Well, hockey season is over for me. I'd rather not talk about it. It could be worse, I could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan I guess. Could Mikka Kiprusoff be this generation's Pete Peeters?
The list of disappointments could fill volumes, and now this. For the first time in Leafs' history, eliminated from the playoffs for a third consecutive season. It'd be tempting to say the team has hit rock bottom, but it's not clear they're done digging.
God hates the blue and white — it's that belief which binds together all those who call themselves citizens of Leafs Nation. On talk radio, in chat rooms, and in sports bars across the country (but mainly in southern Ontario) they share the misery of loving a team that does not give back. Not ever. Their bond is galvanized by the common struggle against forces beyond their control, and by the knowledge that they are hated (vehemently) by fans in Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and beyond. It's that sense of grievance and isolation that, in the absence of anything real to celebrate, holds them all together.
The only problem with all this talk of curses is that there are perfectly logical reasons for the Leafs' legacy of failure. The fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs are a bad hockey club is the inevitable by-product of the laws of economics. Their mediocrity is a design flaw, and it comes down to this: for any business to thrive, it must be obsessively focused on victory. Success must yield powerful benefits and failure must unleash harsh consequences. In the world's greatest market for pro hockey, that cost/benefit equation doesn't exist. A gusher of wealth, regardless of performance, has begat 40 years of infighting, a culture of laxity, and a refusal to admit the problem. The Leafs are a monopoly business that has been corrupted by its own market power.
Before we begin today, let me ask a quick question: are there any readers of this column who believe that Gary Bettman is doing a good job? If not, then do any readers of this column know anyone who believes that Bettman is doing a good job? No? OK, then do you know of anyone who believes Bettman is doing a good job? Can you even imagine anyone who believes he's doing a good job?
Funny, me neither.
Here's what my years trying to follow a puck on TV or from increasingly expensive seats in NHL arenas have taught me: the more hardcore the hockey fan, the more hardcore the hatred for Gary Bettman.
In case you don't know, Bettman is the commissioner of the National Hockey League, a position he's held for almost 16 years. Before this, he was employed by the NBA, during a period that even then appeared to be a golden age. The NHL's board of governors saw the bling and bounce of basketball and assumed its magic and money could be replicated on ice. They not only headhunted Bettman, they also gave him a brand new title. Commissioner. With that went a mandate - sell the game. Forget Saskatchewan, go forth to the Sun Belt.
As an English fan of the NHL, it took me a long time to recognise that in the United States hockey is not cool. So amazed was I to learn this fact that I still can't believe it's true, especially when compared to basketball. I like basketball well enough, I've seen the Clippers play, the Lakers, the Knicks, the Celtics. I'm not meaning to sound either ignorant or unduly partisan, but the idea that the epitome of cool is a game where men bounce a ball mystifies me. Hockey, meanwhile, is fast, noisy, dangerous and potentially violent - how can America not like it? Not because that's what America itself is like but ... alright, because that's what America itself is like. But if basketball is all limited-edition Nikes and hip-hop beats, hockey is about gap-toothed farm boys clutching tickets to Nickelback concerts. Folks, word from the focus groups is in: hockey is for hicks.
Ouch... oh by the way. Do you know why so many people play soccer? It's so they don't have to watch it on television.
Lately I have been noticing the increase in negative mail to the worldwide headquarters of Super Dave Osbourne/jordoncooper.com (we sublet the place when Super Dave isn't working). Some of the recent mail is on the low quality links and bias that this blog has. Several are complaining about the sports links, my liberal world view, and how this blog has little to do with the emerging church anymore.
I have replied to many of them individually but I realized, all of them are related as well so here is my bigger explanation.
As many of you know, I work in a homeless shelter/half-way house that is also the emergency after hours for social services. That is all on the website and after that, most of what I do is protected by non-disclosure statements. Some people who work in similar places, blog anonymously or using SixApart's VOX blogging system but for me, I don't talk that much about it and prefer to leave it at work. Even stuff that I see outside of work on the street has been tough to process this week and for that reason, I have been going to a spiritual advisor to talk through some of the frustration of not being able to do more. (at work, part of my evaluation is asking me if I think another job would be a better fit for me -- after thinking though it, I am not sure if even being the Minister of Social Services could tackle the job properly -- so I said, I am fine where I am at)
The evening shift is often a zoo. A booming Saskatoon economy has made work a lot busier and housing harder to find. The other night I watched a guy wander down the street with a knife in his side and didn't even find it that weird (ambulance was following him as well), I am often drained emotionally and to unwind, I enjoy some tea and sit down and watch the news and Sportsnet Connected. I have the web and a paper at work and if I am lucky I can read through some of the New York Times and Google News but when I get home, I am tired and ready to give up the good fight. Watching some highlights takes a lot of the stress of the day away. The other reason I watch and blog about sports is that I love sports. While not a great athlete, I played hockey for years, baseball, rugby, soccer, basketball, high school football and skied a lot growing up. I know that sports have been derided by many in the church in favor of the arts but I appreciate both. My family was a sporting family. I have a catcher's mask that is four generations old. Like a lot of families, sports was a bonding thing growing up and it is the same for Mark. I think it was Pete Ward who wrote this in Liquid Church, sports may be one of the ways the Holy Spirit brings life back into tired people. Unless it is the Edmonton Oilers or the San Diego Chargers, then it is devil's way of destroying people.
For me the 'emerging conversation' has become too much like a whole bunch of people mouthing off... Pretending to listen, by occasionally quoting others, but, for the most part, just yabbering on about their little world regardless of what others are saying. In the book I mention some of the conditions under which a system might become 'emergent', or 'self-organizing', or 'a learning system', to use different syntax. One of the key conditions is an ability to sense and respond to its environment. And this requires careful listening. I think we've lost the art.
I agree with Kester although I am not sure why that is although I am sure I am part of that problem that he is speaking about. I used to find the conversation a lot more interesting although I find it really narrow and in some ways I find it has gotten narrower. Part of my problem is that I have been strongly influenced by Canadian political scientist, Thomas Homer-Dixon who wrote The Ingenuity Gap which makes the powerful case that we wrongly take a very narrow view of the problems of the world and the problems (and the solutions) are often shared and more widely connected. This idea has influenced me more than people realize and explains why blog moseys from idea to idea at times.
