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Filed under : revolution // 2 Comments »

I owe San Francisco a deep, heart-felt debt: that city was the cauldron (boiling pot) that drove me to smoking pot!

The characters, musicians and revolutionaries working out there fomented a social revolution that was in full swing as I entered High School at my most-vulnerable age. My “older brothers” in the revolution knew what they were doing when they burned American flags and torched the universities, but us High School kids were clueless, and we just did all the drugs! (Well, not me as much as others I know, like Jim Swearingen, below…)

Is it time to pay back a debt to Berkley? Sure, why not?

Christians carry a torch of Revolution far more terrible in its implications (in a sweet way) than any revolution arising from those universities! No, I’m not kidding–read about it at the NeoZine. One favor deserves another…

Oh, what a struggle of prayer, correspondences, discussions, and angst, and sometimes I feels like I’m staring down a lion’s open throat to contemplate such a direction for our ministry. (WTF are we going to do there, smoke weed?) Yet things are moving.

As Elaine Stedman recently wrote to me, “Aslan is on the move!” She has a good point. If you remember the movie, things started heating-up when he was on the prowl (in a nice, spring-like fashion!).

I found an old Xenos friend is prominently placed in the administration at Stanford university–But wait! Are we even interested in a university ministry? I guess so! (He started that job about the same time I began corresponding with Lambert & Elaine.) And he writes, in part:

Of course I remember you Keith. I would be happy to get together when you are out this area. Alas, we are housing a new grad who is doing an internship at [Ray Stedman's old church], so I can’t offer you a place to sleep…

Ain’t that a hooter! We really aren’t looking for a place to sleep, dude! (Thanks for the consideration, though.) But we are looking for a good place to torch!

And then they put me in touch with this sharp-minded, heavy-hitting sorta dude named Doug Shearer. While reading his Web, I find this written by Sita, Doug’s wife, and suddenly it all makes sense…

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”  Doug and I and our three kids moved to Berkeley in 1971 to share the good news with the thousands of young people seeking love, peace and meaning for their lives.  They flooded the San Francisco Bay Area with “flowers in their hair”…

Christian leaders, California-style?

These people were at the center of the Jesus Freak movement, which also spawned our Columbus ministry. But there’s more:

We rented a large home where several young girls moved in to be discipled.  Brothers and Sisters houses were established to provide an escape from the drugs, sexual excesses and spiritual darkness that prevailed on the streets.  Families took in new believers who were transformed into “fishers of men” by returning to the streets the next week with us to share the good news with others…

Ministry houses in Berkley!? It sounds all-too familiar, doesn’t it?

Take It To the Streets, Baby!

Reading the front page of Doug’s Web site is like reading our own conversations lately, even to the extent of sharing an abhorrence of Calvin’s legacy! There’s also some pretty radical dudes associated with this effort, like the “Fireball Ministries” (!?) dude named Paul Coca who has “‘been doing street ministry for over twenty years” and “provides about 70% of our music out on the streets.”

I wondered why Lambert kept sending me to “street ministries” (I do look a little ragged and rumpled, but give me a break! I’ll get a hair cut!), until I realized that street people out there are quite different than street people out here! “All the nuts roll West,” as native Californians say, and they’re referring to all the young drifters and roamers looking for something after graduating from High School buy a van and go to California and fill the streets. Oh wait… that’s like…our favorite age group, isn’t it?

It reminds me of this song right here (the musicians came from San Francisco, too!):

Volunteers of America!

(Click the link to listen)

Go to the SOS Ministries page or read Doug’s “Appeal to My Generation” and you’ll see their call for “Volunteers of America” to join the fight!  Christians are abandoning the tough places. Why? It feels like you’re looking down a lions’ open throat! But it’s all good–step aside, Mr. Coca, and make room for the Scottish Keith…

How will they feel about a band of crazy Cleveland dudes coming out there with “torches”, tromping all over their playground? (We’ll try to be civil, of course.)  Doug responds to my inquiries:

What an exciting e-mail.  We share so much in common – including some long-time friends, Lambert, Elaine, and, of course, Ray.  It would not only be my pleasure to meet with you when you’re out this way, it would also be my honor.  Let’s stay in touch. In Christ, Doug.

Yes Doug, let’s stay in touch! Cleveland is coming your way!

(Just don’t tell him about the Cleveland bottle incident at Browns stadium…this and the Drew Carey Show pretty much explain Cleveland.)

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Every so often I run across a cool brother or sister the Lord uses at the most-opportune time to give me a sense of direction. In this case, it was my new friend Lambert Dolphin, from the West Coast, near San Fran.  In a series of correspondances concerning our ambition to incite authentic Christian Revolution to the West Coast (as opposed to that creepy, sissy stuff McLaren & Co. yap about), I wrote to him summarizing my position. His answer was most warm and welcoming.

