Some Canada Day Long Weekend Reading

Over at ginkworld.net's postmodern theology discussion group we spent some time discussing some of the differences between Canada and our friends to the south. There are some excellent books that deal with some of the defining moments of Canada as a country. Here is my shortlist... you will notice they all come from Amazon.ca.
Vimy by Pierre Burton - one of the greatest books that bring back one of the defining moments of Canadian nationalism.
The Great Depression by Pierre Burton - this book explains much of the mentality of the older generations in the west. It gives an insightful view of the horrors of life across the west (where it was worse). It was really chilling to read of how hard it hit places like Saskatoon and the small surrounding towns. Many people who live in Spiritwood, went north during the depression to start a new life in the 1930's. A really cool book.
Trudeau and our Times by Stephen Clarkson - Pierre Trudeau's impact on Canada can not be underestimated. Much of the values that even the conservatives hold dear came to be a part of our culture during the Trudeau era. Well written and worthwhile book.
Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics by Warren Kinsella is a behind the scenes look at political campaigning in Canada. His is biased, obnoxious, and arrogant but we knew that about him before the book came out.
Lament For a Nation: The defeat of Canadian nationalism by George Grant. This is an extraordinary book dealing with the pervasiveness of U.S. culture in Canada, and how Canadians have seemingly allowed their own culture and politics to be subsumed into American versions. Written in the 1960s, this remarkable book is as relevant today as it was when it was published. A Canadian political classic.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Meetup

This is kind of a cool new site. Meetup helps groups of people with shared interests to meetup in local cafes (and other places) around the world. It looks like is has some potential for coolness.

Monday is Canada Day! You can brush up on some Canadian trivia here so when the big day comes, people will know you are the Grand Poobah of Canadiana.

Faithfully Dangerous

Brian McLaren offers up a response to a lousy review in Books & Culture. I read the review that panned A New Kind of Christian and I wondered if the reviewer was reading the same book as I did. Brian is far more gracious than I think I would have been. UPDATE As Dan Gilmour puts it, "as a blogger you need to accept that your readers know more than you do" (or something like that). Stephen Shields just e-mailed me a section of links featuring reviews and news about A New Kind of Christian on his excellent site, Faithmaps

The Blog Turns One Today!

The blog turns one today. I originally posted this a month ago but that was when I was messing around with some Blogger Pro features... Today is the real birthday. It started out as a really ugly template that I really never knew what to do with but was later integrated into my site as its own section. Several months ago I gave the front page over to my blog and it has evolved into the madness you see now.

Thanks for all the comments on my blogroll. I started to tweak it last night. As it stands now, there are over forty links listed and I would like to reduce that a little bit. I am looking at using Blogrolling for the simple reason that it montitors blogs that ping weblogs.com. The problem is that I need to change the page layout in order to use it. Check back this weekend for the new look and feel.

Dilutional thoughts and inappropriate comments from a very hot office of jordoncooper.com

Recently found out why I have been getting so many nasty e-mails lately. I was listed in a Christian newsletter on Biblical values as an example of what was wrong with the Canadian church. It was funny because all of the things they mentioned were all things that make us fun loving Canadians so much fun. In the end they were very concerned with my posting about Nickelodeon and not understanding the rage over John Ashcroft being liberal (as a Canadian that is hard for us to see). Along the way they got upset over a number of other things on this site and let me know. It is nice to have some context to the criticism.

Andrew Careaga offers up an excellent expansion on the original Soren Kierkegaard quote in a global context. A good read.

On another note, I took some time to read Christine and Tom Sine's new book, Living on Purpose. It is the first book they have written together (I never would have thought that, I have only heard of them speak as a team so I always think of their books as being co-authored as well... I was wrong) and I really recommend it. I would have put up a review but Wendy is reading it now so it will have to wait. I really enjoyed it.

I renovated the Blogroll last night. I almost hate to do it now because for everyone I add, I am leaving off some excellent other blogs. After a while I find a very long blogroll defeats its own purpose and you don't click on it because it is too long. Does my blogroll help you? Feel fee to throw me a bone and let me know.

Back online....

Well we are back from a couple of days in the mysterious north. No bear sitings but we saw a moose right beside the cabin. It is nice to be home in and wading through a lot of e-mail.

