All The Books I Read in 2013
At the beginning of last year I set for myself the what at the time seemed like the impossible goal of reading a book every ten days. Considering the years before I really only made…
Lucky Charm: A Sermon on 1 Samuel 3-4
I’m bursting with God-news! I’m walking on air. I’m laughing at my rivals. I’m dancing my salvation. Nothing and no one is holy like God, no rock mountain like our God. Don’t dare talk pretentiously-…
Sacrifice Creates Entitlement
“Sacrifice” usually leads to a well-hidden sense of entitlement and perpetuates the vicious circle of merit, a mind-set that leads most of us to assume that we are more deserving than others because of what…
Abandoning Reason In Favour Of Our Own Opinions Of What The Bible Says
Oh it’s nice to see that this was still a problem 500 years ago. I thought it was just recent. If I didn’t tell you who said this you’d think it was written last week….
Churches Should Run Themselves
As theStory transitions away from having anyone at the reigns it allows us to practice and experiment with different ways of allowing the church to take on a life of its own. I’ve only ever…
Why I’ll Never Act Like A Man
A response from someone who actually attended the conference. All the talks from Act Like Men? The initial idea to start a counter-conference. A Prayer that we read together. As you may know we ran…
Guarding Against Change
Propaganda doesn’t succeed because it is manipulative, it works because people WANT it, NEED it, it gives their life a direction and meaning and guards against change. – The Last Psychiatrist (How Does The Shutdown…
Not Just Another Sunday School Lesson: A Sermon on 1 Samuel 1-2
We started the service by reading Hannah’s Prayer Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I…
A Prayer for “Act Like Men”
We ran a small conference on the weekend as a response to the Act Like Men conference this coming weekend. The group of 200 of us prayed this together to end. You can listen to…
The World Does Not Absorb The Text, Rather The Text Absorbs The World
Typology does not make scriptural contents into metaphors for extrascriptural realities, but the other way around. It does not suggest, as is often said in our day, that believers find their stories in the Bible,…
When Attendance Equals Participation
Within the larger churches of North America there is the insistent need for people to feel like they are ‘doing something.’ So much that goes on in larger churches is organized and executed by a…
Robert Capon Has Passed Away
One of the most influential people in my lives has been Robert Capon. In 2010 I wrote that there was a good chance I had fallen in love with him. We tried to call him…
Prayer: Sending off Our Friend
God Loss isn’t something we like facing into. It’s not something we plan for It’s not something we we want in our future It’s not something we can control or fit into our plans Yet…
Christians, Anarchy and Stories That Inspire
Been reading a few different books lately on the idea of Christian Anarchy. What it means, what it means for the Christian, who follows these precepts and what it could possibly have to do with…
Should We Thank God For Anything At All?
You start to notice how people talk about God. We think god is absent when things are bad. Even Jesus did on the cross. But we instantly thank him when things are good. We thank…
Festival of Good Things
We love to run things. We also love good things. So we started a festival in Sarnia at Sarnia Bay Marina called Festival of Good Things. You can buy your tickets here. It’s all…
Christians and Analytics
I’ve been in the ‘website industry’ now for ten years or so. Working with Storyboard I’ve been working with clients and friends to make them look beautiful on the internet and make sure they are…
Leading By Example Makes The Wrong Kind Of Leader
The classic line in leadership is to ‘lead by example.’ I’ve been told that line numerous times. I think I’m coming to see that this is misleading advice that doesn’t really get to the heart…
Prayer: Genesis and Creation
God of heaven and earth. God who sees us. God who hears our cry. We thank-you for creating us and creating this world. We know you are not done, and that this world is far…
Prayer: We Are Small
Remind us of our smallness Remind us that you are still working, even when we can’t see Remind us that the kingdom exists all around us Remind us that hope is found buried and covered…