THE INVASION OF CANADA
In the 1930's the US War Department actually had a blueprint for the invasion of Canada. It was a part of a bigger plan to be implemented in case we ever had to go to war against Great Britain. (Didn't we already fight that war once or twice before? Isn't that how the White House ended up white?)

Tangentially, this new revelation published in the Washington Post reminds me of when 20 years ago I was the pastor of Selah Covenant Church in Selah, Washington -- just outside Yakima -- and near what was then called the Yakima Firing Center -- a military complex where armies from around the world converged for joint training in desert maneuvers. One morning I stepped outside from the office for a breath of fresh air and saw that there were armed soldiers with lots of military equipment on every corner in town. Then I noticed that they weren't American soldiers. The Canadian army had taken over Selah!

I stepped across First Street to the 7-11 and found a uniformed Canadian buying a Slurpee. "What's going on?" I casually asked.

The sergeant in his thick foreign accent explained, "Well, eh, we've never actually taken over a town so we decided we needed some practice."

We chatted for a few minutes and I found out that he, a stereotypically nice Canadian, was from Vancouver. Then I bought a Big Gulp and ambled back to the office to work on my sermon.

By noon the occupying forces were so bored that they decided to pack up their equipment and to head back to the Firing Center where they could go jeeping on the hillsides.

The invasion not only gave us something to talk about in our small town, but it was also good for the economy. I'm pretty sure that each and every soldier bought at least one Slurpee during the two-hour occupation of Selah.

If we were ever to retaliate for their encroachment on our sovereignty I would hope that we would do at least as much for them. They do have 7-11's in Canada, don't yah know.

SUICIDE JUMPER
Improv on the streets of New York City (scroll down to the QuickTime link to watch the video). No wonder people like that place so much.

OUTSOURCING -- NOT JUST FOR COMPANIES ANYMORE
Journalist A J Jacobs writes about how he has hired two personal assistants in India -- and how he is outsourcing the details of his life -- everything from handling travel reservations to buying flowers for his wife to responding to his email.

LABELED FOR PROPAGANDA
The maker of Cheap Monday denim jeans has stirred up a bit of controversy (which never hurts when you're selling something to the counter-cultural crowd) in Sweden. The logo on the jeans has a picture of a skull with an upside down cross on its forehead.

"It is an active statement against Christianity," says logo designer Bjorn Atldax. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion."

The pants appear to be selling quite well in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, and France. They hope to enter the US market soon.

BOOMERS TO OVERLOAD HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
The senior population in the US is expected to double from 35 million to 70 million in less than 20 years. And you thought the healthcare system was already stretched! There are two main factors that will make this a taxing group to work with -- the numbers and the longevity. When America returned to "normal" after WWII a lot of people who had held off on having children were suddenly able to get on with life. This created a population bulge. Then, when you factor in that because of medical advances people are living longer, the problem is compounded. No one seems to have any realistic solutions -- other than the admonition to "stay healthy." The Washington Times has been running a series on the aging of America.

THE TREASURE PRINCIPLE
A few Sundays ago we gave away copies of Randy Alcorn's The Treasure Principle to worshippers at Cornerstone. It's a great little book and you can't beat the $5 price (unless someone gives you a copy).

In a nutshell the treasure principle is that "You can't take it with you -- but you can send it on ahead."

Then there are six simple sub-principles:

1. God owns everything. I'm his money manager.

2. My heart always goes where I put God's money.

3. Heaven, not earth, is my home.

4. I should live not for the dot but for the line.

5. Giving is the only antidote to materialism.

6. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

AMAZON.COM BLOGS
Amazon.com has a new program which provides webspace for authors who want to blog. I'm sure they must be embedded somewhere in the Amazon system but I haven't yet come across an Amazon blog.

HURRAY!
As of last night Betsy (with some proof-reading and credit card help from Cheryl) has completed and submitted all eight of her college applications. That's a project that has been active in our household for the last four months. Next step -- financial aid paperwork. Then we wait until March to hear what options she has for next year.

Governor Schwarzenegger's move to get state lawmakers to cancel next year's hefty fee increase in our two university systems is good news. It would be even better if they could make it retroactive! Fee increases have been running out of control for the past four or five years -- ever since California figured out that it was in financial trouble.

CD SALES DOWN -- DOWNLOAD SALES UP
The music industry is selling fewer CDs -- but the sale of music by individual download is up. Apparently, consumers are happy just picking up the songs they like rather than getting stuck with a CD which has only one good song and a bunch of fill someone thinks we should have. This is not too unlike the good 'ole days when we could buy 45's of the songs we liked -- except back then you were stuck with the flipside -- and we were dependent on radio for our initial exposure to the music. The current trend in music distribution is another example of how things are becoming more narrowcast and less broadcast. The consumer is king -- at least that's how we're seeing ourselves.

2006 BIBLE LISTENING PLAN
The other day I mentioned some of the Bible reading plans available. Another option would be to take the same material and use it as a Bible LISTENING plan. In fact, most of the Bible was written with listeners rather than readers in mind.

(This is one reason that I encourage people to "listen" to the reading of the scriptures during corporate worship rather than trying to read along in their own Bibles. Listening is a different kind of experience than reading. Then they can open their Bibles and read along as we examine the scriptures together during the sermon.)

The BibleGateway site has several translations available for free in the streaming audio formats. MP3 Bibles can be purchased from Christian Bookstores or online at Amazon.com or ChristianBooks.com. The ESV MP3 is available for online purchase through Good News/Crossway. The KJV MP3 is free from many sites -- including this one.

IOW, there are lots of good options -- whether you are wanting to hear it streamed through your Internet connection, off a CD on your boombox, or as an MP3 on your IPod.

THE CHECK ISN'T EVEN IN THE MAIL
If you live on Guam, a place of which I've grown quite fond since our visit there a few months ago, you should not hold your breath while waiting for your 2005 territorial tax return. Gov Guam's Department of Revenue & Taxation is still trying to pay out the 2003 (!) tax returns. Because of mismanagement, corruption, and constant political infighting the government is perpetually broke.

The island is great. The people are wonderful. But I've never seen any government entity in the US that is so thoroughly dysfunctional. And Guam is technically a part of the US. I'm surprised that the Feds haven't stepped in to totally clean house.

WIKIVERSITY
The founders of Wikipedia, the free open-source online encyclopedia, and Wikibooks, provider of free open-source textbooks, are contemplating the development of an open online educational institution. It's not clear yet whether the project, named Wikiversity, would just be another repository for online educational materials or whether it would actually host online courses. Some would like to see it offer degrees.

HANDS-ON PROJECTS
Firms are paying $22,000 fees to hire college marketing classes to devise and implement marketing strategies.

JEWS FOR JESUS SUES GOOGLE
Someone set-up a Blogger site and named it jewsforjesus.blogspot.com. The Jews for Jesus organization isn't excited about the site's use of their trademark ("Jews for Jesus") in its name and that the site is critical of the organization. Since Google owns Blogger the Jews for Jesus people are suing them for damages and to have the site removed.

