Ahhhh... Nothing like a little Communist-era entertainment on your day off....

From trivial to profound: Easter week

fiddler's green: From trivial to profound: Easter week

Dan reflects on our meeting yesterday and captures my thoughts exactly!

"Imagine churches coming together at Easter to cooperate, show unity, shelve competition and embrace the common joy of Christ crucified. A simple thing. But a profoundly counter-cultural act in an individualized, me-first, competitive world.

This week is Easter week. A week where we take a moment, and get the opportunity to lift our eyes from the trivial to the profound. To feast our souls on the extravagant love of God poured out on us through His Son Jesus Christ. It is time to stop what we normally do, and do what we need to do. It is time to sit and wonder; to sing and thunder; to rend asunder the idols of our hearts and rekindle the joy of our souls."

Conferences Can Be Great!

My friend Kirk Wellum wrote a post that identified some possible problems with Christian Conferences.

It made me start to think of ways I think these conferences can be quite helpful. Kirk did mention that “such things are necessary for a variety of reasons,” so I thought I might try and fill in some of those reasons. This was a quick list I came up with a few minutes ago.

Why conferences can be helpful.

1. To develop relationships with other Christians outside of your local church.

2. To hear preachers you do not normally get to hear. This is especially true for pastors that are preaching almost every Sunday. And I am of the mind that a YouTube video or CD is not the same – there is great value in hearing things live and being there as the Spirit honours the Word.  Preachers can learn much from listening to other preachers.

3. To be instructed in one theme or area for a concentrated period of time. Although some folks get to attend Bible schools or seminary, many do not, and a conference can supply that kind of instruction in a condensed form. It is not a replacement for the academy, but it serves the church in a way the academy cannot. For example, two days of instruction for women on Women’s Ministry might do much good for many of our churches.

4. To provide a context for Christians to serve other Christians.

5. To gain a respite from routine and do business with the Lord. Of course this can be overdone in a way that promotes mere emotionalism, but for centuries Christians have been gathering in ways like this to step out of their normal patterns to concentrate on their Saviour.

6. To buy books. Most conferences now offer excellent book tables which for many is the only way to evaluate possible purchases.

7. To be mentally provoked. I have never been to one conference where I agreed with everything that was said… not even when I was the preacher! It is good to be with other Christians and be forced to hear things from a different angle or with different vocabulary or just to consider ideas or Truths that have never crossed our horizon.

8. To be encouraged by good examples. It is too easy, in my estimation, to write off “the big names” as mere celebritiism. Clearly, there is an idolatry in the North American church, but the fact remains many want to learn from those names because of their godliness, not their celebrity. Christians ought to be attracted to godliness in other Christians. Pastors ought to be attracted to godliness in other pastors. We have much to learn from each other and a conference can be a helpful way of letting one man used of God speak to many others.

These are some reasons that come to mind off the top of my head. How about you? Have you been to a conference? Was it encouraging? Is it all hype? I am interested to hear what you think.

Wrestling with an Angel: The Contagious Comfort and Mercy of God

Wrestling with an Angel: The Contagious Comfort and Mercy of God:

I have been humbled by my reading of Greg Lucas's blog, Wrestling with an Angel.

Greg is a cop and a father to a pretty cool young man named Jake. Jake has special needs, and Greg posts about caring for him.

I appreciate one theme that comes through in his writing: parents of special needs kids desire empathy before sympathy... and yes, you can help. It takes courage to write the way he does and to invite others into their family, but if you have ever wondered how to help your friends in situations similar to this, then you need to read Greg. If you have never given any thought as to what life is like with special needs under your roof, then you really need to read Greg.

His latest post begins here...

"One busy Saturday afternoon I was patrolling the local mall parking lot in my police cruiser. It was warm, so I had my windows down enjoying the fall air. As I drove though the lot I heard a loud piercing cry echoing like a sound bite from a horror movie."

CBC News - Toronto - Toronto's 'tiny house' for sale

CBC News - Toronto - Toronto's 'tiny house' for sale

A little piece — actually the littlest piece — of the Toronto housing market is for sale.

The home has just three rooms and measures slightly over 300 square feet.

The real estate ad calls it "charming" and "unique."

With the average house price in Toronto around $400,000, the "tiny house" as it has become known, looks like a bargain.

The home, located in Toronto's Little Italy neighbourhood, is selling for just under $180,000 — $7,000 more than it sold for just a year ago.

New Blog! Practical Shepherding

Practical Shepherding

I was very excited to read some of the great little articles on Brian Croft's new blog called Practical Shepherding. Just note some of the titles of these early posts...

* What role should a pastor play within his church to identify and train future pastors?
* What is the process of a service review?
* How do I care for a widow on her anniversary?
* What is the purpose of a service review?
* How do I care for a lonely widow/widower?
* What is a service review?
* How do I know if I am called into the ministry?
* At what time should most hospital visits take place?
* What do I wear to visit someone in the hospital?
* How can I honor the nurses and medical staff caring for those I come to visit?

Great News for Church Planters! - Visible minorities in GTA could double by 2031: StatsCan - thestar.com

Visible minorities in GTA could double by 2031:

"Visible minorities in Toronto and its surrounding municipalities could more than double in the next 20 years, making up 63 per cent of the area’s total population by 2031, according to a study by Statistics Canada published Tuesday.

The federal agency projects the number of visible minorities in the area to grow from 2.3 million in 2006 to 5.6 million in 2031. The rest of the area’s population is expected to increase by only 8 per cent.

For the purposes of the study, StatsCan uses the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Toronto, which stretches from Oshawa in the east to Burlington in the west and Barrie in the north. It’s similar, though not identical, to the Greater Toronto Area."

O Canada!

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For Free - Some Suggested Questions for TAG

(Almost) every week our members all meet in various homes in what we call Truth Application Groups or TAG's.  The one week we do not meet is the Sunday we hold a "Fellowship Lunch."  (Since we are an urban church, we thought it a good idea to take one Sunday per month to eat together immediately after the first service - then share the Lord's Supper.)  Today is a Fellowship Lunch Sunday which means there are no TAG's meeting today.  With me so far?
Our TAG's spend 40% of their time trying to apply what we have heard preached in the morning service.  Our elders typically meet right after the service to fine tune some questions to enable this so that we aim at heart motivations.  Since I forgot it was Fellowship Lunch Sunday when I was studying yesterday, I went ahead and made up some TAG questions.  And being one of those guys who hates to waste anything, I am posting them here.
If you are a GFC member, I would encourage you to find another member this week and talk through some of these.
If you are some cyber-outsider peering in, feel free to listen to the sermon once it gets posted and then use these questions if you want a feel for how we do what we do.

• Every member of GFC agrees to be at Sunday morning service, TAG and Wednesday night service.  Are you? Do you feel it is okay to miss? How much?  Does it feel like we meet too many times per week?
• What are some benefits of regular meeting with other Christians?
• What keeps you from being transparent and authentic with other Christians?
• What are you most afraid of losing in persecution?
• What distractions tempt you the most? (money, sex, stuff, comfort)
• Have you ever felt bored with preaching, tired of serving, or fed up with services?  What might that be saying about your spiritual health?
• Have you lived on the fringe of a church? How is living in the core different? Have you invited others in?

Pastor, Have You Been Evangelizing the Children in Your Flock?

Robert Murray M'cheyne was a godly Presbyterian pastor in Scotland (d. 1843).  He loved to preach Christ to all he came into contact with, but especially to the children in attendance.  He was a convinced paedobaptist, but knew water and covenants didn't save, the work was up to the Holy Spirit in the real-time life of the child.  I love to read his letters to children, one of which I offer here to whet your appetite.

TO J. T.,

COLLACE, January 27, 1842.

MY DEAR BOY,—

I was very glad to receive your kind note, and am glad to send you a short line in return, although my time is much taken up. You are very dear to me, because your soul is precious; and if you are ever brought to Jesus, washed and justified, you will praise Him more sweetly than an angel of light. I was riding among the snow to - day, where no foot had trodden, and it was pure, pure white; and I thought again and again of that verse: ' Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow! That is a sweet prayer: make it your own. Often go alone and look up to Jesus, who died to wash us from our sins, and say, 'Wash me.' Amelia Geddie was one day dressed in a new white frock, with red ribbons in her bonnet, and some one said to her, ' No doubt you will think yourself very trim and clean ?' ' Ah! no,' she said ; • / will never think that until I have the fine white robe of my Redeemer's righteousness put upon me.' I am glad, my dear boy, you think that God is afflicting you to bring you to Himself. It is really for this that He smites you. His heart, His hand, and His rod, are all inscribed with love. But then, see that He does bring you to Himself. Do not delay. The lake of fire and brimstone stretches beneath every soul that lives in sin. ' There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.' If the Lord Jesus would but draw the curtain, and let you see His own fair face, and His wounded side, and how there is room for the guiltiest sinner in Him, you would be drawn to Jesus with the cords of love. I was preaching in Perth last Sabbath. When I came out, a little girl came up to me, I think about three or four years old. She wanted to hear of the way to be saved. Her mother said she had been crying the whole night before about her soul, and would take no comfort till she should find Jesus. Oh! pray that the same Spirit may waken you. Remember, Johnnie, you once wept for your soul too, and prayed and sought Jesus. Have you found Him? or have you looked back, like Lot's wife, and become a hard, cold pillar of salt ? Awake again, and call upon the name of the Lord. Your time may be short, God only knows. The longest lifetime is short enough. It is all that is given you to be converted in. They are the happiest who are brought soonest to the bosom of Jesus.
Write me again. At present I must draw to a close. Give my kindest remembrances to your mamma, and to A. when you write. Tell him to write me. May you all meet at the table of Jesus above; and may I be there too, a sinner saved by grace.—Ever yours, etc.