my buddy steve sent me this email today...

Scott,
I am passing this on to you because it has definitely worked for me...
By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace. The article read:
"The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started."
So I looked around the house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished....and before coming to work this morning I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white, the Bailey's, Kahlua and Wild Turkey, Prozac, some valium, and a box of chocolates.
You have no idea how freakin good I feel....
You may pass this on to those you feel are in need of Inner Peace

well not really, but if you want to check out his personal weblog you can find it here.

found out this week i have either pneumonia or mono. now it can't be mono because i haven't kissed anyone since moses was an adolescent, but nonetheless they are insistent. i haven't licked any toilet seats or necked with any toads so what is the deal?
my runt dog 'the genetic freak' goes in for x-rays in a few minutes. the kids are freaking out about their baby being a mutant and it's hilarious to see two teens and the two adults that live in the basement turn into raging mothers with this little freak of nature. and the bills for the 7.3 pound wonder continue to pile up. who would have thought an animal, a punt dog, that would have been an appetizer in the wild could command so much attention and coin? goes to show you one of two things: either the animals are really a part of the family or my family is a pathetic mess. probably a little of column a and a little of column b.

"i went to the general store today and they wouldn' sell me anything specific."

Music is, and will always be, a hot button in the church; and let me say right off, I'm not interested in advocating a particular "style". In fact I think style is pretty much a petty issue. We've spent enough time polarizing our camps with polemic arguments justifiying what for me is a cultural or nature/nurture argument.
What really keys me up with regard to this whole issue is the subtle infiltration of modernism and rampant consumer culture (even church culture). Many are ready to split churches over a preference they largely inherited or embraced at a particular time in their life. Many are ready to advocate that a particular style or period of music is appropriate, even spiritual. At the same time they are convinced that some musical forms are clearly inappropriate, even wrong.
Take for example - worship music. After a recent visit to our church one letter (and I get a lot of them) accused us of being a rock concert. Their comments went along these lines; How dare we think that such a musical style, with its driving beat and syncopation, is glorifying God and ushering people into worship? She obviously believed that there was something inherently unspiritual about certain kinds of music. After all, this person is insinuating, their particular preference for style is obviously more sanctified than the music we like.
A few years back I volunteered to bring my worship team to the next general conference of my denomination. After a moment of discomfort, the person I was talking to gently replied, "we don't want to offend the older people." Personally, if I was this "older person" I would resent being labeled as easily offended. I find it hard to believe that someone is offended by new ideas simply because of their age.
On a deeper level, I find it very disturbing that we would be offended by a different worship style. I believe that I would have deeper issues if I am offended by singing hymns and choruses from the seventies that do not speak to me on any significant level. I don't enjoy them but to be offended? God can use hymns to touch hearts, why would anyone be mortified? If God is using it, and lives are being touched then taking offense would seem to be inappropriate, even carnal. Why do people get offended by singing a chorus or contemporary song which sounds like a rock and roll ballad, an alternative song, or even country and western? Certainly it is perfectly fine to not enjoy or even understand such a genre; but to take offense is another thing altogether. Surely we can accept that which we can not fully understand or appreciate.
If you find yourself easily put-off by such diversity, don?t blame the music. Check your heart.
Would you be willing to support diversity if lives were being changed? If people who were once hell-bound were now on their way to a new life and a new eternity? I can't imagine Jesus Christ telling Matthew that his party for his Lord was "not appropriate"? or David not to dance so wildly before Him. God has called us to be all things to all people that we may win a few. The mandate convicts me to get beyond my pettiness and particular history to reach out to a new generation with Christ-honoring radical means. With holiness and without compromising the gospel I want to be able to sing with the Revival Generation Worship Team, "I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my King, nothing Lord is hindering the passion in my soul. And I'll become even more undignified than this, some would say it?s foolishness, but I'll become even more undignified than this, leave my pride by the side.

our little mini-pincher, chainsaw, just came home from the vet and they called him a 'genetic freak'. his jaw is misaligned, his front feet are screwed up and he might have pneumonia. so can you say.... $$$$$$. even after all the treatment they said, 'well you know, he may not be better...'... gotta love medical science.