I have always hated the term Godblog, (excused me as I go and wash after typing it) and this site has always been a blog about the liberal arts in which as a part of that because of vocation or passion have blogged about the church but now after several years of it, there isn't a lot of new stuff being said, especially online. Even Mark Driscoll's hate filled rants against Emergent are getting repetitive.
Despite the boredom with posting about this stuff online, there is a bunch of different stuff happening offline that is exciting. Several conversations with friends have reminded me we often get judged by our writing on these things called blogs but they are only a small window of our lives. Church of the Exiles is working with others to create a local alternative seminary in Saskatoon. Resonate is setting up a micro publishing house to help the emerging church in Canada and has two books in development and all of this is happening outside of the 40 hours (although this week it was 60 hours) that is spent at work. On top of that is Soularize and Soularize Feedlive that I am helping with. Don't say I am not engaged with the church. I think I am more engaged now than I was when I was being paid (although I have a lot less meetings).
So keep up the feedback coming. I may or may not take it to heart. I have some hockey to watch.
What is it that Democrats see in Hillary Clinton? If she wins the primary, she will will unite the Republicans in a way that James Dobson could only dream of. Speaking of the religious right, I wonder what would happen if a strong evangelical presidential candidate who shared their values and happened to be a Democrat ran for President (you know, like Jimmy Carter). Would they acknowledge his or her existence or campaign against them because they are nothing more than a tool of the GOP.
At one time today, I had worked 24 of the last 32 hours. The worse thing is that someone had donated these sofas to the Centre and they called out to me every time I walked by them. 5 hours of sleep later and here I am back at work for another 16 hour stretch and the sofas are calling to me again. I was also quite disappointed that the kitchen wouldn't let me hook a hose up to the coffee maker and run it to my office. Wendy suggested those hats that hold cans of beer but I think that would be a little warm when full of coffee.
The NHL opened their season in London. I searched through a lot of English blogs and not a single mention. Of all of the European countries to open the season in, why England and why not a country that likes hockey or has an infrastructure (like hockey rinks) that would allow the game to grow.
Does anyone know of any literacy programs that can be used for adults that you have used and can recommend. If you have can you e-mail me at jordoncooper AT gmail.com.
Mark is taking karate twice a week at his school. I was doubtful at first but after a week being punched ("Dad, stand there while I practice punching you!") I am thinking he has some potential. I am helping his development by making him watch every episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.
I graduated from a public Catholic high school and would have no problem with sending Mark to a Catholic school but what John Tory forgets is that it isn't the school's responsibility to teach religion, it is the church/temple/synagogue and possibly more importantly the families. Catholic schools don't make better Catholics and while I learned more about religion and less about birth control then I would have at a public school, it was a pretty secular and in many ways pagan education. The issue is an odd one to lose a campaign over considering the payoff isn't that great even if the people of Ontario rallied around it... and they haven't.
To make a long story short, we lost the battery charger for the camcorder which I want to take to Soularize so I can videotape people swimming with man-eating sharks (Spencer tells me this is safe). After thinking about getting a cheap Aiptek camera (won't ship to Canada or even accept a Canadian billing address) I decided for the first time in my life to check out some of the many pawn shops that are by the shelter where I work. Mark and I go to the biggest one and look around and I was stunned by how high the prices were. In many cases 15% - 20% over new and yet people were buying and I could not understand why unless for a certain percentage of people that don't have cars and don't use public transport, just shopping for basic items at inflated prices makes them poorer, like those that use 7-11 for basic groceries. For that reason I started shopping once in a while at Giant Tiger who moved into 22nd Street and provide new stuff at really cheap prices. I hate shopping at big discount places but they provide a great service to the neighborhood and they have cheap hockey sticks. It also got me thinking about Wal-Mart this summer when they had a selection of $1000+ patio tables for sale. Everyday low prices but for an entirely different more upscale market.
The good news is that there is a food cooperative going into the neighborhood but as several people I used to work with at Safeway have wondered, how are they going to sell enough volume to keep costs down in a small store. I hope they have a solution.
Back to the charger. I found one online for $20 and a day after it shipped, we realized my brother's camcorder uses the same batteries (and charger) as mine so there will be footage of me being eaten by a shark.
Spencer Burke sent this out as a part of TheOozeletter today.
This year Soularize is a counter intuitive relational learning party
There are three important reasons why we chose the Bahamas;
This is the first international venue for the missional / emerging conversation. I am surprised how many people in the USA are unaware of how difficult and expensive it is for our international friends to come to US. It is only 60 miles off of our coast but it makes a world of difference for many desiring to engage on neutral ground.
We are always connected to a local ministry and spend a year or more working with them on the event to ensure this is not a "road show". All of the creativity and experiences are in collaboration with Clint, Tim, Kelly, Gillian, Christian (New Providence Community Church) and local artists, musicians and families. You should check out all of the spaces we are using to create the conversation and learning experiences Soularize, (no hotels or conference centers).
It is hard to fight the perception of the Bahamas - cost was one of the factors (although it is cheaper to fly from NYC, Minneapolis, Seattle and Canada, stay in our host hotel and pay the registration fee for Soularize than it is to fly to a San Diego conference). Soularize has been the one safe place for those who have left the comfort of the established church and their conference budgets. Many have to take time off of work as well. But this has become more than a conference, for some, it is a family gathering. It is always great to see the friendships pick up from last year and new ones begin. The key to Soularize is relationships. Online 24/7, in person Oct. 25-27, 2007.
Below is some Soularize Resources, please pass the word on and I hope to see you on the sand with the rest of my friends Frank Viola, Becky Garrison, Karen Ward, Mark Scandrette, Kristyn Komarnicki, Michael Dowd, Barry Taylor, Dwight Friesen, Jim Palmer, Gareth Higgins, Ron Martoia and more being added weekly.
