Archives for May, 2005
Contextless Links
- Washington Post confirms that Felt was Deep Throat
- W. Mark Felt - Wikipedia
- Woodward & Bernstein Confirm: Felt Was ‘Deep Throat’
- Deep Throat: An Institutional Analysis
- ‘Jeopardy!’ whiz Jennings bested in tournament
- IPod Plug-In Sets Music Free
- Fuller’s Ryan Bolger is now blogging (all the cool theologians are doing it)
- A sampling of what prominent film critics wrote in their reviews of the earlier ‘Star Wars’ films
- Why smart people defend bad ideas
- Jeffrey Veen on The Usability of Subscribing to Feeds
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To Tag or Not to Tag, That Is the Question :: John Dvorak is at it again. Some would even call it intellectual dishonesty
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The Australian: Ashes to ashes, brain to disk :: Your airplane may be even more fearful of crashing then you are.
- It’s a Wiki, Wiki World
- 6 Reasons Why Crunch Mode Does Not Work
- Airbus vs. Boeing
Podcasts catch on at NBC, ABC news divisions
CBC has also been doing this for a long while.
Reflections on General Conference
I am back from the Free Methodist Church in Canada’s General Conference. We hold it once every three years in Toronto so if I am still a Free Methodist, I will be back in 2008. Here are my thoughts.
- First of all, a lot of you who are reading this are Free Methodists. I never knew as many of you read this. Thanks for coming up to me and telling me. If I ever plan to overthrough the Bishop, I will have to post those plans to another blog
- Speaking of the Bishop, I thought his talks were excellent. They were both passionate and prophetic and impacted all of us. Our visiting Bishop, Bishop Ildo from Brazil was amazing. While his first languae is Portugese, his passion came through in some excellent talks. He hit upon materialism in the church which was a great message that we all needed to hear.
- The hotel was gorgeous but I did have several customer service issues. The staff resolved them quickly which made me think it was more bad luck than incompetance. Problems do happen and the staff was quite understanding in fixing them. My only caveat that every Coke machine in the hotel was out of order. How does that happen? I assume it was the bottlers fault (for the record I did check every floor)
- The King’s Arm Pub in Markham has excellent steak sandwiches (and as Darren pointed out in the comments, a really drunk waitress when him and I were there)
- I can function well on three hours sleep for two nights. Three nights is not so good.
- On Sunday night I pilgrimed to Dundas to see Pernell Goodyear and the Freeway (or is that the FRWY) with Darryl and Charlene Dash. Darryl posted about part of the evening here. I understand that Darrly is a man of God and a wonderful pastor but he is lying! Those wings were hot. Really hot. Really, really hot. Either he is lying or just more of a man than I am. Yes I did spit Pepsi over the entire table (I was taking a drink of Pepsi and Pernell mentioned that he would like to give a prominent theologian with perfect hair a noogie and I couldn’t help myself). Also I may mentioned that my phone was set to vibrator and not just vibrate. Seeing the Freeway was cool. A lot of people have told me how cool Pernell and the Freeway are and they were one of the friendliest communities I have ever dropped in on. A side note. Charlene did advise me and Darryl not to have the foolish wings. Unfortunately I didn’t listen. Note to self. Listen to Charlene’s advise next time.
- There are a lot of resolutions at a General Conference. Many of them take a long time to pass.
- I wish the hotel had wifi.
- One of the things that Wendy and I have been learning that there are three parts of all of our lives. The past, present, and future. One of the things that have happened to a lot of us is that we lost a lot of our past through our excommunication and exile from family. Being at General Conference was good for me in that it is a tie to my past that seems very tenuous at times. That is good. I heard stories of my past this weekend that I had forgotten or never knew. That was good.
- Air Canada is either getting better or I am becoming more tolerant of how bad they are. Customer service on this flight was indifferent rather than the usual surly. It’s going in the right direction.
- The church almost passed a resolution that would have made it almost impossible for John Wesley to be a Free Methodist pastor.
- Darren and I survived another trip together.
- Will post pictures tonight.
40% have no trust in religious leaders
40% of Canadians have no trust in religious leaders.
Travel day
Busy day today and most of it will be spent between here and Saskatoon where I arrive quite late tonight.
Got together with Darryl and Charlene Dash and also Pernell Goodyear from the Freeway in Hamilton last night. No links is intentional as I managed to humiliate myself twice last night. Will post more later when I get home.
General Conference - Sunday
So much for blogging while in Toronto. This morning was a worship service with about a 1000 Free Methodists across the country and the GTA. I didn’t really connect with the worship this weekend (maybe I am just tired of choruses) but I really connected with the worship after the retirees from the Free Methodist Church were honored. The idea of giving ones entire life to pastoral ministry is a great illustration of faithfulness. They also had a children’s choir in that was amazing. Even some break dancing.
