May 2006

Friday…

Took another crack at young adult community drop-in cafe (The Mix)… Hardly anybody showed up from our people (except for Blair & Missy - Thanks guys!) and nobody came from the community. [sigh] On the upside the music was really good! Great jazz in the first set from C-Bert and Dilbert and the second set was edgy folk by Matt Epp. Just wish they had an audience to play to!

The day ended on a high though, as Sherry and I headed downtown around 11:30 to the Outworks gallery for the opening of “Fever” which our dear friend Amy E had a photograph in (best piece in the show, by the way)

Saturday…

Had a unique experience. Was the guest speaker for another church’s young adult event. Was much more sermon-like than the discussion format I usually use at Stir. So I was nervous but it was fun to stretch myself and do something new… and to meet great young adults from another church. Had really positive feedback on the talk. In fact I got an honourarium which I wasn’t expecting… my first thought was “Wow… I am an official guest speaker now!”… my second thought was “Man I wish I’d done a better job for them!”

Sunday…

Just got to sit back and take it in. It was pulpit exchange Sunday where 26 pastors from around the city trade pulpits with each other for the morning. The “import” we got did a great job though we’re about 3x the size of his regular church. Didn’t miss a beat when a thunderstorm blacked out the sanctuary for the last 10 min of his sermon… in fact it totally enhanced the sermon illustration he was in the middle of… which was to have a brave volunteer hold a dart board while he was about to throw darts at it.

Pulpit exchange is part of our annual 3 weeks of Love Winnipeg. (Recognize Sherry and I on the main graphic?  - I made that site but didn’t choose that pic.) Love Winnipeg… 26 pastors… baptists preaching to charismatics… pentecostals preaching to conservatives…. mainline to non-denominational and vice verse. Love Winnipeg… 78 churches becoming 1 church - the church of Winnipeg - for three weeks and taking to the streets of their neighbourhoods to express the love of God. I love Winnipeg. I love Love Winnipeg. I love “the church” in Winnipeg. How sweet it is when brothers dwell in unity.

nooc

Many of you may have seen this already… but it bears repeating…

 

[oops… can’t embed youtube??]

view it here in the meantime: King of the Hill goes church shopping

 

Also a very interesting link:  thunderstruck

nooc

I’m not talking Le Monde here… I’m talking:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bought one a few weeks ago… it seems to take a knack as this morning was the first good cup of coffee I’ve gotten out of this thing in 5 or 6 tries.  But when I say good I mean worth the 5 or 6 tries!

We’re a pretty coffee-centric bunch here in the voxtropolis.  Wonder if anyone else has an opinion on brewing with these?  Or better yet, tried and tested tips or tricks that will cut down the learning curve for us French Press newbies.

The instructions I found online here were what finally gave me a good cup out of this thing.

nooc

p.s.  2 posts in one day!  That’s how you know I’m REALLY procrastinating on other stuff.

Well.  Not so new… I have always appreciated his versatility and acting in widely diverse roles.  From Twister, Patch Adams and Punch Drunk Love to Almost Famous and the infamous “shart” scene in Along Came Polly.

So Sherry and I rented Capote recently and I once again was amazed by his acting.  Then we watch the special features and they’re talking about how they filmed it in Winnipeg.  WHAT?!?  How did I not know that!?!

 

 

So I go to see MI:III on Monday and there he is again… playing his role superbly.  Then after I’m reading an interview he did for MI:III where the reporter (from Houston) asked what it was like filming Capote in the “isolation” of Winnipeg?

His response:  “Actually, Winnipeg is amazing.”

yesssss!

 

Friday, May 5th is the second “Cafe of the Dead” I’m leading.  I started the first one by “taking our pulse” at the start of our journey together.  There was much intense discussion regarding what our current understanding of dying to ourselves really meant.  I was looking for a baseline, setting a marker at the start of the journey that we could compare to and look back upon to see if new discovery, understandings or insights would produce any sort of shift over time.

I’m still open to the experiment of you fellow voxies (as in “homies”… or the recently popular “churchies”… yes the kids are saying that) submitting a short vid of yourselves giving a blurb about your take on the subject.  See here for more details/format.  There’s one more Cafe of the Dead in a month if this Friday seems a bit quick to pull your thoughts together.

Or you can throw your 2 cents in here on some of the questions we’ll be chewing on….

(references: 2 Corinthians 4:10, Mark 8:34, Romans 6:2-8, Galatians 2:19-20, Philippians 1:20-22, Colossians 2:20)

Why do we have to die?  Why does Jesus require us to die to ourselves?  What is it about following Him that we can only do or experience while dead?  Especially when I see me (and, to be blunt, all those around me) getting by just fine and living a spiritual Christian life without taking it to that level.  Sacrificing some… maybe even most… just not all.  What does “all” look like?  (No “it’s different for everyone” answers allowed.  If you need it to be subjective to wrap your head around it then: what does it look like to you or for you?  Despite individual differences there must be marks of this death that are common to all)  Have we ever even seen anybody actually living this out? (or “dying this out” I guess).

In the accent of that “vaklempt” Mike Myers character from old SNL:  Discuss.

The first iteration of The Mix came and went this past Friday. Thanks to those who prayed.

First: the good stuff…

The event went really, really well. Things came together well and in some instances pretty much miraculously. We had the most Riverwood young adults out that we’ve ever had at a single event. Kristie and Roshonna did an awesome job with the live music.

Second: the tough stuff…

Only three people from the community came. I know, I know… my attitude should be AWESOME! 3 PEOPLE CAME! I’ll get there. Everyone else around me had that attitude. They had taken to heart  (better than I had) my pre-event encouragement that this is the first time we’re doing this… whatever happens we will build on for the next one… we’ll learn some great things from this.  And it’s all true and I’ll get there.  But if you’ve ever put yourself out there and poured yourself out and given much to painstakingly create something… with all the hopes, dreams and visions that entails…. and have so few show up… you understand my dissappointment.

Plus I couldn’t get my camera to take decent pics.

Third:  good stuff, part 2…

It was SO good to get this first one under our belt.  And yes, we learned tonnes that will benefit us for the next one.  And even though few showed it was great to see that we could actually do this and be prepared for so many more.

It also has challenged my ministry in a positive way in terms of re-thinking how best to connect and impact the young adults in the surrounding community.  I can’t sit in my office and send out flyers and expect them to just come to me.  I’ve got to get out there.  Not sure what that will look like yet.

I’m not the first in ministry to experience this sort of a lack of response to something worked so hard on… and I won’t be the last.  This is normal.  If you have two failures for every success, you’re actually ahead of the curve.  If somebody reading this now has a similar experience in the future… it would be a great joy to me if they remembered this post and were strengthened in their dissappointment.

And I get to experience dissappointment and, in my eyes, failure.  Yes I consider this a positive.  Very much so.  All of life is a classroom if you let it be.  And I get to experience God in this.  Teaching me and changing me.  Maybe you think failure is a bit harsh.  I know there were many successes in that evening.  Let me give you a glimpse of my heart:  I feel failure over every young adult from Riverwood that hasn’t connected to Stir yet.  I feel failure over every young adult from the neighbourhood that didn’t come to The Mix on Friday.  Resist the urge to set me straight, however gently and lovingly.  I eagerly embrace the breaking of my heart over those God has called me to love.  It is what it is and God and I are having an amazing discussion about it.

After all I am nooc.  Yet He is using me.  Thus I am alive.