My Mystic Self

Don Miller's new book!

2011-03-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.

Get it at powells and amazon

Tour De Farms

2010-08-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took part in the Tour De Farms bike ride put on by Urban Adventours. It was a wonderful 35 mile bike ride through greater boston visiting community gardens and farms along the way.

There is a lot of talk about certified organic. We were informed at one of the farms that they were "uncertified organic", meaning that they follow all the rules of organic farming, but have decided not to pay the $15,000 fee that would label them as certified.

The most surprising fact that I learned was that a 1.5 acre farm cansupply vegetables for approximately 120-150 families. 1.5 acers is about the area a typical grocery store would take. It brings into perspective how we could get our food.

In honor of Fathers day on Sunday

2010-06-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

My dad, taught me how to hunt and fish
My dad, has hiked all the mountains around our home.
My dad, knows all the back roads to everywhere.
My dad, installed a new heating system in our house.
My dad, worked in a sandwich shop when he was a kid.
My dad, can grill better than your dad.
My dad, is a champion marksman. Don't mess with him.
My dad, rocks the guitar, the bass, the piano and the drums. He's a one man band.
My dad, came to my wrestling matches, track and cross country meets even though it was obvious he didn't understand the sport.
My dad, survived cancer twice.

Thanks dad,

I love you

My Side of the Story......

2010-03-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

So I had a plan to ask my girlfriend to marry me. A nice dinner at a French restaurant. A romantic stroll though the city. Then I ask her to marry be somewhere in the Boston Common.

Towards the end of the main course, my girlfriend casually says, "So I'm not trying to pressure you or anything, but when do you think, we might think, about getting married?" To which I reply, "You know I think we should figure that out soon." My hope was that it would pass and that I could still keep my master plan in tact. But she continued.

"Well do you want a long engagement or a short one?"

"I would like a relatively short one, I mean I don't want to wait another year to get married.

"I mean I know we have talked about it before......"

At this point I have realized that I should just give up and wing it. So I slowly reach into my coat pocket.

"but do you think, we should think, about getting married?"

I responded; "How about now!" To which she replied, "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

Sometimes, the best laid plans never work out.

Management

2010-02-28T12:04:00.000-08:00

About 6 months ago, I was reluctantly thrust into a management position at my firm. The client, upset with my boss, for reasons unknown still to this day, asked that he be removed. Thanks to the economy we were short handed so I being the next in line was given the title of Project Manager. Sense then I have worked most weekends as well as frequent nights trying to keep up.

Along with the added work load I was suddenly in charge of people. Handing out assignments, following up on tasks and making sure my project progressed. Having been an underling for the past 10 years, I now have a new found respect for Managers.

Managers have power and can use it how they choose. They can choose to hold onto that power, hold it over people, or give it away. When I had just started my career, a Project Manager took notice of me. I was only the office boy at the time, but he knew that I wanted to be an Architect, so he brought me onto his team.

He didn't have to do this. He could have held out for a more experienced staff to come free, but instead he took a chance. About four years later I was over seeing the construction of a 12 million dollar project. Again I didn't have to be doing this, by all definitions I was under qualified to be doing this.

Now I find that I am reluctantly managing my own 20 million dollar project. I still feel woefully unprepared and that I am just barely holding on. Even in all this uncertainty I was still able to give some work to another person in the firm who was just a student. In some ways it makes more work for me. Having to explain things that to others would be common knowledge. Having to correct things multiple times. Or just waiting an extra day or two for a drawing. But it somehow seams like the right thing to do.

Doing something special.....

2010-02-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

It's Valentines day, so I'm inclined to do something special for the girl I love, like trying to boost her google rank.

The most wonderful girl in the world is starting a buisness, a food tour, in East Boston. If you want to take a tasty tour through East Boston give her a call. (Click)

Boozy Berry Breakfast Burgers

2010-02-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

Every good meal should have a good story. Two weeks ago my girlfriend and I went to Niagara Falls for the weekend. While enjoying breakfast, with a view of the falls, we had the most delicious whipped cream and strawberry's we had ever tasted. We vowed to make homemade whipped cream when we got back to Boston.

Yesterday Laura and I decided to make a brunch of french toast to go along with our strawberry's and whipped cream. So this morning we went to Haymarket and picked up some strawberry's, a pineapple and a pomegranate. We figured we could pick up some bread and whipping cream on the way back to my house. We found a Portuguese sweet bread at the corner market. But after trying three different stores no whipping cream was to be found. So we had to settle on cool whip.

The sweet bread was more of a roll, so we cut them in half and cooked them like normal french toast. Then made sandwiched between them using sliced strawberry's, pomegranate seeds, and whipped cream. We topped it off with a reduction of Honey Bourbon. Thus creating Boozy Berry Breakfast Burgers.

Oh and we also had a glass of pineapple pomegranate juice to wash it down.

A simple question?

2009-10-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Simply the best question ever from a marriage prep book.

Are you gay and marrying me to cover it up?*

(*True question from an actual marriage prep book)

Growing Up

2009-09-16T09:57:00.001-07:00

There are many rites of passage in life. First kiss. Graduating High School & College. First job. I am about to embark on another. The first house. Over the past two months I have been getting pre-approved for obscene amounts of money and looking at houses twice the cost of my parents.

It all started for me as the dream of buying my own house and fixing it up. Sense I was a little kid I have watched programs like "This Old House", fixated on all the ways you could improve on your home. I guess that might explain why I worked in a hardware store as a kid, and ended up being an Architect.

Even with a background in Architecture, this is a frightening idea for me. Now it's my house, it's my money, they're my ideas, and good or bad, I have to live with them. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I enter this with a bit of trepidation.

Today I am putting an offer on a house. (technically it's the second offer I have submitted, the other property fell through, but that's a post for another time) It's a 1900 brick Victorian row house in my neighborhood. Just off Maverick Sq.

I hope all go's well and that I get the place so I can start a grand adventure.

Tradition and Culture

2009-08-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

This past week I gained a new appreciation for tradition and culture. Specifically religious traditions and cultures. Every church had it's own traditions, meaning it's customs and beliefs, Every church has it's own culture, meaning they way their traditions are carried out. Sometimes they are explicitly taught. Sometimes they are unspoken. But they are always there.

This past week it was my turn to provide the content portion of my house church meeting. I decided to focus on prayer, something that I have come to appreciate more and more from my previous church experience. I come from two religious traditions with two different religious cultures. One fairly traditional, Christian Missionary Alliance, and the other charismatic, The Vineyard Christian Fellowship. My experiences on prayer were more shaped by the latter, through small groups, retreats, and all night prayer meetings.

I wanted to share some of my experiences from the past 10 years with my new house church, but I only had one hour to do it. As I struggles with how I might do this I realized that following Jesus is a lot like looking at a sculpture. Our religious tradition and culture help to shape our thoughts on what we see. But if we allow ourselves to move around the room we can see the sculpture from another vantage point, and gain a deeper experience, understanding and appreciation of what we are looking at. We can see those things that are not visible from any another place in the room.

The same is true with religious traditions and cultures. By trying our new and different way of experiencing God we can gain a deeper understanding of him. And by reflecting on our past religious traditions and cultures we can gain a new found appreciation for what we once had even after we have moved on to new experiences and vantage points.

Politics as usual......

2009-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

If you have been following the news lately you have been hearing about the health care debate. Recently it had devolved into more of a shouting match.
There was a opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about death and end of life care in America., but it has gotten away from us.

Included in the health care bill in Congress was a provision to provide counseling on end of life care. In typical political fashion, the Republicans latched on to this and stared referring to it as a death panel. And in typical Democratic fashion, they let them get away with it.

Now this provision has been removed from the bill. (Click) Who wins in this kind of debate? The Republicans claim victory over the Democrats. Citizens don't get the health care they need. One more meaningful national conversation is avoided.

Revelation

2009-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Image by ehpien via Flickr

There has been a rising source of tension in my life recently. The small group that I am involved with in my neighborhood. We can't seam to settle on what exactly we are doing. We seam float around from one idea to another. Every idea seams to be just as revolutionary as the next. But today I realized that this group is different from any other that I have been in and perhaps am the one who should change.

Most small groups are content spending each week politely discussing a topic and moving on to a new topic the next week. Not this group. My friends add the extra step of dreaming up big ways of how these new ideas can be integrated into our lives.

I realize that I have been wanting complacency and the status-quo, when others are inviting me to dream for a bigger more fulfilled life.

The Shack - Book Review

2009-06-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Cover of The Shack

While on vacation I started reading the book "The Shack" by William P. Young. This has been a widely popular book sense it has come out even making it to the NY Times Best Sellers list.

On one hand I can understand why. The Shack attempts to explain everything anyone would want to know about God. How does the Trinity work. Why did Jesus have to die. What is Gods plain for the world. And the most important question in the book, why is there pain in the world.

As for myself I did not like the book. To me The Shack seamed to be one persons attempt to spread their own theology. What little plot that exists is only there to support the long philosophical arguments about God.

Undoubtedly some will find this very helpful, but I feel this book is a snapshot of some of what is wrong with Christianity today. To often we seek the easy answers, the explanations that will satisfy our deepest questions. What I find fascinating about Jesus is that his narratives were different.

Jesus spoke in parables. Short story's that explained little, but drew the listener into into a deeper questioning. The Shack reads as if some one is preaching to you rather than asking you to question more.

iWoz - Book Review

2009-06-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

Cover via Amazon

I recently finished reading the book iWoz; How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. This is the autobiography of Steve Woznaik. I found this book to be a delight, not only because it is an easy read, but because it also feeds my fascination Apple computers.

In reading this book I was fascinated with how passionate Woz is. Wither it is engineering, education or parenting, he throws all he has at the task at hand. You can almost feel his grittiness as you read the storeys from his youth. I wish I had half of his enthusiasm.

One of my favorite bible passages is about the sheep and the goats. In it Jesus makes the point that we may be surprised at who gets into heaven. I wouldn't be surprised if Woz is up there. Although respecting Jesus, he is not a "Christian". But this does not stop him from giving generously in many circumstances; selling apple stock to employees who didn't get any before the IPO, putting on a rock concert even though he lost 12 million dollars, teaching computer classes at his kids school. He even has a street names after him in San Jose because of all his philanthropy.

