Monthy Archive: August 2008
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August 01, 2008

Faith : Organic Church

I wrote a somewhat long comment on someone else’s blog, and realized that with a little bit of effort it would make a good post for here, so excuse this little digression from my mission/missionality posts.

There is a sub discipline within Biology called Evolutionary Development (Evo-Devo), which looks at how a complex organism forms starting with a single cell. In other words – how does a muscle cell in a finger know it is a muscle cell in a finger and not an insulin producing cell in the pancreas? Not many Christians tend to explore this field because it was originally motivated as a mean to support the Theory of Evolution – one challenge to evolution was the appearance of radical changes to species in short periods of time. Many people though that such changes would require large numbers of mutations which could not be explained by gradual evolution, so scientists started to take a closer look at just how genes produced bodies, to better understand just how many mutations would be needed.

Now people like to talk about how DNA is a blueprint that describes how to build a body – that someplace in the DNA there’s a description the whole body and how it all fits together; but it doesn't quite work like that – there is no "master plan" that describes the big picture. How it actually works is actually quite chaotic and fundamentally relational – things become body parts because of the relationships they find themselves in with other cells. In many cases cells send out chemical signals that are picked up by other cells, and what each cell becomes depends on a mix of signals they happen to be receiveing.

A cell becomes a muscle cell because it find itself just the right distance away from certain other cells that end up causing the bone to form. It doesn't know if it is in a finger or elsewhere – it just knows “I’m going to be next to a bone, so I should be a muscle”. Other relational factors (distances and orientation from other kinds of cells) control how long the bone becomes, which controls the shape of the muscles. Blood vessels form because cells put out chemicals that say "I need more nutrients". When cells in existing blood vessels detect those chemicals, they split in ways to create new branches heading in the direction of increased concentrations of those chemicals (I'm simplifying a bit here). Nerve cells randomly spread from the brain throughout the body. When they find something to attach to (a muscle cell, for instance), they do. Nerves that never find anything to attach to (which turns out to be a quite common) die off, leaving only "useful" connections.

The point is that creatures (including human bodies) take their shape because of very local, relational decision, not any top-down control. Nothing says "I need a nerve connection between here and here", but yet that connection naturally forms because each part of the body does its part in relationship to the other cells near it.

When I hear people talk about "organic" churches, this is what I think about – churches built based on individual relationships – each person doing what they are able to do given the relationships they have formed with other people in the church. There is no top-down command for how it is structured; the structure comes about based on the people and their relationships with each other. Given that we are all following our DNA (the Bible), certain patterns tend to appear; but no two churches that are allowed for form organically will ever look alike. Sometimes it is chaotic, and may even appear to be wasteful; but those redundancies are there for a reason – to ensure connections are made.

It’s too bad most Christians stay away from this kind of science (because it's connection with evolution) – I believe there is a lot were are meant to learn Christ’s Body, The Church here.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 04, 2008

Books : Books 2008/08/04

Current count of books pending to be read: 96
Read one, purchased none

Books finished this week:

Conspiracy of Kindness: A Refreshing Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus With Others

by Steve Sjogren

This is “the” book on what has become known as “servant evangelism” or “kindness evangelism”. The basic idea is that the starting point for reaching the world with the message of Christianity is to show God’s love to our communities. Based on that, Sjogren has organized his church to start serving their community in “no strings attached” ways. As examples, they give out free coffee at bus stops or offer to clean the bathrooms shops and restaurants, or mow people’s lawns for them. In answer to the inevitable question of why they make these offers, they respond “We are doing this community service project to show Jesus’ love to people in a practical way”. They never take money (even though many people try hard to give them something) and they don’t preach beyond answering any direct question people have. The point is not to tell people about Jesus but rather to show them what Jesus is like. I’m a firm believer in the principle (and have participated in a couple of projects like this), although I don’t like using the term “evangelism” to describe it. I’ll have more to say on this in later posts.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: BtVS S6D2

Next Book: Interface Culture

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 06, 2008

Faith , Life : My own words

I’ve been struggling writing the next essay in my “The Mission of the Church” series. I intend it to be an explanation of the differences between The Kingdom of This World and the Kingdom of God. The problem isn’t actually producing an essay – I can generate pages of text on the subject with ease. The problem is that whenever I step back and look at what I have written I realize that I am just repeating things that I have heard or read from other people. I’m not explaining the ideas; I am repeating how other people have explained the ideas.

