Archives for April, 2004
Islam’s Interpreter
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about using “soft power,” as we did in the Cold War, particularly through the mass media—channels like Radio Sawa and the Middle-Eastern Television Network. Are we getting closer to winning the propaganda battle?We have a better opportunity of doing that now than ever before, thanks to the miracles of modern communication. But I don’t think we’re using that opportunity. There is some improvement, but generally speaking, I see a failure of communication. Simple translation isn’t good enough. Even accurate translation may be misleading, because in different cultures we use the same word with different meanings. There is a great danger of misunderstanding. This became clear during World War II, when there was massive propaganda directed towards the Middle East—propaganda from the Axis, from the Americans and the British, and from the Soviets. All of them had their Arabic broadcast programs, and even at the time, it was obvious that there were serious discrepancies between what was said and what was heard and understood. I don’t think the problem has improved—if anything it’s gotten worse.
Do you have a prescription?
I think the first thing is better linguistic training. For example, when I listen to the broadcasts from the media people who are in Iraq at the present time, they almost always mispronounce the names of Iraqi towns. One town which has been very much in the news is spelled in Latin letters N-a-j-a-f, and I hear one announcer or newsreader after another, even those who are calling from over there, say Na-jaf’ (emphasis on the second syllable). Well it isn’t Na-jaf’, it’s Na’jaf (emphasis on the first syllable). Anyone who’s ever heard an Iraqi pronounce the name will know that. The fact that this sort of name is systematically mispronounced is really alarming. One wonders who they’ve been talking to.
Do subtle errors like this shame us in the eyes of people there?
I would say so. It also makes people like me wonder how much we can rely on what we are being told when they don’t even know how to pronounce the name of the place.
Gmail Invites
Between Wendy and I, we have three Gmail invites to be a special beta tester. If you want one, send me an e-mail to jordoncooper AT gmail.com and I will see what I can do.
In conversation with… Darryl Dash
Another day, another interview. I don’t know about you but I am enjoying posting there. Today we corner fellow pastor and blogger Darryl Dash. 
Darryl is pastor of Richview Baptist Church, blogger-in-chief of DashHouse and The Dying Church, fair weather Maple Leafs fan (for the Canadians out there, we know that is redundent), and is working on his D.Min at Gordon-Cromwell Seminary in Boston. We decided we had better interview him before we have to call him Dr. Dash. He is married to Charlene (another blogger) and they have two kids.
Age and occupation. How long have you lived here, where did you come from, and where do you live now?
I’m 36, and pastor of Richview Baptist Church in Toronto. I’ve lived in Toronto for 16 years, most of that in the west end of Toronto (which is also the best end). Before that, I lived in Brampton, a suburb of T.O.
What’s the best part about being a pastor? What’s the worst?
The best part about being a pastor is seeing a group of people change over time. I get to witness some pretty cool changes in people. It’s exciting to see this on a macro level: to sense that the ethos or feel of the group is changing over time. When I see that, it makes my day. The worst part of being a pastor is also easy: meetings. I hate meetings, especially stupid ones. I go to far too many of them.
Every pastor talks about the best sermon they have ever preached but if there is a best, there has to be the worst. What was your worst sermon you ever preached?
I’ve preached a lot of mediocre sermons, but two stand out as the worst. One was about ten years ago. I was coasting on talent and not spending a lot of time in preparation. One day it caught up to me, and my sermon was just brutal. When a sermon’s bad, you feel naked. You know it’s bad, and everyone there knows it’s bad. You want to crawl under a rock and hide.
The other really bad sermon was just a few weeks ago. I just got back from my D.Min. course on preaching in Boston and I guess I was trying too hard. I have a friend who likes even my bad sermons, but not even he liked my sermon that day. I knew I was in trouble. [editor: I have been in the same place]
You are doing your D.Min in Boston. Which is a cooler city, Toronto or Boston?
Boston has two things going for it that Toronto doesn’t have: the ocean, and tons more history. It also has cool architecture and a good arts community. Toronto, though, has the better hockey team, which almost balances it out. I’d love to live in Boston. I’d have clam chowder every day.
Best book you have read in the last year? What made it so good?
Probably “The Present Future” by Reggie McNeal. McNeal is a Southern Baptist denominational leader, yet says things like “A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.” There are better books, but I like this one because Reggie is in my world. He’s a critic of the church, but (like me) he’s neck deep in it.
Close runner up is “Bird by Bird” by Ann Lamott. Everything Lamott writes is good, but this book makes you feel like you can write and that it matters.
Monday night at 9:00 p.m., where can we find you and what might you be doing?
Probably chasing my kids to bed. Either that or falling asleep watching a DVD or reading a good book.
What’s your favorite computer gadget of all time?
I’ve never met a gadget I didn’t like. Right now I’m really enjoying my Dell Digital Jukebox: not quite as cool as an iPod but a lot cheaper. It’s got every CD I own on it.
If you could experience any moment in church history, what you choose?
