Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

why I do it...

Scot McKnight, New Testament Scholar, Professor, Author and prolific blogger over @ Jesus Creed has a great post on writing which inspired me to keep on keeping on. I've been blogging now for over five years now, first on blogger and then switching to typepad. Through it all I've been the brunt of ridicule and jokes from friends and family around blogging. Why do you do it? Where do you find the time? How are your virtual friends?

I have to admit there have been times when I've thought about packing it. Questioning myself as to why I do it. Is it for self gratification, to be cool...feed my ego. No, honestly, it has been for none of that. What got me into it was, a few years ago " The Place " put on a conference called " Shifting Realities ", in which I helped out Dave Booth by running the coffee bar in Cafe' Suburbia. It was a great event with keynote speakers Brian McLaren, Dan Allender. But prior to that, I had already found myself more comfortable on the fringe of the church. The faith I had grown up with where the square blocks always fit in the square holes was changing...I found now I had some round pegs...and no matter how hard I tried they didn't fit.

I also discovered that being a " Barrista ", is like being a barber...you are a sounding board, listening and absorbing everyones stories. I soon discovered the fringe was pretty big and seemed to be growing. I also got the opportunity to meet Jordon and Wendy Cooper, turned Wendy onto Norah Jones. It was from Jordon, I first heard the word " Blog ". At first I thought it was a term found only in langauge of  the Saskatchewaneze. But Jordon opened my eyes to a whole new world, a new way to look at the diversity of the church, and community. For me It became away to journey and navigate around the fringe...to connect and be a connector.

But for a big part, I wanted to open a door to others, to make them aware of what was going on around the gobal village in terms of faith conversation...a way for others to get in and engage, to broaden, to keep the conversation fresh, and honest. I also wanted to give readers access to some of the major thinkers, and voices in the conversation by means of an extensive side bar, which is on the left of my page.

So between my passion for writing short reflections, and what is happening on the fringe of the church around the global village...that is what has kept me going. It has been my prayer that I have not been critical of this beautiful and diverse " church ", but have encouraged, and opened eyes to the reality that it is so much more...the very imagination of Jesus. I hope I've kept it fresh...and that you have found some enjoyment and encouragement.

Feeling haggard by it all...

It's been pretty hard to avoid stories around Ted Haggard, it seems everyone has an oppinion. But as this man pulls himself from rubble of where he finds himself, there seems to be something buried even deeper under the rubble...that grieves me, that makes my spirit weep. In a faith community, how does ( yes, I know he's a pastor ), but how does anyone, why do we let anyone get to this place. It seems we have to project this image of a church that has it all together...what happened to the church of raggamuffins, weary pilgrims, broken people, sinners. This God, that would stoop so low with a basin and towel to wash the feet of his friends, knowing every flaw, imperfection and fear. Am I a wild dreamer in thinking we shouldn't do the same, to be come communities where we can be vulnerable, exposing our dirty laundry, filthy secrets...the darkest places in our hearts. I wonder what might have happened if Ted Haggard had found himself in such a place years earlier, where he could have opened the darkness of his soul in the midst of broken community. Can we not begin to wash one another, in the presence and in to reality and inacrnation of Jesus. We can point fingers at Ted, but maybe we need to be pointing more at our faith communities and see the fear that we live in...instead of living in the bold faith to which we were called.

My friend Simon Barrow, adds this to the ongoing Ted Haggard conversation... ... ...

What seems to have been marginalised in this distorted biblicism is the evangel, the good news itself. The Christian message is that the Word became flesh, not concrete. Followers of Jesus are people of a person before they are people of a book.

The function of the texts is to point to that person (who said nothing about homosexuality, but much about welcoming the outcast), not to become a leaden substitute.

Matters of contested meaning require wisdom and sensitivity within the vulnerable community called into Christ’s shape, not inflexibility.

It was dogmatic certainty that enabled many of the righteous to justify slavery on thoroughly ‘biblical’ grounds for hundreds of years - until the deeper pattern of the Spirit became irresistible. Now these same texts that condemned people to mass suffering are seen in a quite different light.

It would be a real sign of hope if at least some around Ted Haggard began to show a willingness to ask questions of themselves (not just him), and to wonder whether their leaders might not have to seek sad moments of seedy gratification if there was a deeper theology of faithful human relationships available to them.

As for Mr Haggard himself, well it seems that he was beginning to move before his ‘fall’. He was a hard-line opponent of gay marriage, an advocate of creationism, and a friend of the White House, for sure. But he also opposed some of the more extreme attempts at homophobic legislation in Texas. And he tried to get evangelicals to embrace a more generous environmental agenda.

These were gestures toward a new tenderness in the midst of what turned out to be overwhelming personal disturbance and turmoil.

It is these signs, Christians in the wider church are likely to believe, not the obvious crashing of heroes from pedestals, which point American evangelicals away from their current head-on clash with both reality and a broader biblical vision...more Here.

the tipping point to...1000

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, " The Tipping Point " talks about the importance of connectors, networks, webs, clusters of people that interact, that are connected...that can cause something to tip and spread like a replicating virus. Suddenly we have an epidemic on our hands.

I want to open your eyes to the reality, that you may be a connector. Through your blog, through your the links in your side bar...you are a connector.

Vancouver friend Mike Todd would like your help to prove that connectors can make a difference, that we can find the tipping point and start an epidemic of Love. On the heels of the big kick off for the product Red in North America on Oprah'a show with Bono and guests, Mike gave us a challenge.

Please stick with this one to the end… where there is a challenge waiting for you.

I don’t have a clue what the profit margins are like on the iPod, but $10 doesn’t strike me as a lot of money. Let’s be realistic. It’s not. Here’s the choice: You can lay out $200, get a new iPod, and contribute $10 to a good cause. Or, you can just contribute the $10. We believe we can get 1000 people to donate $10 each. We’d like $10 from everyone in the developed world, but we’ll settle for you, and everyone you know. And when we’re done, we’ll pass the money--all of it--along to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. 

First, we need your $10. Just as importantly, we then need you to reach out to all your contacts. Post a link on your blog, send out an email to your friends, hang a banner from your window... whatever it takes. We'll keep you posted on how we're doing.

Together, we can do this. Help prove us right. Thank you.

There is a whole continent, that would like to see the phenomonen of the Tipping Point come to reality, that a virus of Love would spread...a virus that could ease poverty, and a virus that could heal.

You could be the connector that could cause things to Tip. Please take up the challenge.