I just finished Anthony Weston’s “How to re-imagine the world”, a wild little book about reawakening radical imagination for social transformation.
Weston’s strengths are definitely in the realm of futuristic/ideation which completely jives with me.
He pitches a few ideas that are aching to be implemented like sports for the homeless, turning military bases into [...]

Posted in Books, Quotes, creativity, poverty 1 Comment »

Suburbanites, lock your fences, the poor are coming!

I’m going, why aren’t you? It’s happening next week, and it’s not too late to register!
Discussions on:
Harnessing the Forces of Gentrification for the Kingdom
- Bob Lupton, FCS Urban Ministries
Indigenous Leadership Development
- Noel Castellanos, Christian Community Development Association
Church-based Community Development
- Wayne Gordon, Lawndale Community Church
Similar Posts…A generation enslaved [...]

Posted in Toronto, poverty 2 Comments »

Yesterday I had breakfast with someone downtown to talk about God… lots of great questions, there’s not much I enjoy more than journeying alongside with people.
Dan Kimball recently wrote the book “They like Jesus, but they don’t like the church“; but I find what might be closer to the hearts of people (at least in [...]

Posted in Pictures, Toronto, art, poverty 5 Comments »

This past Saturday a team of us from two churches organized a Global Awareness Banquet.
The banquet is a dramatization of the inequity that perpetuates poverty in the world. Guests are randomly assigned according to the realities that divide us today 15% rich, 30% middle class, and 55% poor on a global level.
The rich were [...]

Posted in Community, creativity, poverty 5 Comments »

Yesterday a life group I’m a part of helped out at the “Out of the cold” program which shelters, feeds, and clothes some of Toronto’s homeless. A few thoughts:
I arrived late, and really didn’t help out in any way. Yet one of the ‘clients’ insisted to thank me, and that I was still [...]

Posted in Toronto, mission, poverty No Comments »

I’ve been volunteering weekly at Sanctuary for the last few months.
The first time I was there, I was surprised how many guys were playing bridge…
I ask, “Where’d you learn to play bridge?” (As I’m thinking only grannies play bridge).
“Jail”, one guy says
“oh”.
I talk to another dude who’s sketching and has some wild tattoos on his [...]

Posted in Culture, poverty, stories 2 Comments »

Similar Posts…Los Angeles Dream Center by Lon on August 31st, 2004Out of the cold… by Lon on November 28th, 2007How to re-imagine the world… by Lon on April 28th, 2008Homeless in the city… by Lon on September 1st, 2004

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Posted in poverty, video No Comments »

The day I finished up a 30 page church planting proposal, I began digging into Shane Clairborne’s book The Irresistable Revolution. Two days later, I finished it and was wrecked and questioning all the visioning, plans and, strategies I had jotted down regarding church planting.
I was humbled and reminded that very few of [...]

Posted in Links, mission, poverty, resources, video 4 Comments »

Amazing. Read the transcript below.
Video clip on cnn here.
Bono’s best sermon yet: Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast
If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It’s certainly not because I’m a rock [...]

Posted in Culture, communication, poverty No Comments »

I joined the university kids for The Lord’s Table sandwich run ministry downtown yesterday. It’s been a while since the last time I’ve spent a night directly in contact with the homeless.
Many of them were lying up against the office buildings. The images of cardboard shelters, tired looking faces, and dirty [...]

Posted in mission, poverty 4 Comments »