Still plugging away at Jane Eyre - but should finish it soon. 

Had a good meeting with our leadership team. We are getting ready for a baptismal service this Sunday  and an annual meeting the next Sunday. It is pretty busy for us - but it is a healthy busy. 

Lots of new things happening - we are changing up our leadership structure and our relationship with our sponsoring church is changing as well.

Some of the changes have me a little anxious, but all in all it is heading in a right direction for everybody involved.

Ehkosit

Migwec

I just finished re-taping hockey sticks and lighting a fire. It marks the end of a good Family Day Weekend. Over the weekend we were able to play pond hockey, road hockey and NHL 06 on the gamecube (I think I lost in all of the venues).  We ate well - pancakes, pizza, deer sausage, etc. We spent time reading - different books but same room (I am so happy that my kids are book worms as well). Mason and Micah are both reading at levels several grades ahead of their current standing.

We enjoyed a good time at church - several new families, others we haven't seen for awhile, and plenty of regulars. This has historically been the lowest attendance Sunday and so it was encouraging to see those people. We have come through a difficult stretch - I wouldn't want to repeat the last 4 months anytime soon (or any time at all). But it has strengthened the resolve of our congregation and it resulted in a others really stepping up.

Ehkosit

Migwec

I am currently trying to finish Jane Eyre. Not only because its a worthwhile endeavor, but because my wife is an expert on this genre of literature. She finished up her degree focussing on English Literature from the Raj (when England ruled India) and British Female Writers of the 1800s (e.g., the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen). 

Its not that I don't read - I tear through an enormous amount of books but seldom fiction - mostly a variety of leadership, business and theology books - with a healthy dose of theoretical and applied linguistcs textbooks. All fairly dry. I find it is difficult to read literature since I finished out my Masters and started in on a doctorate.

My plan is to finish it by the end of Family Day weekend (as sort of a belated Valentine's Day gift).

If this works out I may try to restart (for the umpteenth time) and finally finish Burmese Days- the only book I have started and shelved more times than Jane Eyre!!!

Ehkosit,

Migwec 

Trust is an interesting thing. We need to be able to trust the people we work with - especially in non-profits where we don't have financial incentives and bonuses acting as a organizational motivator and as a salve in teams. 

Trust becomes the only thing we have - do we really have each others back - as we pursue a common goal. I'm struggling with this because I have been burned too many times due to my 'trust  first' inclinations. I feel like I have not only let the fox in the hen house, but I have let Robert Picton in the Chicken ranch (if you remember the Dolly Parton movie about the best chicken ranch in Texas)!! Its not just that people get hurt or we miss our opportunities, it becomes a situation where people are destroyed - and most often its the people on the periphery.

I've also come to realize the people that talk the most about trust are like the church that claims on its sign to be "the friendliest church in town" or the car dealership that is called "Honest ____'s Autos." If you have to tell me you are something it must mean you ain't! I think that the next time someone tells me that "all we have in this relationship is our trust" I will choose to not remain too dependent on that relationship - cuz its gonna come off the tracks sometime anyhoo.

ehkosit,

migwec 

It was a day where I was confronted head on with the growth in Calgary. For the most part I spend my days in our li'l section of the city. However, today I had meetings downtown with our denomination and then had to go over to another church to check out their baptistry (we are having a couple of baptismal services in February and May). 

What took me about 25-30 minutes when I first moved to Calgary took me more than 1 and a 1/2 hours!! Certainly a few accidents and a water main breaking forced a lot of the northbound traffic onto McLeod Trail - but it was still a long time to sit in my car. 

Meetings were good. We are looking forward to some of the transitions that are planned for the new year and especially the number of people coming forward for baptism!!

Ehkosit!

Migwec

Well I finally made the decision to switch over from PC to Mac. I had a hideous fall where I had to reload my entire laptop no less than 5 times. Besides just figuring out some of the basic differences between the two (short cuts, etc) I now have the difficult task of choosing to refer to my self as a Mac Daddy (as Chris Kelly did) or a Daddy Mac (as Chris Smith did).  At any rate I will be putting my pants on backwards in the morning!!

On a side note I score approximately 3.8 times higher on the cool chart than I did yesterday, I have cravings for strangely named coffees and I feel six years younger!!

Just when you think a chapter in your life is finished it seems to repeat itself - as if the writers' strike is throwing life itself into reruns. I have had two such realizations of this in the last couple of weeks. One is that my wife and I will be back into diapers and sleepless nights again (come this summer) when we have another baby. The other is that I will remain in pastoral ministry in Calgary.