Myth Busters Myth #1 - The Bahamas is too Expensive Fact - October is the Off Season with great deals on airfare and hotels
Myth #2 - The Emerging conversation is limited to the USA Fact - We chose the Bahamas because it is an International venue, it may be a short flight from Miami, but it is a huge leap towards our friends
Myth #3 - Conventions are talking heads in stuffy rooms Fact - Soularize includes a Private Island, Art Studios, Swimming w/Sharks, Social Networking website, Beach Reclamation Project
Myth #4 - Big name speakers equal big impersonal crowds Fact - We limited the event to 500 attendees, with a key note line up of the decade (N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Fr. Richard Rohr)
There will also be some Canadians there. We will be the ones playing road hockey on the private island while swimming with the man eating sharks.
I grew up in Calgary and like all good boys, we collected and traded hockey cards. It wasn't big business like it was now but you wanted to get the bad cards out of your collection (like Wayne Gretzky cards) for good cards (like Ed Beers and Kent Nilsson). Of course every once in a while you would get suckered and trade a great Pat Riggin card for a bad Mark Messier card and you would beg to get it back. You would go to the teacher, plead with your parents to intervene (mine never did but another teacher did get involved in a particularly bad deal between two kids which seemed to me at the time to be messing with the laws of the school yard) and use peer pressure to get your card back.
Anyways, in the light of the Michael Vick indictment and probable suspension, I wonder how much of that pleading is going on between the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Texans over the trading of Matt Schwab. I can't think that the Falcons are happy with Joey Harrington as their starter and it is a big risk to bring in a marginally healed and out of shape Dante Cullpepper.
Imagine earth without people :: "The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better," says John Orrock, a conservation biologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. But would the footprint of humanity ever fade away completely, or have we so altered the Earth that even a million years from now a visitor would know that an industrial society once ruled the planet?
George W. Bush reflects on his failed presidency: "The reality has been daunting by any account. No modern president has experienced such a sustained rejection by the American public." What a sad, sad article.
The Tories already have a relatively solid grip on the blue-collar, male demographic that comprises the core audience for stock car racing. And although NASCAR claims 75 million North American fans -- including about 5.8 million in Canada -- the small-time Canadian circuit, with shorter tracks and a shorter season, more typically attracts audiences of about 5,000 to 10,000 fans, according to Mr. Novotny.
"Our circuit is sort of like the minors in hockey. The junior system that feeds into the majors eventually," he explains.
Furthermore, while the "NASCAR dads" comprise a strong Republican party force in the U.S., that sort of narrowly segmented approach to the electorate is of dubious value in Canada.
"That sort of tight demographic focus works in the U.S. where there's very low voter turnout and you have to target who to motivate at the polls," says Peter Donolo, who was communications director for former prime minister Jean Chretien and is now with Strategic Counsel in Toronto. "Canadians are a lot more label-resistant. They tend to defy that type of facile characterization."
He notes the Tories are "preaching to the converted" in gender terms as well, since their support already skews heavily to men -- as do NASCAR events.
Even if the GOP did sponsor a NASCAR car, would it make you change your vote or even consider voting for another party?
Mike Keenan to coach the Calgary Flames. I owe an apology to Keenan as I think I have said he has burned bridges with everyone he has ever dealt with. Apparently not... yet.
Hiring Keenan could prove to be a risky move for the Flames, who are hoping to sign several of their best players to contract extensions after July 1.
On the plus side, Keenan is one of the most successful coaches in NHL history. Lifetime, he has a 584-491-147 mark in 18 years behind the bench, fifth all time in both games coached and victories. He won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL's coach of the year in 1985 with the Philadelphia Flyers and won a Stanley Cup championship with the 1994 New York Rangers.
On the other hand, he has a losing record in his last three NHL stops — Vancouver, Boston and Florida — and is notoriously tough on players.
For example, it's hard to imagine that team captain Jarome Iginla, who said he was amendable to discussing a contract extension this summer already, would go forward with that plan until he had a chance to play under Keenan and see what that was like. In addition, Keenan didn't have a great relationship in Florida with Huselius, who had a career season for the Flames last year, with 34 goals and 77 points in 81 games, good for third on the team in scoring.
Left winger Alex Tanguay, who was No. 2 in scoring and first in assists with 59, is another player who might have trouble dealing with Keenan's demanding style of coaching.
When I blogged about this, it shook me up far more than I let on. I remember laying in the hedge and thinking, "What is wrong with me?" I managed to hurt myself bad enough that I had to see a doctor about my back and we had a long conversation about what was going on.
It isn't the first time I have fallen lately, it started two summers ago and doesn't happen that often. It has happened a couple of times this summer and I chalk it up as just being clumsy but while my name isn't going to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, I am not a horrible athlete and it wasn't that long ago that I used to relax by playing rugby and I am not a horrible tennis or golf player at the advanced age of 33. Two years ago it was blamed on me taking a drug that was designed to help me deal with the pain of the neuropathy which made sense it also gave me phantom feelings on my extremities and that made it harder to do some things. I haven't taken the medication in over a year and the phantom feelings are thing of the past (the pain is still here but you can't win them all)
This spring I felt quite uncomfortable on a bike and then while taking Mark to the batting cage, I stepped into the cage for my swing and I couldn't hit a thing. Again while no one would confuse me with Barry Bonds (other than we have big heads) but I can hit a softball reasonably well. The whole thing felt funny to me. As I stepped into the fastball cage, I noticed my swing starting later than my decision to swing which I had never noticed before (and I still couldn't hit anything)
Around the same time I started to notice my right hand would slightly shake. The more stress I was under, the more my right hand out shake which drove me crazy. That and I was having some noticeable problems with my fine motor skills at times.
As I talked to the doctor we talked about what it could be and I was expecting what he said. I just went home and didn't even tell Wendy for a couple of days. Now that those days have past, I have talked to some friends and now get to get tested more by specialists to see what is happening. Until then we will see if I can stay upright.
