it's a scene all too familiar now. some high profile politician in the states has been caught with his pants down and one of our evangelical superstars has publically expressed his outrage and disappointment. a tale as old as time.

it never ceases to surprise me how often evangelicals express their moral outrage. they somehow believe that they are licensed from on high to judge and critique the moral infirmities of those around them, usually in a negative fashion. it amazes me, that after all the leaders who have fallen, how we can still act like it's a big deal. don't get me wrong, for that person and those affected, it must certainly be a big deal. for the rest of us, it's simply a side show. we love to hear how someone has done something wrong. if it's potentially spurious, that's fine too. guilty until proven innocent.

last week i heard a new one about myself. it was awesome. apparently because i choose to care for someone who is guilty of a crime than i, by association, am just as guilty. a young person was told not to associate with me because i was basically condoning this person's crimes, even supporting them. laughable. it didn't matter that the people expressing the opinion had never met me, or that they were completely wrong. the only thing that is important is the allegation. guilty until proven innocent. i am, admittedly, guilty of a great many things but that is not among them. we love a side show.

christians who express moral outrage at fallen people are admittedly acting human. we love to gossip, and christians stand out in their capacity for gossip. it's shocking actually. i should know, i do it too. apparently michael jackson was bald and wore a wig and those aren't his biological kids... it just seems that we are incapable of keeping our mouths shut when there is something juicy. under the guise of concern we push for details and tidbits, then quickly pass them on to anyone within earshot. did you know michael jackson had needle marks all over his arms?

though it is exceedingly hard for me i am trying to refrain from judging the motives and hearts of people i do not agree with. i am the first to decry foul play when i am judged, only to turn that allegation into a countering blow. i am coming to realize how weak my capacity for self-control really is in this arena.

did you know michael jackson was actually african-american?

our boy cycling across canada to raise money for the thailand orphanage...

ben spent sunday in regina and attended the free methodist church there, somewhat by accident. it seems he was dehydrated, undernourished and lacking in vitamins and spent a night in the hospital, putting his schedule off a tad. for some reason losing 60 pounds in 6 weeks and cycling 6 hours a day had adverse effects... hey ben, eat something!

ben in enroute to winnipeg and beyond. if you know anyone willing to put him up east of regina let me know. free food always tastes the best.

oh ya, not sure of this number but i think he said he has raised somewhere in the 14-16000 dollar range so far for the orphanage.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101802584985473216022.00046c78ead2301ecbed0&ll=50.450509,-115.749207&spn=1.115788,2.400513&t=h&z=9

compiling a top ten list of dude movies that most people haven't heard of. popular movies need not apply.

1. (undisputed) The Boondock Saints - the ultimate guy movie and best tattoos.

2. Brokeback Mountain - kidding, it sucked

***from here on, ranking inconsequential***

2. Green Street Hooligans - Frodo gets the crapped kicked out of him, how cool is that?

3. Pool Hall Junkies - great pool, great ending

4. The Usual Suspects - Kevin Spacey and best ending ever

5. Reservoir Dogs - Steve Buschemi as Mr. Pink

6. The Boys from Company C - Full Metal Jacket ripped off this obscure classic completely including some of the main actors. 1974 and still timeless.

7. Memento - backwards and forwards a great dude classic

8. Hanoi Hilton - psychological Vietnam thriller

9. 13th Warrior - popular but still cheesy goodness. Woman love Antonio but dudes want to be Buliwyf.

10...?

best dude show on tv right now? easy - Deadliest Warrior

watching the steve martin classic with my 11 yr old and trying to explain to him why the greasy tv evangelist is not as "cool" as he seems...

during healing service matthew says, "but he's just pushing them over!" and "imagine how much money they can make".

humm...

my bud jordon has an excellent post on the effect of the changing economics on the religious world. admittedly jordon is like the smartest person i know and i'm always shocked that he still considers me a friend in light of the recent friendship bailouts in my life (not unlike the whole chrysler thing). with this in mind i try to steal as much of his material and pretend i thought of it first. having said that, i have contended for years that the church of the future needs to look drastically different than it does now in order to thrive.  i have endeavored to convince at least one denomination that church planting, in it's current incarnation, is both financially infeasible and philosophically inadequate. to put that in english, it is simply an idea whose time has come and probably gone. while most denominations are willing to admit that church planting is becoming more and more difficult financially, they don't seem to understand the massive paradigm shift that is going to need to happen to survive the coming years.

