Hill Giant!

Happy New Year folks!

My buddy Vince brought me a copy of PC Gamer so I can order the promo hill giant from Wizards of the Coast. Sweet!

Been picking away at my Christmas wish list (to do), still a bit crazy and classes start again this coming Wednesday.

The Crucified God

OK one of my to do items was finish this masterpiece. I was less far along than I thought. This struck a real chord with me, especially since I've been pondering the whole issue of solidarity with the outcast of Christian society. This is in a section on the mysticism of the cross.

"By becoming a 'friend of sinners and tax collectors', he made their enemies his enemies. By claiming that God himself was on the side of the godless, he incited the devout against him and was cast out into the godlessness of Golgotha. The more the mysticism of the cross recognizes this, the less it can accept Jesus as an example of patience and submission to fate." (p.51, Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God)

Holiday Wish List (EDITED)

Ok, this is not what you think. I am not going to list all the 'stuff' I would like folks to buy me for Christmas. Rather I thought it would be fun to list the things I would like to get done over the holidays. Maybe I'll post a progress report later on!

1) Clean house from top to bottom (anyone else have kids?) (DONE, but not as well as I would like).
2) Clean up my office (DONE)
3) Have some quality lone time with my awesome wife (NOT ENOUGH OF THIS ONE)
4) Work on my stamp collection, it is seriously neglected this last year (DONE, had to sort out some Dutch stamps)
5) Buy some kindling so I can burn up the logs in my garage (DONE, BTW I want to do the actual burning in my fireplace, not the garage!)
6) Have a nice toasty time with a fire and my family on Christmas morning (DONE, it was toasty. Note to self, chocolate + infants = bad combination!!!)
7) Bake some muffins (DONE)
8) Work on my Kingdom of God I course material (why oh why don't they give you a deadline!)
9) Turn off water to hose in garage - can you believe I've only half winterized our house and there is already a decent amount of snow on the ground (DONE)
10) Finish reading "The Crucified God" (NOT DONE)
11) Read "Thinking Biblically" (deferred for another book, BTW I read 2 books over the holidays!)
12) Update the Freedom Vineyard website
13) Practice my guitar - I don't do this enough these days (BEEN DOING, BUT NOT ENOUGH)
14) Prepare the rest of the dungeon my players are currently in (DONE)
15) Win at least one decent league or team freeroll - those folks are good (PLACED 9th in our weekly Headhunter on Jetset!)
16) Host a friendly poker night - it has been far too long, I need to know if my home game has improved (SORTA, had our old neighbours over for Settlers of Catan)

Well, I could go on but this is enough to work on for now. It is good to look at what is on your plate. Now excuse me while I work on number one for a while and also prepare a prophetic training session for tomorrow (a local Wesleyan church asked me to do one for a small group they run).

[NOTE: This message is heavily edited to keep you up to date on what is DONE or abandoned]

Done like dinner

Wow what a big day it was. Took me 1 hour to drive to the school for my exam (first good snowstorm). I was up for prayer at 7AM, wrote my exam at 9AM. Looked after kids all afternoon. Played D&D with friends into the evening. By the time I wound down it was 2:30AM!!! Needless to say I am tired today.

It feels good to have that exam done, I chose to write on Teilhard de Chardin and on the Adamic Myth. I think I will do well. Chardin really rocks, "evolution saves Christ." Now there is a statement to get your blood pumping. You will either say to yourself - "how dare he blaspheme like that!" or you will ask the more honest question: "what the heck is he talking about?". For Chardin there is no evolution without involution - or something centering all the the creative potential in life. That centering force is clearly Christ, the same one who holds all things together! Chardin gives us lots to ponder, especially as we seek to understand faith in a scientific age. I've read a bit from him in the past and I am going to read more in the future.

Today is a day of rest.

What is a pastoral question?

OK so I am back to studying. I was working through this one day before yesterday - it is the first question. In what way is the question of humanity (anthropology)a pastoral question?