Below is a rather wordy article for my denomination's magazine to help get people thinking outside the box in how we see the local church. Not sure if it worked but people have been saying nice things about it to my face at least :-)
For Lent this year, I decided to give up politics. In the past I had given up caffeine, chocolate, television, and even NHL hockey playoffs but this year I decided to step back from following politics which is something I spend too much time thinking and reading about. Of course this meant trying to ignore the Quebec election of which I had some success in doing. On Monday, March 27th, I was agonizing over the final edits of this article, which was supposed to be about the future of the church. I decided to take a brief television break and was confronted with some really boring choices. While surfing channels, I found myself watching CTV Newsnet and seeing what the talking heads were saying about the Quebec election. Before I caught myself, I heard the panel chortling to themselves over the comment, "Who could have predicted that this result was going to happen to Jean Charest?" I remember the exact same comment being said during former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow's final election when he was handed a minority. A couple of hours before that I remember a well known political commentator leading off his networks coverage with, “Is there anything that will stand between the NDP and another strong majority? No there isn’t”. Well the prognosticators were wrong that evening as well.
The phrase made me think about a book I had read a couple of years ago by Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon called The Ingenuity Gap. One of the books recurring themes is that we live in a world with a tremendous amount of variables which are overwhelming and make it very difficult to predict the outcome of our decisions. The book goes to show how complex our inter-connected world is and how poorly we understand how it works despite our proclamations to the opposite. From the food chain in the English Channel, to water planning in Las Vegas, to international markets during the Asian currency crisis; time and time again experts missed something that invalidated all of calculations for the future. Not only is it hard to know all of the variables that will influence our future, we are constantly hit by fads that while seem important, really aren't (like election news stories over which tie color resonates best with voters)
As I returned to edit my article for Mosaic, I realized that I was probably making the exact same mistake. There are too many variables, too many things that can change. If the all knowing pollsters and Mike Duffy can't forecast a 40 day election, how do we talk about the future of the church farther than that? All of the variables of culture plus the complexities of denomination and local church dynamics make it hard to predict any future.
So what can we talk about? Instead of talking about the future, it may be helpful to discuss the the factors that are happening now that will impact the future. To often organizations live in the past as it is easier to understand and don't have the needed conversations on what is happening the present that will shape their future.
Post-Christian Canada and the West
In a couple of books I have read in the last year, they have referenced some recent studies that point out by 2040, under 5% of people in England may be Christian (only 9.4% are attending church now) According to church statistics, the four main UK denominations, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic, the Methodist, and United Reformed Churches, are all suffering from a long-term decline in attendance figures. The good thing is that they realize this and are trying new ideas to reverse the decline. The Anglican and Methodist Churches have started their Fresh Expressions initiative which encourages new expressions of church like alternative worship, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury plans to be broadcasting his sermons on YouTube in an acknowledgment that more and more Anglicans just aren't in church on Sundays. While some of the initiatives talked about as other Fresh Initiatives seemed a little off the mark, it is encouraging that the Church of England the Methodist Church in England are acknowledging that something has to change.
In Australia, things aren't that much more encouraging but in a recent book called The Forgotten Ways, missiologist Alan Hirsch sees it this way
A combination of recent research in Australia indicates that about 10-15 percent of that population is attracted to what we call the contemporary church growth model. In other words, this model has significant "market appeal" to about 12 percent of our population. The more successful forms of this model tend to be large, highly professionalized, and overwhelmingly middle class, and express themselves culturally using contemporary, "seeker friendly" language and middle-of-the-road music forms. They structure themselves around "family ministry" and therefore offer multi-generational services. Demographically speaking, they tend to cater largely to what might be called the "family-values-segment"--good, solid, well-educated citizens who don't abuse their kids, who pay their taxes, and who live largely, what can be called a suburban lifestyle.
Not only is this type of church largely made up of Christian people who fit this profile, the research indicates that these churches can also be very effective in reaching non-Christian people fitting the same demographic description--the people within their cultural reach. That is, the church does not have to cross any significant cultural barriers in order to communicate the gospel to that cultural context. (pg 35)
In the United States, the number attracted to the idea of church may be as high as 35%. Canadian polls suggest that about 20 - 30% of Canadians may share values that would be open to going to church (approximately 20% of people say they attending church regularly but that number is often inflated by people exaggerating how often they attend church). That number is a both a blessing and a curse. It shows that at least about six to seven million Canadians are open to the values articulated by the church which do provide a large pool of Canadians for the church to draw from but even that is difficult as pollster George Barna sees the family values segment of the population to fall by half in approximately fifteen years.
While nothing is wrong with those within that segment, most of us as Free Methodists would be there and by in large, they are not that offensive of a people group. Six million Canadians is nothing to sneeze at and does provide a significant opportunity for the church but that is only part of the story.
Of course what is to make of the people outside of that family values segment? Depending on how one looks at the numbers, anywhere from 65% to 85% of Canadians are removed by various degrees from that category and from those values. They make up the vast bulk of Canadians that have to overcome some obstacles to come to our churches as the church is not even on their radar. According to what Alan Hirsch writes in The Forgotten Ways, in addition to not being on the radar for most people, a large percentage are at some level alienated by the church. From bad experiences, to strong preconceived ideas about Christianity or from a cultural context that is hostile to Christianity, it would be as hard for them to be a part of a church as it would be many Free Methodists to join a non-Christian religion. Doing “church” better; PowerPoint, better music, wittier or more theologically astute sermons probably won’t make any impact on those that are outside the church because they are unlikely to bother entering the doors in the first place.
The other factor in society is that there has been a breakdown in the mass markets. Where at one point a church used to pick a neighborhood and then put down it's roots and if church was "done right", it had a good chance to reach their area for Christ. Depending on the church, property values actually rose if you were closer to a church. A middle class neighborhood would have middle class people in it with middle class values. Today that is changing where traditional people groups have segmented and segmented again. The mass market is shrinking and those neighborhoods are made up of a variety of sub-groups.
What does that mean for the future of the church?
While it is popular to lament the loss of the Christian fabric in Canadian culture and condemn those that don't share our values, that probably won't do anything to reverse the change. Complaining that people don't go to church anymore won't change anything.
When Anglican Bishop nd missionary, Leslie Newbiggin came back to England at the age of 65 after spending most of his career in India, this is what he found.
