I'm not a baseball fanatic but I have enjoyed following along with the World Series. And I was also encouraged by this video testimony of a baseball player for the Texas Rangers, Josh Hamilton.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
World Series , World Class
Monday, March 29, 2010
Mission Trips
It is spring break here in Canada and a number of our youth groups are serving the Lord on mission trips around North and South America. May the God of grace and love fill your hearts with joy as you serve in Jesus' name!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Life-Giving Water
So these last few days I have been helping my wife out a little bit by taking a turn at teaching the "Africa" portion of their geography class. We have been going over the severe consequences across that continent because of unsafe drinking water...leading to epidemics of between 4000-6000 children dying everyday due to dysentery-related health issues.
In fact, the stats show that here in North America we consume as much as 80-100 liters of water per day per person, in the sub-Sahara region of Africa that number is only 4 liters. All of this has left us pretty solemn as we recognize how tough life is for so many people around the world and how easy we have it here.
This has got me thinking about our own spiritual lives here as well. While we often think that those in the least developed countries of the world are so needy physically, they must also be needy spiritually. But we have all heard it said that many of them would not trade their physical poverty for our spiritual poverty over here in the West.
How is it that living here in such a developed land we struggle so much with making Jesus the number one priority of our lives? The simple, and flippant, answer is that of course having more materially we have less need for God's intervention in our lives. And while this is accurate, and we recognize it, simply knowing it doesn't change anything in our lives unless we intentionally stand up against it.
As leaders you and I need to be modeling this for our brothers and sisters, for our students, and dare I say, for the community at large. For many of us, myself included, this will require a major shift in our priorities and a major sacrificial effort to make our lives a blessing to others and an act of worship to our Father in heaven!
By the way, here is a pretty cool link that shows how God has enabled it so that clean drinking water can be made available for millions of people for next to no financial investment.
In fact, the stats show that here in North America we consume as much as 80-100 liters of water per day per person, in the sub-Sahara region of Africa that number is only 4 liters. All of this has left us pretty solemn as we recognize how tough life is for so many people around the world and how easy we have it here.
This has got me thinking about our own spiritual lives here as well. While we often think that those in the least developed countries of the world are so needy physically, they must also be needy spiritually. But we have all heard it said that many of them would not trade their physical poverty for our spiritual poverty over here in the West.
How is it that living here in such a developed land we struggle so much with making Jesus the number one priority of our lives? The simple, and flippant, answer is that of course having more materially we have less need for God's intervention in our lives. And while this is accurate, and we recognize it, simply knowing it doesn't change anything in our lives unless we intentionally stand up against it.
As leaders you and I need to be modeling this for our brothers and sisters, for our students, and dare I say, for the community at large. For many of us, myself included, this will require a major shift in our priorities and a major sacrificial effort to make our lives a blessing to others and an act of worship to our Father in heaven!
By the way, here is a pretty cool link that shows how God has enabled it so that clean drinking water can be made available for millions of people for next to no financial investment.
Friday, March 19, 2010
College Bound...
How is the preparation for college going? Not for you, for your graduating seniors...have you done all that you can to prepare them for life beyond the youth group? Are they prepared to stand their ground in the university classrooms? Are their values grounded in Scripture so that they can respond positively to the temptations that come with living on their own? Do they have a purpose and a vision for where the Lord is leading them?
I realize that in many ways you, the youth leader, do not have much say in the choices they will be making in the coming months and years. In fact, their parents should and do have the most influence on their lives and hopefully they have been doing their best to prepare their children for this stage of life. And they themselves, as maturing individuals, are responsible for their own life choices.
But...you do still have an influence and you do still have some time left before they graduate. I would challenge you to be super-intentional in the next few months to set them on a path towards Jesus. Pray for them like crazy. Bless them and affirm them as often as you can. Give them gifts and spend a little extra one-on-one time with them. Speak tons of truth into their lives. Remind them repeatedly to spend time in God's Word.
And tell them most importantly that in order to walk in the ways of Jesus they must draw near to Him!