I thought it might be interesting to throw that up here and see what stirs up.

The way we think about our own humanity is quite complex. Historically you could say one has a soul or an ability to reason or even to develop reflexive language. But now we have to think more of what makes us human is what we do with these capacities. Hence the expression - how inhumane of that person. In fact we see a lot of behaviour in the world that we would want to disassociate with humanity - a young girl stabbed to death on campus just this week comes to mind.

So what is the pastoral dimension that is brought to bear here? I think that question needs to be turned inward to those who seek to be of help to the world. When we express our humanity are we not, in theory, expressing that which is best about us and genuinely longs to make this world a better place? I think that has to be part of how we answer the question of what it means to be a human.

So I put to you readers, drop me a comment. What is the pastoral dimension of the question of humanity?

Monster Flopper

So I've been playing online in a Poker League for a while now and just joined a team. Not crazy about the name but it is fun. I played my first tourney for this team and actually earned our team their first points! I know I should be studying, but I find a good poker tournament to be quite an exciting way to relax.

I play mostly on Absolute Poker, Jetset poker and Poker.com. Absolute (AP) has tonnes of freerolls, games that don't cost you anything to play but you can win money to play with, and I like the style of the players. Jetset is where some of my friends from around here play (Kartel and Mobius) and there are too many chasers at the tables for me to really enjoy playing there (chasers will play really crappy hands all the time) but I love the headhunter games - basically everyone has a bounty on their heads and if you eliminate them you get that much money in your account! Poker.com is a staple poker site, not so good for chatting (both AP and Jetset rock for chatting), but there is a decent quality of play there and my league has freerolls there every week. If you are there and see pomorev playing - please say hello (I might take it easy on ya). I only play freerolls and with the money I win so don't hold your breath on seeing me at a big money table anytime soon.

Anne Rice and Jesus

OK some of you might be wondering what the connection is. I first heard of this from the Christian Gamers Guild. The infamous writer of Interview with a Vampire has gone and switched gears. My buddy Jamie wrote this review of her latest book - Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I am thinking this just might be the thing for the Christmas break. Plus it is way too cool to have such a fine author decide to do a treatment of the coolest dude to ever set foot on this here planet - Jesus! Welcome home Anne, welcome home.

One down, one to go

First exam is completed. I was not that happy with it, seems like my notes have more holes than I would like. I usually take verbose notes on my laptop - but my notes from that class were rather thin. One of the questions was really fun though - but hardly a 2 hour exam question (more like a 4 hours one). Basically you were given a quote about how the gospels were wrote the Last Supper account in light of the Eucharistic reality of the church. Now you had to deal with it as if you were addressing an adult education class with fundamentalist tendancies. The issue at stake is that it is saying that the gospel accounts are not necessarily literal history - which can be a stretch for some folks.

Well first off - I wouldn't touch something like that with a group of fundies. That is like asking someone to cut off your left nut without any painkillers! Yikes. I did agree with the statement though - Leverdiere says it much more eloquently than I could. It does get at the heart of the gospels being liturgical texts, even though I think Leverdiere is biased towards this. He sees liturgy everywhere when he reads the gospels. But this does help make some sense of the discrepancies in the Last Supper narratives (John drops us back a whole day even!). Oh did I say there were discrepencies, fundie please ignore I said that. :-)

I think I did ok. I pulled two A+ and an A on the papers. I do hope I keep at least an A for the class. Now on to the next one, by far the more beefy course. Exam is Friday after next - lots of studying to do yet.

Preparing for exams

OK so it starts next Wednesday. I am not too worried about that one, I only have 18 pages of class notes to cover and anyone who has taken a course with me knows I take very meticulous notes. I think I typed out a novel for the other course though! Elyssa was home Thursday and Friday from school and the kids just fought all the time. Today is Sharon's birthday but I'm afraid it was off to a rough start. She did seem pleased with the brilliant b-day cards me and the girls spent yesterday making (one of the moments when everyone got along). Chelsea's card was especially amusing to her, Chelsea is in the stage where big cribbly clouds are the order of the day - nice.

