Random

• THE giant Gävle Christmas goat is up and lookin' pretty on the webcam. ~ link

• THE goat is tweeting this year. ~ link

• THE Swedes have refined the art of queuing. ~ link

• INDIA'S GDP grew 7.9% over the last 12 months. They're talking about raising interest rates to slow the rate of inflation. ~ link

• JULY 27, 2048 is the date that the witty Hans Rosling predicts the economies of India and China will overtake those of the West. Dr Rosling is always provocative and fun to watch. ~ link (via)

• CONCRETE Canvas -- just add water and it hardens up. ~ link

• WHY are we so interested in pressuring people who are not followers of Christ and have no real attachment to him into saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays"? And really, their Christmas has little to do with with my Christmas, anyway. I just think it's great that they're still talking to me.

• JOAN Palmquist Wolford nails it:

"Agreed. Think we should be cautious in using Christ's name. I'd prefer to see ads for holiday shopping than Christmas shopping. We should use the word Christmas for those things directly related to honoring Christ's birth and last year's slogan about being able to buy more Christmas at Walmart was more offensive than any use of the "h" word I've seen."

• ADVENT -- There is an app for that! ~ link

• ROBERT Schuller (the younger) has a new TV show. ~ link

• FROM The Solomon Secret: live below your means and devote yourself to the wisdom of giving. ~ link (via)

• THE US quarter (25¢) honoring the Northern Mariana Islands (US territory north of Guam) is going into circulation this week. Curious -- because on the islands the territory is usually referred to as the "Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands" (Marianas is plural) or just the "CNMI." The territorial seal refers to it as the "Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas" -- with a plural "Marianas" but without "Islands." Wikipedia refers to it as the Northern Mariana Islands (like on the coin -- singular "Mariana" but without "Commonwealth"). No wonder those poor people have an identity crisis. ~ link

• HOW to zest citrus. Hmmm? I always run the fruit across the fine holes on a grater. ~ link

• HOW to eat a pomegranate ~ link

Random

• HAPPY New Year! Today, the first Sunday in Advent, is also the first day in the Western version of the church-year calendar. Advent means "coming" and in the four Sundays prior to the Feast of the Nativity (aka Christmas) Christians are encouraged to focus on the coming of Christ -- first as an infant 2,000 years ago and in the future as the returning king who will wrap up history as we know it.

• MY favorite Advent song is one that Cheryl wrote in 2004 -- "Come, Messiah, Come!" It's also one of my favorites of the songs she has written.

• KIRK is on the road heading toward his home in LA. Betsy flies out early tomorrow morning so she can get to her noon class at Cal. And now that Daisy has moved out of our spare bedroom and into her place it is going to be amazingly quiet around here. I go to Chicago on Wednesday for a couple of days of Ministerium related meetings. The other project for this week is to make progress reworking the PIU Spiritual Formation class which I'll be teaching online during the spring semester.

• APPARENTLY in some places the term "youth" is considered disparaging and needs to be replaced with a more correct term such as "young person." ~ link

• THIS Tuesday, December 1st, is World AIDS Day ~ link

• I don't do lutefisk and most modern Scandinavians don't seem to know what it is. However, there are some North Americans of Scandinavian descent who get excited about this time each year about the smelly lye fish dish that Swedes and Norwegians ate in the 16th-19th centuries. They can have my share. ~ link

• BORDERS Books appears to be closing down their stores in the UK. ~ link

• 16% of Australia’s greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, so scientists there are trying to breed sheep that burp less. Really. ~ link

• THERE were more shoppers this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving -- but they spent less than last year. In someways it is a good sign. People were feeling more confident so they went shopping. People were being more reasonable so they spent less money. Personally, I spent more this year than last year because I ventured out on Friday night to buy a $2.19 pack of night light bulbs . ~ link

• THE least churched cities in America? Only God definitely knows -- although there are lots of opinions among the mortals. ~ link

A viral church?

IS it possible to be a church
in which the gospel is so
compellingly proclaimed,
believed,
taught,
and transformational in practice
that it is unnecessary to spend
a lot of time and energy either in:
endless hype and church-promotion
or
in bashing and merciless deconstruction of the lesser alternatives?

This is one of the big questions that I've been noodling on for the past few years.

Random

• WE got Daisy Ho's stuff moved this afternoon -- storage to truck to her "new" house in just 3 hours. Who wants to be next? She bought a nice little house out of foreclosure. It will take fixing up but the price was right and she's got some pioneering spirit.

• BETSY made "Roasted Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Maple Soup" for us last night. It is definitely worth posting a link to the recipe. ~ link

• I have six Google Wave invites left. If you're interested let me know.

Understanding China -- 3

OR perhaps we should call this post "Understanding Chinese people."

A Chinese house church leader writes "Reflections on Chinese Conceptions of Leadership" -- noting different cultural values and emphases. ~ link

BTW, the website ChinaSource.org is packed with helpful resources for understanding China.