While I was gone I got the time to read David Weinberger's excellent book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined. The book takes a good look at the cultural changes that are being brought around by the internet. He is going a lot deeper than people like Len Sweet have gone. If he is right, the implications for the church is enourmous and really exciting. I am working on an indepth review for TheOOZE to be posted in a couple of weeks. Outside of Andrew Careaga and Len Sweet (I know there are a few others) not many people have tackled the long term sociologial implications that are going to influence the church because of the net. It may be time to spend some serious time looking at it.

While I was gone, Jeb has done some excellent work on the look for The Hockey Pundits. The masthead and new look should be online soon.

Where does the Baptist buck stop?

Terry Mattingly's column today. This isn't just about Baptists but about all churches. An interesting if just a little cynical look at the issue.

Where does the buck stop, when sexual abuse hits Protestant pulpits? The Southern Baptist resolution calls on local churches to discipline sex offenders. Yet the most powerful person in modern Protestantism is a successful pastor whose preaching and people skills keep packing people into the pews. Can his own church board truly investigate and discipline that pastor?

Once that question is asked, others quickly follow.

If the board of deacons in a Southern Baptist congregation faced an in-house sex scandal and wanted help, where could it turn? It could seek help from its competition, the circle of churches in its local association. Or it could appeal to its state convention. In some states, "conservative" and "moderate" churches would need to choose between competing conventions linked to these rival Baptist camps. Or could a church appeal for help from the boards and agencies of the 16-million-member national convention?

See You Later This Week

Wendy, Mark and I are off to Prince Albert National Park and to the township of Waskesiu for a couple days vacation. Won't be back until later in the week so if you don't have to e-mail me, please don't because it will be an ugly thing seeing my inbox backed up again. In case you are missing this blog, don't fret, there are plenty of good or better blogs in the blogroll and of course you can spend hours reading the constantly updated madness at The Hockey Pundits (c'mon, click on the link, you know you want to).

I am planning to finish Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart and eat some ice cream. Will post some pics when I get home.

Kierkegaard on bloggers, I mean journalists.... from Plough's Daily Dig

Something to chatter about! The crowd demands only something to chatter about, and this is understood to mean finding something about each other to chatter about, something about our meaningless lives, particularly the trivialities in our lives. Anything else nauseates the public, which knows only one lust - the desire for self-pollution by talking, a lust in which it indulges with the help of the journalist.

Journalists are animal-keepers who provide something for the public to talk about. In ancient days people were cast to the wild animals. Now the public devours the people - those tastefully prepared by the journalists.

Excerpted from Provocations by S�ren Kierkegaard.

Some Random Sunday Thoughts

A couple of comments from e-mail from my earlier post.

As a Canadian, I struggle understanding the cultural context that right wing conservative Christianity comes from. Their recent rage against John Ashcroft and Nickelodeon boggles my (limited?) mind. I live in Saskatchewan where the New Democratic Party have run the province for years and many of its leaders are clergy. The NDP are openly and strongly pro-choice and not only does it not bother the clergy (our Premier is a United Church Minister and the founder of the forerunner of the NDP was Tommy Douglas who was a Baptist minister), it doesn't bother many of the provinces Christians who openly support them. Lakeview Church is a Free Methodist Church but I suspect that on the lawns of our core families, there would be a lot of NDP lawn signs come election time. I think the same could be said for almost every evangelical church in Saskatchewan. For the most part, the Canadian church doesn't participate in partisan Canadian politics (the United Church of Canada was the exception in 1988 where they came out strongly against Free-Trade). The kind of debates that are happening over Nickelodeon airing a TV special doesn't happen in Canada, even in the more conservative parts of the country. I don't know why Christians are afraid of a discussion over the impact of being raised in a homosexual home. It seems to be that all sides of the discussion are poorer because of it. That being said, there are many churches across North America that are and have engaged in the debate and I think the kingdom is better for it.

I got a comment about Lakeview Church and single parents and why they are more accepting than some churches. I don't know if Lakeview is special or if like a lot (but not all) of churches, it has comes to grips with divorce and single parents and other families that are non-traditional. I think part of it is the age of leadership. Some have gone through divorce, others parents have divorced or have seen the impact of divorce. I laugh at the countless people who phone into Dr. :Laura and feel a divorce won't impact the kids or anyone else. It impacts everyone. In my earlier post, I wasn't trying to judge the church now, just the churches I was in when my parents divorced. In the early in 1980's it was still kind of rare. It was awkward in school and even minor hockey as well. Over the last 20 years, all of those institutions have understood more and have changed for the better. Churches too. Still, I don't want to diminish the incredible ministry Lakeview and other churches that intentionally show God's grace and welcome everyone, where ever they are on their spiritual journey.

