Perfection
“Perfection”
Romans 6:12-23;Matthew 10:40-42
Who are we? What are we about?
Well, this summer we are a community of a number of churches who have come together for worship. Each church has its own little differences. We each have our own style of worship. You may think that we all do it the same way, but believe me, as a worship leader, when you walk into a different church, things are not the same.
One summer I was asked to speak at a Baptist church. When I lived in the vicinity of this church, it was the church we always attended. We had friends there, and found the community very welcoming.
All I had to do during the service was read the Gospel lesson and preach. Believe it or not, I messed that part up. Someone else was in charge of reading a piece of scripture, which then led into the children’s time. When the children were dismissed I stood up and read the Gospel lesson. When I sat down for the anthem the deacon leaned over to me and pointed out in the bulletin that the anthem came before the gospel reading. Oh well, the bulletin is really just a suggestion any way. read more…
Live election results
It seems Elections Nova Scotia has taken down the url of the election results, so I have taken down the image and link.
Harness the Wind
“The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails” – William Arthur Ward
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/profile/aroa
I confess I don’t know very much about sailing, but this I do know: the wind is what pushes you forward, and you need to keep adjusting the sails in order for forward movement to be achieved.
The quote I have above is very poignant given the state of the church today. It seems I keep having the same conversations over and over and over again, “The world has changed, the church is being left behind.” Everyone has an opinion on it, even people who have never darkened the door of a church.
But what I hear and what I see are two different things. People offer solutions, they offer ways in which to make the church more relevant in society, but their actions sound like the first two actions in the quote. They either complain about how no one takes the church seriously anymore, or they somehow expect that all of a sudden society will turn in their favour and the church will once again be overflowing like it was 50 years ago.
They are pessimists and optimists. I’m not encountering a lot of realists. read more…
“Out of the Believer’s Heart”
“Out of the Believer’s Heart”
Acts 2:1-21; John 7:37-39
There are many Holy Days in our church calendar. Days where we celebrate different aspects of Jesus’ life: his birth, his baptism, his fasting in the wilderness, his death and most importantly, his resurrection. And of course all along we are reading his teachings and the impact he has had on people’s lives, whether through witnessed accounts in the Gospels or through the letters of those who continued his work.
But today we celebrate something else. While what we celebrate today is still something Jesus promised, it’s something he’s not physically active in as he is in the other celebrations. He don’t read how he touched someone or what he said. We don’t hear of what he was doing. On Pentecost we only hear about the disciples and what happened to them.
The disciples began the day sitting together in a house. Seems innocent enough. They have probably been doing this quite a bit since Jesus left them to be with the Father in heaven. I wonder if they had any idea that today would be any different… if they had any idea their lives would change… again.
Hadn’t things changed enough already? They left their work. They left their families. They left everything they had ever known to follow this Jesus. So they continued to gather in this house to talk and reflect on what they experienced and how they knew they could never go back to the way things had been. They had seen too much. They heard too much. They had experienced so many things in their journey with Jesus, they were new men never to be the same again.
So they gathered together in this house, day after day. They found a replacement disciple for Judas, Matthias, and tended to other minor business while they waited… for what, I’m not sure they knew. read more…
That’s a Big Quilt
At the annual meeting of the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada on the last weekend of May, churches were invited to submit patches towards a conference quilt which would depict the past, present, and future of the church in our region. Churches were randomly chosen to consider the past, present, or future of their church and use their inspiration to create their own patch.
As a member of the tech team for the weekend, I decided we should use the opportunity to display the creation and all it’s wonderful submissions. One weekend didn’t seem long enough to me. So here is the resulting video of our 700+ sq. ft quilt created by the many churches of the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada. Enjoy!