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As I hinted yesterday, there's been a bit of controversy in a few blogs lately. You can see some of the aftermath at Real Live Preacher - 90 comments and counting on his decision to remove his last essay.

Controversy on blogs is hardly newsworthy. There are a few reasons I care in this case. One of them is that I think I sent one of the people over who reacted a bit harshly to RLP's first post, so I feel a bit responsible. This isn't the first time either. When people start to get hurt, I start to care.

I don't think this controversy deserves too much time. But I do have a couple of thoughts, one today, and one (I hope) tomorrow. Two thoughts is pretty good for me. ;)

Some people seem to think that the stricter view always wins. I've seen this in a few places this past week: don't do this and don't do that and you're okay. Do these things (watch movies with certain language, use certain language, support a certain political party, even talk honestly about something that happened accidentally) and you're clearly ungodly, maybe even not a Christian.

I just happened to be teaching on Colossians 2 yesterday, the latter part of the chapter. It turns out that this was exactly the problem Paul was addressing. The stricter party was trying to impose their views on the others. They looked a lot holier, and their standards are a lot stricter. In most churches, these would be the heroes.

But not to Paul.

"Don't let anyone judge you...don't let anyone disqualify you." Paul had some pretty harsh things to say to those who impose their standards of Christian morality ("Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!") on others in the chapter. That sure makes me think.

This isn't a license to do anything. It is a statement of freedom, though. If you've been set free, don't ever let anyone - no matter how well-intentioned - shackle you with their rules, which lack any value and only lead to pride. You've been set free. Don't ever look back.

“Whenever authentic, joyful confidence in Christ diminishes, regulations are brought in to preserve what the power of Christ once created.” (John Piper)

The stricter view isn't always the right view. Sometimes it's dead wrong.

Vortex Mental Download is just the eclectic injection you need on a monthly basis. This random resource download is meant to help you ask the right questions and even to learn how to ask the right questions about the questions you are asking. How often are you spending time hunting mice when you could be slaying elephants? How much energy do you spend trying to buttress you weakness instead of building on islands of health and strength? What are the hot theological issues you are feeling a bit ill equipped to process all alone? How do you reflect upon these theological issues and make adjustments in your practice as a leader? What emerging trends will impact the context of your organization? These are the questions of leadership.

But there are a whole host of issues critical to all people not just leaders. Like the question or personal purpose, or core values, the challenges of growing in emotional intelligence and how that lays a foundation for relationship. What are the key 4 things all kids should leave the home with by the time they are 18 and moving on? What is the process that we go through to see transformation happen in our lives? How are habits formed, bad ones broken and new ones reformed? These issues and tons more are applicable to everyone.

Both editions (personal and leadership) are now available.

Arthur asks:

I've been thinking about this all weekend.

Don't know Joel Osteen. May I ask why it is such a crisis for him to be the most popular preacher in America?

It's not my style to do exposes of other preachers. Just as well, because Michael Spencer has done it for us. He believes (rightfully, I think) that we should be concerned.

Backing up a bit: I believe one of our major tasks over the next decade will be to re-articulate the Gospel, not just at a theological level, but at the level of every church. Can't help but get excited about that.

emergesque is rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs. Stephen Shields posts something almost every day, and it's always worth reading. Thanks to him, I found some good new books today.

Pernell told me a couple of months ago that he doesn't read a lot of emerging type blogs, because if it's important, Jordon will post on it. I would add Stephen and Andrew Jones to that list.

So RLP has taken down the post I linked to. Supposedly some found it offensive.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I found the original post in a cache and read the comments. I was shocked. Some people (two, actually) found the post inappropriate in ways that I couldn't have imagined. I don't think it's exaggerating to say they read into the post things that weren't there.

It's been a bad week. This is the third friend who's been hurt by this type of thing.

I'm speechless.

More to come...

Update: Michael Spencer nails it in the comments:

It was one of your best and that is saying a lot. Put it back up. Luther would look at these critics, take a drink, belch loudly and laugh at them. You're nicer than Luther, but you get the point.

From Real Live Preacher:

Real Christianity involves getting together with a handful of pilgrims and getting intimate. It means braving the possibility of communion. It means letting people into your personal space. And, by the way, these are exactly the sort of people who will hear something desperate in your voice and be experienced enough at listening to know exactly what it means...

