Thought for the Day

"All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still."

Blaise Pascal, French philosopher (1623-1662).

I'm not a political junkie, but...

I'm not a political junkie, but I must admit one of my political heros is Tony Blair. Even though I probably lean more toward the political right, Blair has always hit me as an honest, principled, down to earth kind of person. I have aways appreciated his communication style and his governments accomplishments have been amazing. One thing that has been kept buried are his deep conservative religious beliefs. The Globe and Mail had a fascinating article on him that is worth reading.

It was fun to see him portrayed by Michael Shean in The Queen. If you haven't seen it, you can catch his resignation speach here. He is a master communicator worth watching and learning from. (I guess that's the preacher in me surfacing...)

Ouch! I got gas...

I bought a Corolla because I wanted some economical transportation. But then fuel hit 122.9 / liter.

$1.22.9!!! Per liter.

I went to fill the tank and it cost me $50.01.

$50.01!!!

And I didn't even try to squeeze it full. I couldn't. I was nauseous.

Facebook fanatics please fill me in

I finally got my face on Facebook. But after a couple of weeks of being on Facebook I have to admit I just don't get it. I do value my friends who have hooked up with me in cyber-space...deeply! But people spend hours doing this? And I thought blogging (and the endless reading of blogs) could get ridiculous.

Maybe I'm just old or really out of touch with reality. Oh, I know it is about community and social networking and that it's growing by 100,000 members a week with 2,000,000 members world-wide (500,000 of them in Toronto alone, making it the center of the Facebook Universe...).

But thanks to Yoni Goldstein, I finally understand what Facebook is all about:

"The following is a list of the things you can do on Facebook: You can (a) post pictures of yourself, (b) find long lost friends whom you never really cared about anyways (that's why they became long lost in the first place), (c) post messages to your Facebook friends on their Facebook sites (important communiques like "Happy Birthday" or "that party last night rocked!"). You can also (d) cyber-bully the trusty nerds at school or (e) slander all the people you dislike."

That's just about what I had gathered through my brief Facebook career. Now just in case Yoni is misinformed, please let me in on the big secret, because on my own I don't think I'm going to figure it out. Maybe I'm just not post-modern enough. Or maybe I have a life. :)

PS: Yoni also says that Ontario has banned government employees from accessing the Facebook website from government computers (along with YouTube, gambling, and porn). Something about productivity issues...hmmm...I better get back to work...

New wine, or just old wine with a new name?

Just got back from District Conference, and along with all the great leadership moments with John (the corn feeds the cows and the cows feed the corn), it's always a good scene for connecting with good friends having some great conversations about life and ministry (thanks Stewart!).

And it stirred up some of my thinking about the contemporary church and culture.

I recently stumbled on something Alan Roxburgh wrote that articulates some of my nagging concerns with my own understanding of the issues, as well as the perspective a lot of pastors in our PAOC fellowship seem to express when I talk to them. He stated that while there is a lot of interest in church transformation, which is an indication of crisis and opportunity for churches, too often we as leaders still opt for techniques and programs that are simply baptized with missional language. We don’t understand the depth of culture change that is required with church systems.

Does the church need change? Not just change our language or swap the existing program or try the latest technique, but change the very culture of the church, the paradigm we have of ourselves and our mission?

Yup.

How?

You can catch the full thought by Alan Roxburgh here.