Dreams Unlocked

This article in the National Post made my blood boil - actually, if that happened, I would probably be dead. It just made me really really angry. Here is my response to Rodney Clifton: Rodney Clifton's article is one of the worst editorials I have ever read. Clifton seems blinded to the overall tragedy of the residential school system, namely, the cultural genocide of entire people groups. The major intent of the schools may have been benevolent, but was seriously misguided. There appeared to be no attempt to understand and interact with the existing aboriginal cultures. Instead, children were taken from their homes and straight-jacketed into a white “Christian” culture. Clifton states that the children “learned reading, writing, calculating and the principles of democracy which would help them participate more fully in Canadian society.” Clifton fails to add that the children were taught to read and write in ENGLISH. Mr. Clifton, there are other languages in the world in which ...

Sword fighting at 2nd Beach. Well, Lost completely flipped me out tonight. Why is this the weirdest, most addictive show on tv? We are headed further down the rabbit hole, Alice. Had the kids today. Pretty harmless and no injuries. It is getting kinda sad - whenever I have the kids during the day, we always end up at McDonalds for lunch. The same Mcdonalds in Library Square at Robson and Hamilton. And we always get the same table. Adam saves it, while Sophia and I get the food. It's always funny to look back and see this tiny little guy sitting at the table by himself. Got some of my sermon done, which was nice. We had a meeting of Urban Sanctuary last night, where we made a few decisions about what happens if Felicia and I leave. It appears as if the church will dissolve - no money and no leader. So June will likely be our last month together as a church. I suspect that everyone will stick together, start attending a new church, but be a home group of that larger church. I will pr...

Nice pic from last summer. Appacha enjoying his grand kiddies. Well, it appears BIG changes are ahead for the Ninans.The past few months we have been really struggling with our beloved Urban Sanctuary church plant. We love our little church, but despite a lot of hard work and sacrifice, it has simply not grown beyond the original small core group of people. On top of that, I have been part time for the past little while, which has led to some pretty intense financial pressure on our family. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a Mennonite Brethren church in Port Moody to consider candidating as their lead pastor. Heritage Mountain Community Church is a fantastic church located near the top of a mountain! I have preached there 3 times previously as pulpit relief when their pastor was away. Every time, we have been warmly received and have enjoyed a warm response to my preaching. There are 2 couples that are very close friends of ours. This weekend was a big one - brunch w. the leadershi...

Brian Mclaren - The Anti-Doctrine Doctrinizer.... or New Reformer? I appreciated Derek and Craig's comments on the previous video. Like Craig, I also watched these videos several times, and this particular one the most. This is the first time I have heard Ravi Zacharias speak on the Emergent church and Brian McLaren in particular. It was interesting for me, because Ravi is a family friend. When I first heard Ravi speak I was 12 or 13, and for the first time I felt that I too could go into Christian ministry, because there was an Indian (like me!) preaching and speaking. It was so empowering. And also, I have met Brian McLaren, although just briefly, like a hand-shake at First Baptist Church. The discussion and the attitudes displayed by the three men are exactly what many in the emergent church are reacting against - a sort of smug confidence that we evangelicals have cornered truth. Personally, I believe the Kingdom of God is pretty wide. Wide enough to include the post-modern tin...

Evangelical conservatives, Mohler, Sproul and Zacharias take on the Emergent Church.

Spent most of the day working on my sermon. It's pretty much finished. Romans 1:8-16 - Paul's passion and desire to get to Rome, culminating in v.16 which is my life verse -being unashamed of the gospel because of the power therein for the salvation of everyone who has faith. I had to take Sophia to get her 1 yr. shots, which was the single most traumatic event of both of our lives. She had to get 4 shots, one in each leg and arm. Needless to say, she was thrilled. I didn't even like looking at the needle going in. In the waiting room, a lady gave Sophia her keys -there were probably 2 dozen on the chain, along with an automatic car door opener which was so big, it probably doubled as a toaster. Sophia roamed around the small waiting room proudly waving her new toy. The room's reaction ranged from amusement to numbness. If you cannot respond to a smiling child, then you probably need to be seeking medical help. Friends of ours gave us this child carrier that hooks onto ...

Felicia and I are in a season of discernment right now. We have been presented with another ministry opportunity in another part of Canada. This is an excellent opportunity where I would still be employing my primary gifts of preaching and leadership. But..... it would mean leaving behind our beloved fledgling seed of a ministry - Urban Sanctuary. We have shared this new opportunity with Urban Sanctuary and they have entered into this season with us. The response has been mainly positive, with a few people upset at the prospect of us leaving. Right now, I feel as if the tectonic plates are shifting under my feet, and I am just waiting for them to settle. They say that the most insecure a person ever feels is during an earthquake - because the ground beneath your feet starts to move. The one thing you could always rely on - the ground - is now insecure. In some ways, this is how I feel - a bit of anxiety, until things are settled one way or another.

Soph having a tough time taming her mop. Here's the thing - things have been pretty slow lately. There haven't been any big admin. type stuff I have needed to be on top of. I haven't preached in a couple of weeks. There have been a few behind the scenes things spinning pretty fast, but on the whole, I have been faced with some major down time. This is the first time since September where I have encountered more then one day in a row where I haven't sort of had some kind of pressure hanging over me. About 9 months of frantic sprinting. This new found leisure time is frankly a bit disconcerting. I feel a bit guilty and anxious that I'm going to be found out. I cannot sort of allow myself to just let go. I do have some biggies coming up. But for the last 2-3 days nothing too major to occupy my time. How do we face leisure in a culture on perpetual hyper-drive? Even if I take a retreat of solitude, I still have pragmatic reasons floating around in my subconscious. We ar...

