Dreams Unlocked

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...