The Girl Effect looks like a very interesting project. It's a way of helping girls in poor countries get an education and have a meaningful life. It's a shame the website has a very poor navigation. To get to the important part, just go to Global Giving.

Bugles are calling
from prairie to shore,
"Sign up" and "Fall in"
and march off to war.
Drums beating loudly,
Hearts beating proudly
Match Blue and Grey
And smile as you say Goodbye.
Smoke hides the valleys
And fire paints the plains.
Loud roar the cannons
'Til ruin remains:
Blue grass and cotton
Burnt and forgotten
All hope seems gone
So soldier march on to die.
There in the distance
A flag I can see,
Scorched and in ribbons
But whose can it be;
How ends the story,
Whose is the glory,
Ask if we dare
Our comrades out there who sleep.

EYE 43 from TRIPLET on Vimeo.

(seen here)

"The rejection of the gospel as social is not just a repudiation of the social gospel; the rejection of the gospel's implications for combating race and class divisions nurtures social niches and fosters a "social-club" gospel." (Paul Metzger, in Consuming Jesus)

I'm reading Consuming Jesus, a very interesting book that talks about race and class divisions in a consumist church, and this quote jumped into my eyes. I have been thinking a lot about unity in church, specially unity as something different from conformity and uniformity. I mean unity in diversity, the only real unity I believe in.

It is easy to be "united" when there is uniformity, or when we abdicate of out uniqueness to conform into a predefined mold. It is so easy, that what it really creates is a false unity, a unity that will only stand firm if we reach out for people "just like us", which normally means middle class white people.

Real unity exists in diversity, where diference is not ignored, but embraced. It is a unity that stands after confrontation and conflict of different visions. It is a unity that when it happens, it has a solid foundation, that no one can destroy. It exists not because of avoiding confrontation, but because of embracing confrontation of different beliefs. Not through conforming with an artificial pattern, or abdicating of beliefs for "the common good".

This is a unity that needs courage, humility, love. That is focused on Jesus Christ, and not on our own pleasures and wishes. It is composed of people that sacrifice their preferences without sacrificing their beliefs. Great maturity is needed to make room for this to happen.

Let me start by saying that The Starfish Manifesto (press the link to download it) is not really a book. It's more like a draft of a book, with many parts that would (and probably should) be changed and cut before becoming a book. Which means it is not easy to read, and it is really long. Only the really interested soul will be able to finish it (like I did, and no one else I know was able to).

The Starfish Manifesto starts where Houses that Change the World stopped. It is focused mainly on the prophetic and apostolic gifts, and how the strategy of God to the discipling of the planet can operate through those gifts.

The book starts describing the roles of the prophet and of the apostle, and then how those roles work together for the envisioning of the strategy of the church, locally as well as globally. It finishes with some practical wisdom in how to make the jump. I identified a lot with what is written in the book, except with the financial principles.

This book, together with The Forgotten Ways, are at the moment, in my opinion, the ones that best describe the vision of God for the church of today. A organic, Christ-centered, Kingdom of God oriented, apostolic, missiological church.

This is a long overdue review. I finished reading this book some months ago.

Serve God, Save the Planet is a book that obviously caught my interest, since it talks about the two most important themes in my life: God and nature.

The book starts by showing all the theoretical reasons why christians should be actively interested in protecting the environment, and it does accomplish that role really well. I wouldn't say it brings much new things for someone that understands both subjects as well as I do, but it is an excellent resume of all those reasons.

After that, it turns into the practical consequences of those beliefs, and that's where I find the book a little bit lacking. Most practical aspects talked about are mainly in a personal level. More about what we can do alone in our house (mainly recycling and saving energy). But not much in how we should work to protect and restore natural habitats, or how we can politically intervene in those subjects. And it got a little bit boring by the end, with so many small things we can do.

But overall, I think it is a great book as an introduction to this subject, and worth a read. I would offer one to people interested but with no clue about the subject.

Going Solo is a conference for freelancers, organized by Stephanie Booth, that looks very interesting, with very practical information, including:

* skills a freelancer needs (doing the work, marketing and networking, contracts and cash flow)
* fixing prices, closing deals, negotiating contracts (the hardcore businessy stuff)
* what kind of work freelancers in the 2.0 world do (some jobs are more suitable for soloists than others)
* marketing and taking care of one’s social capital (blogging… and being a good online citizen)
* tools of the trade (what software/tools/methods can assist you as a freelancer?)
* coworking and staying in touch with “colleagues” (compensating for “working alone” — we remain social animals)
* challenges in making a passion into a job, dealing with the blurring of the life/work distinction
* international clients, travel, different laws and tax rules, accounting
* soloist or small business?
* adapting to different kinds of clients (in particular, how do you deal with big corporations that you approach or who have approached you)

I'll be there :)

I have to try this:


$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - The funniest videos are a click away

Leaning on our own knowledge brings blindness. Or in other words, being full of ourselves makes us blind to new things. It makes us think we know all, are able to do all, and don't need nobody else, including God.

