(e)mergent Voyageurs

Previous Post – Casper & Jim Go To Church – Book Review

It seems the first time I post this, only my computer displayed the images.  I hope it is working now. 

Recently I have been finding myself photo-happy with my cell phone. While the quality is never great, I keep forgetting my digital camera and so when the urge to snap a shot over comes me, I am left to using the Fido phone. Here are a few of my recent pics:

Every morning our dog, Dino, howls to be let out of his crate to join us. When we release him he eats, uses the yard, then promptly goes back to sleep. He enjoys stretching out next to Kim. What a lazy butt… We love him!

My folks took us out to Tony Roma’s (a rib joint) and while eating on the patio, this little bunny came along. People were tossing it carrots & celery. Then someone threw it a riblet. Everyone scoffed- that is until the bunny ignored the veggies and began nibbling the ribling! My kind of rabbit indeed.

While visiting my folks in my old home town, the ever wonderful Rainy River, we found some of the local kids ramping off the government dock into the grand ol’ river. They wrapped life jackets on the bike’s handle bars to keep it from sinking. Gutsy! (On a side note, if any of you are bird watchers, Rainy River is a must visit, as one of the best kept secrets of birding)

This gorgeous mouth was one of hundreds that swarmed our hotel in Duluth where I was performing a wedding. This one was only half the size of my hand. Where I grew up, the largest I ever found (caught in my bedroom window at midnight when I was 7) was larger than my head with its wing “eyes” as large as a full grown owl.

I have captured a few pictures on the digital camera too, so here as some of them as well:

This doe walked up to me at Gooseberry Falls State Park in Minnesota. The picture is blurry due to the attack of balck flies I was attempting (unsuccessfully) to defend myself against. Later than evening, while the best man & I took the groom out to play pool, a young buck approached me in the parking lot. I looked over to the groom and sad, “I guess is now officially your stag party”.

This ol’ fella lives in the trees around our yard. He chatters at anyone who invades it’s territory, which is anytime the dog goes out to pee or someone walks past the house. I am pleased that he has stopped nattering at Kim & I. We fear he hasn’t long to live, but we are glad he is one of our neighbours.

Throughout the busy schedule of the last few months, I have been meaning to get back into reviewing some of the great books I have been reading. Top of that list is “Jim & Casper Go To Church” by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper. Here is the Amazon.com description:

Jim Henderson pays people to go to church. In fact, he made national news when he “rented” a soul for $504 on E-Bay after its owner offered an “open mind” to the highest bidder. In Jim & Casper Go to Church, Hendrson hires another atheist–Matt Casper–to visit ten leading churches with him and give the “first impression” perspective of a non-believer. What follows is a startling dialogue between an atheist and a believer seeing church anew through the eyes of a skeptic, and the development of an amazing relationship between two men with diametrically opposing views of the world who agree to respect each others’ space.

This is a tough book for me to review. While there is a significant amount of good that the book has to offer, I was frequently frustrated by other aspects of it. I am glad that I read it, however, so despite the critiques, I think it would be a worthwhile read (though perhaps worth waiting for a less expensive paperback version).

The book is a quick and enjoyable read, not only for it’s size (it’s a smaller book with about 170 pages of generously spaced large print), but also for it’s engaging, conversational tone. Most of the book is a the dynamic back and forth dialogue between Jim & Casper, allowing the reader to feel like the were sitting in on both the conversation and their experiences at each church. These guys are obviously friends who respect each other enough to be able to discuss and disagree on important issues without every becoming combatant.

Provocative without being offensive, the questions and observations surfaced in the book are healthy ones for all Christians to consider, especially those in leadership. Even where I felt they were not entirely fair (which happened now and then throughout the book), I never had the sense of them being intentionally underhanded or condescending in their critiques.

Perhaps most valuable was being able to hear the input of someone like Casper. It will take some readers a little time to mentally adjust to reacting to those things they disagree with, remembering that, fair or not, they were his genuine reactions and reflect what many others have, do or will experience in our churches. The book is not attempting to say that Casper is right, but rather that what he says is important regardless. Frankly, he is right more often than might be comfortable for some.

However, there are many aspects of the book that I found frustrating. The very conversational tone that made it so enjoyable to read also meant that only a very quick exploration of the ideas was possible. The book might have benefited from some more detailed conversation about the content, even if it had been after the fact.

Of the 12 churches visited I had heard of 10 of them. If this book was seeking to give a fair look at Chrisitian/church culture in America, it would be been better to mix in a few churches that represented the vast majority of the congregations around the country. Coming from a small town originally, I believe at least one rural church would have been helpful. Much of the critiques offered as though they were relevant to churches in general were largely pertinent only to these “famous” churches. More than half of the churches were megachurches, which seemed to distract from the main thesis of the book. (In their defense, I am sure that the marketability of the book was hinged on the locations chosen.) I was also somewhat put out that they didn’t always even stay for the entire service. One visit is hardly enough to make a fair critique, but at the very least they should have committed to experiencing the whole thing (including the pre- and post- church culture that is often as important to the church as the service itself).

I believe that Jim & Casper offer something valuable to the church despite these short-comings. While I am not a fan of church rating, at least not as Matt has developed it, aspects of it are very creative and helpful- even necessary. This book will be beneficial to anyone who is involved in church ministry, raising important question if not providing all the answers. While, I might hesitate recommending this book to young Christians who are disillusioned and wounded by the church, as it could unintentionally add fuel to that fire, it is nothing that some conversation and understand couldn’t over come.

Anyone else read this and want to weigh in?

Today is Canada Day and so I thought I would share with you some interesting thoughts on our nation from people of interest over the years. Now, please note that I am not endorsing a quote by putting it here, but rather acknowledging that (fair or not) it is an accurate representation of ideas or perspectives in or about Canada. Enjoy!

“Canadian nationalism is a subtle, easily misunderstood but powerfull reality, expressed in a way that is not to state directed – something like a beer commercial or the death of a significant Canadian figure.”
    -Paul Kopas

“We Canadians live in a blind spot about our identity. We have very strong feelings about who we aren’t but only weak ones about who we are. We’re passionate about what we don’t want to become but oddly passive about what we should be.”
    -John Cruickshank

“Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.”
    -J. Bartlett Brebner

“Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.”
    -Pierre Trudeau

“Canada is the essence of not being. Not English, not American, it is the mathematic of not being. And a subtle flavour – we’re more like celery as a flavour.”
    - Mike Meyers

“Canada: A few acres of snow.”
    -Voltaire

“I want to thank all the Canadians who came out today to wave to me – with all five fingers!”
    -President George W. Bush

“A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it’s proven.”
    -Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (on finding no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction)

“Canadians are the people who learned to live without the bold accents of the natural ego-trippers of other lands.”
    -Marshall McLuhan

“Canadians have an abiding interest in surprising those Americans who have historically made little effort to learn about their neighbour to the North.”
    -Peter Jennings

“The great themes of Canadian history are as follows: Keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear.”
    -Will Ferguson

“In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect.”
    -U.S. President Bill Clinton

“Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren’t British, and to the British that we aren’t Americans that we haven’t had time to become Canadians.”
    -Helen Gordon McPherson

“I don’t even know what street Canada is on.”
    -Al Capone

“We’ll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us.”
    -Andy Barrie

“Canada is the greatest nation in this country.”
    -Former Toronto mayor Allan Lamport

Happy Canada Day, eh!