"dunner" aka: firetruck

I don't think I've posted a picture of these two online yet... welcome to my blog Benjamin and Katrina... nephew and niece..



- they don't look like the blueberry girl from wonka in real life...not sure what is going on with this computer..

Favorite lines from Benjamin include: dunner (a firetruck..), lion, no, and unca Ciss...

Thursday night was my last class ever at Tyndale UC with only 1 exam to complete the undergrad. The last class was a bit of a doozy, with a group presentation that went off the tracks for a solid 7 minutes, (complete with references to the problems with the Emerging Church of all things!) only to slowly return and make an alright recovery. I realized that I have a problem laughing during awkward situations, although I was aware of that before. I don't think that I have stopped to think about what life after Tyndale will feel like, or to reflect on what has happened in the last five years but I've got some time to do some soul searching.

My thesis is finished, marked and handed back. I did okay for blasting that thing out in 3.5 weeks...although it did have some weak points, which Professor Evans was sure to drive home during my defense...thanks dawg..really appreciate that.

Hanging out with Cam tonight for the first time since Christmas, my guess is that the hockey game and a pub will be invovled.

my personal...

The idea of church, its value and function, its life and processes, are formed within us as we learn about and experience it. Everything that I understood church to be was the result of being raised in one. I think this may be true of a lot of what we might call "the younger evangelicals" (book still on my shelf... summers coming!), who grew up in the albatross that is the evangelical church. Now, I must admit that I did not have a particularly negative experience in my 'home' church. In fact, I still have a lot of family friends there and speak with the youth pastor on a regular basis. The trouble was not with my church but more so with my understanding of it, which at some point contributed to my very elitist, personal church.

I was an idiot.

To be quite honest, I really had no time for churches from other denominations, let alone the Catholic church- dear goodness-we should drop off some tracts. I suppose I had no concept of church history, the universal body of Christ or the notion that my church might ever be (gulp) wrong. I'm not saying that it is, or was, only that I didn't understand the church as a group of people whose messy lives are connected in this thing called salvation, and that its not, and probably never will be a perfect community.

All of this to say, I think that the idea of personal church is what has caused so much anger when people dissect and critique the Emergent Church because it is different than what we have come to know as 'the church'. We think that if there is another way to 'do' or 'be' church, that our way is wrong and thus the Emergent Church is an attack on our 80 year old traditional church. We think that we have to defend our church and our church practice, that we must go on the offensive to prove that EC is wrong and thus be validated in our own experience of church. After all, if our church isn't wrong, our church doesn't need to change.

I don't think that right or wrong is the question I'm asking. I was speaking with Craig Carter the other day and he made this statement, "I'm more concerned about why 450 people are showing up on Saturday than whether Mclaren's understanding of the atonement is orthodox". Regardless of right or wrong, why is this happening?

I don't expect many answers soon, its probably hard to pinpoint and involves a lot of, shall we say...conversations. Nonetheless, I'm happy that its happening and am more excited about the future of the church than ever before.

the day after

An entire 13 months of planning all came to a head yesterday- and I honestly need to say that I was overwhelmed by how good God is- demonstrated so many times throughout that period, and especially yesterday. Overwhelmed.
Nathan has summed up a few of his highlights, so I'll try not to duplicate too many...but here's a list of my favorite things about yesterday, beginning with...
* The guy sitting on the green couch while Don Miller is being introduced: Chris to Don: "Do you know that guy?" Don to Chris "No. I thought you knew him." Chris to Don "Ah crap".
* The craziness that was 7:30am-9:30am.
* Chris Seay might be one of my new favorite people- I didn't get to sit in on his sessions for too long, but from speaking with him over the couple of days he was around- wow.--- warm, friendly, congruent.
* Our volunteers were absolutely AMAZING- I'm not sure I have words to describe how good they were yesterday- and how God used them to bless people- seriously- outstanding. Thanks Alicia, Siobahan, Dirks, Jardin, Sarah, T-Pot, Nathan, John, Naomi, Rachel, Christina, Joy Beth, Danielle, Sharon, Michelle, Dan, Katie, Fulford and Ashley!
* The random people I met who were so encouraging.
* I wasn't in the first worship time, but I was in the second and I was overwhelmed by presence of the Spirit in that room- never experienced anything like it at Tyndale before. Jay, Big D, Katie and Dave K.- thank you so much.
* Having my arm nearly ripped off by our President as he created a moment that I will never forget- and yet its a blur even now- it happened so fast, but his words will stay with me for a long time.
* The atmosphere, the joy in people, their graciousness.
* An email from George and a phone call from Pernell after the conference.
* The crazy things- such as not knowing where Mclaren or Miller were for the first hour...or losing a large amount of money, only to find it in the garbage- athankyou Lord.
* Encouraging words from our new friends, Don, Tom & George.
* Chris Ricci and his team.- so much preparation- and so well done. To me, IT does well when you don't notice them (ie. not looking back to see why the sound guy has screwed up...)- as long as I've worked with Chris Ricci, I have never looked back- so professional, hard working- and wants it to be as good as we do... thanks Chris.
Finally...
* The boys and all of our MSN meetings, restaurant meetings, the speaker phone, forums, the bp, the emails,- the hours and hours... something good has begun, and I love that its with each of you. Single tear.

Anyway, those are some things off the top of my head. I might post some more later- maybe some pics to go with it. You can find tons of extra stuff at the website- and please, if you were there- take advantage of the forums and try and flush out and wrestle with all that you took in.