Theology After Google is a whole lot of awesome. There are some incredible folks gathered together to discuss today’s theological currents. Check the schedule and follow the conversation on Twitter or on live streaming video.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally
begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us
and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

This is pulled directly from the IVP Ancient Christian Doctrine series. I love the way they did the line breaks. I imagine a colon after “eternally” which is then followed by a bullet list of things that have “eternal” import.

eternally begotten of the Father
eternally God from God, Light from Light
eternally true God from true God
eternally begotten, not made
eternally of one Being with the Father

I don’t know if that is how it is meant to be read, but it really resonates well with me, poetically.

I find the way that the creed approaches sin and separation (the fall) to be really interesting. I mean, it doesn’t mention an individual moment of falling at all. Whatever state we are in now flows directly from a concept of God’s creation of all things seen and unseen. There is no jarring disruption of a perfect ordering. To be sure, there is the idea of salvation and its necessity, as well as its enacting through the life and death of Jesus.

Surely salvation is necessary. You have to be delusional to believe that God is happy with the way certain things proceed here on earth. Not to overly simplify things, but truly, God’s rescue mission is the theme of the Bible; saving his people from slavery; calling them back from Babylon; a desire to create our own Kingdoms in the place of God’s. But those failings are not because of a single, sudden precipitous fall from grace. They are our human condition, the path we each take through choices in life. We love in the midst of sin – each of us, no matter our religion. We follow God even while we wander. We learn from hurting and pain. We fall (over and over, not once for all) and then our rising (again and again) is all the more wonderful each time.

One other part of the creed that I really love:

For us
and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary
and was made man.

I love the separation and emphasis of both the “For us” and the “for our salvation”

A very important reminder. God’s focus is his people and all of his creation, not just His salvation plan. We don’t exist merely to give credence to God’s plan, as some Christians like to claim. We were made by a creator who desires to be deeply involved in his creation. A plan becomes totalitarianism without love.

And God is not just maintaining us here through his plan. The Kingdom is coming in fullness. God doesn’t ask us to be satisfied with the status quo, but calls us to partner toward a greater day. Stories of goodness are still on the horizon.

Many people have spent much energy in trying to stop Brantford from following the failed attempts of many other cities to revitalize their downtowns by tearing them down. A stretch of four blocks of buildings that are between 100 and 150 years old are scheduled to be erased in the next few weeks. Four blocks that up until a few weeks ago were the homes of quite a few thriving businesses.

30-plus years of neglect and mismanagement lead to a deteriorating streetscape and downtown morale. Unfortunately there are quite a few people in our city who can’t see past cosmetics to the beautiful history that is in desperate need of preserving. Our downtown needs love, not divorce.

1600 plus have joined the Save the South Side of Colborne Facebook group.

Newpaper articles decrying city council’s mismanagement and idiocy have been published in municipalities all over Southern Ontario. For some reason those within are own city limits are the last to recognize the value in these sturdy and stunning heritage structures. There generations of stories that are about to be hastily torn down and carted off to a landfill with no solid plan for what will replace them.

I personally can’t believe that we are still seeing these kinds of city planning decisions being made after the horror of suburbanization and desertification of our downtown centers. I look whistfully at every bordering municipality and their strong efforts to preserve, restore and continue the stories of their heritage.

We are hoping there is still time to save something. Please visit the Facebook group and view the incredible photography, articles, stories, and emotions that this monumental mistake is about to obliterate. If nothing else, we want to tell these stories and create memories that will endure so that we don’t make these mistakes in the future.

Update: A Tumblr page collecting quotes, images and articles.

The term missional suffers from continued confusion. Lately I think to too many Missional means "I’m not Emergent but I am still progressive!" And it is still easily captured by those who see nothing of value in institutional christianity. "Missional means getting away from crusty church buildings and doing something ‘organicky.’

