Against Nothingness

It took a lot of convincing for me to join facebook.  Since then, I have maintained my skepticism, as noted by my earlier reference to several articles  on the subject.  I remember reading about facebook's change of term's back in February of 2009. This was a position which quickly engendered various degrees of outrage, prompting 20-some-thousand people to join protest groups on facebook (Oh, the irony), among other responses. It took less than a week for facebook to back down.    Of course, you still give facebook permission to use anything you post, including the keeping of data for "a reasonable period of time" after you delete it or delete your account... whatever that means.  So far, it seems they just don't delete content .  None of that is news.  Facebook is out to make money.  Integral to their ability to do so is the use of personal information from users.  Shocking, I know.  Aritcles like "The Future of Selling: It's Social"  from Forb

I am not going to lie. This post is basically just a chance for me to brag about how blessed I am.  I have a life filled with many joys.  As a pastor I get to perform many duties.  Some of them are tedious, frustrating, and difficult (as with any job).  However, I find that most of the duties of my position are not only fun, but bring me joy.  So, I think of teaching youth, hanging out, leading,being part of prayer meetings, preaching, and so much more that I am privileged to not only be able to do, but encouraged and upheld in the doing by a wonderful church family (thank you Burnaby Alliance!).   You may have noticed that in my list of joyous duties I did not include the two stereotypically associated with pastors: marrying and burying.  Indeed, until this past weekend I have had no occasion to perform in either of those capacities (as marry-er or bury-er).  Then came this past Saturday.  On Saturday I performed my first wedding ceremony, and for family no less.  My sister-in-la

Eric Swanson, Sam Williams. To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City. Zondervan, 2011.  224 pages.  Here is a book with a large vision.  The subtitle, corny as it sounds, actually encapsulates the message of the book.  Herein the authors explicate the ideas that we, as a whole church (not a single building or denomination), need to take the whole gospel (not just salvation from sin, but that and much more) to the whole city (not just the parts that fit conveniently with the make-up and preferences of your particular group of people).  This book was a pleasant surprise and an enjoyable read.  It provides a good mix of biblical and theological reflection with practical suggestions and ideas. Their vision of the kingdom of God, of the city, and of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit working through the church were all refreshing, well researched and well thought out.   One point I wanted to share came from the end of chapter two, "City and Community Tran

A couple of months ago I had a dialogue with a friend, via email, on the subject of Christians dating and marrying non-Christians.  It ended up being a really good conversation, and my friend asked a lot of good questions that I think others might wonder about.  So, with this friends permission, I am posting an edited version of that conversation for you. We started off with two sets of questions: When dealing with relationships when it involves the other person being a  non-Christian: i. What are the consequences of having such a relationship, especially if it eventually  involves marriage? Will one's salvation be lost due to this even if the  believer still holds firm to his/her faith in Christ? Is there punishments  involved? What if the non-believer eventually decide to receive Christ after  marriage by witnessing his/her parter's faith and love? ii. And is there a way to deal with this issue other than saying a direct no  to the whole matter? My response:  i. It

Carl McColman, The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader: Spiritual Lessons from C.S. Lewis's Narnia. Paraclete Press, 2011.  144 pages.  Provided for review.   #SpeakEasyNarnia  Special thanks for providing this in electronic format; so much easier that way.  Sometimes the title, and subtitle, just says it all.  You don't even need to read the back of this book to know what it is about.  It is a book outlining some of the spiritual lessons we can learn form Narnia and, more specifically, from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader .  After all, C.S. Lewis himself wrote that The Voyage  was about the spiritual life and journey of the Christian (though, it is not an allegory, a fact both Lewis and McColman are very clear about).  With this beginning, McColman explores just what lessons we can learn from this book, including such things as: the choice to walk with God is not always our own, mysticism does not make saints, everyone is at risk of slavery to sin, and much more (16 lesso

Ian Morgan Cron, Chasing Francis. Navpress, 2006. 208pg novel + 39pg study guide.  Provided for review.   #ChasingFrancisSpeakEasy Here we have the story of Chase Falson.  Chase is an evangelical mega-church pastor who has broken new ground and done what no-one thought he could: successfully created a large evangelical church in New England.  But things are not all roses and butterflies as Chase reaches the climax of a crises of faith in his pulpit .  As his board scrambles and his church threatens to disintegrate, Chase heads to Italy to hang out with his Franciscan uncle and learns how to be a new kind of Christian (recent literary echoes intentional) at the feet of St. Francis the 'first postmodern Christian.' Such is the story... at least, in brief intro and outline.  I fiercely desired this book to be good.  It has received several rounds of ringing endorsements, many from people I respect.  As an evangelical pastor, the story hook was nearly irresistible.  Sadly, the

Ran into an 'interesting' article on the New York Times today.   The Happy Marriage is the 'Me' Marriage   with an associated quiz to see how well you are doing.  The initial point of the article is that those things which make for a lasting marriage do not necessarily make for a happy marriage.  Instead, the best marriages are those which bring satisfaction to the individual.  Tara Parker-Pope (the author of the article) briefly wonders: "I sn’t marriage supposed to be about putting the relationship first?" But quickly responds: "Not anymore."  Marriage used to be about this, among other things, but in "modern relationships" people want someone who will make their lives more interesting.  Enter the concept of 'self-expansion' and a quiz to go with it.  Throw in some quotes from psychologists, a few thoughts on how couples grow together, and conclude with a wonderful throwawa y quote:  “If your partner is helping you become a bet

R.P., Nettelhorst, A Year with God: Daily Readings and Reflections on God's Own Words. Thomas Nelson, 2010. 399 pages.  Disclaimer: This book was provided by Thomas Nelson for review.   As I am sure you can guess from the title, this is a book of daily devotionals.  It is organized topically with antonymous pairs as "Hope and Fear" and "Love and Hate."  Within each topic, the reader will find several dozen entries which move from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end, roughly speaking.  There is no attempt to hit every verse, or chapter, or story, just that each days reading, within each topic, move sequentially through the OT.   I began this book thinking that, for a daily devotional, it seemed fairly good.  However, by the end I was thoroughly disappointed.  It quickly became clear that while the title of each days entries were chosen to be provocative, the content was rather poorly thought out.  About half way through I started to wonder if the a

I can't remember the last time I made any kind of neoteric heliacal circumvolution determinations (henceforth known as NHCD's).  I think the first one ought to be something about making less liberal use of a thesaurus.  I just wanted to see how convoluted I could make the phrase "New Year's Resolution" because I tend to look at such exercises as silly.  It makes me feel better to call it something elaborate.  Kristina calls NHCD's (hereafter abbreviated as ND's) 'pedantic.' I suppose they can be at that.  Personally, I think if you want to change something then just do it.  Why make a big deal about an arbitrary calendar date?  As far as I have ever been able to tell there is no mystical power available just today, no subterranean door which opens up every Jan. 1st to release the mists of change.  However, I have recently been reminded that 'my way' is not necessarily better.  As hard as it is to believe mine and better  are not synony