Community

I was hit with the biggest of contradictions today. For all the wonderful initiatives being carried out to promote a sustainable future for North America there is still a large chunk of the population that really hasn’t paid attention. And most of us who are trying to live lives that are in some way ecologically-minded often find ourselves making the occasional decision that goes against our larger goals. I’m certainly not one to judge anyone at all. My consumptions habits range from decent and moderate to excessive and wasteful, all in one afternoon.

But today I was really struck by a disparity. I was sitting, eating lunch in a local diner (not a chain) and reading Tom Sine’s book The New Conspirators (a very important book, fully recommended). I was in the chapter talking about ways to live sustainably and locally when I over heard a conversation at the next table.

Just as I was beginning to pledge allegiance to the colour green I heard a couple of ladies discussing their plans for a shopping trip to Buffalo, NY – roughly 3 hours from our present location. Cross border shopping is very common in Ontario, especially with the American dollar in the state it is in. So the women were discussing the best route to take to hit all all the great bargains. The one thing they were really keen on was the thing that really struck me… A foaming coconut soap from some big American box store. Now, once again, I am not judging these people at all, I am equally guilty. If anything their conversation opened up to thinking honestly about my own addictions to all things exotic and trendy, such as certain European crafted beers and spirits. Just think about it, traveling three hours by car, to Buffalo – to another country – to get soap scented with milk from the tropical coconut; the ingredients for which probably came from 3 or 4 different countries, almost all of them tropical.

Is the pressure we place on our natural world and infrastructure really worth saving a few dollars on coconut soap?

Tags: green, environment, local, dollar, consumption, habit, border, tom sine, new conspirators

Canada Day Rawdon St. Block Party 2008, originally uploaded by senor diecast.

I love my church.

Every year we block off a section of the street in front of the church (legally) and throw a block party on the Canada Day weekend. This year there were easily over a couple hundred people from the church and neighborhood filling the street where we had a barbecue, great conversation, a wee bit of frisbee, a multitude of sparklers for the kids, and a great fireworks display. We never advertise ahead of time – just block off the street, fire up the grill and welcome anyone who might happen by.

Rawdon Street Baptist Church has been a light in this corner of the city for a long, long time. Sometime soon I’m going to write out a bit of our history here for you. It’s never been that large of a family and it may never be, but it is far from anemic. I hope this little missional family continues to infect its neighborhood with the Kingdom of God for a long time to come.

I am the unofficial webmaster for our church community. Last year I had set up a nice fancy wordpress site based on Adam Walker Cleaveland’s Cleaker theme, but I managed to utterly destroy it. I’ve finally gotten around to rebuilding from the ground up. I don’t excel at troubleshooting, so I chose to gut the whole thing (including the database) and begin fresh. Kind of like God did with the flood, with Noah being the spared index file.

Here is the new site. Fresh and simple, it is missing some essential info relating to what we actually do and when, but otherwise it is alive and kicking.

Tags: webdesign, wordpress, rawdon street

Check with me in a few days. We’ll see if I really believe myself here or not…

I thought I might post some of my reflections so far from my reading of the various posts on missional. My intent here is not to generalize or dismiss anything that I disagree with, nor to fully endorse anywhere I might find myself agreeing. This is an exercise in sorting. Doing consciously what our brains are doing subconsciously at all times.

Do More

I need to address what I think is a grave error. We have missed a step. The worthy opinion is that to be missional is to get off your ass more often. By all means, YES, but that isn’t the road to a more healthy worldview or community. The ingenuity and servant movement of many of those who are living missionally is very much in tune with what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Faith has to be lived out, but the wonderful thing about the concept of missional is that we can stop believing that it is up to us to run the course while God cheers us on from the bleachers. Missional isn’t just action, it is action with, resulting from, in response to, in the wake of, in the footprints of, in the arms of our missioning God.

I recognize that we need this kick in the pants because of our tendency to, more often than not, go the opposite way. But missional focus reminds us that ultimately it is our God who moves. With a spirit of watching the movement of God we can truly rest. Sabbath will cease to create anxiety because of our inaction.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have not simply been set loose by God to complete a task that has been laid out for us. Instead we are called into participation with Him as He recreates and renews creation. While our feet will be quickened to respond to his call when we truly live into this relationship, it is not our duty to march on and do what we believe God wants done.

