FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAY 7
(Tuesday) The rain has stopped -- which is a good thing because our motel room was only on the third floor. However, we're leaving all of that behind shortly -- going to take another trip to the beach this morning -- then we're heading back to the airport at Ft. Lauderdale and back to Turlock (via Oakland).

AMIA AD
(Monday) Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), the interesting missionary movement in the US backed by the Anglican churches of Rwanda and Singapore, is running an ad in the October Christianity Today to introduce themselves. Link

FROM THE PRESIDENT
(Monday) The church received email today at one of our older more obscure addresses from President Bush. He wants us to make a contribution to his 2004 campaign fund. He should know that churches can't make contributions to political candidates. He should also know by now that I (and a gazzillion other people who think that spammers are on the bottom of the food chain) am not voting for any candidate that sends out spam. Even if the president didn't personally send us the spam it sure is indicative of his inability to surround himself with smart people.

FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAY 6
(Monday) There is a weather front stalled out over our area -- gathering moisture from the Gulf and dumping heavy rain on Naples all day long. I've been in these downpours before in Texas -- but they're usually short in duration. This has been going on all day and there is standing water everywhere. It's hard to tell where the swamps begin and end. However, we braved it and drove to the Everglades visitor's center this morning.

This afternoon we went to see Luther (the movie). Good movie -- especially if you already know the storyline -- fairly accurate but a lot of the story was left out. Martin Luther was such a large character that it would be hard to do him justice in any kind of movie. So they're really only focusing on a slice of the story. And they do a decent job of it. I'm not sure who is going to rush out to see it, though. I had the feeling that the other 15 people in the theatre with us were hardcore Lutherans!

Chris Armstrong has a review of Luther in Christianity Today.

MISSIONARIES FINALLY GET SOME GOOD INK
(Sunday) Thanks to Rudy for pointing to a NY Times opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof, highlighting the critical role of evangelical missionaries in Africa.

...In reality, the wave of activity abroad by U.S. evangelical is one of the most important and welcome trends in our foreign relations. I disagree strongly with most evangelical Christians, theologically and politically. But I tip my hat to them abroad.

..."In most of Africa, these (evangelical missionaries) are the cornerstone of the health system," said Helene Gayle, who directs AIDS work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "In some countries, they serve more people than the government health system."

FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAYS 4 & 5
(Sunday) Right now it's raining -- hard! I've seen more rain in the last couple of days than we'll see all year in Turlock. But it hasn't interfered with our trip.

Yesterday we drove back up the Keys and to the mainland -- staying at a hotel in the Palm Beach area. It's right on the beach and we had wonderful access to the sharks, pelicans and sunrise this morning. Unfortunately, the hotel was a bit of a dump. It was suppose to be a two star property in the priceline.com system but I'm going to have to write the priceline people. It has been the only disappointment in all of my priceline experience.

The other disappointing thing (which priceline can do nothing about) is to see the southeastern Florida coastline. There is virtually no open space comparable to what we have in California. They build high rise hotels right up to the sand -- miles and miles of high rise units all along the coast. I think the state of Florida dropped the ball on that one by selling out to the developers.

As we traveled through Miami yesterday we stopped off at an incredible place in the heart of little Havana (Miami) -- El Palacio de Los Jugos. Karina Whitmarsh had steered us to this little market -- absolutely packed with Cubans -- and we bought wonderful fresh mango juice. We also used one of Karina's suggestions a few days earlier, on the way south through Miami, and had a terrific seafood lunch at Garcia's Seafood Grille & Fish Market (NW North River Dr.). I'm thinking about bringing Karina on as our full-time food consultant.

Last night we ate at CiCi's Pizza -- the family pizza buffet we had to give up when we left Texas. This morning we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then worshiped at Lighthouse Covenant Church in Tamarac. It's a small (50 people), friendly congregation, about 3/4 senior citizens. Then we took off across the alligator highway to the west side of Florida and arrived in Naples (the Carmel of the Gulf -- beautiful beaches, beautiful homes, beautiful rich people...) a few hours ago. Still, the only alligator I've seen has been road kill.

The rain has stopped! Bye!

