Dave and Jordan, a few of my friends, started Ride for Africycle. Their next ride is 1000km. Africycle is a charitable organization bringing people together to improve access to bicycles in Africa. They are taking donations for it, you should give them something.
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For my American friends. 1 time fee, $250 and then unlimited telephone calls for a lifetime, that's awesome. I told Darryl that the only reason I'm jealous of his new residence in the United States his his access to the coolest technology, especially web technology.
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This is very cool. I would ht Joe, but he doesn't blog...so his loss.
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Fun advertising
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Saw art like this at Artwalk this year, all hand done though, here is how you can make it in five seconds.
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Jesus Made Me Puke: Matt Taibbi Undercover with the Christian Right

Did a wedding this weekend, here are some of my favourite shots.

I’ve always thought that those weren’t saved didn’t have a lot to offer to the world. The best chance they had to offer something was maybe using a good movie clip in one of my messages sometime. But really I only thought it was brilliant because I found the clip and it worked with what I wanted to say, so I was the smart one and not them.

Since going to York and doing some reading outside of my belief system and most importantly interacting with those outside my faith, I realized that the thoughts and beliefs that I have exist everywhere. For the most part, most of the smart things I believe that I thought were championed by Christians somewhere originated with someone that wasn’t.

Some of the more profound things that I’ve heard about the Old Testament came from my Jewish professor at York. Some of the most profound things I’ve read about international development and economics came from books that I’ve read whose authors would far from consider themselves Christ followers. Lately I’ve been awe-inspired by TED videos. Ted is a conference where great thinkers go and share their findings in quick lectures. Watching these fascinates me because over and over again I see people from every faith truly offering something valuable to the world. Here are a few of my favourites that I think really relate to Christian values.

Slowing down in a World Built for Speed
The Paradox of Choice
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
A list of videos on the environment
New Insights on Poverty and Life around the World

So what does this tell me? Well I think it tells me that God is up to something outside of the self defined church. Good things are happening in all faiths, and all over the place people are starting to come to the realization of what is good and see that its something to pursue. If only we as the church wouldn't be so prideful and would partner up with people like this, because we have long dropped the ball in leading, then the world would be a better place.

Depending on our convictions, all of our priorities will differ. I have a few close friends whose priorities of eating healthy are at the top of his list; so high that they were willing to make massive lifestyle changes to live in tune with his convictions. This confuses a lot of people, including myself at times, because I have no idea where they are coming from. My strongest convictions don’t lie with what I put in my body, but rather who I interact with and how those interactions work. But who is to say either are more important? I have a lot of respect for these friends because they are the most pro-active people I know when it comes to how they should live.

Some convictions baffle me. Some people biggest concern is that gays don’t get married. Some is that all their friends made it to church last Sunday. I do believe that convictions give us a peak into each other’s life and the journey we are on. My convictions change constantly. I remember throwing out (deleting) all my secular music because I thought it wasn’t honoring God. I remember kicking someone off a worship team because she was dating an unbeliever. I remember watching in awe as Christians I respected said fuck or shit. I remember being heart broken when I found out someone close to me tried pot. I remember thinking less of someone because they drove a Hummer. I remember feeling a touch of superiority when I saw someone wearing an expensive brand name. I remember being pissed off at mega churches.

It is these feeling and passions that fuel my existence, whether or not they are valid or true. One of the biggest lessons in life will be learning to appreciate people’s convictions while not assuming that if they aren’t following yours they are in the wrong. For some reason we see other people’s convictions as threats against our own. Or we feel the need to hold everyone to our own convictions. I don’t think either way is right. We need to learn to appreciate and value people’s convictions and if anything let them be a peep hole into their life. And we need to learn that our convictions say a lot about us and where we are at and that not everyone is on the same page. Not everyone cares.

Convictions can be beautiful things. They make us who we are and they give us something to passionate about. They help us prioritize our lives and help us be better people. They aren’t to be used for guilt but rather for freedom. Keep this in mind next time you are weirded out by someone else’s convictions. Remember that their convictions don’t govern your life but knowing them and valuing them will help you be a better neighbour.

Last week Rachel, Joe, Jared and I drove a couple thousand kilometers around the East Coast and filmed a bunch of churches for One Size Fits All to finish off the filming. Here are some of my favourite pictures from the week.

It's been a busy month so far. Just got back from Halifax to finish the rest of the filming for the documentary, Artwalk was a success and been working a lot. Here are a few videos.

N.T. Wright on Colbert

Nancy who we interviewed and showed this video two weeks ago at theStory, she's part of our community.