 

a short time ago we started a restaurant/underground church with the sole purpose of building a system that would allow business to fund the good stuff that goes on behind the scenes. a year and a half later the restaurant is struggling and so is the church, if numbers mean anything, but the underlying philosophy is, in my opinion, transformational and transferable. it is our hope that we can work out the bugs in order to give future efforts a better shot at working.

ideally a project like ours could use an outside funder to get things going, but in our case that has not been possible. ultimately this sort of business ministry needs to get beyond denominational bailouts anyway, so we are going to do it the hard way right off the get-go. 

there are several coffee house/churches being launched in ontario and beyond that are heavily funded by churches and denominations, and while i am somewhat jealous, there are inherent and substantial problems with such a model. coffee houses that are underwritten are simply not hungry enough to be successful. at the bad dog, if we don't do our daily minimums no one gets paid, people get laid off, and the business goes bankrupt. this is an undeniable motivation that keeps us pushing and working. if i knew that big brother would just pay the bills i am confident that i would take more time off and care much less. doing a business model is killing us but it is compelling.

recently i prostituted myself and let a group pay my way to orlando to try to convince church planters that things like businesses, "third space", and outside the box methodologies are not just an option but a necessity for the future. i made the mistake of boldly proclaiming that, for a majority of truly unchurched people, sunday morning church is no longer a viable option. you can imagine how well that was received at a conference paid for and by mega-churches looking to start mega-church plants full of programs, acoustic guitars, and golf shirts. to say i was a voice crying in the wilderness may have been an understatement. getting denominational leaders to adopt 'bad dog grill franchises' is like trying to michael jackson to lay off the plastic surgery.

raising money for an orphanage in thailand, ben is riding across canada. he made the Coquihalla Summit so the rest is cake. he's almost there right?

(photo by rob deyo)

back story - my business partner, lori abercrombie, told me this morning that one of the orphanages last night was accosted by a band of several armed men who had come to abduct one of the orphan girls who was now old enough to be sold into prostitution.

update: Lori was chatting with Ben's dad with regard to the journey and she asked if ben thought what he was doing was hard. Here's his quote: "not compared to what the children in thailand are going through..."

excellent review at out of ur of this most scary of translations....

i have many memories of watching ben deyo growing up. i vividly recall driving home one day and seeing him dressed, for no apparent reason, as a nine foot gumby. i remember the day he came to high school dressed as a pimp. last halloween he went as a mattress. he has always been his own person.

next tuesday ben is going to try to ride his bike across canada to raise money for a thailand orphanage. whether or not he makes it is really immaterial, the fact is he is willing to try. most people want to make a difference and talk about it alot. ben doesn't talk about it at all, he just does it.

alot of the adults in ben's life are full of words and theories. they debate religious issues and take sometimes ridiculous stands on issues that are clear only to the religious community. ben is not like that. he is not a philosopher, arguably not the most talented person on the planet, but that doesn't matter. i have always been impressed by the guy, even as a child he was a person of singular integrity.

ben plans on spending 3 months on his bike. i can't even imagine how boring that would be. i'm pretty sure i'd fake a hamstring injury before i got out of vancouver. it is an incredibly daring dream.

i am going to ask some of my friends along the transcanada to look in on ben from time to time. maybe steve will be able to buy ben lunch in calgary, perhaps frank and jean can put him up in caronport. little acts of kindness that will undoubtedly inspire ben to keep going just one more day.

here's to you ben. you rock my world.