Since moving to Hamilton in 2001 to start The Freeway, I have not really had an office space. There is a room in the basement of the coffee house which I could use as an office, but it's in the basement [no windows], it's not wheelchair accessible [important for me to be accessible to all members of our community], and it's too quiet [I have grown used to being in community to work and be creative... I enjoy collaboration and synergy].

I work on the go a lot... in cafes, restaurants, my house, etc. Our staff meetings and cohort meetings [and any other meetings or appointments I have] are usually in public places such as our coffee house.

In order to accomplish the work I need to do, being mobile is super-imperative. The following are pieces of technological genius that help make me more productive in my transient state:

My Sony VAIO FE series notebook. I've had it for almost a year now, and I still love it. It's still in great shape, works well, has never crashed [knock on wood].

My only complaint is that the video card is not the best in the world... I may upgrade that.

I have never been a big fan of Macs [and my tribe The Salvation Army won't approve of purchasing Macs as we have a national IT department, so standardization is important - they only allow certain brands of PCs, etc.]. And I have thoroughly enjoyed using PCs. I have blogged before about my feelings about Macs... I haven't changed my mind.

Sony gets mixed reviews about its notebooks, but I have been pretty impressed with mine. In fact, it is highly likely that my next computer will be a VAIO.

My BlackBerry Curve smartphone. I picked this up in January in hopes of having easier access to my e-mail while in transit. I wasn't sure I'd like it because the keys are pretty small [I am not much of a texter], but I got used to it and now I am really happy.

The GPS feature is pretty cool, and having access to the internet while on the road is handy... maps and information about places are good when travelling places you have never been before.

The camera in the Blackberry is really good too. In fact, the pictures are as good as any digital camera I have owned [not that any of my camera's have been very good].

It's funny, I always thought Blackberry's were kind of dumb, but the busier I get, the more I appreciate accomplishing more while I'm on the go.

My iPod Classic. All my tunes, a bunch of my photos, and a whole whack of videos, and still room to expand. Nice.

I love listening to music [especially ambient] while I am working and creating. And recently I have started downloading some podcasts, something I never thought I'd enjoy.

I find it handy to take presentations with me wherever I go, store files and photos, and share my videos and stuff with people while I am in conversation with them... don't worry, I still doodle on napkins while talking.

I just purchased my iPod a few weeks ago. Now I wonder how I ever lived so long without an iPod... OK, that's an exaggeration, but still.

In a future post I will tell you about all the software I use on my computer [most of it is free]. Jordon Cooper recently did that and I found it so interesting how similar our lists of software are.

Labels: blogging, leadership

• We have been hosting a March Break mission experience called "something completely different" for high school students this week at The Freeway. Twenty students have slept in our basement, engaged in missional/kingdom teaching, worked on neighbourhood projects, created some artwork representing what they saw in our urban neighbourhood, and had some fun bowling, etc.
• We have had one of my blogging hero's from the UK staying at our house this week (while speaking at "something completely different"), Gordon Cotterill. Gordon happens to be a Salvation Army pastor who until very recently pastored the oldest SA congregation in the world located in Poplar, UK. He is a great guy... and a bit of a soul mate. We have had some very inspiring conversations... especially late night... while enjoying tea.
• Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be thirty-five years old. Holy smokes! I generally don't like my birthdays at all, but I am looking forward to tomorrow because I get to spend the morning speaking on Luke 10:1-12 to the high school students staying at The Freeway, the afternoon getting some work done on a new tattoo (I am getting a coy fish and some background work done on my right arm - yes, the arm that already has 10 tattoos on it), and the evening hanging out with some buddies. Good times.

Labels: blogging, personal, tattoos

I am a contributor to a brand spankin' new missional community blog facilitated by Allelon called "Missional Journey", which focuses on:

• mission-shaped leadership
• re-connecting and engaging the “worlds” in which we live
• stories of engaging and listening to our context(s)
• the gospel and our modern Western culture
• Allelon initiatives

Other contributors to the blog include people from all over the world like: Andrew Jones, Len Hjalmarson, and Paul Fromont. Check it out... and add it to your blog feed reader.

