Today I preached my second ever sermon.  It was entitled, “Faith That Saved A King” and it focused on the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den.  It is actually part of a series of messages focusing on the book of Daniel.  I got to do this one while Philip was away in Mississauga, participating in the 10th anniversary of Grace Brethren Canada (and Grace Community Church).

The second time was definitely the best.  I made some goofs in the first one and managed to straighten them up in the second time through.  I enjoyed giving the message because I feel like it accomplished two objectives - first it stayed on target, driving home the theme “God is King”, and relied primarily on the text of Daniel.  But second, I was able to draw out a message about missional living.  I talked a lot about what faith is, how it is built, and what effect it can have on the people around you when it is lived publicly, “in the open”.  It was a message seeded by my own tendency to keep my faith to myself, and also in dealing with some of my Christian co-workers, who felt the same.  I wanted to encourage people to live openly as Christians, so that God may be glorified even amongst those who do not know him.  I really feel strongly that you can’t argue someone into faith in God, but when God works in your life and people find out about it, they are faced with a choice - either try to explain away Gods’ work as coincidence, or reckon with the God that loves them, that they have ignored, shunned, or hated.  It is a choice that you cannot set up for them.  It must come to them.  And it comes when you live out your faith in front of them.

If you would like to give the message a listen please feel free.  I have made it available as a podcast below.  Please feel free to offer constructive criticism in the comments - I am still very much aware I have lots to learn in terms of presenting a message.

Here’s a link to the sermon, in mp3 format.  It’s 40 minutes long, so the dl is about 46 megs.

This is going to sound completely self-centred, but given what I know about myself, and my own struggles with confidence, last night’s one-year anniversary at Community of Hope was incredibly special and meaningful to me for a number of reasons.  Let me tell you about it.

• We had our Awana leadership walkthrough before the Vision meeting.  I had almost the entire staff out there, including the new team members who have been signing up to work with us!  So I took everyone on a guided tour through all the spaces, and then let the teams look at them and discuss setups and how they can move forward.  Just being in such a leadership position was something that I never could envision myself doing, but there I was.
• I was approached by someone completely unexpected to wash my feet.  A young man, Colin, who play electric guitar on worship team, approached me.  As far as I knew the extent of our relationship was the church and the fact that I tried to recruit him into Awana leadership, but he turned me down.  When we got to work, he told me that he deeply admired me because of my attitude at church.  He said whenever he came to church in a miserable mood, he would see me circulating, or doing something, or talking to someone with a big grin on my face.  That, or he’d hear me laugh somewhere - I’ve got a pretty loud laugh.  It was enough to break him out of whatever funk he’d be in, and say to himself, “If he can do it, so can I.”  But he didn’t stop with just me.  After we finished, Pastor Phil had kind of an open time for people to “out” men who had affected them or served them, and Colin stood up and told everyone what he just told me!  I was quite taken by the honour he showed me, as it seemed to unexpected and genuine.
• Once that time of kind of “public outings” we called it was finished, a man who recently joined our church, Ed, approached me privately.  I have seen such a willingness to stretch himself in the service of God in him, as he has joined Awana as a leader.  He’s needed rides to get to various events for Awana, and I have picked him up more times than not.  He just told me to my face how much he appreciated that about me, and how glad he is that he is coming to our church.  Then he gave me a hug.
• Later, after the dinner, Pastor Phil asked people to come up and share how they had changed.  Of course, I had to spoil things and come up and take a quick pot-shot at him (heh, “I learned, if Phil can plant a church, ANYONE can plant a church!”  laughter ensued…) but what really caused me excitement was watching my wife stand up and say some really important things to everyone about God’s work in our church.  She is so good in front of people!  Incredible even.  What a gift God has given me for a partner in life and ministry!
• Finally, during our table communion time, I found myself waiting for someone else to pray over the elements and distribute them.  Nobody was doing it so I finally stepped in.  But then, once we were done, Sue from the table behind us tapped on my shoulder and said, “Nobody at our table knows how to pray over the bread and grape juice!”  She wanted me to pray for them.  I went over there and prayed with them, and felt strongly at that moment how much of a leader I have become here at Community of Hope.

Without even realizing it, God has been positioning me.  He’s brought me to where I am, almost unrecognized, to show me a picture of what I could be and will be if I only let him lead me there.  I am really blown away by how far he has brought me.  I never thought for a second last night was what was in store for me - I was just looking forward to the food (I LOOOVE potlucks!)

Phil said in his opening devotional that he had planned to do some commissioning of leaders last night.  Things went a little longer than he wanted, so he never got to it, but this morning, I defnitely feel like God did some commissioning regardless of how much we had time for.  Last night made me intensely aware that God is doing something with me, and he is doing it a whole lot faster and in ways that I may not even be noticing.

Then again, this isn’t the first time he’s done this to me.  You’d think I’d start to expect it after a while.

