A Plug For A Prof!

Hey All, As many of you know I recently spent a week back in the classroom in Winnipeg. My Prof for that course has recently written a book and I want to help him spread the word.

This book is unique in many ways, it’s topic, it’s target-audience, and it’s superb quality (very durable), Maybe it’s not a book that you will all go out and buy for yourselves, but let your local librarian know that it would be a great book for them to have their shelves!

Check out Michael’s tumblr account here.

Check out the book at Amazon’s Listing here. 

And it’s also at Chapters.Indigo here.

 

Enjoy!

How Ironic?

On a day that I write about equality for women preachers, I have been reminded that this issue travels across many areas of employment, recreation, and education, check out this story about a high school sports team and their forfeit of a chance to win a championship game due to gender issues:

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/11/school-forfeits-rather-than-play-against-girl

 

Women Need A Voice

Here is a link to a short article of mine that is appearing in today’s edition of Northumberland Today newspapers:

Enjoy!

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3558586

Dawn French as The Vicar of Dibley

Cherish Those Who Cherish You!

Human emotions are truly an enigma. It’s 7:08am on this beautiful Sunday morning and already I have been through a roller-coaster ride of emotion. My day began at 4:00am when my alarm sounded and literally pulled me out of bed as I couldn’t find the OFF button in my THIS-IS-WAY-TOO-EARLY-TO-BE-AWAKE-stupor. But it wasn’t long before the adrenaline started to rush as my brain clued in to the reason why I was picking my head off of my pillow at such an obscene hour. 

Today I’m off to Winnipeg, back to the old stompin’ grounds of my formal education, back to the land of CFOT (College For Officer Training) and BUC (Booth University College.) For the next five days I am stepping out from behind my office desk and church pulpit, to put myself back in the student seat. I am excited because I have come to love the classroom, and have high hopes of one day being the instructor and not the “instructee,” but also excited because I will see some friendly faces that have been away from my life for quite a while. 

But the emotions of excitement and anticipation were quickly quelled as I travelled over HWY 401 which can always be relied upon for a harrowing experience any day. However, the trip was mostly smooth sailing, but my heart was heavy. You see today in my home province a beautiful family is being laid to rest. http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&ID=22922

On Friday April 27, Pastors Shannon and Trena Wheaton and their 2-year old son Benjamin were killed in a head-on collision that claimed the lives of four other people. While I never met any of these individuals personally, I know several members of the affected family, and today will be a difficult day for all involved. This extremely tragic event serves as a great reminder to not only always paying attention to your own driving skills but also to be aware of the drivers around you. All of the people in this accident where relatively young and had the potential for a long and prosperous future. 

It was these thoughts that were running through my mind as I pulled into the DEPARTURES land at Pearson International, It was these thoughts that were running through my mind when my two little kids wrapped their arms around their Daddy to say goodbye, and forced me to hang on to them for just a little bit longer than normal. It was these thoughts that were running through my mind when my amazing and beautiful wife hugged and kissed me goodbye, and I was reminded of how lucky I have been in my life and how much God has blessed this Newfie boy! 

But it was the words of my three year old daughter who turned this already emotional moment into a potential sob-fest, as I was about to shut her door and wave goodbye when she said:

“Daddy!”

“Yes, Sweetie,” I replied

“I Love You!”

While my lips echoed her perfect words, my voice had travelled up about 12 octaves to the point where I only choked out a whispered response. But if I could express on my exterior what my interior emotions were experiencing, I would have been doing cartwheels, and jumping jacks so high that airport security would have had me removed from the premises. 

Today, as one family lays to rest their family, I hope you’ll take a moment to cherish yours. 

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
    Remind me that my days are numbered—
    how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
    My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
    at best, each of us is but a breath.”

Psalm 39:4

The Right Way To Do Good Friday???

Up until yesterday morning the largest church congregation I have ever had the privilege of presenting a sermon to was around 250 people. Now I can say that as of yesterday morning, this number has been increased to over 800 as I was the elected clergy to bring forth the message at our evangelical churches’ joint Good Friday service. To be clear it was actually two back to back services of around 400 people which meant I shared the same sermon twice in one morning (again a task that I had never done before), it gave me a whole new appreciation for clergy who operate a circuit ministry or who have a three or four point pastoral charge where they conduct the same service three or four times EVERY Sunday. Anyway, it was a great experience and for the most part almost all of the comments that I received about the service and the sermon were positive and I am sure this tradition will continue in the years to come.

But notice that I said “almost all of the comments” were positive. For the second year in a row (and from the same people) I have heard that for a select group the service was to say the least, a “frustrating experience.”  Now if it were just one or two people, or if the frustrated individuals were from the same household I would simply chalk it up as “this person is always negative,” or “they must be disgruntled about some other issue, and this is how they are venting their frustrations.” But I really don’t think that this is the case. In the last 30+ hours I have heard from two individuals who believe that our community Good Friday service has strayed too far away from the true purpose of Good Friday, or too far away from the proper “theme” of the day and they spoke on behalf of themselves and others. Add to this the reality that the owner of our local Christian Bookstore (who I always appreciate for his candid comments) blogged yesterday about these same concerns on a very well read and widely spread blog and even though he was very kind in his comments about me and my sermon, he still made some very bold comments about the local clergy such as: “Evangelicals don’t know how to do Good Friday, and the local church pastors are probably most to blame for that situation.” And “Each church’s pastor has a role to play, one introduces the service, another prays, another takes the offering, yet another reads the scripture, one preaches the sermon and so on. It’s all rather random and uncoordinated. They need a producer.” Even those leading worship didn’t go unscathed “The worship team did what appeared to be an admirable job, until you consider the songs that got left out.” 

When I first read his comments, and reflected upon the comments of the other two individuals who shared their displeasure, there was a part of me that immediately wanted to go into defensive mode and try in some way to stand up for the clergy and organizers of this event, after all, I AM part of the group that the blame is being heaped upon. But then reality sets in and I realize that these people may not be wrong. Are we in fact watering down the importance of Good Friday? Have we replaced a proper Good Friday Service with a user-friendly ecumenical worship service? What is the proper way? Should Good Friday services be solemn, with only old hymns about the cross, or is it appropriate to sing Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin. Or maybe we should go back even further and have the service take place in complete silence, or in some mixture of Latin and Gregorian chant?

These are all important questions to ask, but there is one more thing that I am forced to consider.

Does any of it really matter?

Does God really care WHAT we do?

I get that some people may be frustrated by what songs are sung, or not sung, I understand that because each church wants to participate, the service may seem random and uncoordinated, and I understand that each person might do things a little differently if they were part of the organizing team. Even I was a little perturbed at the 2011 service by the song choices and a certain video clip that was shown. But what matters more, the way we come together and what we do while we are together? Or the simple fact that we ARE together?

What do you think?

Rain Down!

This is what I am Seeking Today!!!!!!!!! Enough Said!!!!!!

 

The Power of Encouragement

Shortly after my wife and I moved to our first appointment in Newfoundland, we decided that we would both read a book entitled The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.

The purpose of our selecting this resource was to learn how to identify what made each other feel special, feel wanted, & feel loved and let me tell you that the results were quite surprising. Of the Five languages offered by Chapman (Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, & Physical Touch), my top Love Language turned out to be Words of Affirmation. Basically this implies that for me “unsolicited compliments mean the world to me. Hearing the words, “I love you,” are important—hearing the reasons behind that love sends my spirits skyward and Insults can leave me shattered and are not easily forgotten.” (Definition taken from www.5lovelanguages.com)

Immediately this new awareness started to explain a few things about my life and my constant desire to want to be liked by others (a curse that has plagued me from infancy), but it also taught me something else about myself – If I feel like someone really dislikes me and my efforts to be a good man, husband, father, friend, minister etc… I genuinely get discouraged. Thankfully, when I get discouraged about something, I have learned to cope with those feelings by going to the people who have in the past been some of my greatest encouragers. Hearing these words of affirmation from the people that I care most about, always makes me feel better, and it isn’t long before i’m feeling empowered to go about my regular routine.

While I appreciate these people, and I say a very large “thank-you” to them for their efforts, what I love even more is the surprise encouragement offered by a complete stranger. Let me explain: On Friday of last week, I was feeling a little stressed. It had been a busy week already full of surprise issues and concerns that had to be dealt with, there were two weekend programs on the schedule that I was to participate in, and of course Sunday was right around the corner and I still hadn’t put the final touches on my sermon. So after a lunch meeting I decided to go to our local YMCA, and as I was walking across the parking lot I noticed a woman coming out of the building and head towards her vehicle, but when she spotted me, she stopped her trek and turned toward my direction. I don’t really know what I was expecting, perhaps she knew who I was and wanted to ask a question about our Ministry Unit, or maybe she was looking for some contact information for one of our programs, maybe she was new to the area and hoped that I would be able to give her some direction. But none of these things were her intent! Instead, she said something to this effect:

“You are the guy that blogs right? What happened? You haven’t been blogging much lately!”

After explaining to her how things have been a little hectic in my life over the last couple of months, and then asking her how she came to find my blog in the first place, she concluded our conversation by simply saying:

“Well, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your writing and I really hope that you’ll get back to blogging more frequently soon!” 

Wow! Who needs to blow steam off at the Y when you get such uplifting words of encouragement in the parking lot? Let me tell you that I was walking on clouds the rest of that day, all because someone took the time to walk over to a complete stranger and offer a few words of affirmation! But not only did it make me feel good, it also encouraged me to be a blessing to others over the last few days when ever I noticed someone who could probably use a few encouraging words.

So, let me offer up a challenge to each reader today – Why not be a blessing to others through the power of encouragement!

Today you may see someone who you see almost daily, and maybe you sometimes take their gifts, skills, characteristics for granted. Why not offer them a compliment?

Today you may live close to a single individual who often feels lonely, why not invite them over, or offer to spend some time with them?

Today you may know a senior who finds it difficult to prepare meals, tonight when you make dinner for your family, why not make an extra plate for that person?

Today you may see your spouse who you love dearly, When is the last time you told them about how they exceeded your expectations?

Today your son or daughter may be plugged in to their laptop, iPhone, and have music blasting from their bedrooms, Why not start a conversation about their favourite band, or offer to do anything they would like to do, your treat?

Trust me, you’ll probably never know how much of an impact you are having on those individuals just by offering a few encouraging words, I know because it happened to me on Friday!

Note: To the individual who offered those words to me on Friday, I hope you read this and you’ll gain at least some understanding of how much of a positive impact you had on my life in that parking lot. Thank-You!