Taken - Holy Crap!

OK as if life is not complicated enough. Rememer the Aussie I mentioned. Yup, turned out he was scamming us. Left us with a $1200 hotel bill, took one of our people for $160 and just all around played on our generosity. Please keep an eye out for an Irish lad travelling in Canada (claimed to be heading to Vancouver next) from Australia. He did make calls to Australia so I am hoping to at least track it back to the last folks he scammed. He went by the name Robert Michaels, claimed his wallet (money, passport, credit cards) were stolen.

You know the money doesn't matter. Sure it sucks, but it is only money. What hurts is that we spent a lot of time (something we don't have a lot of) with him this week. Drove him all over. Shared our lives. Introduced him to our trusting community. And then this. I feel like I lost a friend. I feel deeply sad. (I would understand feeling angry, but anger is the furthest emotion from me). I feel like if he came here I'd want to just hold him and ask why? I want to understand.

One Down, one to go

Wow! What a wild week. I met this crazy Aussie (actually a displaced Irish lad) and we've been on a roller coaster ride. Gotta love divine encounters. Looks like I might actually end up at the U2 concert this weekend - sweetness! Let you know how it goes ;-)

I am busy working on my second paper (taking a break actually), should have it done tonight. I eneded up working on the whole notion of freedom in Paul Ricoeur's work (dropped the theme of seperation). It was a hard one to write because pulling out what I wanted in a manner that made sense was the equivelant of sorting spaghetti. The one I am working on deals with sacramentalism in the emergent movement. I am trying to get to the roots of this rather than just comment on the practices. My question is this: Why is there such an interest in sacramental life in the emergent church? I am having fun with that but it is hard to avoid complex subjects like meta-narratives and incarnationality. I am finging a lot of great resources tracking back the references in A Generous Orthodoxy as well as Scot McKnights articles.

The funnest part is that I get to present this so I've already lined up my slide show, just need to populate it with lots of images swiped from my emergent friend's sites. Thanks guys and gals!

Hopefully I'll have more time for verbosity next week. Until then, blessings.

Yup, it is true, I am a Moltmannian!

You scored as Jurgen Moltmann. The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about.

Jurgen Moltmann 80%
Martin Luther 53%
Karl Barth 53%
John Calvin 40%
Friedrich Schleiermacher 40%
Charles Finney 33%
Paul Tillich 33%
Anselm 20%
Jonathan Edwards 13%
Augustine 7%

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Trajectory of Freedom in the Adamic Myth

Hope I don't scare too many people away with the title. I am re-reading Paul Ricoeur's analysis of what he calls the myth par excellance - Gen 2 and 3. It is brilliant and insightful, and I need to write a paper on it (hopefully today). I have pulled out one theme that of a trajectory of seperation as a way of speaking of the anthropology of sin. But one other thing that is spinning around in my head is this whole notion of freedom.

As you might know freedom is a topic I enjoy musing upon. I think we have some pretty screwed up notions of freedom operating in our society - and the Adamic Myth, to borrow Ricoeur's term, gives us a sense of how the gift of freedom has become for humanity something completely other than it was intended.

Freedom is a big part of the theology of hope in Christianity. If freedom isn't part of what we are moving towards, then what is it? And just maybe that freedom, the gift of God, is still held out to us awaiting for our embrace of it. For freedom's sake Christ has set us free.

Freedom from what? I think the root of the problem lies in an inability to seperate freedom from bondage. Meaning that if there is a trajectory of freedom, then logic demands a current state of bondage. But freedom, as seen in the Adamic Myth, pre-exists bondage.

