Thin~Spaces

What is the Priority?

Last Saturday night my wife and I spent the evening a friend's house. Her husband is currently away for a month at Warrant Officer school. She has been taking care of their children by herself while he is away. I think she enjoyed having some adult conversations for a change. Over dinner, we talked about many things including our desire for a simple church where we can be free to follow the Spirit of God.

Rene and her family do not attend any church nor associate with other Christ-Followers. When I asked her if she was part of a church she said that they had "tried" several churches out and found them lacking. In her opinion, the people she meet seemed to be rather fake.

I mentioned that she should have given them some time as people don't open up easily around here. Her reply as passionate,

"Six months of going to a church and not making any real friends is time enough. Besides, they expected us to be at church every Sunday, Wednesday and attend a Bible study. You were made to feel like a 2nd class Christian if you did not. We simply did not have the time to do things as a family living by that schedule. My husband decided that if it was a choice between doing things as a family or going to Church, family time wins."

Update on the EFT issue

A few days ago i posted on my recent problem with my bank. Well i just discovered that WellsFargo is going to remove those charges from my account. These were not fraudulent charges, there was a problem on the EFT end of things. Sometimes technology does not function as intended. Keep a watch on your bank statements. . . . .

Looking at The Record

Several months ago I met Frank*, he feels called to church planting. We talked and had a great time of fellowship. His denomination, like mine, has a "process" to get people into a "successful" church plant. His first step is to help out in a church for 2-3 years before assembling his team. (He won't be eligible to plant a church for 3-5 years.) Their process understandably frustrated him. I was curious as to why they asked him to put his passion on hold for up to three years. He remarked that he had recently received a letter of encouragement from his denomination where the phrase "this will help expand your accomplishments" was used.

Accomplishments, I thought! Frank is a veteran youth pastor who has a genuine love for people and has been a pastor since the mid 90's. Their concern for his record reflects the language of business and institution. I could easily commiserate with what Frank was saying as we are both emergent types who struggle with being in denominational structures.

Recently, frank told me that he decided to leave his denomination so he can follow what God in doing in his heart. He is called to the emergent cultural setting and feles that learning how to do Church the way it has always been done is counter productive. When I consider the business model of church planting, it just does not seem right to me either. Yet I remain within my denominational structure.

Love: the Christ principle

In reading A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren speaks of the seven Jesuses he has known. Wile I have met many types or notions of Christ. Of all the ones I've met, the common trait I see is a genuine love for others expressed through hones compassion.

Love is the litmus test of a servant of God. Growth in Christ likeness is difficult without the underlying motive of agape love. While at Regent in Vancouver, I encountered many different perspectives on Christ. More that that, I became friends with many of his ambassadors. Again, the common thread in our Christ-Following is a  love that places the needs of others above our own.

Recently I've been considering the institutional church and my involvement with it. What I often find is a lack of honest compassion within the institutionalized form of church. Now I'm not talking about individual Christ-Followers but rather the overall tone of a congregation. The group mind if you will.  Honest compassion is a sign of agape love within the life of a community and a reflection of the Jesus they follow.

Fraudulent Charges

I was reconciling my check book today and discovered 2 Electronic Fund Transfers on my bank statement that I never made. The check numbers given were 1500 checks beyond my current check numbers. This type of thing has never happened to me before. Praise God that none of my checks bounced.

I called my bank and am now contesting the charges with Wells Fargo. I got hit for $253.30 on transactions that I never made. At best this is a computing error, at worst it is outright fraud. I think its time to take further steps to protect my account.

On a lighter note, I am enjoying having a “soundtrack” for my life thanks to my MP3 player. It is just too cool!

I'm not a "Pod Person"

It finally came yesterday! I've joined the ranks of those who have MP3 Players. But I'm not a pod person; I'm a river person as I use an iRiver.  While i like the iPod and was going to purchase one, my choice of unit was dictated by several factors.

• It had to have 40 GB of storage
• It had to have a color screen
• It had to show pictures
• It had to be recognized as a HD in Windows XP
• It had to support a lossless compression format
• It had to have an FM Tuner
• It had to be under $400.00 USD

The iRiver met and beat these expectations as it has all my requirements above plus:

• It uses Winamp Play lists
• It also has a built-in voice recorder
• It can display text files
• It creates MP3's without a PC
• It can record from its built in FM tuner
• It can record from any input source via its Line-in jack
• It support OGG, WMA, ASF, JPG, BMP files types
• The devices Firmware is upgradeable
• It cost $365 delivered
• BONUS~ with a firmware upgrade to the Asian version it can play video. (Using any other firmware voids the warranty and therefore I posted the link for reference only. More firmware images here. Use it at your own risk! Thin~Space does not recommend nor advocate this modification and is not responsible for any damage you may cause to your unit by doing so.)

I'm currently downloading my entire 25Gig music and photo library to the device. While it is not as sleek as the iPod, its style is growing on me. I'm starting to like the carbon fiber look. The sound quality is simply amazing and the built in SRS and EQ are not that bad at all for a portable device. 

