are families too busy?

the answer? yes.

so, how do we fix that? aaaaa, therein lies the rub.

andrea speers led us in a dialogue to help us sort out these situations in our own lives. here are some of the points that came from the talk:

in this day and age where roles are up for grabs, daytimers and pda's are the norm and the family dinner is a relic from days of yore the question still remains how we stay a family and not just a group of roommates who barely see each other.

obviously, there is no easy answer to this but one of the keys appears to be open and honest communication. gathering together, if not for dinner every night, at least once a week for a family meeting. the topics don't have to be heavy. one meeting can be spent planning a fun family event that everyone can be involved in...both the actual event and the planning of it.

the idea of a nuclear family with the dad, mom and their 2.1 kids is a fairy tale for most these days. single parents, same-sex parents, re-marriages all bring their own sense of identity and their own set of problems that need to be sorted through.

a large part of the problem in this part of the world is that we are very 'achievement focused' and the art of relaxation has been lost. being exhausted is a badge of honour instead of a warning sign! there needs to be respect for taking some time off, or taking some down time, or just taking time to be alone and to be together.

families can be busy places and many people just run from one place to another. whether it is soccer...ballet...music lessons...homework...school play....more homework...quick meal in the car...tutoring...whatever. it can feel like too much a lot of the time.

there is no one answer, but the dialogue and the awareness of this issue is a promising step in the right direction. andrea gave us some helpful hints and her website [under our family counsellor on the side or here] has even more, but the key is that we need to realize that doing everything and always being busy for the sake of our families will mean very little if we never see our families!

remember, god exists as a trinity and that three-in-one kind of thing is more than just some weird way christians try to understand god; it gives us some insight into the topic at hand.

after all, god IS a family. god is in relation. jesus said he did nothing except follow the father. the holy spirit does nothing but point people to god. they/he/she/god communicates and shows us that if we are created in the image of god then part of that means that we are created to be in community...to be in family.

i wonder what god talks about at god's family meetings?

NOTE: big stuff is coming to iMMERSION!

dr. gordon heath will be with us on mar 19 and 26 to talk about the gospel of judas. dr. heath has written a book [avail. at chapters] on this topic and will be sharing with us some wonderful insights and answering questions about this controversial topic. mark the dates in your calendars and join us for an informative and powerful evening.

an inconvenient faith: has environmentalism become the new religion?

underneath a lunar exclipse we gathered to watch some of the al gore-ical film an inconvenient truth and talk about whether or not the concern for the environment has usurped the nature of the christian message.





the arguments made included:

• if we don't have an earth, where are we going to spread our message?
  
• perhaps god put us in the garden of eden to take care of the land

• can taking care of the land be part of our destiny?

all good points but is not the deeper issue where are we supposed to put our focus while we are on this planet? after all, if we spend time talking about the planet and resources and recycling are we neglecting the true purpose to teach the message of christ?





some in the church believe that we are called to focus our time and talents purely on spreading the gospel and that all other things act as merely distractions. now, the intent of this way of thinking is not purely off although, it can be argued, it is somewhat extreme.





christians are called to act as god's ambassadors on earth [see II corinthians 5] but the idea of what constitutes the message of christ tends to be somewhat narrow in those with the aforementioned opinion.





after all, did christ not talk about a new heaven AND a new earth?


did christ not honour this world simply by existing in it?


does the book of genesis not record that god saw creation and, more importantly, that it was good?





true, many pseudo-gospels threaten to usurp the salvation offered by the sacrifice of christ on the cross but the care of this world does not have to be one of them. the lord is all about recreation not destruction and calls all His children to respect the art that He has created. just as we are called not to destroy our fellow humans it can be argued that the gospel message includes not destroying the planet god gave us not because we are trying to be hip or cool, but because all things that bear the fingerprint of the One we are following.





