Leaving the Comforts of Home Is Not Easy but Important

Welcome back. You belong here.

I'm blogging through the process of leaving the institutional structure for my passions and ideals.

My passion and ideal is to bring small businesses, neighborhoods and community organizations together to help those in need by developing a deep sense of community, ownership and generosity.

For more on what we're doing in neighborhoods see here, here and here.

Leaving the comforts of home is never easy and it's specially not easy when you have a family, an amazing wife and three radically beautiful children. But it's the right thing to do.

I find myself having to deal with a lot of practical questions both inside and out: "what will you do now", "what are your marketable skills", "have you found a job yet". I ask myself those things all the time but I'm trying not to live there.

Instead my focus is to think, to consider and reflect not on the possibilities or best (or worst) career move, but on the greatest place of sacrifice, generosity and joy. In other words on my ideals.

Can we be idealists in this day and age when money is tight, jobs are scarce and unemployment is high? Yes you can. It is the ideals that give shape to what really matters - giving hope to others, sacrifice, love, to be a great husband, an amazing father and to live deeply.

Some call us artists or dreamers, Peter Block calls us social architects, community developers, neighborhood revitalizers. It's all part of the same make up of people called to change the world. I want to change the world and to do it together with my wife, children and a band of brothers. I want to make a difference in the world and right now leaving the comforts of home, a steady salary, a successful production manager career together with the book and cell phone benefits is the next step.

Am I concerned about health insurance, retirement, a college fund and money to pay rent? Of course I am, and life seems to constantly pressure you towards those worries.

But for now, in this liminal space, this in between jobs, I'm holding on to my ideals, those God given passions inside of me that will never go away.

That's what living is all about.
The rest will come by faith.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

My First EP

Welcome back. You belong here.

As I've mentioned here before, I just released my new EP "Spring of My Soul". I've setup a Facebook page here where  you can listen and purchase the songs. I've also included a link to a FREE download here. 

The EP is a combination of songs about waiting ("Just a Few More Hours") and fun songs about snow days such as "Crazy". 

Since Facebook has not repaired the "suggest to friends" feature, help me out by joining on the page and sharing with your friends. Thanks so much!

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

How and When did Missional, Kingdom, Postmodernity, Emergent, Formation, Justice Happen for me

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I'm not going to label myself as missional, that's too narrow a definition. I do believe missional gifts have always been in me but so have other things. Music, formation, justice and others. The social justice arm is something I saw modeled by my father as a little boy growing up in Nicaragua.

Mission for me (as I remember) started when I was 13 years old. I used to stand on the street corner of 10th and Cherry in Long Beach, CA outside McCoy's supermarket, and help the elderly cross the street, push their carts, etc. It was my way to serve others in the name of God.

As an adult, the Kingdom of God focus happened about 7 years ago while listening to a sermon by a mission's pastor. The guest speaker talked about Jonathan getting out from under the "pomegranate tree"(while Saul lazily camped out) to go and do the will of God. I remember God clearly telling me (with my lovely wife sitting next to me) "I want you to get out from under the pomegranate tree and follow me". It took me 7 years, but I'm finally doing it.

As a contemplative/artistic type, I've always enjoyed Formation (meditation, prayer, solitude, etc) but it became a focus reading Nouwen, Willard, Richard Foster, Manning and others. I went on silent retreats before it was Clairborne-monastic-cool. But the biggest growth in formation happened about 8 years ago when a friend invited me to join a spiritual formation group. This catapulted my growth as I went from walking alone to walking with others.

I also remember when I first heard of postmodernity. I was a sophomore in college (1990), at a college retreat up in the mountains and the speaker (a guy maybe 4-5 years older than me), talked about postmodernity around the campfire. I had been reading about it myself, but this guy rocked my world. Then I read McLaren's first book "A New Kind of Christian" and that did it. I was forever changed. Emergent, postmodernity, etc. it all made sense to me.

My first experience with a pastor leaving traditional church was a young guy at a cool church back during the GenX church-within-a-church years (circa 1995). I remember him taking a group of us out to lunch and saying crazy stuff like "we can't just preach the Word, we have to live differently and love people". That was so radical at the time, but I knew he was right.

The worship burnout was something I saw in a man in his 70's about 15 years ago.  I remember asking him after a great night of worship "how do you keep doing it after all these years?" He turned to me and said in a strong but sad voice, something like "I don't know why I'm still doing this, it's no fun anymore". I told myself "I'll never be like that" I'm glad I got out when I did.

And the story continues...that's the exciting part!

May God give us all times to listen, times to reflect and eventually times to act on what we know to be true.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

The Signs are Everywhere

Welcome back. You belong here.

I'm blogging through our transition from traditional church to missional bivocational living. This week has had it all, sadness and anxiety to moments of pure joy.

Today at yoga, our guide led us through a brief meditation exercise. As she was doing it I got this sense, "I want to lead people here at Y through the same thing, maybe I can offer classes on spiritual direction". I have no idea if that's possible and I may or may not look into it (probably will), but it was another example of the signs.

Being in this place of not knowing our next steps is exciting but hard. One thing I notice is how wide open my mind is to the signs all around me. Sometimes those signs can be lies, for example I'll think something really bad is going to happen to my wife or children or that I have a brain tumor (I don't).

But the other signs are lights, guidance that comes from truth, from my life, from the spirit, from what's real about me in light of how God made me. They tell me things such as "slow down", "take time to meditate", "pursue me", "read a book", "go to yoga", "look into that", "don't believe that person".

I'm reading a few books right now. One "The Good and Beautiful God" by James Bryan Smith about letting God love you. Very deep stuff as letting an invisible being love us is not easy. I'm also reading "Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer" by David Benner on prayer and meditation.

Lastly, I'm on the last chapter of "The Answer to How is Yes" by Peter Block on being an architect, and building life together with others around you. I love this book.

Sometimes I feel powerless and that's actually the best place for me to be versus the pursuer, networker, solution giver. I have none of those things. When I realize how powerless I am, I get glimpses of where God wants me. I'm trying not to "try so hard" and instead trying (or not trying) to listen to the signs around me.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

Soundcloud, MySpace, etc

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Where to post your music? That's a big question. I have my music on myspace.com/dtrigueros as well as Sound Cloud. Some say Myspace is dead but I like their option to BUY music. Soundcloud doesn't give you that option.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

Tomorrow is a Big Day

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Tomorrow we begin a new chapter in our lives. We are thankful for all we've done so far and look forward to more.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidTrig

Rediscover My Life

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City Manager, Priest, Mayor, Nadia, Villaraigosa, Obando y Bravo, MA Religious Studies Boulder, MPA Denver, music, always music, lover of God, always lover of God, Emergent, Missional, one with my wife and children, always one.

The sky is the limit, I can be any thing I want. Lord, lead me.
You too can rediscover your life today!

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

Song Writing, Recording and Missional Living

Welcome back. You belong here.

I'm in the process of recording my 1st EP, called "Spring of My Soul" in honor of this blog. I will begin to describe the story behind each song as well as the recording process here and on my YouTube Channel. Pictures of gigs will be on my Facebook page. I will also describe our new missional life.

You can check out rough cuts of the songs at myspace.com/dtrigueros
Thanks for listening.

Have a great day. 

Into the future,

davidTrig