My Letter to Lambert

My dear brother-in-Christ:

As you probably know, I’m agitating Revolution, and there is much evidence of  our Savior’s kind favor towards this effort. He continues to bring young, gifted, zealous Christian converts to us from among the “Lost Millennial Generation”. I feel such a deep, heart-rending burden to get these rather uneducated (but terribly excited) brothers heading the right direction—heading into “The Fight” rather than away from it. The poison of “Personal Peace and Prosperity Christianity” is so lethal and pervasive among older Christians!

You mentioned earlier that you thought I was an evangelist, and while this is possibly true, the undeniable truth is that I’m an agitator. (Is there such a spiritual gift? I hope so, because I certainly have it, whether it’s a gift or a curse!) I’m afraid I’m the Abbie Hoffman-type (lots of hot & acerbic air), and I need to be surrounded by the Jerry Reubin-types as organizers.

So this is why we must come to Berkley and foment Revolution. And I think Our Savior is grieved about Berkley and the darkness surrounding it.

And so Lambert responds:

Howdy Keith,

Back in the late 1930s my mom got her first washing machine. It had a rotary, vertical agitator that worked fine on small loads but bogged way down on coveralls and heavy stuff.

Yes, churches DO need Agitators like you. But the situation is so bad I wonder if small foot-ball sized nuclear bombs might be more effective? That might reveal the black hole at the center of a good many congrtegations?

The polarization in the Church of Laodicea these days is amazing to me. Jesus is outside knocking. He would like to be invited in. Many of the Lord’s closest followers are also outside the assemblies just as Jesus is.

This seems to me to be paving the way for the final form of the church—the harlot church of Revelation 17. For the first time, Jesus tells his followers to just plain leave.

Not all churches are Laodicean of course. Churches like the other six depicted in Rev. 2-3 are to be found in the world around us as well.

The folks I know in Laodicean churches have a vague sense of stress and distress, but little awareness of the huge changes in the world scene which started happening about a year ago.

By all means Agitate! I think the reality is that only a remnant of professing Christians in this country is serving our Lord in such a way that the Spirit is breaking into the world through these people.

I listened to Dallas Willard’s Q&A sessions in Menlo Park at least three times with great interest, http://mppc.org/toughquestions. He is a prof of philosophy at USC and is used to faculty members students. He talks about the near-total ignorance of what the Bible says, or our need to read it all, and to begin to act on what we hear. “If you plan to go to heaven, go now,” he says.

It seems to me that God is still very much retraining evil in the world. What we see is more really ugly stuff breaking loose through around the edges, but I think most people live in denial of the “wrath that is to come.” Movie attendance is way up. The people I know who are surviving economically are usually keeping a low profile. Times like these make more and more of the Bible appropriate, timely, applicable but hearing truth and not acting on truth, leaves one worse off than before.

It is nice to hear from you my brother. I think there are several subjects I wanted to bring up, but right at the moment I can’t think of them.

Shalom,

Lambert

Billy Graham, 1949
“When God gets ready to shake America, He may not take the Ph.D. and the D.D. God may choose a country boy …
God may choose the man that no one knows, a little nobody, to shake America for Jesus Christ in this day, and I pray that He would!”

And Then?

So Lambert then proceeds to give me some contacts and further instructions on how to establish a beachhead there at Berkley. I am most-earnest in my prayers that something very concrete and wonderful will come of all this!

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Tags: friends

The pictures speak for themselves: there’s something beautiful underway at the Identity Project at KSU, did you know that?  No you didn’t! But now you do…

It’s only been a few weeks, yet we’re close to breaking 40 students. Along with the influx comes a rash of complaints and arguments and grumblings about–guess what? — Kyle said “sh**” at his teaching. That’s a real big deal now.

See the remainder of the pictures at the Picassa gallery

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So Ted Kennedy gets the Presidential Medal of Freedom, while anyone else would be serving a jail sentence for what he did.

It’s undeniable proof of the point I made in The Illusion of Freedom: all our perceived American freedoms come only because we’re rich and powerful, like Roman aristocracy. That’s all.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican, what matters is power and wealth. Then you get the Ted-Kennedy-treatment.

Ted’s Fling With Murder

Few people remember that Ted killed a cute, young secretary in a dark, dirt road one night in 1969. He knew her well, and “Kennedy requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur” to drive her home alone from a big drinking party with six other girls (his wife wasn’t there).

He killed her on “Dike Road”, then hid for eight hours or more, and finally turned himself into the police, claiming he was “disoriented” from a driving accident. In his own words:

“I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.” Kennedy Press Release

“Immediately” is untrue. He waited eight hours to call police, until his blood-alcohol level was normal. He certainly could have called the police immediately if he wanted:

“His route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.” reporter Jack Anderson investigation.

