-
Finding worthiness in weakness
In II Corinthians 12:9, Paul shares a message he received from God in response to his personal struggles: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” It’s no small thing to trust that God’s grace is sufficient for us regardless of what we’re going through. To accept that God’s grace…
-
Solitude and community
A peculiar thing happened to me last Sunday while I was on holidays. I felt a strong desire to attend a church service. Curious, to say the least. You see, by the time summer arrives, I’m usually churched out. As a pastor, church is not only my work life but a significant part of my…
-
Mosquitoes are part of life
I recently told someone that our family holiday plans this summer included tenting for 10 days in northern Ontario. They replied, “Why on earth would you do that? That sounds awful.” Unfortunately that’s the same reaction I get when I tell certain people I go to church. I reflected on this last week while our…
-
Activate your core
It seems the majority of political, social and religious discourse today consists of knee-jerk reactions to the perceived agendas, biases, foolishness and dangerous “isms” of the “other.” This rampant reactivity makes constructive dialogue impossible. To make things worse, we all assume the log is in everybody else’s eye and the tiny speck is in our…
-
Environment matters today and tomorrow
I often hear people describe the church as being behind the times. What this means is that by the time the church addresses issues that were important to society last year, or last decade, most people have already moved on to more pressing issues that the church will be sure to deal with in…
-
I dare you to coach
After years of my gym membership not bearing fruit, I switched to a gym where a fitness coach leads each workout. It’s been a little over a year now, and I’m in better shape than I’ve been in 20 years. I had no idea how important a good coach is. The coach starts each session…
-
An ‘Easter Fools’ Day’ rant
When I first heard that Easter falls on April Fools’ Day this year, my mind immediately thought about how many people think I’m a fool for believing in the Easter story. I can hear them scoffing, “Do you believe in the Easter bunny too?” This brought to mind all the people I’ve known over the…
-
Change in the church is complicated
It was my first day on the job as associate pastor. I enthusiastically unlocked the door to my new office and was taken aback by the writing on the wall. Literally. There was a massive white banner hanging on the wall with a warning, handwritten in giant red letters, that read, “We don’t like change!”…
-
Love is acceptance and transformation
Does loving people and things as they are mean accepting them as they are? If so, what are we to do with the call to join the Spirit’s transformative work of making all people, places and things new? The call to transformation certainly seems to contradict acceptance. It focusses on what is wrong in the…
-
Only one thing is essential
In Luke 10:40, Martha complains to Jesus about having to do all the kitchen work by herself. Jesus responds. “Martha, you’re distracted by many things, but only one thing is necessary.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t give Martha a list of seven or 47 things that are essential to life. Just one thing. If that doesn’t…
