Just finished reading McLarens recent book (title above). Not a bad read. It’s like an overview of all the different Christian tradititions and how his own story had intersected with them.
But how is this for a quote –
“Community has become a buzzword in the church in recent years. Overbusy individuals hope they can cram it into their overstuffed schedulles like their membership to a health club (which they never have time to use). Churches hope they can conjure it with candles, programmes, or training videos…community is far more costly than that: one cannot add it to anything, rather one must begin with it in order to enter it, practice it, and preserve it…Community involves proximity, and that proximity involves land, and that our ties to one another can never be seperated from our ties to the land, the watershed, the local economy in which we live. [We need an] instinct about the deep ties between community and sexuality, community and freedom, community and economics.”
pg 208
He writes this in the section on the Anabaptist movement, a movement that appeals to something deep within me.
I really am going now…no really, 10cm of snow last night at Buller, bags are packed, skis warm, toboggans in the boot…off in the morning!
No Guarantees 
proximity equals opportunity, but time to consolidate on that opportunity is paramount.
one of the big lesons i’m learning is that talk about community does not equate to the experience of community. to experience it, you require not only a desire for it, but that desire needs to be validated & honoured through the boundaries of time and space (ie. room).
i am convinced that a busy life will only ever experience a shallow version of true connection.
the hard thing in creating space is the maintenance of these sacred “holes” in our schedule. in a world where everything needs to pass some sort of “efficiency test” before it is deemed as worthwhile, space rarely makes the grade. but it is in these spaces where there is room for “moments” to exist – moments that are filled with precious encounters. encounters that are uncontrollable, chaotic, fluid – encounters that form memories and connection with those that you share these spaces with.
it won’t sell many books and it won’t be practised by very many – but for as me and my house, we will continue to learn how to live “holey” lives.