Church Practices – Lectionary
Other Practices The Practice theStory uses the lectionary that is arranged in a three-year cycle so that we hear the entire biblical story “” creation and fall, the exodus, captivity and return, the promise and…
Church Practices – Infant Baptism & Dedication
Other Practices The Practice As a Free Methodist Church we interchange the words baptism and dedication. For us having parents offer their children back to God alongside of their community is an important and symbolic…
America Is A Religion Of Violence
Just watched this little exchange with Sam Harris, Ben Affleck and Bill Maher. Not sure why someone like Affleck was on the show. Not only can he not debate well, he got all too personal…
Church Practices – Membership
Other Practices The Practice At theStory we value each other, the Kingdom of God, and being rooted in our city. We also accept all the risks that come with this location and identity. By God’s…
Why Christianity Got It Wrong
Christianity as a religion really isn’t that spectacular (and no it’s not because Christianity is a relationship and not a religion). We’ve got some interesting stories, most of which are rewrites of other stories. There…
“My lips are near but my heart is far away…” A Sermon on Matthew 21:23-32
Since we’ve all been children and many of you are parents, I think we all know what it’s like to know the difference between saying what somebody wants to hear and saying the truth. Rachel…
A Sermon On Identity and Infant Baptism or Dedication
All of us have an identity. Some of us can be attributed to multiple identities. We identify as mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, pipefitters, teachers, friends, entrepreneurs, academics, farmers, certain sports fans, retirees and the…
Amal Alamuddin, George Clooney ,The News and What’s Important
The first time I heard of Clooney/Alamuddin wedding – it was in a coffee shop in Toronto, and I was scrolling through the newspaper (I believe it was the Toronto Star). I started laughing and…
My Conversation About Mark Driscoll and ISIS
Every once in a while I like to sit in front of Facebook and leave some comments that will stir some thinking, or just confront strange statements or conversation. I don’t know what comes over…
We Make Institutions, They Don’t Make Us
The nature and origins of our institutions has been something that I’ve become more aware of over the last little while. By institution I mean systems of organization assembled by people. These organizations turn into…
Questions We Ask Kids Before Baptism
I’m preparing the service for this Sunday where we are performing three baby dedications/baptisms. I’ve been reading through the Free Methodist language and liturgy surrounding it. There is one section in our Manual that struck…
Should We Stop Calling Ourselves Christians?
In Acts 11 we find out the “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” What we don’t really know is when the term Christian was self-applied. In the three instances it shows up in…
Sermon: We Are What We Love
This morning I want to lay out a basic argument and then have us discuss its implications for us as individuals, families and a church. Humans have undergone quite a transition throughout it’s history especially…
Poor Neighbourhoods
Since about 2006, when I moved back to Sarnia, and having read just enough Claiborne to be naive, I have always intentionally moved into the poorest and roughest area that I could find in Sarnia….
A Review of Generous Spaciousness by Wendy Gritter
Just finished reading Wendy’s book called Generous Spaciousness. I wish I would have read it ten years ago. Theological attacks have polarized the conversation around homosexuality for too long. What has been needed for a…
Confession is More Than Removing Guilt
Humans have this sort of innate ability to adjust to their surroundings. Well, I guess everything does. But with humans I find it interesting because there is more to the adjustment then just thousands of…
A Sermon On “…by what we have left undone.”
Since introducing different prayers and liturgical readings I find myself pondering specific phrases during the week. I start to become more aware of things that I wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t there. So this…
Is There A Better Example Than Jesus?
Here is my train of thought on this one. Let’s say God doesn’t exist. Jesus is made up. The whole thing is just insecure humans contriving religions out of their lack of knowledge and science…
Arguing Makes Up For My Lack Of Knowledge
One thing many people know about me is I love a good argument. Not only do I feel like that is where I learn the most but I also seem to do fairly well at…
Azores 2014
Here are some pictures from our spontaneous trip to Azores, Portugal a few months ago. When someone will fly you across the ocean and back for $300. You do it. No questions asked. So we…