I realize that in many ways you, the youth leader, do not have much say in the choices they will be making in the coming months and years. In fact, their parents should and do have the most influence on their lives and hopefully they have been doing their best to prepare their children for this stage of life. And they themselves, as maturing individuals, are responsible for their own life choices.
But...you do still have an influence and you do still have some time left before they graduate. I would challenge you to be super-intentional in the next few months to set them on a path towards Jesus. Pray for them like crazy. Bless them and affirm them as often as you can. Give them gifts and spend a little extra one-on-one time with them. Speak tons of truth into their lives. Remind them repeatedly to spend time in God's Word.
And tell them most importantly that in order to walk in the ways of Jesus they must draw near to Him!
Monday, March 08, 2010
The Milky Way Galaxy!
Check out this very cool one-minute time-lapse video of our very own Milky Way Galaxy created by our awesome God!
The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.
Friday, March 05, 2010
A Word of Thanks...
As I end off this week, which has been filled with some great opportunities to interact with students, both on the junior high and senior high level, and also on the college level, I felt like I needed to pat some backs and share a pastoral word.
Having had the privilege of sitting in a youth event in nearly every one of our churches at one point or another over the past ten years, I can honestly say that the ministry that you, as a youth minister/pastor/worker/volunteer are doing is incredible. You deserve so many "thank you's" and I hope you are getting them. Your work/ministry/service/discipleship with the thousands of students across this great land of Canada is a testament to your passion for Jesus. Your faithfulness and obedience, despite the challenges/burdens/frustrations/stresses, tells me that if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you would have long ago thrown in the hat and moved onto something else.
THANK YOU! Students across the country thank you! Parents in our churches thank you! Pastors and church-board chairs thank you! The conference, for what it's worth, thanks you!
May you, this weekend, find energy/passion/love/joy/fulfillment/blessing as you once again engage in the eternal work of Kingdom building!
Having had the privilege of sitting in a youth event in nearly every one of our churches at one point or another over the past ten years, I can honestly say that the ministry that you, as a youth minister/pastor/worker/volunteer are doing is incredible. You deserve so many "thank you's" and I hope you are getting them. Your work/ministry/service/discipleship with the thousands of students across this great land of Canada is a testament to your passion for Jesus. Your faithfulness and obedience, despite the challenges/burdens/frustrations/stresses, tells me that if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you would have long ago thrown in the hat and moved onto something else.
THANK YOU! Students across the country thank you! Parents in our churches thank you! Pastors and church-board chairs thank you! The conference, for what it's worth, thanks you!
May you, this weekend, find energy/passion/love/joy/fulfillment/blessing as you once again engage in the eternal work of Kingdom building!
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Leading and Following...
I've had a fantastic past couple of weeks at work, most recently finishing off with spending yesterday evening with a youth group talking about missions and then this morning talking to a group of college students about missions some more.
While we do our best to get out and about as conference staff to connect with and listen to where things are at in our churches, obviously we don't always know. However, with that said, I think it would be fair to say that as office staff we are in agreement that there are some very exciting things happening in our conference these days. We sense a vision for outreach, a passion for ministry, a hunger for God and a willingness to get out of our comfort zones and serve. This is truly exciting!
As staff we have the unique role of both leading and following our constituency. We are asked to lead and empowered and blessed to do so. But we are also called to follow the direction of our people, enabling and facilitating the ministries in our churches. This balancing act is not always easy and certainly not boring.
With conference funding down over these last two years we have had to sharpen our pencils and downsize our budgets. Of course the negative fall-out is we that we have to decrease the ministry programing that has been in place for several years.
The positive out-come is that we are in an intense time of re-evaluating our conference initiatives on all levels. For me this includes our youth ministry programing as well as our missions activities. I believe that this evaluation process is going to be super-positive in the days and years ahead--positive for our churches and positive for those whom God will lead us to. I believe that the Holy Spirit is directing this challenge before us and I am excited about where He will lead us.
In the meantime, we are called to prayerfully serve, to shine our light on a hill, and to prepare for what is coming!