One things I didn't post about the other day were some e-mail that have come in over the last several months about the lack of missions emphasis and also information about the Burnhams' The mission comments first. I tell people that I have a passion for missions and Lakeland Church is involved in a couple global missions projects. We just finished raising some money for a medical clinic in Ethiopia through the Free Methodist World Missions and are involved in things like Samairitan's Purse and other agencies that people in the church have a passion for. (people respond best to missions projects that their friends are passionate about I find). I don't post a lot about missions organizations because there are so many of them and I am just not familiar with many of them. People like Andrew Jones and Wolfgang Fernandez seem to be your best bets for good ideas and views on global missions. I am not. My website reflects what I am learning and I am ignorant in the area of missions in a postmodern world. Please e-mail me some recommended reading and some websites. I have never backed down from a chance to become less ignorant (well, okay there was that time in Chicago...)

About the Burnhams. A lot of blogs posted about it and I did not. Some people have asked why? First of all Christianity Today has an excellent weblog and ALL of my information I read on the kidnapping came from their blog. I had no more to add as Ted Olson does an excellent job and all I would be doing was offering up a weak alternative to a cause that he kept front and center for over a year. Some of the mail I got about Kierkegaard talked about me ignoring the Burnhams as an example of ignoring the plight of global Christians. I can't make that connection in my mind. It seems like people making an argument from silence. There is a lack of books about marriage and relationships in my bookstore, does that mean I don't love my wife? I don't post all things on my blog because I do have a life and a job. Other than Andrew Sullivan (who wrote a moving post today about it being his ninth anniversary of testing positive for HIV), I don't know of another professional blogger. As the publisher of jordoncooper.com (that sounds funny to me), I try to post things of interest of the occasional reader but at the same time I do have a focus (postmodern ministry and culture) on this site that I like to think that I maintain. I don't have the time or the qualifications to talk about global missions, persecution of the faith, or spend the time scanning the wire services like Ted Olson over at CT does. I'll let those more qualified than I speak on topics I know little about.

Some other thoughts from today...

When I talked of the Christian ghetto in the past, this is what I was thinking of. From the article The Rev. Jerry Falwell has a vision for his 4,300 acres here: golf courses, recreation centers and apartments, all part of a master-planned Christian community where members of his flock can live from "birth to antiquity."

ANDY CROUCH SAYS...
"...we will never change culture by withdrawing from it into private alternatives. A private interstate highway system -- say, one accessible only to cars bearing fish emblems -- would have done nothing to reshape the landscape of the United States. Any effort to engage culture must take place in the messy, unpredictable world outside church walls."

On a slightly different topic. Someone from the church in Spiritwood are building an amazing log cabin. It is 16x20 feet but it is going to be an amazing get away on some farm land outside of the town by about ten minutes. I would love to build something like it someday.

That's it, I've had enough!

I love Saskatchewan (not enough to retire here) but it isn't a bad place to live, except during the next couple of weeks when the caterpillar come down from eating all of Saskatoon's trees. We didn't band our trees last year (got too busy) and we are paying for it now. They are so noisy you can hear them eat, then the worm waste is all over the deck and cars, then finally their silk webs come down and as you walk underneath any of the thousands of maple and elm trees, they drop on you. It is a regular occurance to be shopping and see a stranger point our a caterpillar to you as it crawls on your shoulders. It is so gross. About another two weeks and it is done till next year. I can't wait.

Over the last week two different posts have provoked a lot of response. I can kind of understand one but the other has left me a little confused. The first one has to deal with Nickelodeon's decision to air a television show that deals with the issue of children of homosexual parents. Within a day over 30 people had e-mailed to criticize the post and many were very angry. I deleted seven or eight posts from my commenting feature because of the language. I made an effort to e-mail back anyone who wanted to dialogue and have had some excellent exchanges and just ignored some that crossed the line. In some people's minds, that post even made me unfit to parent. You can read what I wrote here.

