City of Saskatoon
Issued at: 9.48 PM CST Sunday 4 January 2009

Some context…

A fierce blast of snow and cold was making its way east into Manitoba on Sunday after triggering record low wind chills of -50 C and colder in neighbouring Saskatchewan overnight.

Wind chill warnings were in effect in both provinces throughout the day, prompting warnings from Environment Canada that exposed skin would freeze in less than 10 minutes.

Residents of Saskatoon woke up to the coldest temperatures since 1966, with a wind chill of -45 C, leaving the city shrouded in ice fog.

The actual temperature in Saskatoon at mid-morning was -39 C and Environment Canada lists the record low temperature on Jan. 4 as -40 C in 1966. The Saskatchewan Encyclopedia says temperatures in the -50 C range are the lowest ever recorded in the province.

I haven’t bought a zine in years (which along with the fact that I am bald and now own a Honda Accord may mean that I am not the hipster I think thought I was) and I almost forgot what to expect.  What I got a well written, beautifully designed piece that actually inspired me and reminded me what living as a Christian is about and has made me think that if I was going to move, moving to be a part of what the Ecclesia Collective is doing in San Diego would be a good idea (although that may be the -47 degrees celcius weather talking as well).

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, head on over and get your order in.  While I am sure the black and white version looks good, you will want to get the color copy, it’s worth the extra money.  After reading the zine through, I found myself (and Mark) going through it a couple of times just to enjoy the design and the graphics.

I was going to take some photos of it but I saw these on the Collective website and they give you an idea of how it looks and the time that was put into it.

Not only does it give a great overview of what the Ecclesia Collective did in 2008, it’s a great conversation starter for what your community can do in 2009.

Some of you have been asking what my decision was regarding a new camera.  We finally decided on a Fujifilm Finepix s2000hd over the Olympus DSLR.  It isn’t perfect but I decided I didn’t want to invest the time into a DSLR and I really did enjoy my Konica Minolta Dimage z10.  I wanted something similar to it and this fit the bill.

I did appreciate the advice all of you gave me.  The settling factor was a post by a Future Shop employee on their website.  It was a little flowery but in his effort to persuade someone to purchas a DSLR he asked  if they wanted to “take pictures” or “create photos”.  For me I like “taking pictures”.  I really value those that can “create photos” but I am inspired by those who take great pictures.

The other factor was that after I bought a new camera bag, a better tripod, and a better zoom lense, it was going to cost me more than I felt comfortable with and while I take photographs for work, it isn’t part of my job description and I am not going to be doing any freelance work with a camera now or in the future so it was going to be a really expensive hobby for now.  I know I am being stupid with it but I feel weird investing that much money into a camera body that will be obsolete in a couple of years and what happens if I want to move from Olympus to Canon or to a Pentax?

I joked to Wendy that I made a long term committment to her, the boys, and two dogs but I wasn’t ready to make one to a camera lens system

Years ago some friends of mine were at WillowCreek at their Art’s Conference.  Leonard Sweet was speaking and everyone came back and paraphrased his quote,  “You need to love the community you are trying to reach.”  It stuck with several of them and I have thought about it for months now and the idea of turning your church lot into a compound sends the opposite message.  It isn’t just compounds.

The church next door to me put on a great Halloween party for kids.  I thought it was a great idea until I heard the pastor the next day badmouthing my neighborhood on the radio complaining about the kids and the mischief kids get into on Halloween and how the church needed to send out patrols to protect the neighborhood.  His goal in having the party was to stop trick or treating in Saskatoon.  His comments didn’t really bother me that much as I ignored them but our neighbors were upset over the criticism of our home turf and they thought he was exaggerating the problem. In a decade of living there, the only problems we have had in Mayfair are my Jack-O-Lantern gets kicked off the steps occasionally.  As a response to that, he came across as being angry and resentful of where he was.

I am sure that church that has a big 8 foot fence all around it’s compound has it’s reasons.  Stuff stolen, girls working off the front steps, needles, and domestic violence.  It’s a tough neighborhood and at 6’4” tall, it isn’t always safe for me to walk home from work.  But is a giant fence around your church building the answer?  By setting up a massive fence around it’s building, it sending the clear message that you aren’t welcome here.  It also tells me that instead of trying to change the community or make it better, you are just resigned to it and are afraid.  Not all people can handle the prostitutes, those that are violent, and the theft but as I read the New Testament, those are who Jesus spent a lot of his time with.  It wasn’t just the children who he called over to him but everyone. 

This church took it further than most but most churches do it.  Wendy has to work most Sunday mornings and Saturday nights.  Where does she go to church now that many churches don’t have a Sunday night worship service?  She doesn’t have a scheduled night off which makes it hard to do things like a small group.  One commenter a couple of years ago pointed out that those that the church says are the most needing of salvation are by the hours they work, the least likely to come to church.

I’ve often thought of the assumption that those who don’t fit in with the regular programming don’t deserve it. Thinking particularly (in my area) of the strippers, casino workers, prostitutes, and restaurant employees who work late in the same neighborhoods, working with the same clients.

How about a 3am service. That’s when a lot of folks are finishing up work.

We think that once they find Jesus and change their life, and get a new job, and fit into our lifestyles that then they’ll fit into church.

That’s crap.