After the service we went for lunch and then later a couple of us are heading to Hamilton to see Pernell’s church. It should be a good time unless Pernell is a cult leader or something. That would suck. Some of us are going out afterwards. If you are in the area call 306.227.2018 and we can connect.
General Conference
It’s been good so far. I have been taking some pictures and posting them at Flickr. Some have asked recently about the tension (if any) I feel as a Free Methodist and also as a part of the emerging church (I do feel some) and I will post some thoughts if I get some free time today.
Hotel room is nice but I found the service a little poor which is really odd. I had to fix our broken internet connection myself (after the service guys were unable). Will be posting some more pictures during the day and probably blogging over here for “the man”.
I made it this far at least
Originally uploaded by Jordon.
Apparently I am in Toronto. At least I made it to Terminal One. Will update progress later.
Safe and sound in Toronto
Am here at the Free Methodist Church in Canada’s General Conference. We are staying at the Hilton Suites here in Markham, Ontario. The place is posh but the customer service has been less then impressive. What is it about me and Toronto hotels?
I am staying with Darren Friesen and Gerry Zak. We have a nice suite and I get the couch which also means I get the internet hookup.
Lakeview Church (kind of)
This week I spent some time with friends from Lakeview Church, my old employer. I had laryngitus on Tueday and missed work. I was instant messenging with Jeb and he invited me for spicy soup with my friends Darren Friesen and Cathy Johnson who were recently laid off by Lakeview. We had a good talk about discipleship, Star Wars, and Cathy showed us her icon that she is making. Cathy is taking a class on iconography and it was amazing to see the icon under construction. I have an icon of Jesus at home and I took it down last night just to look at it. Seeing Cathy’s half done icon made me look at this one in a new light. That was cool.
Jeb and I have been working on a project for the Free Methodist Church in Canada. It has been fun to work with Jeb. People who don’t see what he can produce on ridiculous timelines don’t appreciate how talented he is. I don’t even think Jeb knows how talented he is and he makes it look very easy. Anyways it was fun to brainstorm with him again.
It was also kind of weird being at spicy soup. For a long time it was a weekly tradition at Lakeview. Now all of the people who used to go, there is only Jeb left working at the church. Time changes a lot of things. Now when I walk in to see Jeb or Gloria, people look at me like I shouldn’t be there and ask me if they can help me find my way. At the same time it was fun to live the “good old days”, even if was for only 90 minutes.
Off to Toronto tomorrow
Am off to Toronto for the Free Methodist Mecca. There is a blog for the event and I will be posting over there. I am getting together with some friends from Resonate and some other cool people so I hope to post some pictures of what is happening. My friend Darren Friesen is my roomate so pray for us both.
wendycooper.net: This space, this horrible and wonderful space
Wendy posts about how hard it has been for her lately to post on her weblog considering it is also a place where her enemies also like to congregate. It makes me angry to see her have to go through it.
For sale: 4 submarines, not shipshape
A bargain for $50,000. You could get an entire fleet for $200,000 and that is Canadian money.
43 Folders: Cringe-Busting your TODO list
I need to start doing this.
God, Inc.
Business Week looks at some evangelical churches and this is what is sees
So successful are some evangelicals that they’re opening up branches like so many new Home Depots or Subways. This year, the 16.4 million-member Southern Baptist Convention plans to “plant” 1,800 new churches using by-the-book niche-marketing tactics. “We have cowboy churches for people working on ranches, country music churches, even several motorcycle churches aimed at bikers,” says Martin King, a spokesman for the Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board.Branding whizzes that they are, the new church leaders are spreading their ideas through every available outlet. A line of “Biblezines” packages the New Testament in glossy magazines aimed at different market segments — there’s a hip-hop version and one aimed at teen girls. Christian music appeals to millions of youths, some of whom otherwise might never give church a second thought, serving up everything from alternative rock to punk and even “screamo” (they scream religious lyrics). California megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s 2002 book, The Purpose-Driven Life, has become the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time, with more than 23 million copies sold, in part through a novel “pyro marketing” strategy. Then there’s the Left Behind phenomenon, a series of action-packed, apocalyptic page-turners about those left on earth after Christ’s second coming, selling more than 60 million copies since 1995.
Evangelicals’ eager embrace of corporate-style growth strategies is giving them a tremendous advantage in the battle for religious market share, says Roger Finke, a Pennsylvania State University sociology professor and co-author of a new book, The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy. A new Pope has given Catholicism a burst of global publicity, but its nominal membership growth in the U.S. stems largely from the influx of Mexican immigrants. Overall, the Catholic Church’s long-term decline in U.S. attendance accelerated after the recent sex-abuse scandals, there’s a severe priest shortage, and parish churches and schools are closing in the wake of a financial crisis.
via. Leave you comments below.
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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