Maybe this sounds disturbing, like someone bumping into you in a restaurant.

I understand.

Hey, that’s why Disneyland Christianity exists. Because we are so very afraid of the real thing. You can sit in the back of some huge church, totally anonymous, wearing your blue suit and clinging to your satchel. No one will bother you. No one will get close. You can watch the action taking place up on the stage, keeping your mouth shut and guarding yourself from all the things that frighten you.

While this is put more strongly than I would put it, I tend to agree with Michael Spencer in a lot of his points:

I'm not compromising on homosexuality or the glory of God by not taking up Dobson's agenda or buying into his paranoia about homosexuality in the culture. I read Romans 1, and I am down at the church doing the rest of the book.

Should Christians promote their worldview like homosexuals do? No. I don't want schools making pledges to Christ. I don't want Christians pressuring Hollywood to put them in sitcoms. I don't want Congress to pass Christ-friendly laws. I don't want the Christian faith made the law of the land. If I wanted to act like gay activists I would join Fred Phelps. I don't want to imitate Dobson or gay activists. I want to do what Jesus commanded the church to do, the way Jesus commanded the church to do it.

Should I be more upset that gays are telling my children homosexuality is OK? Frankly, that is a minor problem compared to the fact that most of the preachers and churches in America don't proclaim- or even understand- the Gospel. The fact that Joel Osteen is the most popular preacher in America is a crisis. The lack of the Gospel in the church....there's a problem I can grieve about. Frankly, Christians who are upset at homosexuals more than the sin in their own lives and churches have issues that go to the heart of the Gospel itself. (I Corinthians 5:9-13, I Corinthians 6:9-11, Titus 2:11-15, Titus 3:3-11) Despite what he says, I think Dobson is throwing stones, and I am hanging with the guy that says "Neither do I (condemn you.) Go and sin no more" to me.

Not as good as hearing it on CD, but now available online. Some good stuff here:

There is only one church—"one holy, catholic, and apostolic." When my local assembly gathers for worship, we join ourselves with "the communion of saints" (Apostles' Creed), those who have gone before us and those who will come after us, and with the millions upon millions who fill the Earth today. This reality should also be reflected in our corporate worship. This means we must move beyond the chronological snobbery that insists that "newer is better" when it comes to our songs of worship. Likewise, we must move beyond a narrow vision of a church based on nationality or ethnicity. Incorporating songs, confessions, and other liturgical resources from around the globe and from other eras is an enriching commitment. It brings us closer to the beautiful vision of worship in passages like Revelation 7:9-10, where we read of an innumerable throng of worshipers from every nation, tribe, and tongue praising God in one accord.

And much more.

From The Globe and Mail:

The federal government plans to name Toronto a "cultural capital of Canada" and give the city $500,000 for that designation, effective this September through August, 2006.

I'm sure this should read THE cultural capital of Canada, not a.

This sounds like quite an honor, but really, what other city was in the running? Saskatoon?

I hope this won't endanger our other titles - centre of the universe (former mayor Mel Lastman actually declared it that for a few days in 1999) and world-class city.

I didn't link to this when I originally read it, but since then I've read some pretty nasty reviews of Generous Orthodoxy. To be honest, I haven't finished the book yet, but Blomberg makes sense as he reacts to some of the extreme critics of the book:

But overall, I am far more enthusiastic about this volume than worried over it. What worries me are the growing numbers of people who are worried about it. What does this portend if not an ungenerous orthodoxy that draws ever-narrowing boundaries around what counts as authentic Christianity, thereby alienating even more onlookers from the very faith they already see as too judgmental and divisive? I recommend McLaren's work highly to anyone who cares about evangelizing postmoderns and about developing the kind of community in the church of Jesus Christ that our Lord himself seems to have desired.

A couple of years ago, Girl Guides switched their cookie manufacturer. You just don't do that. Changing Girl Guides cookies is kind of like...I don't know, moving from Movable Type to Wordpress or Fusion Publisher or something. It's bad. You just don't do it.