Labels: blogging, leadership

My blog break was really good. But I think I am ready to return to the land of blogging. So much has happened, I couldn't possibly tell you everything. However, here's a few nuggets of what I've been up to for the past few months:

• We had a terrific Christmas and New Year's. Lots of time with family and friends.
• We booked a cottage for our vacation this summer. Yeah, we're totally excited already. Every couple days I look at pictures of the cottage and daydream about wearing my flip flops down to the dock and sipping a lemonade before diving into the lake and having a swim with my kids. Mmmmm summer.
  
• I have been experiencing some health problems for a few months. After test after test after test, I have been diagnosed with diabetes, B12 deficiency, a stomach ulcer, and... they are still doing some tests on my heart. I am now on a diet and exercise plan and I take some medication and get regular injections. Good times. It could be worse, I guess.
  
• I am over halfway finished writing my book. It should be about as interesting to read my story as reading a bathroom stall wall at a gas station.
• We are now in the process of looking for a new full-time staff member at The Freeway: a "community pastor". Let me know if you're interested and I'll drop you a line with more details.
  
• We hired a church planting intern, Jason Dockeray, as of the beginning of January. I have been coaching him for about a year, and now he will work and learn and train full-time at The Freeway for a whole year. If he survives, he will be sent out [in January 2009] to plant a church community in another neighbourhood in downtown Hamilton. Very exciting. I have been thoroughly enjoying coaching Jason, and I look forward to seeing what this brilliant young leader does in the future.
  
• The cohort [the leadership team at The Freeway] is really starting to gel as a team. We have had several great get-together's and meetings in 2008 and I am excited about how things are shaping up for us as a community.
• We have been actively trying to raise financial support for our ever-expanding community work in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhood's [particularly our work with children]. Click here and support us [or send us a cheque] if you are able to.

Well, it's good to be back.

Labels: blogging, personal

I won't be blogging for... well, I don't know how long. I have completely lost interest, to be honest.

If you want to keep up on me or what is happening with my community at The Freeway, you can feel free to e-mail me at pernell [at] frwy [dot] ca.

Peace.

Labels: blogging, personal

I am busy tweaking the design as well as some of the features here at the ol' blog. Excuse the mess.

Labels: blogging, design

I did a little work on re-designing and developing The Freeway | Church website this week. I still have a few more features to add, etc., but feel free to have a look around: www.frwy.ca/church

And hey, if you appreciate the work we do in downtown Hamilton, please click the "donate" button at the top of the page and send us some of your hard-earned cash. We will use it for our after-school program for impoverished children in our neighbourhood. A program which offers a healthy meal, mentoring/role-modeling, and art/DJing/music/drama lessons.

We will also use the money to provide the following for kids at our local elementary school: a backpack and supplies for kids in need, food for a breakfast program, and to keep a supply of groceries in the pantry at our coffee house for families and individuals in desperate need.

You'll get a tax receipt by e-mail following your donation... not to mention that you'll probably feel great as you're partnering with a great community with tons of potential in a great community with tons of potential. And hey, we really appreciate your support of the work we do in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

Speaking of our work, if you're between 18 and 30 you should seriously consider living in our "community house" and working with us for a year or so while being trained and equipped as an apprentice of Jesus, in an initiative we call [CML]. If you do, you'll never be the same again. And if you're considering planting a church/community... that goes double for you.

Labels: blogging, design, the freeway

I am back from my blog break a little bit early. Mostly because I will be on vacation as of July 6th for two weeks (with no online access) and I have some things I want to blog about in the meantime. By the way, did you miss me?

A couple of observations I have made recently have turned into ideas that have apparently resonated with a few folks I have mentioned them to and so I want to continue to flesh them out. I have spoken with my buddies about these, but want the internet community who read the drivel I write to have the opportunity to dialogue about them as well.

Needless to say, the blog will be no more interesting than it was prior to June, so good luck stomaching what I write.

Labels: blogging

Here's the deal: I am taking a blog break for the month of June. I need to. Breaks are good. June is busy: two of my kids birthdays are in June, I am putting a significant amount of time into writing my book, preparing for [CML], I have a week-long trip to Chicago to see this guy [and hit an arts festival], community barbecues every week at our house, building a front and back deck at our house, interior renovations of the de-construction nature in the basement of the coffee house, painting the exterior of the coffee house and getting proper signage up, etc. all of this in addition to the regular duties of being a husband, a dad to three young kids, a pastor, a friend, etc.


