Desultory items of personal interest and occasional comment
So, where have all the "Random" posts gone? A few will show up here occasionally but it seems that the new Google+ is perhaps better suited for those posts. You can find a lot of the random material at gplus.to/boydston.
BRENT PEAK sent me a link to this Lego uke. Apparently it works but with alternative tuning. The whole thing is pretty clever, although I'm guessing that the tonal quality isn't too terrific. ~ link
AUSSIE STUDENT finds universe's 'missing mass' ~ link
BY STUDYING our Facebook habits we're getting a better handle on some of our cultural characteristics ~ CNN
WIND FARMS are sending a cash infusion into rural Oregon. ~ NY Times
HANGING OUT in San Diego with Cheryl (celebrating our 30th!) for a couple of days -- which is what Phoenicians do when they want a break from the desert (only a six hour drive). One of the things I like about San Diego is that almost everything tropical will grow there -- but without the humidity. I actually saw a sprouting coconut tree this time -- although I suspect it isn't consistently warm enough for it to fully mature and reproduce. We plan to be back in Phoenix today.
I SAID hafa adai to the Ko'ko' bird we saw at the San Diego Zoo yesterday. He's hoping you all will get rid of all those nasty Brown Tree Snakes so he can go home.
MAKE A SOLAR CHARGER that fits into an Altoid box for under $20. Recharge devices that utilize USB connections. ~ link (via)
CURRENT WEATHER pattern suggests a late start to Arizona's monsoon season ~ link
UNIVERSITY OF GUAM scientists have been awarded a USDA grant to release predatory mites onto the island. ~ link
D-BACKS go peanut free -- at least for a day. Why have so many people so quickly become allergic to peanuts? ~ link
TRANSCRIPTION OF MY SERMON from 1 Peter 3 delivered Sunday is online ~ link
HERE IS A CULTURAL SHIFT worth noting. Laveen has a new American Legion Post (#134). It is their goal to become the first post in Arizona "where a member could enjoy activities in a smoke free and alcohol free environment. We are creating a Post where you can bring your entire family, where you can celebrate your service while you continue to serve your community..." This, I believe, reflects a shift in US military culture that began to take shape 15 or 20 years ago. There has been a move toward more family support and aggressively discouraging drug and alcohol abuse. I'm sure that anyone looking for a party can still find one but they're all working hard to make sure that the party mentality isn't what characterized military service. Kudos to the American Legion Post 134 -- Laveen.
FREE EXPRESSION is not one of Singapore's strengths. ~ BBC
NEW REFORMATION festering in German Catholic Church. Might they possibly find what they're looking for in the rubble of the last Reformation? ~ USA Today
NEW REPORT SAYS Guam "...drinking water 'safest in decades.'" And it probably is. But Guam has issues with both infrastructure and communication. The reason people don't trust the water is that if there is a failure at some point (and being that it is Guam, there will be a system failure at some point) the word wouldn't get to them in a timely manner. That's the real issue. ~ link
LEARN FROM GUAM -- Require all new construction in tornado and hurricane prone areas to be fully concrete with tight rebar -- including roofs.
NEW BIRTHER CONTROVERSY -- Some are questioning whether Chester Arthur, 21st president of the US, a big-government Republican, was a real citizen of the US. The rest of us are all wondering if we really had a president named Chester Arthur. ~ link
A CHURCH in Spokane has put together a new version of James Choung's big story presentation. ~ link
COOL THINGS you can do with analog books -- since we don't seem to be reading as many of them now. ~ link
AND THEN SUDDENLY it became popular to build malls again. ~ Glendale | Chandler
HAPPIEST & MOST SATISFIED people on earth: Canadians, Australians, Swedes, Danes, Swiss,
Netherlanders. But the Eastern Europeans aren't too happy right now. ~ WSJ
NO NEED to travel far to expand your cultural horizons ~ link
RESEARCH: Born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation have a smaller hippocampus than people associated with mainline Protestant churches. Apparently everyone but the mainliners suffer from chronic stress. I'd suggest that more study is necessary on this one. ~ USA Today
NEWLY DESCRIBED bacteria (Pseudomonas putida CBB5) feasts on pure caffeine ~ Scientific American
EXTREME RATINGS DROP -- Fewer people are listening to "right-wing" talk radio. Rush drops 30% in six months. Have we turned a corner? Have Americans finally decided that they don't want to be characterized by that tone of discourse? ~ link
EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION -- "The price of college is going to fall, and the Internet is going to cause that fall. The rest of it is really difficult to figure out." ~ The Atlantic
"A UK STUDY suggests that overall, plastic bags have less environmental impact than paper bags or even reusable canvas bags." And you can bring the plastic to us when you're done. Our church is trying to help the local Girl Scouts collect 32 million plastic bags. The bags will be used to manufacture Trex composite lumber for the Leadership Center at Camp Sombrero. ~ link
SINGAPORE AIRLINES is planning to start a long-haul budget carrier next year. I surely wouldn't mind scoring a cheap ticket to Singapore -- a bit sticky but a great place. After being on Guam for a year I landed in Singapore for some meetings and it felt like the whole city had been manicured by Walt Disney. ~ BBC
THE US TREASURY could make as much as $7.1 billion by selling off $5.8 billion worth of AIG shares. I was never very good with math so I don't quite understand how that could be -- but, hey, the taxpayers are turning a profit for their part in the bail-out. Good for us. ~ BBC
NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong-il is in Beijing looking for some political muscle -- perhaps some food? Why else would he take his train instead of flying? ~ BBC
HEY COLLEGE GRADS -- companies are hiring -- especially if you have analytical or computer skills. Even some artists are getting jobs. ~ WSJ
THE DEGREES most likely to make you wealthy -- and those least likely to pay off. Well, not everyone goes to college to prepare for a life of making money. ~ Time
THREE MORE employees of the Maricopa County Sheriff's office have been arrested. When we get the new sheriff he or she will need to be someone with no history in the department. ~ link
JIM HAWKINSON graduated yesterday morning. He was one of the best story-tellers in the Covenant -- probably because he lived the stories. Jim was also a true Barnabas -- always an encourager -- definitely one of my favorite people in the Covenant Ministerium. ~ link
The first time I heard the term “missional” was in the early 1990’s. My boss, Gary Walter, who was director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, was using four terms to describe the Covenant. We all eventually began to fondly call them the four “Al’s.” He described the Covenant, and our Pietistic heritage, as being Biblical, Devotional, Connectional, and Missional.
