: simply no excuse ... well, maybe one or two :

Hey Folks ... my last few posts have been staggered through the months, and mostly apologizing for not posting. I sincerely apologize for that. I've been staying busy though, and a little pre-occupied with wrapping up an assignment, conceptualizing a consulting practice, and launching into a challenging new gig, so there's three excuses, not just one or two.

I'm working on a blog component to the web site that the infamous JimmyK is cooking up, this is his prototype logo so we will see where it all goes, eh?

? se7en months, twenty days ?

... can't quite believe it has been 7 months and 20 days since I last posted here, and that was my AWOL apology. Seems life just gets in the way? In hindsight, I was a much better blogger while on sabbatical! Well, maybe not better, just more present. Anyhow ...

Wondering about a few things these days and wondering if I couldn't/shouldn't at least TRY to fire this baby up again, even on a weekly basis? There's a certain discipline that comes with 'blogging ... and I kind of feel some of that is missing with DLC2009?

Later ...

: awol : two months : no excuse :

... just realized it has been almost exactly two months since i wandered over here to post anything. sorry ...

it has been a full and rewarding time, lots going on, plenty to do, and ... obviously ... less time to 'blog than before.

much of that would have to do with honcho-ing the pastoral search at www.saanichtonbiblefellowship.org ... which by all accounts is going really well.

not sure if i can or will do anything about that any time soon, but thought i should at least make an appearance. trust you are well ...

dlc

: my friend coop : on homelessness :

... we had a good day at Saanichton Bible Fellowship yesterday, as what I dubbed Mustard Seed Sunday @ the SBF went off really well. Chris Pollock, the seed's youth pastor, spoke in the morning, with a few comments about the tragedy on Victoria's streets this last week. More on that in the next post. We followed up with a Mustard Seed Street Church benefit concert, with the Seed's Praise Band kicking things off, and a variety of Seed artists, poets, musicians contributing. Amazing the tentacles of ministry an intentional street church must develop ... food bank, Hope Healing Farm, youth outreach, back-to-school supplies, counseling, advocacy, social assistance navigation, you name it.

This is may favourite picture of my buddy Jordon Cooper, taken by his almost 9 year old son Mark. One of the smartest people I know, and that's saying something, Jordon is a voracious reader. And a sage football fan, as both of us are Denver Broncos and Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans. Anyhow Coop works these days in a leadership capacity in a Salvation Army shelter in Saskatoon, SK. He just had an article published in NextWave magazine on the complexities of homelessness, and a way faith communities could be part of the solution. Between his intellect, his reading, and his blogging, he's honed quite an articulate voice on things.

Maybe you will find this helpful as you process your locale's homelessness challenge?

dlc

***

ps. Ron Cole has weighed in on this as well, spurred on by the Coop's article. Well, maybe catalyzed by it? Ron is always thinking about this stuff, but he wrote some of it down here after reading Jordon's article. And then Randy commented on it, and Ron replied ...

: in the city : mustard seed sunday @ sbf :

... driving up to the SBF this morning I heard the Eagles' version Joe Walsh's 1979 song In the City on 100.3 the Q. Guess I was thinking about urban ministry as this Sunday morning Chris Pollock, youth pastor @ the Mustard Seed Street Church is speaking, and later on Sunday evening various bands, artists, poets and staff from the Seed and Hope Farm will be sharing at a benefit concert. I also just finished reading Gary Haugen's book Just Courage. He is the founder of International Justice Mission. So maybe, just maybe these guys are getting through ... to me?

... a couple of years ago, as I was trying to think through what Lambrick Park Church's role, as a suburban church, might be in our city, I had a similar experience while driving. Michael McDonald's Taking it to the Streets song on the Doobie Bros album titled Taking it to the Streets ... hit me differently, as more than just background lyrics. I eventually wrote to Michael ( I can call him Michael, right? ) and got some background to why he wrote the song, as he did, when he did. I also invited Tom Oshiro, Executive Director of Mustard Seed Ministries to speak @ Lambrick in July 2006, and he was graciously blunt about what the Lambrick's of Victoria could do as partners-in-ministry with the Seed. If you hit that link you can find your way around to Tom's challenge to LPC.