Peace.

Labels: blogging, family, friends, leadership, the freeway

Winterbeard is dead.

Crooked Letters has emerged.

Dave Blondel and a bunch of friends have a new writing project. Looks delicious.

Labels: blogging, friends

I have been doing some design/development work on some weblogs recently. Using one template that I have been using for quite a while now, I have completely sorted out The Freeway's web presence by breaking it out into three different sites that link to each other and have a very similar look and feel... hopefully it will be less confusing for people to navigate this way:







Using that same template [I guess I really like it], I have re-designed my family members blogs... sort of a spring clean-up, I suppose.











I created a new weblog for Jordan [he had a LiveJournal blog and I figured out how to transfer all his posts into Blogger... but the comments didn't come unfortunately]:



And I recently re-designed and updated The Cultivate Learning Party site [and will be updating it further soon]:



If you would like a weblog re-designed, [it will cost you next to nothing if you like this general template], drop me a line anytime: pernell AT frwy.ca

Labels: blogging, design, the freeway

I received this comment by an anonymous person recently on one of my blog posts, and I've been thinking about it quite a bit since. Here are some observations:

• I really hate anonymous comments. I deleted two previous blogs partly due to my frustration with people's annoying, anonymous comments. If people aren't willing to identify themselves, what business do they have taking verbal [or written] jabs at me? I don't think anybody should write anything anywhere they aren't willing to attribute to themselves [unless they are quoting someone else, in which case they should attribute it to the author]. I may even delete anonymous comments from this blog from now on, because they really bug me... and that includes positive ones as well. I realize not everyone has a Blogger account and needs to log in as anonymous, but they can sign their name at the end of the comment.
  
• I was also bugged by this comment because, judging by a couple of things they said, it would appear to be someone who knows me... maybe even a member of my family. Ouch. They still haven't identified themselves, and I don't expect that they will. But the fact that they would leave an anonymous comment like that... annoying to say the least. Have the decency to at least e-mail me a message like that for goodness sake.
  
• I am an embarrassment. It's true. I even embarrass myself often. I cross the line. I go too far. I say stupid things. I am egotistical, rude, selfish, self-centered, overbearing, mean, and arrogant far more than I care to admit. The reality is, it is usually only when people I care about, and who I know care about me, point out my mistakes that I learn, grow, change, repent, apologize... or whatever else is necessary for me to correct the situation. If you don't care about me, don't think for a moment you can really have any impact on me in the long haul [this is a good reminder for me as a pastor when it comes to how I deal with others and their shortcomings]. And if you are leaving an anonymous, negative comment... you obviously don't care about me one iota.
  
• I need to be far more careful with what I say and to whom I say it... "oh, be careful little mouth what you say..." That likely means that in some situations I likely can't "be myself". I wish this weren't the case, but sadly, I think it may well be.
  

Well, I probably won't blog again until after the weekend [by the way, I am really excited that Mark Jefferson is going to accompany me to the youth retreat at Muskoka Woods that I am speaking at this weekend].

Peace.

Labels: blogging, leadership, personal, the salvation army

• Bill Kinnon talks about his - and Alan Roxburgh's - time at The Freeway on Wednesday [along with the rest of the happenings of their week together]. Today they are meeting my buddy, David Fitch, who is in town for The Evolving Church Conference tomorrow [Bill, I will forgive you for dissing my friend's design of the conference website.]
• Darryl Dash will be live blogging from the conference tomorrow. Drop by.
• I found this video quite funny [though it isn't intended to be]. But, I found this re-mix absolutely hilarious [and it is intended to be].
• Steve Taylor asks some great questions about audio communication vs. written communication. And then goes on to ask some more great questions about the theological implications on our study of the Bible.
• Keep Kevin Chen away from your babies.
  

Labels: blogging, friends, videos

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. The last few weeks have been hectic, yet not much to blog about at this point. Here are some snapshots of what's been up around my world:

• Lucas has been having a hard time listening at school. His grade one teacher says that he talks out, acts silly, and is easily distracted by others. I feel his pain, but we have been trying everything to get him to adjust his attitude and listening. We created a form that his teacher fills out everyday, so that we can praise him when he does well [has a good day] and give him consequences when he doesn't. We have really been trying to keep up on him daily. I have to say, I hate punishing my kids. It makes me really sad. For instance, on Wednesday Lucas spent the majority of the evening in his room [he had a very bad day at school]... it may well have been harder on his mom and I than on him. Parenting is hard work, and we know we have to just stick at it. But I really dislike punishing my kids.
• Plans for the development of some new initiatives at The Freeway that I talked about continue. We are tossing around ideas, formulating plans, writing proposals, praying hard [not necessarily in that order].
  
