Dreams Unlocked

As you can see from the title, I have a top 8 list, instead of a top 10 list - this is largely due to the fact that I simply had less time this year to go to movies due to an increased work load. So here they are: 1. Up - The best movie of the year is yet another Pixar triumph. I think history will look back and see the Pixar team as the primary story tellers of our time. This film will motivate you to pursue your dreams, no matter your age, as the central protagonist does. 2. Precious - I just saw this film last week. The film centers around a teenage girl growing up in Harlem enduring a life of horrific abuse by both father and mother. She is transfered to a special school, and under a kind teacher and social worker, she starts to believe in herself again. This film never stoops to sappy hallmark movie of the week cliches. There are several difficult scenes to watch, but is an important film to open up those areas of our heart that we tend to cauterize through willful ignorance of th...

Foolin' around Ok - so I'm still blogging. I'm going to try to keep to at least a weekly entry. I used to be every other day, but I think those days are long gone. I took Adam to a b-day party to this kids indoor playground called Koko's. There were about 6 birthday parties happening simultaneously. It was unreal. It also confirmed the fact that I could never run a day-care. Had a nice time chatting with the parents of the birthday girl. They go to our church and are both RCMP officers which makes me feel quite secure - another job I am pretty sure I could not do. I find it very fascinating how God creates people so differently - we are all created to pursue a vocation, and if we try to do something that is outside of the calling, we tend to feel frustrated and unfulfilled. I think of what some of my friends do: -pediatric dentist -lawyer -window glazer -small business owner -welder And I realize that I simply could not do anything else with my life, apart from what I d...

Well, I'm sad to say but my blogging career might be winding down. I'm finding I have less and less time to write on here - and with Twitter I can give fast updates and opinions throughout the day. I feels kind of weird if I just let this thing go - I've been blogging since May 2005. I'll wait a bit - maybe I'll have a change of heart and start typing again.

Well, after that amazing encounter with Bono, the next time I would hear U2 would be in Mumbai India. I was living in India when their next album came out: All That You Can't Leave Behind. I saw the video for Beautiful Day on tv in India. I think I ended up buying the album in Canada, though. This album marked a new era of creative excellence for the band. They toured that year and I saw them twice - once in Vancouver and once in Minneapolis. I went to Vancouver with Felicia - our seats were behind the stage, which wasn't so hot - great show nonetheless. Minneapolis was awesome - drove down with a bunch of guys from Saskatchewan. We lined up for rush seating on the floor. We had our sleeping bag and camped out at 8 in the morning - we were about 50th in line. I have to say that staff at the arena were incredible. As the time got closer, they let the first 50 people into a small pub, and then into the arena - we ran and secured front row spots, right under where Adam Clayton wou...

U2 circa. 1991. I have never written an entire blog on U2 before so here goes. I first heard of U2 when I was 13. An older kid in youth group told me about this Christian band that were really big. I bought the War album on vinyl and liked it - especially "40". I started buying more of their music and in high-school I gained a quick reputation as being the "U2" guy. By this time I was collecting a lot of boot-lef albums and buying every magazine or book about this band. Side-note --> In high-school, was also the first time I used U2 songs for class assignements. I used Sunday Bloody Sunday in Grade 10 english - have no memory of what the assignment was. I would again use the Robbie Robertson song featuring U2, "Sweet Fire of Love", for a grade 12 assignment. I have since used U2 songs in my undergrad and graduate schools for assignments, and also in sermons that I have since preached. In grade 10, I remember borrowing 5$ from someone to buy the Rolling ...

I've been on Twitter for awhile now. I have to confess, I really like it - I don't know why, but I like the ability to give a quick snap-shot of what I am up to. And what I have realized is that my blogging has suffered dramatically. I think it is because I feel I don't need to give an extended analysis of stuff, I have given a brief update about earlier. I've been feeling a little ambivalent about this blog lately. When I got into blogging 5 years ago, I felt like I was entering this whole other universes, and that if you were a young emerging type leader you HAD to have a blog, and more importantly your blog needed to be linked up with this whole other network of emergent bloggers - alas my little blog never really scaled such heights. But, the bloom is off the blogging rose for me now, and recently I feel as if my life has gotten a bit busier to keep it up. But then again, I do enjoy opining on all matters from music to faith to coffee, so maybe the blog will live to...

