JEREMY MAHOOD PhD

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH!

2011-10-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

My first book has finally gone live.

I never knew writing a book could be so challenging...but we did it. That's right, WE DID IT.

Writing and publishing a book is a team effort. From the creative staff team at All Nations Church who helped me produce the speaking series called The Relationship Depot, back in 2009; Heather Campbell Whitman who transcribed my Sunday messages, gathered my speaking notes, compiled my research and put everything in a big blue indexed binder, cut ,pasted and edited my first draft, my second draft, my third draft...an many more drafts, worked tirelessly on helping me find my written "voice" and walked me through the emotional mind field of editors sometimes conflicting opinions, to walking away from one publisher and helping me make the decision to go to Publishing On Demand, to recruiting Christine as our graphic designer for the cover and then creating an interior layout that reflected how we wanted the book to feel, Garths' magnificently photo-shopped picture of me on the back cover, to the people who gave us pre-publication quotes, learning to work with a print company, e-marketing, Kimble and Kobo and now media relations...

And it's all because I married a girl named Eileen and we had kids and raised a family and managed to turn our relationship with each other and our relationship to God into a book called

THE RELATIONSHIP DEPOT: Building Relationships That Last A Lifetime

The official launch party is Wednesday October 19th from 6-8 Pm at the Holiday inn in Sudbury Ontario

The book is available at Amazon.ca and.com as well as in the UK, India and other online book sellers. Kindle and Kobo will be live soon

In Sudbury you can get a copy at Walden Word of Life, The Lighthouse, All Nations Church -673-6110
If you can drop by the party even for a few minits that would be great. Thanks everybody.

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH...BUT IT'S HERE!

THE WEEK I ALMOST DIED TWICE

2010-12-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

The Date: July 1967, The Location: North Channel of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. The organisation: John Island Camp.

The Kismet supply boat stopped about 500 feet from the sandy beach that would become our wilderness home for the next month. One by one the canoes, which had been tied behind the boat ,were brought near, loaded with food, axes, pots pans, matches, clothes, sleeping bags, personal items and the all essential TP (toilet paper). With great excitement and a bit of anxiety the 18 teen-aged campers, guided by our leader Mr.Koski, made our way towards the shore line of Aitken Island,

The closer we got the shore the more evident it became how pristine and undeveloped this magnificent island was. We beached the canoes and together placed our feet on the sandy shore that would be our home for the next month. It was here that we would build all the necessities of home; sleeping shelters, a safe food storage area, build kitchens, fire pits, and a loo to go with the TP.

Our training regimen began the next morning. The trip of a lifetime was only three weeks away and we had to be in shape for the arduous task following the ancient voyageur canoe route from the Spanish River, along the North Shore, down the St Marys River to Sault Ste. Marie. Every day we practiced righting overturned canoes by canoe over canoe rescues, solo paddling, swimming, strength training, water proofing sleeping bags, practiced first aid and developed menus and food lists for the week long adventure.

The day of our departure arrived and we began packing the all important food. We packed the last meal of the last day first and successively backwards from there to lunch on day one. A large bag of prunes was placed in the bow of every canoe for daily sustenance. Before long we were heading up the Walesback, past John Harbour and on our way to the unpredictable waters of the North Channel. Just out side Iron Bridge when we encountered our first disaster.

We had been surfing down the front side of four foot waves when the rogue wave struck. Looking over my shoulder from the bow seat all I could see was a wall of water picking up the stern of the canoe. With in seconds the canoe was doing a cartwheel. Seconds later we were capsized and swimming as hard as we could in the turbulent waters. The canoe survived, we survived, I and still had my glasses on. Later that evening we would discover that our water proofing techniques were proven adequate as we would sleep in dry sleeping bags under the shelter of our overturned canoe. The remaining two days were uneventful. Paddling for six to seven hours each day, we often took breaks by lashing two canoes together and hoisting a small piece of canvas as a makeshift sail, allowing the strong winds of the North Channel to guide us towards our daily evening camp site. By day five we had finally reached the mouth of the St. Marys River. With-in a few hours the second disaster would strike.

The current in the river was running about 3-4 miles per hour and our average paddling speed 4-5 miles per hour. The trip up the river should have taken an hour or so; it was going to take us a whole day. Ever so slowly we progressed from marker buoy to marker buoy resting at each one and hanging on for dear life so our forward progress would not be impeded. A narrow section of the river would prove to be our undoing.

We were making our way along just inside the shipping channel markers when a very large Bethlehem Steel freighter came up behind us. Looking up toward the forward deck we could see a deck hand mimicking our paddling action, while other deck hands cheered us on. Suddenly the water around our canoe began to churn violently and the canoe began to be pulled backwards towards the stern of the freighter. We could hear the low rumble of the giant propeller, slowly we were being sucked into its wake…at 15 years of age I thought were about to die. We paddled with all our strength, but to no avail. We were being drawn into a whirlpool created by the prop wash and the wall of water being displaced by the sheer volume of the ship. Death was immanent. Suddenly we found our selves being shot away from the ship towards the shore. Like a rocket our canoe flew forward though the water and beached itself on the exposed shore line. We had survived, we were in tact, the canoe was intact, and we had escaped. Nervous laughter soon turned again to horror as we watched a three foot wall of water racing towards the shore, smash into our canoe and once again throw us into the water. The ship was pushing a might wall of water out of its way as it traversed the narrows of the river and as the stern passed our location that same wall of water returned with a vengeance.

We arrived in The Sault. near suppertime, exhausted, tired and excited that we had completed the ancient route taken by the voyageur sand would go down in Canadian history. There to great us was the John Island truck, the canoe rack on the back and enough money for a nice restaurant cooked meal. We had completed our assigned task, delivered all the campers and red canoes intact and on time. Our summer adventure had come to an end but the memories would last a lifetime.

A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM GOD

2010-12-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

Dear child,
It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival; although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santa and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can and may remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 – 8 in the Bible.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it.

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know. They tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing “George” complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up...it will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in Greater Sudbury will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile. It could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day, they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the, the Salvation Army or the food bank . They will make the delivery for you.

9 Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

P.S Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work. Time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love. And remember, I LOVE YOU.

Found this in my Christmas file, Author Unknown

THE MIRACLE at MCFARLANE LAKE

2010-11-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

The year was 1977. It was summer, and it was our first trip home to Canada as husband and wife.

Eileen and I had been offered my Uncle Albert Magee’s cabin at the end of McFarlane Lake for a few days of R&R. Arriving by small boat and outboard motor; we had no idea that during the next two days our lives would forever be changed.

The purpose of our trip was to introduce my American wife, Eileen, to my home town of Sudbury and show her off to all my relatives and friends. For years I had been living without a Visa in the USA and now, after getting married, I could come and go freely between Canada and the USA.
So here we were in my home town, nestled in a rustic camp, accessible only by water, down an isolated corner of a pristine Canadian lake. We enjoyed the peace, the isolation, the sounds of nature, all of which were in dramatic contrast to the noise, pollution, and traffic of living in New York.

The sun was shining brightly over the quiet, still water. Eileen and I were sitting on a homemade bench on a hill just outside the cottage door. We looked at each other and the most insane idea landed inside our heads at the exact same moment. Why would we spend the rest of our lives in the chaos that was New York when we could live in the calm serenity of Sudbury? We had not previously thought of moving here. We had no discussions on the matter. These thoughts were right out of the blue. Or were they?

In the months leading up to our trip to Sudbury, both Eileen and I had been offered some amazing career opportunities. Eileen was being wooed by a medical firm to become their international director of marketing. The firm was located in Denmark, and they wanted her to move to their world head-quarters. I, on the other hand, had been offered a spot as a lounge act on the Las Vegas Strip, worlds apart from Copenhagen, Denmark. During this period, God was slowly drawing me back to Himself.

Through a series of bounced cheques from bankrupt bars and an increasing awareness of my rebellious lifestyle, God was letting me know that all would not be well if I stayed in the entertainment industry in New York. It seemed time for a change, but I figured it would be between Copenhagen or Las Vegas!

However, God was working out HIS plan for our lives that did not include Copenhagen, Las Vegas or New York.

His plan for us was centered in a little mining town, miles from any large city, in the middle of Northern Ontario by the name of Sudbury. A city in which I grew up, left, and was committed to never returning! But all that changed on a summer day, on a homemade bench, watching the sun sparkle off the waters of McFarlane Lake, when the God of the universe let us both know that He had a better plan for our lives than we had for ourselves.

Stunned that we would even consider abandoning our blossoming careers for the uncertainty of Sudbury, we headed back up the lake. Arriving at my parents’ home on Danforth Avenue, I posed a question to my dad, Kitchener. Would All Nations Church be willing to give me a job for just one year so I could transition out of the entertainment industry to whatever job God had in store for me? The answer was a resounding yes!

Eileen and I returned to New York to wrap up our lives there. I cancelled my performing contracts, went back to school and finished the last two semesters of my B.A. We discovered that summer Eileen was pregnant. After selling our house we packed up everything we owned in the Allied Movers van. When we finally returned to Sudbury (with four month old twins this time!), waiting for us was a lovely ONE bedroom basement apartment, a warm welcoming church family, and a salary of $9,000.00 a year. Prayers were answered. A prodigal son returned.

It was August, 1978: just over a year from when we experienced the Miracle on McFarlane Lake. Little did we know that this one year adventure would turn into a lifetime.

How a Year Turned Into a Lifetime

2010-06-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

My Dad Kitchener, his wife Jean and myself, arrived in Sudbury Ontario Canada on March 18th 1953 after a two day train ride from New York City and after a week long boat trip across the Atlantic Ocean on the S.S America all the way from Belfast Northern Ireland. I was three years old at the time.

My dad came here to be the pastor of a group of Christians who had gathered in Sudbury from all over the world to work in the mines. On any given Sunday people would stand and read the weekly bible verse in their native language which would include, German, Russian, Finnish, Ukrainian, Italian, French English and the like, hence the name All Nations church.

After meeting in the old Sudbury Business College behind the Sudbury Arena they met in several locations including King George Public School on Regent Street and the Odd Fellows Hall on Howey drive and another school on Martindale Road. (Name I can not remember).

To facilitate Sunday evening services in the summer the church commandeered the LaSalle Drive-in Theatre and built a giant stage reaching almost as high as the bottom of the outdoor screen. Church goers would drive in, put the speaker in their window, roll up the window to prevent mosquitoes from attacking and sing along with the choir and the accordion player which was broadcast from the giant stage.

In 1958 during the first strike at INCO, (now called Vale) the first permanent church building was constructed in a vast farmer’s field called New Sudbury. Located on Churchill Avenue the church was erected for $20,000.00 from a loan by the royal Bank of Canada, secured by bonds from a non-church member and now famous land developer in the South End named Ernie Holditch.

In the later 60's Kitchener Mahood took to the air waves of CKSO Radio, live on Sunday mornings at 8:45 am. Later Kitchener would make good use of a half hour of television time provide by Canada's first independently owned television station for the use of the Sudbury and District Ministerial Association, of which my dad and his church were members.

By the mid 70's the church was bursting at the seams and the house next door, which we called Oliver House (named after the owners) was purchased. By 1975 my dad’s health began to deteriorate from a genetic heart and circulatory defect. Never intending to return from my nightclub and entertainment career in New York City, God intervened in my life and made it quite clear he wanted me in Sudbury, not New York.

In 1978, Eileen, my wife, our four month old twins and I returned to Sudbury, to a basement apartment and a $9,000.00 a year job as assistant Pastor of All Nations Church. The previous year in NYC I had made over $100,000.00. Our intention was to come for one year to see how we could help the church transition from my father to its next pastor. That one year has now become 33 years and now we are looking to see how to transition again. This time not from father to son but from son to...well we just don't have that information as of yet.

Kitchener Mahood died in 1983. As of September 2010 Jean Mahood will be 86 years old. The twins are 33. The church has grown from 85 families in 1978 to over 650 families in 2010. We have moved from the Churchill location to Prete St. a former Pentecostal church build by David Manse of 100 Huntley Street fame and we currently worship in Fraser Auditorium on the grounds of Laurentian University. The Prete Street building now houses a Day Care centre owned and operated by the church.

