This is a question I’ve wrestled with for a long time. When you desire to be inclusive and make people feel welcomed and show grace to all it becomes a very difficult question to ask when you are talking about discipline. I’m not talking about Mark Driscoll style discipline of impersonal letters and bureaucratic paperwork. …
How Far Is Too Far When Protecting Your Community? Read More »
About a year or so ago I decided that I needed to start being more intentional about being present in my community. I had found myself torn back and forth all over south western Ontario and it began to drain on me. I was running conferences in Toronto, networks with church plants all over the …
Going Local Isn’t Easy But So Far It Feels Right Read More »
What is one to do when they feel its good and right to a more social/communal gospel such as living in close quarters, same neighbourhood, same house as others who call themselves Christians but whenever the idea is brought up they are usually told to “go live out your convictions on your own.” Do some …
I’m only a bit of the way through the latest Geez magazine and I just read an article that I’ve been meaning to mention now for a while. Nate Buchanan in Changing the Story of Change: God Chooses New Protagonists helps reevaluate a gospel that centers on those of privilege to help those in need. …
Changing the Story of Change: God Chooses New Protagonists Read More »
Stuff has been on my mind lately. I’m amazed at how much happiness it can bring to someone. Watching my wife’s face as her bedroom gets decorated, watching my own face when I get a new camera, listening to girls talk about Ikea and guys talk about new cars, watching people at Wal Mart, watching …
Every year my life gets more complicated. I’m trying to think back to the days where I wasn’t kept on track by a calendar, because I didn’t make appointments and my only commitment was to go to recess early for a basketball game. Now as the years pile, so does the responsibility. I’m married now, …
All this talk about renting or mortgaging got me thinking about other ways to ‘live.’ So I thought I would start another category at the side of this blog and keep at this for a bit longer trying to understand and work through the different ways people live under roofs. Another way that some people …
To Rent or Mortgage Part 1 To Rent or Mortgage Part 2 To Rent or Mortgage Part 3 To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4 This post won’t necessarily about choosing between renting or mortgaging, but instead a third way that I have tried to drum up over the last little while which …
To Rent or Mortgage Part 1 To Rent or Mortgage Part 2 To Rent or Mortgage Part 3 To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4 I’ve had a few comments on my latest posts on renting or mortgaging. Here is the overall picture I’m getting and probably where I stand with all this. …
To Rent or Mortgage Part 1 To Rent or Mortgage Part 2 To Rent or Mortgage Part 3 To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4 There were a few comments left on my last post which got me thinking about a few other things This isn’t so much of a financial battle for …
To Rent or Mortgage Part 1 To Rent or Mortgage Part 2 To Rent or Mortgage Part 3 To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4 I have struggled passionately with this over the last year or so. Getting married, making more money, paying utilities all play into the raging question if I should …
The idea and the word community has become sort of a buzz word in my life in the past year or two lately. Everything is about building community and I want to have meaningful community; not just a place to show up on Sunday. In fact the best way to evangelism is in community and …
Mark 10 is one of the most amazing passages in the New Testament because it is so harsh, honest and barely understood let alone followed. We all know the story. It’s the story of the rich man who comes up to Jesus and asks him how he inherits eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep …
In the next few months I’m going to be moving back to Sarnia, my hometown, for good. I’ve been looking forward to moving back to Sarnia for quite sometime now and its finally happening along with theStory church plant. Instead of moving back with my parents like any good poor university student would do I …
Over the last little while I have been around people/organizations that have a deep rooted desire to help the poor and dedicate their lives doing so. I live with the family in Hamilton that was committed into moving into the downtown area to be where they were ministering, which is next door to the third …