Previous articles on our Understanding China reading list include:

• "Angry Youth: the new generation’s neocon nationalists in the New Yorker

• "The nine nations of China" in the Atlantic

• "Understanding China" in the LA Times

Random

• SF trolley car cam -- vintage film shot from traveling trolley car ca 1909 ~ link

• EVEN though there are a few deficiencies and quirks I finally made the transition and changed the default browser on my computers to Google Chrome. It's just faster and I found myself loading it more times than not.

• WHATEVER. The government has more important things to worry about than a couple of attention-seeking buffoons who crashed a White House party. ~ link

• THE Swiss, hoping to head off some of the problems they've seen develop in France, Germany, and the UK, are getting ready to vote on a referendum banning the construction of new minarets. ~ link

• CHINA'S incredible empty city of the future (via):

Random

• "...BETWEEN 1960 and 2008, turkeys bulked up by around 11lb (5kg) to 29lb, an increase of 64%, according to the United States Department of Agriculture..." ~ link

• WE'RE not only celebrating American Thanksgiving today but also the birthday of Willis Carrier (1876-1950), the father of modern air conditioning. He is the one who made life in the tropics and deserts more bearable. We're thankful -- even if it's pretty pleasant out in our desert today. (80°/7% humidity) ~ link

• POLL Update -- At this point 55% of the blog readers prefer dark meat, 41% prefer white meat, and 3% have chosen the vegetarian option. Of course, this is an elite group of readers and their opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the rest of the world.

• THE Christian Science Monitor article on the Pilgrims is really good. They were not your everyday run of the mill Puritans. They were devout yet tolerant. The Thanksgiving holiday was probably modeled on the October 3rd Dutch Protestant "thanksgiving" and rooted in scripture. Historical records suggest that turkey really was served. Take that, you historical revisionists! ~ link

Yes, I'd pay for news

SCOT McKNIGHT is asking if we'd be willing to pay a fee for access to news articles.

I would. Headline summaries aren't worth paying for but the more in depth content is.

The media companies, though, have not yet figured out how to price the content or how to collect for it in a reasonable and realistic manner.

Sometimes I'm referred to an article that the provider only makes available to subscribers. But I don't really want to subscribe to the whole package. So I leave without it. (Same reason I don't do cable TV -- I'd have to buy access to a lot of stuff I don't want but if I could choose and only pay for the channels I want, I'd do it.)

However, if there were a uniform way to do micropayments for something and then perhaps even a tip jar at the end, if I thought that article was really helpful or well done, I'd do it.

You're referred to an article. You read the first paragraph for free and decide whether to read the whole thing. If you want to continue you click a link at the end of the paragraph which automatically deducts an MCA point ($0.0125) from your Media Clearinghouse Account (which works on all news media sites) and sends you to the rest of the article. At the end of the article you're able to click another link to leave a point or two (or more!) tip of your choosing.

The media providers need to work together to come up with something like this -- a kind of uniform system of delivery and collection -- a Media Clearinghouse Account. Such a system might have room in it for freelancers who could then provide content directly to readers and earn a living doing so (cutting out one of the corporate middle men).

The challenge is that this would require the media companies to not only compete but to cooperate in their competition. Real estate agents do it with their multiple listing services. Automobile retailers do it when they join together in "auto malls." The media can figure out someway to do it, too -- and perhaps come out stronger than when they were solely relying on the sale of ink and paper products.

Random

• RANDY MILLER'S Thirteenth Street Media is the company bidding for the East Valley Tribune. Thirteenth Street Media's other papers are give-aways which focus on local news. ~ link

• DON'T POUR turkey grease down the drain. Don't expect the garbage disposal to chop up everything you stuff in there. ~ link

• STOP PRESS! Twitter has a plan to make money in 2010. ~ link

• KIRK AND BETSY arrived this afternoon for Thanksgiving. Yipee!

Understanding China -- 2

Susan Gillespie's son Chris recently returned to the States from China, where he was studying Mandarin. He has suggested an article in The New Yorker that focuses on understanding how younger Chinese are seeing things -- "Angry Youth: the new generation’s neocon nationalists.

I found it quite helpful.

Thanks, Chris! Thanks, Sue!

Previous articles on our reading list include:
• "The nine nations of China" in the Atlantic
• "Understanding China" in the LA Times

Random

• JOIN US! The house across the street from us, picked up a couple of weeks ago out of foreclosure by some real estate company, and fixed up with new paint and carpet last week, is on the market for $104,900 -- 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, almost 1,800 sq ft, 5,297 sq ft lot. Shopping in walking distance. And you could become a part of the MasterPiece Church launch team! The house sold for $290,000 in October of 2006.

