Dreams Unlocked

This is an adaption of part of our Christmas letter. A couple of weeks ago I preached an Advent sermon on the encounter between Gabriel and Mary in Luke 1. I summarized it like this: How can this be? – Mary This is how it can be. – Gabriel Let it be. – Mary Mary doesn’t know how she will birth a child outside of the laws of human biology.  Gabriel introduces the reality of a supernatural God.  Mary accepts this new paradigm and becomes the Lord’s servant. I accepted a pastoral position with a church in Ithaca New York and had hope to start there in September 2012. We have encountered a significant delay and now anticipate a move in February 2013. When we first heard of this delay, we were filled with questions. Over time, the questions receded, replaced with assurance from God that He was still in control.  This assurance in turn resulted in peace and contentment, as we accepted our roles as the Lord’s servants, ready to do his...

I only got 8 this year. Here they are: 1. Headhunters - VERY good show about the man with a perfect life who faces a disruption. From Finland. Lots of twists along the way. 2. Dark Knight Rises - Good ending to the trilogy, although it was pretty long. 3. Moonrise Kingdom - My favorite film by one of my favorite directors. I don't often seen films twice - but this one is worth it. I like the short pants vibe going on. 4. Skyfall - After the lousy Quantum of Solace - this was a welcome return to what Bond can be. Some are saying this is the best James Bond ever. Pretty hard to top Sean Connery, though. 5. Lincoln - Interesting film about an interesting time in the history of America. Day-Lewis has probably wrapped up best actor. 6. Argo - Very exciting and fast moving thriller based on real life events. Canadians come out looking pretty great. Ben Affleck should continue to direct. 7. Avengers - This one was special, because this was the first "big people" ...

Safe Today I have spent this past week in the company of hundreds of elementary school children. I pick up and drop off Adam and Sophia every school day - so I have grown accustomed to many of the same faces of  children and parents. With the two Christmas presentations this week - I have spent even extra time at the school and with the kids. And that is why I almost threw up when I heard the news coming out of Newton Connecticut - which is 4 hours from Ithaca New York - the town we are relocating to next year. A 20 year old man entered an elementary school and started shooting. At the end of his rampage 27 people were killed including 18 .... children. He shot and killed 18 children. Children like my children. Children like the kids I see everyday. Children who probably sang at Christmas concerts this past week for proud parents. (Sunday December 16 Update - Total Number killed 28 - 20 children, 6 teachers, shooter and shooter's mother.) Today has become a day...

Sophia takes the stage. If you watch Fox News, you will be led to believe there is a war on Christmas. That is, the creeping secularism of our culture is seeking to evict Christ out of the holidays. Apparently, Christ and Christians are still finding no room at the Inn. I have observed this up here in Canada. However, it seems to be dying down, as I have seen more references to Christmas in public places than in previous years. Adam and Sophia are both performing at a CHRISTMAS concert in their public school. It is billed as a Christmas concert - not winter, December, Santa or snow concert. I attended with expectations of the typical offerings of odes to Santa Claus and heart warming thoughts of family, gifts and decorations. I was pleasantly surprised by what actually transpired. The school my children attend accommodates "special needs" children. These are children requiring extra care and attention due to some sort of disability. Adam has been in a class with ...

This has never happened to me before. I picked a book at random off my shelf. I believe I received this book free at a conference I attended a couple of years ago. It is a book for Pastors. And for the first time in my life - I disagreed with the very first sentence of a book. This is the offending line: "The Christian pastor holds the greatest office of human responsibility in all creation." Stunning. In one compact statement, the authors have managed to belittle and diminish any Christian who does anything else besides being a pastor. I would have re-written it as follows: "A Christian pastor holds an important office within the Kingdom of God, along with any OTHER Christian fulfilling their Divine calling." What the author's have done is perpetuate a hierarchal system that I believed evangelicals were growing out of. For a long time Christians had a structure like this: Missionaries Pastors Para-Church Workers Everyone Else Missionaries w...

Unlike Putty from Seinfeld, I never had it on my car. Mallory Ortberg has written an interesting article in Gawker magazine about losing her religion. Anyone who grew up born again can relate to some of her Christian pop references. I thought I would respond with some thoughts on my own experience growing up evangelical, and why I came to a different conclusion from Mallory, as I grew up. I was raised by conservative parents who felt that attending church was so important that we did it TWICE on Sundays - AM and PM. This resulted in the semi-traumatic weekly absence of the Wonderful World of Disney. Sometimes we were lucky enough to watch Tinker Bell fly around the castle, and then it would be into the station wagon headed for a hard wooden pew, trying to make sense of what was happening around us: singing, preaching, small talk. We attended a smallish evangelical church in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. My parents had a good circle of friends in that church. They had kids - ...