Both come with incredible joy and challenge attached to them. I love being a Dad. I also love being a pastor. Up until this afternoon I was sure that I would go through 2008 carrying only one of those titles.

In a spirit of positivity I will not get into why I thought this, but I was more than certain that I needed to rethink my vocational calling - I even watched as some unexpected and unsolicited job offers came in.

But my heart is in serving as a church planter and so I am glad to remain where I am - though one opportunity would have involved a family membership at a golf & country club and that is a little hard to just forget even in the middle of January :-).

Migwec

Christmas is a time when we celebratem (among other things) a pregnant couple that endured horrific sleeping conditions. As an homage to that theme my wife -who is expecting our fourth child in July - and I slept on an air mattress for the last week. Now we didn't have any cattle or sheep sharing our accomodation, but we did have our other kids migrate individually throughout the night into our 'stall.' Sandwich that between two 8 hour drives (with only one hour of Veggie Tales audio plays repeated to fill those eight hours) and you have a glimpse at why I may mnore closely resemble the Grinch than any other Yule time character.

We managed to arrive back in Calgary early enought that the kids could pull out their toys, games etc. for a bit before bed.

The other exciting news is that we have brought my Dad back with us for a visit. He celebrated his 65th birthday on Thursday (which was also our 13th anniversary). We gave him an all expenses paid vacation - the only catch is its at our house. The kids have lots of plans for hockey, the zoo, hockey, playing with the dog, hockey and possibly some hockey.

After a few years of only doing guest lectures at different colleges I am back in the academic saddle!! I am set to teach a few classes at a local college and maybe be involved with starting something new at one of the universities in town. It is nice to get involved in this aspect of life again. SouthGate is at a place where my teaching is okay and may even be a healthy thing as it will leave some space for people to move into.

I have always connected with the story of Eric Liddell - my own grandfather spent time in an "international Settlement" in China (the term for prison camps). One of the greatest lines in Chariots of Fire (the movie about Liddell's life) is "I believe God made me for a purpose--for China. But He also made me fast! And when I run, I feel His pleasure." I feel the same way. I feel that God has created me (and joined me with my wife who shares the calling) to be a church planter; but God also made me a teacher and when I enter into discussions of 'allophonic environments' or 'first language interference' I truly feel God's pleasure (most other people just feel a little drowsy).

On an entirely unrelated note on Monday night my daughter was dancing like a princess until she dropped like a rock and hit her head (not all princesses are graceful I guess). The end result was 6 hours at the "urgent care" facility and four stitches. I don't mean to slag the people working there - I know its not their fault - but I think that the term 'urgent care' is destined to join 'jumbo shrimp' 'military intelligence' and 'government organization' as an example of oxymorons. There was nothing particularly 'urgent' or 'caring' in the servicing of a three year old with a facial laceration (and she's a princess to boot).

Just got back from a double-header evening. In the first part of the evening I went out with the youth from our church - there were 7 of us in total. We shot each other up at Laser Trek cuz nuthin says Christmas like opening fire on each other in a poorly lit warehouse!! Good times.

Then I went to house party where we had a chance to eat all of the stuff that is verbotten on the Core Plan diet I promised my wife I would join her on (she has since stopped but I guess I am still s'posed to stay on it for the both of us). We laughed a lot and sang some Christmas carols - often with a Jamaican lilt as many of them were on the Boney M Christmas Album.

It was so good to remember why I do this church thing - because there is a sense of community that is growing at SouthGate and it transcends cultures and ages because it is built on the Good News that also transcends cultures and ages.

Things are good - I am going to go to sleep now.

It is funny to me that a blog that started out as a travelogue to keep friends and family up to date with a trip to China has turned into a venting space for a disillusioned (but still 'called') pastor. It's kinda become a travelogue through the hills and valleys of church-planting.

Sure I recognize that I have brought a lot of this on me. Less stubborn people would have been more open to suggestions and smarter people would have left years ago - but I am not those people and so - as I was told in a meeting recently - this is the price I pay for planting when and where I did.

Had one of those meetings yesterday that seem okay at the time but had a delayed release - like time-release tylenol or rancid pulgogi. As the day continued I realised that it was really a terrible meeting and that my character had been impugned time and again. Maybe I am just losing it, but to quote that great philosopher Steve Earle "Just cuz you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!!"

