Big Mind, Big Heart

"Zen mind is the mind of the beginner."
Suzuki Roshi

“Truly I say to you, unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”


In Big Mind, Big Heart Zen Master Genpo Merzel makes some insightful comments on Zen Mind, claiming it as "a beginner's mind". If taken in the context of the teaching of Jesus we could see this "beginner's mind" as "a child's mind."
A child's mind is very open, very alert. A child's mind is not filled with ideas and notions, truths and dogmas.A child's mind is receptive, it has no boundaries. A child's mind is not just open, it is actually a vessel, or vehicle, or conduit for the source. It's directly connected to the source, whereas the mind of the expert, theologian, or the religious figure, can easily be the opposite, a very close, narrow and dogmatic mind.

Johnny Bunko

Finally a new (other then Tom Peters Re-Imagined) biz lit. book for the 2000's

Meet Daniel Pink's Johnny Bunko

The Gospel According to Suri

Putting aside the instruments of systems thinking and instead using the microscope of moral development*, (as detailed by Lawrence Kohlberg and built upon by Carol Gilliagan and Ken Wilber) the words of Jesus; “Truly I say to you, unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” one interesting insights can be observed.

These philosophers/theorist/psychologists each in their own words and symbols agree that a human at birth is not yet socialized into any sort of moral system-it is “preconventional.” The human then learns a general moral scheme that represents the basic values of the society it is raised in- it becomes “conventional”. And with even further growth, the individual may come to reflect on his or her society and thus gain some modest distance from it, gain a capacity to criticize it or reform it- the individual then becomes to some degree “postconvential”

Maybe what Jesus was getting at was something along the lines of….

“Truly I say to you, unless you become "preconventional" like a child, you will never enter and contribute to the kingdom of heaven which is rejuvenating the world by being postconvential”

*Yes that was suppose to by ironic

Silliness of "Life Coaching"

One of the indicators that the Information Age is not yet dead and buried (to be replaced by the Experience Economy) is the recent surge in “life coaching”

Definition: Individual who is willing to sit through a weekend course to be trained on a generic motivational speaker kit (which includes clippings from all the current business lit and catchy powerpoint presentations) so that they themselves can then go spend their lunch hours working through the ‘training kit’ with clients.
Preferred candidates for Life Coaches are those who have been where lighting has struck once.
But used-car salesmen will do just fine.

Think.....
Tom Cruise + ‘Magnolia' - the sex = Life Coach

At the end of being ‘life coached’, a thoughtful ‘client’ will do some thinking and in the words of Will Hunting, two things will be clear.

1. Don’t do that

2. You have just wasted thousands of dollars on education that you could have got for a 1.50$ in late charges at the public library.

I am not talking about Corporate Consultants (which I work with), Psychologists (which I have worked with), or even think-tanks (which I am apart of) I am looking at our cultures –mainly church/Christian related- ‘long and sordid history with perception’

We like to think that we know what ‘Success’ should look like and we think we know what will achieve said ‘Success’ and so from those preformed predispositions we chose people to look up to that have achieved our desired ‘success’ never stopping to considering that they might be ‘successful’ despite themselves or because their lucky or simply because they know somebody.

My friend Chris who has every right to take the role as a “life coach” after leading a Young Adults group which grew from 45 to roughly 1,300 in a little under two years said while addressing other leaders ;

“you can look at what I did and copy it. But keep in mind that God might have
led this community despite me!”

Recently the people/leaders who have gained my admiration have been leaders who been apart of what seems to me successful endeavors (departments, organizations, Denominations) and didn’t immediately turn to teaching others “The Secrets of Their Success. In 10 Steps that all begin with the letter 'L'” but who have immediately jumped ship to another ‘tough assignment’

I wish I could say 2/3 names I have in mind (I am sure you have people in your circles that have done the same) but the one name I say, because he wrote a book on the subject, is Steve Miller former C.E.O of Delphi Corp. Steve Miller has made a career of heading into the worst possible situations and seeing them turnaround. The book is “The Turnaround Kid” and could possible be the best leadership/management and yes….life coaching endeavor of the year!

Irony in the Name

I find it somewhat comical that an organization that's committed to handing out Bibles and evangelism have chosen Gideon for their brand. In relation to the Bible ( a historical recording of God's works) Gideons story which is found in The Tribal Leaders ( Judges if you must) demonstrates that Gideon's habitual problem lies in his lack of knowledge of God's Word and subsequent poor perceptions of God's involvement in the life of the nation.

And if viewed with that understanding Gideon stands as the best possible brand!

However, in regards to evangelism, the synchronistic Gideon begs the question he has already asked once

"why me?"

