Dreams Unlocked

The song "Gimme Shelter" has been used by Martin Scorsese in all 3 of his "gangster" films: Goodfellas, Casino and the most recent, The Departed. In anticipation for the Stones concert this Friday (which has now been postponed until the 25th because Mick's doctor told him to rest his throat) I have been listening to a lot of Stones. As I was walking down Nelson this afternoon, the familiar Gimme Shelter was in my ears. There was some construction ahead of me, with smoke pouring out of a machine - it seemed to fit the ominious tones of this song. This was one of those days where I packed a lot in and came home fairly wasted. Still found the energy to take Adam trick or treating in his Frog outfit (which he hates). IN Yaletown, since there are no real houses you can trick or treat at - just apts., all the local businesses give out candy - it was so cool to see all these kids trick or treating in all the stores which were all decorated up. Adam was cold, and might ...

GO RIDERS. Went for lunch with Felicia and Adam at the Salty Tongue Deli in Gastown. Pretty decent grub, plus they have my favourite tea of all time - Bewley's Irish Breakfast tea. I got turned on to it in Dublin, and now I have a local supplier. The lady, Erin who owns the place is super nice. We got into a long chat about Ireland. She has a 9 mth. old and a 3 yr. old - I said that's where we're going to be in a year! After that, I had a Black Velvet at the Irish Heather next door. It was nice. Then caught an afternoon showing of The Queen with Helen Mirren. She should definitely get a best actress nomination for this role. It was a pretty amazing film. You all have plenty of links to keep you happy for awhile.

Unused photo from the Globe and Mail shoot. So, last night and all day today I was on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Quite auspicious surroundings for church council/pastors meetings! there were stunning views of the North Shore mountains, Stanley Park and the downtown buildings. The meetings were lengthy, exhausting and a lot of work. Basically, FBC has been on a year long journey of crafting its vision statement and core values - we did it with the assistance of a coach from Outreach Canada. We are coming down the home stretch and needed to hammer out everything for presentation to the congregation. Today was the first day that I have begun to feel lighter and ready to resume the work. Although still feeling wounded from this whole mess, I'm ready to limp on. It's true: Sunday,Monday - elation at finally reaching a goal of holding a first@night service in a trendy nightclub - excitement at getting press coverage - even thoug...

This is the pic that accompanied an article that appeared on the Globe and mail today. I haven't been able to get an on-line copy because I am not a subscriber and it costs 4 or 5 bucks for a single article! This article is much fairer then the previous one, with the reporter simply stating the facts. I think I am in some kind of low-grade depression right now - the grey weather isn't helping either. I don't have much desire to leave the apt. and see other people. The support and prayers of my friends has been incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you. There are those from within the body that have been more critical of the whole situation - including a couple of people that have no clue what took place in the initial conversation with the Sun reporter, who offered their advice on what I should and shouldn't have said. Anyways, I can see how God has been caring for my character through this whole thing. Initially I wanted to avenge my name and state where I am coming ...

First (and possibly last) service at Bar None. I took the day off - sort of - ended up getting my photo taken for the globe and mail to go with a story about churches meeting in non-traditional spaces. Picked up a new video projector for first@night. Did some paper-work at the church - doesn't sound like a day off, after all! Still processing my thoughts and reactions. Big love to all of you who have given me suggestions on what to do and all of you who said you were praying - my inbox is overflowing!!!! I still feel pretty crummy when I think about it. At this point I don't think I am going to write an editorial or go after the reporter. It would just be coming from a dark place inside of me - it would be devoid of grace. I am praying that I can work something out with the club, but still need wisdom on how to do that. I have to come to terms that this was a major journalistic attack - a journalist who had a set agenda, set a trap and I fell into it. In my naiv...

So.... after a morning of encouragement and prayers and excitement with the pastoral staff at FBC, I was walking home, checking the messages on my cel. The manager of Bar None had called. I called him back. He asked me how it went - I said it was incredible, how did it go from your end? He said that he hadn't expected the "s**t-storm" he went through yesterday. I asked him what he meant. He said that they got some nast phone-calls yesterday in response to the Vancouver Sun article. He went on to explain that their clientele is both gay and straight, thus my comment on homosexuality was not appreciated. As a result Bar None can no longer work with first@night and we can not meet there anymore. I was crushed. I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. I asked him if there was anything I could do, explained that the reporter kept pressing me to discuss sexuality, that there are gays in our congregation! But, he said the decision was made. I am praying for a change of ...