Now this might not seem like a problem – it would not be unusual for a blogger to simply repeat explanations heard elsewhere – but I have some deep-seated issue with doing that. Sure, I might quote a phrase that I think is particularly well turned; but it is psychologically important to me that my explanations of things be my own. I get very unsettled when I am put into a position of using someone else’s verbiage to explain something.

Having realized the source of my blockage, I started to look into myself to figure out where that little personality quirk came from, and quickly found the answer.

When I was 13, my mother took me to Bill Gothard’s “Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts” (now call the “Institute in Basic Life Principles”) – a week-long seminar on the practical application of Christian principles to real-world situations. That week had a far more profound influence on who I am than any other single week of my life. I’ve even returned to the seminar twice (one of the perquisites of having graduated from the seminar is that you are allowed to attend again for free as many times as you want.)

Not that I agreed with everything Gothard taught. Even at the age of 13, having only been a Christian for 3 years, there were points he made that I didn’t quite buy. Now, with many more years of growing in Christ, the list of issues I have with the specifics of Gothard’s teaching has grown substantially. However, underneath the specific applications which he presents in the seminar, there is a foundational layer of attitudes about things like authority, responsibility, respect, honor, and the like which remain true and very central to my identity.

Which leads me to some of what Gothard said on the last day of the seminar the first time I attended (I noticed this was not repeated when I returned to the seminar as an alumnus years later). There was no book we were given as part of the course – just a binder with pages to takes notes on. Gothard explained that what he was teaching was based on a “life notebook” he kept – his notes on all the things he had learned about life and Christianity; edited and re-edited as his understandings of things changed and grew. He told the crowd that he did not publish it in book form (which, by the way, he does now) because it was just his understanding of things, and that it was important that everyone develop their own understanding. He said that we would be tempted to immediately go tell other people about what we learned; but that we should resist doing that. He said we should all take the time to apply what we learned to our own lives, and only after we had seen these principles at work for ourselves, should we go and find our own way to express them to others – not repeating information second hand; but communicating our own first-hand experience.

Like I said – that week had more influence on who I am than any other week of my life. Even now, the idea that I should not teach something unless I have processed it through my own life first and found my own way to express it drives how I blog.

Of course, what this means is that someplace deep down I know that I really haven’t put my intellectual understanding of what it means to spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God into practice, and therefore have no way of my own to express what it means. That is perhaps the point God has been trying to get through to me. I need to go out and start doing what I know before I start to tell other people about it.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 08, 2008

Faith : Demonstrating the Love of God

Once again, my working definition of the mission of the church is

“To enable everyone to make an informed decision as to whether they want to be a part of The Kingdom of God, or The Kingdom of the World”

So just how do we as Christians inform people so they can make a decision? Simply telling them is insufficient, since the nature of the Kingdom of God is so different from the Kingdom of the World that they may not be able to picture it. No, the only way we can truly enable anyone to make an informed decision is to demonstrate the Kingdom of God to them.

I believe there are two aspects of this – demonstrating how God's Love is the foundational principle of His Kingdom and demonstrating the reality and involvement of God by providing means by which His power is evident. Essentially we need to enable people to see that God loves them and is willing to act on their behalf. Simply believing that God loves them, but that He is some distant entity that has no involvement in this world leaves them alone, struggling to do the best they can without help. Likewise believing that God is involved in this world but does not love them leaves them with just one more struggle to add to all of the burdens that The Kingdom of The World places on them. Neither partial picture is complete or compelling as a reason to join God's Kingdom.

