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October 25, 2006
Emergence
A few weeks ago John Piper hosted a conference in Minneapolis called "The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World". They made some promotional videos for it. Here is one by Mark Driscoll that I found particularly interesting.
In the "conversation" between the "emergent" and "reformed" types, there is a lot to think about, and I think Mark's been thinking about this stuff for a long time, and has some helpful insights.
Posted by aaronlord at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
The Christian in the Shop Window
Although the idea of community is a huge part of the Christian life (Gr. ekklesia: translated "church" in the NT--"kirk" if you're Scottish), there is a huge danger on relying on what the people outside of yourself think about you and how you're doing. All that they're seeing is what they can see. People can appear to be Christians just by behaving a certain way, saying certain words, doing certain things. But that is not where our life in Christ exists.
The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activites are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, for lo the kingdom of God is within you," a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the life.
We have to get rid of the plague of the spirit of the religious age in which we live. In Our Lord's life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as His Master. The central thing about the kingom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 19)
You have to know Jesus for yourself, and consider that relationship more important than all others, and your unity with Christ has to be more important than your unity with your brothers and sisters. When Jesus prayed for us in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed "that they may all be one, ust as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:21, ESV). The unity that we have must be in the Father and the Son, or it is nothing but meaninglessness and vanity.
Posted by aaronlord at 10:44 AM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2006
Chico
I recently applied for a job at Auctiva, a dot-com in Chico, and today they made me an offer! I feel really good about this. There's a huge amount of peace. And I am thankful for the Lord's providence in this. He brought me to the place where I was ready to move back even if the only job I could get was just another mcjob making $8/hr. And then he drops this in my lap! I am excited for the opportunity to grow, to be a part of a department that will stretch me and grow me, where they even have other programmers who might actually be better than me! Also, I am excited about the fact that the company is product-driven rather than sales-driven. I'll be a part of building something of value, something that's worthwhile (rather than just providing a program to support salespeople at a company where they don't even follow up to make sure the customers are getting the things they pay for). I'm also really excited about seeing all of my friends and being back in their lives on a regular basis! Pat and Andi, Sean and Pina, Kevin and Kristen, Jason, Erica, Bryan, James and Heidi, Miguel and Laurel, Jon and Cori, Chris and Priscila, José and Jeannie, Don and Lisa, Justin and Lisa, Zayne, Taylor, Brian Brophy, Steve! It's going to be so good to see you all!
Posted by aaronlord at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2006
Interview...
The telephone interview went very well, and they want to come up so they can meet with me in person! So... if you're lucky, I might be seeing some of you Chico people really soon!
Posted by aaronlord at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2006
The good news... part 2
Tomorrow at 2 PM I have a telephone interview for a job at Auctiva, a company in Chico, where my pal Sean Brown works. I'm excited about this, for a couple reasons. First, there's the fact that I'd get to move back to Chico!!! Also, I don't want to be stuck somewhere where people are just in "getting by" mode, using servers that are 8 years old and ineffecient linear code with archaic poorly-designed HTML output. I don't want to stagnate. I want to grow and move forward. I want to be on the cutting edge of web programming technology.
At Auctiva, I'd need to make an adjustment to switch from VB to C#, but this is something I want to do. From what I've read, C# is the way to go, because of how closely-entwined it has been with the development of the .NET Framework. I don't have much C# experience, but I hope they'll take into consideration the fact that all the namespaces in the .NET class library behave the same way no matter what language you're using. I'm a really quick study, too. One of my first big projects where I work now was a huge Ajax interface for our company's Intranet site, and I had to learn a lot of JavaScript techniques and Ajax concepts in order to put that in place.
Posted by aaronlord at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2006
Intentional Poverty
I thought it was about time for an update on what's going on with me.
I took a week unpaid leave a couple weeks ago and went to Chico. I got to spend a lot of time with Erica, Jason, Sean & Piña. I also got to spend time with Pat & Andi Mathers, and that was very special to me. Pat has a lot of vision and passion for what his new church is all about, and it resonated when he shared it with me. It coincides with things I've been learning from my own Bible studies, and from books I've been reading, podcasts I've been listening to (John Piper, Derek Webb), and the music I'm listening to as well (Derek Webb, The Discarded, Billy Bragg). The topic that I think the Holy Spirit is putting on my heart is that of intentional poverty.
