From Knowledge to Wisdom

China Doing What They're Good At

I recently felt the need for a more environmentally friendly means of fetching the weekly shopping and other bits and pieces from the supermarket and other village shops. Taking an MPV 750 meters into the village two or three times every Saturday is not really very sociable.

So when I came across a special offer on a gentleman's transport bicycle (heren transportfiets) I went for it. A week or two after I placed my order I was pleased to discover that I am an early adopter of a new trend -  Elsevier (Week 21) ran an article on the "De terugkeer van de bakfiets" - "The comeback of the carrier cycle".

A heavy load on the front and the backpedal hub break (terugtraprem) will take a bit of practice. See pictures in my photo album. And there are some interesting global trends in the origins of my new bike.

At a Crossroads in a Big Open Space

Having recently come out of the Church of Organized Religion we are taking some time to hear and see where the Lord leads us. I was struck by this quote from Marc van der Woude's account of a weekend for emerging leaders about 'church as Jesus intended it':

'Today we took the group through a challenging paradigm shift from organized religion to the Body as Jesus intended it. I'm convinced that the fastest way to renew the church is to model something radically alive and out-of-the-box. Over lunch Matti, who is a part-time pastor in the lutheran church, compared the church system to a prison. I told him he was the first pastor I met that claimed such a radical thing, and that I would gratefully use that picture in my teaching. So what church renewal does is give prisoners better food, a more comfortable mattress and a small television to watch the news. But it's still a prison.

'During prayer time several prophetic pictures were shared. One was about balloons with name and ministry tags that went up into the sky, and the wind of God's Spirit took them in different directions. Another was about a fast-flowing river that would take people to a different place. In order to flow with God, we have to let go of control.'

The church system comparable to a prison - wow, that's tough talk. But I can understand it and relate it to recent experience.

'In order to flow with God, we have to let go of control.' Yes! That sounds like freedom! In the light of my recent experience I would be interested to know how emerging leaders exercise leadership without using control.