The term missional showed up on my radar again with the book edited by Darrell Gruder, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Eerdmans, 1998). It is an attempt to help the American church realize that if it is going to become a faithful participant in what God is doing it can not just send out missionaries. It has to become a missionary itself.
Subsequently dozens of books have been written trying to unpack and apply the term. Sometimes the missional church concepts get blended with those of the organic church or the simple church movements. Occasionally, the more random and eclectic thinking in the emerging church movements becomes a part of the mix.
Theologically, the late Scotsman and missionary bishop Lesslie Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Eerdmans, 1989) established a lot of the framework for the missional movement. He was a part of the Gospel and Our Culture movement which sought to apply the lessons learned on “foreign mission fields” to the increasingly plural home mission contexts. In a very real sense the missional emphases are an extension of the Gospel and Our Culture movement.
Another missionary who has turned some of his attention to the Western context is Irishman Christopher Wright. His tome The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, (Eerdmans, 2006) provides the comprehensive biblical foundation for missional thinking. More recently his book The Mission of God’s People: a Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission, (Zondervan, 2010) seeks to help the church apply the content of the first book.
Two very accessible missional church titles are Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One, by Alan J. Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren (Baker Boos, 2009) and Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal (Baker Books, 2009).
The purpose of this brief essay is to define “missional” in fairly basic terms and then to describe what I see as the characteristics of a missional church.
So, what IS missional? In a nutshell missional is two things.
First and foremost, it is a recognition that God is by nature a missionary God. From the beginning he has been on a mission to bring reconciliation and healing to his rebellious and broken creation. The mission is not an “add-on” that the church came up with to extend it’s geographical and cultural influence but it is inherent to God’s relationship with the world and indeed, it is the gospel itself.
Secondly, being missional in our approach is a matter of recognizing that God has already been at work in any given context before we arrive as his missionaries. In other words, we are not doing mission work on behalf of God; we are instead participants in what he is already doing. So then, part of being missional involves discovery -- figuring out what God seems to be up to with every person and group in any given place and situation.
What then does that look like in practice? What is a missional church?
1. Since the assumption is that God is already at work in any given context the first task of the church is to ascertain what he is doing. This means that the missional church is a listening and observing church.
We can determine some of what God is up to through our understanding of scripture. But there is also a local context. What kind of people seem to be congregating? How do they relate to each other? Where might doors be opening for agents of the kingdom of God? Missionaries talk about this as the exegesis of culture.
Mission-minded people understand that this is a highly relational process -- hanging out, meeting people, developing connections, being involved in lives... In most places it will take years to get a solid sense of what's going on.
This passion for understanding how God is at work locally often means that standardized products are unacceptable. Yes, some things can be adapted. But often adaptation itself leads to distortion so there is a prejudice against (and sometimes cynicism toward) cookbook approaches to ministry.
Miissional church planters working in highly structured denominational systems may encounter difficulty because they’re not keeping up with a predetermined schedule and set of benchmarks. They’ll most likely want to rethink each step of the denomination’s formula along the way. It can create tension.
Leaders trying to move established churches in a more missional direction are going to create frustration. Congregants often measure success in terms of numbers of people in the crowd or the types of events. They’ll want to implement the cool programs that they see working somewhere else without necessarily first asking whether that is what God is up to here.
Missional leaders will need a steady hand, lots of patience, and the ability to cultivate imaginations.
The narrative imagination of scripture challenges our assumptions about what God is up to in the world and reminds us that leaders can do great things when they align their expectations with God’s. An important role of a missional leader is cultivating an environment within which God’s people discern God’s directions and activities in them and for the communities in which they find themselves. The biblical narratives are full of stories about places and people without hope who become centers of the Spirit’s creative, world-changing activity. This can still be the case. For congregations and leaders who feel they can’t compete, keep up with, or emulate the example of growth and success held up for them at conference after conference, this is exuberant, life-giving news. These stories demonstrate not some optimistic wishful thinking but a conviction about the God we encounter in Jesus. We, like the people in these biblical stories, are invited to cultivate our imagination to see the possibilities of what the Spirit wants to do in and among the people we are called to lead... (The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan J Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, Baker Books, 2006, 16-17)
2. The missional church recognizes that the way people enter into the church is the way that they develop as disciples.
If we use entertainment or events to “hook” people for Jesus most of them will have difficulty transitioning to a more substantial life of discipleship. In the long-run they become religious consumers expecting more and more religious services to meet their perceived needs. They do not have much tolerance for the messiness of mission and expect the church to provide ministry for their children, worship “experiences” to refresh their emotions and their souls, Bible studies to feed their appetites for the Word, and even mission trips to validate their sense of place in God’s kingdom.
Do not misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with having children’s ministry, worship experiences, Bible studies, mission trips, or an orderly well-managed congregation. These can all be quite helpful. But often these means become the ends. That is, we have trouble getting beyond them to actually living out the kingdom of God that Jesus initiates. These things can become channels of Jesus’ agenda but more often they are perfunctory or obligatory tasks done to keep the members happy with little regard to their overall kingdom impact. The focus is internal to the church rather than external toward what God is doing beyond.