One Thousand By Two Thousand
I�m old enough to remember when the Free Methodist Church in North America challenged us as a denomination to plant churches in the eighties. The Theme was �One thousand by two thousand�. The thought was to challenge us to plant one thousand churches in 14 years. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But there was a huge problem with the whole concept. There was really no way of reaching that goal, short of a radical shift in the entire denominational paradigm. At the time I was one of a handful of church planters (we certainly couldn�t plant 1000 churches between the five of us!). The entire denomination had barely planted any churches in recent history. There was no strategy in the works that could feasibly identify, train and release church planters for ministry. There was no money for church planting. But it was a really snazzy slogan�

It�s a statement about life, isn�t it. How often do we, as people, try to gloss over deep-seated issues with simplistic prognoses? We can�t keep the young people in church so we blame �generation y�. We struggle to reach our neighbors so we write off �secular people�. We struggle to parent so seemingly every high energy child is now �ADHD� (This is not to ridicule a disease that has devastated so many families and deserves serious attention not flippancy). We use our past to excuse ourselves for not growing emotionally and spirtually.
We label people so that we don�t need to understand where they are coming from. The list goes on and on�.

i sat in a meeting of some of my contemporaries who work in churches lately as we talked and cried and laughed about how it was going in our prospective worlds. many of the people there shared about their struggles and frustrations. one comment from a good friend stuck out in my mind and has haunted me since. he said that he had always believed that if we are not having fun doing what we are doing, it was time to get out. the statement bothered me and here is why.

i haven't had a ton of fun doing what i am doing for a long time now. i don't wake up in the morning and jump into the car in utter anticipation of a fabulous day. by his definition i should quit what i'm doing and go look for another thrill. but i'm not going to.

i strongly believe that it was never intended to be a thrill a minute life. most of the important times in my life where i have felt like i am doing something significant have been during periods of personal or relational crisis. as a christian i believe that there are forces at work to discredit and wreck things and i am in a battle of epic proportions. every time i have seen periods of incredible goodness and reconciliation in my life it has been during times of incredible battle. i'm not sure having fun has anything to do with living an effective life.

sure i love fun as much as the next person but i don't want to be a slave to that standard of success. many of my dearest friends daily battle financial and personal issues that would have staggered my imagination years ago. and yet, they do great things for their family and their faith. they help and teach and give even what they can barely afford. just ten minutes ago a sweet lady came into this office just to thank me for things i am sure i had little to do with. in many things i am just a figurehead. through tears she expressed her appreciation for me and the church and told me of circumstances that are barely survivable. she isn't having fun. she is poor and alone. on the way out the door she slipped me a hundred bucks. i hate that...

i watched her walk away and thanked god that he dragged me out of my sickbed long enough to be a part of that moment. i guess it was... fun. it seems such a trite word to use. it was a moment that keeps us going, that reminds us that we are on the winning team; that convinces me again not to give up fighting the good fight regardless of my emotional feelings in any given moment. it was real.

maybe what i believe is that if it's not real, it's time to quit. that sounds stupid too...

from jordon's blog...
Pornography
I need your help. I have been asked to come over to Lakeview Church in Saskatoon on Tuesday night to join the police and the school board in doing a workshop on helping parents deal with porn and kids and all of that stuff. I am assuming the cop and the school board person will do a great job and I am not expecting to contribute much here are some thoughts rolling around my head.

1) The computer your kids use in a high traffic and public room like the kitchen or family room where the main television is.
2) The use of a filter will not stop kids from seeing porn (many sites show kids how to get around them) but does stop them having brain dead moments and stops friends and some tensions there.
3) E-mail. If they are using pop3, using Thunderbird as it can allow you to block images. Sites like Mailblocks also eliminate spam which is mostly porn.
4) Google Toolbar and Firefox block pop-ups
5) If you child wants a blog or a website, make sure parents read it. They may learn something.
6) Respect legitimate curiosity. I had a parent call me about what their kid was reading. It was a story linked to from the front page of Google News. Reading current news coverage about terror, does not mean that your kid is planning to join Al Queda.
7) Kim Komando posts this on her website.

I�ve heard a lot of sermons in my life. Most of them I cannot remember. Some of them I�ve tried to forget. Most of us have sat in churches and heard messages on stress, relationships and spirituality that offered solutions to our deepest pains. If we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that most of the proposed wonder-cures never worked.
How many times have we heard of God�s forgiveness yet never forgiven ourselves? How come we still carry so much shame?
Recently Susan, Greg and I spent a day talking about how glib the church has become. Mine included. It seems easy on Saturday night to prepare three points on how to fix your marriage or how to quit sinning. On Sunday I have delivered the message, felt good about it, been complimented for it� but did it really change anything? Really?

