March 28, 2009
The Subversion of Christianity – Jacques Ellul
For awhile I have been wanting to read The Subversion Of Christianity
You see why I really want to read it now?
I found a summary of its contents here.
Has anyone read it? If you have, what did you think of it?
March 27, 2009
Graduating from Church
Have you ever wondered if it is possible to graduate from church?
What if the church were set up on a four-year cycle so that you join the church when you are baptized and then four years later you graduate and leave the church. The Sunday services, the programs, small groups etc. are all geared to teach you how to become followers of Jesus and you begin as a freshman, then the next year you become a sophomore, then junior and finally a senior. By the time you graduate from church you have learned how to feed yourself and you join a small community of believers who meet regularly for fellowship, prayer, encouragement and the breaking of bread.
I would be very curious what you think. Could this be a viable church expression? Are there benefits to this form of church over many of the present forms? Is there something wrong with graduating from church in this manner?
Comments are open and not moderated! 
March 26, 2009
The Death of the Sermon
I came across this timely and thought-provoking article about the effects of “the video sermon”. Here is a couple excerpts:
“We’re talking about the death of preaching in evangelicalism by all but a small handful of Celebrity Communicators who have little knowledge about those they teach from such far distances.”
“Now, the preaching gift of one person has the ability not simply to reach the back row, but the next town, state, continent. And we’re not just talking about Spurgeon publishing his sermons or Schuller putting his on TV or Driscoll putting his on iTunes…
NOW we’re talking about not just influencing local preachers by making the “best” communicators’ sermons available… we’re talking about replacing those local teaching elders.
Talk about pushing something to an extreme.”
Read the full article here at Next-Wave Ezine.
Other posts here on preaching and sermons:
The Ineffectivess of Preaching
A Sermon You Might Never Hear in Church
March 26, 2009
My Meeting House Experience
This blog has moved to wordpress.org so the new address is
www.irreligiouscanuck.com
My family went to The Meeting House in Oakville on Sunday. (For those of you who don’t know, The Meeting House is probably one of (if not THE) fastest growing churches in Canada and may even be the largest in the country. There is even a Wikipedia article about it.) One of my wife’s good friends is married to one of the pastors at the church so we took the opportunity to visit with them and see their church. First of all, let me say that we enjoyed the experience and I don’t really have anything negative to say about what they are doing. This in itself has brought me some consternation because I am not supposed to like those big churches at all. (Well . . . OK, I do have one thing to say. As first time visitors, we couldn’t find the front door and after trying one door that was locked, we walked all around the building to the back door where we had to carry our baby stroller up the stairs. It turned out that we had parked just around the corner from the barrier-free front entrance but we didn’t know it until we were leaving. Some signs to direct us would have been helpful.) Other than that we enjoyed our experience very much and I think if every church were like The Meeting House there were be fewer people giving up on church and quitting.
After taking our children to their program, we got some fair trade coffee in the lobby (fair trade coffee = extra bonus points!!) and caught up with our friends. By this time the music (i.e. “worship” quote unquote) had already begun but there were many still out in the foyer hanging out and talking and no one seemed to be in a rush to find their seats in the “theatre.” Since I don’t particularly like the worship music genre or karaoke, I was in no rush to enter either. We enjoyed the atmosphere in the lobby for a few more minutes before going to our seats coffee in hand.
March 24, 2009
The Coming Evangelical Collapse – A Canadian Perspective
In January, Internet Monk posted a series about The Coming Evangelical Collapse in America (***please link here to see the original posts!***) It has since been talked about all over the blogosphere and elsewhere. I would love for you to read what he says so please follow the link above!
However, for all my Canadian readers, we need to remember these posts are about the church in the USA which is quite different than the church in Canada (believe it or not!). We, in Canada, often think that our Christian culture is the same as in the States and we read books by American publishers forgetting that they were written from from a different perspective. It is not easy to find the kinds of statistics and commentaries about the Canadian church.
And this is why I am linking to a friend of mine at Eclectic Christian where some of his posts give statistical information and reviews of Canadian Christians and churches.
Also Michael Bell has done a great job looking at statistics that help to expand on what Internet Monk was saying. Please, please read his posts at Internet Monk here and part two here.
One of his comments is as follows:
If you want to know what America is going to look like in forty years, and how Evangelicals will be treated, look at Canada today. . .
. . . If my statistical analysis up to this point has been correct, then Evangelical numbers in the USA in forty years will be very similar to Evangelical numbers in Canada today. Much of what Michael has said about the way Evangelicals will be treated in the USA is already true in Canada.
