In Awe of Escape

Here's a look inside a new song I started writing this morning. Lyrically its about the notion of oneself being so completely consumed with the afterlife that they totally miss out on what God's doing, here & now. Conceptually it fits along the lines of many of N.T. Wrights' books.

So, without any further adieu...

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In Awe of Escape
(c) 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson

Your language speaks a broken story
You rarely even care
Your focus seems to have shifted
And you've started to stare

You stare to the heavens
And mock this ground
You lost your love
In awe of escape

The world begins its crumble
As you laugh in its face
The hurting cries of the ignored
Are forgotten without a trace

You stare to the heavens
And mock this ground
You lost your love
In awe of escape

Turn your eyes
There's more to see

You stare to the heavens
And mock this ground
You lost your love
In awe of escape

Book Excerpt #8 (Ok, So Who's In Charge?)

Here's another quick look inside my book, Outsourcing God. This excerpt focuses, again on leadership. I hope you enjoy!

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In 1 Peter chapter 2, the writer writes, “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Who is this “you?” Is that you, me? Is it you? Is it extended to every reader? The entirety of the body of Christ – the Church?

The passage suggests that hinging on the death and resurrection of Jesus is this new structure of leading the Church forward. The passage suggests that the future will be built on our shoulders, because, and out of, Jesus.

Even in the earliest part of the Bible, God says to the Israelites in Exodus, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

It’s almost as if God has had this plan all along. Imagine a God big enough to understand the human error of us abusing leadership, abusing power, and abusing the Church. In the earliest parts of the Bible, God knew this. And from Christ, we are again proclaimed “a holy priesthood.”

© 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson. Outsourcing God.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The War of Art

Creative folk (that's everyone, by the way)-

I've stumbled onto a GREAT READ called, The War of Art (by Steven Pressfield). Its a critique on creativity, and does a great job of harnessing what causes, prohibits, limits, and can set your creativity into overdrive.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

So if you're a creative type, wish you were, or always say, "i'm not creative," this book is for you!

Its a simple read, so no need to set aside the next 6 months trying to unpack this one.

Check it out and we'll chat later,
Ross

p.s. there's also an Iditarod reference, so ya, its pretty good!

Beard Sweater & more...

Last weekend, the girls and I went out to a great little art show in St. Louis. Among the great original creativity was this little number...

YOU TOO can get yourself a beard sweater HERE.

The pics say it all. It received many "awesome" looks at the St. Patrick's Day Parade later in the day.

Here's another artist worth your time.

She's doing really cool art around the theme of COVENANT.

Peace,
Ross

Blur

Blur
(c) 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson

Here's a song I wrote this afternoon on some thoughts
that have been rolling around lately. Enjoy!
-Ross

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(VERSE 1)
When everything gets blurred
And you can't define it all
There's uneasy feelings
Because you can't be wrong

You've been taught there's a way
That the world must work
But feelings of late
Are bending and blurring and starting to change


(CHORUS)
Because grace might be bigger
It just might be stronger
And when that begins to blur
You're seeing beauty in it all


(VERSE 2)
A way to think; that's hard to understand
A way to live; breaks unless its love
Because for all of time its us and them
Its how we medicate and mend


(CHORUS)
Because grace might be bigger
It just might be stronger
And when that begins to blur
You're seeing beauty in it all


(BRIDGE)
To blur makes bigger
To blur makes stronger
To blur is chaos
To blur is truth



(CHORUS)
Because grace might be bigger
It just might be stronger
And when that begins to blur
You're seeing beauty in it all

Random Though Thursday...

Why oh why do wrist watches smell SO bad?

My wrists don't wreak...

-Ross

Book Excerpt #7 (Leadership)

Here's another quick look inside my book, Outsourcing God. This excerpt focuses on leadership (hints the title of today's blog). Enjoy!

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For far too long, the lines between leadership and servanthood have stood between a cohesive working relationship. Unfortunately, both are necessary to successful leadership – not only in idea, but also in biblical foundation and mandate. We’ll begin with a biblical/historical view and call to leadership. From there we’ll compare styles and methodologies, and will finally move to concrete action points.

Our concepts regarding leadership have been altered from community to community, and culture to culture. And depending on which leadership guru you prescribe, you practice the one and only method of effective leadership. Whereas there may be comfort in such methods, you may be squelching the very essence that makes leadership work.

