Just Thinking

When things get dark.

One of my favorite books, you know, one of those ones you keep reading again and again, is “God Was In This Place & I Did Not Know It” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. It’s a collection of various rabbis understandings and thoughts on the passage in Genesis 28:16 where Jacob wakes up from a dream and exclaims … well, he yells the title to Rabbi Lawrence’s book.  It has been a constant reminder to me to be aware of God’s presence with me at all times.  It always amazes me how blind we are to the miraculous that hides just behind the ordinary, and just beneath the mundane minutiae of our daily lives.  It’s one of the things about my character that I am most frustrated with.  This past week was another reminder for me. Read more…

Never Stop Learning

I’m in Eagle, Idaho this weekend to speak at a retreat on Contemplative Prayer, and I’ve been enjoying the chance to hangout with my good friend, Robin and his family.   One of the things I enjoy the most about Robin is that even after years of ministry and life experience and a doctorate in ministry he still approaches life with a learner’s heart.  Every time I visit Robin and spend time looking around his library, I always go home with a big list of books I’d like to get from Amazon, and an even longer list of questions I need to ponder.

So what do you do to keep learning?   Read more…

I love this poster!

Lately, I’ve been struggling more than usual with the problem of procrastination.  I have big plans, and ideas, task lists, and dreams, but I just can’t seem to get them done.  It’s as if there’s always something else that needs doing, or that gets my attention.  It feels a bit like high school again, when the only time I would ever clean my room was when I had a paper due the next day, and cleaning my room was the last thing I could do to put off writing the paper just a little bit longer.  I’m intrigued by my struggle with procrastination and I’ve been wondering why it is that it’s been my constant companion for so many years.  A few days ago I did what I always do when I am intrigued by something, I bought a book on the subject.  It’s a nerdy practice, I know, but it has also led to the development of a pretty decent personal library.  I even have a book on the art of mind control practiced by the ancient ninjas.   Read more…

So a few weeks ago I was down in the states for a friends wedding.  My buddy Aaron and his fiance, Joanna, were scheduled to exchange their vows, and commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives and they felt that I should be present to witness this occasion.

Some people would have seen my role as a legal witness, others would have seen it as a spiritual witness, but I feel that my role was to look sexy in my tux (A role I feel I accomplished completely.) Read more…

"Suffer not the little children..."

There’s been a lot of talk, and writing, and blogging lately about the whole idea of missional church.  I am one of those that believes that while the church in North America is not the great whore of Babylon, it may have drifted a little from what it was initially called to be.  For that reason, I have been wrestling, as a pastor, and church leader, with some of the missional concepts and also with some of the questions that need to help us understand how we got here in the first place.  As I’ve been reading, and talking with others on the missional journey, I have noticed a disturbing gap in the thinking and theorizing that’s been done so far.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of talk about what children’s ministry might look like in this missional paradigm.  In fact, it seems to me that a lot of the churches that might be considered to be missional are actually undermining themselves in their children’s ministry.  While the adult congregation is coming to see church as something that you are, their children are still being trained to see church as somewhere that you go.  So last night we decided to tackle this issue in a little brainstorming session. Read more…

A Very Silly Canadian.

So, I am on my way back from my friend’s Aaron and Jo’s wedding.  I had a great time hanging out in the Boise area with Ben, Tim, Robin, Shad, Chaya and the rest of the gang.  Ben and I decided that the best way to refer to the weekend as a whole would be to call it SillyFest 2009.  As those of you that know Ben can attest to, when he is around, things have a habit of getting silly all of a sudden.  This weekend, this was a great talent to have.  In fact, it was a good reminder that I need to remember to be more silly at regular intervals throughout my life.   My silly muscles are sore today, which only reinforces the fact that they haven’t been used enough lately. Read more…

This isn’t going to be a big post, just reposting something from Simply Presentation about something Garr Reynolds said about making sales presentations.   I thought it was fitting for the church in a way so I’d thought I’d share it with you.

This is what he said: “Focus on your product/message/service/etc.  Don’t spend time talking about your competition or berating them. Focus on what you do well, and let your audience make their own comparisons.”

He writes:

What if our view of the bible is getting in the way of what the bible was supposed to be and do?  I tackle this question in my latest vlog.

Watch my video diary on YouTube.

What are you reading?

Okay, so I just noticed something on my facebook page from a friend of mine named Christen.  She added a note to her facebook page listing 10 books that would always stick with her and challenging others to do the same, so I thought I would accept the challenge.  So here goes.