NEW LOCATION FOR MY BLOG You might notice the posts here are WAY out of date. The new location of my blog is actually at: campea.wordpress.com Update your bookmarks accordingly.

Shutting down for a while As most of you have noticed, I've haven't been updating the site much since moving out here to Ontario. I think I've decided to shut the site down for a little while. No, not a Jordon Cooper 5 hour shut down, more like 2 or 3 month shut down. I have a lot of stuff to mull through about my feelings towards the organized church and I think I need to make it an internal monologue for a while. In the meantime I'll be putting most of my "online" energy towards The Movie Blog. As a matter of fact, in the next day or 2 the url johncampea.com will take you to The Movie Blog's site. Thanks to you all who have read my site, sent email and engaged in great conversation. I'll be back.

StudentMinistry.Net domain for sale A few years ago I started a website called StudentMinistry.Net. It was basically a resource site for youth pastors and youth leaders with articles, film reviews and audio files of sermons of mine. To my surprise it became rather popular and at one point was getting around 5000 people a week coming to the site. After 3 years it became just too hard to keep it updated and so I shut it down. I still own the domain name and apparently around 75 people a week go looking for it. I've decided to sell the name to anyone who wants to put it to good use. Let me know if you're interested and what you want to use it for. I'll either give it to the highest bidder, or the ther person who has the most creative idea for it.

Jordon Cooper Rocks Jordon easily has the best blog (or personal website) that I have ever read. I don't always agree with him (which is usually more fun), but his thoughts and insights are always thought provoking. Anyone who wants to expand the way they think should read his site on a regual basis, I know I do. I'm going to miss Tuesday soup with him.

I'm Home! I'm finally back in Ontario! Home sweet home! It's so great being back here. It's almost too hard to explain. There are many many people back in Saskatoon that I'm going to miss terribly, but here in Ontario is where I'm supposed to be. It's home. We got in last night a about 3am and slept in till about 9:30am. I've already been outside with my niece, tried to rip around on my father's 4 wheel ATV, chatted with one of my sisters and other assorted things. I'm going out to look at gyms in a little while to use for the rest of the summer until school starts. It's just really good to be back.

Last post for a couple of days Monday morning I will hit the road for a 2 day drive to Ontario, my old/new home. I have loved Saskatoon deeply, and loved many who live here. One chapter closes, another begins. I'll post when I arrive.

Re-Thinking the Tithe Part 2 I've had some really interesting discussions with some people over the last couple of days since I first posted on the issue of tithing. A few common questions keep coming up that I thought I would address here. 1) What about the OT verse about bringing in the whole tithe? (Malachi 3:10) The reason I don't give any weight to this passage in terms of supporting giving the tithe to the local church is that the context of the passage was meant for the Temple. In the OT, the temple was the absolute focus of Hebrew social and religious life and their main perceptual representation of God himself. The problem is that the Temple does not exist anymore, and nowhere does the NT suggest that local church structures are to be considered the new Temple. The NT points to believers themselves being the new Temple of the living God, not a local church organizational structure. 2) What about evangelism? Yes, SOME of our money should be used for evangelism. The problem is that most people seem to forget that evangelism is most effectively done by individual believers to individual people. This is the NT model. There where no local church structures that Christians tried to bring people to once a week in hopes that they would get saved there. Instead, Acts 2 suggests that the believers sold their possessions and gave it to others in need (or as they had need). It also says that money was brought to the feet of the apostles, but that money was also used to meet the physical needs of people. It was this atmosphere that allowed the believers to "enjoy the favor of all the people". In such an atmosphere, our testimony carries more credibility and therefore more power. So you see, I think evangelism itself would be more well served if our money went to serve peoples needs instead of paying for church buildings. 3) Shouldn't we also be concerned about Spiritual needs? Yes, we should absolutely be concerned about meeting spiritual needs. However, MONEY DOES NOT MEET SPIRITUAL NEEDS! There is no dollar sign holding people back from the living God. I guess the bottom line for me is that Jesus talked about using our money and giving in terms of the poor and needy, not in terms of paying for a church building. I'd still love to hear any thoughts you may have. Am I missing something here?

The Movie Blog is now up and running Well, I should say it's "sort of" up and running. The blog itself and the commenting system are all operational. The only things left to do are the "fluff" things like external links and a couple of graphics. Please stop in and let me know what you think. I decided to keep the look very simple and stream lined so there isn't a lot of eye candy there. Hope you like it.

Re-Thinking Tithing I'm starting to re-think the whole issue of tithing (I think I'm spelling that wrong). I'm just getting so sick and tired of all this money we as christians are giving, ending up paying for church buildings, new wing expansions, carpet cleanings ect. ect. ect. I did a quick survey of 3 churches financial reports. As it turns out, on average 83% of all church money goes to paying for church buildings, building costs, and salaries. On average, less than 4% of these churches annual budgets went to feeding hungry people, clothing naked people, fighting aids, helping drug addicts or alcaholics, paying the bills for low income families ect. ect. ect. The more I read the gospels, the more I'm realizing that the idea of "giving" as preached by Jesus was never about funding organizations or television ministries or even churches. The concept of giving was all about meeting peoples practical needs. I'm sadly discovering that giving to churches only meets the church building needs. Therefore, I'm thinking that from now on I'll only donate a much smaller portion of my income to an organized church, and use the rest of my giving to meeting peoples needs. Buying food for families or food banks, maybe paying some peoples bills who can't make ends meet, give more money to the aids crisis in Africa. Basically, I think I'm going to start using my money the way I think Jesus would use it today. You may now begin sending me hate mail. :)

Getting ready for TheMovieBlog.Com A few years ago, my friend Dave Lapsley and I had a website called Movie-Reviews.Org that we hada lot of fun with. On the site we just posted our own film reviews, but we got a decent amount of traffic. Unfortunetly, after a couple of years we both got really busy, and seeing 3-4 movies a week got pretty expensive. Now, we've decided to launch a new site called TheMovieBlog.Com. On the site we'll still post some of our own reviews, as well as links to other good reviews, and also post our own thoughts and opinions on movie business news. I think it'll be a lot of fun. The thing is, we'd like to have a group of people help us out, so in the next few weeks I'll be begging some of you guys to join up with us.

Un-freaking-believable! Metallica are a bunch of losers. The band Metallica has just gone WAAAYYYY too far. They are now suing a Canadian rock band for using the chords E and F too much. Apparently Metallica feels those two chords are now synonymous with "Metallica". No one else may use them too much. Here's and excerpt from the article:

"People are going to get on our case again for this, but try to see it from our point of view just once," stated Metallica's Lars Ulrich. "We're not saying we own those two chords, individually - that would be ridiculous. We're just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music." Metallica filed a trademark infringement suit against the indie group at the US district court for central California on Monday. According to the drummer, the continued use of the two chords causes "confusion, deception and mistake in the minds of the public".

This is just insane. How on earth can these washed up rockers even take themselves seriously? I hope the old 60's band The "M"onkeeys sue "M"etallica for using the letter "M" in their name. It would serve them right. Thanks to my buddy Darren Conley for pointing the story out to me.

Popular Apple "Switch" campaign a miserable failure We've all seen the Apple switch commercials. Even I have to admit that the commercials are really funny and quite good. However, I was watching Screensavers on Tech-TV tonight and they are reporting that although Intel and Dell have made huge market share and profit gains this year, Apple has not. As a matter of fact, before they launched the "Switch" ads, Apple had only a 3%-4% market share. Since the campaign, Apple's market share remains at a lowly 3%-4%. Translation: The Switch campaign didn't convince anybody to buy a Mac. It just entertained us.

My last post from this house Well, tomorrow morning at 9am the movers come to pack up my house and ship our stuff off to Hamilton. We'll be staying at my friend Trevor and Rae's place for about a week and a half as we finish saying our goodbyes to our friends here in Saskatoon. I'll miss this apartment we've been living in. It's nice, fireplace, cool large balcony and right across the street form my old office and gym so I could walk to work and the rent was very reasonable. My next post will be from Trevor's place.

The one bad thing about moving back to Hamilton One of my favorite set of memories as a kid was going to see Hamilton Ti-Cat football games with my dad. Oh the days of Tom Clements and Rocky Dipietro. I'm really looking forward to going down to a ball game every couple of weeks. Unfortunetly it looks like I'll be going to watch my hometown team lose… and lose a lot. So far the Cats are 0-4 this year, and tomorrow night they'll probably go to 0-5 against Edmonton. Oh well, I'm just grateful to watch the games again. Living in Saskatoon meant I had to drive 2.5 hours to catch a game in Regina. The one time I went was the most BORING game I've ever seen. The final score was Montreal 6 - Saskatchewan 3. Not a single touchdown.

