blogging can help the church

Here is an article about how blogging can help the church.

Link

lindell beach cultus lake

Last Friday and Saturday the Council of Heartland got together at Eric's cabin in Lindell Beach for a retreat. We met for a total of four sessions and our theme was Looking Back To Look Forward.

Friday night we started looking back by watched Rob Bell's nooma video "Luggage" and asked ourselves, "If Heartland Church was a person, what would her luggage look like?" The question brought up all kinds of memories of the past and we spent some time together praying and reflecting and letting go.

Then we got up on Saturday morning ate breakfast (Eric had at least 2 big pancakes), and looked at the old ministry review documents and asked the question, "Are there things in the past that is left undone, that is still important to us today?"

Then the next session, we started talking about the difference between what a church does and who we are becoming. What a church does can be things like setting having greeters at the front door, setting up more chairs so visitors can find seats if they come late. Who we are becoming has to do with becoming Christ-like, and becoming more loving and caring and available to others. We noticed that the things we do can be temporary, and the people we become lives on.

A church can be thought of as both a cloud and a box. A cloud changes shape, hard to define, floats along and is flexible. A box is constructed. Has hard edges and is inflexible. A box is static. We began seeing the box as the things in the church we do and the cloud as who we are becoming. The cloud is like a movement of God, and the box is the structure of the church. The box always serves the cloud not the other way around. We spend some significant time together talking about the cloud and what God was doing with us as people.

The weather was tremendous and we spent some time together talking about the future cloud and boxes, what do we think are things God wants us to do and become. Jackie facilitated our thoughts with a mindmapping exercise that got our thoughts and feelings out and organized about the future.

We had lots of conversations and we hope in the next while to come to grips with it all. When you look to the future, it is pretty non-exact and difficult to grasp. It's hard to imagine, even harder to understand what God is urging us to do/become.

emerging church

Here is an article entitled 'Emergent' Christians seek spirituality without nasty theological squabbling

Emergent worship evokes spiritual imagination (using candles, darkness, art work on curtained walls). It is interactive (some churches have couches, not pews). It engages the body (a Minneapolis congregation offers yoga and massage therapy). Emergent leaders value Holy Communion and Bible reading. They're willing to praise liberals (sometimes) for promoting biblical values of justice that conservatives denied for decades.

The Emergent vocabulary includes ritual, liturgy and generosity. Generosity might be the most important at the moment. It's as if today's born-again Protestantism has settled its doctrinal battles and become the dominant brand of public Christianity; now it's time to be generous in victory.

Read more here.

chilliwack bruins and chiefs

From the Chilliwack Times

Bruins/Chiefs look to future

The sale of the WHL's Tri-City Americans was completed last Friday, marking the first step in a process allowing the Chilliwack Bruins to move forward with their business plans. Subsequently, the Bruins have announced their business approach for next year, broken into two fan-friendly categories.

Loyalty to the Chiefs:

"We intend to show our loyalty to everyone associated with the exceptionally well run Chiefs franchise in everything we do," offered team governor Darryl Porter.

More here.

orphans

When Patti and I started talking about adoption, more like when Patti started talking to me about adoption, I didn’t really engage with her. She brought it up off and on over the course of 15 years. I listened, did the head nodding empathizing thing. Truth was, I was scared. My bones shuttered at the idea of taking a strange, damaged, foreign baby and be completely responsible for it’s wellbeing.

I had this bias that all adopted kids were messed up. That they all struggled with difficult psycological issues that made life for their adoptive families very hard. This theory was carefully formed over a period of time. Most of the adoptive stories I heard of had heartache in spades in them. The kids would grow up and run away. Or would become drug dealers and pushers. End up in jail, or chronically unemployed or some type of mental illness. Life is hard enough, so I’d ask myself, who as a parent would willinging sign up for that?

I knew that a baby needed to bond with their parents and feel like they belong in their families and without it that, even for a small period of time, that in their soul would form deep wounds. The orphan experience is hurtful.

And all their life, a former orphan, now adopted into a family will most likely struggle deeply. Even if they are adopted into a great family, that reassures them continually, of their love and acceptance, they were at one time an orphan and the pain of that is deep and can spawn all kinds of issues.

About 4 years ago, Patti and I were on a walk at Bolsa Chica, and she brought up the adoption thing again, and I did the duck and dodge thing again. She stopped, looked me in the eye and said, Mike, are we going to do this or not? I said, umm well ya honey I think we should. Good then, she said I’m going to make an appointment with the adoption agency and I want you there.