I'm not a big fan of ear buds, so I'm going to get a pair of Sennheiser PX 100 Headphones to use with it. I'd get these even if I became a "pod" person. I'm not sure if I'll do the firmware upgrade to get the video capabilities. I'm still researching it. For more information and tips, go to the iRiver message board at misticriver.

The Mystery of Incarnation

Have you ever wondered about the mystery of incarnation? How God, the OMNI one, could localize himself down to the point of being human with out violating the essence of who He is? It is the very act of incarnation that allows us to understand and relate to His being on a personal level. Prior to this, our relationship with God was confined to the formal, symbolic, ritualized system of a religion.

Beware of anyone who has an answer to the question of incarnation. I certainly don't. Yet it is this mystery that reveals the personal nature of God in terms we can understand in Jesus. The veil of unknowing does not separate him from us.

We cannot pierce that veil by act of will or desire of heart. God is the only one who can cross that veil. Therein lay the mystery of incarnation. The one, who in his transcendence, is beyond all we can conceive and understand has made himself immanent. It is beyond human conception. How can this be?

For millennia's, man has related to the absolute transcendence of the divine by creating rituals, symbols, myths and magic. This is the language that speaks to us on a sub-conscious level. It resonates with our perception of a mystery that is in the veil of unknowing. Hiding a God who is completely beyond understanding. God, the unmanifested one, was not personal at all in this way of thinking. The notion of God became a metaphor for the life force that permeates the universe and is beyond human understanding.

We created many gods who oversaw our lives. We worshiped the created things, nature, ancestral spirits and the unknown great source of life. It is into this consciousness of man that God decided to make himself known. The single God idea

How can that be? Incarnation, God who permeates every point in the universe yet embodied in a man who lived 2,000 years ago. It is a paradox and mystery. Yet because God made himself known, he is knowable to man. Though Jesus we can enter into a relationship with God on a personal level. It defies logic and human reason how this can be.

God who is transcendent and unknowable is immanent and known. I've come to the place where I don't need to know how it is possible; I live with the interplay and tension of these opposing ideas realizing that the mystery of it is acceptable. It is only our hubris and modern western mind that tries to reduce everything to a rational explanation. To remove the mysteries of life is the curse of our modern era.

The Artist At Work

The chill of the morning air and dampness of the ground indicated that it had rained last night. As I drove to work, the early morning sky was shrouded in a thick blanket of dark gray clouds. Looking to the East I noticed the sun rising over the mountains into a thin strip of light blue sky.

As I drove West, the drab trees suddenly brightened against the inky darkness of the sky. A golden sunlight shone on them, bringing forth brilliant green colors. Every shade, hue, and tone imaginable shone before me as God painted an early morning commute before my eyes.

The sun rose higher in the sky and the scene before me changed and evolved. More colors, refractions of light and brightly illuminated clouds danced in the morning sky against the backdrop of the dark sky. As the road descended a hill, the brilliant color faded as I entered a deep hollow.

At the bottom of the hill the road turned north and I caught sight of a brilliant light off to my right. hovering above the pond was a wispy cloud of fog. The translucent tendrils shone with the light of the Sun. Golden, warm and inviting as if God himself were hovering over the waters below.

The canvas of my soul gave way as the brush strokes of the Master worked. Joy, peace, love, and God’s presence resonated against the colors of my life. Transfixed by the sublime beauty of the morning I nearly stopped my car in the middle of the road. If I had, I would have missed the wonders to come.

As I continued my journey, the artists brush added the colors and revealed the beauty that had always been in the canvas. The sun rose, I arrived at work and the Artist continues to paint.

Frank Viola On Emerging Church

I've read some books by Frank Viola and think that his article to the "Emerging Church" is quite well written. I enjoyed it so well that i had to post it even though Andrew A.K.A Tallskinnykiwi already did.

The influence of this conversation has been no less than incredible. So much so, that at least to my mind, it can be better described as a phenomenon. And it is picking up steam with each passing day.

      I am a student of church history. My studies have led me to make the following observation: Every phenomenon and movement that has set out to reform or renew the church was born with profound shortcomings and weaknesses. And these shortcomings and weaknesses were never addressed until it was too late for them to be corrected. In my own lifetime, I have seen this to be true for the charismatic movement, the Jesus movement, the third-wave movement, and the house church movement . . . just to name a few.

Link to original article found over at TSK. This full article is well worth the read as Frank addresses many of the concerns i have. Read: Will the Emerging Church Fully Emerge? over at Frank's site.

Hanging Out On Sunday

Sunday was a very busy but fun day. Cheryl and I spent our afternoon with Keith and Jennifer. We did the typical suburbanite weekend thing. We had Lunch at a Mexican restaurant followed by a visit to a coffee house and then caught a matinee.

Both Keith and I enjoy Clive Cussler novels so we had to catch the movie Sahara. They kept to your typical Hollywood action movie formula. The portrayal of Dirk seemed a bit flat to me. Having read the book, I could never be completely satisfied with the movie. Overall, it was an OK picture to see in a matinee.

The best part of the day was being able to just hangout with some people that we don't normally get to spend time with.