What I do after thinking. I am a preaching pastor. I preach almost every Sunday - I probably preach a 25-35 minute sermon 45 times a year. To get a sermon to go that long, it is usually 8-12 pages long in 12 pt. font., plus any extra quotes that are photo-copied and reading the actual biblical text. When I first started preaching I did A LOT of preliminary academic study, prior to just sitting down and writing the sermon. What that means is I would read the actual text several times in about 5 different bible translations: ESV, NRSV, TNIV, NLT and The Message. I would also read it in the original language - I am better at Greek than Hebrew. I have noticed something change in the last couple of months. I still do the preliminary study - consulting commentaries, etc. But, now, I find that I spend a lot of time just thinking.... and thinking and thinking. That is, I just play around with ideas in my head, revisit them and think about them some more. Thinking - sounds pretty simple, but i...

I really hope everyone enjoys the film and keeps an open mind. I believe in peace on Earth, and good will to all men. I do as I would be done by, and believe that forgiveness is one of the greatest virtues. I just don't believe I will be rewarded for it in heaven. That's all. Note - Gervais is an atheist.

Adam watching cotton candy at the PNE. This Sunday I am preaching a sermon called "What I have Learned" - based on what I have learned in the first year as pastor of this church. Basically, I have learned that people are needy, you will get hurt and that God is sovereign. I am using 2 Cor. 1:3-11 as the lens for looking at these themes. The passage explicates the comfort God gives, the suffering we will endure as his disciples and the hope that contextualizes our experiences. My Dad is in town, which is cool - Adam and Sophia are having a great time! Other news - Zondervan will no longer be publishing their updated version of the New International Version bible, the "Todays New International Version". This is disappointing - I have used the TNIV since its publication for both personal devotions and for public preaching since its publication. This particular translation uses gender neutral terms when referring to people. Example - God created humankind in his image -...

I have to confess - I am getting way more work done in the new office - it is far away from the life of the house, that I actually feel like I am away - except for when Adam and Sophia come running in here to attack me. I worked all day prepping for a leadership retreat for our elders this Saturday. I am presenting a lot of the ideas found in Jim Collin's book: Good to Great. This is a book that I have known about for a long time, and finally got around to reading recently. I wish I had read it earlier - it is excellent. Collins is very popular among pastors for the practical wisdom he has in leading organizations well. Felicia has set up a baby monitor in my office, so that I can hear either Sophia or Adam from the downstairs office. Half the time it sounds like the aliens from Signs are trying to talk to me. I usually have it turned off - but don't tell her that.

Working in my office at First Baptist - about 3-4 yrs. ago. Slowly moving in - I have a new desk and chair, both IKEA. 2 book shelves are up - we need to build one more. And then I need to move all the books in. Offices I have had: First Alliance Church in Calgary: a desk and chair in a sort of open area, next to the children's pastors office. I also used empty offices of pastors who were on vacations - including the senior pastor's office - which was huge and had a fire place. First Baptist Church Vancouver - had a office in the "youth house" behind the church. -had another office inside the actual church building - it was pretty nice. 1250 Granville - our first apt. in Vancouver - had a tiny little office that overlooked busy granville street. 950 Cambie St. - beautiful office with floor to ceiling glass windows on the 26th floor overlooking yaletown 2 Spruce Court - nice office near the front door of the first house we lived in in Port Moody Right now - I work at a...