And when we start people down this internally-focused road, they do not easily make the turn onto a more missionally focused path.
Reggie McNeal writes:
...the missional church is the people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world. This understanding of the church is both liberating and sobering. It is liberating in the sense that we realize we don’t have to manufacture the work of God in ourselves or in the world. God is doing the heavy lifting. This means that we can quit trying to drum up a breeze by generating a lot of frenetic church activity and instead hoist our sails to catch the breeze that’s already blowing.
At the same time, this understanding of who we are as the church (not what we are -- a place or a religious vendor) carries great responsibility. Our job is not to ‘do church’ well but to be the people of God in an unmistakable way in the world. We are the aroma of Jesus in the cemetery of decaying flesh. We are to be different in the hope we offer, in the grace we exhibit, and in the obvious sacrifice of love we display in dealing with others. (McNeal, 24)
Practically speaking, this means that the best entry points into the life of the church will be built around an experience of God’s mission -- building a Habitat house together, painting over graffiti in the community together, developing redemptive relationships with marginalized people together... Socialization, proclamation, and catechization can occur within that mission context more readily than mission-reorientation can occur in a context where socialization, proclamation, and catechization are the primary focus.
Again, the lines of distinction are never clear-cut. But we are quickly learning from the younger generation in the West that they are underwhelmed by our well-structured attempts at entertainment, our solid preaching, and our discipleship training programs. They perceive that what we are doing is too narrowly focused. And often they are right.
Thirdly, a missional church is tuned into the whole mission of God.
It has not always been the case but in the 20th century American evangelicals became reactive to what they perceived to be salvation by social activism. So they worked hard to distance themselves from anything that did not involve a simple decision-focused proclamation of salvation by accepting Jesus as Savior and then memorizing (or at least being exposed to) the biblical truths that support “the Christian life.”
Any other forms of activism were suspect in the 20th century -- in spite of the fact that the previous generations of evangelicals had organized themselves to abolish slavery in America and England, to support women’s suffrage and rights, to develop the public education system, to establish the medical care system, to care for orphans and widows, and to advocate for temperance.
These major social endeavors grew out of the evangelical conviction that Christians are to be salt and light in society. The neatly defined categories of proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, advancing justice for the socially marginalized, and caring for the poor simply did not exist. They were all integrated parts of the one and same mission. The idea that there could be a personal gospel apart from the social gospel is a modern invention of the 20th century.
In the missional church we recognize that the church is called to participate in the whole mission of God. We see that in Christ we become the advocates for personal and social reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). We see that love of neighbor is as important as love of God (Mark 12:29-31). We see that “neighbor” most certainly includes, and even starts with, the marginalized -- the least and the most vulnerable (Luke 10:25-37; James 1:27). To ignore part of the mission is to ignore a big part of what God is doing in his world.
Finally, the missional church is a sent church.
Historically we’ve used the term “apostolic” to describe both the content of the church’s faith and its sentness. (The word “apostle” means “sent one” or “messenger.”) The ideas are indistinguishable, for the apostolic faith is rooted in the Holy Trinity sending one of its own to pitch a tent in the world, to become one of us, to sacrifice his life for us, to be raised to new life for us -- and then to send us out as his partner in mission.
When we are participants in what God is doing in the world we embrace the commission to “go.” (Matthew 28:19) Some of us are sent cross-culturally. All of us, together and individually, are sent somewhere beyond the walls of where the church gathers for worship and fellowship. That is our identity -- sentness.
It is understandable why one of the four “Al’s” in the Covenant is Missional. Our forebearers called themselves “mission friends” and when the denomination organized itself, the Evangelical Covenant Church was originally called the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church. They saw themselves as sent out to live out the evangel (good news). They preached wherever anyone would listen -- downtown, rural chapels, Africa, Alaska, China... But they also started orphanages, schools, hospitals, and homes for old people. That’s what mission friends did because they sensed that was what God was doing in their midst. They acted missionally and the call to the church today is really no different. The context has changed significantly but the mission itself has not.
There are other characteristics often associated with the idea of being missional -- ideas that naturally flow from what I've described above. We could talk in terms of authentic community ("Connectional" in the four "Al's"). We could unpack the idea of identifying with the community in which we serve -- and blessings what we see as consistent with Kingdom of God values. We could talk about de-programming the church so that people are freed up to engage in the non-church community. These are all implied in the term "missional."
I wish that I had the imagination to fill my brief essay with stories of how this all works. I suppose, though, that if I did then it would no longer be brief. Perhaps you will be satisfied with these illustrations that were posted on YouTube a few years ago.
Tim Keller has a slightly different way of describing missional. But we're on the same page.
And then there is Michael Frost's classic talk -- well-worth the hour it takes to watch.
CHRISTIANS in different cultures talk about conversion in different ways. R.G. Lewis has a good explanation. ~ link
SWEDEN is about ready to start exporting their pig ears to China -- which is no great sacrifice since Swedes are as fond of pig ears as Americans are -- NOT. ~ The Local
STRATEGY SHIFT -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Pearson Foundation are forming a partnership "to create online reading and math courses aligned with the new academic standards that some 40 states have adopted in recent months." Instead of funding the efforts of others the foundations are becoming direct providers. ~ NY Times
OUR PHOENIX Public Library now offers hundreds of free online classes through the Universal system. ~ link
THE COMPLETE Common English Bible (CEB) will be available online mid-late June - Kindle, Nook, Olive Tree, BibleGateway... Ah, that's only a few weeks from now. Excellent. ~ link
AT LEAST Harold Camping has tenacity (but we already knew that). Now he's saying that the second coming was "spiritual." The world will be destroyed on October 21st, 2011. Elizabeth Tenety writes on a Washington Post blog, "Camping’s belief system is one part mainstream Christian teaching and another part pure Camping." If he had gone to seminary he would know that he is also tottering on the edge of an ancient heresy known as Gnosticism. ~ Washington Post
ISTM, the real questions to be addressed are: Why do we care what Harold Camping thinks? How is it that the lunatic fringe always captures so much attention and imagination in our culture? The answers will tell us a lot about ourselves.
