America in Decline- June 29, 2008 Thomas Friedman has an amazing column in the New York Times today about America being in decline.On top of it all, our bank crisis is not over. Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said that U.S. banks may need another $65 billion to cover more write-downs of bad mortgage-related instruments and potential new losses if consumer loans start to buckle. Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has..http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/america-in-decline.html Contextless Thoughts- June 27, 2008 Oliver is still in the NICU at RUH. He is doing fine but is still too small to take home. The nurses are trying to fix him up with the little girl in the crib next door but there isn't a lot of chemistry there.Mark is irritated by the rule that he can't see Oliver whenever he wants. There was a poster up for the RUH Foundation and he muttered, "I won't be giving any money to them!" Lee is moving out soon (It was a couple of years ago he was going to move in for a couple of months). He has a...http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/contextless-thoughts_27.html Celebrity Culture- June 26, 2008 Scott is talking about the celebrity culture in the church on his weblog and he makes a good point, the church is obsessed with celebrities and superstars like the rest of the world. I don't know if I accept his examples totally but his point is right on.I have a similar story about being at WillowCreek. I worked at a church that used to purchase 20 tickets or so to the Leadership Summit and fly down most of its staff to hear "leaders" talk about leadership. The second time I was there, Wendy,..http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/celebrity-culture.html More funding for affordable housing- June 23, 2008 The Government of Saskatchewan made my work a lot easier with an announcement today that they were increasing certain aspects of Social Services funding, especially for emergency shelter rates and per room rates, both which have a huge impact on what we do around here. For us who are working extremely hard in getting an emergency shelter open for women and children, this is a wonderful step forward. I was at the announcement today at the Saskatoon Cabinet Office and around the...http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/more-funding-for-affordable-housing.html Flavour of the Month: Missional- June 23, 2008 Alan Hirsch is challenging the idea that missional is about to join emergent and other catch phrases on the scrap heap of word that the church has changed into buzzwords. While I agree with his post, I think he is in the unfortunate position of trying to hold back the tide. As long as the western church is as consumer driven as it is, it will co-opt, use, and spit out a wide variety of ideas according to it's need. I have written about it before, it is the Hootie and the...http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/flavour-of-month-missional.html Survivor- June 19, 2008 I survived my time at Riverbend Institution and have some photos to show our barbecue preparations on the Centre's Flickr page. 200+ hamburgers, 200 smokies, and a lot of salad, dessert, and drinks. It was a pretty nice afternoon for everyone and I was able to connect with some guys that used to be at the Centre and some that may qualify to stay in the future. I think we also managed to create enough smoke from the grill that many of the guard towers at Sask Penitentiary were unusable and water.http://www.jordoncooper.com/2008/06/survivor.html |