Finally slowly getting back in the swing of things, after the time away. A couple of guys and myself moved a bunch of stuff out of the school that our church has met in for the past 9 years. It was kind of weird. I'm really looking forward to the move to the theatre. It is centrally located in Port Moody - in the same building as City Hall, in fact. My health issue - I have touched briefly in past tweets and facebook status' and maybe even on here about a health issue I have been dealing with - Since February I have been having very bad sinus pain - I've gone on 3 rounds of antibiotics and an x-ray. Today I saw an ENT specialist and his over eager resident. The diagnosis is.... nothing. There is nothing medically wrong with me. He said it's just stress. I guess that's good news - but I'm not sure how to treat it - green tea while listening to Enya? He said good diet, exercise, plenty of rest should all help, and Advil. So basically that's it - stress. I don...

It's late at night - I'm listening to Bat For Lashes. We left last Thursday on our summer vacation. 1 week of holidays so far. 1st day - Travelled to Kelowna and stayed with some friends who were renting a lake front house. It was very beautiful there, and we met there 7mth. old twins who were very cute. Then a long long drive from Kelowna to Calgary. Stayed at a nice hotel in downtown Calgary right next to the Bow River. I interned at a large church in Calgary in 1993 - that short time was one of the most positive ministry experiences of my life - made many great friends through that time. Went back to that church - First Alliance. It has now supersized to about 3000 in weekly attendance in a beautiful new facility in the south of Calgary. It was truly one of the most unbelievable church buildings I had ever seen. I didn't see many of my older friends as many were away. We made a day trip to the Tyrell Museum of Paleontlogy - which actually planned our trip to Calgary for ...

Ready, Aim...... When you are a preaching pastor, you are in the public eye. Every week you stand up in front of a group of people - it could be 10 or it could be 10 000. Because of who you are and what you stand for, your life is scrutinized and analyzed. People watch how you treat them, they watch what movies you go to, and what places you go to. And people are needy - some people are very very needy - like needy for professional help. These types of people have unprocessed hurt, frustration and anger in their lives. And, these types of people tend to take out their hurt on pastors. I think this is because people know pastors won't return in kind - because we are supposed to be imitators of Christ who never struck back. And that is true - not just pastors, but all Christians are not supposed to strike back at those who hurt us. We want to. We want to throw the hurt right back at the person who hurt us. But, Jesus guides us and shows us that just like Him, it is possible to actual...

One of the biggest hurts a pastor can experience is when someone leaves their church. It is hard to not take it personally. Over the past year we have had people come and go from our church. A couple that was involved in ministry at our church, have just recently left and are attending another church. I was a little bummed about this, until I talked to another leader. He told me to not worry about it - this will happen - people will leave and people will be inconsistent. But - in every church there will be a core of believers who will be heavily involved, who will give of their talents, time and resources towards the missions of the church. These are the people that pastors need to focus on. There are a lot of people in our church that are sort of on the fringes - they are not very consistent in their attendance, they are not in home groups, they are not very involved and they probably don't tithe. Now - these are good people, and are most likely followers of Christ, and would call...

Last Sunday and this Sunday, I am not preaching. This is the first 2 Sundays in a row that I have not preached at church. I asked our elders board if I could have the first 2 weeks of July to do some thinking, praying and reading about the church. Primarily I had 2 goals: 1. Plan out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - August 2010 - I have a good start on that, although there might still be a couple of changes to the preaching schedule. 2. Do some studying and thinking around the whole area of leadership and management, in regards to leading the church. I have been reading books on leadership and management, and solicited some friends recommendations for leadership books. The 2 books that seemed to lead everyone's lists were: In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen and Good to Great by Jim Collins Incidentally you couldn't find 2 more different books! Nouwen is one of the authors I have read the most of, and I have read this particular book twice already - it is quite short and can e...

