Shaving with sissors...

I had twenty minutes before people came over for small group and figured i'd have Yvonne quickly shave my head as she always does. I should've noticed something was wrong when the clippers were rusty orange. We also ran out of the machine oil that the clippers came with so I told Yvonne to just use some canola oil. To my surprise the clipper blades didn't work at all. I decided I would just randomly hack away at it with sissors myself.




I wish I took more pictures. I got too excited and nothing else turned out. All I have is this 30 second video clip of me slicing and dicing.

Which reminds me, i've also put up a couple clips and pictures of our small group at our small group blog, life2gether.

Bruce ended up bringing me a new clipper, and i cleaned it up a bit this morning.


I think I'll use this in the cover of my next hip-hop album.

Church Planting Canada - National Congress

I just registered for Mosaic 2005. I think I'm the first one, judging by my reference number. Am I the only one excited about this? Must be because I'm a noobie.

Erwin McManus is doing the three plenary night sessions. Dr. Samuel Donkor, Ray Aldred (a keynote at Urbana 2003), and Joyce Heron are also speaking.

Its six-months from now and Im already excited about the networking sessions and workshops. I'll be taking a workshop with Erwin (of course), Neil Cole (Founder of Church Multiplication Associates and Life Transformation groups), Rick McKinley (Author of Jesus in the Margins), and Malcom Gladwell (Author of Tipping point, one of my favorites and Blink, which I'm reading now). Amazing. Anyone else out there interested in joining me?

I've also registered for my following 2 part time classes after I finish Greek I & II for the summer. I'll be taking Leadership Development in the Fall, and Learning and the art of teaching during the winter term. As if life wasn't exciting enough already!

Randoms...

A missionary was sharing about his experiences in China at our church yesterday. The one thing that got me was the heart of the Christian leaders there. Under daily oppression and persecution one of the Christian leaders he met there had been anticipating police raiding his home and taking him to jail that night. Unlike most of us, this leader's response was that "the people in jail must be praying for a good preacher!" Amazing. Who is this King of Glory, that makes people so bold and joyous while under such trials?

This reminds me of "Jesus Freaks". A collection of stories of Christian Martyrs I use to own. Someone broke into a friend's car and stole my bag with the book in it. I hope whoever stole it read it. Now that I think about it, I wonder if that's how God needs to work in North America. We hold on to the gospel so tightly, God needs to cause people to steal it from us. hrm.

I read two books this weekend. "The Alchemist", a long overdue fiction about a sheppard boy following his heart. Incredibly poetic and philosophical. I also read Joshua Harris' "Not even a hint" for some additional class material. I've also began Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" which looks to be as good as "The Tipping Point", more on that later.

Other links,

There's a new book interviewing Bono

Alex McManus has been doing a leadership series on his blog
The Mosaic Alliance Site is up - Thanks Tony
For those of you who don't know yet, Vertias Forums - Exploring Truth and Life has been posting audio/video's of their sessions.

Passion & Purity

Our church will be beginning a new sunday school format this may. Four week, two hour sessions that include lunch. Yvonne and I will be leading a class on sexuality. I wanted to call it "Sex Ed. with the Wong's", but "Passion & Purity" is probably more appropriate. Here's a preview blurb of what's to come.

Sex. One of the greatest defining struggles of this generation. Sexuality proliferates our culture and infiltrates our hearts - often in a way far from God's great intentions. Join us as we discover God's perspective of sex and what it means to us. We will explore Biblical themes of personal, relational, and spiritual purity. Fighting fire with fire, this will be a journey of inviting Jesus to take our lesser desires and unleashing a greater passion within all of us.

Week 1 - Sex & the Soul
Week 2 - Lust, Legalism, and Love
Week 3 - Practice & Process
Week 4 - A Pure and Holy Passion

Hopefully there will be people brave enough to join us.

Now is the time...

Since birthing our small group into three separate groups in January, the one that Yvonne and I lead hit 15 people last night! It’s absolutely amazing how God has wired us all to long for life in community and yearn for truth in our lives.