Ministry in England, he discovered, "is much harder than anything I met in India. There is a cold contempt for the Gospel which is harder to face than opposition. . . . England is a pagan society and the development of a truly missionary encounter with this very tough form of paganism is the greatest intellectual and practical task facing the Church" (Unfinished Agenda).
It is hard, Newbigin knew, for a Hindu or a Muslim to come to worship Christ. For an Englishman, it would seem, it had become even harder.
Whats life for the church going to be like in a post-Christian Canada. A world in which we are seen more and more irrelevant? There isn't a definite roadmap or program to follow and I think the mass segmentation will force the church for the first time in a long time to chart their own paths as we enter into new territory. That being said, there are some that have been at this for a little longer and have adjusted to their own contexts.
The Freeway in downtown Hamilton is both a church community and coffee shop serving both those looking for coffee and a place to connect online as well as the urban poor.
Three Nails in Pittsburgh is an Episcopal church plant that has embedded itself into the community by meeting a need that I never would have thought of and that is making really good New York City style hot dogs. They helped open a restaurant that used to be called Hot Dogma but was sued over the name so now they are called Franktuary. Their motto in case you are wondering is And the meat shall inherit the earth.
Harambee in Pasadena, California Back in 1982, Navarro Avenue in Pasadena, California had the highest daytime crime rate in Southern California. Believing that the only way they could make a difference was to move into the neighborhood, Dr. John Perkins started a ministry on "blood corner" (named because of the drive by shootings). Twenty five years later it had largely changed the neighborhood and curbed the violence. Not only that but it has prepared two generations of church leaders as well on a campus that is essentially several small houses with a common backyard. It doesn't take much to change the world.
The same can be said about emerging congregations and church plants in the Free Methodist Church. Ecclesiax and ThirdSpace reach artists and creative types in different ways because their local contexts are different.
Some Anglican churches in London, England empowered and nurtured new faith communities who met in their own buildings. Most often with no staff or clergy, these communities formed what is now called alternative worship and is engaging a portion of England's population that would never enter into a traditional worship context. At the same time they give new life to traditional congregations.
Some churches in urban areas saw what a place called Paragraph NY did, which is create a place that is essentially a gym but instead is a place for writers and creative types to work. They looked at a lot of unused space, got a good coffee maker, and wireless Internet and opened up the doors... and people came in.
At the end of the day, the church is going to have to learn to reconnect with their community as opposed to rely on the community to come to them. Whether or not churches can do that will largely determine how long of a future they have.
The Future of Theological Education
I remember being a conference years ago when the comparison was made between the average income of baby boomers measured against things like education, mortgage, and transportation. Then they compared my generation. Everything was more expensive but especially education and at that moment I realized that the Freedom 55 commercials were not targeted at me. The presenter put it into what it meant for the church. To go to seminaries like Wheaton or Fuller, it meant that you either had to be older and saved up some money, come from a wealthy family, or willing to take on a large amount of student loan debt. This has affected even smaller Bible Colleges who are faced with an aging donor base and less contributions which has meant higher tuitions.
The costs associated with education keep many interested learners at arms length. A building costs money; faculty need to be paid and they expect certain privileges associated with their position. Beyond that, the physical space of education limits the number of students who can participate (those who can get to the location, those who can fit into the facilities). After a while the school's priorities shift toward the necessities of taking care of the building and faculty, and these begin to displace the original educational goals.
This starts to impact the wider church in a couple of ways as it also influences students. As I heard one seminary faculty member say it, whether the student or his family is footing the expensive cost of seminary education, it makes students less inclined or less able to enter the mission field or enter into a ministry context that does not pay a certain amount of money or safety.
The long term consequences of that happening to more church leaders is easy to see. Only wealthy churches have access to quality theological thinkers and the church may have to withdraw from areas that can not afford a certain level of compensation.
There has been others who have seen this happening and are working to create an alternative future. City Seminary of New York is a collaborative project of churches across New York City who brings in theologians and speakers to help church leaders in their local contexts. Fees are as low as $10 (to cover meals). The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia is developing training materials and offering classes for those that can not afford it. Closer to home, in Kingston there is the Invisible College which tackles big issues from a Christian worldview. Topics like globalization and how technology impacts our lives have been past topics. Resonate has hosted several local discussions with theologians and thinkers over the last three years in Toronto and Hamilton all for free.
While seminaries and many local churches have been slower to adopt this model in favor of selling content, more and more universities are giving away their lectures, course work, and even tests for free over the Internet. M.I.T.'s OpenCourseWare allows you to tap into M.I.T.'s vast teaching resources as a teacher or self-learner for free. It doesn't grant you a degree or credits but it does share the wisdom. TED, a world leading conference of big thinkers has recently used Google Video to make their entire conference available for free online. While I questioned the Archbishop of Canterbury's use of YouTube when the idea was floated, almost 8000 people have watched his latest video in three weeks, far more than what would have heard him speaking in a church and that number will keep climbing.
While the Free Methodist Church in Canada's Foundational Courses and the Archbishop of Canterbury's efforts come from a denomination, many of the other alternative forms of theological education are coming from the grassroots of the church. Motivated local church leaders striving to make a difference in their communities. Whether that will be online or offline in churches and third spaces, in partnership with existing educational institutions or creating new ones, how it shapes up and we decide to view new forms of education will go a long way in shaping how we see church.
Discipleship
This is related to the discussion on theological education but we can't ignore the issue of discipleship or lack of it in local churches.
In his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider points out that evangelicals do a rather poor job of living out what we preach. In fact in some areas that evangelicals profess to care about, we tend to live worse then those we profess to want to "save". Robert Webber writes on this topic in his book, Ancient Future Evangelism where he suggests that discipleship is a forgotten practice in many churches, a theme which is echoed in Dallas Willard's book which is aptly named, The Great Omission. Duke University's, Stanley Hauerwas suggests that we have confused North American values with Christianity and reduced being a Christian to being a good neighbor and good American [or Canadian]. Eugene Peterson simply asks that how can we know so much and live so badly. Both Eugene Peterson and Dallas Willard talk about the church services.
