(e)mergent Voyageurs

Tomorrow evening, more than 50,000 people worldwide will walk through the streets of their cities and sleeping under the stars in their city centres, all in solidarity with the night commuters of Northern Uganda.  The Global Night Commute is an international initiative of Invisible Children, the organization that birthed out of the stunning documentary by the same name.

Here in Winnipeg I have been involved in helping coordinate the event, which has faced its challenges in the process.  While we have more than 100 people signed up officially, we are expecting many more to get involved last minute.  IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR YOU TO JOIN!  Visit the Global Night Commute site to see if there is a walk in your city (or a city near you), get together a group, sign up and do it!

Please be praying for us as we seek to give a visible statement to our cities, regions and countries about the need for immediate and decisive international intervetion.  We walk to make these children invisible no more.

Emerging Church

Global Night Commute

Jordon Cooper brought this to my attention (from his blog):

Fortune Magazine is running a series called “How I Work” They interviewed a plethora of business leaders and celebrities about the tools and processes they use to manage their day. Blogger Steve Rubel thought it might be cool if some of us did the same thing. Here’s my post on it. If you want to join the fun, file yours under the Technorati tag How+I+Work.

I am not much of an app specialist, but here is what I use:

-Firefox: While I keep Internet Explorer around, I am using it increasingly less often. Tabbed browsing and the built in search feature rock!

-Open Office: As I refuse to use pirated software, cannot afford a good office suite and have a need of good programs in this regard, Open Office is real gift. I had one major problem with it, costing me some important files, but it was my fault, as I used a beta version. The stable release of 2.0 has been amazing.

-Skype: I don’t use this often, but it has come in handy a number of times. We actually had our regional leader lead staff development from 3 provinces away. I also “attended” a meeting in Alaska. In fact, my dog (Dino) and my brother’s dogs, first spoke to each other over Skype.

-del.icio.us: I use this for checking all your wonderful blogs when I am travelling and don’t have my laptop with me.

-Blog.com: Few people have heard of Blog.com and fewer still use it, but it seems to match my own intuitive needs. It’s lack of exposure to the larger market means there are fewer apps available for it, but I won’t be changing anytime soon. Their new release has some bugs, but I think any new blogger would do well to consider it.

-The Google Family:

-Google: As far as search engines go, I rarely use anything else. Having it built into Firefox is a major bonus. I was screwed over by Google Adwords, but I’ll forgive them.

-Gmail: The “endless” supply of storage, a great Google powered search feature and tagging instead of folders is unparalleled.

-Google Talk: While I hang on to MSN, I really like Google Talk. Clean, intuitive and has a nice feature where you can use it within your Gmail account without any download.

-Google Desktop: Because I am a file packrat and suck at filing.

-Google News: I set up a seperate Gmail account that receives Google News that flags key words. You’d be amazed how many daily articles come in for “Christianity”.

There it is!

How+I+Work

Over the last year, through my foray into the world of blogging, a few blogs and bloggers have become especially important, not only from what I have learned from them, but from the friendship that has emerged out of our exchanges. One such person in John Frye, author of “Jesus the Pastor” and blogger at “Jesus The Radical Pastor”. For those who frequent his blog, you will know him to be a deeply committed pastor, missionary and follower of Jesus. However, you might also have noticed that his blog has disappeared.

John asked me to inform you that he has stepped away from his blog for an undetermined amount of time. As a non-resident missionary mentor to young Ukrainian leaders, John has to spend more time raising support and seeking employment. Ideally, John would like to be bi-vocational, that is, keeping his Ukraine ministry active with Church Planters Training International and also working in Grand Rapids, MI (USA) where he lives. Pray for John and his wife, Julie, as they navigate these vital decisions.

