un californien à paris

looks n listens

it's been awhile since i've added anything to my looks n listens list. jonny baker has pointed me to two worthy links. check these out: the LORD's prayer and the Confilict Map.

from the South

i've received several requests to share my experience of and ideas about non-western christianity in the western world, the multicultural church, le métissage culturel, etc. i'm not at all sure that the "blogosphere” is the best forum for such things, but we'll see.

if you are interested in "world christianity," then go to this conference: THE FUTURE of the CHURCH in a Globalized World, 1-3 april 04.

i wish i could be there. they'll be asking some great questions:

What is the essence of the Christian Gospel in the global South, and how did the Christian Gospel originally find its way there?

If Christianity in the global South is being exported to the global North, in what ways is it taking place through immigration, and in what ways through missionary activity?

What can we learn from history about how the message of Christianity has been translated from one culture to another?

How do the worship, theology, and polity of the globally southern church compare to that of the northern church?

if you read this and you are going to attend, i'd love to hear your impressions.

bikin' is better than bloggin'

no, lately, i haven't been reading or writing blogs. i haven't even been thinking about them. good blogging demands time and effort, especially if you want it to seem effortless... a blog has to be maintained like a friendship or exercise. But blogging is not as important (to me) as friendship or exercise. no, i'm not abandoning the jmf blog... i'm just spending more time on the mountain bike and less in front of the 'puter.

The anti-immigrant generation gap

The anti-immigrant generation gap is widest in France, where more than half (53%) of those ages 65 and older completely agree that immigration should be restricted. Only a quarter (24%) of younger French men and women shared such strong views.

Anti-immigrant sentiment also runs high in the United States, especially among older Americans. Half (50%) of those ages 65 and older strongly support new controls on entry of people into the country. Only four-in-ten (40%) young people share that intensity of sentiment.

source: The Pew Research Center

Kiss me, Kate

this is Ian, my brother David's son, and Kate, my sister Sara's daughter, the newest member of our family. from the look on Ian's face i don't think he is about to become Kate's kissing cousin.

Katherine Faye Jennings was born on 19 March 2004 at around 11:00 am in Pasadena, California. We all call her Kate.

Welcome to the world, Kate. You are loved.

California Cousins

my brother, david, sent me this post card from southern california. it was great to see him and his family last month. it had been two years since we had all been together at the same place and time. samuel, distinguishingly pictured here with his finger in his nose, did not suceed as he had planned to teach his california cousins to speak french. he did manage to begin speaking english in short, effective sentences (usually bossy little commands for his cousins) by the time we left. this gives me hope that one day my sons will speak my first language, even if it will always be their second . (Hélas, j'ai beaucoup moins d'espoir quand il s'agit d'apprendre aux californiens de parler le français. Quoi que mon frère se débrouille pas mal! Il ne supporte pas de ne pas comprendre quand on parle la belle langue. ;-)

i had a great time riding mountain bikes with my bro in the San Bernadino mountains, too bad we didn't have a camera with us. we played like children, something we need to do more often. here are some photos of our children playing together that david has posted on his web site.

all the finleys around the world are waiting breathlessly for the annoucement of the newest california cousin's birth. my sister sara's due date was yesterday.

it's not all flowers

we've been back home since the 5th but it's been difficult to plug back in, to find the time to blog or to read blogs... two weeks of vacation turned into two weeks of catch-up and i'm still not caught up yet...whatever that means. we came home to the news that a family would be leaving our church... they have left and the separation is not easy for anyone. it's a complicated situation and not suitable blog content. anyway, church planting isn't always about flowers in the springtime. there are weeds and rocks to clear away and in the end the growth and the flowers just sort of happen without our help...

hope: these first flowers in our garden are a sign that spring will come. it always does. on good days, i see with the eyes of faith and i can almost imagine the garden as it will be in full bloom. on bad days, i worry about freezing weather that could kill everything and all i can see are the weeds that still need to be pulled up. i have good days and bad days.

desert life

can you guess where we are in the world? Here are some clues.