Monday Morning Thoughts

Sorry for yesterday’s sermon.  Ang said she spaced out for parts of it and my guess is that she wasn’t the only one. :)  Don’t worry, Angela isn’t being mean; in fact, it’s hard to get criticism out of her.  I don’t get offended as I’m well aware that I’m far away from being an excellent communicator.   I hope to one day be a gifted communicator and I believe that critical reflection will play a role in its fruition.

In spite of my shortcomings, we had a great gathering.  The Humphrey’s served a stellar continental breakfast.  Tony served us well in leading songs of praise.  Our rarely remembered Sunday school teachers loved our kids. Then some youth and youth leaders served apple pie.  The pie I had was sensational (I’m not exaggerating)!  They raised about $200 for their upcoming youth conference.  Following the service a number of people received personal prayer and throughout everything the body was built up.

Our family hit the McDonald’s drive-through on the way home then crashed for a few hours.  Angela sewed.  I read a book.  Ruby did crafts.  Charlie napped.  It was a good Sunday afternoon.

In the evening we went over to Hotel Hersey for dinner and to finalize our plans for the candlelight parade float.  I’m really looking forward to the float.  Lots of great ideas and now to get to work!

Today I’m working at the College (see my view in above photo) then heading home to give out candy.  My philosophy is to give lots so that when they get older they don’t egg your house (something I have “seen” happen as a teenager).

I hope you have a great week and that if you remember anything from Sunday, you remember that God never forgets His promises.  Walk in reality and not the facade of the world.

The Pastor by Eugene Peterson

A while ago I started Eugene Peterson's, The Pastor.  I got bored of reading it halfway through, but parts of it were good.  I've entered my favourie parts below.  They're mostly for me personally, but perhaps they'll be of use to you.

In the process of realizing my vocational identity as pastor, I couldn't help observing that there was a great deal of confusion and dissatisfaction all around me with pastoral identity.  Many pastors, disappointed or disillusioned with their congregations, defect after a few years and find more congenial work.  And many congregations, disappointed or disillusioned with their pastors, dismiss them and look for pastors more to their liking.  ... I wondered if at the root of the defection is a cultural assumption that all leaders are people who "get things done," and "make things happen."  ... while being a pastor certainly has some of these components, the pervasive element in our two-thousand-year pastoral tradition is not someone who "gets things done" but rather the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to "what is going on now" between men and women, with one another and with God -- this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerful "without ceasing." (p.5)


The way we learn something is more influential than the something that we learn.   No content comes into our lives free-floating: it is always embedded in a form of some kind.  For the basic and integrative realities of God and faith, the forms must also be basic and integrative.  If they are not, the truths themselves will be peripheral and unassimilated.  (p.33)


I am quite sure now that the way I as a pastor came to understand congregation had its beginnings in the "congregational" atmosphere of our butcher shop.  Congregation is composed of people, who, upon entering a church, leave behind what people on the street name or call them.  A church can never be reduced to a place where goods and services are exchanged.  It must never be a place where a person is labeled.  It can never be a place where gossip is perpetuated.  Before anything else, it is a place where a person is named and greeted, whether implicitly or explicitly, in Jesus' name.  A place where dignity is conferred.  (p. 40)


It was a view of life shaped by "the Gospel According to America."  The rewards were obvious, and I enjoyed them.  Hard work pays off.  I learned much in those years in my father's butcher shop, yet there was one large omission that set all other truth dangerously at risk: the omission of holy rest.  The refusal to be silent.  The obsessive avoidance of emptiness. (p. 44) ... Inappropriate, anxiety-driven, fear-driven work [will] only interfere with and distract from what God [is] doing.  My "work" assignment [is] to pay more attention to what God [is doing] than what I [am to] do, and then to find, and guide others to find, the daily, weekly, yearly rhythms that would get this awareness into our bones.  (p. 45)

God is Like An Elephant?

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What Now?  A Study in Acts
"God is Like An Elephant: He Never Forgets His Promises (Acts 10:1-8)
October 30 - November 5, 2011

PRAY
Before you begin reading, reflecting, discussing, and applying, begin by opening your heart up to our Savior and Lord.  Praise Him and ask Him to incline your heart to His.   Invite Him to search your heart and make Himself known.

STUDY
Read Acts 10. Take time to reflect, ask questions (write them down as you go through), and then research and study the answers.  www.biblestudytools.com has a lot of great free online resources.

DISCUSS
Have you ever made a promise and then dropped/forgotten it?  Have you ever been promised something by someone and they never delivered?  Do you ever feel like God has forgotten one of His promises?  What is reassuring about what God says to Cornelius?