For most of you who are familiar with the conversation about the church in the emerging or postmodern world, the name Jonny Baker will be familiar to you. His name is often spoken in the same breathe as “alternative worship”, he has co-authored an excellent and essential book by the same name (“Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church”, Baker Books). While I have appreciated all the resources that have come out of the US, I find Jonny’s unique UK perspective to be refreshing essential. His bio from his site says alot, while reflecting his personality:

(From http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/about.html)

i am…

jonny baker
a londoner
a follower of Jesus Christ
dad with two amazing sons joel and harry
postmodern (whatever that means)
director of an independent record label proost
a member of grace , an alternative worship community or emergingchurch
creative
enjoying sharing photos on flickr
married to jen
work for cms helping reimagine church and mission
involved in various creative projects, the most successful of which has been the labyrinth
a mac user
co-ordinator of worship at greenbelt arts festival
writer with a few articles in books, mags and the web
co-author of alternative worship
a chelsea football supporter
qualified with a BSc in Statistics and MA in applied theology
a blogger
involved in youth ministry lecturing for cym
songwriter
lover of music especially ambient, chilled, dub
fan of the big chill
lover of good food, belgian beer and conversation
like books and films
love art especially contemporary stuff

The following e-interview came out of my own desire to get to know a little better the man behind the blog. It was a real pleasure exploring worship, emerging church and even Canada unique place in the emerging conversation. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did:

Jamie Arpin-Ricci (JAR): Many people are vaguely familiar or completely unaware of “alternative worship”. How would you explain it to the uninitiated?

Jonny Baker (JB): It is a label given to a movement that developed out of the UK in the late 80s and early 90s when groups sought to develop worship that related to their cultural world which was quite shaped by club culture – so it incorporated electronic music, projection screens, ritual and ambient spaces as well as reimagining the liturgical traditions of the church. I’m not sure how helpful the label is now. Steve Collins web site is an ideal portal for those interested in more – see http://www.alternativeworship.org and http://www.alternativeworship.org/definitions_definition.html for his definition.

JAR: In a culture where musicians are at times gaining a stronger voice than politicians, what do worship leaders most need to be aware of and prepared for?

JB: I think they need to be authentic – offer what they do to God creatively and with integrity and that’s pretty much it. Alternative worship has tried to get away from the cult of personality that seems to surround worship leading. So it would be typical in alternative worship to have a team of people leading different parts of the worship and much less emphasis on the front/performance. This is an attempt to recapture the root of liturgy which actually means ‘the work of the people’.

JAR: Some have suggested that “alternative worship” is an emerging church phenomenon. How would you respond to this?

JB: I think alternative worship preceded the emerging church discussion by several years, at least in the UK. Emerging church felt like other sections of the church catching up to be honest. Alternative worship had been having discussions about postmodernity, contextual mission, reading liberation, black, and feminist theologians and re-theologising as a result, reading biblical scholars, drawing from contemporary culture and art, re-embracing ritual and the traditions of the church and so on. Alternative worship was always a very radical movement – it felt as though emerging church afforded another way of talking about things that might be more accessible to a wider group of people and to the mainstream church who were never going to embrace some aspects of alternative worship.

JAR: Do you believe that worship should be more “missional”? Why and what does actually mean to you?

JB: I think mission is key – it’s why I now work for a mission agency – CMS. Lessons learned in cross cultural mission offer a lot of insights and clues into how we should do stuff in our own culture(s). Those lessons are both about the bad practice and the good practice. And yes worship is good when its missional though you might need to qualify what you mean by that as it’s a bit of a buzz word at the moment – contextual worship (worship that is authentically grown out of the cultural soil of a group of people) is really important. There is a disconnect in many places between the church and culture – it sometimes feels as though people live in one world and then when they go to worship enter another world and then they return to the real world. Worship that is missional should simply be making worship out of that cultural stuff so that people don’t experience that disconnect. I actually think that in some places being ‘missional’ doesn’t seem to include much in the way of worship – the emphasis is on building relationships with people who aren’t christians and hanging out with them and doing evangelism – all of which is brilliant and a helpful shift in emphasis in some places. But I still passionately believe in the importance of worship – worship that touches and moves people and ultimately that is a gift given to God out of who we are. When done well that should fuel mission.

JAR: Worship seems to be a place where theology and art and culture intersect. How can worship leaders be intentional about theological integrity? Artistic and cultural integrity?

JB: I think you are optimistic – worship often doesn’t have a lot of art or culture in it and that’s a big problem! Alternative worship has definitely tried to connect culturally and celebrate the arts. Creating worship with integrity and being intentional? Mmmm – it all sounds a bit heavier than what people probably think about when creating worship. I think worship is best created by a team that bring their gifts to the table. It then really helps if someone at least has some theological nous and/or liturgical nous and/or whatever other nous – together those gifts will help create something richer. But it needn’t be heavy. In fact I find it’s a lot of fun.