While we do our best to get out and about as conference staff to connect with and listen to where things are at in our churches, obviously we don't always know. However, with that said, I think it would be fair to say that as office staff we are in agreement that there are some very exciting things happening in our conference these days. We sense a vision for outreach, a passion for ministry, a hunger for God and a willingness to get out of our comfort zones and serve. This is truly exciting!
As staff we have the unique role of both leading and following our constituency. We are asked to lead and empowered and blessed to do so. But we are also called to follow the direction of our people, enabling and facilitating the ministries in our churches. This balancing act is not always easy and certainly not boring.
With conference funding down over these last two years we have had to sharpen our pencils and downsize our budgets. Of course the negative fall-out is we that we have to decrease the ministry programing that has been in place for several years.
The positive out-come is that we are in an intense time of re-evaluating our conference initiatives on all levels. For me this includes our youth ministry programing as well as our missions activities. I believe that this evaluation process is going to be super-positive in the days and years ahead--positive for our churches and positive for those whom God will lead us to. I believe that the Holy Spirit is directing this challenge before us and I am excited about where He will lead us.
In the meantime, we are called to prayerfully serve, to shine our light on a hill, and to prepare for what is coming!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Youth Are Difference-Makers!
This quote from Albert Mohler today caught my attention with regards to how local church vision (or lack thereof) affects, either positively or negatively, the vision of the wider Church...
On a national level we are grappling with how to 1) pass on the historic and biblical vision of the conference regarding outreach and expansion in church planting, together with 2) recognizing that national initiatives are to be in response to grass-roots vision among our local churches.
If, as Mohler surmises, his own denomination struggles to corporately serve in effective and substantial ways because of a lack of outreach vision at the local church level, I am not surprised that this may also be the case in our own churches.
However, I believe our issue as a Conference, though similar in part, is not so much about a lack of outward focus but perhaps it is more to do with an explosion of excellent opportunities at our fingertips. Some 60-plus years ago, the EMC missions program began as a result of a lack of good options where people could sign up to serve.
I would suggest that today the issue is not that the vision for outreach is lost, but rather the ownership of a local and relevant mission program has dissolved over the years. And I think the reason is that people in my generation have done little to pass it on to the next generation of youth.
Today, when I speak to students and observe them in action, serving in their local churches and moving into cross-cultural situations with relative ease, I am convinced of two things...
1) This generation is responding in HUGE ways to the Spirit's call upon their lives to be ambassador's for the King, and
2) They are also desperately needing a high level of intense preparation and equipping so that they can engage in Kingdom ministry with a greater level of victory.
Youth pastors, I again affirm your incredible service with these students and pray that you are trusting in God on a daily basis to guide you as you build into their lives with an eye to the difference-makers they will be!
Add to the low level of family giving (2%) the fact that the average Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) church retains 94% of funds in local ministry [means that] most money stays home. That [also] means that the denomination CANNOT do what our churches WILL NOT do. Each church has to own a missional identity.
On a national level we are grappling with how to 1) pass on the historic and biblical vision of the conference regarding outreach and expansion in church planting, together with 2) recognizing that national initiatives are to be in response to grass-roots vision among our local churches.
If, as Mohler surmises, his own denomination struggles to corporately serve in effective and substantial ways because of a lack of outreach vision at the local church level, I am not surprised that this may also be the case in our own churches.
However, I believe our issue as a Conference, though similar in part, is not so much about a lack of outward focus but perhaps it is more to do with an explosion of excellent opportunities at our fingertips. Some 60-plus years ago, the EMC missions program began as a result of a lack of good options where people could sign up to serve.
I would suggest that today the issue is not that the vision for outreach is lost, but rather the ownership of a local and relevant mission program has dissolved over the years. And I think the reason is that people in my generation have done little to pass it on to the next generation of youth.
Today, when I speak to students and observe them in action, serving in their local churches and moving into cross-cultural situations with relative ease, I am convinced of two things...
