Susan E. Isaacs's Blog, page 4

Flash Mob, Hallelujah Style

The day before Halloween, the Opera Company of Philadelphia did their own flash mob and invaded Macys.  Kinda takes the commercialism out of shopping, eh?



I SO want to do this in LA!!

One act can change a life

As part of the Permission to Speak Freely book tour, we are stumping for Compassion International: A child sponsorship program that gives children in dire poverty the physical emotional, educational and spiritual tools that change their lives.

The young men and women in this video were sponsored as children. Now they're being sent to college because of Compassion. One of the guys here was sponsored because a family decided to forego a second home phone and sponsor him instead. Now he's going to college.


One Act from Compassion International on Vimeo.

I went to El Salvador with Compassion and I've seen the program up close. I've met the staff, I've met the students.

I can't watch it without feeling compelled to act, without wanting to shout to everyone I know, YOU CAN DO SOMETHING. YOU CAN DO SOMETHING FOR ONE PERSON.

Permission To Speak Freely

I'm out on a mini tour with author Anne Jackson and musician Solveig Leithaug to support Anne's new book, "Permission to Speak Freely." Her book was borne out of a question she posted on her blog a couple years ago: "What is the one thing you feel you can't say in church?" Within a week she had over 500 responses. People wrote about their addictions to porn, alcohol and food. They were afraid to talk about poverty because their church was wealthy. They were afraid to talk about social justice, because some gonzo TV personality called it heretical. (Never trust your theology to a TV personality). One woman wrote that she couldn't tell anyone her daughter was gay. A man said after his wife divorced him, his church rejected him too.

The response to Anne's blog was so tremendous that CNN picked up the story. (Apparently it's news to the world that church people don't feel safe in church. Is it news to you?)

It got her thinking more deeply, and so she decided to turn it into a book. She asked readers to send those secrets on cards, art, however they felt led. And so her book, Permission to Speak Freely, became a compilation of original art, poetry and stories. Not just Anne's stories but those who wrote in.

And now we are on the road, turning that groundswell into a live event. In the first half, Anne, Solveig and I share our dirty little secrets: sexual abuse, spouse's addictions; alcohol, porn and food addictions; divorce and depression. The longer we hid, the sicker we got. But when we got honest, we began to heal. In the second half we hold a Q & A for the audience to ask questions or share if they want.

We've only had two events so far: one at a modest church in a working class town, another at a wealthy church in an über-rich suburb. But inner lives of the people are the same. I know because of what they've shared during Q and A. One teenage girl said her cousins had stolen her 'innocence' and she wanted it back. A woman shared how, when husband abandoned her, she went on a sex-spree to numb out. Four young women from a 12-step program showed up, including a 23-year old who had been a prostitute to support her meth habit. A man told the crowd he was the abusive, addict spouse we'd talked about. Another man shared he was in recovery from porn, but it had cost him his marriage. It was astounding to hear people open up and get free. It's a privilege to witness it, but I pray it becomes commonplace in church.

But why isn't it? Why don't we feel safe in church? I doubt we are afraid of telling God our secrets: he already knows them. Maybe we are we afraid of other people: those people who show up to church all scrubbed-holy and put-together. Maybe they do have it all together; maybe we just think they do. It's easy to measure their outsides to our insides, and think, "if they knew the real me, they'd reject me." It's not just our own fear that hides us, sometimes it's the truth. Read Anne's blog and you'll discover a lot of people who did tell the truth and got rejected.

But church, of all places, should be the one safe place where we can own the sick truth about ourselves. Jesus said he came to heal the sick, not the healthy.

I learned a phrase in 12-step meetings: "you're only as sick as your secrets." In other words, if you can admit your secrets to someone, you can heal from them. Wouldn't it be great if church looked like one big S.A. Meeting? Sinners Anonymous? I don't mean we should lie around, wallowing in our brokenness and using it as an excuse not to get better. (I've been to that church). We need to move on from that and become productive members of society. But it starts with bringing those secrets into the light.

I also learned another thing in the 12 steps: don't share your secrets with someone who doesn't understand them. You share your dirty laundry with someone who's already admitted to theirs. They don't lord it over you. They're more likely to respond with, "oh yes, I did that too."

Last Sunday our church had a 12-step forum after the service. We talked about what we got out of our 12-step programs and how it differed from church. For me, it wasn't enough to confess my sins and expect to be zapped holy. I had to walk that out in my life and my behavior. I liken it to this: you want to lose 15 pounds. What works better? Telling yourself you're fat, or making up a food plan that you can follow? That's how the 12 steps have worked for me. I work with a sponsor who suffers from my same illness. She's been there ahead of me, and she helps me work through the program on how to get better. however, I can't to a 12-step meeting and expect them to believe what I believe or practice how I practice. I go to program for program. I go to church for church. I need both.