Supposedly, it had to do with peanut allergies. Now, I'm not as insensitive on the whole matter as Scott, and I sympathize with those who have peanut allergies. But could you not find a way to continue delivering the good stuff, allergies or no allergies?

So they came out with new cookies from a different, peanut-free manufacturer. The new ones aren't completely without merit - if you enjoy eating chalk. They're so bad I gave them to my kids as a punishment.

Tonight, I discovered that Mr. Christie (maker of the old GG cookies) has come out with New! Golden Oreos. Guess what they taste like? Happy days are here again. I guess the non-compete agreement has run out.

All vanilla; no chocolate to go through just to get to the white ones. I feel a little guilty that I'm not supporting those girls, but I'm feeling pretty good otherwise. 1.0kg of cookies sitting right in front of me. Yes, I'll share. Come on over.

Another quote (sorry, Pam):

Conforming to boundary markers too often substitutes for authentic transformation.

The church I grew up in had its boundary markers. A prideful or resentful pastor could have kept his job, but if ever the pastor was caught smoking a cigarette, he would've been fired. Not because anyone in the church actually thought smoking a worse sin than pride or resentment, but because smoking defined who was in our subculture and who wasn't—it was a boundary marker.

As I was growing up, having a "quiet time" became a boundary marker, a measure of spiritual growth. If someone had asked me about my spiritual life, I would immediately think, Have I been having regular and lengthy quiet time? My initial thought was not, Am I growing more loving toward God and toward people?

Boundary markers change from culture to culture, but the dynamic remains the same. If people do not experience authentic transformation, then their faith will deteriorate into a search for the boundary markers that masquerade as evidence of a changed life. (John Ortberg)

I've been frustrated this week as I've seen people being thumped for bumping into various boundary markers. To be truthful, I've got a bit of that in me too.

I like that question: "Am I growing more loving toward God and toward people?"

Gotta love Oswald:

The Spirit of God is always the spirit of liberty; the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of bondage, the spirit of oppression and depression. The Spirit of God convicts vividly and tensely, but He is always the Spirit of liberty. God who made the birds never made birdcages; it is men who make birdcages, and after a while we become cramped and can do nothing but chirp and stand on one leg. When we get out into God's great free life, we discover that that is the way God meant us to live "the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Oswald Chambers)

This article is a year old, but it's still relevant:

Approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide now belong to the "consumer class"—the group of people characterized by diets of highly processed food, desire for bigger houses, more and bigger cars, higher levels of debt, and lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non-essential goods...

"Rising consumption has helped meet basic needs and create jobs," Christopher Flavin, president of Worldwatch Institute said in a statement to the press. "But as we enter a new century, this unprecedented consumer appetite is undermining the natural systems we all depend on, and making it even harder for the world's poor to meet their basic needs."...

The increase in prosperity is not making humans happier or healthier, according to several studies. Findings from a survey of life satisfaction in more than 65 countries indicate that income and happiness tend to track well until about $13,000 of annual income per person (in 1995 dollars). After that, additional income appears to produce only modest increments in self-reported happiness.

Increased consumerism evidently comes at a steep price.

People are incurring debt and working longer hours to pay for the high-consumption lifestyle, consequently spending less time with family, friends, and community organizations...

Some aspects of rampant consumerism have resulted in startling anomalies. Worldwatch reports that worldwide annual expenditures for cosmetics total U.S. $18 billion; the estimate for annual expenditures required to eliminate hunger and malnutrition is $19 billion. Expenditures on pet food in the United States and Europe total $17 billion a year; the estimated cost of immunizing every child, providing clean drinking water for all, and achieving universal literacy is $16.3 billion.

There is, of course, no easy solution to the problem. The authors call for green taxes (to reflect the true environmental costs of a product), take-back programs that require manufacturers to recycle packaging or goods, and consumer education and awareness programs.

But first and foremost we need to reorient our way of thinking, says Gardner.

"The goal is to focus not so much on sacrifice, but on how to provide a higher quality of life using the lowest amount of raw materials," he said. "We need to change the way we produce goods and the way we consume them."

Last week, there was a lot in the news about Jim Dobson's commnets on Spongebob Squarepants. I had to laugh tonight as I looked back at another cartoon character, Bugs Bunny (found via Boing Boing). Ouch! As Church Marketing Sucks says, "Don't ever, ever, ever get in a fight with a fictional character." Especially Bugs.