But I digress ...

... it has been a tough week in the city of Victoria. For people on the streets of this beautiful city. For people who work with, serve and love these folks. Maybe the reminder from Joe Walsh is a bit of what we need ...



Somewhere out there on that horizon
Out beyond the neon lights
I know there must be somethin' better
But there's nowhere else in sight
It's survival in the city
When you live from day to day
City streets don't have much pity
When you're down, that's where you'll stay
In the city, oh, oh.
In the city

I was born here in the city
With my back against the wall
Nothing grows, and life ain't very pretty
No one's there to catch you when you fall
Somewhere out on that horizon
Faraway from the neon sky
I know there must be somethin' better
And I can't stay another night
In the city, oh, oh.
In the city

: thoughtful commentary on controversial shack :

... over the last few months I've heard all kinds of comments, ideas, questions, endorsements and slams regarding the Shack, which apparently just reached the milestone ( of sorts, I guess? ) of #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for the 36th straight week. Seems there are 3 categories of response: love it, hate it, undecided.

It actually took me two, maybe three tries to get into it, and then to finish it. Not sure why. But I did manage to read it all. Mind you, I think I was sitting at the end of the dock on Shawnigan Lake with a pitcher of lemonaid beside me, and the waverunners zipping across the narrows 150 m out.

Stephen Shields is a 'blogger I respect, who has done a lot of things in ministry and career, and he has posted this review . Might be one of the saner of the handful I've read. Maybe this will help you help one of the many people reading, and asking, about it?

dlc

: last night @ glad tidings w/ tony campolo :

... World Vision Canada brought Tony Campolo into town yesterday, seeing as he ( and everyone else it seems ) is in BC for MissionsFest this weekend. Not going to get into what he said much here, except to say that he pretty much told a fairly conservative evangelical crowd that any dreams, desires, demands and deliberations towards overtaking government with christians was doomed. Why? because that is a power grab, and position comes with very little actual authority. He challenged us to earn authority through intentional step-by-step acts of radical and sacrificial love. That eventually could change structures and systems and governments, but that is the place to start.

Over the past couple of years MTodd and I have been having a related conversation, although Mike claims Bono started it. Maybe the progression away from positional power to getting things done is ... power > authority > influence > currency? Mike's original question to me was ... compare Michael Jordan and Bono. What have they done for good with the incredible wealth, voice, profile and hearing they have? MJ has a basketball team, some gambling debts, a ba-zillion shoes named after him, and a million kids who were wannabe NBA stars. Bono has other stuff ... he gets invited to Presidential prayer breakfasts. If he has plans to be near Italy, he mentions it to the Vatican, and they say "come on over' ... sheesh, Bill Hybels flew across the Atlantic to interview Mr. U2 for a segment at a WillowBack Summit a couple of summers ago.

I am intrigued by trying to understand how real currency is earned, developed and used strategically as a stewardship of the resources any of us has been given. A good palce to start may be back at a much earlier post here on Kipling's poem "IF" ...

dlc

: what drives you ? and/or who do you blame :

... maybe you've seen this ad pop up on your FaceBook page? I had kind of ignored ancestry.ca until yesterday, when the teaser line 'why are you such a control freak?' got my attention, not that it occurred to me that I was a c-freak of course!

... however, I have known a few, worked for a couple ( you never actually work with c-freaks, only for them, especially in their minds :) and I am sure have acted like one on occasion. As usual, I often wonder/ponder what exactly drives a real control freak? what makes them think they know the answers? or that they have the global corner on implementation? or that there is really only one right way to do something ... theirs.

... I was on a staff once with a person who others ( not on staff ) declared was a control freak. I begged to differ ... they might have been a quality control freak, but that's a bit different. Another time I was beyond surprised when someone I had seen lead in a macro manner, big picture and mature, tended to micro-manage a project or event nearly to death ( or was it us that were near death? ). I kept asking myself ... 'what did I miss? why had I never seen those tendencies before?' only to come up lame ... no answers, no insights, no valid reasons.

