I had the privilege to take some time today and drive to West Vancouver and have lunch with my wife who works out there. On my way through downtown, and more specifically Stanley Park I was merging into the right hand lane going over the Lions Gate Bridge when a brightly painted pink monster came rapidly toward me. At first I couldn’t make out what it was, then as I slowly adjusted my vision and grabbed a hold of the wheel I realized that it was a West Vancouver Soccer Mom wearing an all pink outfit, while riding her all pink scooter in the left hand lane toward me. Sure my initial reaction was a bit much, but my first thought was “isn’t it better just to fit in?” Why does she need all that pink, why does she need to stand out, and why does she need to be seen?

The woman in the pink outfit characterizes recent models of leadership for me. Who ever is the loudest, charismatic, good looking (of course I don’t put the pink in that category), and has the most gimmicks is going to attract the most people. Notice I never said that they are the most capable leaders, but they sure might attract a crowd.

Don’t get me wrong I may be very Canadian when I say that I am thinking a new way of leading will be the unsung, quiet, reserved type of leader, and sometimes I think that is all we have in Canada! But there is something about the other cars, bikes and so forth that were driving on the same road as this lady that has challenged my thinking. For some reason we tend to set leaders apart, and put them in places of esteem that many can’t and/or shouldn’t handle. If you have a chance to read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell he makes mention of these types of leaders (the ones that are picked because they stand out and some of the dangers that come with that).

For too long the open house has been running on Kristin and my leadership alone and I think many of the errors that have come are due to our lack of a group of road dwellers to talk through ideas with. We are these pink troupers with all systems go, telling others what we think might be best when perhaps we should realize we are on the same road (and in fact sometimes I think I am taking the back road while they are really on the road I should be on), and they may see some things that I am totally missing. We have tried community forums and they have proven helpful, but there needs to be a buffer. There needs to be a middle ground between the traffic/bike/pedestrian controlled area in East Van to the #1 Hwy East on a Friday afternoon.

So all that to say that toh has asked a few friends to become that pack for us; and not just for Kristin and I, but for the entire toh crew. I know it seems like a huge commitment, but it’s life for me, for Cato and for the open house. I really hope they all accept.

I need more fellow travelers and less Pink Coverall Wearing Soccer Moms on Scooters!

I am sure Spencer (whom I met at Soularize) would be the first to tell you he didn’t author this book, so for clarity this book is a collection of articles from the ooze website that Spencer picked for his book.

I think sometimes we rank books, music or movies based on the time of life they touch us. And so I am quick to give this book high praise and CP marks (I give it 4/5 as a book for rethinking). I am at a serious stage of rethinking (I know I always seem to be at that point), and so this book was the perfect match to my time of life. I received this book for free from Spencer from my time in the Bahamas at Soularize and decided to pick it up a week or so ago. And to my surprise it was exactly what i was looking for. Every article (specifically the ones at the beginning and at the end) seemed to speak where I was at. Not in ways that would fix my problems, but allowing me to sit in the problem in order to work it out. You see there wasn’t one article that I would say I totally agreed with, in fact a lot of them I pushed back, but it was the freedom of thought that I enjoyed. It has inspired me to write more to, and to share my thoughts even though they are very incomplete at their best.

So if you have a moment pick this book up and read the first 3 articles. All three of these had me hooked and inspired. Inspired not to do, but to undo and detox, and move in a direction even if it isn’t the right one…although it could be the right one for now.

This was one of the questions I proposed to the open house at our last community forum. What would happened if the open house just stopped gathering all together? And the answers…well some actually said that they would stop going to church all together.

At that moment I had to ask myself the question, whether that was a positive answer or a negative one. And I have to say I found that response filled with truth. Truth of where those toh’rs we at, and truth about the niche we fill as the open house. Sure it would be easy to look at it negatively, but I am choosing not to. But feel free to add some negative thoughts in the comments if you want.

I made mention at the meeting about whether our church should become a website entirely. A space where people post when they gather, post when they want to get together, a space for resources and leave it up to each other to get together. Now that may be a little too loose for some, but I have this crazy feeling that we might need to consider going radical on our concept of gathering.

The truth is our crew is transient, x-y generation, random at best, but “community common” (thanks Randy) and actually does these types of relationships well. So maybe what we need are some rhythms? What I mean by this is perhaps some phases of when toh meets and usually around a type of teaching, experience, service, or need in certain lengths of time. For example, what if we met all together once every 6 weeks for a meal and some worship (whatever that looks like) and then in between we had 6 week rhythms? Say 6 weeks of teaching of a certain book of the bible, or 6 weeks of serving at a local mission, or 6 weeks of absolutely nothing? and each participant is required to come up with how they would like to spend or give to the rhythm? Then we get together for a party at the end of each rhythm..

I doubt I am coming out with anything new here, in fact something in me thinks this is similar to how the Jews gathered before the synagogues were built into the culture. Every certain amount (perhaps 6 weeks) of time there was a feast and a celebration of the lead up time. Similar to Passover, Yom Kippur, and other Jewish feast holidays.

