The host of the TV show The Episode asked me the question, "how is it that so many dating relationships go so wrong?" I responded with an answer that blew his mind; " People are having sex too soon." The host was speechless and the audience roared!
I went on to explain that once you enter into a sexual relationship when you are dating, sex becomes the controlling factor in the relationship. Real conversation, about serious issues takes second place to sex, every time. Guys understand this. A guy is not going to risk telling a girl the truth about how he feels on the topic at hand if it may in any way compromise his ability to get a girl into bed. Women often tell me, after a break up, that they had such great conversation. No they didn't. The guys gave them what they wanted in conversation, avoiding serious confrontation, and skirting sensitive issues.
A healthy sustainable relationship has as its base an intense friendship. Friendships are forged by having common experiences, truthful dialogue, working through issues and finding common ground and spending time together doing stuff. It also includes, discovering how you process common experiences, interact with others and manage social situations.
The majority of dating couples I know spend way too much alone time together and not enough time with other couples and in complex social environments. This 'couple alone time' leads to intense romantic type situations usually ending in a sexual encounter. They are, in a sense, 'playing house' with out any of the foundation work necessary to sustain that 'house'.
There is no substitute for the hard work of communication and building a friendship for life. Once you have done that sexual relations take on a deeper, more intimate, satisfying roll in the relationship.
After the taping of the show, I had a few very deep and meaningful conversations with the late 20-early 30 year old crowd at the bar ( the show is taped at SRO in downtown Sudbury On Canada). These young professional adults desire healthy sustainable relationships and they were willing to engage in a dialogue about this issue of sex, and being too close too soon. While they all may not agree with my assessment, they are open to discussion.
What more can you ask than that...oh ya...and an invasion to return as a guest in the near future!
Check out my book, The Relationship Depot: building relationships that last a lifetime on line at Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca and in e -reader Kindel/ or Kobo
www.amazon.ca
Friday, February 10, 2012
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH!
My first book has finally gone live.
I never knew writing a book could be so challenging...but we did it. That's right, WE DID IT.
Writing and publishing a book is a team effort. From the creative staff team at All Nations Church who helped me produce the speaking series called The Relationship Depot, back in 2009; Heather Campbell Whitman who transcribed my Sunday messages, gathered my speaking notes, compiled my research and put everything in a big blue indexed binder, cut ,pasted and edited my first draft, my second draft, my third draft...an many more drafts, worked tirelessly on helping me find my written "voice" and walked me through the emotional mind field of editors sometimes conflicting opinions, to walking away from one publisher and helping me make the decision to go to Publishing On Demand, to recruiting Christine as our graphic designer for the cover and then creating an interior layout that reflected how we wanted the book to feel, Garths' magnificently photo-shopped picture of me on the back cover, to the people who gave us pre-publication quotes, learning to work with a print company, e-marketing, Kimble and Kobo and now media relations...
And it's all because I married a girl named Eileen and we had kids and raised a family and managed to turn our relationship with each other and our relationship to God into a book called
The book is available at Amazon.ca and.com as well as in the UK, India and other online book sellers. Kindle and Kobo will be live soon
In Sudbury you can get a copy at Walden Word of Life, The Lighthouse, All Nations Church -673-6110
If you can drop by the party even for a few minits that would be great. Thanks everybody.
I never knew writing a book could be so challenging...but we did it. That's right, WE DID IT.
Writing and publishing a book is a team effort. From the creative staff team at All Nations Church who helped me produce the speaking series called The Relationship Depot, back in 2009; Heather Campbell Whitman who transcribed my Sunday messages, gathered my speaking notes, compiled my research and put everything in a big blue indexed binder, cut ,pasted and edited my first draft, my second draft, my third draft...an many more drafts, worked tirelessly on helping me find my written "voice" and walked me through the emotional mind field of editors sometimes conflicting opinions, to walking away from one publisher and helping me make the decision to go to Publishing On Demand, to recruiting Christine as our graphic designer for the cover and then creating an interior layout that reflected how we wanted the book to feel, Garths' magnificently photo-shopped picture of me on the back cover, to the people who gave us pre-publication quotes, learning to work with a print company, e-marketing, Kimble and Kobo and now media relations...
And it's all because I married a girl named Eileen and we had kids and raised a family and managed to turn our relationship with each other and our relationship to God into a book called
THE RELATIONSHIP DEPOT: Building Relationships That Last A Lifetime
The official launch party is Wednesday October 19th from 6-8 Pm at the Holiday inn in Sudbury Ontario
The book is available at Amazon.ca and.com as well as in the UK, India and other online book sellers. Kindle and Kobo will be live soon
In Sudbury you can get a copy at Walden Word of Life, The Lighthouse, All Nations Church -673-6110
If you can drop by the party even for a few minits that would be great. Thanks everybody.
IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH...BUT IT'S HERE!
Monday, December 20, 2010
THE WEEK I ALMOST DIED TWICE
The Date: July 1967, The Location: North Channel of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. The organisation: John Island Camp.
The Kismet supply boat stopped about 500 feet from the sandy beach that would become our wilderness home for the next month. One by one the canoes, which had been tied behind the boat ,were brought near, loaded with food, axes, pots pans, matches, clothes, sleeping bags, personal items and the all essential TP (toilet paper). With great excitement and a bit of anxiety the 18 teen-aged campers, guided by our leader Mr.Koski, made our way towards the shore line of Aitken Island,
The closer we got the shore the more evident it became how pristine and undeveloped this magnificent island was. We beached the canoes and together placed our feet on the sandy shore that would be our home for the next month. It was here that we would build all the necessities of home; sleeping shelters, a safe food storage area, build kitchens, fire pits, and a loo to go with the TP.
Our training regimen began the next morning. The trip of a lifetime was only three weeks away and we had to be in shape for the arduous task following the ancient voyageur canoe route from the Spanish River, along the North Shore, down the St Marys River to Sault Ste. Marie. Every day we practiced righting overturned canoes by canoe over canoe rescues, solo paddling, swimming, strength training, water proofing sleeping bags, practiced first aid and developed menus and food lists for the week long adventure.
The day of our departure arrived and we began packing the all important food. We packed the last meal of the last day first and successively backwards from there to lunch on day one. A large bag of prunes was placed in the bow of every canoe for daily sustenance. Before long we were heading up the Walesback, past John Harbour and on our way to the unpredictable waters of the North Channel. Just out side Iron Bridge when we encountered our first disaster.
We had been surfing down the front side of four foot waves when the rogue wave struck. Looking over my shoulder from the bow seat all I could see was a wall of water picking up the stern of the canoe. With in seconds the canoe was doing a cartwheel. Seconds later we were capsized and swimming as hard as we could in the turbulent waters. The canoe survived, we survived, I and still had my glasses on. Later that evening we would discover that our water proofing techniques were proven adequate as we would sleep in dry sleeping bags under the shelter of our overturned canoe. The remaining two days were uneventful. Paddling for six to seven hours each day, we often took breaks by lashing two canoes together and hoisting a small piece of canvas as a makeshift sail, allowing the strong winds of the North Channel to guide us towards our daily evening camp site. By day five we had finally reached the mouth of the St. Marys River. With-in a few hours the second disaster would strike.
The current in the river was running about 3-4 miles per hour and our average paddling speed 4-5 miles per hour. The trip up the river should have taken an hour or so; it was going to take us a whole day. Ever so slowly we progressed from marker buoy to marker buoy resting at each one and hanging on for dear life so our forward progress would not be impeded. A narrow section of the river would prove to be our undoing.
We were making our way along just inside the shipping channel markers when a very large Bethlehem Steel freighter came up behind us. Looking up toward the forward deck we could see a deck hand mimicking our paddling action, while other deck hands cheered us on. Suddenly the water around our canoe began to churn violently and the canoe began to be pulled backwards towards the stern of the freighter. We could hear the low rumble of the giant propeller, slowly we were being sucked into its wake…at 15 years of age I thought were about to die. We paddled with all our strength, but to no avail. We were being drawn into a whirlpool created by the prop wash and the wall of water being displaced by the sheer volume of the ship. Death was immanent. Suddenly we found our selves being shot away from the ship towards the shore. Like a rocket our canoe flew forward though the water and beached itself on the exposed shore line. We had survived, we were in tact, the canoe was intact, and we had escaped. Nervous laughter soon turned again to horror as we watched a three foot wall of water racing towards the shore, smash into our canoe and once again throw us into the water. The ship was pushing a might wall of water out of its way as it traversed the narrows of the river and as the stern passed our location that same wall of water returned with a vengeance.
We arrived in The Sault. near suppertime, exhausted, tired and excited that we had completed the ancient route taken by the voyageur sand would go down in Canadian history. There to great us was the John Island truck, the canoe rack on the back and enough money for a nice restaurant cooked meal. We had completed our assigned task, delivered all the campers and red canoes intact and on time. Our summer adventure had come to an end but the memories would last a lifetime.
