Faith

Civilized and Assimilated

davidharris

The timing was surreal. Remembering the Children: An Aboriginal and Church Leaders' Tour to Prepare for Truth and Reconciliation concluded mid-March. A week later, Ontario judge Patrick Smith sentenced six leaders from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake First Nation) in Northern Ontario to six-months' jail for contempt of court. Their crime? Failure to abide by a court-ordered injunction aimed at preventing them from peacefully protesting against mining exploration on their traditional lands.

God's Creation

davidharris

Forty years ago I remember doing elementary school projects on pollution, cutting out pictures from Time and the other news magazines that came into our house.

Theology of the Cross

Arthur Van Seters

When the church seeks to discern its way, people like Walter Bryden and Stanford Reid challenge us to examine our deepest convictions. They prod us to recover something of the creative dynamic of our Reformed heritage. They believe that theology is not only essential but eminently practical.

New Beginnings

Rev. Dr. J. H. Hans Kouwenberg

I am writing this column before I participate in a national aboriginal and church leaders tour to highlight the need for healing and reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. From March 1-10 we are scheduled to visit Ottawa, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Vancouver. (There will be extensive coverage of the tour in next month's Record.)

Open to love

davidharris

Jesus wouldn't have said things like “take your light out from underneath that basket and let it shine” or “move into all the world and make disciples” if he was content with a church plan of maintenance or gradual decline. God wants our churches growing and alive.

Core Beliefs

Rev. Dr. J. H. Hans Kouwenberg

I write to you in the dead of winter. Even in Abbotsford, B.C., as in the rest of Canada, the leaves have fallen from the trees, some snow has fallen on the ground, the temperature dips a little below freezing and the wind is often cold. Getting up while it is still dark to face the short, often dreary, days of winter is a bit tougher for most of us.

Meet Jesus

Andrew Allison

The term “church growth” makes me queasy, or at least, uneasy, in the same way that the term tilt-a-whirl makes me queasy at the fall fair or the announcement of turbulence makes me uneasy at 33,000 feet. I think the queasiness generates from the same place – I wonder who or what is driving this thing.

The Cracks of Society

davidharris

I'll never forget the first time I encountered homeless people begging on the streets. I was a student visiting Rome during an Easter vacation and walking down the Via Del Corso in the heart of the city's shopping district.

Real Hospitality

Rev. Dr. J. H. Hans Kouwenberg

Although I live in Abbotsford with almost 100 churches, seven of which have an attendance of 1,500 to 5,000 on a weekend, I also live in British Columbia where 30 per cent of the population does not believe in God and 60 per cent does not attend church or any other faith institution at any time during the year.

Building Relationships

Chuck Congram

He approached me immediately following worship and, in a calm but confident way, declared that he would never be a member of this church because he could never believe in Jesus. I often wonder why someone that confident about what they don't believe ever bothers to show up in church. Subsequent conversation with “Brownie” revealed he had recently been through a difficult marriage breakup and, on the arms of some friends, had initially shown up at a Friday evening Celebrate Recovery event. One of the most memorable and joy-filled times of my ministry was the Sunday he stood before a congregation of 500 and declared his commitment to Christ and to service in His church. Evangelism — the process of helping an individual to find their way from skepticism and doubt to personal faith in Christ — can be seen more clearly when there is a face like that of “Brownie” attached. In relating his story, we come to understand the kinds of components which position a church for effective ministry in this arena.

Belief grows in Community

davidharris

At one point, as we were working on the cover of this issue, we had a photograph of some worshippers with the title The New Evangelicals, referring to a new thrust of evangelicalism in the United States on social issues, particularly poverty.