from darryl:

I'm finding this fascinating. Canadian Christian radio host Drew Marshall has hired two non-Christians to visit five churches and report on their experiences.

I really didn't like the idea at first. To me it seemed like hiring two vegans to go out and rate five steakhouses.

Maybe I was wrong. So far they've visited four churches. I don't agree with everything they've written, of course, but they've made some very perceptive observations.

For instance, they visited one of the fastest growing churches in the Greater Toronto Area that is known as a "the church for people who aren't into church" - in other words, a church for people like these two hired visitors. I'm impressed by the quality of teaching at this church, and I have many friends who attend and some who work on staff.

Were they impressed? Listen to some of their comments. One wrote:

Why should the institution be rich, and the congregation not? If you really believe you should be living the ascetic life led by Christ and his apostles, why aren’t you doing it? If money and possessions aren’t important, why aren’t you meeting to discuss the meaning of Christ’s ideas and life in the local park? Notwithstanding the need to broadcast to your rather large congregation, and obviously you’d have to come up with a solution during the winter months, but really: why the son et lumiere? I found the medium more than a bit out of whack with the message.

Which brings me to another point: all that razzmatazz kind of unsettles me. We live in a culture where distraction is often misdirection - like a magician who gets you to look at his left hand while he’s disappearing something with his right. I found myself wondering why a group that liked its preacher so straightforward felt most at home in a medium of flashing lights and sound. Maybe it’s a generational thing - 30-45s are mostly Gen Xers, after all. But I still felt disconcerted.

And the other:

I had a little problem with their arguments involving material goods and our “media saturated culture” as they make their Sunday services available on your 80Gb video ipod.

It's worth reflecting on some of the things that got in the way of connecting in this church that is built for people like them. Not just reflecting on what this says about this one church, but to many of us as well.

And it's worth thinking about why they've finally found a church they seem to appreciate. The church is Sanctuary, pastored by Greg Paul, author of God in the Alley. The thing that you need to know about Greg is that he is as theologically orthodox as anyone I know. He didn't appeal to these non-Christians because he's abandoned theological moorings or because he doesn't stand for anything. Quite the opposite.

Listen to some of the comments:

My fear had left me, there was a calm sense of wonder now. We met the pastor first, he was wearing an eccentric yellow Hawaiian shirt with the usual brightly colored flowers, he spoke very calmly in a quiet voice that exuded a wisdom only achieved through many years of heart wrenching reality. He introduced us to a fellow who looked like he had seen a hard time too many, as it turns out he used to be homeless and had it not been for the Sanctuary who knows where he would be. I could tell then and there we had found what this experiment was set out to accomplish, a church that saw past the money, power and the heighten sense of moral superiority that we have grown accustomed to...

This place gets it, there was no collection plate that I ever saw and what they gave back to the community could not be measured. There isn’t enough good things to say about this place.

The other:

Amidst all the pomp and circumstance of the Christian world out there, here lies a simple, honest place that really means it.

Even the message - "He talked about the need for Christians to accept that it was an either-or proposition - if you accept that Christ is the Son of God, you must 'die to everything else'" - really connected.

Some are complaining that it's unfair because this church was tipped off before they came. But it's the only church so far in which Drew and his friends would be obvious, and they didn't change a thing. This is Sanctuary every single week.

Drew comments:

This is the only Church where the majority of time, finances and energy is NOT spent on the Sunday service. At Sanctuary, it actually would have been unfair to only score them on their Sunday service, the smallest part of what they do.

I'll be thinking about this for a while.

We spend a lot of time making Sunday mornings what they are, and focusing on the quality of the teaching and the music. But the church that has best embodied and communicated the gospel so far is not slick and would not get noticed for its attendance records. It's not going multisite and pastors don't drool over what they're doing.

There's a lot to think about as I read the reports of Drew and his friends visiting these churches. Reminds me a little of the letters to the churches in Revelation.

I used to date a girl in grade eight named Lynn. We are still friends after all this time but we both know it wouldn’t have worked out. We would have killed each other. She’s too short for me anyway.

Lynn loves to travel. She and her husband have been all over the world, but love going to Israel the most; don’t ask me why. I prefer the Caribbean anytime but that’s her deal, so mazaltoff. Once when they were in the holy land someone offered her husband ten camels for her. Now I don’t know much about camels but even I can understand that this must be a hefty price. If you talk to Lynn she will, from time to time, remind you that she is a ten camel woman. And why not, she has proof.

Most of us are not ten camel people. We watch television and see beautiful people running down beaches and kissing under the moonlight, and down deep we understand that we don’t measure up. We are ugly people. We are the losers. We don’t have big ministries or businesses, we don’t look good in a Speedo, we aren’t great singers or dancers or poets. We are only regular people with too much cellulite and not enough collagen.

Some time ago I was cleaning up at the little club I run, in preparation for the evening’s events. I had been sweating, washing floors and hauling furniture. I usually bring a change of clothing. But not that day.

No one had come in for over an hour. I figured I was safe. With this in mind, behind the bar I proceeded to drop my pants in order to change into clean clothes. At that precise moment a lady walked in and asked for a latte.

