Footy

It’s no secret that I’ve never been much for sports. Like a fish in mud, sports and I have never gotten along too well, and like oil and water, I doubt we ever will. Sometimes the only thing I feel I can hope for is a sort of uneasy truce. I used to play baseball, as a tyke. My dad was the coach of my little league teams for a few years, and I mostly enjoyed it. But I was always the husky kid who didn’t ever seem to quite … get it when it came to athletics, and eventually, I gave up on them and moved on to things like art, music, philosophy, and science; the things of the mind.

Lately, I’ve had this inkling that I haven’t got too much in common with most of the guys I’ve met here in Australia. We have our faith, and that’s cool, but as far as most conversation goes, I’m still a bit out of the loop. It seems that, even more than in America, sports (especially footie) are built into the DNA of the Australian culture. Even most women here can tell you what their favorite team is and key players and who won what match last week, even if those women don’t care (but most do). It’s not that Australians don’t like to think; they do (Ruth and Pete are both sordid intellectuals who can also tell you that Collingwood beat Brisbane last week).

This makes me very uncomfortable. I’ve always hated sports types, because they always hated me; it was a mutual thing, I suppose. I was the guy who set the curve too high in school, and they were the ones that made fun of me during Phys. Ed. I always figured that they were too busy bashing their heads into the ground (killing off brain cells) to focus on their schoolwork, but I imagine that they probably thought that I was too busy reading to find time to exercise. It’s funny to me that one of my two best friends from college was a football player in high school, but I think that we had so much else in common (music, philosophy, and our mutual faith) that it never really seemed to crop up.

And so I think that my newest project is to learn about this game called “footy.” From what I can tell, it’s something of a phenomenon here in Australia. It’s nothing like American Football, except that they run around on a field with a ball that’s mostly oblong. But even the ball doesn’t quite look the same. The field is oval, not rectangle, and there are no uprights, only four posts of two sizes at each end. Oh yeah – and they don’t wear padding.

The Feminization of the Church

I've been part of a conversation on a colleague's blog about the church and the way that it seems to have been "feminized" in recent years. A while back, I wrote an article about the subject, which I've been thinking a bit about today. I've especially thought about a comment that Greg sent me: "You are suggesting (it seems to me) that because men tend to participate less in our events that there are less men in the church. Why must we perpetuate the idea that church is something so spacial. I am not part of the church because of any gathering I attend, or any creed I espouse or and rituals I have completed or regularly practice. I am a part of Jesus' church whether I do any of these things or not."

I've come to (mostly) agree with this position. It was over a year ago that I wrote the first post. I was writing to ask a question: why are so many women in "church" and not men? When I said "church," I meant the group of people that attend what the majority of Americans define as "church," aka the established church.

I still think that my reasoning is valid for that particular question, if you limit the parameters of the question to the established church. In my most recent experience, the numbers even out significantly if you expand the definition to include the missional church. The church plant I'm involved with is significantly more balanced in gender than any other church I've ever been to. To be sure, it's still very small, but we're almost 50:50 (men to women), although the largest group is actually children (so cool).

Basically, the missional church views women the same way it views men; they're people, called by God. In Jesus, there is "no male nor female." This is not to say that men and women are not different, each gender with their own unique abilities (for example, men are better at spacial relations while women are better at multitasking), it just means that each individual is just that: unique and distinct. Scripture never mentions that spiritual gifts are given only to one gender or the other, but to people.

Toys

I'm in awe of the latest developments in the world of computers. Seriously, some crazy things are happening at both Dell and Apple. Mostly Dell, since Apple is still trying to catch up (example: they finally got around to using Intel processors). In fact, I went to the Dell website today and discovered the newest development in desktop replacements: the XPS M2010
.

This thing has serious power, starting with the Centrino Duo processor, dual hard drives, multimedia up the wazoo (including a built-in webcam), detachable wireless keyboard, and a 20.1" widescreen display.

I don't usually write about computers, but it caught my eye. Like Apple products, this one costs a fortune, but it comes with pretty much everything you could ever need in a desktop (including 8 speakers and a subwoofer) and the mobility of a laptop. It's even got its own handle to carry it around.

Close on its heels is the XPS 1710, a laptop with a kick. Definitely more portable than the 2010, and it has funky extras like the lit back and speakers.

Apple has a few new toys too. My personal favorite is the Macbook Pro, which is basically a Dell notebook with a one-button mouse and lighted keyboard. I like the lighted keyboard, the idea makes me happy. And you can load two operating systems onto the hard drive - both Mac OSX and Windows XP Pro, which is what makes me excited about it: I like Apple hardware, but Mac OSX is a pain. And I'm told you can customize it with a more functional two-button mouse.

I must admit, though, it worries me that somebody would buy any of these; it's a lot of money to be throwing around. But they're all still very cool.