listen, the message of christ is life-transforming and, if allowed, will bleed into all aspects of a person's life. we begin to see salvation as more than just a message about who goes to heaven and see that it is about bringing heaven to earth. it is not an either-or situation. we are not called to choose between spreading the gospel or taking care of the planet. however, as we follow god we begin to see that they are both part of the same mission: recreation.





one of the main characteristics of immersion is something we call edenism. edenism is about seeing the planet as something other than our own personal playground. hedonism has brought us to this place but edenism seeks to view the restoration and maintenance of the planet in a spiritual light. we are called to work the land just as much now as adam and eve first were in the garden of eden...it is part of our mandate as followers of god.





hopefully, we will take the call of environmentalism seriously not beacuse it is the trendy thing to do right now [although it can be argued that it is not trendy but necessary!] but because it has always been part of the christian's role on earth. we love this planet because god made it and god's artwork is always something to be cared for and held in reverence.





next time we are tempted to throw a can on the street or leave our cars running or any of the other assorted things we now know harm our planet let us remember that god may have created this world for us but that does not mean it was created for us to abuse.

are families too busy?

there will be some posts tomorrow once this week's immersion has happened but we wanted to get the word out that family counsellor and all-around parenting expert [she hates it when we say stuff like this] andrea speers will be leading next week's immersion service.

she has fantastic ideas and you can read the praises in the 'next week' column but we wanted to make a special mention of the fact and remind all you people out there to clear up some time in your schedule and invite some other people to an immersion...this will be a very useful one!

knock, knock. who's there? my faith. my faith who? my faith ith thtuck in your door!

lame joke in the title? absolutely.

offensive to god? doubtful.

offensive to humour? yes.

last night we gathered to see whether or not god has a sense of humour.

we looked at some [actual] products found on line. the picture is of He'Brews Jewish Beer. don't believe it is real? check out their website

we also looked at a frying pan which burns the face of jesus into your pancakes or grilled cheese sandwich, pet baptism kits, hot air balloon jesus and a lanyard for your iPod shuffle that is in the shape of a cross. we discussed whether or not these items were funny or offensive. all of them fell into the funny category.

however, the websites that dealt with the rapture [actually, the site was about investing in stocks during the 7 years when the anti-christ is on earth to make the most money...there is waaaaaay too much there to explain right now but we all agreed a study about the end of the world would make an interesting future immersion service] or sending messages to dead relatives through people in paliative care or the other more intolerant sites were put into the offensive/blasphemous category. these sites were seen as destructive and communicative of an unhealthy and violent ideology. the basic consensus was that there is nothing funny about taking advantage of people who are grieving the loss of a loved one or manipulating a certain idea about the end times to make financial gain.

but it was the video that inspired the most passionate discussion [see video bar for the video]. this youtube vid was full of images and we watched and then wrote which ones we reacted the strongest towards.

please watch the video and do the same.

many people were deeply offended about the woman in the stain-glassed window, or the cross with the word 'ikea' written on it, or the ones mocking pope john paul II's declining health in his final days, or the pictures depicting jesus as a drug user.

we asked why these things were offensive and the main idea was that there is no longer anything sacred anymore. there seems to be a noticable disrespect for religion and a desire to profane what used to be considered holy. conversation turned to stores and bars being open on sundays and how the church is a target for hateful remarks.

but we also talked about this type of thing being a vehicle for honest dialogue. if we can get past the feelings of repulsion or anger we may be able to find someone who is lashing out because of an incident in their past when they were let down, or hurt, by the church. and that is the kind of person we want to show understanding and compassion towards. people expect a negative reaction from 'church types' when they post such images. what a wonderful opportunity to pleasantly surprise them!

what about those who post images and mock the church just because, and are just being malicious for, no good reason or because it is the popular thing to do? well, it is probably best just to avoid the situation and hope that they mature enough down the road and will become willing to engage in an intelligent discussion on the subject. or, at the very least, realize that mocking another person's beliefs-no matter how silly they may seem-is never a good course of action.