The following is an article that ran in the Vancouver Sun: Evangelical church gets its message out at trendy Yaletown nightspot Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun Published: Monday, October 23, 2006 VANCOUVER -- On Friday night, Bar None -- the trendy Yaletown nightclub -- featured "world class house" music. On Saturday, it played dance hits until 3 a.m. And on Sunday night, it was the Baptists. First at Night, a youth congregation associated with the First Baptist Church, held its first service at the nightclub Sunday night in an effort to attract more young people to the church. Some might think it a little strange for a conservative evangelical church -- one that thinks sex before marriage is a sin -- to rent space in a place that, to be frank, has probably contributed to more than its share of premarital couplings. Santosh Ninan, First at Night's 35-year-old pastor, acknowledged it was a bit of a tough sell when he presented the idea to the full congregation at Sunday mor...

So tomorrow is the big day. We have our first service at Bar None. After months of prayer and fruitless phone calls and e-mails, one dream is finally being realized. Sometimes I just can not believe it is happening. We are meeting in the most popular night club in Yaletown to hold a church service!!!! This is so surreal. Thank you God for being so faithful to our stumbling, bumbling attempts to service you. Please pray for us. Or better yet join us if you are in Vancouver. Its at 6:30 tomorrow night at 1222 Hamilton Street just off of Davie. I just finished my message on what gives meaning to life. I have to admit it looks pretty good. Pray that the Spirit empowers my words, so that they are more then just words travelling through the air - that they are LIFE from the Spirit.

Neat picture of Adam. You can see his reflection in the mirror. Been running around like crazy getting ready for this Sunday night. We have our first service at Bar None nightclub. I vaccilate between excitement and anxiety - what if no one shows up? sheesh Had dim-sum with Felicia and Adam today. That's always fun. Please pray for our service on Saunday. Pray for: people to come the worship band from Surrey my message - "The Purpose of Life" that this would be the spark that would ignite a dynamic movement of the gospel throughout downtown Vancouver and beyond that God's Spirit would go ahead of us and fully enter Bar none, so that we just have to enter to what he is already doing in the hearts and minds of people in Yaletown

I started my day off giving a brief announcement about first@night at the 2 morning services of First Baptist Church. At the 9:00 service the pastor who was supossed to introduce me, forgot. So while the choir was singing I sidled over to our senior pastor to ask him what I should do. He said to go up right after the choir. So I did - the response was tepid to say the least. I got one guy to sign up to volunteer, but he has 2 kids and lives in Port Moody, so I'm pretty sure I'll never see him again. By the 11:00 service, the pastor that forgotm, remembered so I made the announcement without looking like I was a party crasher. The response was amazing - they clapped!!! Wow - that felt good. And then 12 people said they were interested in helping us out as we transition into Bar None next week. So that's pretty cool. Came home and spent some time with the family. We had a guest speaker at first@night but because of our drama from yesterday I chose to stay with Felicia. I coor...

This morning Felicia phoned and said she was going to the hospital because she wasn't feeling well. This is wierd - she WORKS in a hospital and she phones from another hospital!!! So I get me and Adam all ready and we head over to St. Paul's and we wait, and wait and wait. I have to confess - Adam was amazing this whole time! He didn't complain, cry or get upset about having to wait in a little room for his mom. And... he barely had anything to eat! - what a great kid. As I was walking towards Felicia's room, I looked over to my right and who do i see but mini-me himself, verne troyer, being helped on to a hospital bed by paramedics. There was also a teenage army cadet in there for some reason. Mini-me and I stared at each other as I walked by. As I took Adam in and out of the room mini-me and I stared at each other twice. I was feeling kind of sorry for him because there was no one with him. He was just kinda lying there - he always looked at me when I walked by - prob...

I saw Bob Dylan in concert on Wednesday night. It was fantastic. Ran into Mark from church - there was an empty seat next to me so he sat with me. Dylan played one of my favourite all time songs: "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding." What an amazing guy - 65 years old and still so relevant. What shocked me at this concert was that 30% of the audience were under 25. What an awesome time. Last 2 days I have been in denominational meetings related to church health and planting. They were a mixture of excitement and frustration. Excitment at the propsect of planting missional churches across western canada. Frustration at some of the "hoops" that must be jumped to reach the goals. Tonight a bunch of the other pastors came over to my place to watch the Riders game. What a nail biter! Riders pulled it off with a field goal in the final seconds.