More so, our duty is to notice. Notice the things that God is doing in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. When we really begin to notice what is going on we will see better the actions that are called for. Love notices, then responds. Love listens and then, perhaps, answers.

I fear that too often we believe that just because we have read a few books, including the Bible, that it is our job to be the Avengers; that by our actions the world will be a better place. This idealism is something I battle against in my own life and it never seems to work out all that well in history.

Let’s be less quick to just do it, and quicker to listen. Perhaps that posture of prayer and waiting is also a part of a missional life. Then, having regained our proper footing, we will be more ready to leap into action.

To everyone who has posted about our need to get out and do, know that I am not disagreeing with that at all, I just wanted to add one more spice to that recipe.

I’m probably going to post a few more reflections over the next couple days.

Tags: missional, missional synchroblog, prayer, gospel

I had a quick follow-up thought after putting up my Missional post last night. The thing that I find invigorating about a missional Christianity is that there is only one mission.

God’s mission is our mission.

Let me explain:

In the modern paradigm there seem to be two things going on.

One: There is God’s mission, which was to send Jesus into the world to die for our sins and then to prepare a heavenly home for us post-resurrection.

Two: There is our mission, which is to tell people about what God accomplished and will accomplish (note the past and future emphasis with nothing to say about today)

In a missional Christianity God’s mission is very much different. Yes it includes the sending of Jesus, the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. But those events are embedded in the thing that God has been doing all along. The past, present, and future work of the reintegration of all of creation with the purposes of God. In a missional Christianity we are called to be full participants in the work of this God on a mission. A God who most often has shown himself to us as He who is active and involved in His creation.

One mission. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Tags: missional, mission, creation, god, jesus, missioning

This post is a contribution to the Missional Synchroblog organized by Rick Meigs.

It held promise. Honestly, I had held out hope. As much as I had had issues with the direction of the place in the past, I had never heard a blatant rejection of the type of Christianity that I hold dear. In all actuality this is a place that for me holds a high place of honor when it comes to mission. A church with a proud missionary tradition of going to the farthest reaches of every continent, and even to our own indigenous people groups. They had sent people into the “darkest” places on earth. Those who were sent were known in every context to be people of great love and compassion. I know many of them personally and can attest to these claims.

Like I said, regardless of any other frustrations I have had with leadership, committees, programs, structures, and style, I had always said, “These people get mission.” I’m not sure if I still believe that… Let me explain.

What I heard today was a point by point upholding of the old ways. The “take Jesus to the dark places where they didn’t have him, and tell them the message that will save their soul from flames” way of doing mission. It wasn’t all bad, but much of it was downright horrible.

Things started off well enough. We sang songs (you can’t go wrong with a good old hymn sing). We sang and prayed about the importance of getting into God’s streams – of following Him where ever He may go. After all, it is true that “people need the Lord”. (He’s the open door)

The first lines of the sermon were pretty much great. “Your mission cannot fail because it is God who has ordained it.” Oh, but wait… what was that? As we walked a hop-skip-jump Roman Road for the next 30 minutes I found myself frantically searching for the context surrounding the cherry-picked verses that outlined a lot of stuff that did seem to be in that context…

• how knowledge about Jesus was what people need to be saved
• how if there is anything we need to include in a gospel message it is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – anything else we may do or say can just get in the way
• how people first need to know that they are doom to eternal hell (I had a hard time finding the word eternal in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man — but no doubt it was somewhere in Romans)
• we heard how the biggest prayer meeting in all the cosmos was going on in Hell right now
• we heard how when Jesus said to GO he added on the “make disciples” line as a secondary command. Sort of a “while you are going and saving souls you might should probably make a few disciples along the way as well.”

All of these statements trouble me to various degrees, but their were two things that troubled me more than anything. I heard today that God has given us a mission. We as people have a mission to reach people. Our mission is crucial because it is the way God has chosen to work in this world. God has chosen to limit himself to using people to accomplish the gospel. Over and over it was Our Mission. God didn’t seem to have much to do with it at all, outside of giving us the power to accomplish it. So, the question that arises is, “What is God really up to then?”

