The end of summer and other stuff

Summer is almost over and it seems that, weather-wise anyway, it has only just begun. The nights are getting longer and the kids go back to school in a week’s time, so I guess that fall is just around the corner.

I realise I haven’t blogged that much this past while, but there just doesn’t seem to be much that I’ve had to write about. I’ve got my passion for reading back again and that’s probably what I’ve done most of this past while. The new building, watching lots of movies, and holiday time have accounted for a lot of my other time.

The best movies (not all new ones) I’ve seen lately have included: ‘Inkheart’, ‘Stone of Destiny’, ‘The Mission’ (lost count of how many times I’ve seen this one), ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘Bottle Shock’.

Some of the books I’ve read recently, or am still reading, are: ‘Mudhouse Sabbath’ (Lauren Winner), ‘Pagan Christianity?’ and ‘Re-Imagining Church’ (both Frank Viola), ‘Five By Endo (short stories)’ (Shusaku Endo), ‘Bioethics – A Primer for Christians’ (Gilbert Meilaender), and ‘Wishful Thinking – a Seeker’s ABC’ (Frederick Buechner). I’m also hoping to re-read ‘The Hobbit’ (Tolkien) and ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ (Solzhenitsyn) before the year is out. If you are content with the way of the Christian Church in the west then don’t read the Viola books. If you yearn for something else or are upset with the status quo in the church then drop everything else and start reading them, but beware – they will mess with your mind and bring discomfort. I’m still working my way through what they have done to me as I have read them and they have really got me thinking about what the future holds as far as what I’m involved in presently in my day to day living and working.

I realised today that it is exactly 6 months since I ate meat of any kind. I can honestly say that I now have no yearning to return to eating meat. I am comfortable with the choice I made to become a vegetarian. Oh, and before anyone tries to convince me that I am dishonouring God, don’t bother – I’ve been through it with others on a number of occasions and it gets tedious.

Only three weeks on Wednesday and I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Rogers Centre in Toronto for the U2 360 Tour. Counting the days!

Anyway, I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that your summer is going well. If you’re on Twitter follow me and I’ll reciprocate. I’m wcs53. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I’ll try to update more often if I find anything worth sharing.

Time away

It’s been a month since I wrote something here, but there just seems to have been nothing much to write about. We’ve been away from Elliot Lake for the past week and won’t be back for another week.

For the past week we’ve been in Michigan with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, enjoying a change of scenery and catching up with them. They also spent 10 days with us in Elliot before we all set off together. They are in Pembroke for a few days with friends before coming back here to Toronto on Wednesday and flying back home on Thursday.

Michigan was great. We had some relaxing times and some hectic times. Highlights were a day trying out most of the rides at ‘Michigan’s Adventure’ and a visit to Eerdmans Bookstore in Grand Rapids, where I picked up some great books at great prices, including three hard to get books by one of my favourite authors, Shusaku Endo.

We haven’t got much planned for the next week, other than some great family time together. I’ll post some pictures once we get back home to Elliot Lake.

The Shack

It seems like lots of people have been reading and writing about Wm. Paul Young’s bestseller, The Shack, so I thought it was about time I gave it a look. I’m about half way through and it’s been okay so far. I can understand why so many people are getting excited about it.

My favourite quote so far is where Mack is questioning the Trinity about their chain of command and Jesus replies with: “Once you have hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you.”

Unfortunately that sounds all too familiar. Anyway, I hope I enjoy the rest of the book.

Re-ignition required

Over the past few years I have been getting more and more disheartened with the direction of the church/organization that I work for. We are told time and time again about the ‘branding’ or image being important and how this needs to be at the forefront of all that we do. Pretentious slogans come and go, yet there are so many times that we don’t live up to the image or slogans that are portrayed. I feel strongly that the marketing of the church or Christianity is very offensive. It’s not some product that needs to be sold. In my opinion it is a sell-out.

What has happened that we are being taken over by marketeers? Why has image taken precedence over substance? We have reached a point where passion of conviction seems to have been sent to the back of the line. It is vey worrying. We seem more obsessed with looking good than actually being willing to step up and do something, no matter how controversial, about the ills of our society. We seem worried about speaking up against many of the things that affect people in their daily lives. How can that passion be re-ignited?