The Kismet supply boat stopped about 500 feet from the sandy beach that would become our wilderness home for the next month. One by one the canoes, which had been tied behind the boat ,were brought near, loaded with food, axes, pots pans, matches, clothes, sleeping bags, personal items and the all essential TP (toilet paper). With great excitement and a bit of anxiety the 18 teen-aged campers, guided by our leader Mr.Koski, made our way towards the shore line of Aitken Island,
The closer we got the shore the more evident it became how pristine and undeveloped this magnificent island was. We beached the canoes and together placed our feet on the sandy shore that would be our home for the next month. It was here that we would build all the necessities of home; sleeping shelters, a safe food storage area, build kitchens, fire pits, and a loo to go with the TP.
Our training regimen began the next morning. The trip of a lifetime was only three weeks away and we had to be in shape for the arduous task following the ancient voyageur canoe route from the Spanish River, along the North Shore, down the St Marys River to Sault Ste. Marie. Every day we practiced righting overturned canoes by canoe over canoe rescues, solo paddling, swimming, strength training, water proofing sleeping bags, practiced first aid and developed menus and food lists for the week long adventure.
The day of our departure arrived and we began packing the all important food. We packed the last meal of the last day first and successively backwards from there to lunch on day one. A large bag of prunes was placed in the bow of every canoe for daily sustenance. Before long we were heading up the Walesback, past John Harbour and on our way to the unpredictable waters of the North Channel. Just out side Iron Bridge when we encountered our first disaster.
We had been surfing down the front side of four foot waves when the rogue wave struck. Looking over my shoulder from the bow seat all I could see was a wall of water picking up the stern of the canoe. With in seconds the canoe was doing a cartwheel. Seconds later we were capsized and swimming as hard as we could in the turbulent waters. The canoe survived, we survived, I and still had my glasses on. Later that evening we would discover that our water proofing techniques were proven adequate as we would sleep in dry sleeping bags under the shelter of our overturned canoe. The remaining two days were uneventful. Paddling for six to seven hours each day, we often took breaks by lashing two canoes together and hoisting a small piece of canvas as a makeshift sail, allowing the strong winds of the North Channel to guide us towards our daily evening camp site. By day five we had finally reached the mouth of the St. Marys River. With-in a few hours the second disaster would strike.
The current in the river was running about 3-4 miles per hour and our average paddling speed 4-5 miles per hour. The trip up the river should have taken an hour or so; it was going to take us a whole day. Ever so slowly we progressed from marker buoy to marker buoy resting at each one and hanging on for dear life so our forward progress would not be impeded. A narrow section of the river would prove to be our undoing.
We were making our way along just inside the shipping channel markers when a very large Bethlehem Steel freighter came up behind us. Looking up toward the forward deck we could see a deck hand mimicking our paddling action, while other deck hands cheered us on. Suddenly the water around our canoe began to churn violently and the canoe began to be pulled backwards towards the stern of the freighter. We could hear the low rumble of the giant propeller, slowly we were being sucked into its wake…at 15 years of age I thought were about to die. We paddled with all our strength, but to no avail. We were being drawn into a whirlpool created by the prop wash and the wall of water being displaced by the sheer volume of the ship. Death was immanent. Suddenly we found our selves being shot away from the ship towards the shore. Like a rocket our canoe flew forward though the water and beached itself on the exposed shore line. We had survived, we were in tact, the canoe was intact, and we had escaped. Nervous laughter soon turned again to horror as we watched a three foot wall of water racing towards the shore, smash into our canoe and once again throw us into the water. The ship was pushing a might wall of water out of its way as it traversed the narrows of the river and as the stern passed our location that same wall of water returned with a vengeance.
We arrived in The Sault. near suppertime, exhausted, tired and excited that we had completed the ancient route taken by the voyageur sand would go down in Canadian history. There to great us was the John Island truck, the canoe rack on the back and enough money for a nice restaurant cooked meal. We had completed our assigned task, delivered all the campers and red canoes intact and on time. Our summer adventure had come to an end but the memories would last a lifetime.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM GOD
Dear child,
It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival; although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.
How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that let Me go on.
If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santa and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.
Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can and may remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 – 8 in the Bible.
If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it.
1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know. They tell Me all the time.
2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.
3. Instead of writing “George” complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up...it will be nice hearing from you again.
4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.
5. Pick someone that hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.
6. Did you know that someone in Greater Sudbury will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile. It could make the difference.
7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day, they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.
8. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the, the Salvation Army or the food bank . They will make the delivery for you.
9 Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.
P.S Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work. Time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love. And remember, I LOVE YOU.
Found this in my Christmas file, Author Unknown
It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival; although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.
How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that let Me go on.
If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santa and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.
Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can and may remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 – 8 in the Bible.
If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it.
1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know. They tell Me all the time.
2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.
3. Instead of writing “George” complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up...it will be nice hearing from you again.
4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.
5. Pick someone that hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.
6. Did you know that someone in Greater Sudbury will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile. It could make the difference.
7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day, they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.
8. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the, the Salvation Army or the food bank . They will make the delivery for you.
9 Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.
P.S Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work. Time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love. And remember, I LOVE YOU.
Found this in my Christmas file, Author Unknown
Sunday, November 7, 2010
THE MIRACLE at MCFARLANE LAKE
The year was 1977. It was summer, and it was our first trip home to Canada as husband and wife.
Eileen and I had been offered my Uncle Albert Magee’s cabin at the end of McFarlane Lake for a few days of R&R. Arriving by small boat and outboard motor; we had no idea that during the next two days our lives would forever be changed.
The purpose of our trip was to introduce my American wife, Eileen, to my home town of Sudbury and show her off to all my relatives and friends. For years I had been living without a Visa in the USA and now, after getting married, I could come and go freely between Canada and the USA.
So here we were in my home town, nestled in a rustic camp, accessible only by water, down an isolated corner of a pristine Canadian lake. We enjoyed the peace, the isolation, the sounds of nature, all of which were in dramatic contrast to the noise, pollution, and traffic of living in New York.
The sun was shining brightly over the quiet, still water. Eileen and I were sitting on a homemade bench on a hill just outside the cottage door. We looked at each other and the most insane idea landed inside our heads at the exact same moment. Why would we spend the rest of our lives in the chaos that was New York when we could live in the calm serenity of Sudbury? We had not previously thought of moving here. We had no discussions on the matter. These thoughts were right out of the blue. Or were they?
In the months leading up to our trip to Sudbury, both Eileen and I had been offered some amazing career opportunities. Eileen was being wooed by a medical firm to become their international director of marketing. The firm was located in Denmark, and they wanted her to move to their world head-quarters. I, on the other hand, had been offered a spot as a lounge act on the Las Vegas Strip, worlds apart from Copenhagen, Denmark. During this period, God was slowly drawing me back to Himself.
Through a series of bounced cheques from bankrupt bars and an increasing awareness of my rebellious lifestyle, God was letting me know that all would not be well if I stayed in the entertainment industry in New York. It seemed time for a change, but I figured it would be between Copenhagen or Las Vegas!
However, God was working out HIS plan for our lives that did not include Copenhagen, Las Vegas or New York.
His plan for us was centered in a little mining town, miles from any large city, in the middle of Northern Ontario by the name of Sudbury. A city in which I grew up, left, and was committed to never returning! But all that changed on a summer day, on a homemade bench, watching the sun sparkle off the waters of McFarlane Lake, when the God of the universe let us both know that He had a better plan for our lives than we had for ourselves.
Stunned that we would even consider abandoning our blossoming careers for the uncertainty of Sudbury, we headed back up the lake. Arriving at my parents’ home on Danforth Avenue, I posed a question to my dad, Kitchener. Would All Nations Church be willing to give me a job for just one year so I could transition out of the entertainment industry to whatever job God had in store for me? The answer was a resounding yes!
Eileen and I returned to New York to wrap up our lives there. I cancelled my performing contracts, went back to school and finished the last two semesters of my B.A. We discovered that summer Eileen was pregnant. After selling our house we packed up everything we owned in the Allied Movers van. When we finally returned to Sudbury (with four month old twins this time!), waiting for us was a lovely ONE bedroom basement apartment, a warm welcoming church family, and a salary of $9,000.00 a year. Prayers were answered. A prodigal son returned.
It was August, 1978: just over a year from when we experienced the Miracle on McFarlane Lake. Little did we know that this one year adventure would turn into a lifetime.
Eileen and I had been offered my Uncle Albert Magee’s cabin at the end of McFarlane Lake for a few days of R&R. Arriving by small boat and outboard motor; we had no idea that during the next two days our lives would forever be changed.
The purpose of our trip was to introduce my American wife, Eileen, to my home town of Sudbury and show her off to all my relatives and friends. For years I had been living without a Visa in the USA and now, after getting married, I could come and go freely between Canada and the USA.
So here we were in my home town, nestled in a rustic camp, accessible only by water, down an isolated corner of a pristine Canadian lake. We enjoyed the peace, the isolation, the sounds of nature, all of which were in dramatic contrast to the noise, pollution, and traffic of living in New York.
The sun was shining brightly over the quiet, still water. Eileen and I were sitting on a homemade bench on a hill just outside the cottage door. We looked at each other and the most insane idea landed inside our heads at the exact same moment. Why would we spend the rest of our lives in the chaos that was New York when we could live in the calm serenity of Sudbury? We had not previously thought of moving here. We had no discussions on the matter. These thoughts were right out of the blue. Or were they?
