Lost puppy...

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I couldn't stop laughing, so I finally gave in and posted it here.

You need to see this...

You probably need highspeed internet to see it properly, but it will affect you in a profound way.

Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire

Here's to a dangerous Lover...

From Daily Dig, a quote by Kahlil Gibran

"When Love speaks to you, believe in him,
though his voice may shatter your dreams,
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and
caresses the tender branches that quiver in the sun,
so shall he descend to your roots
and shake them in their clinging to the earth."

I don't long for the breaking - for the shattering of my dreams. A person would be crazy to want that. But I do long for Jesus. And if the way to Jesus entails a shattering of what I want - of what I think I need - then I want to go that way. Don't you?

I bought a CD...

...two actually. That may not sound like a big deal, but I don't buy a lot of music these days. In college I spent every penny I had on music, but not anymore. I did come across this CD by a guy named Derek Webb. He was formerly with Caedmon's Call. The CD is called "She must and shall go free." It's a CD written about the church. I like his style of music (acoustic with a contemporary bluegrass feel) but the lyrics have really impacted me. He writes in the liner notes,

"After ten years in a Christian band, backstage in the music industry and in the hallways of church buildings across America, my attention as a songwriter has turned to a fresh affection for the Church. It seems we know too little of who She is, how She should dress, or what She was made for. I have found that Scripture is provocative when it comes to these issues and so these songs are not for the faint of heart. ...She is both wretched and radiant...For the believer, truth is freedom, even truth that is hard to hear. May these sounds stir all of us to see, as if for the first time, that we have (still) a great need for a Savior, and a great Savior for our need."

Derek has a prophetic voice, but it's laced with honesty and humility. And underlying it all is a love for Jesus and His church. As you may have gathered from my previous postings, I am becoming more convinced of the central nature of honesty in our spiritual growth. We have to realize that the evil is not out there, but it is in us. The line that separates good from bad runs through the center of my heart. And only as I offer that weakness to Jesus can it be transformed. Maybe that's why Derek's lyric from his song called "Wedding Dress" hit so close to home. I share it with you as a window into my own heart, and as a longing for the day when I'll be the Bride that Jesus can make me to be.

Wedding Dress (words and music by derek webb)
Real Audio Sample Clip

if you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
should that be all i'll ever need
or is there more i'm looking for

and should i read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
is that really what you want

(chorus)
i am a whore i do confess
but i put you on just like a wedding dress
and i run down the aisle
i'm a prodigal with no way home
but i put you on just like a ring of gold
and i run down the aisle to you

so could you love this bastard child
though i don't trust you to provide
with one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side
i am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that i would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood

(chorus)

because money cannot buy
a husband's jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife

A big thank you to Derek, for his prophetic voice, for his transparency, for the love for Jesus he evokes in my heart as he sings.

"Honesty" by Johann Christoph Arnold

A while back I posted on the need for honesty on our spiritual journey. I found this article from Bruderhof which says better than I could what God seems to be teaching me.

"If someone asked me to pick the most fundamental requirement for inner peace, I would probably take honesty. Whether taken to mean truthfulness in a general sense, or knowledge of one’s condition, or the ability to call a spade a spade, or the willingness to admit failure in front of others, honesty is a basic premise for peace. We may strive and struggle for peace until our dying breath, but we will never find it as long as we are unwilling to place ourselves under the clear light of truth. Dishonesty is one of the greatest impediments along the path to peace, because it prevents us from finding a square footing on which to base our search...Peace can be lost in a moment – through stubbornness or deceit, pride, self-will, or the false comfort of an easy way out. Yet it is never too late to start looking for it again, even if it has eluded us for years. Whenever we are able to take an honest look at ourselves – who am I, not in the eyes of others, but in the sight of God? – it should not be hard to refocus on our need for Jesus. In his truth there is always peace."

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Sacred Space - the prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits

One of the best sites I've found to help me focus and grow in my prayer life. Use it with discernment, but use it.

Link

On a Rite of Passage...

Once again, Desert pastor writes things that stimulate thinking and are worth reading...

"Contemporary Western society has virtually eliminated the once prevelent rite-of-passage and its welcoming of children into adulthood. Surprisingly, few people today realize that the entire concept of “adolescence” is a modern construct – only appearing in the last century. Prior to then, in nearly all cultures in all places at all times we observe a two-stage development of humanity: children and adults. Rather than children anticipating and preparing for his or her journey into adulthood (e.g. Jewish bar/bat mitzvah, Amish Rumspringa), it seems that contemporary culture is sending a double-message: "you're teenagers now and won't be adults for quite awhile," AND "we want you to go ahead and act like adults though, endulging yourselves in anything and everything."

