blog one another

Deep Thought

My Facebook profile has a "Deep Thought" widget. Today's is notable:

If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting!

The De-church Re-church Manifesto

My friend Dave has had enough, and has posted a rant about the American model of church. If you know him, you owe it to yourself to read the first part, a biography of what brought him to this point. But the second part of his rant is a full-on manifesto. Here's a taste:

I want to see the Come To Us Model die a death more violent than the one suffered by PowerPoint.

I want no one to be in charge of a loosely-coupled network of people who gather together because they want to know each other and God.

I want people to stop giving their money to the church and instead give their money to the needs of people in their own community. But before that, I want full time staff to quit their jobs.

He will be slammed for being negative. But my friends, reconstruction is not possible without first doing deconstruction. Dave is not merely tearing down, but he is proposing an alternative.

If you want to skip the biographical background and jump right to his manifesto, go here and search for "I want".

Technorati Tags: simple church

Listening as a Spiritual Act

The Christian religion is very focused on talking; you can see this in the role of prominent leaders. The more important they are, the more they talk. But what if we have it wrong? Could true religion be more about listening?

I just read the following in the excellent book Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette:

I believe part of our society's frustration with organized religion stems from a lack of discourse and question-asking. The one-way communication from pastor or priest to congregants that is so prevalent maintains awe, authority, and distance, but does not invite fully engaged participation, ownership, or collective action. If our goal is generative loving activity, rather than mere indoctrination, then candid dialogue must be encouraged. We need casual cooperative contexts in which we can ask questions and navigate how to live and travel well together. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why early followers of the Way so often ate together in their homes and met from house to house.

Some may respond, "Ah-ha, then what we need to do is promote conversation!" which is not a bad idea. But if it's contrived or controlled, I'm not sure that it's a conversation. The hallmark of conversation is listening. How can you tell when listening is taking place?

C++ named operators

Can someone explain to me the rationale behind C++ named operators? Here I am, trying to define things that operate in boolean logic, and I can't use the names "and", "or", and "not". Thank you very much. Perhaps the C++ standards committee thought they weren't reserving enough keywords?

New beginnings

Merry Christmas, everyone! I did not mean for my hiatus to extend to blogging in general or Facebook activity, but it did. Ah well, it sort of ended up becoming an online fast, which is not a bad thing.

My zen reboot has been really, really good for me. Come January, I will pick up what I laid down, and we will see where the adventure leads. You probably won't see much right away, because I will be starting fresh. Until then, my friends, a blessing: May Peace sneak into our hearts in the coming year. (He's tricksy, you know.)

"Look! I'm making everything new." — The Enthroned

Coworker sez

"'Agent', as in 'minion'?"

Kay sez

Kay: "Do you enjoy your life?"
Shelly: "Yes, I do!"
Kay: "Then cut it out, or it will be cut short."

Zen reboot

Sometimes, if your machine has been going for some time, working hard, cruft can get in the way and bog things down. At such times, it's worth trying a "cleansing reboot". Clear out your cache. Go back to zero.

I have laid down my Frost & Hirsch books. Instead, Kay has got me hooked on a science fiction series. (I'm a sucker for time travel.) I have also picked up an off-hours programming project, and it's been fun to rediscover how much I enjoy recreational coding.

I have laid down my radical reforms. The Journey will do whatever The Journey does. I not only stopped posting to talkinchurch.com, I stopped reading it altogether. If anyone there has written stuff that would piss me off, I am blissfully unaware of it.

I lay these things down, but not because they are unimportant. The zen warrior knows that if he is too impassioned, if he strikes in anger, then his strength is going into the wrong place and he is less effective. He may inadvertently work against his own cause. To accomplish his objectives, he must rediscover his Center.

"You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have." — Inigo Montoya

A tale of two fingers

Look at the two posts below.

"God is a jerk" - Nov. 22
"Musical trigger" - Nov. 23

I initially posted both without images. But I like using imagery when I blog. So I first I added pissed-off Johnny Cash.

For "Musical trigger", I tried using Coldplay photos but they didn't grab me. "How can I capture the essence of this post in an image," I asked myself. "Musical trigger. Hmm. Like a reminder." And I added the string around the finger.

It took several days before I saw it. Two fingers:
One from me, to God.
And one, right back at me.