I guess what we are discovering is that there are fewer easy solutions than we once imagined. We offer half-baked solutions to hurting people who are suffering on a level that most ministers cannot imagine. How many of us were sexually abused, divorced twice, or damaged so deep? The solutions to the problems we face are harder than we acknowledge. Trite sermons just reinforce the fact that most of us will only commit to half measures both in prescribing the cure and dealing with it. Transformation takes years of shame and work. Yes work. You probably need to go deeper and darker than most of us are willing to go. You probably need to confess things that few of us are willing to confess. You need to open up a big can of worms.

I love the 12-step program. Step 4 and 5 are biblical and far more necessary in the church than another series on marriage. Here�s how they play out:
�Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.� James 5:16 says, �Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.� When is the last time we followed the biblical example to this extent? Recently we were all amazed to learn that a leader of one of our countries major protestant denominations fell from grace. Why is that? Is it possible that we still hold on to unrealistic expectations of people who have not been given permission to come clean? How will we ever teach wholeness when as leaders we refuse to be honest with ourselves and our people? Isn�t it time to admit that we all struggle with lust and judgmentalism, shame, pride and insecurity or any other number of sins? What if we said it from the pulpit��

I don�t know the answers like I used to. I just know I cannot stand up front anymore and offer simple solutions to incredibly detailed and hurtful problems. I can�t pretend I have it all together and serve as an example for everyone to aspire to. It�s not real. A great man once said, �At the end of my life it is not my hope that I have all the right answers. I just hope I asked the right questions.�

Perhaps its time that we ask the right questions and end the sermon before the happy solutions pop up. It would disturb people. But I can live with that.

met a friend we work with at the theatre our church rents, this morning as our cars passed. he wanted to know if we would 'lend' our video projector to a local clown (a clown clown, not a clown clown). we have worked a bit with him before and he knows we have the only video projector in town that can long throw an image 120 ft. i said, 'sure' and drove on. as i continued to drive i thought about all the times in other churches that similar conversations have cgone differently. ordinarily we are supposed to rent out that kind of thing. after all, there is wear and tear, etc.

as i drove on i thought how pathetic it is that we can't just be a service to the community when it comes to things financial. why should i rent to someone who is trying just to bring some joy into children's lives? why do we have to profit materially from every interaction with the world? what would hapen if we simply saw ourselves as an organization that came to serve and love and give, even if we get nothing in return.

i had a denominational leader once tell me (his name rhymes with ron) that we needed to change the focus of our church to reach more people who can pay the bills so that we would not be financially dependent on the denomination. after all, we "aren't running a charity organization here." Excuse me? i have always looked at our church more as a mission than a church. i understand the fiscal issues better than most people understand but i just can't seem to convince any of my leaders to sell out enough to be successful. for some reason they are adament about what we are doing and how we are doing it. how irresponsible of them...

Money, Sex and Power

Crap.
It�s about time for someone to be honest about what�s going on around us. It�s an epidemic and most of us are one sneeze away from being infected. Money, sex and power. Three temptations that are literally destroying the ministry for many talented and earnest leaders. They are subtle, infectious and deadly. And they�re coming to a friend near you.

Money.
The influence of money on the ministry is astounding. I have known pastors who have literally convinced themselves that God is calling them away to a new start that coincidentally has financial gain built in. Parishioners insist that their pastors drive well (3 of my best friends in the ministry all got new minivans for Christmas last year), live well and dress well. The inertia towards middle class is nothing short of cultic. I know few clergy who live below middle class. Name two pastors you know that rent apartments, drive older cars, and are broke. New pastors and church planters don�t count. Welcome to suburbia.

Sex.
It�s true�. You are only one malicious rumor from selling cars for a living. Later when you are vindicated you will bask in the fact that you are... from the car lot.
The temptations are powerful and the examples of the effects are unfortunately numerous. Sex is wrecking the ministry. Pastors constantly put themselves in compromising situations, flirt with staff and parishioners and naively assume that it won�t happen to them.
They counsel the opposite sex who wonder why their spouce doesn�t understand them like their pastor. They touch the opposite sex too much, harmlessly flirt too much, care too much. They wrongfully assume that they have put protective measures in place.
And it�s not just pastors who are getting accused. Spouses are often primary targets for the needy in your church. No one can be more empathetic than your pretty wife or gentle husband. Target locked and loaded.

