No sign of hurricanes. Unless that yellow patch kicks up into something… but if it doesn’t, it is still conceivable that a hurricane could form and move while we are gone. We should be so lucky. I love storms… though I don’t know if Cheryl would echo that sentiment.

Plane seats booked, rides arranged. Bonus: Westjet will allow us to bring a stoller or playpen with us as “carryon” in addition to regular carryon! That should help.

Don’t expect any blogging to be done while we are down there though I am still hopeful I will get a few minutes on the computer here and there.

If you’re in the Surrey area over the next couple of weeks, our Sundays should be very interesting.  We’re having the leadership couple for our Freedom Session program starting this fall speak on July 26, about their journey.  Then, on August 2 we will have the guy who started “Catholics for Jesus” come and speak.  Apparently he has a heck of a story as well.  I will be sorry to miss these two weekends.

I was reading another few pages from Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer this morning, and in the early going he rides the importance of cultural exegesis hard.  I was already familiar with the concept as I just took a course this spring on “Christianity and Culture” from Bruce Guenther over at ACTS (awesome course by the way).  One of the most important texts in the course was called Everyday Theology – a compilation by Kevin Vanhoozer.  This book was awesome for giving a framework to analyze cultural trends in light of Jesus.  It’s given me a very different angle on looking at my culture ever since.

So the two of these sources collided with me while I was driving to work this morning.  Two songs on my iPod came on – “It’s Probably Me” by Eric Clapton and Sting, and “Your Life is Now” by John Mellencamp.  It occured to me that both of these songs have very Christian overtones, though I somehow doubt the writers thought of that.  (Actually, in retrospect, from what I know of Eric Clapton’s spiritual journey, maybe that one wasn’t unintentional.)  I was picturing actually opening a sermon by having everyone come in with that song playing, or the worship team playing (given the mad skillz of Eric Clapton, maybe I had better play the CD).

I was even thinking of doing some kind of youtube, or powerpoint set to coincide with the lyrics to illustrate some profound points to ponder as the music washes over you.

Just some crazy ideas for the future, I guess.  Two of my favorite things are music and movies.  I will be spending more time thinking about how to exegete them and teach with them as illustrations or foci for points.

We are heading to Florida for the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches‘ biannual iGo convention.  We leave on Thursday night.  The convention is in Tampa, Florida, so I am watching the Hurricane Forecasting website very carefully to see if we might get hit with a zinger while we’re down there.  We’ll actually be down there for almost two weeks, so it is conceivable that a hurricane could form and then hit while we’re down there, but if there’s nothing up to the day we leave, then that’s at least half the trip that will be fine.

Part of me would almost like to be down there during a hurricane.  It would be interesting to experience.  But don’t tell my wife that.

Oops.

PS.  I thought I’d just say this out loud – part of our journey down there is going to involve shuttling between airports, because of the way flights were booked.  We thought we were going to be stuck renting a car, after we had exhausted our efforts trying to find Christian in our affiliated churches who could help us out with a lift.  None of them were free to help, but an atheist political blogger I have had contact with, has not only volunteered to drive us, but is taking the day off work to do it!  I am amazed that God provides, and grateful for the ride, but I think it says something about some churchgoers that this woman would bend over backwards for someone she hardly knows while our “brethren” let us down.

I’ve been trying to hook onto one of these but they don’t seem to be very common.  The biggest ones seem to be a little preoccupied with issues that I am not necessarily interested in.  I don’t really know how to express what it is I am looking for.  I am looking for bloggers who are blogging about their growth, what works for them, what they struggle with.

I know lots of people get into heavy theological debates, and I guess I am more practical than I have always thought because that interests me less and less as time goes on.  I can’t figure out if church planters don’t blog like this, or bloggers don’t plant.  But hey if any of you who surf on by here know of some good ones, drop a link here in the comments.

I finally began to work on the articles I had collected for my big paper, and this quote stuck out at me as important.

Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping God may wake someday and  take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.