I’m off to a holiness seminar in a couple of weeks time and have started into some required reading for this. This reading consists of reading a collection of essays on the historical background of holiness teaching from the late 1970’s. One of the essays I read today, ‘References to Holiness Teaching in the Patristic Writings’, by Roger J. Green, contained the following quote, which I believe can give us a starting off point towards a re-ignition of our passion:

“The Salvation Army has too long been silent about events which would have enraged the holy, moral indignation of Polycarp and Booth, of Ignatius and Railton…

“We pay for our silence by attrition. We pay for our silence by passing the moral and ethical leadership of nations to deceivers, and to evil men. It is time once again to step within our tradition properly, as historical perspective gives us warrant…We must become the moral and ethical leaders of our political and social order. We have followed too long.”

Re-ignition anyone?

Hear the Voice!

I still enjoy reading the Bible. I’m always discovering new things about me, about life, and about God, amongst other things. I try to avoid the translation wars, which is one of the dumbest, divisive things in the church today. If people can understand what God is saying through the archaic language of the KJV, then that’s fine for them, but it doesn’t work for me. I appreciate the people today who involve their lives around trying to translate the ancient words into something we can understand and share with others. That’s why I really enjoy reading the books in The Voice series, which has been described as ‘a Scripture project to rediscover the story of the Bible’. 

A large number of scholars, writers, musicians and others have been brought together to bring about this project. We used The Voice on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday to help us tell the story and were able to have people from the congregation contribute the various voices included in the narrative. It offered a fresh perspective to words that sometimes become too familiar.

Check out the website for yourself. It may not replace your own personal favourite translation, but you may find it helpful as you try to share the good news with people around you who have no idea what it’s all about. Some people won’t like it. That’s okay. But don’t knock it or spoil it for those of us who do.

My favourite verse is translated as follows: “But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangbile display – the Liberating King died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Reconnecting

We got back from our holidays yesterday, so the next few days will be reconnecting with our ‘normal’ life again. Worship went well this morning and it was good seeing everyone again, although with it being summer many people are still not around.

The next few days will be catching up with stuff at home and the church. Next weekend we will be back to fundraising again for the new building project.

The holidays were great. We caught up with some friends, made some new friends and visited places familiar and new.

I wanted to get some reading done, but just never managed to focus enough. I did get some good books, though, and will try to get stuck into them when I’m ready. The Eerdman’s bookstore in Grand Rapids is a great place to pick up some well-priced books. I got the following 9 for just under $40.00!

The end of a heroic life well lived

As you probably may have heard, Alexander Solzhenitsyn died yesterday. One of my favourite books of all time is ‘A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’. Solzhenitsyn was a brave man who was willing to speak up against Stalin’s regime. His wife said that he had lived ‘a difficult but happy life’.

Many tributes have flooded in paying respects to this great man, but words alone cannot describe the legacy he has left behind. If you do nothing else in the next while, then get a copy of ‘A Day in the Life..’ and give it a read. It’ll help you understand why people are saying what they are saying.

Check out here and here for some tributes and info.

Free Books!

I always appreciate getting something good for free. Every month ChristianAudio gives away one free audio book. Some months I don’t bother, but generally the book on offer is a good one. This month it is the classic ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’, by Brother Lawrence. As well as the monthly offer, they have tons of books available for download. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed.

Thinking out loud…

Just a random collection of thoughts and events of late…

Always around this time of year I feel ready for a rest. This year is no exception. It’s been a busy time lately, what with a trip to Winnipeg for some study time, the purchase of a new building for our church, building committee meetings, the sale of our present church building, birthdays, changes in the life of our church, transitioning our son to a new school, a trip south for a funeral, and so on. We’ll get some vacation time in August and it will be great when that time of rest arrives.