Power.
Why are you in the ministry?
Success can be quite the aphrodisiac. People love you. You speak well. You�re at the top of your game�Probably time to quit.

Somewhere along the line you forgot about the poor people, the unpopular and the ones who won�t help your career. You started to like the show, the attention and the accolades. You got asked to talk to important groups, people considered your visits an event. Time to quit.

Time to quit. Get out. You lost your heart and this turned into a job. You started concentrating on shallow B.S. and you are dishonoring the friend of the lowly and the oppressed. Time to go.

Money, and power. They want your love. They are the harlots that parade themselves in the recesses of your darkness and they are starting to claim your soul. You can pretend they haven�t seduced you yet but like all sluts they only go where they are invited. Kick them out.

I�m feeling convicted.

from google...
"TORONTO - Canadian politicians are denouncing "The Late Show with Conan O'Brien" over a sketch in which a cigar-chomping sock puppet hurled insults at French Canadians."

i find it a little sad how politically correct we have all become. i love that old quote - if you laugh at yourself you'll never run out of things to say. funny how quickly people are offended and quick to take offense. hasn't anyone heard of a joke? interesting how in some contexts you can make the most racial comments or slam religion or men and it is perfectly acceptable.

isn't it the role of comedy to see the irony in life and comment on it's situations? lighten up...

There is no joy in Malibu. After 43 years of dating, Ken and Barbie are going their separate ways. ken must be devastated. now i can see a whole new line of ken dolls coming out soon.
depressed ken - comes with prozac, a rope and a chair
mid-life crisis ken - chest hair, too many chains- balding and a bad rug
stocker ken - complete with night vision goggles and a restraining order that you can fill out with your kids!

its valentines this weekend. since finding myself legally single (though emotionally as married as ever) i have become hyper-sensitive when couples hurt each other or are negligent in their affection. i'm not pretending its healthy, few people can accuse me of that. all i am saying is that don't miss this opportunity. no matter where you find yourself in your relationship (and i'm going to be condescending here) you just have got to treasure what god has given you. (as i continue being condescending)... you may have no idea how some of us long for that partnership and would do anything for what so many people take for granted. don't squander what you have and take this excuse to be lavish in your love. please. all of us long for intimacy and you can spend a bit of time and money to take the initiative for good. your children (if you have them) long for parents who are in love. i know firsthand the trainwreck that negligence and breakup can do. do it for your kids. do it for your god. do it for your partner. do it for the next three generations. but please... do it. please.

check out this pic!

one of our local girls, teri boyd, decided to do something decent and go to another country to teach and help out people worse off than we are. so as she was telling her story on sunday at the local church someone robbed her of all her stuff just hours prior to getting on the plane. you can read the whole story on susan's blog. think of the stories she'll be able to tell!

He didn�t die or anything, it�s not like that. I just found out they are leaving the church for greener pastures. We�re too loud, too opinionated, too uncultured. My topicsare too confrontational and my language is not appropriate.
It wouldn�t be so bad if they were long time Christians; but they aren�t. This was their first decent church experience and not only that, he was a personal friend of mine. He was also very gifted in an area of great value to our church. The whole deal really bites�

There are ways to appease people like this. I could make certain adjustments, certain allowances that may or may not be effective. I want desperately to explain my side of the story � to make them understand.
The problem is that it is not a personal issue, it�s philosophical. For some time there have been murmuring from several families that the church needs to ease off a bit on the vision and service better the divergent special interest groups. Recently I was told to �grow up and become a real pastor�. Someone wanted to know when we were going to �become a normal church�.

Chances are you have different issues to contend with but the same kind of problem. There is a draw to the middle in any church, I call it the �Law of Entropy�. There is something within all of us that seeks comfort. We may agree with a bold vision on paper, but it is another thing altogether to live outside your comfort zone for an extended period of time. There is incredible inertia working against sustained visionary leadership.

It is impossible to fully grapple with this issue in just a few lines. That doesn�t mean, however that I won�t try. To begin with, isn�t it more important to be vision driven than people driven? While people are our priority, God�s vision for our church must be our purpose. There are so few churches that are able to stay focussed over an extended period of time. New people bring new opinions and values. Board members often have an alternate agenda. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. So does the whiny wheel. Most of us are pretty flaky by nature anyway.