My only critique is that in his zeal for engineering he often descried, in some detail, the engineering projects he worked on. This sometimes got tedious, especially for someone without an engineering background, but those parts are easy enough to pass over.

Ps...then looking at pictures of Woz, especially during the 80's & 90's he reminds me of my father. The could easily be mistaken for brothers.

Let's take Jesus out of his packaging

2009-06-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Image by bookgrl via Flickr

The other day a friend told me a story. Apparently some college professors wanted to use the Shane Claiborne's book "Jesus for President" as a starting point for a class the were going to teach.

It resulted in a couple of students committing to spend the year getting a homeless man off the streets. What surprises me is not so much that they were successful, but that their teachers were shocked that their students would do such a thing.

My question is this. What is the state of religious teaching in the church if professors would be so shocked. What are we expecting students to get out of religious training if not to become more like Jesus. Why do we care so much about teaching Greek and systematic theology? Sure these are important things but they are not as great as a group of college kids learning to be more like Jesus.

Let's take Jesus out of the box we package him in and see what happens.

Life is funny

2009-06-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last night our group, (I'm not sure what you would call us, house church, organic church, small group......whatever) came full circle. We have been talking about doing a relational tithe, (sometimes called a giving circle) for a while now. Last night we hashed out some of the details. One detail was about how we will give. It was noted that walking in the door and handing someone a few bucks before the meeting started didn't seam to do the act justice. It was suggested that perhaps we could make some sort of meaningful ritual out of the act of giving. (We were careful avoid the word offering.)

The discussion of how we would collect the money was interesting also. There were three suggestions: A promotional Tequila cowboy hat, a baseball cap with the Borat catch phrase "Sexy Time" on it, or a glass jar. We settled on the glass jar although the "Sexy Time" cap was a close second.

Life is funny, we spend so much time and energy forging our own path. Questioning and critiquing the actions of our forefathers just to come around full circle to appreciate that traditions we once scorned.

Book Review - A Year of Living Biblically

2009-06-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

Cover of The Year of Living Biblically

This evening I finished reading the book "A Year of Living Biblically", by A.J. Jacobs. It was a delightful read in the emerging style of immersion journalism that is quite popular these days, resulting in an insightful and hilarious book.

Jacobs spends the year following the Jewish and Christian rules that he gathers from the bible, trying his hardest to take the most literal interpretation possible. Over the course of the year he manages to stone an adulterer, go to a snake handling service, travel to Israel, and refrain from shaving his beard.

To give away the ending of his book, Jacobs concludes with idea that we are all following our own interpenetration of the Bible, cafeteria style. A much as we would like to think that myself (and others like me) are following the bible correctly to some degree we are all picking and choosing (interpreting for ourselves) how we will follow the bible.

If I am honest with myself, I have to agree with Jacobs. How can we expect to follow all the the rules the bible sets out for us. We all have those parts of the bible that we love and cherish, and those parts that we choose to hold at a distance. And maybe this isn't so bad. As the the Apostle Paul says "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" Perhaps we aren't suppose to know how it all fits together. Perhaps it's ok if we hold closer to the things we can understand and that move us.

And A.J. just in case if you read this review..........helmet.

My Hispter Douche Bag Bike

2009-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

For a while I have wanting a single speed road bike. It's not that I need a new bike my old stand by is working just fine. It's more of a novelty factor thing. So about a month ago, after searching craigslist for a couple of weeks, I purchases a beat up Ross 10 speed road bike. Over the past few weeks I have been cleaning up the bike, ordering parts, and building the bike single speed I wanted.

In the end I spent about $230.00 total and got a pretty cool bike out of it. I also learned a thing or two about how to fix up bikes too.

I have one problem though. A couple of days a go I saw this old beat up bike being thrown out in the trash and I though to myself, "Hey I could fix that bike"

Community Project

2009-05-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a community party in my old neighborhood. It was jointly hosted by the neighborhood group I was involved with and the Animal Rescue League of Boston. For the past three years there has been a group tirelessly working towards improving the local park by the creation of a Dog Recreation Space. Last night was a sort of celebration and reminder of all the work that is ahead.

It reminded me of how much I loved that neighborhood, but specifically of now much I loved the people. I realized that the creation of the DRS was just a means to an end. That end being a stronger community. Neighbors banding together to make their piece of the city just a little bit better.

If you could, please consider donate some money to towards the DRS. They still need to raise $10,000 in order to complete the project. You can donate through the Animal Rescue League's website. Just put Ronan Park Dog Run in the Special Instructions space.

iPod's Are Required

2009-05-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

In technology news, it was announces that the university of Minnesota's journalism department is requiring all journalism students to have an ipod's. This is to enable students to download podcasts of the lectures they attend. In an interview with the Missorurian, Brian Brooks, Associate Dean of the aforementioned school, stated, "Lectures are the worst possible learning format. There's been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of the lecture."

So my question is, if this is true, that lectures are the worst possible learning format, what is the benefit of listening to a preacher on Sunday morning? Most likely people are not retaining the information they are being given. What kind of disciples s the Church producing by relying so heavily on the lecture format? Are we wasting an hour of our spiritual lives each week? Are there other means of communication that are more effective?

Or we could just issue an ipod to everyone at conversion?

(click) (click)

Productive day

2009-05-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of the most productive Saturday mornings of my life.

First I get up and make sweet and spicy bacon for breakfast. You wouldn't believe me but there is actually a way to improve on bacon. It involves cumin, paprika, pepper and copious amounts of brown sugar.

Secondly, I transplanted a few of my plants from their egg containers to old plastic soda bottles cut in half.

Lastly I finished the repairs to my childhood bike. I started the project in Feburary, so I guess it's about time I finished it.

Did I mention it's only 11:00 Am...... I guess I don't have to feel guilty if I take an afternoon nap.

What does Social Justice Mean to you? Part 2 or Dude Where's My Kingdom?

2009-04-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

If Jesus had a catchphrase it might be "The Kingdom of Heaven is near." He seam to be saying it all over the Gospels. When Jesus heals people, the Kingdom of God seams to be near. When someone shows great faith, the Kingdom of God is near. Why is this?

As human beings there seams to be something that is dividing us separating us from experiencing God, his Kingdom. Something that we were made for. Perhaps it's Chaos creeping back into our lives. Traditional Christian teaching would say that it's sin that separates us. I usually make it a habit not to contradict 2,000 years of thought but I might add a little something to this...... Perhaps it's not so much the bad things that we're doing (sin), but it's the good things that we are not doing that is what is keeping us from experiencing Gods Kingdom. What would happen if we followed Jesus example of loving others selflessly. When we stand up alongside those who are being oppressed and help them to overcome, would the Kingdom of God be nearer to us? I think it would.

When a retiree helps a little kid learn to read, the Kingdom of God is there. When someone is healed from a debilitating disease, the Kingdom of God has been experienced. When a homeless man gets a warm meal and a change of clothes from a stranger, the Kingdom of God has manifested. It's as if Chaos has been pushed back a little bit further and we can experience the Kingdom of God when we love other people.

The funny thing about this kingdom is that it's not based on rules. There is no secret password at the door. There is no way of keeping people out. There might not be any doors, walls or borderlines at all. Instead this kingdom is based on what we do. The common actions that we perform together. That we are loving our neighbors. That we are feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. People can be experiencing the Kingdom of God and not even know it.

Come join us in the Kingdom of God.

Parable of the sheep and goats: Matt 25:31-46

What Does Social Justice Mean to You? Part 1 or Plant a Garden

2009-04-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago the question, "What does Social Justice mean to you?", was asked in a group of friends. We all gave our own quick 5 minute synopsis and moved on. But this question has always stuck with me. So I have deiced to turn it into a series of blog posts. As a note; I am not theologian, I have never been to seminary or bible college. I like theology but get tired of it quickly when it's all fine sounding arguments and no action. That being said please read on.....

When I think about Social Justice, I don't think about Jesus or the Prophets of the Bible. Instead I think back to Genius. There is something about that first story that intrigues me. What was here before we were? One interpretation of Genius would suggest chaos was here first. Nothingness swirling around in a cosmic void with no order, pattern, or purpose.

In the first few versus, God simply speaks and things start happening. There is light. There is water and land, ect. As he creates these things he also fills them. The light comes from the sun. The water is filled with fish. The land is inhabited with animals. And after creating the first people he gives them jobs. They are to tend to the garden, seemingly to keep chaos from creeping back into Gods creation.

A group of my neighbors are planting vegetable gardens this spring. To me, there is something Justice related about this action. Taming a wild and abandoned section of the city. Where there once was chaos there will soon be a harvest. Where there was there once was neglect will be now be sustenance.

This sounds a bit like Justice to me.

I am the God who brings life to the dead and calls things that aren't as thought they were. Romans 4:17b

Photo Credit: Robertg6n1 (Click)

This I Use to Believe

2009-04-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

As I have previously mentioned on the Blog I am a fan of the radio show This American Life. This week they has a great program called "This I Use to Believe" A take on This I believe, a different NPR program.

In the second segment of the show there is a great dialog between a former believer and a Texas high school football coach. It offers some great insights into the missed conversations between believers and non-believers.

If you have a free moment you should check it out. (Click)

Improving on Perfection

2009-04-18T13:29:00.001-07:00

There are few things in this world that embody beauty and perfection. The Sistine Chapel, the grand canyon, and bacon come to mind. But how could you ever improve on these things.

This for lunch today I visited Scup's in the Harbor. I decided to have the grilled cheese with sweet and spicy bacon. It was like heaven in my mouth.

I'm not exactly sure what they did to the beacon, but I think they added brown sugar and pepper. Perfection improved upon.

Lent 2009

2009-04-11T05:51:00.001-07:00

These pictures are from my Lent project this year. They were taken around my neighborhood i an attempt to understand my neighborhood better. You can view more photos at my flickr account.

