Bleacher Believers

In season with the upcoming Superbowl and perhaps as a result of a little Maxwell persuasion, I would like to rant about Bleacher Believers.

Every year millions of people tune into the Superbowl and most of them are at some sort of party. During this party we meet people who we can clump into 3 categories. The nomiees, the quasis, and the Crazies,

The nomiees are the nominals who are at the party because they're, it's a party they could really careless about the actual game, sure they ask occasionally what the score is, but that's the extent of their involvement. These people drive the Crazies crazy...........er.

The Quasis are the people who know a little about football, and have picked a team to cheer for, but they're really still there for the party. These people are easily influenced by the nomiees and the crazies.


Then there's the Crazies who would come close 2 selling their first born just 2 watch the game. I find myself in this category. If there was no party we'd still be watching the game. For us everything around us becomes inexistent as we are immersed in the game. There are times we can almost smell the grass and taste the turf (this maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea).

In Church life we seem to have these three catergories, as well. The nomiess, who come for the party. The quasis, who are kind of involved in things, but are still more interested in the party.However, with some guidance from some crazies could make the jump.The crazies are the ones who could careless about the party they just wanna be a part of what matters.

The big differences between a SuperBowl and the life of the Church is the Prize at the end for those of us who win, and the destiny of those who lose. The other difference is we are not to just become artificially immersed in the event, we are to be truly active and living out the experience. We are to get out of the bleachers and onto the field.

AN OT JC

This morning I was woken up out of a dead sleep at 5:45am. For those of you who have ever had the "pleasure" of sleeping in the same room as me you know this isn't the norm for me. It takes next to a natural disaster to get me WIDE awake and a whole lot of diligence to even budge me from my slumber otherwise.

I wasn't woken up by a natural disaster. I was woken up by God himself. When I woke up it wasn't a startled awake. It was a "I'm sleeping....I'm sleeping.....I'm awake. Absolutely no transition! So I did the logical thing, I went to the "lavatory" upon returning from my excursion, I laid down to go to sleep with, but to no avail.

After an hour of "discussion" I clued in God had woken me up for a reason. So I got up showered, grabbed a coffee and began to work on some youth things.

As it turns out if I had of gotten up as late as I was planning to I would have never been able to get every thing I wanted to have ready for our youth meeting that morning.


It reminded me of Samuel when he was laying in bed and the LORD kept calling him. While our relationship with God is dynamic, growing and changing as individuals and as his people, it's always cool when he reveals himself in some of the powerful ways of the Old Testament. Sure, I didn't hear an audible voice, but I do know who woke me up! Kinda throws a kink in those "that was Bible times, this is now" arguments.

Renewal

I have entered into the New Year with a great deal of joy. The Wesleyan Church is declaring this the year of the Bible and our church has begun working through the Bible. Now, me being the sly maverick, I have deviated from the reading plan and have begun my own. I'm reading books of the Bible I haven't given much attention to.

Historically, I've never really enjoyed reading the Bible, nothing against God, I just found it boring. I've prayed for my eyes to see what he has to say to me and I've prayed he would awaken me to his truth.

I've regularly read the Bible out of discipline, rather than enjoyment, then this year I began reading and I've begun enjoying it. I actually get excited about the Bible.
Being a Bible college graduate, I know that's suppose to happen instantously when I enroll, but I'm a little on the slow side, so give me a break.

This is the excitement of my New Year. What has everyone else's been like?

Our King

You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
-Luke 1:31-33 (NIV)

What a joy it is to know the Savior Mary once helded in her hands; rules all of creation with his.

Just in Time For Christmas

Canadians every where can hang their heads in shame over the Christmas holidays. Wednesday, Canada's Supreme Court handed down a ruling that makes Swinger Clubs legal in Canada.

Swinger Clubs are basically people married or single who meet at a club, and rather than the old key swap of the 70's. They pick who they want to have sex with. They may choose 1 or multiple individuals, as long as everyone is consenting. The Supreme Court ruled it is not a criminal act because "it poses no threat to society". Forget the moral fabric we've already shred.

This all came about because some clubs in Montreal got charged for operating a "bawdy house" or brothel. One owner's lawyer is quoted as saying, "It does not contaminate society. It does not hurt, it does not do any harm to society and to the public in general."

Come to Canada, where we have no morals.

Why would I be proud to be a Canadian?

Wrestling with the Holidays

http://www.visithoustontexas.com/fall-gallery/images/christmas%20Tree.jpg

The Christmas/Holiday Tree incident of Boston has sparked allot of discussion about the growing taboo of saying "Merry Christmas". The general attitude I get from most Christians is "It's our holiday and we're not gonna let you steal it from us".

