Have a holly, jolly… Easter???
Well, it’s Easter weekend.
And what do we end up with down in Halifax? Our worst winter storm of the year. I have no idea if there will be church in the morning, a fair bit of snow is already down, and there’s another 15-25cm expected! We shall see what the deciders decide in the morning.
Otherwise, the Good Friday service went very well last night. I didn’t preach, but instead had a series of breaks as I read “with gusto” (as someone put it) the passion narrative from John.
The full-time minister is returning full-time, much sooner than expected, however she hopes that I will still be able to help her out for a little while. First up is a graveside service for a member of the community who passed away early this morning. Whenever the roads get cleared to Sambro I’ll get out to visit the family and see what they would like.
While I’m glad she’s back, I’m a little saddened as well. The people of the two churches are amazing people. I have grown a lot, and experienced a lot as well. I will miss them very much whenever I am finished there. Someone mentioned after the service last night they’ve seen a lot of growth in me in the short time I’ve been there. And I have grown, but I’ve also become much more comfortable with myself in the pulpit, which allows me more freedom to preach from the heart, and not be afraid of how people will react, because the more I preach from the heart, the better I preach. Simple as that.
So welcome to a white Easter here in Nova Scotia, God bless you and may we let the risen Christ shine in all our lives.
Sermon March 18
Hey, at least I’m updating with something 😉
“Whither Dost Thou Wanderâ€
March 18, 2007, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the farthings, and flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends. read more…
“Bearing Fruit”
Here is my sermon, more or less, from last Sunday…
“Bearing Fruitâ€
March 11, 2007, Luke 13:1-9
Imagine the police knocking on your door one day, accompanied by a scruffy ex-convict, whom only yesterday you befriended. As thanks for your generosity, the ex-con has stolen most of your silver. What do you do? read more…
What a night!
So last night I mc’d a fundraiser for the North Dartmouth Outreach Centre at Stairs Memorial United Church.
What a night!!!! It was a night of music… no… amazing music.
There was something for everyone… country, barbershop, CCM, church choirs doing various pieces, instumentalists playing various styles of music.
At the end of the night, Two Cents took the stage and had an amazing set. We never had such feedback from an audience before, it really fed us as we played. I think I finally came down from that high sometime this afternoon. Now I see the attraction for rock stars to keep playing so long after they should have retired! 😉
Well, we have a couple days break before we play a big youth event at an Anglican church on the 23rd, then a coffee house on the 31st. This has been an amazing journey for us. When we started just taking a break and jamming together last fall we had no idea we’d turn into a group headlining an amazing evening of music with many amazing artists raising a bunch of money for a food bank. Thanks be to God is all I have to say.
Sermon, March 4
I’ve contemplated putting my sermons back on here, but haven’t been too sure if I feel like it or not. So here’s yesterdays, just for kicks! 🙂
“Gathering Us Togetherâ€
March 4, 2007, Luke 13:31-35
Some things that appear dangerous are actually much less hazardous than their safer-looking alternative. Commercial airline travel, for instance, is 30 times safer than transportation by car. It may not seem that way to the person who would rather fight rush hour traffic on the ground than ride a solitary Boeing 747 at 35,000 feet. Now this is old data, but out of 5 million scheduled commercial flights in 1982, only 5 resulted in fatal accidents. Yet people die every minute in car accidents in North America. Being carried by tons of metal thrust through the air by huge jet engines is actually safer than being pulled along in an 6-cylinder machine that never leaves the ground. (From Our Daily Bread) read more…