Eugene Peterson says this,
The operating biblical metaphor regarding worship is sacrifice. We bring ourselves to the altar and let God do to us what God will. We bring ourselves to the eucharistic table, entering into that grand fourfold shape of the liturgy that shapes us: taking, blessing, breaking, giving—the life of Jesus taken and blessed, broken and distributed; and that eucharistic life now shapes our lives as we give ourselves, Christ in us, to be taken, blessed, broken and distributed in lives of witness and service, justice and healing.
But this is not the American way. The major American innovation in the congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. Americans have developed a culture of acquisition, an economy that is dependent on wanting and requiring more. We have a huge advertising industry designed to stir up appetites we didn't even know we had. We are insatiable. It didn't take long for some of our colleagues to develop consumer congregations. If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our churches is to identify what they want and offer it to them. Satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel into consumer terms—entertainment, satisfaction, excitement and adventure, problem-solving, whatever. We are the world's champion consumers, so why shouldn't we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?
Dallas Willard says something similar but in just three sentences,
We must flatly say that one of the greatest contemporary barriers to meaningful spiritual formation in Christlikeness is overconfidence in the spiritual efficacy of 'regular church services,' of whatever kind they may be. Though they are vital, they are not enough. It is that simple.
Even if we get every other aspect of church right and people do engage with us again. What do they get when they get here. An entire "discipleship industry" has formed within the church trying to sell me an answer to that question and there are a lot of different opinions.
As technology and culture change, it changes the world in which we learn in. What would have been considered deviant behaviour a generation ago isn't questioned today as being abnormal. I remember reading a book on how young Christians needed to act and it concentrated on issues like how long should your hair be and if sideburns are okay. It was as funny to read then as it is today but it does go a long ways in determining what we saw were important things back then. Today, things have changed. A friend showed me his high school son's instant messenger buddy list. Every single one of them was a sexual reference. While we were talking about that, a song came over by an underage artist talking about sex acts with her boyfriend. What does the church look like in a culture that is changing, materialistic, confused, and intolerant of how it sees the church being intolerant? While the much of the discussion centers on the forms we use for discipling, statements from many theologians suggest that we may have to rethink what a Christian is in today's world.
If there is good news in all of this, it is that many Free Methodists are having these kinds of discussions all over the place, both formally (like at last years Ecclesiology Study Commission) and informally. Many of those voices will go into papers and ideas to presented at the next General Conference and of course are being discussed in local churches. As I told a colleague not that long ago, some of us are too young to have experienced the "good old days" of the church but this is the time that God wanted us to be here for and there is something exciting about that.
Some things that could have been full posts but I haven't had time to write about them...
Brady Quinn will not be the second coming of Rick Mirer. Rick Mirer ran Lou Holtz's option and run based offence while Brady just spent two years running the New England Patriots offence and being coached by the guy that seemed to do okay with another Brady...
A friend of mine insists that Americans have problems have trouble following the puck in NHL games. Maybe Fox was right with their glowing pucks.
Is there a worst stadium in professional sports than Tropicana Field? Actually ESPN has researched this and no it isn't. My favorite baseball stadium is Angels stadium in Anaheim. Wrigley and Fenway are great but I prefer baseball in Southern California.
It's time to fire J.P. Ricciardi. Nine straight losses and after losing two DH's and two starting pitchers, he added Frank Thomas. I never knew that Frank could pitch. With the B.J. Ryan fiasco, now J.P. is lying to the fans.
I am trying a Patch Perfect type product on our yard. Mulch, seed, and fertilizer. I'll let you know how it works compared to regular yard seed.
I think that the Democrats will nominate Hillary Clinton in 2008, thus paving the way for President Guiliani.
I am not sure why the NHL won't sell advertising on uniforms? I am not saying we need to see the Edmonton ESSO Oilers or anything but what's wrong with some advertising patches?
Is the Wall Street Journal worth less or more with Rupert Murdoch owning it. I say it is worth quite a bit less. FOX News is a parody of a news network and what is scary is that most people who watch it don't realize it.
I think that people that need a Bill O'Reilly or Tucker Carlson to help them understand the issues of the day, should not be allowed to vote.
I wonder how much of what Ann Coulter says, she actually believes?
I wonder how much of what Michael Moore says, he actually believes?
I don't think evolution, homosexuality or a non-literal reading of much of the Bible (apart from the Gospels) matter much to the Christian faith.
I don't think most Republican politicians care as much about abortion or homosexual rights as they say but rather use the issues to attack Democrats and rile up the base.
I don't think most Democratic politicians care as much about abortion or homosexual rights as they say but rather use the issues to attack Republicans and rile up the base.
I don't think that D.A. Carson and John MacAuther care so much about the emerging church other than their is money to made from writing books attacking it.
Queen's Logic is the worst movie ever. Worse than Batman and Robin. No plot, no character development, no nothing. It just happened and took two hours of my life that I will never get back.
Red Dawn is a vastly underrated movie and the world needs more movies by Patrick Swayze. I think that Red Dawn may have prevented a Soviet attack on North American because they knew we were now trained to fight tanks with bows and arrows successfully.
Speaking of Soviets, Vladislav Tretiak is one of my favorite hockey players of all time.
I collect John Wesley trading cards put out by tobacco companies. This is only funny if you are Free Methodist.
I think the consolidation of hockey equipment manufacturers is bad for the game of hockey and eventually the rising cost of the game will kill it.
I had a choice of having Mark play soccer or baseball this year and I practically pleaded with him to play baseball because the idea of watching him play soccer for the next decade depressed me while the idea of watching baseball sounded like fun. Luckily he chose baseball.
I have a book of Thomas Merton's photography and while this may alienate many of you, I don't think he had a lot of talent as a photographer.
We had gun shots periodically going off all night on our street. Sounded like .22 caliber shots.
The prostitutes that used to work 33rd Street and Avenue C and D the last two years seem to have moved on. Our neighborhood patrol seemed to have worked.
I don't understand Chicago Cubs fans. There is another home team to cheer for and at least it is good once in a while. I am a Saskatchewan Roughrider team and while it stinks and is bad for decades at a time, at least we aren't cursed as well.
