Dreams Unlocked

So I go to the school I am going to teach at, and get completely overwhelemed - sort of a mini panic attack. I have to teach 4 classes a day, 5 days a week - that's 20 different lessons I have to prepare!!! Sheesh. This afternoon I felt a little better, and think I can do this. Just have to get in a more positive frame of mind. Nadine is doing much better, but keep praying - Hope to visit there tomorrow. I couldn't go yesterday - just an acceleration of events in my life, and today I was feeling a little under the weather. I am reading a fantastic book right now - Emerging Theology for Emerging Churches by Ray Anderson. Anderson examines the theology of the emerging church of Antioch, against the religious system of Jerusalem. He draws a parallel between the emerging church of postmodernity, against the backdrop of the religious system of evangelicalism that was largely shaped by modernity. Anderson is a good theologian - he reminds me of Packer - although Packer is WAY more pr...

Well, that's certainly a long break between posts! Wha happened? Life, I guess. So, here's some big news - I got a job! This ESL training was righ ton the money. I went on Craigslist and e-mailed my Resume to about 7 ads. Monday morning, I get an e-mail from someone interested - Go for the interview on Wednesday, and get a job offer, which is in the pay range I was looking for. It is 20 hours/week, which is a bit more then I was looking for, but will try it out for the summer. So - my first "real" secular job. Well, I have worked at the Bay, Domino's and a gas station before. But this feels more like a professional type job. Only draw-back - I have to wear a tie! I never wear ties! Prayer request - My friends wife suffered a massive stroke on Friday. I am also friends with their daughters. I have been at the hospital ever since I heard about it on Sunday. I am going to try to visit everydaym until she gets out. Ironically, she is on the same floor that Felicia wo...

Ok - so John wanted more stuff from Allelon. I agree - it wasn't very good "live blogging", but its kinda hard to blog when the wi-fi is as effective as a hi-fi. Bill Kinnon explained what was happening today by saying that someone "in this room" was kicking everyone else off the netowrk because of something on their computer. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. Bill is one cool dude, who I had actually wished I had actually talked to - next time Bill! Ok - so to sum up - Allelon is doing a great thing. They have recognized that the "missional" conversation is expanding and is most likely going to be a dominant influence in the church in the coming years. So, they are helping church leaders grapple with the changes coming, to articulate what is happening. Alan Roxburgh - the face and voice of Allelon right now is a thoughtful speaker. He is so well networked that he is able to bridge the various "worlds" within evangelicalism. Alan Hirsch i...

9:00 - I can't find a parking space. I end up parking outside the campus and taking a bus in. 9:30 - Walk in late sheepishly. Roxburgh and Hirsch went through various excellent presentations. roxburgh on organizational change and Hirsch on starting new movements. I am most excited by what Hirsch is talking about. There is a lot of energy and dynamism there.

I am going to be live-blogging from the Allelon Summer Institute. This morning there was a problem getting on-line. Alan Roxburgh set the context (historically and sociologically) for the missional church in North America right now. 1:19 - Alan Hirsch just got up to speak. He is introducing his talk, entitled "From Static Institutions to Dynamic Movements". 2:09 - I am digesting my food which is making it harder to concentrate - luckily Alan has good power-points, which makes note taking easy. He has given an excellent presentation on how the Western Church can not become totally obsolete! 2:30 - Break - Time to get re-fuelled with caffeine and sugar. The Starbucks at VST was closed!!! I came back and had Kool-Aid. 3:00 - Group Discussion - my group is Scott from Calgary, Jay from Surrey, Lorraine from Kelowna and Bryan from rural Alberta. Good group - good discussion. 3:30 - Large group discussion - hosed by Alan R. Getting to the questions underneath the questions. Could ge...

We had a concert of prayer tonight. It was really good - I really enjoyed it. Katie also made a special desert for the dads (me and Juan), which was nice. The prayer time was good, but the socializing afterwards was really good. Our numbers are quite down due to summer time - holidays, etc. We watched a clip of one of my favourite all time sermons - J. Edwin Orr on prayer and revival. This video kills me - Orr is wearing a red jacket and is standing against a red wall! But his content is fantastic. He basically gives an account of the Welsh revivals - it is so inspiring. We watched it off the internet, but I want to get a copy. Good time - good people. Allelon tomorrow - Yipee!

Tonight we had all my fellow TESL students over for a pot-luck. It was pretty fun. One of the fellow students was actually hired by the college to teach for July and August! Lucky guy! I am pretty excited - next week I am attending the Allelon Summer Institute at Carey College next week. The web-site contains the following info: Who is this for? The Summer Institute is for church leaders who want to both understand and develop skills in forming and leading mission-shaped local churches. Its focus will be on providing frameworks and resources for church leaders wanting to innovate missional life in the neighborhoods and communities where their people live and work.The Summer Institute is an opportunity to network with other leaders in the area asking similar questions. It will be this networking and the partnership that emerges, that provide the ways of sustaining and resourcing one another in this journey. Pastors, church-planters, leadership teams and denominational leaders will be gi...