I often construct soundtracks to my life. Earlier this week (leading up to the meeting) it featured the Clash's "Should I stay or Should I Go" but following the meeting I have found myself humming Nirvana's "Rape Me Again." Maybe that's my problem - I should construct my mood music from DiGarmo & Keyes or Carman rathering than angst ridden rockers - but truth betold I feel more akin to the former than the latter.

So I break out my ascerbic pen. This is not how we would solve things back on the Rez!! Anyhoo this doodle is the fruit of my furor.

On a side note I don't mind a good scrap and so I am staying - but I will ruthlessly fight the efforts to squeeze SouthGate into one more mono-ethnic White church mold - with an appropriate sprinkling of ethnic colouring to fight off any accusations of racism or elitism - no matter what trendy tag we add to it.

The next six months could be the roughest of our entire ministry - mostly because I refuse to let absentee landlords to try impose their agenda on a community that has done quite well without their support or encouragement.

I haven't taught or been in a degree program for a stretch - I am getting itchy feet academically speaking (although it could be from the steam room at the gym). I am really missing the whole academy thing. I tend to think I'm pretty down to earth and practical, but I miss unadulterated theoretical conversations. I have a few possibilities to do some teaching in the winter and next fall so I hope that works out.

Here is a little doodling I was doing on my tablet PC and Photoshop. The list is the schools I have taught or studied at...


And yes it is true I have a map of Southeast Asia where most others have a hairline. In fact there is even a growing bald spot that testifies to the truth of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth (either that or Kim Jong-Il is testing nuclear weapons in North Korea).

And now for something completely different...
I don't know how I stumbled across these video shorts, but I thought I would share them with y'all.

It's Japanese videos (I am assuming from the style and text) about two rabbits in a Russian prison (based on the Cyrillic script on the posters, calendars, etc.).

Someday I'll figure out how to put these right on the blog - until then here's the link and enjoy!!

http://www.usavich.tv/movie.html

Today we celebrated our second anniversary of meeting together as a church. It turned out to be a good day but it has been a tough weekend. There have been a number of deaths among friends of our congregation - a mother at the school my boys attend, a family friend of another couple, a supportive member of our mother church. It makes you take stock of your life and priorities.

It also happens to be Grey Cup Sunday and the only two teams I have cheered for in the CFL are going head to head. I can't watch it because we have our monthly potluck and tonight we are tying in our anniversary celebration.

I take my laptop out to the little country church we have the potlucks at and we are able to watch the game via webcast - but it is pixelated and rather herky-jerky. We watch the final 3 minutes in a minimized screen because it is the only way the feed will allow us to watch. One of the guys notes the irony that we watched an earlier rider game on a 52 inch plasma and now we are watching the Grey Cup in 3x3 glory.

I don't regret not watching the game - we had a great time together. Our congregation is very multicultural so the potlucks are great (if at times a little scary). Part of the evening we just shared how we came together and what it means to be a part of SouthGate. The thing that came across from each person is that they enjoyed the church being 1) local 2) friendly and 3)international. This was nice to hear because these are all things we value.

The second year can be very difficult according to the church planting pundits - and we did have some challenges over the last year, but the potluck has given me the confidence that we are right where God wants us. This point was underscored by the Riders winning the Grey Cup - even God is a member of Rider Nation!!

I guess I'm not cut out to be a blogger. I just got back from Banff. Every year our denomination holds its Pastors & Spouses Conference at the Banff Springs Hotel. It may be one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith - how did a denomination made up of mostly small, rural churches manage to find itself in the likes of that hotel. I'm not complaining - it is a great week of being pampered and living like the beautiful people do!!

Juli and I have been the mc/hosts for the conference the last few years. It makes it a bit less of a personal retreat for us, but I really enjoy it. They ask us back so it must not be too bad. Although this year I did crack a joke that made a reference to Li'l John & Crunk music - again remembering that most of the pastors serve small rural areas (and come from the same) it went off like a WMD. I have to admit that I always liked Jackie Mason and Dennis Miller most went they bombed and made jokes about how bad their jokes were!

I don't know where the time went, but between my last post and now they have barred pandora from being used in Canada.

I am back in the saddle and want to be a little more disciplined in my blogging. I am confident that it will happen because I bought a few good hats on holidays. Besides good music I need to be wearing a hat when I write - whether it was my thesis, work on my dissertation (more on my doctoral stuff to come), research for the government or whatever I always had a baseball hat on. I think I may have watched too many episodes of the Odd Couple and was inspired by Oscar Madison's (a la Jack Klugman) baseball cap.

