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Yesterday was my fouth round of golf in the last two months. Before that I hadn't played in over three years and even then it was only once a year or so. Well, yesterday I shot an 89! For those who don't know anything about golf that is a fairly good score! I may find myself spending more time on the links!





It has been quite a long time since I read a book that came from the WillowCreek Association Resource Mill but this one is different. I was told about this book by someone who I trust and was assured that the infomation inside would be relevant and valuable: it was on both accounts. The book is simply a summary of some research that "Super-Mega-Church Willow Creek Community Church commissioned a few years ago. The main thrust of the research was to look deeply into the strategies for spiritual growth and development that were being used at most contemporary evangelical churches and assess if they were effective. I knew the findings were going to be interesting when they opened up with a quote from Jesus teaching in Mark 4 "The Kingdom of God is like a seed that a farmer cast into a field and then went away and forgot about. When He returned it was fully grown and he had no idea how it had grown."
The basic assumption of most church sanctioned spiritual development strategies is this: more involvement in church activities (bible studies, service opportunies, small groups, Sunday services) will stimulate a positive growth pattern in a persons life. Right away in the forward by Super-Mega-Pastor Bill Hybells, it is clear that the findings didn't really support that assumption. In fact most of the findings show something very different than you might expect. Nothing in this book really came as a surprise to me personally because I had already picked up intuitively on the weaknesses of the current 'spiritual growth strategies' that focused too disproportionately on aquiring knowledge and/or purging of certian hot-botton 'sinful' behaviours. What this survey revealed was that the church is only really a launching off point for a healthy spiritual life. A place that can, but doesn't always even realize that they should, help instill some spiritual practices that will aid a person in their ongoing personal growth. As a person grows they can actually become staled by expecting the church to stil be holding their hands and 'feeding' them. What really feeds people as they grow is for them to take the intitiative and begin to reach out and serve others.
It was interesting to hear that all across the USA in the church of various denominations and sizes, 'mature' christians were griping about the same things that I hear from the disgruntled in our community - we need deeper bible teaching, we need more times of connection, we need more clear evidence of successful evangelism.... In the very back of my mind I used to harbor insecurities that maybe they were right and that somehow we just didn't know how to do 'it' correctly, whatever 'it' happens to be. Now I have taken a very deep breath and settled into the fact that people will do almost anything, including shift the focus and try to put you on the defensive, in order not to move on in their own journey.
I have been following Jesus for over twenty years now and, although I have gone through times of intense frustration and confusion, I have never once thought that it was the church's fault. Maybe because before I began to follow Jesus I had already discovered the value of practice. Whether musical practice or spiritual practice that I picked up during the times that I checked out Buddhism, I grew to quickly realize that, ultimately life is what YOU make out of it, not what someone else makes for you. That being said this book is a very reassuring read to anyone who is trying to move this 'way of Jesus' into the future because it helps cut some ties that have allowed tensions and too many needless arguments.
Here in our community we are much further ahead than the massive Willow Creek for two reasons: 1 We went with our gut and didn't need to conduct a national survey to prove that things were wrong with the limited and 'church-dependant' spiritual formation strategies and 2 Because we are small and we can take bigger risks without wasting 180 million dollars.
Stay tuned as I write future blog entries about NPCC's newly constructed strategy for holistic spiritual development. We are just planting flowers of truth, beauty and goodness.



A few months ago I posted some thoughts on V for Vendetta. I just ran across a blog post by Ken Wilbur. Filmmaker Larry Wachoski is connected to Wilbur (Ken recorded a commentary track for the Matrix Box set) so Ken was invited to the premiere in NYC. He has some interesting things to say about the Hollywood experience but I foudn his thoughts and intepretations of the the film interesting. He saw a lot of the same things that I commented on and arrived at the same conclusion that the film was not presenting any heros but just different ideologies (Wilbur calls them Stages of Development) and showing how they clash together.
One of the strange things Wilbur mentions is that the recording (in 2004) of the Matrix commentary was the last time he had left his loft estate in Boulder, Colorado. Recently on his blog he has been commenting on the phsycology of internet blogs and forums.



This is the first thing I made out of clay. I went to the craft/paint store for a bit of inspiration. I was so over-joyed with making a little piece of beauty that I didn't worry about the fact that it was non-drying clay. Its beauty was fleeting but can still be enjoyed on the internet.