The Servernt Savior

2009-04-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

Colossians 4:12
Originally uploaded by sgs_1019

Today is Good Friday, the day Christians set aside to observe the death of Jesus. The day they rejoice and morn over as Gods plan to redeem mankind's sinfulness. Jesus death on the cross is viewed as the pinnacle of history and Gods ultimate gift to mankind. Historically this has been called Christus Victor (Click)

Modern Evangelicalism has been built upon this theology. It is the lens through all things are viewed, effecting the way we see all things and how we treat all people. Christus Victor is the driving force behind evangelism, giving christians the passion to preach the gospel at all costs to see as many people as possible saved. But what if this wasn't the only way to observe Good Friday.

What if we viewed Good Friday as an act of a servitude? What if Jesus came to earth to show us Gods love. What is Jesus came to show us how to serve, to give all of yourself to others, to give our very lives. Could servitude be Gods plan to usher in his kingdom?

What if we practiced servanthood instead of preaching man's sinfulness.

What if we loved and cared for the poor so deeply that it upset the status quo?

Would people want to join our churches and communities?

Would we have more of an impact on those around us?

Would people see Jesus in us?

Spring

2009-04-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

At lunch today, during in a break in the rain, I went for a short walk around the North End. I began to think about the end of Lent. For the first time I got excited about Lent and not just that it's ending, and I can end my fast. I reflected on rebirth, the renewing of a life and the hope in something new. I think I may have stumbled on to the Easter Spirit.

The Bell

2009-03-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

This morning I joined my father as he went to his final prostate cancer treatment at MGH. We were a little early for the appointment, and shortly after arriving a steady stream of older men joined us in the waiting room. I was introduced to many of the guys my father became friends with over the past two months.

As we gathered around each other in the waiting room, there were congratulations given to my father for finishing his treatments. They even presented him with a kitschy certificate that looked as if it was printed from word.

As my father slipped away to change into his hospital gown, the Actor mentioned that his wife planed a busy weekend for them in New York. The Professor talked about how can't fit into his 40 slim suits anymore. Someone else casually announces that although he is having some trouble sexually he still dreams of sex. "They can't take that away from you!", yells another man from around the corner. The veteran says that he only dreams of the war.

My father slips in and out of the treatment room, the treatment itself only takes minutes. After he's changed we make our way to a bell, which is strangely located in between the bathroom doors. My father begins an impromptu ceremony by reading the words on the plaque under the bell and then rings it three times. Pictures are taken, hands were shaken, and farewells are given.

I join my father and another man, Frank, for a quick coffee upstairs in the cafe. After getting our coffee and finding a free table and the conversion turns to more mundane topics like, the economy, work, and franks new house. A few minutes late I excuse myself so I can get to work by 9:30.

As I walk out of the hospital my mind drifts back to the men in the waiting room, my chances of becoming sick, and what life is about. I send a text message to my girlfriend.

"Miss you.....love you......can't wait to see you again"

Observations from my recent trip to California

2009-03-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Observations from my recent trip to California

1) It's not always sunny and warm in Cali. (Unless if you are comparing it to New England)

2) In & Out is still the raining champion of fast food hamburgers.

3) Farting, although funny, is not a acceptable way to win an argument with your parents.

4) You can take the Clear Lake out of the trash but you can't take the trash out of Clear Lake. (Jen's observation, not mine)

5) Although they live on opposite coasts and have never met, both Laura's & my mother have the same antique sowing machine.

6) You should never miss an opportunity to sell a car.

7) Bass fishing can be a lucrative career.

8) I hope I'm elected.

9) Do everything you can to avoid driving over the mountains. (Unless if you enjoy being car sick)

10) Meeting the girlfriends family is nothing like a Ben Stiller movie.

Meet the Strohmeier's

2009-03-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I flew to the west coast to meet my girlfriend. We've been dating about four months now. In my option the relationship has been progressing we'll, at a normal pace except for the fact that after this weekend we will have already met each others parents. I am not sure where this should fall on the standard relationship timeline, but it seams a little quick to me, but this was not by our design.

Shortly after we started dating my father moved to Boston to live with me while he underwent some medical treatments. So naturally, when someone is living with you for two months you would expect that they would meet your girlfriend. And of course my mom came to visit for two weeks as well.

The trip to the west coast was originally to meet her friends and go to Disneyland. But again due to circumstances out of her control we're ending up spending the weekend with her family.

I must admit. I have never met "The Parents" before. I'm a little concerned. After we started dating her father sent me strange messages via facebook......yes her father is on facebook. (Mine was to for a while, but left citing "there is just to much information on Facebook".) I have sense learned that her father has a strange sense of humor, and that there was no harm intended.

This mornning I woke up at 4:00 AM (7:00 AM my time), I'm sitting in their basement alone writing thsi blog wondering how he weekend will turn out.

Good Times

2009-03-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

I found this video on my computer that is about 9 years old.

The Social Experiment

2009-02-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

Sense I have been pursuing social justice as an expression of my faith I have ascribed to some of Shane Claiborne's ideas. Particularly the concept of setting up faith communities in the desolate areas of the world and proclaiming Gods Kingdom. This model worked well for me in my last neighborhood, but I'm running into a few hurtles in my new neighborhood.

I've been to a few community meeting, observing mostly, looking for ways I can engage my neighborhood. I'm realizing that things are pretty well established here. There are plenty of programs and non-profits in the neighborhood. On one hand this is great, on the other hand my new neighborhood is clearly not a desolate area. I need a new model.

As a "doer" type of personality, the old model worked great for me. You can do pretty much anything you want and have a good chance of making a positive impact. I believe that this new model will have to rely more on relationships/socializing. Admittedly, this is not one of my strengths.

Photo Credit: The Waving Cat (Click)

I am not a morning person anymore.

2009-02-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

I have always thought of myself as a morning person. Then my parent's lived with me for two weeks in my small, cramped two bedroom apartment.

I typically wake up at 6:15 and by the time I open my bedroom door my mom is already sitting in the living room watching the news at an unnecessary volume. I'm thinking; "Why is she up already, she's on vacation?" Then I try to use the bathroom and my father is taking a shower. I'm thinking. "I really have to go to the bathroom.....this is very annoying!" I start to make my breakfast and before I finish my father sticks his head out of the bathroom and says "Do you have to take a squirt? " I'm thinking; "Squirt.....who the fuck uses the word squirt, that's disgusting." I walk in and use the bathroom for a few minutes, then as I leave he go's back in to finish his morning routine.

As I sit down to eat my breakfast my dad starts preparing his. He gets out a cup of yogurt and a granola bar. He likes to break up his granola bar and put it into his yogurt. Under normal circumstances I would have no problem with this, I even enjoy it myself. Except that my father gets out the rolling pin from cabinet and proceeds to beat the granola bar with the rolling pin creating a lot of unnecessary noise for 6:30 in the morning.

Then I made myself some hot tea. As I was squirting the honey into my tea it made the per-verbal fart noise, at the sound of which my father did a double take and stared at me with a devilish smile. As he is my father I didn't even need to look in his direction to know he was doing this. No words were exchanges and at 6:45 am I do not appreciate my fathers childish sense of humor.

So this dance continues for the next 45 minutes or so, my parents doing something innocuous and me suppressing a disproportionate level of frustration. Around this time I realize that although I have always had a roommate I am usually up and out the door before they even wake up. I very rarely have had to deal with another person's morning routine. Maybe I am just not the morning person I thought I was.

Eastie Gras

2009-02-24T18:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight our community celebrated it's first Mardi Gras, Jesus style. No beads. No boobs. Just good conversation. (I know, it's not as much fun but it's more meaningful) We ate pancakes with all the trimmings; brown sugar apples, chocolate chips, and whip cream, while discussing how we as a community could participate in Lent.

By the end of the night we stumbled on the following idea. Spending the time of Lent to reflect on our core values as a community. Finding what aspects of Jesus we most want to reflect in our neighborhood. We also want to document the brokenness we see in our neighborhood. Our hope is to find a synergy between our values and the brokenness we see in our neighborhood and to come away with an action.

As for myself. I have decided that I want to be more creative and be less depressed about the possibility of loosing my job. So I am going on a media fast (News and TV) and start some creative projects. I am going to try and write a short story that has been in my mind for a while and be more intentional about getting out of the house to shoot some photographs.

For the first time in many years I am actually excited about Lent and what can come out of the experience.

The Story of My Life

2009-02-22T10:18:00.001-08:00

It seams as though I have ambition, or maybe it's just something inherent in all men. I start these crazy projects that end with mixed results. Once it was a bookshelf. Of course I couldn't just make a normal book shelf, it had to have crazy angles and aircraft cable. Then there was the Media Center PC. I bought a 500GB harddrive, and new RAM, but of course they weren't compatible. I eventually got the computer to work, and it's still sitting next to my TV.....but it's not hooked up.

Last week, while cleaning my bike, I found out that I had two broken spokes on my rear bike wheel. I could just take my bike to the shop and have someone fix it, but what's the fun in that. So I went to the bike shop and after a breif converation with bike mechanic I walked out with a new wheel, two specialtey bike tools and $120.00 less in my wallet.

I was able to get the rear cogset off the old wheel and on to the new one fairly easly. I go the new wheel on the bike and took it for a spin. I did notice that the breaks are not properly aligned, and that the cables are a little warn, but I'll leave that for another day.

Thoughts on the economey

2009-02-20T04:08:00.000-08:00

It seams as though everyone has a comment or an opinion on the economy, so I figure I would set up a soap box and give mine too.

President Obama signed the Economic Stimulus bill earlier this week with the hope of stabilizing the markets and bring economy back on track. But do we really want things to return to normal? Or do we want something more?

Tonight a friend told me some statistic's that read something like this: Corporate executives make as much as 400% more than the lowest paid workers in their company. The top 1% of in America, own 90% of the wealth. Is this the type of economy we want to return to?

At it's worst American capitalism rewards economic growth at any cost. Stock prices go up based on quarterly profit reports, regardless of how worker were treated and the environmental impact of the products produced. An ever growing GDP is the end goal, and the indicator of a "healthy" economy.

John Perkins said it well in his book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
"The system, however, is fuels by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. It is driven not by a small band of men but by a concept that has become accepted as gospel: the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary; that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation."