It is attributed to Annie Dillard, but not referenced.  The imagery is a trifle overwrought, but after thinking about it, I think I agree.  We don’t respect the Bible nearly enough.  We say it is the Word of God so casually and blithely that we don’t even think about what that really means.

After reading this, I got to thinking, if and when we really do plant a church, I think my first sermon will be on the Bible – what it is and how it came to us, and what that means to have such a treasure collecting dust on the mantlepiece, or tossed into some forgotten box from the time we moved out of our parents’ house and into our own place.

Our final day was a big barbeque at Unwin Park.  We’d been running programs there all week long, so there was more than a few people aware of what we were doing.  Additionally, the park has a lot going on in it – soccer, baseball, a public outdoor pool even.  We probably had at least a hundred people if not more coming in and out, eating free food, playing games, tug-of-wars, and making crafts in our craft tent.  Many Indo Canadians were even participating, which was great to see.  I talked to a couple of families of Syrians – the one guy who lives in the neighbourhood invited his brother from Abbotsford to come out.  It looked like a great time was had by all, except the little girl who cut open her finger on the tug-of-war rope.  Poor thing.

The whole week was a tremendous effort.  Everyone contributed in many ways.  I come away from this week thinking that this shouldn’t be a summer only thing.  We need to be doing this more often.  At the same time though, I realize that there was a massive drain of energy as well.  I mean, I was gone from home every evening this week.  It meant tons of things in my family’s life were put on hold to do this.  As I mentioned before, I was physically, emotionally and spiritually drained.  How do you balance this thing called the Christian life?  How do you love on people and demonstrate in real ways God’s love without burning up your candle and leaving behind ashes?  That’s some thing I will be wrestling with for a while.

Sunday will be exciting too, to see if there are fruits of our labour that walk through the doors at 10am.  If there aren’t, I won’t be disappointed though.  I know that the Spirit works at his own pace, and there will be people who were genuinely touched by us this week, but need time to reorganize their own thoughts about Christianity and what that means to them.  If you’ve lived your life believing that Christians are hypocritical jerks who judge and hate (as we are coloured too often in popular culture), but then encounter genuine love and compassion, and receive gifts with no strings, it would take time to deal with and sort out where the lies end and truth begins.  Every touch like this that happens brings the harvest closer to us.  It’s definitely fun to watch.

I was looking around for church plant blogs from BC and Alberta, to see who’s doing what.  I encountered a blogger who also pastors The Open House in East Vanouver.  Reading over his and his church’s websites gave me a few clues as to his approach to church planting.  I had a few thoughts as I surfed it.

The Open House is advertised as “A missional community walking in a Jesus direction”.  From everything I have read about missional churches and the theology behind them, I am totally in agreement with much of their understanding of the purpose of a church body.  The flavour of missional churches that leans in an emergent direction becomes dischordant in my mind though, because it seems to lean too heavily on a concept of postmodernism that doesn’t really exist much.

I read the other day an author that claims that postmodernism doesn’t really exist.  That the classic anarchic view of young people or whoever, the rejection of absolutes does not exist.  That if you drill down any postmodern, you will find someone who is modern, and recognizes the necessity of modernity.  I think that could be true.  The stereotypical community of emergents as a fellowship body, meeting casually in bars or coffeeshops, talking about God and ancient forms of devotion doesn’t go anywhere.  It relies on the personality of the leader to hold it together because there is no call for loyalty or commitment from its constituent members.  Each member is ultimately self-directed in their own personal quest for deity, and only incidentally fellowships.

What this results in is a community that is temporary and transient.  It comes and goes in wisps.  It relies on flighty noncommital people to dedicate themselves to themselves and in so doing, a community.  Except, I have to think that the Bible teaches the opposite.  It teaches commitment to the body of Christ first, and your person second.  “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your stength, and love your neighbour as yourself.“  Where does the self come?  Last.

So when I see an emerging church with suspended services, I am not surprised.  I wish human nature wasn’t what it is, but that and a dollar will buy you a can of Coke.  I am convinced that one of the factors of a successful church is eliciting real concrete commitment – to doctrine, to fellowship, to service, to God, and to one another.  What comes of that commitment is growth in yourself.  Personal growth is the result of commitment – it can’t be sought for its own sake, and it should never come before anything else.

