shadow as the Jubilee Year (found in Leviticus 25). It is a time of reconcilliation, liberty, justice, and reparation. It is the re-ordering of the now decayed worldly order. Thus the Jubilee Project was an idea centered around liberty, justice, and reconcilliation as functions of the Kingdom.

It has morphed a number of times, and I am sure will continue to morph if God wills. But as I surveyed the group of people that sorrounded me I thought to myself, "surely this is no coincidence!" Gifted people, friends. So the idea was the The Jubilee Project would be a sort of Board of Trustees all mutually committed to the Values, Goals, and Purposes of the Project, who would in turn oversee a multiplicity of expirements. These expirements would include things like a music label/recording studio, a clothing company, a publishing company (including online and paper publications), perhaps cafes, art studios, reading rooms, etc... Each of these expirements would be overseen by a member of the Board of Trustees, and would not by name be attached to the Jubilee Project. These expirements would, if God so willed, generate profits, the profits would then be collected by the overseer and turned over to the Board of Trustees. This Board would then decide how to allocate these funds in such a way as to fulfill the values, goals, and purposes of The Jubilee Project. In other words these funds would be used to contribute toward the purposes of the Kingdom. This could be anything from supporting Sudanese Pastors and freeing women from African slave trading (yes it still happens!), to building wells for clean water in impoverished areas and supporting evangelists who work in the Muslim world. Literally anything that can be legitimately be shown to fulfill Kingdom purposes.

That is a broad brush stroke, without many details, primarily because as of this moment there are no details. What do you think the Spirit of God is doing, is this something He is leading us to do, or is this something that we may be tempted to do "for God?" I don't know, I don't have peace, but I do have a group of friends I trust, and a group of friends I trust that the same Spirit is moving within. May He whisper in our ears, "go this way." And may we follow where He leads.

First Things First

We need to ponder the meaning of Plato's dictum "know thyself." The meaning wrapped within this little phrase is essentially look within to discover the answer to that primal human question "what shall I do." The Platonic worldview percieved the self as healthy or unhealthy based on whether or not it was congruent with the dictates of human nature. Being that human nature, when flourshing, was capable of "great" things, the ethic of Plato and Aristotle became to "know thyself." Once one was living consistent with his/her nature and began to flourish (i.e. each of the persons capacities began to be exercised regularly and were well-functioning) one could discover that when one exercised their capacities that they could create and do meaningful things... good things. This healthy self had particular trajectories, and the individual is to look within to discover in what particular way it flourishes within themself. Thus one may discover that they have the flourshing artistic capacity that others did not have, or at least in the same manner which they had it, and this person then, according to this flourishing capacity was to be "honest" and act according to their flourishing capacity. Thus the movement within Platonic and Aristotelian thought is to look within to discover what meaningful thing I ought to do. This is wisdom. It should sound relatively familiar to Christians, it is the wisdom of proverbs. It is basically the sow and reap principle, which for the sage was, if you sow certain acts in a certain wise manner you will reap a generally good life. This is the hoekma of our cosmos. It is the ordering principle that God used to set in order the disordered and chaotic "void" or "deep." "Get wisdom" is the admonition of the Proverbs and of Plato and Aristotle. It is not that difficult to discover what kind of life is a "good life" according to the natural law by which our cosmos was made. Yet we need to look deeply into the crown jewel of widsom literature, Ecclesiastes. This work is written in response to misappropriated "wisdom." The sage who discovers "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, and poverty will come upon you like a bandit" from observing a man who was a sluggard whose property had been left uncultivated, could also become the sage who works hard according to his abilities, creates a flourishing vineyard, yet does so apart from God. This sage had discovered a meaningful life by acting according to "wisdom" but the teacher says "this too is meaningless" because what this wise guy did in building his wealth will all be lost and forgotten anyway. What are we to do? Are we to do anything? I propose that the wisdom of "know thyself" is only a secondary and derivative wisdom. If one makes it first, which all cultures, cliques, societies, and civilizations do, they inevitably become an aristocracy which has aristocratic values (such as hard work, moral behavior, individualism, an entreprenurial spirit, self-reliance, to name a few American aristocratic values). Churchs can become like this, emphasizing family values, moralism, and the like and can become very aristocratic. These churchs are doing very "meaningful" and "good" things, moral things, just things etc... And these churchs (and organizations for that matter) become crystallized around these values, each parishoner mirroring back to other parishoners how "good" they are. These churchs are well on their way to becoming Plato's Republic with Christ knocking on the gate of the city pleading with them to buy salve from Him, and clothing, and asking them to recieve Him to their feasts. All cultures, societies, and civilizations are built around the wisdom of the sow and reap principle, and individuals within these structures discover a meaningful and good life by following the dictum "know thyself." To answer the question "what are we to do" one follows the wisdom of "know thyself." And wisdom it is, but secondary and derivative wisdom. Remember Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, "not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." Therefore I conclude with these final thoughts; first we tend to think of our calling in terms of what we are to do and thus often follow the wisdom of "know thyself," look within to discover who you are and then you will discover what meaningful thing you should do, but I propose we think of our calling primarily in terms of God's sovereign foreknowing call by which we come to Christ, and stand in Him, in the Beloved Son of God. We are called in the Beloved, and our whole selves are to be recollected to the truth of what it means to be "in Christ." For to the degree which we are not recollected in Christ is the degree which we will be tempted to use our knowledge of ourselves (our gifts, abilities, and talents) to create, according to Kierkegaard, a "world in which I did not live, but only held up to the view of others... [and be] left standing like a man who has rented a house and gathered all the furniture and household things together, but has not yet found the beloved with whom to share the joys and sorrows of his life." The Jubilee Project, or any other human venture of ours, if done primarily as an extension of "know thyself" will be an incredibly great expirement of human ingenuity, that will ultimately fall under the condemnation of Ecclesiastes. But, if perchance, it is done as an expression of Jesus' admonition "I am the vine, you are the branches, abide in me and you will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing." Then it will stand as the fruit of God, tested as by fire, and will have continuity with the new creation wherein we will hear, "well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's joy!"