... my mentor David was probably the one who modelled anti-control-freakness for me back in the early 1990's. He had an amazing ability to accept big projects from 'the boss' and break them down into manageable chunks for his own staff. He delegated appropriately, ran interference when things got off track, was available for consultation almost whenever staff deemed it necessary, and ... I realized many years later, never actually yanked the rope that he gave us to run with things, even when they went sideways. He took responsibility and 'credit' for the messes, as well as the successes. That's a great staff environment.

... Jim Collins has researched and written extensively about the kind of leadership that sets the stage, builds great teams, communicates the reason for whatever your organization is about, then gets out of the way ... he calls it Level 5 leadership ... pretty rare, pretty unique, pretty great to work with.

dlc

: takin' it to the streets :

... the last several years I have been intrigued by what urban, and/or inner-city ministry is supposed to look like, mostly from a suburban church perspective. I think much of my wondering 'jelled' when I was able to visit Ron M in Montreal, a career street minister, and then Greg P in Toronto, founder and pastor of Sanctuary. Then, as Victoria's homeless situation grew more and more desperate, and Vancouver's gained profile in he face of development for the 2010 Olympics ( and a handful of friends working on the DTES ... Down Town East Side ), and a combination of city and provincial politicians landed a proposed shelter next door to a good friend's place of business, well ... there was no escaping it. Not that I wanted to, but I couldn't break it down into manageable, understandable, wrap-my-brain-around-it chunks. All that to say ... while a very, very visual learner/processor, every once in a while something 'audio' rings a bell, gets my attention, makes me sit up and take notice. The last couple of years I have been paying more attention to the lyrics in my generation's songs ... and seeing some kind of social conscience, or some questioning, taking place.

About a year ago I heard the Doobie Bros 1976 hit "Takin' it to the Streets" on the Q100.3 ... and yes, I do have it on a cassette somewhere. However, I heard it very differently this time around, not just Michael McDonald's catchy* tune, but something else. When I got home I downloaded it from iTunes, and listened to it carefully, again and again. Finally I wrote to a MMcD fan site, and actually got a response ( below ) to my query about Michael's motivation in writing "Takin' it to the Streets" ... so here's another challenge, following up on the Desmond Tutu quote below, as we turn the corner into 2009. With both new mayors of Victoria and Vancouver running election campaigns, and winning, on a priority platform of addressing the homelessness issue ... our posture will be critical. McDonald put it this way ... "I ain't blind, and I don't like what I think I see" ... maybe addressing the do-gooder we have the answers for you approach, which is something Canadian Food for the Hungry has beaten out of some of us, in a necessary kind of way.

Here is a YouTube version at some tribute to MMcD by some of his friends. A better one is here, but the YouTube embedding has been disabled, but you decide.



You don't know me but I'm your brother. I was raised here in this living hell.
You don't know my kind in your world. Fairly soon the time will tell.

You, telling me the things you're gonna do for me.
I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see.
Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin',
takin' it to the streets.

Take this message to my brother. You will find him everywhere.
Wherever people live together, tied in poverty's despair.

Oh, you, telling me the things you're gonna do for me.
I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see.
Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin',
takin' it to the streets.
Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for hidin',
takin' it to the streets.
Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the...

Oh, you, telling me the things you're gonna do for me.
I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see.
Takin' it to the streets,
takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin',
takin' it to the streets.
Takin' it to the streets,
takin' it to the streets,
takin' it to the streets.

**************

Here's the background ...

Hi Don

You are in luck - we do have a bit of insight about "Takin' It To The Streets" from the man himself - Mike told us this one time when we met him for a fanzine interview.

"Takin' it to the Streets" was based on a paper his sister had been writing for college about urban renewal, civil rights, Martin Luther King and equality. These things were very current down in St Louis when Mike was a teenager and it is clear that they affected him deeply. I think he was saying that people - you and I - have the real power to affect change not the politicians ... we just need to take it to the people - take it to the streets.