God help us to maintain a relentless pursuit of passionate vision no matter what the cost. We are not here to play church or impress the populace. We are commisioned as God�s people to stand loud and proud in a world that is often hostile to the radical message of the cross. We must not sacrifice that goal to anyone, no matter what their title or preference. It�s time to stop bowing to the pressure to be acceptable and be willing to march into hell with a squirt gun if that be our cause. If we have to preach a few people into another church to do that, so be it.

got to bed around 3 am this morning after spending time with decent people. i am constantly amazed at the extent of human goodness in my friends. i'm not talking moral goodness as defined but law-keeping or even righteousness, i'm talking about just good hearted people doing their best to try to understand and cope with worlds not of their making.

spent some time last night hooking up two of my friends with each other in the hopes that they would hit it off. as they casually shrugged me off as no longer needed (hehe) i was thrilled to see two of my worlds meet and genuinely like each other.

most of my friends and asociates are generally wonderful people at heart. in those moments when god allows me to see past veneers and into souls i am constantly overwhelmed by the extent of human goodness in my world. so much is said of moral depravity and the ongoing state of an increasingly immoral world but often i am guilty of missing the pure goodness all around me.

i guess i'm having a hard time getting my head around the long-term ramifications of what i read this morning in the cbc news----"WASHINGTON - South Korean scientists have become the first to successfully clone a human embryo and harvest stem cells from it, a technique that could one day lead to replacing tissues to treat diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's."

like so many of our contemporary advances one can't help but think what will happen when politicians and unscrupulous scientists learn the full extent of the ramifications of such technology. it seems orwellian in it's magnitude.

check out susan phillips blog about feeding and loving the homeless.

some friends of mine including jordon cooper have a great site called hockey pundits for all of you who love to talk, read and dream about the canucks actually winning some millenia!

ok, does anyone still think that this is the right way to introduce people to faith? this is the typical shot gun evangelism approach that confirms in most minds that christians are irrelevent, stupid, and closed-minded. it continues to disgust me that religious zealots think that this impersonal campus crusade mentality does nothing but alienate honest seekers of faith. read the whole article here. why don't we just invite them to a party and then hit them with the gospel when they don't expect it? (wait a minute, we do that!). ok, then how about throwing a jesus video in their door and run away...

i felt there were times when our gallery tonight was turned into a sacred space. as the evening closed we asked the native elders to come up with their drums and play a parting prayer for those present. it was a holy moment. then our own elder, brander, came up and dismissed us with a blessing and a challenge. for a few moments love was colour blind and i find myself growing appreciative of a culture that i have sub-consciously scorned for many years. a gentle peace.

its become an amazing thing. about 4 pm today my buddy brander had a workshop with us about native culture and sensitivity, it went great. tonight we have been jamming with largely a native audience, doing everything from celtic to rock to hank williams (not me of course). several native elders have come up to sing blues or country, even to play the native drum or to do native dance. it's been very cool. there is a real sense that at least on one level we have been invited to share in their community. the first nations people are a very spiritual people who have a long tradition of understanding community at a level we will never understand. first nations people are never homeless, they can always drop in on a cousin or family friend and expect hospitality. they respect their elders, unlike the white community which shelves ours.

they are a patient and quiet race compared to my loud mouthed scottish drinking relatives and their pace drives me nuts, but in a good way. i stick out like a sore thumb. this spring i hope to go to a sweat or a pow wow but think i'll have to be sedated or i'll embarrass myself!

about 60 or better people here tonight. i'm taking a break while a native elder does a bit of blues. i have started referring to God the father as the 'creator' although it seems strange to me. my first nations friends talk about the creator all the time, and some are blatantly christian.

well better get back out there, going to do a bit of 'great big sea' - ordinary day. we'll see how the people like a little east coast celtic.

i stole this from brett's blog. from westworld:
When you're reaching for heaven, it's nice to have a drink in your hand.
There are three reasons why many people don't go to church: The sermons are often dull, the music's usually antique, and you can't drink beer there. But Church at the Bar atones for all these sins.
For the past six months, Church at the Bar -- presented by the local renegade Christian group Connected Life (www.connectedlife.us) -- has been meeting at an Arvada nightclub, the D Note, on the last Tuesday of the month, when it offers up libations and salvation. "We wanted a place where people would feel more comfortable," says Matt Honeycutt, a founder of Church at the Bar, who greets worshipers with a pint of beer in his left hand.

