Waving or Drowning?

Love

"An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all."
- Dorothy Day

"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."
- Vincent van Gogh

(via Ekklesia)

Plan B

Mike's Note: I'm a big fan of the fiction of Douglas Coupland (@dougcoupland)... I think I've read everything of his at least three times through. Last night I finished off Girlfriend in a Coma again. Use your imagination, here's how the penultimate chapter begins:

"Plan B is this:"
    "You're to be different now. Your behavior will be changing. Your thinking is to change. And people will watch these changes in you and they'll come to experience the world in your new manner."
    "How?" Richard asks. "How do we change?"
    "Richard, tell me this: back in the old world, didn't you often feel as if the only way you could fully truly change yourself in the powerful way you yearned for was to die and then start again from scratch? Didn't you feel as if all the symbols and ideas fed to you since birth had become worn out like old shoes? Didn't you ache for change but you didn't know how to achieve it? And even if you knew how to do it, would you have had the guts to go forth? Didn't you want your cards shuffled a different way?"
    "Yeah sure. But didn't everybody?"
    "No, Not always. This feeling is specific to the times we live in."
    "Okay..."
    "And Richard, haven't you always felt that you live forever on the brink of knowing a great truth? Well, that feeling is true. There is the truth. It does exist."
    "Aha!"
    "Yes, well, now it's going to be as if you died and were reincarnated but you stay inside your own body. For all of you. And in your new lives you'll have to live entirely for that one sensation--that of imminent truth. And you're going to have to holler for it, steal for it, beg for it--and you're never to stop asking questions about it twenty-four hours a day, the rest of your life."
    "This is Plan B."
    "Every day for the rest of your lives, all of your living moments are to be spent making others aware of this need--the need to probe and drill and examine and locate the words that take us beyond ourselves.
    "Scrape. Feel. Dig. Believe. Ask."

Your Collective Wisdom

OK Friends, I need your help.

I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations for an online donor/contact management application for a small-ish ministry/charity (500-1000 donors).

Thanks!

024 Whirlwind

The next beautiful offering from Rob Bell and Nooma is up, free, for 24 hours (starting from when I have no idea.)

Job. I love Job. Have you suffered? Have you gone through the Dark Night? Or, do you just need to know WHY? You'll love Job too. Well, you might.

Watch Whirlwind here.

The Story of the Day - Love

How many people can you love
before it's too much? she said & I
said I didn't think there was any real
limit as long as you didn't care if they
loved you back.

Brian Andreas, Story of the Day

What Matters More II (UPDATED 2X)

UPDATE (July 7): The Presale is on at DerekWebb.com

UPDATE 2 (July 8): Apparently there has been some technical issues resulting in delays for some folks (due to the overwhelming response no doubt) but I'm assured all will be cleared up today.

Further to my earlier post (with video) it looks like pre-order (and digital download is a go for tomorrow on Derek Webb's new album Stockholm Syndrome, although there's nothing on DerekWebb.com about it yet. DerekWebb.net has more on the cryptic campaign leading up to the release, but I'm obviously too old for this stuff. I'll check back tomorrow for the download.

BTW, here's my best try at the lyrics. I'm not sure about the lines marked with an asterisk, so feel free to weigh in with your suggestions/corrections. I think this track is going to (continue to) cause quite a stir.

What Matters More
Derek Webb

You say you always treat people like you'd like to be
I guess you love being hated for your sexuality
You love when people put words in your mouth
About what you believe, make you sound like a freak
'Cause if you really believe what you say you believe
You wouldn't be so damn reckless with the words you speak
What we silently conceal when the liars speak*
Denying all the dying or the remedy*

Tell me brother what matters more to you?
Tell me sister what matters more to you?

If I could tell what's in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it's about
Yeah it looks like being hated for all the wrong things
Of chasing the wind while the pendulum swings
'Cause we can talk and debate 'til we're blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he's coming to save
Meanwhile we sit just like we don't give a shit
About fifty thousand people who are dying today

Tell me brother what matters more to you?
Tell me sister what matters more to you?

Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World

I'm really late to the party on this one, a screw-up that I'm sure my buddy Tom will forgive me for, eventually!

You can grab a free download of Tom Davis' new book, Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World, compliments of his publisher, David C. Cook. All it will cost you is an email to 3 friends. But, this offer is only in effect until July 10, so act now, as they say. All the necessary links are here.

Scared - A Novel on the Edge of the World from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

The World

Our friend Danielle recently put up a post that included the following:

Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter to his brother in 1935: "The restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this."