1) This generation is responding in HUGE ways to the Spirit's call upon their lives to be ambassador's for the King, and
2) They are also desperately needing a high level of intense preparation and equipping so that they can engage in Kingdom ministry with a greater level of victory.
Youth pastors, I again affirm your incredible service with these students and pray that you are trusting in God on a daily basis to guide you as you build into their lives with an eye to the difference-makers they will be!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Is God Testing Us?
Before I go further I wanted to mention that I had an excellent Valentine's Day long-weekend with my family. Thanks to the generosity of folks from our conference churches we enjoyed a night at a hotel in Winnipeg and supper and a very nice restaurant. The rest of the weekend was very relaxing and bonding for us as a family.
As I prepare for the conference summer short-term mission teams Destination: Canada, Mexico and China, a theme is emerging from my work. It is the idea that maybe God is testing us, his church, with regards to our faith and commitment. The reason I say this is that I am aware of a growing passion, particularly within this generation of students, to put their faith into action in faithful obedience. The challenge is that we seem to be in a time of economic stress and these two are at odds with one another, particularly from our modest stewardship eyes.
I wonder if God is testing his church to see if we will truly step out in faith and commit ourselves to go out and serve, both through evangelism and social justice, to a world that desperately needs Jesus before His second coming. And if this is a test, I think that our personal entitlement and self-preservation mindset is causing us to fail miserably. We are being much too short-sighted and selfish. We are slipping into idolatry, not trusting that God will sustain us. We are doubting his all-sufficiency. At its very core, can we be honest with ourselves and see where this path will lead...to sinful choices that undermine the very nature of our all-powerful God?
Perhaps I have taken this too far, but I am starting to think that our extravagant North American lifestyle has become our god at the expense of lost souls destined for eternity without God. On the one hand we pray for revival; we have a generation of youth who are responding to God's call upon their lives; we have economic resources that most people would envy, and yet...
The EMC has decided, because of a severe shortage of funds over these past two years, that we are going to make a pile of cuts to our budget. I am all for analyzing our spending and sharpening our pencils! But, one of the huge realities of this lack of funds is that in almost every category that deals with expansion, whether new mission fields, new missionaries, new church planters, new churches...each one of them is officially taking a back seat and we are shifting into maintenance mode. With the numbers that are before us we are having to decide what should be our priority, and unfortunately new outreach endeavours will likely be set aside.
My hope and prayer is that God will continue to have patience with us and that we will not miss this opportunity to shift our focus from ourselves to God's sufficiency and passionately and aggressively move forward with full confidence that God is leading the way!
As I prepare for the conference summer short-term mission teams Destination: Canada, Mexico and China, a theme is emerging from my work. It is the idea that maybe God is testing us, his church, with regards to our faith and commitment. The reason I say this is that I am aware of a growing passion, particularly within this generation of students, to put their faith into action in faithful obedience. The challenge is that we seem to be in a time of economic stress and these two are at odds with one another, particularly from our modest stewardship eyes.
I wonder if God is testing his church to see if we will truly step out in faith and commit ourselves to go out and serve, both through evangelism and social justice, to a world that desperately needs Jesus before His second coming. And if this is a test, I think that our personal entitlement and self-preservation mindset is causing us to fail miserably. We are being much too short-sighted and selfish. We are slipping into idolatry, not trusting that God will sustain us. We are doubting his all-sufficiency. At its very core, can we be honest with ourselves and see where this path will lead...to sinful choices that undermine the very nature of our all-powerful God?
Perhaps I have taken this too far, but I am starting to think that our extravagant North American lifestyle has become our god at the expense of lost souls destined for eternity without God. On the one hand we pray for revival; we have a generation of youth who are responding to God's call upon their lives; we have economic resources that most people would envy, and yet...
The EMC has decided, because of a severe shortage of funds over these past two years, that we are going to make a pile of cuts to our budget. I am all for analyzing our spending and sharpening our pencils! But, one of the huge realities of this lack of funds is that in almost every category that deals with expansion, whether new mission fields, new missionaries, new church planters, new churches...each one of them is officially taking a back seat and we are shifting into maintenance mode. With the numbers that are before us we are having to decide what should be our priority, and unfortunately new outreach endeavours will likely be set aside.