I hid Maggi's tennis ball and she knocked over a bunch of stuff trying to get to it. That is nothing compared to a co-worker whose dog ate a sofa to get to her tennis ball.
It has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I am both sick and tired. The sick part I think is related to alergies that I get every spring. I am 33 years old and I just took an antihistamine for the first time ever and I feel a little better. The tired part comes from too many things on my plate demanding too much extroversion and not enough time to think, read, and reflect.
I hadn't slept much in the last week and by the weekend, I was hurting. I drove to Arlington Beach and back on Saturday, worked Sunday, came home, did last minute Freehouse stuff, went to the Freehouse, went out after the Freehouse and came home Sunday night and slept like a baby. I woke up and didn't log on for most of the day although I did watch some hockey. This morning I awoke on our couch. Apparently Wendy came home last night and tried to wake me up but I told her I was already in bed. I awoke to a slobbery stuffed goose and Maggi letting me know it was time to wake up and play with her now. How was the Freehouse? The first three we are doing this spring are to help us figure out what we want to do in the fall and there was some things I liked, some I did not and was frustrated with myself and some I don't understand. Tomorrow we are talking them over.
Today was spent running around which is okay but I find I really want to get away and just read and listen and relax. That will come a little easier as the summer starts and I can enjoy the backyard. (speaking of backyards, Jonny Baker's garden renovation looks great) The plan is to start on my backyard bar and grill sometime next week.
Spring also means that work gets a little quieter as well. The shelter empties out with the warmer weather although we deal with more drunk and high people as it is easier to find your dealer when it is nicer. Despite the quietness, there is also stuff like this to deal with. She was around a lot and the circumstances of her going missing and dying make little sense right now, especially with her missing for so long. At work I have looked at her name on a Saskatoon Police business card for a couple of months so it never has left my mind.
A former co-worker asked me if I was cynical yet and joked that I was born cynical but as much as I hate to admit it, I am an idealist and I carry some of the conflict at work home with me. I do want to help and make a difference but the problem is a lot bigger than what I can do which grates on me too. It is such a complicated topic. Tonight I had a comment by a local real estate agent on my blog, Norm Fisher about a blog post I made a couple of weeks ago. Here is what he said,
Jordan, it's amazing to me how much things have changed in such a short period of time. Believe it or not, small condos which could be purchased last December for $90,000 are now commanding prices of $160,000. It's mind boggling to me but there seems to be no sign of relief.
A bunch of us have asked each other, "Could you afford your house now?" and the answer has been, "Not a chance". While the real estate market has been hot, wages don't seem to have caught up yet.
Of course the government guidelines for people on Social Assistance hasn't increased which means people are getting forced out over rising rent. Of course raising funding levels means more people want to be on Social Assistance which is never good either. Some friends of mine have been hurt by rising rental prices. While their wages have not gone up that much, their rent has increased steadily. I drove through a couple of new neighborhoods and expected to find the usual collection of McMansions but instead I found a lot of Saskatchewan style row houses which I imagine are all being built for first time buyers but I was stunned at the asking prices for homes not a lot larger than my own. Of course high rent brings instability in housing which affects things like truancy and money available for food and groceries for the poor. If you want to find out more, here is some information .
Of course you factor in things like cuts to mental health leaves people without help, over crowded prisons sent people back on the streets without needed programming, illiteracy rates which may or may not be linked to drug use or FAS or just a lack of education because you couldn't afford to pay your rent to the rant that Wendy has nightly when she picks me up at work of seeing kids playing on the streets at midnight who are younger than Mark and should be at home in bed. It isn't an easy solution and I am not sure where to begin. The problem is a complex one and I am not sure where one begins.
My dad is from Keeler and I spent the summer of 1980 in Keeler with my grandparents, a German Shepherd named Tip, a 70cc Honda ATC, and some gopher traps. The city of Calgary's teachers went on strike and we got out of school early. Also our house was being built but it wasn't done yet and so I got sent out to Keeler where the Coopers were which also wasn't that far from Moose Jaw where my Grandpa lived. My memories of the summer are kind of like a modern day Tom Sawyer. Everyday was an adventure and how can life not be good when you had your own motorbike and really no rules. (well, I do remember being sent to my room and being denied a sharp knife to find out what gophers were made of)
I was thinking about Keeler after I was reading about a dispute the town had with the Government of Saskatchewan last year and found these photos.
Here is my grandparents home (the post office was in the addition on the side... I think this may be the upstairs) and I think this is my grandfathers garage but I would have to check out the location to make sure. They were about a block apart.
This is the bar I used to drink and play pool in. I was six at the time. My beverage of choice was Coke and we were never allowed to stay long. My friend David, his parents ran the bar and we would always wander through all cool like. Maybe we were hoping they thought we were 19. Here is the interior of the bar. The crazy thing was that there was no mystery to the bar or anything, I think we just liked the idea of hanging out with the pool table.
The hockey rink. I only went into it a couple of times and that was always with my grandfather. In the summer a lot of birds and mice were in there.
Those were the good old days, today Keeler's population is 8 and I can't see it getting any bigger. In many ways the summer can be summed up with riding my motorcycle, being a trapper, hanging out with a big dog, playing pool and sneaking into the bar. I think it may be have been the best summer ever and I was only six.
Update: The photographer e-mailed me and my grandparents house has been torn down since the photos were taken which makes me doubly glad that he posted the photos online.
In case you haven't noticed, The Church of the Exiles' website is sporting a new design that will be tweaked to death over the weekend. 8 days until the Freehouse returns which scares me to death. The one big addition content wise is a new weblog to archive and document what we are doing. We already have the photo pool on Flickr but this will allow us to add some of the text and other media resources as well. I'll post a link when it is online but there will be no content online until next week.
Wendy worked Good Friday, I work Saturday to Monday which continues our trend of building our marriage on mutual avoidance of each other. Mark and Wendy will head to Saskatoon Free Methodist Church on Sunday for worship while I will be here. If it is quiet enough in my office, I can listen in to the service at work which isn't ideal but the alternative is to download clips of John Haggee off of YouTube.