As I see it, with my vast and extensive legal background (or lack thereof), the very fact that the site is set-up to criticize the organization may constitute fairuse of the name. As much as I agree with the objectives of Jews for Jesus, I think they're mistaken on this one. There is absolutely no one who is going to think that the blog site originates with or represents the Jews for Jesus organization.

Jews for Jesus needs to let this one go. If they fight this battle the ill will they create in cyberspace will do more to devalue their fine name than having some little-known guy with a blog criticize them. They've already given him more visibility than he would have ever had if they hadn't made an issue out of this.

A RADISH CHRISTMAS
Bruce and Kary Dockter blog about the unique radish tradition in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they are spending the year. Interesting. Fun. Something totally different. Photos / More Photos

BLAME SHIFTING
Some Canadians are blaming the lack of gun control in the US for their growing problem with violence.

"It's a sign that the lack of gun laws in the US is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto," (Toronto Mayor David) Miller said.

Miller said Toronto, a city of nearly three million, is still very safe compared to most American cities, but the illegal flow of weapons from the United States is causing the noticeable rise in gun violence.

I have been (and still am) a proponent of handgun control -- but even I recognize that there are limitations to what regulation can do. If the Canadian regulation of handguns doesn't control the situation within their borders what makes them think that regulation on our side of the border is going to be any more successful?

We already have regulations which prohibit convicted felons from having handguns -- yet they continue to carry them. We have regulations which outlaw concealed weapons -- but people still conceal them. We have waiting periods and require background checks before someone can get a handgun -- but people circumvent the rules. Even if we completely outlawed handguns they'd still make their way across our borders -- along with illegal drugs and illegal aliens.

The situation is a lot more complex than the mayor of Toronto acknowledges. Regulation is but a small component in the equation. Rules and laws have value -- but they are limited. And the Canadian authorities need to realize that they as a people are going through a lot of the same societal and culture changes that the rest of the shrinking world is experiencing. Europe, which on a whole has more gun regulation than the US, is experiencing gun and gang issues, too. And it doesn't have to do with proximity to the US.

It's too easy to blame foreign influences for our problems. We Americans do the same thing, though. We blame our problems on imported drugs or imported workers or imported religions. But whatever problems are associated with these things wouldn't grow so easily if we were not cultivating the soil for them with our own anything-goes approach to life. And the more we talk about how the problems come from abroad the less likely it is that we'll see ourselves as needing to take responsibility for what we can do about the issues.

2006 BIBLE READING PLAN
So, you want to read the Bible more next year and you're looking for a little structure. BiblePlan.org has 13 different options. Texts are delivered to your email box.

Discipleship Journal offers two plans that you can download, print out, fold up, and slip into your Bible.

15 YEARS OLD
Tim Berners-Lee put together the first web editor -- "browser" -- 15 years ago this week -- starting the WWW revolution. He started his own blog a few weeks ago.

They had to turn the comments section off on one particular post because so many people were leaving "thank you" notes to him that it was overwhelming the system. I read just a few of the 455 comments that were posted before they turned it off and realized that many of these people have livelihoods that came about because of his innovation. This provided an opportunity for them to express their gratitude.

WHY EUROPEAN WOMEN ARE CONVERTING...
to Islam -- Christian Science Monitor article.

One French woman states: "Islam demands a closeness to God. Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit. I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. Christianity did not give me the same reference points."

Hein?

THEY'RE MISSING THE POINT
Yahoo is expanding its webcast offerings of CBS television shows to two sitcom re-runs this week. Apparently they think they are reaching out to "viewers who have shunned TV for the Internet." But they're missing the point. One reason that so many people have shunned TV for the Internet is that TV has become one continuous sitcom re-run produced by the same puerile people. Even new sitcoms are inane re-runs -- whether they are delivered via television or the Internet. Television (and its advertising backbone) tends to treat viewers as one dimensional and myopically focused on adolescent-level sexuality.

(Rant mode off)

CHURCH TO GIVE AWAY A HOUSE
Each New Year's Eve Abundant Life Christian Center in Texas City, Texas hosts a watch-night service which draws more than 2,000 people. The big attraction? Give-aways. In the past they've given away a car, a motorcycle, and furniture. This year it's going to be a new $120,000 three-bedroom house.

I'm still not sure whether to be more perplexed by the church's approach to ministry or amazed that it's still possible to get a great looking new house for $120,000. Perhaps someone who really needs a house will end up with it. Texas is a land of opportunity.

MORE HOTTER DAYS ON THE WAY
The Southwest United States should expect hotter, drier summers "by the late 21st century if human-caused global warming continues. The number of extremely hot summer days -- those in the top 5 percent of the 105- to 112-degree range -- could jump 560 percent by late in the century from today, according to the Purdue University study."

Regardless of whether the protracted heat-wave is "human-caused" or part of a natural cycle or some of both -- what seems clear is that there are going to be significant economic and social implications.

THE END OF CULTURE AS WE KNOW IT?
In an article written for people who are just now waking up from a 10 year nap Reed Johnson writes in the LA Times that mass culture is dead.

Born sometime between the invention of baseball and the 1904 World's Fair, it began experiencing violent headaches and seizures shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, then lapsed into a coma during the launch of MySpace.com.

...it's been common knowledge, or at least conventional wisdom, that traditional mainstream mass culture has been clinging to life for decades, like one of Anne Rice's mottled vampires. But 2005 is when a chronic condition may have turned terminal.

But where is this search-driven culture headed?

But after bidding adieu to old-fangled mass culture, the question arises: This roiling, recombinant technoculture dangles the promise of change, creativity and shared public life -- but in the end, will it just come down to always-on, one-click shopping?

IOW, what difference does it make if a consumer-driven broadcast is replaced a gazillion consumer-driven narrowcasts? Is the boutique really all that different than the big box? Is there an actual change in substance or is it merely a change in information delivery?

POST BOXING DAY POST
Since Christmas was on Sunday we observed it as a legal holiday on Monday. Does that mean, then, that Boxing Day, which is normally observed on the 26th, gets moved to today in those parts of the world which need another bankers' holiday? (No one is quite sure what the holiday commemorates but they still take it.) Anyway, I'm taking today off regardless of whether Brits and Canadians get it off. Tuesday is my regular day-off each week. Hopefully, as long as the weatherman cooperates, I can get a little pruning done.

NEW BLOG
Ted Gossard, who has left thoughtful comments on this blog, has up to this point been without one of his own. All that has changed. He is off to a good start.

BARTIMAEUS COHOUSING COMMUNITY
Each Monday I've been trying to highlight a church link from my favorites list. The Bartimaeus Cohousing Community isn't technically a local church in the strict sense of the word. Yet there is an element of church about this intentional community being formed in Kitsap County, Washington.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE EMERGING CHURCH
All movements which want to have a lasting impact eventually take on institutional trappings -- even movements which have defined themselves in anti-institutional terms. In 2005 the Emergent, the most visible stream in the emerging church movement in the US, hired a director, started raising money, and now they even have a logo. It's all a sign of maturation. But the hard days are ahead as they hammer out just what kind of an institution they will become -- a loose confederation? an association? another anti-denomination denomination?