Update: The satire continues. Order John Hagee's video Pulling Down SpongeBob's Squarepants – Exposing Satan's Yellow Bellied Plan (found via Kevin D. Hendricks).

I'd forgotten how much the world has changed in 21 years. Kottke.org has links to a video of Steve Jobs introducing the Mac in 1984 (video originally posted by TextLab).

My brother Arthur and I have been discussing my caring post by e-mail. Essentially, he's asking how much is enough. Good question. How much can we care about Darfur or AIDS when we have real problems and real lives here?

Then this was in this morning's paper: Few Canadians realize extent of Holocaust:

"One can ask, 'How can a genocide happen?' Well, I guess part of the answer is a lot of good people have busy lives and they're not paying attention," Mr. Winn said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew is to make much the same point in an address to a special Holocaust commemorative session of the General Assembly of the United Nations tonight.

"It is our ability to recognize evil, to battle our own indifference in the face of hatred against others, that requires the greatest courage and greatest insight. Sad to say, as a civilization we continue to fail on both counts," Mr. Pettigrew says.

"Since the liberation of Auschwitz, the world has witnessed much brutality against our fellow human beings: Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and the list of those damned by indifference goes on."

With 350,000 or more who could die in Darfur in the next few months, it's getting harder to do nothing.

A lot of people have been linking to Ron Sider's article:

American Christians live in the richest nation on earth and enjoy an average household income of $42,409. The World Bank reports that 1.2 billion of the world's poorest people try to survive on just one dollar a day. At least one billion people have never heard the gospel. The Ronsvalles point out that if American Christians just tithed, they would have another $143 billion available to empower the poor and spread the gospel. Studies by the United Nations suggest that just an additional $70–$80 billion a year would be enough to provide access to essential services like basic health care and education for all the poor of the earth. If they did no more than tithe, American Christians would have the private dollars to foot this entire bill and still have $60–$70 billion more to do evangelism around the world.

As evangelicals we claim to embrace the Bible as our final authority. One of the most common themes in the Scriptures is that God and his faithful people have a special concern for the poor. Why this blatant contradiction between belief and practice?

This isn't intended to be a guilt thing. It's just to say that it's hard to pretend we're doing enough. Quite a bit of responsibility we carry there.

It's hard not to defend something that is admittedly flawed at points when you see it misrepresented. There's a time that it's important to speak up, but there's also a time to keep quiet. Maggi Dawn writes:

I think too much energy is wasted defending the emerging church conversation. I'm amazed that there are people who seem to think they need to defend it against ME - and I'm a sympatheitc supporter of it, although I dare now and again to write about its weaknesses as well as its strengths. THere is too much oversensitivity. If Carla doesn't understand it, that's her business. Respect to her for having a go, at least. It also may be that her perception of emerging is instructive, as it might show us how a lot of people actually perceive us (e.g. many people can't spot the difference between Emerging church and Purpose Driven. We might know there is a difference, but it remains a fact that thousands of people, including many who call themselves "emerging" or "emergent" don't get it.) I think just keep on doing what you're doing. What's good will grow. All the debate and misunderstanding will fall away.

Like everything, it's hard to keep this in tension. In the end, it's not about the emerging church anyway. It's about all of us learning what it takes to be faithful in our own context. That's what's important.

That's the rumor.

From the movie Collateral, after a taxi driver (Max) sees a man killed:

Vincent: Max, six billion people on the planet, you're getting bent out of shape cause of one fat guy.

Max: Well, who was he?

Vincent: What do you care? Have you ever heard of Rwanda?

Max: Yes, I know Rwanda.

Vincent: Well, tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobody's killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Did you bat an eye, Max?

Max: What?

Vincent: Did you join Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Whales, Greenpeace, or something? No. I off one fat Angelino and you throw a hissy fit.

Max: Man, I don't know any Rwandans.

Vincent: You don't know the guy in the trunk, either.

This really struck me, especially as I learn more about the genocide. Yet it's so easy not to care.

Update: Rev. Mike says caring is not enough.