The church broadcasts live each Sunday morning over the KFM radio network through out Northern Ontario and around the world on an a parallel internet feed. Live streaming is also available at www.allnationschurch.ca. Construction is underway to build two 13,000 sq, ft. Monolithic Domes with an 800 seat auditorium and a children's pavilion perched high over down town Sudbury overlooking Brady Street and the Kingsway.

Be careful what you decide to do for a year, it may turn into a lifetime.

DRIFTING AWAY FROM YOUR PURPOSE

2010-04-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

My left eye went out of focus the other week. It seems the prescription for my glasses needs changing, again. It actually took me a few days before I realized that my left eye was not quite right. During this time my right eye did an amazing job of compensating for the lack of focus in my left eye and things looked ok, just not great. I knew something was wrong but only discovered the problem when I closed my right eye and concentrated on seeing through my left eye. Sure enough the trees were fuzzy, the computer screen blurry and when I looked in the mirror some of the wrinkles in my face had disappeared.

Here is the problem as I see it…sometimes life just doesn’t work quite right. We are not sure what is wrong but we know all is not right. It’s not so much that life is bad…it’s just not quite the way it should be. Maybe you are out of focus. Perhaps your alignment is off. Could be a lens needs changing or you need a slight adjustment. The problem could even be that you have drifted from your intended purpose.

Drifting from your purpose…the reason you were created…the mission you were assigned, is the primary cause of life’s dissatisfaction, discomfort, disease, and depression.

You are only fulfilled when you fulfill your purpose; the purpose God created you to fulfill. When you are out of focus with God you are out of focus with life. When you are out of focus with the Creator you are out of focus with His creation. Try as hard as you may to bring clarity to your life you will be unable to do so until you change the lens through which you see your life.

As surely as my optometrist designs a prescription that is uniquely suitable to only my eyes so God has designed a purpose that is uniquely suitable to only me. I can not wear your glasses or fulfill your purpose. You can not wear my glasses or fulfill my purpose.

I can not make up my own eye glass prescription…I need the doctor to do it! You and I can not make up our own purpose…we need the creator to do it!

Until I get the prescription right, my world will be out of focus. Until I get my purpose right, my life will be out of focus.

Jesus made the following statement to a group of followers ‘I have come to give you life and give it to you in abundance.” Just as I asked Dr. Vachon for a new prescription for my eyes perhaps you need to ask Jesus for a new prescription for your life.

When you ask Him, God has an amazing way of bringing clarity to your life.

Hey,just picked up my new glases from Costco... and I can read the fine print! I can see clearly now. It's amazing what a new perscription can do for your clarity!

A DOUBLE MINDED GOD?

2010-03-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if God is not just a bit double minded. In some verses of the bible he is destroying, ripping up, invading, punishing and in other verses he is patient, kind, gentle, forgiving.

I have wrestled for years with my understanding of Gods anger at sin and yet his forgiveness of sin. I have had many a great debate over the concept of a God that says, “come to me, I love you” in one breathe and then says,” If you don’t come to me and let me love you I will destroy you” in another breath.

In John 3:16-18 we read,
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son”

Notice in verse 17 where he writes about God not condemning us, but desiring to save us.
Notice in verse 18 that the ones who are condemned are the ones who have not experienced the transformative power that the name or the authority of Jesus gives to them.

In my mind this is how the justice and mercy of God fit together. God is perfect, complete, and holy. Because he is complete, perfect, and holy nothing can exist outside of God, with out his permission that is not complete perfect and holy. His perfection, completeness and holiness must consumes and destroy all that is not like him.

We as humans with all the incompleteness that our disobedience has produced in us, should not be able survive one nano-second before a Holy God. We should be consumed. We are already condemned by our imperfection. But God because of his mercy and love has intervened in our lives and offers us a way of escape from the consuming tsunami of His perfection. God accepts Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as if it was our own death. God then covers our incompleteness with Jesus and when God looks at us he does not see what we are, but who we are in Jesus. God makes us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ…and we are not consumed.

Here is the difficult fact to get our minds wrapped around. God will eventually consume, destroy and eradicate everything that is not complete, perfect and holy. He is compelled to do this. The very characteristics of completeness, perfection and holiness can not exist in a universe that does not match those characteristics.

God has some how placed himself under restraint for a certain duration of time in order to display his love to us and give us the opportunity to respond to that mercy. One day that restraint will cease. God will then consume all that has not been made perfect by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This event in history will be known as the unleashing of the wrath, or anger of God. Love demands destruction of all that is not love. God is love and he will not exist in an environment other than love.

This world and all that is in it is condemned before God, ready for demolition. God offers you a way out through the blood of Jesus Christ that purifies you from all condemnation.

WHEN GOD SAYS," That's Enough! "

2010-03-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

I wonder if we as a society believe in the concept of “consequences” any more. Do we believe that there is a reaction to every action, a result to every behaviour, a punishment for every crime? We may say we believe in the law of consequences but it seems to me our behaviour makes many of us out to be liars. Take my weight problem for example. I understand the law of caloric intake which simply stated says that if I eat more than I need my body stores the excess as fat! But I choose to ignore the law of consequences with every slice of cherry cheese cake I devour.

Almost every one has seen the scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes shortens people lives. Most people have seen pictures of badly blackened lungs taken at autopsies of diseased smokers, but we defiantly keep on puffing, willfully ignoring the known consequences of our behaviour.

Here is a truth for you! You can ignore the consequences of your behaviours but the consequences of your behaviours don’t ignore you. Eat too much you get fat. Smoke and you get sick. Run away from God and you get caught!

I think that as a society we want to believe in some form of justice; that at some time right will prevail over wrong, that unfairness will be compensated for, that restitution will be made, that somehow the inequity of illness, loss, corruption, the domination of the disadvantaged will all be made right.

I think we want a God who can do something about the mess, the pain, the oppression. Not just a God who lets “stuff" slide by unchallenged, and uncorrected but a God who has the guts to “call” this world on its abuses and its abusers, and dispense appropriate consequences.
If that is the God we really want, a God who will do something, a God who will call it like it is, a God who will ensure that what is right ends up being right, then perhaps we need to give God permission to begin that same process in our very lives. Perhaps we need to give God the opportunity to call our lives like he sees our lives, to call us on our disobedience, our own injustice, our own self consumption. Perhaps we need an awakening to the law of consequences, our own consequences and understand if we want God to judge the inequities and iniquity in our world he most likely has to begin by judging the inequity and iniquity in our own lives.

Sound scary? Well here is the good news…We can judge ourselves or God can do it! We can pay attention to the consequences or ignorantly ignore reality. When a consequence comes to claim what is its right…don’t blame God!

THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN BEING A SURVIVOR

2010-03-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

It seems almost everybody you meet today defines themselves as a victim of “something”. Just think about this for a moment. People are victims of credit card fraud, ponzi schemes, thefts of all kinds, sexual assault, divorce, wayward kids, road rage, and even drive through screw ups!

I wonder why so many of us want the identity known as victim. Some people even define their life by their victimization. The stories they tell are from some by-gone wrong that was perpetrated on them. They have no new story, nothing about today and worse no story about what their future could be.

I am not trying to minimize the seriousness of tragic events that happen to well meaning people. I am seeking the answer to the question of why we would want to define our lives by some event in the past.

Then there is what I will call the “survivor syndrome.” If I am fortunate and perhaps work hard I can move the definition of myself from a victim to a survivor. Sounds good to most people to be a survivor! I am just not so sure that defining yourself as being a survivor is any better than defining yourself as being a victim. Sometimes I think that a survivor is just a victim turned inside out. Life defined by a moment in time, defined by the past…perhaps a past that is healing but still the past. It’s the “in thing” to be a survivor today…every body is surviving some form of victimization.

Maybe being a survivor is like winning the silver medal in the men’s Olympic hockey final. So you won silver…so now we know you are the best of the losers! Not a winner! Simply being rewarded for losing! If you don’t believe me go back and look at the television footage from the silver medal ceremony at the men’s Olympic hockey game. There was not a happy face in the bunch…no not one. I am not so sure that survivors are necessarily happy people either…better than a victim but still not a gold medal.

The bible talks about an amazing class of human beings called victors. A victor is one who runs the race of life and comes in first. Not second, not third, just gold…pure gold. In fact, in the spiritual journey of Christian discipleship there is only one medal…gold.

God does not reward failure. God does not reward average. God does not reward excuses. God rewards only the gold medal race. Here is an amazing piece of information; God makes it possible for each of us to win Gold. He places His Spirit of love with in us and asks us to simply be obedient to Him… and He guarantees the gold!

Think about this statement, obedience guarantees the gold! God did not say we had to be faster, smarter, brighter, work harder, longer or wiser…He just said we had to be obedient to His word, co-operate with Him in His agenda for ourselves, this universe and the people in it…and you get the gold. There is no silver, no bronze…there is only light or darkness, love or hate, life or death…gold or no gold. Jesus Christ made it possible for us all to get the gold, it’s simply a matter of obedience. Simply a matter of choice…obedient or not obedient…you get to choose your reward. If you happen to be unhappy with it…remember it was your choice!

HOW TO LOVE DIFFICULT PEOPLE

2010-02-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

Years ago I cam across a saying; “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. It is my belief that people are looking for understanding, acceptance and real love, not necessarily more information.

For years churches have dispensed information; information about God, theology, ethics, rules, regulations and the like. And for all of this information that has been given out from Sunday sermons, Sundays School classes, in midweek bible studies, on radio and television far too many Christians’ lives remain the same. They may have more religious information than any other time in history and yet very little if anything changes in their day to day behaviours.

Here is an incredible truth. You can know all sorts of information and never experience any transformation. We are ‘knowledge-aholics”. We crave more data, more information, more sources, more input…but we never seem to let that information affect our behaviour. We know a lot, we just don’t do much with what we know.

The Apostle John in 1st John calls it like he sees it! Simply put he says that talk is cheap! Even for Christians he says if you don’t live it, it doesn’t count. You can say you love Christ or are a follower of Jesus, but if you don’t reach out and help a brother or sister that you see in need…well to put it bluntly…he says you are a liar and there is non of Gods love in you.

The test that you are a true follower of Christ is this; you never pass up an opportunity to help when you have the God given opportunity to do so.
So here is the deal. The world we live in is so self focused that if people actually saw a group of people really helping others out…going out of their way to give practical care and assistance…they would sit up and notice. They might even wonder why in a world so “me” driven, people would sacrifice their own agendas for the benefit of others.

People do not care what religion you are or what beliefs you hold, whether you have the ‘truth” and great spiritual insight. They just want to know if you will care for them in real practical down to earth ways.

This is what Jesus ministry was all about… he hung out with the poor, he healed the sick, he taught the common people, he fed the hungry, he spent time with children, he ate dinner with prostitutes and the disenfranchised, was the life of the party, he visited the grieving, kicked the “stuffing” out of those who took financial advantage of others and had the guts to religious leaders a “brood of vipers”.

Let’s stop talking about and get done! Love can change the world but only if you live it!

IT"S OVER!

2009-12-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

I find it difficult to believe that Christmas has come and gone already. Perhaps even more amazing to me is the recognition that in a few days this whole decade will come to an end. In my mind it was only a short while ago that so many of us were all in a panic over Y2K. So where did those ten years go?

One of my granddaughters is 10 the other is 9, so I know a lot of time has gone into investing in their lives, yet some how I think perhaps not as much time as there should have been. I didn’t realize the time would fly buy quite a quickly as it has. But isn’t that a silly statement? We all know time fly’s buy and the older you get the faster it fly’s.

Eileen and I will be married for 35 years on January 1, 2010. Once again I am forced into the recognition that the space between 25 years of wedded bliss on the infamous Y2K year and 35 years of wedded bliss has simply vanished like the steam from a kettle, into the surrounding air. I guess I am a bit wiser, though that may be a point for debate, especially in the light of my continued lack of understanding about the importance of shopping in a womans life, and that sustained conversation, with great details added, are critical to our continued sense of intimacy and yes, phone conversations when she travels are required to last more than ten words. ..“How are you? How was your day… fine, good night!”