Well it's that time of year again. Joe and I are running the Sarnia Short Film Festival again. Get your films in before the deadline to be considered for the showings. We are expecting quite a lot of films to be submitted compared to last year so we are getting the word out now so you have time to put together a great film. All the guidelines and dates and everything else can be found on the website and also some of the films from last year (except the winner because of copyrights).

A friend of mine Chris is running Sarnia's first ever Wakeboard competition and it will be professionals (invite only) and free admission on July 20th. It's called Wake-Up Call. It should be awesome, and it's about time someone did this in Sarnia, we are ripe for these kind of events. Below is the article in The Observer. Chris is the guy with the black wet suit on in these pictures.

Wake boarding comes to Sarnia this summer
By CATHY DOBSON

Wake-up Sarnia!

That’s what 24-year-old Chris Smith hopes to do when he hosts a wake boarding competition for the first time on Sarnia’s waterfront.

“I’m blown away by the reception I’ve received here,” Smith said. “Everyone wants this to happen.”

He’s spent three summers helping organize Rock the Wake in Haliburton. Now that he’s moved back to his hometown, he wants to introduce Sarnians to the sport.

He’s dubbed it “Sarnia’s Wake-Up Call” and is bringing in 12 professional wakeboarders and wakeskaters to demonstrate the sport and compete in the river at Centennial Park on Sunday, July 20.

Smith hopes to draw on two established events taking place in the park that day. Ribfest and Hobbyfest goers will be able to take in the wakeboard demonstrations free-of-charge.

“I hope that once Sarnians see what it’s all about and understand, we’ll be able to have a larger event in coming years and have amateur competitions too,” Smith said.

Wakeboarding attracts a younger crowd, said Mayor Mike Bradley. “It fits in well with our plan to create new events for young people.”

City council gave the event a boost Monday by providing Smith with $1,500 to cover the cost of insurance.

He has several sponsors lined up, including Precision Power Sports, and is working in partnership with the Holiday Inn, waterfront marinas, Sarnia Water Sports and SIGN Here.

As an added attraction, Smith is bringing in a 150-foot swimming pool to be assembled on the grass near McPherson Fountain.

The pros will not only demonstrate their flips and grabs behind a boat on the river, they’ll also use a winch in the pool to pull them along.

“If the weather is good, I should get 1,500 people or more,” Smith estimated.

A wakeskater himself, he said his passion for the sport is being met with a lot of encouragement.

“It’s going to happen and I’m very happy.”

Vicky Praill of the local Convention and Visitors Bureau said the combination of Ribfest, Hobbyfest and Sarnia’s Wake-Up Call should generate big crowds if the weather is good.

“I think it’s an amazing event,” she said. “We’ve tried in the past to bring wakeboarding to Sarnia and now here is one of our own doing it.”

Smith has set up a website at www.wakeupcallonline.net, which will soon have more detail about the event.

A bunch of guys started up Sarnia Urban Sports downtown two weeks ago. I joined right off the get go because we were playing dodgeball. We played again last weekend during Artwalk and I was able to get some pictures. Here they are below. I think we got a fun summer ahead of us. Click on the link below to join the Facebook group to be notified of upcoming outings.

My friend Tim Nixon has started up a company here in Sarnia, called Sarnia Water Sports. He will take you out and give you wakeboard or water-ski lessons. It's a great idea for a city like Sarnia. So this morning we took a couple of boats out and snapped some pictures. We are also took some footage for a one minute commercial. Here are 15 of my favourites. Click on the link to see them all, and here are a few below.

Here is the article in the paper about his business

Making waves on the river
By CATHY DOBSON

Twenty year-old Sarnia native says it's high time area residents use their waterfront more.

Tim Nixon is full of ideas on how to make that happen.

He launches Sarnia Water Sports today, a new venture that offers lessons in wakeboarding, wakeskating and waterskiing.

Nixon has a 2007 190-horsepower Sea Ray equipped with a full wakeboard tower that works for all types of water sports.

"I bought the boat last year and had a great time all summer on the water. I love the water and really want to see Sarnians get more involved in their waterfront," he says.

Operating his own business has always been in Nixon's blood, he says, so last winter he put a business plan together for Sarnia Water Sports.

Numerous surveys conducted among local students and parents supported his belief that a water sport school would do well.

With the help of Dave Brown at Bridgeview Marina, Nixon has set up shop dock-side along Venetian Boulevard on marina property.

Sarnia Water Sports is accepting calls starting today to either book a lesson or a session out on the water with a tube, wakeboard or waterskis.

Prices vary depending on the circumstances but, generally, it costs $50 an hour for a private lesson. Group lessons are less expensive. If family or friends want to ride in the boat, they pay $10 each.