About a month ago, I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of the 1800s. I noticed that the sermon was preached at London's Crystal Palace. I'd forgotten what that was all about, so I did a bit of research.

It turns out that Spurgeon preached to crowds of up to twenty-four thousand people at this venue without a microphone. This led to some articles on his use of various buildings. The decision to use these buildings was not a conventional one:

Objections by the traditional Victorians were, of course, raised from every corner. That would be “worldly,” some criticized. Others cautioned it might be dangerous for such a large crowd to gather for a religious service. One of Charles’ own deacons pleaded with him not to preach in “that devil’s house.” But Spurgeon replied, “We did not go to the music-hall because we thought it was a good thing to worship in a building usually devoted to amusement, but because we had no other place to go 131 Some even thought Spurgeon could not fill it. Being a place of secular amusement, many said it would never be suited for divine worship. “Preposterous,” cried some people.

By this time Spurgeon had grown immune to cruel criticism, attacks and outmoded traditionalism. He well realized, as he said, “The tears of affliction are often needed to keep the eye of faith bright.”132 Along with the Deacon Olney, he surveyed the building and his eye of faith beamed brightly—he thought it ideal for his purposes. The deacons agreed and the decision came down: to the Music Hall they would go. The news immediately spread all over London. Surrey Gardens Music Hall would become host to Spurgeon and his New Park Street Baptist Church! That was as rash a move as London could grapple with. As one put it, “In the squares, the streets, the lanes, the alleys, as well as in the workshops and country houses, and all the chief places of concourse, it has been, through each successive day, the one great object of thought and converse.”

Spurgeon is highly revered in my circles, and for good reason. The irony is that in his day, Spurgeon was innovative and was often criticized for being crude and worldly, even for his choice of music - the same criticisms that are sometimes leveled today by those who follow Spurgeon.

I bring this up because I think we need to give a bit of grace to those who are trying to contextualize our calling in today's culture. This is exactly what Spurgeon did.

If Spurgeon was around today, he would not be pastoring using the methods he used over a hundred years ago. He'd likely be on the cutting edge. It's not that he would compromise the Gospel; it's that he would give some thought as to how that Gospel is expressed in the world in which we find ourselves.

It takes the skills of a missiologist and the creativity of a Spurgeon to do so. When we are criticized, we can take comfort that we are in the Spurgeonic tradition. It goes with the territory.

Postscript: The first service at the Music Hall was a disaster; seven people died and twenty-eight were seriously injured. Innovations aren't without their problems.

It was -35 degrees Celsius yesterday. Absolutely freezing. It was one of those days you ask what in the world you are doing living here. You even think nasty thoughts about those in your family tree who must have moved here in the middle of summer. There is no other explanation that makes sense.

But our postman was wearing shorts. Shorts. No kidding. He's either cold blooded or he has adapted to winter a lot better than I have.

Absolutely bizarre.

As Stephen Shields and others have noted, 2005 is the year that the emerging church will get a lot of attention and criticism. This is going to hit in a lot of places - one of them being my denomination.

If the Fellowship has a patron saint, it would be D.A. Carson. He was one of us; he is my alma mater's most famous graduate. Every time he speaks at one of our meetings, he packs the place out. His book, Becoming Conversant with Emergent, is coming out next month, and it's going to get a lot of buzz.

Carla Rolfe is another Fellowship Baptist. She's been busy setting up a website devoted to critiquing (or criticizing) the emerging church.

I have an article coming out in the next issue of our denominational magazine called Evaluating the Emerging Church. There will be a discussion board on our denomination's website following the article. The one a few months back on missional churches got interesting.

I'm starting to wonder what I've got myself into. It's going to be an interesting couple of months in the Fellowship.

Monday's seminar was amazing. Sometimes we get to think that theology is just all theory and removed from everyday life. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.

I've been thinking about some of the comments made by Robert Pyne (and others). Dr. Pyne is professor of theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

For years, Dr.Pyne taught the complementarian viewpoint endorsed by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This view is essentially that men and women are equal but different. This is the view that says that men should be in leadership positions in the church, and women, although equal, should not be.