CHINA'S CRACKDOWN on drunk-driving seems to be working. The ban on smoking in public venues -- well, not so much. ~ The Economist
"PLASTIC SURGERY boom as Asians seek 'western' look" -- Our son Kent, who spends most of his time in South Korea, was telling me about this trend when we were visiting there two years ago. But it appears that the whole thing has really started to pick up momentum. I understand why they do it -- the cultural pressure -- the emphasis on appearance. But I still think it's crazy. Appearing more Western isn't an improvement over the great thing God did when he came up with the Asian look. ~ CNN
GREENWASHING: "Nearly All Products' Eco-Friendly Claims Are Bogus or Misleading" ~ TIME
"IN THE UNITED STATES, the number of Muslims is expected to increase from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million by 2030, in large part because of immigration and higher-than-average fertility among Muslims." ~ CT
"MORE THAN 60% of Americans belong to some formal religious body today. In…late 18th c., that number was less than 10%." ~ Andy Crouch
VLADIMIR LENIN'S family was Jewish -- and the documentation is now on display in Moscow. Frankly, this isn't all that surprising. Various historians have asserted such over the years. ~ link
THIS IS a Madeiran rajão, one of the ancestral instruments to the ukulele. ~ link
LIGHT RAIL coming to Lagos -- should make a lot of difference to a lot of people in an extremely congested city. Chinese construction firm, Nigerian workers, Canadian oversight. ~ Global Post
I'VE NOT YET been to Maui but I sure like groovin' to the tunes on Native 92.5. I do miss being around islanders.
IRENIC debriefing of the May 21st rapture fiasco by Timothy Dalrymple. I so like his approach and level-headedness that I've started to follow him on Twitter. It's always encouraging when the younger folk surpass the previous generation in wisdom. ~ link
"HAROLD CAMPING 'flabbergasted' world didn't end" -- Interesting story in the SF Chronicle uses language often employed to describe controling cults -- "shunned" -- "Camping's compound."
NEW HOUSE CHURCH magazine out of Canada -- Starfish Files. I assume that "starfish" is a reference to the dominant metaphor in The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.This book, by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, originally a hot business title, has become a bit of a philosophical handbook to some of the house church folk looking for additional affirmation of their emphasis on flexible networks. (BTW, Kindle edition of the book is $12.99, but you can get a new paperback for $3. Which is the better bargain?)
GREATEST MARRIAGE PROPOSAL EVER -- It is no surprise that this is such a hit. It is creative, romantic, and the story is well told with moments of tension and release followed by more tension and release -- but not annoyingly so. The humor is delightful.
AMERICANS DON'T WANT to live in Detroit. Will they open it up for immigration? Can the Winnipeg model save Detroit? ~ link
DID TODD AND SARAH buy a home in Scottsdale? Arizona seems itchin' to have the Palins set-up house in the state. ~ link
AN APPARENTLY a mentally ill woman tried to kill herself and her children so that they could escape the tribulation. Sigh. Ideas, even nutty ones, have consequences. Will God hold Harold Camping responsible? ~ link
"WHAT ABOUT the MTA retired man who invested his savings, $140,000, on advertisement proclaiming that May 21 would be Judgment Day?" ~ link
SETH GODIN finds a marketing lesson from this whole rapture episode. ~ link
WELL, THE RAPTURE miscalculation was good for some sectors of the economy. ~ link
ATTEMPTS TO standardize the Chinese language. ~ BBC
"TUCSONAN protects her felines from coyotes with 'catio'" ~ link
WHY IS CANADA so much more inviting than the US?
...the emphasis on multiculturalism points to an interesting normative distinction between the United States and Canada. The United States supports pluralism and in some respect this leads to similar structures in the two countries. (Ms Bloemraad mentioned that both the United States and Canada have unusually robust legal protections against discrimination, for example.) But in the United States, you rarely hear somebody advocate for immigration on the grounds that it adds to the social fabric of the country. When the normative argument arises here, it has a humanitarian dimension. I would posit that in the United States, identity is a right, not a value. ~ The Economist
"FANTASY ISLAND: Are Republicans losing their grip on reality?" The thing is, the vocal extremists have sent those of us who are more centrist out into the world of the independents. So technically we are no longer Republicans -- at least as Republican is currently defined. In one sense those who have left have a better grip on reality -- except when it comes to offering an electable candidate. But reality is subject to change. ~ Slate
"ARTIFICIAL LIGHT: How man-made brightness has changed the way we live and see forever" -- There is still a good portion of the world without electricity and artificial light -- most of the Southern Hemisphere. ~ link (via)
VIOLIN WAS my first instrument. But I don't recall being taught any of these moves. Want to see more? ~ link
DISCIPLESHIP:"How liturgical prayer is saving our community from burnout." ~ CT
FOOD EXPERT Ben Witherington reports on the scandalous origins of SPAM. My personal thinking is that it most likely originated to fill the vacuum created when certain cultures transitioned out of cannibalism. ~ link
"AMERICAN POT HEADS killing Mexico" -- There is some truth to the assertion. ~ link
SANTA TO BECOME A DANE? -- Even if the North Pole is melting, it's still cold up there. Imperial Denmark can have it. "According to a document leaked this week, Denmark plans to claim the North Pole, heating up the battle for the melting Arctic." ~ Global Post
MELODY PLAXTON sent me a link to the story about exploding watermelons in China. Farmers in the US sometimes experience the same thing -- even without the chemicals. It has to do with water retention in the surrounding soil. The melon takes on too much water, too quickly. Perhaps the chemicals contributed to that but it happens even without chemicals. It's usually chalked up to a combination of too much rain at the wrong time and poor farming practices.
