Dreams Unlocked

Halloween!!! Rocking the Open Table Well, it's been quite a busy week on the Urban Sanctuary front. Sunday: Open Table. Real success - made lots of contacts in our building. Am still running into people that I met that night. Tuesday: Volunteered at shelter. Lots of fun. I served tea and coffee. Wednesday: Set up our table along the Trick or Treat route in Yaletown. We rented a helium tank and gave helium balloons to the kids, w some gum attached and a little not wishing them a happy halloween from Urban Sanctuary, w. our web-site on it. When the balloons ran out we gave out candy - whole chocolate bars! Not just the little Halloween bars. We gave out 100 balloons and 100 chocolate bars - next year I think we will plan for 400 balloons and no candy - the kids get candy everywhere, and the balloons were a big hit. By the way - this morning I ran into Dr. Bill McEwen. Dr. Bill is the leading addiction specialist in Vancouver. This guy has a heart of gold. Here he is, he is at the cre

Open Table is a concept that we have launched as a way to connect to the people in our buildings. It is basically just a community pot-luck. Just bring food and meet new people - the simplicity is blinding. So we had our first one tonight. I stood in the lobby a couple of nights this week and handed out flyers inviting people to come. We put up a couple of posters as well. We started at 6:00. At 5:55 I was riding the elevator and I turned to Brent and said.... what if nobody comes?!?!?!? Here, our little church community had pitched in to organize this thing - everybody giving their heart and soul.... and I was shaking at the prospect of us just staring at each other!!!! Well, by 6:10 we had 10 guests from our building!!! And the greatest thing was that everyone from Urban Sanctuary was engaged in conversation with all our neighbours!!! It was so amazing to see. I met everyone who came, and about 7 of the 10 left their contact info. for future events!!! Unreal. I am very happy with how

An anonymous poster has asked that I delete the video of Brandon. Should I delete it? Why? Why not?

I left the apt. at about 3 this afternoon to pick up a Starbucks and run some errands. I ran into this young person outside our building. Brandon was walking out into the street. (see below- that is our apt. building right across the street at the beginning of the video). With visions of the good Samaritan running through my head, I called 911, and told them what was happening. Then I got Brandon -(I honestly could not tell if he was a guy or a girl -I'll call him a he) to sit down with me, so he wouldn't be walking into traffic. His eyes were half closed, but I did manage to talk with him a bit. The amulance showed up, and they waited for a police cruiser to help them. I went to do my stuff and when I got back I saw them helping him into the ambulance. Pray for this troubled young man. What a sad reminder of what happens when we feed the flesh and starve the spirit. It was a real reality check for me, who lives such a comfortable life.

Adam and me driving at the PNE, this summer. I am sort of connected in with Southside Community Church . This is a church that has grown into multiple congregations quite quickly. A large part of this is due to the giftedness and leadership of the lead pastor: Cam Roxburgh. (Cam is Alan Roxburgh's nephew. Alan is leading consultant on the missional church around the world.) I attend the Missional Training Network that they host. Cam is also my church planting coach. So today we had a little chat over some Tim Horton's coffee. I brought him up to speed on what was happening with Urban Sanctuary. It was the most valuable hour I have spent all month. As we chatted, I sort of looked back on the history of Urban Sanctuary. To completely bore you, here it is: Sept. 2005 - first@night starts as the evening congregation of First Baptist Church Vancouver. there is a lot of "identity confusion" about this new service - is it the evening service, an outreach program, a church pl

So the days are getting darker -I'm thinking of investing in one of those SAD lamps - I don't really get depressed during the dark days of winter - just super tired all the time. Had an interesting afternoon - Been slowly revolving around a couple of social justice groups in the city: Faith Communities called to solidarity w. the poor and Streams of Justice . So today (now yesterday - I'm writing this on Sunday night now), there was a meeting at 10th Ave. church run by "faith groups in solidarity w. the poor". Some sharing from the homeless, along w. a few key social justice leaders in the city. It was very inspiring. I headed down to the homeless squat, which was kinda cool. I took Adam, as we were walking through the squat, he kept saying, "But, they're so poor!" Obviously his mom had discussed with him, about what he was about to see. On the topic of Adam, I am proud to say that the little fella is now completely potty trained!!! Good boy! He is s

First blast of a Vancouver winter. Unlike the rest of Canada, this just means that the sun disappears, the rains fall, the winds come and everything turns to liquid. And as it turned out I had 3 different errands to run - they were all downtown, and since we live downtown, that meant walking, instead of making the inane move of actually driving, hunting for parking, paying for parking and dodging crazed caffeinated drivers in a DESPERATE RUSH to be somewhere NOW. I got home and the bottom of my jeans were totally soaked. Speaking of jeans - what's with all these jeans that are like $200-300? I wanted to buy a pair when we were in Seattle, but passed out with sticker shock. I'm going to find a pair of ToughSkins or a nice $15 pair of Kirkland Signatures from Costco. Spent most of the afternoon doing church stuff, while contemplating how to make the church grow. I stumbled across this great quote in Robbert Webber's "The Younger Evanglicals" (which is probably the

