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March 30, 2004
Technology
Technology plays an integral role in nearly every contemporary form of overload. Similarly, the resisting of technology plays an equally important role in the suggested prescriptions...All the countries with the most time-saving technologies are the most stressed-out countries, a statement that is easy to prove sociologically. (Richard A. Swenson, A Minute of Margin)
Why does this statement have to be true?
March 28, 2004
Cecelia's gone
Nine-year-old Cecelia Zhang has been found dead. There are days that the imprecatory psalms express perfectly how I feel toward those who would do such a thing.
Arrange for an evil person to turn on him.
Send an accuser to bring him to trial.
When his case is called for judgment,
let him be pronounced guilty.
Count his prayers as sins.
Let his years be few;
let his position be given to someone else.
(Psalm 109:6-8)
It's been a hard weekend to watch or read the news.
Personal attacks
Bene has commented on a controversial post by Josh Claybourn last week. On one hand, I enjoyed the discussion. Not everyone agreed with Josh, and the exchange of ideas was good and healthy.
But the discussion also got ugly. A lot of ugly comments were posted, some anonymous. Same for emails. Some of the comments were so bad, it's hard for me to understand why they weren't deleted or at least challenged by Josh.
Of course, I responded, which led someone else to post this challenge at Rev. Mike's:
Frets over silly little things like tact and name-calling are clear ear-marks of a Christian who is more concerned about approval before men rather than approval before God. They're also ear-marks of someone who is very immature.
I'm a little amazed by this. Even apart from faith-based issues, personal attacks are the weakest form of argument. Calling someone names and personally attacking their character are not necessary on any level.
But personal attacks are also wrong from a faith-based perspective:
Jesus said that if we call someone a fool we're in danger of hellfire. Paul said that those who are Spirit-directed are gentle, kind, etc. He said all the knowledge in the world won't make up for a lack of love. That's just for starters. So the overwhelming prescriptive teaching of the Bible is tact and love (not a feeling, but an action) are important.I think it's good to be direct and forceful. No problems there. But calling someone a hag or bipolar, or breaking confidences out of revenge, is pretty hard to defend.
Something is wrong that we don't already know this. I can understand losing it; I do that all the time. But saying that it's okay to lose it is entirely different, and to me, very frightening.
A lot of us seem to be fear being too nice, or being doormats. News flash: most of us don't have to worry about that. It's not like Jesus had to always turn to his disciples (or me to my kids) and say, "Would you guys stop being so nice to each other! It's driving me crazy."
Some of us may need to work at being more assertive, but being respectful and kind to others is never negotiable.
March 26, 2004
That takes me back
Just watched an episode of Happy Days that featured Mork. I forgot when Robin Williams looked that young.
March 25, 2004
Put aside our petty little tribal feuds
Blogs4God has been involved in more than a couple of controversies, as have many other blogs. In fact, the one reason I sometimes feel like giving up blogging is because of the petty fights that break out sometimes. That's why I was glad to read this, written by Dean Peters:
All this reminds me of some of the bickering and blood feuds I’ve observed these past year and a half running blogs4God. From issues of abortion, the war in Iraq, to whether or not Catholics are Christians, I’ve got a nice stack of “love notes” and snarky blog posts that basically prove one thing, Satan need not afflict us, he need only stand aside and watch us snipe at one another as we outdo each other with wanting to be right, wanting to get in the last word, wanting everyone to think like us …Yeah, I know I’m abing a bit tough, but it’s Sunday, it’s sermon time, don’t worry, I’ve got three fingers pointing back at me while I’m pointing one at you.
Seriously, can we put aside our petty little tribal feuds and work together? Put another way, vision what might happen when we cast aside our own petty crosses and losses, and bear His.
Well said, Dean. I hope we can actually pull this off.
Harper on the attack
If this speech is a sign of things to come, we might have ourselves a real election here in Canada for the first time in many years. I'm not so much against the Liberals as I am for an effective opposition, something that is finally happening from both sides.
Rethinking the weekend event
Ron Martoia writes:
I think there is a question that is going to dominate much of our staff time for some months to come. the question is something like this... what would the church look like, or how would it be reconfigured if we took even half of the our staff, money and creative resources away from the weekend event and instead spent those resources on creating “out there“ spiritual conversation zones that may in fact turn into “church“ for some people? what would that look like? there will be huge resistance to this initially. but with all new paradigms that is true. our weekend events are extrabiblical models, not something perscribed by a heavenly unwritten rule, and certainly not from the bible. local chuch viability into the next several decades will call for us wrestling with and then implementing the answer to that question....we will see. (March 24 entry)
Not a bad question. Ron's essentially asking what would happen if a church was just as concerned about what happens out there as in here. That's worth thinking about.