So first, in order to demonstrate the Kingdom of God, we must demonstrate God’s love. God’s kingdom is built on the principle of everyone looking out for everyone else (not just “me and mine”), manifesting God’s love through how we care for each other. For people to understand this we must live it out in our lives – showing love and compassion for everyone. This isn’t a matter of something we go and do; but rather how we must live our lives as we serve as God’s ambassadors in this world.

This past week I read “Conspiracy of Kindness” by Sjogren, which is essentially a presentation of this idea as a church program. I have no problems with the theory Sjogren presents; but I am concerned that people reading his books (or participating in the ministries that they inspire) will have a tendency to turn this into is yet another church activity – go to church Sunday morning, hand out coffee Monday evening, mow lawns for strangers next Saturday. He makes it sound like something you can do one Saturday a month and be done with it, while I view this as something that should color every encounter we have in our lives. I'm sure Sjogren agrees, but I fear that this may not be the effect of his teaching.

I think it is the responsibility of every Christian to be out in the world interacting with people, some of whom will be in need, and showing God’s love to them. My challenge in this is getting out and interacting with people. I have become quite a hermit in my late-middle age, and beyond work and church, and really don’t interact with people much. I think part of what God is working in me is to start doing things where I meet more people, because the more people I interact with the more opportunities I will have to show God’s love. I don’t need to travel to a foreign country or have a plan that on the every other Saturday I go look for people in need; but I think I am being called to get out there and get involved in activities where I meet more people. My wife, Anne, is a knitter and interacts with a lot of people at knitting meetings, stores, and the like. I need thinks like that in my life.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 11, 2008

Books : Books 2008/08/11

Current count of books pending to be read: 95
Read one, purchased none

Books finished this week:

Interface Culture

by Steven A. Johnson

A set of musing on the art of user interface design and the interactions between it and culture. This is one of those books that many people refer to and which I probably should have read back in the late 90’s when it first came out, but never got around to. Intelligently written and quite quotable. One of the things the author points out is how often people have guessed wrong when predicting things regarding the interactions of technology and culture. Ten years on, it is interesting to see where Johnson got it right and where he missed the boat.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book: TBD

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 13, 2008

Books : Seeing the Bottom of the Barrel

So, having read 70 books off of my to-be-read shelf over the last few months, certain patterns have started to emerge - certain books keep getting put back to be read “later”. A couple I have put off because they are huge and I haven’t wanted to start on them right now; but there are clearly others for which my original interest has waned. There are no books I can see (more on that in a moment) that I have no interest in; but there clearly are quite a few for which I have titles pending on my Amazon wish list that are far more interesting to me. I have to be honest with myself, were I not being disciplined in my book purchases and therefore had a constant stream of new books coming into the house, I would probably never get around to reading them.

Which leaves me at a quandary – should I discipline myself to read them (given that I have already paid for them), or should I acknowledge that there are things I’d rather be reading and simply punt them now. Fortunately, I have a bit of time to make that decision – there are still a number of books that I am very much interesting in reading; but the bottom of the barrel is quickly becoming visible.

While I am writing about books, two other points of note.

First, I have now read enough books off my shelves that they are no longer cluttered and I have been able to arrange things so that all of them are visible. This is significant progress since all three of the shelves were two-deep when I started.

Second, on September 9, “Anathem” the latest book by Neal Stephenson (my favorite fiction author) comes out. While it is 950 pages, I plan to buy it and read it immediately.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

August 15, 2008

Life : Moving on?

Anne and I have been at our current address for several years and we are both thinking that the time has come to move someplace else in the area. There are many aspects of our situation we believe we are in a position to improve – in fact the problem is that there are too many different ways we could improve upon our living situation and it isn't clear which ones we should focus on.