I am not a politician or an economist, and I do not know the answer to our current economic woes. But I hope to be a prophetic voice that can point us in the direction of a more just economy. An economy where the environment if cared for. An economy where they is enough for everyone to be provided for. An economy where everyone is valued.

My G1 phone is amazing

2009-02-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

So a little while ago I wrote a posted about my G1 phone working without the data plan. To reiterate it worked perfectly fine without the data plan.......but it works even better with it.

I was trying to fix a problem with my SD card, so I decided to reset my phone. To do this it required me to turn back on the data plan. Now I'm hooked.

This morning I used an app called Buddy Runner, a GPS tracking app that works off my phone. I was able to track my run, fairly accurately, and give me a report on my distance, time and elevation. It also sends the information to a website that logs all your runs.

With the Android app store going to payed apps this week I am sure there will be even greater apps to come. I guess there is a good side to capitalism after all.

Simplicity

2009-02-13T06:48:00.001-08:00

There is a lot of talk about simplicity these day's. My group of friend is no different. Last night we attempted to understand simplicity and came up with our own take. Here is some of what I remember from the conversation.

What are our values?:
The question behind simplicity is in someways a question of what are your values. What do you want your life to reflect. For example, if you value the environment living a simple life might look like buying less, or growing your own food. It is also helpful distill your values to a select few that are import to you. Meaning, the more values you try to reflect the more likely you will not be able to do any of them well, or that they may contradict each other. For example if you value spending less money and buying organic healthy food, you will have to deal with the fact that you'll be paying a premium for organic food.

Limiting Options:
In America we have way to many options. If you go to the supermarket you will find 20 different types of canned peas. Do we really need that many choices? Could limiting our choices actually make our lives simple. Could limiting our choices allow is to have a deeper experience with the fewer choices we have. Take friendships for example. Although it might seam harsh to say I am limiting my friendships to a few select people, it would allow you to intentionally deepen those relationships. Fewer choices could mean a simpler and more connected life.

Geography:
At one time in my life (early to mid 20's) I was all over the Boston. Lived in one part of the city, worked in another, and on any given night I would be somewhere else meeting friend or at an event. This adds a lot of travel time and general complexity to my life. Recently I have move to East Boston with a few friends. Now I only really need to leave my neighborhood to go to work. My social and spiritural circle of friends all live within a few block radius of my apartment. This is a part of simplicity that I think comes with age. When you are younger you feel as though you don't want to miss out on anything, but as you get older you don't mind missing the latest movie opening to stay in and finish a good book.

Photo credit TheAlieness GiselaGiardino's (click)

Phew

2009-01-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

Recent Giuliani quote:
"I remember when I was mayor, one of the ways in which you determine New York City's budget, tax revenue is Wall Street bonuses."

I'm glad this man is not our president.

G1-data=cool+savings

2009-01-21T05:44:00.001-08:00

So my diabolical plan worked after all. I have been wanting a smart phone for some time but did not want to pay the extra charges for the data plan. So when the G1 came out I was pretty excited.

First off, when I bought the phone the salesman in the store said you could cancel the data plan after one month. But when I called T-mobile on Monday to cancel the data plan they assured me that the phone would be bricked after I canceled the data plan.

Two days later the phone sill works, and I can access the internet & maps when I am near a wifi point. The only negative I have found is that the twitter client that I am using seams a little buggy. I assume that some of the apps may be programmed to work on the network not through the wifi, so there may be a few apps that don't work properly.

Ps in order to get the text messaging plan back on to my phone I had to tell the website that I did not have a G1. I needs my 400 text's a month......what does that say about me?

Money

2009-01-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

There is a saying that where your money is....there your heart is. For the past year I have been tracking my spending to see where all my money go's. I came up with a few surprises.

Number one on the list.....Housing? Food? Nope Taxes!!!!! Yep, 24.33% of my money went to paying state and federal taxes. (That does not include any sales tax. That would be impossible to track.) That was quite a surprise to me. Paying for wars and bailouts is not a priority for me, but schools and parks.....I'm a little conflicted.

Second on the list was savings (13.81%). This is not much of a surprise to me because I am on an aggressive savings track to buy my first home. Although, when I think about it, the general rule of thumb is to save 10% of your take home pay. I feel that I have gone to some great lengths to get to 13% it's no wonder that most Americans have little savings.

Third, rent 12.92%. I am a little surprised by this number. Living in Boston, I thought it would be higher.

Fourth, giving 9.78% I was hoping this would be a little higher. Something I need to work on.

Everything else was under 7% . This brings some perspective to things like retirement, travel, and entertainment. When budgeting and tracking I tend to be obsessive about these sort of things when in reality they make up very little of my spending.

Starting off the new year

2009-01-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to Democracy Now for the past couple of months. This year they have started off with two phenomenal shows. One on Utah Phillips, the orginizer, singer songwriter, storyteller, and general anarchist. And and the other show is a talk by Howard Zinn, historian teacher and writer.

As I listened to these two stories, it makes me think about the type of person I would like to become. Both men speak their mind and stand for justice. Followers of Jesus, in the US, tend to be meek. As if Jesus wanted us to become nice people. Sure we are to love our neighbors, but were also called to stand up for justice. This should, on occasion, put us at odds with those in power in our society.

I recommend giving these two stories a listen and be inspired to cause a little trouble. (Click)

Old News

2008-12-30T16:57:00.000-08:00

I have been doing some work on my family tree and I came across a newspaper from 1909, the Gazette & Hearld from Wednesday December 22. This is a paper from Dushore Pa.
Here are a few clippings of interest.

The Warren Debate

2008-12-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

Recently President Elect Obama announced that mega church pastor Rick Warren will be giving the blessing at his inauguration in January. This has made Warren the latest religious victim of the media.

Rick Warren is the pastor of Saddle Back Church in California as well as the author of the bestselling "The Purpose Driven Church" and "The Purpose Driven Life" Books. He is currently being attacked by the GLBT supporters of Obama because of his views on homosexuality. (Warren was a supporter of California's recent Prop 8)

For someone to rise to the position that Warren has, they have to abide to certain non-negotiable Christian theologies. Many of which are restrictive and exclude people from the church and God. My question is, "is this the example that Jesus sets in the Gospels?"

Jesus interactions with the Demonic and the Sumerian woman show that he is willing to step across the cultural and religious boundaries set by the religious leaders of his day. In these interactions Jesus priority was to bring the Kingdom of God to those who needed it, and not allow "theology" to get in the way.

It seams to me that in order to be "successful" in christian culture we end up having to restrict our ability to accept and love others, thus restricting God, instead of being open to others and allowing everyone the ability to enter into Gods Kingdom.

Thoughts, comments, and chastising remarks are welcome

Wow

2008-12-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

Most people just throw there shoes at the television when Bush is on.....this guy throws his shoes when he meets Bush in person. I've got to hand it to Bush he's pretty quick.

Hell?

2008-12-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

This American Life (one of my favorite pod-casts) had a wonderful story on Heretics this week. They tell the story of a black minister in Tulsa who felt a calling from God to move his church towards the Gospel of Inclusion and away from a belief in hell. (Click)

Admittedly due to my background, I am not all that comfortable with the Gospel of Inclusion but I am all for the consequences. As they say, consorting with sinners, gays, and Unitarians.

Over the past few years as I move away from the institutional church I both fear and hope that my story may be like his.

Prop 8

2008-12-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Jack Black as Jesus.....he makes some good points though

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Mac

2008-12-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

This is why I love Mac's (Click)

Podcast Rundown

2008-11-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

I though I would share some of the podcasts that I listen to at work:

A Prairie Home Companion
Backstory
Bill Moyers Journal
Democracy Now!
gdgt Weekly
Macbreak Weekly
NPR Planet Money Podcast
Off the Map's Podcast
Real time with Bill Mahr
Slates Spoiler Special
This American Life
This Week in Tech
WNYC's Radio Lab
You Look Nice Today
The 10th Wonder Podcast

Media PC part 1

2008-11-09T13:15:00.001-08:00

Like most things in life it's a lot harder than it looks.

I have this desire to make a media center PC. I watch most of my media online anyway so it makes sense, right? I can hook a PC up to my television and watch videos just like I was watching a normal TV broadcast. I forgot to take into consideration that I actually know very little about computers.

I managed to get a free computer from work, it was gutted, meaning no hard drive or RAM. I have taken hard drives out of computers before so I though that would go relationally easily. I bought a hard drive but it was a newer technology. (Sata not IDE for any geeks out there.) And the RAM I bought was not compatible either. After a bit on online searching I find out that I really need, so I make my second trip to the computer store. It turns out that they don't have the RAM I need and they don't have any SATA to IDE converters.

So now I have bought the RAM and the converter online and have to wait until they are shipped to me. I also found out that connecting a PC to a TV is not the easiest thing to do. I haven't really figured that out yet. With any luck the software side will go smoother than the hardware side.

More thoughts on Church

2008-11-02T07:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I attended the 5 year anniversary of Quincy St Missional Church in Dorchester. I always enjoy attending a service there because it is a humbling experience, and I always come away encouraged. And as usual, yesterday I learned a couple of things.

The value of the elderly:
During the service an elderly woman, using a walker, went up to the front of the garage, also known as the church, and sung a wonderful song. An Acapella Spiritual. She talked about how although she was in her 80's and had seen many hard days (she hadn't been able to come to church for a while because she was so sick) God was going to get her to 100. One day less would not be enough.

As I was moved by her song I though of how this experience is unique for a church. In most evangelical evangelical churches you see the young on stage. Usually men with lots of hair gel. This is in sharp contrast to an old woman with a walker wearing knee high stocking. What would it look like for your church or community to have people of all ages. And to have there voices and perspectives heard by all. To give up valuable "stage time" to them. The church looses valuable perspective when the voice of the elderly are overpowered by the sound of distorted guitars.

God works through the weak:
I get a little voice in the back of my head that says "really?" every time I hear a church planter talk about how God is working to through their church. Really, is it all God? Doesn't your pastor have a divinity degree? Don't you have a person on staff who is a professional graphic designer. Don't you have a large yearly budget? Didn't your worship leader go to Berkley College of Music, and aren't they working on there first solo album?