On a table just inside the entrance to the D Note, there's more proof that this is an unusual night of worship. Keychain bottle openers are emblazoned with the words "Come Join the Party," and a Church at the Bar handbill features a 1794 William Blake poem that crystallizes the group's philosophy. "The church is cold, but the ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm," Blake's "The Little Vagabond" reads. "But if at the church they would give us some ale...we'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day, nor ever once wish from the church to stray."

As Honeycutt greets visitors, the church band, Phantom Handshake, takes the stage. The young musicians look like members of an MTV-ready rock band, all baggy pants, T-shirts and crooked baseball caps. They warm up the fifty or so folks gathered here with some amplified Christian rock, while the God-loving lyrics of the band's songs flash on a pair of giant screens flanking the stage.

Mike Shepherd, leader of the group, then takes the stage and welcomes everyone to Church at the Bar. His mention of the church's title elicits a collective hoot from the largely twenty- and thirty-something audience, which includes a number of stylishly dressed, attractive women (a good draw for both bar crowds and church congregations, apparently). About half the parishioners are enjoying beers or cocktails, while others sip soft drinks. A few children sit with their parents.

Shepherd's a handsome fellow who sports a Western-style plaid shirt, a beard and a close-cropped '50s-style haircut. His gaze is captivating, and so are the opening points of his address: "If you farted for six years straight," he says, "you'd release the energy of an atomic bomb." That gets the congregation's attention, as does a tidbit about a pig's orgasm lasting thirty minutes. "These are things you'll only learn here at Church at the Bar," he notes.


sounds alot like the worship freehouse in saskatoon to me! i love it!

many of us are only too aware that many many people in canada are on welfare. we run across them all the time. a few are sitting out on our gallery couches right now. many of us are also aware that in canada, welfare is running out for the able april 1.

i have long debated with people about the plight of the poor.
here are a few concessions:
- yes many people on welfare could work
... that's about it.

but many people in suburbia do not understand some of the realities inherent in this argument. many people on welfare have no fixed address, no social insurance card that they can find (for that matter no documents at all), no driver's license and no job history. personal hygiene can be an issue. social and coping skills are definitely an issue. many people on the street are unable to hold down a job because they have not been taught basic life skills that you and i take for granted in our 4 year olds. and a job interview? well just forget about it.

i am as frustrated as many when it comes to certain individuals who are just too lazy to work. i find myself giving resources and time to some individuals whom i wish would just get off their lazy butts and get a job. but more and more i run across many people who are unable to work for the above reasons and undoubtedly many i have not thought of. single teenagers with no social support net. recovering addicts with long criminal histories. individuals who have a generational history of abuse and co-dependence. mental issues. physical issues. relational issues. bathing issues.

obviously the problem is systemic and complicated and i am not qualified to offer valid solutions; but this one thing i do know - poverty is about to hit canadian streets on a level unsurpassed since the dirty thirties. we can already feel the tension mounting. welfare wednesday in april will undoubtedly bring a longer line of needy people through our doors and into shelters and social service agencies. wholesale cutting off of funding seems to be a shotgun approach to an expensive and frustrating reality. as never before we may be forced to either turn a blind eye or dig in to our resources to stem the tide. i only hope we don't start seeing a rise in suicide and crime as people try to cope with abject poverty.

ran across this amazing article from the Center for American Progress. Judge for yourself...
The Bush Administration is now saying it never told the public that Iraq was an "imminent" threat, and therefore it should be absolved for overstating the case for war and misleading the American people about Iraq's WMD. Just this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan lashed out at critics saying "Some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent'. Those were not words we used." But a closer look at the record shows that McClellan himself and others did use the phrase "imminent threat" � while also using the synonymous phrases "mortal threat," "urgent threat," "immediate threat", "serious and mounting threat", "unique threat," and claiming that Iraq was actively seeking to "strike the United States with weapons of mass destruction" � all just months after Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that Iraq was "contained" and "threatens not the United States." While Iraq was certainly a dangerous country, the Administration's efforts to claim it never hyped the threat in the lead-up to war is belied by its statements.