But another problem is arising for me right now. I want the church community that I have a small responsibility in directing to define what it means to be missional on the street corner where our tiny church is located. Right now the "Missional Living" page on the church website is blank because I don’t think I nor any other expert can tell us definitively what we need to place there.

But how do I put something into motion without it being MY vision that will hinder the imaginations of the many very different people that we see every week?

• God is active and engaged in this world.
• Follow His lead.
• Listen to His instruction.
• Go and participate in His work.
• Get out of this building, but come back next week to report and encourage!

Ok. I’ve got something to put there now.
Should I add anything else?

Happy Sophie from david on Vimeo.

Yes, I have fallen in love with this girl. Fighting it would have been hopeless.

Nick Fiedler traveled the world, and all he got was this lousy epistemology. Kidding. He did however end up with an honest memoir, and even managed to get it published.

As an aside, the books being published by IVP’s Likewise imprint over the last three years have been some of the most important and challenging books on the religion book shelves. I’ve read a handful of them and have been impressed with the immediacy of their content. None have been overly spiritualized or have offered quick fix Christian solutions to find you a better life. They have documented struggle and heartache, faith and doubt, and a beautiful way to live in a real world. Big-time recommendation here.

So back to the latest kick-ass Likewise title. Nick invites as along with him as he sorts through the pieces of his Christian faith and determines what to throw away, what to put into storage, and what to take with him on his journey ahead. These mental exercises are mirrored by his real life preparation and experience of a trip around the globe to see what he hasn’t been able to see growing up deep in the Bible Belt of the USA. Nick gets instant credibility by taking actual steps to live out his developing outlook.

Since I’ve been keen on learning from the emerging and missional christian community I had heard pretty much all of his positions and references before (many via his self-titled “The Nick and Josh Podcast“). There wasn’t any new territory covered. But there were a few points where Nick’s straightforward speech refreshed and energized my thoughts. I wish I had the book with me at the moment so I could quote a couple spots.

Nick apologizes at the beginning of the book for anything he might say that might anger some people. His insists that nothing he writes is intended to be critical for sake of being angry and rebellious. I was ready for a firestorm to follow, but it wasn’t there. There really is way more Hopeful than Skeptical here, and Nick is very careful to be civil and respectful throughout. Or at least that’s how I read it. Other people may be raging right now, I don’t know. (I just edited this paragraph in. I’m writing this at work so I am rushing and forgetting things I originally wanted to say. Any further edits will be in a follow-up post. Actually, there will definitely be a follow-up post tonight when I get home. I really want to share a couple specific spots that I enjoyed.)

My big question for Nick is, “why didn’t you tell us more about your travels?” We were given brief glimpses and stories, but Nick almost seemed apologetic when he started telling too many stories and quickly switched back into preaching mode

Nick and Leslie went on this marvelous trip all over the globe, but the majority of the book is about preparation and reflection. I wanted so much more dusty roads and footsteps. I guess I’ll just need to do my own traveling.

My one critique is more technical that topical. I think more stringent editorial work would have helped the message be much more powerful.

Oh, and the last chapter is worth the price of the book alone. Great writing there.

Great book, Nick.

Tonight I’m outside smoking a cigar and drinking cider and beer. And I’m reflecting on the decade that has lead me here.

And at the beginning of 2000 I was taking a course on Psalms at Heritage Bible College and playing on the college basketball team (2000 Champions!). I was preparing a portfolio presentation for my application to go to Sheridan College for Illustration.

Reaching further back, I had grown up in the church. I attended a Christian private elementary school from Kindergarten to Grade Eight. After highschool I spent two years at the Bible College. I cemented my faith with certainty and arguments to prove myself against the unbelievers I would surely meet in art school.

In 2001 those two planes crashed into New York. My certainty and argumentativeness rose to a fever pitch. I believed that America needed to blow up Islam in order to save Jesus. In class I debated evolution. I became a young earth sciences scholar of the first degree.

Then one of my dearest friends told me a story about a wonderful woman who had died. She loved others and treated them as she would have them treat her. Her son was devasted by the loss of his loving mother so early in her life. And my sure, certain, and rocky foundation crumbled and sifted down into sand.

I used my influence to encourage our campus Christian group to engage issues that we could invite everyone to converse about – not just other Christians. Our topics included God Hates War, What Is Love? and What Is Religion?. We invited an Iraqi ex-pat to come and tell us what was really going on in the lives of people in former-Mesopotamia. And it worked. We were able to engage with atheists and muslims on these topics without worrying about protecting our own message too tightly.

I left art college and went back home. I became clear to me how much I had moved. I no longer was living in the rocky shore of certainty where my parents lived. I was living fully in the river. After a few months living in this frustrating mixture of truth cultures I moved to Toronto to live as I felt I needed to live. Five months later I was broke and broken (the good kind of broken). I moved home again, only to find that I was no longer at home. I was an adult, and needed to move out again.

Two jobs and one cross-country-roadtrip later I found myself out of the house, working a career graphic design job and involved in a relationship that would become a marriage.

Through my job (in Christian publishing) I found things. Postmodernism, Emergence, Conversations, Brian D. McLaren, tall and skinny Kiwis, Simple Ways, and a whole community of deeply committed spiritual folk who I never could have dreamed to have existed.

I discovered a love of God that didn’t revolved around a need that every brick in my truth wall be perfectly fitted. I could engage with people that believed differently than me and not feel threatened that my faith would be fragmented, nor that my own views would necessarily unjustly impact them.

I’ve talked with these people, I’ve read more books than is healthy, and I’ve begun to find ways to live what I believe again. Not everything is as it should be, but love is there. Hope is there. The Kingdom of God is here (and to come).

And now I need to get to sleep so that I can adequately serve our church community tomorrow.

Thanks to Jon and Mindy Hirst (and Dr. Paul Heibert). This wasn’t really a review of their lovely book. And unlike their writing seems to suggest, I don’t think I’ve arrived at any sort of final destination, but I do love the progression that happens in one’s life when you make that daring dive off the rocky cliffs and swim through the river to the valley beyond. Goodnight.

(I’m seriously devastated that I have cut a decade of my life down to a few paragraphs. There is so much I wanted to say, but I also wanted you to read this. Much love.)

I hope you have all had (are having) a wonderful Christmas (or what have you).This is our first with the wee one and it has been lovely. The poor girl is quite exhausted today after a long day of family Christmas. Unfortunately for her there is just as much excitement happening today. Poor Sophia doesn’t get to dive in to the turkey and stuffing and chocolate and wine like we do. Well, I guess indirectly she does.

Anyway, I have a long list of books that I will be interacting with here in the next weeks. Here is the rundown.

The Justice Project
Editors Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, Ashley Bunting Seeber

Through the River
Jon Hirst, Mindy Hirst, with Dr. Paul Hiebert

The Hopeful Skeptic
Nick Fiedler

Christianity, Climate Change, and Sustainable Living
Nick Spencer, Robert S. White, Virginia Vroblesky

The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida
John Caputo

Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle
Kent Annan

Regurgitating what I read always seems like the best way to really get nourishment from it. I guess I read like a cow eats. Word.

Faith breathes.
Inhaling deeply of the air that contains it.
It welcomes the truth that floats on the wind,
that lives in the song of a child in the playground.

Faith is fearless.
It searches for the dark places so it can share the light of its faithfulness,
only to find that light in the most unexpected place.
The dark places aren’t quite so dark where faith is found.

Faith stretches.
It crosses chasms,
it does crazy things that shouldn’t be tried.
Faith doesn’t care about boundaries or common practice.

Posted via web from Whatever You Art

Posted via email from Whatever You Art

24 hours of doodling, sketching, scribbling, and scrawling. Starting Friday night at 8pm and continuing for a full 24 hours, a handful of friends and I will be drawing on some very large sheets of paper at the downtown Arts Block in one of the most creative gallery openings that I have ever seen.

There is more info about the Drawathon as well as the rest of the fantastic art that will be being displayed on the walls at the Brantford Arts Block website as well as the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there!

Posted via email from Whatever You Art

What a blur these last few days have been!

Sophia Faith came to live with us on Thursday afternoon after only about 7 hours of labour. Amy’s water broke at 5am and we headed to the hospital where her contractions began and quickly escalated. By noon the nurse was calling for her doctor to come for the delivery. As easy as it gets it seems.

Thursday night the ward at the hospital was nice and quiet, just us in the three bed room. But Friday things got quite a bit noisier and we hurried our escape back home.

I’m not sure how but I feel really comfortable with her. I’ve never been a baby person and am usually terrified of holding anyone’s child, but with Sophia I can’t get enough. There is a real tangible sense of ‘I was made to do this’. It’s incredible!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us congratulations, food, clothing and smiles. All of your kindness and generosity means so much to us.

More pictures live here.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan … I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”

-Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, in a letter resigning his State Department Foreign Service post in Afghanistan. Afghans, he wrote, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are an unwelcome occupier backing a corrupt national government. (Source: The Washington Post)

ht: SojoMail

TransFORM: Missional Community Formation from TransFORM on Vimeo.

Missional pastors and practitioners talk about the joys and struggles of forming missional communities of practice

I LOVE this! And Stephanie Shepherd’s birthing analogy really hit where we are right now. Awesome.

ht: Mak

I read A People’s History of Christianity back during the summer. I had intended to remark on it here at the time but then all aspects of my life sort of shattered at once. Blogging was one thing that just had to stop while recovery happened. The resulting expanse of time that bridges July to October means that I get to reopen Diana’s book and rediscover all the notes I wrote as I read – a pastime that I love. But even more than that, this is a book whose stories, once begun, are hard to pull away from. When a talented author begins a paragraph with a name and a place and a time I am hooked. (For example: “At the height of the Liberation theology movement in the 1980s, my friend Brad lived in Latin America, where he participated in a base community, a kind of radical Bible study group in an impoverished village.”¹)

Fact: I will never interpret the text as a woman.

If a faith community is not voiced in balance by both men and women then it is not healthy. From a certain point of view it is easy to see the history of Christianity as being a long line of white-bearded men telling the world how to live and killing everyone who dissents. While we have certainly had our asshole moments, Diana explores some dusty corners and rereads the main bits again to find that the Christian history has in fact been largely a healthy, balanced conversation lead by men and women in community with each other and in faithful dialogue with the Spirit of God.

Sometimes we forget to listen to the full story. We like to listen to the powerful and the male² but often not to the full history of God in this world.

Reading the stories of Vibia Perpetua, Hildegard of Bingen, a fresh telling of Martin Luther’s ministry, and countless others who have either been caricatured or forgotten by history helps us to see how “Christian history tethers contemporary faith to ancient wisdom.”³ This book is about helping a very forgetful people to remember. Just as Israel lived their faith in God through remembering his deeds of the past, we need to be better storytellers of the church’s history. It is that remembering (but not trying to get back to a better time) that will connect us with the God of our present.

I love the coffee I’m currently brewing so much that I had to share. I get almost all of my beans from a small Roastery here in town called Blue Dog. Their coffee is organic, ethical, fair, and TASTY. Right now I am grinding some dark roast beans from Nicaragua for an afternoon cup while I work on some illustrations. Bold and sweet with a really deep earthiness. Yum!

“Better than a thousand hollow words
Is one word that brings peace.
Better than a thousand hollow verses
Is one verse that brings peace.
It is better to conquer yourself
Than to win a thousand battles.
Then the victory is yours.”

Buddha in the Dhammapada