Hats that Adam and Sophia made at Golden Spike Days at Rocky Point Park today. Adam loves his. Listening to the new Coldplay son, "Glass of Water" - It's awesome. I'm still pretty buzzed by that concert last week. Felicia is having a baby. Unplanned, but not unwanted. I was pretty shocked when she told me, but have now warmed up to the idea of having a third little one running around, and running my life. I come from a family of 3, and it is fun having more than one sibling. I'm pretty sure Adam and Sophia will prove to be good older brother and sister. Adam will keep Sophia from poking the baby's eyes out or trying to break his or her arm. I have a couple of weeks where I am not preaching - I have planned out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - Aug. 2010 which is pretty cool. Now I am going to re-format oops - Sophie is crying. Ok - changed her diaper, and her shirt - it was soaked with sweat, put some cream on her exczema, had a brief talk on the greco-roman he...

Sophie leads the way. I had this super long post about this church in Kentucky that hosted a "bring your guns to church day". But, the post got too long and convoluted and sorted of imploded in on itself. Thus, you have this post instead. I spoke at Trinity Western this past weekend to a Mar Thoma Youth Conference. It went really well - really enjoyed my time with them. Preached on the Holy Spirit this Sunday - I said most Christians treat the Holy Spirit like the weird uncle you try to avoid at family reunions - he's family and all, you just don't really want him to do anything weird. Someone mentioned to me at how rare sermons on the Spirit are in evangelical churches. That struck me as quite odd. Maybe we are over reacting to charismatic excesses. Personally, I hope our church has more manifestations of the Spirits presence in our congregation: healing, words of knowledge, etc. I have seen first hand the destruction of the excesses. But, still the dry intellectuali...

I am speaking at this conference tomorrow: http://www.bornagainidentity2009.com/ I finished writing my message on Tuesday, and am going over it one last time. There will be a few hundred south asian young adults there from up and down the west coast - from California to BC. I am excited about the opportunity to speak to this group. Please pray that the Spirit empowers my words.

Walking Together. My post today is part of a larger initiative of more than 50 bloggers all sharing their thoughts on how to ‘bridge the gap’. You can check out the other links at: http://www.btgproject.blogspot.com/ Ten years ago I was flying back to Vancouver from Saskatoon. I started chatting with my seat mate. I was reading a book on spirituality by M. Scott Peck, so we also started to discuss spirituality. I asked him if he had a religious background. He said "Yes, I was raised fundamentalist." I was quite taken aback by his response. As we kept talking we discovered that we had attended the same evangelical churches at different times in Saskatoon. He said in college, he abandoned his faith and the church and has never looked back..... until now. He said in the past few months he had felt like he was missing out on something due to the lack of any kind of faith in his life. As the plane began to land, we exchanged contact information and promised to be in touch. A week...

Check out Jason Boyle. He's another blogger that I have started reading on a regular basis. I think most of you will like him. He is a thoughtful young Christian thinker and writer. http://blog.jasonboyett.com/ Also Beth Malena wrote an awesome post on dealing with our confusing relationship to money: http://bethblogever.blogspot.com/

Sermon notes and Starbucks. Fathers day is this Sunday. I've recently been thinking about why Catholic priests are called "father". I think it is because pastoring is a lot like parenting. From my vantage point, I see a lot of mini squabbles taking place between people, and sometimes I have to try to keep the big happy dysfunctional family from either imploding or exploding. Most "fights" I am not directly involved in - I just observe, and offer counsel if asked. It is the toughest part of my job, trying to be empathetic and sympathetic to people who are processing their own hurts, by attacking or hurting others. But then, I also get the joy of baptizing people and walking alongside them as they wrestle with their faith. I also have the awesome privilege of opening up the Word of God on a regular basis, and helping a community journey through what its implications are. And for those things I am grateful. Good day today overall - had a meeting with a couple of ot...

Possibly my favorite pic of Adam and I. We are playing some game on the internet at a resort while on holiday. I look grumpy, but I wasn't. I really like Adam's expression and the way he is so relaxed. Aaaah - that funny little kid - always makes my day!

