A Disciple's Journal

Blogs officially moved...

2007-05-21T08:37:00.003-04:00

I will no longer be updating posts here...

For updates on my life, family, photos, and other rants see http://onelife.solarcrash.com

For my reflections on faith, life, leadership, technology, creativity, church, and culture, definitely check out http://solarcrash.com also http://halfbaked.solarcrash.com for my lifestreams

or network with me via facebook here.

Peace!

Risky Leadership...

2007-05-17T07:53:00.000-04:00

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”, if what Edmund Bruke says is true, then passive neutrality will never overcome evil in this world.

Risky leadership is unafraid of moving forward in the face of uncertainty. The apostle Paul went from city to city so that some may hear his message of hope. He became all things to all people so that he might save some.

When a leader is driven by core convictions rather than circumstances or consequences their visions and their future are not determined by their resources. In fact, Peter Drucker goes as far as saying that the best way of predicting the future… is to create it.

Leaders learn from their failures as well as their successes. The only real failures are those where one violates their own hearts and do not make the most of opportunities presented.

Leaders act not because something is easy, but because it is right. They are willing to die trying, knowing the streaks and stains of their blood, sweat, and tears, might point others to what it means to fully live; just as the living God did.

My wife and I have risked, and will continue to risk, to create the future.

For the latest comments and entries see SolarCrash

Stealing Grace...

2007-05-04T21:34:00.002-04:00

Years back as a young punk kid, a friend and I stole some video games downtown.

Even worst, we put it in the backpack of another friend, without telling him. I remember sweating as I watched him prance through the metal detectors completely oblivious he was carrying our stolen goods.

Needless to say my friend wasn’t all too happy when he found out. He would later become the best man at my wedding. That in itself is a testimony to grace.

The heart-pounding part of the story is when we were in the mall later laughing about how we just scored, and a security guard yells out ‘Hey you!”

We tried to ignore him and just kept walking.

He quickly runs up to us. I almost urinate.

and he says “Gung hay fat choy!” (It was the Chinese New Year).

We make some small talk and he wishes us all the best.

Sometimes this is how I feel when I enter the presence of God. I’m exposed with all my failings, and as if He was almost oblivious to them all, He sends me forward with all His best.

For the latest entries and comments see One Life.

Wrist-slapped

2007-05-02T19:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we got pulled over by the police and were rudely slapped with a ridiculous $500 fine of tickets!

Because we moved, we never got notifications that Yvz license and our plates had expired, just last month. On top of that the insurance card was misplaced.

How’s a guy suppose to change the world, when I’ve got details like this bogging me down?

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Life Update...

2007-04-29T23:00:00.000-04:00

Yvz recently wrote me a stunning letter that has been fueling my heart through these draining days.

Stellar continues to be on of the most exhausting and exciting aspects of my life.

My community consists of some extraordinarily unique and interesting people. I’m amazed at how God has crafted each of them. Both of us being job-free the last while, we’ve been spending a lot of time (re)connecting with people and it’s just been fantastic.

The series I’m leading on creativity and spirituality kicked off yesterday. I takes quite a bit of work to be creative sometimes.

Today much of my life will revolve around a major paper on sex for my crisis counseling course that’s due tomorrow. I originally wanted to do it on ‘the crisis of apathy’, but I guess it’s not seen as a real crisis in our culture, yet.

I’ll need to go from 0 to 20 pages and find time for Heroes tonight.

Sometimes I question how busy my life is, but it’s hard to complain when I love so much of what I do.

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Life without love...

2007-04-27T16:54:00.000-04:00

It completely floored me when Ruth Ewertt of Yonge Street Mission shared that from a survey she helped conduct that “if youth felt a sense of love or belonging at home, even with physical or sexual abuse, they most likely would not run away and end up homeless.”

Everything in me tells me that I would leave an abusive situation. However, looking back I myself was excessively disciplined and I never ran away.Reflecting on this, I can’t even call it physical abuse because as much as I hated it I always knew there were good intentions somewhere underneath it all, proving Ruth’s point.

Even the times I did leave home, I would always eventually go back, because as wrong as what I felt they did to me was, I still felt that there was still something right about home. If what Ruth says is true, I’m guessing some of the kids may have been abused even less than I was, but when they ran away, they didn’t feel that they had anything to return home to.

It scares me to think that a lack of love or belonging may be the greatest form of abuse because sadly it changes my notions of a healthy home. There are many people I interact with where there have not been any reported cases of physical or sexual abuse, but this statement forces to me to change my assumptions on whether they are in a loving home. It is not enough for my family, or the families I lead to simply prevent physical or sexual abuse.