My children are now officially adults and my mother officially has a senior citizen for a son.

Perhaps beyond the thoughts of grandchildren, grown children, a healthy mother and a healthy long term sustained marriage my mind also turns to thoughts of my spiritual life.

I wonder if the past ten years has been kind to me spiritually. Have I allowed the Spirit of God access to my personality to be able to reproduce in me the fruit of His Sprit: love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control. Sometimes I feel not. Then other times I feel we are making progress, God and I working away at the inner diseases of selfishness, pride, control issues, my constant propensity to be addicted to stuff like success or isolation or food or whatever! Whenever I get too introspective, which is way too often, and I feel like I am just not progressing the way I should be progressing and achieving what I think I should be achieving I am reminded of saying that my wife in her wisdom brings to my attention and often says to me in my darker hours,

“You may not be what you ought to be. But thank God you’re not what you used to be. And it’s not yet told what you’re going to be”

Ok, it’s not over yet! Bring on the next ten! Be patient, God and my wife are still working on me! I wonder if they both will get their way

‘Twas the Weeks Before Christmas

2009-12-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

‘Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through the town,
the people were frantically running around.
The charge cards were maxed out with no room to spare,
in hopes that the lottery soon would be theirs.

On Costco, on Zellers, on Biancos they rushed,
With nary a thought that they soon would be bust!
Don’t worry, don’t worry, they called out to each other,
we’ll pay for this somehow, even borrow from mother.

‘Tis the season for giving, and gifts we must have,
for mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and Dad!
For cousins, and nephews, and uncles, and aunts,
must not be left out of this Christmas-time rant.

It can not be Christmas if we do not spend,
and overindulge in the booze to the end.
And eat too much turkey, and stuffing, and pie,
end up fighting, this is Christmas? … “Oh, my my!”

When what from the road side in my eye did appear?
But a Living Nativity and shepherds so near!
A donkey, and angels, a child like the Christ,
and carols of wonder and heavenly delight.

An old fashioned Christmas from a time long ago,
when spending, and drinking, and fighting, weren’t so.
And the gifts that were given didn’t come from a shelf,
the gift that was given was the gift of yourself.

So maybe this season will be different somehow,
We could ring some kettles, or volunteer now!
To give the gift, that can not be bought,
with money, and stuff that will all be for ‘nought.

But learning a lesson from days since long past,
would give the gift, that forever will last!
A gift that is given, not from a shelf,
but the real gift of Christmas, the gift of yourself.

A little poem I wrote for publication in the South Side Story, availble after December 6, 2009

WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO CHURCH

2009-11-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

The devil is a master of deflecting attention from himself and getting us to do his dirty work.

We live in a world that is reeling from psychic pain, a pain so systemic that it invades every area of our existence. You can see the emptiness in people’s eyes, you can hear the anger in their voices, and you can feel the frustration radiating from their bodies. You may even have been on the receiving end of physical, emotional or verbal violence. It may even have happened to you in church.

You see, the devil comes to church every time we in the church, war and fight with each other. That word said in anger, that critical attitude, that unforgiving spirit, gossip and slander, an accusation with out investigation; every time we fail to simply be kind or demonstrate compassion, give someone the benefit of the doubt we are doing the devils work on his behalf.

The bible is clear about the personification of evil as represented by the devil. It is his job to scheme against all that is good (Ephesians 6:10), to try and turn every good thing into pain. It is also his life’s mission to “go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might destroy”. His work is to create a counterfeit to all that is God’s, including counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9).

It is time for the church to stop doing the devils work for him.

The church must become a place of safety, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The church must become a place where forgiveness flows like a mighty river, where love pours down upon those who fail and restores them to new beginnings.
The church must become a place where words of compassion and understanding rise up against judgmental attitudes and where the redeemed people of God seek to understand rather than be understood.
The church must become a place where people can discover truth, uncompromised, but swimming in an attitude love, birthed out of the depth of understanding of who we are and what God himself in Christ Jesus has rescued us from.
The church must become a place where we cut people some slack, but not leave them to rot in their own messes.
The church truly must become a bride, a glorious church, with out stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, holy and blameless. (Ephessians 5:27)

The church can only become a safe place, as you and I allow Christ to transform out attitudes and behaviours into attitudes and behaviours that reflect his character and his nature.

We can accept the wounded and broken and remind ourselves that we too are wounded and broken and if it were not for Jesus, we would not be here.

We can simply refuse to be offended, we can maintain an attitude of instant forgiveness, by not allowing any judgmental word to stick to us or come from us.

We can start by refusing to let our mouths say anything that is not helpful and constructive, whether that is in the form of the spoken word, the written word, or a thought word.

An old spiritual song says “Shut de door, keep out de devil”.
Maybe “de shut door” begins with “de shut mouth!”

"HOUSTON" WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

2009-11-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

We have a problem! Current statistics by the Barna Group demonstrate that the moral behaviours of church goes and the behaviours of non-church goers are statistically the same. In other words, no discernible difference can be found in the actions and attitudes of the two groups of people. In two areas the results are quite frightening. In the area of marriage and divorce it seems evangelical (bible believing Christians) church attendees have a slightly higher divorce rate that the rest of the population. In the viewing and usage of pornography both groups scored the same. In the practice of pre-marital sex there was no discernible difference in the scores.

Am I the only one who thinks that there is a real issue here? What are the long term effects of these behaviours on the Church, the Body of Christ? One of the questions we could ask is what will happen to the church when those inside are no different from those outside? What is our future when the body of Christ has been so assimilated into the behaviours of the current culture that no discernible differences can be seen in believers and non-believers? Have we been so blind sided and absorbed into the current culture that it has effectively smothered our light, put it under a bushel, and invited the darkness to reign…all with our permission. Has the doctrine of tolerance so taken over the church that we can no longer speak about what is pure, holy, moral or just? Or is it that our own behaviour is so corrupt we have lost the moral authority to speak out against the very corruption that threatens to destroy the society in which we live.

This type of worldly assimilation of the people of God into the culture in which they live is certainly nothing new. The children of Israel, Gods chosen people seemed to always be in a position of perpetual compromise with the cultures around them. Somebody else had a king so they wanted a king. The Egyptian women were hotter than their women so they defied Gods law and married into the foreign nation. Other people had gods they could see, so they made a golden calf to worship. Soon as Moses back was turned the party began. In the New Testament Paul was constantly on the Corinthians, Ephesians, the Romans and others about their sexual exploits that were outside the boundaries of Gods intended sexual behaviours.

And so we have this same pattern repeated again in modern culture and the modern church. Ok, I guess than means God gets to repeat the same corrective measures he took before to redeem and purify his people form worldly assimilation. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by something akin to a nuclear blast; Israel, into captivity by a foreign power and slaves to a foreign government for a ‘few’ years; Agricultural devastation and a ruined economy due to famine, pestilence, giant grasshoppers…Israel again…they were very slow learners; Annanias and Saphira dead at the apostle’s feet for lying before God to the early Church. Well you get the idea.

God will always call his people to come out of the world. He will do it first by love and then when all else fails, he will do it by holy discipline. But he will do it! I’ll take the love part of that equation any day! Any body up for a round of obedience to The Book!

THE MISSING INGREDIENT FOR SUCCESS

2009-11-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

I think there is a missing ingredient in most of our lives that keeps us from really fulfilling the purposes of God for us and for His church in this world. I have read material on determination, writing down goals, perseverance, positive thinking, possibility thinking, alignment, being one with the source…you name it, I have probably read it and maybe even tried it.

But there is one concept I have not heard or even read much about in the whole ‘success /achievement’ movement.

That missing ingredient in most of our lives is embodied in the word sacrifice.

“Now wait a minute” you say “I was taught that it was more blessed to give than to receive”. You are correct. But it is possible to give and not sacrifice. Most giving is just a redistribution of time, talent, energy or wealth given out of a pool of excess. Most of the giving that is the cornerstone of the self improvement movement has little if anything to do with sacrifice.

We in the Twenty First century know little of a life of sacrifice. The word sacrifice has almost been banned from our vocabulary.

To sacrifice means to give until it hurts.

Ask a family whose loved one has been lost in military service to our country. They can tell you about sacrifice.
Ask a seasoned aged wealthy entrepreneur about building their company from the back of a pick up truck in the 1950s. They can tell you about 80+ hour work weeks, Kraft Dinner, risking life, limb and home, to stake their claim and build their business.
Talk to missionaries who, compelled by the Love of Jesus Christ, abandoned all wealth and the privilege of urban life to go and invest their lives in the lives of the worlds destitute and abandoned.
Talk to a church that is impacting their community for the cause of Christ.

Their common theme will always be, sacrifice.

Reflect, if you will, on the fact that most privately owned companies in Canada do not survive to stay in business by the third generation. That mission organization recruitment is down, that military recruitment is down, that volunteerism is down, that we have it too easy that our kids have it even easier, that the idea of a life of sacrifice has gone the way of AM Radio, that people are lost, have no purpose, lives devoid of meaning and, to quote a very old song, “if that’s all there is then let’s keep dancing” seems to be the mantra of the day. Well maybe not dancing…but certainly leave me alone to do my own thing. Or at least, don’t bother me; don’t touch my wealth or my weekend.

Sacrifice, the abandoned word in the Brave New World. I am sure glad Jesus Christ didn’t back down from His sacrifice for the world or we would all be going to hell. Maybe we are already there and we just don’t know it, or we just don’t want to recognize it or we just want to keep playing our video games while “Rome” burns.

What ever you want in life that is worth anything will cost you something…it’s called a sacrifice. Do not let anybody tell you anything different. No pain, no gain, whether in your physical life, your emotional live or your spiritual life. Get it?

GET REAL, GET RELEVANT OR GO HOME

2009-11-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

The Church in North America is almost an embarrassment to the cause of Jesus Christ. Believers bicker amongst each other. Denominations fight over doctrinal issues. Christians change churches like they change their T shirts. They fight about worship styles, music choices, which translation of the bible is the only Authorized Version. The church is lame and lifeless and it is so because we let it be so.

No wonder know body cares to show up on Sunday. So many churches are out of date, out of touch and hell bent on preserving rituals and forms which long have outlasted their uselessness.

Power hungry leaders and power hungry parishioners fight to gain control. Submission is absent, humility dead, personal sacrifice non existent and personal preference is king. To the out side word we can be seen as nothing more than a poorly run Rotary club that reads bible verses and spends a lot of time bickering.

When will we have the courage to really get it together as the Church the Body of Christ? When will we see that a lost and dying world doesn’t give a darn about our doctrinal differences, our cute pageants, our dead formalism and never ending power struggles and war over worship styles?

We live in a lost and dying world that doesn’t even know it’s lost and dying.

Some people may have tweaked to the fact, that we as a word have a problem. With greed and financial corruption plaguing our monetary system, with divorce and adultery at an all time high, with children being exploited, with women being oppressed, with environmental pollution causing more and more cancer, with large Pharmaceutical companies driving the health care agenda, the increase in child poverty, pedophilia, pornography, prostitution and the ever changing price of gas, you would have to be so ego- centric, self absorbed and down right blind not to know there is a problem.

It is time for the church of Jesus Christ to come to the God of heaven and ask for forgiveness. It is time for the people of God to open their eyes to the death and decay that surrounds their neighborhood. It is time for the church to stand up and RISK engaging a dying world regardless of the personal cost, to risk being relevant, to pay the price to be light and salt, to risk time, creativity, money, reputation, to pick up the cross daily and follow our leader into uncertainty, darkness and the evil places of this world.

After all it cost Jesus Christ His life to give birth to The Church, perhaps it’s time we gave our very lives to save that same church from self seeking believers who have hi-jacked the church for years for their own agenda. It’s time to get real, get relevant or go home!

Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not stand up against it”. Any body interested in “RAZING” a little hell?