So we are back in Vancouver now. The soreness is starting to wear off. The pic on the bottom is me getting ready to go. The pic above is me 5 hours later enjoying a post-race donut. MMMMMMM - donuts. What is interesting is how many sugary carbalicous stuff they have post-race: donuts, cookies, jello pudding. I guess our bodies are craving the quick energy rush of sugar and carbs after the race. I like my pre-race pic - I look all glowy. Well - I have to say I am hooked. I just ordered a book on how to run a marathon in under 4 hours. I am also planning to do a 10 km. race and a half marathon in the next couple of months. I also hope to do another marathon in the spring. Tomorrow I'll have to pack a lot of work in. On Thursday and Friday I have full days of meetings at Carey with Church Health and Planting - both for BC and the larger body for western Canada. I am reading a Maclean's magazine that came out earlier this year with the results of a nation-wide poll. It is quite eye...

I finished my first marathon today!!! I had hoped to run between 4-4.5 hrs. but..... ended up doing it in 5. I was a tad disappointed in my time but very proud that I completed the entire 26.2 miles. Running a marathon is both a physical and mental battle. You need to be in pretty good physical shape but the mental battle is quite something. I really had to talk myself through many kilometeres. I would say things like - "how awesome is it going to be when you reach 30 kms, then 35, then 37 and then 40. At about 28 kms. I was really hurting and had to walk for about 5 minutes. At the 35 km. mark I was just mad at myself and kept yelling at myself to keep going -sometimes out loud. I crossed the line fairly strong - Felicia got it on video which was pretty cool. I was soooooo sore after! I had a post-race maddage which helped a lot. I ran into an old friend Rick Smith who runs lots of marathons. Spent the afternoon recovering. We head home tomorrow and will post more pics then. sn

In exactly 10 hours I will be at the start of the Victoria Marathon, staring down 26.2 miles. I am trying to relax right now so I can get a decent night's sleep. I have all my running gear ready to go. We had a 2 ferry wait at Tsawassen. For all you non-BC people, that translates to about 2.5 hours of waiting to get on the big boat. Adam totally lost it after awhile. poor fella. When we got in to Victoria my mom called to tell me that she and my dad were in town! They flew in all the way from Regina to support me in my first marathon! How awesome is that! I picked up my race package at the Victoria Conference Center and then Felicia and I went to a special dinner for the marathon at the Empress Hotel. There was a New Balance fashion show and a motivational speaker. The speaker was a doctor and marathoner who had had like 5 major injuries! He was ok. I will let you know what happens tomorrow - if I'm still around.

It's 1 in the morning. I work at 8 tomorrow. I should be sleeping, but here I am pounding on the keyboard. Why? Because of you dear reader - feel the love. Did a 6 hour shift at the festival today. Picked up the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival - quite a lovely woman named Rachel Rosen and a young Israeli director who shot a film in India! Also dropped off a totally hilarious director from Buenos Aries who thought it was very cool that a pastor was his driver! I drove the producer of the Vancouver Film Festival to her doctor's appointment. She kept telling me to slow down and was quite impressed with the GPS in the car. Tonight I saw the Pixies documentary Loudquietloud with Dale. It was very cool. What a seminal band! We got a new dining table set, 6 chairs and I got a desk for my office - all delivered this morning. What is interesting is that I thought for sure the desk was twice the size of the one that was delivered. I really needed a desk that I could keep the l...

Saw the movie John and Jane today. It is about call center operators in Mumbai. It documents the lives of 5 of them - all have different attitudes toward their job. One hates it, another sees it as a way to help him reach his goal of becoming a billionaire. One girl is a christian and there is an extended scene in her church - New Life Fellowship - I have actually been to this church and know the pastor! There was about a 3 minute scene of people worshipping, singing the song "hungry, i come to you" which I'm sure some of you will be familiar with. As I sat in the packed theater I wondered how this was affecting the people around me. I could venture to guess most of them were not believers. How would they respond to this? I sensed the Spirit in the scene. Would this awaken something in them - a longing, a passion, a "rumour of glory"? Anyways - it was a good film, had some timing and editing problems - but enjoyable none the less. Had my last run before the mar...

This is a sad picture. These are the first 2 parking meters on our street. There has always always been free parking in front of our building. Now the city has put up these stinking meters. These two seem to have come up out of nowhere overnight. Thank you for all your kind comments for the previous post. Gave me a chance to see who is reading this thing. Please post more - or e-mail me directly to spread the love. Worked at the festival yesterday. Ran some errands and picked up a producer from London. There was not much driving at one point, so I was asked to help the caterer. I brushed pita bread with olive oil. I arranged spanokapita on plates. The food was for the nightly reception they have for guests of the festival. I want to go to things like that! Free food, free Stella, free wine! There is a lot of stuff donated to the festival - boxes arrive daily - pocky, granola bars, san pellegrino water. Last night and today were my first chances to see films. So here they are along wit...