"ONWARD CHRI$TIAN $PENDERS"
Noteworthy -- Keith Drury's latest.

LIFECHURCH.TV
With a lot of fanfare and advertising dollars Life Church launched satellite sites in Mesa and Gilbert, Arizona this fall. But it must not be going as well as planned. It appears that they're now down to a single Arizona site. What flies in Oklahoma isn't as appealing to people in the Western states.

Life Church is based in Oklahoma City. The pastor, Craig Groeschel, preaches to the remote sites in Arizona and throughout Oklahoma through a satellite link. They are also getting ready to launch a site in Fort Worth, Texas. And I suspect that culturally Texas is similar enough to Oklahoma (they'll deny it -- but it's true) that they'll find a niche in parts of Texas for what they do.

CHRISTMAS RUN DOWN
As far as we can tell no one in our household has to exchange a single present! Success!

Because you asked, I got a bunch of cool stuff -- sweaters, shirt, book, dinner cards, sweets, Sees... I even got the one thing I asked for -- a Madagascar DVD -- more than I need or deserve. The most innovative surprise was a set of LCD flashlights my brother sent. No batteries -- but you wind them up for 60 seconds to provide 45 minutes of light. Very useful.

We didn't know what to expect for worship this morning. After one of our larger Christmas Eve crowds last night I thought we'd be way down today. But we were just a little shy of average. And it was good. We had communion, a spontaneous kid's drama, and Dan preached since I "preached" last night.

This afternoon we picked up Jessie Carlson from Covenant Village and traveled to the Sacramento area for Christmas dinner with family. It was Jessie's 94th Christmas!

Driving through the rain tonight made me thankful that the tire on the van was low yesterday morning. I didn't figure out what the problem was but as I was examining the tire I saw that the belts were slipping and the tire was getting ready to shred. So I was able to get down to America's Tire Store -- which just opened two days earlier -- and bought a couple of tires before they closed early for Christmas Eve. The low tire probably kept us from being stuck along the highway with a flat in the rain on Christmas -- or worse. So, I'm thankful for a leaking front tire. That was actually a good present.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
In spite of the fact that Christ is really not at the center of Christmas for most people... In spite of the fact that Americans stress over the whole thing... In spite of the fact that there is a level of retail frenzy without parallel in history or the rest of the world, I'm convinced that there is some value in the hysteria of Christmas giving.

This is perhaps for many people the one time of the year when they are forced to get outside themselves. We live in a society which tolerates (encourages?) a high degree of self-absorption. But at Christmas time people HAVE to think of what they're going to get for OTHER people. And a lot of the Christmas stress comes from this "unnatural" expectation -- people are being forced to operate outside their comfort zone. And in a sense this has value.

It's the element of otherness that somewhat redeems our paganized Christmas. And in spite of the fact that Christmas giving has become detached from the Gift that God himself has given -- it's a token of acknowledgment that I'm not the only one in the universe -- that possibly, quite possibly, there might be a giving reality beyond myself.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

Nativity by He Qi

CHRISTMAS TERROR














"Shepherds"
by Hanna C. Varghese,
Malaysia

GOOGLE 2006
It seems to be the in thing to predict what Google will do next year. And since I know as much as, or more than, the other online experts, I would like to make my contributions to the collective ignorance.

1. Gmail will be out of Beta mode by November. And I'll still have 100 invitations left to give away.

2. Google will purchase the Corel Corporation just so they can offer WordPerfect as a free download -- further loosening Microsoft's grip on the office suite market. It will also be available as an online word processor with integrated search.

3. Those cute little occasional pictures on the Google logo will become the catalyst of a new fashion line.

4. Google will purchase K-Mart to become its new retail endeavor -- renaming it G-Mart. They'll give away most of the merchandise to attract advertisers. But they will sell the new fashion line which features those cute little occasional pictures on the Google logo.

5. Google will hire our oldest son, Kirk, when he graduates from UCSD in June. He will fit in with their very casual culture and I'm sure they will find something for him to do.

6. Google webclips will become an embedded feature in the Blogger bar.

7. Someone else I know will install Google Talk.

8. A 13-year-old student in New Jersey will make a newsworthy discovery in the area surrounding Roswell, New Mexico, using Google Earth images.

9. The Gannett Company will offer Google a 20% stake in the operation of USA Today after it is rumored that the search engine company is thinking about putting out a national print edition of their Google News page.

10. In an effort to jumpstart the economy in California's slowest region, Google will offer to install free wi-fi throughout the entire Central Valley. Two towns will take them up on the offer.

MICROSOFT BUYING OPERA? :-(
The owner of the most popular webbrowser, Internet Explorer, is rumored to be bidding on Opera, the small but sleek alternative. Some are saying it's a done deal. Opera is denying a deal. Of course, last week the rumor was that Google was acquiring Opera.

I'm not at all a Gates-hater but I would hate to see an alternative gobbled up. Choice is good when it comes to software.

THE POWER OF SAUERKRAUT
At least twice a week I go Costco for lunch (half of the employees think I work there, too). Since I like variety in my diet, on one day I get a hot dog with kraut and on the other day I get a Polish with kraut. You can't beat the $1.50 price -- and that includes a soda.

Now it is coming out that this stuff may actually be good for me -- at least the kraut part. The latest studies show that cabbage is a powerful weapon in the wars on cancer and bird-flu. In South Korea scientists noticed that chickens which were fed kimchee (the putrid and nasty-tasting Korean version of kraut with a spicy kick) were recovering from the bird flu. It's all in the cabbage.

I'm going to have to start asking for a double portion of kraut to go on my dogs.

OLDER WORKERS ROCK!
As I am closing in on the 50 year mark, I have been increasingly noticing the stories which highlight the value of older workers. Management-Issues has one which points out that older workers are not only more productive, loyal, and customer friendly than our younger counterparts, but we may even be more cost-effective than generally believed. Yea for us!

TREES AREN'T ENOUGH
Stanford researcher Ken Caldeira: Planting enough trees to reverse the trend toward global warming could become an environmental disaster in itself. The trees would end up raising the planet's temperature by six degrees. Wired News story

NPR has a similar audio story talking about how too many trees would significantly alter the stream and river patterns -- among other unintended consequences.

THEOLOGY OF HEALTHCARE
Richard Kew is suggesting, not for the first time, that we need to develop a theology of healthcare. Among his other contributions to the discussion he writes: ...some kind of single-payer system is the only one that will work in the future, when so much information about what is hidden in our DNA is readily available to those who fund healthcare. I also believe that a single-payer system is probably the only way that healthcare can be provided with the justice that is presently lacking in America's healthcare delivery system. As the Kingdom of God has a strong justice component, we must take that into account in our thinking.