Critic

"You are by far the worst pirate I have ever heard of"Captain James Norrington
"But you have heard of me" Captain Jack Sparrow


Ever since I began participating in a God based life I have had critics. People telling me and others in a variety of recycled forms that I am not spiritual enough or/and that I don't care enough for the Bible . Every once in a while I get snarky and respond.

I was snarky this week with one individual;


Me:

"Thinking about the potential of creating a leaders think tank where a few of us join together to talk theology. We get people with diverse backgrounds and values, assign some topics to start things off - then we rent out a meeting place -throw a camera or two in the room ...and see what happens."

Critic :

Oh man, that would be fun to do, but probably not the best use of my time.... let me know if you do it though, I would probably listen to or watch it.

Me:

because I offered to go on record with my beliefs and values, and have them held up for your public criticism...I will trust that (you will cease) do it (behind my back)

Neo-Testimony

“You may not believe it, but I don’t believe in miracles anymore. And when I think about it I don’t think that I ever did for sure”
Sir. Elton John
This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore

“Gracious God, what is this?” he said. “Lyra, child, what have you found?”
“He’s called Tony,” she mumbled through frozen lips. “And they cut his daemon* away. That’s what the Gobblers do.” The men held back, fearful; but the bear spoke, to Lyra’s weary amazement, chiding them.
“Shame on You! You might not have more courage, but you should be ashamed to show less”
Philip Pullman Golden Compass

As was the case with the many Canadians who tuned into The Fifth Estate exposes on Benny Hinn, I was utterly appalled. Appalled not so much at his lavish life style and spending habits (?I wonder what my furniture, clothing, hobbies would look like on his salary?), but at the fact that during his quackery and lunatic fringe escapades the several challenged, deformed and handicapped are restricted in their setting and relegated to the back of the building away from cameras and out of reach of Mr. Hinn so as to have “no loss of faith in the room”

I wonder how different we are from Mr. Hinn.

There are times when I hear a prayer request for healing, or give a request for healing, and despite what we may say, there are times when it seems as though the prayer is for us rather then the person in need because we don’t want to have to face the idea that God’s strength cannot heal this person, or is unwilling to heal this person and subsequently when our hour of need comes, unable or unwilling to heal us.

During my mom’s 4 month fatale battle with cancer, the hardest times for the family was always after a prayer meeting at our home. The pressure to be healed on my Mother was visible. It seemed, as good hearted as they were, people believed that God was only to be found on the other end of the sickness and the sooner we got to the edge of that rainbow the sooner God would be with us and them again.

Buechner made the comment along the lines that we are called to pray for the sick and if our prayer isn’t answered, this may tell us more about us and our prayer than it does about God.

What if Christian communities were bold enough to have “un-testimony” times? Times to do an adaptation of the process of Sitting Shiva with those in our communities. Moments in the liturgy/community where we mustered the courage to look and grieve over positive test results? And not simple dwell and cheer for negative ones?




*In the world of The Golden Compass, a persons soul lives on the outside of their bodies in the form of an animal spirit (Daemon) that accompanies them through life. For an individual to be separated from their Daemon would be seen as horribly mutilated.

Only in the U.S.

Middle Class(ing)?

What would a community look like if it held the same bias Jesus held towards the down-and-the-outs, the misfits, the late-bloomers and sex-trade workers? From my experience in the church it seems they are only publicly addressed and accepted after they have gotten a hair cut, bought a new wardrobe and are working in a middle class job (i.e. looked like the rest of the respectable people)

Is this what Jesus had in mind?
The middle-classing of an un-middle classed demographic?

Weekend of Remembrance

Here is my Dads Remembrance Day song that has been featured on Global

Celebrities in Real Life

A couple facts blow my mind.

1.The fact that the Edmonton Oilers could go from 60 minutes away from winning the Stanley Cup to the worst team in the NHL in a matter of two years.

2. The fact that tabloids and newspapers will pay up to a quarter of a million dollars for a single picture of a celebrity. (highest sold for 1 million dollars.)

Celebrity is a funny thing

Last I checked you could pay Miss. Paris Hilton $500,000 and she will show up at your party. (highest appearance awarded her 2 million dollars)

Peoples who's seemingly soul contribution to the earth has been gracing the silver screen or the glossy magazine covers with their well proportioned bone structure and displaying their healthy portion of beauty DNA or simply..(in the case of Paris)...having an extremely rich grandfather*.

My mind is blown in a world where people like this can walk into rooms and gain the attention, admiration and have all the cameras instantly focused on them snapping away the $250,000 pictures.

Jesus says that a day will come when a lot of people will be shocked that they aren’t the true celebrities some thought they were. He says a day will also come when people who the paparazzi and unfortunately you and I may not have even bothered to take a second look at will be the ones held up for our admiration.

Jesus says it this way

“This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.”

