Father, can you hear me?
How have I let you down?
I curse the day that I was born,
And all the sorrow in the world…

Let me take you to the herding ground,
Where all good men are trampled down,
Just to settle a bet that could not be won,
Between a prideful father and his son.

Well you guard me now for I cant see,
A reason for this suffering and this long misery.
What if every living soul could be upright and strong?
Well, then I do imagine there will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.

When all soldiers lay their weapons down,
Or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crown,
Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves…
Its easy to imagine there will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.

There will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.
————————
Bad Religion

I am a huge fan of sociology. I am a fan of studying trends, economics and all of the “what” that has gone on in our society over any number of years. In fact I am a even bigger fan of taking the “what” and then creating a “how” in terms of connecting and creating an experience, a space, or way to respond to the “what.”

But I am burning out…you see in the process I forgot the “why.”

The “why” is what brought me to Vancouver, it’s what brought me to Alberta and it’s what inspired me to begin this journey in the first place.

I pride myself a lot at understanding the what and developing the “how” but I must return to the “why.” The scary thing is sometimes I feel as though I have forgotten the “why.” Have I?

It is when we forget the “why” that we leave the journey, forget the point of all of this and wonder why we bothered in the first place. I am asking all these questions currently and it scares me…especially when I am supposed to be the leader of the “why.”

But this is good for me. September 11th I am leading the discussion at our cafe gathering at Libby’s and I hope to begin a discussion around the “why.” To be honest I am struggling with what this will look like, and hopefully we can figure it out together.

Today our church got back together at Libby’s to hangout, share stories and talk a little about some future developments of the open house for this fall.

I have to say I really love our group and the reason I say this is because even through my “working it out” they listen, love and respect what I have to say. As I stumble through sharing some ideas and thoughts, they help me along, encourage and work it out with me.

Tonight I talked about sustainability and decentralization…ya exactly, huge concepts that I have been thinking about but I decide to throw it all out there. But amongst it all they got it and helped me work through what I was really wanting to say…I love that. We talked about membership and tithing and a tonne of other stuff and they worked it through with me.

The biggest point of the night was helping me realize the commitment that our church has already made. I have these “fantastic” ideas that we need a new concept of membership when everyone there is already a member…just without the signed card. As I discussed defining what it meant to belong to the open house, I realized everyone there belonged and in the simplest form of membership they were in essence…moving closer to Jesus. They didn’t need a list or a set of characteristics, they just wanted us to trust that they were moving toward Jesus and that the church was helping them move in that direction.

So my membership thoughts are going to have to take a back seat again. How do I define a member of the open house? As my friend Pernell once said, “Sneezes, burps and farts.” I live in and amongst these great people, watching them grow, accepting them where they are, but not leaving them there. It will be a relational process, hard to measure, but not hard to tell and for now I am quite okay with that.

night…

I finished the Starfish and the Spider and I was quite impressed. I underlined a tonne of passages in the book and now just need to find the time to go back over it, make some notes and pass it on to you. But simply the book inspired my thoughts on membership for the church of this century and I had one of those ideas come to light today while having breakfast with Joel at Bon’s.

We were talking about how we feel obligated to finish our oversized meals at bon’s because we paid for it and we need to prove to ourselves that it was worth the money, even though in most other countries we would never be given this much food in one sitting. You see at Bon’s you get a huge breakfast for very little money, and so the perceived value is very high and to not finish it would be hurting your perceived “deal.” But it led to a conversation about what it would take for us to pay the money and not feel obligated to finish it.

Our church works in a similar way with a different consumer effect…basically it has very minimal programs (or amount of food), and so the perceived value financially to people in our group is that it doesn’t need to be supported (less on my plate, then i pay even less for it). It is almost like if we had a huge operational building, programs and budget people would begin to support it. But the problem is our culture. The problem lies in the fact that people treat tithing (or giving to the church) as a payment for services rendered…and to some degree i understand that…but when we give to the church, whether financially or through your time/effort it needs to come from a heart that longs to give for the sake of giving.

I guess what I am saying is that for people to begin helping this church become sustainable they will need to transition from a consumerist ideal of giving to a generous heart. Giving in order to bless the work God is doing and not expecting a certain service rendered.

