Thursday, August 16, 2012

Clay is a great metaphor for the human story.

Last Sunday I talked for a few minutes about Isaiah.

Isaiah shared a fairly personal prayer with us as readers down through the ages. It gets quite personal and passionate and is a good reminder of a simple life lesson, as great as we may think we are, we are still the created ones.

And that...

Clay is a great metaphor for the human story.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Tooooo close for comfort.




Last Friday night just as I was dosing off after a long and warm day, I think it was around 1 am, just as I was slipping the bonds of earth, the rain started, as did the thunder and lightning. So being the dutiful one who doesn't sleep through much, I got up and did my rotation of closing windows so that the rain wouldn't get in.

I grabbed my phone, mostly to use as a light to get me to the other side of the house safely, and as I stood at the large window, kind of inspired by the heavy rain and light show, I turned on the camera and aimed it out the window looking west.

Had I had any less bladder control things could have gotten plenty tricky pretty fast, but shortly after this video clip I headed for the safety of the toilet.

It was this moment in time that fried the internet radio receiver out on the roof, and so we have been without internet for the weekend. Kind of old school around here. But now I have many letters to write and work to catch up on.

I'll go do that as you re-watch the video clip and I know you'll try to slow it down so you can see the drama.

Just an average summer night this summer, here in the field.




Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Finding a spiritual home in a field.


And so the field here bounds with new life and people arrive who are looking for a Spiritual home.

The Vandersluys family, Marc & Dixie and their kids are our new neighbours, and are busying themselves with settling down, purchasing tables to eat on and bedroom suites to sleep in and computers to work on and looking for schools for their three kids to attend and all those sorts of things that you do in a new place. We will have our first staff meeting this afternoon and begin a process of working together that will shift my workload, and see Marc begin to experience ministry in realtime. It's a place we've been praying toward for a couple of years though I never would have guessed it would be Marc here.

Then there are the others, the community people and friends and families who are attending this church more and more these days. At last count it was over twenty new people who make there way out here from surrounding farms and towns, to find a spiritual home. It's encouraging that way.

The challenge always comes when the present homeowners try to make room for the new ones. It's about being intentional to welcome and pull up chairs up for the new ones. It's about connecting and getting to know them, and maybe most challenging of all, to create space for them and invite them to a piece of the place.

It's an every church sort of struggle I think, at least any church that is over ten years old. To be able to welcome spiritual outsiders and take them in and set them up with a sense of belonging and ownership. That they with their various levels of maturity can make this their spiritual home too, and be invited to grow in Christ and what He has for us all.

It's the sort of thing we've been asking God to challenge us with, and now He is doing just that.


So I am happy to report that God continues to do a work here that is bigger than my abilities and that new faces are finding their way to the church in the field and that even as they are coming, God is bringing help to serve his purposes here in this place.

May many more spiritually homeless people be able to find home here in a church, in a field.


Sunday, August 05, 2012

A good birthday.

Today as I turned 49 years of age, Lauralea and I went out to the lake for morning worship and we hung out with Micah a bit.


And after a great lunch, I went down to the lake and sat by the water and read your congratulations and comments.






It was a good day.



Saturday, August 04, 2012

Just checking in

I'm in my office on a Saturday on a weekend when I don't have to plan worship or preach or other such things and I am enjoying what that has offered me this week, in terms of being able to do the other things I do with a sense of extravagant luxury. In a week when I drove to Calgary and Saskatoon and back here in two days and helped Thomas move and helped to get our new guy Marc, and his family moved into their home, and a few other big deals, it feels un-stressed.

I kinda like that.

I think that having Marc here as an associate pastor is going to really help with the general mode of busyness that I've found myself living into. I really miss the part of me that has had time to think and ponder, yes even ponder, the finer details of life. Family changes continue to happen with kids coming and going and that will be what it is, but boy do I miss a more, for lack of a better word, reflective life.

Of course I counsel against what I tend to do, which is to be busy with work because someone has to make sure the things get done. And it is difficult when one thinks of the different expectations one lives under. But the future looks hopeful again as we bring the new guy on stream.


Tomorrow we are heading to camp for the morning worship time, which is something we always do this time of year. And Micah is out there working for the summer so we will see him too, and that will be fun.


But for now the morning is gone and I should head over to the house and see what to make for lunch.

So this is just me checking in, seeing if my writing "Block" is clearing away any more than it has been lately.


If you live in Canada, you have a great long weekend. Do something fun these days eh?


Wednesday, August 01, 2012

In which I quote myself about youth and church today.

"Youth are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today."
Me
I believe this with all my heart, and in fact I would push so far as to say that very often the youth of today do a better job of being the church than those who have been in churches for years.

I'm pleased that more and more churches are getting this, and that there is a shift happening in this direction. (Dave Sawler has a new book out to this end.)





I'm excited as we here in the field begin a new season in our 115 year old life, welcoming Marc Vandersluys here as Associate Pastor. Marc will be working with shepherding our youth and creating multigenerational discipleship opportunities here in the community.

This, is exactly where we are going.
These are exciting days.