Ruth statement makes me feel like I’ve been in shock of all the wrong things. As bad as news-headlining type of abuse is, I need to be shocked by the lack of love and belonging that is being fostered in our own homes. When I reflect on how much I am loved by my own family and closest friends, street children are no different. They crave a sense of belonging and love just as much as I do, and likely more because they have received so little of it in their lives.

I am amazed at the capacity of the human heart to long for relationship even amid abuse. I am saddened that it was so difficult to come by for so many of the youth on the streets. Of all the labels I naturally place on street kids, ‘unloved’ has never been one of them. Youth at risk are not just victims, they are the undesired, the unwanted, the unloved. I use to feel that it was naive for people to think that street children are not dangerous.Now I feel it is completely naive of me to assume that they have had just as much opportunity of experiencing love as I did.

Of all the things I’ve ever wanted in my life, for the first time, I want the unwanted.

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

My little turd...

2007-04-24T22:39:00.000-04:00

Stellar has a bib that says “Saturday” across it. Look carefully at what it says when the car seat straps are around her.

It says “turd”! Someone else pointed this out at a baby shower party we were at.

Here are some other pictures with her new friend Cayden.

Leaders see people differently...

2007-04-13T15:10:00.000-04:00

Leaders see people as they really are, as God’s workmanship crafted with a unique purpose in human history.

Whether a believer or not, leaders see every human being as a reflection of the Creator, brimming with potential. Leaders look into people’s hearts and lives and help reveal to them their beauty and worth.

What do you really see when you look into the eyes of those around you?

(and yes, from the above photo, apparently leaders wear makeup as well).

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Faux-hawk or Faux-pas...

2007-04-11T20:09:00.000-04:00

Many people have been commenting on my Faux-Hawk recently. To be quite honest, since I shaved my head, my hair just started growing back this way. I wake up, and there it is. I’ve never put any product in it. I didn’t even know what a faux-hawk was until people started pointing it out.

Well, here I was feeling pretty good about myself having hair other guys go to salons for, until I decided to look up the faux-hawk on wikipedia.

It states: In most punk circles this hairstyle is frowned upon and considered a form of “selling out”, mainly because it allows the wearer to blend in with mainstream society when not gelled up, something that cannot be done with a true mohawk.

Now I’m walking around like a wannabe and a sellout.
Next up the No-hawk and the Skullet…

For the latest entries and comments see One Life.

Ideas on Creativity?

2007-04-09T09:33:00.000-04:00

I’m teaching a series of classes of classes this March on “Experiencing God through the Creative Journey“.

If anyone else has any ideas on creatively teaching creativity, whether it’s through biblical foundations, practical expressions, or corporate experiences that can be facilitated, I’d love to hear about them.

The current session titles are:

Creativity through the Creator God
Creativity through Creation - Community & Culture
Creativity through Creating CrossCultural Environments

I have way more ideas than I have time for already, but after the series is over, I’ll be posting my thoughts and what comes out of the experience, especially if we use any of your ideas!

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Ultra-Fine Dining at Susur’s

2007-04-06T16:58:00.000-04:00

I couldn’t care less about Valentine’s day, but I sure do care about my wife. This year I went all out and took her to Susur. Susur Lee has a number of accolades including top ten chef in the world, with the number one restaurant in Toronto, and one of the top fifty in the world. He was also on Iron Chef, and was supposedly robbed with a tie.

My wife and I are the type of people who go to McDonald’s with coupons, so this restaurant was totally out of our league. The menu’s are set every night for a flat rate, so you never know what you’re going to get. We went on the night of Toronto’s first snow storm and was a bit worried that we wouldn’t make it on time, as they charge full price for no-shows!

The experience was phenomenal. We thought the service was ridiculous as they would do things like adjust our utensils and the menu to perpendicular angles throughout the night. We had fourteen courses of delicacies dancing in our mouths (We each had seven different courses which we shared). I’m not a very refined kind of guy, so a lot of the flavors and textures were totally foreign to me.

I’m not even going to try to repeat the elaborate details of the menu, but here’s a quick recap of what we ate: Bison striploin, Venison (deer), Seared Foie Gras, Duck, black truffles, coffee marinated Ostrich, Shrimp, Asian hot pot, Sable, Roasted Lobster, and something with dry ice coming out of it! Oh and check out the two-tiered dessert in the pictures below! Click on them for larger images.

Not all the pictures turned out as we felt a bit embarrassed because we seemed like tourists in such a high-class atmosphere. Some people in there seemed like they were so rich this was just every day dinner! If you’re interested in going or finding out more, you can find other bloggers reviews here, here, and here.