AUTOMATED GIVING -- AN ACT OF CORPORATE WORSHIP
One thing that concerns pastors about the direct-deposit method of collecting church contributions is that, while it simplifies lives and helps people to become more consistent in their giving, it separates the act of giving from the collective Sunday worship of the church.

The Sunday offering is not just the way the church gets money. It's not a "collection." That's pretty secondary to it being a ritual of worship. It is an act of worship when we bring our tithes and our gifts, along with everyone else in the church family, and in some sense set them before God. What started out as the gifts of individuals becomes the offering of the church.

If your contribution is autodrafted from your bank or credit card account you are not able to participate in the same way.

One creative way that some churches are integrating autodraft giving into the collective worship of the church is by providing electronic givers with personalized cards that they place in the offering plates. Link

SALT WATER TO FRESH THRU CONDENSATION
Simple, low tech water converter -- the Watercone.

The Ultra Rev and I are thinking about putting our allowances together to see if we can buy the worldwide patent on this one.

NINE LESSONS AND CAROLS
The traditional Christmas Eve service from King's College will be broadcast on the West Coast of the US at 7 a.m. (PST), Saturday, on many public radio stations or on BBC4. Some stations will not be broadcasting it live. KXPR in our area (Stockton/Sacramento) will have it at 9 a.m. It will be available on demand for seven days after the live broadcast from the BBC Religion and Ethics site. If you want to follow along you can print out the service booklet from here.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
Really. No exaggeration. Using a network of cameras, Britain is establishing a new national surveillance system that will be able to track the movement of all vehicles on the roads. Police will be able to check the database to ascertain when you went to the pub and when you left. The murder mystery writers will have a new tool to include in their novels -- the network.

AMERICANS ARE MOVING INLAND
We can't afford coastal prices anymore. (Florida being the exception)

HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS
While the government still struggles to get a handle on the problems in the Gulf Coast, volunteers continue to arrive, many of them planning to stay for the long-haul -- everyone from the Rainbow Hippies to the Amish to Oxfam. USA Today has a good story on some Mennonite volunteers.

DRIVING IN THE RAIN
I've been out driving in the rain today and apparently a lot of us haven't gotten used to the newish California law requiring that we turn our headlights on when we turn our wipers on for rain (even during daylight hours). I've also noticed that the younger drivers are more attentive to this than us older more-set-in-our-ways drivers.

SPILLED MAIL
Big Oops! The crew of an Asia-Pacific Airlines cargo plane didn't secure a door properly and it popped open after take-off from the Majuro International Airport in the Marshall Islands, dumping hundreds of pounds of mail onto Majuro and into a lagoon. The mail had originated in Hawaii and Guam.

And you thought that your week was a little overwhelming.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETSY!


Now all three of our children have the opportunity to cancel out my vote.

RECOGNIZE THIS SANTA?

GMAIL FILTERS PROBLEM?
I run all of my email through gmail.com for archiving and spam filtering. Today, though, a whole lot more spam than normal has been getting through. Are they having filter problems?

MY COLD
I'm still not hitting on all cylinders but I feel a whole lot better than I sound. So don't feel too sorry for me when you hear me speak or cough a bit.

SHARP PR & THE BLOGS & WINTER CONFERENCES
Zondervan is drawing on the authors they work with, who are also bloggers, to get the word out about the National Pastors Convention in San Diego (San Diego, February 22-25). For example, Tony Jones and Scot McKnight have become evangelists. Very strategic for Zondervan.

Of course, we Covenant pastors don't make it to the NPC in warm sunny SAN DIEGO very often because we do our Midwinter Conference in cold blowy CHICAGO each February. What does that tell you about our corporate culture?

Actually, I've been pushing for something south for several years. I'd like to do a midwinter cruise occasionally -- and perhaps make Chicago the place where we meet once every 10 years rather than most years. We've briefly discussed doing a conference in conjunction with the NPC once every few years.

Our problem in the Covenant is that we're locked into a particular mode of operation because:

1) We're trying to accomplish more than just a conference. We have lots of board and committee meetings at the same time and there needs to be a place that can accommodate that. (Our Midwinter Conference started out as a Midwinter Board meeting and at one point someone decided to add in a little inspiration and continuing education. Now most people go for the inspiration and education but there are still boards that have to meet).

2) Our style is to use a lot of break-out rooms. To find facilities with such, in a place where everyone is also housed in the same hotel is difficult. (Of course, if you're in San Diego, it's not as important that everyone function out of the same building the whole time.)

3) It's expensive to pay for a lot of administrators and help to set-up a conference in some place other than Chicago. (Chicago is HQ for the denomination). We will, however, be going to Denver for Midwinter 2007. Denver isn't generally relaxing and warm in January-February. But it's inching the right direction.

4) It's hard for North Park Seminary students to attend when the conference is held elsewhere (although, as good as North Park is these days -- and it has become an excellent school -- most Covenant pastors are trained at other seminaries).

5) We still have a bunch of small Midwestern churches which would perceive that sending their pastor to some place warm in the middle of winter is expensive and extravagant -- regardless of the actual cost and the fact that many of the parishioners go south for some of the winter.

6) The denominational structure as a whole is still oriented toward the Midwest -- even though most of the people are now in the West and South.

MILITARY CHAPLAINS STRUGGLE
In this era of hyper-sensitivity military chaplains are increasingly caught in the middle. Some are apparently sensing that they are being encouraged to be too generic. Praying in the name of Jesus is unofficially frowned upon -- as is praying in the name of Allah, in the name of the Trinity, or in the Hebrew language. At least such seems to be the case in some branches or places. The military is a big operation and I suspect that expectations are going to vary from situation to situation.

PERSONAL COOLING
US Army press release: About 500 liquid-filled cooling vests are now being tested by Humvee crews in Iraq and Kuwait.

The vests are worn under body armor and a hose from each vest is plugged into the Humvee’s on-board air-conditioning system. Liquid from the vehicle’s AC system circulates through the vest, cooling its wearer.

FREE COLLEGE COURSES ONLINE
No credit. No degrees. No faculty access. But with OpenCourseWare self-learners have free online access to College courses from MIT, Utah State University, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Tufts University, Foothill De-Anza colleges, Carnegie Mellon. (via)

QUIT OR YOU'RE FIRED
In an effort to reduce health care costs, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has threaten to fire smokers -- beginning next fall. They're not talking about smoking on the job. No, this is smoking -- period.

I'm all for getting everyone off tobacco. And I think Scotts is well intentioned -- concerned not only about their bottom line but also about their employees. I might even go along with making smokers pay additional insurance premiums -- maybe. But the Scotts approach seems a little extreme. You begin to wonder if they'll want to regulate diet next. Then will they require employees to install electronics in their personal cars to monitor safe driving habits?

Of course, if you can't quit smoking, does that mean that you can file for medical disability? This whole approach opens up a big big can of worms and I'm not sure that the suits at Scotts really want to go there.