I have several problems with the responses I got back. All Nickelodeon professed to be trying to do was create a discussion on the topic through a child's eyes. Let me explain it this way. My own dad walked out the day before my little brother was born in 1982. He was in an adulterous relationship. Being in a single parent family and going to evangelical churches who spoke strongly against all parties in a divorce was really hard. I heard sermons where my single mom's (like my Mom) were called horrible things and I walked out feeling less then worthy too. I still remember when a Sunday School teacher was talking about children with no father. One of the kids asked if myself and another kid were "bastards" (his dad left his family too). After thinking about it for a while, the rather dense teacher said, "yes". It was my Dad that committed adultery and broke his wedding vows, not me yet the church could be so totally cruel and awful to kids who parents had gone through a divorce. (that being said, from the time I was in high school on I was blessed with some amazing pastoral role models) One of the coolest things about being at Lakeview is that is a church that opens its arms to those who are going through the same thing that we as a family went through. It warms my heart to see it on a consistent basis.

It seems to me that elements in the North American church are at it again. Nickelodeon wants to look at what it means to be a child of homosexual parents. It isn't promoting homosexuality, they have invited and have taped people saying it is wrong from a Christian viewpoint. What I want to know is why is the church so afraid of this discussion. It seems to be that some elements of conservative Christianity is responsible for creating the problem in the first place. In our "hating the sin", we forget that we have deeply wounded and prejudiced against the children who have done nothing wrong. What does 100,000 phone calls and letters from the religious right say to the children and families of those who are gay? I haven't seen the Nickelodeon special but I support it. It may suck but at least someone has the courage to talk about it in an open matter. Good for them.

The other posting that has gotten some response is the quote I posted by Kierkegaard. It seemed to provoke a response in a way I never intended. I assumed that my readers would assume that Kierkegaard was writing about a western context and not global Christianity. I was wrong. A lot of people got angry and e-mail and posted on blogs that they were quite disapointed in the quote and in my blog (what else is new). Before you burn my site in effigy, let me explain.

The quote was posted as a thought from a fairly respected thinker. I got the quote and it gave me the opportunity to think about it and I thought it has some value. I posted it on my site as what I thought it was, a quote to ponder. It never was meant to be a reflection of global Christianity or a mini-commentary. I know it offers a very small picture but it was of that picture Kierkegaard was talking about (yes I do read his works).

For those of you have read my site on a regular basis, you will know I post a fair amount without a lot of context. It is just a thought or an idea and one of the things that Blogger does so well is it lowers the bar to the point where you can do that. Those thoughts and quotes often end up in my sermons and article but more often then not are things that impacted me at that moment. Often times I don't provide a lot of context because sometimes the thought itself doesn't come with a lot of context either. (like the SK quote) I also assume that for the most part, I have a fairly intelligent readership and you can provide the context.

What I am really trying to say, if I offended you, I am sorry and I would ask that you show me some grace sometimes too.

Jordon

From Living on Purpose

The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me to deep depression, it hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy for activities sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task,
I will never get it done, for my "ideal" is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits from my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines, my in-basket over-flows.
Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all days of my life,
And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration forever.

Marcia K. Hornok, "Psalm 23, Antithesis"

Some light vacation reading

I ran to the local keeper of the Christian sub-culture today to buy Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart. Along the way I stumbled into Christine and Tom Sine's newest book called Living on Purpose. I am going to bring both of them and Jihad vs. McWorld with me to Waskesiu this week and get some quality reading in. All three will be reviewed on TheOOZE sometime this summer unless they aren't that good but I highly doubt that.

Wendy, some friends of ours, and I will be heading to Waskesiu on Monday to enjoy the lake and a great log cabin we have rented. Wendy called Waskesiu, the Martha's Vineyard of Saskatchewan. I don't know if it is that nice but Saskatchewan isn't exactly the Irish section of Boston either so maybe she is right. We don't have a lot planned other than taking a paddlewheeler around the lake and eating some ice cream on the beach. Maybe some sports will be played. Regardless of what happens, there will be some pictures to post and some books to comment on when we get back.

In case you haven't realized, the Soularize site is now online. Spread the word. While you are spreading the word, Hockey Pundits is online and is extremely busy. If you want to join our community of hockey commentators or if you just want to see how passionately some of us feel about the game, head on over and tell your friends.

Finally, Stephen Shield's new blog is now online. Stephen is also the creator of Faith Maps and one of the finest e-mail discussion forum moderators on the planet.

