Shake Hands With the Power
Met with the mayor this morning. There were about 25 pastors from across the tri-cities crammed into this small conference room. The mayor moved the meeting from the city council room (which is pretty big and impersonal). The mayor is a decent fellow named Richard Stewart.
He has a fairly good record of public service thus far, mainly local and provincial postings. He has the sort of confident demeanor and telegenic good looks which people seek out in their elected officials, in this cosmetic age.
The meeting began with the mayor welcoming us and quite candidly telling us that he had no agenda, but simply wanted to hear any concerns that we had. The main idea that I got was that he was simply trying to open up clear lines of communication between faith communities and the city. I have noticed that Christians have a tendency to demonize large entities such as the media, society and the government as being blatantly anti-christian. Most of these biases are uninformed perceptions. Once personal meetings are made, these fears start to erode.
So, we went around the table and introduced ourselves by name and church. Then it was a free-for-all, as people brought up items such as zoning by-laws and land use. I piped up about the fact that the Coquitlam school board was going to double our rent in the coming year, and that we simply couldn't afford the rise, and would end up looking for another place to meet.
He responded by saying that we all need to realize that a school is a "public" meeting, owned and supported by tax payers. Therefore, schools should be made easily available for churches to meet in.
The meeting ran from 9-10:30 and ended with one of the pastors praying for the mayor and his staff. All in all, it was quite an amazing meeting and from the sounds of it, the start of many more to come.
He has a fairly good record of public service thus far, mainly local and provincial postings. He has the sort of confident demeanor and telegenic good looks which people seek out in their elected officials, in this cosmetic age.
The meeting began with the mayor welcoming us and quite candidly telling us that he had no agenda, but simply wanted to hear any concerns that we had. The main idea that I got was that he was simply trying to open up clear lines of communication between faith communities and the city. I have noticed that Christians have a tendency to demonize large entities such as the media, society and the government as being blatantly anti-christian. Most of these biases are uninformed perceptions. Once personal meetings are made, these fears start to erode.
So, we went around the table and introduced ourselves by name and church. Then it was a free-for-all, as people brought up items such as zoning by-laws and land use. I piped up about the fact that the Coquitlam school board was going to double our rent in the coming year, and that we simply couldn't afford the rise, and would end up looking for another place to meet.
He responded by saying that we all need to realize that a school is a "public" meeting, owned and supported by tax payers. Therefore, schools should be made easily available for churches to meet in.
The meeting ran from 9-10:30 and ended with one of the pastors praying for the mayor and his staff. All in all, it was quite an amazing meeting and from the sounds of it, the start of many more to come.
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