une question

i got a job!

wahoo.

p.s. i know that blogs are generally designed so that i write and you read...but this time i'm deviating from the norm, because i have a question, not something to expound upon.
please email me and tell me your thoughts-- olivia.munn@gmail.com

the whole idea of church leadership-- the rest of the Body submits to them, we obey them...we're permitted to express disagreements of course, but even if we disagree on a small matter, the expected response is to submit to the authority they have over us.

i never questioned this before: i'm actually quite committed to following whatever my leaders say-- they are my commanding officers, my sergeant-majors, i'm only a soldier, of course i obey.
now i am in a position of minor-leadership over the War College students...and i certainly appreciate it when they suck it up and do what i ask them to do, even when they don't like it, or don't feel comfortable.

spoke with a wise friend recently who suggested that our entire concept of church leadership is bunk. "priesthood of all believers!"

so i read scriptures that talk about submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ-- considering others better than ourselves-- having the same attitude that Christ Jesus had when He humbled Himself to death on a cross-- tricky stuff like that. i read Scriptures about submitting to governmental authorities, slaves submitting to their masters, wives submitting to their husbands, children submitting to their parents...specifics like that.

but i have yet to find much Scripture about believers submitting to one specific believer who has been placed in authority over them.

thus-- i am not sure of my opinion, yet.

so, will you please write to me and explain to me why we have set up our church system so that one person (or a team as it is in my corps) has authority over the rest?

i'd like to know. :o)

as my dear sister Cindy says-- "stay in the trenches."

slow down

i'm back "home" and my life is again flying at a prodigious pace.

this weekend up north was positively blessed, for all of you who have been praying, or are otherwise interested.

curious lesson i learned:

my entire life, people have taught me, "prepare, prepare, prepare!" in regards to preaching. i feel that the Lord is saying the opposite: "wait, wait, wait."

this is in no way trying to disregard the essentiality and indispensability of Bible study and prayer...but i'm beginning to buy William Booth's (and Rowan Castle's) theory-- 15 minutes of prep before a preach.
i believe that my life is sermon prep-- i study the Word daily, i listen to Jesus daily, and my experiences and such lend me illustrations. this is plenty of prep. i do an hour of sermon prep every day when i do my rations in the morning. i do at least 3 hours of sermon prep every week when i do a war room shift. i do nonstop sermon prep as i commune with Jesus when i walk down the street. I do sermon prep whenever i buy a stranger a sandwich, or give them my socks. i do sermon prep as i keep my ears open to His voice.

perhaps we only need 15 minutes to ask Him what He wants to say through us to that congregation at that moment, and pray for Holy Spirit power.

so, while i could sit down and brainstorm and study for hours prior to a message...i find what is more effective, and enjoyable, is to always keep my ears turned toward Jesus. He tells me what to say-- this friday night it happened to be in the car on the way to youth councils. saturday night it happened to be during worship, and as the preach was happening.

anyway: beautiful weekend. God kept our team on our toes-- He changed our plans to His (frequently last minute...could have been earlier had we been listening instead of planning!) and consistently used us a we opened ourselves to Him. 40ish kids at the event, mostly believers: a few went from life to death this weekend, a few died to sin, a few met Him for the first time, though they believed for years, and more than a few wept. dear teens.

Lord-- we want fruit that remains!
God of peace, make them holy in every way, and may their whole spirits and souls and bodies be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. You will make this happen, for You, who called us, are faithful. (1 Thess. 5:23-24 olivia style)
amen.

never quit the field. the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few.

shock troops

tomorrow a.m. i leave with a brigade to go up North-- Northern, British Columbia divisional youth councils. it's about 14 hours of driving (ick) with about 13 people...many of whom are teens. it's certainly going to be interesting.

our brigade from 614 is heading up all of the meetings. our responsibilities include the worship, the preaching, the appeals...everything. myself-- i'm preaching 3 times. please, please, please pray for us all. it's a wonderful opportunity, and we believe many kids are going to get saved, sanctified and sent out. pray that Holy Spirit would speak through us. pray that we would be a blessing. pray for Jesus to come, and for kids to meet the Lover of their souls this weekend. and pray for unity in our brigade. and healing for Xander's ear and Kath's head.

we have faith that we'll see some of the greater things Jesus speaks of, this weekend-- agree with us.

come, Lord Jesus, come.

fight on!

6 of one, half a dozen of another

this is simply a P.S. to my most recent post below--

open air today: today no one was saved (that i have heard of yet), however, there were several massive victories--

• one man who believes but doesn't have any community was invited to Re:cre8 (our coffee house) and plugged into a cell, and he was stoked about it.

• we had about a dozen eggs thrown at us. strange, but i was beaming after this happened: Jesus said that the world would hate His disciples...sometimes i worry because so many people like me/614/the Salvation Army/the Church. so i thought that the eggs were a good sign that we were doing something right.

• a few strangers chased down the guy who threw the eggs, and one other young guy cleaned up the eggs and brought us paper towels-- i previously thought that these people were irritated by our presence, but this showed that they at least care about us. for me it was a glimpse of the light in darkness.
  

• i had a long, reality (spirit)-focused chat with a young girl-- probably around 17. not many of them around my neighborhood, so i was glad to make that connection.

• those giving the gospel shots were right on-- power packed. the music was bold and clear, despite my lacking in the leadership department. we also included visual art in the open air meeting for the first time.
  

• one War College warrior was cussed out her first time on the green crate (our version of a soap box) today, but came up a second time and broke it down hardcore.

i'm sure there's more victory that i'm unaware of.
anyway, praise the Lord for a willowy bit of insubstantial persecution. in my struggle against sin (my own sin and the worlds) i have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood-- so i'm not even close to Jesus' standard. yet He considers me a co-laborer. hm.

have you been hated for Christ? have you shed blood? are you in the 70% of the Christian population that is under persecution? tell me if you are, and what country you live in, and let me know if it is wrong for me to pray for persecution in my life.

though i'd love to be martyred for Christ (front row seats in heaven [Rev 6:9], and solidarity with Christ), i don't feel that now is the time: there is too much to be done, and i want to help.
however-- to be beaten, thrown in jail, slandered, mocked, tortured-- that i would love right now! i want to share in His sufferings and His glory (Rom. 8:18) and "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10).

anyway, i didn't mean to pour all that out, i mostly want to rejoice about open air today.
and ask your opinion about persecution.
email me if you have lots to say: olivia.munn@gmail.com

egg in your hair? never mind, go on.

Lord, give us souls!

every friday i lead an open air meeting at Pigeon Park with the Revolutionary session. here's a picture of the so-called park where we open attack-- there's a small fountain downstage in this photo that is always running, and those benches are usually full of people. there are more benches on the other side of the park as well. the artwork in the back is all done on giant chalk boards (cool, eh?) so it's changing all the time. the soggy weather pictured here is generally accurate.

pray for our open air meetings: last month we had 5 people get saved through conversations after open air finished. i long to see mass repentance like you read about, but in my experience thus far, most people get saved through relationship and conversation. however, there are many benefits to the open air in my opinion--
1) excellent conversation starter-- we're a bunch of freaks out there
2) the conversation gets right to Jesus because they see what we're about
3) we're worshipping and lifting up the name of YHWH in a place where His name is cursed and false gods are exalted-- we smash them down
4) the Word goes forth. they hear it, it's out there, whether they respond or not
i personally feel it is much easier to stand on a soap box and preach the good news, than to meet someone, invite them to cell, visit them, call them, take them out for coffee, pray for them for months, compel them to have faith and repent, and then bug them for months to make sure they don't backslide. but that seems to me to be what it takes. i'm not a very experienced evangelist i recognize (i've only been seriously at it for 13 months), but this is what i've seen. thoughts on this?

no matter what the method, praise the Lord, 5 people have been saved, and more than that delivered from addiction, and/or plugged into community. the plan is to be responsible for our converts and go by Lieutenant Colonel Rader's theory, "the most important part of an open air meeting is follow up." easier said than done in a neighborhood where the majority of our friends do not have a home or a phone. our hope is that we invite them to one of our cell groups and they come, and if not, we simply pray that we bump into them on the street. any thoughts? we want open air to be effective.

Lord for a might revival we plead,
Lord, give us souls;
Thy saving power in this meeting we need,
Lord, give us souls.
Quicken our hearts by the Holy Ghost's power,
Of sin the sinner convict, Lord this hour,
Lord, give us souls.

Let every heart on this object be set,
Lord, give us souls;
Help us to pray till the answer we get,
Lord, give us souls.
Give us the faith that will not let Thee go,
Faith that says, yes, though the devil says, no;
Lord, Thy salvation in this meeting show,
Lord, give us souls.

Lord, we believe Thou are going to save,
Lord, we believe;
Floods of salvation and power we shall have,
Lord, we believe.
Souls shall be truly converted to Thee,
From all the bondage of Satan set free,
Made into soldiers to fight well for Thee,
Lord, we believe.

(sasb #something)

fight on!

though your sins be as scarlet

Big Red is a big, red man. never have i heard such an apt nickname. he has a strong, imposing stature and fiery, orange hair with a gnarled beard. i doubt that his parents chose the name Big Red for him at birth, yet, no one calls him anything different. he can be most commonly seen: in theHarbourlight food line, walking down the street carrying giant pieces of driftwood on his shoulders, or at Crab tree park setting up an artistic, perhaps religious display.

my first run-in with Big Red was a bit unnerving. he asked my friend Phil how much i cost. sick. fortunately, Phil is integral, so he shot down any ideas Red had, and we moved on hastily.

i saw him many times on the street ensuingly, and our conversations, though less perverted, were still unfavorable. i'd ask him what he was doing with the prodigious wreath he was carrying, and he'd begin speaking, and though his words and cadence sounded sane, the way he chose to combine the words made no sense to my ears. often interspersed in his rantings were the words "i am," "Jesus," "death," "died," "resurrection," and "look!"

so i tend to avoid Mr. Red. is this wrong? i'm not sure, but he makes me uneasy.

i awoke one morning a few months ago, and looked out my window. across Hastings street i saw something so peculiar that it certainly stood out in the midst of the rain, dirt and graffiti: a cross made of driftwood, covered in strips of crimson cloth, dripping with red paint...or blood...we're still not sure. it looked like a mock crucifix, some kind of pagan art. this was Big Red's masterpiece.

i'm still not sure how to respond to Big Red-- he confuses me, and he makes me uncomfortable, but i'm so interested to try and figure out his mind. in any case, he's a well known character in the Downtown East side, and he is my neighbor. may i love him as i love myself.

go on.

does he need a reason why?

today our feature guest is anonymous--
not because i'm not permitted to say his name for some exciting reason, but because i don't know his name. whoops (some evangelist i am!)

what makes this man stand out to me is the nature of his relationship with my dear friend jacynta. every time he sees her, he puts up his fists as though he wants to box her, and she does the same, and then she laughs and they move on.
however, they have never exchanged a word.

how random. how entirely arbitrary. how gloriously inexplicable.

never quit the field.

shackled by a heavy burden

for the next few posts, i'm going to describe some of the eccentricities of my friends. there are quite a few characters here in my neighborhood, and it's a shame that you all can't meet them-- such interesting stories, such unusual quirks. here goes.

today i'll be featuring a man named "chain man," (no joke, he responds to that). it is quite an apt nickname...he walks around the streets carrying heavy chains draped over his shoulders and neck.
the other night ian and i asked him, "chain man, why do you carry those chains around anyway?" his rather peeved response was, "man, i'm carrying around 125 lbs, i'm doing my nightly security rounds, and you stop me to ask me a stupid question like that? man! i'll tell you when i'm less busy," as he stomped away. apparently he walks around this one block over and over again, because he's guarding it. who knows.
however, chain man only carries these shackles and speaks of his security duties when he is poisoned. when he's clean, he no longer goes by the alias "chain man," but instead reveals his true identity.
i feel the fetters are so symbolic-- he's in captivity. he needs to be emancipated. the first time i saw him without his manacles, i rejoiced, thinking he had been delivered...only to see him later that evening, shackled again.

quite a solitary life he leads. i'd enjoy chatting with him more, but he always brushes me off because he's too focused on doing his night rounds. hm.

people like chain man intrigue me, and fill my life with fascinating moments. i appreciate him. i continue to ask for his liberation. i bump into him as much as possible.

fight on.

p.s. i'm still interested in votes for our book title (see last blog)

Vision: the blog, the book, the breaking news

welcome.
here begins my life as a citizen of blogosphere.
i'm hoping to fill this space with anecdotes of my adventures in the ghetto with Jesus. there are many to tell, i'm sure of it, and i look forward to having a little fun, maybe getting a bit deep here and there.

breaking news: captain, my captain Court and myself have officially begun the process of co-writing a book. the creative juices are flowing. the theme is holiness, the target audience is youth, and the framework is "the Vision" by Pete Greig.
you can check it out at: http://www.fpco.org/print/580.asp

chapter themes looking to be-- social justice/the fat spirit, integrity/motive, love, humility, covenant, fasted lifestyle, intimacy with Jesus, and Holy Spirit power.

we're still looking to decide on a title for this undertaking.
we've narrowed it down to:
Eyesore: holiness that hurts the eyes
Sound of the Underground
The Solution (as in "holiness is the solution to every problem")
and Losers, Weirdoes, and Freaks

many of these are allusions to the Vision itself--
so, you should read it first, and then you should comment on this blog and let me know your vote. any opinion?

fight on.