My Dad lives in southeast England. One day we were driving around and, literally in the middle of a farmer’s field, we came across a marker on the spot where Augustine (not the big Augustine, the other one) preached to Ethelbert (cool name!), Anglo-Saxon King of Kent in 597 AD. Evidently things worked out, Ethelbert was baptized, and Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury. I would have loved to witness that sermon. Augustine was so scared of the savage islanders that he begged the Pope not to go. I imagine he was pretty scared that day.
Integrated schools still a dream 50 years later
Apparently some children are being left behind.
Darryl Dash’s notes from Velocity
The church is in trouble - Some individual churches may be doing fine, but the stats are in and the church in North America is in trouble. Our levels of effectiveness are so low that, in many cases, we could have more impact if we quit our churches and started working for IBM.
The solution isn’t tinkering - We’ve tried lower levels of change (reacting, restructuring, redesigning) but these aren’t enough. We need to go deeper: to reframe (loads of mental models and cultural assumptions we never question) and regenerate (ask questions about why we are asking certain questions; focus on the meta-questions) instead. There were very few “how-to’s” at Velocity; the answers to the big questions are not at the pragmatic level.
One size doesn’t fit all - Or rather one size fits everyone poorly. What works at Westwinds won’t work here. MapQuest (indigenous) leadership is key. The solution to your problem may not be in any book written; you might have to write that book.
Creativity matters - Art and design is not for those who have ascended Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and have nothing else to worry about. It is part of our essence; it’s part of who God has created us to be. The more conservative the church, the more we’ve dissed art and sanitized our buildings (a product of rationalism). Art is the craving and yearning of the human heart. It may mean that our creative endeavors are not optional in ministry.
We’re in Act Five - What if we stopped viewing the Bible as an answer book to life, a source of knowledge, or as a rulebook? We often reduce it to a set of principles. What if, instead, we saw the Bible as the first four acts of a five-act play? Our job is to improvise the fifth act by submersing ourselves in the first four acts. Our job isn’t to just learn the first four acts, but to prepare for living in the fifth act while honoring the first four. We’re not called to mimic the early church, but see them as a model that helps us live God’s call in our context.
It’s tough work - Engaging culture is relatively easy. Engaging theology is relatively easy. Okay, not easy, but doable. Engaging both culture and theology at the same time is difficult and necessary, and there seem to be few who are doing both.
Read the whole post
I skimmed an article by Ad-Busters, missed some of the vulgarity in it. I took it down. Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting to see it so I wasn’t really looking for it. One of the curses of reading really fast is that you miss the occasional word. It has happened before and will probably happen again. Feel free to let me know if you see something objectionable language wise here. Most times it was just a mistake.
50 e-mail behind.
Ugh
It’s the playoffs
From Hockey Pundits
Four hockey fans are mountain climbing. Each climber happens to be a rabid fan of a different NHL team. One from Ottawa, one from Calgary, one from Toronto and the other from Vancouver. As they climbed higher and higher, they argue more and more about which of them is the most loyal to their particular hockey team.
As they reach the summit, the climber from Ottawa takes a running leap and throws himself off the mountain yelling ” This is for the Ottawa Senators!”
Not wanting to be outdone, the climber from Vancouver throws himself off the mountain shouting “This is for the Vancouver Canucks!”.
Seeing this, the Calgary Flames fan walks to the edge and yells, “This is for hockey fans everywhere!”. He then pushes the fan from Toronto off the cliff.
Thanks to Chris Corrigan for this one.
Broadway Theatre
A conversation with… Rudy Carrasco
Today’s interview is with Rudy Carrasco (official bio) of Harambee Christian Family Center and Urban Onramps. Along with Andrew Jones and Karen Ward, I think that Rudy’s weblog was among the first emerging church blogs online and it is one of my favorites. Many people have questioned me about why I link to him as we often link to opposite viewpoints about the same news stories but even though we disagree, I find Rudy to be well thought out and worth reading. It also reminds me that there are some really smart and cool people that disagree with what I write as well. Rudy is also a frequent Yahoo! Instant Messenger partner and owner of an amazing Apple iSight webcam.
What’s your age and occupation? How long have you lived there? Where > did you come from, and where do you live now?
I’m 36 and I’m the executive director of the Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, California. I’ve lived within a one-block radius of my current house since 1990 (14 years). I was born in East Los Angeles and have lived in a number of Southern California cities before settling in Pasadena.
What is the best part about living in Los Angeles? What is the worst?
The best part of Los Angeles is that it is the destination place for the entire world. From the South (Latin America) from the West (Asian countries) and internally (across the country) people just keep coming and they won’t stop. This is the place where you can remake yourself, regardless of your past. It’s the American Dream in hyperdrive.
The worst part of living in Los Angeles is the dang traffic on the freeways. If you get caught at the wrong time of day you are in for a 2.5 hour trip that should have taken 45 minutes. It’s a shame because there are tremendous places and people scattered around L.A. (and they are scattered - this is the opposite of Manhattan, which is a vertical city - this is a horizontal city).
Time travel question: What era, day or event in the church’s history would you like to have experienced?