Read More

The Blog Addiction spreads...

Hey, my friend Brian Wiebe has just started a blog. Check it out in the coming days. He has alot to offer.

Link

A Generous Orthodoxy

Here's a blog about Brian McLaren's new book, A Generous Orthodoxy. It's all pretty positive and doesn't seem to be really critiquing the book very much, but it's good info and gives links to a few chapters that are online.

aGenerousOrthodoxy.com

This is for all the lonely people

I've had an interesting week. I've been forced into the realization that there is huge group of people in the world who, for all practical purposes, are almost invisible.

I am doing a funeral tomorrow for a 67 year old man who died when he was hit by a train. He suffered from Alzheimers and had wandered away from his family. He walked on the railroad tracks for 20 km. before being hit. However the thing that made the biggest impact on me wasn't the way he died, it was where he lived. He lived in a duplex right behind the church that I pastor. I walk or drive by his house every day. He'd lived there for almost two years and I didn't even know that he existed. What makes it even worse was that he was Mexican. One of the things I have lamented about living in Hope was that there is very little opportunity to practice my Spanish. Meanwhile, 50 meters from my office is a family who is speaking Spanish in their home. Yet in the midst of my "ministry", they had been invisible to me. When I asked them if there were people in town who would come to the funeral they said that they really didn't know anyone in town. They'd made efforts to get to know people, but no one seemed to connect with them. They had assumed that it was something wrong with them.

I've been trying to reflect on this experience with some sort of openness to the Spirit of God. I realize that I can't take responsibility for everyone in my town. There is no physical way that I can meet every individual and help them connect to a social/support network. But I have been challenged. Challenged to look for the invisible people. Challenged to slow down enough to say hello and see what happens. Challenged once again to get to know the people that Jesus called "...the least of these..."

Friend of Sinners

Food for thought from the House Church Blog...

I like this post from thedeepend:

A survey has been conducted in Newcastle, UK, about how practising Christians are viewed by their work colleagues. They were fairly much liked, actually, but their top three perceived characteristics were as follows:

1. They go to church

2. They don't have much time to socialise with work colleagues

3. They don't like drinking alcohol

When you consider that Jesus was known as a Sabbath-breaker, friend of sinners and drunkard, you have to conclude that something's gone badly wrong...


Link

The Collapse of the Church Culture

Posted by Len over at Resonate. I found it via Jordon Cooper.

"The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled when either the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty-five and over) or when the remaining three-fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both...

"The first Reformation was about freeing the church. The new Reformation is about freeing God's people from the church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralized the church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry. The former Reformation occurred when clergy were no longer willing to take marching orders from the Pope. The current Reformation finds church members no longer willing for clergy to script their personal spiritual ministry journey. The last Reformation moved the church closer to home. The new Reformation is moving the church closer to the world. The historic Reformation distinguished Christians one from the other. The current Reformation is distinguishing followers of Jesus from religious people. The European Reformation assumed the church to be a part of the cultural-political order. The Reformation currently underway does not rely on the cultural-political order to prop up the church. The initial Reformation was about church. The new Reformation is about mission." (Reggie McNeal, The Present Future, pp.1 and 43.)

We had an interesting talk last night with our "pot-luck group" regarding the changing face of missions today. This quote seemed to echo many of our feelings.

Link

A personal note

I have been wanting to sit down and write some of my personal thoughts in this blog, but this past week has just not made it possible. It will be forthcoming.

When we get our spiritual house in order...

"When we get our spiritual house in order, we'll be dead. This goes on. You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is making it in darkness. Don't expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty." - Flannery O'Connor

A great quote via Daily Dig.

It's the little things that could make a difference...

Jordon Cooper led me to this one...

"Think about it. In America, people can afford $90.00 a month on the convince of espresso drinks. i'd bet the average suburban person drinks two or three espresso drinks a week. That is at least $30.00 a month depending on your drink. My friends spend an average of $30- 45 dollars a month. (i just overheard a barista say that one gentleman comes in three to four times a day.)
Just think of what a large group of us could do if we fasted one or two drinks a week and used that money to help the less fortunate."