We continued our study through the Scriptures in James. Our encouraging verse for the night was “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishe" (James 4:14) We discussed how we devalue the time that God gives us. How from God’s perspective there are no unimportant moments in our life. Every moment must be treated as sacred. We all have dreams and visions, but the challenge is not letting the future cripple us and allowing the future to rob us of the God-ordained present moment that we do have.

Is it possible that some of us keep ourselves so busy with knowing more about what God’s will is in our lives – just to avoid doing what we already know is on God’s heart?

It is finished...

I’ve finally completed my last major paper. Here it is, on missiological ecclesiology. I have no idea what that really means either, but it sure sounds cool. I stumbled along two excellent books in my research. Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen (Which Alex McManus had also recommended reading) and Shaped by God’s Heart by Milfred Minatrea. Underneath all the boring systematic theology and research, the gist of the paper was arguing for the necessity of a missional church, anything less being unbiblical.

In other important news the pope passed away and I bought a playstation2. What a wretched person I am. I’m sure there’s enough commentary bombarding media and the web regarding the pope. But for the record, from the little that I do know of him, he rocked. His ecumenical push, continued boat-rocking in reforming the papacy, and humanitarian voice has been a blessing to this planet. We discussed in class last night, how he refused to relinquish the papacy, not out of pride, but to show the world an example of a life refusing to rest. That even in his frailty God could use him. This reminds me of when Augustine declared, “My heart will not rest until I rest in Thee’.

So the Lord led me to buy the ps2… yeah right. It was actually the completion of a long unfulfilled boyhood dream of owning a game system. Yvonne really wanted the “Karaoke Revolution” games, and that helped pushed the decision over. Now if only I could come up with a way to use this for ministry purposes…

Here’s a secret. I’ve never been a very special person. I was born as ordinary as it gets. Embarrassed even of the name that I was given. I lived with mediocrity by finding a way to be the best at it. But something changed along the way.

Today, I stand amazed at the things that I have accomplished, the risks that I have taken, and the dreams and passions that burn within me. They are a direct result of the love of God working through the people around me. Whatever hint of goodness and greatness that I’ve discovered within my soul is because people inspired it out of me. None of it was my own doing. I am so very thankful to the countless people who have prayed for me, encouraged me, and told me that 'with God I could do it', both people that have been close and those who have reached me from a distance. I’ve never lived a life deserving these gifts, wonders, and precious relationships, and now I find myself with them in abundance.

This morning I woke up with a single phrase echoing in my head. I'm awake! The Lord must want me to live today!

Chasing lights in the dark

It's been an incredible journey the last while, I haven't had time to post. Which is great in a way, since for the most part we really should be more busy living than busy writing about living. Some amazing interactions the last week with different people, spoke at a workshop for Teen’s Conference, completed some long overdue goals, wrapping up an online class with Erwin and Alex McManus this week, and knee deep in papers again.

Some solid updates coming soon. I think God likes working in the dark...

Faith...

This week our small group continued our journey through the scriptures, stopping over at James 2:14-26, the popular faith and works passage. What is amazing about James is the way he bluntly hammers out the truth, breaking out the type of faith that Jesus actually died for.

So often, faith is equated with an emotional experience. That if we just work up the emotional excitement and feel passionately about it, then we have faith. Or on the flipside we reduce what the scriptures mean by faith into merely being informed or believing the right stuff about God. Although our feelings and our understandings regarding God are highly affected by what faith is, they fall short of what God really intends by faith.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he replied that it was to love God and to love others. It wasn’t because Jesus couldn’t count and responded with two commandments, it was because he was conveying that that the two were dynamically inseparable. A faith in God must be translated into actions specifically in relationship to other people.

It’s a generalization, but I can tell what people believe by what I see. When confronted with statements like that, our souls cry out because we do not think people see all of who we really are. They do not understand the great intentions and the passions that are bubbling beneath the surface. The truth is that God only counts what we truly believe, by what emerges out of our lives as an expression of worship to him.

James thrusts what we casually express as faith to another echelon. Faith at its most base level is one that is rendered into action. When James says, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2:18). He almost taunts us, challenging us that the reality of our faith only exists in our actions.

