Jose Humphreys

When I see R&B and Pop performers like Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake and Usher I can’t help but think about MJ.  Observing them there’s no doubt some of his performance DNA flowed out into this next generation’s elite.  In Michael, you see there are players-then there are people who change the game.  MJ was a game changer in every sense of the word.  His music was also a part of the fabric of our lives in one way or another.  Whether we had his collection of greatest hits, sang our favorites tunes at a karaoke place, or just spontaneously hummed along with Michael while he was played at the neigbhorhood Rite Aid, his music was and continues to remain a fixture in our culture.

Of all the sad things I heard about Michael, nothing hurt me more than statements about him having no friends he could trust.  Those he trusted according to some sources took advantage of him in one way or another.  Most of us even know the story of his troubled, overachieving childhood.  That’s the kind of stuff that would drive anyone to isolation.  And it’s that kind of isolation that keeps people out-of-touch with reality. If we think about the Never-Never Land Ranch it was symbolic in many ways of his detachment and social disconnection from the world at large.  His star was that bright.   Meanwhile the stage for Michael, was one of the few portals of affirmation and human connection.  But even the spotlight can objectify people and keep them wondering who there friends really are.

When people are left in a created solitary confinement, it makes them beyond socially awkward.  It wharps their perspective about life and people in general.   You could hear Michael’s awkward comments about friendships with the wrong people in the wrong ways.  It actually made me think about what possible role an authentic community could have served in Michael’s life.  Maybe no one could get close enough.  Maybe the window had closed a long time ago.

It makes me think about my own self created worlds of isolation and how it’s great to have people who can pull me back into community hence reality.  We all need this.  We all long for it.

Hats off to Phil Jackson and the LA Lakers on another championship ring.  We can say what we want about Phil Jackson and how he won on the shoulders of some of the greatest players of all time.  The thing is, the jefe knew how to bring out the best in these guys.

You could see the admiration from his players as well after the game.  The post game conferences are those times you can mine some real nuggets from great players and great minds alike.  What was even cooler was the mutual admiration between both Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.  When Kobe was asked about Jackon’s leadership yesterday, and the fact that Jackson expressed his doubts earlier in the year as to whether this young Laker team had what it took to win, Kobe said he wasn’t surprised because “Phil coaches the moment.”  In other words Jackson was more concerned about the daily stuff that prepared them for the desired result, then the desired result itself.  Jackson said it himself yesterday, “its really about the journey.”  Maybe its the Zen stuff, or Jackson’s masterful attention to detail.  Who knows.  I just know there was something very profound about his numero uno guy’s statement that still echoes in me twenty four hours later.

As someone whose has a tendency toward being visionary and sometimes too future oriented, this concept of coaching the moment really captivated me.  How many times have I fallen in love with concepts, ideas, or some desired future at the expense of the present.  It’s tough holding the here and now and the desired future in tension.  This is why I say Kudos to any leader who can learn how to coach in the moment.

I’m a big SNL fan.  Check out this classic with Will Ferrel and Christopher Walken, “Need More Cowbell.”

This was such a good movie. I caught it today and was captivated by its redemptive story line.  A story about 3 orphans born into squalor in Mumbia.  The main character, Jamal, gets a chance to be on India’s version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire show”, and it takes off from there.

I was also digging the sound track.

Yesterday I preached on Immanuel, God with Us.  I said that the name “Immanuel” is a beautiful truth, yet also remains in many ways a theological conundrum.  God becoming flesh, a baby, and dwelling among us  is a mindblowing, life altering, historical truth.   It was also worth mentioning that any metaphor or illustration that I used attempting to explain God identifying with humanity would always be limited.  And its true.  James Cone once said that theology is “human speech about God.”

So we used a clip from Talladega Nights with Will Farrel.  In this movie, Will Farrel played race car champion, Ricky Bobby.  In this one scene Ricky Bobby is with is with his best friend and family at the dinner table about to say grace.  He then prays saying stuff like “Dear Lord Baby Jesus, we thank you for this bountiful harvest of Taco Bell…” Or 8′6OZ baby Jesus…Use your Baby Jesus Powers.”  It’s a hilarious scene depicting Ricky Bobby’s functioning view of God as baby Jesus.  There was something safe, approachable, attainable and irreverent about his prayer that had us all laughing.

Through the laughs we were challenged to re-think and revisit Immanuel, because the way  we receive this truth, will determine the way we arrange our daily lives.  Is Jesus simply some baby in a manger?  A distant historical figure? Is he like I mentioned, a parent we write to from sleep away camp, who we may provide with some cursory details about our lives, but never the deeper dimensions of our souls. What was the significance of Jesus becoming a part of a culture, inhabiting an ethnic group, and having a locus of ministry/service.

God becoming human meant he identified with us in a way never recorded in the Old Testament.  It’s this identification that we’re challenged with.  Because while most religions say god(s) are to be worshipped.  The gospel demonstrates that Jesus is not only to be worshipped, but He also considers us friends.