This comes from Erwin McManus' book, An Unstoppable Force: Becoming the Church that God Had in Mind

We preach against sin, but have we ever developed the anger of God when it relates to lost human potential? Have we ever looked at human lives and felt our hearts break, not because of the sins committed but because of the potential left unattended?

An apostolic environment sees character development as a commitment to maximizing the life of every individual and seeing each and every human being as a treasure of God. For too long our ownly conversations related to the image and likeness of God have been about how we have defiled it. We've been negligent in our examination of what it means to be re-created in the image of Christ. We were created not only to declare, but to reflect God's greatness and beauty. Institutions devalue human potential and minimize the contributions of individuals. An apostolic ethos identifies, nurtures, and develops these capacities as a stewardship before God.

The Gallup organization, from their studies of human talent, have suggested that the unique talent of an individual can be identified by the age of two. Perhaps a difference between a good parent and a great parent is that a good parent forms character, while a great parent unleashes potential through character transformation. If this is true, and I am convinced that it is, then all of us have an opportunity to be prodigies in our own way.

A prodigy is an individual who capitalizes on a unique talent at an extraordinarily young age. When the church nurtures good earth, her children have their greatest opportunity. We've seen glimpses of this. Some of the greatest singers in our contemporary society grew up in church. Church was a place where their gifts were nurtured and encouraged.

At one time, the great art, the great music, the great architecture, and the great literature were born out of the influence and the environment of the church. Certainly the emergence of enlightened thinkers and of science were born out of the environment of the church. It should not surprise us that if God is the great
Creator--and on the seventh day he rested from his work of creating--then those he created in his image and likeness would also be creative beings. It easily follows that the closer we get to God, the more we discover our untapped potential and creativity.

Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians, therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!

Excerpted from Provocations by S�ren Kierkegaard.

The quote obviously has to deal within the context of modern western Christianity (the context that Kierkegaard was writing from) and it is true today. For all of our theological knowledge, there is very little difference in the daily lives of many Christians I know. I think it is a result of us reading the Bible theologically instead of missiologically. We have all of this knowledge and none of the practice. I read a short rant by AKMA several weeks (months?) ago in which he commented that the people who are leading worship should at least believe the words that are being sung or read. I wonder if many of the words being read and preached by the pastors of local churches is believed as well. Does our lack of action come from our lack of faith? Just some rambles on a Saturday afternoon.

Rachel Cunliffe's blog one ups mind and reminded me I forgot to add the source. Thanks to the daily quote from Plough.

Dear Valued Readers....

John Janzen (who is the publisher of a great blog) is looking for people to host a house concert. I would love for you to do a couple of things because he is a really great guy and a really talented musician.

1) Read the rest of this post, it will answer some of your questions.
2) Head on over to John's MP3.com site and listen to some great music.
3) Consider having John over for a concert (read below for details)
4) Spread the word about his concerts and his MP3.com site!

What�s a house concert?
You might not yet have heard of a house concert, but it is a form of musical entertainment that is quickly growing in popularity. Basically, it is the artist performing in the comfort and intimacy of your own living room. Because of the close setting, house concerts are highly interactive, and listeners find it easy to dialogue with the artists and ask questions about the songs.

How much does it cost?
Usually about 30 to 40 people attend a house concert. The charge is typically between ten and fifteen dollars per person; you decide what would be best. Kim and John charge $400 for their concert, and whatever the host brings in on top of that, the host keeps.

What would I have to do?
Your job would be to publicize the concert and bring the people. Often, hosts find that making up some tickets and selling them in advance is an effective way to ensure a good attendance. Also, often hosts provide some kind of modest refreshment.

If this sounds like a good idea to you, and you are interested in hosting, contact us! Email us at jjanzen@canada.com or call (204) 947-5994.

Churches turn to PR experts to get a boost

Nickelodeon to air special on gay parents despite protests

Despite a staggering 100,000 e-mails and phone calls in protest, Nickelodeon will telecast a special for children about same-sex parents on Tuesday night.
I respect Nickelodeon's willingness to open a discussion and to talk about something that has so many people angry.
"It is never a wrong time to talk about hate," Ellerbee said. "It's just not. That's all our show is about. It is not in any way about the homosexual lifestyle. It's not even introducing the subject to most kids. They know. But quite frankly, many of them know it from a hate standpoint without even knowing what they're talking about."

Blogathon 2002

24 hour blogathon for charity. Even if you aren't blogging, sponser someone who is.

