Archives for August, 2006
Justice
I just re-read the chapter on justice in David Fitch’s book, The Great Giveaway. While I don’t totally agree with what he says about public schools, I think it is the best I have read on the subject and the chapter is well worth the price of the book.
Technorati Tags : The+Great+Giveaway, Social+Justice, church
Contextless Links
-
A Yoda Backpack :: I got to get me one of these. via
-
AKMA on the superiority of our free, open society. It was odd hearing this a couple of hours after listening to the podcast of Senator John McCain defending the practice on Meet the Press.
-
An update from the Toronto Greenhouse gathering :: “A few new faces were out (Welcome, Naomi and Jonathan!) and we heard some interesting stories from Jared, who talks a lot. What’s becoming clear in our discussions is that there really is a desire to see change and transformation happen here in Toronto.”
-
Speaking of church planting and Resonate Greenhouses, the next Mississauga one is meeting on September 14th
-
Spammers manipulate stock markets :: Apparently those spam e-mails work about penny stocks
September 21st
More on Clint Brown
Some wonder why an entertainer such as Brown shouldn’t be able to live like a rock star just because his other job is pastor.
“Christian music stars live very, very well,” said Charisma’s Grady. “If they become a pastor, does that mean that they need to live in a duplex?”
The Browns’ 4,455-square-foot home in Alaqua Lakes in Seminole County is furnished with a $50,000 home entertainment center and a $5,000 pool table. Among their assets: $300,000 in jewelry, according to the divorce file.
“In his world, it may not be out of line,” said Martin Glickstein, a Maitland CPA who prepares clergy tax returns. “This guy is obviously very public, a performer. In his lifestyle this is probably normal.”
Regardless of the source of income, Brown’s lifestyle is unseemly, said Steve Harper; vice president and professor of spiritual formation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando.
“The Bible teaches that spiritual leaders are held to a higher standard, by the very public nature of our ministry,” Harper said. “We have to be careful about our image. . . . We simply cannot live without accountability as spiritual leaders.”
Of course Richard and I both could be wrong and all pastors need $300,000.00 in bling. I have a feeling that Eugene Peterson might have something to say about this.
“American pastors are abandoning their posts, left and right, and at an alarming rate. They are not leaving their churches and getting other jobs. Congregations still pay their salaries. Their names remain on the church stationary and they continue to appear in pulpits on Sundays. But they are abandoning their posts, their calling. They have gone whoring after other gods. What they do with their time under the guise of pastoral ministry hasn’t the remotest connection with what the church’s pastors have done for most of twenty centuries.
A few of us are angry about it. We are angry because we have been deserted…. It is bitterly disappointing to enter a room full of people whom you have every reason to expect share the quest and commitments of pastoral work and find within ten minutes that they most definitely do not. They talk of images and statistics. They drop names. They discuss influence and status. Matters of God and the soul and Scripture are not grist for their mills.
The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns–how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money.
Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping, to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same. The marketing strategies of the fast-food franchise occupy the waking minds of these entrepreneurs; while asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists.
The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.”
Technorati Tags : Clint+Brown
Why are young adults not finding their faith in their parents church?
These families share something in common: their young adult kids are not easily finding their places in the church of their parents. The problem is widespread. I have been in two groups of pastors lately where someone asked how many of our post-high-school kids were actively involved in the church. No pastor in either group had a majority of his kids involved in the church; most had no kids actively involved.
Mike Sares replies that it is the drive for “excellence” is driving young adults from the church
Today’s young adults see a generation of baby-boomer Christians that has striven for “excellence” in every part of church life. Boomers proclaimed in the 1980s that image is everything, and their churches have reflected that cultural trend. The nurseries have got to be sparkling clean, the church buildings are marvelously functional as opposed to artistic, the music is as close to FM radio quality as possible (even if they must hire a band), the Sunday services are seamless with perfect transitions (just like television), the preaching is entertaining and informative (but not so deep as to offend visitors), and the plants on stage are beautiful (but artificial).
As a result, according to Dieter Zander, the next generation has concluded that “everything is image,” and therefore nothing can be trusted. Church is too slick, too good, too polished to be real. And the twenty-something hunger for raw authenticity just doesn’t fit in.
Technorati Tags : church, Brian+McLaren, evangelism, authenticity
Contextless Links
- The Free Methodist Church in Canada’s stance on women in ministry. I doubt it will change the minds of those of you who believe women should not lead in a church but you are entitled to be wrong. For those who want to read more on the topic, Gilbert Bilzekian’s Community 101 and Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible Says About a Womans Place in Church and Family are good places to start.
- This blog post is still generating flame mail and comments 18 years after being posted. Clint Brown has a loyal following
- Pluto sent down to Minors :: Former planet hurt by lack of size, disgruntled fan base. A great satire piece by MLB.com
- Ricky Williams to retire as an Argo? :: Speaking of the CFL, Eric Tillman is hired as the Roughriders GM
- Google Webmaster Central
- Scot McKnight is observing the rise of neo-fundementalism :: I think fundementalism becomes a place of safety during times of uncertainty. Certainty has its comforts for those that don’t know what to think.
Show me the money
At work, we use Internet Explorer and the default homepage is MSN. Normally I would change that pretty quick but before I did, I noticed some cool MSN Money resources that I have found useful. Since there isn’t a lot of money in the emerging church and most people I know live at or beyond their means, I thought I would post some ideas here.
- Saving big on a tiny income :: ”Save all your $5 bills in a coffee can. (My husband and I do this so we have extra fun money.) Or save all your $20 bills in shoe box (”I saved for a trip to Europe this way,” says Bowers, who earns $1,800 a month working in a cafe.)”