I have often wondered why churches don’t open themselves up and make themselves third spaces.  I have linked to Steve Collins (blog) stuff on church and third spaces before and many of us (by your response in comments) has agreed with it and yet too many churches still look like fortresses instead of open spaces.  You have probably heard your own excuses for why it can’t happen, I know I have heard mine (locks would have to be rekeyed, worried about internet porn on the computers, lack of supervision) or people look at what the Freeway has done in Hamilton and think it has to look like that when it really doesn’t.  At work we host one out of our chapel and dining room.  My favorite third space in Saskatoon is the deck of City Perk in the spring and summer.  It is a gathering spot for everyone in City Park.  With free wifi, the deck is a great place to read, work, or meet up with friends.   A couple thousand dollars could open up your church to the entire neighborhood but you have to want to be open up to the entire neighborhood.  Contextually it looks really different.  A third space in your hood may be reopening and running a neighborhood hockey rink and warm up shack.  It may be an unused place of your church made into a place to work, study, write, and chill out like Paragraph is in New York.   It may be investing heavily in the kids of your neighborhood, changing the culture, helping kids stay in school.  I was watching an interview with Indianapolis Colt’s coach Tony Dungy tonight and he mentioned that in Indianapolis, 19% of kids graduate from public schools.  When 4/5 kids are dropping out of school at time when education is more important, there has to be opportunities.

When I hear church planters talk about church planting in Saskatoon, they talk about the creative class off Broadway Avenue.  A place full of better then average coffee shops, art galleries and pubs.  Who wouldn’t want to live and pastor a church in that area?  I think of my friend Karen Ward who speaks passionately of the neighborhood she planted Church of the Apostles in and how they waited until they could find a place in the neighborhood until they planted.

As I was reading Jane Jacobs over the holidays, I was drawn to her idea that if we want to create safer neighborhoods, we may be better off creating neighborhoods that people care about.  Neighborhoods with art, open spaces, and places where people like to congregate.  Whether that is on church property, on the front yard or down the street.  Investing on making the places better in the end will pay off and create places that are safer, more secure, and community focused.  Does that take longer than tossing up big fences or complaining to the press about hookers on your front step (a church on 20th years ago complained about how inappropriate it was for prostitutes to be hanging out on their property—a church is the last place a prostitute should be according to their complaint)?  Of course it does but by retreating behind your wall, you are neutering your ministry and making it worse for your neighbors and in the end yourself.

It makes sense but if you want to be somewhere else and you are just in a certain part of town because of convenience or cheap rent, it is going to show in everything you do.  Especially when you are saving rent but resenting your neighbors.  A little money in the bank may be nice but I wonder if it is worth the cost to the Kingdom.

While I was at it, I found out that my theme has been updated by it’s creator and it now includes gravatar support.  For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, you can sign up at Wordpress.com for an account that allows you to create a profile that also allows you to easily leave comments on Wordpress powered blogs.  If you wish, it can include an avatar as well.

Some of other changes included some new themes that I will be developing in 2009.  More of the focus on the site in 2009 will be on justice, community, poverty (and it’s many causes and results) and theological issues.  Theology is impossible to separate from the church and the church is local.  The theological issues I am wrestling with are shaped by the injustice and poverty I see on a daily basis and will involve a process of me examining some of my theological roots.  As Barth said, we have to begin each day again at the beginning.

Theological work is distinguished from other kinds of work by the fact that anyone who desires to do this work cannot proceed by building with complete confidence on the foundation of questions that are already settled, results that are already achieved, or conclusions that are already arrived at. He cannot continue to build today in any way on foundations that were laid yesterday by himself and he cannot live today in any way on the interest from a capital amassed yesterday. His only possible procedure, every day, in fact every hour, is to begin anew at the beginning… Yesterday’s memories can be comforting and encouraging for such work only if they are identical with the recollected that this work, even yesterday, had to begin at the beginning and, it has to be hoped, actually began there. In theological science, continuation always means “beginning once again at the beginning”.

The other change is the contextless links.  They won’t be quite so contextless this year and will be more focused around those issues and ways to engage with them.  Twitter will still be as random though.  The tweets posted here exclude any conversational tweets (those beginning with an @) which will mean less tweets and a little less confusing).  This isn’t so much a change as an update as it has been going on for a while but any architectural/design links that I find get posted at the cabin’s weblog.

Thanks for sticking with me and I hope to hear from you as I explore some new ideas as well as revisit some old ones.

College Football Results That Made Me Sad

• Michigan State losing to Georgia :: I grew up with Detroit cable being broadcast into Saskatoon so I tend to think of Michigan and Michigan State as the home team when it comes to college football.  Good to see Michigan State as bowl eligible, sad to see them get whipped by Georgia.

College Football Results That Made Me Happy

• Nebraska beating Clemson :: I don’t care that much about either team but how hard has Nebraska fallen that we seem pleased that they win a bowl game.  Great job Bill Callahan.  The scary thing is that he may be a head coach in the NFL again.
• Iowa beating South Carolina :: Maybe Steve Spurrier needs to cut back on his golfing and spend more time preparing his team.
• Oregon St beating Pitt 3-0 :: What a horrible game but I am a fan of Mike Riley since he coached in Winnipeg and also I like Dave Wannestadt and I am glad Pitt had a good season for Wannestadt’s job security alone.  I am also happy that I didn’t watch the game that featured three points, 20 punts and 10 sacks. 
• Vanderbilt beats Boston College :: I can’t stand BC and who doesn’t like the fact that Vanderbilt won their first bowl game since 1955.  “Vanderbilt won a