but the point that must be concluded on is this: god does have a sense of humour. it is important to see that god delights in people. it is important to see the distinction between failing at an honest attempt to please god and just mocking god. as thomas merton says: "i believe even the desire to please god pleases god."

god is a god who laughs as well as cries. god is not vengeful and waiting to smite us because we tell jokes about the faith. it is important for christians-and people of faith-to look at themselves and laugh at what is funny...we do a lot of ridiculous things in this pursurit of the Divine and it can only help to be able to honestly laugh at ourselves! plus, it probably will help us rid ourselves of the whole vengeful and grumpy god image that can haunt us and our spiritual walk.

after all, if god doesn't have a sense of humour we are all pretty much up the mighty brown creek sans paddle!

and seriously, if god doesn't have a sens of humour who can explain the platypus and teenagers?

ps: for a great website that has some hilarious church culture items check out www.shipoffools.com

o, the weather outside was frightful...

...but the worship was so delighful.

sorry for the late update, only the day before the next service, but we somewhat beholden to technology and it appears that our trusty computer is in the process of shuffling off the mortal coil! so, we have been scrambling to get a new computer to do this sort of thing as well as help with the actual immersion service.

so, enough excuses...here's what we talked about in last week's blizzard.

huddled close to each other to stay warm we continued to talk about how the bible is to be used for our daily lives. people last week were deeply offended by some of the passages that were selected [notably the ones pertaining to women remaining silent in church] and were baffled with the rules telling people not to wear clothes with two different types of material woven together.

so, how do we separate what we use from what we discard?

one of our people wrote in with the idea that we have to be careful when we use the bible literally because we run the risk of making it say something, or do something, that was never intended by the authors of the book. she spoke about myth and how stories can be used to convey deeper truths for the readers. she then added that she did not believe that the bible is untrue in any way, just that it uses literal devices to communicate deep truths to its readers. but she is also concerned that people will the dismiss any part of the scriptures that he or she may not agree with and this is just as foolosh/dangerous. the bible is not our play thing and the ultimate goal of interpreting it is not that we clarify it but that it clarifies us.

another course of argument was that the morality of the bible was okay for that time period but should be reviewed through today's lens. there was some disagreement here. one person thought that stealing to feed one's family was okay but, according to the old testament, that person should be killed. the argument was made that stealing to feed one's family is acceptable. that was countered by a soft spoken woman who thought that if we didn't steal then we opened up the door for others to help. be it aid agencies or just friendly neighbours she thought that we need to trust more in god and let him take care of us.

as you can tell there were so many points and some held that the bible is translated differently in a post-resurrection world. this brought up the question whether or not that excluded jewish people from accurate interpretation of the bible since they did not believe in jesus' divinity.

so, to wrap up, i hope this is a jarbled and passionate in the post as it was on the evening of..for many perspectives were shared and many viewpoints were explored.

at the end...well, we're not at the end and even though we are talking about god's sense of humour this week it will not be suprising to see some more of this topic sneak in.

by the way: we decided to interpret the bible through the lens of jesus...in other words: we treat women the way jesus did, we eat and live life the way jesus did [at least we try] and we understand that jesus came to show us that the faith, the bible, and everything we do, is fundamentally about a relationship with god. instead of worrying about rules and regulations we are to be concerned with people and the marginalized and look for god among them.

however, it is probably best to leave this post open for now...because the topic is still something we are struggling with so please come and join in the struggle!

breakfast for supper and helping out

well, we've got a busy week

as lent starts we want to insure that we celebrate this important part of the christian calendar.

that is why, tonight, where immersion is held there will be a pancake supper for any and all people interested

there is no charge for the meal but there will be info about the stephen lewis foundation [view their site here] as well as the chance to make a voluntary donation.

so, let's recap:

1] pancakes for supper=awesome

2] learning about stephen lewis foundation=awesome

3] info about upcoming benefit concert=awesome

4] chance to help contribute to stephen lewis' work in africa=awesome

looks like a night filled with numerous awesome opportunities!

hope to see you there.