Now, to figure out how to communicate that to people who disagree.

Heh.  Still working on that.

We were back in front of storefronts last night.  I was feeling spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausted yesterday afternoon, and seriously considered staying home.   I didn’t get notified where we were going until I was already late which was kind of frustrating but that’s the vagaries of technology.  We set up in front of Save on Foods at 70th and Scott.  The whole evening we were looking across the parking lot at the massive Sikh Gurdwara.  It challenged me to show love to all, but especially to the many people coming in and out from India.

The numbers of people coming were much higher because a grocery store is much busier.  It was a different type of people than in front of the pet store with all these spoilt little toy dogs coming in and out.  We were also right in front of a liquor store so that was fun.  Robert was there with me and he is a machine when it comes to meeting and establishing conversations with people.  I was blown away with his gifts in that area.  He had several conversations with a couple of homeless guys and encouraged them to come out to our new street ministry starting tomorrow night.

We also had several other positive conversations.  Many more people were asking us why we were doing what we were doing.  It was great to bear witness to God’s love for everyone.  One guy promised to come this Sunday to our church.  Another lady said she was glad to know where we were so she could come and volunteer and help out.  I don’t know what that means, but if she comes to church that will be amazing.

At one point I wound up doing some runaround work, picking up more water to hand out and dropping off team members.  I was grateful for that opportunity to exercise more administrative and organizing muscles.  Despite my fatigue at the beginning of the evening, it was altogether important that I was there and working, for my own development.

Last night we had a water and cookie station in front of PetSmart right next door to the theatre we run Sunday services out of.  Of course, we also had stations in front of the Winners and the Chapters, so lots of people who came by already had water given out at another station.

Still it was a good station.  I was with Rachel, and she is a sweet girl, not afraid to speak up and offer to people.  She actually kicked me in the butt to get out there and offer, even to people who were intently ignoring us.  Hey, it’s free.  If they say no, then they say no.

Speaking of saying no, several people did.  One lady told us she doesn’t drink from anything plastic.  I think she’s a little deluded, as it is unavoidable coming into contact with food or drink that has been in contact with plastic.  I’m willing to bet she doesn’t buy the one-liter glass bottles of milk for the same price as 4 liters.  And unless she buys her meat from the farm direct, it’s wrapped in plastic at some stage.

Another guy told us he objects to bottled water as local water is great.  Rachel reminded me there was an article in the paper the other day talking about this, and how the municipalities in Southwestern BC are all working to put bottle water sales out of business.  They just started the initiative, but I think this too is shortsighted.

The reason bottled water sales took off in the last few years is twofold: first, there was a rash of water quality news stories after Walkerton, ON had a whole bunch of people come up sick from drinking local tapwater.  Even 2 years ago the local reservoirs faced extreme runoff conditions that caused the GVRD to announce a boil water advisory.  People may get all noble about not buying bottled water, but the next time there is a little silt or “smell” in the water, they’ll all be buying it again.

The second reason is because of the bad press soda pop has been getting.  Vancouverites are very health concious, and buying water instead of a Coke is much better for you.  Yes, you can get water for free from home, but when you’re out and about and want a cold drink, it’s just convenient to nip into a store and buy a bottle.  The alternative is to carry a bottle with you everywhere (made of plastic by the way – glass would break) and fill it up from the taps of whatever store.  The downside of course it the water wouldn’t be cold.

But I digress.  Working in front of a pet store meant we got to see a lot of cute dogs.  I am not a dog person – I think they all stink.  If they didn’t stink, I’d probably like dogs better than cats, but I can’t get past the smell.  However, they can be cute, and owners love their dogs getting attention.  Especially since most of the toys that came in and out of the store were groomed.  If you are a dog owner and you pay for grooming, you love the attention.  Or maybe you love the attention so you pay to get your dog groomed.  Meh.