Today, I am so glad we adopted James and I can be his father. I'm glad my selfishness was quieted, at least for a little while. James represents a gift - a gift to me and me to him. He is God’s gift to us. He is a wonderful boy, yet I am aware that as much as I can love him and reassure him, he may stuggle with issues related to once being an orphan.

We all struggle. James will. I do.

It’s like we don’t belong in this world and we struggle, we are damaged, like an orphan. There is an orphan voice in all of us and we walk around with questions in our mind. We don’t always hear the question, but they are there.

Am I loved? Do I belong? I am important enough to be loved. Questions are there because we are displaced, and an alien and do not belong here. We are damaged and we have a deep sense of unworthiness, a continual feeling of anxiety, self-defeat, and a nagging sense that I’m no good and I will never amount to anything. No one could possibly love me, everything I do is wrong. This creates in us anxiety, depression, anger and we turn to drugs and anything that will help us cope.

I am working at hearing the Spirit talk to me, and reassure me that I am God's child.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

This is going to take awhile. I am so used to quieting the orphan voice with performance, addictions, self-grandure that I literally need to retrain myself to hear the pure, healing voice of the Spirit.

I am told this is a journey and that the orphan voice never really goes away, it can just be quieted. Shhhh.

george bush and calvin college

david trigueros has written a good post about george bush's recent visit to calvin college.
link

kamloops soccer (pt. 5)

It was quite a day. The girls played in the morning and the other team tied it at 3. There was a controversial play that lead to the other team scoring. This tie meant the girls were our of contention in the tournament. The game in the afternoon was a difficult game to get up for, but the girls played hard and lost 2-0.

Kassi got the game MVP again and was a bit embarassed about it. She thought other girls on her team should have got it.

Now it's hang out and enjoy the hotel time and we'll all head back to Chilliwack tomorrow am.

kamloops soccer (pt. 4)

It took until the second half for the Chilliwack Attack Soccer team to get their legs. They woke up the first half and fought hard the second half and lost the game 1-0.

Kassi played great and got the game MVP. She has been playing center forward this past year and has really found her place. Previously, she played a very tough center - mid field She enjoys fighting for the ball and creating opportunities for her teammates. She has tasted the thrill of scoring and works hard to make things happen.

Her next game is at 10:00am tomorrow am. I will miss the game since I'll be back in Chilliwack to speak at Heartland's gathering.

star wars III: revenge of the sith review

Levi and I just went to Star Wars III: Revenge of The Sith

Amazing movie ... so much to say about it. Since Kassi's game starts in 45 minutes and I have only a couple of minutes to post this, I'll say this: As a Christ Follower, go see the movie. It reminded me/taught me the power of evil. The subtle and relentless temptations of darkness were laid out in full. It was very disturbing for me to see the story line move closer and closer to the "dark side".

See it, go home and put in The Passion, then go away for a day and commune with a very beautiful, gracious and powerful God.

kamloops soccer (pt 3)

The first game isn't until 4:00pm today. So Patti and Levi are off for a bike ride, Kassi and her teammates are in the pool and James and I are a just hanging around.

Soccer tournaments are always enjoyable for us. There is the excitement of how the team will do against other teams in the province, but I think it's that we are all about one thing. Being together and supporting each other. That brings a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment.

four points sheraton kamloops (pt 2.)

We left Chilliwack and 2 1/2 hours later we arrived at the Four Points Sheraton in Kamloops. It's just about 6:00pm and we haven't had supper yet. Levi just got back from the pool and said it has a slide, but it's (in his words) very, very small.

It feels so good to be away and all together as a family.

There is wireless internet here at the hotel and my PowerBook G4 picked-up the network and with one keypress, boom we're online. Nice.

kamloops soccer (pt. 1)

Our family is packing up the van and driving to Kamloops to be part of a soccer tournament that my daughter's team will be a part of. We'll be driving there this afternoon and coming back on Monday. It's about a 3 hour drive from here and I'll be driving back from Kamloops to Chilliwack early Sunday morning to be a part of our Sunday gathering at Heartland.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Getting away for a bit is always refreshing, and supporting and cheering my daughter in her soccer pursuits is always enjoyable.

web surfing as addictive as coffee (?)

(CNN) -- Surfing the Web at work is an increasingly common habit that could be even more addictive than coffee, according to new research into Internet usage in the office.

According to the 2005 Web@Work survey, 93 percent of all employees in the U.S. spend at least some of their time at work accessing the Web, up from 86 percent a year ago, and many of them are logging on for personal reasons.

Read more here.