The polished glean reflecting off the modern church is a little overwhelming sometimes. Not so at Quincy St. a church who's matriarch is a poor illiterate black woman. Although they have has some help over the years the church's leadership is made up of the types of people that the world does not value or expect much of. The small success that Quincy St has had in comparison to its other modern Evangelical churches may not look like much, but to me it is a better picture of God working through people to accomplish his mission. We sometimes don't see when we are working through out own strengths, when God wants to work through our weakness.

Our goal is nothing more than to be like Jesus:
To listen to most church services you might think that our goal is to save the world. Or be better people by not sinning. Next weeks sermon has five points about how to have a better marriage, maybe that's the goal?

Every time I see Ma Siss (the matriarch of Quincy St.) I am reminded of Jesus. She always greats everyone warmly, and is known by the neighborhood as someone who would do anything for you. They share a meal after the service, because she wants everyone to have something to eat. They have a thrift shop because she wants everyone to have clothes. If you can't pay for a loaf of bread she will let you have it for free, because that's just the way she it. I want to be like that. I want to be like Jesus.

You can read more about the 5 year anniversary here. (click)

Some thoughts on Joe the Plumber

2008-10-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

In the last debate John McCain brought Joe the Plumber in to the National spotlight. He used this man to attack Barrack Obama's stance on taxes. This attack hasn't set well with me and I have just now figured out why.

First McCain is distorting the facts. Lets say the Joe did buy a plumbing business and grew that business so that he had an income of $250,000 as McCain indicated. Although I do not know what Joe's current financial status is I am pretty sure that he would almost double his income if he were able to do this. (The average American income is about $44,000) Therefore per anyone's tax plan he would pay more taxes. That is the way the tax code is structured. The more money you make the more money in taxes you pay.

Secondly, if I understand Obama's tax plan correctly he wants to tax income above $250,000 at a higher rate. This gets to a deeper question that needs to be discussed. The question is how much money does someone need in America to live a comfortable life? Obama puts that threshold at $250,000. Almost 6 times the average Americans income. McCain has no threshold.

As a society I think this is a much needed conversation. With the economy about the take a nosedive, governments at all levels will need to make cuts, most likely cutting services that benefit the poor. Is there a way we can all live comfortably? Or as Micah tell us when we all have our own olive tree there will be peace. (Micah 4:3)

Charismatic Identity crisis.

2008-10-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

For about 8 years I was part of a church that would be considered charismatic. During those years I was in services and heard teaching that you would expect in a charismatic setting. Things like prophecy, speaking in tongues and hearing form God.

Recently I have left the institutional church and in light of the recent Sara Palin video and watching the movie Religulous, I have begun to question some of those previous experiences.

With a critical eye I can see how some of that I experience and was tough was just plain strange, and somewhat unhealthy. But then again, one time I had a very real experience that I can only classify as a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What is one to do when their objective observations and real experiences clash.

Thus the paradox of following Jesus.

Movie Review - Religulous

2008-10-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

The other day I saw Bill Mahr's new movie "Religulous" with my good friends the Holts.
As you might guess the movie brought about great conversation afterwords. I guess the best thing to do is to just jump right in.

First off; as my friend Steve pointed out, this movie is not a "documentary". In fact Mahr for the most part only interviews the stereotypical religious people that he has based his comedic career on. My disappointment with this stylistic choice of interviewing is that everyone was made out to be a fool, except Bill Mahr.

With all that said, I really liked this movie. Mahr's main thesis is that we all need a little more doubt in faith. Blindly accepting the things that we have been told about God actually doesn't give us healthy faith. Instead it can lead us down a destructive path.

It's not that Mahr is anti-faith or has no faith himself. At one point in the move he briefly talks about how he bartered with God in a tough period in his life. Also, through out the film he seams to communicate that he has an appreciation for Jesus teaching, but hates Christianity.

If I could point out one resource to follow up on this movie, I would recommend the book, "Jim and Casper go to Church". This book has some of what Mahr is talking. Jim, the pastor, is willing to take a critical look at the church. Casper, the the friendly atheist, is willing to ask questions and dialogue. May we all have a healthy dose of doubt that leads us closer to God.

The System

2008-09-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have started reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". The book begins with a well worded incite given the current American economic crises.

"The system, however, is fuels by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. It is driven not by a small band of men but by a concept that has become accepted as gospel: the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary; that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation."

Book Review - Pagan Christianity

2008-09-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

In reading Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna, I have found the background for what has been brewing in me for the past couple of years. As I have mentioned before I left the formal Sunday morning expression of my faith a little over a year ago hoping to find for a more informal and organic expression. Pagan Christianity exposes the contradictory nature of what the church has become from what the early church was. Although some may find the book very disturbing, perhaps even heretical, I found if comforting and informative.

The book is set up so that each chapter takes a component of the church and traces it through history. They cover topics including; the use of church buildings, the role of the pastor, tithing, and communion to name a few. Most topics have a similar trajectory in that somewhere between 200 & 400 they begin to take different meanings and expressions from the early church practices. (Consequently, for those who know their history know that this coincides with the rule of Constantine over the Roman Empire.)

What most surprised me was the subtle comments made by Frank Viola about his church expression. As he explains in the book he left the Institutional church several years ago and has been worshiping in an organic church ever sense. Throughout the book he provided glimpses of what his church looks like leaving me with a desire to experience the same.

My only negative comment is that the book can be a little dry at points but over all is a good read not only for what he exposes but for what could be experienced if we are willing to to give up our religion and join in the story of Jesus and his early followers.

Need a Little Salt?

2008-09-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

One of the neat things about my new bike ride is that I get to see a side of the city that most don't get to. For instance coming home tonight I saw a huge tanker delivering salt to the pier in Chelsea. These salt piles are used all over the City in the winter.

The woes of moving

2008-09-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Moving to a new place can be a great experience. Unless that is if you can't seam to get Internet access at you new apartment. First I called Verizon and signed up for there DSL service. After a week of having there tech guys show up when I was not a home and not show up when I was at home waiting for them for 4 hours! I decided to cancel there service. The highlight of my experience was when a customer service rep called me and asked how I like my new Internet service from Verizon. I took great delight as I told her that I canceled it the day before.

So now I'm signed up with Comcast. It's a little more than I wanted to spend but hopefully they will be able to provide me with a smoother setup than verizon. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Dispartiy

2008-08-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

On the radio this morning there was a piece about the Olympics. The were discussing how many of the extravagant building that are housing the events were built by poor workers who couldn't afford to buy tickets to see the events. A startling disparity that will be forgotten in the midst of the excitement.

I see this disparity up close when to the shopping plaza near my house early in the morning. In the shopping plaza there is a Home Depot, and if you get there early enough you will see men, mostly of Hispanic decent, standing in the parking lot. These men are waiting for work, they are day labors. These men leave every morning to work in homes that they couldn't afford to live.

Happyness and Sadness

2008-08-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of the happiest moments and one of the saddest that I have had in my neighborhood to date. After two year of talking, scheming, and frustration the neighborhood Friends group decided to put on a movie night in the park. To our surprise it was quite easy and very successful.

With a borrowed laptop computer & projector, a crudely made screen of PVC pipe and a bed sheet, and several extension cords from the neighboring house we watched 'A Bugs Life" with our neighbors in the park. Without advertising the event we managed to gather 12 people and catch the attention of several more as they walked through the park. What we thought could only be pulled off with outside help, generators, and lots of money was not the case, we had all that we needed among ourselves. And with relative ease we can replicate the even at a moments notice. This was one of the proudest moment in my three years of trying to love my neighbors.

It was also sad because I am leaving the neighborhood. Even with things looking so bright. I realize that I am missing something. I am missing a spiritual community. I recently decided to move to East Boston to join some similar minded friends and become a community. Although I know this is good for me, and am excited about moving, it is hard to leave me current neighborhood when we have accomplished so much.

Photo Credit: Assbach (click)

Church Detox part 5

2008-07-25T03:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning is just one of many expressions of following Jesus.This is one of the more important ideas that I came away with this past year. For most of the time that I have been following Jesus I have been a part of a modern Evangelical church. Here are a few assumptions about the modern evangelical church:
They are usually event driven.
They are usually motivated to saving entire city’s.
They are usually large, min 150-200 people.
They place great importance on evangelism

For many years this is all that I new. But in the last couple of years I have had the chance to expand my understanding of ways to follow Jesus. Below are three other models that I know of, I am sure there are more.

Parish Church: The catholic tradition has been to meet as a parish church. This may look a lot like the typical church model, but there is one major difference. The parish church is created to serve the needs of a particular community. That community may be geographical or cultural. What I love about this model is that is more likely to actually love the neighborhood that it is in. Many Evangelical churches try to “win” entire city’s or entire countries in the case of missions, and forget about the people that live next door to them.

House Church: There is a growing underground movement of house churches in the US right now. People are beginning to see simple expressions with limited structure as a great way of following Jesus. Without the need of a building or paid staff, the community is freed to give there money to causes they support, usually the poor. And without the complicated logistics of putting on a service every week, they have the time to actually get involved in their communities.

Intentional Community: In most churches our shared experience is through events. What if that shared experience didn’t have to stop when the event was over. Intentional Communities offer the chance to share life together in a way that can not be done through weekly meetings. A chance to know each other and help process the journey of following Jesus.

So one might me compelled to ask “Brian, what’s next for you?” My next step after my church detox is to join up with some friend in East Boston. (Click) We hope to set up a sort of intentional community, the details are a little sketchy at the moment, but one thing is clear, we want to share life together and make an impact in our neighborhood.

Photo Credit Hackintosh (Click)

Church Detox Part 4

2008-07-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to follow Jesus outside of a community. Although I believe that they past year of not attending church has been a great experience I have found that it has one side effect. It’s lonely. The past year has been marked wth many great expierences but few people to share them with.

I didn't completely cut all ties to communitity this past year. I have kept in touch with several friends, and even concisoulsy chose to meet with two fellow followers of Jesus roughly one a week. Even when I did Kingdom work in my neighborhood, it was with other people, although they were not followers of Jesus.

The pastor from my old church would put it this way, It’s better to do things in groups. With a group of people, you get friendship, community, and with a common common cause anything is possible.