The Hockey Pundits are coming!

We are in the process of launching The Hockey Pundits. Hockey Pundits is a party blog with several die hard hockey fans offering up round the clock opinion and punditry. We are still putting together the team and the template but feel free to check it out. I will post the news when it goes live.

If you are interested in joining Hockey Pundits, let me know and we will see what we can work out. You can e-mail me at coop@jordoncooper.com.

The Postmodern Moment

Review of A New Kind of Christian on Christianity Today.

Wi-Fi's new job: Doing the dishes?

Peninsula Covenant Church parishioners in Redwood City, Calif., bring their Bibles, and their Palms, to Sunday mass. A Wi-Fi access point--on the church's rooftop cross--beams them the text of a Sunday sermon and an accompanying multimedia presentation.

August 1914 in Pakistan

From a New York Times Op-Ed piece. Link via Dan Hughes
A survey of Pakistani elites published in a recent book, "Pakistan and the Bomb," found that 98 percent believed that Pakistan would be justified in using nuclear weapons "if India were about to attack Pakistan across the international border."

The U.S. Naval War College held an India-Pakistan war game not long ago in which each country's leaders were played by officials from that country. The games began with a terrorist attack, grew into a border war � and then Pakistan covered its retreat by firing four nuclear weapons at pursuing Indian troops. India responded with 12 nuclear warheads. The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency estimated that the result would have been 15 million casualties.

Urban Onramps regular programming has been highjacked.

It appears that Urban Onramps has been hijacked by soccer fanatics. They promise to withdraw until 2006 in Germany. It seems to happen to all bloggers once in a while. jordoncooper.com was taken over by a rabid Canadian hockey fan during the Salt Lake Olympic hockey tournement.

Canada Day is coming up on July 1st. To be honest, I haven't been that excited about it. I spent so much time watching and celebrating Canada's hockey gold medals that it seems a little too soon for Canada Day.

Some Summer Reading Recommendations

I was asked by some of the staff at Lakeview Church to come up with some recommended summer reading. It is designed for our particular context and a staff that has a wide range of responsibilities, learning styles, and spiritual maturity. If you have any comments or ideas, leave them below.

Church Life
1. An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind by Erwin McManus
2. A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren
3. unLearning Church by Michael Slaughter
4. Doing Church as a Team by Wayne Cordeiro
5. Soul Tsunami by Leonard Sweet
6. The End of the World As We Know It by Chuck Smith Jr.

Theology and Biblical Studies
1. Christian History by Alister McGrath (a history of theology and a brief intro to theology � well written and easy to read)
2. Church History in Plain Language � one of my all time favorites. An excellent intro to Christian theology.
3. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
4. Ancient Future Faith by Robert Webber
5. Anything by NT Wright. Wright is a brilliant preacher and Biblical scholar that has written some excellent books on the New Testament.
6. Breaking the Code by Bruce Metzger.
7. Eastern Orthodox Theology by Daniel Clendenin (interesting and thought provoking read from an noted evangelical scholar)
8. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee
9. Responsible Grace by Randy Maddox. For those who want to go a little deeper in the Wesleyan Methodist tradition.
10. A Rabbi Talks With Jesus : An Intermillennial, Interfaith Exchange by Jacob Neusner � a Jewish scholar's reasons for rejecting Christianity. It offers an amazing look at the Old Testament in relation to Christ�s teachings. It is an excellent book.

Pastoral Life
1. Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity by Eugene Peterson
2. Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene Peterson

The Spiritual Life
1. A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Caf� by Leonard Sweet
2. Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard (a must read)
3. Anything by Henri Nouwen
4. Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster
5. Shattered Dreams : God's Unexpected Pathway to Joy by Larry Crabb

Culture
1. Jihad vs. McWorld by Benjamin R. Barber
2. No Logo by Naomi Klein
3. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
4. The Gospel According to the Simpsons
5. Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million Americans are Changing the Word by Paul Ray.
6. The Cluetrain Manifesto

Leadership and Management

1. The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelly
2. Whoosh by Tom McGehee
3. The Answer To How Is Yes by Peter Block
4. Survival is Not Enough by Seth Godin
5. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

Miscellaneous
1. Vimy by Pierre Burton. Tremendous explanation of Canadian nationalism. It really is a classic
2. The Great Depression by Pierre Burton. If you have family roots in the prairies, this is an amazing book to read about the 30�s and is one of my all time favorites.
3. Lament of a Nation by George Grant. A classic booklet about the death of Canadian nationalism.
4. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson

Etrek Learning Groups

Spencer Burke of TheOOZE has just launched Etrek Learning Groups
Etrek: Looking @ Learning from a Different Angle
Learning Group Taking Applications NOW
Peer-to-peer learning groups of approximately 14 learners and a facilitator meet face-to-face and via phone conferences over 9 months to explore important topics developed by the learning group. Guest authors, speakers, reading lists and online learning tools are used to provide in-depth learning. Graduate credit is available.