There are many things that I can profess that I have faith in, but if these invisible declarations are not translated into a visible reality they are worthless before a God who sees faith as inextricably tied to my actions. God does not call us to work for our salvation, but to “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12) through living out our faith.
Faith is trusting in a God who does not just deposit his Holy Spirit, that it may be internally housed within us, but that unleashes it to impact every realm of our lives.

Faith demands risk. We diminish faith to trusting in a God who is great and sitting on our hands, when faith must include trusting in a God who dares us to move and accomplish the great things that are on His heart. What do I really believe…?

Lesser desires / a PhD in Erwin

Our economy is driven by keeping the average person discontent. Marketers and advertisers are tasked with creating in us a dissastifaction for what we have, or at the very least, a nagging desire for what we do not need.

There are so many things that I want. I have longings that I could have sworn were there since the day I was born, and now simply piqued as I am validated by the purchases of others around me and as 'reasonable' prices dangle before me.

The sad truth is that much of these desires were put there by someone else. A stranger that has no idea who I am and sees me only as a contributor to their agenda. I feel violated just thinking about it. The genius is that the world that surrounds us crams these yearnings so deep into our hearts and minds that we think we came up with them ourselves.

How many of us have pursued things that we think might bring freedom only to have become enslaved by them? We have not only bought into the propaganda, we sponsor it from the deepest places within us.

In my moments of clarity, there is no price tag to what truly brings freedom. Beneath the layers of the things that we are told we want, there are even deeper passions in the fabric of our being, deposited by our Maker. Passions that we have spent our lives ignoring because they seemed too wonderful to ever be fulfilled. A burning in our souls that almost demands genuine love, meaning, and destiny to truly live this life as it was intended. I am discovering all of this in Jesus.

May we not settle for lesser desires. May we discover our God-given passions and a life worth living.

---

I once heard Erwin McManus talk about how he was speaking at a seminary and they introduced him as Dr. Erwin even though he didn't have a degree. He felt that it was because the religious leaders could not tolerate having a less educated person teaching them about the ways of God.

It appears that Erwin has started his own Doctoral program sponsored by Bethel Seminary. It's a 3-year program on “Creating an Entrepreneurial Ethos, Developing the Art of Improvisation, and Discipling Innovation”. What else would you expect? Besides the personal mentoring, it also involves publishing a book as a cohort. Even more interesting, in the prospectus is Erwin's list of resources and emerging churches that participants are to research.

Better get in before it becomes institutionalized.

Back from Yurting...

I just figured out how to make a photoset in Flickr. A few more pictures here.

Also, many more pictures, from Ray, a much better photographer here

Beautiful...

Niagara falls was beautiful... not so much the breath-taking waterfalls crashing down, but the excellent time away with even more excellent company.

This weekend we're going yurting. I've never heard of it either. Leave it to crazy Canadians to trying to find creative ways to have fun in the winter.

Our new small group community met up last night, we've been slowing making our way through James. Discussing through the section on favoritism reminded me of a conviction that came to me during the Christmas holidays last year.

It's something that happens often to all of us i'm sure. I was walking with family and passed an owner and their dog. We immediately gathered around the cute little animal and started playing with it, but I accidentally locked eyes with the owner. Right then, it shuddered through my soul, how my heart went out more to a dog then the human being right next to it. We subtly devalue people. We do it when we see babies all the time as well. Maybe because we've been hurt too often by big people, or we know that dogs and babies won't judge us. But in fact, it's we who've judged others.

Our judgements and assumptions of people are intricately tied to the way we treat them. I sometimes ignore people because I see them as less than that. Less than God's wonderfully divine creation. Less than the broken image of God longing to be restored. Less than beautiful. Maybe we'd act differently if that was the only judgement we make as we encounter the world.

Profiling...

I love this image, pulled off of leadershipvision - Despite being cramped on a moving train - not allowing circumstances in life to dictate the person you were designed to be and the impact that you can create.

I just finished taking The Gallup Organization's Strength's Finder (You need to purchase one of their resources in order to get the code to take the test). My major themes are - Futuristic, Connectedness, Woo, Includer, and Ideation.

For Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I am an ENFP. I've taken at least a half-dozen spiritual gift tests (More tests, tests, and tests) over the years, my recurring gifts seem to be Encouragement, Pastor/Sheppard, Teaching... Administration is also somewhere in there for some reason, but I don't believe it.