Never before have I felt so close to the bar. In fact, we became one as I sought to prepare the latte without letting on that I was wearing no pants. Socks, shoes, shirt, but no pockets.

it reminds me of this bit by Seinfeld:
"Why is it so difficult and uncomfortable to be naked? It’s because when you have clothes on, you can always make those little adjustments that people love to do. Hitching, straightening, adjusting. You know, you feel like you’re getting it together. But when you’re naked, it’s so final. You’re just, ‘well this is it, there’s nothing else I can do.”
That’s why I like to wear a belt when I’m naked. It gives me something. I’d like to get pockets to hang off the belt. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate? To be naked and still be able to put your hands in your pockets. I think that would really help a lot…"

It may shock you to know that I have been in counselling. Maybe not. I once had a counsellor tell me I needed to stand in front of the mirror naked for one minute each day in order to get more comfortable with ‘me’. I told this to someone and they went “eeeew”… which did not help much.

So with all this rolling around in my noodle I continued to grind the beans, praying all the while that I would not have to move. So of course the lady blandly asked where the sugar was, it being at right angles to where I was hiding. I reluctantly told her and proceeded to push my torso inside the small floor fridge as she walked to the condiments.

As she left the club I followed her behind the bar, keeping my beautiful barrier between us until she naively walked out.

I’m an idiot.

I asked someone last week why they thought African christians still die from starvation in spite of that 'promise'. "Well" they responded, 'It's because there isn't enough christianity on the contintent to have changed the social structures that support poverty. Once christianity and faith reach a certain level, the christian work ethic and the biblical mandate to subdue and live off the earth will turn things around. That's when poverty & starvation will begin to decline and that verse will beome reality for them, as well.'
the rest here.

... the most unassuming super-talent of our age. here's his semi-final performance.

saw this on my friend jessica's facebook. i had tears in my eyes

for you on this monday annette... a love song... from the flight of the conchords...

random quotes from book.
"they are not about religion or bureaucracies. their lack the respect for tradition or ritual makes them seem uncivilized to those who love religion."
"they're not about religion; they're about advancing the revolution jesus started 2000 years ago."
"just to keep people in line, we build our own christian civilization and then demand that everyone who believes in jesus become a good citizen."

"perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare jesus as lord have become domesticated-- or if you will, civilized. barbarians are not welcomed among the civilized and are feared among the domesticated."

official 43 man squamish, anyone know the rules?
used to play at arlington beach camp and want to introduce the violence to a new generation of potential fracture victims.

from club last night. the funniest comedy duo since abbott and costello, talking about the issues. here are the flight of the conchords. check out their new hbo series starting this week.

losers.

i'm working on a manuscript that may someday become a book, though i doubt i will ever put it in hard bound, or even really market it. i'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, though i am repelled by the idea that writing a book can put you on to the a team. write a book, get speaking engagements, be a superstar for jesus. not this week anyway. besides, if i ever finish the thing i would probably opt for a cyber-version anyway.

popularity bugs me. it's one part jealousy, one part indignation, 2 parts nievette. and i have a confession to make. something i've only ever told a few people. i thought i was going to be famous. ya, i know, it's laughable. but as a young minister a few people did me a huge disservice and predicted great things for me, and i bought it. somehow it worked it's way into my subconscious and there it remained and gestated. for more than a decade i secretly, almost subconsciously, waited to be discovered. and it never happened. someone suggested writing a book, and though i did not have anything of value to contribute i contemplated the idea. for all the wrong reasons. we all know the quickest way to get noticed is write a book.
once i was asked to do a pilot for a media company looking for the next big postmodern thing. we shot a couple of pilots and expected great things. they hated it. in the rejection letter they stated that several of their review staff had serious questions about my faith, they doubted i was even a real christian. it was raw, uncut and apparently uncouth.
a couple of years ago i quit my religious gig and my reputation took a serious hit. i found myself, virtually overnight, a nobody. once i had been the flavor of the month, now i found myself wandering in obscurity. someone told me they had heard i had "left the faith", another thought i had been kicked out of religious service for gross indecency. i found myself with about 20% of the friends i had once considered lifetime. it was great. truly.
over the next several months i learned more about myself that ever before in my life. i realized how ego bound i had become, how driven by insecurity, how approval driven. i have gradually come to understand how that need to be recognized and affirmed had worked its way so deeply into my psyche.
i realize i'm a loser. not in any "oh please email me and affirm me because i'm fishing for a compliment" kind of way. no thanks. what i am saying is that, for the first time in my life i have come to accept that i am not the front runner i once believed myself to be. i am not about to be "discovered". it has been a horrible thing to come to grips with. so late in life, so many moments wasted, living for approval. i am not the smartest, or the best communicator, the funniest, the best looking. denominations have not lined up begging to hire me, quite the contrary. there are no conferences to speak at, no ringing endorcements, no invitations to hang out with the cool postmodern gurus. only echos.
i'm happy. i'm realizing for the first time in my life that most people are losers by a hollywood definition. few of us are conference panelists. not many of us are christian superstars. we are vanilla people in a flavor of the month world. we are normal. normal in a world that demeans normalcy. in a church in love with stardom and beauty.
we have our superstars too. they write prefaces for our books and we line up to buy their latest installment. we sit at their feet and blog their every word. we ridicule their stances and secretly envy their power. even in a postmodern movement that demeans power we have allowed a handful of white males to swoon us.
i love working at the club. the unchurch i am a part of is made up of crazies and marginally acceptable personalities (you know who you are) that are probably never destined to speak at the next conference. they are not wealthy or pretty or necessrily articulate. and maybe for the first time i realize i fit in. i am not a rose among thorns. gone is the status and the ego strokes, the money and the cudos.
maybe i am finally becoming human.

Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling?
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.
After twelve years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, "No hablo ingles."
I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.

"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." -George W. Bush