A metaphor I have found helpful is Tom Wright and Brian Walsh’s notion of faithful improvisation. The thinking here is that to faithfully improvise you need to have some tools out of which to improvise or your improvisation may be a bit thin – so the richer your grasp of theology or the arts or missiology or liturgy or traditions or whatever the richer the pool out of which you can improvise. It’s not enough in that sense to just be cerative (though that is to be encouraged and celebrated) – some development in other areas is needed as well. Am I making any sense? [JAR: Yes!] Cultural integrity is a weird term – not sure I’ve heard it before – the approach in alt worship has been to create worship that we relate to rather than try and create it for some imagined other. That way it has to have cultural integrity or be authentic. I think inauthenticity is much more likely if you try and do stuff that you think others will like.

JAR: How can worship be culturally contextualized in multicultural communities?

JB: You have to get a multicultural team, give them the space and encouragement to create worship and it will be. The problem we get is that when we think multicultural we think we are doing it for someone else – that just doesn’t work. Change the power structures. Get a multicultural team and it will happen. If you don’t deal with those fundamental issues then why expect it to be multi-cultural?

JAR: I recently heard N.T. Wright caution against constant re-creation of worship. Is alternative worship more than just innovation?

JB: From the outside it’s easy to look at alternative worship and think that – it looks stylistic – lots of contemporary media and so on. But at heart it’s not about that. It’s about contextual worship – i.e. worship that is created by a community out the culture they inhabit. So that’s not just innovation. Having said that innovation is a great word and innovation and worship are two good words to put together. But sadly the broad picture is that worship in the church doesn’t have a lot of innovation and creativity. I bet the diocese of Durham where NT Wright is bishop could do with a whole host of innovation!

JAR: What do you see as the future of alternative worship?

JB: No idea. I think the term probably needs to go. Maybe we should just talk about worship. I think some of the alternative worship groups in the UK have been thinking about mission and what that means and might look like. It may actually involve less emphasis on worship for a season and engaging in other things? In terms of worship in the church as a whole I think I’d like to see the rest of the church embracing the insights and wonderful creativity that has been developed by alternative worship communities. I like Kester Brewin’s notion of punk where he suggests in the Complex Christ that punk changed music when it had got stuck. But it did so by creating a new cultural space. After that there was a surge of new possibilities in music, but there was no way everyone was going to now play punk. In the same way alternative worship has blasted open a cultural space with relatively few people and groups. There is no way lots of people and groups and churches will want to do alternative worship in that way but it will have opened up a whole new set of possibilities for lots of others.

JAR: When exploring the “emerging church” people tend to think of the US and the UK, countries and cultures very different from each other. Having visited Canada, where do you see us fitting in the bigger picture of this journey?

JB: There are more similarities between the UK and Canada than there are the UK and US in church. I think part of the reason for this is that more people have left the church in Canada. So there are similar challenges in terms of mission. The US is still in a situation where the pressure isn’t on in the same way- there’s plenty of people in church and plenty of money around.

There’s a few things I like of what I have seen in Canada. The first is the way you guys manage to network together – it seems very open and relaxed and friendly rather than competitive. I think Resonate is a great space. I got in trouble for saying this a while back but I still think I’m right so I’ll say it again. Internationally I think the emerging church needs locally owned and set up networks. Resonate is a great example. The international policy of any other emerging church network should be to insist on local and contextual networks that have their own identity and name, and then offer encouragement and friendship and so on. Resist the temptation of expanding the brand as it were. The second thing I like about the Canadian set up is there is some great theology that has shaped me personally – I’m thinking of the influence of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and the likes of Brian Walsh, Henk Hart, David Lyon and others. I am very grateful for that – there’s been a particular way of thinking about the redemption of all of life. Then I think you’re all pretty laid back – that suits me. But you also have some huge challenges in terms of mission (as we do). And you also have Jordon Cooper – one of the most prolific bloggers – one of the first blogs I ever discovered.

JAR: Is there anything else you would like to share?

JB: Yes…

Make space for creativity and imagination.
Create a culture of participation where the whole community can make the worship rather than a few experts.
Take some risks.
Invest in artists.

JAR: Thanks!

