Posts from April 2016
Too Many Christian Books
This morning I attended what I imagine is only the first of many school concerts I will attend as my boys grow up and work their way through the schooling system. I was as proud as any parent in the room (every seat was taken) as I sat beside my wife and younger boy Thomas and watched Oliver sing and try to do the actions on time (especially proud that he wasn’t the kid in the front row center picking…
Michael Wittmer
Michael Wittmer’s 2015 book asks a question that is dear to my heart as a millennial pastor who grew up middle class with plenty of accouterments: Can you serve Jesus and still enjoy your life? I may be a Calvinist but even I still think the answer not only needs to be but is YES. Here’s the thing, I spent a time outside the faith, a time when I snidely looked down on those foolish enough to believe the faith…
A Funny Book on Prayer
I struggle with prayer. I pray a lot, but never as much I would like to. I’m over the concept of guilt at not praying but I haven’t managed the art of prayerfully doing everything I do in a day. It’s something I would really like to learn over the years. And I think it takes years to learn much about prayer and I like to read books, old and new, about prayer. Jared Brock’s book “A Year of Living…
From Tablet to Table
“From Tablet to Table” by Leonard Sweet didn’t exactly live up to my expectations. I am so on board with the topic I read it as a sort of fluffy read where I was going to just sit in the choir loft mumbling “preach on.” For the most part that is what I did, but the language was not as clear or poignant as I would have hoped, this isn;t Wendell Berry writing. I can’t identify exactly what is missing but…
A Word of Encouragement (Or the Church as a Trapeze)
I used to teach snowboarding at a high level. I would take snowboard instructors to the biggest steepest run at our resort and ask them to ride it fakie (with the wrong foot in front). I enjoyed hundreds, if not thousands, of hours snowboarding. In order to improve and in order to help others improve I had to push both them and myself beyond the ordinary comfort zones. As we progressed some people took notice of us and recognized the…
God Fulfills His Promises
This past weekend I was reminded of how frustrated many of our churches are these days. I sometimes think I create bogeyman in my head when it comes to the troubles we are facing as a denomination; I pay too close attention to the numbers and the seeming struggles of my brothers and sisters in ministry. I want so badly to help them. Despite what one woman said to a member of my team recently “I know your church is…
Walking a Dog…What’s That Smell???
What’s that smell? It’s spring here on Vancouver Island and the flowers are budding and many tulips have already blossomed and many others stand sentinel straight waiting for just the right moment to grace the earth with their blooms. I was walking my dog this morning amidst the splendor and sunshine when we had an inauspicious start. She laid a deuce that scented the air with sickness and my alert brain immediately discerned that something my bubbly 2-year-old mutt ate…