Maybe Jesus says things like “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” so that we could develop the eyesight and the attitudes that sees and treats the “lasts” and champions them like the "firsts" that they really are during our slice of time this side of the grave.

Because who we admire and honor, who we look up too, is a good indicator of where our lives are heading and a peak into the future to see if we will lead lives of true greatness or not.

*I don't really know how Paris is putting her good looks and her grandfathers money to use. It is the concept behind her becoming famous that I am holding up.

Back from the dead

Six days ago one of my friends killed his blog -here-
Six days ago someone killed their career -here-

While I have flirted with locking myself (intentionally or not) into either one of these mortuary homes, thus far, their lives (blog and career) still resided in the land of the living.

So lets get funky again...

While the mighty loonie flexes its muscles, the book industry continues to show its cheapness. No other product on the market is as visibly lopsided in its Canadian and American prices then the good old hard backs. While the big chains have no immediate plans, local book store Audreys Books has committed to selling with the American price tags on the books.

Will their profit margins change?
I don't know.
But I do know my personal account has changed book store.

Ask Anything Preview

Always wondered about this

ht

The Parasitic gospel

This past winter I had the great privilege of having a light lunch with presidential hopefully Rudolph Giuliani and the excitement of his presence in Edmonton around my table was palatable. The former Mayor spent time talking about his values which could be summed up in pithy sentences like “Prepare Relentlessly” “Surround Yourself with Great People” “Reflect, Then Decide” “Study. Read. Learn independently” and the one that left me wondering “Weddings Discretionary, Funerals Mandatory.” The premise of this final one is that funerals hold great opportunity for leaders to garner support and leadership credibility if they would only attend and be visible.

I quickly scratched the words of Zora Neale Hurston in my note pad

“I do not weep at the world-I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”

Canadian Naomi Klein comes out swinging in her follow up book to the critically acclaimed brand-busting “movement bible” No Logo with this falls publication of The Shock Doctrine.
Naomi begins her 500 plus page treatise on the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by diving into the New Orleans fiasco by interviewing Jamar Perry a flood survivor at the Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge.
At the time of the interview the news racing around the shelter was that Richard Baker, a prominent Republican Congressman from New Orleans, had told a group of lobbyist, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” Joseph Canizaro, one of New Orleans’s wealthiest developers, had just expressed a similar sentiment: “I think we have a clean sheet to start again. And with that clean sheet we have some very big opportunities.” To add insult to injury all that week the Louisiana State Legislature in Baton Rouge had been crawling with corporate lobbyists helping to lock in those big opportunities: lower taxes, fewer regulations, cheaper workers and a “smaller, safer city”-which in practice meant plans to level the public housing projects and replace them with condos. Naomi comments that hearing all the talk of “fresh starts” and “clean sheets” could momentarily help people forget the toxic stew of rubble, chemical outflows and human remains just a few miles down the highway.

Over at the shelter, Jamar could think of nothing else. “I really don’t see it as cleaning up the city. What I see is that a lot of people got killed uptown. People who shouldn’t have died.”
The two were speaking quietly, but an older man in line in front of them overheard and added “What is wrong with these people in Baton Rouge? That isn’t an opportunity. It’s a #$!** Damn tragedy. Are they blind?”
Then a mother with two kids chimed in.
“No, they’re not blind, they’re evil. They see just fine.”

“They do not weep at the world-for they are too busy sharpening their oyster knives.”

As former mayor Rudy Giuliani uses tragic events as opportunities to garnish leadership credibility and as the power brokers of New Orleans use tragic event as opportunities to reduce taxes on the rich and nab prime real estate, I wonder where the Christian church is in all of this?

Trying to seize on the opportunity to nab converts I'd bet.
Not to sure…Just listen to the sermon given at the next funeral you attend.

I think this happens because the gospel I was primarily raised on (and have ashamedly taught at times) was ideally introduces in times of conflict (marriage break up, death in the family, loss of employment, times of great loneliness) and if that didn’t work there was always the basis of eternal damnation. (“You are clearly optimistic, healthy, full of integrity…but have you thought of how you will spend eternity?”)

In doing this we have created a parasitic gospel that has no life on its own.

Is our gospel, like Giuliani’s poor leadership and like New Orleans botched rescue, so weak that its best opportunity to look attractive is with the backdrop of crisis?
If so what happens when the crisis is cleaned up or resolved?
What happens when the restaurant lights come up and people see what the date we hooked them up with really looks like?
Or further, what happens when crisis arise primarily because of the gospel?
What would happen if hell and conflict were erased?
Would the message of Jesus have any value?

Are we merely vultures sent by the creator of the cosmos to scavenge what we can? Or are we human beings that are sent to see and smell the "toxic stew of rubble, chemical outflows and human remains just a few miles down the highway" and not simply an opportunity? Are we not called to be human beings who weep in crisis and not fumble for our pocket knives to open up Hurstons great oyster?