Photo Credit Residualsignal (Click)

Church Detox Part 3

2008-07-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

Worship is kind of strange. In choosing not to attend Sunday morning, I have not worshiped corporately for a while. Recently I visited some friends in Portland and attended their church. For the first time ever worship struck me as kind of strange. Where else in American culture do we gather together and sing songs? Again not that there is anything wrong with this but lets face is it’s kinda weird. I say this even after having been a worship leader myself.

In reflecting on my 15 years of church experience I come away with this question in regards to worship; “Do the Mountain top experiences that we seek after in cooperate worship really lead us to be more like Jesus?” It’s hard to say, but sometimes I feel we are seeking after more and more “experiential” worship. A friend of mine would call this spiritual masturbation. (snicker, snicker) I fear that many of us (myself included) have turned worship into a self indulgent act, instead of, an act of reverence towards God. It's a fine line that we don't discuss very often.

One more thought in closing. Having been a member of worship team for 9 years, as I look back I can’t really say that that investment of time, money, and energy, made me anymore like Jesus. Yes it was great to worship and I learned a lot about worship. But, I can’t honestly say that it made me more like Jesus? I didn’t perform any miraculous healings after having been supercharged with the Holy Spirit. I didn’t feed crowds of people with little to no food. And I don’t think I loved my neighbor more after a worship service than before.

Photo Credit Magbug (Click)

Church Detox Part 2

2008-07-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Does a service format make the best disciples? If we are honest with ourselves church is a bit of a spectator sport. Sure there are a few parts that have to be played, but for the most part people are sitting in seats. At it’s heart Sunday morning is an event that attempts to get those who are outsiders to become insiders. To do this we give a nice talk, play popular music, even take care of your kids while you are in the service. Is this what Paul meant when he encouraged us to not neglect meeting together?

I would argue that Sunday morning services do not product good disciples. For example I have had the same conversation with many people. It starts a couple of years after they have been attending a church, they begin to say things like; I am not being fed anymore, the preaching is getting old, I want more “meat” in the sermons or my personal favorite they want to go “deeper”. What I gather from conversations like these are that people have handed their spiritual formation over to the professionals, the pastors. Who can blame them, if you look most evangelical churches they have all sorts of classes that are intended for spiritual formation. If you need to know something or want to experience something new chances are you just have to plug yourself into the right place.

My friend Steve has been asking the question; “What is a disciple?” He came up with this answer; A disciple is a person who loves God and loves other people. Pretty simple isn’t it. If I am a leader how am what am I doing to get everyone I know to love God and other people? I wonder if we are we are short-changing peoples spiritual lives, by sending them to a class instead of sending them out into their neighborhood to love their neighbors?

Photo Credit Van Der Mouche (Click)

Chruch Detox Part 1

2008-07-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

For the past year I have been detoxing from church as an expression of my faith. This was an experiment that was meant to enable me to spend more time in my neighborhood loving my neighbors. Now I am reflecting a bit on the past year and trying to figure out what I want to do next. Over the next couple of days I will be posting some thoughts on Church from my detox.

Theology is best learned through conversation rather than a lecture. The Christian Church uses the Guru model tell people about God. By that I mean that we set aside those people who have gained special knowledge of God, usually through a rigorous academic process, to tell us what we need to know about God. Not that there is anything wrong with this, the church has been doing that for over 2000 years. But is it the only way or even the best way to learn about God?

As a result of my experiment I have not had the ability to listen to preaching on a regular basis. Through my own reading of the Bible, Christian books, blogs, and most importantly conversations with friends I have been able to keep learning more about God while not attending church. If I am honest with myself conversations with friends have had a bigger impact in my life than than preachers have. Friends have incite into my life and the ability to follow through on a conversation, two things that a preacher can not do.

Even when I look at Jesus Life I see the important role conversations play. Jesus not only preached to the crowds, but he also told stories, parables, that drew people in to ask more questions. One could say that the point of a parable is not so much the theological point that it is trying to communicate but opportunity for conversation that it creates by needing to be explained further.

Photo Credit dtes.people (Click)

What if Jesus didn't rise from the grave?

2008-07-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

There is an article in Time about a stone tablet that was found that dates to when Jesus was born. (Click) In it there is possible evidence of the resurrection story. Some are implying that the early church stole the resurrection story and made it there own.

We could debate endlessly if the stone is true but I think a better question is this.
If it were true and Jesus didn't rise from the grave would you still follow him?

Discuss!

Christian License Plates?

2008-07-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

I can think of a lot better ways to express my faith. (Click)

Streets of Hope Book Review

2008-07-05T04:12:00.000-07:00

Last week, while on vacation, I started reading the book Streets of Hope. It is the true story about a section of Boston called Dudley Street, and there battle for community control over there neighborhood.

In the 1980's there was a concern that the City of Boston was developing a "revitalization" plan for Dudley. A decade earlier Bostons South End was "revitalized". By this I mean that the old abandoned building were bought up by land speculators, apartment building were transformed into condominiums, and the a predominantly poor neighborhood was replaced with an affluent neighborhood in a short time. Another word for this in gentrification. Upon hearing rumors of the city's plans the neighborhood quickly organized and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DNSI) was born. A community group with complete community control, funding from Bostons largest philanthropic organizations, that would stand up for the communities rights sometimes in partnership and sometimes in opposition with the city government. Over the next several years, DSNI put together there own revitalization plan that allowed the hundreds of parcels of abandoned land to be developed into new housing (apartments and private homes) at a cost that was in line with the income level of the neighborhood.

There are several things that were important to me in this book. First DSNI was a community based organization, not an organization in a community. It was run by the community, with a strong commitment from neighbors. Many times there meeting would have 200 + people in attendance. They listened to peoples concerns and reflected them in there actions. Many times we call in the experts to "fix" the problems in our society, who often times make broad sweeping changes without input from the people who will have to live with the consequences of those decisions.

Secondly there relationship with the City was a cautious association. The authors talk about politicking as usual, getting the mayor to back what they want in order to get the rest of the city officials and employees to act on there requests. But what they understood was that they were setting the terms and if the mayor was not responsive they would act. One great story was how they were able to get the hundreds of abandoned cars removed from the streets. During an election year they took bumper stickers from the Mayors re-election campaign and plastered the all over the abandoned cars to draw attention to them. The cars were removed shortly there after.

Lastly, I am utterly amazed at how they were able to get so many people involved. Having been part of an organization that labeled itself as a grass roots organization, and having done a lot of work in my neighborhood, I am all to familiar with doing a lot of work and getting the same 4 people to turn out to a meeting. I believe there success was in there ability to create a broad organization. If the community started talking about an issue they would respond. There was not any discussion about weather or not it was part of there "mission". When a need was pointed out they organized people to meet that need. Over the years DSNI has not only created and implicated there own neighborhood revitalization plan, but have worked on a number of issues including; a trash dumping campaign, jobs, teen empowerment, Multi-cultural festivals, Anti red-lining coalition, daycare, food project, ext. (See time line) No issue was to small or to difficult to be addressed. I believe this was a key to there success. No one would be turned away. If you had an issue that you were passionate about most likely there were working on that issue.

Posititive use

2008-06-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Living in an area like Dorchester for the past three years you see a lot of misuse of public space. For the past several months a group of us have been trying to change that in our own unique way. Every Thursday we gather to walk our dogs. Its nice to see that the City has noticed. (Click)

Architecture Colbert Style

2008-06-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Steven Colbert say that America needs better buildings.

Vacaton: Part 1

2008-06-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

For the past three years I have gone on vacation with two good friends. California twice, the Florida Keys last year and this year we are in the Pacific Northwest. Portland and Seattle to be specific.

The first leg our our trip, thus part 1, has been in Portland. We are visiting friends that we knew from our church back in Boston. To me the best way to describe Portland is to point you towards the blog Stuff white people like. There are a lot of white people in Portland, and bikes, and dogs. Don't get me wrong I like all of these things, but having lived in Dorchester for two years it's a little strange to see so many white people in one town.

While we were in Portland we went to Multanomah Falls, just outside of the city. A stunning waterfall, a must see. We also went to the Zoo, and had dinner in the pearl district. We also visited our friends church on Sunday, Moasic. It was a good service, and for me it was good to worship. Having not been to a formal service in about a year, I have missed connecting with god in that way.

Today we are on to Olympic National park then to Seattle.

Sometimes we just go upstairs

2008-06-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while sense I blogged last. I guess I haven't had much to say lately.

Today I took my friend Keith, and met my fiends Steve and Chrissy at the Bikes Not Bombs Green Roots festival. IT was a small but cool event what had a lot of sustainable companies and booths, as well as....you guessed it bikes.

My friends Steve and Chrissy live in Texas for a while and continues to be amazed when they see things like this. I guess after living in Boston for 10 years you get use to it. But there are many people and organizations in the Boston that are socially conscious, more so than most places in the US.

There were a few cool bikes there too. I saw a tandum bike, a recumbent bike and even several bikes used for hauling things. (Check out the new Amsterdam Project.)

The hightlight in my mind was watching a guy build a composting toilet. He brought the one that he uses in his house, in Boston.?! Yes he brought his own toilet. One observer asked "What do you do if you have ....... intestinal problems?" to which he replied "Sometimes we just go upstairs"

Colbert Theology

2008-05-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

Do we really follow Jesus? Or do we follow Paul? Or perhaps do we follow our church pastor? As I understand Jesus, he wants us to follow his example. Many in the fundamentalist Christian Tradition, I believe follow Paul, or other theologians rather than Jesus. Why is this? My guess is because it is easier to discuss what the after live will be like rather than strive to bring Gods kingdom to earth by loving our neighbor.

Steven Colbert's recent interview with Tony Perkins brings this dynamic to live. Colbert asks Tony, where in the bible does Jesus talk about homosexuals. To which Perkins comment, Paul does.

A little bit of History

2008-05-13T18:04:00.003-07:00

Heres a little but of history from American Dad.

I love Apple!!!!!!

2008-05-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previously in my blog, I have been having some computer problems. Kernel Panics to be specific. So for the 4th time in 5 months I took my computer, with my apple care info in hand, in to the Apple store to have them take a look at it. I was not to hopeful that they would be able to fix it so I have been bracing myself for the inevitable purchase of a new laptop. I was hoping that it would hold out until the end of the year.