Sophia staring. Back after a few days in a cabin on a quiet cove near Sooke B.C. This place was pretty isolated, which was nice. Just reading and relaxing. There were some horses there which we could get up close to and pet and stuff. There was also this crazy dog, which we threw a tennis ball for, and he would run like crazy. They had a canoe, so Adam and I headed out for some time on the water. Really nice time.... until we got on the ferry coming back. The kids were sleeping in the car, so Felicia said she would stay until they woke up. As I was heading up I glanced into the car next to us - it was a couple in their 50's just sitting there. I didn't think anything of it and headed up to get a coffee. Felicia called about 10 minutes later asking me to come down and give them a hand coming up. As I headed towards the car I glanced again at this same couple - and they were involved in a sexual act!!! I was in complete shock - my 2 yr. old son and 2 mth. old daughter were in the...

David and Bathsheba, by Ernest Fuchs I read the story of David's sin with Bathsheba today, and all the fall-out that followed. What an amazing story. I remember a long time ago hearing the philosopher Alvin Plantinga speak. I forget what he was talking about, but at one point he referenced this story and said that Nathan's response to David - You are the man! - is one of the most shocking lines in all of literature. Here are some observations: David's initial sin was not adultery. It was not even lust - his first sin was the vanquishing of his calling. He was the king, but he was not involved in the battle that his army was fighting - he was strolling on a roof instead. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it was his fault. Nathan entered into the story, sent by God to bring David face to face with his sin. I'm sure David knew he had sinned, but without anyone calling him on it, he was able to keep it buried in the recesses of his mind and soul. Nathan comes...

Romeo Dallaire was on The Hour tonight. I don't know where he is in his faith, but the words that he spoke were Old Testament prophetic style. He said that western nations today are worse then the colonial powers of ages past. The reason is is that we currently consider sub-saharan Africa as the absolute lowest priority for emergency relief, development and justice. I handed in my final assignments and taught my last class. We were all kinda excited, but then it was sort of anti-climactic, because our instructor did not have our certificates ready. Now the job hunt begins.

Sting leaving the concert - taken with my camera phone. I am procrastinating. I SHOULD be writing my last lesson plan - instead I am on here, listening to Chariots of Fire by Vangelis. Listening to that song draws me back to 1980 or 81, when my parents pulled me out of school to go to a special pre-screening of the film. I think it was for pastors and other Christian leaders. I got to the theater which was in Midtown Cinemas in Midtown Plaza - the theater is long gone - the last time I was there they were selling RV's and cars where it used to be. We settled in our seats and.... waited - the film was broken and we all left grumbling. Another memory from that theater - I remember going to a Billy Graham evangelistic film there. At the end of the film, Billy invited people in the theater to come forward and make a commitment to Christ. When we were leaving, there were actually 2 counselors standing at the front, ready to pray with anyone who came forward. I still think that was prett...

High water risin', the shacks are slidin' down Folks lose their possessions - folks are leaving town Things are breakin' up out there High water everywhere "Don't reach out for me," she said "Can't you see I'm drownin' too?" It's bad out there High water everywhere The above lyrics are off the song "High Water" off of Bob Dylan's album "Love and Theft". Sort of appropriate for the state of emergency that parts of B.C. are in right now. You can't win in this province - we are haunted by fire and water. Forest fires and flooding water. Pray for us. Saw Apocalypto tonight. I think there is something seriously wrong with Mel Gibson - He could re-make Mary Poppins and have Mary get impaled on her umbrella - why all the blood Mel? It is an obvious thread from Braveheart, The Patriot, Last Temptation and now Apocalypto. I may never see another Gibson film again. If you compare him to Clint Eastwood (the on...

Well - this was a day where there was no real pressure on me - no urgent lesson plans, no assignments, no sermons - woops - ok 1 sermon, but I have a pretty good handle on what I'm going to say. So, I actually got to do a little FUN reading this morning! I have been reading Dan Allender's "Leading with a Limp". Allender writes in the vein of Nouwen - a lot of stuff on brokeness and fear. Pretty good. Then this afternoon we had a nice treat - my good friend Andrea Tisher (see sidebar), and her husband Gordon dropped by to see the kids. Andrea is the worship coordinator at Regent. We go all the way back to 1993 when I was interning at First Alliance in Calgary. Andrea played piano and Kristy Marcine sang on the night I preached - its one of those memories that will always stick with me - my first "official" sermon if you will. Anyways, Gord is a software designer and actually used to live in Yaletown. They now live in East Van in one of those new apartments, t...

The Police - opening night of World tour - Vancouver B.C. 2 nights ago I saw the second best concert of my life: The Police were amazing. The best concert was U2 on the Vertigo tour a couple years ago. They played all their biggest hits - Roxanne got the biggest crowd roar. But everything was good, especially my favorite "King of Pain". I went with Spencer and he agreed it was fantastic. Our seats were behind the stage, but only 4 rows away. We both agreed it was better to be here, then to be in the nose bleeds in front of the band - you feel so far away form the action. I am still on a high from that show. MY LAST DAY OF ESL TEACHER TRAINING!!! Next week I teach 3 more times and do some observation reports and I can teach ESL in Vancouver - I'm pretty stoked. Me and a couple of the other guys in the program have tossed around the idea of starting our own ESL business. Bu there are so many schools in Vancouver, we would have to find some kind of unique niche that would at...