THE MORE WE HAVE, THE LESS WE GIVE
At least that's the case according to a new study released by the New Tithing Group. Working-age Americans who make $50,000 to $100,000 a year are two to six times more generous in the share of their investment assets that they give to charity than those Americans who make more than $10 million, a pioneering study of federal tax data shows.

RUDOLPH IN LATIN
For anyone who thinks that there's no fun left in Christmas -- I direct your attention to the NPR story which features the choir at Saint Bartholomew's Church in New York City singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Latin. One more reason to support public radio!

NYC TRANSIT STRIKE
The current strike in New York has got people talking about transit system quirks. Jim Parsons has posted a classic Saturday Night Live sketch (QuickTime). (via)

GIANT LIMES IN THAILAND
My friends know that I'm a bit fanatical about citrus -- and limes in particular. So I couldn't resist highlighting this story from Thailand about a tree which produces over-sized limes -- perhaps a limb sport (natural mutation). The tree reportedly bears more than 100 very large limes (the biggest is 5 1/2 in. in diameter and weighs 3.3 lbs.). The story says that the juice tastes like that of "a normal sized lime." But it doesn't say what kind of normal sized lime it tastes like. There are at least 15 types of limes and they have somewhat distinct flavors. Another possibility is that this is some type of pummelo which has a limelike flavor. Fun to think about.

NARNIA II
With The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe breaking December box office records, according to an anonymous source at Disney, the company is planning to release Prince Caspian, the second story in the Chronicles of Narnia, in December of 2007. This is unconfirmed information but it would be a sensible move on the part of the Disney.

I suspect they will continue to have the support of C.S. Lewis enthusiasts since the first movie stuck closely to the original story.

FIRE DEPARTMENT STATS
Someone who knows about these things has pointed out that a few weeks ago when I mentioned about the short-staffing at the Turlock Fire Department I didn't quite have all the facts right. I had taken my information from the fire department's website, which states that "The four fire stations operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a combined staffing of 11 personnel on duty." In fact, my firefighter friend says, the figure is often closer to eight people on duty in the stations. At any given time the other three are either supervisors or are on vacation. So, we've got eight on-duty frontline firefighters to cover a city of 70,000 people.

We do have a handful of faithful reserves. And according to the city website we're recruiting, but as in the rest of the country there is a declining interest in volunteer fire service.

AIRBORNE
Okay, so I have this cold. I get colds rarely (once every two or three years) and usually they aren't severe. This one attacked me on Friday but it's well on the way out now.

The biggest change that I've noticed since my last cold (two years ago) is the number of people who have come up to me to recommend Airborne. This is a product with high doses of vitamin A (5,000 IU) and vitamin C (1,000 milligrams), as well as vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, selenium, echinacea, ginger, forsythia, honey suckle, and a plethora of Chinese herbs, including Chinese vitex and isatis root.

Everyone seems to have a story about how Airborne has spared them the miseries of a cold or that "it wasn't as bad as it would have been."

Apparently this product has been promoted on the Oprah Show -- which, of course, only feeds my skepticism. So, I've done a little Google research of my own.

The University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter suggests that this product might actually be risky for women. In particular, high doses of vitamin A are dangerous for pregnant women, and if taken over a long period of time increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Furthermore, one of the herbal ingredients, Chinese vitex, has been linked to increases in blood pressure.

On top of that, previous research indicates that there is no verifiable evidence that high doses of vitamins C or A (or any other vitamin) will actually prevent a cold or alleviate cold symptoms.

Airborne has done some research to prove that their product works. But their research is too informal and their sampling too small (120 participants) to be generally accepted. This doesn't mean that Airborne doesn't work -- only that Airborne has not demonstrated in a verifiable way that it does. Yes, there is anecdotal evidence of effectiveness. But you can also find anecdotal evidence of ineffectiveness.

So, for now, I think I'll stick with my caffeine free mango herbal tea which makes absolutely no medicinal or nutritional claim for itself -- but costs less, tastes good, and makes me feel a whole lot better.

ONLINE CLASSES KEEP STUDENTS ON TRACK
When Hurricane Katrina shut down several Gulf Coast universities just as the fall term was getting started, a group of universities in several states scrambled to put together a collection of 400 online courses that were offered for free to students disrupted by the storm. Here are some student stories.

CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FELLOWSHIP CHURCH
Each Monday I try to highlight the website of a different church from my favorites list. Most are a bit off the beaten path -- that is, they aren't the trendy churches that everyone already knows about. Some are large -- some small -- most somewhere in between -- just doing solid ministry without a lot of fanfare. This week I would draw your attention to Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- a dynamic city church near MIT and Harvard.

FRESHMAN WOES OR GOES
Increasingly, the ninth grade is seen as the make-it or break-it critical year in the American educational system. "Ninth grade in America's public schools has become an increasingly severe hurdle to student progress," said Walter Haney, a Boston College education professor who has done much research on why more ninth-graders are being held back and eventually dropping out. Expect to see educators pouring lots more energy into the freshman class.

ELECTRO-KINETIC ROAD RAMP









Production is scheduled to start next year on a British invention which creates electricity as vehicles pass over plates in a ramp which move up and down driving a generator. (via)

FULL PAGE, FRONT PAGE KONG


The Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) featured a full page movie promo on the front page last Wednesday. At first I thought it was an ad but after looking more closely and reading the designer's comments on the NewsDesigner.com blog I realized that it was a promo highlighting the paper's review of King Kong.

Notice how the news is embedded. It almost looks as though a webpage designer went to work for the newspaper. Creative. It breaks all the rules for what is supposed to happen on the front page of a credible newspaper but I understand it sold lots of papers. I'm surprised that I like it so much. (via)

DARK CHOCOLATE -- HEALTH FOOD?
Could be -- especially if they could separate out the calories. It all has to do with the flavanols. Link to NPR story (listen or read)

SATS FOUNDER RETIRING
Principal and founder of South African Theological Seminary, Dr Chris Peppler, is retiring at the end of this month. In the ten years since he started the state recognized school, SATS has grown to over 2,000 students. And it is my favorite of the distance learning seminaries -- solid faculty and great value. Dr Reuben van Rensburg is the new principal.

BAMBOO GENERATED ELECTRICITY
A state in northeast India is setting up a pilot project that uses bamboo and bamboo waste to generate electricity.

FARM BLOG
The University of Illinois Extension has started a blog for farmers -- farm gate. (via)

RURAL BROADBAND
Rural people are used to taking charge to get things done on their own. And since they're having a hard time attracting broadband companies to the less populated areas they've taken to setting up broadband co-ops, constructed with donations and volunteer labor. And it's working. NPR story on West Virginia Broadband (listen or read)

NEW TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS
They're introducing more TLDs, this time focusing on regions and cities. Look for: .eu (approved); .asia (approved); .cat (approved); .berlin (proposed); .nyc (proposed).

CONTAINER LIVING





Yet even more ways to make your cargo container livable. I think I love these things so much because they are so ordinary and so basic -- and they afford so many opportunities for creativity.