ADDENDUM: We went back to the beach to watch the sunset from the Naples pier -- too much cloud cover in the west to see much of the sun go down. But it was fun to watch the dolphins as they were competing with the human fishermen for their supper around the pier. Cheryl and I went on to Cheeburger Cheeburger for our grub -- another winner. (Why do I feel like we've done nothing but eat since last Tuesday?)

There are a some more surprises about Florida:

1. There is hardly any wave action on either the Atlantic or the Gulf coasts. The water is sooooo calm -- even more so down in the Keys. For obvious reasons no one surfs -- but I think everyone owns a boat of some sort.

2. There are a gazzilion different Florida license plate designs. It's almost as though everyone designs their own. (Actually I looked it up online and there are currently 54 different designs available.)

3. I expected a bit more humidity -- and even that distinct musty smell I remember from Houston and New Orleans. But it's not here.

3. I expected more inspects. Right now we're staying on the edge of the Everglades and I've yet to experience a mosquito.

4. Cars don't sport as many bumper or window stickers as they do in California. I have not seen a single annoying decal of a urinating boy (They seem to be on every third vehicle in Turlock).

5. We've only encountered a few people with a distinct southern accent -- some Caribbean accents, some French, and lots of Spanish (just like home!).

6. New construction looks a lot like the Mediterranean style homes you'd see in Turlock -- except they are built here with concrete blocks.

7. Unlike other places we've traveled, Florida, like California, seems to have a smoke-free policy for public buildings and restaurants.

FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAY 3
(Friday) We took a two hour boat trip to the Dry Tortugas key, about 70 miles west of Key West. Beautiful, isolated, surreal, historically interesting. Spent about five hours there then it was two hours back.

There were only about 40 people on our boat, which was designed for 100. There couldn't have been more than 100 people on the whole island. We took the tour and went snorkeling for the first time -- saw a lot of the fish most of us only see in a tropical fish store.

FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAY 2
(Thursday) Today we drove through Miami and then down US 1, through the Keys, and tonight we're in Key West -- the most southern point in the continental US. Key West is an interesting place -- a combination of Carmel, New Orleans, Murphys, and Santa Cruz. Beautiful -- but I wouldn't call it a family place -- loud, raucous, with lots of beer spilling out onto the street.

I've learned a lot today: there are crocodiles AND alligators in Florida, cruise ships can go in reverse (we watched one do so), key lime pie is available everywhere on the Keys (although we've yet to see a lime tree), there are at least two kinds of plantanas (we tried the green and the sweet), just like at home every third radio station is for Spanish speakers, contrary to popular belief we don't have ALL the fruits and nuts in California...

FLORIDA ADVENTURE DAY 1
(Wednesday) Cheryl and I left Turlock at about 4 a.m. this morning and traveled with the 70 mile per hour bumper to bumper traffic into the Bay Area and to the Oakland airport. Southwest Airlines got us into Ft. Lauderdale a little after 5 p.m. (EDT) -- still light enough to see the beach.

We found a funky Thai resturant and had a great dinner -- The Red Thai Room.

I thought it might be more humid here than it is. But it's a lot like what we had when we lived in Texas -- pleasant enough with gentle ocean breezes, a tropical garden fragrance, all kinds of new-to-me bird calls coming from the palms, and lightening in the distance. I like this place.

No alligators, yet.

THE CHURCH OF CRAFT
David Mills has a link to a NY Time article about a new "church" --

The Church of Craft, a faith pieced together over the last three years like some sort of cosmic quilt, has branches — or flocks, as it calls them — in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Montreal and Stockholm, among other cities. Its do-it-yourself credo is summed up on its Web site, www.churchofcraft.org, in just a few sentences: "The power of creating gives us the confidence to live our lives with all the love we can. By promoting creativity, we offer access to a nondenominational spiritual practice that is self-determined and proactive."

Okay. Why am I not surprised by this kind of thing? (Hint: I grew up in California in the 60's and 70's)

SPANISH AND ENGLISH
A friend, Brian Wiele, who is the pastor of the Escalon Covenant Church has a guest column in today's Modesto Bee.

...I have a suggestion: How about both directions? Personally, I think English should be our official language. But why don't we also officially commit ourselves as a people to do the obvious thing -- learn Spanish!