Teaching this view for twelve years, and reviewing all the literature that comes out, means that you get to know where the arguments for this position are strong, and where they are weak. Dr. Pyne began to realize that some of the evidence for this position was, in his words, like one of those plastic adhesive hooks that you hang on your bathroom door. They are fine for holding small items, like towels. When you hang something heavy on the hooks, like a bathrobe, they come crashing down to the ground. These little hooks can't handle the weight.

Is there evidence for the complementarian view? Absolutely. Are the hooks strong enough to justify half the body of Christ being excluded from leadership? According to Dr. Pyne, they aren't. The arguments can't hold that type of weight.

A parallel to this issue is slavery. Is there Scriptural support for slavery? According to William E. Hull, pro-slavery advocates had more biblical support and evidence than abolitionists. Again, the hooks weren't strong enough, and today we are shocked at how those in favor of slavery could use the Bible that way. Yet we (the church) were, for the most part, on the wrong side of the slavery issue.

Dr. Pyne left us with these questions about drawing lines in the sand on issues like gender and leadership:

If you are unsure whether a practice (e.g. head covering) is commanded, should you demand it?

If you are unsure whether a practice is forbidden (e.g. women teaching), should you forbid it?

What do you believe you can demand (or forbid) with confidence?

"If you are going to forbid half the body of Christ," he said, "you'd better have a pretty strong hook." It's not that the hooks on the other side are necessarily stronger. In fact, some egalitarians argue poorly. There are enough good hooks, though, at least in my view, that seem to be able to hold the weight of grace.

I realize that these will be fighting words to some of my readers. What I appreciated most about the other day is that we could discuss the issues honestly without getting too riled. No doubt some of the other speakers appealed more to others. If you're interested, you may want to think about ordering the tapes directly from Heritage. Christians for Biblical Equality also has some good material. I think I'll be ordering a new book (Discovering Biblical Equality) as well.

Josiah has told me that if he can't be a firefighter, he will settle for selling hats. Evidently pastoring is boring but that is not. I don't know where he is getting these ideas and I'm kind of scared to ask.

Research from Thom Rainer:

If time is a good measure, the leaders of effective churches prepare well for the sermons they preach each week.

By a ratio of greater than 5 to 1, the leaders of the effective churches spent significantly more time in sermon preparation than the pastors of the comparison churches. Effective preachers spent an average of 20 hours a week and comparison church pastors spent an average of two hours a week working on sermons.

Some other good insights in the series of articles.

For a lot of reasons, preaching is the most challenging thing I do every week. Part of this is because I can't preach it if I'm not living it. Another reason is that it takes an incredible amount of work to prepare as I should. Some weeks, like this past Sunday, I'm discouraged by the result.

It's tempting to think that preaching doesn't matter, but for those of us who have experienced preaching as it should be, it really does matter. But it costs something. This was a good reminder that the payoff isn't out of line with the costs.

Two of my brothers, and my brother-in-law, are firefighters. My son has recently been talking about becoming a firefighter. I couldn't resist challenging this a little.

Last night, I asked him, "Why be a firefighter? Don't you want to be a pastor?" Without thinking, and with great conviction, he replied, "Pastors are boring!"

Lousy son. Maybe it would help if I had a siren.

Ed and I attended a seminar today on issues in contemporary hermeneutics:

A one-day conference featuring a dialogue on the redemptive movement hermeneutic between Dr. Gary Meadors, Professor of Greek and New Testament, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary; Dr. Robert Pyne, Professor of Theological Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary; Dr. Al Wolters, Professor of Religion & Theology, Redeemer University College; and Dr. Bill Webb, Professor of New Testament, Heritage Seminary.

I know, I just lost half of you.

Today was a good day - a day to be stretched and to learn from different opinions. I enjoyed the banter and the thoughts.

Big irony: four white guys talking about gender roles. Big surprise: that the prof from Dallas recently changed his position on the issue after teaching on the issue for twelve years. Can a leopard change his spots? Sometimes, it would seem. Big relief? That some of my thoughts are not so crazy after all.

Days like today make me want to be a better pastor. Just what I needed today.

Jesus didn't die on the cross to fill auditoriums. (George Barna)

Well, I guess I am back. It's been a crazy week. I had an article due yesterday and I procrastinated too long. It's okay, but it could have benefited by a bit more time. It's amazing how much writing improves when you do a second draft.