One of the the most helpful things for me in church planting is getting help from a church plant coach.  Coaches are people who intentionally look out for my own personal health or well being, as well as the health of the church.  Coaching has also created much needed check points for me.  Places where I can rest, vent, heal, laugh, cry, sometimes all at the same time.  After some time with a coach and/or a group of peers, I will find these experiences to create echoes in my mind and heart.  Meaning the advice and encouragement as well as the wisdom, develops its own stickiness in my soul.  So when challenging times come the choir of voices lift up, the echoes of encouragement resound, pointing me back to the reasons I’m doing this in the first place.

I recently read an article where a church planter said,

Every pastoral ministry experience has exhilarating success and devastating disappointments.  If you are not grounded on the conviction and confidence that this is for God and from God, your pride will puff in the mountaintop times and your faith will waver in valleys.

(You can find the rest of his interview here.)

This echo of voices serve to anchor me as well.  Especially when we vacillate between two extremes:  Thinking too much of ourselves, or thinking too little.

I believe stocking up on this wisdom is God’s own way of making sure we have a storehouse of encouragement.  And I’ve never heard anyone say, “Geeze, I’m tired of all that encouragement.”

Church planting has some intense moments of  loneliness.  This is what I’m hearing from both seasoned planters and “rookies” alike.  I’ve experienced it  for myself as someone who is a new church planter and pastor here in East Harlem.  I’m finding more and more, loneliness is not so much about whether people around, but the weight of a specific call in life.  A call can us leave us gazing up at this gigantic mass, causing this looming shadow.  And some days honestly, it can just sneak up on you.

This week I flew to Atlanta and was part of my denomination’s African-American peer mentoring group.  Here were a group of vibrant and authentic pastors, people who “keep it real”, many of whom were leading multi-ethnic congregations.  And in our conversations its interesting how the common thread of loneliness weaved its way through each of our narratives.

The great thing I realize is that God doesn’t often put people in our path to “bail” us out, but to identify with us. This is what makes authentic relationships incarnational.  In other words Christ is alive in relationships where we allow one another to sigh in relief, to breath, to exhale.  To say “I understand”, and be reminded of the truth that Christ does too.

David Olson, director of church planting for our denomination asked me a question over some good Korean BBQ at Ham Ji Bak Bayside Queens today.  Thanks for picking this place out Peter.  I was hesitant to try out the food because of a stomach virus the previous day.  But it was too delicious to resist…

David asked, “what are some learnings from the last 6 months of church planting?”  The one thing (from many) I could think of, is how church planting has a noticeable way of accenting my insecurities and shortcomings.  Everything from my limits around managing the many little details, to follow through on the many balls to be juggled.

On the other hand we’ve seen some good fruit in spite my stuff.  We’ve seen a new leadership team rise up.  Our team is ethnically diverse, and greatly gifted on many levels.  We’re also seeing some retention (finally whew), developing some “stickiness” in our community, with friendships taking on a life of their own.

Find a little more of our story here as well.  It was an interview with another Dave.

We’re really looking forward to 2009.

Harlem has some great museums. The Arturo Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture contains a large collection of art relating to the history of Black people. What many people don’t know about Schomburg is that he is Black, and of Puerto Rican descent. I love this convergence because it’s one I share as well.

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If you’re a fan of Hip-Hop, you know New York Rapper Nas’s 1994 album, “Illmatic“, is a socially conscious lyrical masterpiece. Michael Eric Dyson a Baptist minister, public intellectual, cultural critic and author is releasing a book titled, Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic, January 2009. I’m looking forward to see how he unpacks some of this great album’s content.

Maarten Van der Weijden (wish I could pronounce it just as well as it’s spelled) of the Netherlands won gold in the swimming marathon at the Olympic games in Beijing. He fought Leukemia for a couple of years, makes a great recovery, goes back to training then wins gold. MOst people who say it was just enough that he competed. The amazing thing to me was how he uses the “threads” of each moment of illness to create this fabric of perseverance that would serve him later on. Here are a couple of quotes from the article below:

“The leukemia taught me to think step by step,” Van der Weijden said. “When you’re laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don’t want to think about next week or next month, you’re only thinking about the next hour.”

Van der Weijden was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001, came back in 2003 and began swimming faster than before. He now says he has “totally recovered” from the illness. He commits a large portion of his time to raising awareness about leukemia, and raised $73, 670 with a charity swim in 2004.

“You lay in your bed and just wait,” he added. “It’s almost the same strategy I’ve used here - to stay in the pack, to be patient, and stay easy just waiting for your chance.”

The NY Times recently interviewed Michael Phelps mom, (Phelps is a swimming phenom, and record-breaking, multi-gold medalist in case you’ve been at the beach all Summer). His mom talked about how his teachers underestimated him and pretty much thought he would amount to little…He was also diagnosed with ADHD. Go figure.

Here’s an excerpt of the article.

When Phelps was growing up, some doubted whether he was destined for great things. As early as preschool, teachers began complaining that he couldn’t sit still, stay quiet or concentrate. “Your son will never be able to focus on anything,” one teacher told his parents. He was later diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dialogues with Silence is a book of prayers and drawings by Thomas Merton. I read the prayer below after dealing with some crankiness and disorientation this morning and it helped to settle me.

