Lots of good articles in my RSS reader this morning.  If you don’t have an RSS feed reader (even if you’re not a big blog fan) I recommend it heartily.  It condenses hours of blog surfing down to minutes.  If you ever came across websites or blogs that you thought you’d like to read more regularly but forget their address, or don’t get around to it often, RSS is for you.

I just got on the bandwagon, even though I’d surf by their sites frequently before.  But here are two three excellent links to links with good stuff from my RSS feeds:

• Church Planting Novice found a great article at Subtext with excellent tips for conversationally bringing up the Gospel.  No “Did you know you’re going to hell?” type transitions here.
• The Pyromaniacs took a break from picking fights to link to the Jollyblogger’s cautious thoughts about the nature of marital problems in general.  He contends that it would be better for Christian spouses to treat each other as enemies! How’s that for controversial?  Read it - he makes more sense than you think!
• Mark Driscoll’s blog talks this morning about the spiritual discipline of studying.  I was shocked by the reference to 2 Peter 2:15, as it is the lead verse for Awana (stands for “approved workmen who are not ashamed”).  This will definitely be a talking point for my next team meeting.  More specifically, I have a leader who is worried about whether he is capable of studying the Bible.  I need to meet with him individually I think, encourage him and see if we can overcome this concern.

Hope you find these as interesting as I did!

Talk about a recipe for growth!  I just started thinking about all the connections I am going to be maintaining this fall.  If God is in this, I can’t help but learn something this year.

One thing my leadership courses taught me at ACTS was mentoring is critical to growth.  You need three types of relationships - peer relationships, someone older/wiser/more experienced, and someone younger/less wise/less experienced to speak into.  This way you can give a lot and receive in return, and not burn out.

Peer relationships that are deep enough to speak into my life (and me into theirs):

• Brandon
• Bill
• There could be a couple more but things are still early.

Mentoring me:

• Phil
• Ken

Being mentored by me:

• Harry
• Shane

Even those people I am mentoring, man, they are real God-followers!  I will be learning a ton from them too, no matter what happens.  But from what I have heard/read about people who mentor, they always learn from their students as well, so that’s supposed to happen.

Now the big challenge - keeping connected with all these people!  Luckily there are a lot of systems we can use to our advantage.  And not just technology!

So yesterday, Adam preached his first sermon at Community of Hope.  It was a  message a lot of us needed to hear heading into a busy fall where a lot is being asked of us, about whether following Jesus is easy or hard.  It served a second purpose as well - it allowed us to get to know him and his family and hear a bit of their story.

I was talking with Cheryl after church, and she says to me, kind of out of the blue, that she had a bit of a vision, but more of a realization.  She said she saw Adam and his family coming with us to Alberta.  Totally out of the blue.

I figured I had better note this down for posterity.  I like to give glory to God when he moves in ways beyond our understanding.  And it certainly will be beyond my understanding if (when) it comes to pass!

So, here’s your notice, Adam.  You’re moving again in a couple of years.  Yeah, sorry Phil.  What can I say?  It’s God, not us!

A church planting blogger and his wife that I follow are off to be assessed.  My prayers go with them.  I know for myself, in some ways I look forward to that step for us, and in other ways I am frightened by it.  What if we are the only ones who think we are called?  What if it isn’t God we’re hearing, but our own vanity?

I mentioned this worry the other day to my mentor and pastor, Philip.  He told me assessments aren’t really there to make you question your calling, but more to give you focus on knowing yourself and your giftings, and also your weak points so that you can build a team around you who will make up for anything you lack.  Or, failing that, at least give you an opportunity to work on those weaknesses, to improve.

That helped some.

What also helped is just encountering, randomly, story after story about people who thought they were good at something, but were told they stink, but then didn’t listen and became roaring successes.  I’ve encountered several of these - most recently Sigourney Weaver was told in college she was a crummy actress.  Neil Cole, author of Organic Church, in his book he mentioned that he was told her didn’t have the skills to be a church planter.  I think his results speak for themselves (Read the book).

So, there’s God, bringing these things to me when I need them.  God is still God.  Thanks, Jeremiah, for the CD out at iGo (I took you up on your offer to take one of those ep’s).  I’ve got your rendition of “Who Can Compare” on my iPod.  My heart sings this morning:

If you’re not the one we praise, who will we adore?

For God there is none like you, you alone are LORD!

This is my second attempt at writing this blog entry and it’s a long one! I’ve been so busy with kids and my studies that I haven’t had the free time I’ve wanted to write my thoughts out here. I wanted to talk about my trip down to Florida. Shane has already covered the experience of the conference but I wanted to focus on my travel down with the kids.

We all traveled together from Vancouver to Toronto, however, we had to split up in Toronto with Shane taking Aydan (age 4) and going by car to Buffalo where they would fly out and we’d reconnect in Orlando. I stayed at the Toronto airport where I would depart with Dylan (age 7), Lyndan (age 5) and Dannan (6 months) and the bulk of our luggage since it was uncertain how much time Shane would have to check in once he got to Buffalo.

(more…)

I am starting to notice that there is a weight the deeper you get into pastoral ministry.  As we proceed with team building and training with Awana, and getting our Community Group together this fall, we are having a lot of hard conversations with people about where they are at.  Work challenges, relationship challenges, sin struggles all pile up on people.  As their pastor (even if I am not the main pastor) I empathize and feel the weight of those problems.

There is some truth to the idea that pastors are either narcissistic or co-dependent to degrees.  This area is definitely an area of co-dependence.  I also have this quirk where I am always trying to solve everyone’s problems.  Reining that tendency in is important.