We celebrated/remembered our tenth anniversary of our ordination this past week. It was kind of bitter sweet as we also received the news of another couple in our session tendering their resignation. In one sense it was quite surprising, but in another it wasn’t. I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s hard to explain. We live in the 21st century, yet we find ourselves serving in a movement/organisation/church that wants to continue harking back to the past. The hierarchy is still a convenience to hide behind when it suits. There are many who talk a good game of change, but when things don’t go the way they want them to, the trump card of hierarchy comes into place. It’s kind of sad. Will it take the last one left turning out the light, locking the door and throwing away the key to realise that there is really little relevance in holding on for dear life to things that really don’t matter in the larger picture of life. It’s a big worry, that’s for sure.

Reading has been hard of late, maybe because of assignments being due and other pressing matters. As usual I have a number of books on the go. I just finished Solzhenitsyn’s ‘For the Good of the Cause’, which was good, but not as good ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’. Included in ‘For the good..’ was some background into the whole censorship and exile that Solzhenitsyn underwent, which was very interesting. I am now trying to get through Pete Greig’s ‘The Vision and the Vow’, which is a very challenging book. It’s a must read, that’s for sure. Other books I’m picking up and including in my reading are: ‘Christ, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper’ (Leonard J. Vander Zee), ‘Everything Must Change’ (Brian McLaren), and ‘Wishful Thinking’ (Frederick Buechner). Hopefully I’ll get through a few of these this summer!

Some of the movies I’ve enjoyed lately include: ‘The Savages’, ‘The History Boys’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, ‘Cloverfield’, and ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’. We’re looking forward to ‘Wall.E’, which opens next weekend.

We gave Emily an i-Pod shuffle for her birthday, so I finally gave in and got an i-tunes acoount. I haven’t bought much yet, but I’m tempted by much, especially older stuff I don’t have on CD (all my old vinyl is still in the UK) – such as early Iron Maiden, some Blue Oyster Cult, Fish-era Marillion, amongst many others. I still have an e-music account (40 tracks a month for $9.99) and they just added some early Rush stuff to their catalogue, which I downloaded. Some of the stuff that I’m listening to the most lately includes: ‘An Ocean Between Us’ (As I Lay Dying), ‘The Ringing Bell’ (Derek Webb), ‘Messengers’ (August Burns Red), ‘Facedown’ (Matt Redman), ‘U2 Go home’ (U2), ‘Symphony no.6 – Pathetique’ (Tchaikovsky). I eagerly await the soon to be released new U2 album.

I’ve been spending some time at Plurk.com  If you join add me as a friend (my user name is wcs53). I’ve also been designing rooms at Webkinz (the kids bought me a couple of Webkinz).

Anyways, that’s enough thoughts for now.

Books, books, books!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I like to read. My goal is to try and read at least two books every month. The other week my friend’s wife was commenting on how she seems to always have at least half a dozen books on the go. I knew I had a few lying around that I had started, but I was surprised to find at least 14 that I have started that I need to get finished. Here’s the ones (so far found) that I need to get on with:

1. ‘Wishful Thinking’ – Frederick Buechner
2. ‘Everything Must Change’ – Brian McLaren
3. ‘The Last Crossing’ – Guy Vanderhaeghe
4. ‘The Secret Message of Jesus’ – Brian McLaren
5. ‘The Great Giveaway’ – David Fitch
6. ‘A Cup of Comfort for Parents of Children With Autism’ – ed. Colleen Sell
7. ‘The Voice of Luke – Not Even Sandals’ – Brian McLaren
8. ‘The Vision and the Vow’ – Pete Greig
9. ‘What’s So Amazing About Grace’ – Philip Yancey
10. ‘The Children of Hurin’ – J.R.R. Tolkien
11. ‘Jesus for the Non-Religious’ – John Shelby Spong
12. ‘Sex God’ – Rob Bell
13. ‘The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 1′ – ed. Walter Hooper
14. ‘Tolkien and C.S. Lewis – the Gift of Friendship’ – Colin Duriez
15. ‘The Wide Window’ – Lemony Snickett
16. ‘Songs for Renewal’ – Janet Lindeblat Janzen and Richard Foster

Oops, that’s 16! I better go and get reading!