• DUNKIN DONUTS, like many other companies, has come up with a "'Thanks to You' program aimed at treating local everyday heroes to some free coffee" -- including law enforcement. At what point does this post-9-11 gratitude trend cross ethical boundaries? Does this practice in anyway create a culture of ingratiation? ~ link

• IN ADDITION to the special lectures and podcasts Fuller Theological Seminary has the class lectures for three courses online. You can sit in on Biblical Hermenutics, the Prophets, and the Pentateuch through iTunesU. ~ link

• NO WOOD burning fires in Phoenix tomorrow -- restricted because of too much pollution.

• OFFLINE GMAIL now does attachments. ~ link

• WHEN DID "Black Friday" become a public holiday? I mean, the shopping day after Thanksgiving has been a big deal in the States for years and retailers called it "Black Friday" amongst themselves because supposedly that's the day that moved them out of red ink and into the black. But now they have "Black Friday" ads on television and they talk about it as though it were a holiday in and of itself. And they've even suckered the news media into the whole charade with special reports on the holiday preparations. Marketing hype. Absurd.

• WOULD YOU use a free netbook from Google? ~ link

Understanding China

AMERICANS still think the world revolves around them. In someways it does. But with the re-emergence of China that becomes less true on a daily basis.

If we want to understand what's happening in Africa we have to understand China. If we want to understand what is happening on the islands in the Western Pacific we have to understand China. If we want to understand the energy and auto markets we have to understand China. If we want to understand global economic shifts we have to understand China.

Most Americans have grown up with little understanding of China -- and much of what we learned in school was or is inaccurate information filtered through a simplistic cold war lens. IOW, we have a lot of catching up to do.

A few days ago I linked to a good concise article in The Atlantic, "The nine nations of China."

The LA Times has a new article on Understanding China that should be a part of our China 101 reading list, too. Here's a short summary:

The issue here is much deeper than Western-style democracy, a free media or human rights. China is simply not like the West and never will be. There has been an underlying assumption that the process of modernization would inevitably lead to Westernization; yet modernization is not just shaped by markets, competition and technology but by history and culture. And Chinese history and culture are very different from that of any Western nation-state.

If we want to understand China, this must be our starting point.

Frankly, my interest is China did not start out with a deep desire to understand what is going on in the world. But over the last 30 years we've been bumping into a lot of Chinese everywhere we go -- Illinois, Washington, Texas, California, Arizona, the Islands... -- and have been enjoying the relationships. Then when we factor in the tremendous growth of the church amongst both the Chinese in China and those in dispersion around the world, it just makes sense to put some energy into understanding China.

White meat or dark meat?

Take the scientific poll
in the column to the right.

Random

• "ONE in Christ or Coffee? -- The danger of replacing the Lord’s Table with a coffee bar." ~ link

• OUR friend Dave Husby is reporting in from Bangladesh, where they are experiencing a reduction in poverty. I love the way that Covenant World Relief works -- low overhead, developing local partnerships. ~ link

• "GIVE 20-somethings a voice in church" ~ link

I'm grateful that the Selah Covenant Church took a risk with me when I was 28-years-old and called in 1984 me to serve as their pastor. The reason that church turned around after years of decline wasn't so much that I led it but that they were willing to invite younger people to have significant roles in the direction of that church.

• "BELGIAN says he was alert but mute for 23 years" ~ link

• HAVE you Americans started thawing the turkey, yet?

• WE'RE looking forward to having our children here from California for Thanksgiving -- at least two of them. Betsy flies from the Bay Area to SoCal Wednesday morning. She and Kirk will then drive the six hours to Phoenix. Kent will have to figure out someway to find turkey and kimchi in South Korea. He was with us for Thanksgiving last year on Guam. We'll miss him.

• THERE is a lot more winter farming in Maine these days. ~ link (story has nothing to do with global warming) (via)

• WHY promotional gimmicks aren't all that helpful to the church -- Dan Whitmarsh says it well. ~ link

Corona discharge

I was riding my bike under some power-lines that were giving off a loud buzz -- indicative of "corona discharge." The baffling thing is that such buzzing is usually associated with higher humidity or pollution levels.

Humidity isn't all that high right now (about 20% -- it gets a lot lower in the summer) and pollution, while a lot higher than what we enjoyed on Guam (unless the neighbors were burning their garbage), isn't at an alert level, either.

Anyone have insight as to why the lines might be buzzing so loudly now?

Guam stuff

• FIRST glance at the environmental impact of the Marines relocating to Guam -- including 600 more Marines than originally reported. ~ link

• STORM heading toward Guam ~ link

• A Japanese man has "married" his virtual girlfriend on Guam. ("Guam weddings" are ceremonial for tourists who usually do civil marriage registration in Japan before going to Guam for a Western style ceremony.) It sounds like a media stunt. ~ link

Random

• THE conversation over the Deadly Viper isn't over. ~ link

• THE Zondervan roller-coaster continues! They're selling off part of Youth Specialties to Youth Works. Youth Works was originally a Youth Specialties operation but it was spun off about five years ago. Are we confused, yet? ~ link

• WE used the free Culture Pass that we borrowed from the library to get into The Desert Botanical Garden this afternoon. Beautiful afternoon in the garden! Last month we got a Culture Pass to get into Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.