Phil said I would be stretched this fall.  It appears that is already the case.

By the way, in anticipation of my next preaching event, somebody buy me this book! Yeah. The one to the right. Over there. You see it.

Some quick bullets for ya.

• Today’s our 10th Anniversary!  Happy anniversary to my wife, who has staggered my imagination by her dedication to me and our life together for ten whole years.  Thank you for everything you have done and ever will do - I love you.
• Good news on the graduating essay front.  My faculty advisor (who also happens to be the program director, so I didn’t really have anyone to complain to) has finally started returning my emails.  I have been granted an extension on my project.  Now, to get it done!
• Check out Rodney Olsen’s thought-provoking piece on Christians who ignore their families.  I think some of the commenters thought he was talking about their spouse and children, but I think he was talking about extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren.  It’s easy to keep connected with them when they share your faith, but harder when they don’t.  Where’s the balance? 

  The irony is this exact issue is staring me in the face on Labour Day weekend.  Which to choose: sticking around and helping three church families move, or travelling up to Vernon to visit my grandparents, who aren’t getting any younger, and whom I haven’t seen in a year?

• We’ve got the big Awana Basic Training coming up this weekend.  I need to rustle up my leaders and make sure as many as possible are going.  I think phone calls are in order tonight.  Pray for our leaders that they would make this a priority.
• I’ve got a couple of ideas about how to more effectively share my faith.  I’ll let you know how they work out.
• Hey God, could use some blessing at work.  Anytime now.  Thanks in advance!

It’s not a review yet… I’m not finished reading it yet.

But I will say this: This book is changing the way I think.  That is rare.

I find it’s influencing everything I think about church - why we do what we do, why there are problems, what the solution is, what a Christian should look like.  It is changing me not so much away from what I thought before, but changing me by bringing clarity to thoughts that were already flowing in the came direction.  It is digging a channel for my thoughts that were already flowing across the land in that direction.

Quote:

We have developed an entire generation of dependent consumers waiting for their leaders to spoonfeed them the Bible verse of the week, rather than an army of Kingdom agents ready to transform our culture by the power of the Gospel. (p. 154)

I was saying to a friend of mine yesterday, the reason we have programs at our church is because the people of our church are not really mature followers of Christ.  If we were, we would be out doing the things our programs accomplish as part of the very fabric of our lives, reflecting the aims and the mission of Jesus here on earth.  We would be feeding the poor, teaching the Word, making disciples, meeting for fellowship with one another - all without direction because Jesus is our King.

I know this is a perfect world scenario, and we are dealing with fallen humanity with hurts that go deep.  Serious help may be needed for some people to get them moving forward in the right direction.  Also, people generally have an expectation about what church looks like, so for their comfort, we do need to give the appearance of something familiar so as not to be a “stumbling block”.  But in my opinion we should be working towards weaning the people of our church off the “program mentality”.  That in the end, the only program we offer would be that entry point that “looks like church” to give new people something to grasp onto, then work on discipling them into a place where they are followers of Christ, not of Paul, or Apollos, or Warren or Driscoll.

From a quote on a blog I read occasionally,

“Emergents are multiplying, and for most of those participating in the movement this multiplicity is not perceived as a challenge but as an opportunity for forging transversal differentiated networks oriented by and toward reformative communion that empowers persons to share in the self-giving love of Jesus’ way of acting in the world.  Isn’t this what church should be?” (Source)

Heh.  I love blogging.  One of the reasons I love it is it allows you to participate in conversations that grow you and because it is public, it can grow others too.

But sometimes I read something that’s like sand in the gears of my mind.  Everything slows down while I try to understand what was written.  My intention isn’t to slam the author or the blogger who cited it, but sometimes things need to be in layman-speak, or you cut off a large segment of your potential crowd.

I try not to write over the heads of anyone here, mainly because I think if you’re going to talk to people - ordinary people and try to communicate about Jesus, you can’t speak over their heads.  You can’t use Christianese.  (By the way, if you need help translating Christianese, see this site.)  I mean, eyes glaze over soon enough as soon as the name of Jesus is mentioned (unless you’re swearing, strangely enough).  I don’t want them glazing over because of my word choice - and I slip in polysyllabic words too often as it is!

Funny thing is, I think what the author is saying is that these new “emergent” communities are trying to share the gospel.  Same as me.  Funny how it can be expressed so differently!

So I was out with two of my oldest friends last night. Though I chat with Greg on the net regularly, I hadn’t seen him “in the flesh” in a good 9 years. Trevor I haven’t actually spoken to in probably 6 or 7 years - since Cal’s wedding.

It was great seeing them and reminiscing, without making it too boring for their wife/girlfriend (respectively). I was about to explain the qualitative difference between BC NDP and Alberta NDP (political parties in case you’re not from Canada), when one of my friends blew this whistle - “Hey hey hey. No politics, no religion, no sex.”

Of course, they went on to break the sex rule of conversations themselves a few times over the rest of the night, but I let that slide. I found it strangely constraining - I haven’t lived with rules for my conversation in a long time. I just find it more honest to be able to talk about anything with anyone. Even at work, where my desk neighbours two staunch atheist liberals, we never draw boundaries in our conversation, which is actually freeing. I have been able to talk about various aspects of my faith with them over time and have it received civilly. I didn’t know what to do about this rule, that I had heard and been familiar with, but let fall into disuse years ago.

Perhaps it was an illustration about how far our paths have diverged since I moved away from Edmonton 10 years ago.

Or it could be an early flag that I need to know a way around this roadblock, if I hope to start a church in Alberta.

What do you think? How would you have gotten around such a conversation killer?