Gotta go and read CNN then Google news and check on the progress of NHL talks.

god buisness

Looks like the media has found a theme of interest -- God, America, and buisness. This time it's Yahoo who has put together some articles at Yahoo! Finance with article titles like "Earthly Empires" (picked up from BuisnessWeek Online) and "Church of the Mighty Dollar". Read more here.

grid blog :: pentecost 2005

Much has been experienced concerning pentecost in the past 100 years. Some good, some not so good. There are many perceptions of pentecost and associations that people make.


There is the pentecostal church. Which is one of the fastest growing Christian movements in the world. It started or at least came of its own in 1906 on a little street in downtown Los Angeles called Azusa St. The church was kicked into high gear by a phenomena called the Azusa St revival and has grown into a movement that numbers over 500,000 people today. So when you hear pentecost, maybe you think of the pentecostal church.

Some may understand pentecost as connected to the charismatic movement. Healings, funny sounding televangelists on a certain TV networks whose hosts have combovers and huge hair dos. Many of their guests come from the south and are involved in some very odd practices. They often have events at large venues. As easy it is for me to impersonate televangelists, I have received deeply from God occasionally at their ministries. There was one guy who came to town and I secretly went to all his meetings.

Many of us have had experiences with pentecost, some good some bad. Whatever the baggage we have with pentecost, we have this sense that there is something there. Something very powerful that comes from God that is beautiful. Maybe you’ve tasted something powerful from God that has changed you, that has lifted your faith and spoken deeply into your life.

And we look around the world and we ask is this world suppose to be like this?
Or is something wrong? Why is that that so many of us deep down think there is something seriously messed up?

We see the violence, the injustice, the disease in the world and something within us says this is not how things are supposed to be. We are troubled too by what we see inside of us. I mean, like why did I say that? Why did I do that? I don’t like that about myself. And things inside of the church are not much better.

In the middle of these troubling realities, we have this sense that we are powerless to change anything. Yet, we know that is not completely true, even though we feel powerless, we have this sense that there is a power, not ours, but from a good God who can make a difference.

But this God seems to be unpredictable. Like, will his power show up now? Will he fix my friends marriage? Will he dispense some of his power just enough to give my friend the help he needs to get off of meth? Sometimes the power comes and we are in absolute euphoria about it. Other times, it’s like where is God? And instead of power we get patience and mercy and others coming along side of us holding us up when we are powerless and can’t stand anymore. Which, we honestly feel can be second best.

In addition to this perception that God is unpredictable, we also observe that the power of God is released in seasons of time. We see times when God’s power is everywhere and you hear of it. And it lingers and you just want to hold on to that moment forever. Then there are times where it’s like, is there any power at all? And we endure long periods of time where life is hard, and it seems like the hand of God has been pulled back. So we pray for it and look for it, yet God seems unmoved by our beckoning and pleading.

Many have rightly looked to the power of God as the solution to the ails of this world. There is much about pentecost that has been studied, fought over and sought. I readily admit I don’t offer any last words on pentecost, I want to remember the conversation and bring some realities to your attention. My prayer is that you’ll experience the power of God in your life.

For the next while, we at Heartland are going to focus on God's power. You can see/hear what's going on here.

corporate big time religion

David@Revolution posts a link to a newsweek article on evangelical churches and their leaders.

This article with the LA Times, also focuses on corporate religion.

missing LA

It's just over a year since I resigned from my ministry position in LA. At the time, I didn't know that we would be moving but in time that is what we did. Prior to living in LA, my home was in Abbotsford, where I lived for over a decade. LA was quite a bit different world than Abbotsford, but I loved it. I grew up with evergreens all around me. In LA, there are Palm trees all around.

I grew up with a lot of rain, in "it never rains in California - not", it rains less. In fact in my neighbor of Bellflower, there were houses that didn't even have gutters. I grew up for 35 years in rain, and I wanted to live the next 35 years in the dessert. What I miss the most are the friends. People we did life with and talk with almost every day.

Well, things change and things are not the way they used to be. Like it or not. It takes a lot to adjust.

Lots of people go through changes. It could be a move, change of jobs, loss of a loved one or report from the doctor. Changes can be difficult. I find that missing LA is very similar to what this article describes as grieving.

Some of the symptoms of grieving can include:

• Difficulty concentrating
• Apathy
• Anger -- at those responsible, at the deceased, at ourselves, at God, at any handy target
• Guilt -- "If only I had done . . ."
• Sleep disturbances
• Loss of appetite
• Withdrawal from others
• Irritability
• Intense sadness or tears when a memory is triggered
• Numbness
• Loneliness, or a sense of separateness from others
• Loss of life's meaning

I hit about 90% of the things on that list. But it's different for each person. One thing is for sure, grieving is a personal process -- it's different for each person. Some get through it quick, for others it lingers longer.