• I have spent 75 hours in appointments/community/meetings with people in the last two weeks alone. Lots of people time. It's been great, but tiring sometimes too.
• I have written my denomination asking for a short sabbatical this year. I haven't heard back yet. We'll see.
• I have been calling, e-mailing, searching for a nice place within a couple hours drive from Hamilton to host The Freeway spiritual retreat this March. No luck so far. Know any good places?
• Last week was the due date for one of the babies we lost last year. Very sad. My wifey is ready to try again, and still wants more kids. I just don't know.
• Our generosity series at The Freeway has probably caused more discussion/buzz/direct action than any other teaching/exploring series so far. Our community seems very open and interested in learning about and becoming more generous [and therefore more missional]. This is one of the things I have always loved about The Freeway - it is a community that wants to change and grow and learn. It's quite nice to be involved in a community like this... I highly recommend it.
  

Labels: blogging, personal, the freeway

I told you about the film me and my friends are working on this year [sponsored by Resonate and Thinker Labs]. Well, we have just put a website online, so you can follow all the goings-on, if you are interested. Check it out and sign up for the RSS feed.

Labels: blogging, church planting, documentary

Here are my favourite bloggers from the past year:

1. Jordon Cooper - I have said for a long time that Jordon's blog is my favourite blog on all things emerging church [his new church community's blog is excellent as well]. This guy just seems to know what's going on in "emerging church land" and keeps us all up-to-date. But the fact is, he also has information on all kinds of subjects on his blog as well. I like how he fills the reader in on what's happening in the world -news, politics, sports, etc. - and also in his own life. His "contextless links" are fun. But it's his vulnerability about his own life and health that I really appreciate the most. Well, this past year I would say I appreciated his blog even more than usual because we have really developed a great friendship [in person as well as online] that I really value.
   
2. Steve Taylor - Of all the pastor-types that I know and respect, Steve is really high on my list. You already know I love his book, "The Out Of Bounds Church?" as I did a whole week of posts on it back in November. I love reading his blog because... well, frankly because Steve is an emerging church practitioner who is much smarter than me. His ideas and his heart for the Kingdom are very inspiring. I love his style of writing and his creativity. Steve's voice is ultra-important in the emerging church conversation.
3. Nathan Colquhoun - OK, Nathan lived with my family for four months this year and while I can attest to the fact that he is a stinky man, his blog isn't stinky. Nathan is someone I really love and respect and I look forward to reading his blog every day. He has a great ability to put his thoughts "out there" for everyone to see in a way that is authentic and genuine. I am enjoying watching theStory [the church he is planting with some friends in Sarnia] and can't wait to see what happens for him in 2007... he is getting married in May!
   
4. Jonny Baker - I don't know Jonny, but from what I read and see on his blog, he's a very cool guy who I think I would really like. His blog is super-creative and ideas oriented. His "worship tricks" are a brilliant resource for any practitioner of emerging church or alt. worship. His influence in the emerging church conversation is immense. His articles, ideas, photos, and thoughts have influenced my thinking and practice at The Freeway over the years. I appreciate his blog and hope to meet him face-to-face some day.
   
5. David Fitch - And I'm not just saying that because he talks about me and The Freeway in his book, "The Great Giveaway" either... although that was very kind of him and worthy of some link-love, for sure. David continues to challenge my thinking, not only through his blog, but in our friendship as well. He is one of the smartest practioner/thinkers out there. His blog is huge. And he is one of the nicest guys I know. Enough said.
   

Labels: blogging, friends

...I am a little disappointed. I expected some well-crafted comments on the last post... are you people sleeping? I give you sarcasm, self-glorification, 100 Huntley Street [for all those under the age of 400, it's a Canadian Christian program], the opportunity to take a jab at me... and the best you can do is a comment by Joe Manafo in an e-mail to me: "your popularity in the 55-75 year old demographic is off the charts this week".