No Soup For You! Every Tuesday it's been sort of a tradition around here for a bunch of us (Jordon, Jeb, Mike, Darren) to get together at this little asian place for soup. I don't participate in the "Spicey Soup" (as is well documentend on Jordon's site) but I LOVE the soup I normally order. I also really like the time visiting and talking with my friends. Imagine my horror when I drove out there this afternoon and found that the place was CLOSED! How DARE they be closed!!!! Don't they realize I'm moving tomorrow!?!?! Sigh, how sad for me.

8 things most couples fight over I found this article highlighting the 8 main things most couples often fight over. I found it pretty interesting and also pretty accurate.

John Maxwell status downgraded from wuss to pansy Darryl Dash has one of my favorite blogs. We share many things in common, including an extreme dislike for self proclaimed leadership guru John Maxwell. Maxwell has made a career out of spouting off vague generalities and linking business strategies with spirituality. For this and other crimes against humanity, Darryl had labeled him a "wuss". That status has recently been downgraded to the level of "Pansy". The reason for the new awful status is due to a letter Darryl got which said the following:

This letter is written to inform you that the John Maxwell event for October 8, 2003 has been cancelled. Unfortunately, INJOY Ministries feels the risk is too great for John to come to Toronto with the SARS problem on the rise again.

Darryl then goes on to point out that statistically Maxwell has a greater chance of dying in a plane crash on his way to Toronto than catching SARS. But then again, no one has ever accused Maxwell of having an over abundance of common sense.

Why JohnCampea.Com is much much MUCH better than JordonCooper.Com Although several papers and volumes could be written on this subject, I will save you time by summing up the most vital points of the assertion. In the end I'm sure you'll agree (most of you probably already do) that JohnCampea.Com is vastly superior to the sad little JordonCooper.Com site. Let us proceed: 1) Jordon currently has about 5 times the traffic that I do. Obviously this means that MY site will load faster, thus saving you, the reader, time and energy. 2) Jordon reads about 100 more books a year than I do. This inevitably leads to much more "wordy" posts on his site. Filling his posts with "insights" and "ideas" that he gleans from a diverse pool of sources just clutters up his writing. The consequence is that you the reader are forced against your will to do an undesirable amount of "thinking". I, on the other hand, quickly cut to the chase and just tell you what to think, once again saving you time and energy. 3) JordonCooper.com uses the colour red in the title graphic. This obviously means that Jordon worships the Devil. While I spend a lot of time in prayer and bible study over the posts that I put on my site, Jordon consults fortune tellers and spiritual mediums about the direction of his site. I'm also sure he performs animal sacrifices in his basement on a nightly basis. Of course, I can't "prove" any of these assertions or back them up with "facts", but my gut tells me it's true. 4) Standing at about 6'4 Jordon is a really big guy… and everybody knows that big guys can't be trusted because they're secretly Nazi spies. 5) I cheer for the Maple Leafs, while Jordon cheers for the Flames. The Leafs can kick the Flames ass any time any where. Obviously this means I'm a better blogger. 6) Jordon forces his son Mark to wear a Calgary Flames jersey. I'm contemplating contacting Child Services. 7) Jordon frequently travels around speaking at various schools and conferences… showing absolutely NO commitment to his readers. I on the other hand never get invited to speak anywhere, which means I am faithfully here on a consistent basis to write my posts and bring meaning to your empty desolate lives. I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point abundantly clear. So keep reading JohnCampea.com folks. Less traffic, fewer thoughts, not a devil worshiper, better hockey taste and most importantly… not a secret Nazi spy.

The League of ORDINARY Gentlemen & Pirates of the Caribbean I checked out a couple of flicks this weekend. The first one was the new Johnny Depp flick "Pirates of the Caribbean". The trailers for this one looked just pathetic, but to my surprise I found the film to be really charming. It was lighthearted, the action was exciting, the humour was legitimately funny and the visuals were strong. Don't get me wrong, this flick isn't going to be winning any Oscars, but it was a fun summertime movie. Go check it out for a little fun. If Pirates was a pleasant surprise, then "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" was a horrible nightmarish surprise. I was so disappointed with this film. The movie didn't completely suck, but it was a big let down. On a personal note, my old company Satellite Animation Studios did a few of the amazing visual effects which is their 3rd major motion picture. Avoid this one, or at least see it when it's cheap to get in.

So #&$%!*! frustrating! It’s bad enough that jerks and other ill-intentioned people have the power in life to cause you pain. I’m not really talking about physical pain, but more along the lines of emotional pain/hurt/stress. At least you can see the jerks coming. The real problem is the not-jerks, the good people, the folks who honestly mean you no harm. I’ve often found that well meaning people, who through mistakes or ignorance, have much greater power to hurt you. The worst part is that you can’t really get too pissed off at them… because after all, they didn’t MEAN to hurt you. So now you’re hurt AND frustrated. Ugg, we are such fragile creatures… well, at least I am.

Why don't they just hand next years NBA title to the Lakers now? "The Los Angeles Lakers' dream team could give the rest of the NBA nightmares. Free agent Karl Malone, the NBA's second-leading all-time scorer, committed Thursday to join the Lakers, who are quickly becoming one of the most star-studded teams in history. He joins Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and another newcomer, Gary Payton, a nine-time All-Star who agreed earlier this week to play for the Lakers. 'They have a Hall of Fame team in the making,' New Jersey Nets assistant coach Lawrence Frank said. 'They have an outstanding team, an outstanding system and an outstanding coach." Read the whole story here

Coke vs. Water This little fact list has been floating around the internet for a while now, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I really hate it cause I LOVE my coke! I love it. I yearn for it. MMmmmmmm... Cooookkkkeeee (said in my best Homer Simpson voice).

WATER 1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the word population.) 2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. 3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%. 4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a Washington study. 5. Lack of water is the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue. 6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back any joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. 7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic maths, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page. 8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of Colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. ARE YOU DRINKING THE AMOUNT OF WATER YOU SHOULD EVERY DAY? COKE 1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. 2. You can put a T-bone stead in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days. 3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china. 4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminium foil dipped in Coca-Cola. 5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. 6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes. 7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will helploosen grease stains. 8. Coca-Cola will clean road haze from your wind shield. FOR YOUR INFORMATION 1. The active ingredient in Coke is Phosphoric Acid. Its ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric Acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in Osteoporosis. 2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for HIGHLY CORROSIVE materials. 3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! Now the question is, "WOULD YOU LIKE A GLASS OF WATER OR COKE?"

Some interesting lessons from Robin Williams I sat in my nearly empty apartment this evening (getting ready to move) and watched the Robin Williams Live on Broadway DVD. Robin is a very funny man, but his stand up comedy can be REALLY crude. Having said that, there was about a 15 minute segment where he joked a lot about religion. Some of it was quite offensive, but something jumped out at me. It struck me that through all the jokes, you could tell that Robin seems to have an actual respect for Jesus, but really doesn’t like Christians… particularly fundamentalist Christians. I’m finding that many non-Christian people I know find the message and teachings of Jesus Christ quite appealing, but are immediately turned off by the church. Isn’t it ironic that we’re the ones who are supposed to be pointing people to Jesus, and yet we seem to be the ones that keep most people away. When Robin Williams sees someone like Mother Theresa, living out the kind of life that Christ calls us to, he is amazed and impressed. But then he sees the fundamentalist Pat Robertson bad mouthing Mother Theresa saying that she isn’t a real Christian. In his routine, Robin shoots back at Robertson saying “What the hell does she have to do Pat to be good enough? I guess she needs to be more like you and get a multi-million dollar tax shelter and a University to name after yourself!” Another thing that jumped out at me was the fact that many fundamentalists view people like Robin Williams and “the world” as the enemy of the Christian faith. If these people knew anything about the Bible they purport to read, then they’d realize that they aren’t our enemy… they are OUR MISSION. Jesus said our only enemies are the powers of the air (not the airways). Instead of fighting Robin Williams, we should be trying to understand him and where he’s coming from. We should try to understand why he sees things the way he does and try to grasp why he sees the church as he does. No wonder our churches are filled with a toxic “us – them” mentality. When we make the people in the world our “enemy”, how are we supposed to be effective in reaching them? Oh well, these are just some late night ramblings from an over tired guy.