Chef Susur was making his rounds at the tables, but we didn’t have time to hang out. We had dropped Stellar off with some friends and while we were stuffed to the brim, she sounded like she was getting hungry!

Overall, an excellent night.

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Dysfunctional Leadership...

2007-04-05T14:11:00.000-04:00

Christian leadership can often be a haven for dysfunctional people. Moral integrity is a primal baseline for leadership. Without an inward life that is whole and healthy, the act of leadership can often be merely an escape route. Leadership can become a way of avoiding issues of sin or even lead to unnecessary overcompensation in the good one might attempt to do.

The Scriptures call for leaders to “be above reproach”. Just as God is worthy of all of our lives, when our character is aligned with his, our character is what makes leaders worth following. Character must always be in the process of refinement.

Why do you lead, and what makes you worth following?

latest comments and entries at One Life.

Leaders take responsibility...

2007-04-03T23:14:00.000-04:00

Leaders must not only take responsibility of their own lives, but that of others around them. As leaders progress in their journey they see things as they really are. They become highly tuned to their own strengths and limitations. However against the backdrop of a dying world, what they see most, is their God-ordained role of bringing life to those around them.

This clear sense of reality drives them to serve others, as Jesus did. Jesus took responsibility of things that were not his fault – unlike Pilate who wiped his hands clean, Jesus had his hands nailed for humanity. Real leaders do not point fingers or blame circumstances or even their own inadequacies, but they take ownership of that which they can influence and serve with humility.

For the latest entries and comments see One Life.

Back from the nation's capital...

2007-03-26T19:37:00.000-04:00

That’s the city of Ottawa for my non-Canadian friends. Quite possibly my future home.

As the years go by I’ve felt more tentative about church planting in Ottawa. Although I managed to see some excellent friends there, as well as fellow voxtropolitan Nate, my roots there seem to have shrunken and many people I once knew have moved away. Still, I love the city, and I always love challenges that start from scratch.

Check out the innovation of my mother-in-law. We demanded that she not spend money on a crib for the short time that we were staying there. So instead, she makes one out of an old desk, a headboard, some bungee cords, textbooks, a garbage pail, and some cushions!

Here’s my brother-in-law Norman, with Stellar standing tall

See the latest comments and entries at One Life.

Leaders need community...

2007-03-22T15:40:00.000-04:00

Leaders must feel that they need the community, as much as the community needs them.

Leaders must have the humility to acknowledge that they too are human beings with an intrinsic longing for community and belonging. Leaders need to allow others to speak into their lives and say the things that they may not be able to say to themselves.

Leaders must not mask their needs and their struggles from people. In doing so they lose out on the grace that God gives them through community. Not only that, seemingly perfect leaders can also indirectly demean the needs and struggles of others in the process. Leaders need relationships of all types from other leaders, peers, and followers in order to remain relationally healthy in the leadership journey.

Who do you need in your life right now? Who do you go to vent to, for encouragement, and how might we increase or deepen these types of relationships?

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Too much communion juice...

2007-03-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

Actually, it’s “gentian violet”, for treating any possible infections. It doesn’t come off for a couple days. We ended up calling Stellar names like little hobo, drunk, and sailor, during that time.

Here’s some other hilarious photos of babies with the purple beard on flickr.

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

Living someone else's dream...

2007-03-10T18:03:00.000-05:00

Last night Yvz was watching something on tv, where they were interviewing kids in the ghetto.

The reporter asked one kid - “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

boy resonds - “become a CEO”

the reporter is a bit shocked and says - “become a CEO of what?”

the boy then says - “actually i have a dream…”

reporter - “oh and what’s you dream?”

the boy says - “…I want to be batman”

My wife was commenting on how the boy probably got the CEO-part from his parents; but what was in his heart, was batman.

Are you living your dream? or someone else’s?

See the latest comments and entries at One Life.

Your life is Brilliant...

2007-03-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

I never explained one of the items in my Lon-gerie fashion line earlier.

A while back I had wrote on my MSN messenger tag “My life is brilliant”, inspired by the first line in the James blunt song ‘You’re beautiful”.

Someone wrote to me and said how it was so typical of me, and how easy it is for someone like me to say that.

After which I changed it to

YOUR LIFE IS BRILLIANT…

you

just

don’t

know

it

yet.

think about it.

See the latest comments and entries at One Life.

Thank you...

2007-03-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

Thank you for hearing his thoughts, commenting, interacting, and sharing your own life through this little space on the web!

After averaging a couple thousand unique visitors a month, my mommy and daddy (who both aren’t working) have made a whopping $12 the past two months through google adsense!

Feel free to spread the word by linking to this site, blogrolling, and subscribing to it!

My silly dad thinks he can help change the world! I still won’t be able to talk for a good while, so please keep tuning to either press his madness forward or smack some sense into him (even you lurkers out there!)

Muah! Life Rocks! I can’t wait to be up and running with my mommy and daddy!

Latest comments and entries at my primary blog on One Life.

Canada vs. The U.S.

2007-03-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

For five years I’ve waited and asked the administration for a church planting course at Tyndale Seminary. It still hasn’t happened. Church planting courses are in our academic calendar, but they haven’t been offered supposedly due to a lack of interest. This semester I decided to enroll as a visiting student to Heritage Seminary for their church planting foundations course way out in Cambridge.

A couple thoughts from my first class specifically regarding demographics between the U.S. and Canada. (Because so often many people try to plant ‘American’ churches in a Canadian context, when in fact many of our values are diverging).

- The state of California alone has more people than all of Canada

- Statistically the values of the most liberal states (New England area) are still more conservative than Canada’s most conservative province (Alberta)

- Where postmodernism is a philosophical system embraced in the U.S., it is intrinsic to who Canadians are - we are almost exclusively postmodern

- Canada has quickly surpassed the UK in secularism

- “In the U.S. it’s legal to bear arms, in Canada it’s legal to bear breasts”

- Some additional generalizations for the U.S. - Risk-taking, money is everything, winner takes all, higher standard of living, and aspiration

- As compared to in Canada - Risk-averse, money is suspect, income redistribution, best quality of life, and accommodation

Much of this and many more stats are found in Michael Adams’ books, Sex in the snow, and Fire & Ice.

For my American friends here’s one of our infamous Molson Beer “I am Canadian” commercials.

For my Canadian friends, who are oblivious to American politics for the most part, check out this awesome speech by Senator Barack Obama who’s in the running to be America’s first black president (though I’ve got my bets on Hillary).

What do you think?

Latest comments and entries at One Life.

Immortal longings...

2007-02-21T21:16:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare wrote: “I have immortal longings in me”. Don’t we all?

Latest comments and entries at One Life.

Some final thoughts of preaching in a postmodern world

2007-02-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

See the last three posts if you’re still catching up. Some people say ‘preaching is dead’. I often think so as well, but I still believe our post-Christian culture opens new opportunities for the ‘preacher’ today.

Postmodernity blurs the lines between everything - fact and fiction, on and offline, news and entertainment. Although there are inherent dangers to this blurring of boundaries, in many ways this cultural milieu provides the opportunity for us to preach a more holistic message. God’s story and the human story do not need to be separate. Faith and everyday life no longer need to be compartmentalized. The good news of the kingdom of God can be preached as a reality that can permeate every aspect of humanity.

Another new reality for our preaching today is the opportunity to call people to change immediately. Gone are the days where everyone requires all the empirical evidence upfront and then weighs out all the pros and cons. People today often only process information that they can apply immediately. Preaching to a postmodern world is conducive to action-oriented life transformation. Just as in the Scriptures James speaks strongly of acting on what we learn, when postmodern preaching offers people clear life applications, people have an opportunity to move towards faith, even if incrementally.

One of the most unique opportunities of our postmodern times is for preachers and followers of Jesus themselves. Being a post-Christian era, this offers us a unique time of humility, revisiting our roots and faith, re-placing our trust to where it belongs, and re-aligning ourselves back to becoming the church that Jesus had in mind when He was on the cross. As we do this, preachers have a rare opportunity to shake the culture again. Postmodern culture does not expect anything relevant to be coming out of the church. But when they are encountered by a church that is re-aligned with God and the voice of God is heard in a way that connects, it will be shockingly relevant, because that which is eternal is always relevant.

Spirituality is at an all-time high today, and religion is disdained more than ever. When we reveal to the postmodern world that Christ was very much the same way, this will immediately resonate. Though postmoderns want spiritual values without constraints, if we preach the radical values of Christ, they will form their own boundaries. Though postmoderns distrust institutions, if we preach that Christ did not come to establish a religion but a movement of followers that will change the world, the church will be seen differently. Though postmoderns stress personal fulfillment, if we preach that following Jesus brings people closer to the person they were always created to be, it can bring people to craving this deeper place of fulfillment. As Graham Johnston says, “Hope in Christ addresses the restlessness and arbitrary existence of the postmodern world”

The role of preaching in a postmodern world is just as crucial as ever. Although the challenges have changed since the modern era, the greatest needs of a human soul remain the same. Biblical and relevant preaching can transcend all of the negative stereotypes of postmodernity. Preaching is able to ask what no one dares to ask, dialog even deeper into the human heart, and proclaim a story that all are invited to participate in. Preaching is able to reveal to people what God is doing; in the life of the preacher, the world around them, and even in their own humanity. Preaching is able to integrate God with all the disconnected realities people live in today, calling them to change, while surprising them about the goodness of God. Preachers must learn to see the invisible and hear the inaudible, that the heart of the postmodern world is ‘preaching’ for us to preach Christ centered messages clearly to them.

For the latest comments on this and other entries see One Life.

Transformational preaching...

2007-02-17T08:45:00.000-05:00

Some excellent thoughts coming from the discussion in the last two posts (1 and 2) on preaching. I’m going to continue discussing preaching as valuable in postmodern contexts where we still have an audience. However, I believe this must not be reduced to the transfer of information, which it often is. If it does not lead to transformation it is a waste of all of our time. I’ve been guilty of this when I’ve spoken in the past.

Preaching through questions

I see preaching as a genre of communication of which there are many methods. It does not have to assume only the traditional role of an expert communicator pounding truth into their listeners. With postmodernity no longer subscribing to authority figures having all the right information, a more helpful form of preaching may be one where instead we “raise the right questions”. Although this may seem like a counter-intuitive way of delivering truth, if the gospel is in fact true, if we continue encouraging people to ask the right questions and seeking, the person of truth is where they will ultimately land. This process of discovery facilitates learning and more convicting answers for the postmodern audience.

A preaching dialogue?

Although the form of preaching can seem like a monologue, effective postmodern preaching cuts through the superficiality of the postmodern conversations and can actually launch a dialogue at the deepest levels. When a postmodern preacher can properly exegete the culture that it is communicating in, through the monologue one can actually draw out things that the listener dares not ask out loud. By being aware of the internal conversations of the audience, a preacher can have a very effective dialogue through the preaching monologue. This cultivates a sense of safety and understanding for the preacher. Taking this one step further, the conversation when effectively facilitated can become a trialogue where both the preacher and the listener together interact with what God maybe saying through the Scriptures, the Spirit, or even Creation itself.

Storytelling

Another form in which preaching can take shape is through storytelling. The language of the postmodern culture is image rich and desperately lacking a coherent storyline. God’s story is “an intranarrative” connecting all people can be very appealing. Although a single grand story may appear exclusive, what if we invited people to universal story that can incorporate their own story? Are there ways in the preaching moment where we can allow people to immediately begin participating jointly in the greatest developing story ever told?

See the latest comments on this post and other entires at One Life.

The challenge of preaching today...

2007-02-15T08:32:00.000-05:00

I still believe in preaching, but there are its share of challenges.

Where the church has in many ways led western culture for most of the past millennia, during the past fifty years, the culture has leaped forward, lapping around the church; leaving it in the dust. Today the church is seen as the remnants of an archaic institution. The church did such a good job adapting to modern culture, with its rationalism, hierarchy, and structures that it has become irrelevant to the postmodern culture today.

In the modern preacher’s mind the surrounding culture is in complete and utter chaos. Today’s preacher often makes the tragic mistake of trying to answer questions that no one’s asking. This is a prime example of how broken the lines of communication are between the church and the culture. People no longer understand what the church is babbling, and the church has no idea how to communicate to a relative, subjective, pluralistic, and amoral society. All of these factors are no excuse for relinquish our mandate to preach the gospel.

Although it may seem like an uphill battle, in the mind of a missionary, this is a unique opportunity in history. Most of the emerging literature today attempts to expand the definition of what it means to ‘preach the gospel’, but if your gifting is to preach, then the church needs you to be the very best preacher that you can be. Preachers must take upon the mindset of missionaries in a foreign land where the culture we are engaging happens to be postmodern.

I still believe there is a place for biblical and relevant preaching in North America today and going forward… isn’t there?

For the latest comments and entries see One Life.

The silence in church...

2007-02-12T09:07:00.000-05:00

I love my church, but an ear-aching silence hit me while I was sitting in the sanctuary trying to listen to the message today.

200 people sitting quietly in one moment in time. That’s an awful lot of people to not be expressing themselves.

However, I still believe in preaching. I’ll post a few thoughts on it in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: by the way this not a knock at my church, but the very act of the preaching moment to a postmodern audience in general. Our church often attempts to engage people in different ways (ie. forms of worship, response, skits, informal randomness, laughter, visuals, etc.)

As for now, does your church look anything like this?…

See the latest entries and comments at One Life.