Not making the editorial changes

In Brian Mulroney’s Memoirs he notes how Prime Ministers are lobbied for Senate seats at every perceivable opportunity of one opening up by recounting the story of the honorable John A. McDonald being lobbied for a Senate seat-at the funeral of a senator!
“Sir John, I would like to take that man’s place,” the applicant whispered to Canada’s prime minister, motioning toward the coffin.
“I’m afraid it’s too late, “Sir John A. replied.
“The coffin lid is nailed shut!”

Majeau Show

Saturday, September 22, 2007
Jeffrey's Cafe (96040 - 142 Avenue)

My 'hit single'* Dad will be taking the stage this coming Saturday at Jeffrey's cafe. Unlike his past shows where he focused on his new album only, this one will showcase songs like the one that propelled him to become the Ford Truck spokesmen (before that clown Wayne took over) and others that got the ears of Prime Ministers and New Yorkers.

Spaces are filling up fast so call 451-8890 today

*(ABSOLUTELY NO PUN INTENDED)

Church History According to Facebook

Leaders from within my own Pentecostal tradition often have a very hard time concealing their disdain for tradition and an even harder time understanding history (that is anything earlier then 1906) Whether it be through comments like the one I received while quoting Len Sweets sing analogy “we need to push back into history to gain momentum for tomorrow” at a city wide prayer rally this past year.

Elderly Pastor;
“Justin I apologies for the history we have made for you. Don’t be like us. Push ahead”
Reply
‘when I speak of history I am aiming a little further back then your 20 years’
No reply

Or take the other comment made by a local leader who, when in discussion about the post-modern culture, had the gall to say that in his 30 plus years of life he has seen fads come and go, this “post-modernity” will be yet another one.

30 years.

Lets talk macro and micro trends.

We could all easily sit here and say that we have seen fads/trends come and go because we have seen friendster, myspace, nexopia, facebook and whatever will be next. Yet that would only go to prove the point that we are using a limited perspective because the macro trend that will be around for a long time is social networking and the micro trends being the facebooks, the myspaces etc. that are given birth to through this system.

For us Pentecostals to imagine that church history began 100 years ago would push the height of ecclesiastical arrogance and for individuals to be able to make snap judgments based on their 30 years of life in a northern Albertan Pentecostal environment is shameful.

Last Words

a little youth exposer for my community

Weeping

Recently I was speaking at a church where, unannounced to me, author Rudy Weibe is apart of the the community. After the service where I talked about John the Baptist doubting Jesus and Matthews account of the Messiah breaking down, Professor Weibe made his way over to where I was standing and after exchanging pleasantries said a simple phrase that I hope was in the prophetic;

"You have courage taking on those passages. When you get to be my age all you can do when you arrive at those passages is weep."

I hope he is right

The Unconventional Kingdom

Two of the books from the past couple years that never cease to entertain me are both written by men named Stephen and both deal with the unconventional. Stephen Levitts Freakonomics deals with all the hidden similarities hidden within the world. The economist makes connections between real estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan (describes in detail how they use insider information to gain power) makes connections between 5th grade Chicago elementary school teachers and Sumo Wrestlers (describes in detail how they cheat to get ahead in their respective professions) to name a few. The book is laced throughout with this type of upside down, unconventional type thinking.

Stephen Johnston's authored Everything Bad For You Is Good has the same bias towards the unconventional with its overall thesis that despite not doing much for us North Americans spiritual or morally, popular culture is actually making us smarter. Are you watching shows like Sopranos, House, C.S.I., or playing video games like Sim City or Grand Theft Auto? Again it probably isn't doing much for you morally or spiritually but their is a good chance it is helping raise your I.Q. score.

Backwards, upside down, unconventional type thinking

Then of course there is the central teachings of Jesus found in the first part of the Gospel of Matthew which many know as "The Beatitudes" which is Jesus own rendition of backwards,upside down, unconventional type thinking. To a group of heavily oppressed Jews who believe that it is their divine right to overthrow the Roman government and believe it will be the Messiah who will lead the rebellion into this setting and those expectations walks Jesus the Messiah and says;

"You are better off when you are weak and mild, because then you will have power that no formed weapon can fight against"

Backwards, upside down, unconventional type thinking

Or to a group of poverty stricken Jews this Messiah says;

"You are in the best position possible when you have nothing because then you will rely on my Father all the more."

Backwards, upside down, unconventional type thinking

"People talk smack about you because you are following me? Again, a good thing."