Bush now admits statements in State of the Union Address about Iraq were “incorrect”. It’s odd. I personally thought that no one in the United States cared that they’re own President lied to them about their justification for a preemptive attack on Iraq. However, it would seem that I was mistaken. This story just won’t go away, even in the very biased CNN. Now, all Hades seems to be breaking loose in the British Parliament over this. Tony Blair is getting blasted by members of his own party on a daily basis and public opinion seems to turn more and more against him every day. With that fueling the fire, recent polls in the U.S. are showing the American people are also starting to ask more and more questions about the massive exaggeration of Iraq’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities. The new story breaks down like this: In January, President Bush gave his infamous State of the Union address where he laid out his case for preparing to attack Iraq to the American People and the rest of the world. Easily, the most frightening part of his speech was claiming that Iraq was pursuing the development of Nuclear Weapons. He claimed:

”Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

By claiming Iraq was actively acquiring Uranium, Bush painted a horrific picture for the rest of the world. Saddam would drop nukes on America, Canada, England and any other country in the world! Americans got scared stiff. Suddenly the opinion polls in the U.S. swung around and started to favor Bush’s plan to attack Iraq. However, CNN is now reporting that the house of cards is starting to come down:

Amid questions about prewar intelligence, the White House is acknowledging that President Bush was incorrect when he said in his State of the Union address that Iraq recently had sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa. The White House acknowledgment comes as a British parliamentary commission questions the reliability of British intelligence about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Democrats in Congress also have questioned how the Bush administration used U.S. intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs. Claims about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were a primary justification for the war, but U.S. forces have yet to find any such weapons. The House and Senate intelligence panels are looking into prewar intelligence on Iraq and how it was used by the Bush administration. Fleischer's remarks follow assertions by an envoy sent by the CIA to Africa to investigate allegations about Iraq's nuclear weapons program. The envoy, Joseph Wilson, said Sunday the Bush administration manipulated his findings, possibly to strengthen the rationale for war. Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to the West African nation of Gabon, was dispatched in February 2002 to explore whether Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Writing in a New York Times op-ed piece, Wilson said it did not take him long "to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."

I’m actually starting to believe that there is hope Bush won’t win the next American election. For the world’s sake I hope that’s the case.

A Saturday Afternoon Surprise On Saturday afternoon at around 2pm Allison and I were just hanging around the house and doing some packing. Our friend Rae shows up and says “Trevor and the kids are outside in the van… so get your stuff together, we’ve going to Edmonton for the weekend RIGHT NOW”. So, off we went to Edmonton for Saturday and Sunday. It was a really nice time. Hanging out with their kids (all 5 of them) at the amusement part in the West Edmonton mall was a hoot. In the afternoon Trev and I headed over to the Silver City in the mall and caught a matinee of Terminator 3. It was soooo good. Very brainless, but tons-o-fun. I need more good days like that one.

10 Objections to Christianity and How to Respond If I needed any more proof that main stream Christianity is almost completely out of touch with our world, then I’ve found it. In a very well intentioned article on Christianity Today’s website, Frank Harber lays out 10 common struggles non-Christians often have with the concept of Christianity. The idea for the article is a good one; however, instead of really engaging the questions, the article basically tells you how to marginalize the person asking. The concerns are good ones to address. They are: 1) Christians are hypocrites. 2) What about the atrocities Christians have committed? 3) Christianity is a crutch. 4) It's narrow-minded to think Jesus is the only way to God. 5) Being a good person is all that really matters. 6) What about those who've never heard about Jesus? 7) The Bible is filled with errors. 8) If God is so good, why is there evil? 9) Why is there suffering? 10) If there's a hell, why would a loving God send people there? Why are we so afraid to admit that there are difficult things to deal with when it comes to our faith? If a person who is looking for answers asks us question #2 (the one about atrocities committed by Christians through history), why do we automatically fall back on the cliché answers instead of just giving heart felt honest ones. Why tell them “Those people weren’t real Christians” (which will inevitably lead to questions about how a “Christian” President can kill nearly 4000 Iraqi civilians) when we can just honestly tell them that “hey, Christians can be idiots and do really stupid things sometimes. We’re not perfect, but we’re trying to learn and grow”. When a person is concerned about Christian Hypocrisy, why insult the asker by saying “you should be more concerned about Jesus, because Jesus wasn’t a hypocrite”. Instead, we should just admit “Yes, we can be hypocrites sometimes. But we’re all on a spiritual journey with Christ who is changing us bit by bit”. We feel this need to appear strong and confident when challenged and questioned about our faith. The world has been watching us do it for generations and don’t buy it. Why should we be ashamed of our brokenness? Why shouldn’t we be humble? Why shouldn’t we just be honest? The world would probably find it a refreshing change. Here’s an idea. The next time someone asks you one of these questions, don’t fire back immediately with some patented Christian cliché answer. Instead, just tell them: “You know what, your right. That’s a great question and I don’t really have a great answer. Why don’t we take some time and wrestle with it together and see if we can come up with some answers”. Maybe I’m just being naïve.

Moving Sale Part 2 Wow, well we just about sold everything on our Online Moving Sale, so I decided to put a few more things up for sale that I just don't think I'll have a place for in Ontario. There are some leather chairs, great movie posters, ect. Take a look and let me know if you want anything.

Is working in a church a hindrance to your spiritual development? At first the question may sound a little silly. After all, what better spiritual environment could you work in than a church? At least that was always my way of thinking. Yet working in "full time ministry" (a stupid term) always seems to present certain challenges to my personal faith journey that until recently have been difficult to define or identify. Here are some of them: 1) Being in the public eye When you are a member of the church, you are a fellow traveller with everyone else. It is understood that you make your share of mistakes and have your share of flaws. It’s ok that you don’t have all the answers and people don’t really mind all that much that you have some different theological views than them. No one "expects" you to do this or that. However, that all changes once you are "STAFF". Now, its perceived as everyone’s right to comment on your personal habits or preferences. Your mistakes are now cause for everyone’s concern. Your flaws become fuel for the gossip machine. Your character is scrutinized and evaluated by hundreds of people who each bring a different set of criteria for judgment to the table. Your opinion on frivolous matters such as Harry Potter or shopping on Sundays are viewed by some as a negative reflection of your personal relationship with God. Now, everyone has an opinion about what you should think, what you should teach, what films you should see, how you should dress, how you should talk, who you spend time with, what your thoughts should be, what your political views should be, ect. ect. ect. For me, it’s impossible to not be constantly aware of this "Public Eye". I find it all too easy to make decisions based on what I think will appease the masses and win their approval. I often shy away from the hard decisions out of fear. Fear of the negative feedback and judgment. In short, I find that in areas of church leadership and my personal spirituality my attention can become fixed on pleasing the church rather than pleasing my Father. 2) Being taken out of the real world When you are a member of the church, you are engaged with the world every day. You work in the real world living out your chapter of the story of God. You engage people and hear their stories, discovering their perspectives on life, finding out how they view the universe and how they view God (if they have a view of Him at all). You have the opportunity to live out the Gospel story the way it was meant to be told: on a living page. People in the world see you as another human being. However, that all changes once you are "STAFF". Your day is spent in a church office. When you are out of the office you’re sitting down for a coffee with a church person, talking about problems they’re having with another church person. Your understanding of the real world becomes outdated and is defined by oversimplified Christian clichés (People recognize that they have a hole in their life, that whole can only be filled by God). As a result, you find yourself trying tell the world the answers, without ever really understanding the questions they’re asking. You can’t give them accurate directions to God, because you realize that you don’t know where on the map they’re starting from. 3) The stigma of the "Pastor" title When I’m a student/producer/web designer, I find that people are usually quite interested when I talk about spirituality. However, when I’m a "PASTOR", people seem to immediately tune me out. Its as if they automatically suspect my motives. My story is almost instantly discredited in their eyes as irrelevant because after all, I’m a minister, I’m SUPPOSED to have a story like that. The roles have reversed in the last 20 years. Now, my testimony is MORE credible if I’m an average everyday person, and LESS credible if I’m a Pastor. Go figure. 4) The line between "Profession" and "Life" becomes blurred I’ve caught myself several times confusing elements of my spiritual life as an element of my job and vice versa. It was actually in my last job description that "Prayer is a significant part of your job". Prayer is a job?!?! How twisted is that! Prayer is an essential element of my faith and life… it’s not my "job". I would also mistake sermon preparation (which I usual spent about 20 hours a week or more on) as personal Bible study, or time with God. The reality is that when I was doing sermon prep, my goal was not intimacy with God, it was sermon prep. You see the pattern. I’m not saying other pastors experience this. I’m only saying these are some of the things that I personally struggle with from time to time when I’m on a church staff. I will work on a church staff again sometime. The truth of the matter is I really enjoy working in the church. However, when I do, these are the things I need to face. Am I alone in this? Can anyone else relate with what I’m feeling?

