Archives for August, 2004
First Resonate Lunch
Dave King does the first Resonate lunch with Warren Horricks today. That’s what Resonate is all about folks.
Blogger and MetaData Tag
Blogger has some new tags out that let me do some really cool stuff with this blog. One is the MetaData tag which is causing me some problems in Dreamweaver 3. Is there a way to insert a non-complient or illegal html tag in Dreamweaver and not have it get really upset with the formatting? If you know of a way, let me know in the comments or via e-mail at jordoncooper AT gmail dot com.
More Secular than the culture?
“We have a church in North American that is more secular than the culture. Just when the church adopted a business model, the culture went looking for God. Just when the church embraced strategic planning (linear and Newtonian), the universe shifted to preparedness (loopy and quantum). Just when the church began building recreation centers, the culture began a search for sacred space. Church people still think that secularism holds sway and that people outside the church have trouble connecting to God. The problem is that when people come to church, expecting to find God, they often encounter a religious club holding a meeting where God is conspicuously absent. It may feel like a self-help seminar or even a political rally. But if pre-Christians came expecting to find God — sorry! They may experience more spiritual energy at a U2 concert or listening to a Creed CD.”
Reggie McNeal, The Present Future (via)
Thomas Merton: Creative Silence
The following quote was originally published in The Baptist Student, the student newspaper of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
What is much more serious is Bonhoeffer?s observation that the church itself engaged in too much empty talk. The church, in fighting to preserve and assert it position, seemed to him to make self-preservation an end in itself. The church talked more and more about itself and more and more for itself, less and less for the kingdom. He said the church had ?thereby lost its chance to speak a word of reconciliation to mankind and the world at large.? Bonhoeffer foresaw that this would lead the church?all the churches?into a realm of silence, confusion, and apparent helplessness in which ?traditional language must perforce become powerless and remain silent.? He wisely saw that the real purpose of this period of relative silence was a deepening of prayer, a return to the roots of our being, in order that out of silence, prayer, and hope we might once more receive from God new words and a new way of stating not our message, but His.
The Insanity Of The National Poll
It’s only the polls in the swing states that matter. Why can’t the media learn that?
Oh look, it’s raining again
It is still raining. I guess the drought is now over. I think we have had less than a week of really nice weather. Considering last year I spent almost every evening enjoying my wifi and surfing the web from my deck, this year I have only done it once. It is supposed to warm up today but get cold on Thursday again with yet more rain. Gross.
Denver’s Anderson Out for Season
Doh! Not a good way to start the season.
Dead
My 1991 Ford Escort died. Timing belt went while the pistons were up and in the process bending many of them. Repair bill would cost more than to replace the car. It last almost 400,000 kms so I think it was well worth the $1500 I bought it for. Now it is off to the auto wrecker.
What the "Boz" is doing now.
Brian Bosworth, Real Estate agent. No mention of his NFL career on the site which is weird.
Seven Lessons from Richard Foster
Todd Hunter blogs about what he has learned from Renovare and Richard Foster.
Lesson 1: Always stay light on your feet. Effective ministry does not require huge overheads from the costs of buildings and people. While I understand that Richard is a unique person, few have had his impact and done it ?light on their feet?. It really can work.Lesson 2: Always focus on being a movement: Avoid the forces of institutionalization that depersonalizes or at worst chews people up. Organism is to be preferred over organization; but organization is not ?bad?. Just stay dynamic and nimble; only have the minimum structure necessary.
Lesson 3: Always attend to the soul?s growth in grace: Distractions to this abound; even religious distractions. Richard says ?we evaluate everything with the simple question: will this help people grow in grace??
Lesson 4: Always center on life in the Kingdom of God: The advance of Jesus and his Kingdom comes first. Always. We must decrease that Jesus and his Kingdom can increase.
Lesson 5: Always prefer people over programs: What really helps and enhances the lives of people? This is the question Renovare asks. If we are pushing ourselves, or staff or our volunteers too hard we back off. We should never have to disobey the way Christ taught us to live in order to do the work God has given us to do.
Lesson 6: Always trust the Spirit, never the flesh: By ?flesh?, Richard means humanly initiated activity without any reference to God. Richard often critiques Renovare?s work by asking ?how much of what has happened at a certain event cannot be explained by our skill or brain power, or how was our skill and brain power used in ways that is beyond us??
Lesson 7: Always follow the passion: Before launching a new initiative, Renovare always waits until someone demonstrates passion. This requires discipline and patience. They have at times waited for years for the right person, passion and resources to come together. Then they step out in faith?
RNC Drops the Battleship-Style Stage; Goes Lighter, More Flexible
Jay Rosen is blogging from the RNC.
Review Ordered Into Canada’s Games Flops
Can someone tell me why the Olympics are important anymore and why we send atheletes to a games that bankrupts the host city in our attempt to find some national pride?
“We have to focus on the enhancement of sports-science technology. More revenue must come through sponsors and the public.“We are looking to contract sports experts to tell us what we need to do in order to be more successful and where we should be investing our money. We have to create institutes and prioritise sports.”
COC president Michael Chambers said if the changes were introduced, he was confident Canada would perform better at the next Olympics in Beijing in 2008.
Yes, tax me more and don’t help medicare, inner city schools, crime, or the economy. Send that money to help some individuals get medals. That makes no sense to me and I am a sports fan.
The da Vinci Project - An X Prize Competitor, a Quest for Space
It launches in October about 2 hours from Saskatoon. I am so there.
Emerging Montreal
This was posted on the e-mail discussion list for Resonate by David Brazzeal. It made my heart sing a bit and I thought I would post it here. Montreal is one of the least reached areas in North America but there are some really cool things emerging out in Montreal.
For those who are interested, there ARE several emerging things happening in Qu�bec and Montr�al in specific.1) Nick Brotherwood started a new Anglican church (English) for young adults called Emerge about 18 months ago. Their website is http://www.emergemontreal.com
2) Chantal Vall�e, a women’s basketball coach at Vanier College, started a new churched called Agap� (fran�ais) about a year ago. Chantal also has hosted for 2 years now an excellent summer project for students who want spend about 5 weeks in the postmodern waters of Montreal. Besides a giving lot of insight into Qu�bec culture, Chantal encourages students to find their niche in the city and simply ask God to make things happen.
3) Guy Rocheleau, former director of Le Roc, started a church called l’Eglise Urbaine (fran�ais) which meets at UQUM (University de Qu�bec � Montr�al). Guy should have a website up in a few days.
4) Dave and Heidi Gray are starting a new church called Journey Fellowship of Montreal (English) www.journeymontreal.ca
5) Pierre LeBel, the Montreal director of YWAM is also very much a part of the conversation. His French Bible study for intellectuals will be starting again in the fall.6) Christian Direction, www.direction.ca plays a role in this emerging conversation in Montreal, especially through their arts ministry called Innovation
http://www.direction.ca
http://www.direction.ca/EN/innovation.htm
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