Resonate.ca Goes Live

Since Len Hjalmarsson says things so well, and I want to convey the same info that he does, I'll just quote him here:

Resonate.ca went live late last night. Resonate is a national conversation about the Gospel and culture in Canada. The national dialogue is largely online, and regional connections are face to face and about relationships and learning together. There is no cost, there are no preset agendas, and as Jordon puts it, "no need for a Calgary Stampeders tattoo..." Resonate is about friendship and learning together.

A quick look around the site will show the many people who contributed to Resonate to make it a reality, but the truth is Jordon Cooper deserves the most thanks.

Various people will host various gatherings: not conferences but gatherings at pubs, coffee shops, and other places where we can just sit and talk and learn from each other...

Jordon Cooper has also invited me to be one of the "regional contact people" in the Toronto area, and I'm looking forward to meeting some of the Eastern bloggers in the "analog" world.

Speaking of the QEW & 427, I'd better get my butt outta here and start the commute (yeah, let's just be honest: the commute sucks and I knew that because I'm originally from here in the first place... I'll just consider it part of "counting the cost").

P.S. I'm really glad Jordon gave us all grace to not require the Calgary Stampeders tattoo -- I AM a Christian, after all. :)

A Year Of Blogging

The same day that I watched the moving truck disappear down our tree-lined street, filled with all of our worldly possessions, was my one-year blogging birthday.

Of course, since my computer was on that truck, I knew blogging would be put on temporary hold, as would any attempts at being reflective on a year in the blogosphere.

In retrospect, I'm glad I labelled this blog a "journey", because it's certainly turned out to be one. Len Hjalmarsson should take a lot of credit (or blame) for strongly encouraging me to start a blog of my own, and Charlie Wear could be held similarily culpable for repeatedly publishing stuff that I sent him.

There's been a flurry of blogs in recent weeks attempting to take the pulse of the emerging church, or postmodern mission, or "pomergent" as my buddy Mitch Tulloch labelled it, tongue firmly planted in cheek. Since many of them have already said many things I would have said, although far more eloquently (perhaps the best summary can be found here), I'll just add a couple of things from my own grey cells.

1. There's been a lot of talk about "quitting church so we can just BE the Church", which kinda scares me. The whole "we have no leaders but God" and the "level playing field where everyone's contribution is equal" sounds great on paper, but the only way this could be truly accomplished is by making our groups (a) small, (b) full of people just like us, and (c) off-limits to people who aren't just like us. In other words, an elitist clique.
   
   Don't get me wrong; I'm all for the Plymouth Brethren ideal of "every member a minister", but reality is more complex than that (chaos theory on a ecclesial level, perhaps?). Unless our groups are "invitation-only", we can expect to encounter broken, needy, time-consuming people who don't get healed in a week or two. If our goal is to have homogenous groups where we can all simply hang out and bask in our friendships/community, these needy people (the ones Jesus seemed to spend a lot of time with) will "wreck" everything.
   
   Which connects with my second observation...



2. Being "Missional" is a lot more than creating a theological and philosophical justification for leaving CAWKI (Church As We've Known It)-- it means that we've deliberately, intentionally, chosen to focus our community on a greater goal than simply being a tight little community of like-minded individuals. I'm concerned that not a lot of emerging groups are doing this -- they often seem to be little more than postmodern bless-me clubs, with Guinness and cigars. Len Hjalmarsson and the community he is a part of are a notable exception to this. We can all learn a lot from their journey. Len's group is quite intentional about ministry to the poor and broken in Kelowna BC. They are a great example of a truly missional community in a post-CAWKI expression of the Body.



3. In order to create communities that are intentionally missional, and not merely bless-me clubs of postmodern snobs, people will have to rise to the occasion and provide (brace yourselves) leadership. A different model of leadership than many (perhaps most) churches have evolved into, but leadership nonetheless.

In the very first article I wrote on Postmodern Ministry, my first concern was that what has since become labelled the "emerging church" would become a fad -- marketed & exploited, complete with its own set of gurus and boundaries for deciding who was "in" or "out" -- and my impressions over this past year is that we are still in danger of that very trap. Society is changing quickly around us, and the last thing we need is a pomergent sub-sub-category of Christendom that only further insulates us from the real (postmodern) world.

Surfacing in Toronto

Basically, we made it. We're here. One minivan filled with a family of five, two cats, a dog, and gym bags full of clothes to last us two weeks until our stuff arrives and we actually move into our new house. 2400 kilometres. Lots of coffee and Gatorade.

We made it. We're here.

Started work Tuesday morning, bright and early. Thanks be to God that coffee is no longer under Papal condemnation, and that Tim Horton's can be found every fifteen metres or so.

We made it. We're here.

Many ideas percolating. Regular posting to resume soon. Stay tuned.

Time for another Tim Horton's run...

Cardboard Jungle

Buried in boxes. Still packing, adding to the cardboard jungle that is now our house. The Irish Pavillion started last night, and we had a great turnout (2000+) on the first night. Days are spent packing, evenings spent performing. Friends are dropping by to see the band and say their goodbyes. This is going to be a great/tiring/emotional week. Blogging will no doubt be minimal.

Great news is that the bassist who will replace me after Saturday's concerts is Colby, a good friend of mine from Winnipeg Centre Vineyard (I recommended him), so the band will continue to have a Christian bass player. Our drummer, Brad (who I also played with in "The Meaning of Fish" from 1997-2000), told me last night "Colby is going to fit in just great, but it doesn't reduce the suckage of you leaving, you bastaje."

Brad's always had a way with words. A poet, almost...

Brad also took a taxi half-way across town four years ago to stay with me at the hospital when they thought Wendy was having a stroke or brain aneurysm or something, and in 1999 when I led worship for two hours during one of the "24 Hours of Worship & Intercession" at the Vineyard (accompanied by a band that included Colby, Andre Lefebvre, Craig from Tribe of One, and another member of The Meaning of Fish who had recently become a Christian), Brad came to church for the first time in over a decade to "support my bandmates". As I recall, he drank a lot of coffee and danced around at the back alot.

I'm gonna miss him.

Folklorama is under way in Winnipeg!

Last night was the opening ceremonies at Scotia Bank Stage at The Forks, and despite some heavy thunderstorms just an hour before the event, 4000 people turned up to enjoy the many different cultural performances, from Paraguay, Mexico, Australia, Beijing, Ghana, and of course, the Celtic Irish Pavillon's Brady Irish Dancers and our band.

What this festival means for our family is that in just two weeks we'll be on the road to Ontario, so in between all the concerts we'll be busy with packing and good-byes. Since we'll be loading ourselves into the van to head for Toronto about two hours after the last concert, Folklorama is literally the count-down to a major life change, and it's going to be a crazy roller-coaster ride for the next two weeks!

Fasten your seatbelts...