So, going into the holidays, I can feel momentum beginning to build with my wife and I, and also with my pastor, Philip, about what needs to be done to move our dream of planting in Alberta forward. I thought you might be curious, so I’ll let you into the next few months.

First on the plate, I will be seeking licensure with the Grace Brethren. This means I will be able to marry people! Ooooo… However, being quite rigorous, theologically, I have some study to do to pass it. I have a major written test to write, then based on that, they do an oral review as well. I hope to complete that before spring.

After that, my wife and I are beginning to plan a trip to tour about 5 or 6 different communities in Alberta with regards to seeking God’s will in which community to target. At this time the list includes Cochrane, Okotoks, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat (Redcliff), Spruce Grove/Stony Plain and perhaps St. Albert. We want to do this in the May/June time frame.

This fall we hope to form a small group made up entirely of prospective team members who will accompany us to Alberta. We are praying that some people are stirred by God to join us.

This fall there is a church planting conference in Calgary – details on speakers and such have yet to be finalizedd but we are already in agreement that we should go. That will be a great learning experience.

So, that is a big picture snapshot of what 2009 will look like for us. We still need to colour it in, but Lord willing, our future will take a much clearer shape as we go next year.

Abstract: If you’re an Awana Commander, I highly recommend it.  Great teaching, great application, great networking.  Downside: Information overload.

The event was held at Camp Stillwood, a really nice retreat/camp destination in the Columbia Valley, up behind Cultus Lake.  I’ve been there several times before for Men’s retreats with Cedar Grove Baptist Church, but this one was slightly longer, so more enjoyable.

The main speaker was Dr. Greg Carlson, who has been involved with Awana for decades along with his wife, Donna.  He wrote the book that Awana promotes, “Rock-Solid Teacher“.  The local Awana missionaries, Harvey and Lil Fehr also spoke.  All four of them, along with one of the local Awana commanders, Karen Quan, were quite good – engaging and passionate about their subject matter.

The material covered was very in-depth, about the philsophy of children’s ministry, the importance of presenting the gospel to children, the importance of protecting the children from abuse, and many other subjects.  It certainly gave me a much better vision for children’s ministry.  I found myself renewed with enthusiasm for doing my job well and serving the children, their families, and the leaders I am leading.

I don’t have a lot to complain about.  However, I will raise a couple of beefs.  First, in their lesson on child protection, they used a short video, a series of monologues which were meant to express forcefully the ravages of an abuse situation – how it impacts the church, the family, the abused, and the community.  However, at its end, the video pinned the blame for not reaching the lost of the community on the failings of the club to keep an abuser from abusing.  This is an unfair framework.  To suggest that because the church is rocked by this trauma, they stopped evangelizing the community, so people died in their sin, never hearing the gospel, that this is the church’s or the Awana Commander’s fault?  That is way too much.  People die in their sin not because someone fails to tell them about the gospel, but because they have heard the gospel, and have no excuse for their ignorance of God.  If they didn’t hear it from that church, then it came to them in another form, and they rejected it.

Another issue I had was with the intensity of the weekend.  There were so many sessions, and there was little time to reflect and process what was learned.  On the plus side, I have never experienced a conference with such a vested interest in retention for the attendees.  They built into the program all kinds of opportunities to note down takeaways and direct application.  At the end of the process they even had us write letters to ourselves highlighting the most important things we don’t want to forget from the conference.  However, I would have relished more time for reflection on the content I was downloading, if for no other reason than to think through some of the issues I have in particular and how their information changes how I see them.  I mean, from breakfast through to bedtime on Saturday, we were going for 12 hours straight!  That is intense for a learning experience.

I have written a lot above about what I didn’t like, but read that last paragraph again.  This was a very good weekend and I got a lot more out of it than the last conference I attended.  I attribute that to the organization and effectiveness of the speakers.  And the Word of God was the beginning and the end of their subject.

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
9:00am till 3:30pm
Southside Community Church
RP Campus
12642 – 100 Ave
Surrey, BC

The bad news is there is a big children’s ministry conference going on today put on by Awana, but open to anyone who is in children’s ministry.  I had hoped to have as many people as possible go, but I learned this week that it takes repeated communication to ensure that people remember upcoming events.  When we were first launching the clubs I talked about how great these seminars would be and recommended that we get everyone coming, but for some reason it slipped under everyone’s radar and by the time I came out to confirm attendance, nobody had any idea what I was talking about.  Lesson learned – communication must be regular and complete.

It turns out that even I could not make the training today though.  As much as I wanted to go, I can’t as I am now at work, dealing with a financial pinch.  The general consensus is that our faith is being tested a bit, to see how much we really trust God to take care of us.  Given the realities of our situation, I am certain that without God I would be an emotional mess, but he has been sustaining me, no question.  At the same time, I am seriously exploring other employment options, so pray with us that God would either sustain us through these slow months at my current job or provide a new job for me.

In either case, that’s one more thing to heap on the plate.  Whew.