One of the hats is a black Yankees hat - $5 from a Walmart in one of the 13 states we rolled through this summer (at different times Oscar's hat was a Met's or a Yankee's hat). The others are a Charlestown Chiefs hat from the Hockey Hall of Fame and a bright orange U of Tennessee hat (strategically purchased to offset the hue of my sunburned face).
Gotta go,

Migwec!

Pandora's Music Box....

I am once again working out of a home office. During my time as a HR consultant I maintained a home office - it made the most sense because any training/focus groups/etc I did were done on the clients property and then I would do the write-ups and reports on my own time. In the new shift of governance we are going through at SouthGate I no longer need to be at our downtown offices as much and so I spend most of my workday at home. Its been good but I have to admit it is harder than I thought it would be. In the first go round at the home office I held office hours between 11pm-2:30am - it was the best because no one else was awake (which reduced the number of interuptions phone calls etc.) and we had one child who didn't have to be anywhere. This time around I have to keep normal hours because I actually need to connect with real people and we have three children - two of whom are in school and have schedules.

A big part of my writing/working centers around finding the right music to act as a soundtrack to my thoughts. I need to find the connected-yet-disparate blend of music to go along with my nigh-unto-ADHD thinking process. Unfortunately my music buying days ended the same time my diaper buying days started and so I have an extensive but rather dated collection of CDs (and cassettes). But this week I stumbled across a literal answer to prayer in the form of www.pandora.com where you can set up your own stations that will begin to learn exactly what you like to listen to. Best of all it starts to introduce you to other artists that it thinks you will like based on your listening (and rating) patterns. You have to check it out!!

Migwec

Old ain't so old new ain't so new

I can often feel like a bit of an innovator - and as such I can be called on to break ice. More so than myself, I look at my wife as someone who has had to push through barriers throughout her career - whether in the local church or in denominational work. Don't get me wrong most of the barriers were not set up in a malicious or exclusionary fashion. Mostly our shared call has been one of getting people to think of things in a new way - women can do that? global missions can be done in our backyard?Somedays it feels a little tiring to crank up the ice-breaker and head out of the harbour...but you know that if you clear a path there is a chance that the bigger boats will be able to enter these missions.

But then this Christmas we re-connected with a special person in our lives. Mavis is the sister of a lady (Ione) that mentored Juli in the way to make a Children's Ministry have maximum impact. She also had a tremendous impact on me. We got to know Mavis through Ione. Ione has since passed away but we still try to stay in touch with Mavis.

Mavis and Ione were truly remarkable people. They were so committed to the cause of Christ that they dedicated themselves to plow through all of the misconceptions of what women could or couldn't do in the church (I can only guess they faced barriers because I have never heard either of them complain about the church or the barriers placed in front of them). Mavis was up in Canada over Christmas so we met in Langdon, Alberta for lunch and a chance to talk.

Mavis is the type of woman that not only maintains the archives, she also fills it. She has recently been interviewed as a part of the history of women in church. It was so encouraging to talk to her and have her tell us about what she is still up to in her local church and denomination. She is not really slowing down. It was also encouraging to see the interest she had in the work we were doing. She kept asking us what we were doing for the community and in the community, she wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking anything. All the while she kept reminding us that God called us and equipped us to do this work.

I left feeling that God has a special provision for innovators and he would look after us just like he looked after Mavis, Ione and thousands of ice-breakers before us.

Migwec

The Cost of Freedom

Last monday we had a meeting between the leadership of our church plant and our partnering church (aka Mother Church). In the begining there was a desire to be closely linked as an integrated multi-site church. This reality never developed and we are now moving towards being a more autonomous campus still under a multi-site model (for those that have done some reading in this area we have gone from the Community Christian Church approach to the New Life Christian Fellowship model).

One week later the joy of the meeting came to a halt - cue the sound of a needle scratching across a record - as I was informed that my ordination was going to be put on hold for this year by the mother church.

I would be crazy to say that the two are related but it sure feels that these things come in pairs. In fact I haven't really been pursuing my ordination at this point (as Charles Spurgeon 'splained it, ordination is 'empty hands being laid on a n empty head') but it was nice to be put forward and then it hurt to be unceremoniously dumped. Oh well, I still get to do the thing I love and feel called to in leading the folks at SouthGate so I will justy focus on that and move on.

Migwec,

Jeff