I would have liked to have been at the Council of Nicea, to see how they put together the Nicene Creed. I also would have liked to have been in the room when they were choosing the 27 books of the New Testament.
It is Tuesday at nine p.m. — where can we find you and what are you up to?
My son went to bed at 8ish, and my wife and I have just finished watching some goofy sitcom, American Idol, or Survivor. At that hour I often check my email and do some blogging.
Of all of the gadgets you own, which is your favorite?
This 12 inch Powerbook is something else, I tell ya.
What’s the best book you have read in the last year? What made it worthwhile?
I keep reading and re-reading my P.J. O’Rourke books. They would be offensive to many of my peers in the emerging church, but who cares. He makes me laugh. Hard. My wife tells me to quit laughing, I’m shaking the bed. The other night I read a truly hilarious piece that I would NEVER EVER EVER share with my peers. It’s just too offensive, beyond Dave Chapelle offensive. But when O’Rourke is not blinding you with his offensiveness, he’s dishing out tremendous observations on human nature. Recommended.
If you could say one thing to the emerging church that you think we need to rethink, what would it be?
We are pretty close to enshrining our own orthodoxies, and we are unaware of it. I’ll leave that vague. But I’m seeing some resistance to modification that is beginning to disturb me. Our reaction is becoming codified. Still vague, I know. But I’m gonna leave it there.
Where is the church getting it right in regards to urban ministry, what’s is it getting it wrong?
We need to approach urban ministry like it’s a war, World War II, say. There are folks on the front lines, slugging it out. And then there are reinforcements. But the reinforcement folks don’t quite recognize that they need to figure out how to not only strengthen the frontliners in a temporary manner, they need to buttress them for the long haul. Now, I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about something completely different, about longevity. So, for example, there are small churches in the hood that have been around for decades. How can we help strengthen them, even while we do our own thing? (And believe me, I’m all for doing your own thing; I do my own thing all the time.) But at the end of the day, those long-standing institutions will still be in the hood after all the exciting trips and visitor and evangelistic events and service projects and immersion have ended. They are the ones who need to be strong and stronger. And most urban plunge folks fail to recognize this. The degree to which Christians recognize that it’s critical that an urban ministry have a long-term impact, that’s the degree to which we actually get things accomplished. We have friends who have decided to give and serve over an extended period of time, regardless of how things are going, and they are the ones seeing the long-term fruit.
How is globalization changing urban communities? Is there anything the church can be doing to ease the change?
I don’t think many folks understand how globalization affects them. I mean, it’s not like you can show someone a pound of globalization. It affects many folks now in that they have a new bogeyman to blame - outsourcing of jobs due to globalization. But one of the key benefits of globalization, the spread of new ideas and techniques, is accessed by those who look for it or seek it. There are some who do, and many who don’t.
The rest of the interviews can be found here.
The Eye’s editorial on Jack Layton
Layton, for his part, does appear to believe in democracy, and what’s more he’s pretty good at it, judging by the polls. And he’s been outlining his answer to Rae’s question in terms that most left-of-centre citizens outside the academy can appreciate: he wants a capitalism that creates sustainable growth, that protects the environment, that doesn’t genuflect to corporate or global military power, that does its best to make sure that our poorest citizens aren’t treated like trash. Standing next to Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, what Jack Layton looks like is not a sellout, but a real, electable alternative. And for the chance to actually implement his ideas, he’s willing to work towards socialism piece by manageable piece.
Speaking of Paul Wells
He is wondering where is the Liberal Paul Martin agenda?
In Weird Math of Choices, 6 Choices Can Beat 600
From the New York Times
Choice is good. And the more choices, the better.
This simple American credo lines the shelves of grocery stores with 162 varieties of breakfast cereal, turns ordering a cup of coffee at Starbucks into an Olympic challenge, makes selecting a phone company an enterprise requiring a business degree and supplies dating services with an endless stream of hopeful customers.
It also underlies the way many economists think about human behavior. Human beings, according to traditional economic theory, are rational creatures who, faced with a choice, weigh the costs and benefits of each option and pick the one they prefer. And the more options people are given, the theory goes, the more satisfied they will be.
Yet in an article published last month in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, two social psychologists dispute this view, arguing that at some point, multiplying the number of alternatives people are given becomes counterproductive.
In a series of studies, Dr. Sheena S. Iyengar, an assistant professor at Columbia’s business school, and Dr. Mark R. Lepper, chairman of Stanford’s psychology department, have demonstrated that providing too many options — particularly when the differences between them are small — can make people feel overwhelmed and overloaded, and as a result, less likely to buy or pursue any of the options available.
Christian Contrarian
2001 Time profile on Stanley Hauerwas
Grace Cathedral
Wonderful site that has just been nominated for a Webby.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace by A. J. Gregory October 28, 2008
- Rediscovering Church: The Story and Vision of Willow Creek Community Church by Lynne Hybels October 26, 2008
- The Teeth of the Tiger, A Novel by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell October 26, 2008
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
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