after lisa and i go out and do a little more christmas shopping, we’re inviting over our spiritual friends from france. i have a pic of one here. his name is kronenbourg. he’s not that spiritual: only about 5%. but spiritual enough for me. especially this time of year. he’s really quite refreshing because i’ve gotten so used to western spirits. this guy opens up quite easily, is quite bubbly, but unfortunately gets drained in less than a half hour.... Read more
someone emailed me yesterday to say that she’d visited our church a couple of times a few years ago. i’ll keep her anonymous, but i want to tell you what she wrote. i hear from people once in a while and they all basically have the same thing to say. here’s what she said: I liked it! Very unpretentious, unthreatening, conversational, and communal. There was art on the wall, and people just interrupted you in the middle of your sermons... Read more
James D. and Evelyn Whitehead, in an article titled “The Spirit of Prophecy” (Spirituality Today), write: Prophets are those folk among us who dare to stop doing good. That is, they dare to be less busy, less consumed by the legitimate demands of the present day. Read more
Torrance, in his book Theological Science, writes a section I totally understand. Although I cannot prove the existence of God to anyone, including myself, he is more real to me than the food I eat. I can’t explain it, prove it, substantiate it, or persuade anyone of it. You can only know this by experience: If I may be allowed to speak personally for a moment, I find the presence and being of God bearing upon my experience and thought... Read more
so my 14 year old daughter comes home from school to tell my poor unsuspecting wife and i that the visiting sex-education teacher needed a volunteer, but since no one did, she picked my daughter casile for her lesson. she told her to put this condom on her arm. i’m like, WHAT!? ya, i tried a condom on over my arm! what the heck for? what’s the point of that? well, she wanted to prove to us girls that a... Read more
my good friend byron called to say he would be back in town and was i up for a visit. absolutely! he had been living here but has gone to Tyndale College in Toronto for his masters in family systems counseling. huge loss for us, great gain for the school. ANYWAY, Lisa cooked up her famous spaghetti casserole with salad, and we had some Sunrise Merlot (a good Chilean wine at an affordable price of $9.99!) so we sat around... Read more
Annie Dillard, in her classic Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, writes: Thomas Merton wrote, ‘There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.’ There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace,... Read more
this is the church i pastor. nothing pretty to look at. looks like a carpet warehouse. but we realize we are very lucky to even have a building. most churches don’t, considering the world at large. the building is very, very functional. there is nothing holy about it. or i should say that it is no more holy than, say, your house is. but it does the job! sparkling blue sky… in saint john that’s rare. inside is the worship... Read more
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