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Posts tagged as:

experience

Nidus Festival

by Lon on October 8, 2008

I’m currently on the board of directors for the Nidus Festival.

Nidus is a movement uniting the many streams of Christ-followers to celebrate faith, the arts, and justice culminating in a three-day festival. It first launched in 2006, and we will be bringing it back for August 14-16th 2009. Mark your calendars, immediately.

Our last festival had over a hundred bands, visual artists, and performers. Speakers and workshops were ecumenical in spirit and included Shane Claiborne, Brian Walsh, Frederica Mathewes -Green, and Bruxy Cavey amongst many others.

Right now, we’re looking for contributors of all sorts. Everything from fundraising, promotions, project management, artistic talent, to expertise on social issues.

Let me know if you can help, or know of others that might be interested.

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Seminary – was it worth it?

by Lon on June 19, 2008


(Photo by ambery)

Before I begin, I need to say that I’ve never been a fan of any schooling system I’ve ever been a part of.

- In high school, I was a 90s student but on academic probation for missing too many classes.

- I scraped by university, passionless for my engineering degree, and was probably in the bottom five of my graduating class.

- I wasn’t at the very bottom of the barrel because after my third year I had decided to go to seminary, and realized they didn’t just let you in by grace.  I had to work my butt off in my final year just to raise my overall mark to a C+

So here’s the bottom line now that I’m done seminary

- 27 classes – not all of my choosing

- over a thousand hours in class

- at least two thousand hours spent reading and writing papers

- 440 hours of supervised ministry experience for the internship requirements

- $30,000 on tuition and books

- I left a corporate job I loved – Where I worked from home most of the time, had opportunities to travel, and interacted with people every single day.

- I made 60-70k+ a year depending on bonuses/commission – it’s been two years now so that’s $140,000… gone.  I don’t even want to think about what might have been over the course of a lifetime.

So was it worth it?

Is each lecture really worth $80 to (for the most part) passively listen to?  Is it worth the drive and the time away from family?  Is it worth the stress and uncertainty placed upon loved ones?

Could over a hundred thousand dollars be given elsewhere, that could have produced far greater kingdom impact?  Could I have used all that time to better engage the world rather than other seminarians?

There was a lot of assigned reading, but I probably read more and learned more from personal readings than class readings.  Could I have learned and grown to where I am today, without seminary?

I guess the other question is, would I have?

I really don’t know if I would have done something nobler with my time or money.  If you’re at a stage where you’re deeply engaging God, the Scriptures, His people, His mission, and His calling in your life, my goodness, don’t go to seminary.

At least I wouldn’t.  Not with where I am today.

Note that I am indebted and incredibly thankful that I had the opportunity to be in a seminary.  Who on earth has the luxury to sit around and contemplate the things of God?

I still feel like a noobie follower of Jesus, but I got an idea of where I’m going and where to go for help and what I need to get there.  But seminary, at least in its traditional sense, is definitely not a requirement on the journey going forward.

Seminary’s will always have their place.  Go if you feel God’s calling you in that direction (but realize it’s only a structure/form/place of learning, and typically God calls us to deeper things than that).

When I get some time I’ll probably compile a list of books, articles, experiences, resources that I think could just about replace the traditional seminary.

With all that being said, a price just cannot be placed upon time and space to grow, friendship, an environment that fosters learning, divine encounters, and wisdom from local prophets.

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Hunger Banquet

by Lon on February 18, 2008

Global Awareness Night

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 served wine, appetizers, roasts, cake to classical music, while the poor had to line up for a chunk of yam. Some ended stealing from the rich, some of the rich spread the wealth, and some sat there feeling pity for themselves or for others.

We even dumped excess food into the garbage in front of the crowd, as people screamed no.

The discussion was lively, and the anger died down as people understood why we made them pay for a meal with no food.

If you can gather at least 40-50 people in your school, church, workplace, campus, I totally recommend trying to run an event like this.

Here’s a sample planning kit by Oxfam Canada.

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Doing better…

by Lon on January 21, 2008

stellar with cracker

Stellar’s doing better, thanks so much for all the prayers.

A few reflections on the whole experience

There were periods Stellar would be breathing so rapidly I wondered how her little heart could keep up, and other times when her breath was so shallow we weren’t sure if she was breathing at all. Nothing much else matters in these moments.

In these moments you start thinking crazy crazy thoughts in silence. Who passed this on to her? Was it me? Is this the resulting consequence of some past sin? Might these be my last moments…?

In my struggles to live a disciplined life of prayer, I found no need to have to pray, it was simply the cry of my heart every moment.

I tell new parents how resilient kids are all the time, I guess it really is different when it’s your own.

Life sometimes offers us forever-defining choices with very little clarity. Should I rush to the emergency, or am I over-reacting and what’s best is to let this will pass? Sometimes you just need to believe that inkling of a voice within your heart, and act.

Stellar has always kept us busy with her high-fives and attraction to dirt, garbage, and just about all things dangerous. During her sickest moments she became almost void of her personality. We ached for all her special traits to re-emerge again. We realized that these sometimes tiring characteristics were signs of life, and what made her, her.

The internet is loaded with horrifically sad stories on just about every illness and disease. Sometimes knowing more information that you can’t action on, really doesn’t help.

Hospitals are rarely happy places. I have many friends in the medical profession I greatly admire, but there’s something about the ’system’ I think that often bothers me. Sometimes it seems to enforce helplessness as you’re often not told what exactly is going on, your life is at the mercy of strangers, and I often feel like conclusions are often drawn before proper assessments have been made.

This has only deepened my admiration for just about any parent who loves and raises a child, regardless of how their children turn out emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc. You are to be honored.

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