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Mood Visuals

The sun is sinking quickly in the Western sky. The wind is blowing curtains billowing. One of the many weather moods at the cottage. These shots are from earlier in the week. Snapshots of poetry writ large in the evening skies over Lake Simcoe.

Our island beckons in the distance.

Taken from the ferry dock, across from the island. The picture is zoomed in.
(Click on the photos for a larger image.)

Equipment: Panasonic DMC-FX7 5MP camera featuring a Leica lens. Photos taken by Imbi Medri-Kinnon.

Technorati Tags: Lake Simcoe Panasonic Lumix FX7 Evening Sky Snake Island

Blogbridge 2.0

Until I began to use Sage in Firefox, BlogBridge 1.0 was my RSS reader of choice. Well Pito and his team at Blogbridge have released version 2.0 and it's full of great features. (Actually 2.1 is coming out on their "Gravy Train.") I expect that it will quickly become my new RSS reader of choice. Check out the BlogBridge folks here and download BlogBridge 2.0 here. And if you're wondering what the heck RSS is - read this.

Technorati Tags: RSS Reader Blogbridge

Addicted to Success

What do you do when you're known as the Disciple Making Pastor, you've written a well known book about it - yet you know it's not working. Bill Hull found himself at 50 years old, profoundly discouraged - in spite of his apparent success.

I had forgotten that my life as a leader should be a reflection of my relationship to Christ. Leadership is not about competency and productivity, as we have been led to believe. Our culture values action over contemplation, individualism over community, speed over endurance, fame over humility, and success over the satisfied soul.

I came to see that I was not leading the way Jesus led. His life was characterized by humility, brokenness, submission, and sacrifice. My life was characterized by pride, competence, control, and convenience. I began to understand the value of brokenness as God's way of leading us into a life of humility. And I became fed up with my addiction to the false values of our culture. To use Pascal's words, I was tired of "licking the earth." I was tired of it and so was the congregation.

Later in the article Hull says,

When I changed from a strategist to a shepherd, when my teaching was filled with love rather than data, the congregation began to melt. They sensed that something prophetic was happening, and it changed our church.

It’s almost as if much of the Western Church has developed a factory mentality about church growth and leadership. Get them to “make a decision”, stamp a label on them and if they come back for at least 50% of the services and give us a portion of their money – we’ve been successful. Bums in chairs = success.

Does it matter that fewer than 10% of those who “make a decision” actually develop into committed believers? Does it matter that most church growth in NA is the circulation of believers rather than conversion growth? In fact, many new church attendees have been attracted by the success model of a particular church and want to be associated with it. It’s not about becoming disciples.

Jesus was about creating disciples. By any stretch of the present North American church growth phenomenon, he was a failure. Eleven disciples at the end of his ministry. Between 120 and 500 followers. We wouldn’t even consider reading his books on church leadership and growth, would we?

The fact of the matter is, according to the books he did cause to be written, Jesus doesn’t care about numbers. He cares about people. It isn’t data he’s after, it’s relationships. He’s going to ask us about David and Jonathan and Elizabeth and Ndora and Juan and Enriquez and Sibusiso and Lloyd and Lorene and Carleigh. The people he brought into our lives. He’s not going to be impressed by the size of the churches we built. He’s only going to be concerned with the size of our hearts – and the people we poured our love into.

Thanks G.H. for pointing me at the Leadership Magazine Newsletter that prompted this post.

Church Growth Leadership Magazine Making Disciples Discipleship Jesus

Paddling into the Future

Earlier in August, while in Nonquitt, Massachusetts, my good friend George convinced me to join him for a little Atlantic kayaking. I got hooked.

While taking our kids up to Muskoka this past weekend we happened to drive by the Muskoka Paddle Shack. They had an end of season sale going on, and we ended up with a tomato coloured Tofino kayak from Clearwater Designs. I've spent the last two days enjoying it.

The Muskoka Paddle Shack is only a five month old business, but Chris and Jay, the proprietors have got a good thing going. They love what they are selling and they have a blast connecting purchasers with what is becoming the fastest growing water sport - kayaking.

We actually went back up to see them today, because Imbi and I have decided that we both love kayaking and want to do it together. We added a banana yellow Tofino to our fleet.

Chris and Jay were in the process of moving their business six miles up Highway 11 to be closer to their competition when we arrived at their new place. They were both up on a hydraulic basket crain installing their new sign - that features their smiling faces on top of stick figures holding paddles - lots of fun and a great representation of who they are.

These guys are building their business primarily through the word-of-mouth of happy customers. Jay told me that what little advertising they'd done had had little effect. Treating their customers with respect and selling them a great product at a fair price was what was growing their business. And because both Chris and Jay had been in the industry for many years - their suppliers were working with them to help them make the business a success. It also helps to be on the main corridor into Ontario's premiere cottage country.

These guys are at the beginning of creating a Purple Cow - just up the road from the Candy Shoppe, one of the featured retail examples in Seth Godin's book. (We bought chocolate covered Popcorn from them on our way home. Yummy!) What's great about the Paddle Shack guys is that it isn't a "can I help you, store", it's a "aren't these boats cool store." They love what they sell and their enthusiasm is infectious.