 

 

Emerging Church

Alternative Worship

With Friday upon us, I thought I would leave you with some strange news to ponder as you let your brains slow down for a (hopefully) relaxing evening. So, sit back, relax and consider the following stories:

Fowl News: The city of Key West, Florida has past a law which will essentially evict up 3,000 of its beloved citizens. In a city with 25,000 people represented in their year round population, this is a significant step. Other residents are up in arms, saying they will miss seeing their long time neighbours as they walk down the street or play at the park. Who are these unlucky folk? More than 3000 free-roaming chickens! Click Here for the Full Story. (In other chicken related headlines, researches have noticed a serious declining in the art of courtship… from roosters. Come on, boys! Some flowers would be a start! See here)

Feeling Flush: A 64 year old German man, thinking that the Euro had made his old marks worthless, flushed his remaining bills down the toilet, seriously blocking the pipe in his area. While some might have sited his bad luck, he couldn’t have been happier for the plumbing mishap. Why? When repairmen opened the pipe, saving much (but not all) of his currency, they were shocked to discover that he had flushed more than 30,000 marks (over $20,000 CDN). Police escorted the gentleman to the bank where he deposited it in his account. Now THAT money needs laundering (groan). See Full Story here.

Marathon Dog: After escaping from his owners, Sam the Golden Retriever spent the last two years living off the spoils of garbage cans and surviving the seasons, gaining the reputation as the “Golden Ghost”. Additionally, he avoided more than 200 attempts to capture him, including satellite tracking, helicopter searches and dart guns. In the end, he was captured with a home cooked ham and remote controlled net. Taking notes, ladies? Full Story here.

As many of you know, my wife Kim is Australian and that we have been struggling to get her immigration worked out so that she can keep ministering in the inner city community we live in (not to mention that I’d hate to live on the opposite side of the planet from my wife). Recently, the first stage of the process was miraculously achieved, taking us to the next big step- raising the $2000 to cover all the expenses for her Permanent Residency here in Canada. As missionaries, this cost, at a time when we have been hit with several other large expenses, looms heavily on our spirits.

It was during this time that we have been humbled and touched by the generousity of so many of you I have met in through this conversation. Jordon Cooper and Wendy Cooper spread the word, calling for the “Keep Kim In Canada Campaign”, directing people to donate to the cause, either through PayPal (see sidebar) or YWAM Donor Services for Canadian tax receipts. Several others have taken up the call and several generous donations have already begun to come in.

As I write this, my heart is full, my throat is tight and my eyes teary. Thank you all for the love, prayer and support you have extended to me, many of you who don’t know me beyond words on a screen. We would like to thank each of you for the gift of your friendship.

Thanks to the Father for the gift of His Spirit which unites into one Body, His Church.

Emerging Church

As I continue to read the novel “The Shoes of the Fisherman”, I am moved again and again by the simple and profound wisdom that emerges from its pages. In the following quote a young woman is sharing with the new Pope about a series of terrible birth defects showing up in the Roman population. She asks him that eternal question- Why does a good God let these things happen:

“If I could tell you that,” said Kiril the Pontiff soberly, “I’d be God myself. I don’t know, though I sometimes wish I did. You mustn’t imagine that the mystery of faith is any simpler for than it is for you. The Act of Faith is an act of acceptance- not an explanation.“

It is this last statement that moved me. What does it mean to you?

This past weekend, my wife & I went to see the feel-good movie, “Take The Lead” starring Antonio Banderas.  Now, this film is not likely to take home any awards and it had an ending that pushes the limits on the cheesy factor.  However, that being said, there was a dynamic in the film that captured me from the very beginning.  Let me give the background on it.

Former professional dancer turned dance instructor, Pierre Dulaine, is inspired to get involved in the lives of inner city youth after witnessing a senseless act of vandalism.  He approaches the principal of the local high school, offering to help.  Before he knows what he has gotten himself into, he is put in front of the schools detention class and its disreputable students.  His plan?  To teach them ballroom dancing.

The clash is immediate, with Dulaine being seen as yet another uptown, wealthy person of privilege coming down to pat his own egos by offering useless charity.  Further, the style of music and dance he introduced was quickly dismissed as outdated, dry and further evidence of the privileges culture.  Things were not off to a good start.  However, as Dulaine’s commitment to them became more clear and the beauty of the dance began to demonstrate itself (namely through watching the tango performed by an attractive young woman), the kids began to cautiously participate.

