Category: misc

The desire for community

I’m still amazed at how often I hear about the desire people have for community – yet so often we’re “too busy” to take time to build relationships, or we’ve “been burned too many times” to take a risk on another relationship.
Even folks who love freelancing and working on their own still desire to build community in their own away-from-work environments.
“The idea for me is forming deep connections with the people who are there,” Brad Neuberg said in a recent video he and other co-workers made. Co-working is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents. “I go to bars and I see lots of people standing around and no one talks to each other and I don’t know why. Yet I go to a house party with lots of people standing around but they’re talking because there’s a shared context… How do you get that magic of a shared identity?”

These programmers have found a way to build community around open source software and technology. As a church we have the common identity of Christ and His salvation yet sometimes you can feel the loneliest at church or around other Christians. How do we build that bridge and knock down those walls?

Some tips from the co-workers for building community and community spaces:

  • Start talking about it
  • Be open with your process
  • Be very sharing
  • The more you give the more you’ll get
  • Be willing and patient in your pursuant of community

We hold these truths to be self-evident

George Cruey takes an interesting look at the philosophy behind our Declaration of Independence and how a chance by Ben Franklin took the rational for our independence beyond the Christian/spiritual realm and made it something all men can understand.

If Jefferson’s “sacred” had been left in, the Arabs of Iraq and the Hindus of India could have looked at Democracy (at least in light of our Declaration of Independence) and said, “Ha, Christians! What do they know?” As a result of Franklin’s change, the idea became rational (and secular) instead of being based on revelation from God.

Read his thoughts for yourself. Do you think the change was necessary, worthwhile, important?

Indiana Jones 4 being filmed at Yale

Indiana Jones 4 is being filmed now at the New Haven, Conn. Yale campus. I can’t wait! The film should be coming out next summer.
For whatever reason I had the Indiana Jones theme stuck in my head and listening to the NPR story about the filming is getting me super excited hearing the music again…. did I mention I can’t wait?!
From NPR:

Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford have chosen Yale as the backdrop to the latest Indy adventure, they’ve chosen the classic Gothic spires of Yale University’s Ivy League campus, which has also been featured in other Hollywood films starring Julia Roberts and Uma Thurman.
But the city may never see anything like this again: a vintage 1950s storefront with colorful ’57 Chevys and Studebakers parked outside. Signs for fallout shelters and ads for Vitalis decorate a block gone retro.