Grieving is important in the process of re-investing. It's tough to invest in the new situation while we are still grieving the previous.

"Grieving such losses is important because it allows us to 'free-up' energy that is bound to the lost person, object, or experience --so that we might re-invest that energy elsewhere. Until we grieve effectively we are likely to find reinvesting difficult; a part of us remains tied to the past."

Healthy grieving is a process that we engage in. It doesn't just "happen." Accepting the loss and acknowledging and expressing the full range of feelings is very healthy. I find journaling helps get the feelings "out" and it gives me a safe place to be able to express them. A counselor or a spiritual director can help a person process grief.

Blogger's Conference Emphasizes Reporting

I'd like to report on a blogger's conference that emphasizes reporting:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Bloggers — those Internet-based writers without rules — are fighting back against criticism that their work is unreliable, libelous or just poorly done. More than 300 bloggers came to town Friday for a two-day conference that was heavy on teaching techniques used by journalists in what bloggers term "the mainstream media." One class taught students how to access and analyze government statistics.

Conference organizer Bill Hobbs called blogging "citizen journalism."

"If freedom of the press belongs to those who have the press, then blogging expands ownership of the press," Hobbs said.

Right now, more than 8 million people write blogs, said Bob Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association. Blogs, short for Web logs, are running commentaries on whatever their authors are interested in. Content often focuses on politics or media criticism and usually includes feedback from readers.

Participants such as Shelley Henderson said they want to expand their research capabilities to strengthen their commentaries. Henderson, of Los Angeles, dedicates her blog to keeping the Internet unregulated.

Blake Wylie of Nashville was among the participants who took exception to criticisms from politicians and mainstream media pundits that their work is often inaccurate.

Wylie said bloggers often provide links to let readers go directly to their sources of information.

Continue here

Blog Tour For McLaren's The Last World and the Word After That

The blog Paradoxology will be visited by Brian McLaren on May 9th.

Be here on May 9th -- the release date for this new book -- as Brian McLaren visits us here at Paradoxology. That's right! Brian will be posting and responding right here next Monday. It's all part of a blog tour to promote his new book, The Last Word and The Word After That. Described as a "tale of faith, doubt, and a new kind of Christianity," this is the last of the three-part trilogy: A New Kind of Christian. At first glance, The Last Word and The Word After That is a book about "hell", and yet it's about much more than just that.

On that day, Brian will post an opening statement, and then will respond to your questions here for a few days. The conversation promises to be fascinating, and you certainly won't want to miss it. In preparation for this special event, and to get a sense of the conversation surrounding this new book, I encourage you to read Brian's "Conversations About Hell" and perhaps check out some of the book's reviews at Amazon.

In addition to Paradoxology, here's a list of the other bloggers participating in Brian's May 9th blog-tour:

Tall Skinny Kiwi - http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/

Jordan Cooper's Blog - http://www.jordoncooper.com/

Jen Lemen's Blog - http://www.jenlemen.com

Dwight Friesen's Blog - http://dwightfriesen.blog.com/

New Warnings About Marijuana Use

Feds give warning about marijuana use.

WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday. A private group said law enforcement increasingly is targeting people who smoke and deal the drug.

Past medical studies have linked marijuana with a greater incidence of mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. But questions remain about whether people who smoke marijuana at a young age are already predisposed to mental disorders, or whether the drug caused those disorders.

Government officials say recent research makes a stronger case that smoking marijuana is itself a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms, particularly schizophrenia.

"A growing body of evidence now demonstrates that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

Administration officials pointed to a handful of studies to make their case. One, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found adult marijuana smokers who first began using the drug before age 12 were twice as likely to have suffered a serious mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking after 18.

The ratio was 21 percent to 10.5 percent. Those who first started as teens also were at significantly higher risk.

Also Tuesday, The Sentencing Project released a report that found the government's "war on drugs" has become the "war on drug" as police agencies increasingly target marijuana.

Begun in the 1980s, the war on drugs was aimed at stopping large-scale narcotics traffickers, particularly those selling cocaine. But since 1990 more of the focus has been on catching users and low-level dealers. And more often than ever, the drug targeted is marijuana, according to the group, a national nonprofit organization that works on judicial reform and favors alternatives to jail.

Of some 700,000 marijuana arrests in 2002, 88 percent were for possession, it said. And only one of every 18 of those arrests ended in a felony conviction.

"Arresting record numbers of low-level marijuana offenders represents a poor investment in public safety" and diverts resources from "more serious crime problems," said Ryan King, co-author of the report.