First, there is the fact that we are still renting. Between the high cost of housing here in Silicon Valley (at its peak, a small 2 bedroom house could easily cost more than a million) and our investing our monies in things other than accumulating a down payment (travel, etc), we have never gotten around to buying a place of our own. However with the housing credit crisis, prices in the area are in near free fall (houses are selling for half of what people originally paid for them and two-thirds of the real estate listings are foreclosures) and our ability to set aside some money the past few years, buying is now a very serious option if we go to one of the bedroom communities in the area. It may mean a bit more of a commute to for me; but getting into the housing market near a low has a lot of advantages. We could also move closer to our church which would open up more social opportunities.

On the other hand, as I have explained before, Anne and I are really more city people. We like being able to walk to places. We like the abundance of cultural activities. We like the energy of city life. For the year I worked out of our San Francisco office, I hated my commute; but I loved the access I had to the benefits of the city. So the other clear option is to move up to the city. Prices are, of course, still higher up there and while we can afford the rent for a nice apartment in the city, it is not at all clear we could afford to buy a place there (at least not in a neighborhood we'd want to live in). My company would love me to work out of the home office in San Francisco, so that isn't an issue.

Personally, I'm somewhat ambivalent between these options. There are advantages of both but they are very different advantages. While I am not interested in moving just for the sake of moving (or for minor advantages – moving is too much of a pain for that); as long as we gain some significant advantages in the move, I am up for either option (or anything else). Anne and I are spending significant time praying about this to see if God has any preference in the matter, and in the mean time we are seriously investigating both options. Our current lease runs out at the end of October (although we have the option of going month to month after that), so we are looking to take action this Fall or Winter.

I should note that what Anne and I really want is to end up in London or back in Boston/Cambridge and we keep investigating opportunities that come up in those directions. So far, nothing has panned out. My company even has an office in London; but so far all of the openings for me there have been undesirable.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 18, 2008

Books : Books 2008/08/18

Current count of books pending to be read: 93
Read two, purchased none

Books finished this week:

Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

by Seth Lloyd

Fascinating book. It has long been known that entropy (disorder) can be expressed as information (bits). The entropy of a system is proportional (via a simple formula) to the number of bits required to describe its state. The second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy of the universe is constantly increasing, and so therefore is the amount of information needed to express it. So the universe is constantly creating information.

The author of this book is one of the world’s experts on quantum computing - using quantum mechanics to create a new kind of computer that take advantage of the “superposition of states” common to quantum systems. You don’t just have 1’s and 0’s; but bits that are simultaneously 1 and 0. Sounds useless; but property programmed, they can (in theory) do certain calculations millions of times faster than the common digital computer.

The book is essentially a cross between the two previous paragraphs – exploring how looking at the universe as one enormous quantum computer producing information in the form of entrpy can be useful for finding solutions to problems in physics and computation.

101 Ways to Reach Your Community

by Steve Sjogren

A follow up to Sjogren’s “Conspiracy of Kindness” that I read a couple weeks ago (I had picked up both books at the same time). This is more practical how-to information following the same concept of showing God’s love to people as a way to point them to Jesus.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book: Post-Charismatic

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 20, 2008

Life : Discarding the Roads Not Taken

As Janbergs has noted in one of his comments on this blog, Anne and I have been on a "getting rid of STUFF" crusade for a couple of years. In that cause, I spent a part of this passed Saturday at the storage locker going through my boxes (I still have one more trip to finish that project).

What I noticed is that much of what I kept in the locker were things I was holding on to with the expectation of needing them whenever I "got back to doing" one thing or another. There were the notes I had on leadership training that I'd want if I ever got back into motivational speaking. There were blank maps and game pieces I'd want if I ever got back into board game design. There were books on various topics I kept in case I ever got back into doing whatever they were about.

This is significant because I put a lot of mental energy this year into thinking about what things I realistically might "get back to doing" and which I would not. This was mostly an exercise in prioritization. If I had time, I'd like to do all these things; but some were clearly more important to me than others. By taking the time to think through what I most wanted to accomplish, I was able to prune off some branches of my life to make it more likely that other branches would be successful.