How did we miss it? Being a church that has stood on its head for mission for the last 50 years, where have we been looking that we have missed the most crucial aspect. How did we not hear anything about the fact that GOD has a Mission in this world? Did I miss something? Has God completed what he is doing and now he has chosen to sit back and watch us do our thing? Not a chance! Our God is active. He is present. He is at work. He is reaching out to the broken and hurting. He is sitting patiently and moving actively with the stubborn and stressed, the hungry and suffering, weak and afflicted.

Yes, we are part of this. God wants us to be a part of this. God wants us to find our place in His mission. Our God is a Missioning God who has called us to partner with Him for His cause. That cause being the restoration and completion of ALL THINGS. The redemption of all sin (disintegration from God). The patching up of broken dreams and relationships. The patching up of wounded knees and hearts.

We are also called to proclaim the message of God. We are called to proclaim the message of Jesus, our hope of a life lived in the glorious reign of God. His Kingdom here on earth. Our Saviour who would could not be beaten by the powers of this world. But who was resurrected as fully aligned with the Kingdom of God as ever before. Our Saviour the fully integrated person of God, moving and active in our world then just as He is today.

Today, in that church service, the question repeated over and over was “do you know where you are going after this life?” The question I believe God would have us ask is much more Missional, much more Incarnational. God’s question to us is, “do you know where you are living Today? Are you living in My Kingdom, or are you living in the Kingdoms of this world?”

The second thing that bothered me is very much tied into the first. Since we are called to participate with God’s Mission in the world we have to ask ourselves, what is God’s Mission? I believe He is doing the same thing Jesus was doing. Proclaiming peace in the midst of war, healing in the midst of sickness, hope in the midst of despair, subversion in the midst of Empire, and life in the midst of death. As missional Christians we are called to live a life that is marked by our Master. A life drenched in Kingdom values. We are not called to lead people toward an intellectual understanding of how they are sinners, need Jesus, and can have Jesus come and save them so they can have be given life after this life. Jesus’ intellectual conversations on the metaphysics of salvation were few in comparison to his many interactions with “the least of these”. Interactions where he provide immediate healing and hope, not just a hope for tomorrow or the next life, but a glorious hope for today. Coupled with this hope was the call to “go, and sin no more”. Jesus called those he had healed into a life in the Kingdom.

And you know what. Missionaries get this. In spite of the bad focus that I heard from the pulpit today, those who are really going out into the world have the heart of Christ guiding them into acts of compassion that far exceed their drive to provide personal conversions by intellectual understanding. Missionaries are far more easily found in hospitals tending to the sick or in service garages fixing some chap’s car or on the streets of some megacity playing with the street-kids, than in pulpits and seminaries and libraries.

So today at the commissioning service of two people who I adore and who I know have a desire to join in with God and His work in the world I found myself torn in two directions. Every thing preached from the pulpit spoke of the modern assumptions of a world that is run by a distant, removed God who touched humans and sent them on their way to reconnect with Him, eventually, in another life. Everything in the faces of those two people spoke of a God who resides with his people. A God who would not be traveling across the ocean with them in a few weeks, because he would already be there when they arrived. A God who is doing mighty things in this world and who has called us all into FULL participation with Him. Not as an afterthought to salvation, but as a way to be involved in God’s work toward the redemption of ALL THINGS.

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I definitely urge you to explore the rest of the participants in this missional synchroblog. All 50 are linked below.

Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug Jones Duncan McFadzean Erika Haub Grace Jamie Arpin-Ricci Jeff McQuilkin John Smulo Jonathan Brink JR Rozko Kathy Escobar Len Hjalmarson Makeesha Fisher Malcolm Lanham Mark Berry Mark Petersen Mark Priddy Michael Crane Michael Stewart Nick Loyd Patrick Oden Peggy Brown Phil Wyman Richard Pool Rick Meigs Rob Robinson Ron Cole Scott Marshall Sonja Andrews Stephen Shields Steve Hayes Tim Thompson Thom Turner

Lots more happening in July as well. Check the Brantford Arts Block site for all the details. The facebook group link may have more events as well. (Pencil poster by Tim Southern — he has skills with a nib)

Tags: arts, brantford, sketchcrawl, downtown, july, events

Part Four of Doug Pagitt’s promo videos for his new book, which I am reading right now.

