DashHouse.com

• The book project has re-ignited a desire to write. It's funny, when I was a kid I always wanted to be a writer. I also wanted to be a pastor but I was afraid that when you spoke publicly, you had less chance to edit than when you put pen to paper. I still live with the fear that one day I will really put my foot in it, but so far I've survived every time it's happened.


• I am off to England with my brother again in just over a week. We are off to look after my father. I am very behind in preparing for the trip; lots to do this coming week to get ready. I have mixed feelings about these trips: dealing with my Dad is hard, and I hate being away from the family. On the plus side, it will be fun to be in England with my brother.


• I am speaking at a men's breakfast next Saturday at the Canadiana Restaurant at 8 AM. Come for the breakfast, it's $12 and we should have a lot of fun. If you are in the area come out for your weekly dose of food your wife doesn't let you eat. Just let me know you're coming so I can tell the restaurant.


• Years ago I met Jordon online. We've since met in person a few times but he's become a good friend despite living so far away. Jordon's health continues to be a concern. Looks like he slept well last night but continue to keep Jordon in your prayers.

92% of visitors to this site use Windows. I'm surprised at the number of Linux users - it's higher than I would have thought.

One day I'm going to write a Hal Lindsay type book predicting what's going to happen in the end times except it's going to involve blue screens of death and mysterious Windows messages. Of course those using Linux and Macs will be spared. It will be about as good as the original Hal Lindsay book and I hope to make a small fortune from it. The only sad part is that if my book comes true, the traffic on this site is really going to take a nosedive.

Some churches really do get carried away

Find out why here

I like it. The expression on the robot's face says a lot. It's also sort of a fusion of modern at the top of the picture with postmodern at the bottom. Is my son trying to make a statement?

From Scot McKnight responds to James MacDonald's article Why I am Not Emerging:

So, when I turn now to remonstrate with James Macdonald, I do so as one who sympathizes with his task and his calling, not as an ivory towered professor who rarely finds time for such things as the local parish ministry.

Here's my problem with James Macdonald's recent examination of emerging and then his second part: I don't think he has studied the movement deeply enough or widely enough to understand it. Therefore, his five point critique falls flat for me and it falls flat because it is not penetrating or fair.

I heard James talk about the emerging church earlier this year. Scot's response is fair; hope they are able to connect for that lunch.

Featuring Mono and the gang - found via Jordon

A list of tags from blogs I follow via TagCloud. For some strange reason Apple shows up big even though only 5 out the 100+ blogs I follow is Apple-related. Cool though.

From Jordon writes:

If you are reading this, it means that Scott, Leighton, Darryl and I decided it was time to let the world see what we are up to. The plan is that the four of us are going to write and hopefully have published a book and we are going to try to do it in as transparent as way as possible.

...We also need your help. As we post information, we want your feedback, offer up suggestions, argue with us and tell us what you think. If you sign your name to your comments, we may use them with your permission in the book.

Of course all of us are serial-bloggers so there will be more than the occasional interesting link, some commentary, and maybe even a rant or two.

I don't know if we will suceed in writing or having this book published. The site may stand as a living testament to our arrogance and failure or it may work out in the end. Like many journeys that we take, we aren't sure where this one will end up.

Take a look. Should be fun.

A former professor of mine, church historian Michael Haykin, is now blogging.

Charlene praises me. Stop, it's embarrassing.

This post is dedicated to anonymous, who complained about Jordon's last podcast in which he interviewed Wendy:

Great podcast but on the other hand - listening to both of you together - you'd never know you were married. Where's the passion?

Personally, I'm grateful the passion got edited out of the podcast. Thanks, Jordon!

found via Camp who says:

I have never asked this of anyone on this blog before, but the time has come to act and act we must. Would you be willing to contact Thomas Nelson Publishers by email or phone and voice your disgust over this latest trend in dumbing down the Scriptures? Just click here or call 1.800.251.4000 and ask for the department responsible for the BibleZine product line... and then begin to minister to them! Be polite; be direct; be biblical; and be faithful.

