Isn't She Beatiful -- "Neat-o"
A church leaders conference unlike any other.
I just spent the past two days in Grandville Michigan, the conference hosted by Mars Hill Bible Church was definetly something else. When you think of church conferences where does your head go? Lots of worship for sure, sessions on governance structure to bore your socks off, and hype that is quite litrally through the roof. Not so for Isn't She Beautiful, worship was the punctuation of this event rather than the focus, and the major sessions were focused on bible study, being the eucharist and the importance of the sabbath, the creative process with regard to hermeneutics, Salvation and all the different things the bible says about it. That made up the three main sessions taught by Rob Bell, he spoke for at least 8 hours over the two days and all I have to say is wow communicator, I love his simple style.
There were also two break out sessions with a few options: Approaching the Aids epidemic, a lot of info and new thoughts like have you ever thought about getting an HIV test so that you can connect and relate more to those who may have HIV, you could relate its confidentiality, you could actually say I have had it done, a step towards trust. The session with their student ministries gave more details on where they have been and come from with it, they have gotten beyond the children are the church of tomorrow to actually believing and having a ministry which has this ministry as an active and integral part of the church today. During the second session I attended the Elders workshop and really got an inside look at how they operate, the pain they have gone through over the past few years to have a healthy loving supporting elders team, and the processes they are looking at in ensuring that their community some 10 000 strong is all heading in the right direction. It really showed that their community isn't shiny and perfect and that they are not scared to be real about it.
The main thrust of the entire thing I think was to bring hope and to be a eucharist, a soul feeder to the pastors and leaders in attendance, something which really culminated in the final session where Rob talked about prayer shawls and the symbolism they carry. Which was followed by a worship and reflection time where you could take communion, be annointed, pray beneath prayer shawls... all being served by their community... their elders serving us, providing us with opportunities to serve each other.
I think that it was a great encouraging weekend which although it may not have had any profound lightining flash aha moments said old things in a new light, perhaps the correct light.
The greatest part was definetly the opportunity to spend time with some great guys, our conversations alone on the conference on church on whatever were great, Our group of nine consisted of my friend and pastor
Dom, Of
Joe Manafo,
Nathan Colquhoun and
Darryl Sylvestri of
theStory a new church in Sarnia On.,
Phil Prendergast (Dom's Brother in law) and Marty Lewis (a.k.a. Mega-Mart) of New Hope in London On.,
Jared Siebert National Growth Director "Guru" (he seems pretty darn smart to me) for the
Free Methodist Church Canada, and James, also of London On, he is currently in the process of starting a new church community in the downtown core of London, it sounds exciting!! Anyways I cant remember his last name (I did just meet him) so I hope that one of these guys will comment and give us more info on him.
Anyhow, a great time, lots and lots of stuff to inspire and reflect on.
Later Kerr
Google vs. intelegence
The End as we know it has arrived. Perhaps my cynical view is to disparaging for your tastes, but I dont think that anyone knows how to think for themselves anymore. One of my friends is a prof. and recently while grading some papers he found that one of them had been "downloaded" almost entirely from an internet source, someone elses work was plagiarized. Can people really claim ignorance, that they don't know this is wrong. Maybe our new moral standards should go something like this "if it's easy it's wrong" I am all for sharing knowledge, but for goodness sake do your own work.
When my friend first told me that he had a cheater I thought it was a random act of stupidity, yet as I sit here today two guys opposite me in this very computer lab have done exactly the same thing a quick google search has led them to an easy assignment, which if chance has her way will most likely recieve an admirable grade.
What part do we share in this easy society, how often do we limp work together in order to meet deadlines, how often do we shirk difficult projects in order to do the things we want. What role have we played in todays quick fix internet reality, and how do we fix it?
Isn't She Beautiful
Over the past several months I have been working through some issues that I have with the local church. Things like how it fits into Christ's vision, so many comunitites feel that they have an edge on just what God's mission is maybe they are the only ones doing it right.... grrr. How do we all come together to serve kingdom know missions, how can we serve together.
Another major stumbler for me has been issues of leadership, how to govern our comunities, individually and together as a group. So many of the communitities we are a part of struggle and falter because we put too much emphasis on what we get from it not what we give, and we bog down our pastors those who have a calling from God with administrative jumble, no wonder we cant sometimes don't feel God in our church, we arn't taking the time to look for him and those who are suposed to be inspiring us to move forward are feeling drawn out and tired, how can we serve them.
This week I am preparing to head to a conference hosted by Rob Bell's community which I hope might point out that I am looking in the worng direction, answer questions and give me new hope, new reason to continue to listen, and new resolve to serve.
More on this next week after the conference
Being Joyful
It's not easy...
Went to the mall, it snowy slushy, misereable out. I just spent the last hour hopping from late bus to late bus only to arrive here. This place and to make matters worse I was just drenched by a passing car. Yup this season can be difficult.
how should we prepare for this season? We can't really anicipate anything, we know what were celebrating and where it heads after that so how do we get into a place a mindset where we can anticipate the celebration of Jesus birth?
I recently spent some time preparing some devo's for our next message and I marvel at how easy it comes out on paper, Mary's first reaction is one of joyful praise of God. God's Angel says hey Mary your going to have a baby, people will frown on you, may even shun you, get over it he is conceived of the holy spirit, the one everyone has been waiting for. She rejoices in God right then. Man when I get good news like that, wait guess I wont ever get that news but you know what I mean. My first reaction is woohoo I'm so great, if I even am joyful at all. Our society has morphed us into beings that move from one joy to another never satisfied, never joyful, sometimes I wonder if we forgot how.
Anyways I'm just rambling, but seriously how can we live in the joy that is our lives how can we reclaim the joy that God gives us, what does it mean to rejoice in the Lord? What does it mean if we have forgotten Joy.
How do we be joyful?
Re-Ignition
The burnout is the hardest part, but I'm back baby. Sometimes it feels like the long dark will never end, but if you keep on trudging your faithfulness will get you there. finally, sometimes it just seems too long.
more to come
Hello how are you...
oooh don't scare me with your deep questions. I mean who doesn't know theanswer to this question, the answer we want to hear is the only one we will give. I mean the question dictates the answer, you can ask anyone and get the same answer the question is unthoughtful, the answer needs to respect that you dont really have time for any other answer. Right?
Something to think about
shattering OUR realities
Why does it hurt to be you, I mean really you. Our society has created a false reality for itself, a corporate image where the kids arn't alright but it doesn't matter as long as they look good. We lie to ourselves about who we are... and then we assume that everyone else is telling the truth about their life.
We see shiny new paint, we don't smell the rotting interior.
It hurts so much to be you, broken and in need of help, imperfect and in need of love and forgiveness, but if we don't allow others to see us, really see us, then how can we accept love? I mean we know that they love us, but they only love the us that they know right, I mean how could they really even stand to look at our rotten interior.
This is the delusion which we have created amongst ourselves, the never ending cycle of doubt and self loathing caused by our inability to share.
My desire, mey hope is that we can get beyond it to our realities and that we can get beyond the false expectations we have over ourselves, Let's be honest with each other.
I am afraid... I have wandered around in this place often I feel that I don't know where I am right now let alone where I am going, I fear burn out, of getting to tired to keep moving for what I believe in, I am afraid of bitterness, I mean why am I so tired, shouldn't it get easy sometime?
My prayer is for the renewal of our hopes, the refreshing of our bodies and minds, and a passion to continue.
I know where I am right now, I just hope that I don't forget where I am heading. If you forget where your heading you will continue to fall into these traps of our society to the detriment of many.
