Soulation | Seasonal - Summer 2009

seasonal

Summer '09

Seasonal Reflection by Dale Fincher

We drove to Seattle a few weeks ago. At our hotel, Jonalyn unwound while I took our corgis to the nearby park, stealing the last moments of light before darkness descended on the city. Across the street, some teenagers wearing all black laughed mischievously, holding all the space on the sidewalk. The boy out front tailed an unflinching passerby, shouting after her, "Mama! Hey, Mama!"

Giving up the chase, he grabbed a small lavender plant in front of a newly landscaped building, and threw it at one of the girls in the pack. Another guy returned fire by pulling out another plant and throwing it back. The teens assaulted each other with new landscaping until the sidewalk was littered with dirt.

Keeping an eye on the teens, I herded our corgis across the street. A few years ago I would have thought all the uprooted plants were goners, but having landscaped and watched Jonalyn garden the last few years, I knew I could help remedy the mess. I picked up the first plant sitting in the gutter beside speeding traffic, cupping the roots and gently pushed it back into the gaping hole. With the corgis circling my knees I kept moving, rounding the corner only to see more uprooted plants drooping across the sidewalk. Replacing them, patting the dry earth back in place, I surveyed the planters. Scattered dirt remained on the sidewalk, but all the plants were safely tucked away again.

A small act in a busy city, but the next morning, all the plants remained in place with the sprinklers on. I pointed the spot out to Jonalyn on our way to Orcas Island. Don't we all have little ways we can show the world what God is like?

Scott Peck reminded me recently in The Road Less Travelled that our love is both private and public. As long as we have the ability and opportunity, God asks us to act his love in sometimes big, but mostly small ways. Here in a dark neighborhood in downtown Seattle, a few orphan plants needed soil. So the human thing was to nurture this tiny piece of creation.

It smacks against our "big-numbers" idolatry, but small acts bring glory to God, as much as bigger things like speaking at a youth rally where thousands come forward to receive Jesus. We want to share a few big and small things bubbling up in Soulation.

Rear View Mirror

During our inaugural Soulation retreat (more on this in a moment), we finished up our last series of edits for our first co-written book, Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk (March, 2010). We wrote to strengthen followers of Jesus to share their faith without accidentally stumbling into "conversation stoppers" (yep, there's a chapter on these), illustrating new ways to introduce a God who cares, the sensibility of the Bible and the winsomeness of Jesus. We've scattered lots of our stories from our travels, some from roadside delis and others from belligerent college students (pre-order online at amazon.org). But, perhaps the best way to explain how the book is about is to send you to a short video of us talking about the book. Once this video is edited we'll send you a link to view it.

This last spring, we were invited to speak at Old North Church (oldnorthchurch.org) near Youngstown, Ohio, a hometown for Dale’s mother's side of the family. We visited and spent time with old friends, the pastor and his wife. We also spoke to the youth and youth leaders; glad to see how the girls came forward in droves to talk with Jonalyn. Then, Sunday we spoke side by side to an audience, many of which knew Dale's grandparents. We felt both honored and humbled to share. The last time Dale spoke there was for his grandfather's memorial service. We titled our sermon, "If You Had Nothing to Lose..." which spoke of living in the risk of God's love, illustrating with our recent move from our spacious home to an 800 square foot cabin to begin building a retreat center. We used the powerpoint to show them the two houses and were grateful to hear many enthusiastic responses afterwards. To listen to that talk visit the link to the left above.

Also this Spring, Jonalyn spoke for a women's retreat in Malibu, California. She enjoys speaking to all women's group and this gave her a chance to update and polish her ideas on identity, femininity and body image. During the retreat she met a well-known secular author who was marginally interested in spirituality. Jonalyn talked with her, answering questions and pushing her deeper. By the end of the weekend she grew from disinterest to amazement and desire for a God like Jesus who loved women so well. To listen to the four-part series from this Ruby Slippers retreat visit the links to the right above.

The Coming Season

This late summer and fall Soulation will be speaking in New Hampshire where we look forward to returning to a fall kick-off retreat for a small Christian school. Teens from this retreat have been regular visitors on Soulation's chat feature, Ask! LIVE for four years.
In October, we are returning to the Salvation Army outside Dallas, TX, this time to teach at the annual young adult conference.
In the fall we head to Indiana to speak to students and resident staff at Bethel College (bethelcollege.edu). Some RA’s read Ruby Slippers and want the Soulation team to tackle subject like spiritual growth, relationships, identity & gender issues. We cannot wait to wrestle with college students about these topics
Take time to check out our online map (map.soulation.org) to see where we’ll be and information for each event.

We've updated our resource library online with new audio and articles. Our audio is now regularly launched as a podcast which you can subscribe to on iTunes.

Shared Vision

We held our first Soulation Retreat exactly one year after we acquired land in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. But since the land has only the 800 square foot cabin, our new home, we used our unsold house in town to host our guests. Last month, over July 4th, nine people from the four corners of our country, with backgrounds as varied as art, philosophy, photography, web programming, psychology and film arrived in Steamboat Springs to make the retreat a reality.

Each of us came away amazed at how quickly we were willing to learn from each other, how much we all valued ideas, culture, and a healthy soul in our own varied ways. We kicked off the retreat with introductions; Jonalyn took notes on what each person said. When we all finished she asked us all to close our eyes and then adapted Colossians 3: 11, "There is neither stressed out or content, neither exhausted photographer, recruiter, professor or zany artist, neither expecting or childless. There is neither father, mother or unwed. There is neither techy nerd or struggling friend . . . but Christ is all and is in all."

The group responded to this exercise gratefully, interacting eagerly as equals. We enjoyed lively conversations over meals, tubing down the Yampa River, listening to a quartet in the Steamboat Botantical Gardens, hiking to waterfalls, and got caught in the rain on a magical hike through our white, aspen woods on the land (followed by a triple rainbow that touched the ground on both sides!).

We invited several of the attendees to share their talents with us. Our resident artist immersed us in a silent slideshow of sacred space followed by intense discussion on how God makes glory shown among earthy things. Our resident film critic showed us how to watch a complicated and spiritually-significant film (The Ninth Configuration). Our philosophy professor led our Soulation Salon (a Soulation community event open to any followers of Jesus who want to discuss cultural issues) for us and our community as he explained the meaning of "freedom" before our 4th of July fireworks show. We even got to share our inaugural talk on what it means to be "appropriately human."

We regularly ask ourselves, "How do we truly affirm and help people in today's American culture who hunger to be more human?" We believe that spending more time with small groups of people is the most effective way to love others.

When we bought the land, we knew Soulation needed to do retreats. But by the end of our first retreat we were affirmed and convinced that Soulation needs to clear time for us to be home and host retreats, to cultivate the land into a place where humans who follow Jesus can descend for community, beauty, and relaxation. We still want to travel and share what it means to be appropriately human. But in hosting a retreat through the summer and autumn, we will also be inviting people into longer conversations and renewal in the Rockies.

Our friends left our first retreat eager to bring smaller reflective relationships into their local places of influence and homes. We wait to see how God will direct us to friends and supporters to help us build and train the generations of today and tomorrow.

We are grateful that there is much to do, land to cultivate, places to visit and speak, ideas to write and the anticipation of good work to fill our days.

Enjoy the last golden days of your summer!

Thank you for being a part of our journey,

Dale and Jonalyn Fincher