I recently had the opportunity to apologize to my friend Chase for not keeping my doors opened to him at a point last summer when he needed it. The reason I shut him out was because the doors had been shut on me, metaphorically speaking. I was unemployed at the time, and then when I got a new job, it was at about half of what I was making before. Still, compared to millions of people in Africa and Asia, I was living like a king. In my current financial situation, I found myself wishing I could do it all over again, with the money I'm making now. I'd totally be able to take care of people! However, recently a whole change has come about in my thinking about this, and that is, I need to get rid of that italicized "with" part at the end of the do-it-all-over-again statement.
God is my provider, whether I'm making what I'm making now, or minimum wage, or am unemployed. We're supposed to take care of one another. Even if you're unemployed, but still have a roof over your head, well, you still have something to give to another person who is also unemployed but does not have a roof. And it's worth the risk, even if you both end up on the street later on. At least you won't be alone. I still wish I could do it all over again, even without the cash. And I now recognize that I should have poured myself out and given of what little I had at that time.
Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me.
I have my friends in Chico to thank for this whole shift in mindset. If it wasn't for them, I'd probably have gotten a new car by now, and if I had, then I wouldn't have the flexibility and freedom to do what I think might very well be the next step. And this is what I mean by intentional poverty: I am praying about quitting my job and moving back to Chico, even if the only job I can get there is one for $8/hr. Life is not about your career. It's about what you do for the Kingdom, and the value you have in being a friend to others, and, most importantly, in glorifying God. A career can actually distract you from this. And if you value health insurance and retirement savings more than doing the work of the Kingdom, then there's something wrong with you.
When Pat was talking about The Orchard, there were two things he mentioned that stood out to me in a big way. First, he mentioned how the church was given opportunities to move into a building on the other side of town, but they turned it down and decided to remain in Chapmantown, among the poor. One reason they did this is because there are people in that church who can only come because it's within walking distance. If the church moved to California Park or the Pleasant Valley area, they wouldn't be able to come. Also, they believe the people they are supposed to reach are the people in that area who aren't being targeted by any other ministries.
Secondly, Pat said the pastor does not go out of the way to please rich people, or to make sure that they are not offended. He even spoke of an instance when rich people got up and left in the middle of the service because they were uncomfortable among the homeless. I think that's great! I think as a Christian, you hope that your leaders would truly be above reproach, and that they would have a biblical mindset that would not play favorites, but the sad thing is that this is not usually the case. Jesus even spoke about this whole place of honor thing, saying, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11, ESV). Similary, Christ's own brother, James the Just, wrote:
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? (James 2:1-7, ESV)
With so many modern evangelical churches in America going the way of the megachurch, with expensive mortgages, big screens and flashy lights, and pastors with fancy cars and huge houses, they cannot afford to be biblical when it comes to this, because they need the rich man's donations in order to remain comfortable in their ways. So, to see this verse walked out in real life is a breath of fresh air!
Posted by aaronlord at 08:20 PM | Comments (1)
MySpace API
I have an idea of something I'd like to do if I could make the time to do it, and that is to program a sort of Custom Class or API that would enable you to access your MySpace stuff from another website, using ASP.NET. I've tested the technology successfully with a page I wrote in C# which retrieves entries from my MySpace blog and displays them on the test page. Future steps in the project include converting my blog from MovableType to ASP.NET, plugging in my new .NET MySpace reader that I made, and then exporting that in the form of a class that other people can download and install on their own websites. Let me know if you're interested in partnering with me on this project!
Posted by aaronlord at 07:47 PM | Comments (1)
Podcasting
Things are changing in the world of media as a result of this whole Podcasting thing.
John Piper's radio broadcast, which I've been listening to daily for a whole year in Podcast format, is going off the air and leaving traditional radio completely, so they can instead focus entirely on harnessing the power of the internet for daily distribution of the program. By doing this, they're saving $1/2 million a year.
Also, Amanda Congdon, formerly of Rocketboom fame, is doing a really cool video podcast called "AmandaAcrossAmerica". She's been interviewing different bloggers and talking about all kinds of things related to "new media" and what this whole thing means. There are some good interview of Jeff Jarvis and Andy Carvin that analyze where we're at and predict what's coming. One thing to look out for is the "digital divide". We're in danger of leaving behind everyone else who doesn't have internet. For example, we could talk to people and expect that they know all about what we're talking about because they're just as well-informed as us. Think of voting, and the danger of letting people become even more disenfranchised than they already are. Culturally, I think this is something we need to guard against. Jesus told us to take care of His "little ones", and if we are entirely focused on the people who have the advantage of the web, we're going to be passing over a good 10% of the population.
Posted by aaronlord at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