- 10 easy ways to save $500 a year
- 17 ways to beat boredom cheaply
- 20 ways to save on a shoestring :: “Go veggie. If you can do three meatless days a week (without substituting pricey fish), you could save $25 a week, which equals $100 a month, which equals $1,200 a year! Beans: Ya gotta love ‘em.”
- 50 ways to trim your budget
Technorati Tags : money, personal+finances
What was I thinking?
I had three glorious days off scheduled for next week until my boss asked if I wanted to help out and work a couple of them. Now I am working 15 straight days in a row. The good news is that a couple of them should be really quiet which should mean some time for reading and writing. The bad news is that I think my mind should be fried within the week. It was fun having it while it lasted.
Contextless Links
- Women can’t teach men in church! :: CNN has the story of a Baptist church that has fired a Sunday School teacher of 54 years because she is a women. Let me get this right, women can sing in church which is teaching through lyrics. They can share what they learned from the Bible in small study discussion groups of mixed sexes and that isn’t a problem. Yet if they stand in the pulpit, that is a theological mistake (despite there being no pulpits in the early church) and must be removed. Then there are women bloggers who believe woment shouldn’t teach. No, they don’t see the irony in authoratively using their blogs for teaching and feel free to rebuke men who don’t agree with them despite not believing in women teaching. My grandmother was ordained so it wasn’t much of a debate in my house.
- Chris Eerdman wonders if Christian support of war is apostasy
- Faithmaps discussion group to shut down after five years :: Wow, I remember when it started and how important it was to my theological understanding. It will be missed.
- Why the Reformed church doesn’t like N.T. Wright
- Some thoughts from the Peace Corps that are applicable to the church
- Malcolm Gladwell on the U.S. pension crisis and also writes a follow up post on his blog.
- Guy Kawasaki has ten things we should learn this year
Canada Remembers International Airshow
Wendy, Mark, and I wandered out to the Canada Remembers International Air Show. Both Wendy and I took our cameras and the photos all ended up in a Flickr photoset.
Growing up at the tail end of the Cold War, the air shows that I went to were all about military might and ability to beat the Soviets. This one was different with large displays talking about the past and the sacrifice that our veterans made for us. I was amazed at the respect that the veterans received both from the show and from strangers going up and chatting with them.
I first saw the gyrocopter there back in 1989 at a science show at the University of Saskatchewan and wanted one then. Mark saw it Sunday and thought it was a helicopter for kids and wants one. Despite Mark’s and mine pleading, Wendy said no. All of the rest of the photographs can be found here.
Technorati Tags : air+show, YXE, Saskatoon, photographs
Contextless Links
- Roy Shivers gets fired! Celebrations break out in the streets of Saskatchewan. In case you are wondering why Roy got fired, “I told them in April that I would not work for Hopson,” Shivers told the Regina Leader-Post Monday after being informed of the club’s decision, “I can work with him, but I can’t work for him because I dislike him and I don’t trust him.”
- Just after challenging Shea Hildenbrand to a fight, Toronto Blue Jays manager fights pitcher Ted Lilly. General manager J.P. Ricciardi wasn’t available to answer questions afterwards but team president Paul Godfrey said he wasn’t concerned about the incident or Gibbons short fuse. That being said, it is rumored that the Jays have contacted Billy Martin to see the best way to handle the situation.
- So why did Bryant Gumbel attack Gene Upshaw? :: There is some correlation for bloggers and the church here.
- Gaitlin accepts 8 year ban :: I know atheletes are responsible for what goes into their bodies but they also trust their training staff and coaches and in this case, it seems like the coach wasn’t deserving of any trust.
- How to recognize bogus science
- A bunch of friends are looking for work right now, here are 50 common interview questions and how best to answer them
- 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed :: Updated: someone posted “The Emerging Church” as #870
Wanted?
When I went out to see Jared last month, I was confronted his face all over Arlington Beach Camp.
Technorati Tags : Arlington+Beach+Camp, Jared+Siebert
Contextless Links
- Why Bush vs. Gore still matters via
- Iran’s gas reserves to last only another 25 years
- The good news is that if any other city had endured a five game sweep by the New York Yankees, the city would be devastated. Luckily Boston is used to having their hearts broken by the Yankees. The Blue Jays were there in 2002 and were swept in five games by the Red Sox.
- Warren Kinsella has posted some strong anti-Isreali comments on his blog by top Liberal Party supporters :: “History will remember Hezbollah as an organization that stood up to the most vile ‘nation’ in human history.” Like he said, I too feel uncomfortable with the left right now in Canada.
- How to make Elephant Ears
- Wendy posted some comments on how things are going for her on her weblog.
- Some of my readers have tangled with hippos before. My first act as the leader on the War on Hippos is to invade Iceland. I know that makes no sense but invading Iraq had nothing to do with the War of Terror. I think the real lesson to learn from this is that either Mark or I get scared when watching nature shows. We need to find something about puppies playing nice with each other or something.
Cultivate
I had planned to be at Cultivate but a combination of work and more work kept me home. Pernell Goodyear has a good post here. Jared Siebert (who I have started to allow him to do my thinking for me) has some posts here. Mike Todd has his thoughts here. Jared posted all of the photos in Resonate’s Flickr photo pool so check them out.
Technorati Tags : Cultivate, emerging+church, Frwy.ca, Canada, Resonate
Word Verification
I’m sorry but I now need to have word verification for the comments. About 500 comment spam yesterday which is too time consuming to take care of . Sorry about that, I hate the solution as much as anyone.
Technorati Tags : Blogger, comment+spam
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
-
Search
Recent Photos