King found that in 1992 arrests for heroin and cocaine comprised 55 percent of all drug arrests and marijuana 28 percent. A decade later heroin and cocaine arrests accounted for less than 30 percent of all arrests, while marijuana's share had risen to 45 percent.

Jennifer deVallance, spokeswoman for the White House drug office, said there are many reasons for the greater focus on marijuana. Among them: Marijuana is the single largest drug of abuse in the nation, the strains are more potent than ever and more is known about health dangers.

"For the first time, more kids are seeking treatment for marijuana use than alcohol," she said.

The Sentencing Project called for renewed national discussion of the war on drugs, an idea echoed by the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The group reported last month that despite spending at about $40 billion a year now and toughening drug sentencing laws, "America continues to experience the Western world's worst drug problems."

An epidemic of heroin use more than three decades ago, followed by a 1980s epidemic of cocaine and crack, prompted a massive intensification in drug enforcement while giving short shrift to prevention and treatment, the institute reported. It decried budgeting that spends two-thirds of drug control funds on enforcement, 25 percent on treatment and just 12 percent on prevention.

Link

grid blogging pentecost

On May 15th, I'll be taking part in something called grid blogging on pentecost. Check it out and consider if you want to do it too!

"This year, in the blog/geek world, we will be trying to celebrate Pentecost by grid blogging it across the world. A kind of decentralized flash mobbing for the mind, grid blogging is a synchronized guerrilla sharing carried out across a forest of blogs..."

big bad bruins

From the official WHL website:

CHILLIWACK ANNOUNCES NAME
Created: Apr 27, 2005

The WHL’s newest expansion franchise will be known as the Chilliwack Bruins. The announcement was made during a press conference at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack. The name Bruins is synonymous with Junior Hockey in the Fraser Valley as the Chilliwack Bruins were part of the BC Junior Hockey League from 1970-1976 and during that same time period the Junior A Bruins were the farm club of the New Westminster Bruins of the WHL. Chilliwack Mayor Clint Hames relishes the history of the name, “To bring back this name I believe recognizes an incredible hockey tradition in our community.” The Official Logo of the Bruins is still being designed and will be unveiled in a special ceremony in the future. The Chilliwack Bruins begin operations as part of the 06-07 Western Hockey League season and are already accepting deposits on season tickets.

my big brother

He is 8 years older than me. We were never in the same school together and he left home before I was a teenager. His profession was different than mine. I was an electronic engineer and he was an administrator in the field of social services. I lived in Canada, he in the US. Worlds apart, yet we valued our time together. We enjoyed being together.

When I started thinking about going into the ministry, we would talk. He would ask probing questions forcing me to think through things. Sometimes I didn't like his questions at first -- they made me feel uncomfortable, but later I appreciated them.

About six years ago I started to thinking about an administrative job with a church as an executive pastor. He helped me and gave me input into what the job would be like and when we moved to CA for the job, he and I got quite a bit closer. He'd call me mostly. Wonder how it was going. We talked finances, strategic planning, teams, organizational structures, and other stuff that was a huge part of our now common worlds. We both had the same cell phone companies and so our calls were not even long distance.

When I considered moving out of the job I was in, he was there to ask me questions and give me advice. He was a brother and a mentor and now he was a close friend, helping me in some of the big transitions of my life.

Since moving to Chilliwack and pastoring Heartland we haven't been in contact as much. Our vocational worlds have changed, he's still an administrator (CEO) with Childserve but I'm no longer in church administration.

He's in town now, and he and his wife are coming over for breakfast tomorrow. He has been doing something for the past few years that still makes my jaw drop. He's running marathons. He ran the Vancouver International Marathon this past weekend with his wife.

This is amazing since the most exercise he got before he got the running bug was playing badminton in high school.

We were talking about how training for a marathon is like life. You have the big goal in mind, and you work towards it one day at a time in reasonable chunks. You formulate a plan and execute the plan each day doing what you need that day. If you stay on course, you will achieve your big goal. For him, that is 26.2 miles.

the big 4 oh

It was due and now it's here. The big 4 oh. For my wife. I'm not that old, I'm 41. Her family is amazing. They all converged on our home from places like Ohio, Nebraska, and Iowa to do a big surprise. And they were successful. Their planning for the big surprise executed better than the plot of 24. My wife had no clue what was going down. I tried to get some good pictures, but my digital camera suddenly didn't want to focus. So I have a few pictures of one older, fuzzy looking 40 year old!

Then the people of Heartland sang happy birthday to her. We have this great tradition of having an all church potluck on the first Sunday of each month. Great times.