This looks really worthwhile. From everything that I have ever seen Spencer Burke do, it always blows away expectations. Etrek also just announced that Leonard Sweet has joined them as an academic advisor. Check out the site.

Happy Birthday Cathy!

Cathy is the receptionist at Lakeview and is also a cousin of mine. She is one of the reasons why Lakeview is a pretty cool place to work. It is her birthday today. Happy Birthday from the staff and interns at jordoncooper.com!

Treasures may be lost as church loses again

Paul Handley, editor of the Church Times, believes the commissioners will also have to consider the sale of bishops' palaces, some of the grandest buildings in the country, including Rose Castle, seat of the Bishop of Carlisle, and Hartlebury Castle, occupied by the Bishop of Worcester. The Bishop of Portsmouth has already agreed to occupy a smaller house.

This just amazes me that there is some actual discussion over whether or not Bishops should live in palaces. The blurring of church of state has lead to the church choosing between ministry and real estate.

A Blogger's Prayer 1.0

from Andrew Jones

Pyra is one of Fortune Magazine's Cool Companies of 2002

Creators of Blogger.com. It is amazing that a company that is run out of Evan Williams apartment can be such an incredible function for social change.

Happy Father's Day

It is Father's Day today and I have been spoiled by my wife and son. They got me David Weinberger's excellent book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined Together: A Unified Theory of the Web and Jihad vs. McWorld. Both are books that I have wanted to read. I can't wait. Wendy also bought me a subset of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards that feature the Red Army and Moscow Dynamo hockey teams. Too cool.

Catholic Bishops conference

Alan Creech has some meaningful prose about the Catholic Bishops conference. We should pray for them today. I will. We should forget whatever ridiculous Protestant prejudice "we" might have against that body of believers and pray that the Holy Spirit both heals those harmed and transforms those who have harmed - that He overwhelms them and fills them as they meet and leads them to wisdom in their decisions.

Wise words...

image is nothing

Mike Riddel's column in seven magazine

A Canadian Context

Over the last two years I have been reading a lot of Canadiana. Historians, politicians, cultural commentators and along the way learning about what makes Canadians tick. During the last four decades we have sold out a lot of our heritage to the Americans and are poorer for it and I feel that we have never really figured out how to interact with the country to our south comfortably. Despite all of that, there is a Canadian story, understanding, and way of thinking that goes a lot deeper than language, beer commercials, and medicare and I am coming to understand a little of its influence on ministry in Canada.

I am not sure we need a Canadian version of TheOOZE but I thought it would be cool to find a place where we could get together and talk about the gospel and culture in a Canadian context. I set up a discussion group on Yahoo! Groups if you want to join. The list is a place where we connect and share ideas, thoughts, resources, and our stories with other people that are thinking and working through a very different cultural context all across Canada. You can join the conversation by sending an e-mail to canadiancontext-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me below. If you have a site or a blog, feel fee to pass the news along. It would be a great help.

What We're Doing When We Blog

by Meg Hourihan

I mentioned before that I have been extremely tired over extended. Too many things to do and not enough time to do them. A lot of people demands and when one church you minister with is over 100 miles away, it just takes a lot of time to take care of things.

Today I was in a huge hurry to get out to Hanna, Alberta to drop off my mini-van at my dad's Chrysler dealership there. I have had an intermittant stalling problem for almost a year now and Wendy and I have spent a lot of time and money trying to fix it and they didn't even know the problem yet. Wendy suprised me this morning by giving her shift away so she could come along for the four hour drive. All I could think of was how this was taking an entire day I didn't have but having Mark and Wendy along made it a lot of fun. When I got there, all I wanted to do was drop off the van and come home. What happened was that when I got there, another customer just needed to use my courtesy car for ten minutes and was to be back shortly. In the end we waited for a couple of hours. Hanna is a small town and the dealer that runs it had some people looking for her. Luckily the dealership has a kids area and an A & W nearby. What could have been a really irritating day turned into a really relaxing afternoon with Wendy and Mark. I'll let you know if they can fix my van.

