What would Michigan style espresso look like?

That is an interesting question. What flavor profiles do you associate with other regions of the US? I have heard the NW has its distinct profile that is brighter than most of what I really get into. I usually imagine the flavor profiles of espresso like an equalizer on my stereo. The bass tones of the deep body and the bright treble of the acidity create a picture with curves like the equalizer knobs.

For instance, the espresso I currently use in my shop is CBI's Panache Espresso Marrakesh. It looks like this:

When traveling in the mid west I discovered a flavor profile that was new to me. I had intense midtones that offered sweetness to the milk drinks, but were a bit too sweet for my ideal straight shot. This is what that looked like:

Some times that profile has a brightness playing on the high end (the blue line). I don't know if that profile is indicative of the midwest (I had it in two shops in Nebraska) or if it is a style borrowed from somewhere else.
As I thought about a flavor profile that would capture the terroir of Michigan, I thought that it would have to have the brightness of a cold winter morning, the growl of industrial machinery and the sweetness of Motown. As I visualized the shape that would make it seemed ironically appropriate:

Theolog: Charity, justice or both?

I have been looking for a way to play monopoly that would give us a chance to play with social justice principles here I found four! I still would like to find a way to roll it all in to one game the way that anti-monopoly introduces the concept of competition.

Theolog: Charity, justice or both?:

by Meg E. Cox

Recently, I was delighted when someone asked whether I still had instructions for an educational version of Monopoly I developed over a decade ago to illustrate various responses to poverty. I hadn't realized that the game was still in use after all these years.

Here's how it worked:

I divided a class into four groups, and I gave each group a Monopoly game with its own set of instructions.

Game One proceeded according to the usual rules.

Charity: In Game Two, one team got $200 each time it passed Go, and the other received $20—to illustrate a difference in income. When the team with low pay got into financial trouble, the higher-earning team was to help them out.

You're on your own: In Game Three, one team received most of the property at the outset, and the other team received just a few pieces—to illustrate a difference in wealth. When the team with little property went bankrupt, the game was over. (This happened much more quickly than in Game One.)

Jubilee: In Game Four, the property was distributed equitably at the beginning. Players could assemble monopolies and buy houses and hotels, but every 15 minutes all property returned to its original owners, along with whatever had been built on it in the interim.

The point was to provoke fruitful discussion"

Residency Day 5

Today I feel like my brain is full and I can’t learn any more. I need to take a break, or as Jerrell said to night, “I need some action…” then he added, “and then some time for reflection – praxis!” I feel like I need to get home and do something – bring hope to our abandoned downtown, find the poor to hang out with, get arrested for opposing injustice! Most important I want to get back to my wife and family and enjoy them. I love living in community with them and our desire to expand that community to others! Ella, Foster, Elaine, I am coming home soon, but not soon enough for my heart.

To relieve this tension, a bunch of my classmates and I went out again tonight. The conversation at the table was good, but the laughter in the packed car on the way home restores my soul!

Residency Day 3

Tonight Ken spoke about the connection between social justice and the charismatic movement. I wish all the A/G could hear that message. The world needs our prophetic and discernment that comes from Spirit Baptism. The poor need the gift of healing. The principalities and powers that oppress with injustice need to be torn down by our spiritual warfare.

After his message we had a charismatic worship time. He introduced me to some structures (liturgy) found in our worship that I hadn’t noticed before: the back and forth between the structure and spontaneous as we sing. The other new thing for me was a form of worship called “Harp and Bowl.” It is similar to lectio devina but in the context of sung worship. I haven’t been in an A/G church that has done this but Jerrell’s church has done it. I’d love to experiment with it.

I felt like my true self tonight. I miss a time of good Pentecostal worship and a ministry time employing the gifts. I received prayer for my sleep disorder. I am anxious to see how rested I am tomorrow. More impressively as Ken was praying for me the Spirit zeroed in on what is really at my heart, the people of my church. He prayed for us to have an awakening and a time of freshness and spiritual restfulness – that the people would receive what I preach and that a fresh anointing would fall on me to preach. He also prayed that healing would flow through me to my home, and my community. Yes Lord! Amen.

