Efforts In Unity
“Efforts For Unity”
Ephesians 4:1-16
I love the Olympics. It’s so easy to get caught up in all the excitement. I mean, had you told me a week ago that I’d be not only watching, but cheering throughout a match of badminton I’m not sure I’d believe you.
But there I was on Thursday afternoon, glued to the TV watching Canada play Japan in doubles badminton, the winners going on to the gold medal.
The funny thing about badminton is they don’t play it quite the same way I remember playing it. Whenever I played with a teammate, I remember delivering and receiving a good number of bruises at we hit, collided, crashed, and fell over one another on the court.
Having been an athlete in high school who competed in a number of different sports, I know it takes a lot of dedication to hone your skills to be the best you can be.
But no matter how good you are on your own, if you are on a team, you need to have a certain amount of chemistry with you teammates in order to be successful. read more…
Mountain Of God – Third Day
When I was going through the process of becoming a minister there were some tough times, some really big bumps in the road. Yet through it all I knew God was with me as I travelled the road. This song helped me through some of those tough times. Enjoy.
7 Truths That Changed The World – A Review
As a preacher, I’m always on the lookout for sermon ideas. These ideas come from all sorts of places, but most often books are the most helpful.
When I picked up 7 Truths That Changed The World: Discovering Christianity’s Most Dangerous Ideas I was about 2 paragraphs in when I knew for certain that I am holding a resource that will be used in worship.
The author Kenneth Richard Samples leads us through some of Christianity’s most absurd claims from a modern viewpoint. Claims that, outside of church culture, would be looked upon with a great deal of rejection. In fact, all of the claims he addresses already do, despite these are claims we make in the church on a weekly, or even daily basis.
Claims such as “Not all dead men stay dead”, focusing on the resurrection, and “God walked the earth”, focusing on Jesus as God among us to name just two of the topics.
Sample offers an extensive reading list at the end of each chapter to allow readers to do further research into the topic of the chapter.
What I find quite good about the book is that Sample uses a lot of scripture to defend the claims. After presenting the counter-argument, Sample goes right to the Bible to explain why the argument is invalid. I did find, however, he might have been able to strengthen his argument, in particular in the first couple of chapters, by referring to extra-Biblical sources to strengthen his argument around the existence of Christ and what he did. I also understand why Sample chose not to. Instead, letting the biblical record stand on its own as a source.
It’s also great to see Sample is not afraid to take on the heavyweights of the modern religion of “non-religion.” The likes of Hitchens, Hawking, and Dawkins of the atheist movement are not ignored in this book as Sample takes on atheism and its evangelists.
In all, this book is a great resource for preachers and church leaders who continue to be faithful in seeking ways in which to express our basic Christian beliefs in a world which is increasingly prone to reject these beliefs due to biblical illiteracy.
In short, I’m looking forward to my fall sermon series inspired by 7 Truths That Changed The World.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Questions for leadership hopefuls
In just a few weeks the United Church of Canada will begin its General Council meetings, held every three years. Part of the work to be done will be to elect a new moderator (spiritual leader) for the next 3 years. As part of the board for Cruxifusion, I was able to help draft some questions we sent to all the nominees. We posted their responses on our website.
I guess it seems only fitting, that since I helped draft the questions, I should provide my own answers. So here we go.
1) “Cruxifusion” means “united by the cross.” What does Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection mean to you?
Is “everything” too simple an answer?
Let’s face it, I am broken. So are you. There’s nothing I can do to fix this. I can try and be a better person, but I will always fall short. I will continue to screw up. I will fail. However, when I met the risen Christ in my life in 2001 I learned he knows my pain. He knows my challenges. Yet he still loves me and wants me to be with him. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he shows me it’s about the abundant, never-ending love of God that sustains me and draws me close. I am who I am today because of him.
So yeah… everything.
2) Describe the God you worship.
The Word of God which we read in worship are words of challenge. These words challenge us to rethink who we are as people of God and how we live in the world. Yet through it all, there are great stories of mercy, grace and love. This is the God I worship. God who loves and forgives us, but also a strong God who doesn’t want us to just coast through life just looking out for ourselves.
3) Which Christian author has had the greatest impact on you?
There have been many. But my “comfort” authors are the ones which helped form me and my understanding of God. Those would be Philip Yancey, C.S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
4) What gifts and passions do you have that you believe the United Church of Canada needs today?
I have a passion for lifting up Jesus Christ to the church. Without Jesus we are nothing. Without Jesus we cannot expect to reach new generations, no matter how innovative or creative we get in our outreach. Evangelism begins with Jesus Christ, from there we can get creative in helping people experience their own relationship with him. I’m also not afraid of new ideas and I think it’s time for us to explore new approaches to ministry and church. It’s time to bring Christ back into our communities through new models of outreach.
There’s Hope For Your Church – A Review
Occasionally you come across a book title that causes you to pause and wonder, “Could this be helpful?”
When I saw the title of Gary L. McIntosh’s book, that’s what I thought. As I am involved at various levels of our denomination in dealing with church survival I couldn’t help taking a closer look at this one.
One of the first things you notice when you start reading this book is that McIntosh knows his stuff. He certainly has done a lot of work and research in this area and a quick look at his extensive list of suggested reading material shows a wealth of not just spiritual but also secular writings targeted at revitalizing organizations.
McIntosh breaks down the process of church revitalization into very usable and logical parts. Each chapter outlines what you will experience as a leader when you attempt to engage and move your congregation in a growth process. The table of contents ends up being a list of what you will need to go through as a leader with your people:
- See the Potential
- Commit to Lead
- Assess the Situation
- Learn the Principles
- Discern God’s Vision
- Build a Coalition
- Lift the Morale
- Make Hard Decisions
- Refocus the Ministry
- Equip for the Change
- Deal with Resistance
- Stay the Course
- Breaking Through
While this could be seen as steps 1 through 13, this will not be the case. McIntosh simply helps you realize the work to be done and the challenges you will face in a process that may have you flipping between various chapters at the same time.
As a church leader, who is actively working with congregations and a denomination in the very early stages of change, this book has been a very strong tool in helping me understand where we are and what we will need to face as we move forward to what we hope will be a bright a Spirit-filled journey of growth in our church families as faithful followers of Jesus Christ.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group