Sure, Steve had a nice James Dobson line in the comments on The Freeway post of the same name, but come on.

That's it?

This blog sucks. Thanks for nothing.

Labels: blogging, personal

I have something to share, but first a disclaimer of sorts:

Obviously as a pastor I do not post most of my daily happenings on this blog, particularly visits, meetings, counselling, mentoring, etc. with members of our community. I am obviously bound by confidentiality and therefore cannot write about many of the day-to-day happenings around here. Nor can I make reference to people's personal issues, correspondence sent to me, conversations, etc. That would be a conflict of interest and a serious breaking of the confidentiality code which is rightly expected of me as people's pastor. Likewise, I don't post feelings, hassles, beefs, frustrations, etc. I happen to be having with people in our community... that would just be dumb.

I have also tried not to post correspondence or interactions I have had with people from "God knows where" who seem to feel the need to attack what we're doing at The Freeway from afar... or from around the corner. And there have been many. On average I would say I receive at least one nasty e-mail a week [I say "nasty" because they don't want to dialogue about these things, nor do they give a hairy rat's ass about us as a community or me as a person, they just want to inflict their verbal religious attack on us]. In addition, we have been "featured" several times on a few websites which aim to shed light on the "heretical invention of man" known as the emerging church. I will not link to those sites as I don't want to give them any more web traffic than they already receive.

Today I make an exception to my rule about not posting stuff sent to us. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail which was sent to me. I will not respond to this obviously... what could I say? Pure drivel... and completely laughable:

"It's obvious that your "church" is all about coffee and community, and not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh Brother! You offer 'organic/fair trade coffee' to boot! Who could ask for more? (Except maybe a convicted sinner looking for God's grace). You think it is ok to bring the world into the church to try and win souls for Christ? But Jesus NEVER did any such thing. The preaching of the cross is what brings souls into the kingdom of God. We are to pick up that cross and follow Jesus, not pick up a TRAY and follow him. Now where's that verse where Paul talks about opening up a restaurant in Corinth and 'helping out the city' in order to make the Gospel more attractive? I can't seem to find it. All I find is Paul preaching the Gospel boldly and directly everywhere he went and getting beat up for it (and, oh by the way, the church growing in numbers daily.) All that with no bean bag chairs and expresso in order to better 'relate' to the throngs of folks just chomping at the bit to accept Christ if only approached with the right ambience. How did he do it? Guess the Holy Spirit just ain't what He used to be.

You seem to use that phrase "incarnate" the message of Jesus a lot. That means, show God by how you act, how you live (be nice!) rather than tell of God and proclaim His Word with words! The Lord told us to preach the Word. Where is the bible? Not needed in "incarnational" ministry. Well, it didn't work then and it doesn't work now. It sounds good in theory, but that is not how we are to preach the gospel. We separate from the world, preach Jesus Christ crucified, and let the Holy Spirit draw them in.

Where in Scriptures did you read Jesus teaching His disciples "Go ye therefore to all the world, opening up coffee shops and telling them to 'experience me' through incantations, "incarnations of truth" Perhaps in the Emergent Apocrypha you can read there was a passage about Jesus wanting His disciples to go and make coffeepickers of men. Peter and Paul opened up a coffee shop in Galatia called "Two Neat Guys" and Barnabas played the harp while reciting incarnational poetry. Matthew and Bartholomew performed mime skits while Peter hummed a few bars of "Your Boat or Mine?" Mary and Martha were the hostesses and they also danced while Silas whistled a tune. And to top it off, James and John come out and juggle fish to give testimony to the "untempled" on how the former fishermen found Jesus. And the youth of Galatia were taken to the sea and thrown in a large rubber whale to re-enact the "Jonah Experience". Then there is a double dare youth night when each youth will be flogged 39 times.

If this sounds ridiculous, so does the doctrines of your coffee shop foo foo. You emergents seem to be caught up in the theatrics and "arts". There is nothing Scripturally sound regarding arts in the worship of God. The Word of God never shares with us that God wants us to worship Him through our "talents". This comes from the pagans. They worshipped their deities through acting, dancing and singing in ways that seem acceptable in the churches these days.

I know I have never been to your church, but when someone has true discernment, they don't have to BE THERE to know what it's about. You examine the fruit, and when it looks like the world, presents itself as the world, and treats the sacredness of God's Word like the world, IT'S THE WORLD.