• MY new hair-clipper has a turbo setting! It's nice to know that I have the power even though at this stage in my life it is all rather moot.

• VEHICLES powered by compressed air have twice the carbon footprint of cars powered by gasoline. Oh, well. It was worth a try... ~ link

• MORE on the growing house church phenomena ~ link

• FLEMING Rutledge: "Is Jesus a King? thoughts for Christ the King Sunday" ~ link

Random

• CHINA 101 -- "The nine nations of China" ~ The Atlantic

• THE house church movement continues to grow. ~ link

• "ALGAE-DERIVED plastics could cut more than half of the petroleum currently used in traditional production" ~ link

• THERE is only one thing more annoying than SMS spam on the cell phone -- and that is, SMS spam on the cell phone at 3:17 a.m. Do they REALLY expect that I'll want to do business with them after they wake me up in the middle of the night?

• "A record one in seven US mortgages were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due in the third quarter." ~ link

• VERY good news for the Valley -- An unnamed buyer has been found for the East Valley Tribune, which had been scheduled to close at the end of the year. ~ link

Random

• DAVE Owen and Steve Stinnette, in Phoenix for a couple of days before heading back to Guam, came over for lunch today, along with Matt Augee (who took the picture). Dave and Steve are on the last leg of their five week mainland recruiting and fundraising excursion before returning to PIU on Guam. We ate sandwiches and a good time was had by all. They leave for Guam on Saturday.

• UPWARD mobility in India is leading to a shortage of coconut pickers. Surely someone can come up with a safer and economically feasible way of grabbing coconuts. ~ link

• "WORLD poverty rate plummets" ~ link

• SEE 3 proposals regarding the future of Arizona ~ link

• SOUTH Korea, which currently exports tangerines to Alaska, Guam, and Saipan, is positioning itself to begin exporting to the US mainland in 2010. ~ link

• IF drafted into the North Korean army you serve for 10 years. Defectors from the military paint a picture of life there. ~ link

• ZONDERVAN has responded to the criticism of Deadly Viper: Character Assassins and has permanently removed the book and related material. There were several Asian-American leaders who felt that Deadly Viper relied too heavily on racial stereotypes. ~ link

• THE Japanese government is trying to get the US to move a Marine airbase off Okinawa to either Iwo To (Iwo Jima) or Guam. The US is already in the process of moving 8,000 Marines and dependents to Guam. I don't think Guam would be too happy with that idea right now. They're already nervous about the impact of the 8,000 Marines. How about Saipan? They could use an economic boost. ~ link

Random

• GRAPEFRUIT juice interferes with the metabolism of certain medications. Researches have discovered that there is possibly a fungal solution to this problem. ~ link

• 10-10-10 Initiative = cross-denominational emphasis to plant thousands of new churches on 10-10-10 ~ link

• THE population of the Phoenix metro area has been flat since the recession hit in 2007. That's phenomenal for this area, which has relied on construction growth to fuel the economy. ~ link

"5 trends affecting your ministry in 2010"

"5 trends affecting your ministry in 2010"

1. Shifting demographics.
2. Technological advances.
3. New ways to collaborate.
4. Greater interest in service.
5. Blurred lines between nonprofit and for-profit.

Has she nailed it or is she missing something important? What do those of you working in the business and media sectors think?

Five months ago...

WE arrived back in the States five months (and a few days) ago. Since then we've:
bought a car --
traveled a little to see family up north --
had good family time in Arizona --
bought a nice little house off the distressed real estate market in Laveen (Phoenix) --
hung light fixtures and ceiling fans --
moved our Guam belongs out of storage and into the house --
found two couples who want to start a church --
started meeting as a church a couple of times a month --
met lots and lots of new people --
painted --
planted --
and painted some more --
loaded our belongs from the storage container in Turlock into a truck and drove it to Phoenix --
spent hours in the dentist chair --
and many many many hours dealing with Cheryl's broken wrist (which BTW, is healing well and she is a trooper in doing the physical therapy).

Neither Cheryl nor I have landed revenue producing jobs, yet. She has applied for over 70 positions and has had one interview as a result. Usually, when we move some place the jobs find her -- and there are often multiple opportunities. I haven't applied for nearly as many jobs. But I've filled out quite a few part-time teaching applications. These are interesting times. And we're still doing okay financially -- living off savings.

Sometimes when things don't seem to be happening as fast as we'd like, it is helpful to look back over several months just to see how much has been accomplished. And I suppose that if we had paying jobs we wouldn't have been able to get so much done. God is good.

Random

• HOW the Nazis Stole Christmas -- "One of the most surprising aspects of the Nazi hijacking of Christmas is the lack of reaction from the German churches at the time. 'You would have expected them to protest loudly and insist that it was a Christian festival,' says Breuer. 'But instead they largely kept quiet, out of fear.'" ~ link

• PERHAPS the American church has swung to the opposite extreme. We loudly and obnoxiously protest every little thing that rubs us wrong, eroding our credibility in the culture -- and leaving very little energy left over for dealing with the things that count. But at least we feel important as we hear ourselves talk.

• I'M embarrassed by the animosity that many Christians are aiming at President Obama. Now we have this "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8" venom. If you disagree with the president or if you think he is a schmuck -- that's okay -- you are entitled to an opinion. Think of it as your opportunity to practice radical-graciousness. ~ link

• TIM Stafford: "These are not your enemies" ~ link

• GUARANTEED pastoral appointments may soon be a thing of the past in the United Methodist Church. ~ link

• IN SPITE of my best efforts at personally propping them up, Lowe's third-quarter profit fell 30%. In this area people are reluctant to do improvements on homes that they worry about losing.

• THERE is a crew working on the vacant house across the street. The bank auctioned it off last week. It would be nice to get some new neighbors in there but I suspect that once they replace all the missing pieces and redo the yard, the house will just go back on the market as a flip. That's been the pattern in this area.

• "WORLD'S most annoying cities" ~ link

• HOW is it that so many children are suddenly getting hurt by falling television sets? ~ link

• WILL Google help flatten the legal system and reduce the need for lawyers? ~ link

• GOOGLE Translate just got better. The next step should be to add some truly useful languages like Chuukese, Yapese, Palauan, and Marshallese. ~ link

• PRICE dispute -- Costco says it is going to stop carrying Coke products. I never found Costco to be all that competitive on their soft drink pricing. Perhaps they're trying to address that. ~ link

Random

• THE Phoenix United Methodist church which lost its zoning appeal to run a feeding program for the homeless is going to appeal again. ~ link

• RIO de Vida Covenant Church, our partner congregation a few miles up the road in Surprise, was featured in a story on the PSWC website. ~ link

• PRESIDENT Barack Obama: "I have never used Twitter..." He's got 2.6 million Twitter followers and he's never sent a tweet. Grounds for impeachment? ~ link

• THE fall issue of Theology, News, and Notes is now online. Covenant colleagues Todd Johnson and John Weborg are contributors in the discussion about traditions of Christian spirituality. ~ link

• I'M optimistic that the Chinese government will eventually figure out that their censorship of the internet is putting the country at an economic and political disadvantage in relation to the rest of the world. ~ link

• AROUND two million people in Bangladesh are suffering from arsenic poisoning. Apparently the man-made ponds intended to protect villagers from unclean water have become catch basins for contaminants, which then enter the ground water system. "Experts have described the situation as the worst mass poisoning of a population in history." ~ link

• EGYPT has launched the first Arabic web domain name ~ link

• NEW research finds correlation between two chemicals found in plastic and feminization of boys. ~ link

Random

• UPCYCLE Living, a fledging Phoenix company is unveiling its cargo container home designs this weekend. They seem awfully expensive, though, especially considering what you can get in the foreclosure market here. ~ link

• THE bit about the White House replacing the Christmas Tree with a "Holiday Tree" this year appears to be another internet hoax. Be discerning. ~ link

• SOME of the swamped community colleges are out of necessity turning people away. ~ link

Will Zondervan recover its reputation?

SCOT McKNIGHT is wondering whether there is something that we should be doing about Zondervan's recent announcement that they're going to publish a new eschatology set by Tim "Left Behind" LaHaye.

Zondervan has spent a lot of time in the evangelical doghouse this year:

the brouhaha over the discontinuation of the TNIV Bible translation,

the recent publication of Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership, which has been seriously criticized for the racial stereo-types,

the staff changes at subsidiary Youth Specialties,

and now this LaHaye nonsense.

It will be interesting to see if Zondervan is able to recover its reputation.

Has pastoral ministry become too demanding?

STORY on the Covenant website:

"The average lifetime length of service for an active pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church is only 11 years, according to statistics recently compiled by the denomination’s pension plan." ~ link

That doesn't sound right. Perhaps if you figured in the large number of staff ministers, many of whom have temporary credentials and don't see pastoral ministry as a life-long vocation, 11 years might be accurate. OR it could be that because the denomination has expanded so fast that the number of people with short-term service is a lot greater than those with long-term service.

Who knows what those stats really mean!

I have also begun to question the notion that "excessive pastoral demands" are shortening ministry careers.

Yes, we can all point to some unhealthy churches which are overly demanding and which need a kick in the ecclesiastical butt -- or need to be disbanded. I've even gone through some stressful times at various points in my "ministerial career." But I'd have a hard time saying that any of the churches I've served have been "excessively demanding."