The Leadership Blog: 42 & Counting: The Growing Leadership Interview List:

An impressive list of interviews. Great to see Josh Sargent blogging again. Site found via

The Mac is back, much earlier than promised, and I am a happy boy. Although I have to admit in fairness that the PC I used wasn't all that bad.

Wendy gives an update. Please continue to pray for Jordon, Wendy, and Mark.

Here in Toronto, we like to make fun of Hamilton. As I entered The Hammer today, I have to admit I was a bit envious (don't tell). It's a city with an active arts community, an urban core that's starting to be renewed, and a good vibe. It kind of reminded me of the hip part of Queen Street in Toronto around the Drake.

I was in town to visit Pernell at FRWY. I got a peak at their Cafe and plan on returning soon with my wife for a date. I can never talk to Pernell without getting excited about the shape that ministry can take in today's context. The FRWY is a little off the map and it is exciting to see it develop with its own unique ethos. It seems true and right and I love what they are doing. Churches don't have to all be cookie cutter.

I got a little excited about similar things happening in Toronto. I am in central Etobicoke now but I have always had a soft spot for downtown. Who knows if that same sort of ethos might take shape here - I can only hope.

Bene leaves blogging:

Yeah, if you look at the post below, I acknowledged I'm not renewing this blog.
The reasons are simple: spam, mad money and burnout.
Nothing profound.
I don't do good-byes well, I'm sorry about that.
What a joy all of you have been. I've seen grace.
I am so much richer than I was three years ago, you helped change a life, you matter very much.
Thank you, merci.
Blog on!

It won't be the same.

Wish I had seen this quote last week - could have used it on Sunday. It's exactly where God has been pulling me lately.

I think that we have hardly thought through the immense implications of the mystery of the incarnation. Where is God? God is where we are weak, vulnerable, small, and dependent. God is where the poor are, the hungry, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the elderly, the powerless. How can we come to know God when our focus is elsewhere, on success, influence, and power? I increasingly believe that our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need. If the church has a future it is a future with the poor in whatever form. (Henri Nouwen)

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Minutes before the morning service, I couldn't get my iBook to start. A bit of fiddling, praying, and sweating, and I got it going long enough to use for my sermon. After the service, it stopped working again.

The guy at the Apple Store Genius Bar says it's the logic board. The bad news: my iBook is gone for two weeks, and I'm back to a Windows desktop. The good news: the $900 repair is covered by AppleCare.

Lots of fun to be had here.

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Yahoo! I won. I'm easily pleased; the prize is a U2 CD worth $15. Still, it's something.

I've spent the past two days listening to Mike Breen and Mal Calladine teaching Lifeshapes.

To be honest, I wasn't excited by Lifeshapes when I first heard about it. It doesn't help that the marketing material is aweful. "You've found your purpose, now discover your passion." That makes it sound like Purpose-Driven part two. Breen admits that he took a risk in giving the material to Cook, which tends to be pretty modern. As a result, it's packaged in a fairly programmatic way, which really is too bad, and will cause a lot of people to dismiss it.

One of the best features of Lifeshapes is that it's not a program. It's meant to be more of a rule of life, sort of a modern monastic order. It actually provides an alternative to the modern, programatic model of church and life, to the model of individualized devotions, stadium-sized evangelism, and limited discipleship.

For those of you who think that Toronto is big and impersonal, this front-page story shows we're really just a big small town. Would a New York paper run this on the front page?

Rexdale's first microwave still cooking after 41 years

Eighty-three-year-old Rexdale resident Isabelle Cadel has literally nuked the competition by winning Panasonic Canada's oldest microwave in Canada contest.

Last month, Cadel sent in her application, which included a hand-drawn rendition of her nearly 41-year-old operational microwave, after spotting an advertisement for the nationwide Dinner, Design and 50,000 Dimes Challenge in The Etobicoke Guardian.

Amnesty International Canada - Urgent Action - Current Urgent Action:

Over 200 members of evangelical churches have been detained in a mass and coordinated crackdown by the Eritrean authorities in the capital, Asmara. Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience, detained solely because of their religious beliefs. They are at risk of torture.

They have not been charged with any offence and have not been brought before a court within 48 hours, as required by law. All are believed to be held in the 5 th Police Station, in Asmara.

