jon shirley

"GOOD!"

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:01:43 UTC

So I had a pretty cool, albeit very brief conversation with my neighbors the other day. It was totally a scene from that sitcom that was popular years ago with that comedian whose last name is Allen, and I can’t remember the name of anything related to that show for the life of me right now…but he used to always have conversations with his neighbor, but as the viewer, you never got to see the neighbors face….this was just like that.
What I’m trying to say is that I need to trim our trees and the vines on the fence. I digress.
We were chatting about all kinds of things…small talk mostly…but meaningful still. They just bought a new house, and are moving out this weekend, then we talked about what they do for a living [he edits video for a news station – she is a teacher in KCMO], we were laughing at our ridiculous dogs [ours, as in, Esse and Faye Shirley – not their dog Daisy] and then they asked me the dreaded question – “So, Jon, what do you do – like, for a living?”
Not a bad question, and I’m proud as ever to do what I do, but it’s just that when you tell people you are a “pastor” it changes everything. Nine times out of ten in a bad way, not to mention that I think the word “pastor” is a not a great description of my actual job. When you tell people you are a pastor you become immediately un-normal. It’s not uncommon for people to apologize for things they’ve said in a conversation, or they might just look at you funny, like you just became an alien right in front of their eyes.
My Neighbors took it in stride. That might have had something to do with me fumbling all over myself actually trying to describe what it is that I do right now. I started off my answer by saying, “Well, I guess, you might call me a pastor, but that probably doesn’t fit just right…[remember, we are trying to have this conversation through a screen of leaves and can barely see each other]. I went on to say, that “really, I lead an organization of small communities that gather around wrong things that need to be made right in Kansas City”…from there I don’t really remember what I said because I myself had the deer in the headlight look going on.
Not sure if you have tried to describe what the Gathering is trying to become lately, but it’s not all that easy to do if you start off talking about the form of what we are doing. I’m learning that’s a terribly uninteresting place to start.
I stumbled along for a while, boring myself, until I just said, “I guess I would describe the people I work with as people who actually want to do the stuff that Jesus did, and not just talk about it [couldn’t believe I said it…felt like the most pretentious thing I’ve said in a year] As soon as it came out of my mouth, she said “GOOD!”, as in, “FINALLY” – or at least that’s how I interpreted it. I’m probably wrong, but regardless, she was excited, and the conversation turned to all the ways that Jesus is using his mom where she lives to take care of refugees by seeing them get settled and placed in the US.
That one “GOOD!” has been gas in my tank this week, and has made me so proud to be with you, pursuing this dream of missional community. It also made me so proud, because, pretentious or not I know it’s true – you want to be followers of Jesus, and it’s making a difference.

Red Cross - THANK YOU!!!

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:11:32 UTC

Time: 5:15pm
Place: At Home in the Office
Soundtrack: Hillsong: Faith + Hope + Love

A few weeks ago Sara Bonness handed me a gift. It was wrapped in brown butcher paper, and as I was unwrapping it she told me that someone, who wanted to remain anonymous, was so encouraged by the "Red Cross" image that we had chosen to represent the Gathering Network that they actually learned how to sew in order to make me this awesome gift. Needless to say I was blown away by the generosity and intentionality of such a thing. SO! THANK YOU! To whoever went to such lengths to encourage me with this AWESOME GIFT!!! That was seriously one of the coolest things anyone has ever done for me. You know who you are - God's gonna pay you back for that one!!!!

Welcome To the New Gatheringnetwork.org

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:55:28 UTC

Time: 9:44am [Mountain Time]
Place: In the car, driving through the Colorado Rockies [Jason Hamilton driving]
Soundtrack: NPR [Morning Edition]

Gathering Network Friends,

Welcome to the new website! We are really excited about it, and we’ve been working hard to get this off of the ground for you. I’d like to say thanks to two people who have worked REALLY hard to see this become a reality.

Amy Guerreri has created all of the slides, graphics, and many of the photos that you see on the site. She has put in MANY hours organizing the website to get us to this great starting point. Well done Amy, we really appreciate all the hard work.

Jason Carrigan has been working feverishly on the “intranet” side of the website, which is basically everything you experience once you “sign in”. Jason has worked with an organization called Church Community Builder to help get our online database off the ground. Using this service will give you the opportunity to receive up to the minute news and information, give online, and subscribe to groups that you are involved in around the network. Thanks Jason for working SO HARD to get the Gathering Network going!

Other people have played a really important part in some the info you see and experience here. Jewel Reeves has taken some beautiful pictures you can see on our Flickr page. Shawn Mannen is helping us get the Twitter and Facebook stuff working. And many thanks to the sound and video technicians that is have helped us record the Sunday Night Celebration Service sermons. Well done everyone!

Our hope is that gatheringnetwork.org will be a place you can go to get good, up to the minute information on all things related to the Gathering. We will be building as we go, so stay tuned for more additions to the site, and be sure to say thanks to those listed above who’ve helped us get to a pretty great starting place.

Blessings, and DANG these mountains are AMAZING!

jon