Lots of people turned us down, but lots of people accepted.  I think that some thought we were employees.  Others thought we worked for Nestle and were giving out free samples.   Others were sure we were deceiving them by saying it was free and tried to find the “catch”.   I liked telling people, “It’s free” then when they turn it down say, “It’s going to go to waste!”  Perhaps I was having a little too much fun.

I ended up seeing one guy who came to the car was the day before.  That was neat.  It seems kind of silly to hand out free stuff, because it really doesn’t mean all that much to most of the people who receive it.  But I think it did two things that are positive – it raised awareness in our church’s existence out of the theatre (though I would estimate that only one in ten that took our water and cookies inquired of us enough to find out about the church); and it showed people that some churches really are interested in other people.  Most churches have a fortress mentality – whether they admit to it or not.  People over time become more interested in protecting their own holiness than allowing others to enter in.  When we get out on the street and just smile at people and give stuff away, it makes people think twice.  That’s what Jesus did – he gave away bread and fish to thousands.  Those people didn’t all believe in him as Lord, but it did something to some of them.  Didn’t Paul say something like, “I become all things to all men, that I may win some”?

How many free bottles of water is one person’s soul worth for the Kingdom?

Last night was a car wash.  I was expecting to get good and sore scrubbing down cars.  I did do some, but what excited me more was the chance to talk to people and show them the love of Christ through my attitude and my conversation.  In my bay, I found myself the go-to guy for showing people in and out of the bay.  As the first car was being rinsed, I would walk back to the car waiting and chat with the driver and passengers.  Once the car in the bay was ready to go I would advise the driver to pull out to be dried off.   It was great being able to deny them the opportunity to pay and explain we are just there to make their day better.

After a bit, Philip needed me to go help with the signs on the street.  I was to encourage people to come in to get their cars washed.  The first couple of seconds I needed some direction, but quickly found my own way.  What really began to sink in for me as I “worked the street” was the eyes of people as they drove by.  Rarely do you get the opportunity to see into people’s lives through a 1.5 second glance.  I worked to make eye contact with people.  So many simply refused, despite my silly antics.  They just kept their hardened eyes straight ahead and refused to let the light, the fun intrude on whatever dark place their minds occupied.  Some waved.  Some said no. and kept going.  Some I think simply didn’t believe my sign that read, “FREE CAR WASH”.  Some I had to talk to as they stopped for the light.  “Really?” they would ask.  “Yeah, really!  We WANT to wash your car!  Come on in!  Have a bottle of water!” I’d reply.  Often they did.

I don’t want to make it more grim than it was.  I think most people who ignored me were simply too wrapped up in their own troubles to see what was right in front of them.  When I later switched to the other street, another detail struck me: the number of people driving by with cel phones held up to their heads.  I was shocked.  It wasn’t 1 in 5.  Not even half.  For a stretch of 5 minutes, almost every single driver passing me was talking on a cel!  I literally could not believe what I was seeing.

We as a culture are way too busy.  I mean, it’s beyond sanity now.  The people we are trying to reach with the gospel have been enslaved by urgency.  They have no time to think, let alone consider God.  I am at an utter loss as to how to break in to people past that tyranny.  Technology arises to “make our lives easier” but it doesn’t.  It makes our lives busier.  We deceive ourselves that we are being “freed” but really we are shackling ourselves with more and more chains.  First the cel phone, which was supposed to help by giving us ready access to calling people.  But now we can’t think for ourselves.  Even I am guilty of this – it’s easier to just phone my wife from the grocery store rather than think about what we need to remember to keep a list.

Then Blackberries, but now we’re not only calling people, but texting people and emailing people, and receiving email all day every day every minute.  We drive our cars because we don’t “have time” to walk anymore.  The idea of taking more than 20 minutes to get somewhere renders that somewhere unreachable without a vacation – but we can go farther now in 20 minutes than our grandparents travelled in half a day.

God needs to break in.  I don’t know what it will take – but it may be something big.  Change brings opportunity for the gospel. Change may be the only chance left to reach the largest part of North America with Jesus.  In the meantime, I think our job is to equip the saints to be ready to give an answer, when people begin to ask why this big something had to come.  And come it will.