English is the one language everyone wants to learn all over the world, so they do. It's taught in schools all over Europe in such a way that students are fluent by their adolescent years. Why can't Spanish be taught the same way in America? Why don't we get serious about learning it?

Part of the problem is our island mentality, the pervasive sense that we stand alone at the top of the cultural mountain. We can hardly expect others to do work that we're not willing to do ourselves. To expect change -- "learn English!" -- without being willing to change -- "we'll learn Spanish" -- only breeds resentment. And that rarely motivates anyone to change.

Preach it, Brian, preach it!

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX
Fall arrived at 3:47 a.m. this morning. But it still feels like summer with temperatures up there near 100 again. We have had 23 days over 100 this year. The average is 14.

This afternoon, after cutting the grass, I did a load of laundry. Some of the clothes I hung out to dry outside and some went into the drier. The things which were outside dried faster than the things in the drier (and the drier is working quite well).

Tomorrow Cheryl and I escape to southern Florida for a week, where it is only in the upper 80's (and 65% humidity!).

LANGUAGE-FREE DEBATE
Language Removal Services has created the first "language-free" political debate, providing sound bytes from the major California candidates -- except the words have all been removed. It's worth at least a chuckle. Link

NAME IT AND CLAIM IT PREACHER DIES
Kenneth E. Hagin, the Pentecostal preacher whose slogan was "Say it, Do it, Receive it, and Tell it," and who was the founder of the RHEMA Bible Church movement, has died again at the age of 86. The CT weblog notes that one of his more famous comments was, "The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." Link

Perhaps with his passing his followers will be free to move center toward a more orthodox Christianity.

AS I SEE IT...
I listened on the radio to a bit of the appeals court deliberation regarding when we're going to have the recall election. I suspect that the court will rule that the race should go on in October. The arguments to delay seemed surprisingly weak. There will be an appeal to the Supreme Court but according to my crystal ball the court will decline to rule on the case.

I suspect, too, that for good or bad, Gray Davis will still be in office at this time next year. The Republicans have probably blown their shot at the office by throwing their weight behind Arnold Schwarzenegger. People seem to enjoy his movies but they also realize that Arnold is a lot more like Jesse Ventura than Ronald Reagan.

Meanwhile, on the national front the presidential race is probably going to be a Bush vs. Clark affair. In spite of a late start Wesley Clark has taken a giant leap in front of the rest of the Democratic contenders. I suspect that the guy is pretty much as he appears -- politically astute (he climbed the military ranks!), gruff exterior, effective as a leader, and a political anomaly as a Democratic general. He's going to give Bush a serious run for his money.

GREEK DINNER
This evening Cheryl and I were invited to go with a small group of people from our church to the Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Modesto. It was the second year that we've been and once again the food was great, the tour was informative, and the dancing spectacular. However, I didn't notice any Windex on sale this year.

THE CULTURE OF CASUAL
Daniel Akst explains why "fashion is out of fashion" in an OpinionJournal.com commentary. "Casual clothes express a more relaxed social system, and the democratization of slovenliness is democratization nonetheless, even if dressing down is now, oddly, itself a sign of status. On the other hand, it's hard not to associate lower standards of dress with lower standards generally, especially in public behavior. That loudmouth at the movie theater is unlikely to be wearing a classic seersucker suit."

But that is only part of the answer to why sweats, sneakers and jeans have become the new classics. Akst writes, "But maybe the best answer to 'Why casual, why now?' has less to do with democracy and celebrity than with calories and French fries. Casual clothing has helped bridge the growing difference in body size between slender fashionistas and the ever-fleshier hoi polloi. In 1985, the top-selling women's size was eight, but by 2002 it was a voluminous 14. Today nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, yet the less we exercise, the more sneakers and sweats we seem to buy."

Then, of course, there is also the new reality of a population has increasingly gravitated toward the sunbelt. "The Sun Belt's informality and warmer temperatures, which make tank tops and flip-flops that much more inviting, have probably nudged all of us toward a more fashion-free America," says Akst.

He's right on all counts.

PURPLE CARROTS



So, what color are carrots "suppose" to be? Ananova article and the official Michigan carrot site

MORE AMERICAN THAN CHRISTIAN?
Bernadette Murphy reviews sociologist Alan Wolfe's book The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith in an LA Times article. Wolfe has no particular religious affiliation but he is observant.

A quote from the review: What he finds are strikingly similar trends, regardless of religious affiliation. The way we worship, for example, is moving away from the solemn and ceremonial toward styles that are "joyful, emotional, personal and emphatic on the one hand, impatient with liturgy and theologically broad to the point of incoherence on the other." In general, Americans tend to shy away from talk of sin and an angry God, preferring instead a therapeutic relationship with the Divine, an alliance that strengthens self-esteem but doesn't exact too high a cost: "Talk of hell, damnation and even sin has been replaced by a nonjudgmental language of understanding and empathy." Likewise, most Americans today don't get into fiery arguments over issues of doctrine and theology because, for the most part, they know very little about the doctrinal and theological foundations on which their particular religions are based. Though they may belong to denominations that stress evangelization, Americans often draw back from bearing witness to their faith if doing so might "make them seem unfriendly or invasive."

Ouch.

WORD PIRATES
Dan Gillmor and his sidekick David Weinberger have created a website to highlight words that "marketers, politicians and other short-sighted, self-interested, sticky-fingered people have been stealing... Not only do they take them for commercial purposes, but they misuse them entirely. They're Word Pirates and we're going to take back what's rightfully ours."

This is how our lowly heros at wordpirates.com intend to do it: "We can refuse to accept these translations into inhuman language. We can use the words to mean what they did before the pirates looted 'em. We can list and discuss pirated words here." Link

Don't the French have an offical agency for this kind of thing? We English speaking Americans have to rely on the power of persuasion in the free market.

EMBEDDED ADVERTISING
Consumers are getting better at nuking television advertising through tools such as TiVo. So pitchmen are turning more and more to advertising that is embedded in the shows and movies themselves. Marketplace has an audio report worth hearing.

But it seems to me that even embedded marketing is going to be less than effective pitching to people who don't do much television anymore or rarely find a movie worth watching -- case in point -- moi! Am I a middle-age curmudgeon or what?

THE EMERGING POSTMODERN THING
Spencer sent me email advising me that my blog has been listed in the Ooze directory of personal blogs. I suppose then that I should say something about the emerging generation or postmodernism. I could talk about "authenticity," "passion" and "the journey." But that's not me. I'm not really an emerging groupie. And I'm not very postmodern (I'm barely modern!). I am kind of random by temperament and I'm eclectic in my interests. AND I love the church -- old, new, emerging, foreign, domestic -- including the sector that the Ooze represents. God is at work there, too.

THE RICHEST AMERICANS
The list of the richest Americans was released today. I didn't notice my name on it.

THE TRIP
Yesterday I dropped Kirk off at UCSD so he could help with the new student orientation. Unfortunately, his campus apartment isn't ready. I was hoping to help him move in -- get things like the computer set-up. But we had to park him and his boxes in temporary housing.

His college has a totally new campus which is phenomenal but they are cutting things really tightly with the housing. The place is swarming with workers. Most students start moving in on Saturday and there are some places which don't have sidewalks, yet. Should be interesting...

On the way home I stopped off in Pasadena at the California Cactus Center. I picked up a couple of Madagascar palms, a cactus from South America without a common name, a little Budha's temple from South Africa, and a guava tree of Mexican origins -- all for only $11 total (These plants were all grown from seed in California but they originate from these places).

After a brief stop at the Fuller bookstore I made it back to Turlock in time for music practice.

THE LAST FARRELL'S?
Kirk and I are in San Diego. And just a way down the street from our $45/night Priceline Marriott Residence Inn we ran across a Farrell's ice cream restaurant.

I haven't seen a Farrell's in years! Our high school youth group in San Jose used to go to Farrell's after Sunday night church -- at least a couple of times a month. My brother worked at a Farrell's in Tempe when he was in college. But I thought they had all gone out of business. Well, that was mostly true. Our waitress tonight told us that the Mira Mesa Farrell's is the last remaining restaurant in the chain. It was even better than I remember.

(I goggled Farrell's and found references to a few other Farrell's around the US. But the chain is obviously nothing like it was. Time for a come-back?)

CHAOS IN THE BOYDSTON HOUSEHOLD
Boxes piled all over the place... heaps of clothing... plastic grocery bags hold everything that's not in a box. Tonight after the church council meeting I'm packing the car. Then tomorrow I take Kirk back to UC San Diego. All of this cluter is a sign that tomorrow we eat Tommy's burgers for lunch!

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR'S RECALL POSTPONED?
It's as though the construction workers are running 10 feet in front of the roller coaster car laying the next link of track.

Some people actually like roller coaster rides.

THE RUN FOR GOVERNOR
Karl thinks I should run for governor.

I should point out that I offered as such way back on July 5th. But I think my conditions were too strict and so no one took me seriously. Well, it's too late now. I've got my eyes set on bigger and better things than the governor's mansion (which isn't really an inviting place).

I should point out, though, that Cheryl and I expect to be vacationing in Florida in a few weeks. I'm hoping to pick up a few tips in election procedures while down there.

KILL ARAFAT?
Ehud Olmert, the vice prime minister of Israel says that killing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is an option in its threat to "remove" him. Link

President Arafat is not one of my favorite people. But the idea of simply killing anyone who is an enemy is totally absurd (can you imagine the ripple effect!). The raising of the idea is short-sighted and inexcusable. And it demonstrates that the Israelis aren't playing with a full deck -- or at the very least aren't hitting on all cylinders. They aren't any more serious about creating peace than the Palestinians. Someone in this quagmire has to start acting like an adult.

JAPAN HONORS CENTENARIANS
The Japanese government says it will present 20,561 Japanese centenarians with a silver cup and letter from the president to highlight the fact that there are now more than 20,000 such Japanese. Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world, 85.2 years for women and 78.2 for men. But this is causing problems... Link

THE PRESIDENT & HISTORY
Rumor has it that George W. Bush was a history major at Yale. I doubt that LA Times writer James Reston Jr. would believe it. Anyone who has studied history knows that the Middle East is a tough place to occupy. Link

FAITHWATCH.ORG
Terry Mattingly, syndicated columnist who always has interesting things to say, is developing a blog that will "look for stories where they missed the religion angle." The blog, which will be called faithwatch.org is not up yet. Link

GO ON, ASK HIM FOR SOMETHING...



The Churches' Advertising Network Christmas 2003 ad campaign should be a real discussion starter. Link

A & B PLAYERS
B players hold things together. Link

TURLOCK COPS
On Sunday I mentioned that Cindy Gibbs, our former church chair, found one of the rings that had been stolen during a home invasion robbery, where her whole family was tied up. There have been 19 such robberies in our area over the past few months.

And it happened again early this morning. However, this time an alarm went off and the police ended up in a wild car chase through town. There was shooting and a car wreck -- and helicopters flying over town for most of the morning. Two of the robbers were arrested immediately. Then two more were eventually captured. Apparently others have been arrested tonight.

The whole town is breathing a collective sigh of relief that these guys are finally off the street -- and no one got hurt in the arrests. People are still angry, though. It took a long time to catch them. And people around here are just appalled that such brutal people actually exist in our small city. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.

Link to Modesto Bee article / Link to KCRA with video

THE CULPRIT
Uwe Siemon-Netto thinks that we can pretty much blame Aleister Crowley. Link

UCSD HOMEOWNERS
Hopefully our son, a UCSD student, won't see this -- but... "At the University of California-San Diego, about 700 students — 3% of the school's enrollment — own their homes, a recent survey found. That includes kiddie condo owners, as well as older students who already own homes." It almost makes sense, with the cost of housing in LaJolla. And students are only guaranteed on campus housing for two years. See the entire USA Today article on students parents as homeowners.

DAY-OFF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Got the grass mowed -- bushes pruned -- including the out-of-control lime tree by the front door of the house (It doesn't give many limes but it sure smells good). Also, planted the fall garden -- carrots, cauliflower, beans, and peas -- put in a new fence post. Fertilized all eight citrus trees and hacked a bit on the apricot -- not quite time yet to do pruning on that. I think I'm going to be stiff tomorrow.

To relax I watched Pauline & Paulette (no one else really wanted to watch it with me). Great film -- making the point "Blessed are the meek--for they shall inherit the earth." All others just get what they long for. (It goes well with the Word Spy word of the day -- miswanting.)