The alert includes recommended actions. Please read and respond.

I'm busy all weekend, at a conference tomorrow and Saturday, and booked straight through with commitments until Tuesday night. I hate missing my days off, so I decided to play hooky this week and take a bit of time off here and there. Easier said than done.

This afternoon I finally managed to get away and go to a movie. It's been a long time since I saw a movie in the theatre, and it was just what I needed. I felt tons better afterward. I need to do that every once in a while.

As I was leaving, I bumped into the husband of one of the church members. I could see the wheels turning: pastor, weekday, working hours, at the movies... Busted!

One day I'm going to write a book on all the ways I've been caught, quite innocently, in potentially incriminating acts - including the time I accidentally stumbled into a gay bookstore that I thought was a Christian one. (Somehow "Glad Day Books" seemed like a Christian name.)

Rick Warren compares the Purpose Driven paradigm to Windows:

"Personal computers have brand names. But inside every pc is an Intel chip and an operating system, Windows," Warren says. "The Purpose Driven paradigm is the Intel chip for the 21st-century church and the Windows system of the 21st-century church."

I know what he's saying, but I hope the Purpose Driven Life doesn't crash as often.

Whatever you think of Rick Warren, it's encouraging to see his work on in this area.

Warren says he was driven to reexamine Scripture with "new eyes." What he found humbled him. "I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God's compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God.

Update: Brother Maynard reacts with a great post.

From Preaching Today:

Twenty students and two professors stared at the handwriting on the wall. One by one, students in a seminary preaching class were to project on overheads their first attempts at a sermon outline from an assigned passage. I waited apprehensively for my turn. My friend, Rod, was up first. Rod looked at his transparency and read aloud his main points for a potential sermon on 1 Samuel 17, the David-Goliath story:

I. Goliath Challenges God's People.

II. Saul Cowers with God's People.

III. David Conquers for God's People.

After a pause, Haddon Robinson, the lead professor, growled: "That sounds like it came out of a book called Simple Sermons for Sunday Evening." The class erupted with laughter. Nervous laughter. Sympathetic laughter. "Nobody talks like this anymore, except in the pulpit," he continued. Duane Litfin, guest professor, chimed in: "What Haddon is saying is that he's afraid you might go out and actually preach that sermon!" More laughter.

Yep, that's pretty much what a class with Haddon is like. My favorite line from Haddon last year came after a student complained most people in his church completely missed the point of one of his sermons. "They can't all be stupid," Haddon said. Love that guy.

Not that Charlene would have let me. The Star reports:

Segways cannot be operated legally on Toronto streets or sidewalks, according to city lawyers.

The legal opinion says the two-wheeled, electric-powered machines can travel on roadways in city parks, but not elsewhere in the city.

Torontoist comments, "the Ministry of Transport won't give them license plates, so you can't take them on most roads. Where does that leave a Segway driver to take his new toy out for a spin? Just about nowhere.

At the U2 concert last month, Bono changed the lyrics of Beautiful Day from "See China right in front of you" to "Maple Leaf Ballroom right in front of you". I just did a quick Google search, and it looks like U2 played a venue by this name in 1981. That Bono has a good memory.

One account:

The concert was at some place west of downtown called the Maple Leaf Ballroom; it really was a ballroom, mirrored ball and all. I didn't know Toronto at the time, and I have no idea if the venue survives. The warmup act was the Diodes, Toronto's best local punk band at the time. The lead singer kept hitting the mirrored ball until it fell down and hit a member of the audience on the head. There were maybe a couple of hundred people milling about.

U2 were four fresh-faced kids, and they played with an honesty and sincerity that was a complete change from the usual posturing and cynicism we were used to.

Anybody heard of such a place? Does it exist now?