Backwards, upside down, unconventional type thinking

Then Jesus says a line that after suddenly losing an uncle because of heart failure, watching a friend of the family pass away weeks before her wedding day, September 11, Ivan, Denise, Emily, Katrina, trapped coal miners and finally watching my Mom fight a losing battle of 5 months against cancer has left me scratching my head. Jesus says;

"Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted"

Backwards, upside down, unconventional type thinking

Here is the end piece of a message I did trying to reconcile the thought.





Reference Frederick Buechner

Why can't I Vacation? I'm too Young that's why.

“don't let anyone put you down because you're young”
St. Paul to his Reggie Bush/Salinger/Gates and You and I

I should be listening to the advice from others and not invest my vacation time writing and instead focus on my Vacation To-Do-List which includes scouring used and rare books stores for 1st Editions and autographed copies and following closely to the New York Yankees late season surge to capture the pennant. But an article in this month’s edition of Psychology Today has diverted my attention to something else (not until I nabbed a John Updike signed book though)

The article talks about how for nearly a quarter of a century, criminologists have known about the “age-crime curve.” In every society at all historical times, the tendency to commit crimes and other risk-taking behavior rapidly increases in early adolescence, peaks in late adolescence and early adulthood, rapidly decreases throughout the 20s and 30s, and levels off in middle age.

Satoshi Kanazawa who teaches evolutionary psychology at The London School of Economics and Political Science reports that this curve should not be limited to crime. The same age profile characterizes every quantifiable human behavior that is public and costly. The relationship between age and productivity among male jazz musicians, male painters, male writers, and male scientist-which might be called the “age-genius curve” is essentially the same as the age-crime curve. Their productivity-the expressions of the genius-quickly peaks in early adulthood, and then equally quickly declines throughout adulthood.

Dr. Kanazawa notes that Paul McCartney has not written a hit song in years, and now spends much of his time painting(which isn’t all that accurate as of late…lets use the Piano Man Billy Joel instead)Bill Gates is now a respectable businessman and philanthropist, and is no longer a computer whiz kid. J.D. Salinger now lives as a total recluse and has not published anything in more than three decades. Orson Wells was a mere 26 when he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane. Look at the entrepreneurs of today, I would add; it was the 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg the CEO and founder of Facebook that graced the cover of FastCompany a couple months back after he turned down a $1 billion takeover bid from Yahoo and is responsible for a social netword of over 25 Million users. In this months issue 17-year-old Ashley Qualls is profiled as she has earned roughly $1 Million dollars with her web business.

Or simply think Sydney Crosby(NHL), Reggie Bush (NFL) and Lebron James(NBA) and you should get the picture.

Maybe this is what Saint Paul was getting at in his letter to his Crosby, Bush, James, young McCartney/Joel/Salinger Saint Timothy when he wrote “Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” Maybe he knew that once he hit that 30 year mark what he had invested in himself and his abilities, how he capitalized on his youth, was what he would be left to work/play with for the rest of his life.

One of my heroes who is in his early 60 has told me multiple times that he feels like he is only now doing he best work. But I wonder. Is that because he is 60? Or is that because he used those years between 20-30 so well that he is only now seeing the benefits?

This is why I cant vacation yet…because I only have 7 more years till 30!

P.S. I am also avoiding some other advice and taking one speaking engagement while on holidays. If you are around the city (Edmonton,Alberta) I will be speaking at Lendrum MB Church this Sunday at 10:00am (11210 59 Avenue NW)

Black Swans, Coffee, Opera, Tradesmen, Pigeons, Disciples and some other foolishness

Here is a message I spoke last weekend at my community.

Books referenced (and well worth the read)
Bell, Rob, 2005, Velvet Elvis
Blomberg, Graig, 1994, NIV Application Commentary 1-2 Corinthians
Peters, Tom, 2003, Re-Imagine
Sweet, Lenard, 2007, Gospel According to Starbucks
Taleb, Nassim, 2007, The Black Swan
Wiersma, Chris, 2007, The Ancient Path of Prayer

A Booklist

With a heavily researched message (which will be posted on Youtube and the blog shortly) last weekend, a wedding ceremony for a good friend this upcoming weekend , and a single season (fall) worth of curriculum to write for four separate programs this past month, and two guest speaking gigs at the end of the month, its easy to see why the Horticulturalist hasn't been pruned in a while.

Excuses excuses.......

Currently I am thrilled with Stephen King's text On Writing and I have been gripped with the line

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write"

and share his answer to the question "What do you read?"...well...

"Everything (we) can get (our) hands on."

In the back of the book King provides a booklist which is helpful. In honor of his list here is a list of the best books I've read over the last two years. As you scan this list, please remember that I'm not Oprah (or Stephen King) and this isn't my book club. These are the ones that have worked for me. You could do worse, and a good many of these might show you some new ways of looking at the world. Even if they don't, as King would say, they're apt to entertain you.