March 24, 2004
Quick, someone write the Fridell diet book
From the Seattle Post-Intelligence:
SEQUIM, Wash. -- Eva Fridell, who shunned exercise and milk in favor of sweets, Irish coffee and an occasional beer, and became reportedly the oldest person in Washington state, is dead at 110.Fridell died Saturday afternoon in her easy chair at home in this Olympic Peninsula town, relatives said. She would have turned 111 on May 28.
She hated exercise, loved sweets and Irish coffee, and died in an easy chair well into her old age. You gotta love it.
Figures
Seth Godin comes across a bad website and it is...it figures, it's Air Canada:
Enter the site by pressing "English" and then book your entire itinerary. Whoops. You forgot to press "US Traveler" on the front page, so you're stuck.The fields are small and hard to navigate. The logic is twisted at best. The hierarchies don't match.
My point is simple: the bar has been raised, folks. If you're not smooth and easy and logical, people will flee.
Advice for leaders
From Ron Martoia:
Be real, be deep, get curious about the new thing God might do, listen, and ask great questions, be a life long learner, let spiritual formation be your main event, don’t get trapped in people pleasing, work for the audience of One, have fun doing what you are doing or get out of it, ministry has enough angry people for the next few generations.
Pride
The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride - just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
March 23, 2004
Moleskine
I'm a digital guy, but sometimes you can't beat paper. If you're going to use paper, then really nice paper is a must. Pens are nice too. This makes me a sucker for a store like Laywine's.
I could go crazy in a store like that. Don't ask me why; it defies explanation. I could spend a lot of money on nice pens and quality paper.
I made a special trip there today to pick up some Moleskine notebooks. I stumbled across these earlier this year and I'm hooked. I know that using the notebook of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Hemingway won't help my writing, but it sure can't hurt. And it sure makes the whole writing experience much more enjoyable.
Robert Webber at Tyndale
Ed and I attended a lecture by Robert Webber today at Tyndale. Robert Webber is a man I greatly respect. One of his books, The Younger Evangelicals, should be required reading for church leaders.
Webber described the rise of contemporary worship since the 1960s, and talked about the hunger that exists today to move beyond the superficiality of consumer Christianity. He says that younger evangelicals today see through that, and long for an encounter with God, and for depth in worship. So far, so good.
Webber did lose me at two points. He argued that we should lose that part of our worship that resembles "making love to God" (songs like Hold Me Close, or, as someone calls them, "Jesus is my boyfriend songs"). I'm with him to a point. I get tired of the sappiness too. But when someone asked about a Psalm like Psalm 63 ("O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you..."), Webber said that we should understand that as the expression of praise from Christ, and not from the worshipping community. Hello? I have to disagree with him there.
Second, he argued that typology is on its way back, since we can't always find the intent of the original author. It's okay to allegorize. If true, this scares me.
I love about 90% of what Webber says. If only his lecture had ended 10 minutes sooner...
Welcome to Baby McMurray
Baby number four has arrived.
Sounding the depths
...art, whether Christian or not, can't properly begin with a message and then seek a vehicle. Its roots lie...in the single story or metaphor or configuration of sound or shape which require attention and development from the artist. In the process of that development, we find meaning we had not suspected; but if we try to begin with the meanings, they will shrink to the scale of what we already understand: whereas the creative activity opens up what we did not understand and perhaps will not fully understand even when the work of creation is done. (Rowan Williams, Sounding the Depths)
March 22, 2004
What concerns us
From Christianity Today:
If white kids couldn't read and black kids could, the evangelical church would address it. (James Meeks)
March 21, 2004
Late birthday
I missed Josiah's birthday two weeks ago when I was in Boston. Today, we celebrated his birthday as a family with lots of presents, including a shiny new bike.
It's cool to be five.
Preaching is humbling
Charlene asked me today if I had any feedback on my sermon. I groaned. It was one of those Sundays that my brain wasn't quite working as well as I had hoped. I was trying, but it just wasn't clicking.
I have a friend who raves about most of my sermons. He's a little generous in his evaluations. Today, even he said, "Midway through, I thought today was finally the day that you preached a dud, but it picked up around the end."
It's a little embarrassing after coming back from two weeks study on preaching. The course is supposed to help.
There's always next week. Even though today wasn't great, I came home to an email from someone I respect that encouraged me. It's humbling that God uses us in our weaknesses instead of our strengths at times. But it's also good news.