While you emergents may not see the problem with a coffee shop church, there is no reverence in a coffee shop. There is no preparedness for holy worship in secular surroundings. There needs to be a purifying and preparation for worship and being in a coffee shop and chatting is not the place. We are to come into His gates with thanksgiving and praise, but in this type of setting as worship, just is not acceptable.

If you continue to go downhill as this has been, the next place you will see an emergent church "emerge" is in a restroom... because the emergent church is taking the Church of God down the toilet."

Labels: blogging, personal

Local Voices
I want to take the opportunity to encourage those of you reading this blog, who are not part of our community at The Freeway, to read the blogs of my friends who are. You can find them under "local voices" on my right sidebar. Their stories are inspiring. They are funny, interesting, smart, and amazing people. Go to their blogs, read their stuff, link to their sites. I like them alot. And I think you will too. You can read stuff like:

• What's grinding EMS worker Rich Robinson's gears.
  
• What's happening with photographer Krista Jefferson and her kids.
  
• More useless pop-culture information than you could possibly store in one life-time by checking out American Eagle Manager Dave Hamilton's blog.
• Etc.
  

All of the "local voices" blogs are unique and amazing. See the whole bunch.

Global Voices
Also, "global voices" on the right sidebar is a list of people from around the world who I like very much. Their stories too, have made an incredible impact on me. Some of them I know in person. Others I know just through the blogging community. Either way, they are my friends. You should check them out. You can read stuff like:

• The story of a brand spanking new church community by checking in on Nathan Colquhoun.
• The thoughts of the smartest emerging church leader/thinker/practitioner/author I know, Steve Taylor.
• Get to know my neighbour, Chris Jones, and his wife, five kids, and three current business ventures.
• Etc.
  

I am very fortunate to have a network of friends and associates and to learn from them. I hope you find their stuff as inspiring as I do.

Labels: blogging, friends, the freeway

Okay, you can now subscribe to the new Freeway fully-integrated weblog, www.frwy.ca, by clicking on "Site Feed" [also located on the site on the right sidebar]. Once you subscribe to the feed, you will be able to read all about all of our shenanigans from your favourite news reader.

Since we are starting from scratch [this is a brand new site feed], the 50th person who signs up will receive a Freeway T-shirt at absolutely no charge. This will be especially cool because we are revealing our new branding very soon and the T-shirt will have the [re]branding on it. Tres suave.

Go on, subscribe... pimp your wardrobe... and tell all your friends.

And while you're at it, if you haven't subscribed to the feed for www.pernellgoodyear.com you can do that by clicking "Site Feed" in the sidebar to the right... and if you haven't added me to your blog roll... shame on you, you should do that now too... go on, get it done.

Labels: blogging, the freeway

I am in the process of re-designing our church community and coffee house websites and I have amalgamated them into one site [they used to be seperate]. You can now find all things Freeway at FRWY.ca. It may look familiar, I have stolen my personal weblog design [which I have now re-designed].

If you have been linking to http://thefreewaycohort.blogspot.com for our church community weblog, you will be re-directed, but if you could update your links that would be swell [I added a new feed as well].

We have some new [re]branding for both the church community and the coffee house which we will reveal really soon. It's just time to change it up a bit and re-invent our identity a little... not just on the web, but in general as well. Some changes are a-brewin'.

By the way, I agree with my buddy Jordon Cooper of Church of the Exiles - a new church in Saskatoon - I love Blogger and will continue to use it and Dreamweaver 8 combined for all my design needs. They rock.

Labels: blogging, design

Two of my buddies are blogging... again. The first is a friend from Peterborough, one of the pastors of The Third Space a very cool church community, Dave Blondel. The other is one of my best friends in the world, and also my neighbour [he lives less than a block from me], Chris Jones - an amazing contractor ["if the ladies can't find you handsome, at least they can find you handy"... I'm not saying that he isn't handsome... I'm just saying] and web guru.

Nice work boys... can't wait to cyber-stalk you.

Labels: blogging, friends

I snapped a few shots of the little gaffers today. Aren't they cute?

Samantha blogs here.

Lucas blogs here.

Jacob... well, maybe soon.