A fragment of the gospel of John. I read a lot - like all the time, all kinds of books. Every once in awhile, I like to tackle a book that is difficult - like academically hard. Well, I've found one: "Scripture's Doctrine and Theology's Bible" is a collection of academic papers that came out of a conference held at St. Andrews College in St. Andrews Scotland (the school my brother presently teaches at). So, they collected a bunch of New Testament heavy weights to chat about how the church formed their current doctrine by what is written in the New Testament.  Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer get dissected, along w. a bunch of other major dudes. The book is quite a challenge, but I am enjoying it as it reminds me of many times at Regent College, when I would be in the library battling it out with some book that made no sense at all, but then clarity comes, and I feel happy. We are still at the resort - we head back tomorrow (told you it was a short trip). It was re...

Adam and I went to see Up! last weekend. I started to think back to all the Pixar films I have loved over the years. Here they are in chronological order: Toy Story Toy Story 2 Finding Nemo Incredibles Ratatouille Wall-E Up until Up!, Nemo was my favorite. It was Adam's favorite movie for a long time, and is currently Sophia's favorite. So, I have seen/heard it in the background of my life quite a few times, as it has been played over and over in our home. I liked Nemo because there were several grand themes that were part of the story: the quest of a father to be reconciled to his son, sending him on a Ulyssian journey the wounded hero (Nemo has a small fin) the gift of companionship to meet life's battles (Dory helps Marlin find Nemo) There are many more grand life themes in this film. But Up! seems to go a bit further, in its challenge to carve out an adventure in the life we have been given, and that nothing in life need be wasted. The characters are great, the animatio...

Finally moved in to our new place. I have a temporary office set up in our over-sized bed-room. We had some contractors come in and look at our basement. They are going to start next week, and said it should take them a couple of weeks to get it done - so thats pretty cool. We are going to put in a large office, kids play area, storage area and bathroom down there. Until then, I have to work up here, which is fine. Started a new sermon series today on the book of Galatians - looks pretty promising. Already had 2 e-mails of people excited about the series, including one woman who said she was "jumping out of her seat" that we are studying Galatians. Never really had that kind of reaction before. We are taking a mini holiday this week to a resort on Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. We have been going through some pretty intense times for the past 6 weeks, and just felt we need a respite. Going for a much longer break in August to Banff in August to meet up with the rest of m...

Why did you go to Winnipeg? I have this inner practice of gratitude that I try to carry on throughout the day. What I do, is I silently try to thank God for everything that goes RIGHT during the day. I find this helps prevent me from being side-lined from everything that can go wrong. So, today, I am thankful that the coffee maker worked, that the shower worked, that my lap-top and wireless connection work.... you get the idea. Today's problems: My current iphone has something wrong w. it - it drops pretty much every call that I make or receive. Rogers has tried countless times to fix it, and have finally decided to simply send me a new one. They sent the new phone on May 25, from Delta to Port Moody. Should've taken a day, right? On May 27th the phone was scanned in Winnipeg Manitoba, and was labelled as "out for delivery". And that is the last anyone has heard or seen of the phone - it is out for delivery in Winnipeg Manitoba. I spent yesterday and today on the phon...

Good-bye 2 Spruce Court. My office and the rest of the house is packed up in boxes. We move into our new town-house tomorrow. We're all pretty excited about moving into our OWN home. I will miss certain aspects of this house - it is certainly the largest house we will ever live in at almost 4000 sq. feet! - 4 X larger then our yaletown apt. and twice the size of the town-home we move into. The Froeses had a nice flat-screen tv and bose sound system which made watching movies really great. Back to our old non-flat-screen tv w. no sound system. There was also a very nice deck off of the master bedroom w. commanding views of Mt. Baker and the rest of Port Moody. It was very nice and peaceful to sit there and read and pray - will miss that. The new place will present some significant challenges at first - namely the fact that my office is not yet built! I will have to work in an unfinished basement for the first couple of weeks - a long way down from my 26th floor office overlooking fa...

Santosh and Sophia - Mennonites. I had my credentialling  interview with the Mennonite Brethren denomination today. Felicia, the chairman of our church's leadership board and I sat before a council of 8 pastors and denominational leaders. We were peppered with a variety of doctrinal and personal questions. The interview lasted an hour and a half, and the questions were varied in their scope from my views on divorce and remarriage to how I would help a church escape the idol of consumerism. I was pretty drained after. After the questioning, they confer with the chairman from our church for a few minutes, while Felicia and I sweat it out in another room. After about 10 minutes, they all came out and affirmed that I am credited and licensed with the denomination. A lot of people have asked what this actually means. Being accredited with a denomination, is akin to passing the bar exam or being admitted into the royal college of physicians - it is basically being recognized by a profess...

2 weeks since my last post. The lapse testifies to the sort of craziness brewing in my life. Dead-lines, and people to meet. Last week was the season finale of 24, which is normally one of my favorite shows, but found this years season to be rather dull. There was an interesting scene in the finale, which I believe is a good reflection of the state of religion in the west. Jack Bauer is laying in a hospital bed dying. He is told that he has a visitor. The visitor turns out to be a Muslim cleric, who had helped Jack find some bad guys in a previous episode. The cleric is quite nice and sensitive. Bauer becomes emotional and the scene transforms into a bed-side confessional. Bauer talks about all the bad he has done. Finally, the scene concludes with the cleric saying theses words,   Let us both forgive ourselves for all the wrongs we have done, Brilliant! Here we have a non-believer (as far as we can tell, there has never been any allusions to Bauer having any kind of religious faith), ...

Beauty. I am enjoying a bowl of Fruit Loops with a glass of Chilean Chardonnay, cuz that's just the way I roll. Been enjoying the weather lately: tennis, hiking, etc. I am nearing the end of our series through Exodus. I think I started preaching on Exodus in September - so we have been studying it as a community for almost 9 months. Still unsure on what series we will do next. After the Regent Pastors Conference, I am thinking I should do a series on the life of Christ. Summer is always tricky for a church - you have a lot of people away, and attendance is pretty sketchy. I myself will most likely not be preaching for at least 4 sundays between June and August. I am taking a 2 week study break in July, where I will chart out all my sermons from September - May of the coming year. And then in August, we are taking 2 weeks vacation to Alberta - my family will be in Banff celebrating my parents' 40th anniversary.  The Pastors Conference was really good - Earl Palmer and Fleming Ru...

There's a river of love that runs through all time But there's a river of grief that floods through our lives It starts when a heart is broken into By the thief of belief in anything that's true But there's a river of love that runs through all time There's a river of love that runs through all time But there's a river of tears that flows through our eyes We fight through the night for freedom as it fades Into a jail where we fail everytime we make a break But there's a river of love that runs through all time I had to run before I knew how to crawl The first step was hard But I have had trouble with them all But now the night grows darker And the day grows dim Cause I know I never will see you again And I almost made you happy There's a river of love that runs through all time But there's a river of fire that burns with no light The flame is the pain of dreams gone up in smoke From the lies we deny and breathe until we choke There's a river of l...

Here are the top 10 according to Rolling Stone readers (followed by my commentary) 1.  Highway 61 Revisited -  Lauded for several reasons: marked Dylan's full transition from folk to rock. Like A Rolling stone becomes one of the greatest songs of all time. 2.  Blood on the Tracks  - one of my favorite albums of all time by any artist. This album and The Joshua Tree are albums that I can listen to straight through form beginning to end. Dylan's post divorce ruminations are startling in their honesty. 3.  Blonde on Blonde - Not a huge fan of this album, although it is part of the trilogy of Bringing it home and Highway 61. 4.  The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan - One of my fave albums - pure folk. Contains Mr. Tambourine Man. His second studio album, and the songs are way more polished than his first album. 5.  Bringing It All Back Home - Probably my favorite Dylan album. Great lyrics - hard rains a'gonna fall is some of the best poetry ever written. 6.  Love & Theft - Part of th...