On the way home, we stopped by in Alsask, Alberta (it is on the border between, Saskatchewan and Alberta) and drove up the old Pinetree Radar Station. I have driven by it many times but had never driven any closer. I snapped these pics with the PenCam. Some looking around on the net gave me a brief history and some other pictures.

Modest Needs

This is such a cool idea. A website designed to help people that are barely scraping by with small donations of $50 to $100. USA TODAY ran this story about it as well. Spead the news. Thanks to Stephen Sheilds at Faith Maps for the link.

My life seems a little stretched right now. I just finished my 24th day without a full day off. I am running on empty right now and I am starting to feel it emotionally and spiritually. I am off to Hanna tomorrow to get my van fixed and it will be good just to take some time to think and not worry about work. I have been noticing that the posts on my blog haven't been all that terribly profound or even worth reading that much which is a sign for myself to take some time off. Wendy and I are heading to Waskesiu with my brother and some friends for a couple of days in two weeks.. Blogger Pro is causing me some stress but if they get it working, I may do some posts in advance for you to read but more than likely the site will be dead for a couple of days but I am sure with over four billion web pages online you can find something to read.

Waskesiu is the Martha's Vineyard of northern Saskatchewan except we don't have any Kennedy's hanging around. It does have the occasional rowdy black bear but I am not sure those are comparable. I will take some SpyCam Pictures when we are there.

Small Players Matter

While large players and big media companies act like they are the main reason for the web and Internet and therefore should drive policy decisions, the numbers show that the contributions of the myriad of small players -- individuals, non-profits, and small businesses -- are crucial to the vitality of the web and its value to people.

Why Switch?

10 Reasons to Switch to the Mac... Interesting reasons. Many of them have no impact on me at all. For me the reason why I haven't switched is interoperability with other users files, the high cost in terms of money and time, leaving some much beloved Windows programs behind, and the reality that most of the apps I love, are primarily Windows companies and have spotty Mac support at best. I know the new Powerbooks are really cool machines but they are quite expensive and it really hasn't provided me the reasons to upgrade. I would love to have a Mac Powerbook again but I get far better bang for my buck with a Windows machine. No it isn't titanium but it does the job really well.

Teaching a machine to think

Day after day since 1984, teams of programmers, linguists, theologians, mathematicians and philosophers have plugged away at a $60 million project they hope will transform human existence: teaching a computer common sense.

Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt

I was re-reading Nouwen's book by the same title today and I found the painting online. I spent a couple of hours this morning just looking at it. Studying the features, the story, and reflecting on my own areas of rebellion, grace, ungrace, and life. The painting speaks to me in ways that few others do. Sometime I will try to find a print of it.

Youth Ministry position

Lakeview Church is looking for a youth pastor. I don't know anything about the position except that you would get to work with the church staff with the highest concentration of bloggers in the world (Jeb, Darren, our intrepid Star Wars guru John and myself.) I don't think the position is posted yet but if you e-mail Dean, he can get you more information. Lakeview is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and is a city of about 200,000 people that is anchored by the University of Saskatchewan. While I am biased, it is a really great place to live and minister in.

Paul Martin's site

The Prime Minister unveiled the new ethics guidelines today and some were saying it was a shot at Paul Martin. Regardless of the ethics guidelines, Martin's website looks nice but is out of date and full of spelling mistakes. Not a great sign.

John Campea's "The House of Gio"

John's finally online with a blog. John is one of the producers of the now legendary Star Wars fan film called the Rise of the Tradiz and several other cool web and media projects. This one will be added to the blogroll later today.
John is also helping out at Lakeview in a plethora of capabilities.

An Explanation of Cricket

Rachel Cunliffe proves again that jordoncooper.com readers are a lot smarter than I am and gave me a great link to a page that finally explains cricket to me. Now I can't wait until I see it on TV again and can finally figure out what is going on. Too cool.

Tuesday's at Lakeview.

The difference is that we go to the Saigon II restaurant for the legendary Spicy Soup and we are in substantially worse shape then that. Oh what am I saying, the soup tastes SO GOOD.