Becoming a Christian isn't changing your political party, or joining a new club, nor is it adding a sweet dessert to the hearty dinner of life. It is something that is so tough and hard in its reality, that if it were not true then it would be better to find a simpler solution to the problem of making this present life bearable. (Edith Shaeffer)

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• Counterpoint to Pat Robertson: "God is not found in [the natural disaster], but in our response"
• Challies presents an alternate view: "What was a nagging suspicion was made startingly clear in the last year as we watched the tsunami devastate the East and in recent months, hurricanes devastate parts of America. And then this weekend John Piper quoted David Wells who said approximately the same thing: evangelicalism is simply inequipped to deal in a satisfactory way with the really difficult issues...We must answer in such a way that we acknowledge God's supremacy and sovereignty in all things and in a such a way that we do not let God off the hook, for as Mark Talbot taught on Saturday, God does not want to be let off the hook."
• Latest disaster tests stamina of donors. I remember people saying society had shifted to become more compassionate after the tsunami of last December. It's pretty easy to get back to normal life and forget. Lately I've been wondering how the rebuilding effort is going after the tsunami, and how many governments have honored financial commitments, but it's hard to find information.
• Ottawa to match quake donations.
• The Fellowship, my denomination, is channeling donations to TEAM. They seem to be doing a good job of partnering with other ministries - kudos to them.
• Red Cross and World Vision are accepting donations.

Jacob, long-time commenter at this site, is now blogging, mostly about fish. Welcome, Jacob!

The 10 Faces of Innovation at Fast Company. I can't wait until the book comes out.

The director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans continues to blog from that city.

Here. I'm INFJ just like her and her (of Emergent No fame).

It's Thanksgiving here in Canada. We've had two turkey dinners already this weekend. It's been a great time to spend time with family and to pause and remember how blessed we are.

Thanks, God, for:

• Charlene
• Two amazing kids
• Extended families that we really enjoy
• Fall colors and squash soup
• A good church
• Days off
• Music
• Friends
• You

Part of my year two project at Gordon-Conwell is preaching a first-person narrative sermon. Today was the day. I had fun preparing. The passage was Luke 5, where Jesus helps Peter catch fish at the wrong time and place and calls him as his disciple.

I had to think through a lot of issues to try to get into Peter's head. What was he thinking? How many previous encounters did he have with Jesus? What did he tell his wife when he quit the fishing business and left a boatload of fish on the shore? I suspect Peter might have been pretty skeptical of Jesus at first. Hard to picture a life-changing moment taking place on a little boat about to sink, surrounded by scads of fish. Kind of fun to try to put a bit of flesh on the story.

When it was time this morning, I felt like chickening out, but I had already committed. I had a bit of fun. Peter reported that he was being courted by a major Christian publisher to write a best-selling book on why he was so successful. Here's the cover:

Peter was pushing for Third Peter, but the publisher didn't like it. Yes, even Peter has to sell out these days to get a book published.

I forgot some of my better lines (Peter was thinking of writing The Peter Driven Life and Blue Like Peter's Language) but it turned out okay I guess. But I was glad to get back into my own clothes - even though preaching in sandals wasn't half bad. The sermon is here. Thankfully there was no video.

Stephen Shields interviews Scot McKnight. The interview covers what Scot thinks the larger evangelical world can learn from emergers, and also his biggest fear for the emerging movement (that they lose evangelism by proclamation). I loved this quote:

The gospel is not designed to forgive us so we can go to heaven; it is so much more. It is the work of God to restore Eikons (humans as the image of God) to union with God and communion with others, through the Cross, resurrection, and Pentecost, for the good of others and the world.

For me, the distinctive trait of the emerging movement is the word "missional" and a gospel definition like that above, which is the heart of my next book, Embracing Grace, can sustain an entire missional focus to the church of the emerging generation. I hope I live forty more years to see it all work out!

My brother David, who is somewhat of a character, was being interviewed by a Bible college student about his family for some project. When he came to me, he told her that I am a pastor. "What type of church?" she asked. "The church of rock and roll and what's happening now."

You have to know my brother to see how he could say this with a straight face.

She nodded, and David started laughing as she wrote down that I was pastor of emerging church. He stopped her, told her that he was just kidding, and told her that I was pastor of a Fellowship Baptist church.

More craziness: I'm currently listed as one of six emergent blogs at Wikipedia.

I certainly don't mind the honor: that's a pretty impressive list of blogs (Andrew Jones, Jordon Cooper, etc.) and I don't know how I made such a list. Someone will soon figure out that I don't belong with such esteemed company and edit the article, I'm sure.

