Linger in the final moments of this season's Advent journey with a deep breath...and exhale. Pause this morning, noon, or evening to listen intently to the way your body feels in this moment. What do you sense? Smell? Hear? Feel? How are you holding the Christmas hustle? The seasonal blues? The pandemic woes? Exhale. Exhale a deep breath as it disappears into a frigid Canadian winter's eve…
Read MoreTwo thousand years of patriarchy have undoubtedly diminished the powerful words of the two women in our readings. Today we will centre one, a voice that comes to us in the form of a song…
Read MoreWhen we scroll through social media for the 18th time, or listen to the latest news events, it’s often draining. The world sounds like a mess with no end in sight and we–WE–are a part of it. The messy part.
Read MoreFor the first time in nearly 3 years my current church plant, Cypher Church, held what I’ll call a “conventional” worship service. You know the one: 5 songs, 1 by Hillsong, announcements, and a 20-45 minute sermon. We don’t worship in this way so it was novel to do once.
Read MoreI first heard about the book, Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, in an online group for Christians of colour in Canada. Resources that speak to the visible minority experience in this country are few and far between.
Read MoreCalgary is home to one of the largest metro populations of religious “nones” in the country. Over a 1/3 of the population would check the box, “no religious affiliation” when asked. The contemporary church, rooted in Christendom, struggles to connect with the emerging majority demographic. It’s here where we decided to immerse a church with intention knowing full well we had few answers coming in. First off, who’s we?
Read MoreWhen was the last time a church coach or lead pastor was fired for not hitting a discipleship quota? Never. What we measure describes what we deem the most important in the community. By this metric
Read MoreI was looking at the lineup of a recent church conference and did a double take. I couldn’t help notice that of the 30 or so presenters, all but 2 were men. All of the men were white. This isn’t the only conference that has the same ratio, in fact, most do. Do you think this a problem?
Read MorePlanning for your future becomes more important the closer you are to retirement. If you’re 20 and come into a windfall of cash, it’s unlikely all of that money is going into the TFSA. We tend to struggle with picturing ourselves in the distant future. Churches tend to lack vision that extends beyond 3-5 years. Lead pastors are kind of like politicians, they have direction enough for their term, and little beyond. What we rarely see is vision casting that extends into generations. We struggle as a whole to plan for the future.
Read MoreWhen was the last time a church coach or lead pastor was fired for not hitting a discipleship quota? Never. What we measure describes what we deem the most important in the community. By this metric
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