The Three Flames of Love...worth the time

2009-09-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Blogging is Like Exercising or Having Babies

2009-05-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Writing this blog is like exercising...I am inconsistent at both.
Since I have not had much to say over the past two months, I simply did not write anything. Well, I did start to exercise...but I stopped and now I will just have to start again. AND my daughter Meghan just gave birth to a healthy 8lb+, 21in long girl named Rosaleen Elizabeth, on this very day, May 17th at 11:33am.
So I am grateful for a healthy baby and mommy.
So, about every nine months or so we get a baby. It will probably take me that long to get back to exercising and some of you are hoping it will take even longer for me to start blogging again.
Thanks for listening and thanks for your prayers

PS...( Samantha 10, Rachael 9, Jeremy 7.5, Hannah 2 and Rosaleen 0)

The Coming Collapse of Evangelical Christianity or the Death of the Church as We Know It!

2009-03-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

With the rising tide of secular atheism in the USA could we be on the verge of seeing the collapse of Evangelical Christianity as we know it?"

Please read the blog article I have reposted posted below, with a careful and open heart. I do not know how many of the predictions contained in the article may come to pass, or even if I agree with every comment. The article has challenged some of my thinking and I hope it challenges your thinking as well.

An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven mega churches, dying churches and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

What will be left?

•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented mega churches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.

•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.

•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.

•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?

•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

Is all of this a bad thing?

Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.

The ascendancy of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.

Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of mega church vacuity to be around for a very long time.

Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a counter cultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.

Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."

We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?

• Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com

2009-03-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

WE MIGHT JUST SURVIVE THIS ECONOMIC MESS

2009-03-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Check out what an American writer thinks of Canada's ability to survive the economic crisis. I think it makes for very interesting reading. This could even be the start of a renewed patriotism ( I don't really think that will happen)

Economic Crisis Ok in Canada
Published Feb 7, 2009

"The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble.

Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada.

In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for over consumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north.
In addition, home loans in the United States are "non-recourse," which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it's mostly the bank's problem. In Canada, it's yours.

Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.

Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes.
Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.

I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal "permanent residents" in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.

Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company's announcement noted that it would staff the center with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.

If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative."

So there you have it. We canadians may have done something right after all.

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!

2009-03-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

I often hear a good bit of “rich bashing” in the converstions I am involved in. I also hear a lot about the rights of the “the working person”. Is it possible to have a “working person” with out a “wealthy person” giving him or her a job? Is it possible to have a society that values both, where the “workers” respect the “owners” and the “owners” respect the “workers"?

Below is a statement by one of the great religious leaders of our time.
I wonder if he is telling it like it is?

“Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. And what one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don’t have to work because the other half’s going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because somebody’s going to get what I work for. That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”
Adrien Rogers

Do you not think it is about time that both sides of this “working” equation realize how much they need each other? Is there someone who will rise up and say ‘enough’ to the power struggles, the greed and disrespect, which is often found on both sides of the negotiation fence?

Who has the courage to look for new collaborative solutions?

There must be a better way than lock-outs and strikes.

POVERTY, WEALTH, JESUS and SIMPLICITY

2009-02-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a statement that has challenged my thinking;

"in a world of finite resources I am wealthy at someone else’s expense"

Is it possible that there are not enough resources in our world to sustain middle class life as we know it? Are there enough resources in our world for every person in Canada, the USA, China, India and Africa to have a stainless steel sink, a car in the driveway, electric lights, indoor plumbing with its prerequisite use of water, pumps, filtration and waste disposal? What about Large screen TV’s and digital cameras? Where would we put the waste and by products of juice boxes for every child, batteries for every toy, disposable picnic plates and plastic garbage bags?

Could the dream of middle class lifestyle be a fabrication of capitalistic consumerism?

Middle class living may not be achievable.

From a basic supply and demand concept there may not be enough to go around. We know, of course, that if demand increases and supply decreases we have a price increase. That very cycle alone could out price the middle class.

The death of the middle class may be just around the corner in North America.

Jesus, the great prophet, said that we would always have the poor. Maybe Jesus understood supply and demand economics better that we do.

Here is some good news. There is actually enough wealth currently available in the word to alleviate poverty. It is, however, hoarded in the hands of very few people.

As Christians ( defined here as a follower of Christ, not a religion) Jesus calls us to account for our wealth. He challenges us to make certain our wealth is available in caring for the poor. He never defines what wealth is, or how much is too much. He does challenge us to make certain our wealth is available so that we can care for others.

The availability of our wealth in ministering to the poor is at the core of a life of simplicity. Imagine what each of us could do if we simplified our lifestyles. We could each use the left over wealth and follow Jesus into the desert place of poverty, and bring new life and new hope. We might not even miss our afternoon cappuccino at Tim’s.

CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY IS NOT SIMPLE

2009-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY IS NOT SIMPLE

A paradox is an apparent contradiction, not a real one. The paradox of freedom states, to be free we have to have laws that restrict our freedom. The paradox of simplicity is that living simply is complex. Finding simplicity, as a spiritual value, in a complex world is not easy.

Our search to live a more simple life can easily lead us into reductionism. Reductionism is the tendency to reduce issues to such a basic level as to not deal with the complexity of the issues at all.

You may be able to argue that prostitution should be legalized and that through that action reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and also reduce the amount of drug use in the sex trade. Legalizing prostitution could protect sex trade workers and clients alike. You could also argue that the legalization of prostitution could be seen as an acceptance of behaviour. So do we legalize prostitution as a method of harm reduction in our society even though the act of prostitution (as fornication) is forbidden in Gods laws? Reductionism could look at this challenge and create a very simple solution. Prostitution is “bad”. People involved in these “bad” acts get to suffer the consequence. Money should not be spent on the care or education of prostitutes in any way.
These same arguments can be used when discussing needle exchanges or safe injection sites. Why should our money be put to use to provide a safe place for people to commit and illegal act? This same argument of reductionism can be used in our attitudes towards poverty and unemployment.

It can be very easy for us to reduce all of society’s behaviors to either “good” or “bad.”

In my view, life is just not that simple. Throughout history, many religious institutions have taken a reductionist view of complex social issues. Real Christianity calls us to learn to distinguish the voice of Christ in a world of competing demands and interests. It rejects easy dogmatic answers to tough intricate question. As Christ followers and believers of the bible, let us not shrink away for seeking answers to the complexity of life’s issues by the tendency to reduce everything to being either good or bad. Some times it’s OK not to be certain, not to be dogmatic. Sometimes it’s OK, not to have an answer and sometimes it’s OK to admit it!

Have a fun and lively discussion in your small group this week. Remember we can disagree and still be friends!

Surviving Change by Getting Back to Basics

2008-12-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

What an amazing year. Some of you have experienced great joy and some of you have experienced great sorrow. Many of you have reached new pinnacles of success and some of you have found yourself deep in failure. One thing is certain, nothing remains the same. Life is always changing..

The biblical writer of Ecclesiastes perhaps said it best when he wrote,” to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” As humans we are inclined to think in two extremes, either the good times will last for ever or the bad times will last forever. Once we gain a little perspective, however, we come to understand that neither the good times nor the bad times continue forever.

There is another dimension that is often overlooked in the “changing of the seasons of life” and that is the time period called transition. Our world is currently experiencing a time of transition. Transition is an “in between state”. It is a time when we realize that what ever period we were in is not going to continue, or indeed has already moved on. Transition is a time when we can see the past and the future in the same glance. The past is close enough, yet slipping away, and some form of the future is taking its place.

Times of transition can be very unsettling. The benchmarks that we once thought were certain are becoming unclear. In today’s time of transition we hear talk of potential job losses, homes being foreclosed, automobiles and "toys" being reposed and other talk of doom and gloom. It is no wonder we feel unsettled, out of place, anxious or even frightened.

On a daily basis we are bombarded by media reports which often use the sensational to garner headlines. These same media reports are often speculative and some times accurate. Often it is heard to discern the difference. Again our anxiety level rises.

Times of transition can also be used as a time of evaluation. When the things we take for granted are no longer there, we can be bold and begin to ask ourselves and each other questions about what is really important in our lives. We can search our hearts and re-evaluate our priorities. We can get back to basics.

Getting back to basics is at the heart of every sports team success. When a team practices the basics, you can be certain their fundamentals are in line. Accurately working the fundamentals, the basics, is the basis of a solid foundation. Trick plays and fancy plays can come and go, but the basics are the basics, the fundamentals are the fundamentals. The game of life is not won by fancy plays or even trick plays, but by majoring on the fundamentals.

In period of transition in our world’s economic system we would like to invite you to journey with us back to the basics. There are fundamentals to Christianity, which, when mastered and implemented have the ability to drastically reduce stress, anxiety, worry and fear. We would like to invite you to take a journey with all of us here at All nations Church as we explore the ancient, basic biblical concept of simplicity.

Beginning on January 25, 2009 hundreds of us will be gathering together to discover the power of learning to live more simply. Using small group gatherings, DVD’s and workbooks, and supported by Sunday Morning messages we will begin the process of understanding what it means to live a simple life.

The Freedom of Simplicity is a seven week series designed to help you live a fuller, more stress free life. It is designed to teach you the bible and the bibles principals for living well, in a complex world.

You can maximize your learning experience by planning to attend each of the seven Sundays and participating in a weekly Small Group discussion and study.

By participating in The Freedom of Simplicity you will find yourself spiritually prepared for the new season that is fast approaching.

Sign up for this small group series today. This is the best material and personal care we at All Nations can provide for you. Do not let this opportunity slip by. Sign up today at the Small Groups booth in the foyer of Fraser auditorium, Laurentian University any Sunday morning. They can answer any questions you may have. You can get more information and/or sign up for materials by calling 705.673.6110 after January 5Th, 2008. or check the website at www.allnationschurch.ca/smallgroups

To quote song writer Bob Dylan, ‘The times they are a chaingin.” We want you be prepared for what ever changing times may be ahead.

GOD'S WAKE UP CALL TO THE CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

2008-12-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe the whole world is reeling from financial uncertainty. In just over 90 days the western world went from being smug financially to being financially frightened. It is time for our faith to kick in. It is time for us as the people of God to put our trust in OUR Father’s careful provision for His children.

Just the other night one of the national media outlets lead off their newscasts with the words “500 thousand jobs to be lost”….and then the tag line IF the auto industry collapses. With headlines like that no wonder we feel fear and trepidation.

While the “sky is not falling” it is dangling perilously from some very shoddy defective fasteners. Why are we surprised? We have been warned for thousands of years that the god called materialism is a fake, a sham a house made of cards, a building build on sand. Finally the rain has come the house is falling. The foundations are eroding. It is time to get out! Jesus was very clear when he said “you can not worship God and Money.”

North American believers have not wanted to hear Jesus message. The “prosperity” gospel continues to be propagated in churches and throughout the airwaves of this great continent. The message has been clear…you can worship God and have it all. Worship God and he will give you “the American dream”. I don’t think Jesus ever said that. He called a rich young business executive to account. He said in effect choose me or your stuff. The bible records the sad ending to that event when we read that the young executive “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Sorrow is certainly the word for this week when it comes to financial matters

Here is my question. What will it take for Christians in North America to stop trusting in financial things for their security? The bible is so clear “do not lay up treasure on earth.” The bible states that the treasure will be eaten by moths (deflation?) it will rust (be valueless…like some stock portfolios?) …thieves will steal it (no comment necessary in the light of this weeks 50 billion dollar scandal). The Word of the Lord admonishes us to “lay up treasure in heaven” and your reward will be great. In other words take care of the things God wants taken care of and he will take care of you and the people you care about. What could be greater than being taken care of by God himself?

God’s world always operates backwards to the natural order. Take care of Gods kingdom and God takes care of your kingdom. Take care of your own kingdom and you are on your own.

Income in North American churches is dropping. Isn’t that a reveling statistic? Are people really thinking that “I’ got cut back so I will just cut back on God”?. Should this not be the time when giving to the Kingdom of God should be increasing? Are we as a nation failing to get the message? God is letting the god of this world, materialism, run its course with out His restraint. If you trust in money this is what you get…greed, scandal, deflation, and uncertainty.

North American Christianity is now in the process of being exposed for what it is…a self centered grab for God and the money! Show me God and show me the money, appears to be the heart cry of Christians in this western world. North American Christianity has been based on a “what’s in it for me” gospel. It has not been based on a sacrificial commitment to what God wants but has been based on the concept of a slot machine god who pays out what I want, every time.