With all this though, nothing comes close to what I've learned about myself through my journey with God and life with my wife. This weekend I'm off to take my bride to Niagara Falls...

New Template...

Co-inciding with the converging dates in history, i've decided to redesigned the site template... that and the old site was getting old... This was my first time delving this deep into html. This is what I came up with after copying off other sites and with plenty of trial and error.

I'm really liking Google Maps. Here's a list of churches in my block, none of which I go to. How odd.

Here's someone having a bit too much fun with a webcam.

After years of my life savings sitting in my bank account, i'll finally be seeing a financial advisor today. Hooray.

Randoms...

Two new messages out of Mosaic. This one is classic Erwin, as they launch a series on the Barbarian way, coinciding with the new book. This second one I found particularly interesting because it was very pastoral, addressing only their leadership staff. Sounds like God's blessing them with 20 acres. I pray they don't ever settle and that this really is going to be a platform for the city.

Interesting article on worship as evangelism here.

Just started perusing through Follow the Rabbi with Ray Vander Laan, a follower of Jesus who decided to take Jewish studies at Yeshiva University. I had heard that when he went there in the 80s there wasn't a single person who didn't have the entire OT memorized. His ministry has really helped put context into the Jewish world the Jesus entered. Rob Bell seems to get a lot of his material from here as well.

National Church Planting Congress coming to Toronto in November. I'll be there for sure. Any joiners?

House Church, Malcom X, Closer...

One major structural reformation that "Houses that change the world" has been suggesting is the renewal of cell/city churches. Wolfgang Simson suggests that our many current congregational-type churches are structural compromises, much like a marriage between a mouse and an elephant.

The church for the first three centuries after Christ flourished in homes, that allowed for an organic place of belonging and accountability. The house churches also gathered together for city-wide celebrations to hear apostolic teaching and encounter prophetic vision, while drawing more people in publically. This is why Paul wrote letters to city-churches. It was not until Emperor Constantine in the fourth-century that the congregation-type church was introduced. With this, the church became an audience under professional leadership, losing out on the powerful dynamics of both the cell and celebration.

A church that not only has a message, but is a message.

Something which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the earth with the glory and knowledge of God.

It matures under tears, multiplies under pressure, breathes under water, grows under the carpet; it flourishes in the desert, sees in the dark and thrives in the midst of chaos.

The image of much contemporary Christianity could be summarized as holy people coming regularly to a holy place on a holy day at a holy hour to participate in a holy ritual led by a holy man dressed in holy clothes for a holy fee.

I love this Simson's writing. He even apologizes at the beginning of the book for his poor writing since English is not his native tongue. Definitely lots more to ponder.

We watched Malcolm X for our date night. What an incredible movie of faith. It brought back memories of when I had first watched the film almost a decade ago. It was one of the first sparks of hope that my life too might one day be different from the way it started. Though his story centers around the Muslim faith, I remember reading his autobiography after and as a teenager being completely captivated by his journey from the dregs of society to a leader of a movement.

I led discussions in our discovering God group and our small group this week. It's amazing how there have been a common threads in the themes of both groups. Maybe it's just me. I absolutely love drawing people of all types closer to the heart of God. Now if only I could get a little closer

Oh my goodness...

Remember Sir Mixalot's raunchy Baby got back song? Even that can be redeemed... kinda.

This is one of the most hilarious Christian videos i've ever seen. I guess they can have a sense of humour...

Inattentive in class...

Is it wrong to have the opportunity to be studying systematic theology at a seminary and not be able to pay attention?

I got bored enough to do a search on my own name. Looks like there are other Lon Wong's out there. I even found an ibm award photo of myself from a couple years ago. So lame.

I've had Erwin's new book Barbarian Way on order from amazon for several weeks to ship when it was released. To my surprise it was already availble in the bookstore here. Some inspiring excerpts i found scouring the web...