Commenting on Bonhoeffer's letter, the theologian Walter Rauschenbusch wrote: "Christian ascetism called the world evil and abandoned it. Humanity is waiting for a Christian revolution which will call the world evil and change it."

With all due respect to Dr. Rauschenbusch I think I would slightly alter his response to Bonhoeffer's brilliant assessment:

Christian ascetism called the world evil and abandoned it. Humanity is waiting for a Christian revolution which will call the world good and love it.

What Matters More (UPDATED)

Looks like pre-orders for Derek Webb's new album Stockholm Syndrome will commence on July 7, with a street release date of September 9. Rebelling Against Indifference has some of the story of the controversy surrounding this album here. (h/t to Matthew Paul Turner)

(UPDATE: More on the new disk from Bryan Allain here.)

Here's a sneak peak at What Matters More, apparently the track causing the problem with his label:

Happy July 4th

For our American friends living in that American Land:

American Land
(Bruce Springsteen)

What is this land of America, so many travel there
I’m going now while I’m still young, my darling meet me there
Wish me luck my lovely, I’ll send for you when I can
And we’ll make our home in the American land

Over there all the woman wear silk and satin to their knees
And children dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees
Gold comes rushing out the river straight into your hands
If you make your home in the American land

There’s diamonds in the sidewalks, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

I docked at Ellis Island in a city of light and spire
I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire
We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands
And I made my home in the American land

There’s diamonds in the sidewalk, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

The McNicholas, the Posalski’s, the Smiths, Zerillis too
The Blacks, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in the bellies but the fire down below

They died building the railroads, worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they’re dyin’ now
The hands that built the country we’re all trying to keep down

There’s diamonds in the sidewalk, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land

Let the Good Times Roll!

The Tour de France starts tomorrow!

That of course is the German band Kraftwerk. I grabbed the video from a Wired wiki that has all the info on following the greatest sporting event on the planet online.

Talk Talk, Or...

...Yes, Yet Another Post About South Africa

Well, not really about South Africa, per se, but it pertains to my time there, and my time since returning.

I've already introduced you to my South Africa brother Tom Smith. Something that he said during one of our recent skype conversations has been rolling around in my mind for a week or so. It came out of our growing frustration with the increasing conversation around all things missional, incarnational, insert your favorite buzzword here. Conversation is good, but action (which can then generate meaningful, purposeful conversation) is better. We've made a pact of sorts. Every conversation we have, every speaker we listen to, every book we read, must be followed by the question, "So what?*" (If that offends you too much I'll let you off the hook with, "Now what?") If there is no answer to that question, then it has been so much talk. At the risk of putting words into his mouth, here's a paraphrase of something Tom said that I've been tinkering with that reveals to you what we think of that:

As Followers of Jesus we know what we need to do, but we're afraid to do it. So, we create new language, new systems, new programs, so that we can talk longer and more intelligently about what we have no intention of actually doing.

Too harsh? I don't think so. Thoughts?

* "How does this draw me closer to Jesus?", "How should/does this change the way I am to live?, etc.

Linwood Art Experience

3rd Annual
Linwood Art Experience

Sunday, July 19th, 1-5pm

Reserve the day for an exhibition
and sale by talented artists
Ed Hill, Todd Clark,
Brian Romer, Yzabelle Delisle-Milton,
Donna Stewart, Douglas Rae

Join us for an afternoon of Art, Music and Refreshments
in a garden setting



Photography – DTES Women

Music by Trudy Diening and Miles Black

Linwood House Ministries
“Journeying with women into the hope of their story”

(More photos from last year's event here)

When the Bottom Falls Out

Brian Walsh has written an outstanding targum on James 1:1-18. I do the work a major injustice by cutting it off anywhere, but I want to give you a taste:

James, a slave of God and of Jesus, the Messianic King,

            To the people of God scattered to kingdom come around the world,

            Greetings.

When the bottom falls out,

            when things come apart at the seams,

            when the stock market crashes,

                        your job is up for grabs,

                        the mortgage payments are getting harder to pay,

                        and you really don’t know how you are going to make ends meet,

            this is a time for pure, unadulterated, ecstatic and contented joy!

When your church is without a pastor,

            when older, faithful members are moving away,

            when you are in a time of transition, unsure of the future,

            when the budget looks like an unattainable dream,

            that’s fantastic!

When you face all kinds of trials,

            the infirmities of older age,

            the insecurities of being a young person,

            the struggles with loneliness,

            painful confusion about sexuality,

            the collapse of beloved institutions,

            a marriage that has seen happier days,

            tensions within the family,

                        you name it!

            then again I say to you, this is pure joy!