BTW, WE'VE already had a couple of good melons this season. I'm getting hungry just thinking about watermelon.
ASU PLANS to open a Lake Havasu campus by fall, 2012 ~ link
THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY Office of Education's "Unlimited Access" program, a collaborative effort with businesses and nonprofits, "gives families a 'broadband device and a refurbished, three-year-old desktop valued at $950' for a super affordable $20 fee. The desktops come with software, including educational programs, already installed." Excellent! ~ link
"IT MAY BE possible to vaccinate people against addictive drugs" -- Yeah, but there is an easier way. ~ The Economist
MY GOOD FRIEND Amanuel Abraha is an enterprising immigrant and church planter. He does handyman projects in the Phoenix area -- especially pavers... welding... painting. And he has a website. If you need a hand with a project he is very conscientious, detail oriented, and skilled. He helped me with my pavers.
"AT THE ripe old age of five years, America’s housing bust is still very much alive and kicking. House prices dropped 3.3% in the year to February..." But there are indicators that things are actually getting better. ~ The Economist
GOOD NEWS STORY -- Guam-based and bound Navy supply ship rescues five islanders whose boat was in distress. ~ Stars and Stripes
CONTRARY TO commonly accepted myth, and the high profile lives of the Hollywood crowd, the number of long-lasting marriages in the US has actually risen, according to the Census Bureau. ~ Washington Post RONALD McDONALD stays! No retirement in sight. I'm sure that the food vigilantes aren't too happy. ~ WSJ
PRIVATE RUN prisons don't appear to be saving the sate money. ~ NY Times
THE NORTHERN THREAT:
When it comes to the threat of terrorism, the Canadian border is a bigger problem than the Mexican one, a US security official says.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin said he is concerned that potential terrorists are exploiting Canadian loopholes to gain entry to the United States.
“We have had more cases where people who are suspected of alliances with terrorist organizations, or have had a terrorist suspicion in their background – we see more people crossing over from Canada than we have from Mexico,” he said during in his testimony to the US Senate this week. ~ Globe & Mail
Given the sheer number of people crossing in the from south I don't understand how the northern border is the greater concern. Interesting.
KYLE SMALL has a good piece on the church and ministry in Thailand. ~ link
THE WHOLE church membership thing has become even more confusing than before! ~ Christian Century
SINCE PEOPLE seem to have rapture fever this week, I'll point to N.T. Wright's "Farewell to the Rapture." Even if you don't buy 100% of his exegesis he does nudge the discussion in a direction that is more biblically sound.
My buddy Sean Meade asked, "Is there any point on which you disagree with Wright?"
The answer is, I think I am in agreement with him, but I'm open to other opinions. In his book Surprised by Hope he talks about the fact that the word parousia, which is often translated as "coming," more precisely means "presence" -- "as opposed to absence."
Here he is at Wheaton College elaborating on it all.
IF THE "SOCIALIST" head of the IMF spends $3,000/night for a NYC hotel room, well, it's easy to understand why there's so much global economic confusion. And it's not likely that the IMF's next demand for frugality from struggling countries will carry much weight.
THE DIFFERENCE IS: in Tunisia and Egypt they protested totalitarianism. In Spain it's all about jobs and the economy. ~ link
THE GREAT STAGNATION: Why hasn't all this new technology created more jobs? When am I going to get my hover-board and jet-pack? ~ PBS
ARE YOU a "big picture" person? The latest from MasterPiece Church. ~ link
ICELAND'S BIG THAW -- bankers are no longer cool in this quirky country. ~ NY Times
HAS ANYONE else been experiencing an extraordinary high number of DNS failures recently? And, for me, it's not all happening on the same machine. I wonder if Cox is having problems.
CLEVER -- "Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says" ~ link
AMAZING -- but the whole time I had that parental "No running by the pool" voice running through my head." --
IT MUST BE some pension those Wisconsin retirees are getting. "A retired prison guard ate his 25,000th Big Mac on Tuesday, 39 years to the day after eating his first ... nine..." Let's see, at $3.75 a piece x 25K, adjusted for inflation = whatever... That's no small chunk of change. Good thing he doesn't live in Norway. I understand that a Big Mac there is about $8 a piece (or 50¢ per bite). ~ AZ Central
SCAPEGOAT -- A five-year study commissioned by the Roman Catholic bishops in the US "to provide a definitive answer to what caused the church’s sexual abuse crisis" has concluded that blame should be placed on Woodstock. ~ NY Times
ELECTRIC CARS might actually become a money maker for their owners by pushing electricity back into the grid. At least some researchers consider it feasible. ~ The Economist
SOME TEA-PARTIERS are upset that the law creating their "Don't Tread on Me" specialty license plates -- the law they passionately pushed through the Arizona State Legislature -- created yet an additional state agency (albeit small) with a board of 13 people to administer money generated through the sale of the plates. That's a lesson in civics. Things are not as simple as you think they are. So be careful what you ask for. You might get it -- and all the baggage that comes with it. ~ link
CHINESE GHOST CITIES -- Yet another story on the underpopulated, but investment-heavy "ghost cities." Could they become the hidden monkey wrench in the otherwise robust Chinese economy? I'm no expert but my guess is that the calculated risk will eventually pay-off. All demographic indicators point that direction. ~ Huff
NEW STUDY: Close to 30% of the internet activity in US homes during the evening hours invoves Netflix. That is a lot of social and cultural influence. ~ link
ALL THREE volumes of Christian Theologyby 20th century Wesleyan-Arminian theologian H. Orton Wiley are available for free as Kindle books. Those Church of the Nazarene guys don't miss a beat, do they?