Nixon is a graduate of the Canadian Waterski Instructors Course sanctioned by the Ontario Waterski Association. He is fully insured through Waterski/Wakeboard Canada.

"Being a kid growing up here, I would have loved to have lessons like this," Nixon says. He welcomes kids and teens under the age of 18 but they require a parent or guardian to sign their waivers.

His market research indicates that young people will be most interested as well as families looking for recreation. Nixon hopes tourists coming into area marinas in their larger boats will want to take up water sports with him.

"I expect wakeboarding to be more popular than anything else," he says.

Sarnia Water Sports is a sponsor of Sarnia's Wakeup Call, a professional wakeboarding demonstration on Sarnia Bay this July 20.

To contact Nixon about lessons or just having fun out on the water, call him at 519-381-7176 or log onto sarniawatersports.com, fill in your contact information and he will call you.

Looks like God left Sarnia and went somewhere else to outpour his Spirit. I guess I don't mean God, I mean Todd Bentley. Instead of it being called the Sarnia Revival, it is called the Florida Outpouring. Just replace Sarnia with Florida in this post here and you'll get a good understanding of where I'm coming from. I thought this was a great article on the subject, interviews with those inside and out of the event. Here are some other news clippings. Brings up some obvious problems with revivals like this especially about money, which I will get to.

Update: As opposed to offering news clippings, which I had up here before, I will direct you to some blog posts of people commenting on the matter, you can find the news clippings by googling.

Robby Mac's Thoughts....Good Post(ht)

SynchroBlog: But is it Revival?

Healing Revival

Monday Morning Mentations

Church people #2

Straw Man Arguments

Welcome To Todd World

I am fascinated about how fast and good the designs/websites are that can go up for stuff like this. I wish I would have been on the ball and bought floridaoutpouring.com before they did. That would have been fun. Check out some of the links on here and how fast they get e-mail lists, blogs and tv schedules online.

I think one of the first things "revivals" like this should do is post their budget for all to see. This is how much money came in and this is how we are distributing it to those in need. Jesus talks about money more than any topic in his life because it is crucial to have a firm grasp on it (and not it on you) to live a Kingdom centered life. To hear stories about buckets full of money floating around and no one really knowing where its going breaks my heart. I would be a lot less skeptical about these things if money was an open topic and we knew where the funds were going and were assured it wasn't just going into the organizers pockets and that they were actually being used like they should. The economic toll that events like these play on convinced souls is massive and it is just another way where the rich get richer and the poor, or middle class who are looking for "blessing" get poorer.

I wonder when the masses will learn that when you put a great entertainer in front of a large crowd who are all expecting something great, that something is going to happen. Wether it is great or not, everyone will think its great and then you'll start a website, logo, brand and make lots of money all in the name of Jesus. You know the same Jesus who asks us to sell our posessions, take care of the poor, love our neighbour and pray in our closets.

Grace is a tricky thing, mostly because it depends a lot on the person giving the grace as opposed to the one receiving it. So like we always do, we devise schemes and formulas about how it is given, and who it should be given to. Typically we only can muster up enough strength to give grace to those much like us. Grace is a hard thing to give to those who are unlike us or we don’t understand.

I remember a time when I had a very hard time sympathizing, let alone giving grace to, those who did things that I never did. After all it is their responsibility to smarten up and they have to make a decision, just like I did. If I can do it, than so can they. Grace ended up being divvied up according to how much grace I felt I was given and to how they matched up to my own performance. I never did understand those that got drunk on the weekends because it really wasn’t my thing, so I had less grace for them. However if it came to lust or pride I tended to give them a bit more grace.

This is faulty for a few reasons. First it means that we end up only giving grace to those that we think can’t help it. We certainly can’t help when we sin we think, so for those that can’t help it we understand and sympathize with them. They are stuck, they just can’t get better we think. However, this sort of defeats the purpose of grace. Grace needs to be given when people can do the right thing, yet choose not to. Grace needs to be given when people will not deserve it, will not do what is right and aren’t doing anything to get better. I was struck by a comment on Tim Challies blog the other day in his review of the Shack. He said

Nowhere in Scripture will we find the idea that we can or should forgive an unrepentant person for this kind of crime [murder]. Rather, Scripture makes it clear that repentance must precede forgiveness. Without repentance there can be no forgiveness.

I’m sure he has a post somewhere in his site to back up that statement; maybe someone can point it out to me. This just seems to be the exact opposite of what grace is. Grace is undeserved and comes when we were still sinners. Grace and forgiveness is to be given in the midst of sin and rebellion against what is right; without it where does that leave people?