Mike has also told us that he was moved by Steve Wonder on this subject (on such tracks as Living For The City for example) and also Marvin Gaye's seminal album - "What's Going On". Incidently, Marvin was Mike's main vocal inspiration - the layered vocal technique which Gaye invented - taking all the parts of the harmony himself with 3 or 4 over dubs. You can see this most obviously in Mike's early work for Steely Dan on tracks such as Peg (album: Aja). As a personal aknowledgement of this, Mike has regularly sung What's Goin On during his live gigs for over fifteen years.

Kind regards,

P

**************

: as Christians, we are prisoners of hope :

Desmond Tutu put it this way ...

"as Christians, we are prisoners of hope."

May that lens help us prepare this week for 2009.

dlc

: on a more positive note : bible illuminated :

The American Bible Society has come out with a coffee table Bible ... a sort of hard cover magazine format design. You can have your own 286 page glossy for $35 U$D.

The web page is far better than this graphic. Give it a moment as the main graphic is actually a real page-turner. Really.

Interesting. Wonder how it will fly?

: word for today ? noisome : too good to pass up :

HyperDictionary Definition: noisome

1. [adj] offensively malodorous; "a putrid smell"
2. [adj] causing or able to cause nausea; "a nauseating smell"; "nauseous offal"; "a sickening stench"

Synonyms: fetid, foetid, foul, foul-smelling, funky, loathsome, malodorous, nauseating, nauseous, offensive, putrid, sickening, smelly, stinking, unwholesome, vile

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Definition: \Noi"some\, a. [For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See {Annoy}.]
1. Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome;insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. ``Noisome pestilence.'' --Ps. xci. 3.

2. Offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting; fetid.
``Foul breath is noisome.'' --Shak. -- {Noi"some*ly}, adv.
-- {Noi"some*ness}, n.

Syn: Noxious; unwholesome; insalubrious; mischievous; destructive.

Usage: {Noisome}, {Noxious}. These words have to a great extent been interchanged; but there is a tendency to make a distinction between them, applying noxious to things that inflict evil directly; as, a noxious plant, noxious practices, etc., and noisome to things that operate with a remoter influence; as, noisome vapors, a noisome pestilence, etc. Noisome has the additional sense of disqusting. A garden may be free from noxious weeds or animals; but, if recently covered with manure, it may be filled with a noisome smell.

Thesaurus Terms

Related Terms: abhorrent, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, bad for, bad-smelling, baleful, baneful, barfy, base, beastly, below contempt, beneath contempt, blameworthy, brackish, brutal, cloying, contaminated, contemptible, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, crude, damaging, deadly, deleterious, deplorable, despicable, detestable, detrimental, dire, dirty, disadvantageous, disgusting, disserviceable, distressing, dreadful, egregious, enormous, execrable, fecal, fetid, filthy, flagrant, forbidding, foul, frowsty, frowy, frowzy, fulsome, funky, fusty, gamy, graveolent, grievous, gross, harmful, hateful, heinous, high, horrible, horrid, hurtful, icky, ignoble, ill-smelling, infamous, injurious, insalubrious, insanitary, lamentable, lethal, loathsome, lousy, maggoty, malefic, malevolent, malign, malignant, malodorous, mawkish, mephitic, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy, mischievous, moldy, monstrous, morbific, musty, nasty, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nefarious, nidorous, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, odorous, offensive, olid, ominous, outrageous, overripe, pathogenic, peccant, pernicious, pestiferous, pitiable, pitiful, poisonous, polluted, prejudicial, putrid, rancid, rank, reasty, reasy, rebarbative, reechy, reeking, reeky, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, sad, scandalous, scatheful, schlock, scurvy, septic, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, sickening, sickly, smellful, smelling, smelly, sordid, spoiled, squalid, stenchy, stinking, strong, stuffy, sulfurous, tainted, terrible, too bad, toxic, unclean, unhealthful, unhealthy, unhygienic, unsanitary, unwholesome, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, vile, villainous, virulent, vomity, weevily, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched, yucky

: been otherwise distracted :

... been down for 2.5 weeks now with a lousy, nagging cold/flu virus which seems able to hang on for EVER. Not too much to say ... 'cept that life goes on, governments rise and fall, babies are born and older people die. About two weeks to Christmas 2008, and I've missed much/any preparations.

dlc

: 43 + 1 = 44 ... or does it? asks patrick moberg :

thought this was great. regardless of politics. the time has come.

moberg is an illustrator/animator who ponders governing right here.

: a hand up is very different than a hand out :

... a good friend and former co-worker sent me this. They have asked me to be a reference as they head into the application process with freeset ... it is only 3 minutes long, so take a look, and then a second look maybe, watching the faces of the women still on the street, and then in the freeset business. That, my friends, just about says it all.

dlc

: paradoxes and contradictions on leadership :

... not really looking for it, or looking into it recently, but a few things crossed my radar that I found interesting, informing, and funny even. Also watched Obama's first post-election interview on 60 Minutes last night. Relaxed, focused, at ease with Michelle, firm with interviewer's probing questions.

Mind you, if a contributing editor with Christianity Today's stable of journals refers to the North American church's 'cult of leadership' you need to pay attention, but on the flip side, a dialed in, savvy guy like Seth Godin's new book Tribes is out, along with a Tribes Q&A pdf, claiming people are clamoring for leadership.

Hmmmm ... maybe I'll embellish on those tomorrow, but until then? Here's a leadership smile from Charles Barkley ... retired NBA allstar, media darling ( for his outspokenness ), and future Governor of Alabama? Must be something about governors from states starting with A ... want to get to the front of the pack it seems? Arkansas/Clinton, Alaska/Palin, Alabama/Barkley ... then there's Gov. Ahnold/Schwarzenegger, and Sen. McCain/Arizona.

Charles Barkley interviewed by Campbell Brown on CNN

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Brown: So are you going to run for governor?

Barkley: I plan on it in 2014.

Brown: You are serious.

Barkley: I am, I can’t screw up Alabama.

Brown: There is no place to go but up in your view?

Barkley: We are number 48 in everything and Arkansas and Mississippi aren’t going anywhere.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, Bark is nothing if not a realist.

dlc

: the quotable brian burke on evaluation :

... I don't usually resonate with abrasive characters, but with Brian Burke it is different, maybe because he is such a straight shooter you can't help but like him? with Burkie there is no BS, no beating-around-the-bush, no political correctness, just the facts, as he sees them. I find it rather refreshing somehow.

So who would have thought that Burke would find his way into a blog post, in a 'blog that at least tries to wrestle with some leadership type things? Here's the quote I am thinking of ... back in 2006, a little over two years ago, he was reflecting on the Pavel Bure trade out of Vancouver. In his own words, he got crucified by Vancouver's fans and media for that, but here's how he looked at it, having attempted to do the right thing, long term, for the franchise's future ...

"people need to evaluate that with a calendar, not a stopwatch"

In a world where ... corporate or social sector, flourishing economy or tanking, 'Type A' personality or not ... the thrust is often immediate results, efficiency over effectiveness, quantifiable, measurable, justifiable ... right here, right now, or else ... taking a page out of Burke's leadership playbook may just be helpful? Take a step back, breathe, look at the horizon, commit to longer term 'results' or developments. When I think of the readers of this 'blog ... I see ministries and leadership and commitment levels that can only be seen in terms of the calendar ... eternal may not be too strong.

Rarely does 'flash-in-the-pan' thinking, or action, or knee-jerk evaluation produce the kind of change really needed. Take a look at the things you have been involved in the last few years ... evaluate them through the lens of a calendar, and see if they don't appear different, deeper, stronger than if you assessed your efforts via a stopwatch. It may be a perspective gaining exercise, and then you can suggest to the stopwatchers in your life what they can do with their ... uh, sorry. Got carried away there.

dlc

: this could be very, very cool indeed :

: that albert einstein? he was a pretty smart guy :

loved this when i ran across it the other day, says so many things well

dlc

ps. this one is for 2-3 of L2L's readers ... you know who you are :)

: we may have front row seats to history making :