Christians are hording in a time they should be giving. Christians are panicking when they should be praising. Christians are worried when they should be worshiping. The plain truth is that far too many of us do not trust completely in God for our provision. Our actions speak louder than our words. Our panicked response to the demise of this worlds system exposes our real belief system.

I believe God is calling His people to a higher level of trust and dependency on Him. It is never too late to begin putting our whole hand in His hand. In the book of Chronicles God speaks to His people and urges them to trust Him when he says “if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.

This economic crisis is a wake up call from the Lord to those of us who call ourselves Christians. It is now time for Christians in the Western world to put God first; period, no excuses, no delays. Your choice, go through it alone, or go through it with God.

The Advent of Christmas

2008-12-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

Found this in my Christmas file...no author listed...but worth a read!

For most churches, Advent will began this year on November 30th, the first of the four Sundays before Christmas.

But, like it or not, for most of us, Advent began on or just before Halloween. The Big Box stores began to display an aisle or two of Christmas decorations next to the Halloween masks and the bags of candy. Smaller stores followed suit shortly thereafter. This is the first year I've noticed that Christmas lights are twinkling on the houses in many subdivisions in late November.

Of course, the rest of this article could be given to a rant about how the church needs to take a stand against the commercialization of Christmas and it's time for the church to go on the offensive to put Christ back in Christmas.

But what's the point? As the end of the year looms just ahead, there are no indications that the church has done any better this year over than the last several years. We're likely to have lost yet another million members from our churches by the end of the year. Fighting the Christmas rush isn't going to change that.

As you get your church ready for the holiday season, here are some things to keep in mind that could make a real difference in your community.

Die on the Right Battlefield
I think it's on page 1 of the Momma's Manual: "Child, make sure you choose your battles wisely." The church has been good at picking fights, but it hasn't been very effective at choosing its battles. We keep picking fights we can't win instead of choosing battles that really, really matter. Christmas commercialization is demoralizing, but the church doesn't exist to fight Wal-Mart. The church doesn't exist to end poverty, feed the hungry, house the homeless, end the war, or even to lobby for equal rights for anybody. All these are good causes, but Jesus wasn't born in a manger and didn't die on a cross for a good cause.

The only battle the church has been called to fight is the battle for the souls of the MIAs. Charles Wesley, a great evangelist, changed the culture of England by doing just that. He didn't lobby against anything. He didn't institute soup kitchens for the poor or advocate for the rights of the exploited workers. Instead, he took the gospel to the down-and-outs. The battle he fought was for souls. Period. The results were amazing, but he didn't shift his focus when the tides began to turn. For the church, there's only one battlefield worth dying on.

Be Relevant
In many churches I've worked with, relevancy means projecting worship choruses on a big screen while the worship band thumps the newest beat and the pastor wears a sport's jacket over a t-shirt to preach.
But the fact is, relevancy does not equal adopting culture. Relevancy means responding in ways that are meaningful to those in the culture. Remember the first paragraphs and the launch of Christmas at Halloween? Well, relevancy doesn't mean ignoring the trends. It doesn't mean adopting the trends. And it doesn't mean ranting against the trends.

Being relevant means you first have to note the trends and then respond in a way that is meaningful to those living the trends. The fact that some people are already decorating their homes may mean that the trend of a longer Christmas season is being widely accepted. In some ways this shouldn't be surprising. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the World Series was conflicting with the basketball season and the opening of football season all at the same time. These "extended seasons" are simply a reality that we ignore at our peril. Finding out how they're impacting your community and responding in ways they can hear (and see and feel), is what makes a church relevant.

Offer Respite
"Life is difficult." Scott Peck's famous words state the obvious, but sometimes it seems that the church hasn't quite "got it." Promises of health and wealth seem far removed from reality, and yet it seems you can't find a televised or radio-ized evangelist with a different message. And though you may not advocate such doctrines, never forget that this is one of the prevailing images of Christianity…a people out-of-touch with reality.

The church can't cure all the ills of society. It can't even cure all the ills of its own members. But the church can offer real respite from the travails that cloud people's lives by advocating, teaching, and modeling real spiritual disciplines. Virtually everyone in North America claims to be a spiritual being, and yet there is a great hunger for spiritual practices that make a difference in life. The church is poised as the potential leader in satisfying this hunger by getting serious and offering a respite of the spirit.

During this holiday season, consider offering classes out in the public eye that connect spiritual practices with real people. Consider teaching beginning and advanced meditation practices, labyrinth prayer walking, prayer-bead making (and related prayer practices), journaling, and so on. Market these classes as opportunities to change the holiday season into a holy-day season.

But don't stop with offering these classes to the masses. Until the church gets serious about its own practices, she will continue to flounder. Take the time this season to coach your people beyond the typical Advent Devotional from the Bible Book Store (or your computer). Coach them into fasting, prayer walking, journaling, and into accountability groups. Mentor them until these have become spiritual habits.

The world might notice,if the Church got serious about being the Church.

The Purpose of Pain in the Human Personality

2008-11-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

The pain of our human condition is all around us. It is next to impossible to turn on a television and not see someone, some culture, some country struggling under severe oppression or pain. In all of this suffering you may be asking the question where is God? You may even be asking God, “Where are you in my suffering?”

I think we long for a world where justice and fairness prevail; a world where children are spared the horrors of war, starvation, death, divorce, dissertation and illness. We long for peace and harmony. Unfortunately, we live under a worlds system whose primary concern is its’ own preservation. Preserving the system is paramount to preserving people. The Bible calls this system of selfish preservation “sin”. Sin does not care about fairness or justice. Sin has no interest in the highest standards, the moral path, and sacrifice for the common good. Self only has one goal, to preserve itself at all costs.

The pain that is part of the human condition is a direct result of this driving desire for self preservation. Our world gives token assent to the issues of justice, human rights, and ecology, all of which can be sacrificed in a moments notice if they were to interfere with our personal peace and affluence, and if we thought we could get away with it.

Into this world of deteriorating values came Jesus the Christ. The Christian account of his life says he was sinless. That means he never thought or behaved from a position of self interest. He only acted from a position of love and obedience to His father. Jesus came into this world to redeem humanity from its self. He came to bring order to the chaos. He came to be with us in our pain, to transform our pain for his good. He did this by accepting our sin, our selfishness and the pain we experience living in a narcissistic world, as his own. He then accepted our pain and crucified it (killed it,made it of no consequence) in his body when he died on the cross.

Then, three days later he raised himself from the dead and boldly proclaimed to the world that death is not the end, and pain is not the final condition of humanity.

And now he invites you to join him in this great mission of restoring our earth and the inhabitants in it. He asks to be invited in to our pain so he can transform it. He asks to be invited in to our death so he can defeat it. He asks to be invited into our selfishness so he can impregnate it with his love and there by redeem all of humanity.

He asks…and continues to ask each generation, if we will be the ones to let HIM make a difference in the world, through them.

94 Leadership Quotes, by John Maxwell

2008-11-10T06:27:00.000-08:00

94 Leadership Quotes

I consider John Maxwell to be one of the greatest leadership minds of this generation. Enjoy his timeless wisdom about, character, communication, credibility, failure, folowership, fostering creativity, difficult people, leading leaders, motivating others, people skills, personal growth, procrastination, recognising leadership potential, success, teamwork, time management and timing.
Let me know a few of your favorites quotes.

Character
1. It's true that charisma can make a person stand out for a moment, but character sets a person apart for a lifetime.
2. You build trust with others each time you choose integrity over image, truth over convenience, or honor over personal gain.
3. Character makes trust possible, and trust is the foundation of leadership.
4. Character creates consistency, and if your people know what they can expect from you, they will continue to look to you for leadership.
5. Over time, is it easier or harder to sustain your influence within your organization? With charisma alone, influence becomes increasingly more difficult to sustain. With character, as time passes, influence builds and requires less work to sustain.

Communication
6. Great communication depends on two simple skills—context, which attunes a leader to the same frequency as his or her audience, and delivery, which allows a leader to phrase messages in a language the audience can understand.
7. Earn the right to be heard by listening to others. Seek to understand a situation before making judgments about it.
8. Take the emotional temperature of those listening to you. Facial expressions, voice inflection and posture give clues to a person’s mood and attitude.
9. Persuasive communication involves enthusiasm, animation, audience participation, authenticity and spontaneity.

Credibility
10. Credibility is a leader's currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt.
11. Speak the truth. Transparency breeds legitimacy.
12. Don’t hide bad news. With multiple information channels available, bad news always becomes known. Be candid right from the start.
13. A highly credible leader under-promises and over-delivers.
14. Diligent follow-up and follow-through will set you apart from the crowd and communicate excellence.
15. A trustworthy leader goes the extra mile to remedy strained relationships, even when it doesn’t appear to be required.

Failure
16. "Failing forward" is the ability to get back up after you've been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction.
17. Don't buy into the notion that mistakes can somehow be avoided. They can't be.
18. Failure is not a one-time event; it's how you deal with life along the way. .Until you breathe your last breath, you're still in the process, and there is still time to turn things around for the better.
19.You are the only person who can label what you do a failure. Failure is subjective.
20.Don't allow the fire of adversity to make you a skeptic. Allow it to purify you.
21.Generally speaking, there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others.
22.Seek advice, but make sure it's from someone who has successfully handled mistakes or adversities.
23. When to quit: (1) Quit something you don't do well to start something you do well. (2) Quit something you're not passionate about to do something that fills you with passion. (3) Quit something that doesn't make a difference to do something that does.
24.People change when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, or receive enough that they are able to.

Followership
25. More than anything else, followers want to believe that their leaders are ethical and honest.
26.When your people see that you are not only competent to lead but also have a track record of successes, they will have confidence in following you, even when they don't understand all the details.
27. As a leader, it's your job to get your people excited about what their work will accomplish; it’s a natural motivator.

Fostering Creativity in Others
28. People are an organization's only appreciable asset, but creative people are an organization's most needed asset.
29. Be willing to absorb some risk and failures to allow people freedom to express themselves.
30. Creative leaders inherently know when rules need to be challenged, and they can see when a more flexible approach should be taken.
31. Handle the ideas of your people carefully: If an idea is half-developed but has potential, pass it to the people in your organization who are proven process thinkers and implementers.
32. Sometimes giving your people permission to be creative is not enough; inspire them by modeling creativity.
33. The word 'reactive' and the word 'creative' are made up of exactly the same letters; the only difference between the two is that you 'c' (see) differently.

Fostering Your Own Creativity
34. When you are the leader in your field, it takes a greater level of innovation and commitment to stay there.
35. Make a point to continually search for a better way of doing things, even when things are going well, to ensure that a better alternative has not been overlooked and to keep your creative talents in practice.
36. Practice mental agility: Before you write off a far-fetched idea, back up and look at the big picture, because it might fit perfectly on another level.
37 Have fun: When you are truly having fun in your work, creativity flows freely.

Leading Difficult People
38. Consider who you are working with: Part of the art of leadership is discovering the unique relationship between the needs of the individual and the organization.
39. People only know that you and the organization intend to meet their needs when you tell them so.
40. Determine how to help the person, tell them how you will do it, and follow through – before asking the individual to do things in return for you.
41 People working together ultimately succeed or fail based on their commitment to one another.
42. Never give up easily on one of your people; it does a disservice to that individual and to you.

Leading Leaders
43. The better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance for success.
44. Every relationship in your organization will affect you one way or another. Those who do not increase you will inevitably decrease you.

Motivating Others
45. When you delegate a task to your people, make a point to help them capture your vision for what the completed task will look like.
46. Hold your people accountable to a measurable standard of excellence, and make rewards and consequences a part of enforcing the standard.
47. Give your people full responsibility (ownership) for the completion of specific tasks and the prospect of sharing in the rewards that result.