As the lessons gained momentum and increased in difficulty, so too did the relationships develop.  Through their interactions, both Dulaine and the students began to realize that the differences in their style of dance- ballroom and hiphop- was far deeper than stylistic.  Each spoke to a culture, history and personality that reflected the intrinsic identities of both.  In this discovery, they began to appreciate the other.

Then a very unique and exciting thing happened.  As they began to understand each others dance and music, they also a deeper connection, a shared underlying rhythm.  Both shared subtle, but defining beats and patterns.  What emerged was an exciting synthesis of both styles, embracing the grace and discipline of ballroom, while maintaining the edge, passion and angst of hiphop.  Neither group abandon their perfered dance, but created a third option as well.

As I watched the film, I struck by the sense that I had seen this story playing itself out somewhere else.  Like Dulaine and ballroom dancing, the established church represents an important and rich history of faith.  While “new” in many ways, the emerging church, it equally informed and shaped by history, and therefore equally important.  While not dismissing the established church completely, the emerging church recognizes, for example, where unjust privilege (whether it be racial, economic, or otherwise) is perpetuated by its systems.  The established church, while not invalidating the emerging dynamics completely, recognizes the dangers of untempered critique and rejection of the established.  Like the film, it would easy to presume that differences were a matter of style and taste, hindering reconciliation, relationship and collaboration.

While I know this is an oversimplification- I could develop it further, but won’t here- I believe there is a lesson to learned from this.  Rather than continuing to frame the relationship between the established and emerging church as one of “us vs. them” or “right vs. wrong”, we need to begin to find ways of discovering the underlying rhythm, the shared tempo and beat that guides the unique expressions of our shared dance.  We need to learn to affirm the importance and validity of each expression, willing to learn from each other.  But it is not enough, however, to live and let live.  Rather we need to seeks ways to create those “third options”, where we can affirm that, despite our differences, we are one Church.

This does not deny the need for critical evaluation on both sides.  The fact is that the established church has often too uncritically integrated things such as colonialism, materialism, individualism, etc.  Equally, the emerging church can, in its zeal, over-react and over-protest, forgetting their “youth” as a movement (and let there be no doubt, that is what it is).  However, if we can start with the assumption of our own brokenness, as individuals and communities, we might examine these differences hopefully, believing that we will come out the other side a more united, authentic and purposeful Body of Christ.

So what do you say?  Let’s dance!

Emerging Church

Growing up, I attended the same Christian school for 12 years, located about 40kms from where I lived. As my father was a teacher there, I drove to and from school each day with him, usually accompanied by a fellow teacher carpooling with us. During highschool, on our drive home, I would often use my Dad & the other teacher as sounding boards for the ideas and frustrations of my maturing faith. As is common with young Christians, my vision and passion were deeply idealistic, fueled by urgency. However, as a voracious reader, my questions shifted from “Why aren’t we preaching the Gospel from street corners?” to the more uncommon, such as “If we truly believed in Jesus teaching, would we really participate in some of our culture like we do? Consumerism? Individualism?”.

To their credit, unlike many adults in the Evangelical church in which I grew up, they listened patiently and open to these “emerging” ideas, regardless of how foreign they were in my rural, conservative Christian community. However, neither did they enthusiastically jump on board. Too my often deep frustration, they would smile, and say, “Well, you go for it. Once you are doing it, you come back and talk to us.” In others, “practice what you preach” or “put your praxis where your mouth is”. They were not being dismissive (at least not entirely), but requiring me to move beyond the easy idealism and rhetoric to action.

Nearly 15 years later, those conversations still ring as clearly in my mind and heart as they did the day I first heard them. Their challenge, goading me to prove my passion, has deeply shaped the choices I have made in my life in pursuit of these ideals. For those who have read my story (Parts 1, 2 and 3), you will know that directly out of high school, I joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM), where I have been serving (with no end in sight) for nearly 12 years now. Even within this largely Evangelical missions organization (with a fair shaping from the charismatic and holiness traditions), my ideas were often foreign and unusual. Thanks to the freedom inherent in our values and the support of some very “emergent” leaders, I have had the chance to truly put my ideas to the test.