March 18, 2004
This is for Rick
I had to post this (from Reinhold's Journey, found through Tall Skinny Kiwi) after my experience in Boston. This is dedicated to my friend Rick (Oh Canada, the stars are brightly shining).
One American (now living in Saskatoon) has some good insights on how Canadians really are different than Americans.
Not again
This is what the street in front of our house looked like last night. After two floods in our basement a couple of years ago, the sewage main outside our house has collapsed again. So far no problems in our house, but can you blame me for feeling uneasy?
March 16, 2004
Better than a protest
What is happening in Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Memphis, Mendenhall, Jackson, and Pasadena is what Christians should be doing everywhere: converting chaos into the tranquillitas ordinis, one house at a time, one block at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one community at a time. Although our citizenship is in the "City of God," we know that God has placed us in our cities and neighborhoods to reflect his character and to restore his righteous dominion in the midst of a fallen world. We begin with our personal lives and habits, move out from there to our families and schools and then into our communities - and from there into our society as a whole. (Colson and Pearcy, How Now Shall We Live?)
Christian Mom Thinks "Blog" is a Euphemism for Sex
You've got to love when The Holy Observer comes out:
Sue Harrington is troubled by her daughter's frequent use of the word "blog," an Internet-era term she thinks is a euphemism for sex. The term, which Harrington's daughter Brittany has used several times during the last month, recently landed the 15-year old in her room for two weeks.As net-savvy teenagers everywhere know, "blog" is nothing more than a shortened form of "weblog," or online diary. Mrs. Harrington, however, is worried that her daughter may be engaging in premarital sex. "Just yesterday Brittany told me she had been late for dinner because she had spent the day blogging at Heather's house," she told THO. "When I told her she was grounded for her sexual indiscretion, she lied and said that's not what she meant. But I've seen those Monty Python movies, and I know all the lingo."
March 15, 2004
What I learned
What I learned at my first residency, most of which wasn't in the syllabus:
You can be 72 (almost 73) and very cool. Haddon had incredible character and grace. He understands the times and what's needed to communicate today. If you're looking for someone who's matured well, Haddon's the guy.
Throw yourself in a room full of individuals, and you'll find that you like almost everyone after a while. Even people who disagree with you on almost every conceivable point.
Twenty-five people thinking together is a lot better than one person thinking alone.
You can be direct and still be kind.
If you're too arrogant to do things that aren't cool, or to cheer on those who aren't cool, you're too arrogant.
I am sometimes very intellectually lazy. A kick in the pants can solve this problem.
The problem in a lot of churches isn't that preaching takes place. The problem is what passes for preaching, and, many times, the attitude of a preacher.
I like learning environments.
Even Anglicans are good guys. (That one's for you, Brent.)
Back home
Meeting my family at the airport is the best part of being away for two weeks. Is it ever good to see them.
I've already worked my way through the stacks of mail waiting for me on my return. I'm back into real life once again. Good to be back, despite all the mail.
March 12, 2004
Ah, America
It's fun to be a Canadian in the States. My roommate and I have laughed as we've heard these types of comments the past couple of weeks:
You're from Canada, are you? It must be cold up there. (My roommate usually says yes, they run a giant snow machine at the border.)Is it true that in Canada, a pastor can be thrown in jail for saying that homosexuality is sinful?
You're our biggest trading partner? What do you export, cigarettes?
Canada is just north of here? I thought it was north of Seattle.
So what if George Bush thought your Prime Minister's name is Jean Poutine? Why should we know who your Prime Minister is? (Every American has been able to tell me that Fox is the name of Mexico's president.)
Do you have Venison Slurpees?
What's with the Maple Leaf?
The two best-known Canadian icons down here continue to be Bob and Doug McKenzie.
A new good friend from Portland admitted how little Americans know about Canada, and he was proud of it. One of his life goals is to never enter Canada. I'll leave you with his version of the Canadian national anthem:
Oh, Canada
The stars are brightly shining...
Two words and then the Christmas carol O Holy Night. Ah, America.
Copp's Hill Burying Ground
March 11, 2004
First residency done
My brain is dead and I can't wait to get home. These couple of weeks have been really good. I've learned tons.
Picture being in a room full of pastors for two weeks, including three days of listening to 25 sermons. Not an attractive picture, is it? Here's the surprise: it was great. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Serioiusly laughed. These aren't stuffed shirts, and Haddon beat the preacher talk out of us. I've made some pretty significant friendships. We've been rooting for each other.