THIS IS A MILD WEEK in the desert. High of 79° today. For all the whining we do about summer heat it is helpful to remember that the summers are actually relatively short and most of the year is pleasant -- like this.
> OUR SON Kent sent this video. You have to be pretty steeped in American church culture to fully appreciate the humor.
> "DO MORE with less -- or things will get ugly" --
It's certainly not fair to ask developing countries to give up a chance at prosperity because we already used all the good stuff and want to keep using what's left. But those countries may ultimately have an easier time decoupling than developed nations since they can leapfrog older, inefficient technologies (i.e coal-fired power plants) for more resource efficient ones, such as solar power. It's easier to simply adopt efficient than to tear down existing infrastructure and start over. In 2050, we may be waving goodbye to an ascendant solar-powered Africa while we scrounge for one last lump of coal. ~ Ariel Schwartz
>ARIZONA GUN INCIDENT -- "Man shot in the head during road-rage incident" ~ link
> ALASKA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE (love those guys up there!) is a finalist in Toyota’s "100 Cars for Good" program. Vote for them at www.facebook.com/toyota on Friday, May 20th and they could win a vehicle. On Friday, choose "100 Cars for Good" from the menu on the left side of the page, click on "Vote Now," which will show you a menu where you can "View Contestants." Scroll down to "Alaska Christian College" -- click, and you’ll be able to view their video and see their story. If you go to this site today, you can schedule a reminder for the 20th -- but you’ll need to vote between 6 AM and 12 midnight EST on the 20th.
> SO, IF we got a swimming pool, SRP would give us a $200 rebate on energy-efficient pool equipment. I wonder if I could apply the rebate to one of the kiddie pools I saw at Walmart. That's about as much pool as I can handle these days. But it looks like a good program if you're into grown-up pools. ~ SRP
> AUSTRALIA'S UNIQUE approach to racial exclusion ~ link
> FOR THE THIRD time this year, strong winds have lifted an inflatable bounce house in Arizona. No one was hurt by the flying bounce house this time. But there were other wind related injuries at the park. ~ KTAR
> STEPHEN HAWKING says there is no heaven ~ AZ Central
> NO NEED for Speed -- "Save your money, United Nations -- the developing world doesn't need broadband Internet to get ahead." ISTM, that the problem here is that we are thinking of broadband mostly in terms of computer speed. What will undoubtedly happen is that the hand-held devices (phones) will obtain higher speeds before most of the wired devices (computers). And that leap-frog over computers will work for the consumer. But larger than mom and pop size businesses will still need speed and bandwidth if they are going to be serious competitors in the global market. ~ Foreign Policy
> "DISNEY applies for 'Seal Team 6' trademark" -- Wouldn't that be the defacto property of the US Navy and the people of the United States of America? ~ link
> "FLORIDA LEGISLATION banning saggy pants at schools is sitting on the desk of Gov Rick Scott." That's one way to validate deviance. ~ link
> MY SERMON on 1 Peter 2 from yesterday -- transcription ~ link
> BUT what does Islam have to say about pornography? ~ link
> I LOVE Monsters and am looking forward to Monsters University, the prequel coming in 2013 ~ link
> I DIDN'T realize that Seattle Pacific University offers an MDiv degree. And it does not appear to be a totally new program there. (I guess I was dozing.) The experts keep predicting the decline of the MDiv but more and more schools keep adding it. ~ link
> ARIZONA is so wasted --
State officials and supporters like to say Arizona has the first true medical marijuana program in the country - but it didn't take much for me to become a state-certified pothead. With the help of a naturopath and an out-of-state certification mill, I breezed through the application process and scored my very own medical marijuana card. ~ link
> "REFORMED churches everywhere are switching from communion bread to these." (For the uninitiated, that is a theology joke. It plays off the TULIP acronym that some Reformed Calvinists use to summarize their theology. It's actually quite clever -- wish I'd thought of it.) ~ link
> WHY Eugene Peterson's new book, The Pastor: A Memoir, is a must read for the church planting pastor:
...It became more and more clear that when God forms a church, he starts with the nobodies. That's the way the Holy spirit works. Those are the people he started with -- Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Anna and Simeon -- to bring our Savior into the world. why would he change strategies in bringing the salvation community, church, this congregation into formation?
> IF I COULD have one technology wish -- it would be for a device that would neutralize the bass in the sound systems of the cars that drive through the neighborhood -- shaking the pictures on our walls and paining my ears. Suggestions?
>IN-N-OUT opened two restaurants in Texas this week. More are on the way. In a sense I'm glad that they're getting to enjoy In-N-Out, too. But it doesn't quite feel right. I can picture palm tree lined milkshake cups in Florida but it's a real stretch picturing some dude with boots and a big obnoxious belt buckle in DFW kicking back with a double-double. ~ link
> JUST ASKING -- How much do other counties spend defending themselves against lawsuits generated through the activities of the sheriff's office? I suppose one might argue that it's a small price we pay for the amount of entertainment in our three-ring circus. But some believe that the government probably shouldn't be in the entertainment business. ~ link
> DONALD TRUMP reveals his hair care secret. ~ link
> A NEW METHOD of making electricity from sunlight has just been tested. How is it that a bunch of guys in Massachusetts, definitely not a sun-belt state, are coming up with such solar innovation? ~ The Economist
> WHY DID THEY fly the Guam flag on the Space Shuttle Discovery? (I'm still trying to figure out where the flag pole is.) Guam legislators will undoubtedly request compensation from the federal government -- a licensing fee for NASA's use of the flag. ~ link
> EVEN THOUGH he is dead, bloggers continue to crucify Osama bin Laden. He's a pretty easy target at this point. ~ link
> AND WE'RE BACK... Blogger is up and running again.