The way You have laid open before me is an easy way, compared with the hard way of my own will which leads back to Egypt and to bricks with out straw.

If you allow people to praise me, I shall not worry. If you let them blame me, I shall worry even less. If You send me work, I shall embrace it with joy. It will be rest to me because it is Your will. If you send me rest, I will rest in You. Only save me from myself. Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge to change everything, to act without reason, to move for movement’s sake, to unsettle everything that You have ordained.

Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.

If you’re in NYC and want to catch a Broadway play, well, In the Heights is the way to go. Besides winning 4 Tony awards it depicts the whole experience of the Barrio in Washington Heights in a way that was true to culture. Mayra and I had caught it on Valentine’s Day and we were glowing with delight the whole time through.

My cousin also recently bought me the sound track and I’ve been “running” it ever since. It’s worth purchasing because its so inspiring, beautifully speaking the narrative of the Latino experience here in NYC with all it texture and flavor. It was even cool to see that even the piragua man got some attention. Piragua, according to Wikipedia, is a “Puerto Rican frozen treat.” Remember the neighborhood piraguero?

Ah, nostalgia.

If you’re still not convinced maybe this video clip will do it for you. Enjoy.

This was a post from my sister Rosalind’s blog:

Spanish coffee lovers usually do not tolerate natas. Our coffees are not lattes. They resemble an espresso but have a distinct flavor, aroma and taste. The boiled (not steamed) milk is a big contributor. If you serve coffee with natas, most Hispanics will get disgruntled and if they happen to be family members, they will immediately return their cup and ask for another.

Nata is the thick film that floats to the top after you have boiled milk. If you’re like me, you find it to be nasty and remove it quickly before you pour the milk into your coffee.

As I boiled milk this morning for my coffee, I thought about all of the natas that God wants us to scoop out of our lives.

Natas - the junk that floats up during a hot situation.

Natas - the stuff we don’t recognize, don’t want to look at, don’t care to admit, hide, dress up, are proud of, get fueled by, use as a protection, use as an excuse, believe, accept and live with.

So what are some of life’s natas?

• The pin of hate that is worn as a badge of honor.
• Angry thoughts and/or feelings that linger forever and have no expiration date.
• Being sensitive towards certain things when we should’ve gotten over it already.
• Carrying the torch for someone who has left ions ago and was not worth it.
• The green shade of jealousy that has taken hold of our wardrobe.
• The common ache from the disease called Comparison Syndrome.
• The Ghost of Insecurity that hangs around like a faithful companion.
• The common middle name….Procrastination.
• When no choice has become our excuse.
• When we still hear the computer sound wave – “unworthy, unworthy” as we look in the mirror.
• The lost of control that shows in our gut and hips.
• Keeping friends who influence us negatively.
• Beating ourselves up when God doesn’t know what we’re talking about.
• When being critical has made us age.
• Being an attention junky and unable to kick the habit.
• When we live to please and please and please.
• When control freaks bow down and worship us.
• Respect is only displayed when coerced.
• Self-esteem needs to be scraped off of our shoes from time to time.
• Love is only about what we get.
• No is not part of our vocabulary.
• The fear of … (fill in the blank).

Now there are those who don’t mind the natas. Some will push it to the side. Others will actually drink it. So what happens when we do that with life’s natas? When we push something to the side, it never gets corrected. When we drink it, have accepted it as part of our lives, it never gets addressed.

Junk that float up the top is an indicator that there is something harmful that is holding us back. We have the option to push it to the side, continue to drink or scoop it out completely. There’s always a choice when it comes to the quality of our lives.

It takes courage to continuously change and want change. I hope that each time you look at your coffee, you’re reminded of the pleasantries of life and how removing the natas can make your cup that much better.

Oh hail to coffee without natas and life without the same!

© Roz Humphreys Humphreys

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Posted By Roz to Roz’ Corner at 8/01/2008 01:46:00 PM

Roz

The title of this post was part of a conversation I had with a group from Metro Hope Church while eating dinner at Mobays Restaurant on 125th Street, aka Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Some folks in the group mentioned deceased relatives they’ve never met. Other mentioned actors both alive and no longer with us. I thought about the question while digging through a good serving of oxtails. Finally, my memory was jarred. I thought of a book I read about five years ago titled Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Talk about an amazing story. A man who fought against Apartheid in South Africa, was imprisoned for 27 years, then becomes the President of the country. Meanwhile he does not take revenge on the people who imprisoned him, but actually had one of the officials who imprisoned him as a VIP at his presidential inauguration. Man, that’s redemptive. So Nelson Mandela is my living hero and I’d love to have a sit-down one day with him.

Liz Rios (You’ll find good posts on leadership at her blog) put me on to a recent article in Time Magazine titled Mandela: His 8 lessons of Leadership. I love leadership lesson #1, which was also mentioned in his autobiography: Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it. My favorite quote on Mandela in the article is this one, “He is the most pragmatic of idealists.”

Know that he’s definitely about it…