Read more

Just one more proof of the importance of Hockey to Canadians

"WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory - An exuberant dog left in a truck while the owner watched Canada win the World Cup of Hockey managed to throw the vehicle into gear and coast down a city hill.

A man out for a walk called police after seeing the vehicle coast by with a black Labrador retriever behind the wheel. Police arrived to find the truck in the middle of a road, blocking traffic, with the dog still at the wheel. No one was injured and there was no damage. Going door to door, police managed to track down the owner.
'Subsequent investigation indicates that the dog was celebrating the Canadian victory in the world hockey game and knocked the truck into gear, causing it to roll down the hill,' Whitehorse Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Wednesday in a firmly tongue-in-cheek news release.

'No word yet on how the dog is doing studying the rules for negotiating the new traffic circle.' "

Read More:

I'm not exactly sure if I'd brag about this or not...

A Great Dream...

Len at NextReformation.com has a great dream...

"On another note, I have another dream. I dream of a non-profit foundation that would fund a downpayment for a duplex, and guarantee the mortgage. Each side of the duplex would then be gifted to single parent families, who have enough of an income to carry the mortgage. Too many single parents can never afford their own home, and they pour their meagre earnings into renting run down shacks with landlords who couldn't care less. By owning their own home they secure a better future, control of their environment, and some dignity. I think this is a good dream!"

Thanks for sharing that one, Len.

Great Analogy (and a little history too...)

From Jamie Hoskins over at BeChurch

I'm adding "Ana-" to my "Baptist"

After several years of thinking about it I've decided to come out of the closet. I am definitely more of an Anabaptist than a Baptist. I'm not that interested in denominational "names", but the more I see of the foundational ideas of the Anabaptists the more I am willing to identify with them. There are several reasons why:

First, Anabaptists stress the centrality of the teachings of Jesus. That may seem like a no-brainer, but what I mean is that they actually believe that we are called to follow Jesus and His teachings in our day to day lives. While most "Baptists" won't usually admit it, we have tended to look at teachings like the Sermon on the Mount as the ideal way to live, but not that practical. Often Jesus' teachings are seen more as ideals that make us realize that we don't measure up to God's standards than as characteristics of people seeking to live in God's Kingdom.

Second, Anabaptists see the meaning of Baptism as more important than the method. I think if hard-core Baptists are honest with our position of "total immersion only" we have to admit that we are bordering on sacramentalism. We may say that salvation is by grace alone, but in elevating the method above the heart commitment we often make immersion something that we do to earn God's favor.

Third, Anabaptists believe in the Kingdom as more than just something that will happen one day. It becomes their way of life. They seek to live in counter-cultural ways, as strangers and aliens here on earth. One thing that I'm learning about the Kingdom of God is that if you take it seriously it has far reaching implications, many of which will be viewed as strange or radical by outsiders.

Finally, Anabaptists aren't afraid to live at the margins of society. Brian McLaren says it well,

"Believing as I do that modernity is slowly but surely being replaced by a new postmodern ethos -- and believing that in the postmodern milieu Christians will have neither the dominating position that they had through the Middle Ages not the privileged position they had during much of modernity -- I believe we have a lot to learn at this juncture from the Anabaptists, who were willingly marginalized throughout modernity. Because they rejected the idea of the state church that the early Reformers accepted, they were welcome in neither Catholic not Protestant countries and for some years were bitterly persecuted...As outsiders they learned to function at the margins, and they learned that the gospel functions there just as well as or better than at the centers of power, prestige, wealth, and control. Rather than lamenting that 'Christendom' is over, Anabaptists have always felt 'Good Riddance!' Ever since Constantine, they believe, the church has been perverted by copulation with the Empire and its seductions." (A Generous Orthodoxy, p.206)

The current desire by many North American Christians to use the political process to legislate Christian values scares me. It appears to be causing many of those outside the faith to draw conclusions about Jesus (and Christianity) that I don't believe are accurate. The church seems to have lost it's prophetic voice in critiquing the current "Christian" administration. And finally, if it was so important to use the state as a vehicle for Kingdom growth doesn't it make sense that Jesus would have sought to do the same thing?

I should also say that I realize that there are no Anabaptists that live completely true to their convictions, but I believe that their convictions are more compelling (and more in line with the teachings of the New Testament) than the ones that I have held for years. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm adding "Ana-" to my "Baptist".