Today, one of the speakers was struggling to get through her stuff. You could sense everyone rooting for her. One guy just got up and stood beside her and prayed. I've rarely sensed the kind of support and rapport that's developed among us.
I can't say enough about Haddon. He not only knows how to preach, but he knows how to teach it to others. He cares about us, and he's more real than anyone else I've met his age. We may be the last cohort he teaches. What an incredible privilege.
I'm off to bed. One more day in Boston before I get to see my family.
Happy 30th
to a pretty cool guy.
March 10, 2004
Preaching
In a couple of hours I'll be preaching in front of this class, and one of the top homiletics professors in the world.
I love preaching when it's motivated properly. It's hard to keep those motivations in view in this type of setting. I'll try to keep centered.
I'm preaching on Daniel 4 on how God humbles the proud. The other person who preached on this passage related how God humbled him in preparing for this message. I wonder what God has in store for me...
Update: The sermon went pretty well. It's intimidating preaching in front of the guy who wrote the book on preaching. But it's been a good experience.
There has been a genius in the way we've learned. Rather than being lectured, we've been thrown in the deep end. Next year we'll learn more deductively.
Haddon Robinson is an incredible man. He had the class over for dinner at his house tonight. I've been amazed at how real he is, how wise, how connected with what it takes to communicate today. I have a world of respect for him.
March 9, 2004
Motel sign
Introvertster
Introvertster is an online community that prevents stupid people and friends from harrassing you online.You can use Introvertster to:
Avoid invites to chat, filter out annoying invitations for Meetup, birthday parties, or after-hours get togethers.
Packet flood a friends Internet connection making it impossible for them to send you an instant message.
Help your friends get a clue that you really don't like people or care for idle chit-chat.
It's got some star endorsements too.
I don't know what it means that Sandy thought of me when he read this, but it gave me a good laugh this morning.
March 8, 2004
Irish Famine Memorial
March 7, 2004
Josiah
My son turns five today and I miss him. Five years goes really fast.
March 6, 2004
Boston
Great time in Boston today. Enjoyed Clam Chowder at Legal Seafood, and visited Quincy Market, Freedom Trail, Paul Revere's house, and Harvard. It was a good day not to be studying. I'll be posting some pictures over the next few days.
Wish I could be home for Charlene right now though.
March 5, 2004
Street leader killed
I got this e-mail from Urban Promise Toronto today:
We would covet your prayers today and in the weeks to come as Patrick, one of our devoted StreetLeaders (19 years old) in the Warden Woods community, was killed yesterday, March 3rd, during a home invasion. Patrick was a beloved member of our team and a shining star in the community. He will be remembered as a young man with a gentle, quiet spirit about him and a huge heart for kids.Please pray for his 2 nephews as Patrick was their sole guardian and provider. We are unsure of what arrangements will be made for these two young boys. His nephews are just now learning of his death.
There are no funds to cover the costs of the funeral. If you'd like, you can make a donation online. Please call Alvin at 416-516-6121 ext. 21 to let him know that the donation is for the funeral.
Don't tell me to be nice
Rachelle Mee-Chapman has written an interesting article in Next Wave about "Women in Ministry". There's a lot there to think about, including this:
...women-unlike men-are not allowed to be angry, or even frustrated, or really even forceful, assertive, or honest. Recently in the emergent scene there was a little fight over words. Some of the women stated their minds about it. They thought it sucked to be linguistically belittled. They thought it sounded idiotic, in 2004, to speak dismissively of women. Now, most people thought the whole brouhaha was about semantics. But for me, the sadness was that the only way I could be heard was to play nice, to make my language very soft, to send my message though the backdoor. Men and women both-all in the emerging, super hip, super with-it church-told me that my anger wasn't helping, and that I shouldn't express rage if I wanted to be like Jesus.
The premise stated here is that being told to be nice is a form of shutting the discussion down, because it is dismissive and patronizing.
Is this premise true? Here's some of what I've been thinking about today.
First, I agree that niceness (read blandness) is not what following Christ is about. There is a directness that many in the church avoid. Read Jesus, Paul, or any of the prophets. It is not wrong to be angry, frustrated, forceful, assertive, or honest. This should not be discouraged, whether you're male or female.
Second, there's a line. Many of the men and women in the discussion realized they crossed it, because they apologized for their comments. Some of them were over the line. I can be legitimately angry, but there are still limits on how I can express that anger. It is legitimate to tell me that I expressed anger inappropriately.