Because of the strong Canadian dollar, we are in Seattle, trying to pump up the American economy by buying things. Felicia bought mainly stuff for the kids and a few clothes for herself. I bought a sweater which was on sale. And my biggest catch was a pair of Senheiser headphones which I got at the Apple store. Man, I wish we had an Apple store in Vancouver! I made a reference to some mis-placed books. Last night we went to Barnes and Noble. I got The Interior Castle by Theresa of Avila, Pilgrim's Progress and Terrorist by John Updike. Felicia got some books for the kids. We took a cab back to the hotel. I placed the books in the trunk. Felica folded up the stroller and we came back to the hotel. We got out of the van, and both forgot to get the bag of books out of the trunk! Calls to the Cab company were of no avail - so now there is a cabbie in Seattle enjoying a couple of Christian classic books and some books about a rabbit buying a new hat. Rats. I really like Seattle - not su

Checking each other out. Had a good service last night. God is really leading us down a path of social justice. Some of us went to an end homelessness rally at the Olympic downtown clock this afternoon. The coolest thing at the rally was how many people I knew - some of the key leaders in the Christian social justice movement in Vancouver are old old friends, which is oh so cool. Al, Mike, Dave and many others are getting it done in Vancouver! It was really great connecting with all of them. I am by no means a leader, in terms of social justice in the city of Vancouver. God, has wisely put that burden on much more capable women and men. But, it is very blessed to be connected with these choice folks. The truth - Had a couple of interesting conversations today with two different godly women who will remain unnamed. The result was, I realize that my family and I, are right where God wants us to be. In the past 3 years, I have had 3 different offers from 3 different well established chur

I've been sort of absent from Adam's life for the past couple of weeks, so I decided to spend most of Monday with him. We started off by going to his favorite place in the whole world: the Vancouver Aquarium. I decided to take the bus, due to a new internal rule I have - I have decided to take the car only if I absolutely have to. For Vancouver, Burnaby, New West, Richmond and North Van, I will try to take the bus. Every place else I can drive. The aquarium is in Stanley Park and is easily accessible by transit. What was funny was that there were 2 other young pastors from different churches also there with their families. Randy Hamm of Tenth Ave. Church and Albert Chu of the Tapestry. It was pastor's day at the Aquarium! After the fish, we went shopping and didn't buy anything. We had lunch and came home. A few hours later I took him for a run in the joggin stroller - it was an inceredibly beautiful fall day - sunshine! Then we had a few friends over for Thanksgiving d

Yesterday I was driving around the 2 main actors and director of the film Hank and Mike. This film is about 2 Easter bunnies who get fired, and have to find new jobs. It also stars Chris Klein of American Pie fame and Joe Mantegna. I wrote yesterday about how these guys told me that I should not see their film because I was a pastor. Today I was given a ticket to the world premiere - some of my friends were part of the "entourage". Anyways, outside the theatre the director recognized me and told me to be sure to come to the after party at an upscale night-club. I said sure. The film was hilarious!!! I really liked it - I could tell why they warned me - there is some nudity and quite a bit of swearing. But - very funny - but maybe not for my more pious brothers and sisters. So after the show, we're milling about - one of the actors grabs me (we're facebook friends now!) and we head down to this club. There's 2 line-ups - one for the public and one for

Lots of driving for the VIFF today. Drove around 2 actors and a director for a movie called Hank and Mike - its a bizarre film about 2 Easter Rabbits that get fired. They asked me what I did and I told them that I'm a pastor - stunned silence, and then one guy said "Dude - you CAN NOT see our movie!" I told them I could probably handle it. They were cool and invited me to an after party. Then I picked up an actor from the airport, he is in a film called Young People F---ing. when I told him I'm a pastor, he said "You can't even say the name of my movie!" It's been interesting gauging the reactions of people to my profession - my guess is that in their line of work, they do not meet many pastors. I did get to share the gospel with a French atheist director who asked me what I believed - so that was cool. Last shift tomorrow!

Leela enjoying Sophia. Beautiful day today! Gorgeous sunshine - no clouds - no rain! Enjoy it Vancouver - rains are a-coming! Festival continues to roll along. I'm going to see this film in about an hour. It is somehow linked in with Bono's One organization - I think it is a Christian organization - the name is Agape. Should be good. So far I have driven 3 directors - from Spain, the Philipines and France - all really nice guys, w. interesting films showing. The filipino director was at Cannes this year, w. his film - he was one of 24 diectors selected to take part in a special workshop - cool. Naked - I wrote an article for Christian Week about a month ago about sexual addiction - about my own battle, and the problem of internet porn among pastors. After writing the article, I forgot about it - until I recieved 5 copies of the paper in the mail yesterday. I read the article and felt so exposed and vulnerable! My sex addiction is no secret - I did a seminar at Regent with a psy

Had lunch w. Mark L. today, and then did some random stuff downtown together. Saw a very typical film festival movie today - Eastern European, grimy, depressing, nihlistic film w. no hope or redemption. Iska's Journey trails a poor girl growing up in rural Hungary - dysfuncational family, begging for food, w. a heartbreaking ending. The theatre again was apcked - some good buzz about the film - I think it played at Toronto and Seattle film festivals. Once a month we are encouraging our church to spend an evening opening up their homes to their neighbors, in an attempt to get to know them, and to be able to share the love of Christ with them. Well.... we invited 3 different friends of ours and ..... none of them could make it!!! I was kinda discouraged, so Brent came over and we watched a movie together. I spent part of tonight praying for all my friends that don't know Jesus. Stumbled onto a pretty good book - the Papa Prayer by Larry Crabb. Crabb posits that we should approach