Burning Man

"Hurtling down the road to the Black Rock Desert, the colors paint themselves like a spice cabinet — sage, dust, slate gray. Maybe you're in your trusty car, the one that takes you to and from work every day. Perhaps you've got a spacious RV, your Motel 6 on wheels for the next days in the desert. Or you're driving your glittering art car, complete with poker chips and mirroring to do a disco ball proud.

The two-lane highway turns off onto a new road. You drive slowly onto the playa, the 400 square mile expanse known as the Black Rock Desert. And there you've touched the terrain of what feels like another planet. You're at the end — and the beginning — of your journey to Burning Man."

These are the words of Molly Steenson describing her experience at the massive 10-day festival that over 50,000 people will attend this summer in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

The infamous Burning Man.

Burning Man is basically a huge gathering of people seeking to experience an alternative way of living. The gathering is guided by a set of values known as the ten principles. They are as follows:


Radical Inclusion,


Gifting,

Decommodification,

Radical Self-reliance,

Radical Self-expression,

Communal Effort,

Civic Responsibility,

Leaving No Trace,

Participation

and Immediacy.

And every year thousands of people drive all the way out to the middle of nowhere to be a part of a community built around these values.

Every time I look at this list I think to myself that there is a reason so many people go searching for this out in the desert. This radically alternative lifestyle is - in a lot of ways - very much in line with the lives I think God created us to live. Now of course, I would not say that everything that happens at Burning Man is okay. But I also don't think that should stop me from celebrating glimpses of beauty, creativity and wholeness when I see them. 

Which is why I want to set out to find what the Church can learn from Burning Man.

What would it look like to be a radically inclusive community? Where we not only welcomed people who looked, thought, and felt differently than we do; but also did not seek to invalidate there opinions and experiences?

What if we thought of our communities as a place where one does not come to consume a message or a good feeling but rather to participate in and be consumed by the life God created us to live?

What would it look like if we truly looked out for the people in our communities and neighborhoods? What about the 'least of these' by the world's standards? What if we personally invested in people's lives rather than relying on 'the system' to help people who are hurting?

What if the reason so many people are drawn to Burning Man every year is because it's a glimpse of what God's Kingdom coming here to earth looks like? 

The very Kingdom that we are called to help usher in...

Grace & Peace