Love this guy...

Take a look at one of the illustrious people that makes up Grace Baptist Church, Barry Mansfield.

Have you ruined your life...?

“The person who never makes a mistake and always manages to obey the rules is often a compassionless person, because he sees people for whom the wheels have fallen off and he wonders what’s wrong with them, but the person who feels that he has ruined his life often has more capacity for humility and compassion.” (Brian McLaren)

Taken from a great article about a book that I highly recommend.

Article is here.

Book is here.

Death Interrupted...

"We can see that the closer we are to God the less we want to throw stones at other people."

-- Shane Claiborne

Read a great article by Shane here.

9/11

Everyone is posting something today, 10 years after 9/11. My heart breaks for those who lost loved ones on that day. As a pastor I walk through loss with people on a regular basis...it should never be trivialized. It's one of the reasons I long for the return of Jesus, when He makes all things new, when death dies, and life fully comes. So today I pray for all who ache due to what they lost on 9/11. But I thought Will Willimon's comments in Christianity Today poignantly share something that the church lost (or lost sight of) that day. Something less tangible than the life of a loved one, but something very profound. He writes...

On 9/11 I thought, For the most powerful, militarized nation in the world also to think of itself as an innocent victim is deadly. It was a rare prophetic moment for me, considering Presidents Bush and Obama have spent billions asking the military to rectify the crime of a small band of lawless individuals, destroying a couple of nations who had little to do with it, in the costliest, longest series of wars in the history of the United States.

The silence of most Christians and the giddy enthusiasm of a few, as well as the ubiquity of flags and patriotic extravaganzas in allegedly evangelical churches, says to me that American Christians may look back upon our response to 9/11 as our greatest Christological defeat. It was shattering to admit that we had lost the theological means to distinguish between the United States and the kingdom of God. The criminals who perpetrated 9/11 and the flag-waving boosters of our almost exclusively martial response were of one mind: that the nonviolent way of Jesus is stupid. All of us preachers share the shame; when our people felt very vulnerable, they reached for the flag, not the Cross.

September 11 has changed me. I’m going to preach as never before about Christ crucified as the answer to the question of what’s wrong with the world. I have also resolved to relentlessly reiterate from the pulpit that the worst day in history was not a Tuesday in New York, but a Friday in Jerusalem when a consortium of clergy and politicians colluded to run the world on our own terms by crucifying God’s own Son.

9/11 reminds us that the world is broken. And the only way that it will ever be transformed is by the life giving gospel of Jesus.

The U-Turn Church: New Direction for Health and Growth

The U-Turn Church: New Direction for Health and Growth

I recently was given a review copy of Kevin Harney and Bob Bouwer’s book, The U-Turn Church: New Direction for Health and Growth. I am always interested to look at books which speak of church renewal and health, especially ones where the authors are pastors who have worked in churches needing renewal.

Both Harney and Bouwer have been a part of exciting things in their churches, and it was encouraging to read how God has worked in their contexts. The book was filled with all the usual advice, get a crystal clear vision, make sure you focus on Biblical principles rather than personal preferences, take risks, unleash leaders. The ideas are not new, they just have different examples flowing from the experiences of the authors in their church settings.

As a pastor of a small rural church I found myself thinking that this book might be better suited to pastors of larger churches, and that’s probably true. But there was one section that I found very valuable - the power of prayer. The authors share some of their own personal stories and strategies for increasing and deepening prayer in their churches. There were practical applications, as well as a sense that no matter what you do, ultimately it is God who turns churches around. With this foundation for my reading of the book I was able to see it less as a formula or pattern, and more as a living testimony to the fact that God still uses the church to reach the world.

In my younger days I was always looking for that one book that would have the secret to developing a vibrant and vital church. As I have spent time in pastoring and in prayer, I have realized that the key is to deepen my relationship with Christ and to invite others to do the same. This book allowed me to celebrate God’s work in these two churches, as well as calling me to deepen my relationship with Jesus.

So if you’re looking for a formula...you won’t find it. If you want to hear how God has worked and be encouraged that He can work in your congregation as well...then this book is worth the read.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

For my daughters and my unmarried nieces...