Pauline & Paulette moves slow for the American audience (nothing gets blown up and there aren't any chase scenes) but it's still a wonderful film. It's in Flemish and by the end of the movie I found that I was actually understanding a small amount of the vocabulary -- without even reading the subtitles.

SMOKEY THE BEAR


When I was younger (way younger) I used to collect Smokey the Bear memorabilia. Smokey has had a website for some time but it keeps on getting better and now includes a display of many of the historical posters. Link

THE GOVERNOR'S RACE
There are three types of candidates:

1. Novelty candidates who really know nothing about political effectiveness. (One candidate from the zip code where I grew up, states: "Bankruptcy is California’s only hope for long-term growth." Can you imagine the ripple effect of the world's sixth largest economy declaring backruptcy!)

2. Candidates who are administratively capable but with whom I have fierce philisophical differences.

3. People who are currently active in the political arena but who could just as easily be selling very used cars.

So once again, in spite of the fact that there are 135 candidates, it seems that there is no one to vote for. I'm open for suggestions.

CAMP RANT
Dan's a little annoyed at the whole Christian camp thing. His points are good. Link

QUESTIONABLE MORAL CHARACTER
Karl was over for dinner tonight and he was showing me the list that the accountability software on his computer generated. It lists the sites he has visited that are of "questionable moral character" (Karl's words). And this blog was on the list generated by the software. It's probably because last Friday I used the word "hell." On Thursday the word "gay" appeared in a post. And back on August 23rd I used the word "homosexual." Then I've also used the word "postmodern" a few times, too. No wonder Karl's software thinks this is a nasty website.

GOOD NEWS
This afternoon Hilmar Covenant Church had an open house in their new Family Life Center. Nice -- very nice... Cindy Gibbs found one of the rings that was stolen from them when they were robbed last month. She had distributed drawings of the ring to the area pawn shops and one of them came across it.

TNIV
I know that a lot of people have somehow gotten the idea that the Today's New International Version translation of the Bible is from the pit of hell (I think they got the idea from James Dobson). But I've been using the NT I was given in February (the Old Testament won't be done until 2005) and I haven't seen anything in there that is objectionable or poor translation. No translation is perfect. But the TNIV flows well -- easier reading than the NIV. Only 7% of the text is different than the NIV -- or so they say.

The whole concern about "gender neutral" language seems to be much about nothing. They don't translate everything as "gender neutral" -- only when pronouns appear by context to be non-gender specific. Sometimes "sons of God" becomes "children of God" but not always. All of this seems to be driven by changes in contemporary use of the language rather than any kind of feminist agenda.

Don Madvig, one of my seminary professors, is playing a major role in the translation. He is one of a few biblical scholars who is academically qualified to do technical research in both the Old and New Testaments.

I found that the .pdf version on the TNIV site was left "open" so that you can copy and paste actual text into a wordprocessor.

JOHN STOTT
Ever since I heard John Stott speak at the Urbana '76 Conference he has been one of my favorite Christian leaders. Gary Barnes has a fine interview with him in CT. Link

Notable Quote: ...Why then was more not accomplished? Different answers are given. But perhaps the greatest hindrance to world evangelization remains our failure to be what we profess to be. The (Lausanne ) covenant still challenges us to look like what we are talking about: "Nothing commends the Gospel more eloquently than a transformed life, and nothing brings it into disrepute so much as personal inconsistency" (Manila Manifesto).

FUTURE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Ted Olsen, writing on the CT weblog: That's right. All this talk of "alternative oversight" and "flying bishops" and whatnot is probably beside the point now. Yes, the liberals had the votes to approve the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop. But orthodox Christians make up the majority of the Anglican Primates (leaders of the international Anglican provinces, such as the Church of Nigeria, the Episcopal Church USA, etc.). And they'd rather see the Episcopal Church USA declared non-Anglican and start afresh with an orthodox church than to let the Episcopal Church USA's Robinson decision stand and merely set up an alternative church for those opposed to gay bishops and marriages. Link

VEGGIES FILE CHAPTER 11



Apparently their ideas were bigger than their pocketbook. Link

ABOUT THE NOSE...
I wish I could say that I got it on a mountain bike spill or wrestling an alligator. But the truth is that I walked into a sliding glass door. I thought it was open. I guess the light was hitting it in just a way that I couldn't see the glass. So I'm a little sore -- bruised -- probably more to come tomorrow. For now I'll just cozy up to my ice pack.

