tony sheng :: Friends blog

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Just bought some, now you go too.

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I love the abomination / obama-nation bit.

What do you think?

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(Image from an actual suburb of Toronto)

One of the primary attributes of the suburbs that comes to my mind, (besides cookie-cutter houses, family idols, commuting, and affluence), is isolation.

It could be densely disconnected like in the image above or even in a tightly secure urban condominium, but isolation is still at the heart of suburbia.

In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells a parable of a rich man and Lazarus.  Some interesting things that I think might have some implications for suburban living

Unlike Lazarus the rich man was nameless throughout the story – maybe because he blended in so well?

No one is in hell here due to doctrine or a disagreement regarding belief statements

We spend more on garbage bags than half of the world does on all goods.  Lazarus longed for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  Could garbage bags be the modern day crumbs?

The rich man built a ‘gate’ to keep people like Lazarus out.  We build fences and zoning laws to distance ourselves from people and problems, and people with problems.

A ‘great chasm’ developed where even those who wanted to cross over to the rich man, could not.  Maybe the danger of the suburbs is that as we avoid interruptions of those unlike ourselves more, we become increasingly unable to allow anyone in.

To quote Gladiator, “What we do in this life, echoes into eternity”

Could the gates we build not only lock others out, but also lock us in?

In a great role reversal, the rich man finds himself desperately needing Lazarus in the next life.  What would it look like for us to come to terms with actually needing those we try to avoid in this life?

Could it be that we can become so isolated in the suburbs, that we no longer see people, as people?  The rich man in the parable repeatedly argues with Lazarus in the third person, telling him what to do, as if he was his slave.

You would think someone tormented in the flames of hell wouldn’t be so verbose.

I wonder if suburbia dehumanizes us?  We’re known as one person at work over here, and at school over there, and at the club or the church over there, and we become fragmented.  No one fully knows who we are.

Maybe that’s why we in turn treat people as work units, assets, or distractions to avoid?

Isolation and building gates isn’t so hard when you’re not quite as important as I am.

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Our community is involved with the advent conspiracy for Christmas again this year.

You got something better going on?

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I’m so stoked that Toronto was able to pull off their government 2.0 summit.

They used live streaming, a moderated board for online questions, and even a twitter backchannel. 

You can find a review of it here.  And slides with audio from the mozilla dude here.  Fully archives should be up shortly.

One quote I thought was hilarious was when one of the group leaders were commenting on adopting new technology… “Everyone else is already there… we just need to get on with it, so we don’t become irrelevant”.  How many times have we heard that coming out of the church?

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My current mandate in life is to seek the good of the city.  This is a wild and wonderfully vague mission statement that offers me the freedom and the burden to do just about anything.

One current tangible expression of this, is seeking the good of the small piece of the community I currently live in.  To live, work, play, and minister all in the same area is definitely an ideal for me.

My building consists of a shared space of three condominiums called the Crossroads complex of at least two thousand people.  For the past year there was a construction sign that read:

Repair, Restore, Renew… isn’t that so much of what the gospel is all about?

Jesus coming to repair the brokenness and sin within us; to restore our relationships with one another and all humanity; and to renew our sense of calling and hope in this life?

Condos are being built everywhere across the city right now.  They remain closed spaces where things can only be birthed from within.  What would it look like to be and create church within Toronto’s rapidly increasing condo market?

The beautiful thing I’ve found so far is that there’s already infrastructure for some degree of community.  There are street sales, BBQ’s, and events that I’ve been able to easily be a part of.

I was also recently voted in to the board of directors of the condo corporation.  The other candidates were way more qualified than me, I didn’t even vote for me!  But somehow, I’m on board.

I have no idea where this is going, but I do know that seeking the good of the city’s we live in is a part of what we’re all called to do.

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Daddy daycare is over, and today’s my first time in a month having the 8 hours of the day all to myself.

Between having the best time in the world hanging out with my daughter, I’ve been squeezing in the odd hour or two each day, at my full time career… trying to change the world of course.

Let me say those of you who are stay-at-home parents, much honor and glory and praise is due to you!  I have no doubt that many of you live with plans on hold and dreams deferred.  You’re a gift to your child and to the world.

And single parents out there, I have no idea how you do it.  period.  You astound me.

Today I made breakfast and lunch for my wife and daughter.  Read through the scriptures (I’ve been reading genesis, and going through John & Revelations backwards).  While watching the Toronto Government 2.0 Summit, I finished preparing for a talk on the ‘theology of ecology’ I’ll be doing with my wife this Sunday.

Also managed to dig through some emails, book my next several meetings, and write up the next ten blog posts.

Finally, a day I feel at least a bit productive.

Now I’m going to go bake my wife a lasagna.

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Pastor Ed Young of Fellowship church has issued a seven day sex challenge, that’s seven straight days of sex for married couples for his entire church of 20,000.

What do you think?

I know one thing for sure, there’s going to be a baby spike in about 9 months.

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To follow up on the previous post on Christian platforms and networks… I was just re-introduced to this song Hurt, by Johnny Cash.  I haven’t really listened to this song since I was an angst filled teenager when it was originally by the Nine Inch Nails.  I loved the song because I felt it described my reality in raw form.

Hearing it now, I realize while it’s still a glimpse into reality, it’s moreso a reality without hope.

If I ever had the guts to slit my wrists back then, this song would definitely be on replay.

It’s intriguing that Johnny Cash chose to cover this song not long before he died.  After living a life that many others might envy, he lays it all on the line here and calls it an ‘empire of dirt’ (Supposedy he re-embraced his Christian faith later in life).  The accompanying visuals in this are fantastic as well.

I wonder how many of us will look back at the end of our days wondering ‘what have we become’?  Even if we’ve impacted a million lives, who are we when we’re completely alone at our final gasps? What’s the kingdom, without the King?

Lyrics below.

I hurt myself today

to see if I still feel

I focus on the pain

the only thing that’s real

the needle tears a hole

the old familiar sting

try to kill it all away

but I remember everything

what have I become?

my sweetest friend

everyone I know

goes away in the end

and you could have it all

my empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns

upon my liar’s chair

full of broken thoughts

I cannot repair

beneath the stains of time

the feelings disappear

you are someone else

I am still right here

what have I become?

my sweetest friend

everyone I know

goes away in the end

and you could have it all

my empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

if I could start again

a million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way

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We live in an age of networks.

Most of us know that we can’t do anything truly visionary on our own.  And if we can, our visions are likely too small.  The internet (which is only about 4000 days old) has accelerated our capacity to network with one another.

The internet allows grassroots tribes to come out from nowhere, upending established institutions.  You’ve seen this with the Obama comapaign, and you can see it in the rise of new church networks and associations as denominations decline.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been sensing a rapid land grab for the church network of the future.  “Church networks” brings up over 3 million hits on google.  Rick Warren says he wants to create the ‘network of networks’, as with many other visionary leaders.

In techie terms it’s the platform.  Microsoft Windows is a computing platform, google is an online platform, you could say facebook is a social networking platform.  The biggest and broadest rules them all.

There are many advantages to a common platform or network.  The economies of scale, standardized best practices, and phenomenal impact.  Imagine if David Yonggi Cho of the 830,000 person Yoido full gospel church in Soul Korea asked every person to pick up one piece of trash each that day?

What’s astounding is that at the very foundation of these massive Christian networks, is just one man.

Sometimes I find it hard to tell if our networks are simply reflecting Christ’s heart for unity… or if they’re  pyramid schemes of influence?

May the biggest network win…?  What do you think?