And yet, a decade and a half after the gaunlet had been cast, I feel as though I lack the authority to call anyone to these ideals. Convinced that true missional community is essential to the vocation of the Church, our little group lacks the intimacy and commitment I would have hoped. Positive that rooting our lives and our homes into the very inner city communities we felt called to serve- thus becoming neighbours, not saviours- would provide powerful access to the lives of people so alienated from the middle-class evangelicalism of my youth. And yet, I know so few of my neighbours, let alone had any impact on the systemic injustices that plague them. Sure that evangelism was more than the bold proclamation of propositions, I aimed to live my life to reflect Christ’s love incarnationally, only to find that I am not seen very differently from all the other white, male, Anglo, Protestant oppressors of the past.

This is not to say that no good has come out of it all. Far from it. We have seen 100′s of young Christians transformed in their worldview through powerful and personal encounters with people who, prior to our involvement, were seen as nothing more than as criminals, statistics or one dimensional Hollywood characters. We have helped mobilize further hundreds in service to the poor, both within our community and in some of the ravaged regions around the globe. I know that I have helped contribute to some amazing successes, but weighed in the balance, has it been enough?

So I ask myself, is it worth it? Is it worth living on the constantly shrinking missionary support? Should I bother desperately praying and pleading that God would send a few more workers to this all but forgotten and rejected community? Have I really lived the sacraficial life required to make the impact believe is only possible through total abandonment to God? Please do not read this as a plea for affirmation. I know so many of you believe in us and what we are doing, many of of you supporting us with much needed finances and even more needed prayer. We are eternally grateful and humbled by all that people have sacraficed in their belief in us and our calling.

Rather, I write these words to give voice to a frustration that many of us feel, whether pastors, “missionaries”, small group leaders or Christians simply truly to serve God authentically and effectively. While the emerging/emergent church conversation has (and remains) an important part of positive change and growth, many are feeling the old pangs of frustration and urgency rekindle within our hearts and communities. The change we were sure would blossom out of this new “movement” has not come to the level of fruition many of us would have hoped.

Do we, then, abandoning the movement and seek more fertile soil? Do we give in to the inevitable need of becoming post-emergent? I don’t think so. First, we have not given this fledgingly movement the time to grow, develop and mature. In the 2000 years of Church history, some of the most significant and fast paced change has come in recent centuries (even decades), thus (perhaps) raising our expectations to the level of instant gratification. We need to extend grace and patience. We need to practice the long lost art of confession, requiring of ourselves the authenticity to share our failures- and not just moral failings- supporting each other in communities where brokenness is assumed and is redeemed through the transformational, wholistic Good News of God.

More than this, however, is the need for us to allow our passion and urgency to drive us to darind and “foolish” acts of service to God- what Gandhi has called “experiments in truth”. We need to band together to step beyond the safety of theological conversation into the risky practice of active Christlikeness in a world that has waited too long already. This does not exclude theological reflection and exploration, but rather let it be fueled by the necessity raised through our daring acts of missional service, justice and love. There are too many of us that we should feel alone in this journey.

So the question remains: Where do we go from here?

 

Emerging Church

Today was a first for me.  Andrew Jones- aka Tall Skinny Kiwi- hosted a party his silver anniversary of journalling/blogging.  It was in a room he created at Habbo Hotel.  Rather than a chat room, you create a character for yourself and interact with the virtual environment.  Some of us showed up early, gathering in a circle near the fireplace.  When more people showed up, we decided to move to the table where there were more chairs.  Now, since we could all “hear” each other from anywhere in the room, this was entirely unnecessary.  Why did we do it?  Because it seemed so natural.  A truly bizarre experience.

At any rate, it was a great time to get to know some new people, pray for each other (those being prayed for hopped in an empty bathtub which we all surrounded- I know, I know…).  Andrew then made an annoucement about the new position he will be taking with Church Mission Society (CMS).  While it will be a pay cut for him, he is excited by the oportunity to invest more into the UK.  Check out his blog for more details.

In the screen shots, I am Voyageur, the guy wearing the red toque.  Now, for my non-Canadian readers who are uninitiated in the world of the toque (or tuque), it “is a knitted hat, originally usually of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter. Sometimes considered Canada’s national hat, all tuques are tapered and brimless, and they are often topped with pompoms.” (from Wikipedia).  For more information, rent “Strange Brew“, post haste!

 

Some Casual Conversation at the party 

(note me standing lost in the middle) 

Here we are praying for Andrew (in the tub)

 

 

 Emerging Church