The gentleman at the genius bar started up my computer and 3 minutes later he told me that he didn't think he could do anything more than was done by the previous repairs, and that he was going to talk to the manager. When he came back they offered to replace my base model 12" Ibook with the base model Macbook, free of charge!

So I'm now sitting here typing away on my new computer. I highly recommend investing in apple care if you get a Mac. I spend $250 and ended up replacing my over 2 year old computer with a new computer.

A very special Gift

2008-04-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to give your name to something? Like all those rich people what have building named after them. Or perhaps you have a special friend that you would like to memorialize.

Well look no further if you have $250.00 you can get the naming rights to an out house at an all girls school in India. (Click)

There was this guy in high school that picked on me. This might be my best change to get back at him.

Money and Sex

2008-04-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I took a daring move in a close relationship. No I didn't make any deep dark sexual confessions. I talked to a friend about money.

This friend of mine had been struggling with debt for most of there life. I don't know all the facts but some of it is credit card. Some of it is from student loans. What I do know is that it is a heavy burden for them and although having taken steps to control spending and set up a budget, the debt is beyond there control.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post I have been trying to get my finances in order for the past several months. Finally, I feel as though I am in a place where I can begin to give more money away as well as aggressively save for a down payment on my first home. In the process of all this I have wanted to be more creative in how I give away my money. One thought was to help out my friend.

My first meaningful conversation with my friend about money was a lot like my first sexual experience. They were both very awkward and only lasted a couple of minutes. I told my friend that I would be willing to help out with $50.00 a month to be use to pay off the debt. My friend was very hesitant. As hard as it was for me to bring up the subject I'm sure that it brought up my friends insecurities as well. In the end my friend decided to think about it and get back to me.

In this process I can't help but notice one thing. Why is it that we don't think twice about taking money from a faceless corporation that we know is taking advantage of us, yet we find it so hard to discuss money with our closest friends who only want to help us?

The Good Debt?

2008-04-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting article in the Boston Globe today about how people are starting to reconsider college debt. (Click) With the rising cost of College and the recent credit problems in the US this is putting many middle income families in a difficult situation.

I was glad to see this article and I hope that this conversation continues for a couple of reasons. First, I think people need to rethink there lives and what they really want. There is joke in Boston that when someone doesn't know what they want to do next in there life they just go to Grad school. Is that extra degree really going to make you happy? One thing is for sure it will give you a lot more debt.

Secondly, I am a huge fan of alternative career paths. I am on one myself. Even thought I do not have a bachelors degree I am on my way to becoming a registered Architect. It has take 10 years but I'll finish, and with only about $3,000.00 debt.

Lastly I'm not sure of the figures but I know of many people who are not working in the field that they studied in in College. (come to think of it a lot of them are English majors......) In today's economy people tend to move around from job to job many times in different fields.

Don't get me wrong I value education but not collecting diplomas.

Book Review A Peoples History of the United States

2008-04-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

I recently finished the book A Peoples History of the United States 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn. You may have seen a couple of posts with quotes from the book.

This is a book that every American should read. It attempts to give you the lesser known version of American history, the alternative to what everyone is taught in school. Here is a snap shot. Zinn starts with Columbus exploiting the Indian's, moves on to the slave trade, then discussed the rise of the workers, and ends with US militarism after WWII. (With plenty of other happy topics in between)

The part of the book that fascinated me the most is the rise of the workers. My only real exposure to Unions was threw my parents. My mother worked in a furniture factory and my father worked for GE sylvania when I was growing up. Both were part of modern American union and neither had anything good to say about them. (both plants are shut down also) I won't get into a debate about unions here, except to say that back in the 1800's there was lots to fight about.

Two things stuck out to me regarding Unions. First that according to Zinn's perspective, the labor union movement came very close to turning America into a Socialist country. Secondly I am shocked at how the Federal government sided with companies during strikes. To the extent of sending militias to break up strikes often ending in blood shed.

Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in American history, and the ability to read through a 688 pages.

I'm back baby!!!!!

2008-04-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back....more specifically my computer is back up and working. I took it into the Apple store twice to get a repair for a Kernel Panic. A new logic board, new Airport card, a new hard drive, and two weeks later I'm up and running. Thank God I signed up for mozy, and online back up service, last year. I'm downloading my files as I type this.

On the bright side having a new hard drive feel like I have a clean slate. After two years of downloading programs, files and other things that filled up my hard drive, I can make a new start. To start off I'm eliminating some programs. Mainly Microsoft Office. these programs are really actually pretty sophisticated for people who just want to put together a shopping list. Text edit or google doc's are just as good for day to day stuff and don't talk nearly the same amount of hard drive space.

I can now finally install Quicksilver again. In case if you haven't heard about it, it's basically one of the greatest apps ever made.

Some Things Do Change

2008-04-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

Rules for female teachers posted by a school board in Massachusetts in 1870:

Do not get married.
Do not leave town at any time without permission of the school board.
Do not keep company of men.
Be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Do not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
Do not smoke.
Do not get into a carriage with any man except your father or brother
Do not dress in bright colors.
Do not dye your hair
Do not wear any dress more than 2 inches above the ankle.

My favorite is #5

More fun facts from "A Peoples History of the United Sates" by Howard Zin

Apartment garden update

2008-03-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today was harvest time. not a very big harvest but a harvest.

This pot yelded enough for a rather small saild.

I think I need to plant more harder lettuce plants next time like romaine or iceberg. this fruffey lettuce isn't going to cut it.

In the mean time because spring is here I started some other plants that I should be able to put outside in a couple of weeks squash, peppers and cucumbers.

Some Things Never Change

2008-03-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

If I had it all to do over again, I may have studied history. I am fascinated with the fact that some things never change and that history has a way of repeating it's self.

To that end I am currently reading "A Peoples History of the United States 1942 to Present" by Howard Zinn. I read this passage yesterday.

Henry Adams quote: "We are here plunged into politics funnier than words can express. Very great issues are involved.....But the amusing thing is that no one talks about real interests. By common consent they agree to let these alone. We are afraid to discuss them. Instead of this the press is engaged in the most amusing dispute whether Mr. Cleveland had an illegitimate child and did or did not live with more than one mistress."

The Mr Cleveland being referring to Grover Cleveland the two term President of the US in the late 1800's

Doggey Prayer

2008-03-24T05:30:00.001-07:00

For all the dog lovers out there. (click)

Water

2008-03-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

Lately there has been more discussion about water. Specifically how much is there and what are the affects of climate change on water supplies. Scientists are telling us that with the global warming taking place there will be more droughts, and this could lead to taxing on already low water supplies and perhaps even conflicts. One of the reasons for the conflict in Darfur is because of water. (Click)

There is a great website where you can calculate your water usage much like carbon calculators, and find lots of other information about water. (Click) I had always know the carbon impact on the meat I eat, and for that reason I eat less red meat, but I didn't realize the water impact on eating dairy.

Speaking on water there is a guy that figured out how to burn salt water and use it as a fuel. Considering that the earth is 2/3 water this is pretty darn cool.

Budgets

2008-03-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted about my finances and how I am trying to get them in order. (click) In the past week I have had a good conversation with a friend about it and taken some time to analyze my budget.

My friend reminded me about the latte factor in most budgets. (The ideal that the little things add up) I think that dining out may be that for me. Also he reassured me that saving for a house is a good use of money and can be justified.

Even after this conversation I was still a little unsettled about the disparity between trying to live with a simple lifestyle, and the amount of money that feel I seam to "need" in order to live. This weekend I have obsessed over every nickel and dime, categorizing and analyzing everything I can think of and came up with the following. (click)

I found out a few things:

Tax's suck! I have always been of the mindset that if you make more money you should pay more tax's. But now that I'm 30 I have realized that as your income increases if you don't have children or a mortgage to claim as deductions, you kind of get screwed on your income tax. I end up paying a small fortune in tax's this year because I don't have these two deductions.
I am saving a lot. There is the obvious savings each month for the down payment on a house but I also have deposits into my 401K that are automatically taken out of my paycheck. This adds up at the end of the year. Originally I wasn't taking this into account because I was only dealing with my take home pay not my gross pay.
I actually am living simply. By organizing my budget in they way I did it was easy to see what my actually base living expenses were. (separated from my tax's, and aggressive savings) I also added a "Decadent Luxury" column for things like travel, pet expenses, and dining out. After all I didn't take a vow of poverty I'm just trying to live simply.

After looking at this I have some difficult decisions to make. In the end, I don't feel that I can't cap my income a level I would like too. That being said I'll do my best to keep the decedent luxury's to a minimum. (Currently they add up to a little over 9% of my gross income.)
I also was planning on building a cabin this summer. Although I have put a lot of thought into the design and construction of the cabin I really haven't thought about how to pay for it. On top of that It doesn't make financial sense (or justice sense) to be building a vacation cabin when I don't have my first home. I'll start budgeting a small amount each month towards the cabin and in a few years after I am settled in my first home I can resurrect the cabin idea.

New (to me) TV

2008-03-13T20:00:00.001-07:00

There is a part of me that is sad to see my neighbors move out.
Before:
After:
And there is a part of me that is happy to have a bigger TV. :)

Money...It's Not Just A Pink Floyd Song

2008-03-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

For the past three months I have become more diligent with my finances. I have been keeping a spreadsheet of all my expenses and tracking how I spend my money. Also on Friday I had my yearly review at work and the small pay raise that comes with it. With both of these things happening, I think I am ready to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Figure out how I can manage and spend my money justly. Not a small task by any means and fought with many difficult questions.

To start with I can think of two options; A graduated tithe or capping my income. A graduated tithe as I understand it has a base income with a 10% tithe and anything above that is tithed at a higher rate. Capping your income is just as it implies, you figure out what you need to live on and give away everything above that. I am not sure which one is better but I am leaning towards capping my income just because there is less math involved.