It would bother me if anyone (male or female) felt shut down and couldn't speak out on any issue as honestly as they wanted. But at the same time, anger does not justify every expression of itself. The goal is not niceness, but it is legitimate to challenge expressions of anger that cross a line. There are just certain things we should not say about another, even if we are justified in our anger. For instance, if I was angry at you, it would be wrong for me to swear my head off at you and tell you you're on crack cocaine. My anger may be justified, but that isn't.
I think the real issue here is something deeper. Maybe the real issue is being heard. I don't think many of us are beyond being corrected, because many times we know we've crossed a line in how we've expressed our anger and even come to apologize ourselves. But first we want to be heard. We want to be affirmed, to be told that it's okay to be angry and that our feelings count. Maybe then we can be told, "You know, when you said that, maybe that wasn't fair," but first we need to be heard. The problem is that it's hard to dismiss an unfair expression of anger without dismissing the underlying anger itself, which is often quite justified.
But I could be wrong. Help me understand this. I don't have the answer. How can we allow both honest expressions of anger in a discussion, and still maintain boundaries of respect?
Great Hall
March 4, 2004
Reflections on week one
I've been in this D.Min. course for four days now. I didn't know what to expect. Over the past few days, I've watched grown men and women with years of ministry experience reduced to despair, some more than others. Talk about humbling.
Today, after class, a group of us sat in the cafeteria and laughed like crazy. I think you could call it stress relief.
Haddon and Duane have been challenging us to take a text (a textual unit), and to really understand the big idea of that text. Sound easy? You'd think so, especially at the doctoral level. I've been amazed at how often we've been off the mark. Way off.
Then, we've been asked to outline what we need to communicate from that text. A lot of us went right for shallow platitudes and the type of drivel that you expect to hear in church. Utter crap. As someone said today, "What I have learned so far? I've learned why I'm such a crappy preacher." We've learned that it's hard to think in a straight line, and we've also learned that we tend to be undisciplined thinkers. I don't think anyone has emerged unscathed.
But there's hope. We're starting to see what it can look like on the other side.
Haddon is one of the best communicators I've ever seen in action. Better, he knows how to teach others to communicate. I love that he isn't asking us to adopt his methodology or style. He's smart enough to avoid cheap formulas. Instead, he's asking us to be rigorous in our thinking.
I've met some great guys. My roommate's hilarious. I've also met Rick McKinley of Imago Dei Community and Acts 29.
My brain is tired.
March 3, 2004
I survived
We've been thrown in the deep end in this class. It's been great, but it's all been humbling. We've discovered bad habits and we're in the process of unlearning a lot of stuff, and realizing all the mistakes we've made over the years.
Some of us have been rightfully ripped to shreds. Gently (most of the time), but still ripped. I did a presentation today and wasn't destroyed. That's good. I survived.
The age of preachers
The age of preachers is over. The age of communicators has begun. (Haddon Robinson)
I think Haddon's talking about style here, and I think he's right.
March 2, 2004
Campus sky
The pecking order goes out the window
Today we found out that we're all equally ignorant. We found out in the most gentle of ways, and don't feel demoralized as much as that we now see something with much more clarity now.
Somebody made the comment that by the end of this class, it's impossible to tell who's got a church of 1,000 and who's got a church of 20. That's already happening.
I'm sitting in a room with some amazing people. But it feels like we're in kindergarten again. And it's not a bad feeling. At least we're all in the same place.
March 1, 2004
The making of a geek
My roommate has just discovered wifi. An hour ago he didn't know if he had wireless. Now he's well on his way to being addicted.
Arrived in Boston
Settled in, and brain dead after the first day of classes. It's been great so far. Boston is absolutely beautiful from what I've seen, although you can't drive anywhere in a straight line. I've lost count of the number of times I've been lost already, although tonight I went out to do some shopping and knew my way around surprisingly well. I should. I've driven every road around here multiple times, sometimes intentionally.
My poor roommate didn't get a good sleep last night. I guess I snore too loud for him, the poor guy. In my defense, he talks in his sleep and woke me up a few times. I think we both miss our wives.
We went to eat at a bar yesterday, or at least a restaurant with a fairly prominent bar. He (an Anglican) was worried that a Baptist wouldn't go to eat at that type of establishment. I told him that's what happens when Baptists start hanging around Anglicans. He's a good guy, great sense of humor.
Wifi is finally working in the hotel. Free wifi. Very cool.
I had reservations about this D.Min. course. Truthfully, I think I was a little nervous. I didn't need to be. What I learned today already has already made the trip worthwhile.
Settled in. Pecking order of the class quickly getting established. Good to be here.