This week Community of Hope has 12 missionaries up for a week to help us with our summer push - the “Campaign of Kindness”.  We have a fully staffed park program running in one of the major parks in our area, and we also have four or five teams who went out last night to other parks, giving out water and cookies to thirsty Surreyites and Deltans.

Last night was the first night.  Cheryl and I were paired up with Philip, and we hit five parks.  Two of them had beer league slowpitch games going on, which was interesting.  The first lady to explain this to us almost seemed to stumble over the word “beer” - as if it was some sort of embarrassment.  We had baby with us so many of the ladies not playing fawned over Dannan’s baby blues.  Babies are wonderful icebreakers.

At the second ball game, one woman exclaimed, “Only God would do something like this!”  Kind of cool.  Another one said the cookies “answered the prayers” of their children who were bored watching the game.  Kind of funny, we never really made a big deal that we were from a church, but somehow they knew.

A big God thing happened at the last park.  Philip had been taking his girls to swimming lessons the last few months and had connected with a lady there who grew up in the area, but moved away and has just returned.  She hadn’t been to church in ten years.  It just so happened that she was in this final park with her kids, and we had a good time of reconnecting with them!  What were the odds?  Who needs odds when God has an appointment for you?

Tonight we will be doing some kind of car wash, but it remains unclear where it will happen as there are a couple of last minute details Philip is working out.  But we’re looking forward to serving up another dose of kindness to unsuspecting Canadians tonight!

On another note, I continue to be amazed with Cheryl’s giftings.  She is much better at initiating and being friendly to strangers than I am.  Probably something to do with her acting and stage background (or maybe her gift is why she is good at acting and performing?!?)  I was stumbling over my words and feeling like an idiot, and she was making it happen.  Watching her in action gives me so much more confidence in our calling.

It occurred to me the first post I did on how we got here, I didn’t really get into much detail about how we leaped from a short term missions trip to Rwanda to where we are right now.  The real impetus came in the fall of 2006.

We heard there was a church planting couple hanging out with our church.  At the time we were attending Cedar Grove Baptist Church, a church of 1200-1400 people in North Surrey.  It’s easy to get lost in a big church like that, but I saw them around once or twice in the halls and at general meetings and such.  It seemed like every time I looked at the guy, Phil, he was looking at me and grinning.  I was thinking, “Who’s this guy grinning at me?” I finally decided that God, or something, wanted me to talk to him.

One sunny day in August, I caught up to him at the bike racks (seriously!)  I was just curious at that stage about what their plan was to plant a church.  I had no idea how one goes about planting a church at that stage.  He invited me out to their core team small group.  At that time, it consisted of themselves and two other couples.

I went home and asked Cheryl if she’d like to come.  She was fine with me going, but “I am NOT interested in planting a church!” (more…)

Shane was a boy from the Edmonton area, just moved to the coast to follow his roots and keep a promise to God that he would take Bible College for a year.  He liked the outdoors, but also computers.  He joked before he left Alberta behind that he was “going to the coast to meet his wife”.  It turned out it wasn’t a joke.

Cheryl was a girl who grew up on the coast.  She’d been an award-winning vocalist as a child, and had been to film production school.  Her family had run a BBS so she too was a computer person.  She had grown up helping her mother with special needs foster children in their home.

We met on the internet in October, 1997.  By Christmas we were engaged.

In the summer of 1998, we got married.  She thought she was going to be a nurse.  He thought he would work in Forestry.

In 2000, we had our first child, while she was in her 3rd year of University.  He decided to change careers to computers.

In 2003 we went to Mexico.  We both realized we never wanted to vacation on the backs of 3rd world poverty.

In 2004 He nearly quit his job, but realized that God was teaching him something.  He decided to stick it out.

In 2005 we decided to go on another trip, but this time to do something to serve God while we enjoyed someplace warm.  We didn’t leave until 2006 - to Rwanda.  We didn’t realize it, but that changed everything.

Upon returning from Rwanda, we met a couple of church planters.  We ignored them until the fall, when Shane met with them for the first time.  He tried to get Cheryl interested, but she said no.  Two months later, out of the blue, Cheryl asked to meet them too.  We joined their nascent planting core and began our education of what a church plant is.  In 2007 that core grew to forty by the end of summer.  Community of Hope launched September 9, 2007.

By early 2007, we recognized that God wanted more from us than floating along wherever life takes us.  We decided to aim our lives for something - planting a church of our own in five years.  We are now on that journey - walking with an open hand, waiting for God to take the lead.

God has lots of work ahead of us to prepare us for this.  We have skills and gifts, but no experience.  But that too will be brought to us with time.  Join us on our journey.  Subscribe to the blog via RSS or via email updates (see sidebar).  Encourage us along the way in the comments.  But most of all, if you feel God calling, use us to begin your journey.  We will add resources and information as we find it to help those who come after us.

God bless you on your journey.