It's here! The first day of the rest of our life in Toronto. It has been a busy day (not over yet) but Mel took a few moments of silence this morning and wrote this from our juliet balcony which overlooks Spadina Rd.

This morning I'm sitting on a lawn chair surround by paint cans and a few boxes and I just want to pinch myself! Here we are in the Annex right on Spadina Road. After almost 2 years planning we are here and now the work begins. 
I love our new place! And it'll be our for the next 3 years or more. Can't wait for the stories that will come out of this apartment. All the ways that we'll see relationships formed and a start in working along side some great people in seeing the city of Toronto become better city. 
Honestly everyone is invited over! Maybe not all at once but we would love to have you here!
I'm off to paint and clean!
Much, MUCH Love
Melissa

A couple of years ago I ran across this concept in a book by Dan Kimball called "They Like Jesus, but they don't like the church". The concept was simple, that we as followers of Christ need to be known more by what we're for and less for what we're against. Sadly, the greater majority of the time when the church gets media exposure it's for things like boycotting Harry Potter or Marylin Manson or Target. Sadly all of the good things that the church does like helping fight AIDS in Africa, being the first line of response at Katrina and Haiti and a myriad of other things seems to get drowned out by negative press.

I thought about this again today as I read a post by Anne Jackson regarding some people in the church wanting to boycott Craigslist because of prostitution adds on it's site. 

 The problem is one that should be dealt with for sure and yet I think Anne's suggestions are much more helpful than another boycott and statement of what we're against. 

Read her post and let me know what you think? Is she on to something?

Let me give you a short education on guitars. There are two major companies always competing to be "the best". Fender vs. Gibson. Everyone else is a second rate guitar company - from a world branding standpoint. These are the big two. It's an interesting battle when you get to know what's going on because the two have such fundamentally different veiws of how to make a great guitar. 

At Fender every part is replaceable. And I mean EVERY part. No two parts are so joined that we can't swap one out for another. To make my point, the neck is affixed to the body in such a way that if the neck breaks who cares! We just pick up another one, replace it, and start again. How the body and neck are connected is less important to Fender than the quality of the connection. Nothing is indispensable. 

The Les Paul Guitar is the epitome of Gibson's line. When they set out to design and make this guitar they had a fundamentally different approach. They believed that at certain junctures of the guitars assembly, the neck in particular, the joint must function as much like a solid piece of wood as possible. The result, many people would say, is a better feeling, more resonant instrument. Here's the catch though - if you break the neck it's not replaceable. That joint is indispensable. That joint, on a Gibson guitar, is the lynchpin. Without a solid connection there the instrument losses it's advantage. It becomes less than it could be. It losses what makes it really beautiful.

Seth Godin's new book Lynchpin is awesome! Here's the basic premise: you have been conditioned to believe that you belong in a system. A system where everyone has a part to play but nobody is needed or indispensable. It's the factory mentality. It's the same premise on which Fender guitars were built, on which the auto industry and many others work, and on which our schooling is based. Godin says that we're teaching people how to fall in line rather than teaching them how to become remarkable artists and leaders, self-sufficient in their work, ready to tackle real problems with real creativity. 

Godin suggests that there is something else and something more than what we've been offered. I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE!

I think this resonates with me so much because it's one of the dreams we have for Montage. That every person would become a Lynchpin in their home, work, and community. That in Christ there is so much more to be had than simply living lives that others create for us. Those of us who follow Jesus NEED to become the recognizable lynchpins in our community. What kind of opportunities would we create for the gospel if we sought to become the indispensable components of community that, much like that solid neck joint, bring a sense of more complete connection between people and an increase in the beauty people experience in life?

Right about now people might be thinking "here he goes again - dreaming about these weird and unattainable things". The problem is that when I open the scriptures I find Jesus telling us to ask for and expect weird and seemingly unattainable things. Consider this:

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matt 17:20

Do you think moving mountains is unattainable? Yeah, me too. But there it is. Seemingly impossible things are supposed to be possible for those who live life connected to Jesus. 

As I work my way through Lynchpin I'll post occasionally on things I read there. Why? I think it's an idea that needs to be spread. I think Seth Godin is doing a wonderful thing by trying to encourage us all to become indispensable - to become more creative, more integrated and more beautifully connected to one another and to humanity. My goal will be to encourage you away from the Fender mentality and towards the wonder and beauty of the Les Paul....or something like that ;-)

is my friend and life-coach (an inside joke) Craig McGlassion. Craig is the pastor of Paradox Church in Warren, MI. We spent 6 months with them last year getting to know them and learning about their journey to start a faith community. Craig is not a rock-star pastor but his speaking chops are up there with some of the best I've had the joy of hearing. 

Take a few minutes to browse the list of podcasts they have on their site and pick one to listen to. I doubt you'll be dissapointed.