My hope and prayer is that God will continue to have patience with us and that we will not miss this opportunity to shift our focus from ourselves to God's sufficiency and passionately and aggressively move forward with full confidence that God is leading the way!
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
The Power of Media...
I used to watch a lot of movies and be familiar with many of the actors. In fact, I confess that I used to watch way too many movies and saw my fair share of immoral movies as well, containing profanity, sex, violence, demeaning lifestyles, vulgarities, and whatever else caught my attention. I would watch for personal pleasure and entertainment, to be sure. But I would often watch under the guise of cultural awareness, justifying to myself that I needed to see such and such a movie so as to understand what students are digesting these days or to identify the hidden spiritual message within.
I realize that others have various reasons for watching movies and for the most part that is between them and the Lord. I do know that my consumption was causing my heart to die and my relationship with my Saviour to be shredded to near uselessness. I tried to walk victoriously and maintain integrity, to serve faithfully and to empower others nobly...but it just didn't work. The momentary and superficial inspiration I received from these selfish choices pushed me farther and farther into sinking sand.
Several years ago the Holy Spirit graciously took me by the hand and pulled me out of the muck and mire and gave me an opportunity to start again with a clean slate. He opened my eyes to see his all-sufficiency and strengthened me to resist the lies of the enemy by helping me to fall in love with Jesus again. This led to several significant choices in my life, one of which I know for me was imperative for a God-honouring lifestyle...to set my heart on things above, not on earthly things, and this for me was a discerning limit to the input of secular media.
I praise the Lord that he has granted me power to resist the temptations the majority of the time. My input from secular media, whether movies, video games, music or television is probably about 1% of what it used to be, and I and my family are so much more spiritually alive because of that step of obedience. Though I still give in to temptation on occasion and set before my eyes what my flesh desires, I thank God that he has shown himself to be sufficient for me.
That is my story, certainly very different from yours. While I still question the media choices that other Christians make, God is regularly reminding me that not all his children have the same struggles, and it is not mine to judge, and that many people are able to remain spiritually strong despite what they consume. May the Lord strengthen you as you fuel up on his life-giving presence!
With all that said, I have embedded a little video that talks about lives that are transformed. Unfortunately God is not credited with the transformations, but he is still at work and ultimately is the one from whom all blessings flow.
I realize that others have various reasons for watching movies and for the most part that is between them and the Lord. I do know that my consumption was causing my heart to die and my relationship with my Saviour to be shredded to near uselessness. I tried to walk victoriously and maintain integrity, to serve faithfully and to empower others nobly...but it just didn't work. The momentary and superficial inspiration I received from these selfish choices pushed me farther and farther into sinking sand.
Several years ago the Holy Spirit graciously took me by the hand and pulled me out of the muck and mire and gave me an opportunity to start again with a clean slate. He opened my eyes to see his all-sufficiency and strengthened me to resist the lies of the enemy by helping me to fall in love with Jesus again. This led to several significant choices in my life, one of which I know for me was imperative for a God-honouring lifestyle...to set my heart on things above, not on earthly things, and this for me was a discerning limit to the input of secular media.
I praise the Lord that he has granted me power to resist the temptations the majority of the time. My input from secular media, whether movies, video games, music or television is probably about 1% of what it used to be, and I and my family are so much more spiritually alive because of that step of obedience. Though I still give in to temptation on occasion and set before my eyes what my flesh desires, I thank God that he has shown himself to be sufficient for me.
That is my story, certainly very different from yours. While I still question the media choices that other Christians make, God is regularly reminding me that not all his children have the same struggles, and it is not mine to judge, and that many people are able to remain spiritually strong despite what they consume. May the Lord strengthen you as you fuel up on his life-giving presence!
With all that said, I have embedded a little video that talks about lives that are transformed. Unfortunately God is not credited with the transformations, but he is still at work and ultimately is the one from whom all blessings flow.
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