In the months leading up to our trip to Sudbury, both Eileen and I had been offered some amazing career opportunities. Eileen was being wooed by a medical firm to become their international director of marketing. The firm was located in Denmark, and they wanted her to move to their world head-quarters. I, on the other hand, had been offered a spot as a lounge act on the Las Vegas Strip, worlds apart from Copenhagen, Denmark. During this period, God was slowly drawing me back to Himself.
Through a series of bounced cheques from bankrupt bars and an increasing awareness of my rebellious lifestyle, God was letting me know that all would not be well if I stayed in the entertainment industry in New York. It seemed time for a change, but I figured it would be between Copenhagen or Las Vegas!
However, God was working out HIS plan for our lives that did not include Copenhagen, Las Vegas or New York.
His plan for us was centered in a little mining town, miles from any large city, in the middle of Northern Ontario by the name of Sudbury. A city in which I grew up, left, and was committed to never returning! But all that changed on a summer day, on a homemade bench, watching the sun sparkle off the waters of McFarlane Lake, when the God of the universe let us both know that He had a better plan for our lives than we had for ourselves.
Stunned that we would even consider abandoning our blossoming careers for the uncertainty of Sudbury, we headed back up the lake. Arriving at my parents’ home on Danforth Avenue, I posed a question to my dad, Kitchener. Would All Nations Church be willing to give me a job for just one year so I could transition out of the entertainment industry to whatever job God had in store for me? The answer was a resounding yes!
Eileen and I returned to New York to wrap up our lives there. I cancelled my performing contracts, went back to school and finished the last two semesters of my B.A. We discovered that summer Eileen was pregnant. After selling our house we packed up everything we owned in the Allied Movers van. When we finally returned to Sudbury (with four month old twins this time!), waiting for us was a lovely ONE bedroom basement apartment, a warm welcoming church family, and a salary of $9,000.00 a year. Prayers were answered. A prodigal son returned.
It was August, 1978: just over a year from when we experienced the Miracle on McFarlane Lake. Little did we know that this one year adventure would turn into a lifetime.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
How a Year Turned Into a Lifetime
My Dad Kitchener, his wife Jean and myself, arrived in Sudbury Ontario Canada on March 18th 1953 after a two day train ride from New York City and after a week long boat trip across the Atlantic Ocean on the S.S America all the way from Belfast Northern Ireland. I was three years old at the time.
My dad came here to be the pastor of a group of Christians who had gathered in Sudbury from all over the world to work in the mines. On any given Sunday people would stand and read the weekly bible verse in their native language which would include, German, Russian, Finnish, Ukrainian, Italian, French English and the like, hence the name All Nations church.
After meeting in the old Sudbury Business College behind the Sudbury Arena they met in several locations including King George Public School on Regent Street and the Odd Fellows Hall on Howey drive and another school on Martindale Road. (Name I can not remember).
To facilitate Sunday evening services in the summer the church commandeered the LaSalle Drive-in Theatre and built a giant stage reaching almost as high as the bottom of the outdoor screen. Church goers would drive in, put the speaker in their window, roll up the window to prevent mosquitoes from attacking and sing along with the choir and the accordion player which was broadcast from the giant stage.
In 1958 during the first strike at INCO, (now called Vale) the first permanent church building was constructed in a vast farmer’s field called New Sudbury. Located on Churchill Avenue the church was erected for $20,000.00 from a loan by the royal Bank of Canada, secured by bonds from a non-church member and now famous land developer in the South End named Ernie Holditch.
In the later 60's Kitchener Mahood took to the air waves of CKSO Radio, live on Sunday mornings at 8:45 am. Later Kitchener would make good use of a half hour of television time provide by Canada's first independently owned television station for the use of the Sudbury and District Ministerial Association, of which my dad and his church were members.
By the mid 70's the church was bursting at the seams and the house next door, which we called Oliver House (named after the owners) was purchased. By 1975 my dad’s health began to deteriorate from a genetic heart and circulatory defect. Never intending to return from my nightclub and entertainment career in New York City, God intervened in my life and made it quite clear he wanted me in Sudbury, not New York.
In 1978, Eileen, my wife, our four month old twins and I returned to Sudbury, to a basement apartment and a $9,000.00 a year job as assistant Pastor of All Nations Church. The previous year in NYC I had made over $100,000.00. Our intention was to come for one year to see how we could help the church transition from my father to its next pastor. That one year has now become 33 years and now we are looking to see how to transition again. This time not from father to son but from son to...well we just don't have that information as of yet.
Kitchener Mahood died in 1983. As of September 2010 Jean Mahood will be 86 years old. The twins are 33. The church has grown from 85 families in 1978 to over 650 families in 2010. We have moved from the Churchill location to Prete St. a former Pentecostal church build by David Manse of 100 Huntley Street fame and we currently worship in Fraser Auditorium on the grounds of Laurentian University. The Prete Street building now houses a Day Care centre owned and operated by the church.
The church broadcasts live each Sunday morning over the KFM radio network through out Northern Ontario and around the world on an a parallel internet feed. Live streaming is also available at www.allnationschurch.ca. Construction is underway to build two 13,000 sq, ft. Monolithic Domes with an 800 seat auditorium and a children's pavilion perched high over down town Sudbury overlooking Brady Street and the Kingsway.
Be careful what you decide to do for a year, it may turn into a lifetime.
My dad came here to be the pastor of a group of Christians who had gathered in Sudbury from all over the world to work in the mines. On any given Sunday people would stand and read the weekly bible verse in their native language which would include, German, Russian, Finnish, Ukrainian, Italian, French English and the like, hence the name All Nations church.
After meeting in the old Sudbury Business College behind the Sudbury Arena they met in several locations including King George Public School on Regent Street and the Odd Fellows Hall on Howey drive and another school on Martindale Road. (Name I can not remember).
To facilitate Sunday evening services in the summer the church commandeered the LaSalle Drive-in Theatre and built a giant stage reaching almost as high as the bottom of the outdoor screen. Church goers would drive in, put the speaker in their window, roll up the window to prevent mosquitoes from attacking and sing along with the choir and the accordion player which was broadcast from the giant stage.
In 1958 during the first strike at INCO, (now called Vale) the first permanent church building was constructed in a vast farmer’s field called New Sudbury. Located on Churchill Avenue the church was erected for $20,000.00 from a loan by the royal Bank of Canada, secured by bonds from a non-church member and now famous land developer in the South End named Ernie Holditch.
In the later 60's Kitchener Mahood took to the air waves of CKSO Radio, live on Sunday mornings at 8:45 am. Later Kitchener would make good use of a half hour of television time provide by Canada's first independently owned television station for the use of the Sudbury and District Ministerial Association, of which my dad and his church were members.
By the mid 70's the church was bursting at the seams and the house next door, which we called Oliver House (named after the owners) was purchased. By 1975 my dad’s health began to deteriorate from a genetic heart and circulatory defect. Never intending to return from my nightclub and entertainment career in New York City, God intervened in my life and made it quite clear he wanted me in Sudbury, not New York.
In 1978, Eileen, my wife, our four month old twins and I returned to Sudbury, to a basement apartment and a $9,000.00 a year job as assistant Pastor of All Nations Church. The previous year in NYC I had made over $100,000.00. Our intention was to come for one year to see how we could help the church transition from my father to its next pastor. That one year has now become 33 years and now we are looking to see how to transition again. This time not from father to son but from son to...well we just don't have that information as of yet.
Kitchener Mahood died in 1983. As of September 2010 Jean Mahood will be 86 years old. The twins are 33. The church has grown from 85 families in 1978 to over 650 families in 2010. We have moved from the Churchill location to Prete St. a former Pentecostal church build by David Manse of 100 Huntley Street fame and we currently worship in Fraser Auditorium on the grounds of Laurentian University. The Prete Street building now houses a Day Care centre owned and operated by the church.
The church broadcasts live each Sunday morning over the KFM radio network through out Northern Ontario and around the world on an a parallel internet feed. Live streaming is also available at www.allnationschurch.ca. Construction is underway to build two 13,000 sq, ft. Monolithic Domes with an 800 seat auditorium and a children's pavilion perched high over down town Sudbury overlooking Brady Street and the Kingsway.
Be careful what you decide to do for a year, it may turn into a lifetime.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
DRIFTING AWAY FROM YOUR PURPOSE
My left eye went out of focus the other week. It seems the prescription for my glasses needs changing, again. It actually took me a few days before I realized that my left eye was not quite right. During this time my right eye did an amazing job of compensating for the lack of focus in my left eye and things looked ok, just not great. I knew something was wrong but only discovered the problem when I closed my right eye and concentrated on seeing through my left eye. Sure enough the trees were fuzzy, the computer screen blurry and when I looked in the mirror some of the wrinkles in my face had disappeared.
Here is the problem as I see it…sometimes life just doesn’t work quite right. We are not sure what is wrong but we know all is not right. It’s not so much that life is bad…it’s just not quite the way it should be. Maybe you are out of focus. Perhaps your alignment is off. Could be a lens needs changing or you need a slight adjustment. The problem could even be that you have drifted from your intended purpose.
Drifting from your purpose…the reason you were created…the mission you were assigned, is the primary cause of life’s dissatisfaction, discomfort, disease, and depression.
You are only fulfilled when you fulfill your purpose; the purpose God created you to fulfill. When you are out of focus with God you are out of focus with life. When you are out of focus with the Creator you are out of focus with His creation. Try as hard as you may to bring clarity to your life you will be unable to do so until you change the lens through which you see your life.
As surely as my optometrist designs a prescription that is uniquely suitable to only my eyes so God has designed a purpose that is uniquely suitable to only me. I can not wear your glasses or fulfill your purpose. You can not wear my glasses or fulfill my purpose.
I can not make up my own eye glass prescription…I need the doctor to do it! You and I can not make up our own purpose…we need the creator to do it!
Until I get the prescription right, my world will be out of focus. Until I get my purpose right, my life will be out of focus.
Jesus made the following statement to a group of followers ‘I have come to give you life and give it to you in abundance.” Just as I asked Dr. Vachon for a new prescription for my eyes perhaps you need to ask Jesus for a new prescription for your life.
When you ask Him, God has an amazing way of bringing clarity to your life.
Hey,just picked up my new glases from Costco... and I can read the fine print! I can see clearly now. It's amazing what a new perscription can do for your clarity!
Here is the problem as I see it…sometimes life just doesn’t work quite right. We are not sure what is wrong but we know all is not right. It’s not so much that life is bad…it’s just not quite the way it should be. Maybe you are out of focus. Perhaps your alignment is off. Could be a lens needs changing or you need a slight adjustment. The problem could even be that you have drifted from your intended purpose.
Drifting from your purpose…the reason you were created…the mission you were assigned, is the primary cause of life’s dissatisfaction, discomfort, disease, and depression.
You are only fulfilled when you fulfill your purpose; the purpose God created you to fulfill. When you are out of focus with God you are out of focus with life. When you are out of focus with the Creator you are out of focus with His creation. Try as hard as you may to bring clarity to your life you will be unable to do so until you change the lens through which you see your life.
As surely as my optometrist designs a prescription that is uniquely suitable to only my eyes so God has designed a purpose that is uniquely suitable to only me. I can not wear your glasses or fulfill your purpose. You can not wear my glasses or fulfill my purpose.
I can not make up my own eye glass prescription…I need the doctor to do it! You and I can not make up our own purpose…we need the creator to do it!
Until I get the prescription right, my world will be out of focus. Until I get my purpose right, my life will be out of focus.
Jesus made the following statement to a group of followers ‘I have come to give you life and give it to you in abundance.” Just as I asked Dr. Vachon for a new prescription for my eyes perhaps you need to ask Jesus for a new prescription for your life.
When you ask Him, God has an amazing way of bringing clarity to your life.
Hey,just picked up my new glases from Costco... and I can read the fine print! I can see clearly now. It's amazing what a new perscription can do for your clarity!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
A DOUBLE MINDED GOD?
Sometimes I wonder if God is not just a bit double minded. In some verses of the bible he is destroying, ripping up, invading, punishing and in other verses he is patient, kind, gentle, forgiving.
I have wrestled for years with my understanding of Gods anger at sin and yet his forgiveness of sin. I have had many a great debate over the concept of a God that says, “come to me, I love you” in one breathe and then says,” If you don’t come to me and let me love you I will destroy you” in another breath.
In John 3:16-18 we read,
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son”
Notice in verse 17 where he writes about God not condemning us, but desiring to save us.
Notice in verse 18 that the ones who are condemned are the ones who have not experienced the transformative power that the name or the authority of Jesus gives to them.
In my mind this is how the justice and mercy of God fit together. God is perfect, complete, and holy. Because he is complete, perfect, and holy nothing can exist outside of God, with out his permission that is not complete perfect and holy. His perfection, completeness and holiness must consumes and destroy all that is not like him.
We as humans with all the incompleteness that our disobedience has produced in us, should not be able survive one nano-second before a Holy God. We should be consumed. We are already condemned by our imperfection. But God because of his mercy and love has intervened in our lives and offers us a way of escape from the consuming tsunami of His perfection. God accepts Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as if it was our own death. God then covers our incompleteness with Jesus and when God looks at us he does not see what we are, but who we are in Jesus. God makes us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ…and we are not consumed.
Here is the difficult fact to get our minds wrapped around. God will eventually consume, destroy and eradicate everything that is not complete, perfect and holy. He is compelled to do this. The very characteristics of completeness, perfection and holiness can not exist in a universe that does not match those characteristics.
God has some how placed himself under restraint for a certain duration of time in order to display his love to us and give us the opportunity to respond to that mercy. One day that restraint will cease. God will then consume all that has not been made perfect by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This event in history will be known as the unleashing of the wrath, or anger of God. Love demands destruction of all that is not love. God is love and he will not exist in an environment other than love.
This world and all that is in it is condemned before God, ready for demolition. God offers you a way out through the blood of Jesus Christ that purifies you from all condemnation.
I have wrestled for years with my understanding of Gods anger at sin and yet his forgiveness of sin. I have had many a great debate over the concept of a God that says, “come to me, I love you” in one breathe and then says,” If you don’t come to me and let me love you I will destroy you” in another breath.
In John 3:16-18 we read,
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son”
Notice in verse 17 where he writes about God not condemning us, but desiring to save us.
Notice in verse 18 that the ones who are condemned are the ones who have not experienced the transformative power that the name or the authority of Jesus gives to them.
In my mind this is how the justice and mercy of God fit together. God is perfect, complete, and holy. Because he is complete, perfect, and holy nothing can exist outside of God, with out his permission that is not complete perfect and holy. His perfection, completeness and holiness must consumes and destroy all that is not like him.
We as humans with all the incompleteness that our disobedience has produced in us, should not be able survive one nano-second before a Holy God. We should be consumed. We are already condemned by our imperfection. But God because of his mercy and love has intervened in our lives and offers us a way of escape from the consuming tsunami of His perfection. God accepts Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as if it was our own death. God then covers our incompleteness with Jesus and when God looks at us he does not see what we are, but who we are in Jesus. God makes us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ…and we are not consumed.
Here is the difficult fact to get our minds wrapped around. God will eventually consume, destroy and eradicate everything that is not complete, perfect and holy. He is compelled to do this. The very characteristics of completeness, perfection and holiness can not exist in a universe that does not match those characteristics.
God has some how placed himself under restraint for a certain duration of time in order to display his love to us and give us the opportunity to respond to that mercy. One day that restraint will cease. God will then consume all that has not been made perfect by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This event in history will be known as the unleashing of the wrath, or anger of God. Love demands destruction of all that is not love. God is love and he will not exist in an environment other than love.
This world and all that is in it is condemned before God, ready for demolition. God offers you a way out through the blood of Jesus Christ that purifies you from all condemnation.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
WHEN GOD SAYS," That's Enough! "
I wonder if we as a society believe in the concept of “consequences” any more. Do we believe that there is a reaction to every action, a result to every behaviour, a punishment for every crime? We may say we believe in the law of consequences but it seems to me our behaviour makes many of us out to be liars. Take my weight problem for example. I understand the law of caloric intake which simply stated says that if I eat more than I need my body stores the excess as fat! But I choose to ignore the law of consequences with every slice of cherry cheese cake I devour.
Almost every one has seen the scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes shortens people lives. Most people have seen pictures of badly blackened lungs taken at autopsies of diseased smokers, but we defiantly keep on puffing, willfully ignoring the known consequences of our behaviour.
Here is a truth for you! You can ignore the consequences of your behaviours but the consequences of your behaviours don’t ignore you. Eat too much you get fat. Smoke and you get sick. Run away from God and you get caught!
I think that as a society we want to believe in some form of justice; that at some time right will prevail over wrong, that unfairness will be compensated for, that restitution will be made, that somehow the inequity of illness, loss, corruption, the domination of the disadvantaged will all be made right.
I think we want a God who can do something about the mess, the pain, the oppression. Not just a God who lets “stuff" slide by unchallenged, and uncorrected but a God who has the guts to “call” this world on its abuses and its abusers, and dispense appropriate consequences.
If that is the God we really want, a God who will do something, a God who will call it like it is, a God who will ensure that what is right ends up being right, then perhaps we need to give God permission to begin that same process in our very lives. Perhaps we need to give God the opportunity to call our lives like he sees our lives, to call us on our disobedience, our own injustice, our own self consumption. Perhaps we need an awakening to the law of consequences, our own consequences and understand if we want God to judge the inequities and iniquity in our world he most likely has to begin by judging the inequity and iniquity in our own lives.
Sound scary? Well here is the good news…We can judge ourselves or God can do it! We can pay attention to the consequences or ignorantly ignore reality. When a consequence comes to claim what is its right…don’t blame God!
Almost every one has seen the scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes shortens people lives. Most people have seen pictures of badly blackened lungs taken at autopsies of diseased smokers, but we defiantly keep on puffing, willfully ignoring the known consequences of our behaviour.
Here is a truth for you! You can ignore the consequences of your behaviours but the consequences of your behaviours don’t ignore you. Eat too much you get fat. Smoke and you get sick. Run away from God and you get caught!
I think that as a society we want to believe in some form of justice; that at some time right will prevail over wrong, that unfairness will be compensated for, that restitution will be made, that somehow the inequity of illness, loss, corruption, the domination of the disadvantaged will all be made right.
I think we want a God who can do something about the mess, the pain, the oppression. Not just a God who lets “stuff" slide by unchallenged, and uncorrected but a God who has the guts to “call” this world on its abuses and its abusers, and dispense appropriate consequences.
If that is the God we really want, a God who will do something, a God who will call it like it is, a God who will ensure that what is right ends up being right, then perhaps we need to give God permission to begin that same process in our very lives. Perhaps we need to give God the opportunity to call our lives like he sees our lives, to call us on our disobedience, our own injustice, our own self consumption. Perhaps we need an awakening to the law of consequences, our own consequences and understand if we want God to judge the inequities and iniquity in our world he most likely has to begin by judging the inequity and iniquity in our own lives.
Sound scary? Well here is the good news…We can judge ourselves or God can do it! We can pay attention to the consequences or ignorantly ignore reality. When a consequence comes to claim what is its right…don’t blame God!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN BEING A SURVIVOR
It seems almost everybody you meet today defines themselves as a victim of “something”. Just think about this for a moment. People are victims of credit card fraud, ponzi schemes, thefts of all kinds, sexual assault, divorce, wayward kids, road rage, and even drive through screw ups!
I wonder why so many of us want the identity known as victim. Some people even define their life by their victimization. The stories they tell are from some by-gone wrong that was perpetrated on them. They have no new story, nothing about today and worse no story about what their future could be.
I am not trying to minimize the seriousness of tragic events that happen to well meaning people. I am seeking the answer to the question of why we would want to define our lives by some event in the past.
Then there is what I will call the “survivor syndrome.” If I am fortunate and perhaps work hard I can move the definition of myself from a victim to a survivor. Sounds good to most people to be a survivor! I am just not so sure that defining yourself as being a survivor is any better than defining yourself as being a victim. Sometimes I think that a survivor is just a victim turned inside out. Life defined by a moment in time, defined by the past…perhaps a past that is healing but still the past. It’s the “in thing” to be a survivor today…every body is surviving some form of victimization.
Maybe being a survivor is like winning the silver medal in the men’s Olympic hockey final. So you won silver…so now we know you are the best of the losers! Not a winner! Simply being rewarded for losing! If you don’t believe me go back and look at the television footage from the silver medal ceremony at the men’s Olympic hockey game. There was not a happy face in the bunch…no not one. I am not so sure that survivors are necessarily happy people either…better than a victim but still not a gold medal.
The bible talks about an amazing class of human beings called victors. A victor is one who runs the race of life and comes in first. Not second, not third, just gold…pure gold. In fact, in the spiritual journey of Christian discipleship there is only one medal…gold.
God does not reward failure. God does not reward average. God does not reward excuses. God rewards only the gold medal race. Here is an amazing piece of information; God makes it possible for each of us to win Gold. He places His Spirit of love with in us and asks us to simply be obedient to Him… and He guarantees the gold!
Think about this statement, obedience guarantees the gold! God did not say we had to be faster, smarter, brighter, work harder, longer or wiser…He just said we had to be obedient to His word, co-operate with Him in His agenda for ourselves, this universe and the people in it…and you get the gold. There is no silver, no bronze…there is only light or darkness, love or hate, life or death…gold or no gold. Jesus Christ made it possible for us all to get the gold, it’s simply a matter of obedience. Simply a matter of choice…obedient or not obedient…you get to choose your reward. If you happen to be unhappy with it…remember it was your choice!
I wonder why so many of us want the identity known as victim. Some people even define their life by their victimization. The stories they tell are from some by-gone wrong that was perpetrated on them. They have no new story, nothing about today and worse no story about what their future could be.
I am not trying to minimize the seriousness of tragic events that happen to well meaning people. I am seeking the answer to the question of why we would want to define our lives by some event in the past.
Then there is what I will call the “survivor syndrome.” If I am fortunate and perhaps work hard I can move the definition of myself from a victim to a survivor. Sounds good to most people to be a survivor! I am just not so sure that defining yourself as being a survivor is any better than defining yourself as being a victim. Sometimes I think that a survivor is just a victim turned inside out. Life defined by a moment in time, defined by the past…perhaps a past that is healing but still the past. It’s the “in thing” to be a survivor today…every body is surviving some form of victimization.
Maybe being a survivor is like winning the silver medal in the men’s Olympic hockey final. So you won silver…so now we know you are the best of the losers! Not a winner! Simply being rewarded for losing! If you don’t believe me go back and look at the television footage from the silver medal ceremony at the men’s Olympic hockey game. There was not a happy face in the bunch…no not one. I am not so sure that survivors are necessarily happy people either…better than a victim but still not a gold medal.
The bible talks about an amazing class of human beings called victors. A victor is one who runs the race of life and comes in first. Not second, not third, just gold…pure gold. In fact, in the spiritual journey of Christian discipleship there is only one medal…gold.
God does not reward failure. God does not reward average. God does not reward excuses. God rewards only the gold medal race. Here is an amazing piece of information; God makes it possible for each of us to win Gold. He places His Spirit of love with in us and asks us to simply be obedient to Him… and He guarantees the gold!
Think about this statement, obedience guarantees the gold! God did not say we had to be faster, smarter, brighter, work harder, longer or wiser…He just said we had to be obedient to His word, co-operate with Him in His agenda for ourselves, this universe and the people in it…and you get the gold. There is no silver, no bronze…there is only light or darkness, love or hate, life or death…gold or no gold. Jesus Christ made it possible for us all to get the gold, it’s simply a matter of obedience. Simply a matter of choice…obedient or not obedient…you get to choose your reward. If you happen to be unhappy with it…remember it was your choice!
Friday, February 26, 2010
HOW TO LOVE DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Years ago I cam across a saying; “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. It is my belief that people are looking for understanding, acceptance and real love, not necessarily more information.
For years churches have dispensed information; information about God, theology, ethics, rules, regulations and the like. And for all of this information that has been given out from Sunday sermons, Sundays School classes, in midweek bible studies, on radio and television far too many Christians’ lives remain the same. They may have more religious information than any other time in history and yet very little if anything changes in their day to day behaviours.
Here is an incredible truth. You can know all sorts of information and never experience any transformation. We are ‘knowledge-aholics”. We crave more data, more information, more sources, more input…but we never seem to let that information affect our behaviour. We know a lot, we just don’t do much with what we know.
The Apostle John in 1st John calls it like he sees it! Simply put he says that talk is cheap! Even for Christians he says if you don’t live it, it doesn’t count. You can say you love Christ or are a follower of Jesus, but if you don’t reach out and help a brother or sister that you see in need…well to put it bluntly…he says you are a liar and there is non of Gods love in you.
The test that you are a true follower of Christ is this; you never pass up an opportunity to help when you have the God given opportunity to do so.
So here is the deal. The world we live in is so self focused that if people actually saw a group of people really helping others out…going out of their way to give practical care and assistance…they would sit up and notice. They might even wonder why in a world so “me” driven, people would sacrifice their own agendas for the benefit of others.
People do not care what religion you are or what beliefs you hold, whether you have the ‘truth” and great spiritual insight. They just want to know if you will care for them in real practical down to earth ways.
This is what Jesus ministry was all about… he hung out with the poor, he healed the sick, he taught the common people, he fed the hungry, he spent time with children, he ate dinner with prostitutes and the disenfranchised, was the life of the party, he visited the grieving, kicked the “stuffing” out of those who took financial advantage of others and had the guts to religious leaders a “brood of vipers”.
Let’s stop talking about and get done! Love can change the world but only if you live it!
For years churches have dispensed information; information about God, theology, ethics, rules, regulations and the like. And for all of this information that has been given out from Sunday sermons, Sundays School classes, in midweek bible studies, on radio and television far too many Christians’ lives remain the same. They may have more religious information than any other time in history and yet very little if anything changes in their day to day behaviours.
Here is an incredible truth. You can know all sorts of information and never experience any transformation. We are ‘knowledge-aholics”. We crave more data, more information, more sources, more input…but we never seem to let that information affect our behaviour. We know a lot, we just don’t do much with what we know.
The Apostle John in 1st John calls it like he sees it! Simply put he says that talk is cheap! Even for Christians he says if you don’t live it, it doesn’t count. You can say you love Christ or are a follower of Jesus, but if you don’t reach out and help a brother or sister that you see in need…well to put it bluntly…he says you are a liar and there is non of Gods love in you.
The test that you are a true follower of Christ is this; you never pass up an opportunity to help when you have the God given opportunity to do so.
So here is the deal. The world we live in is so self focused that if people actually saw a group of people really helping others out…going out of their way to give practical care and assistance…they would sit up and notice. They might even wonder why in a world so “me” driven, people would sacrifice their own agendas for the benefit of others.
People do not care what religion you are or what beliefs you hold, whether you have the ‘truth” and great spiritual insight. They just want to know if you will care for them in real practical down to earth ways.
This is what Jesus ministry was all about… he hung out with the poor, he healed the sick, he taught the common people, he fed the hungry, he spent time with children, he ate dinner with prostitutes and the disenfranchised, was the life of the party, he visited the grieving, kicked the “stuffing” out of those who took financial advantage of others and had the guts to religious leaders a “brood of vipers”.
Let’s stop talking about and get done! Love can change the world but only if you live it!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
IT"S OVER!
I find it difficult to believe that Christmas has come and gone already. Perhaps even more amazing to me is the recognition that in a few days this whole decade will come to an end. In my mind it was only a short while ago that so many of us were all in a panic over Y2K. So where did those ten years go?
One of my granddaughters is 10 the other is 9, so I know a lot of time has gone into investing in their lives, yet some how I think perhaps not as much time as there should have been. I didn’t realize the time would fly buy quite a quickly as it has. But isn’t that a silly statement? We all know time fly’s buy and the older you get the faster it fly’s.
Eileen and I will be married for 35 years on January 1, 2010. Once again I am forced into the recognition that the space between 25 years of wedded bliss on the infamous Y2K year and 35 years of wedded bliss has simply vanished like the steam from a kettle, into the surrounding air. I guess I am a bit wiser, though that may be a point for debate, especially in the light of my continued lack of understanding about the importance of shopping in a womans life, and that sustained conversation, with great details added, are critical to our continued sense of intimacy and yes, phone conversations when she travels are required to last more than ten words. ..“How are you? How was your day… fine, good night!”
My children are now officially adults and my mother officially has a senior citizen for a son.
Perhaps beyond the thoughts of grandchildren, grown children, a healthy mother and a healthy long term sustained marriage my mind also turns to thoughts of my spiritual life.
I wonder if the past ten years has been kind to me spiritually. Have I allowed the Spirit of God access to my personality to be able to reproduce in me the fruit of His Sprit: love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control. Sometimes I feel not. Then other times I feel we are making progress, God and I working away at the inner diseases of selfishness, pride, control issues, my constant propensity to be addicted to stuff like success or isolation or food or whatever! Whenever I get too introspective, which is way too often, and I feel like I am just not progressing the way I should be progressing and achieving what I think I should be achieving I am reminded of saying that my wife in her wisdom brings to my attention and often says to me in my darker hours,
“You may not be what you ought to be. But thank God you’re not what you used to be. And it’s not yet told what you’re going to be”
Ok, it’s not over yet! Bring on the next ten! Be patient, God and my wife are still working on me! I wonder if they both will get their way
One of my granddaughters is 10 the other is 9, so I know a lot of time has gone into investing in their lives, yet some how I think perhaps not as much time as there should have been. I didn’t realize the time would fly buy quite a quickly as it has. But isn’t that a silly statement? We all know time fly’s buy and the older you get the faster it fly’s.
Eileen and I will be married for 35 years on January 1, 2010. Once again I am forced into the recognition that the space between 25 years of wedded bliss on the infamous Y2K year and 35 years of wedded bliss has simply vanished like the steam from a kettle, into the surrounding air. I guess I am a bit wiser, though that may be a point for debate, especially in the light of my continued lack of understanding about the importance of shopping in a womans life, and that sustained conversation, with great details added, are critical to our continued sense of intimacy and yes, phone conversations when she travels are required to last more than ten words. ..“How are you? How was your day… fine, good night!”
My children are now officially adults and my mother officially has a senior citizen for a son.
Perhaps beyond the thoughts of grandchildren, grown children, a healthy mother and a healthy long term sustained marriage my mind also turns to thoughts of my spiritual life.
I wonder if the past ten years has been kind to me spiritually. Have I allowed the Spirit of God access to my personality to be able to reproduce in me the fruit of His Sprit: love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control. Sometimes I feel not. Then other times I feel we are making progress, God and I working away at the inner diseases of selfishness, pride, control issues, my constant propensity to be addicted to stuff like success or isolation or food or whatever! Whenever I get too introspective, which is way too often, and I feel like I am just not progressing the way I should be progressing and achieving what I think I should be achieving I am reminded of saying that my wife in her wisdom brings to my attention and often says to me in my darker hours,
“You may not be what you ought to be. But thank God you’re not what you used to be. And it’s not yet told what you’re going to be”
Ok, it’s not over yet! Bring on the next ten! Be patient, God and my wife are still working on me! I wonder if they both will get their way
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
‘Twas the Weeks Before Christmas
‘Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through the town,
the people were frantically running around.
The charge cards were maxed out with no room to spare,
in hopes that the lottery soon would be theirs.
On Costco, on Zellers, on Biancos they rushed,
With nary a thought that they soon would be bust!
Don’t worry, don’t worry, they called out to each other,
we’ll pay for this somehow, even borrow from mother.
‘Tis the season for giving, and gifts we must have,
for mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and Dad!
For cousins, and nephews, and uncles, and aunts,
must not be left out of this Christmas-time rant.
It can not be Christmas if we do not spend,
and overindulge in the booze to the end.
And eat too much turkey, and stuffing, and pie,
end up fighting, this is Christmas? … “Oh, my my!”
When what from the road side in my eye did appear?
But a Living Nativity and shepherds so near!
A donkey, and angels, a child like the Christ,
and carols of wonder and heavenly delight.
An old fashioned Christmas from a time long ago,
when spending, and drinking, and fighting, weren’t so.
And the gifts that were given didn’t come from a shelf,
the gift that was given was the gift of yourself.
So maybe this season will be different somehow,
We could ring some kettles, or volunteer now!
To give the gift, that can not be bought,
with money, and stuff that will all be for ‘nought.
But learning a lesson from days since long past,
would give the gift, that forever will last!
A gift that is given, not from a shelf,
but the real gift of Christmas, the gift of yourself.
A little poem I wrote for publication in the South Side Story, availble after December 6, 2009
the people were frantically running around.
The charge cards were maxed out with no room to spare,
in hopes that the lottery soon would be theirs.
On Costco, on Zellers, on Biancos they rushed,
With nary a thought that they soon would be bust!
Don’t worry, don’t worry, they called out to each other,
we’ll pay for this somehow, even borrow from mother.
‘Tis the season for giving, and gifts we must have,
for mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and Dad!
For cousins, and nephews, and uncles, and aunts,
must not be left out of this Christmas-time rant.
It can not be Christmas if we do not spend,
and overindulge in the booze to the end.
And eat too much turkey, and stuffing, and pie,
end up fighting, this is Christmas? … “Oh, my my!”
When what from the road side in my eye did appear?
But a Living Nativity and shepherds so near!
A donkey, and angels, a child like the Christ,
and carols of wonder and heavenly delight.
An old fashioned Christmas from a time long ago,
when spending, and drinking, and fighting, weren’t so.
And the gifts that were given didn’t come from a shelf,
the gift that was given was the gift of yourself.
So maybe this season will be different somehow,
We could ring some kettles, or volunteer now!
To give the gift, that can not be bought,
with money, and stuff that will all be for ‘nought.
But learning a lesson from days since long past,
would give the gift, that forever will last!
A gift that is given, not from a shelf,
but the real gift of Christmas, the gift of yourself.
A little poem I wrote for publication in the South Side Story, availble after December 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO CHURCH
The devil is a master of deflecting attention from himself and getting us to do his dirty work.
We live in a world that is reeling from psychic pain, a pain so systemic that it invades every area of our existence. You can see the emptiness in people’s eyes, you can hear the anger in their voices, and you can feel the frustration radiating from their bodies. You may even have been on the receiving end of physical, emotional or verbal violence. It may even have happened to you in church.
You see, the devil comes to church every time we in the church, war and fight with each other. That word said in anger, that critical attitude, that unforgiving spirit, gossip and slander, an accusation with out investigation; every time we fail to simply be kind or demonstrate compassion, give someone the benefit of the doubt we are doing the devils work on his behalf.
The bible is clear about the personification of evil as represented by the devil. It is his job to scheme against all that is good (Ephesians 6:10), to try and turn every good thing into pain. It is also his life’s mission to “go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might destroy”. His work is to create a counterfeit to all that is God’s, including counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9).
It is time for the church to stop doing the devils work for him.
The church must become a place of safety, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The church must become a place where forgiveness flows like a mighty river, where love pours down upon those who fail and restores them to new beginnings.
The church must become a place where words of compassion and understanding rise up against judgmental attitudes and where the redeemed people of God seek to understand rather than be understood.
The church must become a place where people can discover truth, uncompromised, but swimming in an attitude love, birthed out of the depth of understanding of who we are and what God himself in Christ Jesus has rescued us from.
The church must become a place where we cut people some slack, but not leave them to rot in their own messes.
The church truly must become a bride, a glorious church, with out stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, holy and blameless. (Ephessians 5:27)
The church can only become a safe place, as you and I allow Christ to transform out attitudes and behaviours into attitudes and behaviours that reflect his character and his nature.
We can accept the wounded and broken and remind ourselves that we too are wounded and broken and if it were not for Jesus, we would not be here.
We can simply refuse to be offended, we can maintain an attitude of instant forgiveness, by not allowing any judgmental word to stick to us or come from us.
We can start by refusing to let our mouths say anything that is not helpful and constructive, whether that is in the form of the spoken word, the written word, or a thought word.
An old spiritual song says “Shut de door, keep out de devil”.
Maybe “de shut door” begins with “de shut mouth!”
We live in a world that is reeling from psychic pain, a pain so systemic that it invades every area of our existence. You can see the emptiness in people’s eyes, you can hear the anger in their voices, and you can feel the frustration radiating from their bodies. You may even have been on the receiving end of physical, emotional or verbal violence. It may even have happened to you in church.
You see, the devil comes to church every time we in the church, war and fight with each other. That word said in anger, that critical attitude, that unforgiving spirit, gossip and slander, an accusation with out investigation; every time we fail to simply be kind or demonstrate compassion, give someone the benefit of the doubt we are doing the devils work on his behalf.
The bible is clear about the personification of evil as represented by the devil. It is his job to scheme against all that is good (Ephesians 6:10), to try and turn every good thing into pain. It is also his life’s mission to “go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might destroy”. His work is to create a counterfeit to all that is God’s, including counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9).
It is time for the church to stop doing the devils work for him.
The church must become a place of safety, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The church must become a place where forgiveness flows like a mighty river, where love pours down upon those who fail and restores them to new beginnings.
The church must become a place where words of compassion and understanding rise up against judgmental attitudes and where the redeemed people of God seek to understand rather than be understood.
The church must become a place where people can discover truth, uncompromised, but swimming in an attitude love, birthed out of the depth of understanding of who we are and what God himself in Christ Jesus has rescued us from.
The church must become a place where we cut people some slack, but not leave them to rot in their own messes.
The church truly must become a bride, a glorious church, with out stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, holy and blameless. (Ephessians 5:27)
The church can only become a safe place, as you and I allow Christ to transform out attitudes and behaviours into attitudes and behaviours that reflect his character and his nature.
We can accept the wounded and broken and remind ourselves that we too are wounded and broken and if it were not for Jesus, we would not be here.
We can simply refuse to be offended, we can maintain an attitude of instant forgiveness, by not allowing any judgmental word to stick to us or come from us.
We can start by refusing to let our mouths say anything that is not helpful and constructive, whether that is in the form of the spoken word, the written word, or a thought word.
An old spiritual song says “Shut de door, keep out de devil”.
Maybe “de shut door” begins with “de shut mouth!”
Thursday, November 12, 2009
"HOUSTON" WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
We have a problem! Current statistics by the Barna Group demonstrate that the moral behaviours of church goes and the behaviours of non-church goers are statistically the same. In other words, no discernible difference can be found in the actions and attitudes of the two groups of people. In two areas the results are quite frightening. In the area of marriage and divorce it seems evangelical (bible believing Christians) church attendees have a slightly higher divorce rate that the rest of the population. In the viewing and usage of pornography both groups scored the same. In the practice of pre-marital sex there was no discernible difference in the scores.
Am I the only one who thinks that there is a real issue here? What are the long term effects of these behaviours on the Church, the Body of Christ? One of the questions we could ask is what will happen to the church when those inside are no different from those outside? What is our future when the body of Christ has been so assimilated into the behaviours of the current culture that no discernible differences can be seen in believers and non-believers? Have we been so blind sided and absorbed into the current culture that it has effectively smothered our light, put it under a bushel, and invited the darkness to reign…all with our permission. Has the doctrine of tolerance so taken over the church that we can no longer speak about what is pure, holy, moral or just? Or is it that our own behaviour is so corrupt we have lost the moral authority to speak out against the very corruption that threatens to destroy the society in which we live.
This type of worldly assimilation of the people of God into the culture in which they live is certainly nothing new. The children of Israel, Gods chosen people seemed to always be in a position of perpetual compromise with the cultures around them. Somebody else had a king so they wanted a king. The Egyptian women were hotter than their women so they defied Gods law and married into the foreign nation. Other people had gods they could see, so they made a golden calf to worship. Soon as Moses back was turned the party began. In the New Testament Paul was constantly on the Corinthians, Ephesians, the Romans and others about their sexual exploits that were outside the boundaries of Gods intended sexual behaviours.
And so we have this same pattern repeated again in modern culture and the modern church. Ok, I guess than means God gets to repeat the same corrective measures he took before to redeem and purify his people form worldly assimilation. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by something akin to a nuclear blast; Israel, into captivity by a foreign power and slaves to a foreign government for a ‘few’ years; Agricultural devastation and a ruined economy due to famine, pestilence, giant grasshoppers…Israel again…they were very slow learners; Annanias and Saphira dead at the apostle’s feet for lying before God to the early Church. Well you get the idea.
God will always call his people to come out of the world. He will do it first by love and then when all else fails, he will do it by holy discipline. But he will do it! I’ll take the love part of that equation any day! Any body up for a round of obedience to The Book!
Am I the only one who thinks that there is a real issue here? What are the long term effects of these behaviours on the Church, the Body of Christ? One of the questions we could ask is what will happen to the church when those inside are no different from those outside? What is our future when the body of Christ has been so assimilated into the behaviours of the current culture that no discernible differences can be seen in believers and non-believers? Have we been so blind sided and absorbed into the current culture that it has effectively smothered our light, put it under a bushel, and invited the darkness to reign…all with our permission. Has the doctrine of tolerance so taken over the church that we can no longer speak about what is pure, holy, moral or just? Or is it that our own behaviour is so corrupt we have lost the moral authority to speak out against the very corruption that threatens to destroy the society in which we live.
This type of worldly assimilation of the people of God into the culture in which they live is certainly nothing new. The children of Israel, Gods chosen people seemed to always be in a position of perpetual compromise with the cultures around them. Somebody else had a king so they wanted a king. The Egyptian women were hotter than their women so they defied Gods law and married into the foreign nation. Other people had gods they could see, so they made a golden calf to worship. Soon as Moses back was turned the party began. In the New Testament Paul was constantly on the Corinthians, Ephesians, the Romans and others about their sexual exploits that were outside the boundaries of Gods intended sexual behaviours.
And so we have this same pattern repeated again in modern culture and the modern church. Ok, I guess than means God gets to repeat the same corrective measures he took before to redeem and purify his people form worldly assimilation. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by something akin to a nuclear blast; Israel, into captivity by a foreign power and slaves to a foreign government for a ‘few’ years; Agricultural devastation and a ruined economy due to famine, pestilence, giant grasshoppers…Israel again…they were very slow learners; Annanias and Saphira dead at the apostle’s feet for lying before God to the early Church. Well you get the idea.
God will always call his people to come out of the world. He will do it first by love and then when all else fails, he will do it by holy discipline. But he will do it! I’ll take the love part of that equation any day! Any body up for a round of obedience to The Book!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
THE MISSING INGREDIENT FOR SUCCESS
I think there is a missing ingredient in most of our lives that keeps us from really fulfilling the purposes of God for us and for His church in this world. I have read material on determination, writing down goals, perseverance, positive thinking, possibility thinking, alignment, being one with the source…you name it, I have probably read it and maybe even tried it.
But there is one concept I have not heard or even read much about in the whole ‘success /achievement’ movement.
That missing ingredient in most of our lives is embodied in the word sacrifice.
“Now wait a minute” you say “I was taught that it was more blessed to give than to receive”. You are correct. But it is possible to give and not sacrifice. Most giving is just a redistribution of time, talent, energy or wealth given out of a pool of excess. Most of the giving that is the cornerstone of the self improvement movement has little if anything to do with sacrifice.
We in the Twenty First century know little of a life of sacrifice. The word sacrifice has almost been banned from our vocabulary.
To sacrifice means to give until it hurts.
Ask a family whose loved one has been lost in military service to our country. They can tell you about sacrifice.
Ask a seasoned aged wealthy entrepreneur about building their company from the back of a pick up truck in the 1950s. They can tell you about 80+ hour work weeks, Kraft Dinner, risking life, limb and home, to stake their claim and build their business.
Talk to missionaries who, compelled by the Love of Jesus Christ, abandoned all wealth and the privilege of urban life to go and invest their lives in the lives of the worlds destitute and abandoned.
Talk to a church that is impacting their community for the cause of Christ.
Their common theme will always be, sacrifice.
Reflect, if you will, on the fact that most privately owned companies in Canada do not survive to stay in business by the third generation. That mission organization recruitment is down, that military recruitment is down, that volunteerism is down, that we have it too easy that our kids have it even easier, that the idea of a life of sacrifice has gone the way of AM Radio, that people are lost, have no purpose, lives devoid of meaning and, to quote a very old song, “if that’s all there is then let’s keep dancing” seems to be the mantra of the day. Well maybe not dancing…but certainly leave me alone to do my own thing. Or at least, don’t bother me; don’t touch my wealth or my weekend.
Sacrifice, the abandoned word in the Brave New World. I am sure glad Jesus Christ didn’t back down from His sacrifice for the world or we would all be going to hell. Maybe we are already there and we just don’t know it, or we just don’t want to recognize it or we just want to keep playing our video games while “Rome” burns.
What ever you want in life that is worth anything will cost you something…it’s called a sacrifice. Do not let anybody tell you anything different. No pain, no gain, whether in your physical life, your emotional live or your spiritual life. Get it?
But there is one concept I have not heard or even read much about in the whole ‘success /achievement’ movement.
That missing ingredient in most of our lives is embodied in the word sacrifice.
“Now wait a minute” you say “I was taught that it was more blessed to give than to receive”. You are correct. But it is possible to give and not sacrifice. Most giving is just a redistribution of time, talent, energy or wealth given out of a pool of excess. Most of the giving that is the cornerstone of the self improvement movement has little if anything to do with sacrifice.
We in the Twenty First century know little of a life of sacrifice. The word sacrifice has almost been banned from our vocabulary.
To sacrifice means to give until it hurts.
Ask a family whose loved one has been lost in military service to our country. They can tell you about sacrifice.
Ask a seasoned aged wealthy entrepreneur about building their company from the back of a pick up truck in the 1950s. They can tell you about 80+ hour work weeks, Kraft Dinner, risking life, limb and home, to stake their claim and build their business.
Talk to missionaries who, compelled by the Love of Jesus Christ, abandoned all wealth and the privilege of urban life to go and invest their lives in the lives of the worlds destitute and abandoned.
Talk to a church that is impacting their community for the cause of Christ.
Their common theme will always be, sacrifice.
Reflect, if you will, on the fact that most privately owned companies in Canada do not survive to stay in business by the third generation. That mission organization recruitment is down, that military recruitment is down, that volunteerism is down, that we have it too easy that our kids have it even easier, that the idea of a life of sacrifice has gone the way of AM Radio, that people are lost, have no purpose, lives devoid of meaning and, to quote a very old song, “if that’s all there is then let’s keep dancing” seems to be the mantra of the day. Well maybe not dancing…but certainly leave me alone to do my own thing. Or at least, don’t bother me; don’t touch my wealth or my weekend.
Sacrifice, the abandoned word in the Brave New World. I am sure glad Jesus Christ didn’t back down from His sacrifice for the world or we would all be going to hell. Maybe we are already there and we just don’t know it, or we just don’t want to recognize it or we just want to keep playing our video games while “Rome” burns.
What ever you want in life that is worth anything will cost you something…it’s called a sacrifice. Do not let anybody tell you anything different. No pain, no gain, whether in your physical life, your emotional live or your spiritual life. Get it?
GET REAL, GET RELEVANT OR GO HOME
The Church in North America is almost an embarrassment to the cause of Jesus Christ. Believers bicker amongst each other. Denominations fight over doctrinal issues. Christians change churches like they change their T shirts. They fight about worship styles, music choices, which translation of the bible is the only Authorized Version. The church is lame and lifeless and it is so because we let it be so.
No wonder know body cares to show up on Sunday. So many churches are out of date, out of touch and hell bent on preserving rituals and forms which long have outlasted their uselessness.
Power hungry leaders and power hungry parishioners fight to gain control. Submission is absent, humility dead, personal sacrifice non existent and personal preference is king. To the out side word we can be seen as nothing more than a poorly run Rotary club that reads bible verses and spends a lot of time bickering.
When will we have the courage to really get it together as the Church the Body of Christ? When will we see that a lost and dying world doesn’t give a darn about our doctrinal differences, our cute pageants, our dead formalism and never ending power struggles and war over worship styles?
We live in a lost and dying world that doesn’t even know it’s lost and dying.
Some people may have tweaked to the fact, that we as a word have a problem. With greed and financial corruption plaguing our monetary system, with divorce and adultery at an all time high, with children being exploited, with women being oppressed, with environmental pollution causing more and more cancer, with large Pharmaceutical companies driving the health care agenda, the increase in child poverty, pedophilia, pornography, prostitution and the ever changing price of gas, you would have to be so ego- centric, self absorbed and down right blind not to know there is a problem.
It is time for the church of Jesus Christ to come to the God of heaven and ask for forgiveness. It is time for the people of God to open their eyes to the death and decay that surrounds their neighborhood. It is time for the church to stand up and RISK engaging a dying world regardless of the personal cost, to risk being relevant, to pay the price to be light and salt, to risk time, creativity, money, reputation, to pick up the cross daily and follow our leader into uncertainty, darkness and the evil places of this world.
After all it cost Jesus Christ His life to give birth to The Church, perhaps it’s time we gave our very lives to save that same church from self seeking believers who have hi-jacked the church for years for their own agenda. It’s time to get real, get relevant or go home!
Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not stand up against it”. Any body interested in “RAZING” a little hell?
No wonder know body cares to show up on Sunday. So many churches are out of date, out of touch and hell bent on preserving rituals and forms which long have outlasted their uselessness.
Power hungry leaders and power hungry parishioners fight to gain control. Submission is absent, humility dead, personal sacrifice non existent and personal preference is king. To the out side word we can be seen as nothing more than a poorly run Rotary club that reads bible verses and spends a lot of time bickering.
When will we have the courage to really get it together as the Church the Body of Christ? When will we see that a lost and dying world doesn’t give a darn about our doctrinal differences, our cute pageants, our dead formalism and never ending power struggles and war over worship styles?
We live in a lost and dying world that doesn’t even know it’s lost and dying.
Some people may have tweaked to the fact, that we as a word have a problem. With greed and financial corruption plaguing our monetary system, with divorce and adultery at an all time high, with children being exploited, with women being oppressed, with environmental pollution causing more and more cancer, with large Pharmaceutical companies driving the health care agenda, the increase in child poverty, pedophilia, pornography, prostitution and the ever changing price of gas, you would have to be so ego- centric, self absorbed and down right blind not to know there is a problem.
It is time for the church of Jesus Christ to come to the God of heaven and ask for forgiveness. It is time for the people of God to open their eyes to the death and decay that surrounds their neighborhood. It is time for the church to stand up and RISK engaging a dying world regardless of the personal cost, to risk being relevant, to pay the price to be light and salt, to risk time, creativity, money, reputation, to pick up the cross daily and follow our leader into uncertainty, darkness and the evil places of this world.
After all it cost Jesus Christ His life to give birth to The Church, perhaps it’s time we gave our very lives to save that same church from self seeking believers who have hi-jacked the church for years for their own agenda. It’s time to get real, get relevant or go home!
Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not stand up against it”. Any body interested in “RAZING” a little hell?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Blogging is Like Exercising or Having Babies
Writing this blog is like exercising...I am inconsistent at both.
Since I have not had much to say over the past two months, I simply did not write anything. Well, I did start to exercise...but I stopped and now I will just have to start again. AND my daughter Meghan just gave birth to a healthy 8lb+, 21in long girl named Rosaleen Elizabeth, on this very day, May 17th at 11:33am.
So I am grateful for a healthy baby and mommy.
So, about every nine months or so we get a baby. It will probably take me that long to get back to exercising and some of you are hoping it will take even longer for me to start blogging again.
Thanks for listening and thanks for your prayers
PS...( Samantha 10, Rachael 9, Jeremy 7.5, Hannah 2 and Rosaleen 0)
Since I have not had much to say over the past two months, I simply did not write anything. Well, I did start to exercise...but I stopped and now I will just have to start again. AND my daughter Meghan just gave birth to a healthy 8lb+, 21in long girl named Rosaleen Elizabeth, on this very day, May 17th at 11:33am.
So I am grateful for a healthy baby and mommy.
So, about every nine months or so we get a baby. It will probably take me that long to get back to exercising and some of you are hoping it will take even longer for me to start blogging again.
Thanks for listening and thanks for your prayers
PS...( Samantha 10, Rachael 9, Jeremy 7.5, Hannah 2 and Rosaleen 0)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Coming Collapse of Evangelical Christianity or the Death of the Church as We Know It!
With the rising tide of secular atheism in the USA could we be on the verge of seeing the collapse of Evangelical Christianity as we know it?"
Please read the blog article I have reposted posted below, with a careful and open heart. I do not know how many of the predictions contained in the article may come to pass, or even if I agree with every comment. The article has challenged some of my thinking and I hope it challenges your thinking as well.
An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.
We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.
Why is this going to happen?
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven mega churches, dying churches and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.
4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.
5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.
6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.
7. The money will dry up.
What will be left?
•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented mega churches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.
•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.
•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.
•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.
•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.
•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?
•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.
Is all of this a bad thing?
Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?
Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.
Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.
The ascendancy of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.
Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.
Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of mega church vacuity to be around for a very long time.
Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.
The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a counter cultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.
Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."
We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.
We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.
I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?
• Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com
Please read the blog article I have reposted posted below, with a careful and open heart. I do not know how many of the predictions contained in the article may come to pass, or even if I agree with every comment. The article has challenged some of my thinking and I hope it challenges your thinking as well.
An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.
We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.
Why is this going to happen?
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven mega churches, dying churches and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.
4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.
5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.
6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.
7. The money will dry up.
What will be left?
•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented mega churches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.
•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.
•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.
•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.
•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.
•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?
•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.
Is all of this a bad thing?
Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?
Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.
Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.
The ascendancy of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.
Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.
Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of mega church vacuity to be around for a very long time.
Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.
The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a counter cultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.
Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."
We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.
We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.
I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?
• Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com
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