EDUCATION PAYS
From the NY Times: Alan B. Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton, says the evidence suggests that, up to a point, an additional year of schooling is likely to raise an individual's earnings about 10 percent. For someone earning the national median household income of $42,000, an extra year of training could provide an additional $4,200 a year. Over the span of a career, that could easily add up to $30,000 or $40,000 of present value. If the year's education costs less than that, there is a net gain.

And money is just a tangible benefit. Even apart from any economic gain I would consider my education to be among the greatest gifts I've received. I haven't always seen it that way. There were times when I wanted to do anything other than study. But my parents and my teachers made me stick to it. Sometimes you only really realize what's been given to you with extreme hindsight.

I'M NOT OFFENDED
If someone wishes me a Happy Holiday instead of a Merry Christmas I'm not offended. It's not even Christmas, yet, anyway. It's still Advent! But I'm not even offended if someone jumps the gun and wishes me a Merry Christmas before December 25th. If someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah even though I'm not Jewish, I'm not offended. They're wishing me well. Even if the weary clerk forgets that it's a special time of the year and he just says, "Have a good day" -- without even thinking about it -- I'll still accept it as a kind word -- and I'm not offended.

Somehow we've been wound up way too tight. We're too easily offended and too afraid of offending someone by saying the wrong thing. Relax!

GUAM BLOGGERS
Link

OPERA & GOOGLE?
The rumors are flying that Google is about to acquire Opera -- my favorite webbrowser for look, feel, and speed. In my mind they'd fit together well -- Opera and Google. Both have a clean feel to them. Google would need to do some upgrading on Opera, though. A lot of the editing functions don't work on blogger (another Google property) in Opera. I do think Opera will have to do something soon or they will be completely squeezed out. And that would be very unfortunate.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENES AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY
The British government doesn't like the way that Oxford has been choosing students for the last 800 years and they've forced a change. In the past students were admitted by applying to specific colleges in the university and by finding a tutor to accept them. The government contends that this system excludes too many students educated in the state secondary schools and lower social classes. The new system will be centralized at the university level.

FREE SECURITY?
There is a roadside sign that I pass a few times a week which touts a "Free Home Security System" -- but in the small print on the bottom, below the phone number, it says, "$89 Activation Fee." Would you trust your security to a company that doesn't understand something as basic as the difference between "free" and "$89"?

RACISM & KATRINA
Whether the African-American population in NOLA was intentionally ignored during the rescue efforts is the subject of great debate. The latest figures from the morgue in St. Gabriel, Louisiana are probably going to fuel the fire even more. Their preliminary count shows that of the storm-related dead in New Orleans and surrounding parishes 48% are African-American (67% of NOLA when the storm hit was black), 41% white (28% of the population when the storm hit was white), 8% unknown, and 2% Hispanic. Link

MORE ON CHRISTMAS WORSHIP CANCELATIONS
Ted Olsen is on target in his summary of the issue(s) -- and is worth repeating:

For some defenders, the criticism of the closings is representative of the judgmentalism and rigid dogma that has led so many away from "institutional" churches, and is the reason that "seeker-sensitive" churches exist. Those who insist that you go to church Sunday morning instead of Saturday night, they say, are akin to first-century Judaizers and are the ones missing the freedom of the gospel.

As Weblog wrote last week, this debate really is iconic. Both sides seem to agree that the story itself is a tempest in a teapot: more symbol and indication than a major development in itself. But what it symbolizes gets to the heart of many of the current intra-evangelical debates:

What is church? Is "real" Christianity about private devotional life or about ordered corporate life? Why do we meet as churches? What is the relationship between the church and church members, church attendees, and interested non-Christians? Is a church service where the majority of attendees are non-members or non-believers still called a church service? Can worship be evangelistic? Is evangelism the church's (and the Christian's) highest calling? What is the role of the family at church? Have American Christians made an idol out of family? How "pro-family" is Christianity? What happens when we use pro-family as a synonym for Christian? Why are pro-family groups making explicitly religious Christmas greetings a priority when the issue seems to have little to do with family relations? Is the church becoming too politicized? Too polarized? If one group says that another group is not really a church because of its policies, are the two groups still part of the same universal church? What makes a group a church? What might make a group that looks like a church not a church?

I think that there are a few other questions, although perhaps not as profound as Ted's. What exactly is our theology of Sunday? Why have churches traditionally meet then and what are we saying when we change for something more convenient? How independent should congregations be? Is there ever a time when the common Christian themes and practices should over-ride local preferences? What does a mature church look like?

Ben Witherington has suggestions for further dialogue on this issue.

SHIPPING THE UKE
So, I boxed the uke up to ship it back to where it came from. I took it to the UPS Store and they told me it would cost nearly $40 to send it UPS -- even though the package weighs only 5 pounds. I asked what it would cost to ship using USPS parcel-post. They said nearly $50!

I decided to find an alternative on my own. So I took it to the short-line Post Office (Denair) and found that they could ship it, including insurance, for $17.

Talk about a mark-up! Those guys at the UPS Store must be rolling in the dough. They certainly aren't lacking for business. I suppose that's why they can afford to charge a $33 handling fee.

IMMIGRATION FIGURES

Despite tighter borders and more regulation after 9/11, 7.9 million immigrants have come to the US since 2000 -- more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history. Interesting profile in USA Today.

WHY EXPERIENTIAL WORSHIP ISN'T ENOUGH
David Fitch's post on the Out of Ur blog (Leadership Journal) ends up in the right place. I'm just not sure how he got there.

NEW GOOGLE FEATURES
They are starting to add modules to the personalized Google homepage.

DISTANCE EDUCATION PROPOSAL
The Michigan State Board of Education is about to approve a new high school graduation requirement that would make every student in the state take at least one online course before receiving a diploma. The rationale? Today's high school students "are increasingly likely to encounter online courses as more colleges turn to online education." I would add that this is probably one of those life skills necessary for life-long learning. One more benefit is that it would open up all kinds of elective possibilities that might not be available locally.

GOOGLE'S NEW FIREFOX EXTENSION
This spiffy little extension brings up a small pop-up with blogger comments about the page you're reading.

SPLIT THE INTERNET?
AT&T and BellSouth are lobbying for the right to create a two-tiered Internet where the telecom carrier's own Internet services would be transmitted faster and more efficiently than those of their competitors.

NEW UKE
My new Ovation Ukelele arrived today. It is the cutest little thing. But I'm sending it back tomorrow. It sounds more like a $25 toy uke -- lacking in the richness that characterizes my Ovation guitar and acoustic bass. I'm feeling disappointed. Perhaps someday I'll get a Fluke Uke. I played one in a store once and really enjoyed the sound. Seems a hair pricey for what you get, though. But perhaps maybe someday.

Speaking of ukes, I hear that Jake Shimabukuro will be on Conan O'Brien tonight. I don't think I have the energy to stay up that late tonight.