Freedom as what? Well freedom doesn't exist in the absence of limitations. You shall eat of every tree in the garden except..." The notion of freedom as anarchy is not a biblical notion of freedom. The command was not meant to enslave humanity in a state of limitation even though that is what the serpent made it out to be. Limitations are only limitations when we percieve them as a threat to our freedom. Therein lies the conundrum of the Adamaic Myth, and the crack in the wall, Andre LeCocque's term, for the wedge of fear to be placed.

So how do we envision freedom?

I think this is the challenge for modern barstool theologians - the ones actually talking to the masses. If Christianity is a story of freedom, then we will have to understand the vision of freedom that God has for us. We will have to offer hope, inspite of the fear of limitations that is still woven into the metanarrative of our society. To stave off anarchy we will have to envision something more than a tree and a command. I think we can only do it in light of a tree and a Saviour.

Who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!

Things that make you go hmmmmm

Ok, don't download this unless you want to convince yourself that all gamers are complete freaks of nature.

Unicorns L. A.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Emergent DTS

OK now a buddy of mine is running a very cool YWAM DTS and they are looking for a few more people. This is going to be a bit different as it is an Emergent DTS focusing on the missional and I bet it will have a bit more theological depth to it. I did a DTS type programme almost 20 years ago and it really changed my life - for the good. So if you know someone who this might be good for - let em know asap. Click on YWAM DTS to get the details.

Paper crunch

My last two papers are looming so I won't be posting as much until they are out of the way. One is on the sacramental thrust within the Emergent church movement - I have a couple of books I'm dissecting for that one. And the second is on a re-reading of the second creation narrative by Paul Ricoeur - I have three papers that I am working with on this one and two of them are quite packed. If you have any great stories about sacramental encounters or awakenings please leave them in the comments - you might even make my footnotes!

Random Stuff

I have been making little tiny model trees. It is very therapeutic. I am not that good at fine detail work, but it is fun to at least give it a try. I bought some flock (clumped stuff too) and got some twigs as well as wires to wrap around and around. This is in preperation for our D&D game tomorrow night - silly players set fire to the woods - the woods isn't going to like that. At the very least Smokey the bear needs to show up ;-)

I am also waiting for some new books to come: Thinking Biblically, Ancient-Future Faith and Streams of Living Water. These are the books for my two final papers, I am excited about Thinking Biblically because there is a Paul Ricoeur article in there. And my case of Underdark miniatures. I was hoping that one would arrive today and the other tomorrow, but it looks like both will arrive tomorrow. My oldest wants to open the minis with me so I will likely not get to see them until she gets home from school.

BTW my friends are doing something very cool in the UK. It is the Vineyard School of Discipleship. You should check them out.

I'll let you know when my packages arrive. And remember, don't set fire to a forest!

Slogans are for the Initiate

Driving back from the bank this morning I couldn't help notice the slogan board of a local ELC church* - one that often has slogans that leave me upset or puzzled. This time I came away thinking "what the heck does that mean?" The slogan said: "Christians must come apart and rest or they just plain come apart". At first it sounds like it might be ok, but it doesn't weather any amount of thought. "Come apart" how? Do you mean go to church? I know lots of really screwed up people who go to church. And what about the people who don't seem to ever stop and are healthy and sound? I think I know what they are getting at - but it doesn't work on the outside.

I am not Mr. Antislogan. I think slogans can be helpful in a community. But they belong to the community. I bet that slogan is just packed full of good insights for the creator and maybe his/her community. But it means squat to the average person driving by. We have developed slogans to help communicate our purpose and vision, for example we often talk about drawing people "one step closer to the Father". Imagine that on the billboard? It only works in the context of a community that qualifies all the parts of the slogan. We often talk about the steps or movement or journey towards God in our community. We share our own stories and encourage everyone to look for those opportunities to partner with God in this process. See already there is a depth to this slogan that the uninitiated cannot appreciate. Now I will use this slogan with new people in our community - but I do so when I have the opportunity to unpack it.

