evangelism + recent things

a. evangelism
during university, a problem (and blessing) i had was that my life was consumed in Christian fellowship to the point where i had very few if any close non-Christian friends. i only knew two people at my graduation ceremony (though that was partly because i was in a combined major, so i didn't graduate with the same people as in my classes), and one of them was from c4c (kinda).

there were always the discussions about this in our c4c circles. they'd go like this:

A - We need to train our people to do workplace and relational evangelism! That's not gonna happen at the cafeteria with two copies of the four laws!
B - But if our people can't even do evangelism in controlled settings like the cafe, how are we going to get them to do it naturally in their own lives?
15 min later - discussion ends, nothing changes.

I've heard of different c4c campuses that are trying things to actually address this problem, which is commendable. But end result is that I do feel more equipped to do evangelism in controlled settings instead of naturally through relationships.

However, what has surprisingly happened is that I am now surrounded by non-Christians five days a week, 9 hours a day. And it has been a blessing/problem. The blessing is that I have actually made friends and enjoy their company and conversation. I have been put by God in a place where I can be light and salt. The downside is that I must confess it has been a dim light and a timid salt. I don't cuss or get drunk or joke about sex, but I have not really displayed patience and love and grace in ways that point to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Back at C-ton, our first-years would always say "I don't feel ready for evangelism, I don't feel like I'm a good enough Christian to preach the Gospel" and I feel that even now. I fear how easily they will see the hypocrisy in my sarcastic tone, my psuedo-gossipping, and my lack of punctuality as I proclaim the Lordship of a Loving God in my life.

Yet, as I pray that the Holy Spirit would change me, I am thankful that the message I preach is not a message of works, but of Grace.

Easter's coming up. Please pray that I'd use it to proclaim this message of Grace.

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." - Mark 2:17

b. recent things
1. Our young adults group had a speedfriending session last night (before the hockey game) (it was like speed dating, but minus the dating). May have been the best YA social that I've been to, though it was difficult to talk for that long. Props to the author of f-words for her initiative.
2. phonesaber app on iPhone almost makes me want an iPhone. it also has music in the background
3. Watched Kiss of the Dragon this week. Things to know about Jet Li regarding this movie:
i. Jet Li isn't as bland and uninteresting in his Hong Kong movies.
ii. His Hong Kong chereography team worked on this movie, so the fighting was good.
iii. This movie is very enjoyable if ii. is the reason you watch it.
4. You might not find this funny, and may have heard of it but....
note: try ordering it.

money and bum covers

a. i am not poor

fact is, i make 20k/year. to most of you in mcc (middle-class country), that's a great injustice considering i'm a university graduate.

other fact is, i'm not poor. i make more than most people in the world. i eat more than i need to. i have more things than i need.

yes, my income limits me. it limits my future plans (marriage, car, home, student loans). it limits my generosity. but those plans and that generosity are in God's hands. What He hasn't given me, I don't worry about.

besides giving/osap/preparing for the future, i probably wouldn't live any differently if i was making 200k/year. i'd be just as cheap in the areas of spending i'm cheap in, and just as (actually, probably more) unwise in the areas of spending i'm unwise in.

in university, i believed you could put God first and let Him take care of your daily bread. i've struggled to seek His kingdom first in the midst of loans and limitations, but its encouraging to see that after the struggle, the Truth remains.

Strange fact: Same day I wrote this, I stepped on the screen of my laptop, messing it up (though it still works when hooked up to a normal monitor). Perhaps this was God's way of testing to see if I really believe what I say I believe.

b. album covers that suck

looking through my cd collection, there are some albums where i actually think if they had better album covers, they would have sold more. here are five from my personal collection:

(in a particular order, but based on reasons i chose not to disclose)


1. Kevin Max - Stereotype Be
So, in 2000, DC Talk takes a "break" (note: break has not yet ended), which results in all three members doing "side" solo projects. My money was on Kevin Max's to be the most successful. The actual money was on the exact opposite. Max's album was musically unfocused and inconsistant, being a typical "look at my artistic range" solo album. But the songs are still good, so maybe it's lack of success should be attributed to this nonsensical cover.

