Think about it for a minute. I’m sure each of us can come up with a name of somebody affected by the conflict in Lebanon. Even if we don’t know of someone firsthand, we probably know someone who knows someone.

One of my students was planning to fly home to Lebanon with her husband and two boys today. Obviously this won’t happen given the current climate. After sending a text message (SMS) to see if they were safe, she responded with mixed emotion. Joy over being safe from the bombs that are ripping apart southern cities, Sadness over extended family innocently trapped in a conflict they didn’t ask for. In her words, “It’s so sad, Lebanon is getting destroyed and we can’t do anything…”

Maybe we can – do something…

Maybe I can make a difference to this situation. Maybe I can talk about peace while others around me talk up war. Maybe I can emphasize the areas of agreement, rather than focus on the differences. Maybe I can become an advocate of peace in this and other situations. Maybe I can pray for peace to the King of peace.

God, bring your peace, the peace that surpasses all other peace into this situation. I pray this for the glory of your name and for the sake of the innocent. Amen.

Over at JesusCreed - Scot McKnight has posted an example of a� emerging missionally focused church plant. Here is a break down of the structure of their gatherings which cycle around four different events in a month.

• First Sunday: Afternoon Service and concert at a specified ‘Social Centre’ of their city.
• Second Sunday: Members gather in houses (based geographically), for a meal and studying of the scriptures (based on what was preached the week before)
• Third Sunday: House churches meet to do a service project in the community.
• Fourth Sunday: Celebration and party time with the whole� church (or� atleast� each individual house church community)

While I love the idea of different ways of being church I wonder whether we’ll ever move away from classifying church as a ‘one off’ weekly event (maybe a 24/7 church is unrealistic, as I make comment on JesusCreed). I’d love to see more examples of churches functioning as (24/7) communities, where members live life together day by day, not week by week. I guess we don’t hear about such churches as it is impossible to document such interaction between communities. Maybe I’m off with the fairies and all this is a utopian dream that should be shelved? What do you think?

Oh, the intoxicating euphoria of success.� Last month, after my first effort at organizing my thoughts into a column/article/essay/treatise/manifesto/
thesis/screenplay/shopping list, I was absolutely swamped with a veritable tidal wave of emails jamming my inbox.� Most of them were from disgruntled ebay customers wanting to know why their brand new, hand-stitched, Prada beanies had strange holes and smelled like tea.� The other one suggested that I used far too many forward slashes and I should really not bother with the whole thing.�

Well, I must admit that I briefly considering quitting, but then I said to myself, “I’m not a quitter.� I’ll show them”.� So here I am.� I’ve even taken up smoking again.�

And this time I’ve decided that I will talk about Paul.� No, not the guy two doors down who plays distorted electric guitar at 3am and smokes just a bit too much pot.� I’m talking about the Paul who founded the early Christian church and wrote a fair chunk of the New Testament.� That Paul.�

First, some background.� Born Saul of Tarsus to parents Peter and Mary, he was relentlessly bullied in school, due in part to his strange middle name (of), but mainly his parents’ habit of taking him out of school for long periods of time and the three of them touring the Roman empire as a folk music act called Peter Saul and Mary.� Critics were harsh and compared them to the Partridge Family.�

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Matt Glovers protest against Channel 10s� television show BIG BROTHER

What do you think? Should such shows occupy our airwaves/digital lines?

Now I don’t know too much about the show, but I was thinking about it the other day and asked myself; who actually determines when a show has gone too far? If you haven’t caught the news yet, let me fill you in. Many Australians are calling for the removal of the show after two male housemates were evicted from the house for assaulting a fellow female contestant. Someone somewhere determined that the housemates had overstepped the mark and had to go!� The action, or is it the reaction from within the house has caused ordinary Australians to question whether this show should have center stage on our TV sets.

More questions; Was it the action of the now-evicted housemates, or the reaction of the female housemate that caused the motivation toward protest?

I wonder whether we would be moved to protest if the female contestant had simply laughed off the sick-practical joke (gone very pear-shaped) and continued as if nothing had happened. Who determines what is moral and ethical?

I suspect we would still be watching BB without giving the actions of those two knuckle-heads a second thought-had it not been for the reaction of one person. That frightens me!

Brian McLaren is often seen as the public face of the Emerging Church (Movement). This is due (perhaps) to the fact that he has written so many books on the subject. Likewise, he is often outwardly attacked more often than any other leader of the emerging church (perhaps for the same reason).

In a recent post Brian has responded to his critics in a friendly yet firm manner. Now I have to admit that until lately I had not read or listened to much of Brian. I’m not sure why this is the case; but kinda felt uninspired and unmotivated. It’s interesting that while I was unwilling to read any of his works, I was not immune to the rumours that Brian was a “liberal,” “heretic,” “of the devil,” “Satanic,” and a “fundamentalist”. That many people are happy to form opinions on a subject (or person) without even engaging with the primary source is one of the issues Brian raises in his post (point 4), and Jordon Cooper continues and expands on (on behalf of Brian).

Anyway, recently (2-3 months ago) I heard a podcast on ‘Bleeding Purple’ where McLaren was being interviewed. As I listened to Brian speak I was taken back by his caring and pastoral heart. I heard in his voice, more than the words he spoke, a genuine love and concern for his listeners, his readers, his church, and his not-yet Christ following friends. Since then I have read his book ‘Generous Orthodoxy’ and again find a deep rooted love and concern for those who need to find Jesus. It is this same tone that I find in ‘A Friendly Note to My Critics’.

Brian may, or may not be many things – I don’t know. But I like and am drawn to that heart felt concern he has for those he encounters. It reminds me of a guy name Jesus who even when addressing his critics did it with love and compassion.

�

Stephan Ridgeway was one of the interesting guys I met at the podcating and WIKI workshop I attended recently. Stephan bought in a heap of audio gear to help with recording our podcasts. He works as an eLearning Coordinator for Learning and Innovation in TAFE NSW (Sydney Institute) where pocasting, wikis and vblogging are utitilised.

He has two blogs that focus on podcating and web2.0 technology - ‘Casting the net podcasting’ and ‘Talking VTE Podcast’. Check them out. Both are a good resource if you want to start introducing podcasting, WIKIs and blogging to whatever you do.

Steve Addison writes;� � If you want to change something in your life, it’s common to try to stop the behaviors you don’t like. While this certainly seems logical, it seldom works. The reason is simple – it unintentionally creates a vacuum where the old behaviors used to be. And since nature hates a vacuum it will fill it with anything it can find – usually the very behaviors you’re trying to stop since they’re so familiar. Instead of stopping certain behaviors, try focusing on what you want to create – and the new behaviors you need to get there. Eventually, with practice, new behaviors will develop enough muscle to naturally replace the old ones.

� � Nature abhors a vacuum. François Rabelais (1494-1553)

Try This:

1. Notice any place in your life where you say you’ve got to stop doing something.
2. Shift your mind to think about what you need to start doing in that area.
3. Be specific. Write down the exact things you want to do.
4. Don’t admonish yourself for doing the old behaviors, rather stay focused on starting the new ones and the old ones will diminish on their own.