People Skills
48. Successful leadership is about 90% people knowledge and 10% product knowledge.
49. You can have strong people skills and not be a good leader, but you cannot be a good leader without people skills.
50. The highest compliment a person can receive is one given by his or her leader; make a habit of being generous and sincere with your compliments.
51. When your people are having trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, remind them of the purpose of their work and help them envision what their work will accomplish.
52. Don't judge what your people want to tell you before they've told you. Listen to them.
53. Part of your job as a leader is to help your people figure out what they're most passionate about, and then to help them pursue it.

Personal Growth
54. The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously your people will take you.
55. Leaders never outgrow the need to change.
56. My leadership began to take flight when I allowed myself to press people to change—whether they thanked me or cursed me.
57. Eventually, you must disengage from the relationships you’ve outgrown, or they will limit your growth as a leader.
58. Leadership involves the heavy burden of responsibility, and the fear of getting it wrong can paralyze a leader.
59. Confront your inadequacies and push your personal boundaries: It’s the surest way to grow, improve and expand the scope of your influence.

Procrastination
60. It doesn't matter how hard or long you work if you're not accomplishing what needs to be done.
61. Plan and execute your first failure so that you no longer have to fear it.
62. If the size of a task causes you to procrastinate or completely shy away, break it into smaller, more manageable tasks.
63. Often people fail to start or complete a task because they don't see any connection between what they're doing and what they really want to accomplish in life.

Recognizing Leadership Potential
64. Your key people can be spotted when important decisions are being made, because they're the ones explaining what needs to be done.
65. Determine how your potential leaders relate to the rest of your people; the people with the greatest potential won't have burned too many bridges.
66. A potential leader who obeys God is in a much better position to succeed than one who ignores God's will for his life.
67. Your potential leaders must have established a foundation of trust with others.
68. A potential leader is the one who would be able to mentally sustain your organization's vision if you quit thinking for the next month.
69. Potential leaders come to you to offer help more often than you go to them to give guidance.
70. True leadership requires serving others full time; potential leaders are ready and willing to do so.
71. Potential leaders make themselves valuable because they see and seize opportunities to better the organization—regardless of the nature or size of the task.
72.Though loyalty does not make a leader, disloyalty prevents a person from becoming one.

Success
73. Reaching the top is a monumental achievement, but remaining there may be the most spectacular feat of all.
74. The biggest detriment to tomorrow's success is today's success.
75. Passion creates energy and magnetically pulls co-workers and customers into a shared vision, and it is exceptionally strong when linked with a leader's values.
76. Leaders don't rise to the pinnacle of success without developing the right set of attitudes and habits; they make every day a masterpiece.
77. The best leaders are humble enough to realize their victories depend upon their people.

Teamwork
78. Teams make you better than you are, multiply your value, enable you to do what you do best, allow you to help others do their best, give you more time, provide you with companionship, help you fulfill the desires of your heart and compound your vision and effort.
79. Transmit your vision emotionally by gaining credibility, demonstrating passion, establishing relationships and communicating a felt need. Transmit it logically by confronting reality, formulating strategy, accepting responsibility, celebrating victory and learning from defeat.
80. Values hold the team together, provide stability for the team to grow upon, measure the team's performance, give direction and guidance and attract like-minded people.
81. Coming together is a beginning, and staying together is progress, but only when teams sweat together do they find success.
82. The Wrong Person in the Wrong Place = Regression. The Wrong Person in the Right Place = Frustration. The Right Person in the Wrong Place = Confusion. The Right Person in the Right Place = Progression. The Right People in the Right Places = Multiplication.
83. An organization's structure does not cause growth, but it does control the rate and size of your growth.
84. Talented performers flock to the best and brightest leaders, and these leaders in turn lift the lids off their people and uncork the latent talent inside of them.
85. The best way to serve the individuals on the team is to see that the whole team wins.

Time Management
86. Although it's admirable to be ambitious and hard-working, it's more desirable to be smart-working.
87. Though it's tempting—especially if you're a people pleaser—you have to learn to discern what wheels really need grease, what ones can be greased by others and what ones will squeak no matter how much oil they have on them.
88. The key to becoming a more efficient leader isn't checking off all the items on your to-do list each day. It's in forming the habit of prioritizing your time so that you are accomplishing your most important goals in an efficient manner.

Timing
89. The timing of your decision is just as important as the decision you make.
90. To establish appropriate timing for a decision, first discern the connection between the needs around you and the calling within you.
91. When assessing the ramifications for decisions, leaders must take into account the repercussions of failure.
92. Plain common sense can be the best deterrent to far-fetched opportunities.
93. All too often, would-be decision-makers take too much time collecting, analyzing and reanalyzing information, hoping for that one last convincing detail that will dictate the correct choice.
94. Consider if the passage of time shrinks available options or creates new ones.

The Answer To Lifes Three Greatest Needs

2008-11-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

Our lives seem to centre around three spiritual needs; our need for acceptance, our need for significance and our need for security.

Take some time to think about whom or what makes you feel accepted. The truth is, if we give the roll of making us feel accepted to a person or a situation we are asking that person or situation to be a god in our lives. Disappointment will always follow. Why? To give a person or circumstance that much power over us is a recipe for disaster.

People and circumstance will always let us down. There is no perfect person or no perfect circumstance. Only God knows exactly what you need to feel accepted. Since God has proven he has accepted us, then perhaps it is time to remove that burden from the people around us or the circumstance we find ourselves in.

Finding significance in our world is equally as challenging. Can the world we live in give us a reliable and truthful answer to the questions of my significance? I suggest to you it can not. What is my purpose? Why am I here? What is the reason for this situation? Do I matter? Does my life count? These are questions that only the One who created you can answer. An attempt to find answers to these questions apart from God leads to futility, despair and depression.

How do we process the difficult situations in our lives? Challenging circumstances can cause us to doubt ourselves and doubt God. If my faith is based on what happens to me in this world that faith will quickly vanish in the face of trial, heartache and disaster. My security can not be based on anything that is in my world.

The chaos of life is designed to breed fear. If I want to live with out fear my security must come from Christ alone. Not Money, position, power, or physical relationships. My personal relationship with Christ is my only guarantee of security. My relationship with Christ is the only guarantee of security when I die. My relationship with Christ guarantees God’s love for me in the present and God’s love for me in eternity. God gave us that guarantee when his son died on the cross. Jesus death and resurrection is God’s unchangeable promise that we are secure in him, regardless of the issues of life and death.

Perhaps now is the time for you to discover the real freedom that comes from believing in a God who loves you and has your best interests at heart. Check out my series on IDENTITY THEFT at www.allnationschurch.ca and just click on podcasts. I welcome your comments,and suggestions.

MY OWN WORST ENEMY

2008-11-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the TV drama “My Own Worst Enemy? Even if you haven’t seen it yet I am sure you get the idea just from the title.

I don’t know about you…but I cause myself more problems than any body else. Perhaps you have heard the expression, “open mouth, insert foot”. Well that’s not just a problem with George W. Bush.

The Bible is very clear about our responsibility for our thought life. The book of Ephesians chapter 4 and 5 explains the war that is going on inside each of us. It is a war between the old self,( self is the boss) the nature we were born with and the new self, ( love is the boss)the nature God gives us at the time of our spiritual birth. This war takes place in our mind, and specifically our attitude. One of the amazing things about attitude is that no one can take your attitude away from you. No matter what the circumstance of life, you get to choose your attitude.

Your attitude is your responsibility and God’s word makes it clear that we will be held accountable for our attitude. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we read that we are to”… demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”. ( act only from a position of love)

We become what we believe. We behave in accordance with what we believe. If we want to be different we must believe different, and that process begins with our thought life and the discipline of our attitude to make sure every thought aligns with how Christ would think. The reason Jesus Christ is our highest example is because he never thought or did anything that was not from a position of love. This is the basis of the famous Sermon On the Mount in the book of Matthew.

Our actions and attitudes will be a direct reflection of what we feed our minds. If we feed our minds God’s word and discipline our attitude to conform to that word we will behave accordingly. If we feed on the words of the world’s system, we can not help but reflect that system in our attitudes and action. We are what we feed our mind.

This story says it all.

An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."

Which nature do you feed the most? The nature of self,me mine,my way OR the nature of love,others,generosity,you first.

Until we each learn to function from a position of love in our beliefs, thoughts and actions, the world will continue to be at war, neighbours will continue to fight, marriages will continue to fall apart.

What kind of world are you contributing too?

WHY YOU ARE THE WAY YOU ARE

2008-10-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Based the principles found in the bible, I wrote the following statement;

“You become what you believe. Change what you believe and you change what you become”.

Neither you nor I can act differently that what we believe deep inside of us. The bible calls that place of belief, the “heart”. If you want to behave differently you must change the source of your belief and that means you must change your heart.

Here is the problem we face: how do you change your heart? How can you be sure that you do not just change one defective set of beliefs for another? Or simply change one defective heart for another defective heart.

I realize that as a society we seem to have abandoned the notion that there is any moral truth at all. However, I believe the bible is a book about truth. The bible contains the truth about you. The bible is basically God’s story about what He intends to do with this world and with you in particular. God has a very specific plan for you. If you understand that plan and put that plan in your mind, you will be fulfilled, and satisfied. You must put what the bible says about you into your mind and into your heart ,so you can become what God has planned for you to become.

What a sad state of affairs to come to the end of life as we know it and finally realize we have been believing and behaving from a defective set of life principles.

There is an enormous amount of power in our mind, beliefs and thoughts. We would do well to be certain we have the right information in our mind.

Here are some amazing statements about the power that God has planted in your mind. They were written many years ago by a man named James Allen. He uses the term “man” to mean every person male or female.

“As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called "spontaneous" and "unpremeditated" as to those which are deliberately executed”

“A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind”
“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears.”

“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results”.

“Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit”

Let me encourage you to take the time to examine what you believe and why you believe what you believe. The key to fulfillment is in your thoughts and beliefs. This is what I believe; it matters what you believe. Your success depends on it!

Check out the pod casts on www.allnationschurch.ca and go to IDENTITY THEFT

WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP

2008-10-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you, but I see very little of God in our world today. I see greed, haltered, selfishness, cruelty, emotional pain, rejection, isolation, jealousy, lies, sensuality, careless sex, aborted babies, broken promises, shame, guilt, fear and a host of other behaviours, that if taken together reflect God, I would want no part in Him.

Maybe what really freaks me out is that I see so little of God in my own actions. When I am truly honest with myself my behaviours more often reflect my selfish needs and not the actions of a loving God. I have reached a season in my life where I do not want that to be so any longer.

The key to changing any behaviour is to change what you believe in your heart. You cannot behave any differently from what you believe. Every action is a response to what you truly believe deep down in side of you. James Allen has written, “Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are”.

What would you do if you discovered that many of the things you believe about yourself are not true? They are in fact lies. And for years you have been acting/ behaving from that set of lies and not from the truth. And, (here comes the conspiracy theory) there has been a concerted effort to make sure you never find out the truth about who you were really meant to be. I call this IDENTITY THEFT.

It is so simple. God has a plan and a purpose and a personality just for you. That plan purpose and personality has been hijacked and until the hijackers are exposed you will never find the real you, the you, God intended you to be. Until you discover Gods intentions for you, you will forever be searching in the wrong place. That is why so many people work hard all their lives, get ahead, become successful and eventually come up empty. That is why so many people never learn from their mistakes and repeat the same failures over and over again. They have been deceived, lied to, and are working under false orders.

I believe with all my heart our real personality and purpose has been hijacked. In Psalm 139 David is very clear about the fact that God has a distinct purpose and personality for each of his created children. He says in verse 14 that” We are fear fully and wonderfully made”; made in the very image of God

There is good news. God has made a way for you to discover who he intends you to be. Everything hinges on what you believe and weather what you believe is the truth or a lie. We are all on a journey of self discovery. The path we take may be different. And contrary to current popular thought, all paths do not lead to the same destination.

There is a you, which God intended. You are not a random collection of neurons and microbes and synapses and electrical currents. Most of us have been living out lies, lies that we have embodied as truths. We must replace those lies with the Truth and learn to live each day out of the truth and act from a position of love in our personalities.

