Saint Columba Day 2016
Today is the traditional celebration day for Saint Columba, an Irish missionary who did the work of God in Scotland. The following quotes are attributed to this man of God. Alone with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my way; what need I fear when Thou art near, Oh King of night and…
Continue reading
Change
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. John F. Kennedy Kennedy, or JFK, said these words in the middle of the 20th century when significant change was in the air. The rate at which things change in our current time…
Continue reading
What is Church? Chapter 2
In a blog on January 6th, I suggested that one purpose for gathering as followers of Christ is to search for God and allow others to do the same. Today I want to address another reason why we gather as the Body of Christ: mission. As most of us will know, Missional Church is very…
Continue readingLeadership Prayer Breakfast
Today, Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi, spoke briefly at the 45th Annual Calgary Leadership Prayer Breakfast. This breakfast started as an opportunity for Christian leaders to come together to pray for the city and our country. Since those early years, Calgary’s cultural and religious diversity has increased. Today there were references to Christians, Muslims, and Jews…
Continue readingBelonging Before We Believe
Recently, a friend of mine asked my opinion on how we live out community in the church and church organizations such as camps. He had been challenged by someone who suggested that it was inappropriate to have non-Christians at church run events such as camps and other gatherings. He wondered what I thought about the…
Continue readingCommunity and Care
It is important to tell good news stories of people finding care and community in the church. The following story is an example of how this can and has happened in the life of one church. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals. The Siparia family had been part of a…
Continue readingAlone
Two articles published online last week stood in stark contrast to each other. The press release from the Mercer survey reported that Vancouver, British Columbia is once again in the top five most liveable cities in the world.1 Vancouver has ranked as high as number one in previous surveys and is always in the top…
Continue readingIndividualism
Western culture in general has a high degree of emphasis on the individual. Individual rights and values are often allowed to trump societal benefits and norms.* Some would say that this is a direct result of western Christianity and the changing relationship between Church and State.# Faith, in particular, has become much more about me…
Continue readingCommunitas
I recently came upon this blog post at “The Forgotten Ways Blog.” You can read the whole post here: http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/2008/12/07/the-bible-and-communitas/ The part that caught my attention was his further explanation of communitas and liminality, concepts he develops in the book The Forgotten Ways and also addresses in his blog. A short definition of communitas is…
Continue reading