But wait until my brother finds out. I'm hoping he won't be interviewed anymore.

Update: The link's been deleted on Wikipedia. Guess my 15 minutes are up.

Second update: Jordon rants about the blogs listed there. Unfortunately, Jordon is wrong. Blogs like mine probably don't belong there, but his does, along with Andrew Jones, John O'Keefe's, and a few prime or early movers (in my opinion).

I heard Darrell Bock speak at Heritage Theological Seminary today. Darrell (can I call you Darrell?) is an excellent New Testament scholar, and also very personable and media savvy. Who can fault a guy who has seasons tickets to his local NHL team? It's not his fault it happens to be Dallas.

I came home and Googled him, hoping to find that he's blogging somewhere. No such luck. It made me realize how spoiled we are to have people like Scot McKnight blogging, and how great it would be for other scholars like Darrell to join the ranks. Not every scholar can write in a way that's accessible to the masses. Bock would make a great contribution to those who appreciate his work, but it would also introduce him to others, including those who happen to see him on TV.

So, Darrell Bock, if you ever Google your name and show up here, please get blogging. We need your voice.

I know George won't care, but I'll be taping tonight's show. It's way too late for me to stay up.

A new blog - Following God's Call in a New World: Conversations hosted by the editors of Leadership Journal

They're not wasting any time getting down to business. The second post is called Campolo and McLaren: Prophets or Agitators?

The Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Toronto the ninth most livable city in the world in a survey that ranked the "level of hardship they pose to expatriates" based on a number of factors including health and safety, culture and environment, and infrastructure.

CBC Unlocked says, "The honour is based in large part on an absence of awfulness." Perhaps that should be Toronto's marketing slogan instead of Toronto Unlimited: Toronto: The Absence of Awfulness.

Three cities make the top ten list in Canada: Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. No U.S. city is in the top 25.

"With low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed infrastructure, Canada has the most livable destinations in the world," the unit says in a statement. "With a rating of just one per cent (as a result of a small threat from petty crime), Vancouver is the highest ranked city of all 127 surveyed."

No word on whether Saskatoon even made the list of 130 cities that were surveyed, but they seem okay with themselves anyway, strangely comforted that they are only 600 km away from the Calgary Flames.

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From ekklesia:

The attractional approach and the incarnational approach aren’t two complementary approaches: they are two different foundations for doing church. Incarnational churches start with the assumption that they must go to where people are at. Attractional churches may do some incarnational things, but they are ultimately trying to bring people in. You can not have a church effectively built upon both approaches

I know that it's hard for attractional churches to think in missional ways. I'm not sure yet about the above assertion. Both/and?

Incidentally, I'm meeting with some local guys to talk about how this works out in our context. We are all Fellowship pastors and trying to unpack a different model from the "come to the church to find Jesus" approach. More of the "go into the world and show them Jesus" approach.

From Gordon MacDonald at LeadershipJournal.net:

And if heating costs triple, large buildings (at least in the north) are going to become a bit more of a burden. The megachurch depends heavily upon people who drive more than 15 miles to church. I would bet that a lot of people won't do that anymore, or as many times per week as they used to. Heating costs will skew budgets. The commitment level of the larger crowd will be tested. I suspect a shake-up is coming in the way we all do church. I'd have a task force working on this one if I was leading a big church. Everyone ready for a strategy of church life that depends more upon small groups and distributed ministries?

An interesting thought. Community churches, as opposed to neighborhood ones, wouldn't exist without widely available and affordable transportation. I can't see things changing dramatically quite yet, but it's worth thinking about. Richview would look very different if transportation costs became an issue, and we're already feeling the heavy cost of building maintenance.

I love books. I browse the latest catalogs to see what's coming out. I can barely keep up with the new releases.

But I am frustrated that many new books are dated so quickly. When I first started reading, most of the books I read seemed to have a timeless quality about them. They weren't published to be read for a year or two. They were published because they had something important to say, and the message is still relevant today. Some of my favorite books are old editions of now out-of-print books.