So my first membership thought is how can we change the perceived value of being a contributer to the open house without falling into a consumerist mentality?

It begins with helping change the perception of perceived value…

OK I have finished Kester Bewin’s book Signs of Emergence and I have nothing but great things to say about it.

I am not about to write a huge review at this point, but I will say two things about the book. One is that everything we have done that I would say has turned somewhat successful he mentions in this book. So any of you that have been somewhat encouraged by what we have done here in Vancouver, this book might give some of our story in some way.

Secondly, this book is not a how-to book but the ideas from this book will lead to your own
creative process that will lead to many practical outworking’s. So my push here is that you should really dream as you read and think through what “this” might look like in your context. It has the amazing ability to help you in the dreaming process.

It has moved into my top five books for church planters…FYI

I am also now reading a new book called The Starfish and the Spider: The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. I have just started but already I am liking what I am reading. more to come on this one.

I also have had some “ah-ha” moments in my thoughts about “membership” within a Christian community and specifically within our church. I hope to blog about some of those in the next couple days.

I am currently the chaplain at a YWAM hockey camp in Westbank (now Westside? somebody help me out here), BC near Kelowna for the week. During my time off I brought with me a few books, one of them being Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin and so far I am enjoying it.

It is hard to find an “emergent” type book saying something new, but what I like about Brewin is he is bringing to light many thoughts that I have been stewing on for a while. The one that I appreciate the most is his chapter on Advent. It basically talks about how we need to take more breaks from our ministry so that we can reflect and patiently establish a community as God desires. We frantically want to get our programs and churches up and running in record time, and usually at the expense of new thoughts or perhaps trying soemthing new.

I was personally feeling like we were creeping in this direction so our church has currently taken most of August off so that we can reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are going. It seems like a dumb idea if you are trying to start a church, but already I am seeing many people in our group take time to connect on different levels. The guys have had a camping trip, the girls a little get together, a few people are going to another friends music show and still others are doing some beach trips.

The point here is not that “breaks” equal growth, but that advent is necessary for creativity to flow and for ideas to be explored. And the cool thing is that the answers to the establishment of our church is from within the community.

As Luke 17:20-21 says:

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

And to leave you with one quote from Brewin:

If our churches are going to be reborn, to emerge and evolve as self-organizing systems, then they are going to do so as organisms adapted to their environment…The success or otherwise of “the kingdom” in our area is “within us.” The answers lie “among us” in our shared, networked, distributed knowledge of the particular space we inhabit, whether geographical, social or cultural.

And how do we as leaders find this unless we stop our busyness, listen and nurture the ones who make up our community, the ones with the eyes to see and the ears on the ground?

I can see the shadows on the wall
Drifting as the leaves start to fall
Unfazed by rugosity, the objects yield to gravity
And depict the destiny of us all

No one really knows why we die
No one gets a break so we try
Ignoring mortality, we worship mediocrity
And wait to see what happens up on high

In so many ways we live to follow the sun
In so many ways we exalt and fail as one
In so many ways we want so bad to be done
In so many ways we show our pain in unison

Something in you is busy counting the days
Catapulting you trough the haze
Blind to virtuosity, ignorant of your sanctity,
Revealing you, in so many ways

In so many ways we live to follow the sun
In so many ways we exalt and fail as one
In so many ways we want so bad to be done
In so many ways we show our pain in unison
——-
Bad Religion

joel armstrong

Originally uploaded by joey armstrong.

At the open house we engage a lot of really interesting people who challenge our view of life and God. Joel is one of those people.

Joel never shies away from asking tough questions and seeking real answers. He is currently going to Capilano College in web design, but his real gifting is in the photo…electronic music. (thanks for the photo joey)

We are stoked that Joel is going to be helping us out a little more here at the open house over the next year, and I am looking forward to working with him.

Matt about to be baptised.

Originally uploaded by Hot Meteor.

This past weekend I was able to take a remarkable trip to Algonquin Park in Ontario with all of my great buds and during the trip our good friend Matt told us he wanted us to baptize him.

So here I am about to Baptize one of my best friends in a Lake at Algonquin Park…

All I can say is the glory goes to God who has brought Matt so far and I was incredibly blessed take part in this moment in history.

Matt, we will continue to pray for you as you continually discover new life and freedom in Jesus!