So could we speak freely and openly at church? Yes and no. I don't think the Sunday morning service would work as a communal confessional. The Sunday service is about turning our focus on God, not on ourselves. But that doesn't mean we can't create that kind of safe place for people to open up and share. Our church does have a midweek healing service that is intimate, safe, and we have a time to share with each other. Many churches have adopted the "Celebrate Recovery" program, which is a Christian-based program for people with addictions. I can't comment on it because I haven't done it. I like the twelve steps, and I like interacting with people of all kinds of faiths. But I imagine many might prefer the Christian-based program.

In any event, the Church needs to make church a safe place to speak freely. We need to allow people to come: dirty or clean, healthy or sick, holy or massively messed up. It's the sick that need a physician, not those who are well and scrubbed up.

"A bruised read he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out."

For more information on the Permission to Speak Freely tour, contact Jim Chaffee at Chaffee Management (jchaffee@chaffeemanagement.com)

The Renewed Mind vs. The Soup

Just in case you didn't see Monday's video, here is Joel McHale on "The Soup," giving his own commentary on the same.



Preach it, Joel

Radical

A month ago Larry and I got to see our freinds Dave and Heather. Dave is a book editor. He spends a lot of time working on books that don't exactly inspire him. Dave is a casual, humble guy. He never toots his own horn. But he did say he edited a book called, "Radical," that challenges us to rethink the American Dream, and ask ourselves if it squares with the gospel. He said it was something he was really proud of, and he hasn't said that often.

A friend just mentioned it on facebook, so I went looking for it. I found this video.



Radical by David Platt on Vimeo.


This made me think about what we've been hoping in these elections - what we expect government and politicians to do for us.  I disagree with the Tea Party movement, but I sure understand people's frustrations over taxes.  We shouldn't expect the government (or big business) to hand us our lives on a platter. I think most of us want to work hard and get something out of it.  We want to put food on the table, raise our kids in a safe world, do something important, or at least satisfying, in the world. But how easily our dreams turn into anxieties, and we can find ourselves hoarding what we've got.

Last night my friends Anne Jackson and Solveig Leithaug did a show as part of Anne's Permission To Speak Freely tour, promoting her book of the same name.  We shared the stories we didn't feel safe to talk about in church. Then the audience shared theirs. It was spectacular, the way people opened up.


Afterward, a gal named Meeshee gave the three of us a handbag. We loved them. Then she told us the story behind the bags. Four years ago, Meeshee went to South Africa and visited a township, crippled by poverty and AIDS.  She had a dream to create some kind of work for them: work that could give them even a fraction of what we have.  


She started The Tag Bag: handbags made by the people of this township, created from used South African license plates and inner tubes!  The journey wasn't easy; the manufacturer pulled out of the endeavor, and production halted. But recently Meeshee found a new manufacturer. So the bags are back in production.


They're fabulous bags. Check out all the styles here.  And if you buy one, you do more than just get yourself a stylish handbag. You employ a township that needs the work. You give them the opportunity to feed their kids. Even then, they'll have only a fraction of what we have. 


So that's what was on my mind on Election Night: not gloating or moaning about who's in and who's out. But rethinking the American Dream. And doing something radical.  


So have you had any radical dreams recently? A germ of an idea or a hope for someone other than yourself?  I get caught up in my dreams for myself or Larry or my family.  I need to rethink my American Dream. 

Your Monday Morning Horror Video

So Halloween was yesterday, but here's where the real terror lies.

Greyson Chance

I scoffed yesterday when I saw an article on the LA Times. Some new teeny bopper in the making, and his name is Grayson Chance. With a name like that he's lucky not to get beaten to a pulp before he graduates junior high.

I just had to follow the article. Said he performed at a sixth-grade function at his church and posted it on youtube for th heck of it.  Heck of it.  it's now had over 32 million views. I had to watch.

WHOA.



This kid is not the next Justin Bieber. He could be the next Billy Joel or Elton John. I'm praying this kid has good support around him. He'll need it. But what a talent.

That Is Priceless

Just discovered this blog:  That Is Priceless takes classic pieces of art and gives them new captions.

Gustave Courbet fans may not like this one, but Johnny Depp Fans sure will.



Caption: Johnny Depp realizing he left the oven on
For more fun captions visit the That Is Priceless blog

Save Blue Like Jazz

I can point to several authors who influenced my Christian faith: CS Lewis, NT Wright, Henri Nouwen and Walter Wangerin Jr., to name a few. There are fewer authors that influenced me as a writer. But I can only think of two authors who influenced me as a writer of faith: Anne Lamott and Donald Miller; specifically, Traveling Mercies and Blue Like Jazz.