LIVE
Take time this week to renew your heart towards God.  If you were feeling bitter towards Him, repent and renew your trust in His faithfulness and the future hope we have in Him.  Apply the character of God to your own life.  Are there promises that you have made that you haven’t held up?  If so, do something about it and make it right.

Prayer Focus

Church Family 

• Two friends of Rob G. fighting health issues.
• Friend of Eugene D. who is fighting cancer.
• Mike K. (Health)
• Friend of Angela N. who has undiagnosed pain.
• Angela N. - health concern
• Rachel B. - job opportunity

Foursquare Family

• Springs of Life Foursquare Fellowship (Millet, AB)
• Barry Buzza (President of Foursquare Canada)
• Doug Friesen (Unit Supervisor) 

Other Churches 

• Gospel Fellowship Baptist Church (Mission, BC)

Our Community & World

• Mayor James Atebe & Council
• Premier Clark & MLA's
• Prime Minister Harper, Senate, & MP's
• Thailand, Syria, Israel

Jazz-Ma-Tazz

I was driving Angela nuts this morning.  We drove by a sign that advertised "Jazz-Ma-Tazz" lessons (whatever that is).  For whatever reason, I started singing, "Jazz-Ma-Tazz, Jazz-Ma-Tazz" to the tune of Spiderman's theme song.  I rounded out my lyrics by adding "if you can't jazz, then you can't ma-tazz".  Try it. It works quite nicely.  The kids loved it; Angela endured it.

Anyways, we were on our way to Willow View Farm again to spend time with old and new friends.  We had a potluck breakfast there and it was fun.  Charlie fell in the mud, smeared it over his face, then began to lick it off (see above photo).

I love being with family, regardless whether it's "family" in the context my biological, social, or spiritual realms.  God's social and spiritual design of family is a great thing.  I am blessed to be a part of some great families.

If you need family, join our Church family.  There's always room for one more.  We'll love you as Christ loves us.

Monday Morning Thoughts

I really enjoyed our gathering on Sunday.  I got to do the breakfast and realized how much I missed doing it... it's fun to connect, help out the kiddos, and then give latecomers a hard time (although, it's never worth getting in between someone and their coffee).

Alison did a great job leading our Church in songs of praise.  It was nice to sing some new songs too.  I got to lead our Church in prayer then Catherine gave a great message (listen here).  It was one of those Sundays where a more-than-usual amount of God's love and power was experienced (at least it was more visible to my eye/ear).  Please join me this week in praying for those that received prayer.  Pray that the eyes of our heart would be focused on Christ.  Pray that we would choose to believe words of truth and not be distracted by lies.  Pray that God will grace us by His Spirit to do the good works He has planned for us.

Sunday afternoon, we went over to the Moody's for lunch.  Josie cooked a great chili (I told her she better enter it in next year's Chili Cook-off) and an amazing pumpkin mouse dessert thing.  We then checked out the new park across the street from them.  It was good to catch up and chat about life and God.

Sunday evening, we had my sister and bro-in-law over for dinner.  It was a relaxing evening of watching our kids play and interacting with them.  It's really nice having family close by... I only wish I had more down time to do it more often.

Backing up to Saturday, I got to do my run/walk thing with Charlie on the dyke again.  We had a great time together.  We went to Tim's for lunch and we both thoroughly enjoyed dipping our bread into our chili bowl (yes, that's right, I had chili two days in a row... that's pretty good in my books).   Charlie downed his chocolate milk and I sipped back an iced-capp.

Saturday night was a treat.  We had an inter-Church worship night.  Doug D. from North Valley Baptist Church lead us in worship and prayer for our City and Churches.   It wasn't well attended (only 40 people were there)... something we'll have to remedy, but the night was really good.  We sang a bunch of songs I had never heard before and they were awesome!  Things like this are too good and too important to leave to happen-stance, so the next one (happening in January sometime), we'll have to over-communicate. 

This week is another busy week for me and my family.  We'll find out sometime this week when Angela's surgery will be.  We're starting to roll out the steps to the construction of our Church float in the Candlelight parade.  I've got a bunch of meetings and things are hopping at the Bible College.

I hope you have a great week.  May we never be so busy that we can't be interrupted by God.

Prayer Focus

Church Family 

• Two friends of Rob G. fighting health issues.
• Friend of Eugene D. who is fighting cancer.
• Mike K. (Health)
• Friend of Angela N. who has undiagnosed pain.
• Angela N. - health concern
• Rachel B. - job opportunity

Foursquare Family

• Cornerstone Church (Airdrie, AB)
• Barry Buzza (President of Foursquare Canada)
• Doug Friesen (Unit Supervisor) 

Other Churches 

• Christian Fellowship Centre (Mission, BC)

Our Community & World

• Mayor James Atebe & Council
• Premier Clark & MLA's
• Prime Minister Harper, Senate, & MP's
• Thailand, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan

Friday Mashup

The heat is on.  And, I feel like more of a man.  Last Friday, I went to light the Church boiler and I couldn't get it going.  Turns out, it wasn't me, but a faulty gas valve.  A few days later and another cold night at Freedom Sessions and we've got heat!

Last night I got to meet with our Ministry Leadership Team.  They are a great group of men and women that serve our Church family with grace, love, and dedication.  We spent some time reflecting on the summer trimester (June-September) of ministry and looked to the rest of the Fall and Christmas season.

Today, Angela and I are heading to Vancouver General for a meeting with our surgeon.   We'll find out his thoughts on Angela's condition (growths on her ovaries) and then he'll schedule surgery.  We are praying for God's heal her and appreciate you joining us in prayer.

Later today, I'll be picking our apples from our trees and giving them to a bunch of our youth.  They are going to make apple pies this week to serve next Sunday.  Slices of pie will be available by donation and proceeds will go to youth heading to "Consumed Youth Conference" on Vancouver Island at Northgate Foursquare Church. It will be our first ever apple pie Sunday.

Tomorrow night we've got an inter-Church night of worship and prayer at our Church building.  Come on down at 7:00pm.  I'm really looking forward to this evening and I hope you'll be able to make it out.

Monday Morning Thoughts

I swallowed some dog poop this weekend.  Sunday afternoon I felt like doing something fun and so I picked up my weed eater and headed over to the Church.  Halfway through giving the south slope a shave I hit a hidden dog turd (I hope it was dog) and soft pieces hit my glasses, face, clothes, and my mouth.  Lesson learned... don't grin from ear to ear when weed whacking.

Sunday night was much better.  We had a bunch of my family over for a backyard fire filled with hot dogs, hot potato salad, spinach salad, chips, homemade sun tea, hot tea, and homemade ice cream.  The food was great; the company even better.  It is so much fun when your kids get to the age where they just play with one another and have a blast doing it.

Going back to Saturday, we had Charlie's birthday party.  We went to Willow View Farms in Abbotsford and had a great time.  Lots of good food (see photo above) and family.  Charlie got a ton of toys.  At this point our plan is to let him have a new one each month to eek them out over his next year.

Going farther back to Friday, I got to meet Charla Pereau (founder of Foundation for His Ministry).  She is an awesome lady with huge faith.  I found her inspiring.  Their ministry in Mexico is mind blowing.  I picked up her book and look forward to reading it in the near future.  I also plan on praying and planning to see how our Church can partner with this work.

Moving back to Sunday morning, I was really blessed.  I opened the gate to the parking lot and noticed that a weeding angel had visited again and weeded the front beds!  I found the weeding angel later that morning and she told me that her and her son had a great time doing it.  I love it when families work together!

Karin did a great job leading us in worship.  You've probably noticed, but two Sunday's a month we're going more acoustic in style.  This comes from a place in my thoughts that believes Church should be simple.  Simple is sustainable, reproducible, and clear.  Simple doesn't mean half-hearted or dumbed down.  Simple means focused and effective.  If we have it in our Church culture that to do Church you need $70,000 worth of sound equipment and 40 people to play instruments then we've thought wrong.  I've been in Sri Lanka where they Foursquare Church has planted over 1,000 churches in the last two decades and most of them lead their music with a tambourine.  Painful?  Slightly.  Effective & Reproducible? Yes.

We won't be jumping straight to a tambourine, but I don't want us to head to a place where the stuff of Church detracts from the purposes of Church.  We come to worship Jesus, not hear a good band.  We will pray.  We will hear from God's Word.  We will have opportunity to be with another and make new relational connections.

In other news, last night I gave up reading "The Pastor" by Eugene Peterson.  I got halfway through and then got bored of it.  There some good parts in it, but just too much story/fluff.

I hope you had a good weekend and have an even better week.  We are a people that operate with urgency, diligence, and grace!

Urgency, Diligence, and Grace

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"What Now?  A Study in Acts"Urgency, Diligence, and Grace (Acts 9:19b-31)
October 16-22, 2011

PRAY
Before you begin reading, reflecting, discussing, and applying, begin by opening your heart up to our Savior and Lord.  Praise Him and ask Him to incline your heart to His.   Invite Him to search your heart and make Himself known.

STUDY
Read Acts 9. Take time to reflect, ask questions (write them down as you go through), and then research and study the answers.  www.biblestudytools.com has a lot of great free online resources.

DISCUSS
What is the best gift you’ve ever been given?  How long did it take for your enjoyment with it to fade?  Would you say that your response to the Good News is driven with a sense of urgency?  Would you say that you are diligent in learning and knowing the gift of Jesus?  What does the gift of Jesus look like now in your life... is the grace still flowing through you?

LIVE
Take time this week to seek God.  Analyze your relationships, especially the people that don’t know Jesus.  Take the message of Christ as urgent and apply that urgency with diligence and grace.

Friday Mashup

Our Sunday gathering was good. Moses' rocked the breakfast.  Chad did a great job in leading us in worship through music.  I really enjoyed God's Word and I hope you did too!


Following our service, I got to cook my first turkey on Sunday and had some of my family over to enjoy.  Angela was a great turkey cooking coach.  My sister made some sweet desserts... pumpkin cheesecake, homemade ice cream, and apple turnovers!

I had a great Thanksgiving Monday.  Relaxed, read a book, and then had another great turkey dinner with Angela's family.  We did a first for our family... we had turkey dinner at the Sandbar restaurant on Granville Island.  It was nice not having to cook or clean-up.

I made it through my first week of my new exercise program.  I downloaded a new app for my phone called "Couch to 10K".  It promises that 12 weeks from now, I'll be able to run 10K.  I've been going down to the Matsqui Trail on the river and I'm having a great time.  I listen to music, pray, and think.  It's amazing how exercise helps to organize thoughts.  My new shoes are awesome... right now it takes me about 45 minutes to cover 5 miles and my feet feel great after.

On Monday, I went to exercise down at the trail and there were a bunch of men fishing with hip waders and insulated jackets.  It was 11 degrees and the rain was horizontal.  As I scanned the river's edge, I noticed right in front of me two women fishing in just shorts and flip flops!  I had to take a picture.

As I mentioned on Sunday, Angela has a couple growths on her ovaries.  We met with the gynecologist yesterday and he's fairly confident that it's not cancer.  Next week we are going to see a specialist at Vancouver General to see what kind of surgery he will do and when it will take place.  Your prayers are appreciated.

In the tech side of life, I updated my iPhone to iOS 5 and like the changes.  I also updated my 'Lappy 4000' to Lion last night and so far don't really notice much of a difference.

I've got a couple meetings today, need to light the boiler to get heat back on at the Church building, do a bunch of admin stuff, and then attend the Mexico information night.

Tomorrow we are having a family party to celebrate Charlie's second birthday.  He is a great kid... so much personality and style.  He loves to push Ruby's buttons.  He's a great cuddler.  And what he lakes in his vocabulary, he makes up for with charade skills.  I'm looking forward to another year of loving and leading him.
 

Converted & Called

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Converted & Called
October 9-15, 2011

PRAY
Before you begin reading, reflecting, discussing, and applying, begin by opening your heart up to our Savior and Lord.  Praise Him and ask Him to incline your heart to His.   Invite Him to search your heart and make Himself known.

STUDY
Read Acts 9. Take time to reflect, ask questions (write them down as you go through), and then research and study the answers.  www.biblestudytools.com has a lot of great free online resources.

DISCUSS
Do you pray for those that persecute you and/or the Church?  Have you ever bullied someone?  Have you ever been bullied by someone?  How does Saul’s experience speak to your personal experience?  Have you had an encounter with Jesus?  Have you heard His call?  What things can disqualify you from doing great things for God?

LIVE
Take time this week to seek God.  Break away for an hour and practice silence and solitude.  Consider fasting for a day and seek God’s will for your life.  When He asks you to do something (no matter how small or big it may seem), simply step out and do it.

Prayer Focus

Church Family 

• Two friends of Rob G. fighting health issues.
• Friend of Eugene D. who is fighting cancer.
• Mike K. (Health)
• Friend of Angela N. who has undiagnosed pain.
• Angela N. health concern.

Foursquare Family

• Kimberley Foursquare Church (Kimberley, BC)
• Barry Buzza (President of Foursquare Canada)
• Doug Friesen (Unit Supervisor) 

Other Churches 

• Christian Fellowship Centre (Mission, BC)

Our Community & World

• Mayor James Atebe & Council
• Premier Clark & MLA's
• Prime Minister Harper, Senate, & MP's
• New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.

You Never Know

You never know what kind of impact you'll have on someone, especially when you're simply following God!  Calvin Williams leads our youth ministry and just emailed this cool story...