This is seven minutes you need to see...

A good reminder...

"How shameful to think that perhaps pagans, people with no faith in Christ,may be better than we and nearer to God’s reign.

Remember how Christ received a pagan centurion and told him, “I’ll go and cure your servant”? The centurion, full of humility and confidence, said, “No, Lord. I am not worthy that you go there. Just say a word and my servant will be cured.” Christ marveled, says the gospel, and he said, “Truly, I have not found such faith in Israel.” (Matthew 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–10.)

I say: Christ will also say of this church: outside the limits of Catholicism perhaps there is more faith, more holiness.

So we must not extinguish the Spirit. The Spirit is not the monopoly of a movement, even of a Christian movement, of a hierarchy, or priesthood, or religious congregation. The Spirit is free, and he wants men and women, wherever they are, to realize their vocation to find Christ, who became flesh to save all human flesh. Yes, to save all, dear brothers and sisters.

I know that some people come to the cathedral who have even lost the faith or are non-Christians. Let them be welcome. And if this message is saying something to them, I ask them to reflect in their inner consciousness, for, like Christ, I can tell them: the kingdom of God is not far from you, God’s kingdom is within your heart. Seek it, and you will find it."

--Oscar Romero, taken from The Violence of Love.

More on how the internet is shaping our thinking...

Just a little follow up to yesterday's post. I think this is something very important to think about. Dissent is a gift. It forces us to look at things from another's perspective. I'd love to hear your thoughts below...

The world according to Google...

Here's a short article that should get you thinking...

We humans are masters at reinforcing the things we believe and the bias that we hold by structuring our lives and relationships in ways that support them, most of the time without even realizing it. Now it seems that Google is trying to help us with that.

Thanks. Just what I needed. A computer that tells me what I want to hear. God help us all.

The world cannot know...

I have great respect for the Anabaptist tradition within Christianity. It has influenced me in many many ways. Here's a great quote from an awesome article...

The world cannot know the unsurpassable worth of human life without a people who consistently work to protect it - in the fetus, in the convict, in the immigrant, in the soldier, and in the enemy.

Read the whole article here. Read the comments too.

A Very Practical Read...

Recently I received a copy of the book you see to your left - Small Groups with Purpose, by Steve Gladen. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. Steve is the small groups pastor at Saddleback. He lives in a whole different "pastoral world" than me. They have over 3500 small groups in their church. That means that for every person I have in the pew on a Sunday morning, Steve oversees 17.5 small groups. But I have found that I really enjoyed and benefitted from reading this book. Steve doesn't present the "tried and true program" that will work for each and every church, but instead tells the story of what he has learned as they have wrestled with helping a church grow smaller as it grows larger.

He begins with focusing in on what exactly it is that we are to be looking for in a healthy and balanced small group. His blend of personal experiences and biblical focus makes this a strong section of the book. Some of his ideas supported what I have seen to be true in our context. Others challenged my thinking and helped me to move out of the rut that I have fallen into after 12 years of pastoral ministry.

The next section of the book is immensely practical as Steve begins to describe important steps in the development of a small group structure that would work in a church of any size. As I read these chapters I found myself wondering...how could our church really do this? I had to laugh when I hit the next five chapters labeled "Step by Step - How can I do this?" Once again, I appreciated the practical principles that could be applied to any church setting, everything from assessing the spiritual health of groups to identifying and training leaders to developing an organizational infrastructure that supports what the groups are trying to accomplish.

Personally, the most valuable section of the book was the one dealing with how these ideas impact overall church strategy. These chapters helped me to formulate ideas on how to be a church of small groups, rather than a church with a small group ministry. They also gave me insight into what Steve calls their "Campaign Strategy". I'm not going to give details because you need to read the book, but this one concept alone was worth reading the whole book.

Overall, as I said, I was pleasantly surprised. I found this book easy to read and extremely helpful for what I do on a day to day basis in my role as pastor.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Love this...

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

Just finished reading the 541 page biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer written by Eric Metaxas. What a great and timely read. Here are my three favorite quotes as some food for thought...

"Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words." (349)

"Just as time-lapse photography makes visible, in an ever more compressed and penetrating form, movements that would otherwise not be thus grasped by our vision, so the war makes manifest in particularly drastic and unshrouded form that which for years has become ever more dreadfully clear to us as the essence of the “world.” It is not war that first brings death, not war that first invents the pains and torments of human bodies and souls, not war that first unleashes lies, injustice, and violence. It is not war that first makes our existence so utterly precarious and renders human beings powerless, forcing them to watch their desires and plans being thwarted and destroyed by more “exalted powers.” But war makes all of this, which existed already apart from it and before it, vast and unavoidable to us who would gladly prefer to overlook it all." (373)

"No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only prologue before the curtain goes up - that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in Him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gently it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

How do we know that dying is so dreadful? Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death." (531)

The link to this book on Amazon.ca or to Amazon.com

The Work of Christmas...

"When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with the flocks,

then the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal those broken in spirit,

to feed the hungry,

to release the oppressed,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among all peoples,

to make a little music with the heart…

And to radiate the Light of Christ,

every day, in every way,

in all that we do and in all that we say.

Then the work of Christmas begins."

-- Howard Thurman

Right thing for the wrong reason...

"Do I want social justice for the oppressed or do I want to be known as a socially active person? I spend 95 % of my time thinking about myself anyway. I don't have to watch the evening news to see that the world is bad, I only have to look at myself. I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of altruism but have I controlled my own heart? The overwhelming majority of the time I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself and when I am done there is nothing to spare for the those in need. Six billion people live in the world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me." -- Donald Miller

Advent means living with hope in a broken world

As if by loving pieces…

Once, in my carelessness,
I broke a tea cup.
An heirloom,
All we have left of my wife’s grandmother.

I break a lot of things.
We just sweep the shards into a pile
And toss them in the garbage.

Not this time.
We carefully picked up each piece;
Saved it,
As if it were an act of love for grandma,
As if by loving pieces we could restore the whole.

Once, in our carelessness,
We broke the world.

Keeping our heart focused in Advent...

A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch will grow from its roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. (Isaiah 11.1-4a)

"...That was when I realized that Jesus had come to church that morning. Twice. He came as that homeless man – I was hungry and you fed me, I was confused and you took me under your arm, I was sorrowful and you held me as I wept. And he came in the arms of my rich friend with his expensive suit who held a neighbour in his sorrow. He will not judge by what his eyes see, and what his ears hear."

Read the rest of this great post by Brian Walsh here...

A laugh for today...

...thanks to Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed.

Click here...it's totally worth it.

Chris Hedges on Hope...

Chris Hedges always pushes me to think. In this season of Advent where we feed on hope, his words offer a challenge to our ways of thinking and our ways of acting...

Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. Hope does not come with the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is an action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and the more potent hope becomes. Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope does not believe in force. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on us all. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope’s power and it is why it can never finally be defeated. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.

Read the rest here.

Advent hope...

Here's some food for thought from Brian Walsh during this first week of Advent...

You see, my friends, if in the face of rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and throughout the world, you don’t achingly long for a time when nation will no longer rise against nation, then you miss Advent.

If in the face of gun shots ringing through this city and young men and women lying in pools of blood doesn’t make you cry out for swords to be beaten into plowshares, for guns to be transformed into garden tools, then you miss Advent.

If the foolishness of much ideologically driven scholarship at the University of Toronto doesn’t make you long to see the nations coming to learn wisdom from the God of all of creation, then you miss Advent.

And if the anger, enmity, jealousy, prejudice and hatred of your own heart and your own life doesn’t make you seek out the Prince of Peace to transform your life and lead you on the path of peace, then you miss Advent.

Jesus says that one will be taken and one will be left.
Let us pray that we are left.
Let us pray that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Let us pray that we would be an Advent people,
…left behind to beat swords into plowshares,
…left behind to replace implements of violence with the instruments of peace,
…left behind to transform tools of destruction into tools of cultivation,
…left behind to face the violence and embrace the peace.

Read the rest here.