So for now we are still gathering regularly, but I have a feeling some changes might be coming. Perhaps we should get that leadership team together before we make any decisions.

Oh Leadership…thats entirely different type of post.

more to come.

I began a conversation (or maybe a monologue, since this is a blog) about my rethinking of a lot of what I have done, specifically with the church and I thought it was time to write a little more. After spending a weekend with good friends, good food and an all around good time I have had time to think through this a little.

Nick made this comment in my last post (please continue the thoughts in the posts):

“…I sure struggle with this. So much of what I feel called to do, what I see Jesus doing, doesn’t come with security, won’t produce much you can point at, and may not justify my continued funding. I guess what it comes down to is whether or not we trust God. It’s even harder to figure out in a heuristic setting. Have I changed my mind because I gave in or gave up, or have I actually learned and grown into dreaming something better than when I started out? I suppose, when we’re quiet, we know the truth…”

These are great thoughts that are pushing me further.

I recently received a letter from my denomination asking about whether we were willing to “join” the denomination officially. I had to ask myself a few questions about what it means to belong. You see I thought we did belong, I was supported by them, we have been funded by them, they are my family, but it seems that unless we sign this covenant agreement we will always be welcome but on the outside. This was huge for me when I asked the question of our church. The reaction seems to be the same as it was for me. Didn’t we always belong? Can’t you tell that I care? Can’t you see that I am part of the family? Why do we need to agree to some exterior set of beliefs, or sign a card, or promise you something?

For those of you who grew up in church this may seem like a no-brainer, of course you need to join or be a member, it’s part of maturity. But I didn’t grow up in church, and the church that impacted my life never forced me to “join” they always treated me as if i did.

Now this isn’t a conversation about which is right, this about working through what it means to really belong. I have asked myself the question of whether people are on board all the time, and every time i do that I am slammed with how much they are! Why do I continually want some sort of “proof.”

I have spent a lot of time organizing this church, and I wonder if I have spent enough time realizing what/who this church is.

more unfinished thoughts to come…

Do you ever get the feeling that your good ideas go to waste because of your execution of the idea? I sometimes think this what Jesus meant when he said don’t throw your pearls to the pigs.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

Sure literally it looks like you shouldn’t throw good ideas to people who will reject them, or not help you work through them or judge you for them, but I am thinking the pig can be my own greediness to see them come to fruition.

As I reflect (and continue to reflect) on toh over the past 2.5 years, I am asking some big questions about whether I really took the open house in the direction I really wanted to. Sometimes I think I took it in the safe familiar direction that I knew well, and made myself believe it was something new.

I am not ready to write a tonne about this now. But what I am going to do is try and work through this here on motionsickness.ca, because I think I am once again…motion sick. And if i don’t throw up soon I won’t be able to keep going…so allow me to begin this journey with vomiting on this blog.

My first vomit…I think I never really went far enough with what God was telling me, and now it is tearing me to pieces.

I have found this trip to be quite productive as I have not only made my way to countless site, but have finished 4 books. (It should be noted that 2 of them I had already started before arriving).

The most recent book is that of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book Malcolm builds a case for a persons intuition and ability to make good and/or right decisions during the first instances of making a judgment. He shares about 10 stories of different people in their fields of expertise and how they make choices, and then brings in some science on the brain and a few practical studies that have revealed similar results.

What I love about this book are two things. 1) Gladwell never suggests that making decisions in themselves apart from any sort of practice is ideal. Every situation in this book shared involved the decision makers to be well developed in that field. Meaning basically that only those that have extensive understanding of their occupation can make good/right decisions on first glance without too much thought. This is important because I am sure Malcolm doesn’t want to suggest that any one at any time can make a quality decision in any type of discipline. But by knowing your field extensively one can make critical choices (if they indeed are) in intense situations.

2) Malcolm gives me reason for faith. Sometimes we “just know.” There isn’t necessarily a reason why we know something, it just is, and we should be okay with that. The overlying assumption is that people need a reason for faith in the church, some might call it truth, but at the end of the day there are things that I just know are for sure and proving it would be counter productive. There is something powerful in unquestioning faith, and as a very “reasonable” thinker I found this really important.

I would recommend this book for church planting, and I give it a 3.5/5 on the CP scale. I wouldn’t count this book as critical, but I recommend it as a good read and a thought provoker.

Let me know if you have any thoughts from your reading of this book, or if you have any questions.

Self Shot: Scotish Highlands

Originally uploaded by urbanplanter

What a great day!

Today Anna and I (and the family) drove up the west coast of Scotland to Inverness. On the way we stopped at Glencoe, and Urquhart, and a couple other places. The Highlands are so beautiful, you may be able to get a small idea of them from our pictures.

Tonight we had a great meal and then Anna, Ella and I went to a local pub and watched a Scottish band.

Good times had by all.