…. and .. the video that we showed at the beginning of Chris and Em’s wedding ceremony. The couple are known for their love of all things tardy, so they each filmed their adventures in trying to get to the church on time which we debuted to those in attendance. It was good. And, yes, they did both actually get there on time.. we made sure of that.

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

I would love to get some feedback on this passage from Pete’s book.

“To develop a healthy community, the best approach can actually involve being clear that one is not starting a community at all and that there will be no pastoral support, that no one will be charged with the job of taking in money and distributing it on people’s behalf, and that no one will be responsible for calling you up if you stop attending events. In short, it must be clear that the group does not care about people’s needs in the slightest. While this may sound deeply uncaring, the reason for stating this is precisely in order to help provide a healthy soil for real pastoral and financial support to grow.

“Providing a space with no welcoming team or pastoral support group means that individuals need to take responsibility for welcoming and caring for others themselves. Here the role of those setting up the group is not to create a new priest/laity divide but rather to refuse to act in the role of a priest precisely so as to encourage a priesthood of all believers, offering relational, mutually dependent, pastoral support. This does not mean that there is no place for leadership, for here the leader is the one who attempts to prevent any one person, including the leader, from taking over the space and taking on the role of some high priest. In such a space there is a radical refusal, by those who organize the gathering, to take on pastoral responsibility. for by refusing the place of power, the ‘pastors’ equip everyone to be a pastor, simultaneously discouraging an unhealthy dependency in those who attend.” (Rollins, pp. 177-178)

This is where I’m at somewhat in my own thinking. Questions of how it happens practically in our own context naturally surface. I’m not the best at asking the practical questions. I’m much more the dreamer, and luckily I have friends that can come alongside and provide the ground under my feet. I think our small gathering of friends, as unformed as it is, are somewhat heading in this direction already. The question is how to continue it once others join in that may naturally think of the “pioneers” of the group as the leaders. Throw in…

Drum Circle by brantfordartsblock

I’m sad I missed this event on the weekend. David Hind brought his “things” and there erupted under tarps amidst rain and sun a drumming sound. Of course, I can only imagine the power of said drums since I wasn’t there… but you can imagine it, I’m sure.

Brantford Arts Block is killing it this year, helping to make the downtown a bright, and energized place for any and all.

Here is a video of Dave doing his thing, with musical accompaniment by Train…

So what exactly is a faith community? As far as I can tell what is meant is a church. But what is with all this faith business? Doesn’t a hockey team have faith in each other and their strategy and their coach? Don’t the kids in their science project group have legitimacy as people of faith? It takes tremendous faith to let half your grade rest in three similarly irresponsible 10th graders. Are these not likewise faith communities?

Why do Christian communities feel this need to proclaim faith as their distinctive tie that binds? Do we really think that faith exists inside church and there is a faith vacuum outside? Of course not.

And no, it is not just a handy witnessing tool. You are not so sly when you say, “Oh, I was just hanging out with my faith community today.”

“Oh, yeah? A faith community, you say. And where did you get this foreign substance known as faith? I wish I had some faith that I could place somewhere. Spill the beans of faith!”

“Jesus gave me some!”

Yes, Jesus. The fella that blesses the Christian with the mutant superpower of Faith. Oh, if only the world would realize how awesome it is to have faith in something – anything! Surely, if there is one thing our communities can bless the world with it is faith. Maybe we should open up our faith storehouses and let the faith roll down the hill into the faithless valleys of darkness.

I need faith in something more than just having some.

Got pointed to this great tool for visualizing publications online. issuu has an incredibly simple and quick process to upload your content and there seems to be a great base of creativity already on the site.

I uploaded this to test it. It is a collaborative online arts mag that I contributed to a couple years ago. Give them pages a turn!