Still no decision on a car but Lee and I went looking on Saturday at some that I have been thinking about. At $1,400,000 the Bugatti Veyron is just a little more than I want to spend although a car that could go 400 miles an hour could be useful on Saskatchewan's flat landscape.
I am reading Eugene Peterson's latest book, The Jesus Way which has been a great way to spend the last several days. I know he has written a lot of stuff the last couple of years but this may be one of the best things I have read in a very long time. I will be posting more over the next week or so.
The Raptors win the division! That's good news as I doubt now that the Calgary Flames will make the playoffs or if they do, escape the first round. Speaking of sports, sometime over the last couple of years, I have become fond of the Montreal Canadiens. I credit Bob Gainey and their incredible history. Of course this year it means that I could be doubly disappointed when Calgary and Montreal both lose out.
I never watch American Idol but I have enjoyed the commentary by those who think that voting for Sanjaya is somehow damaging the greater society and music industry. I am sure when people are looking at the downfall of western civilization, that will pin it on Sanjaya and not global warming, an energy crisis, or a global depression.
At work they changed and enhanced our retirement package. When I was filling out the paperwork, I had a choice of funds and of course ethical funds were listed. I have heard more than one person complain about the poor return their ethical funds returned which always makes me laugh as it testifies to the larger truth that most people like ethics, as long as it doesn't cost them anything.
Wendy and I are looking for a different car. We have owned lame looking cars our entire lives. For me, 1995 Firefly, 1990 Ford Escort Wagon (my brother called it the Hockey Mom-mobile), and the 1991 Dodge Caravan. Feel free to mock me in the comments. Wendy has owned a 1980 Chevette, and a 1982 AMC Concord. Oddly enough we have never owned anything with a trunk.
We are looking for a used car right now and don't have a lot to spend but want something that we aren't embarrassed to drive and own. We looked at a white and red Ford Probe GT today but need to get it inspected by our mechanics. We like our mechanics at Diamond Auto but we have seen a lot of them lately and would like to see less of them. Nice guys but it is a costly relationship. We also chatted with Jerry Reimer which brought some useful advice as well.
Of course the reason that I am getting Jerry's advice is that I recently looked at a Ford Taurus the other day and thought, "That looks okay" which may mean that I have lost my cool. That and some of our friends are looking longingly at mini-vans and Volvos. We are all getting older. That and this sports car thing may mean that I am entering a mid-life crisis.
Wendy and I had a good time sharing cars that we wished we owned over the years.
Toyota MR2 (first generation): The dream died when I was 16 and tried to sit in one. I think they have to use the jaws of life to remove my knees from the dashboard and the seat was all of the way back.
Chevy Tracker : Both Wendy and I have wanted one although it does have a stigma on it as some friends have died or had really bad accidents in these in head on crashes. I know it wasn't the Tracker's fault but it would feel weird. I have only driven one once and it would take some getting used to but with decent tires on it, I don't think I would mind one.
My friend Jeb hates the Monte Carlo SS so much that I think it would be fun to buy one and then grow a mullet just to see his reaction. Of course at the end of the reaction, you would have a mullet and a really lame car which would kind of be bad.
We have looked at some sub-compacts. While I wasn't impressed with the Yaris, I have had a lot of friends with Ford Festiva's over the years. I could see myself driving a small car again. While my Firefly was kind of geeky, I did like driving it. The only thing that I didn't like about it was when I got a speeding ticket with it, the cops would mock me and then leave me in my own car. Obviously I wasn't much of a threat to run and if I did try to run over the RCMP, all my Firefly could do was give him or her a rash :-)
The dark side of hockey :: With anger in his eyes and purpose in his strides, Simon swung his stick with two hands into Hollweg's neck Thursday night and bloodied the chin of the New York Rangers forward. :: He needs to be suspended for the year and the playoffs. Here it is on YouTube.
YouChoose :: All of the Presidential contenders on one YouTube page. It is interesting to see the Democratic Party netroots at work by the amount of views each of their videos are getting. Barack Obama is way out in front.
Vive Le California? :: California to split from the United States of America? :: Governor Schwarzenegger is quite clear that California is not simply another state. “We are the modern equivalent of the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta,” he recently declared. “We have the economic strength, we have the population and the technological force of a nation-state.” In his inaugural address, Mr. Schwarzenegger proclaimed, “We are a good and global commonwealth.”via
Trouble for a University built on profitsvia :: The complaints have built through months of turmoil. The president resigned, as did the chief executive and other top officers at the Apollo Group, the university’s parent corporation. A federal court reinstated a lawsuit accusing the university of fraudulently obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid. The university denies wrongdoing. Apollo stock fell so far that in November, CNBC featured it on a “Biggest Losers” segment. The stock has since gained back some ground. In November, the Intel Corporation excluded the university from its tuition reimbursement program, saying it lacked top-notch accreditation.
Cows can't eat grass! Hurry, tell that to the several million grass fed cattle that roam Saskatchewan
The real reason we love dogs :: They dance with joy when we come home, put their heads on our knees and stare longingly into our eyes. Ah, we think, at last, the love and loyalty we so richly deserve and so rarely receive. Over thousands of years of living with humans, dogs have become wily and transfixing sidekicks with the particularly appealing characteristic of being unable to speak. We are therefore free to fill in the blanks with what we need to hear. (What the dog may really be telling us, much of the time, is, "Feed me.")
Rwanda, haunted by genocide has a new problem, overpopulation :: Though Rwanda is predominantly Catholic, the church’s leaders here are not expected to oppose a campaign for population control. A number of priests, nuns and lay workers participated in the 1994 genocide, which weakened the church’s moral authority, and has led it to avoid politics.
Reading your own Stasi files :: Although the Stasi had little in their files about me, within days they had a relatively good idea of my activities and, at that point, I was charged with espionage. The order for my incarceration was issued two weeks after I was initially arrested--and about a week later than the East German law required such orders to be made. Such legal niceties, however, made little difference to the Stasi.
Most IED's are coming from IRAN according to USA Today and MSNBC. The question is after being lied to so many times, do we believe them?
Mark Cuban vs. Dwyne Wade :: I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was "embarassing'. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.
