Although I really enjoyed this book, I will say that where I think they were coming from and where they say they are coming from are 2 different places. I would say that this is a reflective piece on the development of 37signals and in hindsight they are telling us what has worked for them, but they speak from a place that sounds like they planned to do it this way (in some way) from day one. I really agree with what they have done and how they have organized themselves, and in fact it has allowed me to sort through the course load in my Project Management program right now and all the info in the PMBOK. The information overload I have received was overwhelming at times, but now I am inspired to create my own stream and it has made the program more enjoyable. However, the proverbial chip on Jason’s shoulder at times was a little much, but maybe that’s my Canadianisms coming out.

If you are looking for a book that inspires you to get work done and to run a clean streamlined office, system, team, or business I highly recommend this book. For my CP rating I give it a 4.5/5.

All I want to say about this book is that it was inspiring and said a lot of things that not only I have been thinking about, but I know other “doubting Christians” have been thinking for a long time. And even though some might argue that this books encouragement toward questioning and its suggestion of new answers might be “unhealthy” or a threat to Christianity, I believe that this is a hopeful book that makes God bigger than perhaps we have viewed Him as in our current Christian faith circles.

And to those who find this book threatening I would just like to say that it is important for many of us to reflect on how accurate you believe you are concerning your accuracy of your theology. Don’t hear me wrong, I appreciate critical readings, and feel free to read this book critically, but if you read it and if it doesn’t agree with your church or your personal theology try to remember that we are all trying to figure it out and do not have it all together all of the time. To read this with that in mind, might give more life to your reading. I can appreciate those that want to find the “final” answer, but I guess in my mind (right now) that doesn’t seem to be the point.

One thing that I appreciated from Rob’s book that I would like to share here is that Rob looks at the many different views of atonement in Chapter 5 and makes a great point that many of the explanations provided by the writers in the Bible (and thus interpretations from others since) were ways to describe the life eternal and not to point to one final theory. We would do well to embrace more theories in order to expand on the richness of the gospel itself. This in turn makes God bigger to me, not smaller. I think we would all be amazed how many of those theories we embrace even though most evangelical Christians say they only embrace the substitution theory.

I think this is an important book and give 5/5 on my CP scale.

Resurrection: Rob Bell from The Work of Rob Bell on Vimeo.

I hear his words of participation and transformation!

And for those of you who scan my ramblings here, or hang out with us at the open house, Jem and I are going to be reading and discussing Rollins book How (Not) to Speak of God – Marks of the Emerging Church starting in September. It will be open to everyone.

More to come on that. Enjoy.

Explaining Emergent Churches – Inner Compass from Calvin College on Vimeo.

Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue – poverty. We aim to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!

I wanted to let people know of two Vancouver groups fighting poverty.

Shalom Seekers:

Shalom Seekers is an associate Ministry of City In Focus formed in 2004 to network, train, and resource Metro Vancouver’s Christian Community to be fully engaged in seeking “the welfare of the city” where God has placed us (Jeremiah 29). We labour toward the day that Metro Vancouver lives up to its reputation as “the most livable city in the world” for all who call it home, especially our most vulnerable neighbours.

Shalom Seekers are putting on a great event this weekend coming up. Check it out here.

Streams of Justice:

Streams of Justice – the name is drawn from the biblical prophetic text of Amos 5:24 “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” The stream envisioned in this passage is one that doesn’t dry up in the hot summer months, but flows constantly throughout the year. As such it nourishes and sustains the life of the community and its members. So too social justice is something that must be constantly practiced if communal life is to be nourished and sustained. The biblical notion of justice is centrally concerned with the protection, support and care of the most vulnerable members of the society, those who are particularly exposed to abuse, violence and exploitation, and susceptible to deprivation of basic resources. Consequently, it is not limited to fairness in legal and judicial matters, but entails equitable access to resources, sufficient economic means for meaningful social participation, valued input into collective decision-making, ensured personal dignity and mutual respect, and non-exclusionary community practises.

Rooted in the biblical prophetic tradition and the life and teaching of Jesus, Streams of Justice actively pursues a more just, equitable, inclusive, and compassionate society through 1) analysis, action and reflection that expose and challenge unjust social structures, and 2) creative initiatives that open up space for imagining and embodying alternative possibilities of human solidarity and communal life.

In light of P51 I wanted to make known to you a conference that is coming up this October. It’s called The Church and Affordable Housing Conference and it’s running October 17 & 18, 2008 put on by the Shalom Seekers. I went a couple years ago and it was awesome. I highly recommended it if you can make it out.

The costs are as follows:

$60 Regular (September 1- October 10)
$70 Late/Onsite(October 10- October 18)
$25 Student and Senior (aged 60+)

In fact, because I am not sure if I can go and I would really like a representative from the open house at the conference the church is willing to support 2 people to go together from the open house to be our advocates. This to me is P51 at work. So let me know if you want to go and I will get you set up.

The Church and Affordable Housing Conference

This is the story of long lost youth group friends reuniting for a retreat of sorts where they share their current and greatest fears. The book never resolved all of the fears of the characters (as one might suppose a Christian fiction might do), but instead it challenged the reader and myself to ask the question of what makes you feel alive. I haven’t felt alive like i know i have felt and many of the issues the characters were going through are issues I am going through now. That fact alone really helped me swiftly read through this book in two days.

At the end of reading this book I felt a twitch of being alive again. I have felt helpless a lot at times, but never hopeless. My hope moved me into believing there is help on the way.

So here comes the pitch: Read this for pleasure and for the hope of being understood as a Christian amongst an uncertain world that doesn’t seem to get us too much and for the hope that we might begin to understand each other as well.

You might find it hard to follow, but I think NT did a great job with Colbert being well….Colbert.

That’s probably why the Bible says so often, “Do not be afraid.” I have a print out that actually proves the phrase appears 365 times! If you cannot hold a certain degree of anxiety you will always be looking for somewhere to expel it. Expelling what you can’t embrace gives you an identity, but it’s a negative identity. It’s not life energy, it’s death energy. Formulating what you are against gives you a very quick, clear and clean sense of yourself. Thus, most people fall for it. People more easily define themselves by what they are against, by who they hate, by who else is wrong, instead of by what they believe in and by whom they love.”

—Richard Rohr in Hope Against Darkness

I have a lot on my mind right now. Richard Rohr just reached into my chest and gave my heart a pump…