So, please read these posts as they will prove to be very informative and helpful as we all aim to follow Jesus in our own contexts and what that looks like for the church in North America.
Also please refer to Michael Bell’s Ancecdotal Look at Canada in reference to the aforementioned Evangelical Collapse.
March 22, 2009
I’m Going to The Meeting House Today
We are going to The Meeting House today in Oakville. The Meeting House is “a church for those who aren’t into church”. From their website:
Are you tired of religion but still interested in spirituality? Are you cynical about institutional approaches to God while still being open to exploring your faith? Join us as we explore issues of importance in a decidedly “irreligious” way.
I interviewed the teaching pastor of the church here. I’ll tell you more about our experience when we get back.
March 21, 2009
Oh Shit! It’s Jesus!
So, I am going to attempt to revitalize this blog. I have not posted anything at all for several months now but for some reason people coming to visit and some even leave comments. (BTW, I will reply to your comments in the next couple days . . . sorry for the delay.)
I may not have been actively blogging recently, but I have been reading. I will introduce several new books here over the next week or so, but to begin with . . . here is one with a title sure to catch your attention.
Oh Shit ! It’s Jesus!
One reaction was from the religious leaders, the so-called “pastors” and “priests” of the church of the day. These were the so-called “men of God” who were respected and had power in the community. Jesus was a homeless, wandering, spiritual teacher with no formal education. His teaching was attracting a large following among the people, men and women. Jesus’ teachings were at times in direct opposition to the cultural religious leaders. He called them out when they were being unjust, selfish, and prideful. As Jesus walked up the stone steps of the Temple in Jerusalem in sandals, his feet covered in dirt, the priests would see him coming and without a doubt would shake their heads and say, “Oh shit! It’s Jesus!” Most of the priests and religious leaders in Jesus’ time misunderstood him spiritually. They saw his teachings as a threat to their power in society, and his moral goodness exposed their selfish and hypocritical lifestyles.
The other kind of response came from the many people who were searching for something different than what the cultural church of the day offered. Jesus was different. He accepted people on the margins; people who weren’t goody-goodies. The people who hung out with Jesus were a little rough around the edges. Out of loving expectation they would see Jesus coming and literally say with joy, “Oh shit! It’s Jesus!”
In the author’s own words: “The reality and message of Jesus’ life are amazing! You may see organized religion and the church as a negative option for your spiritual life, but I encourage you to look at the actual life of Jesus as a positive choice for your spirituality.”
Despite the title of this book, there is no profanity (other than the title repeated several times throughout) in the pages of this book. A paraphrase of a different “Jesus story” is found in each chapter followed by a “Do Something” section with practical suggestions for the reader’s own spiritual journey. It is not a book for whiners and complainers as it always encourages the reader to do something to make a difference or to change whatever is wrong.
For example, in the chapter titled “The Church Sucks”, the “Do Something” section says:
. . . What can you do about a sucky world and churches that suck? Try loving God and those around you. Every day and in every situation, in every thought and action you have, you have a choice to love someone or perform an act of kindness to someone. . .
If you know of a church or a Christian “who sucks in someway, let them know about it.” Don’t just go up the person and say “You suck, man!” Rather, the author goes on to say, “Talk with them in a friendly and respectful way, but you need to let them know. Hopefully, your care and honesty will break the Churchianity veneer so they’ll understand and be willing to make changes.”
Since each chapter can stand alone as its own miniature story within the whole, it is a great book to pick up and read one when you don’t have a lot of time (i.e. waiting in the doctor’s office, making dinner, riding the bus). It’s an enjoyable read and the author’s paraphrases of different events in Jesus’ life offer a fresh perspective.
The title is definitely a catchy one. Do you think it is too strong? Is it inappropriate to use profanity in this way? Or, does this expression (and it’s double-meaning) ring true for you and you think it is a great way to frame the conversation? What do you think? Comments are open!
November 15, 2008
The Calf Path
Here is a poem by Sam Walter Foss which I came across through Frank Viola’s book, Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
THE CALF PATH
One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell-wether sheep
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o’er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because ’twas such a crooked path.1
But still they followed—do not laugh—
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o’er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! Many things this tale might teach—
But I am not ordained to preach.
—SAM WALTER FOSS
November 13, 2008
Mankind is No Island
Although I came across the following short video through a new friend of mine at PhotoSensibility, the video is hosted the TED site which is where he came across it. This beautiful video is titled “Mankind is No Island” and recently won first prize at Tropfest NY. Directed by Jason van Genderen, it was shot entirely on a cell phone with a budget of $57!