What gets me is we stole the holiday from someone else. For those who haven't taken church History or who were sleeping during it, because of the persecution of the Church in the 1st few centuries AD Christians would use pagan holidays and celebrations as their times of celebration. For example Christmas was assigned the date of December 25 after the last Great persecution (c.330). Prior to this date the birth of Christ was celebrated at different dates each year (http://www.nisbett.com/holidays/christmas_date_and_origin_of.htm).


So really we have no rightful claim to December 25. Sure some people have argued this is the actual birth date of Christ, but we don't know for sure, and allot of other people were born on December 25th does this mean they're not allowed to celebrate their birthdays too?

In case you think I'm saying we need to start saying, "Happy Holidays", I'm not!! I am saying we need to get ride of this "It's our holiday" mentality and realize there are other religions using the date too. Still say "Merry Christmas" and if people get offended, we live in a land of religious freedom, it's about time Christians started having some.

If we really wanna make an impact, I say we stop celebrating on December 25th and move the date to some obscure time of the year, like May or something. Then sales rapidly decline because even "name only Christians" would follow suit. We would disturb the false god, "The almighty Dollar" and Then the TaD worshippers will quickly follow.

For Narnia!!

I recently watched Chronicles of Narnia and here are a few symbolic things to remember from the book to make your viewing more memborable.

Symbolism
Aslan = Christ
Aslan's breathe = Breath of life
Deep Magic = The Law
Lamp Post = beginning of spiritual journey
Stone Table = Temple Curtain
Turkish Delight = The lure of sin
Wardrobe = entrance into spiritual realm
Winter = Adamic Depravity/Reign of Sin
Witch = Satan
Witch's Staff = Death

I'm sure there is more symbolism that I missed so feel free to share with me others. I'm going to see it 2 more times so I'd love to have new stuff to think about as I watch it.


(http://www.canmag.com/images/front/lap/narnia.jpg)

Worshipping 2 Goo

By now we have all fallen in love with the Goo Goo Dolls new single, Better Days. I've found there are some pretty spiritual messages in the song. I'm not talking about God is in the trees type spirituality. I'm talking arugeably sound Christian doctrine The chorus goes like this:

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again
And it's someplace simple where we could live
And something only you can give
And thats faith and trust and peace while we're alive
And the one poor child that saved this world
And there's 10 million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

Driving home from town tonight I let the Goo Goo Dolls lead me in worship as I praised God for the forgiveness he made possible through his son, the one poor child, who saved this world. I also praised him for allowing us to be a part of his plan for salvation, by carrying the message of salvation to others. During this worship session they reminded me I am the only one who can give my faith, trust, and peace. No one else can do these things for me. They are my responsibility to exercise.

Their song reaffirmed the truth I believe and challenged me to fulfill my role in God's plan.

How many worship services can we say do that?

Simple Things

(www.http://tsn.ca/cfl/)
I am currently celebrating the Edmonton Eskimos' Grey Cup Win!! For those of you who are anti-CFL... I'll pray for you!

I have been an Eskimos' fan since 1994, and many times I have watched them go to the Grey Cup and, in heart break, the same amount of times lose by a touchdown or less. The one time they won since I've been a fan, I was in Zambia and couldn't even watch a minute of it.

So this year, I made sure I was home to watch the game! They controlled the game early but some how with 2 minutes left they were down by 5. My heart raced, as thoughts of "NOT AGAIN!!" went through my head. Then they scored and went for 2 to go up by 3. The Alouettes, were able to tie it up and send it into Overtime. As I stood hunched over the TV, less 6 inches away, I watched the teams trade points on the first series of Overtime.
The Eskimos were stopped short of a Touchdown on the next series and had to settle for a fieldgoal, and the doubts of not again began to return. However. whne the Alouettes got the ball, the Eskimos' defense stopped the Alouettes cold and on their final down, 3rd and 31, the Alouettes Quartback ran and kicked in desparation, as they came up short. I jumped and quietly screamed (didn't wanna bother the rents).

So all this week, as simple as it may seem. I am going to be celebrating my Edmonton Eskimos' Grey Cup Win!

Motion

How long has it been since we've been passionate about the ministry God has called us to?

Thinking back to the first time I was hunting for a ministerial position. I wonder how much of my quest was fueled by a genuine desire to be in a place of ministry, which is within God's will and plan, verses a desire to just be in a church.