"There's no question that Iraq was a threat to the people of the United States."
� White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, 8/26/03

"We ended the threat from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction."
� President Bush, 7/17/03

Iraq was "the most dangerous threat of our time."
� White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 7/17/03

"Saddam Hussein is no longer a threat to the United States because we removed him, but he was a threat...He was a threat. He's not a threat now."
� President Bush, 7/2/03

"Absolutely."
� White House spokesman Ari Fleischer answering whether Iraq was an "imminent threat," 5/7/03

"We gave our word that the threat from Iraq would be ended."
� President Bush 4/24/03

"The threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction will be removed."
� Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 3/25/03

"It is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat to the region and the world is ended."
� Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, 3/22/03

"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."
� President Bush, 3/19/03

"The dictator of Iraq and his weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the security of free nations."
� President Bush, 3/16/03

"This is about imminent threat."
� White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 2/10/03

Iraq is "a serious threat to our country, to our friends and to our allies."
� Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/31/03

Iraq poses "terrible threats to the civilized world."
� Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/30/03

Iraq "threatens the United States of America."
� Vice President Cheney, 1/30/03

etc. etc. etc...

one of our photographers, carolyn weikkola, takes stills, portraits etc. of local street people and others that i think lend them a great deal of dignity and the quality is unsurpassed. check out her new site!

my bud, vaughn mckay is blogging and wrote this cool lick...
Here I am,
a naked man
Nothing to hide
with empty hands
Remember me,
I am the one
Who lost his way,
your Prodigal Son

WHO CARES?

i was stunned when i read about how jordon cooper came home from visiting here and opened his email to find 1200 pieces of mail. the sick thing is that he had just checked his email the day before. completely overwhelming.

as i sit here writing my phone is ringing... and ringing... and ringing... i checked my messages earlier and came home to a completely full answering machine. i feel like just deleting the whole batch except my stinkin phone won't let you do that until you have run them. crap.
last night i got home late and two people on my machine are livid that i didn't call them yet. it was the first i had heard of the messages. not to mention a hundred or better email messages... and mail... and msn chat... and of course the 11 missed calls on my cell phone that i can't seem to find at this moment.

technology is a blessing and a curse. most of us have been pushed by email to correspond to the people we only had to see once a year before. people are offended if you don't answer them. they imagine you to be lazy or sloppy. usually the people (who get 10 emails a week) are stunned that you don't immediately respond.

it's a catch 22 situation. i think i'll go read my listserv messages, or maybe read a letter... or take a nap before i get carpal tunnel syndrome...
relate? i'm sure jordon is reading this thinking i'm still a total light weight!hey jordon, just forward your mail to me; i know where the delete button is off-by-heart!

Here�s the situation. A bible study on marriage and commitment with a room full of people. The �Smith�s� are living together, have been for a while, know that it�s wrong and have been told. The �Jones�s are elderly, living together, fairly new to the church. Another couple is engaged, both previously married at least once, got engaged very quickly and it is doubtful whether or not they can be biblically married. Two other couples are unequally yoked. Another is separated and headed towards divorce. The final couple lived together before marriage. The leader is separated from her second husband. Welcome to New Heights.

In retrospect, maybe they should have done a bible study on something else. Wading into such a porridge would surely open up a powerful controversy. Most churches, even those less unorthodox then New Heights, steer clear of making blanket statements regarding remarriage, living together, abortion, the narrow road of salvation, the destiny of the unsaved etc. People today seem to take offense quickly, rebel against strict standards, and blatantly refuse to follow rules that are inconvenient or negative. The temptation to soft sell is overpowering.

Close to half the adult couples in my church live together outside of wedlock or have been married more than once. Half would be a very conservative estimate. The church needs to seriously address this �normalcy� within society and many churches. Even our most serious disciples seem to easily discard the biblical mandate when it rubs up against their desire to have their own way. �Justification� of actions is rampant in our congregation and others. To insinuate that a divorced person will be unable to remarry or to condemn those living in �sin� will often lead to a quick exit by the couple and a barrage of negative press.

I am not sure what must be done to properly address this issue but I do know that the dogmatic gospel has become a hard sell to the unchurched world. We need to realize that most of the lifestyle theology that many in the church take for granted is foreign on the streets. Wholesale condemning of secular lifestyle and an inability to engage in meaningful dialogue with those outside our walls will only serve to alienate the church even more. It is easy to decree the truth, it is another thing to dismantle a common-law family and live with the repercussions.

Though some may doubt it, I am actually very conservative when it comes to these issues. I am tired of �pussy footing� around these hot buttons in order to avoid offending. I am equally hesitant to throw out flippant decrees in public which affect people�s lives without providing them hope and help.