God has made it possible for you to behave differently. He gave us Jesus Christ as our example. Every action, every attitude of Jesus Christ was birthed from His understanding of the truth about who he was and his purpose. He behaved consistently out of his beliefs and his beliefs were grounded in love, for he himself was love in human form.

Genuine change in behavior is possible but we must start with a tested, proven reliable source for that change. I believe that reliable source is Jesus.

So here is my IDENTITY THEFT CHALLENGE, start to read about the life story of Jesus. Get an easily readable translation of the bible like The NIV, The Message, or CEV. You will find the translation short forms on the cover. Start in the New Testament section the book called John, then go back and read Matthew, Mark and Luke. One thing you will notice is the incredible consistency with which Jesus behaved. He behaved the same no matter what the circumstance. He also behaved in complete agreement with his source. (You will understand what I mean by the time you have finished the book of John). Getting grounded in understanding the personality and purpose of Jesus is the first step in discovering who you really are.

Next time we will look at the sources of what you believe about yourself. We will examine them and test them in a writing called “Why You are the Way You Are”.

THE GLOBAL MONEY MELTDOWN

2008-10-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Greed has raised it's ugly head in the USA sub-prime mortgage crisis. What else but greed could have mortgage brokers, bankers and other lending institutions convince naive consumers that they can borrow money they can never hope to repay. Why are consumers so naive? Greed! They want to be naive! They want to believe they can buy that bigger house, car, pool and ATV. And what about the lending institutions who took those worthless mortgages and packaged them up into Real estate Investment Trusts that consumers in the stock markets thought were backed by real solid real estate? Deception, greed, naivete; the worlds monetary system at it's best.

1.8 million homes in default. Over 8 million homes with no or negative equity. Investment Banks falling like house flies. And with the massive 12 trillion dollar devaluation of the housing market, comes a major loss of real estate taxes which impacts every local community.

What follows is more of the truth. You may not want to hear it...but it is the truth!

National and Consumer debt is sucking the life out of our economies. If you want to survive difficult economic times…reduce your debt.

The most current figures I could research about debt are as follows… USA Debt today: $9,789,490,720,019. USA per Person: $32,119. Canada Net Debt 2007: $508,109,000,000. Canada per Person: $15,217

While some economists are telling us that the Canadian economy is strong enough and regulated enough to survive the US monetary meltdown, we will experience the aftershocks of a global economic crisis.

As the USA economy attempts to weather this recent storm of greed and deception in its financial institutions, massive infusions of cash will be needed. While the American government is proposing millions of dollars in bailouts for these institutions (and nothing it seems for the consumer) foreign governments and corporations are coming to the rescue.

According to the latest data, I was able to find, 785 U.S. businesses were acquired by foreign investors for $129 billion this year through August.

A few of the foreign investments now buying up the USA are:
Abu Dhabi's bid to buy 20% of the NASDAQ
Abu Dhabi's $7.5−billion bailout of Citigroup
China's $3−billion purchase of the Blackstone Group
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's purchase of 9% of U.S. private equity
firm Apollo Management for an undisclosed sum.

While foreign investment is regulated some what here in Canada, Canada and Canadian assets continue to be purchased by foreign interests (Vale INCO as an example).

The Bible is so clear about our obsession with money. It says that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Bigger, better, more, is at the heart of our consumptive society. We must reduce unnecessary consumption, learn contentment and invest in our world rather than make withdrawals from our world. It is imperative that we teach our children how to add value to the world through serving and giving rather than take value from our world through constant consumption.

The values I have just expressed are so counter-cultural...but they are the start of healing our devastated economy and following God's economic principles as outlined in the bible. Do not be in debt. Be generous. Save some. Live off the rest of your money.

While economists debate, we as people must become much more disciplined and directed in our spending. As people we must learn to trust in God as our source of supply and not the world’s monetary system. We could at least, check our Bible as much as we check our stocks.

WHO I AM GOING TO VOTE FOR!

2008-09-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Well it's time for another Canadian election. I often get asked who I am going to vote for. As a "kinda" public figure and deeply into religion I have avoided answering that question for years. Today I am coming out of the "secret voter closet." You see, the other week I read an article in the Sudbury Star that quoted the late (and might I say great) Tom Davies answer to this very same question. In essence he encouraged people to vote for the candidate in our community who will be with the party that forms the next government. Now that's different!

Imagine Sudbury with a Federal representative who is actually on the governments side. Just think of the attention( read potential dollars)that our community could receive. Look at what "Wrangling Rick" has done for sudbury since his transformation from scrapping with the government to being able to scrape together millions for this community from the government. Now imagine what we could accomplish if we had both provincial and federal representation.

In my opinion it's time for us to get selfish. That's right! No more ideological voting for me. I have given up on the notion that there is any practical difference in Liberal economics, Conservative economics or NDP economics (if there is such a thing)and may the good Lord help us, Green economics. Show me the money.

I want attention for Sudbury. I want Sudbury to finally, be on the winning side. I want no more excuses for coming in second, or maybe even third in this election. Sudbury needs a federal representative from the governing side.

So who am I going to vote for? Simply put I am going to vote for the candidate from the party most likely to win.

You may ask me, "What party do I think is most likely going to win the election?" My reply,( said kindly and gently, of course) "non of your business".

The Power of Doing "One Thing"

2008-08-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Here is what I have discovered about life. You can only do one thing exceptionally well. People who succeed have an uncanny ability to drill down into their lives and find the "one thing" that will bring them home the "gold".

Most of us have too many irons in the fire. We have too many competing interests. We do too much in too many areas. Successful people bang on only one drum. They bang on it and bang on it and bang on it. They get better, and better and better until they are the best. They will not be deterred or deflected. Nothing gets in the way of the person who has decided that they will give their life entirely for the attainment or achievement of that "one thing".

They do not blame external forces for their failure neither do they give credit to external forces for their sucess.(i.e.luck)"One thing" people are disciplined to the 1/100Th of a second. Every action counts.Every thought is controlled.
Their environment is irrelevant.Their focus comes from a force within a purpose that originates with the Divine Architect. They have a mission and they will achieve that mission at all costs.

To my mind, Jesus The Christ is the great example of a "one thing" kind of guy. His focus, mission and goal was to provide a way for you and I to have an unobstructed, relationship with God our Father. The political machine of his day, the religious system of his day, his own very team (of disciples)and their blunders could not stop Jesus on his mission of sacrificing himself for us so that we would not need to be sacrificed. He made it. He got the 'gold". He stood on the podium of history, on a cross in the centre spot. He died. We get to live.

God has an intention for your life as well. God has a purpose for placing you in the sphere of influence that you are in. He has a mission for you. It is worthy of your life, your effort, your focus. It is worthy of stripping yourself from all unnecessary causes to pursue the "one thing" that will make you spiritually,emotionally and physically successful. You can read about it in bible in the book of Philippians Chapter 3...check out the 13Th verse on the "one thing".

So now it is time to do the inventory. What are the competing interests or loves in your life? What would you be willing to give up....to go up!

NOW THAT'S AGRESSIVE,what do you think?

2008-05-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

7 Ways We Keep Church Hoppers from Staying
Reposted from Brian Jones.com

I think two of the most dangerous influences any church faces are: (1) Spiritual leaders who have lost their first love and (2) the onslaught of church hoppers. Having wavered before in my faith and flirted with losing my first love with God, I know firsthand how dangerous the first one can be. But that's something we spiritual leaders have control over. The second one...not so much.

I call church hoppers “connoisseurs of fine churches” because they’re continually on a quest to find the church that is spiritual enough for them, will endlessly engorge themselves on the “services” of the churches they attend, and always have a critical word to say afterwards whenever “church” doesn’t meet their standards.

Here are seven things we try to do to keep church hoppers from wearing out their welcome.

#1 Ask church hoppers to commit to tithing and serving in your 101-201-301 classes
That usually takes care of it right there. Because church hoppers are consumers by nature, anything that strikes them as sacrificial will surely turn them off. As a ministry friend of mine used to tell me, “At the first sign of trouble, raise the bar.”

#2 Tell your people to stop inviting their Christian friends to church
This past Sunday I may have been one of the few pastors out there that stood up and said, “Please DO NOT invite your Christians friends to our Easter services. We want other churches in the area to know we have their back. Also, we want to grow this church through conversion growth, not transfer growth. Let’s pack this place out with people who are keeping God up at night because they are living far from him.” I strategically do that 3-4 times a year.

#3 Preach short sermons
Howard Hendricks used to say, “Keep them longing, not loathing.” I buy into that philosophy. I try to speak anywhere between 21 and 26 minutes max. That drives church hoppers nuts because they want to “be fed.” I’m not interested in “feeding people” unless they are in the early stages of their spiritual journey. Church hoppers as well as Christians further along their spiritual journey need to be feeding themselves. Anything I provide on Sunday morning should be in addition to their own self-directed spiritual nourishment. One point, one scripture, 21-26 minutes, that’s enough.

#4 Don’t sing 9,345 worship songs
Church hoppers, 9 times out of 10, came from a church background where they were taught they needed 5-6 worship songs to really connect with God. That needs to be re-taught. Where did we get the idea that worship = singing anyway? That’s part of it, but only a small part of it. Every part of the service is worship. Every part of my life is worship. Limiting your worship songs except for occasions when you are led by God to expand the repertoire forces people to recognize this or leave.

#5 Keep your services short
We keep our services to 55 minutes, period. That’s it. That’s because we believe “church” is more than the official service that happens on a Sunday morning. It’s what happens before, during and afterwards. It’s what happens during the week when 2-3 gather. Experiencing a well-conceived 55 minute service to the church hopper is like spending your whole life overeating and then sitting down for a healthy, well-proportioned meal that someone else serves you. “Hey, I’m used to eating 16 pieces of fried chicken for dinner and 8 servings of bread! Why do I only get two? Waah.”

#6 Eliminate Christian “insider” language from the way you talk on the stage
The fact that I say “Leader” and “forgiver” from the stage drives church hoppers nuts. “You meant to say ‘Savior and Lord,' didn’t you?” At issue is an old mission’s word called “contextualization,” which basically means we need to speak in the language and culture of the hearer, not the speaker. The Greek word “kurios” doesn’t mean “Lord” in 21st century American idiom. Your old Bible translation from 50 years ago may read that way, but people aren’t talking that way today. Challenge your “insider” language and watch how church hoppers and their friends file right out of your services.

#7 Sing Non-Christian songs in your services on occasion
This past weekend we opened our service with Jet’s “Are you Gonna be My Girl?”

On Monday I promptly received an email about it…
This past weekend, I could not believe my ears. When worship opened up, I heard the opening chords for Jet’s- "Are you going to be my girl?" I was expecting the Apologetix parody version, “Are you gonna be Ike's girl?”

But in listening to the lyrics it sounded like they were covering the actual Jet Song – a song about figuring out how to get a one night stand, for a girl who came to some club or party with another guy.

I am hoping that I was mistaken and they were playing the Christian Parody version because I am having a real issue with wrapping my head around why it would be remotely ‘OK’ to play this content in a worship service.

There is a line between having a light fun service to reach the new/non-believer and cheapening the value and truth that the gospel can stand alone to reach out to someone. This may have crossed it.

Frustrated…

Name Withheld

Here was my response…

Frustrated,

I got your email and appreciate you taking the time to shoot me your thoughts.

I must say that while I appreciate your concern, this is certainly not the first nor will it be the last time we sing non-Christian music in our worship services.

We do this because we are trying to reach both non-Christians as well as Christians in the same service, and playing a non-Christian song up front in the service, we have learned, puts people far from God at ease.

Our philosophy has always been that Christians should be the ones that should be made the most uncomfortable in church, not the non-Christians. The way I put it is this -- we will always choose to offend the Christians before the non-Christians.

Seeing that you are frustrated, and given the fact that I talked with a bunch of people far from God on Sunday who loved the energy of the song and felt connected to the service because of it, it appears that we have achieved our goal.

My suggestion is this -- weigh carefully whether or not you want to be a part of a church that sings music like this, and plays difficult to watch video clips, and a host of other things to reach people far from God. If not, then now would be the time to look for another church before you put down roots too deep.