I was particularly impressed with how he showed his support for enterprises like World Vision.  For once, the promotional video wasn’t full of emaciated infants, trying to guilt you into giving them money, but it was moving considering his suggestion that you not only support them, but in so doing teach your children to think of others and how they can help.  His recommendation was to have each of your children support their own child and write to them.

Now onto the contents of the seminar.  The material covered paralleled his two books, “Raising Great Kids” and “Boundaries with Kids”.  The first half focused on what we as parents need to keep in mind in terms of what we need to communicate to our children.  This was followed by the larger picture of the six things that children need to learn.  The second half took one of these, the concept of boundaries, and dealt with it in depth as it seems by his experience, to be the area where most families have difficulties.

It was entertaining listening to him comment on the politically correct environment we are in.   His position on raising a child appear to be well rooted in Scripture – he used it appropriately all day.  Occasionally he would suggest consequences like missing dessert at a mealtime, or in the case of a child who throws food, taking away the food for a few minutes at a time until the child understands that they will not get to throw the food if they want to eat.  He felt he had to clarify that he was not advocating starving children.

Along the same lines, he dealt head-on with the concept of physical discipline.  He suggested it did not have a place after children reach a certain age where they become nonresponsive to it – usally 5 or 6 years old.  Before that, it should always be considered a last resort, which is sound advice.

He also dealt directly with what has become the common approach to parents who have no time to give to their children – bribing them into behaving, which amounts to rewarding bad behaviour.  He also tackled the educational cultural icon of “self-esteem” saying that this philosophy in the school systems has led to children failing at things but “feeling good about it”.  He stated clearly this is not a learning environment and is creating children who grow up to be failed adults.

All in all, I was impressed, and it gave me much food for thought.  I got a little sleepy in the early going, but made it through.  It was very nice actually, just having a day with my wife.  We got to go out for lunch together and that was just lovely.  Hopefully we get a few more opportunities like this.

<cynicism>

I think any given parenting conference should be preceded with a meet-and-greet with the children of the “expert”.  To see if he or she really knows what they are talking about.

</cynicism>

No, I am sure it is going to be great.  I’ll post a review tomorrow night.

Innisbrook Golf Resort and Conference Center was a lovely place to visit.  They were excellent hosts, and their facilities were quite nice.  The grounds, with the golf courses were pretty, but not a lot of room for walking.  If they’d had more sidewalks we might not have driven our car around as much.  They did have shuttles, but it was hit-and-miss getting one during busy times.  A little frustrating that their only clear “family” restaurant on resort was closed for renovations.

We weren’t really sure what to expect when we went down there.  In retrospect, it is clear that what this was meant to be about was fellowship.    It was about reconnecting with all those people from other areas of the country, celebrating what is going on in the many organizations that the Grace Brethren cooperate with, and being encouraged with messages to keep on doing what Jesus wants us to be about.  Jim Brown was the lead person and spoke briefly at the beginning of each major session.  He is a really neat individual.  We got to see all sides of him that week: from his self-concious, but nonetheless brave foray onto the streets of Tampa to find out what people believe about life and the afterlife, to his huge heart to reach lost people and encourage others to do the same, to the crescendo of his message, pointing out humanity’s needs in all corners of the world at the top of his lungs and at the edge of heartbreak.  You can definitely see why his ministry in Goshen, IN has been blessed.

He wasn’t the only character there either.  It was a pleasure meeting many of the faces of the Grace Brethren, and I was honoured to have some great conversations and learn more from many of them.  Sometimes they weren’t necessarily speaking to me, but their words showed me a passion for people and for Jesus.  I think of Tim Boal‘s moving talk about Go2 Church Planting, the new arm to encourage and equip new leaders to plant new churches.  I think of Jim Laird and his wife, who blessed us with interest in what we are doing in Canada, and with prayer for us at our table.  I think of Terry White, who invited me to sit next to him at the BMH breakfast and helped me get the inside track on publishing and how they work.  I think of Mark Cahill and his two challenges to take seriously the Christian job of sharing the gospel as much as you possibly can, planting seeds, watering, weeding and so on to help create the harvest.  I think of my own pastor, Philip Bryant, who stirred the pot of the fellowship everywhere he went.  I think of Tom Avey, who despite having a billion things to think about and do as far as organizing, still had time for us and remembered who we were, despite having only ever exchanged one or two emails.  I think of Glen Sykes, a man who likes his sushi, but was gentleman enough to help my feisty boys while we were out at the Kobe Steak and Sushi.  His story was one that moved me in the few minutes we had for intelligent conversation around my sons’ silliness.

There is something rich in being a member of a fellowship (not a denomination) where the people are intent on Christ and intent on not telling you what to do but walking beside you, and encouraging you, and being encouraged by that fellowship.  I really felt that while we were at iGo.  We are both really excited and plan already to go to next year’s event, Equip ’09 which will be in Columbus, OH.  I understand it is much more focused on training, seminars and teaching which is fine by us.  The speaker list already looks very exciting.  But more, the opportunity to be with these men and women again is anticipated most of all.