That was the theory.

Sorting through the boxes in the locker was when it came down to practice – actually getting rid (one way or another) of the things I would no longer need given my earlier decisions on roads I not longer planned to travel with my life. It was tough in many cases - once you have hung on to something for many years, getting rid of it can be difficult. Nonetheless, I persevered and stuck with my earlier decisions; and as a result I got rid of over ten boxes of stuff from the locker. Not bad.

I still have a lot there – mostly books I want to re-read and games I have no room to play right now but which I'd love to play in the future. I still have a couple small boxes of mementos from my life – silly stuff that beings back deep memories for me. However, I am quite satisfied with my progress.

There's another 6 medium boxes to go through and one large box that contains (with lots of padding) various commemorative glasses I have accumulated over my life. Still not sure what to do with the glasses – all of them represent memories for me; but they take up a lot of space and I really don't have anyplace to display them. Is the memory-content sufficiently high to justify the cost of keeping them? I won't know until I actually look at them again.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 22, 2008

Faith : Being Post Charismatic

I read McAlpine's "Post Charismatic?" this week – specific comments on the book will be covered in Monday's post; but there's a larger point that I think he missed.

As background, modern church historians tend to talk about three broad movements in the Christian Church last century: Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Renewal, and the "Third Wave" churches (of which the Vineyard Movement that I have been involved in is a part). A common focus to all of these movements has been the belief that God is still very much active in the word today – providing signs, wonders, miracles, etc. – and more important that God has a definite plan for His church that we are expected to follow. As a result there has been a great deal of focus in the churches associated with these movements on knowing "what God is doing now" and getting involved in whatever that is. This in turn leads to a willingness to change and move quickly as God's actions are discerned – avoiding being left behind as God moves on to do the next thing in His plan.

This is in contrast to the behavior of most of the old, mainstream denominations that are much slower to adopt (or adapt to) change. Officially they too believe that God is still active today; but they tend to behave as if Jesus set up His church 2000 years ago and our job is to just keep doing the same things. Those who are involved in Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third-Wave churches tend to dismiss the older denominations as being mired in traditions of men and unable to keep up with God's plans.

There is however a flips side of this.

In their quest to keep up with what "God is doing now", Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third-Wave churches have tended to become faddish – always looking for the latest teaching and jumping on whatever bandwagon seems to be "hot" at the moment. Likewise, they tend to gravitate quickly to spectacular events – healing crusades and the like. After all, if miracles are taking place, that must be what "God is doing now". These churches are always looking for the next spectacular revival to demonstrate God's presence. Because of this, the old mainstream denominations tend to view these upstart churches as flighty and unstable, and there is a degree of truth in it.

The problem is that these newer churches are so earnest in their desire to keep up with God that they often set aside discernment and wisdom. While they would object to my saying so (and keep in mind I am currently a part of one of these churches, although one of the more conservative ones), their actions indicate that they would rather follow falsehood than be found having failed to follow God. As a result they are easily led astray.

What is needed is a more balanced approach. I believe the key is to recognize that God is actually a good leader. That may sound doctrinally obvious; but many Christians and Churches do not act like He is. Any leader who moves faster that his followers can keep up, who does not actually make an effort to bring his followers along with him, who makes it hard to discern what direction he is leading people is not a good leader; but too many Christians act as if that is exactly what God does.

I do believe that God is active today and has a plan for what He wants His church doing, and there is some sense of there being a center to what God is trying to accomplish in our society today. However, I also believe that God knows our limitations and how quickly we are able to change. With perfect foreknowledge He developed His plan in a form that we can keep up with, as long as we are willing to follow. What's more, I believe that God is a great teacher and has the skill to make clear what He wants done if we are willing to listen. There is no need to strain ourselves and to be fearful that we will miss God's direction.