RE-INVENTING THE CHURCH
Keith Drury has a piece on the Church of the United Brethren, a small denomination which is reorganizing itself into decentralized, non-geographical affinity clusters (although I noticed from the lists on their website that most of the churches themselves are creating geographical clusters). He seems energized by this creative leap of faith.

Keith is not nearly as jazzed by George Barna's latest research, which attempts to justify a church-less Christianity that looks more like disembodied Gnosticism than the historical faith affirmed by Christians from the days of the Apostles. Keith and two other Indiana Wesleyan University professors have written a response -- which I would be glad to sign, too.

LUCIA'S DAY
Today is Santa Lucia Day in Sweden -- the festival of light -- which I suppose is a big deal if you're living that far north in December. Early in the morning a young woman, dressed in white, and wearing a crown of blazing battery-powered candles, serves coffee with ginger biscuits and saffronbread to everyone in the house (or the hospital, school, or office).

SHAPE UP OR ELSE
If you're grossly overweight, a drinker, a heavy smoker, and British you may be in trouble. There is talk of denying state funded national health insurance benefits to high risk people. Link to audio story

6,500 FREE FONTS
WebpageFonts.com (via)

WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING
Some of South America has been shuffling to the left, electing leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Now, there is a strong chance that socialist coca farmer Evo Morales could be elected president of Bolivia. And he's threatening to be "a nightmare for the government of the United States."

FOG SEASON
It's 71 degrees in the house without the heater. How then is it that I feel like I'm freezing? Dampness -- winter dampness in the Valley. Fortunately, we've had at least a little sun everyday. I just don't do December or January very well.

IT'S NOT ABOUT POWER
Andy Crouch: The church of the first centuries grew dramatically because Christians did what came naturally to followers of the crucified, resurrected Son of God. Stark acknowledges the importance of elites—in fact, he devotes a chapter to showing that the early Christian movement was anything but uniformly poor. It's just that what changed pagan elites' minds was neither political overthrow nor artful persuasion. It was knowing followers of Christ personally and watching their response to disaster. Cultural transformation resulted from the Christian community simply being itself.

In the face of Hurricane Katrina, government officials were hapless. Hollywood stars, normally so magnetic, looked foolish and overmatched in their borrowed motorboats. But countless churches like Parkway Baptist stepped up and redefined "normal."

LAST NIGHT
Two good things:

> The guys drove home from their SoCal schools -- Christmas break!

> Great Christmas program at Cornerstone last night. It's always a joy when things work so well and they don't need a pastor to be at the center of it all. I learned that a lot of children and youth have singing voices that I didn't know about.

CHANGES IN THE COVENANT MINISTERIUM
A few weeks ago I was asked to do a short presentation on the issues and changes that I am observing in the Covenant Ministerium -- from a "practitioner's perspective." I happen to be the president of that organization, which is the college or community of ministers and missionaries credentialed by the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Here are some of my notes. Those in other church bodies will find some but not all of this applicable.

ORGANIC CHANGES

1. Growing diversity of the Ministerium -- ethnic changes -- even Mestizo --diversity of style and sizes of churches. What does the pastor of a 60-member-church in Podunk, Iowa have in common with the pastor of a Super Megachurch in Southern California?

2. Diversity of calling -- Our people are not all moving in the same direction. Growth of the number of people who are "Ordained to Specialized Ministry" and staff ministries. We have identity issues -- what constitutes the "ordered ministry"?

3. Lines are blurring between missionary/minister, lay/clergy

4. Fewer natural ties -- We are no longer "family size." Not as many common tracks for everyone in the Ministerium -- e.g. not everyone has had the common experience of seminary together at North Park. We no longer ALL gather for the same common events

5. Shifting expectations -- The old unwritten expectation that we ministers are entitled to a healthy ministry situation for our entire "careers" is unfulfilled. It was perceived that if you did good ministry and if you were faithful in service that the Covenant had an obligation to provide a ministry setting. However, many are now serving outside the denomination and in non-parish ministries because we can't provide enough opportunities in Covenant parishes -- at least for ministers who are trained to serve small to mid-size Midwest style congregations.

6. Who is in charge? Who do I work for? -- Congregations aren't sure if ministers are employees or contract workers or what! Creates tension and conflict over the role of the pastor. Compounded by the fact that there is no longer a single model that we all share.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES

1. Tug of perceptions regarding the role of the Covenant Ministerium -- Is the Ministerium primarily a self-care/support organization responsible for the care of the pastors? Or is it the responsibility of the denomination as a whole to be actively caring for the pastors? Who takes the lead?

Are the members of the Ministerium the denominational agents in the local churches? That is, are they there to do the work of the denomination? To do the denomination's bidding? Some administrators perceive that as a role of the minister and the Ministerium.

Is the Ministerium the "union" for the ministers and missionaries -- primarily concerned about advocating for greater benefits and rights for the members?

2. Decentralization of the ECC and the Ministerium -- Movement from a synod to a network of churches where clusters/districts/affinity groups play more of a role than the centralized events in identity and connections -- vs. old school where the single big events were the main connection points

People are connecting in other ways -- e.g. electronic.

3. Many clergy no longer see the Covenant Ministerium as their primary association but as one among many associations to which they belong and to which they have some sort of accountability or receive some services from.

4. Missional issues -- As a church we are putting our energy into frontline missional activities (as we should!) -- holistic emphases, church planting, etc. But the Ministerium isn't directly missional in the sense that we are not as an organization out there on those lines.

We exist to support people and churches so that they can do and sustain mission. We are only "indirectly missional." So organizationally we take a back seat in funding and energy. Some feel that the Covenant organization, for this reason, neglects ministers and missionaries. (Perception isn't necessarily reality -- but it is still perception)

5. Cost -- Are the dues I pay "professional dues" or are they more informally what I chip in to make things work? Does the Ministerium have the right to tax the members or just ask for contributions? How much power do we have over each other?

6. What is the church? The emerging generation thinks of the church as more of a conversation than an organization. This affects how the church organizes itself. In addition there is organizational diversity among all generations. The definition of a minister and how one prepares for such a role varies according to the nature of the organization being served. As the organization of the Covenant embraces more diversity this adds more diversity to the Ministerium and we aren't all on the same page regarding the mission of the Ministerium or even what a minister looks like.

MY PERCEPTION OF WHERE THE MINISTERIUM IS GOING TO BE IN 2015

Networking metaphor is the future

Goal: "excellence in networking"

The system will contain diverse nodes. Nodes are local churches, networks of churches -- perhaps some house church networks, districts, clusters, international churches, and other structures tie in -- including events, temporary emphases, centers, spiritual direction networks. They, too are nodes in the network.

Networks are messy and not clearly defined on the fringes -- but they have a solid system of routers and switches that keep things functioning. The lines between "Covenant" and other church networks will occasionally be blurry on the edges.

The denomination will provide "systems engineers" (staff) to help the nodes talk with each other and to eliminate static on the lines.