Moving Sale! Hey everyone. As you know, we’re moving back to Hamilton Ontario in about 3 weeks, so we’ve decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff (some very nice stuff too). I’ve set up a little “sale” site that you can get at by clicking here. If you see anything you like, let me know. If you see anything you think someone else will like, let THEM know! Thanks. www.johncampea.com/sale

Robert Webber on self centered worship

I wonder if the more recent emphasis on self in worship is one more way of expressing our autonomy and self-importance. It runs like this: "God, I am going to worship you. I consider you worthy of my worship. God, this is your lucky day. I, this self-sufficient, independent human being, around whom all of life centers, I am going to give you some of my time. I am going to declare you worthy of my worship." So how do we go about correcting this misunderstanding? Only by understanding that worship focuses on God and God's mission to rescue the world through Jesus Christ. In words, signs, and gestures we sing, proclaim, and enact God's mission. The heart of this story is that God assumed human nature so that we, whose humanity he shares, may be presented to the Father. By faith we are united to Jesus and baptized in his name. He is not only our Savior but also our worship. Our worship is not an autonomous, independent act arising from self but is accomplished for us by Jesus himself. The work of Jesus is the only worship pleasing to the Father. Therefore, our worship—feeble, broken, and incomplete—is offered to God through Jesus who is the one true worship of God. I find this biblical and ancient vision of worship to be enormously freeing. It frees us from self-focused worship and all the legalisms associated with it. It is no longer "I am going to offer you my worship." Instead, our worship is: "Thank you, Jesus, for doing for me what I can't do for myself … I can't save myself … I can't generate spirituality … I can't pray as I wish … I can't even worship you well." Thanks be to God, this kind of worship puts us and our worship in its right place—under the complete Lordship of Christ. It's where self finds its true meaning and our worship is perfected in Jesus, whose service to God is what God finds pleasing and acceptable. Once this grace-filled worship grasps us, we are freed to allow our worship to be prayer.

Will preach for food Does anyone in the Toronto/Hamilton area want to hire a washed up pastor/blogger? I’m going to be attending school while I’m there, so I’m looking for anything Part-Time. Let me know.

An interesting question I was watching CNN earlier tonight when they were talking about the recent rulings regarding Affirmative Action. A viewer sent in a question that I thought was really interesting. It went like this:

Everyone agrees that racial profiling is wrong. So here's a question for you. Is it possible to have "Affirmative Action" without using racial profiling?

It's official, I'm moving back to Ontario To say it’s been an eventful couple of weeks would be an understatement. Since leaving Lakewood Baptist Church a few weeks ago, dealing with the hurt and disappointment of that situation, while at the same time trying to decide what to do next has been a real challenge for us. However, we’re really excited about the outcome. WE’RE GOING HOME! We’ll probably move to Hamilton (or somewhere close by). I’m still not 100% sure what I’ll do once I’m there. I have a couple of options open to me. I’m looking at a couple of places to work in, but I may very well decide to go back to school and take a Law program. I’m just really stoked about getting back to the Toronto area and being close to my family and friends there.

The Post-Christian Era We were moving into what's now often termed a "post-Christian" society. This is something of which you're all very much aware. These days it's not so much that young people haven't heard the gospel, it's that they think they know what Christianity is, and they've decided they don't want any. -Steve Taylor

Big Idea (Makers of Veggie Tales) loses 11 million dollar lawsuit In April a Texas jury decided Big Idea Productions, creator of the popular values-laden VeggieTales series, breached a contract with a distributor. The judge in the case has not yet issued a final ruling, but the jury said Big Idea must pay more than $11 million in lost compensation. Texas-based Lyrick Studios, producer of Barney & Friends, claims the two companies had an unsigned contract starting in 1997. Lyrick began distributing Big Idea videos and CDs the next year. According to court documents, Lyrick paid Big Idea more than $40 million from the profits in four years, saying it had exclusive rights to sell VeggieTales products in North America. But in December 2001, Big Idea terminated the relationship and announced a new distribution deal with Warner Home Video. Lyrick filed suit in January 2002. Lyrick's lawyers argued that the companies had a binding, though unsigned, agreement. They cited verbal assurances and a number of memos. Two actions in particular, Lyrick argued, showed that Big Idea assumed Lyrick and Big Idea had a binding contract: In 1998, court documents say Big Idea bought back "plush rights" from Lyrick to produce stuffed VeggieTales toys. Lyrick also said Big Idea touted its distribution deal with Lyrick as collateral for a $24 million bank loan. "We believe this case is simply about keeping commitments," Lyrick attorney Thomas Williams told the jury. "The parties did make a commitment to one another. Big Idea made those commitments, and we believe that Big Idea should be held to that commitment." Big Idea's defense said the drafted agreement only laid out terms to guide the companies. Merely working together, attorneys said, does not imply or create an exclusive contract. Read the whole story.

"Hulk" Is a darn good film Went to see the new "Hulk" film the other day, and I must admit it wasn't what I was expecting. Ang Lee did a great job of moving this film away from just being a "comic book" movie, to being a really good human story. At the same time, there are a couple of wonderful action sequences to satisfy your bash-em-up appitite. I also thought the Hulk himelf looked great, much better than he looked in the first couple of trailers (which looked pathetic). Most critics like it, and I must agree with them this time. I don't think it quite matches up with X-Men 2, but I'd put it on the same level with Spiderman and Daredevil. Go see it, I think you'll be glad you did.

One of the most disgusting things I have ever seen I came across the ABC news show NIGHTLINE last night, and saw one of the most disheartening sights I have ever seen in regards to my faith. It was the story of the National Evangelistic Preaching Competition being held at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Yes, you heard that right… a PREACHING COMPTETITION. The story followed a few young white men as they went through their respective State competitions all the way to the nationals. As if the very concept of this wasn’t sad enough, watching the story just made me want to cry. All the “competitors” were up there in their $500-$1000 suits, carrying their $100 gold lined black leather bound Bibles, clean cut with enough hair product to render the Hulk paralyzed and preaching with a southern drawl (even the ones who offstage didn’t speak with any accent whatsoever) that had images of Jimmy Swaggart dancing through my head. Then there was all the verbal nonsense about how all these boys were “Ordained by God to preach” or “Called by the Lord to preach the word”. I read one parent talk about this special calling in his son this way: “Mark comes from a wonderful youth group filled with great godly boys, but ask anyone and they’ll tell you that there has just always been something special about him.” I’m so tired of this westernized concept of a spiritual caste system. Oh, God loves all Christians equally, but if you’re RREEEAAALLLYYY special, God will put a call on your life to preach. Good grief, someone pass me the Pepto Bismol. The last time I checked the only questions Jesus is going to care about on the last day are: “Did you feed me when I was hungry”, “Did you clothe me when I was naked”, “Did you visit me or comfort me when I was sick or in prison”? But now I’m just rambling. The WORST part of the whole thing for me was this: Nightline says it wants to “do more of the untold human interest stories in the huge Evangelical Christian demographic in America.” Personally I think that’s great! However, for the millions of people who saw that show last night, and have no contact with anyone in Christian circles, their concept of what a “Christian” is, has now been molded in this horrific image. Christians are a bunch of wealthy, suit wearing, slick talking, gel using, southern drawl talkin spiritual elitists. I’m suddenly terrified to tell people I’m a Christian now. I’m afraid they’ll instantly associate me with the image they saw on that television last night. Maybe I’m just rambling. Maybe I’m just an angry person. Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe I'm only saying all this because I haven't been able to sleep in almost 3 days and I'm grumpy. But I have to tell ya, stuff like this really leaves me with a sense of despair and disillusionment about “the church”. Is what I saw on TV last night really what Jesus died for? I guess a bunch of people at Bob Jones University and around North America would say “yes”.

Do we need to re-think Seminaries?

Swanger opened his blog entry with: "I think the institution of the seminary is fundamentally flawed. Seminaries must be destroyed for Christianity to flourish." This parallels a thought I've had about what seminaries train people for, mostly preaching and teaching skills and content, for cognitive information transfer, but when I look at the primary goal of making disciples, spiritual formation, or better, life transformation, it happens at a heart-and-relational level, that knowledge and information alone is unable to touch nor change nor grow.. so much of the construct of modern Christianity is built on a scholastic and academic model, and perpetuated by many (most?) seminaries, that spiritual maturity looks more like someone who has answers, rather than one who loves people well because of a love for God.. lots of verbiage hone in about making disciples or life change or loving well, and to translate that into real everyday life language, it's really about friendship, friends who can be transparent and honest and spiritual with one another, and that is how our hearts can change and grow.. it's no wonder that polls and surveys repeatedly rate 'friends' as the people who are trusted the most, not authority figures.. and, to know what a church really believes, don't interview the pastor-- talk with the average person in the pew.. then you'll really get a rude awakening to what a church (which consists of its people) believes and lives and perpetuates as its legacy..