> UKULELE -- "the instrument of peace" (but we already knew that):
>EPA to Chicago: Your river needs to be clean enough for swimming ~ Huff
> NO PRINCESSES:
I'm not a princess (though I suspect my dad will fight me on this point when he reads this). And I don't think it's cynical of me to say it. It's not bad news. It's great news, actually. God has called me—has called all of us—not to a life of childlike sentimentality, but to concrete hope and service in him through discipleship. In this way I encourage women, when they're tempted to think of themselves as royal, to think of themselves as royal priests (1 Pet. 2:9). Here are the present pitfalls of being a princess—and God's alternative, which is so much better. ~ Laura Robinson
> INTRODUCING Jacobus Arminius -- quickie lesson in historical theology~ link
> THE BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE, with insistence on applying modern definitions of precision to the Bible, was the pinnacle of modernism in evangelical thinking.
...Again, let me repeat. The turning point in The Battle for the Bible was NOT belief in inerrancy. It was Lindsell’s claim that one cannot be evangelical and deny inerrancy. And it was the vitriolic attacks he launched on evangelical colleges, seminaries and individuals. ~ Roger Olson
> AVIAN MALARIA -- growing problem:
The effects of warming on avian malaria were not universal. Birds in Asia, North America and South America suffered much less change in their levels of infection during warm years than did birds dwelling in Africa and Europe. Such trends may not have any relevance to the malaria parasites that infect humans. But avian malaria is already ravaging the native birds of Hawaii and it is now wreaking havoc in New Zealand, says Dr Garamszegi. Human beings may be able to mitigate the spread of malaria, but birds will need the help of conservationists if some species are to survive. ~ The Economist
>I'VE REQUESTED an invite for Google's new cloud-based music service -- music beta. (I wonder how long can they keep a service named "beta" in beta? Will it ever get out? They do have a sense of humor at Google.) I wonder if I'll be chosen. Last year I responded to a message from Google and signed up to become a Google Chrome laptop tester. So far, the free laptop hasn't shown up on my doorstep. But every time I hear the UPS truck my heart starts beating faster.
> SAMOA is messing with the International Dateline -- trying to sync up with the Asian Rim countries. Of course, American Samoa isn't buying in. Chaos ahead. Everyone needs to do it or no one. ~ link
> NON-LINEAR LEADERSHIP:
Many aspects of leadership are linear, and many leaders are linear thinkers. But there’s a non-linear kind of leadership where it’s not just about getting A, then B, then C done. It’s not just about a strategic plan. Non?linear leadership involves the creation of culture. How do you build a culture in an organization that unleashes energy? To me, that’s really at the core of what it means to be a great leader. ~ Nancy Ortberg
> SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP in a frenzied world:
I have found praying the Lord’s Prayer in a slow meditative fashion to be a tremendously helpful spiritual discipline in resisting a frenzied life. Just taking time to do so provides an oasis from both the external complexities and the internal compulsions in my life. But this teaching of Jesus also instructs my soul in what to pray for. ~ Robert Fryling
> FINALLY A GOLF BALL for the duffer league ~ link
> DREW DYCK: "It takes more than pizza and video games ('fired up entertainment and watered down gospel') to give young people a faith that endures." ~ Leadership Journal
Over the past year I've conducted dozens of interviews with 20-somethings who have walked away from their Christian faith. Among the most surprising findings was this: nearly all of these "leavers" reported having positive experiences in youth group...
Of course there's nothing wrong with pizza and video games. The real problem is when they displace spiritual formation and teaching the Bible. And ultimately that's the greatest danger of being overly reliant on an entertainment model. It's not just that we can't compete with the world's amusements. It's not only that we get locked into a cycle of serving up ever-increasing measures of fun. Rather it's that we're distracted from doing the real work of youth ministry—fostering robust faith.
Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life, liked to say, "It's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel." A generation later, that philosophy morphed into an entertainment based gospel that has actually produced entertainment numbness and an avoidance of the gospel's harder teachings. Somehow we thought we could sweeten the gospel message for young people to make it easier for them to swallow, but it turns out that they're choking on our concoction.
In the end, pizza and video games don't transform lives. Young people are transformed by truth clearly presented. They're drawn to a cause to live and die for. In other words, they want the unvarnished gospel. When we present that gospel, with all its hard demands and radical implications, we'll be speaking the language they long to, and need to, hear.
> PERHAPS IT'S TIME to just get rid of ALL the specialty license plates. At some point the whole thing puts the government in the awkward position of deciding what is and isn't appropriate. ~ USA Today
> THE CEB finds a welcome at Fuller Theological Seminary ~ link
> EVERETT WILSON'S 1987 title Ideas That Change the Churchis now available through Kindle. Sometimes what is new makes good thinking of the past accessible. I think that Everett's ideas are going to be a bit out of the box regardless of when he wrote them down. He isn't far out but he frames things in a slightly different way and that gets us thinking.