The Boat People Well, today was one of the 4 or 5 days in the year, where you wished you had an air conditioner. The weather in Vancouver is usually quite moderate, with tons of rain. But today we reached 30 celsius. We spent the bulk of the day at Granville Island - one of the top tourist destinations in Vancouver. The nice thing about where we live is we can can just jump on an aquabus and take the short trip across False Creek to the island. We went to one of our favourite restaurants: Go Fish. It is basically a shack next to the marina. It is run by a very successful resteranteur in Vancouver. They have the most amazing fish and chips and fish tacos. We usually get one of each. Today the line up was very very long. When we were near the front, someone walking by asked how long we had been standing there. In a straight face I said "4 hours". She took one looks at me and then scurried away. After lunch we went to feed the ducks, and then pick up some groceries and then back...

Yesterday I went for a bike ride around Stanley Park. This is one of my favourite things to do in Vancouver. From our apt. I go north on Cambie, left on Georgia - this takes me from one end of downtown to the other end, turn right on Denman, this leads me to the famous Seawall. I then follow the Seawall all the way around Stanley Park, under the Lion's Gate Bridge, enjoying the views of the ocean and the North Shore Mountain, past Third Beach, 2nd Beach, crowded English Bay, Sunset Beach - where we've baptized 3 people from Urban Sanctuary, and then ending up back in Yaletown. The whole ride takes about an hour - I'm going to try to do it daily to try to keep the weight off - I think it'll work, if I didn't like the junk food so much. Seriously - I am in love with bad stuff - KFC, Mcdonalds, do-nuts, Dairy Queen, pizza, gelato. Anything bad is good for me. Between the biking and the calories, I am sad to say I think the calories will win.

Felicia worked today, which left me tending the flock. And luckily, the power was out from 9-3, which was just perfect! We went to McDonald's for lunch, and then the playground after. I find when I am out with the kids, without Felicia, I am always shot sympathetic looks from women. I wonder what they think: "Poor thing - his wife isn't around. And there he is valiantly shoving fries into his children's mouth" "Look at him struggling with the stroller." "Poor thing - he doesn't even know how to coordinate his kids clothes" I usually put on a sort of pathetic sad expression, in the hopes they give me money. It hasn't worked yet.

It's 3:30 in the morning - I can't sleep. Sophia was crying, and it woke me up. I rolled over and told Felicia -she told me to not tell her, and get out of bed. So here I am. I've been at the Regent Pastor's Conference since Tuesday. The speakers are Bruce Hindmarsh, Marva Dawn and Darrel Johnson. This may well be one of the best conferences I have ever been to. The content level is very high, very challenging and very inspiring. Bruce Hindmarsh is an academic with a pastor's heart. He has reflected on the prayer lives of Bernard of Clairveau, Terese of Avila and Richard Baxter. His talks have been astounding. I have been on a personal journey into contemplative prayer, with Teresa and St. John of the Cross as my guides - so Hindmarsh's words have resounded very close to my heart. Marva Dawn is a real gift to the church . She does a lot of writing and speaking. She has also experienced physical pain and disability throughout most of her life. But, her mind is as...

We used to have the exact same umbrella, but it blew up. I went to the video store to rent Lars and the Real Girl, which was a pretty interesting movie. Huddled in the corner on a cel phone, wearing a Fedora and a heavily fringed purse was none other then my favorite Huxtable.... Lisa Bonet! Her husband and kid were also in the store, although I have no idea who he is, except that he looks like Johnny Depp.... or is trying to look like Johnny Depp. Lisa Bonet is very small. A bit bigger then her 11 mth. old kid, but that's about it. I managed a feeble smile at her husband, but he managed to stare right through me. I don't think it helped matters much that Adam was in a stroller, wearing crocs and his pajamas and repeatedly saying "Lollipop". Aahhhh... my chances at having a Hollywood celebrity friend again thwarted!

Before I knew it, it was 5 in the afternoon. I spent most of the day chained to my desk, trying to complete my sermon. I finished at around 3:30 and promptly passed out on our couch. Everyone else was sleeping, so it was easy to doze off. I awoke to a family of Ninans buzzing around. The only excursion I made was to pick up my bike from the shop - every spring I get my mountain bike serviced at the same shop. I felt free riding my bike on the sea-wall afterward, listening to Band of Horses on my ipod. A guy at the shop had glued a toonie on the counter. I was looking at it, wondering how I could palm it when he wasn't looking. Finally, I tried to pick it up to give to him, and discovered it was glued down. The bike guy smiled at me. "I glued it this morning. Pretty good prize - a toonie". I felt like an idiot. I smiled and told him that was a great trick. Then took my first ride of freedom of spring 2008.

I did something out of character yesterday - I bought clothes.... for me. I am not much of a shopper, except when it comes to books and music. I get quite bored in most stores. But, I don't know what came over me, but I bought a cardigan sweater and a long sleeved casual shirt - both on sale of course. I also bought Adam a hipster t-shirt. On my way back from this excursion into consumerism, I stopped by a tobacco store and asked some questions about pipes. I am contemplating taking up pipe smoking. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien smoked pipes, and look where it got them. An entry level pipe is about $50. From there the prices can rise up to $500. Pipe tobacco is quite cheap, compared to smoking cigarettes. Anyways, it's just a thought for now. After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You...

Get the new Coldplay single as a free download here . (Offer ends in a week). Sounds different from previous efforts.