When I initionally had my denominational interview about becoming a pastor, something I shared about my calling into full-time ministry is "I couldn't imagine doing anything else and being happy". A few years older and perhaps a little bit wiser. I would say it's not enough to want be in full-time ministry. What is essential is to know our place in full-time ministry is within God's will. A will that could have a multitude of possibile places or simply 1 option.

Motions of Ministry
For us to serve in a church out of our own desire to be in ministry would be dangerously close to sin. A sin against God and his people, and ourselves. How can we consume a position of ministry we know is not within God's will for us, simply so we can be in ministry? Consider this, by maintaining a position of ministry, we know is not our place in God's will, is to go through the motions of ministry. In going through the motions we hinder and work against God's will. God has a better place for us in his divine plan and the place you currently hold belongs to another.

Ministry in Motion
Ministry in motion is to seek not only a place to minister but the place God has for us in his plan. Think of it as a train yard. There are hundreds of trains going different direction all for the same purpose, to get people where they need to go. Instead of jumping on a train and trying to make it go your direction, look at the direction God's already taking the train, then jump on board the train going in your direction.


The introspective question of the week: Are we going through the motions of ministry or are we ministry in motion?

Complacent Mediocrity

So I've been tearing up this book, The Youth Builder, by Mike DeVries & Jim Burns. Some of you would have had it for required reading or collateral reading in a youth course, if you went to Bethany. Well, I was not one of you, but was blessed to have it given to me. The book has allot of practical ideas and principles drawn from years of youth ministry experience. It's not the Bible of youth ministry or anything, just a very valuable resource. Kindof of like Maguyver's swiss army knife.

As I was reading today, I was deeply convicted about something. I was convicted about how we go about ministry half heartedly. As long as things are running smooth, what we're doing is good enough. We shouldn't live in a constant depression of inadequacey, but we should always have in our mind, "What needs to happen for us to go the next mile?"

This life of ministry we have isn't about achieving a certain standard. It's not about numbers. It's not about programs. It's not about being trendy.It's about impacting lives for Christ, the best way we know how.
.
Those of us who think our ministry is "good enough" are falling to fulfil our responsbility to God and those he has entrusted to us. If we are at this point we need to ask 3 things.

1) Is my heart right?
2) Am I in the right ministry?
3) Am I in the right place?

With a "good enough" ideology we are a parked cars in the middle of the freeway. So we'd better get our tires spinning or get off the freeway!

Consumer Christ

Like most youth leaders of the Atlantic District, I was at Booster this weekend, which in my opinion was the best Booster I've been too. The speaker was Matt LeRoy. At the last rally he talked about the Cost of following Christ. This got me thinking about how we've watered down the Gospel. We tell people about how easy it is to accept Christ and then once we get them committed we start telling them about what God requires of those who follow him.

Please understand I am not intending to preach salvation by works. I do believe God freely gave himself for us, and it is only through Christ we are saved.

We sell Christ to our teens and THEN start telling them, "Now that you've accepted Christ, he requires you to do this and that". We're the fine print people.
"For only one easy prayer you can have eternal life and your own Personal Saviour. Now that you have eternal life here's what's required of you by your new Lord & Savior".

We need to be more clear about what God requires of us in the long run from the beginning. I gotta question my integrity if I don't let people know upfront Christ requires our whole heart and not just a 5 minute prayer.

When I look at Scriptures like II Peter 2:21-23, telling us how it's better for those who accept Christ and turn away to have never known him and then passages like, "Whoever sets his face to the plough and looks back is not fit for service in the Kingdom of God". I gotta wonder what God's gonna say to us when we stand before him.

By presenting a Consumer Christ, we attributed to Consumer Christians, who sign up for their free trial, and then when it starts to cost, they give up.

From the other side of the Glass

Last Saturday, I went to an "Understanding Teens" seminar that was held up in Moncton, with one of my friends, who just happens to help with youth. The Seminar was geared toward parents, but I felt we could get some helpful insight by going.

As we sat there in the High School auditorium, something hit me, besides realizing we were almost the only 2 people there who weren't married and had a child. What hit me was how differently we look at things now that we are out in ministry.

Back at Bethany we were pretty well immersed in the hypothetical, with some practical. We went to class every day, most of us, and once a week helped out with or ran some sort of ministry. So our perspective of ministry was pretty much shaped by what we were told in textbooks.