In order to make this process "just" I feel as though I have to base it on some facts. In researching I came up with a few disturbing things. The 2006 US poverty level for a single person is $10,400.00 a year. (Click) The 2006 US annual household income is $48,201.00. (Click) Now I realize that I live in a major US city (Boston) and that these two numbers would be higher for my area, but I can not understand how anyone could live on these incomes per year. If I am to manage my money justly I feel as though I should somehow acknowledge people in these situations.

Here come the hard questions:
1) As I look at my three months of expenses, I find that my highest expenses are: Savings, Rent, Tithe, & Food in that order. (All other expenses are under 10% of my monthly income) Fortunately I do not have any student loans, one of the unspoken benefits of dropping out of college. I feel as though I am living simply: I don't have cable, I share a car, I have started to buy clothes at thrift shops and I rent a modest apartment well under the median price. Given that information, I also make 25% more than the average American household, but I still feels like there is not enough. Clearly given the information I have collected about my life over the past three months this is not the case. Why is this?

2) Part of managing my money Justly is how I give it away and how much. Presently I give my tithe to an urban minority church that I have a connection with. But where do I go beyond that? How do I choose other organizations to give to? Do I given domestically Do it give internationally? Do I give to both, and in what percentage? Do I give to secular organizations?

3) As you man have picked up in my listing of monthly expenses, savings is the largest category. In fact it makes up about 22% of my income. This is certainly not the norm in America and not the norm for most of my life, only about the past 6 months. The reason for this is that I want to buy my first home. Even at the present high rate it will take me a couple of year to get a down payment together. Remember I live in Boston. (I also want to put about 20% down.) I am wondering if it is just for me to put so much money into savings. Should I cut back and give more of that money away?

In conclusion, there are a lot of questions I have been struggling with in the past few days. Any thoughts would be helpful. Also if you have any figured this out for yourself, please let me know how you handle it. I am planning on talking this through with a friend this week to help get some perspective.

Goodbye Coco You Will Be Missed

2008-03-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

Last night my dog Coco shuffled off this mortal coil. I adopted her two years ago at the age of 9. She was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
She liked scratches behind the ear, long walks in the park, dog treats, and anything I was eating. Yes I actually put a diaper on my dog. When I adopted her she was incontinent. It took a while to get her medication right to stop it, and I took every measure I could to keep myself from cleaning pee off the floor.
Goodbye Coco you will be missed.

Apartment Farm Update

2008-03-02T07:01:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a couple of weeks sense I planted my seeds, and I wated to give you an update.

This is lettuce. It's been the easiest and the quickest to grow, although it has the prime real estate in front of the sunniest window.

The one on the left I believe to be carrots, and by the process of elimination the one on the right would be the broccoli. It's kind of pathetic that I don't know that the plant form of the vegetables I eat are.

Lent-1 Brian-0

2008-02-25T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well it's been 3 1/2 weeks sense the beginning of lent. I haven't been to good a keeping my lent promise. You may remember that I have been trying to keep off the Internet while at home.

The Internet is winning. I started out good, but then I would remember that I really had to e-mail that person and it can't wait. or I just have to get this peace of information. Next thing you know I'm on the Internet for 1/2 an hour.

Oh well, better luck next year.

What to do with your economic stimulus refund?

2008-02-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

The other day I had a great discussion about what do to with my economic stimulus refund come May. (Click) The conversation resulted in a pledge to give away 1/2 of the money received to the poor in our neighborhoods. Check it out and let me know what you think. (Click)

Rich Christians in and Age of Hunger - Book Review

2008-02-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about poverty from the Christian perspective. Ronald Sider's book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger has helped to shape that conversation. Sider takes the time to layout the facts, establishes a biblical foundation about poverty, and how it can be ended.

If you are easily bored by facts this might not be the book for you. Filled with dates, percentages about everything from calorie consumption data to Gross Domestic Product growth, it can make your head spin at times. But Sider does a good job at explaining the facts of poverty in terms that people can understand. On a side note the book is currently in it's 5th edition, so the facts are being updated every couple of years to stay current.

A shining example of Siders insight into the economics of poverty is his explanation the Gross Domestic Product. He points out that many negative things can actually help the GDP grow. A much better indicator of growth is the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). It takes into account factors like enviromental polution and longer work hours for the same pay. According to the GPI American life hasn't gotten much better sense the 1970's!

The only down side to the book is it's lack of answering the "What can I do now" question. Although Sider does provide an entire section to answer this question, and talks about the concept of a graduated tithe, I felt as though I would like more concrete steps. Sider talks more about what the Federal Government could do to end poverty than about how the individual can. Having thought about this issue for the past two year and being ready to take on more personal commitments I was a little disappointed.

Over all I highly recommend this book, it is a great way to get the facts on poverty and some biblical perspective too.

Little green phone

2008-02-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

My friend told me about a new smart phone by Palm called the Centro. Its basically a cheaper alternative to the Treo. This sounds great to me. I have been wanting a smart phone for some time but I really didn't want to shell out $250.00 or more for something that I could very easily loose. (I say that but I haven't ever lost at cell phone)

On the other hand, I have a perfectly fine one year old Motorola Pebble. Its small and a great lime green color. I can sync it with my computer and it works for me. I like this phone, in fact I loved it up until two days ago.

So I have been seriously thinking about upgrading my perfectly good phone for something else then I get an e-mail from a friend with this.

The Story of Stuff.

Oh well I guess I can go a little while longer with my little green phone.

Serial Community

2008-02-16T03:38:00.000-08:00

This February I will have live in the same apartment for the past 2 1/2 year. I realize that it is the longest that I have lived in one place sense moving to Boston. Being in one place has had some amazing benefits. I feel closer to my neighborhood, understand it better, and feel more love for those around me that I have anywhere else in Boston. It has also allowed me to question the previous expressions of Christian Community that I have experienced in the past.

For the past say 5-6 year I have been seeking out christian community. To varying degrees I have been successful. My living situations have exhibited serving each other, hospitality, prayer, confession, worship and common finances. However looking back I realize that I have missed an important aspect.

They have not exhibited commitment to each other. For the most part the communities that I have lived in have lasted, on average, one year. For that year we were committed to each other but there was always something that could easily separate us. For the most part we were in our early to mid twenties. I think the upper-ward mobility / wanderlust of 20 somethings caused a feeling of being unsettled after a year in one place. Frequently, people move to another city for a job. Sometimes people had other friends that they became more connected and wanted to move in with. And then there was always marriage.

Not that any of these things are bad, or that people are choosing them over community. But there is an underlying understanding that what ever community we built would not last for very long. They were unstable.

What would a community look like if people committed themselves to relationship with each other and their neighbors. If they intentionally chose to live in the same place even though there were better opportunities elsewhere. What if instead of people leaving a community because of marriage someone new joined the community.

Over the past few year I realize that I have been practicing serial community.

Last Night

2008-02-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to Park Street Church to hear Jim Wallis talk and promote his new book "The Great Awakening" Over all it is a pleasure to hear Jim speak, and I went away encouraged. Feeling that what I am doing in my community matters and is at the heart of God.

I also went away a little disappointed. During a time of question and answer some one asked the question "Ok I believe you, now what?" Jim's answer was to join an organization, suggesting one of the few that were at the meeting.

Join an organization?!? I do feel that finding like minded people is important but this feels like it's not enough. Jim noted in his talk that churches often only ask for the perimeters of our lives. Telling people to join an organization feels like the same.

Here are a few suggestion that I would have liked to have heard:

Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. (Your big screen TV, your Xbox. The books you don't read, then you can sell your book shelf too!)

Leave your comfortable apartment and move to Roxbury, Dorchester, or East Boston and live among the poor.

Take a serious look at your finances. Try to give more that 10%, try to live on a graduated tithe.

I don't understand why these suggestions weren't given as next steps also.

Updated Cabin Schematics

2008-02-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know I am thinking of building a cabin this summer. Starting it at least, it would me a multi-year project. I have gone through another round of redesign and sent the design to my family for comments.

Here is the plan and a section let me know what you think.

States Rights

2008-02-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

For some time now I have been thinking more about government and it's role. Inparticular the role of the State Governments vs the Federal Governments. Usually the issue of states right is only brought up in contencious issues of abortion, gay marrage and confederate flags, traditionally conservative issues. The issue of States rights dates back to the beginning of our country. It was one of the reasons for the civil war.

Yesterday I read about Berkeley California kicking Marine recruiters out of there city. A republican Congressmen fired back a said that they would withhold 2 million dollars of funding set aside for the city and for University of California - Berkeley. I do realize that Berkeley is a city not a state but the dynamic I see are is same.

When when the people disagree with the federal government they manipulate them by withholding money, and because they really hold all the money they have a lot of leverage. This tactic was also used when Massachusetts enacted the health care law to provide health insurance for everyone in the state, something the Bush administration didn't want to happen.

In thinking about issues poverty, it makes me wonder what our country would look like if States had more control than the federal government. What if most of our tax's went to the State instead of Washington? What if a dollar of my tax's went directly to the local school instead of traveling to Washington and back again loosing value as it went to congress, to the Department of Education, back to the State, the States Education Department, and then to my local school.

We do need a federal goverment. We need a place to discuss the complex issues of how states work together, not to mention a federal military and the need for someone to handle international deplomacy. But do we need a federal goverment that is a big as we have now? I also recoganize that the same minuplication can take place at the state level as at the federal level. It will happen anywhere where there is a lot of money changing hands.

Just a though.

The Alchemist – Book Review

2008-02-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Having just finished another of my Architectural exams, I decided to take the week off from studying. In it’s place I read the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The Alchemist takes you on a journey with a young boy who is out to realize his Personal Legend. He travels from his homeland in Spain to see the pyramids of Egypt and back, along the way learning lessons at each stop, eventually fulfilling his Personal Legend and finding love along the way.

The beauty of The Alchemist is in it metaphors and imagery. In the beginning of the story Coelho used the metaphor of sheep to paint a picture of people who have not taken the risk to realize their Personal Legend. Instead they are content to find food and water instead of the deepest desires of their heart.

The story also relies heavily on Christianity. It is woven into the story at every turn, from the hobo King of Salem Melchizedek to the story of the Centurion in Mathew 8. Coelho recognized the pursuit of God is a Personal Legend that we all can participate in.