Labels: blogging, family, photos

Today is "International Blog Day 2006". As such, you are invited to link to five blogs you have not linked to before. Here you go:

Adam Cleaveland | fellow Scribe
Mike Daley | amazing musician friend
C. Wess Daniels | fellow Scribe
Ron Smith | Nathan's friend & business partner
Gideon Strauss | had breakfast with him today... cool guy

Happy Blog Day, everyone.

Labels: blogging

The coolest thing about this whole blogging adventure for me (I have been blogging since 2002) has been "meeting" people online... reading their blogs, swapping e-mail, posting comments, etc. People who I wouldn't likely have been able to interact with or maybe even heard about otherwise. I get to hear their stories, ideas, struggles, triumphs, etc. I get to know them in some way, and they get to know me. Many of them inspire me. Some irritate me. And still others just simply fascinate me.

Some of those "online friends" I have met face-to-face and my life is richer for it. I have met and hung out with some amazing people these past few years - people who I had gotten to know online first. People like: Jordon Cooper, Mike Todd, Kim Reid, Darryl Dash, Bill Millar and Robby Mac.

But there are quite a few folks I have been tracking for some time online who I would absolutely love to meet someday. Some of them I would already consider friends. Others I barely know... or they barely know me. None the less, here is my "hit list" of folks I really want to meet and hang out with should circumstances ever allow it:

Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Steve Taylor
Len Hjalmarson
Brother Maynard
Jonny Baker
Gordon Cotterill
Headphonaught
Mark Berry

NOTE: I just want to clarify that I have met tons of other great people in the past couple years, some of whom I journey with online now, but I listed people above who I followed online first for a significant amount of time and then met personally.

Peace.

Labels: blogging, friends

I think I can honestly say that my tribe has the best denominational website I have ever seen: www.salvationarmy.ca. They also have an excellent blog: www.salvationarmy.ca/blog. There's even a rumour that someone you know may be posting there in the near future. Look out.

Labels: blogging, the salvation army

Steve Taylor pointed out a blog post by Andrew Jones about "emerging church books". Andrew shows his bookshelf of 50 emerging church books and then rates the top ten. He then goes on to wonder aloud if books are the best place to capture the emerging church story (I would say they are probably not, but none the less). There are some great comments at both sites, you should check them out.

From 2001 - 2004 while working hard to plant the church I read somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 books per year (excluding the Bible). In 2005-2006 I have read only four books. I am disinterested for the most part, and lack the time to read more right now.

Anyway, here's me using the internet (blog) to interact with this topic. Here's my top eight (just to be difficult) list of books and blogs on the emerging church:

BOOKS

1. The Out Of Bounds Church? By Steve Taylor
2. Liquid Church by Pete Ward
3. The Complex Christ by Kester Brewin
4. The Great Giveaway by David Fitch
5. Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs & Ryan Bolger
6. The Younger Evangelicals by Robert Webber
   
7. The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
8. The Shaping Of Things To Come By Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch

BLOGS

1. Jordon Cooper
   
2. Jonny Baker
   
3. Steve Taylor
   
4. Mark Berry
5. Moot
   
6. Maggi Dawn
7. Len Hjalmarson
8. Kester Brewin

Labels: blogging

I tend to re-design my blog quite often. I get bored easily.

In this current design template I have tweaked, I can not figure out how to get my header right up to the top. Any ideas?

Labels: blogging, design

I have been blogging since 2002. I have had two other personal blogs (both in TypePad). I deleted one early on because I was frustrated with people's comments. I deleted my most recent blog in order to "blog in community" at The Freeway's site. I really wanted to help tell our story [I still do]. Plus I didn't want to pay for TypePad anymore. I am really trying to use open source and free internet software, etc. now (eg. Flickr, Blogger, Upcoming, NotifyList, Avvenu, etc.)

I currently blog at two other sites:

The Freeway | This is the blog of my church community's coffee house [frwy.ca] in Hamilton Ontario. We basically tell the story of what's happening with our little faith community on a day to day basis.
Link

Resonate Soapbox | This is the community blog of a Canadian network (resonate.ca) I am part of. I am one of several (8?) bloggers there right now. We tell the story of what's happening in Canada in terms of figuring out our faith amidst the changing culture we find ourselves in.
Link

So, why am I starting this personal blog too? Because... I am.

Labels: blogging, personal, the freeway