I Wanted to To Change The World
By Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world."

Great words for reflection if we rashly attempt to change something or someone else other than ourselves!  We have to start with ourselves and that is the last place some people "dare" to venture. This is why usually what takes us "to the place called there" is crisis. I still want to change the world but I know it must begin with me and the surrounding community as my life impacts others, one by one, the world is impacted.

Where were these offers when I was about to go to college…If you know of anyone who may qualify, please pass it on.

Harvard is offering free tuition for students that have a family income below $40,000. If you are a mentor or have nieces and nephews who might  be interested, please give them this information. If you know any  one/family earning less than $40K with a brilliant child near ready for  college, please pass this along. In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers  said, "When only 10 percent of the students in Elite higher  education  come from families in the lower half of the income
distribution, we are  not doing enough." "If you know of a family earning less than $40,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to   pay the tuition."  From now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free…no tuition and no student loans! To find out more  about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than  $40,000 a year call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 384-8213  or visit Harvard’s financial aid web site at: www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/hfai

The "how big is your church" question should be replaced with the "how big is your community impact?"  I bet alot of pastors with the "numbers" would be silenced.

Something to consider "would the community weep if your church were to pull out of the city? Would anybody notice if you left?" I guess they would only give a damn, if the church ever should they did when they were there right?

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Do or do not. There is no try." — Yoda

to transformation goes through dreams (unknown). What dreams have you been having lately? Did you give up on some of them?  I was speaking on the phone with a long-time friend and something really hit me. I am not a spring chicken but I am also not dead in the water. I am in a very crucial time in my life. I am still living between birth and death, the hypen in between and I want my life to mean something. I want to die spent. I want to be all destined for me to be. But I need to remember that transformation for myself and the community around me comes through the dreams that God has planted in my mind. The dreaming but also the doing.

Many of us dream ALOT and that is all we do. We don’t step forward to take the risk to do what God has called us out to do. I confess I am a chicken. But not a total chicken (lol). Yet I have purposed this year to come out of the chicken zone and go for it! As my friend and I spoke, we determined that the main thing that keeps us from doing what we know in our gut we should be doing is, well…fear.  Fear sucketh. It really paralyzes us and before we know it, years have gone by and we are still wondering what purpose does God have for my life. But unlike what most people would like…it is not the fear of failing. It is the fear of succeeding. Of being called out to do something that is so much bigger than we dreamed for yourselves that we just can’t phathom it. So we decide to shrink back and do something that is nice and perhaps helpful and even noble but not what the ultimate plan for our life was.

I’ve had great women of God with a calling and with opportunities that surely seemed like God was opening doors, say "no I’ll stay here," when God was getting ready to pull them from the chicken zone. The dreams? They still have them. Some have managed to convince themselves that those dreams could not possibly have been God’s dream for them. They are just too big. This is the time for us all to step up. We cannot die with purpose still inside. That would be so tragic. More tragic than losing you would be never seeing your imprint on this world.

I talked to my old boss on the phone today (who I also consider a spiritual dad and social justice mentor in my life) Rev. Dr. Ray Rivera and he asked me a question today…he asked "what are your goals for next year?" I said, without hesitation, I’m ABD but I want that doctorate in hand, out of the way. And he said, "wow Liz, with all the stuff you had in your life these last few years you have been steady in purpose and now here you are, almost Dr. Liz." And that my friends is it…Consistency of purpose comes when you know that you know that you know that God has a plan for your life because he is a Jeremiah 29:11 God and an Eph. 3:20 God. I am no longer going to sell myself short and I hope that no one is hating on others who are transforming the world through the power of their God-given dreams. Nelson Mandela once said this in a speech, reflect on it: 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Think about this for yourself…what is your fear? Is it really that you think you are going to fail or is it that you just have this inner voice saying, if you step up the world around you will never be the same?

Imagine after all these years I found out I should’ve been something else. Interestingly enough Buddhism is a close 2nd. Edna would be proud! LOL

Marko suggested playing with Google by putting "YOUR NAME needs" in the search box and see what comes up. I did it and some are a little too accurate…

writing my Jan/Feb 2006 PRISM article on "Birthing a Church-A Feminine Church Planting Model Explored." The subject was Sherri Story and her tribe over at Generations Quest. When it is edited, I’ll post in my writing spot.

where most of the people in your neighborhood don’t have power, what does one do? Well, I have taken to cleaning up my office, trying to finish my very overdue article for PRISM (because I had serious writer’s lack of inspiration) and talking to all the folks I could not get on the phone before my cell phone was up. In addition, I’ve found a few new websites, check them out…some are pro Emergent and some are definitely viewing Emergent as the new idea from hell (sheesshh).

I think people are so lost in this conversation. From hearing Brian McClaren (my favorite of the emergent boys club) its not about the next new thing! It’s not about being cool! It’s not about being the hip church on your block. It’s about meeting the needs of the people that need to hear the gospel message. About changing the methods not the message. Why is it that so many people get bent out of shape about this conversation. For goodness sakes, if you don’t like the ideas presented for thought (as no one is forcing anyone to do them!!!) then go hibernate somewhere (or should I say go back to hibernating somewhere). Great leaders, people God truly calls out to make impact on culture HAVE TO take into consideration what is happening around them and adjust. The come and check us out ‘because WE are the ones that have it together’ is such a crock of caca (*hit). An entire generation has left the church for a reason, why can’t we care enough to evaluate. Jesus himself had different ways to meet the needs of people. He didn’t always tell a parable or make a miracle occur. He assessed the situation, he was prepared beforehand through prayer and he went out and did.