Bell, Rob, 2005, Velvet Elvis Repainting the Christian Faith
Bell, Rob, 2007, Sex God Exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality
Buechner, Frederick, 1991, Now and Then
Buechner, Frederick , 1992,Telling Secrets
Buechner, Frederick, 2000 ,The Eyes of the Heart
Buckingham, Marcus, 2007, Go Put Your Strengths to Work
Brueggemann, Walter, 1989, Finally Comes The Poet Daring speech for proclamation
Brueggemann, Walter, 2001, The Prophetic Imagination
Burlingham, Bo, 2005, Small Giants Companies that choose to be great instead of big
Chalke, Steve, 2003, The Lost Message of Jesus
Chalke, Steve, 2006, Intelligent Church a journey towards Christ-centered community
Coupland, Douglas, 2006, Jpod
Covey, Stephen, 1990, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Cron, Ian, 2007, Chasing Francis
Dawkins, Richard, 2006, The God Delusion
Fitch, David, 2005, The Great Giveaway reclaiming the mission of the church from big business, parachurch organizations, psychotherapy, consumer capitalism and other modern maladies
Godin, Seth, 2006, Small is the New Big and 183 other riffs, rants, and remarkable business ideas
Hitchens, Christopher, 2007, god is Not Great how religion poisons everything
Johnston, Stephen, 2005, Everything Bad for you is Good
Kelly, Tom , 2005 , Ten Faces of Innovation
King, Stephen, 2000, On Writing A Memoir of the Craft
Lamott, Anne, 2000, Traveling Mercies
Levitt, Stephen, 2005, Freakonomics
Martel, Yann, 2006, Life of Pi
Pagitt, Doug, 2005, Preaching Re-Imagined the role of the sermon in communities of faith
Pagitt, Doug, 2007, An Emergent Manifesto of Hope
Peterson, Eugene, 2000, The Unnecessary Pastor rediscovering the call
Peterson, Eugene, 2006, Eat This Book a conversation in the art of spiritual reading
Peterson, Eugene, 2007, The Jesus Way a conversation on the ways that Jesus is the way
Robinson, Haddon (editor) , 2005 , The Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching
Stanley, Andy, 2006, Communicating For a Change
Taleb, Nassim, 2007, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Wood, John, 2006, Leaving Microsoft to change the world
Updike, John, 2003, Rabbit Run
Updike, John, 2003, Rabbit Redux

Tree63 stole my wifes friend...well not really

This past weekend Ladonna and I had the privilege of participating in one of our friends wedding. Besides having the son of a lead singer hitting on my wife for a couple days (an adorable 4 year old ring bearer) it was a wedding day full of good memoirs.

Great guy marrying a great girl what more could friends ask for?

cue shameless plug in 3-------2----------1

Well that you would check out the bands next CD -here-

Not making the cut

Preparing for a message for my community next Sunday morning I am running into one of the two challenging things about communicating.
Editing.
Cutting away the things that only add time and reinforce previous content. My mentor/hero of homelictics has consoled me in that

"you need to have more under the shelf then you put on display"

but what happens when what is under the shelf is more articulate then what is on display?
Anyways, if I cant use it next Sunday then at least I can post in on the blog...
it sounds a little similar to this

The Worship Industry

Good time for a fire

“Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.”

Saint Paul
Letter to the Corinthian church

“Canada needs far tougher building codes”
Edmonton’s Fire Chief


After a fire swept through the developing south side of the city of Edmonton causing 25 million dollars worth of damage Edmonton’s fire chief went on record saying that “Canada needs far tougher building codes.” In the fire about 500 people were evacuated, but no one was injured. Driving through the wreckage this morning I thought about what Walter Brueggmann recently taught me as I faced a couple personally perceived failures, the Professor taught me;
“The world for which you have been wholly prepared is being taken away from you” he said “by the grace of God”.
The grace of God because if I were to continue to work from the foundation that I was working from who knows how many people, like the fires in Edmonton, would have been injured if the fire were to have come at a later time?

Temples

This past Sunday in Toronto the first ever Hindu temple in Canada was inaugurated with a lavish procession attended by such guests as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Opposition Leader Stephane Dion. The temple was built along ancient rules of traditional Hindu architecture from 24,000 hand-carved pieces of Turkish limestone and Italian Carrara marble that were shipped across the ocean and assembled in Toronto. Two things fascinate me about this temple. First, it took more than 2,000 Indian craftsmen and about 400 volunteers from Toronto’s Hindu community working on the construction for a year with finishing costs in the upwards of $40 Million dollars. Secondly, it is said Hindu temples are built to last one thousand years.
As I was reading the Globe and Mail article detailing the inauguration of the Swaminarayan Mandir I thought about all the large Evangelical churches that get built to exuberant amounts of money and wonder if there is anyone within the Hindu community that shares my same concern for high building capital. Yet on the flip slide I admire how the Hindu community seeks to invest 40 million into a traditional building structure that is built to last “one thousand Canadian winters” as opposed to Evangelicals who seem to invest their millions on modern structures and fashions that become dated, sometimes, even upon completion.