I am now playing a regular gig with Mizpah Bethel at the Sandyport Olde Town Oyster Bar. You can check us out from 7 til 10pm every saturday evening. They have decent food, beer on tap and the music is wonderful =)
Another bonus, this week they finally started serving Guiness. As you can see if you look at the little bottle on top of my guitar amp.




Wow! I loved this movie! I have been a sort-of James Bond fan my whole life but the last few bond films have left me flat. It seemed as if the over the top violence and too perfect demeanor of 007 didn't fit very well with the ultrarealism that some of my other favorite movies offered. Casino Royale is a wonderful blend of both the Bond mystique and the ultra realistic.
The new Bond is a bit more thuggish than the previous incarnations and this is a very good thing. It makes Bond seem more able to fight for his life and take on the evil baddies. In this installment we get to see James before he had acquired many of his trademarks: tuxedo, shaken martinis, and sexist manipulation of women.
One of my high points was seeing my buddy AJ's face filling half the screen as an extra in a Madagascar snake vs mongoose betting circle. Much of the film was shot here in Nassau, so it was also a thrill to see James driving his aston martin on the same road I take to work every morning.
If you like james Bond or just like well executed action films - go see this movie!




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We made it to Hermanus, and Nicole's parents new cottage, safely and are still trying to sort out an internet connection. So far we have already had a few great home cooked meals (Lamb Roost Dinner and Pork Sausage Breakfast). The next two we will not be posting since its Sunday and then Monday is a public holiday. Hopefully early next week we will be able to get into regular posting. So far we haven't even taken any scenic photos since the weather is cloudy and we are still jet lagged. Stay tuned though, we will be sort out soon!









Last year my friend and wonderful photographer David Sacks came down for his annual visit to the Bahamas. The above images are some of the fruits of his labor. It must take alot of photoshop to get seeward to look like a model! I love the last image and I think it should be titled "Do you mind if I ask your sister out on a date?" You can click the images to see David's site or check out more of his work here.




In the current issue of SEED magazine, they had a feature article on E O Wilson. Wilson is an intriguing character who lives at the busy intersection of science and religion. I first came across Wilson through reading his book "On Human Nature". In that book he explores the various scientific views on human nature and tries to point toward a way that religion can fit into a more humanist view of the self.
He is getting attention these days for two major areas of his work that have garnered both praise and controversy. First is his blending of the hard sciences of biology with the soft sciences of sociology into what he calls sociobiology. He is a pioneer in the nuture vs nature discussion and tends to come down on the nature side. As a child he studied the biological connections behind behaviors in ant colonies and proved that ant colonies operate through a kind of communal mind. A web of electrical networks connects the ants together into a hive mind and that determines much of their actions. Armed with these discoveries, he turned his attention to human beings. His work challenges much of what we think about personal freedom and even the impulse toward worship. He gets a great deal of heat, even from his Harvard peers, because he is a very unothodox scientist.
The idea, of his, that I find the most interesting is the concpet of Consilience or Unity of Knowledge. He describes Consilience as the synthesis of knowledge from many different specialized fields of human endeavor. In other words he is trying to unite the sciences and the humanities into one unified theory. This is interesting stuff coming from a man who has publically stated that he cannot commit things to memory. He is almost 90 and he has never learned the National Anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance. His work, at times, seems to be in a similar mold as Ken Wilber's work but his Christian background, his age and his commitment to academia make him look less like a cult figure. Here is a quote that summerizes his work :

"He defines human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules: the genetic patterns of mental development. Cultural phenomena, rituals, etc. are products, not parts, of human nature. Artworks, for example, are not part of human nature, but our appreciation of art is. And this art appreciation, or our fear for snakes, or incest taboo (Westermarck effect) can be studied by the methods of reductionism. Until then these phenomena were only part of psychological, sociological or anthropological studies. Wilson proposes that they can be part of interdisciplinary research."

I think this is the way things are headed and we are going to see something in our lifetimes that will bridge the gaps between the sciences and the spiritual aspects of human life. I don't however think that things will look the way that we expected. When neurochemistry gets to a point where certian behaviors can be eliminated through treatment, we will have to reconsider the whole notion of sin (as a set of behaviors that we do not engage in)
This is just the tip of the iceburg when you look at the implications of Wilson's work. You can read a bit more here. Also Wilson has been selected as one of the TED prize winners for 2007. You can hear more about that here.

 

 

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