The best way I can think to describe this comes from a junior high school memory. We used to have a class called Family Education, or something like that. In this class we'd spend time learning about the development of children and then after a few weeks we'd throw together a temporary day care. During these weeks there would be a time we would sit behind this one way mirror, you know the kind they have in jail, and watch the childrens' behavior. Then we'd paly Freud, Skinner, Piaget or some other psychologist and try to explain why they do certain things and how we should respond. This is pretty much what we did in our classes at Bethany

Now we find ourselves on the otherside of that glass. Now we're immersed in the practical and we dabble in the hypothetical. Other than the few seminars we hit or the books we read our perspectives are now being shaped by our experience.

Dance Around the Altar

I've been thinking over the last few weeks about "the power of the altar". It seems we, especially in The Wesleyan Church, have attributed some sort of "divine power" to the hunks of wood that sit at the front of the sanctuaries of our churhes. We seem to have this subconcious drive, "if we can only get them to the altar, then we can fix them!" or "If I go to the altar I will get fixed!"

When you combined this mentality with the reality that many speakers' effectiveness is measured by the amount of people who flood the altars at the end of the message, we find a sensationalize altar. We're guilty of what I call "Dancing around the altar". We have a desire to enter into a deeper relationship with God, we're caught in some sin, or we're struggling to demonstrate certain fruit of the Spirit so we go to the altar, we pray, and we expect to magically have everything fixed.

We've forgotten that the change does not need to happen at the altar, it needs to happen in our hearts. We expect to rise from the altar and to float away on some glorious cloud. Then when we're faced with the battle of demonstrating the fruit or resisting the temptation we think we need to go back to the altar because we didn't get fixed the first time.

Speaking as one who has done this altar dance, it breaks my heart to see brothers/sisters do the same thing I did. I'd work myself into an emotional frenzie and weep at the altar. I cry out to God about the same thing for the 100th time, stand up, hug a friend and leave unchanged. "The Altar Dance". I would go through these actions like some magic ritual hoping this time it took. Thinking all I need to do is go to the altar and that'll fix everything. NO! We need to get serious about the issues we are dealing with. Faith is acting on what we believe! The heart change does not happen at the altar it begins when we stand up from the altar and start acting according to what we believe.

Wellington Mara (1916-2005)

"My magnificent Creator has seen fit to give me a long life and a large family and he has used them to show me crystal clearly the sanctity and invariability of life and for that I am forever thankful to him" (1997 Hall of Fame Induction Speech).

For those of you disinterested and uninvolved in the American Football world, you'll have no idea who Wellington Mara is, to be honest, I knew him only as a name, until his death yesterday was announced. Wellington Mara started as a ball boy and eventually became the owner of the New York Giants. For 81 years he was involved in the Giants' organization and saw 6 Superbowl Championships.

During the interviews one of the things that stuck out to many people was his uncompromising faith. He was known as a religious man and when the Giants won the SuperBowl in 1986 instead of having champagne they had Pepsi (should have been coke).
Tiki Barber, the Giants running back had the blessing to visit with Wellington the night before his death and pray with him.

This Post is dedicated to all the men in pro sports, like Wellington, who live a life committed to Christ in a world full of compromise. With the steroids scandals and the domestic disputes, it is tempting to lay down the cross to hoist the Trophy. To those who have continued to carry their cross from home, to the field, and into the locker room. I thank you for being a light in a dark world.

Remembering December

For those of you who don't know, over the past year or so I have developed a love for a little known Ontario band called Hawk Nelson. They're a punk band who encorporate girls, politics, and Christ into Rock-Awesome songs. Songs that penetrate my heart. One of their songs, From Underneath, slices deep into my heart. The part of the song that captures me every time goes, "I'm reaching out to take my Father's hand. Do you remember that cold day in December, leaving everything you knew behind?"

When we look at our relationship with Christ each of us can think back to our own personal " cold day in December". A time in our lives when God asked us to lay down our plans and venture out on the path he has for us. Like Abram we left everything familar behind to pursue what God has for us. We may have only had one "December Day" or we may have had multiple, with each "Day" calling us to a deeper or more sacrifical commitment. When I look back at my "December Day" and remember the things and pathes I left behind, there is both a peace and a thankfulness that accompanies those memories. Even though the path I have taken still isn't my ideal, I know it's a path the Lord has forged for me. The peace comes because I know I am in the Lord's will and the thankfulness comes from the knowledge I am not the man I was.

What memories do you have of your "December Day"s?

This Broken Life

Last night I was talking to a close friend of mine about life and basically where we are at with God. We were honest about our relationship with God and posed the questions were suppose to have all figured out. We weren't looking for answers; we were looking for our hearts to be heard.