So, if we are open to listening to God and are willing to do what He says, we do not need to go looking for what God is doing – He will tell us what He needs us to do at just the right time. We don't need to travel to some other city because God seems to be working there. God is working everywhere, even in our own cities. We just need to open to what he wants us as individuals to do. We don't need to look for the hot new teaching – the uncovering of some new principle of the gospel. We just need to be in fellowship with God and do what He says.

The attitude expressed above is largely what McAlpine calls being "Post Charismatic". I don't care about the name; but the idea is certainly correct.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 25, 2008

Books : Books 2008/08/25

Current count of books pending to be read: 91
Read three, purchased one

Books finished this week:

Post-Charismatic?

by Rob McAlpine

The Pentecostal/Charismatic branch of Christianity has over the years (particularly recent years) has fallen into certain excesses in their pursuit of God. There was the superiority complex of the “Latter Rain” movement, the domineering attitudes of the “Shepherding” movement, the outright greed (and no little sense of superiority) of the “Word of Faith” movement, and the weirdness of things like the “Toronto Blessing”. If you don’t recognize these terms, be happy. These excesses have driven many from the churches that have embraced them. This books is two-thirds historical study of where the church has gone wrong and one third a contemplation of what do to as a result. It is well written and certainly recommended to anyone who has been turned off from the Charismatic movement (or Christianity itself) by these teachings.

I’ll also note that the author has not been able to find a US distributer for this book, and so it is only available in North America through Amazon Canada.

Johnny Depp: A Kind of Illusion

by Denis Meikle

While I have a great respect for the acting profession (another of my own roads not taken), I rarely read actor biographies, contenting myself instead with watching “Inside the Actor’s Studio”. Johnny Depp is however someone with whom I was willing to make an exception – his choices of roles he has taken as well as his choices in how he performs those roles has always fascinated me; and this book did manage to fill in a few of the details I was missing.

Psychoshop

by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny

Alfred Bester was one of the most innovative Science Fiction authors of his generation, with a very distinctive style of writing. When he died in 1987, he left behind an incomplete manuscript for a final novel. Roger Zelazny was one of the most innovative Science Fiction authors of the next generation, who also had a distinctive (and occasionally parodied) style, and was offered (and accepted) the opportunity to finish Bester’s final novel. Psychoshop is the result of this posthumous collaboration. An interesting story about a pawn shop that deals in human (and otherworldly) attributes. You can sell your ability to play the violin and purchase some else’s discarded precognition. Of course the story is about more than that; but saying more would spoil things.

An interesting book, and generally fairly seamless between the two authors (despite their individual styles). The descriptions of the two fights are clearly Zelazny’s hand (he was an expert in various martial arts and always describes any combat in great detail); and the pace of the opening sequence was pure Bester; but otherwise it is hard to tell who did what.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book:

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

August 27, 2008

Life , San Francisco : San Francisco Bound

So, barring all unforeseen, Anne and I will be moving to San Francisco by the end of September. We found an apartment in the South Beach area (a recently gentrified part of town near AT&T Baseball Park). Within a block of the apartment is a CalTrain (commuter rail) station, a MUNI (SF subway) station, a Safeway grocery store, a Borders book store, a branch of the public library, and numerous eateries.

I know the neighborhood fairly well since I spent a year commuting from Mountain View to my employer’s San Francisco office and often took CalTrain to MUNI to work and so spent time in the area (sometimes stopping to shop or eat on the way home). The plan is to work 3-4 days a week out of the San Francisco office (it will take me about 15 minutes to get to the office from the new apartment), and 1-2 days at the Mountain View office (about a 45 minutes to drive, although if I can get back into bicycling shape, I might take CalTrain down and bike from the train station to work – a little over 2 miles).

With this post I have also inaugurated a new category of posts on this blog: “San Francisco” which I will use to post comments on things that Anne and I discover in the city – shops, restaurants, odd museums, parks and the like – as well as observations on city life. Not sure how often I’ll post on things like that; but I expect there will be some things worth saying. Certainly exploring the city is going to be one of the things consuming my attention and I have always intended this blog to reflect what I am thinking about.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink