A quick update for you guys about my lent commitment to no coffee.

It hasn’t been that hard actually. I have been in meetings the whole week and so i have been a little distracted and out of my normal routine. So perhaps the hardship will come int he next few days. But for now I have had no headaches.

OK….hold up for a sec, anyone else think its funny that I am giving that much clout to coffee?

Anyway,

I am also reading passages from the bible that Kristin posted in our church blog. I have found them encouraging and today I found something interesting.

The passage today was Titus 2:1-15, but it was verses 1-2 that stood out.

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

I have always been told that sound doctrine were the important rules or beliefs of the church that were unchangeable and non-negotiable. But this passage suggests otherwise.

Could it be that sound doctrine is when one knows how to walk in the way of Jesus? Could it be that living a full life as who God made you to be is what it means to understand doctrine? These “doctrines” are not exactly what many people had told me were “sound” in fact these are messy life skills that are hard to measure.

This period of lent I expect will be enlightening. Enlightened to what it means to live this Jesus way of life…something more than “getting into heaven,” but something that involves life now.

Teaching Sound Doctrine = Learning How to Live the Jesus Way of Life Now

This is a must see video provided by the CBC entitled Seven.

My friend Alan who pointed me to this comments:

In it Mark Kelley (a CBC journalist) has been spending seven days with different groups of people to see how they live life. This past Tuesday night they showed the segment where he goes to the southern U.S. to spend seven days with American evangelical Christians to find out what they believe and how they view life.

I resonate with Alan’s comments that Canadian Christianity is a little different, and mainly because (i think) it’s smaller and less influential (although I hope if we ever get more influence we wouldn’t become whats on the video clip). But it is good to reflect on, and to ask ourselves what kind of Christianity are we living.

Personally other than Craig Gross from xxxchurch.com, i really had a hard time watching the clip, and found it very counter to what i teach at the open house.

please give it a watch (combined the time of the two segments is under 30 minutes) and leave a comment below:

segment 1: link
segment 2: link

So last night our church discussed lent. Lent a practice that for most of my Christian life had been associated with the catholic church primarily, was introduced to me in a new and fresh way that has freed me to really encounter God through the giving up of something.

We used Exodus 2-4 to talk about Moses 40 years in the desert and how he was being prepared by God to enter the next stage of his life with God.

We took some time to talk about giving up something (fasting) that would help us focus on God, but we also challenged each other to commit to something that would fill that space that is left by the fast.

And for me i am giving up coffee! Everyone together…GASP.

I can think of a few reactions from my friends. Luke and Adam: “Sweet you are going to smell so much better,” Anna: “remember the Tylenol for your headaches,” Lacey: “What are you going to do with all the coffee I gave you?” Kristin: “What will you do when you’re bored?”

It will be interesting for sure.

As our church goes through this time, I hope to share a few of the insights that we have as a church on this blog and the possible next steps we will take together. And I also hope to share a little of my struggle with the whole coffee thing as well.

John Stackhouse a professor at Regent College has an interesting post of the parachurch/local church phenomenon.

link

This weekend Anna and I made our way to Victoria in order to see her sister Frances one more time before her and her daughter (our niece) Roxanne travel back to the UK.

During our 1 sailing wait (2 hour parked in the ferry terminal), Anna and I decided to get some coffee to keep us awake till we boarded the ferry, so I trekked over to the concession area to get some drinks. Anna requested a java chip frappaccino from starbucks but I didn’t really want to buy from them, so i wandered over to Salt Spring Island Coffee. While there ordering my drink a lady came up behind me carrying a starbucks cup and in her sweet south african accent asked the kind young girl at the salt spring counter if she would mind adding some hot water to her really bad chai latte from starbucks.

This young girl pipes in, “I will do you one better. I will make you a brand new chai latte for free if you promise to stop going to Starbucks and buy coffee from us whenever possible.”

The nice south african lady says, “How nice of you, I will certainly try as long as i am in Canada.”

That young lady at the Salt Spring counter at the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen should be promoted fast! For what might cost Salt Spring $1 they converted a person from Starbucks to Salt spring coffee in a matter of 5 minutes. For all those watching this take place (such as myself) they too were quite impressed and I would venture a guess that they might consider switching for good as well.