Tags: arts, community

scott: i have been pondering over the weekend about the word ‘missional’

scott: i find that defining terms is not something that i excel at, but i have sort of narrowed it down to 3 bible passages that make the term work in my life

david: right. i’m hoping we can all help each other to understand it better

david: i have yet to put something together too.. i use it often, but I think i use it differently

david: on different days

scott: haha

scott: it seems to be the kind of word that can have more than one meaning to it

david: ya… well that’s part of it.. i wan to get beyond the missionaries/normal people way of thinking about it

scott: i am on board for that

scott: i have been seeing it as a ‘team-working’ (if you can’t tell, i just made that term up) of the greatest commandments, the sheep and goats being judged, and the great commission

david: cool

scott: for me it focuses it on the main aspect of loving people, and because of that love, taking care of their physical needs and sharing the gospel

scott: i like looking at it like that because it can work on a micro and a macro scale

david: you mean, it is about individual relationships and also relates to the call of the church as a whole?

scott: yes… to the individual and to the body. also, it relates the day to day with the long term

david: or the whole mission of god

scott: yes

scott: the mission of taking care of spiritual and physical needs in an ongoing way, based off of the love that we have for others

david: i think that’s one of the important distinctions

david: we tend to think of our mission as first and foremost shouting on street corners

david: forgetting that jesus said that the gospel is good news to the afflicted

scott: for sure… and going that out of obligation and not as an act of love

scott: going = doing

david: right

scott: so yeah… that is what i have been thinking about the word ‘missional’

david: i believe mission has to absolutely foundational to a group of people that would call themselves part of the church

scott: i would have to agree with you, sir. for most of my life, the word mission dealt with profession

david: right

scott: that is all the word was to me, but i think that it should be a purposeful lifestyle

scott: a sincere one, at that

david: i believe that is why people leave churches

david: they have not been given a chance to be missional

david: it is fairly unfulfilling to just take up space

david: many times we take away the job of everyone and give it to the professionals

scott: that is a very good point, dave

scott: and when people can’t pitch in, then they aren’t actually a part of a family, they are a guest

david: the majority of the church is told that their job is to fund the professional christians

david: which is great, but comes up short

scott: haha… for sure, which makes it a business relationship more than anything

david: share holders

scott: exactly

Tags: missional, church, jesus, incarnational

Right now I am engaged in conversation with friends. Tuesday night church it has come to be called. We are collected from a variety of backgrounds (city and country, pastor and student, business world and outdoors enthusiasts) with a shared thirst for true community and mission.

We are dreaming about and beginning to participate in a community that we have decided to describe as missional. Missional was the FIRST word that we chose as a point of connection. It came before church, baptist, relevant, emergent, postmodern, purpose-driven, subversive, or biblical. All buzzwords begin to lose immediacy through our careless useage as characterized by the grandfather of buzzwords: Christian. Before the followers of “The Way” were labeled with the first-century buzzword of “Christian”, they were engaged in mission.

Every successful buzzword has action at its core. Christians were those in communities that were following the mission of God as perfected by Jesus, and living it within a cultural mission flavoured by the Jewish and Greek customs of the day. But somehow the perfect example of Jesus didn’t finish the mission. He sent his followers onward to continue to live this mission. To be missional is to be in transit. In the past there was a bestowing of mission. That comission is then acknowledged and acted on. We are now Missioning.

To be missioning is to live intentionally restorative reflections of God’s creative purpose into every part of our lives. Every relationship, every endeavor. Our missioning community is aiming to create connections and space to empower each other to live these lives of deep restoration. We are determined to not build walls, but instead to plant gardens. We are determined to go kayaking and laugh together in the woods. We are determined to cry with each other. We are determined to never wear our “Sunday Best”.

Since friendship and strategy just don’t seem to fit together, we are determined to avoid every 4 step evangelism strategy. In the words of Brian McLaren, we are counting conversations, not conversions. Instead, we commit ourselves to knowing each other’s strengths. We commit ourselves to listen to the purposes of God in the people we don’t yet know. We commit ourselves to our commission beyond our allegiance to any buzzword. Christian, Postmodern, Emergent, or Missional.

