Consumebatur
With the passing of the Presbyterian Record, one more branch no longer burns on the Presbyterian Church in Canada bush.
From the Moderator
Look to the East
My recent visit to the 101st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea was quite an eye-opener.
Christian Values
It increasingly appears as though Canadian values can no longer be automatically equated with Christian values. This is hardly breaking news, but for many in the church today, it comes as a nasty surprise.
Listen to the Voice
Imagine if recording technology existed for many centuries. Whose voice would you most like to hear? An ancestor telling a family story? An artist, Shakespeare say, reading a sonnet? A figure from Christian history?
On Pilgrimage
My favourite place to bring people on pilgrimage is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. To our Protestant eyes, there isn’t much recognizable ground.
Hospitality
We all claim we are friendly, hospitable churches but it’s the newcomer who can tell us the truth.
Crossing Generations
Let’s plan to be radically countercultural in how we encourage faith development. Let’s cross the generations as we learn and grow together so that seniors, millennials, children and youth teach and learn from one another. Hardly radical, you say? I believe it is.
Our Beloved Buildings
Does your church building match your mission goals?
Clergy Burn Out
More than 20,000 clergy left the ministry in 2010 alone in the U.S., and according to a survey done by the Francis Schaeffer Institute, 71 per cent of pastors serving churches today are burned out and battling depression and fatigue.
Listening and Learning
It is like speaking the truth with your right hand on the Bible when you hold the feather. In a round circle at Kenora Fellowship Centre, Marvin shared his challenges.
Questions of Justice and Truth
We can celebrate that women have come a long way, but we still have major work to do. Full equality and justice
for women are still a long way off, especially when we glance at the world globally
Faith That Sticks
In spite of the finest scholars involved and the best pedagogy going, our churches are not filled with students who came through the system. You may have had a bursting church school back in the ‘60s, but the majority of these now grown up participants no longer go to church.
Meeting Refugees
Often we are experts on subjects until we are directly involved.
Thinking Like a Rabbit
You remember the story of the race between the tortoise and the rabbit? Remember who wins? If it were written today, the rabbit would win.
Slaves to Survival
Too often we want all the guarantees of success before we take the first step, but that’s not how God works.
Authentic Community
We all had the sense this year that we were part of the early stages of an historic moment in our church, no matter what is decided in the future.
Service and Witness
The church in Taiwan maintains the missionary zeal of its founders.
A Good Set of Instructions
If the love of God actually means anything to us, we will want also to show our gratitude to God. We don’t want to sink back into a warm bath of piety and do nothing for God or for others.
Asking Over the Back Fence
The question I am asked most frequently when I preach is some version of “What can we do to bring new people into our church?” I usually tell them a story…
The Patty Test
When my wife Patty accompanies me on a guest preaching engagement, she normally does not actually enter the church building with me. She enters a few minutes before worship as an anonymous stranger to the church.