The Garden Gulag

I was concerned that Maryn's vegetables would try to escape, so I have imprisoned them. These veggies will just have to stay behind the fence until we eat them! [Actually, I'm just trying to keep the pesky neighborhood deer from beating us to them. Bunch of thugs...]

Nanaimo third-best in Canada for walking

Danielle Bell, Daily NewsPublished: Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Nanaimo has been judged as the third-best place in Canada to take a stroll. The Harbour City finished No. 3 overall, behind only Vancouver and Fredericton. The contest was open to the country's 100 most populous cities.

POPULAR WALKS:
1. Harbourfront Promenade
2. Westwood Lake
3. Neck Point
4. Jack Point
5. Piper's Lagoon
6. E&N Trail
7. Parkway Trail
8. Extension Ridge Trail
9. Colliery Dam
10. Chase River Estuary Trail

I've done at least part of 8 of the 10. And some of the them are amazing.

We get to share Dave with the whole country!

If you care about this, you undoubtedly already know, but let me add my 2 bits. Dave is an awesome guy and I'm super proud of him and excited about the gift he is to our PAOC Fellowship as our next General Superintendent. But...I'm sad because I probably won't get to hang around him so much. He is truly one of my favorite people who has had a profound impact on my life. So I've just decided to approach it this way: BC is not loosing Dave, we're just sharing him with the rest of the country.

Here's the scoop from the PAOC website.

From boring teenagers to wild animals

Okay, so his last point about escapism needs to be taken under advisment, but this 'bout says it all. You can read the whole article here.

From boring teenagers to wild animals
By YUKON JACK
VIDEO GAMES NOT TO BLAME

For the past week, virgins everywhere have been locked in their basements playing the biggest video game in history, Grand Theft Auto 4.

Soon, you'll be hearing about all the sales figures that it smashed, about how the video game industry is bigger than Hollywood and about how gaming isn't just for nerds anymore.

And now that the moms and dads and social watchdogs have had a chance to check out the content of Grand Theft Auto - the stealing, the shooting, the blowing up, the cop killing, the knife weilding, the bank robbing and, of course, the pimping and prostitution we're hearing Nancy Grace and the likes whining about how video games are responsible for the downfall of society.

"The rotting morals of our youth can be attributed to video games. Video games are to blame."

No they're not. You are to blame. Parents. Uninvolved, dis-interested, selfish, irresponsible parents. We ALL grew up with "bad" pop-culture influences. Maybe it was Cheech and Chong, NWA, Freddy Krueger, Porky's, 2 Live Crue, Black Sabbath, Southpark, Madonna, or The Simpsons.

Whatever it was, whenever it was, it didn't matter if your parents were involved in your life. If your parents were there to keep you grounded and make sure you knew the difference between fantasy and reality, then it was never a problem.

So, moms and dads, before you go pointing your fingers at the makers of video games, have a look at yourself first. 'Cause if you're a good, responsible parent, then your kids are probably equipped to handle a little escapism. I'd rather have my kid shooting up a schoolyard on my Playstation than shooting up a schoolyard. In the meantime ... I'll just shut my big yap.

Another Great Tune!

Great Tune!

Starfield Brings the House Down!

Yikes - This is scary! It happened the day after Adam and a bunch of our youth leadership saw Starfield in Victoria. This is why we never allowed a mosh pit when I was at Harvest City Church. The floor just couldn't handle a hundred people jumping up and down at the same time. I think the engineers need to re-think thier load-bearing calculations for churches with this in mind!

Here is the article (for those of you who won't bother to go here).

Church stage collapses in Abbotsford, B.C.
JEREMY NUTTALL Globe and Mail Update
April 26, 2008 at 10:47 AM EDT ABBOTSFORD, B.C. —

There was carnage at a Christian rock show in British Columbia Friday night when the floor of the venue collapsed.

Twenty three people ended up in hospital with injuries ranging from minor to serious. The incident happened around 9:30 pm about 70 kilometres East of Vancouver in Abbotsford at the Central Heights Church. About 1,000 people were at the church to see the Christian rock band, Starfield.

"The portion of the floor that gave way is directly in front of the stage," said Constable Casey Vinet of the Abbotsford police. "

Const. Vinet said a section of the floor roughly seven meters by seven meters gave way at some point during the show. When the floor collapsed, it sent audience members — most of them teenagers — plummeting five meters to the church basement. Why the floor gave way has not been determined, but some witnesses have said equipment fell from the ceiling and crashed into the floor, causing the collapse.

"Everything that can be done will be done to determine the cause," said Const. Vinet. "Right now, we've called out our detective unit and our forensic identification services team. They will take over the scene and begin an investigation."

Const. Vinet said 32 people were treated at the scene. David Plug of Fraser Health said two people were sent to special units in Vancouver for care. He would comment on the nature of the injuries.

The emergency room of Abbotsford Regional Hospital was packed last night as victims of the fall waited to receive care. Mr. Plug said as many as 15 people were told to go to other hospitals, all within a half an hour drive. The waiting room was filled with people bearing somber eyes and frowns. Others seemed in disbelief as they waited for medical attention. Mr. Plug said staff were ready for the push of wounded concert-goers.