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This post is part of a Missional Synchroblog organized by Jonathan Brink

Synchroblog Participants
Jonathan Brink - Meeting God Where He’s Already Working
Ben Wheatley - Are Things You Are Living For Worth It
Blake Huggins - What Does Missional Living Look Like
Alan Knox - Living in the love of God
Dave DeVries - The Missional Challenge
Bryan Riley - What Does Missional Living Look Like To Me
Jeromy Johnson - What is missional living to me
Tim Jones - Living Like the Word Says
Nathan Gann - Inevitability?

Tags: Missional, Emerging, Emergent, Church, Christianity, Jesus

This is a thought stream triggered by our recent movements into a new local church community. The question deals with the concern that an open-source community church structure could perhaps devolve into an ugly patriotism.

I don’t think that Ubuntu Philosophy fully describes the Kingdom of God and our part in it, but it is very helpful in opening us up to the ‘other’ and not fearing the differences among us.

The major difference between patriotism and Ubuntu philosophy is that patriotism is a deep commitment to an ideal community rather than to a real community. Patriotism kills community by being married to the idealism of the nation and the notion that it is superior to all others. It is a devotion to conformity rather than community. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is the spirit of listening to those around you and trusting in the wisdom of the community more than listening to your own ideals for that community. It is not that we all abandon our uniqueness and become one homogeneous blob, but that we bring all that we are into community and trust each other with our whole selves.

I would liken Patriotism to brand loyalty. In the ‘church as a business’ model brand loyalty became really important. Your denomination held all the ideals and the pastor took on the role of CEO. The Western church became a bunch of patriots, both to the country (which was portrayed as Christian) and to their right interpretation of Scripture above all others (or in the mainline church to the power structures, institutions, and sacraments).

In the model inspired by Ubuntu/Open-Source philosophy there is no ideal other than what beauty comes from the togetherness of the community itself. It is a remarkably flat structure. It’s not that there is no longer power or structure, but that structure is defined by the relationships. It changes and shifts depending on the needs of the community. A pastor is no longer CEO but takes a role fully integrated in the community. Ideals and right interpretation are not handed out from above by a superpower, but are formed in community. There is no brand or ideal to be loyal to. In its place is a community of people who all put each other before themselves. A community that takes seriously the care and support of and from all members. I love that line in the New Testament “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”

This is an intense belief that there really is a priesthood of ALL believers. It is a system that gives voice to the margins, believing that since God always seems to speak from the most unlikely places we should posture ourselves to better listen for that still small voice.

Maybe this is again why we need to be “intentional” about this thing. never forsaking the actual community for an ideal community. Because our ideal will always neglect important aspects that our individuality will miss.

Tags: Church, Emergent, , Emerging, Ubuntu Philosophy, Patriotism, Community

I found a couple books on Darryl Dash’s blog that it looks like I will want to place in the front of my reading queue.First is a novel called The Shack that I don’t know much about, but sounds quite intriguing based on Darryl’s description.

The second is a book on church history and practice that makes me absolutely salivate. I am a massive believer in constantly looking to the first century church to see where we could in improve in our “Body of Christ-ness” and this book, Pagan Christianity does this like few books dare.

This time of year we get so up in arms about people saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, but the majority of Christians don’t even know why we celebrate Christmas anyway. Well, we know a good reason to celebrate it (Jesus is the Reason for the Season), but we don’t know when or how or why we began this tradition in the first place. Ditto to almost every church practice. These pagan incorporations along with classroom / seminary incorporations have tag teamed, to create a church environment that is faily unsuitable to the mission of community and neighbourly love that we were commissioned with in the first place.

I hear critics of postmodernism saying that deconstruction is bad and eventually we have to start reconstructing. This really comes from a poor understanding of what deconstruction is. It does sound like a negative or destructive venture. Until you disengage yourself from the rewards of your actions. Oh dear. Now this is really straying from my original topic of conversation. I will leave my connections between Jesus and Hinduism for another inflamatory post…

Last month I made my first attempt at making a proper musical recording. While the results are far from proper, I am excited to have contributed to a great little project. Beepcon Christmas is little more than a fundraiser for a musical discussion group I frequent called Bwack’s Forum. The place is the creation of Bwack (Jeremy Bush) who is the drummer for David Crowder* Band. It is a place to talk gear, recording, and computers. Basically, it’s just a place for music geeks to geek.

