If we were going to be missionaries, say in Kenya, we would take seriously our need of entering another land, other cultures (one or more of scores of tribes and clans and sub-cultures), learning t
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Pop culture - a great number of conversations intermingling, vying for attention.
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Things may be awful at the time, but it gets better. Later, we reflect and note again the feelings, the sense of loss, the anger, the disappointment.
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Every year a few scraggly tulips come up in our front garden. We never planted them. There was only one there our first spring, years ago now.
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Sometimes you just don't know what to do next, which way to turn.
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So, there are all those cliches about how all the colours – even the ones that initially don’t seem to fit, actually do come together someow, often quite beautifully, in the tapestry of our lives.
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I have a friend who is ‘off the scale’ when they do tests about people being active, as opposed to those who, I suppose like me, are more contemplative.
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Sometimes it’s true – ‘You can’t get there from here !’ – not yet anyway. But who says it’s necessarily the end, or not possible, ever? Let's get underway!
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I think of the words of Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche Communities (one of which is in Richmond Hill, Toronto) as I ponder how the church is best built up to strengthen people and bless the ho
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What does it mean that in following after God's purposes for our lives, we remember that as Jesus was sent to our world, so are we?
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We need to beyond the goals of having good leadership and healthy churches to an enabled ministry that actually transforms the communities in which we live and serve.
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I wrote this a few yhears ago, when my Dad died.
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In several of Toronto's 'gateway communities' - places of entrance to life in Canada (such as Regent Park, Thorncliffe Park Village and St.
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There are lots of things that can contribute to making a bad day. I am beginning to be really frustrated by the level of congestion found in driving in Toronto.
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Some questions and suggestions for Christians, pastors, leaders - as we try to move forward in ministry . . .
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I am pleased to note the many new and emerging expressions of Christian faith and community.
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Celtic Christian Spirituality, a book by Oliver Davies and Fiona Bowe that I picked up during last year’s visit to the Iona Community in Scotland, continues to speak to my soul.
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There’s got to be a point or a ‘so what?’ aspect beyond our having good leadership and healthy churches.
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Pilgrims walk together, or sometimes alone, sometimes pressed forward even pushed by those who are eager to get ahead. We all start on the road in the same way.
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Any saint with a dream for your part of the nation ?
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The 'modern age' assumed that we could control, predict and pressure into conformity all that we wanted to be and to do, pressing foward as we have been toward preferred outcomes for the life, meas
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I take for granted being able to sit down at table with friends and family - in the warmth of a cozy house in mid-winter, with all of the provision for both need and pleasure.
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A few years ago, I gathered with national Canadian Baptist leaders to think about missional leadership.
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The path I walk, Christ walks it.
May the land in which I am be without sorrow.
May the Trinity protect me wherever I stay, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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What kind of church is helpful, relevant, noticed, needed in its community?
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It's difficult for us Christians to actually live Christianly, incarnationally, seeking Kingdom values, trying to follow and work with Jesus in building community in our neighbourhood.
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On a trip to Turkey I visited the seven churches to which, initially, was written New Testament's Book of Revelation, as well as such ancient centres as Troy, Assos, Constantinope (Istanbul), Hiera
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One always wonders what’s just around the bend.
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Unlike the warmth and splendour enjoyed and even taken for granted in some parts of the world, at present, my garden and environs are encased in the cold white and grey of winter.
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Just feel like giving thanks and praising my Lord, today.
And I think about the helps that are given for those of us who want to do so.
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