Engaging a Text: Me, Myself, & Bob

Since placing himself at the beginning of his, recorded breaking direct to video, VeggieTales films Phil Vischer has become , if not a household name, at least a household face to large sectors of the North American Christian sub-culture. Creating characters such as Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato and writing such scripts as Grapes of Wrath and Where’s God When I’m S-scared? and the shorter segments like The Forgive-O-Matic and Silly Songs With Larry the creativity of Phil Vischer will never be called into question, but, his business savvy is another question which is addressed throughout this autobiography.
Me, Myself, & Bob marks Phil’s departure from Children’s fiction and entertainment and marks his first attempt at the adult non-fiction genre where Phil walks the reader through his early years as a Bible College drop-out, to his years of building and leading BigIdea one of the countries fastest growing companies and the painful last few years which saw Jonah hit movie theaters nation wide but ended with BigIdea weighing through bankruptcy court and its subsequent selling. Before it is done you will be moved to laugh at his self-deprecating humor, encouraged by his story of overcoming and struggle through his painfully transparent details of failure.
What makes this book difficult to read is Phil’s Juiced gossipy descriptions of his colleagues at BigIdea and how they should be blamed for the bankruptcy. “If (such and such) would have only listened to me. If only I didn’t hire (such and such) and if I only didn’t read (such and such book) I would have had my amusement park.” Trust me, he doesn’t say such and such.
Besides the tarnishing of names Me, Myself, & Bob is an amazing story of how God can use failures and the death of dreams to point us towards true success.

Do Christians pick only conversations that they know they will ?win?

As the evidence supporting the theory of evolution mounts and as the philosophers of materialism and secularism gain traction (and hopefully better manners) I find it somewhat embarrassing that the only engagement evangelicals will make with this type of material over the past few years has been directed on the fictitious work of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Debunking the Da Vinci Code esc sermons and books were written by the dozen to the acclaim of millions.
Now with Richard Dawkins and my favorite Christopher Hitchens (both at the top of the New York Times Best Seller) gaining a mass market readership of their very real accounts of religion and atheism, where are the series now? The books? The religious pundits banning together to point out all the scholarly faults that they successfully reaped on Dan Browns fictitious tale of mystery?

Not the sharpest tools in the shed but possibly the most effective?

My friend Dean forwarded me these anonymous thoughts

“ ‘You’ve got to lose your passion for dumbness’ Man I’d like to say that to the evangelical church (and especially to the Pentecostal and charismatic wings!) I know it sounds like intellectual snobbery when I say that and I really don’t want to sound that way. But I do have a deep conviction that something has gone profoundly wrong in our thinking. How did we reach the place where we are suspicious of intelligence? Oh, that’s right, if you think you’ll lose the anointing…”

While I was left with suspicion as to the intelligence (and age) of the email writer my lack of tangible experiences outside of the Pentecostal movements tethers my response to that of a Northern Canadian Pentecostal. From this vantage point I would agree that on a whole Pentecostals aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. I think to say that we are “dumb” is juvenile and possibly blasphemous, but nonetheless, from our very conception (despite what the grossly misleading history books say) we didn’t connect with the educated class.* If you believe (as I most certainly do) that a community’s birth tends to shape that community’s identity for the rest of its life, with each new generation adding its own variations to the fundamental themes, then to readily expect the Pentecostals to be leading by way of academia is nothing more then a dream.

Keep in mind that even those who claim, or are Pro-Claimed, as “first-rate evangelical minds” or even those who claim, or are Pro-Claimed, “First rate minds” tend to think they know more then they really do.

Lets have some fun….

Could it be that the less-educated classes of Christianity have been so bullied by this type of intellectual snobbery that they have been forced into the debate halls of academia at the cost of authentic Christian spirituality? Could it be that because of the implausibility of the earth’s creation (with a or without a designer) action has been so bunged up that the stewardship of this planet has become nothing more then a child forgotten in ugly divorce proceeding? Could it be that debates as to the true authors of the Biblical texts has so convoluted what the Texts actually say?

Pentecostals are simple, but ineffective? Hold the phone.

Maybe it is those who are simple of mind that will be brave enough to opt out of the advanced exams and questions presented in life and instead enroll in the less glamorous low entrance requirements of the Gospel for the easier to understand curriculum.

Here are some sample questions from this easy-to-understand curriculum….