By 2004, my spiritual and professional life had hit the skids. The only job I could get was working at a church office. (God sure has a sense of humor). It wasn't a bad job, actually. My bosses were cool, and my pastor let me come into his office at lunchtime and vent my frustrations and doubt. He'd nod and say, "Yeah, I know what you mean." He loaned me several books that encouraged my faith. Not happy titles, mind you: Dark Night Of the Soul by St John of the Cross, Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb, and A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser. The latter title sounds positive, but it's written by a man whose wife, mother and daughter were killed by a drunk driver. The book is great. Read it.

But it wasn't my pastor who told me about Blue Like Jazz. It was this random artsy guy who stopped in to visit the seminary intern working at the office. You know these young, artsy guys. They dabble in creative pursuits. They have their whole lives ahead of them and think the answers all their questions will be Yes and Amen. "Get back to me in ten years," I want to tell them.

So this artsy guy was sitting across from my desk, raving about some über hip writer who had defined faith for his generation. "Blue Like Jazz," he said and tapped on my desk. That's all he said: "Blue Like Jazz. Read it." And then he and the seminary intern went off to smoke cigars.

Two weeks later our pastor brought in an entire box of Blue Like Jazz and gave me a copy. It was like he was daring me to read it. I took it home, ready to pick it apart with my cynical, artistically mature eye. I didn't want some young hipster dilettante telling me what my life was like.

Then I read the intro. I had to admit his analogy was creative: God was like jazz because neither resolved. He had a way with words. I read the first couple of chapters and had to admit he made some great points. When he said that going to a big church "was like going to church at the Gap" I laughed out loud. When he wrote about the confessional booth, I cried. Blue Like Jazz was better than Random Artsy Guy had said. It was terrific, and Don Miller became my hero.

When I sat down to write my own book, I thought of Blue Like Jazz and Traveling Mercies. Those books gave me permission to write honestly, and provided a yardstick with which to measure my own work.

Six years have passed. I've had the privilege to meet Don and get to know him.  He's not some über hip artsy dilettante. He's a funny, talented, generous guy.  I got to tour with him last fall. (God really has a sense of humor).


For the past two years, Don and Steve Taylor have been trying to make a movie based on the book. I read the screenplay, and it's great. But they've run into problems with financing. And after two years they have finally given up.

So, how come this insanely popular book can't get made into a low budget movie? Money. Basically, the guys who have the money to make the movie aren't from the same generation as those who'll go see the movie. The money guys probably like going to church at the Gap. They don't cuss or smoke (at least, not in public). The movie has a little cussing and smoking, and the Money Guys can't get around that. Now in Hollywood, old guys fund young-guy films all the time. Who do you think funded Superbad? Not Michael Cera's friends. But in faith-based filmmaking, they can't bridge the gap.

On September 16, Don announced on his blog that the movie was being shelved. In Hollywood they say it "went away," because no one likes to say "over." But the film was over.

Or was it? Two crazy young guys got an idea: get the kids who love the book to come up with the $125,000 still needed to make the movie. It was like Michael Cera's friends decided to pass the hat. Here's the video they made:


Save Blue Like Jazz from Save Blue Like Jazz

Maybe you're thinking: "Why should I donate? I'm an old white guy. I like wearing Dockers to church." Or, "I'm a young white guy and the movie will ruin the book for me." Or, "I'm poor, I don't have a buck to spare." Well I'm an old white chick. I go to an old musty church with incense and choir robes. But if we are going to show how Jesus matters to another generation, we need to speak that generation's language. Young twenty-something hipsters won't respond to the things I respond to. But they're going to respond to the way Jesus and faith are presented in this movie, because it's written for them.

Do you have a child or a friend who doesn't "get" your faith? If you could make Jesus come alive to him or her, would you spend ten bucks to do it? Then do it.

I'm that random artsy guy tapping on your desk.
"Blue Like Jazz. Fund it."

Check out the Save Blue Like Jazz website.

Permission to Speak Freely

This fall I'm going to go on a mini tour with author Anne Jackson to promote her new book, Permission to Speak Freely.  Have you heard of Post Secret?  A blogger invites people to send postcards detailing some deep dark secret they're afraid to tell others.  The blogger puts them up on  his blog. People have submitted some wild secrets: funny, tragic, poignant.  And their art is pretty amazing too. Post Secret blog has taken off and the blogger published a book. 

Anne was taken by the idea. So she asked her fans and readers this question:
What's the one thing you don't feel safe to talk about in church?
People sent in their responses. Anne's book features those original post cards, as well as her own essays, poetry, and story about her own secrets.  The secrets she wasn't allowed to share in the one place we should all feel safe to be our whole selves, warts and all: church.


Permission to Speak Freely Tour this fall.

We've got a few dates schedule in the Pacific Northwest, a few in the midwest. We'd love to go more places, so if you think your church would benefit from us stopping by, please contact Chaffee Management.