For an hour we took off the clergy camoflage and told each other we weren't perfect, we don't have all the answers, and we still have doubts.
I think one of the greatest detrements to the message of Christ, is those of us who stand at our pious pulpits and pretend we have it all figured out.

When life doesn't go as planned, we have a crisis of faith, as minute as it may seem. In those moments there is a dark place of the heart where we ask, "Is God really in control?", "Does God really love me?" or "Am I praying to a religious creation?". Whether the thoughts originate in our heart, or come from an exterior source they are there and it is in these crisises our faith is challenged.

I'd like to say these questions come, but once, and being answer never reappear, however, each of us knows when the light dims for a moment our faith is shaken.

I don't know where we got this idea that our Walk with Christ is easy. The Bible doesn't tell us that, Church History doesn't tell us that, not even the Media tells us that. Maybe it's left over dreams of our ancestors, who jumped on a ship and set sail for "The New World" in search of freedom from persecution.

It's not until we allow these dreams of a utopic life to die in the origin of their sin that we will ever see daylight. When we come to Christ most of us are looking for a good cleaning and a little mending here and there, never realizing our true brokenness. It is in the reality of our broken life that we are usable. So long as we hold to our self-adequacy and the mentality that "I'm not that bad" we are useless to the cause of the cross. It is in the broken life God works.

My prayer to God is: This Broken life I have held so close protecting it from your healing touch. I release my grip from This Broken Life and ask you to do as you please.

It's a pretty simple concept, I think we need to revisit more.

Hangin' up the gloves

After perhaps the main event of the night, I have decided to hang up my gloves! Most of you know about my playful aggressive nature and for the most part this has always been more play than aggressive.

Well, at youth on Friday we were having the Amazin' Race, not the Amazing Race, for copyright infringement purposes, and we recruited some extra volunteers to run events. So before anything started I was upstairs talking to some people when I got jokingly jumped by one of the volunteers. We wrestled, I got some carpet burn, but everything seemed normal so I went on my merry way and talked to some parents before goin' back inside to check on the teens. When I went back inside the teens came running downstairs to tell me one of the leaders had broken another leader's nose.

I ran upstairs and see a pool of blood on the carpet and the involved parties trailing off to the bathroom. I follow them and eventually get the 411, so to speak, of what went down. When I was wrestling with one of the leaders I had given him a concussion, he has a history of them, and was feeling dizzy. What made things worse is the other leader had come in, not knowing about the dizziness, and jumped on the back of the leader, who has the concussion. The leader with the concussion, lifts the other leader above his head and begins to spin. He looses his footing and trying to put the other guy down, drops him on his face, breaking his nose.

Seeing all the damage I've caused just by wrestling, I am going to attempt to hang up my fighting gloves.

HomoSEXuality Sells

Yesterday, I was doin' my usual newspaper reading, in the usual spot, and as I sat there I began to fume with what I hope was righteous indignation. The largest headline read in huge bold font, "NDP elect Lesbian Leader". I think that's an exact quote, my vision may have been blurred by rage. It wasn't just the title that bothered me, it was the caption alongside it. The new leader stood between her mentally delayed son and some "older lady".

It was the blatant advocation of sin by the NDP party that initially provoked my anger. Then the caption seemed so phony, pushed me dug a little deeper as she pavarotsically prostituted her son. Then there was the media who took the opportunity to try and instigate a fight.The gay and lesbian community screams for equal and human rights, while the media is encourage to take every opportunity to Fly the rainbow flag. What is so equal about allowing one's sexuality to define them? It seems to be selling a lifestyle rather than equality.

As Canada etches out her path to Sodom, I wonder how long we'll allow ourselves to be drug along like passive resistant asses. If we would stop allowing our fear of being perceived as self-righteous and intolerant to silence us, would we be able to delay our countries deprivation?

The Exorcism of North America

The Exorcism of Emily Rose speaks to both beleivers and doubters alike. Terry Mattingly is quoted as saying " (it's purpose is to) make believers think twice about what they believe and doubters have doubts about their doubts.” in Plugged in Movie Review by Focus on the Family.

After watching this movie something glarred me in the face, and it didn't have horns or red eyes. It was the realization that our culture is obsessed with the spiritual realm, and yet denies it's true existence. Just count the number of movies in, and coming into, theatres related to the subject and you'll see what I mean.

C.S. Lewis said, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors."

As Father Moore said, “Demons exist whether you believe in them or not.” So I wonder how pleased they are with our Culture, who has the "best of both extremes. We disbelieve in devils, and yet feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them?