This mornings musings left me convinced that slogans are for the initiate. I would encourage good sloganeering, but please, I beg your mercy, don't inflict your catchy sayings on the greater community. Most won't have a clue what you are saying and many of the rest will derive a meaning you might not have intended. If you must have a slogan - make it something we can all understand like, "God loves you" or "have a great day" or even "If you have a need let us know, we might be able to help." It'll just make the world a whole lot saner.

Thanks.

*To be completely fair there is a PAOC church in the other end of town that has a similar collection of inane thoughts displayed on its front lawn. And I am sure I can find representation from every denomination including my own.

[EDIT] OK so tonight I passed a BCOQ (Baptist, I used to be a lay minister in this denomination) church that had this sign :"To know the truth is to be set free". Think about that for a minute. Say I'm an addict, I can know quite clearly I'm an addict and still be bound by my addiction. I know what they are trying to say but the average person isn't going to be able to cut through the Christianese.

Starting to see the light...but keep praying

Man we have had some very frustrating financial developments. Our financial advisor started making promises she never kept. Our taxes were in her hands and never got done, took us 5 months to get them back and we had to go to HR Block. We had a string of babysitters steal from us. And the cost of gas and living totally messed up our budget. Talk about frustrating.

But now, thanks to lots of friends praying and a bit of badgering, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our taxes are finally filed and we are expecting a decent return - should just about cover our new debts. One of the babysitters has been returning some of our stuff, including a 100$ Ikea gift card and our electric label maker. And Sharon got more hours.

But we are not out of the woods yet. We issued a complaint to WFG Securities about our advisor and not surprisingly they sided with her. I don't get why she would be lying about us to them? I just can't fathom it. Especially since she knows we are ministers and she claims to be an active Christian herself attending a solid PAOC church in the city? Even though we have gotten stuff back from that one babysitter, I know she has a good Christian family and we really wanted reconciliation more than the stuff back. We keep praying for that. And Sharon's new work is a nightmare. They merged two pharmacies and it is no longer an enjoyable place to work. She comes home all frustrated telling me who else is thinking of quiting, not good.

Can you folks keep praying? We have actually been praying blessings on our financial advisor. Pray that God will bring a reconciliation there. Maybe we did something at some point to offend here, I can't think of anything, but even still her lack of respect for us is just horrible. Pray for this young girl to get her life straightened out. She has had some hard knocks in life, but with God's help she can overcome anything. And pray for Sharon's work. Pray that God will open a new door or better yet let the corporate management see how their aggessive work schedule is not allowing the pharmacists to give adequate (let alone good) care.

Regional Gathering

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, that was nice.

Only have time for some highlights. It was great to see so many folks who have become dear to me over the last 4+ years I've been going to the Summits. It was a special joy to see Brad and Mary, Brad always greets you with a holy kiss - there is something so special about them. Thanks for the Stellas guys! Tom and Sherry came and Tom backed me up on djembe. I love having them in my family. George teased me constantly - this was three days of rejuvinating George love. George you are the funkiest man in the Vineyard!

It was great to have a heart to heart with George and Janet on the first night. And to be asked to meals with so many dear friends who wanted to hear how we were really doing up here in Ottawa. And Ahren, man you blessed me this week! I forgot to add one other gift you and your church offer to our region - encouragement. You always make me feel valued and important even. I love you man.

I don't know how else to highlight the two days I spent there. I had the awesome priviledge of putting a band together for the worship. I so miss having those opportunities. But really it was cool because God showed up. The evening session I was sure I wasn't going to be able to keep playing God's presence was so thick. And when we watched Ruth Rousu's interview about the kiss I was reduced to tears as God drew near and began whispering in my ear. I get emotional just thinking of it.

What a great time. You know what? Expect great things from our little rag tag tribe. I think God was drawing near for a reason. God is getting us ready for something special. I don't know what, but Lord I for one say come!