Manslaughter is Murder

So at the very least he committed manslaughter, which is third-degree murder. The girl was alive and suffering  in Ted’s car while Ted walked the booze out of his system for eight hours:

“Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring…there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.” Police Diver Testimony

And what did Ted get, besides the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Since the crime occurred in Massachusetts where his family is well-connected with all the judges and prosecutors, they only charged him with “leaving the scene of an accident” and a verdict full of sympathy!

In announcing the [suspended] sentence, [Judge] Boyle referred to Kennedy’s “unblemished record” and said that he “has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose”. Court Records

Since Ted didn’t lose his seat in Congress and continued to chase women for the rest of his career, and now that he received the Presidential Medal, it’s rather difficult to understand how he “will continue to be punished,” as the friendly judge claimed.

But if you know how the World System works, it all makes sense.

National Lampoon was able to find something humorous about it.

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Tags: injustice, kosmos, wealth

I’ve got other issues besides the “Old Dawg” problem.

Look at what I did last week at CT:

They say  a picture is worth 1,000 words, but just in case here’s the 1,000 words (10-minute version of the teaching)…
by all means, feel free to comment and let me know if I lost my mind or not…

Rage Virus

The teaching concerns the following passage:

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. 1 Thess. 5:11

And they had a contageous love:

Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia.  Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.  1 Thessalonians 4:10

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• » The Leaders of Revolution - the full Central Teaching Podcast.

Filed under : folly // 5 Comments »

I’m not too proud; I’ll admit it: I’m just an old Dawg.

The guys in my Cell Group are sniggering among themselves, glancing over at me. They found a picture of poor old me and they laughed; but it’s pathetic old Sot …

Just know this: that’s not my normal hunky pose. The photography surprised me, and I couldn’t suck my gut in on time.

My Life

Let me show you why I’m such a saggy, baggy old man. It’s really quite simple: compare these two different blogs  describing  the same event, and you’ll understand (it’s Mike’s story of his “visitation” to another church, while he’s talking to Pastor Joe):

I brought up that we didn’t sing at Xenos. And he was baffled, you don’t sing? No I said, but we worship God in other ways…“What do you mean you told him we don’t worship????!!!” – quoted by Keith McCallum.
(From Mikey’s Blog)

Really, why does the Monster-Keith yell at poor Mikey for telling Pastor Joe we didn’t sing? More astounding, I accused poor Mikey of saying we “don’t worship at Xenos”, which was sooo unfair because Mikey clearly said, “We worship God in other ways.” So  typical of the grumpy-frumpy-old-man!

But wait!

Look, there’s another “Official Mikey Version” of the story published at the NeoZine, which Mikey endorsed after a brief-but-very-poignant discussion with me:

I brought up that we didn’t have a Worship Service at Xenos. And he was baffled, “You don’t worship?” “No,” I said. I did get burned on that one the next day by Keith. “What do you mean you told him we don’t worship????!!!” – quoted by Keith McCallum

That’s why I look so worn-down in that picture above: it’s just…so very wearisome, at times.

But I will say I do love those guys, which even includes that dude with different versions of the same event — they crack me up, even if it is at my own expense.

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I wish I understood this at the beginning of my ministry instead of the end: I think my ability to see things (and my dismal ability to communicate things) would’ve benefited tremendously.

And it isn’t all that complicated.

In a sentence, it’s this: all our perceived American freedoms come only because we’re rich and powerful, like Roman aristocracy. That’s all. [Read more →]

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Judge for yourselves…

[svgallery name="B-Graduation"]

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That’s what it sounds like these days if a kid gets too excited about Jesus Christ: “You’re in a Cult!”

I first encountered this when I started a Bible study with Kyle, my 7th-grade son, and Sean, my handicapped, 8th-grade son. It was a circus, or what some would call a “Cult”.

The “Wonder Years”

“Wonder” was my co-leader (Neil Wonderchuck), with a bare-breasted woman tattooed on his arm (crude, but nice boobs!), and he always wore wife-beaters to show it off. Not quite two years old in Christ, “Wonder” soon took a Sabbatical to study “The Attraction of Canine Regurgitation Habits in North America”, or some nonsense.¹  But we did start a Bible study with a motley crew of Jeff, Steve, Tom and BK. The kids were mostly interested in hanging out at the Black Wolfe pool hall after a brief Bible study.

Some new kid came one night, and we were entering the pool hall when his mom came peeling into the parking lot and shouted through her car window: “Get in!” [Read more →]

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1. A reference to 2 Peter 2:22 [↩]

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