The system is linked through three-strand wiring and the strength of the network will depend on the quality of the wiring.

Strand #1 -- Holistic missional drive

Strand #2 -- A common content -- "open evangelical" -- defined in Covenant Affirmations, etc.

Stand #3 -- A common discipline that works itself out in the Ministerium as an "ordered ministry" -- we are a religious order with people who have taken religious vows and agree to function together according to certain standards -- and with a common rhythm and a shared life.

BELLWETHERS
> Large daily newspapers around the world are watching closely to see what will happen to the SF Chronicle, which is sucking air in a major way -- losing circulation and advertising revenue to Internet alternatives. "A study last year said Craigslist alone had by then cost Bay Area papers as much as $65 million in help-wanted ads."

> Thousands of government bodies, including states, cities, towns, school districts, and water authorities, are watching Duluth, Minnesota, where they just figured out that the cost of promised healthcare retirement benefits will double the city's entire operating budget. This is going to become a big time issue across the US as millions of people that accepted lower salaries during their earnings years, in exchange for better retirement benefits, are now retiring. Will there be money to pay for it all? It appears not.

HOW SMALL CAN YOU GO?
There is a story behind this 30 sq. meter housing concept called "casa de pollo" ("chicken house"). Designed by a Spanish firm to provide low cost urban housing, this house is made with recycled materials and can be built in one week. Americans would probably think of it as equivalent to living in a small motor home -- but without the benefits of the motor. It might work for a student for a short while. This is definitely one of those situations where function overshadows form.

THE RIGHT STUFF
"Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Entrepreneurial Employees" from Joe Hadzima @ MIT.

CHURCH WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Each Monday I've been trying to highlight a different church website from my favorites list. Most of these are relatively unknown congregations -- no big names -- just people quietly serving Christ in their own setting. Today I would point you to DaySpring Baptist Church in Waco, Texas -- "A contemplative Baptist community of faith." Note their street address -- 7900 Renewal Way.

PROVERB FOR THE DAY
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

POLYGAMY RIGHTS
The next big campaign, already in the works, is the legalization of polygamy and the establishment of "civil rights" for polygamous families, so reports Cheryl Wetzstein in the Washington Times.

AWAKENING THE EVANGELICAL IMAGINATION
Andrew Greeley -- writer, professor, Roman Catholic priest -- notes the irony of the recent Evangelical infatuation with allegory and film.

And it seems to me that the evangelicals slip dangerously close to Catholic idolatry when they embrace a wondrous allegory as a summary of the biblical story. Jesus is not and never was a lion like Aslan in the film. To interpret him as a lion is to go light years beyond literal, word-for-word inerrancy.

The evangelical enthusiasm about the sufferings of Jesus in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" put them one step away, it seemed to me, from importing crucifixes and Stations of the Cross into their churches.

I'm afraid the enthusiasm for both films shows just how seductive the Catholic temptation is. We delight in pictures and stories and allegories and symbols and signs because the appeal to the whole human person and not just to the rigid, rational mind.

There are certainly risks in this Catholic imagination, superstition and idolatry among others — though it does make the world a warmer and a more human place.

It seems to me that Greeley must be familiar with only a certain Reformed stream of Evangelicalism. As a child I was aware of Christians who thought that religious pictures and fantasy stories were more the work of the devil than Jesus, but that wasn't at all my experience with the people in our church. We were more concerned about being too extreme in any given area. The problem with Catholics wasn't that they had statues and beads -- but that they got carried away with them -- paid too much attention to them. Of course, you could never be too extreme when it came to the Bible itself. And that's what made us Evangelicals. (via)

OPEN DICTIONARY
The fun folks at Merriam-Webster have created an open dictionary where readers can submit new words and definitions. Some of my favorites:

fat (verb): past tense of fit

sarcast (verb): A sarcastic broadcast.

Podcaste (noun) : One of a stratified grouping of audio programs that are available on the internets.

Zipperhead (noun) : An empty-headed person; i.e., a person with a zipper in their head through which their brain has been removed.

chatspeak (noun) : Use of letters for words such as "y" for "why" or "u" for "you." Also when you cut vowels from words as you type such as "srry". Or use numbers in the word such as "2nite" "2mrrw" or when you combine all of them at once. For example: "Wut r u dng 2mrrw?"

e-nail (verb) : to expose yourself unwittingly, or to be exposed by another, by the forwarding of an e-mail containing personal comments to the person referred to in the message. One e-nails oneself most often by adding cc recipients to a long exchange, forgetting that the person added is referred to earlier in the exchange.

AND ANOTHER THING...
They don't just spell wrong and talk wrong -- but they smile wrong, too. Well, at least they smile differently. That's what Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley professor contends. North Americans and Britons use different muscles when they smile -- so they smile differently from each other. Of course, not everyone is a conformist. Apparently, Winston Churchill smiled like an American while FDR smiled like an Englishman. Believe it or not!

WIPE OUT!
The whole surfboard manufacturing industry is in a tizzy this week after the sudden closure of Clark Foam. The SoCal company had a virtual monopoly on the production of the foam blocks upon which the manufacturers apply resin to make the boards. Grubby Clark started the company in 1961, but suggests that it has now become too hard to continue, given the current business climat. He cites the growing number of pollution control regulations, fire control systems required, and litigation costs.

IS THIS TRUE?

















Or is it over-reaction? What do you think? Why?

ABANDONING JESUS
Both the religious right and the religious left have abandoned Jesus for their pet political causes, says the Yale Divinity School professor Miroslav Volf. Volf, who is from Croatia (and who is a fellow Fuller alum), seems to see clearly what we have a hard time seeing of ourselves.

FIRST FATAL CRASH
When the Southwest Airlines 737 failed to stop in time on the runway at Chicago's Midway Airport and crashed through a fence and onto a street, killing a 6-year-old passenger in a car, it was the first fatal accident in the airline's 35-year history. As tragic as this was, it is an amazing safety record. One current theory is that the plane's reverse thrusters did not engage in time.

BIPOLAR CRIMINALS?
My friend Stan has bipolar disorder and it makes him nervous every time it is reported that a person who has committed a crime or presented a threat to others has a mental illness. He writes "The latest case to hit the news is the story of Rigoberto Alpizar, who was shot by an air marshall. I know the stories will only cement the myth that those of us who suffer with a mental illness are bound to be violent."

He has posted a good brief introduction to the issues surrounding mental illnesses on his blog.

ANTHONY FLEW
The Associated Press has a story on the world-renown Atheist who says that based on scientific evidence he now believes in the existence of a God. His understanding of God is very similar to that of the famous American deist Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."

Dan Clendenin did a piece on Flew last April and noted, "Flew believes in evolution but thinks it cannot account for the ultimate origins of life. His ideas, he says, bear some similarity to the Intelligent Design movement."

NEW AIR FORCE MISSION
The US Air Force is the first of the five branches of the military to include fighting in cyberspace as part of its core mission. Their new mission statement: "The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace."