The things christians are capable of doing still surprise me:



Simon explains it better than I can:

"OK, so world economy is tanking hard. And why? Because people have been extremely greedy, living off debt, making money out of money, using false weights and measures (financially speaking), and generally doing a lot of stuff with money that the Bible says is harmful and oppressive. So, what do we expect Christians to do about it?

If you said "remind people prophetically but sensitively that God is concerned about the use of money to oppress others and will sit in judgement over it", then you know your Bible very well, but you don't know Christians at all. If you said that they would pray "to avert financial judgment" and try to escape from what the Bible says, you get five points.

But if you said that they would pray not just to avoid the judgment but also denounce the stock market falls as the work of Satan and pray for more money in front of a freakin' statue of a freakin' golden bullock, for heaven's sake, you get ten points. "

From here, and originated here.

The practice of the presence of God is a very well known classic of the Christian faith. It collects some of the insights given by Brother Lawrence, a friar that impressed people with the peace he transmitted. It's a great book to make us remember that the presence of God is not far from us, even when we are busy in our daily lives.

I can not say I agree with everything on that book, but the main theme is of much value to me.

This week I was present in SHiFT 2008, where I did a presentation on Bioinformatics. Here are the slides, I'll post the video as soon as it is available.

Lord, we have heard of Your fame
We stand in awe
Of Your wonderful deeds, O Lord
Lord, we have heard of Your fame
We stand in awe
Of Your wonderful deeds

Renew them in our day
Renew them in our day
In Your wrath
Remember mercy
In our time
Make them known
Renew them in our day
Renew them in our day
In our time we cry
Renew them in our day

(Habakkuk 3:2)

Recently I have been thinking a lot about Vision, and it's implications on Unity. And the more I think about it, and look around for examples, more I am sure that Vision has great implications concerning unity.

The church must be united. We are all one body. God has given a global vision to his church. But at the same time, God has created great diversity in the world, and gives different visions to different people. All of those visions together fulfil the global vision: build the Kingdom of God. And that's all very well, but it is a utopia to think that we can be in the same small community with people that have different visions and missions.

Let's put this into a formula. The greater the difference between the vision God as given to two different people/groups, the greater the distance between those two people/groups should be, in order to maintain unity.

I know, it seems a contra sense. But think about it. If one has the mission to reach teenagers, and the other elderly people, they can never really be in the same small group. Neither of them would be able to fulfil their purpose in all its fullness. The ministry of one will hinder the ministry of the other. They will be able to have synergy concerning more global events, but never in a very small environment.

For that reason, when you start a house church, it is of utmost importance to be sure that you are all with the same vision. If you are not, everyone will start compromising, and all of us will be very far from our potential.

We had a great time this weekend at Torgon at the @home. It was a time to get to know the house church movement in French speaking Switzerland, create many relationships, and talk a lot about ministerial gifts and how they can be used in house churches. Great discussions, lot's of prayer, sharing of experiences, and a great integration with the kids.

For me it was also a great time of reviving dreams and being encouraged to continue on the vision God has been giving me. The revolution is happening, and it cant be stopped.

More photos in the Torgon 2008 flickr set.

Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one deared
Disturb the sound of silence.

Fools said i,you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon godly made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silent.

This is my final fit,
my final bellyache,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.

No alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises, please.

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

This video just made me feel sad. What does it mean to invest your whole life on something, to see it die, with no one interested in it?

This is me recognizing what I am...

The Girl Effect looks like a very interesting project. It's a way of helping girls in poor countries get an education and have a meaningful life. It's a shame the website has a very poor navigation. To get to the important part, just go to Global Giving.

Bugles are calling
from prairie to shore,
"Sign up" and "Fall in"
and march off to war.
Drums beating loudly,
Hearts beating proudly
Match Blue and Grey
And smile as you say Goodbye.
Smoke hides the valleys
And fire paints the plains.
Loud roar the cannons
'Til ruin remains:
Blue grass and cotton
Burnt and forgotten
All hope seems gone
So soldier march on to die.
There in the distance
A flag I can see,
Scorched and in ribbons
But whose can it be;
How ends the story,
Whose is the glory,
Ask if we dare
Our comrades out there who sleep.

EYE 43 from TRIPLET on Vimeo.

(seen here)

"The rejection of the gospel as social is not just a repudiation of the social gospel; the rejection of the gospel's implications for combating race and class divisions nurtures social niches and fosters a "social-club" gospel." (Paul Metzger, in Consuming Jesus)

I'm reading Consuming Jesus, a very interesting book that talks about race and class divisions in a consumist church, and this quote jumped into my eyes. I have been thinking a lot about unity in church, specially unity as something different from conformity and uniformity. I mean unity in diversity, the only real unity I believe in.

It is easy to be "united" when there is uniformity, or when we abdicate of out uniqueness to conform into a predefined mold. It is so easy, that what it really creates is a false unity, a unity that will only stand firm if we reach out for people "just like us", which normally means middle class white people.

Real unity exists in diversity, where diference is not ignored, but embraced. It is a unity that stands after confrontation and conflict of different visions. It is a unity that when it happens, it has a solid foundation, that no one can destroy. It exists not because of avoiding confrontation, but because of embracing confrontation of different beliefs. Not through conforming with an artificial pattern, or abdicating of beliefs for "the common good".

This is a unity that needs courage, humility, love. That is focused on Jesus Christ, and not on our own pleasures and wishes. It is composed of people that sacrifice their preferences without sacrificing their beliefs. Great maturity is needed to make room for this to happen.

Let me start by saying that The Starfish Manifesto (press the link to download it) is not really a book. It's more like a draft of a book, with many parts that would (and probably should) be changed and cut before becoming a book. Which means it is not easy to read, and it is really long. Only the really interested soul will be able to finish it (like I did, and no one else I know was able to).

The Starfish Manifesto starts where Houses that Change the World stopped. It is focused mainly on the prophetic and apostolic gifts, and how the strategy of God to the discipling of the planet can operate through those gifts.

The book starts describing the roles of the prophet and of the apostle, and then how those roles work together for the envisioning of the strategy of the church, locally as well as globally. It finishes with some practical wisdom in how to make the jump. I identified a lot with what is written in the book, except with the financial principles.

This book, together with The Forgotten Ways, are at the moment, in my opinion, the ones that best describe the vision of God for the church of today. A organic, Christ-centered, Kingdom of God oriented, apostolic, missiological church.

This is a long overdue review. I finished reading this book some months ago.

Serve God, Save the Planet is a book that obviously caught my interest, since it talks about the two most important themes in my life: God and nature.

The book starts by showing all the theoretical reasons why christians should be actively interested in protecting the environment, and it does accomplish that role really well. I wouldn't say it brings much new things for someone that understands both subjects as well as I do, but it is an excellent resume of all those reasons.

After that, it turns into the practical consequences of those beliefs, and that's where I find the book a little bit lacking. Most practical aspects talked about are mainly in a personal level. More about what we can do alone in our house (mainly recycling and saving energy). But not much in how we should work to protect and restore natural habitats, or how we can politically intervene in those subjects. And it got a little bit boring by the end, with so many small things we can do.

But overall, I think it is a great book as an introduction to this subject, and worth a read. I would offer one to people interested but with no clue about the subject.

Going Solo is a conference for freelancers, organized by Stephanie Booth, that looks very interesting, with very practical information, including:

* skills a freelancer needs (doing the work, marketing and networking, contracts and cash flow)
* fixing prices, closing deals, negotiating contracts (the hardcore businessy stuff)
* what kind of work freelancers in the 2.0 world do (some jobs are more suitable for soloists than others)
* marketing and taking care of one’s social capital (blogging… and being a good online citizen)
* tools of the trade (what software/tools/methods can assist you as a freelancer?)
* coworking and staying in touch with “colleagues” (compensating for “working alone” — we remain social animals)
* challenges in making a passion into a job, dealing with the blurring of the life/work distinction
* international clients, travel, different laws and tax rules, accounting
* soloist or small business?
* adapting to different kinds of clients (in particular, how do you deal with big corporations that you approach or who have approached you)

I'll be there :)