First, the font makes it look like the soundtrack to a Barbara Streisand movie. Next, what is he wearing? And what does it have to do with this album's middle-eastern influence or spoken word poetry? And why does is he posing like someone's caught him with no pants on? And why are there shadows covering almost everything except for his name in that romance-novel-font? I think this album would have at least been as successful as Michael Tait's album if it wasn't so stupid looking. Here's what this album sounds like.


2. Odds - Good Weird Feeling
Well, it also has a sucky album title. The Odds are a Canadian pop-rock band kinda like... Sloan with all sense of self-importance taken away. They have this goofy-self-deprecating sense of humour similar to Barenaked Ladies (which means, like BNL, they aren't as loved by music geeks as they should be). But why did I need to tell you that when this album cover clearly communicates all that? Btw, I was being sarcastic. This album cover sucks, though the material is very likeable. Here's a sample. Way better than, say, post-2002 Weezer. Which brings us to...


3. Weezer - Maladroit
Here's what some guy wrote about Maladroit:
Each [Weezer] record only managed to divide the band’s fans into separate camps: the early pop lovers, the emo kids, the casual listeners. Luckily, these disparate groups managed to put aside their differences and come together over a shared principle: that Maladroit sucked. But here’s the thing. Maladroit, the band’s fourth album, is actually really good: not exactly deep, but it has some really stellar pop songs. Pitched somewhere between the lightness of the Blue Album and the riffs on Pinkerton, Maladroit has charm and hooks to spare. With numbers like “Keep Fishin’,” “Space Rock” and “Possibilities,” Maladroit is catchier than the Green Album and less melodramatic than Pinkerton. Sure, Maladroit never became a cultural touchstone the way the band’s first two albums did, but it deserves more credit than it ever got.

I definitely agree. And perhaps the cover is to blame for that. Look at it! It makes me think I'm playing a boring Myst-type computer game from 1998. If I was, I'd click on the items on that table with the lamp. They probably contain helpful items for future encounters with other characters in a boring computer game.

However, I am not playing such a computer game, I am trying to convince you that this is a good album. And since you have probably already dismissed this album based on its cover, I have failed. Maybe this is my last hope.

4. Jeff Buckley - Grace
Fact: Grace peaked at #143 in the US Charts.
Fact: The Shrek soundtrack peaked at #28
Fact: A tonne of people wouldn't know who Jeff Buckley is if Rufus Wainwright didn't cover [Buckley's cover of] Hallelujah on the Shrek soundtrack.
Fact: The Shrek soundtrack also has TWO Smashmouth songs (shudder....)
Fact: Hallelujah is, at best, the sixth best song on Grace (okay, that's just an opinion).
Fact: This album cover looks like a Bryan Adams album cover:


End of Fact List. Listen to Jeff Buckley.










5. Jeff Buckley - Sketches of My Sweetheart the Drunk
Jeff Buckley died, and then they released a 2-disc collection of untampered demos for what would have been his second album. Problem? It looks like a collection of violin concertos. This was my introduction to Buckley's music. The demos are rough but I honestly think it promised a better album than Grace. Its too bad even music fans are totally unfamiliar with this collection. This is my favourite song from disk 1.

Anyways, till next week... hopefully...

update 2

i got a job pretty quickly after getting back, and it's definitely a (mixed) blessing from God. here's the real truth - i make 20 grand/year doing faxes all day 9:30-6:30.

so, apparently, lots of people applied for the job prior to me, all also having university degrees, but they turned down the job when they saw what the work actually was. i was not that picky. job hunting is real crappy, so i jumped out at the first chance. my coworkers are not university-educated guys. they worked at hotels, video stores, and restaurants before landing this job, and they feel very happy to having a 9-5 fulltime with benefits.

meanwhile in my small slice of reality, everyone gives me the same reaction when i tell them about my employment situation:

University Graduate with Nice Job/University student who plans on having a nice job: Adam, so what are you doing now?
Adam: Working full-time, I work at a law firm.
UGwNJ/USwPoHaNJ: Hey, that's awesome!
Adam: Nahh, I just do copies and faxes all day.
UGwNJ/USwPoHaNJ: Ohhh...... that's cool..... you gotta start somewhere right? You interested in law?
Adam: Nah, not really.
UGwNJ/USwPoHaNJ: (pause) Let's talk about my middle-class suburban topics of interest.

So, its actually nice to meet people from different walks of life. I'm learning how to relate to people who aren't just UGwNJ/USwPoHaNJ's, which I thank God for.