“Joy?” you ask.        

            Grin and bear it, maybe.

            Dig in and get through the trouble, perhaps.

            Maybe even patience.

                        But joy?

            This is the kind of stuff that strips me of any capacity for joy.

                        Economic anxiety,

                        worries about the future,

                        deep internal pain,

                        that debilitating sense of loss,

                        that impending death in so many areas of our lives …

            and you say we should receive all this with joy?

                        Pure joy?

Yes, my friends, joy.

Read the rest here... with joy.

The Claw

Fast Company has a short piece on the incredible stage being used on U2's current 360 world tour. Unbelievable. 

Read the piece here.

South Africa

As is to be expected, I'm still stumbling my way through processing my three weeks in South Africa. And although I'm generally not a violent person, I may actually inflict bodily harm, albeit minor, on the next person who asks, "So how was Africa?"

I will say though that one of the many delights and privileges of this last trip was getting to know my friend Tom Smith better. Tom, I feel like you're my South African brother. One of the things we're doing "together" is exploring some African theology. (And just this morning I was able to say hello to his two beautiful children on Skype!) Although it almost seems presumptuous of me to point this out, being the westerner that I am, you should know that Tom has written what I think is a vitally important post called An Open Letter to South African Friends. And despite the title, I think it is at least as important that we westerners read the letter too.

I believe these are dynamic and critical days in the church globally, and I also believe Africa will likely play a lead role in whatever is to come.

"Go Shopping" German Style

Alas, it seems that consumerism is not exclusively a North American construct. On my way to South Africa a few weeks ago I had several hours in Frankfurt, Germany to hang out with our friend Dani.

This banner adorned one of the stores we passed. It says it all, I guess:

Laughing With

I love this. I first saw it via Brian McLaren, and now Dan has posted the lyrics, so here you go:

Just saw the official video too:

Amahoro Gathering 2009 - Email #7

(June 20)

It’s a sunny Saturday morning here in Johannesburg. Maybe a little chilly, but that's to be understood. After all, it’s winter here.

This may be my last email to you from Africa, as Monday I start the long journey home. I’m gaining an appreciation for just how far from Vancouver I am right now. Three of the guys living in the house I’m staying at are from the London area. We’re a long way south of London, but the time difference is only one hour so they think nothing of chatting online or on their cell phones with friends and family back home. In my case there is nine hours between Vancouver and here, so as I start to write this at about 10 am I’m assuming most of you in BC are snug in your beds!

Let me tell you a little about my day yesterday. I spent most of it with Arnie Swiegers, who is the country director for Oasis South Africa, which in turn is part of the global Oasis community. (Oasis was founded by Steve Chalke, who wrote a book called The Lost Message of Jesus which has been influential in my own thinking. Ironically, this book caused quite a stir a few years ago with regard to Steve's thoughts on penal substitution!) I met Arnie briefly last week at the Amahoro Gathering when he came up for one day with my friend Tom Smith. It turns out Arnie and I have been on similar trajectories; he left a career in banking to work for Oasis and launch their work here in South Africa.

The day started off at “The Hub”, Oasis’ office/clinic/you-name-it located in a house just a block or two from where I’m staying. We’re actually in a rather “middle class” neighbourhood, but I’ll explain more about that in a moment. Friday is pre- and post-natal clinic day at The Hub, so the place was jammed with pregnant women, mothers, and snotty-nosed sick infants. Arnie tells me they see about 100 people a week. Outside there is a women in the back of a pick-up truck (called a buckey here) on a bullhorn encouraging people throughout Cosmo City to come in and get tested for HIV.

Cosmo City is a prototype community, and is a little hard to describe. It starts with the squatter’s camps, or “informal settlements” as they are officially known. For instance there are more than 100,000 people living in squalid shacks on about two square kilometers of land not far from here. There are many of these settlements throughout South Africa, and the government is thinking through how to deal with them. Many of these people are South African, but the problem has been exacerbated by refugees. Nobody knows the real number, but it is widely believed that there are three to four million Zimbabweans in South Africa, fleeing the disaster that is their own country. Some of the camps have power to light a few “street lights”, and many people tap into the lines to bring power to their shacks. (I met a man who ran a line almost 2 kms through the camp to his own place.) All have water brought in by the government to central tanks that people can draw on, and also pit latrines in a few locations throughout the camp. Some of the camps are “unofficial”, meaning they’re not recognized by the government. Those communities get water but nothing else.