I made the stupid decision to reformat Windows this week. My machine was getting slow. Bad idea to reformat the same week you're trying to write an article.

Will I ever learn? Unlikely.

Bene's domain name is temporarily down. Until this is straightened out you can find Bene here.

From CTV:

The prairie provinces are locked in a deep freeze, with wind chills registering as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius in some places.

That's just wrong. How can anyone live or blog in that barren land?

Life has resumed its normal pace. It's good on one hand. I liked last week better, though. Time with family, sleeping in, more time reading - what's not to like?

Underneath all of this is the sobering realization that still, for many, life is not well. It's hard for me to comprehend, still, the aftermath of the tsunami in Asia. I have no appetite for the theological debates on the tsunami either; maybe later. Insights, perhaps, but not debates.

Even more sobering is the realization that while the tsunami is more dramatic, other crises (such as the AIDS pandemic) are even more devastating in this broken world:

...the bottom line is that this month and every month, more people will die of malaria (165,000 or more) and AIDS (240,000) than died in the tsunamis, and almost as many will die because of diarrhea (140,000).

We have it well here, which is why we need prayer. C.S. Lewis wrote to a friend:

I specially need your prayers because I am (like the pilgrim in Bunyan) traveling across "a plain called Ease." Everything without and many things within are marvelously well at present.

We need prayer, because things are well here, which might make us forget that this world (including us) is not well. Not yet, anyway.

There are days that I want to give up pastoring. Other pastors would probably understand. The task is overwhelming, and there are few tangible signs that all the work is doing anything. The work is repetitive (do you know how fast Sundays seem to come?) and working with people can be challenging.

This sounds like complaining. I suppose it is. Don't get me wrong - I love pastoring, despite all of this. It's just easy to question if you're making a difference or not.

Yesterday, I visited a different church. The service was simple but profound. The message lacked flash but had substance and depth. The hour and a bit was enough to re-orient lives, and if we listened and really worked at applying what was talked about, those who were present would see their worlds truly changed.

There was nothing flashy, but for a moment we saw what was real and saw, again, what really matters. For a minute we saw eternity.

So it does matter, and because I saw someone who was faithful yesterday, I don't want to quit today. I may not be equal to the task, but I might be able to look at eternity, and help others to see it too, and that might be what matters most.

Last year, I sat in a group where we all introduced ourselves. I hate that. I didn't hear a word that anybody else said until I introduced myself. I was too busy trying to decide what to say about myself. I don't think I wanted to make a good impression; I wanted to avoid making a bad impression. Being unnoticed would be okay. This, of course, is all about pride.

Eventually I gave my spiel and began to actually listen to others. Amazingly, I was judging everyone that I heard. I hate this about myself, but it's true.

A burly man who looked like he had edge started to talk. I pictured him as a somewhat disillusioned pastor of a small church somewhere. As he talked, he revealed that he was founding pastor of a fairly large emerging type church. I immediately changed my evaluation of him.

I don't know what I hate most about this scene: that I was worried about how others would perceive me, that I was so quick to judge others, or that I revised my evaluations based on things that don't really matter (success rather than heart). It's so hard not to judge. I'd much prefer to see the image of God in every individual. Maybe one day I'll get there.

The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important challenge in society, economics, politics, is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities. (Peter Drucker, The Daily Drucker)

You've got to love a brand spanking New Year. Nothing has changed, yet it somehow seems new. I actually like the time feasting and socializing and reflecting. It's a nice pause before getting back to the regular schedule.

If Thoreau was right in saying that most live unexamined lives, it doesn't hurt to slow down once a year and do some thinking. And a bit more time with family and some good food doesn't hurt either.

We had a great time with family yesterday. It was our annual Dash Christmas party. It is a laid back time but still occasionally insane with all the kids flying around. I love spending time with them. I don't take that for granted either.

My brothers and sister are cool people who have married equally great people. Our kids get along as well. We laugh and talk and eat too much. These are people I love spending time with. We had a great day yesterday.

My sister-in-law told me that I was posting too many quotes lately and she's slowed down reading here. A good kick in the pants, that. For her and everyone else, enjoy the rest of today and have a very shalom-ful New Year.