At lunch today, Sandy and I got talking about the value of these old books. Although newer books have been released on leadership, it's tough to beat Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders. The writings of A.W. Tozer are also timeless. He seems to have been ahead of his time.

I'm surprised more publishers aren't promoting some of these old classics, but I guess they're a tougher sell. They have lots to say, and after all, there aren't any royalties to worry about with many of them.

I'd love to hear what classic books you think deserve to get a wider reading. Which books would you recommend as having addressed a subject so well, it deserves to be read widely today?

In case you didn't know, the Pyromaniac isn't a pacifist:

Several years ago, at the church I was attending at the time, we had a kind and godly deacon who had served as a counselor in our church for many years. He was also a city cop. One Sunday he shot and killed a drug-crazed reprobate who drew a gun in the church parking lot during a church service. It was his duty as an off-duty officer to do what he did. It was also, according to Romans 13:4, his biblical duty.

Sometimes church discipline has to be done the hard way.

This just days after Steve Camp outlined his approach if he had been taken hostage instead of Ashley Smith:

I would have reached for my Beretta, called 911, and ministered the gospel to him. If he tried to hurt me or my family in any way, I would have trusted the Lord that my aim was straight and the clip was full... and then "ministered to him" in a different manner.

Both attend the same church. Not sure if I attribute their views to that fact or an excess of testosterone, but you may want to watch your step if you attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. These guys shoot from the hip, and that's not a figure of speech.

Correction: Steve Camp now lives in Nashville, and is a former member of Grace Community Church. Guess you'd better be careful in Nashville too.

I invited an Anglican friend of mine, Brent, to teach some of our worship leaders about liturgy tonight. I don't know that everybody thought this was a great idea, but sometimes people humor me. I'm glad they did. He came, and a small group of us learned from him for a couple of hours.

Whenever I experience good liturgy, I'm drawn to worship. I became friends with an Anglican minister about 15 years ago. Around the same time, I began to occasionally visit a convent for retreats. I began to discover a whole new world of worship I never knew existed. Liturgy has always been a bad word in my circles.

There is a richness and beauty in liturgy that is attractive to me. I think it's the depth of the written prayers, their use of Scripture, and the sense that you're joining millions of other people in worship. I've come to realize that extemporaneous worship is not the only or the best way.

The best thing we learned tonight was the value of the Christian calendar. The idea of intentionally marking the important events of our faith in a meaningful way, centered on Easter, came alive for us.

It was neat to watch the reaction among some of those who attended. Some lights went on tonight.

I have no idea what shape this will take - it will obviously look very different here than at an Anglican church. However, it's exciting to begin processing this together and to appreciate something we knew little about. We finished the evening with Compline (maybe a first at Richview!) and it was a perfect way to end the evening.

There is still time for the Coopers and the Tebays to move to Toronto before the really cold weather hits.

Ed reports on his second Sunday on the job at Port of Grace:

Yesterday God showed up at church! Okay, God always shows up, but we either give him the room to work or not work, flow or not flow. And when he has the room he does some really neat things. Yesterday was a morning of life-transformation. Of people abandoning sin and taking a grasp of the freedom they were created for. It was cool to be a part of it... I will write more when a few things that are in the works happen as a result of yesterday, for now, I'd like to hold on...

Erin adds her account. Sounds exciting!

Update: This is a good example of what Jordon wrote about last week. A couple of blogs tell the story of what's happening at Port of Grace better than any stale brochure-ware website could. Like Jordon wrote of a different church, "I find that I pray often...because I subscribe to their blogs RSS feed and when they post, I am reminded of them." Time to get a whole lot more storytellers blogging, I think.

The resources section of this site has been neglected for so long. I've finally launched a book blog, which will be much more active with reviews and comments on books I'm reading. Check it out and don't forget to subscribe to the RSS feed.

We were cruising the waters of Georgian Bay. I remember being amazed that it was warm enough for people to be boating in their bathing suits. It's an equally beautiful day today, but unfortunately I'm in Toronto rather than on a cruise. I love this time of Fall.

Just learned that Mike Breen, author of The Passionate Church and A Passionate Life, is coming to Toronto on October 14-15. Today is the deadline for early registration.