In my opinion, this is the worst thing that plagues the church of our days, myself included.

I believe God has a purpose on the creation of this world. Let's call it the Ultimate Purpose. I also believe that in order to achieve it, God has a purpose for every person in his Kingdom. And that for each person to be able to fulfill his/her purpose, he has given abilities, some natural, some supernatural. And also that that purpose is in line with the ultimate purpose of God.

But for that purpose to be fulfilled, it is not enough for each person to have his/her own indivdual purposes. It seems God has made things in such a way that people can't really fulfill their purposes all by themselves. They have to find a community, and sinergize their abilities to really be able to fulfill the ultimate purpose.

Because of all that, one of the most important roles of a christian community, is for us to empower each other on our callings. And this can happen in very different ways: incentivating, contributing with our money and with our time, counseling, pray, share experiences, help founding out creative new ways to fulfill it, etc.

This has evrything to do with what I wrote earlier about Unity and the Gifts, but goes further in saying that we are not only to respect other giftings for the sake of unity, but we are also to get involved in the working of the gifts of the members of our community. Give them all the help they need to fulfill their purposes. In the end, their purposes are our purposes too.

Not that it really is important, but I finally found someone, in flesh and bone, that also believes in Amillennialism. Not that I give it much importance, in the end what matters is doing the will of God until he comes. But it was funny :)

The Story of Stuff is an excellent film that talks about... stuff! But specially the effect stuff, and specially consuming stuff, has on all the world. What it means to the environment, to the people, to the third world, to the rich world, and to each one of us.

The film take 20 minutes, but it's worth it. It is the best explication I have ever seen. Tanks to Lammert for the link.

One of the cool things of being in Geneva, is that there are excellent bird watching spots inside the city. Not only because 1/4 of the city is made of public parks, but because there is a lake and two rivers inside the city. I have seen already about 50 different species around Geneva, and there are still a lot more to be seen.

My favourite 3 spots until now, are La Perl du Lac, Parc La Grange, and the spot where the two rivers meet. But I still have a lot to explore, so I bet I'll some other nice surprises.

Here are some photos, but since I left my big gun in Portugal (the 300mm), all the photos are taken with the 50mm lens. I really miss my big lens :(

(Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping)

Another way of putting the question is: What criteria do you use to evaluate your community?

If you look at how most churches evaluate, you'll tend to think that it's all about numbers. The more, the merrier. How many "got saved" this year? What was the mean attendance at Sunday? And at Sunday School? How many are involved in the ministry?

I don't believe in numbers to evaluate the success of a community. There are better ways of evaluating the success of a community. A good christian community is a community where relationships are strong, no mater what may go wrong. Where there is an equilibrium of gifting, and a sense of respect and humility for each other gifting. That makes a difference wherever it is. That has connections with the outside world. It is also a community that is generating (or in he process of generating) other similar (not equal) communities (this last thing being the signal of complete maturity in a community).

What we have to question ourselves is: Is our community doing that? If not, is it taking measures to do it? Those are very important questions.

Yesterday, during a very nice time with Joshua and Laura (we have to do more of this), there were several nice "theological" conversations. One of those kept running in my mind after we left. That normally happens when I feel we didn't get to an answer in the subject. The theme was feelings and intuitions.

I personally use my intuition whenever I have to decide something major in my life (and according to Blink, there may be a logical reason for that after all). And that contrasts a lot with the way I do other decisions, which happens always in a very logical and thoughtful process.

Joshua confronted me with a very good point: If we rule our lives by intuition, how can we be sure we will not choose always the easier / most comfortable way (as in the opposite for the right way). For example, I may not "feel like" helping a certain person, but I should. If I go with my "feelings", I will not do the right thing.

After some thinking (which always happens when we try to verbalize the way we do things that are routine to us), I got to the conclusion that I separate my intuition from my feelings. For me, they are two different things. My intuition is checked by convictions of what I should be and do (love God, love everyone as myself, etc). My feelings are this ethereal thing that changes constantly with the mood. I can say that because when I choose something intuitively, I don't choose the easy way out, but something else based on my convictions. And in my opinion, that's the way it should be.

So, next time you hear the famous phrase "I don't feel led to..." coming out of your mouth, ask yourself what kind of feeling is it :)

I would really love to see comments with your opinion on the subject.

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

(taken from here)