The work is hard and occasionally the hours are really long but all the churches I've worked with have bent over backward to be accommodating -- even when we're not all seeing everything eye-to-eye.

On top of that, there is a great deal of flexibility in the pastoral rhythm -- unless the pastor thinks that he or she can be all things to all people -- some kind of messiah. There are pastors who see themselves as being so important that they tightly schedule every moment of the day in order to squeeze in as much "ministry" as possible -- and then complain that they are suffocating. But those excessive pastoral demands are generated from within.

I'm not terribly sympathetic to the pastor who says, "I haven't had a free evening in 10 days." My perhaps too snarky stock under-breath response has become -- "and whose fault is that?"

Reformtting spiritual formation class

I still don't have any paying gigs but that just frees up time to work on important side-projects. :-)

For example, I've spent a lot of time this week reformatting my spiritual formation class so that I can teach it (from Arizona) by distance education this spring. Ideally we'd teach this class as a small group experience but the students we're aiming at are unable to get to the PIU Guam campus and there aren't really enough of them in a single place to set-up groups -- even if there were qualified group leaders in place.

To make things even more interesting most of these students are on islands with spotty electricity, slow flaky internet, and really snail mail service. That rules out my video content and online forums with tight deadlines. But I am counting on email being available some of the time.

The students will be doing a lot of writing, which won't hurt them at all. They are all English as second language learners. And I really admire people who will commit to such endeavor in a second language.

If you are one of my island or Pacific Rim readers and you or someone you know should be taking this class, registration information can be found here. The work, while formatted differently, is about equal to what you'd have to do if you took the class in a classroom.

Random

• THE Presbyterian Church in America has launched an 'Every Church Plant a Church' thrust. I suspect that if any denomination could get 100% buy-in to such a thing it would be the PCA. They have four things going for them: (1) the denomination itself is relatively young, (2) rise of neo-Calvinist movement which has connections with PCA, (3) the enthusiasm and modeling of PCA pastor Tim Keller, (4) a theological-soul in addition to a mission-heart. ~ link

• H1N1 in America -- 22 million had contracted it, 98,000 have been hospitalized with it, and in the last six months 3,900 Americans have died from it. ~ link

• THE Arizona department of Transportation tweeted this about an hour ago -- "Weekend restrictions: Freeways open for NASCAR..." If they're opening the freeways for NASCAR racing this weekend I'm staying home. It's already too fast without a bunch of race car drivers.

• ACCORDING to a new report released Wednesday, pollution levels in Arizona have increased 61% statewide since 1990. ~ link

• THE Atlantic headline reads: "Did Christianity Cause the Crash?" I take issue with that, the "prosperity gospel" has little to do with Christianity. ~ link

• 16% of adults in the world would move to a new country if they could. By far the destination country of choice would be the US. Asians are least likely to want to move. Africans are most likely to want to move. ~ link

Random

• WELL... the Holy Bible: Mosaic blog tour was supposed to stop here today. But I'm still waiting for the door bell to ring. I'm guessing that the good folk from Tyndale got lost somewhere in the neighborhood.

• NOW online NLT/Greek Interlinear New Testament. Initial response crashed the server today. But it seems to be functioning smoothly now. ~ link

• "JOHN J O'Connor III, the husband of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has died." ~ link

• WHILE some are talking about vibrant new designs for NFL helmets, others, perhaps more level headed people, are suggesting that the number of head injuries in football would be reduced if they got rid of the helmets altogether.

• MALAYSIA has enough internal strife. Now they've annoyed Indonesia again -- which seems easy enough to do. ~ link

• WE are supposedly in an El Niño pattern but Arizona weather continues to be wacked out in the opposite direction. Things are supposed to be wetter than normal but there is no rain in the forecast for the rest of November. It may briefly get cooler than normal next week. So far, though, we're still doing days in the upper 80's and lower 90's (!). ~ link

• FABULOUS colour video of London in 1927 ~ link

• GREAT Veteran's Day link -- dogs and children welcoming their soldiers home ~ link

• GOOGLE has slashed the price of additional online storage. I'm at 94% of Picasa/image storage capacity (used by blogger) so I may eventually have to breakdown and spend 41¢ a month for more. ~ link

• SETH Godin's post on choosing customers is highly adaptable to church planters. Relax. Take some time. Discern who God is putting on the team. Don't chase people down just because you need warm bodies to create critical mass. It will come back to bite you later. ~ link

Random

• COCA-COLA'S new high-tech "Freestyle" soda fountain with over 100 soft-drink varieties is getting a lot of attention. ~ link

• A NORTH-CENTRAL Phoenix church has lost a court appeal. They can't feed the poor out of their building because running a charity dining hall violates the residential zoning ordinance. If they were in a commercial or industrial zone they could run the dining hall. I suspect this isn't the final word. ~ link

• AUSTRALIAN study: people lose weight and are in a better mood with a high-carb, low fat, low protein diet. Serotonin at work? ~ link

• NEW spin on solar power -- 2,000 ft tall wind tunnel towers in the desert ~ link

• I THOUGHT that after 9-11 the government agencies had all decided that they were going to talk with each other and share information. ~ link

• LITURGY is evangelistic in that it provides connection to the broader story and encourages participation at a deeper level. And IMHO it's not as boring as the mind-numbing repetition of shallow me-focused music which drags the worshiper only inward and down and rarely up and out. ~ link

• OUR Guam congregation, the Lutheran Church of Guam, has voted to disassociate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and begin a new affiliation with the centrist Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). They will retain their affiliate relationship with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). Up to this point LCG has been an independent Lutheran congregation with a mission affiliation with both the LCMS & ELCA -- one of the few areas where both of those bodies cooperated with each other. Sad, but probably necessary.

• BTW, LCG is an example of an evangelistically effective liturgical church (although they are not rigid in their approach to liturgy).

Random

• A California church has its own "stimulus plan" to encourage people to support local businesses. ~ link

• GUAM may soon have non-stop flights to the US mainland. That would cut a few hours off a trip that usually takes 18+ hours, depending on connections. But I wonder how much of this talk is wishful thinking disconnected from economic reality. ~ link

• TOM Ehrich on why clergy tenure doesn't work ~ link

• ONE of the Phoenix homes auctioned off yesterday went for $20,000. ~ link

• THIS is creative -- and potentially positive. Some of the greyhound dogs left homeless after the Phoenix Greyhound Park closes next month will be going to prison. ~ link

• GRASSROOTS economic indicator -- my next door neighbor, Jesus, who is a welder, had been out of work for about 8 months. He's now working again.

• AMERICA'S oldest denominational body, the Reformed Church in America, is imploding, according to a sociology professor at their denominational college. ~ link

• SOME of Hawaii is now up on Google's Street View. ~ link

• IS there hope for the church in Germany? ~ link

• THE PT 73 has lost another crew member. Gruber has died. ~ link

• WE watched Gran Torino tonight -- so many characters transformed on so many levels.

Frugality

I've been collecting a few of my thoughts on frugality recently:

1. If you talk a lot about how frugal you are people will assume that you're cheap.

2. If you talk a lot about how frugal you are you are not.

3. Frugality at the expense of others is cheapness.

4. The wise and affluent person who can afford an extravagant lifestyle still practices frugality to free up additional resources for what matters in life.

5. The truly fugal are also outrageously generous.

Care to add some of your own thoughts?

7 years ago today

I started this blog on this day in 2002 (the stone age of the blogosphere), and eventually rolled in some of the content of the websites that I started in the mid-90's. Still having fun. ~ link

BTW, I'm still using the "personal table" that I blogged about in 2002.

Random

• JAKE Shimabukuro is teaming up with Takimine Guitars to produce a mass market Jake/Takamine signature uke aimed at the entry-level player. Nice. Very nice. ~ link (via)

• AMERICANS are saving more and borrowing less -- and that worries some economists. If that spells trouble then we need to reconfigure how the economy works. ~ link

• MOVE your website to YouTube? ~ link

• DISNEY is giving Mickey an extreme make-over. ~ link

Presidential

For some reason they seated us at the presidential table at Ponchos.

Random

• ANDY Rowell: "What Liturgical and Free Church leaders can learn from each other." ~ link

• YET another reason to plant a garden or backyard orchard ~ link

• SOME anonymous pet expert is worried that the boonie dog population may be at risk for swine flu. And from whom would these feral dogs catch the flu? ~ link

Random

• DISNEYLAND Shanghai ~ link

• LEN Sweet: "Has Christianity become mainly interested in the bee and indifferent to the hive?" ~ link

• ILLINOIS church gives away $1,000 each week in door prize money. That's one way to build attendance -- although I'm not sure it builds the church. I wonder how many winners just drop their prizes back into the offering. ~ link (via)

• THIS is the second blog post today expressing annoyance with the Canadian health care system. I only mention it because there are some vocal people in the States who want us to model our new system on their system. ~ link

The greater danger...

SOME pastors try to keep the "ritual" surrounding the Lord's Supper to a bare minimum -- lest it become rote and impersonal. Now, as I see it, perhaps that was a problem in a by-gone era (perhaps...) but the greater danger in 2009 is that the Lord's Supper can become so simplified and so personalized ("...now is the time to really think about your relationship with Jesus...") that we've lost all sense of connection to the broader more mysterious salvation narrative. We now commonly see Holy Communion as merely another personal faith enhancement.

As pastors we've become so afraid of boring people with the details that we hardly ever rehearse the broader narrative that walks through creation, fall, exodus, prophets, the cross, the resurrection... (We so underestimate what people can handle!) And then we act upset because nobody knows the biblical story anymore ("They must not be reading their Bibles like they used to..."). Each person thinks of "the communion experience" and salvation as merely an extension of his or her own story -- rather than as a participation in a bigger story.

It's our own fault. We've brought this on ourselves with our casual creed-less truncated mystery-free sacraments.

So, we can continue to whine about how individualistic and consumer-oriented our people are -- or we can do something to help them enter into the story that includes them but which is bigger than them. The question is, do we have the ecclesiastical guts to move in this direction?

And the winner is...

ON November 11th Tim Beals, the executive editor of the Holy Bible: Mosaic, will be the "guest" here on the blog. I asked readers to submit Mosaic-related questions for Tim. I then put the names of everyone who submitted questions into a hat for a drawing to receive a certificate for a free copy of the Mosaic Bible. A few minutes ago I had my able assistant Daisy Ho draw the name from the hat.

And the winner is...
Rick Lindholtz.
Congratulations!

Rick is a Covenant pastor serving on the staff of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Kingwood, Texas. He has a blog called On the Tracks.

Random

• IT is not without a little irony that I post a link to Joel Achenbach's Washington Post piece on the decline of crafted narrative in the click-and-skim world.

• THE Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the groom is black and the bride is white has been forced from his office. That was predictable. This is 2009 and the tide has turned, even in Louisiana. ~ link

• WE Americans aren't the only people infected with racism. South Korea apparently has a bad case of it right now. ~ link

Twitter

SOMEONE who follows my blog through an RSS reader mentioned a few days ago that she didn't realize that I'm also on Twitter. It's true. I am -- twitter.com/boydston.

The MasterPiece Church also has a Twitter account -- twitter.com/MasterPiece602.

Of course, it is quite possible to get too much of me. I understand. Sometimes I get too much of me. Beware.

Random

• ALL Saints Church Brockhampton, near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, England, has been replicated on the 21st and 22nd floors of an Osaka, Japan, high rise. The 3/4 size replicate building is used for weddings. ~ link

• NEW analysis by researchers from UC Berkeley and a consortium of Korean institutions suggests a correlation between cell phone use and brain tumors. The problem could extend to other areas of the body, too, according to Dr Vini Khurana. ~ link

• THE American Heart Association is proposing specific guidelines for sugar intake. "Most women should consume no more than 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) of added sugars a day; most men, no more than 37.5 grams (about 9 teaspoons). With 4 calories per gram of sugar, that’s no more than 100 calories of added sugars for women, and no more than 150 for men." Bummer. ~ link

• I'M still struggling to keep my voice alive. Sometimes it's there -- and sometimes it's not. The culprit seems to be allergies of some sort. I don't feel sick.

• I'VE been trying to create an all uke station on Pandora -- but their system isn't discriminating enough. Pandora is wanting to add artists with acoustic or steel slide guitars. I'll continue trying to train the system but I'm not optimistic about getting rid of it all. Still, it's a fun mix. ~ Try it

• 82 endangered sea turtles have hatched and are healthy at the San Diego SeaWorld ~ link

• NO one is surprised. They're pulling the plug on the East Valley Tribune. Sigh. I used to string for them when they were a daily (Mesa Tribune) and I was a university student. They currently have a pretty decent digital presence but haven't been able to translate it into revenue. Last April two Tribune reporters, Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for local news reporting. ~ link

• "ARIZONA is expected to lose more jobs in 2010, but at a much slower pace than this year..." ~ link

• PATTERNS of conversion to and from the Mormon Church ~ link

• REVIVAL meeting in the Mormon Tabernacle ~ link

Random

• MAMA mia, that's a mongo meatball -- 222.5lbs! After establishing the record the monster was donated to a local kitchen for the hungry. I want to know how they got it cooked all the way through without damaging the outer portions. ~ link

• WE drove to Tucson this evening for Scot and Meagan Gillan's farewell at Grace Community Church. I think they've served that congregation for about 17 years. They're off tomorrow heading to Naperville Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois. It was packed out tonight. They are truly appreciated and loved.

• RUSH Limbaugh, who has never created a photo opt of his own nor acted in such a fashion as to garner attention, "accused President Obama of seeking a 'photo op' when he traveled to Dover Air Force Base last week to witness the remains of fallen soldiers being returned from Afghanistan." ~ link

• "$356 MILLION children’s hospital in Mesa to open on Monday" -- How do they do it? The church building we constructed in Turlock was $2.3 million -- and it didn't have any state of the art x-ray or cat-scan machines. We didn't put in operating rooms, elaborate security systems, or parking garages. We did put in some nice play areas for children -- still, $365 million seems like a bargain in this context. ~ link

• OOPS! "Plane passenger accidentally activates ejector seat..." ~ link