> SALON'S STORY ON Harold Camping and his May 21st rapture prediction is even-handed. There is not a snarky or disrespectful comment in there. Sometimes commentary is totally unnecessary. ~ link
> ISN'T MAY21st the day that the planets are lining up? ~ Time
> OKAY, NOW THEY have our attention! UK scientists are worried that global warming will affect wifi signals. However, the whole thing leaves me puzzled. If wifi works fine here in the desert, where we can go for days in July and August with blistering temperatures over 115°, how is it that a few degrees warmer in normally cool and damp England will meltdown the interweb thingy? ~ link
>"TAX BILLS in 2009 at lowest level since 1950" ~ USA Today
> "17 GRADUATE from Pacific Islands University" -- nice pictures in the PDN ~ link
> THIS IS a picture (not from the PDN) of our good friends -- Mary Johnson, Xuefen Mei (Valedictorian and new PIU grad), her husband Danny, and Pastor Jeff Johnson, Mary's husband.
> ANOTHER BEST-SELLER in the making? Arizona governor Jan Brewer is writing a book that she is calling "Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border." ~ KTAR
> ARIZONA IS celebrating its centennial next year. "Putting the AZ in crazy for 100 years." ~ E.J. Montini, AZ Central
> ONE OF Customs and Border Protection's surveillance balloons broke loose of its moorings in strong winds yesterday. It then crashed (and by some accounts burned) into a neighborhood south of Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona. Those ballons are not small. ~ KOLD
> THE SUBURBAN POOR -- "The suburbs now have the largest poor population in the country." ~ link
> "HASIDIC NEWSPAPER photoshops Hillary Clinton from iconic photo" -- link
>PITZER COLLEGE is going to offer a degree in secular studies. ~ link
> INTRODUCING the National Tequila Party Movement ~ link
> RICH MOUW on our heavenly home. It's not an either/or but a both/and. That is, we don't need to emphasize the final resurrection over the heavenly intermediary state. But heaven and the resurrection are both part of the future story. ~ link
> ECONOMICS JOURNAL: Memo to India, China: the US still matters:
The upshot is that while the US may be in relative decline compared to China and India, momentum will carry the US forward for a long time.
Plus, economics is only half the story. There’s much more to being a superpower than the mere size of your economy. As the spectacularly successful operation to take out Osama Bin Laden demonstrates, the US is still on top of the heap politically, militarily and strategically, and by a wide margin over potential rivals such as China, India or Russia. ~ WSJ
> JOHN STOTT'S 90th birthday -- Christopher Wright's reflections ~ link
>THE GIRL SCOUTS in our area are attempting to collect 32 million plastic bags, that will be used to manufacture Trex composite lumber for the Leadership Center at Camp Sombrero. ~ link (.pdf)
> JUST A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE -- the US spent over $3 trillion hunting Osama bin Laden --
As we mark Osama bin Laden's death, what's striking is how much he cost our nation--and how little we've gained from our fight against him. ~ The Atlantic.
> WHY ARE people already working on the 2014 Arizona gubernatorial race? We haven't even had the 2012 presidential circus, yet. And the chances are that the political landscape will change so drastically by 2014 that every dollar spent now to jockey for standing will be a dollar wasted. ~ link
> "A RECORD number of students -- nearly 11,000 -- will graduate next week from Arizona State University." ~ link
> I BELIEVE that there will be 14 graduates from Pacific Islands University tomorrow -- including Ping Lei (Libby), who will receive the first master's degree ever granted by the school. Libby is from mainland China.
> WE TALKED with our son Kent last night. And he says that where he is, today is "Parent's Day." Apparently Hallmark isn't so influential in South Korea. Happy Parent's Day!
> BEST WEDDING video of all time? Well, it does pop. ~ Huff
> MEXICAN SCHOOLS are struggling with what to do with students, raised in the US by immigrant parents, who have been forced to return to Mexico. The kids don't speak Spanish. ~ link
> HIJACKER CHINESE sailors rescued by US Marine & Turkish rescue team. Details seem fuzzy. ~ link
> AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM? NT Wright's take on the take down of Osama bin Laden. Live by the sword, die by the sword? ~ link
> FOR THOSE INTERESTED in keeping up with what we're doing @ MasterPiece Church -- here is the latest. ~ link
> I FINISHED UPWhen Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourselfby Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkerton on drive from Phoenix to Irvine yesterday (Mr Kindle read to me) -- so far the best book I've read this year. It really resonates with my experience and frames it into accessible theological language. Practical, too.
UPS delivered the package this afternoon -- my prizes from the Red Vines 2nd Annual National Licorice Day sweepstakes -- which I entered on-line at no cost. They gave me two metal water bottles, two boxes of Red Vines, two boxes of Grape Vines, two boxes of Cherry Vines, two red ropes -- AND a $25 credit to buy theater tickets at Fandango.com. I wonder if they'll let me bring my own candy into the theater.
I suppose I can no longer say, "I never win anything."
Harold Camping, and his calculator, are off the air (one way or the other).
He does have the repent part right. And certainly the day is closer than we think --
“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.
“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. ~ Matthew 24:36-38 (NLT)
This book, by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, originally a hot business title, has become a bit of a philosophical handbook to some of the house church folk looking for additional affirmation of their emphasis on flexible networks. (BTW, Kindle edition of the book is $12.99, but you can get a new paperback for $3. Which is the better bargain?)
by 20th century Wesleyan-Arminian theologian H. Orton Wiley are available for free as Kindle books. Those Church of the Nazarene guys don't miss a beat, do they?
is now available through Kindle. Sometimes what is new makes good thinking of the past accessible. I think that Everett's ideas are going to be a bit out of the box regardless of when he wrote them down. He isn't far out but he frames things in a slightly different way and that gets us thinking.
-- I want some.
by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkerton on drive from Phoenix to Irvine yesterday (Mr Kindle read to me) -- so far the best book I've read this year. It really resonates with my experience and frames it into accessible theological language. Practical, too.
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