Two thousand years ago God started a revolt against the religion HE STARTED. So don't ever put it past God to cause a groundswell against churches and Christian institutions that bear His name. If He was willing to turn Judaism upside down, don't think for a moment our institutions are safe from a divine revolt. I am convinced that even now there are multitudes of followers of Jesus Christ who are sick and tired of the church playing games and playing down the call of God. My travels only confirm that the murmurings of revolution are everywhere. I am convinced that there is an uprising in the works and that no one less than God is behind it...

Amazing. More excerpts here and here. Is anyone else excited about what's to come as well?

While I'm procrastinating. Let me give give some random props. I'm writing this entry with w.bloggar. I haven't found a simpler and more comprehensive tool to meet my occasional blogging needs. I work primarily off of an ibm T30 notebook. I use a Palm TungstenT. I'd like to upgrade when they integrate something with a phone, video/camera, mp3 player, pda, with apple styling. I use iambic agendus, palm bible plus and mybible niv deluxe. GAIM is my all-in-one instant messenger. I fell in love with firefox when i discovered tabbed browsing there (so i can further multi-task) and picasa2 has got to be one of the best free image viewers around. All this to say that i'm a geek, and all these tools help keep me afloat. All this and i'm just barely making it by.

Whelp, class is up. I'll share where I get much of my spiritual feeding next time around.

Mission shmission

Enough about mission for a moment. I've got more on my heart than my mind can grasp. I've got my hands in several things that I'd rather be knee deep in. I've been gaining in vision to the point of going cross-eyed. I need to sit still if just for a moment.

I had a nightmare recently where I was organizing a conference or a revolution rally of some sort… and thousands of people were there, but I forgot to book the auditorium/stadium. How typical of me.

The mission is a movement

The mission of God requires kingdom advancing warriors moved by the spirit of God. It will not be accomplished by those who stand idly by. Those joining God's mission realize that there are forces both human and supernatural that move against the mission. The mission does not wait, but creates. It makes the most of every opportunity. It has unshakable hope that every effort is worthwhile. It believes that monumental transformations can happen over time with even the most minor shifts in a person's heart. The mission fuels itself with every movement forward. God calls every person to join him on mission, motivated by his love, and offering hope to all people, by every possible means.

I'm at the Ignite the Light conference this weekend with Ravi Zacharias.

Hope is what the mission offers

The mission must always be conveyed as hope for the world because that is what the good news is. Followers of Jesus are to be voices of hope, encountering culture and relevantly communicating the purposes of God for all humanity. Today people are not looking for a hell to get out of or a heaven to get into, but a reason to live and to die. The world must know that this is what the God of the living offers. Christians must see the hope of God in people. Just as God believes in us more than we believe in Him, we must believe in people more than they may believe in themselves. The hope is not something new to believe in, but a new life as it was intended to be lived. This hope is in a life before death, not just after. The mission offers the world hope of life, and life to the fullest.

We had our first discovering God session last week. Eight people from different backgrounds gathered to discuss their spiritual journey. It's amazing how every single person had come into contact with the church and had left. How can a message so wonderful and life-giving have a near hundred-precent rejection ratio? Spirituality today is at an all-time high, yet Christianity is far from it. One can only conclude that much of Christianity in our culture is nothing more than an empty shell of a religion. This is not the church that Jesus Christ died for. Yet their is a rumbling beneath the surface of a rising generation of Jesus-followers whose passion is to be the church that God had intended. To offer hope and love and life to all those who are willing to receive.

I love this quote, via Tony, see the rest of the article here.

If you have apostolic passion, you are one of the most dangerous people on the planet. The world no longer rules your heart. You are no longer seduced by getting and gaining but devoted to spreading and proclaiming the glory of God in the nations. You live as a pilgrim, unattached to the cares of this world. You are not afraid of loss. You even dare to believe you may be given the privilege of dying to spread His fame on the earth. The Father's passions have become your passions. You find your satisfaction and significance in Him. You believe He is with you always, to the end of life itself. You are sold out to God, and you live for the Lamb. Satan fears you, and the angels applaud you.

Not only is this apostolic passion emerging from 'Christians' today, but a desperate longing for something more has been errupting from people all around us. The questions that came from our group that night were endless, we didn't even try to answer any of them. But in the questions there is a quest... the journey has begun for many... How is it that we can keep the hope that God offers the world to ourselves?