The parable in Luke 7 I think speaks to this a little. Simon was told a parable two guys who have a debt, one is ten times bigger than the other and then both debts are cleared by the master, Jesus asks who Simon thinks would be more grateful. Simon answers (the way we would all answer probably) that the guy with the largest debt. Jesus tells him he is right and then drops a bomb. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” The point of this parable wasn’t to say that if you sin more you can love more. It was rather to help Simon see that all of our debts are equal and that he was blinded to that. For him to look at someone and see more sin than in himself was to see himself improperly. For us to love properly, we need to be completely aware of our own need for Christ and how lost we’d be without him or else we will constantly become the Simon in our situations thinking that our debt is so much smaller than everyone else’s.

God calls us to love and give grace to and forgive those that don’t deserve it and don’t want it not just those that can’t be good. I can’t see a church or Christian that functions any other way. Grace is for all and especially those that we think don’t deserve it and don’t want it.

Because this was an extremely busy week, and next week is even busier, I took the time to that I didn't have and wasted it on something that I didn't really need to do. I started the new blog design that I've been hoping to get going for the last little while. I updated all my software and trying to understand it and so there will be a lot more changes coming, but here is the shell of what the site will look like from here on in. I'm taking a simpler approach now, and we'll see what comes up out of it.

Dave is blogging now here, and his blog is called Awesome Internet Site. I usually enjoy what he has to offer to the world.
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Lately I've been into documentaries and fun films, here is a few that I have either watched or not watched but look interesting. Devil Plays Hardball, Carts of Darkness, War Dance and Maxed Out: the last two have one tons of awards.
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Mixing Google Maps with crime scenes, kind of freaky if you ask me.
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I feel earthy lately. We bought an 100% electric scooter, I keep a compost lately, try to drive less and I now recycle diligently and try to by less. Some links on that: Garbage will be the new fuel?, 4 Most harmful ingredients in packaged foods, 10 Fuel Efficiency Tips, 10 Steps to smarter food shopping,
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Cool bookshelf designs. We were thinking of making an old plane wing into a bookshelf at theStory. We still will do it, if someone gives us a plane wing.
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I can't do this, can you?

Stuff has been on my mind lately. I’m amazed at how much happiness it can bring to someone. Watching my wife’s face as her bedroom gets decorated, watching my own face when I get a new camera, listening to girls talk about Ikea and guys talk about new cars, watching people at Wal Mart, watching commercials: all of it adds to my perspective on what stuff is and why it has such a hold on myself and our culture.

It has got to be unhealthy. Especially because I can upgrade my Ipod three or four times in a year and not even flinch and the other side of the world can’t even upgrade their rice dinner. If we were really honest with ourselves, do we really need everything we have? Do I really need the Culligan Water cooler, the new spice rack and every bag of M&M’s I pass (all things I can see while I’m sitting here). Do I really need to just go out and go shopping, for no other reason but to shop?

I think some of us have caught on that we have this sickness, so instead of buying less we start justifying our outings. Oh I just need this because of this and I need this because I have been thinking about doing this. Before it might have been ok to shop for no reason, but now you at least have to have some kind of reason. We are great at justifying our own actions.

I have way to much crap. I don’t need most of it, and I don’t want new stuff to upgrade my old stuff. For some reason, not wanting things just hasn’t been a good enough response to all my stuff. I buy way less than I used to, but it just wasn’t and isn’t enough. So I’ve had to take up a new practice. It’s called sharing. One of the first things I like to do when I get something new, is lend it to someone. It teaches me real fast that it’s not mine and I didn’t just buy it for me. I think sharing helps remind us of these things. So slowly I’m trying to learn to share more things and more often and hopefully use it as a discipline to break the hold that stuff has on me.

For me to own something privately and not share it I think is selfish and unchristian. We’ve convinced ourselves that if we buy something with money we earned that we don’t owe anyone and that we have entitlement to our possessions, at least before anyone else. Do we really though? Just because it exists behind closed doors that we own does that really mean that its ours to call the shots with? Or maybe if we just hide it there, maybe if I don’t tell anyone or remind anyone about my Ipod then no one will ask me for it. It is these kind of thoughts that fueled ATTIC and my dream of having everyone's books and movies available for anyone at theStory's space. Hopefully though this is just the beginning.

Following Jesus I think means putting giving before receiving or preserving. We should be advertising that we as a community share to all and anything is up for grabs. If someone is in need then we should be the first ones to give of what we have (not just throw money at them every time). Whatever it is that we hold on too, may we be reminded over and over again that its not ours and we are just stewards. May we learn to share first whether it be our money, food or my Ipod.

If you haven't seen this movie yet (The Story of Stuff) watch it right now, it's brilliant.