An open letter to the members of Lakewood Baptist Church Well, it’s been almost 2 weeks since I stepped down as the Senior Pastor of the church. Many of you have written me email and left messages on my phone, and as you know, I haven’t yet responded. I do apologize, and I hope my silence has not been interpreted as a “lack of caring”. I trust this letter will explain why I have been “laying low”. Some of you have been asking me “why”. I believe we covered this issue at the meeting following the service June 8th. At that meeting I explained how it became obvious to me that a number of people in Lakewood leadership and I would never be able to function together. Not because we didn’t get along personally, but because we had completely different ideas and vision for what the church was supposed to be. I found the resulting arguments and fighting to be intolerable. Here are some selected excerpts from a letter I wrote to Bob Shelton, the National Pastoral Consultant for your denomination. Bob is a great man, and I felt it was appropriate that he was the first to be informed of our decision to move on. Again, most of what is said in this letter was openly discussed at the June 8th meeting.

I regret to inform you that Allison and I have decided that I am going to step down as the Senior Pastor of Lakewood Baptist Church here in Saskatoon at or near the end of the summer. This is something Allison and I have given some thought to over the last 2 months, and some key events in that time have solidified our decision. There are several reasons for this decision, some positive, and some negative. (When I first came) I remember being told over and over again by the (search) committee here "Change anything, change EVERYTHING. We're ready to change and move forward". This excited me, but I quickly found out that my excitement was misplaced. Right from the beginning, the SMALLEST things I tried to change were met with resistance and fighting (from a number of people in leadership). I consistently was met with weeks long, and sometimes MONTHS long battles. I quickly realized that any attempt to change anything at all in the church would be met with harsh resistance and battles. Soon, I stopped trying to advance the church. It was just not worth it to me anymore to go through all the fights in an attempt to get a church (leadership) that had no desire to change, to change. I don’t believe there was any malice ever intended towards me. The people and leaders here at Lakewood are truly wonderful folks. Even through all the fights and battles, I never sensed a spirit of bitterness or malice from them. It is the PEOPLE that postponed this decision of ours to leave. We like them very much. However, the goals and aspirations of this church (leadership) are VERY different from and incompatible with mine. I have decided to stay until at least August (possibly the end of August) for 2 main reasons. 1) To keep some sense of stability here at the church through the summer while a search committee is reformed and begins its search for a new pastor. 2) It gives Allison and me a chance to bring closure to this situation, while giving us time to figure out what to do next with our lives. Thanks again Bob for everything you’ve done for me here, and your encouraging words along the way… I wish things could have turned out differently.

I must admit that the tone of my letter to Bob sounded far more bitter and harsh than I intended. To be honest, it came from a deep sense of hurt, frustration and disappointment over how things had turned out. I cannot emphasize this next point enough. Those people on leadership who fought me the most and resisted any change I tried to make, always did so out of a motivation to do what they thought was right and best for the church. No one was ever trying to just “be difficult”. Those people who serve as leaders have a deep love for Lakewood Baptist Church and for you, the people of Lakewood. I encourage you all to honour them, and serve with them. Am I hurt? Yes. Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I disappointed? Yes. However, I realized that the only way I could stay on at Lakewood was to do something drastic. My Pastoral Counselor, several other Senior Pastors I consulted and even a couple of Lakewood leaders all gave me the same advice: REMOVE THE LEADERS WHO COULD NOT GET ON BOARD WITH MY LEADERSHIP. This would have been the only conceivable way I could have remained and functioned as the Senior Pastor. However, as I said publicly at the June 8th meeting, this was not something that I felt the church could handle at this time. On top of that, I was informed that such a move would not have been supported. In the big picture, the collective leadership at Lakewood is far more important to the health of Lakewood than just one person, even if that person is the Senior Pastor. The decision was made. Many of you have written letters to me expressing anger towards the Leaders and have been asking me for more details about our “battles”. I have not responded and will not respond since it would be inappropriate to do so. My message to you is this: Despite our fights and battles, despite our complete differences with regards to vision for the church, these leaders serve you. Honour them, pray for them, serve with them. Together, and only together, you can move forward. A couple of you have even written expressing anger towards me. You’ve expressed your opinion that I should have stayed regardless of the turmoil and “hung in there”. My message to you is this: I deeply wish I could have stayed. This was my first experience as Senior Pastor and I had a lot of dreams about where we as a church could go. I am sorry if my decision has hurt you, but I can guarantee you that your hurt doesn’t compare to the hurt I experienced in needing to make this decision in the first place. Again, I am sorry. Finally, we wish to thank you all for allowing us the honour of being among you. You have all treated us very warmly, and we will miss you. There is nothing that I enjoy more in life than teaching the life and message of Christ. Over the last 8 months you have allowed me privilege of doing that every week. Thank you. We love you as a church, and want you to know that you will be in our prayers. I look forward to checking up on you from time to time to see how you’re doing, and I know many of you will continue to check up on me through my website. I’m not sure what we’re going to do next yet, but I’m sure we’ll know soon. When we do, you’ll be the first to know! So, to those of you at Lakewood: Good bye, good luck and God bless. ~John “Gio” Campea

Paul Martin on the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada Paul Martin, the top contender for the Liberal leadership, already has said he would accept the court decision and would craft legislation that would also "affirm that no church, synagogue, mosque, or religious institution to act outside its faith."

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien nails it on the head 2 homosexual related issues are up front in the Canadian public right now. 1) Homosexuals have just received the right to legally marry. And 2) A bill in the house of commons that would essentially make discriminating against homosexuals a “hate” crime. Christians in Canada fear that if this Bill passes ministers in churches who preach against the lifestyle of homosexuality could be charged with a crime, or worse, it could open the door to the outlawing of the Bible itself as “hate literature”. Personally, I say “bring it on”, since the church has throughout history thrived under persecution and become extremely soft with too much “freedom”. We could use a good persecution. Maybe it would make us remember who we are and what we’re supposed to be about. But I digress. From a strictly political point of view, the problem with this Bill is that is interferes on another protected freedom, the freedom of religion. I was watching Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on CPAC tonight taking questions from journalism students. One student asked the Prime Minister about these two issues, and I thought he answered brilliantly.

Society changes. We used to have slavery, but now that’s gone. Women couldn’t vote, but now that’s gone. The homosexual community was once a fair target, and that needs to go too. Our society is changing with regards to the rights of homosexuals in Canada, and those rights should be guarded and protected. But you have to be careful not to purchase a freedom with the sacrifice of another freedom. Yes, we should protect the rights of the homosexual community, but not at the expense of throwing religious freedom out into the street. We must find a way to protect the rights of homosexuals while also protecting the rights of churches and religious groups to interpret and practice their religion. We cannot have one at the expense of the other.

A much needed good day Wow, I had a good day yesterday. I slept in, went to the gym, made myself lunch and sat on the balcony (it was a beautiful day outside) to read my newest book, got to babysit my friend’s BEAUTIFUL little baby girl for the afternoon (she fell asleep on me for about an hour) and watched a funny DVD. Later, Allison got home from a small group camping trip and we had a really good evening. We went for a long drive, got some ice cream at the local Dairy Queen and talked for a while. At around 10pm I joined a friend of mine at a local bar where we drank coke and ate some chicken wings until about midnight. Yes, overall it was a very good day. To be honest, I’ve been needing a day like yesterday for a while. It’s been tough dealing with the disappointment of Lakewood (the church I just resigned from). My heart is still broken over the whole thing. It’s hard when you think you’re going to be in a place for years, you invest yourself emotionally and physically, and then you realize that it’s never going to work. I’m glad I decided to leave, but it’s still hard and I think I haven’t yet realized how hurt I am and how deeply disappointed I really feel about the whole thing. However, days like yesterday are a great reminder that there is always tomorrow, life goes on, God is still good and there are more adventures to be had!

The Acronym for Spiritual Leadership in North America: C.E.O.

"Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager." - An observation from a Japanese businessman

This quote from Mike's blog goes right along with a disturbing trend I've seen happening in many churches for a LONG time. Pastors are no longer spiritual leaders. They are instead looked at in terms of their abilities to be CEO's of companies. They are now business managers, fundraisers, overseeing building drives and new wing expansions. They are budget administrators, staffing specialists or God forbid... television personalities. Elders Boards are even worse. When I go into a moderate sized church, I'm never surprised to see who sits in these places of spiritual authority. It usually ends up being white men who have had success in the business world. This is the North American paradigm for "Spiritual Maturity". Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with someone who has done well in business, or a Pastor who is good with numbers. The problem is that we elevate these characteristics as symbols of what it means to be a spiritual leader over other more important traits. Perhaps I'm just rambling. What do you think?

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”---Mahatma Gandhi

The difference between Apple and Amazon Yet another reason I will never buy a Mac. Thanks to Coop for the link.

Two companies that business pundits love to talk about. But very different indeed... Have you ever tried to return anything to Amazon? Amazon is obsessed with being remarkably boring when it comes to Customer Service. They are so good at it, so consistent, so eager to do the right thing that people tell other people. Amazon invests in this Purple Cow. They invest a few pennies per customer per year in customer delight. They create stories about their flexibility--stories that spread. They respect their customers and they show it. As a result, Amazon is able to milk the cow of their remarkability for a long, long time. The more they follow this path, the easier it is to do, because their systems can handle it and their customers trust them. Compare them to Apple. Two months ago, I ordered an upgrade to Final Cut Pro. (it’s expensive). It arrived today. Actually, THEY arrived today. Two copies. Now, there are plenty of pirates who wonder why they even need ONE legitimate copy, but there’s certainly no need for anyone with just one computer to have two. Anyway, Apple argued with me. They insisted it was my fault. They said I should have read my receipt more carefully. They claimed that I must have had a reason for ordering two, and just because I changed my mind doesn’t mean that they should have to pay to ship it back. I pursued the conversation on behalf of you, my dear reader. Chrissy insisted that I had just ten days to ship it back, at my expense, because if I didn’t the RMA would evaporate. Moreover, I should do it in a traceable way, because if I couldn’t prove it, then, “they won’t be responsible.” Of course, it’s clear that Apple never wants to be responsible. Apple is in the fashion business. Apple is Gucci. Apple is Calvin Klein. No one returns a pair of Gucci shoes claiming that the heel isn’t durable. Nope. You buy them for the thrill of the hunt, not the process and not the end result. Same is true, it seems with Apple. The problem, from a shareholder’s point of view anyway, is that this is a very, very hard cow to milk. Every time they annoy a customer or call a customer a liar, they spread a negative ideavirus about the company, and make it harder and harder to sell a productivity solution. Sure, they can continue to be fashionable (acting like Gucci is good for that niche) but they are finding the contradiction that many companies in a world of fashion find--that fashionable gets you in the door, but it’s respect that lets you build a profitable business. Given the choice, I'd model a company after Amazon. Great growth. All built around respect and remarkability, not the sneering contempt of a fashion house.

Christianity: Spiritual life or alternative Sub-Culture I found the following quote in Dan Kimball's new book "The Emerging Church". I spent a little bit of time with Dan a couple of years ago down at his Church (Graceland) in Santa Cruz California. He's a refreshing change to the stereotypical church leader. Where most modern Church "experts" look at the church as if it's some sort of complicated business paradigm, Dan revels in the simplicity of the true faith. Anyway, here's the excerpt:

Jesus and His teachings will not seem as strange or repelling to non-Christians as will the Christian sub-culture that we have created. Emerging generations are actually very interested in Jesus, but many times Christians get in the way. If you disagree with me, consider this quote from an article written by a non-Christian young adult reporter for a secular music and entertainment paper. He called the article "Christapalooza: 20,000 Christians convene …God doesn't show". He had attended a large Christian music festival, the kind which draws in 20,000 or more people. I have been to this type of event, even been a speaker at one. They have always seemed like great fun. From what I sense it is mainly Christians who attend these events in order to hear their favorite Christian bands. But listen to this reporter's non-Christian, post-Christian perspective: "I have a difficult time locating any similarities between what Jesus says and does, and what the people - in particular the organizers, said and did…Jesus is a beacon of righteousness who leads the way through a dark world to eternal peace, love and salvation; the Jesus of (the festival) is a blue-light special, pointing you to a quick fix of righteous bargain in the shopping mall of endless consumption. These two versions of Christ, and the premises they entail, are antithetical. They negate one another, leading me to an unsettling, unpleasant conclusion…It was in the end, a very un-Christian affair." Note that he came thinking that a Christian festival would represent the Jesus he has heard about. The Jesus who was a very spiritual being. The Jesus of the Bible who wandered homelessly across the land, living among the poor. The Jesus who was known for taking times of solitude and quiet as His normal way of life. The Jesus who overturned the tables of the money-changers in the Temple. But what this young reporter saw was entertainment-- screaming teens adoring their favorite bands, loud music, and tons of money being poured out by Christian consumers eager to buy Jesus products and other Christian paraphernalia. Now you and I know that this is simply a fun way to spend a day or two. We are pretty sure that at least most of the bands and promoters love Jesus. But to someone who expected a spiritual event, it came across very foreign to him. Where was the Jesus that he had expected? Where was the Jesus who was against profit-making in God's name, and spent His time with the poor and needy? Where was the Jesus who devoted quiet time to prayer in the garden or on a mountain? This reporter concluded that He wasn't there and in he even subtitled the article by declaring "God didn't show up." The Bible teaches us that we should "Be careful, however, that the exercise of freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." (1 Corinthians 8:9). Perhaps we need to apply this scriptural principle to the sub-culture we have created. In many ways, our sub-culture may cause non-Christians to stumble. In fact, it may more than likely repel them, as it does look (from the outside) to be a far cry from what we see the life of Jesus was all about. As we design ministry for the emerging church, we need to introduce people to Jesus, not to the Christian "sub-culture" of consumerism we have subtly created. We need to make sure we are not trying to see them "born again" into our Christian sub-culture and change into one of us, but be transformed by the Spirit into a disciple of Jesus. We need to teach them difference, or they may not be interested and I personally wouldn't blame them.

The mistakes after the mistakes I flipped on the television this evening and I came across this show (I don't even know what the show is) where a cab driver is talking to a guy in the back of his car. The conversation went something like this: Passenger: Oh to turn back the clock Driver: You mean to erase all your mistakes? Passenger: No. Mistakes I can live with. It's the mistakes you make after the mistakes that really get you. I don't know why, but those words sort of froze me. It's true. As I look back on my life, and the life of some of my friends, the REAL problems never came from our mistakes; they always seemed to follow me making mistakes on top of mistakes. Read into that what you will, it just really made me think.

Senior Pastors could learn something from Tony Soprano and Jerry Seinfeld Just read this great story about Soprano's star James Gandolfini, who actually took a chunk of his salary (about a half million chunk) and gave it to a bunch of his fellow cast members. James said the reason he did it was because the success of the Soprano's is a team effort, and the rest of the team deserve recognition. Jordon and I have talked a lot lately about how many churches have HUGE salary disparities between the Senior Pastor and other full time Pastors on staff. I personally know of a couple of churches where the Senior Pastor makes enough money to own several vehicles, buy boats or trailers or cottages and take several wonderful vacations with their families a year. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself. However, in those same churches there are others on staff who work just as hard, as many hours and make just as much impact (if not more) as the Senior Pastor and yet don't earn enough money to repair their one broken down car (let alone several), can barley make ends meet month-to-month, and can't even dream about taking their families on vacation anywhere other than relatives places. There is something wrong with this. I'm no exception. As a Senior Pastor I made roughly about $16 an hour. Now, that's not a lot, but its not too bad either. However, my youth Pastor was only making around $10 an hour. She had a Bible College degree, she worked hard, and yet I was making more than 1/3rd more than her. If I had any guts at all I would have taken $2 an hour from me and given it to her to balance things out a little bit. I have no excuse, I was selfish. The Senior Pastors in those other churches I was mentioning have even less excuses than I do, since they're pulling down around $25-$28 an hour with other fulltime pastoral staff only making about $12 an hour in the same churches. How is this remotely fair? How is this right? Dare I say it? How is this godly? Some Senior Pastors (myself included) develop an ego-centric idea that they're big stuff. That they are the reason for "things happening in this church". They start to think highly of themselves, and begin to believe that they SHOULD make more than double and sometimes triple the money than others on their staff. We could really learn a lesson in humility from Jerry Seinfeld who said in one of his live shows "Look at me. I'm as big as it gets! And I'm still shit". Just my to cents worth.

Gay couples can now marry in Canada. What does this mean? NOTHING. An Ontario court of appeals has ruled that same sex couples can now legally get married, and the religious right in my country are flipping their collective lids. Do I think homosexuality is "ok"? No I don't. I've always said that I believe that the ACT of homosexuality is inconsistent with a Christian lifestyle (click here to listen to my sermon on this topic). However, from a Christian's perspective, I don't see why this ruling is such a big deal or why Christians are so up in arms about it. Consider the following: 1) Sin is sin. A person who is not a Christ follower is separated from God. 2) There is no such thing as "sort of" separated from God. You either are in a relationship with God or you're not. 3) A clean cut straight "A" student who doesn't know Christ is no closer to God than a Drug addict teen who ran away from home 4) Ergo, an unmarried homosexual couple is no closer to God than a married homosexual couple 5) Canada is not a Christian country. There are no Christian countries. In literal terms, a Christian country would be a nation whose population are all Christ Followers. Canada is nowhere near this definition. 6) Passing laws that force people to follow "Christians" principles does not make them Christians, it doesn't bring them any closer to God, nor does it make God more pleased with our country. (Actually, the Bible has a lot of negative things to say about people groups who LOOK good on the outside but their hearts and souls are far from God. It's called hypocrisy). Look, I don't agree with the ruling of the Ontario court. But at the same time it's not that big a deal. The people who decide to get "married" are no further from God than where they are right now. So what would be the point in preventing them from doing it? How does it affect anything? From a spiritual and physical perspective, how does a gay couple being married effect me, my church, my faith or anyone else for that matter? Perhaps, as I mentioned in my post 2 days ago, if we spent less time yelling at the world, telling them what we're AGAINST, and instead told them more about what we're FOR we'll make a bigger impact on the world. A good friend of mine (who is also like 3 times smarter than me) asked me how I could support Paul Martin as Prime Minister since he said he won't challenge the courts ruling. I guess my response would be: "Since none of the major political parties are Christian, I choose to base my vote on which party will do more for the equality of women, meeting the needs of the poor, has a larger commitment to peace, will bring down our federal deficit and will keep our country united." Right now I think that party is the Liberal party, but I could be wrong. Whichever party convinces me they are the ones who will stand for those values better come election time will get my vote. But the "should gays get married" issue won't mean a thing to me. That's just my two cents worth.

What was Sodom's real problem? Mike Todd just moved away from Ontario and used to attend my old church in Oakville called The Meeting House. If you don't read his blog regularly, you really should. I got this from his site last night and thought I should share it.

As a Christian "lifer" I thought I knew the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Everyone does, right? The place was a mess, but we'll wrap it all up under the heading of "sexual immorality". And then this man read us this verse: Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. (Ezekiel 16:49) Somehow or other I don't think I'd ever seen that verse before - and if I had, well, I'd never really seen it. A couple of things come to mind. First, all sin is equal. Pride is sin. Sexual immorality is sin. It's all sin. The second point is for those of you who say I'm taking this verse out of context. Yes, if you include the next verse it says this: Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and did loathsome things, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. Aha! There's the sexual part. That's the Sodom I know... and now I can feel a little better about pride, etc. But, at the risk of contradicting myself... which sin was covered first in the passage?

CNN says Franklin Graham should "Keep his mouth zipped" As I read more and more about the life of Jesus, one of the most surprising things that jumps out at me is the fact that He never went around preaching AGAINST things. As a matter of fact, the only thing that comes to mind that Jesus preached against was hypocrisy. Other than that, Jesus spent his time preaching FOR things. The kingdom, forgiveness, grace, justice for the poor and weak, the love of God. It strikes me that Jesus wasn't for lying, or stealing, or murder, He just understood that if you told people about the love of God, and then modeled that message with your life, then there was no need to preach against anything because it would just come naturally. We evangelicals however spend most of our time preaching against things. We yell and scream about homosexuality, we bash MTV or MuchMusic, we publicly decry the moral tone of today's movies and media, we hold public rallies against abortion, we force public referendums on gambling and talk about how evil Islam is. Is it any wonder that our culture knows practically NOTHING about what Christians are about, but know VERY WELL what Christians are against? It seems to me that if we spent 1 tenth of our time talking about and living out the life Jesus modeled for us as we do on preaching against things, the Kingdom would be far better served. I came across this article on CNN today and thought it went right along with what I was thinking:

So maybe God, along with all of us, will find relief following a milestone last month: some leading evangelicals called on their own prophets of pugnacity to zip it. We can, er, pray, that responsible Muslim leaders will follow that wise example and similarly rein in their own extremists. The "loving rebuke" by conservative Christians of their fire-breathing brethren came at a Washington conference. This helped move us back from the clash of civilizations that hard-liners in both Islam and Christianity are pushing us all toward. Franklin Graham, Billy's son, has led the call to arms with blasts like his description of Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion." In addition, Pat Robertson dismissed Muhammad as "an absolute wild-eyed fanatic, a robber and brigand," and Jerry Vines, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, labeled Muhammad a "demon-possessed pedophile." Mr. Graham is not a nut. His Samaritan's Purse organization is an exceptionally well-managed charity that provides $150 million annually in food and medical care in some of the grimmest corners of the third world. Still, he clearly subscribes to that essential human conceit that God is on the pew beside us, a member of our own sect. As Spinoza noted, "If a triangle could speak, it would say . . . that God is eminently triangular." The National Association of Evangelicals "has gone through periods of time when our differentiating value was the things we were against," says Ted Haggard, the new president of the organization. "One of the reasons the board selected me is that I am a strong advocate of the things we are for." "I am for people being born again," he added. "I am for people reading the Bible; I am for people receiving the benefits that Jesus has to offer and looking to Jesus as a model for life and godliness. These ideas are so positive that if we can communicate that, we don't need to spend so much time articulating the things we are against." To be sure, Mr. Haggard and other evangelical leaders don't seem to disagree fundamentally with the loudmouths; they just think that insults make bad public relations and put missionaries at risk. "It's really a concern about safety," not doctrine, said Clive Calver, president of World Relief, an evangelical aid group, and he adds about Christian aid workers: "These people are in danger. I don't want to see them killed." The demonization of Islam by the Christian right always seemed opportunistic. Cal Thomas, the evangelical commentator, notes that both left and right need enemies to galvanize fund-raising, and he adds: "The right has been looking for an enemy to replace communism since 1990. And maybe Islam is it." Nonetheless, even if it's about P.R. more than substance, the step toward civility is important. My conversations with Muslims around the world have left me convinced that nobody has done more harm to America's image in the Islamic world than Franklin Graham and those like him. So let's all hope that Mr. Graham keeps his mouth zipped and focuses on what he does superbly: aid work.

Big Announcement Allison and I decided to resign from my job as Senior Pastor of Lakewood Baptist Church. The people there are really wonderful. I’ll go into more details later, but all I’ll say for now is that I’ve been hurt and it became just impossible for me to function there as the pastor. Not sure what we're going to do next. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

If it wasn't sealed before, it is now. Get used to saying "Prime Minister Martin" Many other prominent Liberals have already declared support for Paul Martin's bid to become the next leader of the Federal Liberal Party, but Federal Industry Minister Allan Rock is definitely the highest profile one to date. Rock, who was himself a candidate to lead the Liberals at one time, threw his endorsement to Paul Martin today in what has to be the death blow to the ambitions of Deputy Prime Minister John Manley and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, the two other runners for the leadership. If Copps and Manley have any common sense, they'll see the writing on the wall, drop out of the race and start to build party momentum heading into the upcoming election. Most Canadians (regardless of political affiliation) agree that the only thing that can prevent a Liberal Majority victory at the upcoming election is a total Party internal breakdown. Copps and Manley should hop on board with what is obviously the will of their Party and wait until the next election to make their bids for the leadership. After all, at his age, Martin will probably only serve one term.

Lucasfilm finally launching animation studio

George Lucas has finally taken the plunge into computer-animated feature films. Having missed out on "Monsters, Inc.," "Shrek" and "Ice Age" -- which grossed $112 million in DVD and video sales over a single weekend last year -- the dean of digital filmmaking has established a separate company, LucasFilm Animation, to compete with Bay Area powerhouses PDI/DreamWorks and Pixar. The new company's nine-person core group, drawn from Industrial Light & Magic's animation division, will be based at ILM's San Rafael facility. A spokeswoman there told me LucasFilm Animation's new boss, Patty Blau, was too busy to discuss the company's game plan, so I checked in with Kevin Koch, president of the Animation Guild's 1,600-member Los Angeles chapter (Local 839 IATSE) to see what he had to say about the new venture. "For several years we've been hearing that the people at LucasFilm were really eager to prove themselves in character animation," Koch said. "They were going to do 'Frankenstein,' and then they were going to do 'Curious George.' " Both projects were for Universal Pictures; neither panned out. So why did Lucas and company wait so long to start an outfit less dependent on studio largesse? "I'm as baffled as anyone," Koch said. "They've certainly had the resources to pull it off." Koch said he and his colleagues will watch closely to see if LucasFilm Animation takes shape as a George-centric extension of its founder's personal storytelling interests. "The big question for us is whether this will all be driven by George Lucas and his tastes, or whether they'll bring in directors and producers from outside the company who would pursue their own visions. "My impression is that Lucas likes to have people who hew very closely to his vision, whereas Pixar was founded on the Disney model where you have this large stable of story artists who visualize the script in storyboards and improve it all along the way. That's the model PDI/DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar all follow." It also remains to be seen if LucasFilm Animation can build a strong ensemble of story artists, which Koch says is crucial in crafting an emotionally affecting animation feature.

I'm dying to see what kind of 3D animated film Lucas can put out. After all, like it or hate it, Attack of the Clones was a breathtakingly beautiful film to look at, and it was mostly done in 3D (it was done so well that most people don't even realize how much of the film wasn't "real"). Time will tell.