Back in May, I took the Lifechangers Group (Youth Bible Study) to StreetHope to serve dinner on a Saturday night. There were around 8 youth that went. They loved it. Shelagh, from StreetHope, just gave me the written testimony of a man who was there for the dinner that night.

Here it is... "My life before Christ was a roller coaster ride of working, drinking, partying and hanging out with the wrong people. I was walking by [StreetHope] all sad and lonely when something told me to go inside... to my surprise that day there was a youth group helping out. I sat down with these young adults, then I opened up about my life, and they all did the same, and then we just talked... from that day, I knew God had never abandoned me, He just gave me a sign on how He wanted me to do His will through me. It was that day that I surrendered to Christ and went to Recovery. Since being in Recovery I had my chance to rebuild my relationship with God and myself and my family is back in my life."  

What a cool impact our youth had on that man's life! Shelagh says that he attributes his turn back to Jesus to the conversation he was having with our youth. Praise God.

May this report encourage us all to serve and share the love of Christ.  Please continue to pray for this man, our youth, the ministry of StreeHope, and Calvin!

Monday Morning Thoughts

I prayed on Friday for God to grace me with strength for the weekend.  I had lots to do and was fighting a cold.  I am here on Monday to morning to say that God provided and then some!  Normally after a weekend like this past one, when Monday morning rolls around I wake up excited, but groggy.  I woke up today well rested and full of energy.

On Friday night, we had a small city serving in our Church building... lots of families cleaning and setting up for Saturday's memorial.  In reflection, a large part of why I feel rested this morning is because so many people helped and I really didn't have to do very much.

Saturday morning and early afternoon was memorial prep and then the service.  Again, a ton of our Church family served so generously and graciously.  I even got to go home in the afternoon hang out with the family for a couple hours before heading back to the launch of our young adult outreach night.  The outreach night went really well.  Ken W. is the driving force behind this ministry and he rolled out the red carpet with an amazing dinner for everyone.  It took all that I had to resist eating more than I would normally.

Sunday morning we had Ken Dyck (Author of Freedom Session) preach at our Church.  He did a great job.  Arnie & Val were able to join us as well for our service and it was so good to see them again!

Sunday afternoon we went over to a friend's house for some delicious soup (wonton soup, baked potato soup, and corn chowder)!  I had some of every kind and they were superb.  We chillaxed there for a bit and then headed home for dinner and relaxing evening.

This week, I'm digging into Acts 9 in preparation for Sunday, working at the college, and meeting with a few people.  I hope you have a great week and that God's grace is experienced in new and powerful ways through Jesus, His Word, and His Spirit.

Prayer Focus

Church Family 

• Two friends of Rob G. fighting health issues.
• Friend of Eugene D. who is fighting cancer.
• Mike K. (Health)
• Friend of Angela N. who has undiagnosed pain.

Foursquare Family

• La Cosecha Foursquare Church (Calgary, AB)
• Barry Buzza (President of Foursquare Canada)
• Doug Friesen (Unit Supervisor) 

Other Churches 

• The CrossCurrent (Mission, BC)

Our Community & World

• Mayor James Atebe & Council
• Premier Clark & MLA's
• Prime Minister Harper, Senate, & MP's
• Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.

We've Got Servants!

In case you were wondering about the heart of our Church, I think we're on track to mirroring the Father's heart.  I am blown away at the number of people that helped with Zain's memorial and the way in which they helped.  We hosted around 500 people in the celebration of Zain's life.

About 50 volunteers made today's service a success.  First, thank you to everyone has loved and prayed for the Krikau family over the last 10 days.  Thank you to Jim W. for scanning all those photos, creating the video, and then setting up and running the video feed to the youth centre.  Thank you to Cindy W. for heading up all the logistics from set-up to clean-up.  Thank you to Lynn B. and her girls for organizing and doing all the food (they were at the Church till midnight on Friday and then back again at 9:00am on Saturday).  Thank you to the Espezel's, Watson's, Randall's, and Clark's for helping with janitorial and clean-up!  Dave P. arrived early this morning to weed eat, then raced back to usher and help with clean-up.  Then there were a bunch of ladies in the kitchen helping with food service and kitchen cleaning.  About a dozen helped with parking and ushering.  All in all we had people from age 9 to 80 helping!  There are lots of people that I missed too!

I know the Krikau family are very blessed and grateful for our Church family and for our loving them in this way.

In case you missed the service, we'll put the video online in the near future.

Once again, thank you to everyone.  I am blessed to serve alongside you.