WORSHIP ARTICLES
The newest Books & Culture is loaded with articles on worship -- not all the same-old same-old, either. Link

WHY SMALL CHURCHES STRUGGLE
According to George Barna's most recent release:

Small churches have a higher proportion of downscale adults, who tend to be less aggressive, less inclined to assume leadership, and less oriented toward institutional growth.

Larger churches attract a greater proportion of conservative adults, who tend to prefer knowing acceptable boundaries and working within them. Church-going conservatives substantially outnumber church-going liberals.

Baby Busters are more likely to attend a small church than a large church. They have energy but they are less interested in numerical growth, have less leadership experience and fewer resources to invest in a church.

Lots more fodder for thinking about the role of size in the effectiveness of the church's mission... Link

SPEAKING OF HISTORY
Mark Galli's intro to the current issue of CT is especially sharp. Link

Christianity Today also has an editorial calling on the Christian book industry to get their act together in the hsitory department. Link

This "neo-traditionalist" (I figured out this past week that this label probably fits me better than any other) offers an amen.

YO-YO SECURITY
A few weeks ago the Bush administration was talking about cutting the air marshal program. This week they've proposed adding an additional 5,000 air marshals. Is this yo-yo approach a part of the strategy to keep the terrorists guessing? Or just the American people? Link

By the way, the time remaining in George Bush's term of office is 1 year, 4 months, and 21 days -- plus a few hours... Link

FLORIDA TRIP
Cheryl and I are busy planning our Florida trip for later this month. It looks like we'll spend all of our time in south Florida -- Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, the Keys. We want to see the Everglades and we're planning on spending a day at the Dry Tortugas National Park -- seven small islands 70 miles west of Key West.

CALIFORNIA EXODUS
Even though they're still rolling out the streets in our town, California as a whole is experiencing a negative net migration. That is, if you don't count all of the people coming to California from other countries, more people move from our state than into it. It has to do with economics (or maybe all these people are afraid that if they stay they'll have to run for governor like everyone else). Link (Thanks, Rudy)

Monstermoving.com has a great little tool for comparing two cities of your choice. Link

HOMER THE MENNONITE
I was in shock a few months ago when I learned that Homer Simpson was really a Canadian. And now it turns out that he's a Mennonite, too. The date on the website is nearly a year old but somehow this information has up to this point been held up at the border (or should I say "boundary"?) Link (Thanks, Randall)

RISE OF THE CHRISTIAN POP CULTURE
The ABCNEWS.com article on Revolve, a magazine version of the New Testament aimed at teen girls, is as much about the rise of a Christian pop culture in America as it is about the magazine. Link

Metafilter carried a link to this story, too, (first post on September 1). Usually a Metafilter story might get 10 responses. At last count this one had nearly 90 reader responses. They're worth a read, too. They show how the person on the street actually perceives Christianity and religion in general. One respondent writes, "Too bad we can't ever have serious discussions of religion..." Another writes back, "No such thing I'm afraid." And yet another adds, "I'm saying that religion is by definition beyond serious debate because debate deals with logic and evidence, and religion at its core deals with blind faith." The responses include a lot of red herring but I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise. Link

MOVING CENTER
In the 70's and early 80's I lived off and on in the Phoenix area. And I remember that one of the largest and most hopping of the Charismatic churches in town was the independent Valley Cathedral. Over the years this church has gone through significant change. It's still good sized (but not as large as it was) and it is still somewhat Charismatic in style. But the neighborhood has changed and the white middle class constituency has moved further out. The church has begun to make the transition to being multi-cultural. And they've become more traditional and connected with the church as a whole. Last night they took another step toward connectivity. Four of their pastors were ordained in the Anglican Mission in America (a group of Episcopalians operating under the authority of the Anglican churches of Rwanda and Singapore).

To someone who saw them in the 70's this is truly amazing. Perhaps some of us really do grow up.