Residency Day 2

Tonight as we were talking about our frustrations and guilt about Social Justice, I mentioned that I felt guilty about being on welfare. I then shared with tears about the stresses of this week. My cohort prayed inspired prayers. Jerrell had a word of prophesy for me on the flight here, “You have been faithful in the small things and that is more important than results.” I am blown away by God’s love for me and my cohort’s love. They feel some leading to do something about our struggle, and are trying to figure out what to do. I am a blessed man.

Update: This morning when I woke up I found 200 dollars had been slid under my door!

Residency day 1

Today we arrived at Malvern Retreat Center. This place has some amazing sacred space. Turn a corner and you bump into a statue of a saint, as Mojo said. There is an Oratory in both the men and women’s wings. It is a prayer room, rather it is a room that upon entering you are immersed in prayer and must pray. The one on the women’s side has a vaulted ceiling painted in blue with stars. There is a chandelier/mobile in each that both mutes the light and brings the image of heaven. There are kneelers and marble floors. The men’s side evokes the image of the holy of holies. The doors are embossed in gold. Inside four golden pillars hold up a fiery canopy. Across the altar there is a tabernacle for the host. During the retreats put on by the center, the rooms are used for 15 minutes of adoration of the host by each retreating daily.

On the men’s side there is also a statue of Jesus featuring the imagery of his immaculate heart. I noticed this time that his heart is on fire. It is life sized on a pedestal. His left hand gestured to his heart. I could reach up and put my hand on his heart and his outstretched right hand was positioned just right to touch my forehead. It was so life like. I received his blessing; I put my hand around the back of his so to hold it to my head. I love you Jesus!

Tonight Mojo spoke about the road to Emmaus in preparation for communion. We repeated a collect as a refrain through out the service:

Lord Jesus stay with us,
for evening is at hand and the day is past;
be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts,
and awaken hope,
that we may know you as you are revealed in scripture
and the breaking of bread.
Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

He had us each take a stone to represent the burdens that accompanied us to the retreat. I thought of the financial burden that plagued Elaine and I as I left. She gave me fifty dollars, that was all we had. When we got to the hotel I had 15 left, and my heart sank as I approached the counter to swipe my card. With heavy heart I told her that I charged our bank account seventy dollars that wasn’t there.

As I approached I grabbed a sharp stone, one that as I pressed it in my hand hurt like the stinging sense of failure I harbored because of our financial situation as well as my weariness. As I looked at the stone it sparkled, it was composed of red and black specks. It was beautiful. “Uh Oh, I find my burden is beautiful, what does that mean.” As I listened to God I sensed his response. Your burden is painful as you clutch it in your hand, but when you release it to me it sparkles. I am strong in your weakness. You see my faithfulness through your troubles.

New Monasticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Monasticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The 'Twelve Marks' of a New Monasticism

The Twelve Marks of new monasticism express the common thread of many new monastic communities [7]. These 'marks' are:

1. Relocation to the 'abandoned places of Empire' [at the margins of society]
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us
3. Hospitality to the stranger
4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation
5. Humble submission to Christ’s body, the Church
6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate
7. Nurturing common life among members of intentional community
8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children
9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life
10. Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies
11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18
12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life"

Social Machine

Driving home from Christmas vacation, I listened as my computer read me a few chapters of Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century. Something in Rauschenbusch’s digital voice melded with the inching across the globe as fast as our wheels could take us to engender a feeling of insignificance in me. In his exploration of the social aims of the church throughout its history I got the sense of my part in something global, gargantuan and staid. That part seemed small and insignificant, and the social agenda of the Christian machine, though broken down for centuries seemed so impersonal. I felt the sting of Rauschenbusch implicating the mystical and personal as well as the avarice and perfidy in the church as corrupting forces in the mechanism for salvation.

Rauschenbusch also seems to fall in with theologians who suggest that Jesus failed in his primary mission, and the cross is the symbol of that failure. What can an appreciation for the atonement bring to the discussion about social justice?