Because we’ve often made leadership an either/or person-type, we quickly outsource these roles and responsibilities to only a handful of the Kingdom-bearers. We miss opportunity after opportunity because of the way(s) culture have influenced our decisions and the way we gravitate towards certain people with certain qualities, while neglecting others that contribute greatly to the overall body.

We condition our individual roles from birth and before we realize it, our paths have been chosen. But it doesn’t have to remain like that!

© 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson. Outsourcing God.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Peace,
Ross

Cora Performs 'Single Ladies'

Now that is awesome!
-Ross

3 albums you need to have in your rotation...

Here's 3 albums you need to have in your musical-rotation-of-late.
(and yes, this is in order of importance)

#1...Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons...
if you like gritty acoustic guitars, awesome harmonies,
roots rock, and banjo, then these guys will BLOW YOUR MIND!

#2...Broken Bells...
(Danger Mouse and James Mercer,
the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Shins.)
Just some real tastiness here!

#3...Achilles Heel by Pedro the Lion...
this album is a few years old,
but i've recently had it on repeat...

Peace,
Ross

Book Excerpt #6 (Condition)

Here's another quick excerpt from my upcoming book, Outsourcing God.

Condition is the overall perception of our church life. I'm not simply referring to a worship experience, small group experience, the preaching, the care, or any specific component of what makes up the Church. Instead, what I'm referring to is the overall inter-workings of everyone in the community we call Church.

Chances are most people that feel like they're stuck going in and out of the motions are not actively participating in church. If there is some sort of community involvement, it's most likely calculated, expressed, and lived out, in such a cookie-cutter manner, that it just leaves you feeling blah.

By outsourcing all of the mentioned components, the overall perception of the bride of Christ begins to crumble. This is a devastating effect on how both leaders in the church and the laity have ignored God's plan, and have succumbed to the god of convenience.

Consider another scenario: parenting. For as long as I can remember, there’s been a call for parents to get more involved in their children’s lives. I’m not sure when or what caused the overall decline of good, quality, parenting to collapse. Nonetheless, it remains a major problem, a hot button issue, and the family unit suffers.

There’s also been no shortfall on how to remedy this collapse either. Schools provide more care (before and after school programs) and more education/resources on issues previously deemed “family issues.” Another remedy has been the amount of assistance and involvement poured out and put in place by government. In this remedy however, has risen greater dependency and debate. On one side of the debate, people cry, “the school can’t teach that, it’s the parents’ responsibility!” On the other side, teachers and administrators decide that issues that are being neglected at home must be addressed. On one side of the debate, voices gather to demand smaller and less intrusive government. On the other side, the government is left to pickup the pieces of a fractured dilemma.

Whereas once matters of the family were left to truly be family matters, over time, culture has outsourced small pieces of personal and community responsibility. And no less depressing is the fact that the systems in place to meet the needs and fill in the gaps, is also creating broader gaps due to its intoxicating dependency.

The god of convenience outsources. The god of convenience hires away our encounter. The god of convenience hires away our health. The god of convenience hires away our belief. The god of convenience makes us lazy and uninvolved. The god of convenience scares away our doubts, questions, and belief. And over time, the church becomes nearly unrecognizable.

By outsourcing, the church we once held dear to our hearts, we’ve found ourselves in an almost unrecognizable condition.

© 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson. Outsourcing God.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

-Ross

Found Myself in a Conundrum

Tonight I found myself in a bit of a conundrum...

You may know of my passion for circus peanuts from a previous post:


Tonight I came across an abandoned (UNOPENED) bag of circus peanuts in the mall parking lot. Here comes the conundrum...

Do I, in good conscience, consume the bag of heaven in front of me?

I feel like I failed my soul, because sadly, I passed.

night,
Ross

Are You Inspired Yet...?

I like that his less talented brother is riding his bike....kinda says, "i'm the athlete." But we all know he's not...mr. training wheels :-)

-Ross

RE{stl} LAUNCH DATE is OFFICIAL...

RE{stl} is a diverse group of spiritual misfits. We are hypocrites in transition, connected by humanity & grace. And it's official, RE{stl} will launch on Tuesday, April 6th (7:30PM) at Cicero's in the loop. Start making plans now to attend!

Click here for more info about RE{stl}...

Peace,
Ross