While I admire the Emergent Folks for all they have done to get the conversation rolling and while I wish there was more of an effor to FIND and REACH and INVITE non-whites to there events, I know that they got their own problems just like we Latinos do. Sometimes, leaders have to address the main situations at hand and diversity at the table may not be it. That’s cool. I am not going to point a finger and say anything bad about them. Because to me, at least, they are doing. They are fiercely out there gathering whoever comes, whoever dares to share their imagination on how we can be a different type of church. So good for them. There should be less hating and more naming…naming of those things that keep us (Latinos) not doing what we could be doing. I was speaking with a fellow church birther today and we discussed fear. FEAR. We need to go forward and do what God has called us to do even without all the resources we’d like. Emergent is a great example of that. Here is an article I never published but gives you a greater perspective of what I think.

A Latina’s Perspective on Emergent Village

By Elizabeth D. Rios

Until July 2003, I lived in NY-the Capital of the World! Can you think of a place other than the Big Apple that has over 150 museums, 900 art galleries, 38 Broadway theatres, 125 Off-Broadway theatres, 18,000 restaurants, 1,700 parks, 12,184 taxis? Yet, with all that to choose from, my favorite place in the entire city was the Village. It was where no one questioned your current philosophy on life or glanced at you funny because of what your wore. The Village was the place were you could just be you. It has been the artistic center of the country for more than a half-century. Poe lived there, Washington Irving, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine. For actors, playwrights and anyone in the creative industry, the Village was a lively environment.

A New Village Discovered

I recently discovered another village where creativity is the foundation and differing philosophies are celebrated. Where dialogue is what is most important and conformity is over-rated. My first upfront experience with this village was the Emergent Convention in Nashville in May 2004. Although not quite as ethnically diverse as the NY Village, my associate and I seemed like the only Latinas present, we didn’t stay stuck in that rut.

Being in the midst of this philosophically diverse group enabled me to say yes to God even when I did not know exactly where he was taking me. Quite simply, most of the people felt the same way.  Ray Johnston, Pastor of Bayside Church in California shared how fear could have stopped him, yet he added, “starting this church was the best decision I’ve made in my life”.

What I allowed myself to learn helped launch my church plant Wounded Healer Fellowship.

The New Village Accepts Differences

The Nashville gathering was welcoming. There were thousands who were on the same journey–the God called me but I do not fit into a nice lil’ box, will someone please tell me I am not a lunatic journey! Like the NY Village, the emergent Village had people who wore suits and those who wore vintage denims with holes, those who had nose rings and those who believed one ring on a finger is more than enough body jewelry, it embraced academic theologians as well as practical theologians, it encouraged the megachurch pastor as well as the “barely got five people” church planter. This is something I have rarely seen in any conference gathering I’ve attended whether denominationally sponsored or mega-church sponsored event. Differences thrive in this new village, unlike my own denominational reality, were it seems you are conditioned to speak and look a certain way even if your inner core is still that village craving God seeker with a nose ring. My personal experience as someone who tried to advance in the Spanish Eastern District of the Assemblies of God was vastly different. Since I did not act like, speak like, or attend the same services,  I could not make it past first stage of credentials in the ordination process. I know. I had been turned down because as the denominational executives put it, “I was known in the city but not in my denomination”. I guess my Superintendent wanted me to stop visiting the village so much and stay in my own neighborhood. But as Pastor Paula White has said, I went were I was celebrated not where I was tolerated.

The New Village Encourages Women

In June 2004, I was one of 30 women invited to the Emerging Women’s Initiative in Georgia. At the gathering, I was inspired to be a pioneer. I was encouraged to take the step and learn to live with the trepidation that comes with the call. I was accepted for the gifts I brought to my community even though no one in the room even knew me before that event, much less the inner city community I was from. I heard the stories of Ivy Beckwith, Children’s minister at Colonial Church in Minnesota who shared the struggles and pain of being called as a women in ministry and of Kelly Bean in Oregon who has been leading a home church for 17 years and does not feel like she failed because she has not purchased 16 acres somewhere. While I would have liked the leaders to keep the momentum going after the event, it was still a worthwhile venture.  This new village believes in women in ministry, yet, I’d like to see women more visible in their planning committees, in their conferences as key-note speakers and more use of the color wheel.

The New Village State of Mind

As a Latin, female, church planter, with a life long affiliation with the Assemblies of God, I feel comfortable visiting this village as I sort out my own philosophy of ministry. It is a place to explore, think out loud and just be the you you are becoming. Yet perhaps I and countless others would visit more if we could afford it. Like the NY village, only whites and Asians can live there because of the high rent, perhaps if the emergent village made events more affordable, you’ll see more of us attending.

The Emergent gatherings do not speak for all or have the representation of most, but it is the most welcoming of differing ideas. The village does not necessarily send you an invitation, you have to dare to visit. Until publicity was given to the NY Village, I remember when there was not one single place of the kind.  The same is true for the

Emergent Village… Where is the Village? Where does it begin and where does it end? The emergent village has no geographical delineation; it is a state of mind.