-When people are hungry should they be fed?
-When people are thirsty should they be given something to drink?
-When someone is an immigrant should they be welcomed?
-When someone is naked should they be given clothes?
-When someone is sick in the hospital should they be visited?

A little less exciting then debating in the halls of academia, but as all those who enter the “simple” curriculum all soon find out, much harder.

My suspicions of intelligence….

I am suspicious of the intelligence of individuals who claim the truths of Christ and are pro-war. I am suspicious of the intelligence of individuals who claim the truths of Christianity and support governments that attempt to privatize health care. I am suspicious of the intelligence of Bible believing individuals who through their fashions continue to support sweat shops.
To name just a few…



*It must be stated that lack of education, thus, the lack of vocabulary/experience/opportunity has absolutely nothing to do with being smart or dumb.

Everything Must Change

Listening too most leaders within and without the emergent/post modern dialogue is rather...comical. I recently read one leader say that;

" (I feel there is) a total lack of Holiness in the lingo and the lifestyle of those who are leading the reformation (I have noticed) a low level of personal integrity when it comes to issues like drinking, swearing...and other things that in other generations would be considered taboo?"

Drinking and swearing?

When thousands of children are dying per minute from malnutrition and for the most part emergent types want the eradication of this stat a part of their spirituality and this guy wants to talk about drinking and swearing?
When the earth is being polluted and destroyed and the emergent types are advocating a spirituality that properly stewards the Creators creation...
And this guy wants to talk about drinking and swearing?

When third world debt is creating and sustaining third world poverty and the older generations that were above "drinking and smoking" were doing what?? Making sure no one was wearing jewelry or swearing or drinking.
In the altered words of Allan Iverson

"The world is calling out for our help and what do you want to talk about...swearing?
Not the real world...but swearing? Not what Jesus talked about, they want to talk about swearing?Not what the gospel is about...but swearing? Not life, but swearing?"

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin prophetically wrote;

"What we are all more or less lacking at this moment is a new definition of holiness"

Not drinking and not swearing are pretty easy things for a majority of people to do. Beneficial? Probably. But to make those the markers of authentic Christianity, to me, is a complete joke.

Anyways....

I am excited for Brian McLarens new book "Everything Must Change" to hit stores on October 2, 2007. It has been a long time since I was excited about a Brian McLaren book and these excerpts might explain why the flames are being kindled again;

"...by postponing the essence of salvation to the afterlife, and by assuming God plans to destroy the earth, the conventional view leads us to assume that the world will get worse and worse, and that this deterioration is in fact God's will or plan. This assumption would tend to create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Not only that, but in some versions of the conventional view, the worse the world gets, the better we should feel since salvation -meaning post-mortem salvation after the worlds is destroyed-is approaching. In too many cases, the conventional view can lead people to celebrate humanity's "progress" in self-destruction rather than seeking to turn it around. To put it bluntly, in terms of humanity and this earth, the conventional view too easily creates-unintentionally, of course- a kind of religious death wish."

Engaging a Text: Leaving Church

I first heard of author, professor and Episcopalian ordained Barbara Brown Taylor while watching her deliver a speech on a PBS tribute to Frederick Buechner. I would soon come to realize that Mrs. Taylor was named one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world, an honor bestowed by Baylor University, and then soon after that discover through her memoir Leaving Church that she quite naturally was a gifted writer as well. Through her book she allows the reader to follow along on her “ecclesiastical harlotry” as she goes from seminary graduate to a megachurch pastor to a small country rector and finally to an endowed chair in religion at Piedmont College all the while feeling drawn to “spend as much time reading, thinking and writing about God as (she) could” and these placement seemed the best chance she had of doing just that. If it is true what Kurt Vonnegut wrote “strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God” then by now Mrs. Taylor must be one fine dancer.

The book is divided into three sections and begins with a section entitled Finding where she describe her journey of seeking ordination where she discovers that

“Being ordained is not about serving God perfectly but about serving God visibly, allowing other people to learn whatever they can from watching you rise and fall.”

Finding chronicles the time of accepting her first staff position at a large church (attendees 1,500) in downtown Atlanta, Georgia and then her move to become a rector of a rural church in the city of Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500). After her exhausting work in both church’s ministry Taylor was brought to her knees;

“My quest to serve God in the church had exhausted my spiritual savings. My dedication to being good had lost me a fortune in being whole. My desire to do all things well had kept me from doing the one thing within my power to do, which was to discover what it meant to be fully human.”

The subsequent two sections entitled Losing and Keeping give the greatest color to her thesis that to discover the truth of Jesus teachings that only those who lose their lives for His sake will end up finding them again necessitates not simply death, rather the need to lose track of who you are, or who you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat on the dirt floor basement of your heart, the one place where faith worth keeping is to be found.