It’s amazing what happens when you believe in what you are selling (Salt Spring coffee is fair trade and organic i might add), and when you see the bigger picture what an influence you can have in a persons life decisions.

The American church is desperately in need of help if we are going to have any reasonable chance to do mission among Pre, Post, and Semi Christians in emerging culture. Some of that assistance might just come from north of the border.

read rest of article here

As I arrived at Oso Negro with my buddy Matt to have one final coffee in the wonderful town of Nelson, BC I never thought I was in for a huge detour in my day.

Standing outside waiting for Oso Negro to open Matt and I recounted the awesome time snowboarding at whitewater and red mountain when I police officer parks in the spot behind me on the street at a meter.

Slowly the policeman strolls up to us and mentions to me that my insurance is over due…wait for it…panic!

“No Way,” I said as I so elegantly pointed out that I had till the end of Feb 2007 to get it renewed. (I am an administrator, I am never late on these things). And then he bursts my bubble; “In BC (as opposed to Alberta) ‘Feb 07′ on your plates is the day, not the year” he says…I was 3 days late on my insurance!

After a massive ticket, a million phone calls, and a wonderful girl from RHC in Nelson who came in on her day off to get me set up with insurance till Tuesday night I was on my way back to Vancouver.

The moral of the story…God will always get you back!

Just kidding, but that was my first reaction. I started thinking about all the “sins” i had committed and wondered if any of them warranted all the strife i went through. But then I had another thought go through my head.

Let’s say I didn’t get caught and I rolled on the road on my way back to Vancouver and got into an accident. Aside from the possibility of me being hurt, could you imagine how much of a kick in the teeth that would be. It could cost me 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars or more depending on the damage to my car, the other persons, the medical costs, and I could lose my license!

God was protecting me…I can see it so clearly. God is not a karma specialist giving me good things when i do good and taking them away when I do bad. God transcends Karma and says to us, “even when you mess up, i will still love you and give you my best.”

What kind of God do you believe in? The God who loves no matter what, or the God of Karma?

This past Sunday we had our Community Forum for the church in order to share a few ideas and ask for input on some of the new developments with the church. We are hoping to implement a few of these new deas in the near future.

Basically we talked about two subjects; what should we do about our current and future space issues and how can we become more involved socially in our community as a church.

Our dream is to be a church that emphasizes smaller groups, and decentralizes the church as a building (a place you go to, specifically on Sundays). We have been stoked to see so many people embrace the church in our home. Many from our group were excited to share about how what they have learned through experiencing church as a way of life, as opposed to an event. So much so that we have had some increased growth in size.

Therefore we talked about starting a number of new groups in March. The first would be a new church (small group) led by Kristin. We have asked people to pray about moving from our current group and joining with others to start a new group of about 5-7 people. In light of this we are going to re-start our monthly public gatherings at the end of March, which will connect our churches together and allow for a public expression of church for the open house.

Secondly, we introduced starting another group that would be independent of the churches that would focus on outreach. This will involve social justice, extended care, works of service and other ways in which we can contribute to the many awesome programs that already exist in our neighbourhood. This will be organized by our good friend Melanie, who has a passion for this and will be posting more on the blog about ways you can get connected.

The conversation that ensued was lively and informative. I won’t get into to the details, but it was great to hear each person’s longing for connection in our community and the ways each of them is exploring ways to live out their Christian life in an urban setting. Everyone grew in their understanding of what we are trying to do and although we are still learning and are open to changing I think we are in a good place to try some things and grow as a church.

If you want to know more about the church or this forum, feel free to leave a message in the comments or email me directly. I can’t wait to see what transpires.

Time for us to talk about some of the goings on with the church!

Date: Sunday February 4th, 2007
Time: 10am-12pm
Place: 1949 East 11th Ave. Vancouver, BC (map)

We will be providing some breakfast snacks and coffee/tea

Topics of discussion:
# space options for gatherings
# options for outreach in the community

We really hope you can make it out!