Christian History Corner: The Ancient Rise and Recent Fall of Tithing Found this interesting article on Christianity today that points out that in 2001 only 14% of evangelical Christians "tithed", and in 2002 that number dropped significantly to just 6%. Now, some may look at this and say "Good, tithing is just a legalism thing that has no place in New Covenant Christianity". That may be true, but although the legalistic mandate of tithing may have past away, the call on Christian lives post-resurrection is to live and give with even more generosity. Not generosity measured and defined by pre-set numbers or percentages, but rather out of a sprit of generosity that joyfully flows out of us. Personally, I'm not so concerned that we aren't "Tithing" as much anymore, but I am worried that we've become hoarders of our wealth instead of practitioners in the art of giving things (and money) away. Here's and excerpt from the article:

During the first few years of the twenty-first century, Americans have already contended with a remarkable amount of political and economic tumult, ranging from the Sept. 11 attacks to the collapse of the 1990s economic boom to military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Uneasiness and caution have ruled the financial decision-making of many American households. Now, recently released statistics from the Barna Research Group indicate that this pervasive apprehension may have contributed to a dramatic one-year decrease in the number of American homes that tithe to their churches. Barna's data shows that only 3 percent of adults contributed 10 percent of their 2002 income to churches, which marks a 62 percent decrease from 2001 when 8 percent of American adults tithed. Among born-again Christians, the decline was similarly steep, from 14 percent in 2001 to 6 percent in 2002. Barna attributes the sudden drop to a variety of factors, including the soft economy and ongoing terrorism threat. But he also pegs shifting church demographics-younger adults don't share their parents' and grandparents' convictions about tithing. This generation seems not so much put off as mystified by the concept. Their questions are honest enough: "Who came up with the figure of ten percent? Why should we take this figure as authoritative? Isn't tithing legalism?" Here, as in most churchly matters, a bit of history can go a long way.

Ok, something needs to be done about this I usually empty out all the spam that comes to my inbox each time I look at my email. I use Yahoo mail to read my messages since it’s so darn convenient and has a WONDERFUL spam catcher that identifies mass-bulk email and sends it directly to a “Bulk” folder. Yesterday morning I decided to not empty the “Bulk” folder for 24 hours just to see how much spam was being fired at me each day. I re-set the folder at 9am yesterday, and as of 9am this morning I have… are you ready for this… 116 spam emails! 116 spam emails in just 1 day!!! Now I’m not one do go around demanding legislation for things, but this is ridiculous, and terribly annoying to boot. Anyone out there know of any anti-spam petition being sent to some government body? Any anti-spam “movement” that I can hook up with? Let me know.

John Campea - Member of the Liberal Party of Canada Ok, so about a year ago I decided to become an official member of the Liberal Party of Canada. At the time, the main reason for doing it was to irk my good buddy Jordon Cooper who bleeds Progressive Conservative Blue (he actually once ran against former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow). However, I recently realized that I never actually sent in my forms to register as an official member. So now I'm going ahead and joining for 3 reasons. 1) To Irk good buddy Jordon Cooper. 2) To Irk good buddy Curtis Boldt. 3) To see if I can actually participate in trying to make my country a better place. I just finished reading Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men". I hardly agreed with everything Michael talked about in the book, but one thing did stick with me... any person CAN help influence the direction of his/her community by getting involved. So, taking that to heart, I'm joining the political party that I currently seem to be most in agreement with... the Liberals. I know the Liberals aren't a "Christian" party, but guess what folks, no party in Canada (and that includes the Alliance) is a "Christian" Party. Nor should there be. I just happen to think the policies of the Liberals are better for our country than those of the opposing parties. That could change, but for now that's the way I see it. What on earth am I getting myself into?

Can a Peace plan without Arafat work? I have to admit that it looks like the Bush administration and its “Road Map to Peace” plan is actually making some decent progress. Still a long way to go, but it’s the first encouraging sign in the region in a long time. However, the United States has repeatedly said it would not deal with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the negotiations, preferring instead to work out the plan with the more moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. I can totally understand this, but the support and influence that Arafat still has with the majority of Palestinians can’t be ignored. It will be all well and good for an agreement to be reached with Abbas, but if Arafat doesn’t publicly support it, then the treaty won’t be worth the paper it’s written on. I don’t think having Arafat involved in the negotiations is a very good idea either, but what is the alternative? As long as Arafat and Palestinians are demanding it, the US MUST find a way for Arafat to at least be symbolically “involved” in the negotiations, or it might all be for nothing.

Well, I’ve got a long day ahead of me. Without going into too much detail I have some big changes coming up in my life and today is one of those days that I have to deal with some of them. I’m not really looking forward to walking out my door this morning, but at the same time I’m kind of excited as well. I’ll fill you all in more later.

US Deputy Defense Secretary admits Iraq war was all about oil First of all, I should mention that I originally was pointed to this story by Jordon's site. In this article, several major revelations are made by Senior Bush administration members (Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld) that basically admit that 1) There were no weapons of mass destruction at the time the US began it's illegal attack on Iraq, and 2) that one of the largest motivating factors in starting the war was OIL. No, this is not my interpretation of the article, this is what these guys outright said. The funny/sad part about all this, is that I'll bet this will get next to ZERO attention in the United States or Canadian media. Here's an excerpt from the article:

The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz - who has already undermined Tony Blair's position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a "bureaucratic" excuse for war - has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is "swimming" in oil." The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt. Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defense minister said: "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil." Mr Wolfowitz went on to tell journalists at the conference that the US was set on a path of negotiation to help defuse tensions between North Korea and its neighbors - in contrast to the more belligerent attitude the Bush administration displayed in its dealings with Iraq. His latest comments follow his widely reported statement from an interview in Vanity Fair last month, in which he said that "for reasons that have a lot to do with the US government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on: weapons of mass destruction." Prior to that, his boss, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, had already undermined the British government's position by saying Saddam Hussein may have destroyed his banned weapons before the war.

The story goes on. I continue to be absolutely baffled by the hushed silence that Americans and Canadians are just accepting over this.

Bonhoeffer film opens on June 20 (Thanks to Darren for this post) First Run Features announces the release of "Bonhoeffer," the riveting story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the courageous German theologian who offered one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler and was eventually executed for joining the plot to kill him. The film weaves archival footage - including a speech by Hitler praying for God's blessing on him and the German people - and Bonhoeffer family footage, with revealing interviews with family members, friends, and associates who knew this remarkable man. Directed by Martin Doblmeier, the documentary will premiere in the U.S. on Friday, June 20, at New York's Quad Cinema. A national release will follow. See www.bonhoeffer.com for more screening information.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was "G'day!" That's how the New Testament might have begun if Jesus had been born Australian, according to an Australian author and broadcaster who has just completed a collection of favorite Bible stories retold in Australian English. To some, Australian English is a screech of tortured vowels and suppressed consonants parodied by "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons." But to Kel Richards, author of "The Aussie Bible (Well, bits of it anyway)," it is a rich vein of regional idioms and unique slang expressions. "We don't talk like anyone else on Earth," he told Reuters. Based loosely on a similar book of mainly New Testament bible stories in Cockney rhyming slang, Richards' "Aussie Bible" was backed by the Bible Society of New South Wales in an attempt to win new readers for some of the world's best-known stories. The Three Wise Men, for example, becomes "three eggheads from out east" who go in search of the baby Jesus. "We saw his star out east, and we've come to say 'G'day Your Majesty'," they say. Richards' version of the Bible has the Good Samaritan attacked by "a bunch of bushrangers," while "Australian Jesus" describes those who build their houses on sand as "boofheads" -- a contraction of the English slang phrase "bufflehead," meaning muddle-headed or confused. Richards also reconstructs Psalm 23 as "a bush ballad" which begins: "God is the Station Owner, and I am just one of the sheep. He musters me down to the lucerne flats, and feeds me there all week."

My "Matrix" profile You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You have strong faith in yourself and those around you. A true leader, you are relentless in your persuit.

PC Party off to a bad start for election campaing As a guy who is going to vote Liberal in the upcoming election, I guess I should be THRILLED I am that Peter MacKay won the PC leadership. This guy is going to self destruct this party faster than you can say "Stockwell who?" The process has already begun. At the same time, as a Canadian I'm disappointed. Even though I vote Liberal, I often lament that there isn't any REAL alternative for us Canadians to consider politically. No one to seriously threaten the "status quo". I was hoping the PC delegates would show some common sense and bring in a person who could re-establish some credibility to themselves. Alas, they did not. Looks like the Alliance will form the opposition. How sad. I do want Paul Martin as the next Prime Minister. I just don't want him by default because no one else could challenge him.