If on the other hand this is the kind of church you want to be a part of, I would welcome you to join in with everything you have and start reaching out to people far from God.

I hope this helps.

Thanks!

Brian

Church hoppers can be a lethal bunch, so don’t make them too cozy. However, and I’ll blog about this at another time – please remember that God can also be leading some of those people to your church too. But that’s a post for another day.

POP GOES THE CHURCH

2008-04-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

"Would your community be any different if your church disappeared tomorrow? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Have you ever considered it with others at your church? If your church suddenly disappeared, could the community even recover? Or would they go on as though nothing at all had changed?

What is happening at your church that is worth talking about? When people leave your service, are they thinking about the e-mails they need to send and the football game they want to watch—or are they thinking deeply about their own choices and thinking how they might make a difference in some one's life this week?

Sadly, for most of us, the answer is a resounding “no.” We didn't even have to think that long about the answer. Our church is great for our friends, our family, and us, but there is little measurable impact on the community. There is little happening that is making a difference outside of the few dozen or couple hundred who regularly attend.

Wouldn't it be great if a local church had a vision big enough to capture people's hearts and motivate them to action, so it had an impact on the community? Wouldn't it be awesome if a church was so effective people began following Jesus, growing in their faith, and as a result, the community was being loved and served?

I love the way John 1:14 is written in The Message. It says Christ “became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” He came to us—met us where we were. In Jesus' case, the neighborhood was a rural, agricultural society in first century Palestine. He immersed himself in that culture. He wore the clothes, used the language, and illustrated his stories with the signs and symbols of the day to communicate the Gospel of an upside down kingdom here on earth.

If Jesus physically entered twenty-first century America, I believe he would do much as he did in the first century. He would hang out with normal people in the real world, and he would reserve his strongest words for the entrenched religious leaders who love their traditions more than they love their people. I believe he expects no less from us.

The goal of Pop Goes the Church is to stretch your thinking. If you have bought into the belief that church is exclusively for building up the believers, I want you to reconsider. If you think a church service cannot help believers grow AND be attractive to non-believers, I want to convince you that it can. If you have never experienced a church service that stays true to the Bible AND is comfortable for your non-religious friends and you don't think it is even possible, I want you to explore the possibility. The community around you is dying without Jesus, and it is your God-ordained duty to wrestle until you find the best way to reach them. And once you do, don't apologize. "

Check Out the book POP GOES THE CHURCH by Tim Stevens, I dare you!

My Comments:

It is time we valued our neighbours relationship to God more than our own needs for religious comfort. It is time for the church to learn to colour outside the lines of our narrow mindedness about what is or is not worship. It is time to get real and be relevant about our relationship to Jesus Christ and His relevancy to the "pop culture" of today.

It is pretty scary when the American Idol contestants can sing a worship song as their opening number and the church is still debating about the relevance of POP CULTURE in our services. Even the great Idol marketing machine understands the significance of relating to various cultural groups to get their message out!

Get relevant, get real or go home...actually it is DIE!

The church has a God given obligation to reach this generation,with out compromising the truth that she has inherited. Methods change,the message remains the same. Methods change, the mission must never change.

The Age of Entitlement is Dead

2008-04-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

The age of entitlement is dead. People in positions of leadership should no longer expect preferential treatment due to their positional authority. If anything there has been a major decline in societies view of its' leaders. Just check out the late night circuit and check how often people in once esteemed and untouchable positions, are now routinely criticized and made a mockery of. The president of the USA is made out to be a dummy with a less that average I.Q. Here in Canada the leader of the opposition, Stephan Dion is portrayed as a "dorky" school boy.

Once upon a time society respected its leaders and were delighted at the thought of rewarding them with the odd perk now an again. Well, that day is gone. Maybe that's a good thing! Perhaps some people in positions of leadership have brought this on themselves. Or maybe times have changed, maybe we are tired of the abuses of power.

There was a time right here in Sudbury Ontario where my Dad would receive a complimentary 10% clergy discount from such establishments as Eaton's and Silvermans ( down on Elm).
Parishioners would bring in the odd chicken, or a dozen eggs, even a roast or two. But in those days wages for clergy were sub standard and people did what they could to help out. In those days public service was just that, public service. People provided perks for hard working underpaid servants of the public good. Well, hard working may still apply ,but underpaid has gone the way of vinyl records.
Even most clergy in this modern era receive a reasonable wage for their service to God and their parishioners.

So where does that leave us with this entitlement issue. If you expect it, you are probably out of luck. If you think you deserve it, you are definitely out of luck. What do you think if we just become equals. And if at some special time we receive some special treatment that is over and above our expectations we can learn to be grateful again and rejoice in the unexpected love shown to us by people who think enough about us to let us know we are special to them today.

Never Complain About What You Permit to Exist

2008-01-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

I deliberately stayed away from announcing a New Years resolution. Best reason; they don't work, for me.

I have found that resolutions relieve the guilty feelings I have a bout doing nothing, about something, that bothers me. But nothing ever changes. So here we have a dilemma. I will complain about something that bothers me. I will make a resolution to change whatever it is that bothers me. I will keep the resolution for at least two days. Guilt assuaged! I can now go back to complaining about what bothers me. The very act of complaining makes me feel like I am doing something about what is bothering me. And so the cycle of self deception continues...and nothing ever changes.So here's the deal. Either change whats bothering you or shut up about it. Hence the world famous saying "never complain about what you permit to exist."

In personal life this means taking an honest assessment of where you are in life, or weight, or career, or relationship and making a straight forward choice. Change it or stuff it! But stop complaining about it.

In business life the same principal applies. If you are not prepared to take action about what you are complaining about, then stop complaining. Do something or shut up.

This simple concept of not complaining about what we permit to exist can be the catalyst that forces us to find the solution to what bothers us. Constant complaining leads to a sense of powerlessness...we are never powerless. We always have choices. Its just that some people do not like the choices that are laid out before them. So the simple solution "never complain about what you permit to exist". Change your situation. If you feel can not change your situation, change your attitude. But at least stop complaining about it.

Well, that sure told me...didn't it. I have to go and make some changes! How about you?

Bill Gates 9 Rules for Life

2007-12-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

These rules were first told to a high school assembly and reported in "Anchor Watch", Sept.2005

There is so much truth in here, every student, perhaps every person should read and heed these.

1) Life is not fair---get used to it.

2) The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

3) You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

4) If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

5) Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping---they called it opportunity.

6) If you mess up, it's not your parents fault; so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

7) Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they will give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

8) Television is not real life. in real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

9) Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

So there you have it...i think I'll vote for #7 as my fav.

What about you?

Don't Burst Your Bubble

2007-12-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

One thing I have been learning about dreams, or a vision if you will, is that you don't really get to own the dream. A dream is like a gift from the God, or the creator. The dream is not really yours, but His. You don't really own it, you just manage it on the creators behalf.

Something strange happens when we think we own a dream. When we are deluded into thinking this is my dream, then we are responsible to "make it happen", to "push it through". As we struggle and strive to make "our" dream a reality it is easy to make mistakes of timing, mistakes in judgement, compromise...fear of failure can easily turn into paralysis of thought.After all, this is my dream and if I don't accomplish this it won't get done. Many great dreams crash on the rocks of self determinism.

However, if we were to view our dream as a God given gift, something that God wants to accomplish in our world and we are simply "managers"of that dream, it is then possible for us to adopt a whole new attitude toward our dream.

A God given dream is God's way of influencing our world through us. God has the dream, God has the plan, God has the strategy. It is up to us to learn to listen, learn to "actively "wait, pursuing opportunities but with out fear, or frantic thoughts, trusting peacefully, that the same God who gave the dream to you, will fulfill the dream through you.

There is a fine line between managing a dream and owning a dream. It's much like holding a bubble in your outstretched hand. The second you close your fingers around the bubble it breaks. Dreams must be kept in an open hand, with fingers loose and a relaxed arm. Tension destroys, tightness stifles, a closed fist fights, an open hand receives.

At times Ifind myself wanting to close my hand around my fragile precious dream and then I am reminded of the words of the creator found in His instruction book to dream catchers..."He who began a good work in you will complete it". His dream, His problem. My role is to listen and to obey. Easier said than done.

The Agony of an Aborted Dream

2007-12-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Your dream, much like an unborn child, needs to be nurtured and developed. There is a tension that exists when a woman finds out she is pregnant and when she feels safe enough to tell the world that she is pregnant. That same tention exists when you know you have the beginnings of a really big dream. When is it safe enough to declare to the world, " I have a dream, this idea will change the world, here is the solution, I know what to do, this is it?"

On many an occasion I have spewed forth my newly formed dream into the world arround me, only to find its fragile undeveloped concepts easily discarded by people with no faith, no immagination, or no consideration for my insecurities. Some have treated my precious creation as spit, to be wiped uncermoniously from the face their minds. Most , did not recognise, that contained in my microscopic idea was a giant of a concept, and much like stepping on an ant, my creation was crushed and trampled on with out remorse or a second thought.

I have learned that there are only a few people in my life that I can trust with the "breaking news" of a hot idea. These are people with an intimate knowlege of who I am, who have proven they can treat my most precious dreams, and thereby treat me, with encouragement, gentleness, and wonder. They are the people in my life who have learned not to laugh out loud when the impossible is proposed. They have learned that dreams need gestation time.That ridicule is the poison of the abortionist. That everything great was once and embryo and that some of my dreams do come true. They have learned that dreams are living entities and the laws of life and death apply as much to an idea as they do to a fetus.

I am learning one of the greatest laws of the universe, and that is the law of timing. I still experience the excitement when I have been impregnated by a dream, but in the early days I am content to experience it growing in my mind, to sense its development, to spend time alone with it.Because one day this living, growing life altering dream will be birthed for all the world to see. I will never again have the opportunity to be alone with my dream, and watch in wonder as God unfolds its marvels one step at a time, for once my dream is born it is no longer mine but the worlds.

The Pain of Small Dreams

2007-11-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

Most people quit because their dream is too small, not because their dream is too big. If you want to be discouraged, think small that will do it every time. Big ideas wake you up. Big ideas keep you up. Big ideas have a way of riding over obstacles When you crawl up on the top of a big idea you can see for miles. You can see over the valleys, over the rivers, over the pitfalls and into the future.

Let me ask you this! What would your dream look like if you multiplied it by a factor of 10? Expand, enlarge, make the future come alive. Write your dream down. Make it colourful.Watch while it changes the world.

The point is this. Even if you do not achieve all of your BIG dream you will achieve much more than your little dream.

How big should you dream? Your dream is big enough when people think your idea is crazy, unattainable, impossible and any other words your friends, family or co-workers might dream up.

Most people live little lives. They never venture beyond their block. Their minds reach no further than the remote control.The world is waiting for crazy big dreams. What are you waiting for. Anything you achieve beyond where you are now is better than where you are now.

By the way, just a small hint. The Good Book, the Bible says to not throw precious pearls into the pigpen. ( my translation). Simply put, don't waste your big ideas on people who cannot appreciate them. Don't throw your ideas around. Be selective and cautious with what you do with your ideas because they are precious and fragile. More on this next time.

Facebook | Your Facebook Badges

2007-11-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

Facebook Your Facebook Badges: "Facebook me!"

What it Takes to Succeed

2007-11-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

As I enter my 30th year of ministry in the same location the question that seems to surface most is "how did you do that?" First off, you need to know that I did not set out to spend 30 years in ministry. I came into ministry for a one year trial. One year turned to two, two years turned to three....well you get it. I sit today entering 30 years of pastoral ministry in the same church in the same town! And in many ways I feel the same today on day 10,950 as I did on day one; inadequate, unprepared and out of my league.

In the book Red Moon Rising, the authors use a quote that says " a long obedience in the same direction". It would be great if I could say to you that my journey has been just that, obedient, in every way, on every day, to every word, in every situation. But my life has not been even close to that. What I can say is this. My life has been characterized by a " trying to be obedient, almost was obedient, on a few good days I have been obedient, sometimes I have been obedient, a kind of obedience if there is such a thing, in the same direction. The same direction is there. I love Jesus. But I really mess up. The direction is OK...it's the obedience that poses the problem.