You can download the project here. If you would like to contribute monetarily you certainly can do so. Paypal any amount you desire to beepcon@gmail.com. Proceeds will go to web hosting for the forum, Beepcon, and future development projects. There was talk of this album getting into the iTunes Music Store, but I don’t know if we are going that route anymore.

I would appreciate any feedback on my track, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. It certainly is not the strongest of the group. There are some fantastic pieces in here! I like the sound of my guitar, but my vocals are rushed and fuzzy – and way to far back in the mix.

Enjoy!

Blogged with Flock

I’ve started working on a website for my church.
Rawdon Street Baptist Church

I’m hoping this can add to our community’s vision to reach our neighbours with love. I dream of it being a hub through the course of our week where we can refocus on our shared goals and experiences.

Today is a day of horray!

Just returned from partying with Dave and Chelsea at their wedding. And in an hour or so will be off to celebrate my sister-in-law’s graduation from highschool. She had her grad ceremony today and we will eat and say, “good for you” tonight. It is a wonderful thing that celebration almost always incorporates food. It is so weird that we are able to take such pleasure in putting stuff inside us. The senses are an incredible gift. Tremendous!

But right now I’m going to go to work answering this question… “What would you classify as essential elements of your faith?” I’m completing a questionaire on my beliefs about God and Religion for a friend. I’ll post all my answers when I’m done.

Later dudes.

LISTENING TO…
“Pages” by Shane Barnard & Shane Everett

Question:
Is the main concern of the church its own expansion? Is the main concern of the church the discipleship of its members? Is the main concern of the church the protection of truth? Is the main of concern of the church to be a beacon in its community? A little bit of all? Maybe.

Where am i going? Well, that’s my question. What is our direction? Where do the currents go? Are we sucking people into the doors of the church building? Or are we pushing people out the doors to help the neibourhood surrounding us? How exactly do we benefit the needy in our community by simply getting them to come to Sunday services? Are those living in God’s blessing not there to be a blessing in turn?

“Jesus never says to the poor, ‘Come find the church,’ but he says to those of us in the church, ‘Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,’ Jesus in his disguises.” – Tony Campolo

Here is another possibly (not) off topic quote…

“We are trying to shout the Gospel with our lives.” – Sister Margaret

Just a quick post as I am late for work.
I love the music that those Passion guys church out every year. Probably too much.

A few months back, I managed to tune in to the Passion ‘07 sessions that Louie and company put up online for anyone that was not able to drive down to Atlanta this year… Amazing songs and energy from everyone. They raised millions of dollars for social relief and missions efforts as well. I was so encouraged to see the big boys of the Christian machine focussing on God’s call to justice in our world. And I was struck by this huge, weird seesaw thing. All of their energies between the sessions were about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and oppressed, but then the main sessions were all about heaven. Like full on where we go when we die heaven. No mention of God’s Kingdom come, His will be done on EARTH, just a whole lot of glory glory daydreaming.

That bothered me. Why did they spend so much time talking about floaty heaven??! I didn’t know what to make of it. They spelled out how much we need to be here (SOCIAL GOSPEL!). Teeter. They OVEREMPHASIZED(?) how much we should be looking toward our final resting place. Totter.

But, actually, now looking back it kind of makes sense. By that, I mean, I don’t get it, but that’s ok.

“(21) For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (22) But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. (23) But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; (24) yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake” - St. Paul, Philippians 1:21-24

Know what I mean??!?

He doesn’t update often,
He should though.
Doug Pagitt’s Podcast contains some great thoughts on faith and community. I just finished listening to the sermon/conversation about conversions of Peter and Cornelius. Do you want to be challenged? Listen hard. Think this stuff out. Wow. Who really needs the Gospel? The “wicked” pagan or the wayward and stubborn “righteous” believer?

Seriously. check it out. Let me know what you think.

Took me long enough.