"It was a relief they handled it so well," said Mr. Plug. "And that there was not as many people injured as their might have been."

Mr. Plug also said, because of a local pastor and his knowledge of families in the area, it was much easier than usual to locate relatives of injured youths. He said that help keep operations at the hospital running smoothly. There has not been comment from the church on the incident.

Ponder

"Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, than thing for you is sin.” - Susannah Wesley

What season is this?

What season is April? Right now I am in in Alberta visiting my parents, and it is a freezing cold -9, with a few light flurries. But then Scott Chadwich emailed me some pictures that he took THIS MORNING of his yard in Nanaimo. I thought he was joking. Well, at least I don't have to worry about my new shrubs drying out while I'm away!

Getting things to grow

We've been busy planting shrubs and ground cover the past few weeks. We've put in about 160 plants so far, and we still have to do trees and large shrubs. Most of what we've done so far are a couple of different types of yellow varigated cedars shrubs,

a bunch of creeping broom, which is supposed to be a great ground cover for steep slopes, (looks kind of ugly now!),

and some scotts pine, among other things. Let it grow!

The grass is green and growing

Well, thankfully the snow didn't hang around and I was able to get back to the yard work. Yes, the lawn actually needed cutting.

But to be honest, I also had to try out the new mower. I traded the one I had purchased last fall in on a new self propelled model. The old one was a good machine with a 6.5 horse Briggs and Straton motor, but it seemed a little heavy, and the hills in the to yard just proved too much for the regular push job!

So the new one is orange. And yes, Don, it is a Husqvarna, a 5521BBC with a Honda motor to be exact. Variable speed rear wheel drive, blade brake (so you can turn off the cutting blade but still walk the machine), single leaver multi-wheel height adjustment, and of course option to mulch, side discharge, or rear bag. We take lawn mowing very seriously.

It better quit snowing, 'cause I need to mow my lawn

Hmph. It's after Easter on Vancouver Island. This isn't supposed to happen. ANYTIME! Let alone "spring". Yesch, give me a break. I have yard work to do!

A Pentecostal, an atheist, an Anglican and Buddhist went to heaven...

Here is a great article from the Vancouver Sun ~ The great beyond: A dialogue on Heaven . My friend Pastor Karen Reed, who is on staff at Broadway Church participated in a panel discussion that explored questions about whether heaven exists, whether it's a metaphor, whether it's a place, whether it's in the mind, how one gets there, different ways to interpret scriptures, and whether it is more important to create a heaven in this life than to yearn for an afterlife. It's good stuff. Way to go Karen! You're my hero!

Nanaimo is the Capital of Google Earth!

Have you heard the news? The city of Nanaimo has mapped nearly every conceivable thing using Google Earth and Google Maps, according to Michael Jones, Google Earth's chief technology officer. We have more information about our city than the people of San Francisco.
You can read the TIME article here, or check it out for yourself at earth.nanaimo.ca. There is actually a great hi-rez picture of our house, even though it is about 2 years old, which was before we moved in and before I planted our lawn (which by the way, is growing and will need mowing soon!)

Preachers should pause...

A a preacher I've been aware of the huge communication shift that is going on in our contemporary (read 'postmodern') culture. It should have tremendous influence on how guys and gals like me present, er...preach. I know I am challenged by this, and struggling with it.

Here's an interesting take from Christine Persaud's blog MarketnewsGadgetTalk that underscores the interactive path media providers are exploring. It's not new news, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Early Easter Trivia

With Easter very early this year, coming on March 23, I found this interesting. You may have seen it already.

Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st Full Moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20th.) This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above information, Easter can actually be one day earlier, falling on March 22nd, but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives. Only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early before - only those 95 years old or more! None of us have ever, or will ever, see it any earlier than it is this year. (And all the music pastors said 'AMEN!')

Here are the facts:

1). The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was in 1913, so if you are 95 years old or older, you are the only ones who were around for that!

2). The next time Easter will fall on March 22nd will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22nd was in 1818. So, no one alive today has ever seen or will ever see it any earlier than it is this year!

Nanaimo is Canada's 18th most dangerous city

Maclean's has come up with a list of the most dangerous cities in Canada (pop. 50,000 or more) based on 2006 per capita crime rates. The study took into account six types of crimes: murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, breaking and entering, and auto theft.

Nanaimo came in 18th worst. Surprsingly, Regina tops the list (keep your head down, Dustin!), although it was in a virtual dead heat with Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Only one eastern city, Halifax, made the top 10. Five of the top 10 cities are in B.C., although Vancouver comes in at a surprisingly low No. 9. The others are Prince George (4), New Westminster (6), Chilliwack (7) and Victoria (8).

According to Maclean's, the break-and-enter rates in Chilliwack and Victoria would put them among the top 10 per cent of all American cities.

If You Die, I'll Kill You!

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."

It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

The mayor said he was forced to take drastic action after an administrative court in the nearby town of Pau ruled in January that the acquisition of adjoining private land to extend the cemetery would not be justified.