I do not have any clear answers but I do have many questions. Hiding our heads in the sand and pretending that we still live in a �Leave It To Beaver� world is certainly not the solution. Watering down our theology in order to make it more palatable is not either. I am firmly convinced that the world in which we live has become very messy and those Christians who are unprepared to get a little dirty will never effectively speak to this generation. Christ hung out with prostitutes and sinners and did not shy away from the difficult issues of his day. How many of us are adequately prepared to give an account of our hope to a world of same sex marriages, abortion on demand, situation ethics, pluralism and declining morality?

this kind of article disturbs me. i have long maintained that most of us are one false accusation away from being ruined. you don't even have to be guilty. the mere accusation is so destructive that by the time you are vindicated your life is generally ruined...
from the Globe and Mail:
Regina � A Saskatchewan family maliciously prosecuted as sadistic child abusers more than a dozen years ago is receiving $1.5-million from the provincial government.

The money is being given out, not as a settlement, but as an interim payment to help the Klassen family while the province appeals the case.

�It is an amount that we are accepting for some of the pain and suffering that has occurred and certainly legal fees,� said Richard Klassen, the man who spearheaded a successful lawsuit against investigators.

Risk more than others think is safe; Care more than others think is wise;
Dream more than others think is practical; Expect more than others think is possible.

"I hear you about accountability being so low and the failings of many initiatives. But, I wonder if that�s mainly due to our shaky foundations? We�ve traded apprentice-discipleship for churchianity, no? And we�re trying to fix it up patch-wise. Do we have too much invested in our current systems to break out of our molds and start fresh? Why are we so tied down to our current forms of church? Over years of conversation and sharing, I know that that many of us Chinese-Canadian-Christians are starting to feel there�s something wrong with �church as usual� and about leading what has become �lives of quiet desperation�.

Now I dunno why I can�t be as concise as all of you, but, those are my (hopefully humble) thoughts. I reserve the right to be rebuked (for being unhumble, nastily critical, or just plain wrong), of course. It�s just from my own processing, reading, and conversations"

street jam is coming up again sunday night right after we go out and feed the poor. stop by if you are in our postal code and check out the live music, free eats, and funky drunk old guys dancing!

It has become an all too familiar scene in my life. The call comes in the early morning, usually from the police or family. Someone in our church has died.

It�s a normal part of being a ministerexcept for one startling fact. In 15 years of church work I have buried only one person who died of old age. In the last 15 months I have attended to two drug over-doses, one brain aneurysm, one suicide, 5 cancer patients and one Aids death. All of these people have been under forty years of age.

Anyone who has been a part of a church working on the front lines knows that life in the trenches is messy. Regular attendees at our church still die of drug overdoses. You would think that isn�t possible, but it happens all the time. One of my best friends, Rob Deyo, called me sometime ago because a guy staying in his home died of a drug overdose in his guest room. Rob and I spent last evening together again, for much the same reason. We have prostitutes who call our church their church home, street people, homeless, addicts, teens on the run. Last Sunday night Service a carload showed up almost three hours early because they had nowhere else to go. Half the people in my new Christian�s bible study are pro-choice. I have become adept at picking out the best casket, working on funeral bulletins, going to jails and treatment centers. I know the Coroner�s first name.

I�m not saying this to brag or complain, but to make a point. Ministry, real ministry, is usually very messy. Working with real people is not as cut and dry as they teach in the Seminary. You need to know how to talk to the gay seeker, the drunk husband and the earnest skeptic. Christ showed us that real ministry involves fully engaging with the real world outside the chapel stairs. And you can�t be this way by dropping a video in the mailbox or supporting a television campaign. We need to be in the world where the people are, getting messy. It seems to me that that is what Jesus would do. He was the epitome of relevance. He met people on their terms and invited them to know the reality of an eternal God. I have long appreciated George MacLeod�s prose wherein he cries out:
�I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the market place as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles:
But on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at the crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek� and at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died, and that is why He died, and that is what He died about. And that is where Christ�s men ought to be, and what church people ought to be about.�

That just about covers it�

It is not the critic who counts,
not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood!

Who strives valiantly, who errs,
and comes up short again and again
because there is no effort
without error and shortcomings,
but who does actually strive to do the deeds.

Who know the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions:
who spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who at best know in the end
the triumph of high achievement,
and who at worst if he fails while daring greatly
knows that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls
who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

from the Guardian:
Intelligence chiefs 'ignored WMD warnings'
Intelligence chiefs ignored warnings from their own leading experts that they could not be certain Iraq had chemical an