Kayaking is part of the emergent culture of less is more. Whether it's moving from Harley's to Vespas,  SUVs to Prius's or powerboats to kayaks, there is a profound change happening. The Muskoka Paddle Shack is riding the wave of that change (pun intended) and should do very well.

(Techorati Tags: Kayak Emergent Purple Cow Seth Godin)

The first pictures were taken by Imbi using the camera in her Treo. Her two Panasonic Lumx's do a much better job. The two kayaks together was taken with my Sony Ericsson 710a cell phone camera - a 1.3MP camera. Good in bright light.

Blown Opportunities

With breathless anticipation, CNN's female reporter stated "It's going to take a miracle to save New Orleans!"

"A category 5 hurricane is approaching the city and could leave it a toxic lake of petrochemicals and failed septic systems," reported another.

"This could be the worst international disaster since the Tsunami."

"Oh goody, we have a major disaster to cover again," said the news director(s).

Ok, the last statement is just what they were thinking. They didn't really say it.

And then when the very worst didn't occur, there almost seemed to be a sense of sadness in the news media. (Not to suggest that what has happened isn't bad enough.) "Katrina has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm."

What is it about the human race that our news media thrive on bad news - and we eat it up. We can't take our eyes away from any disaster. CNN, FoxNews et al watch their ratings go through the roof when anything awful happens. Viewers are attracted like moths to an outside light.

But what does it say about us?

UPDATE: The worst has happened in New Orleans, Biloxi and other Gulf communities. News coverage is wall to wall. But the excitement of the initial story has been replaced by the world-weary nature of the horror being played out. Too many lives lost. Too much pain. Pray for the living.

Hurricane Katrina

So Little To Say

The summer is rapidly coming to a close. The Labour Day Weekend is racing towards us - after which, the real New Year begins. Our two younger kids have been placed in great schools. Our oldest begins his Gap year (which has nothing to do with the retail chain). And we continue to pursue our goals in Toronto and points beyond.

I'll have lots more to say next week on the usual topics. For now, I'm going to enjoy the Lake.

Customer Service in Winnipeg

Although not all our Centre City Canada experiences were wonderful, we did marvel at how good Customer Service was in the land of eternal flatness - whether from airport rental counters, chain stores or even government offices.

I was reminded of that today as I cancelled the kids Manitoba cell phones. My CS experience was warm, friendly and very satisfying. Bell Canada could learn much from the good people at MTS. The province's license plates say "Friendly Manitoba" and except for Manitobans merging lane inclinations - the plates aren't kidding.

Arrested.

Stopped in our tracks. Which is a little difficult when you're in a boat.

Liam, Kaili and I arrived at the docks tonight to be picked up by Imbi. It was 9:30pm. And dark. A beautiful clear night with no moon. Walking down to the boat, Kaili asked, "Are those the Northern Lights?" And they were!

We took off slowly from the dock to head back to the island mesmerized by the aurora borealis. We had seen them a number of times this past winter in Winnipeg, but only I had ever seen them here. An incredible light show put on by Creation! And then just as we arrived at our own dock, a beautifully bright shooting star seemed to race into the lake to the North of us.

We sat at the Lake for about an hour - marvelling at the art in the sky. What a night! It could only have been better if Ry had been here to join us. He made the mistake of staying in the city.

Although not dissimilar from what we saw. This is actually a photo from NASA's library.

What I'm Reading

I’ve finished two challenging books in the last three days. Brian McLaren’s The Last Word and the Word After That and Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics. Both books have had significant impact on me.

McLaren’s book is the last in his “New Kind of Christian” trilogy. Written as novels, the series has raised many of the questions found in the Emerging church movement as “Pastor Dan” moves from conservative evangelicalism to a more post-modern Emergent position. McLaren uses The Last Word and its characters to attempt to deconstruct the Christian concept of Hell. He raises a lot of questions. Ones I now have to work through for myself.

Wallis’ book, subtitled “Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” calls Christians on both political wings to return to our biblical roots of social justice and concern for the poor and marginalized. He challenges the Religious Right to examine it’s Empire building motives and return to a biblical worldview – and challenges the Left to engage in dialogue that recognizes the profoundly positive impact people of faith have had and are having in our world. Bono is quoted on the book jacket:

“The Left mocks the Right. The Right knows it’s right. Two ugly traits. How far should we go to try to understand each other’s point of view? Maybe the distance grace covered on the cross is a clue.”

I confess I’m tired of judgmental evangelicalism. I’m tired of pat answers – tautological arguments that allow for only one viewpoint. But I also confess that I have not lost hope. The smell of change is in the air. People are beginning to let the Scriptures read them rather than reading their own positions into it, and are being changed in the process. Perhaps a New Kind of Christian is emerging. People who can change the world by their actions – rather than attempt to control it by their words.

Read the books. Let me know what you think.

WWJD? Pat!

CNN, AP and other News Services are reporting Pat Robertson's statements that Hugo Chavez needs to be taken out:

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Ahh, the Christian Doctrine of Assassination. I confess I've missed that in my studies. I guess I'll just have to search a little deeper - make that, a lot deeper.