Lalanne, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday and is standing for election to a seventh term in this month's local elections, said he was sorry that there had not been a positive outcome to the dilemma.

"It may be a laughing matter for some, but not for me," he said.

Is Facebook Over?

Okay, maybe I'm just old, but I have to admit, I'm bored with Facebook. Actually, I never really got too excited about it in the first place. Chris Sorensen, Business Reporter for the Toronto Star has got a good take. Check out his article Has Facebook fatigue arrived? where he says that some of the social network's 67 million users are bored. But if growth is slowing among older people, the website is essential for those aged 12 to 34, who find that without Facebook, 'you're not in the loop'

Reveal: Where Are You?

I just picked up Reveal: Where Are You?, the Willow Creek publication by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson that articulates what has been dubbed ‘Bill Hybels’ Confession’. Some have used this to attack the seeker church model that Hybels pioneered, but it really has nothing to do with sin, as some would like to make it out to be. Some of you have been asking me about it, so here is a summary.

Based on a significant scientific research project (which was interesting as Aileen is currently taking a research course the deals with qualitative and quantitative research methods) done at Willow Creek from 2004-2007, the research team discovered that their church was not doing as well as they had thought when it came to spiritual growth. Not only where they brave enough to ask the hard questions, but they were brave enough to share their findings with the world. Hardly scandalous!

The questions the project raised and observations they made have revolutionized the way they look at the role of the local church. They say the church and its myriad of programs has taken on too much of the responsibility for people’s spiritual growth, which they define as ‘an increasing love for God and for other people’. I love their definition. Their findings certainly clarify some of the issues I’ve had in the back of my mind as I have thought about the church and its role over the past years.

Willow Creek made six key discoveries based on their data:
1. Involvement in church activities does not predict or drive long-term spiritual growth. A higher level of church activity does not correlate directly to an increasing love for God or increasing love for people. Church busyness is not next to godliness.

2. Spiritual growth is all about increasing relational closeness to Christ. God has wired us to be in a growing relationship with him – not with the church. There is a passionate instinct born in all of us that desires to draw closer to God. As we draw closer, we begin to see a dramatic change in how we live our lives and relate to other people.

3. The church is most important in the early stages of spiritual growth. Its role then shifts from being the primary influence to a secondary influence. As one matures in Christ, the importance of services and small groups for spiritual development decreases. The church’s role becomes more a platform to provide serving opportunities. This makes a lot of sense, because as the mature believes step into a serving role, they minister to the new believers who need this to jump-start their spiritual lives, so both groups are in a place where they can experience profound spiritual growth.

4. Personal spiritual practices such as prayer, journaling, solitude, and scripture study are the building blocks for a Christ-centered life. They are the driving force in spiritual growth, so the church doesn’t need to handhold people who are moving along in the later stages of the spiritual continuum.

5. A church’s most active evangelists, volunteers, and donors come from the most spiritually advanced segments. The more one grows, the more one serves, tithes, and evangelizes. This surprised Willow Creek because their assumption was that new believes, with their passion for faith and relationships with people who where not Christ followers, had the highest evangelistic fervor.

6. More than 25 percent of those surveyed described themselves as spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. (Many of these people are considering leaving their church – which for a church as good as Willow Creek is frightening – I mean, if Willow can’t keep people coming, who can?)

Stalled people are those who consider themselves close to Christ, but haven’t grown in their spiritual life. They are Christians who have run into difficult life circumstances or come face-to-face with a personal weakness (addiction, inappropriate relationship, emotional issue) that has become a significant barrier to spiritual growth. Dissatisfied people see their faith as central to their lives, but feel their church is letting them down. Essentially, they have a high level of expectation for what the church can and should deliver, but have become jaded, cynical, and disillusioned.

Considering these observations, and looking specifically at the Stalled and Dissatisfied segments of their survey group led the research team to the big “aha” moment of the project. The data indicated that both the Dissatisfied and the Stalled portions still look almost exclusively to the church to lead their spiritual growth. They tend to voice complaints about the need for more in-depth teaching, more connection opportunities, more serving options and more of everything they feel is missing from their church experience. But the heart of their unhappiness may be the fact that neither segment seems to realize that much of the responsibility for their spiritual growth belongs to them. Obviously this isn't strictly their fault. The church has had something to do with it!

After taking over two years so assimilate the data, they are making three strategic changes to their vision:
1. Change the message to the congregation. It is not the role of the church to meet everyone’s spiritual needs. They want to move people from dependence on the church to a growing interdependent partnership with the church and see people take an increasing level of responsibility for feeding themselves through personal spiritual practices.
2. Coach next steps. They want to transition the role of the church from spiritual parent to spiritual coach. They are working on a tool that will assist them as a church to help people discern what is the next step they need to take in their spiritual development. It will be interesting to see what this looks likes.
3. Extend the impact of their weekend services. Focus more attention on those who are further along the spiritual continuum by providing tools like journals, study questions, and commentary notes that themed with the message to assist people digging into scripture for themselves. I imagine that this is a big shift for the mother of the seeker sensitive church.