Well, here is a quick rundown. I don’t think there will be many of these in the next while. Amy and I will be partnering and building relationships with a new bunch of people (church). A month from now, or so, we will begin to attend Rawdon Street Baptist Church. A much smaller community than where we currently are. Not a hip emerging community or anything like that, but a real place, with people living lives. My friend Shawn is the lead pastor at Rawdon. I really respect the guy and look forward to serving under his pastoring under Christ.

So… here we go.

I lead at our satellite (not really a satellite, much more of a church plant) in Waterford. Small church (50 or so adherants) with a big heart and which could have a massive impact in their neighbourhood with a more committed, full-time leadership team.

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Service Order:
{WORSHIP IN SONG}
Song of the Redeemed Charlie Hall
God Is Great Hillsong

{FELLOWSHIP} (we have a break in our look forward/read your Bible/sing time to get up and talk for 15 minutes or so. INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY>>> nice!)

{WORSHIP IN SONG}
Enough Tomlin?
{OFFERING}
I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous) old hymn

{MESSAGE} (Josh spoke on Jesus’s call to discipleship rather than simply conversion>>> nice!)

{RESPONSE}
Song of the Redeemed (reprise)

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Song of the Redeemed opened up our corporate time together. It was a new song to our community and we played it as a band to sort of introduce the theme of the morning. The theme being… us as Christ followers redeemed not because of our works or a prayer we prayed when we were 9 or whatever, but by the blood of Christ… Really, we aren’t even redeemed by choosing to be Christ followers. That is our response after recognizing the fact, isn’t it… I digress.

We played the song very uptempo and rockin’. I personally really enjoy singing that song. It really allows me to sing LOUD, which I love. And I think we did alright, considering we learned the song as a band just that morning. (Band consisting of, Marco on bass, Kurt on drums, me on guitar and vocals.)

We followed Song of the Redeemed with God Is Great… and we butchered it. I could not sing in key, I could not play the right chords and as a band we just were not together, but the people gathered still sang, because they knew the song. We had repeated it for about 3 weeks at that point. So I am glad it did not all ride on us nailing the song as a band. The song itself is just a straightforward, praise God becuase He is God sort of song. Holy is the Lord, sing it loud, sing it proud.

Next, we had our community time. No one felt like moving for the most part. Everyone just stayed in their seats and chatted quietly. That happens sometimes. On other mornings it is hard to get people back into their orderly rows of chairs and get things rolling again.

When it was time to get moving again with the “show” I just started playing a quiet finger-picked intro to Enough and everyone quickly joined in and sang along. Beautiful song. Classic.

Then Josh came up and prayed with the children and sent them on their way to kids church where they coloured two of every creature, or something.

Then as a church before Josh came to deliver his sermon we sang I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous). I took my time leading this one. We repeated verses and choruses. A wonderful hymn that everyone sings out on. That is one of the many beautiful things about this congregation. THEY SING. When they know a song, they don’t hold back. On most mornings they are way louder than our similar gathering of 250 or so people back in Brantford. I love it. We ended acappella and I prayed and Josh came and PREACHED, HARD!!! It was a convicting sermon for me anyway.

Josh concluded and prayed and left time for people to meet quietly with God and assess whether they were actively walking with their Saviour or were resting on their past decisions and prayers of conversion. During this time I began to quietly play the chords to the chorus of Song of the Redeemed Then I broke into the chorus lyrics and powerfully but slowly and invited the gathered people to join me in the confession. “We sing to You the song of the redeemed. You beautify our hearts and make us clean. You rescue us from death and set us free. We sing to You the song of the redeemed”. Then we repeated for a little while in chant together, “We are Yours, We are Yours” and let that sit and sink in. I don’t remember if I prayed at the end. I think so. I think I prayed a prayer to send us out and See for real what God would have us do as we walk hand in hand with our Saviour. To see who Jesus would like to heal and serve this week. Then we concluded our time together with Josh coming up to deliver some announcements and dismiss the church.

So that is my first Worship Confessional. I my have flew past some stuff that may have been important. I don’t know. Basically, I was trying to keep things concise. Also I was trying to stay balance as far as technical approach, spiritual and worshiping intent, and congregation involvement. So there.