As I said, Cosmo City is a prototype. The idea is to get all the people out of the camps into more permanent housing. As you can imagine this is a huge, expensive undertaking. Here’s how it works: The government has identified two informal settlements as feeder communities for Cosmo City. First, they go into the camps and surround the place with barbed wire. Then, they go through the camp and conduct a survey, and mark door frames with a bar code to show that the occupants have been accounted for. Then they tell everyone that they are (eventually) going to move. Finally, they place guards at the entrances to prevent more people from moving in. (As I saw yesterday though the security is a bit of a joke.) When they come to take you to your new home they level your shack so no one else can occupy it.

If your monthly income is less than 2000 Rand per month (about $280 CDN), you qualify for a free house. These are extremely small, but they have power and running water. If your salary is less than 8000 Rand per month, you qualify for a somewhat larger house. You must purchase it, but the cost is heavily subsidized. Here’s the interesting part: Although apartheid as official policy is long gone, there is real concern here because people are still segregated economically. In order to try and break those distinctions down, there is a third level of housing here. These are nice middle class houses by local standards, and they must be purchased without any subsidy. The hope is to more closely integrate the different economic classes, but it remains to be seen how well this strategy  works. This third level of housing is where I'm currently staying.

There is another informal settlement close by where instead of moving people they are simply knocking down shacks and building houses on the spot. There’s a density and a timing issue here though, so people are still being displaced. It is a mammoth undertaking, and I’m told that they could build homes at this pace for the next 20 years and still not have adequate housing for everyone. The government is to be credited though with trying something.

That’s a quick overview of the landscape... back to my drive with Arnie.

We drove from The Hub over to a government health clinic located right inside the informal settlement. It’s a bigger building than The Hub, and there was a larger group of people waiting there. We brought over about 50 blood samples, taken that morning at The Hub, for pre-natal testing, as Oasis has a deal with this clinic where they will do the actual testing. This testing is vital; if a pregnant woman tests positive she can be given a drug which virtually eliminates the possibility of the baby being born positive.  At this larger facility there were exactly 2 samples waiting to be tested. The government has realized that NGO’s can do this work much more effectively, so they are starting to help fund those agencies that prove themselves efficient.

From there we drove through several of the camps as Arnie explained to me how things work. He then took me by one of the most expensive developments in Johannesburg. High walls, electric fences, and gates staffed by heavily armed guards. From these multi-million dollar homes you can actually see one of the unofficial camps. In fact, this particular camp is being moved because the same developer owns the land the camp is on and wants to expand the wealthy development.

We then stopped for coffee and had a long theological and philosophical conversation about this bizarre country of outrageous contrasts. We both agreed that although things seem completely crazy here, in fact South Africa is simply a microcosm for the entire globe. We in the west are those rich folks behind the fences, and Africa (and other places of extreme poverty) is the squatter’s camp we can see just down the road a bit. In South Africa the two extremes are in physical proximity; they are literally right next to each other. In the global example we are in virtual proximity.

This is obviously a simplistic look at things, but I think it’s fairly accurate. In an age of instant communication, we are in virtual proximity to those places in the world where suffering is a way of life. It’s easy for me to sit in Arnie’s car and condemn those uncaring people behind the fences, but the reality is I am one of them. And no, I don’t have any answers for what we do about that situation, other than to echo our friend Brian McLaren and confess that everything must change.

We need a new theology of development. We need a new theology of community. Quite frankly we need a new theology of Jesus, because the one I grew up with seems to only work in a world where virtual proximity does not exist, and where distance allows for ignorance. We need to work through what it means to love our neighbour when everyone on the planet lives next door.

I don’t want to end on a down note because quite frankly I don’t feel that way. I have more hope today than I have ever had before. As I’ve said a few times throughout these notes to you I’ve had a feeling for a while now that Africa is going to save the west, and not the other way around. At the beginning of this trip I would have admitted that I didn’t have a clue what that actually meant, it was just something I felt. I’m still not clear on it, but I’m growing more and more convinced that I might be on to something. As Africa works its way through some of these mammoth issues, they will have much to teach us, if we are willing to listen.

Amahoro Gathering 2009 - Email #6

(June 18)

Well, yet another day without the bandwidth to log into Typepad, so I'll send this to you instead of posting it. This was a brief thought I scribbled down in the bus Saturday on the way out to Cape Point, based on something I heard during the Amahoro Gathering last week.

When you get right down to it there are only...

2 tribes,
2 castes,
2 races,
2 colours,
2 people groups
On this Earth:

The Haves and the Have-Nots.

All other diversity is to be preserved, defended, and celebrated as critical for the completeness of the Kingdom of God. This one distinction is to be obliterated.