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Back in Canada

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I’m back….actually I arrived back about five days ago but have been fairly tired and so I haven’t written anything yet on my blog. For those who haven’t been following my blog or for those who don’t know me personally, I was in Bolivia for about ten days visiting and serving with my friend Ken Switzer. Ken ministers to Street Kids in Bolivia with International Teams.

Before I comment about my experience let me tell you about my good friend Ken… He is one of the most relational and caring guys I know and I was reminded again and again of those gifts in his life as I witnessed his ministry first hand in Bolivia. God is working powerfully through his life and it was sincerely my pleasure to hangout in his world for a while. Thanks again Ken and you rock!!!!

In terms of my experience…I think I was most profoundly impacted by the people I meet and interacted with. Although Bolivia is a third world country with poverty and injustice visible everywhere, it was the human faces of injustice that impacted me the most. A lot of the guys and girls I meet and visited had been sexually and/or physically abused, addicted to various substances and most profoundly and above all, just kids/teens/young adults. I was confronted with an evil I didn’t expect, not the stereotypical pitch fork and horn sort of evil, but an evil that is equally as sinister and demonic. It’s an evil that is more subtle and yet in its inconspicuous nature, is more damaging – evils of injustice and abuse in our world. Witnessing the effects of such evil has changed me in ways I am even still discovering.

Through my trip there were so many amazing experiences from teaching guitar, preaching (my first time preaching through a translator), visiting, encouraging and just seeing, hearing and witnessing the work of Jesus in our world.

I am not sure what the lasting effects of this trip will be in my life but there will be lasting effects for sure. These effects have already changed my perspective and outlook on the world in which we live in.

I know many of you are curious, so here are some pictures…

These are pictures of some of the guys I worked with, the crazy/scary spider in Ken’s Bathroom, Teaching some of the guys guitar, preaching with my translator (Marca), and my friends Ivan and John (El Presidenta) who taught me some spanish.

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Way behind and “flying” ahead

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So, I am way behind in my reading but with the busyness of getting ready for my trip to Bolivia tomorrow, things have been fairly busy. Although I am behind, I have virtually four days of travel in my journey, so I should be able to catch up and even get ahead – that’s the plan but as you know, reality often seems to get in the way.

If you didn’t know or haven’t heard, I’m off for two-weeks on what I would describe as both a mission trip (I will be doing a number of different ministries including preaching, music, street ministry, etc.) in which I pray and trust God will use me in whatever way He desires and an adventure in which I am praying and expecting God to work in my heart and life. I want to see and experience what God is doing in South America. I want and desire to be shaken out of my North American slumber and into the reality of our world and what God is doing across His globe.

So if you remember, please pray for me (and my family as they stay at home). I will post about my experience when I return. If possible, I will even try and post during my journey.

book review

Book #5 of 30: Liquid Church

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I read Liquid Church by Pete Ward and it is an interesting and thought provoking book on the future of the Church. His distinctions between Liquid Church and Solid Church are fascinating. Although I think the book was somewhat lacking in historical context and at times I found the theological arguments wanting (he could have flushed these out further), it was well worth my time.

There is so much I liked about the book and the concept of the fluid church. Unlike the solid church of modernity (indicating a concept that the church of modernity was often defined by a building, organizational structure or institution), Ward suggests that the emerging church will be based more on a network of relationship that is harder to identify and impossible to solidify.

Although I agreed with Ward through most of the book, I found myself questioning a couple of his proposals and concepts. First, he repeatedly talks about the fact that the emerging church will be less build around the common regular assembly (church worship service). Although I don’t believe that a church has to be a set number of people who meet every Sunday at 11:00am, there have throughout history beginning with the early church, been some kind of regular meeting/gathering for the local church. I am not saying that this has to be as “solid” as the modern church but it can’t be so “liquid” as not to exist. I also found the idea that the liquid/emerging church needs to embrace consumerism troubling. He is not referring to materialism (he makes that distinction clear), which we would all say is problematic, but the idea that humanity at its core are consumers and it is that driving desire we need to get to as the church. He has some great ideas and theories in this area but I struggle with any concept that says we need to give people what they are looking for just because they are looking for it and embrace that part of our culture. What happens when what someone is looking for is wrong or mistaken?

Once again, I found this book to be intriguing and stimulating. What I really appreciated is what I see in many emergent writings, the commitment to historic Christianity and orthodoxy (something often missed by its critics). To quote Ward: “A commitment to orthodoxy provides assurance in the midst of the flow.” (page 71)

Well off to Bolivia and hours of travel which hopefully will allow me amble time to catch up on my delinquent reading schedule.

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“Jesus Camp” the movie

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I stumbled across and watched the movie preview for the documentary “Jesus Camp” (www.jesuscampthemovie.com) and I was shocked. I should probably reserve judgment until after I see the movie but if it is anything like the preview, I am not sure if it is a movie I want to see – I had a hard enough time trying not to scream at my computer when I watched the trailer -it made me angry and disturbed. I don’t know about you but I have a whole different view of our mission as followers of Jesus and of our response to the world than this camp does.

This is not a camp I’d send my kids to! What happened to canoeing, wide games, scary stories, camp fires and really bad camp food?

book review

Book #4 of 30: Search To Belong

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I just finished The Search to Belong by Joseph Myers. It isn’t so much a book specifically on small groups (although its implications for small groups is fascinating) as much as it is a book on community and belonging. Myers uses the work of Edward T. Hall (four spaces: public, social, personal, and intimate) to discuss the concept of community and belonging with specific attention to its impact on the church.

I found his critique of the modern small group movement thought provoking and insightful with potentially radical implications for the church. I also found Myers’ use of Emergence theory (his slime mold analogy) within small group structures to be intriguing. It isn’t that I agree with everything that Myers proposes or that I will fundamentally change the ministry to which I give oversight and direction but it has impacted the way I look at community and belonging. It may not lead to radical change but I won’t look at my role in the same way again or have the same concept of what community and belonging is and isn’t.

This is one of those books that needs to percolate in my thoughts and it will no doubt ultimately lead to some interesting conversations in the future.

My next book: Liquid Church by Pete Ward.

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