Doin' what I do. I have spent most of my adult life preparing and then delivering sermons. I have written and preached hundreds of sermons. I enjoy listening to sermons by other preachers. I do this to get fresh ideas and learn from their styles. I am pretty fussy when it comes to who I listen to. They need to be able to communicate well, but they also need to display some depth in what they communicate. Recently I have been listening to several well known pastors of very very large churches in the States. What I deduce from the majority of these type of preachers is that they are using the Christian world view and the Bible to address contemporary problems such as marriage, work, meaning of life, etc. That is a good thing. But it is not enough.  People will come to Jesus for a felt need in their life, but they will only stay with him once they recognize their need for a saviour. And this is what I find lacking in most contemporary preaching. Jesus is reduced to a ther...

Reason to smile - He's at the top of his game I saw Bob Dylan in concert for the 4th time last Friday. I've seen him in Saskatoon, Vancouver and Seattle. I have to say this concert was the absolute best of all 4. Dylan was loose, dancing, joking with his band. And he actually spoke!!! All the other times Dylan has just played and sort of stared glumly at the crowd. It was like he had been born again again on this tour. Again, no tracks off the new album, Tempest. I really love Tempest - I think its his best since his seminal Time Out of Mind. Mark Knopfler opened and played a full set of about 75 minutes. He was quite good, light on the Dire Straits and heavy on some of his newer stuff. Dylan continues to be quite an enigmatic figure, dodging and weaving from popular culture, leaving you puzzled as to who he is and what he's up to. I quite like on where his latest incarnation, taking dark themes of life and mixing them up with various musical elements - creati...

I am reading a very small but powerful book called "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean Pierre de Caussade. Caussade was a French Jesuit Priest in the 18th C. I was struck by this passage: "Let us then endure without annoyance the humiliations entailed on us in our own eyes and in the eyes of others by what shows outwardly in our lives; or rather, let us conceal ourselves behind these outward appearances and enjoy God who is all ours. Let us profit by this apparent failure, by these requirements, by this care-taking and the necessity of constant nourishment, and of comfort; of our ill success, of the contempt of others, of these fears, uncertainties, troubles, etc. to find all our wealth and happiness in God, who, by these means gives Himself entirely to us as our only good. God wishes to be ours in a poor way, without all those accessories of sanctity which make others to be admired, and this is because God would have himself to be the sole food of...

Whoever claims to live in him, must walk as Jesus walked. - 1 John 2:6 I read this in an old out of print devotional book by E. Stanley Jones. Riffing on this verse Jones says that to walk as Jesus walked is to live as Jesus lived. How did Jesus live? In the following ways: 1. He was disciplined in reading the Bible and praying. "As was his custom, he stood up to read." 2. He gave away what he had. "Again crowds of people came to him and as was his custom, he taught them." 3. He loved everybody, including his enemies. 4. He fully surrendered to God. "Not my will, but yours be done." 5. Once he made up his mind, there was no going back. "As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." The takeaway? Read and pray. Help others. Love all. Surrender everything to God. Don't back down from challenges, even though they might mean great sacrifice.

Between all of my kids, these 3 are my favorite. There is a blogger, writer guy in Calgary who has generated a lot of media buzz. He is also a father. Now, let's see if it is deserved. Buzz Bishop wrote a post on a parenting web-site stating that his eldest son is his favorite. Here's a link to the blog: http://blogs.babble.com/kid-scoop/2012/09/19/admit-it-you-have-a-favorite-kid-i-do/ Some quotes from the post: If I were to be absolutely honest, my older son is my favorite of the two Yes, I have a favorite son and I’m not ashamed to admit it.  I just .. y’know .. like him better. My wife loved the babying of our boys, I was wanting them to run, and kick, and play. Now, why do I call Bishop an idiot? Because he has an undeveloped and immature view of love and relationships. He has no concept of unconditional love. His is an immature selfish love. The key is this line: my oldest son is my favorite because he can do more things.  To me, he’s mo...

Wisdom Ponders Sophia was sitting next to me at my desk this morning. She was coloring a princess coloring book. I was reading "The Descent of the Dove" by Charles Williams - a history of the Holy Spirit in the church. She turned to me and asked, "Why did you name me Sophia?" I answered, "Sophia means wisdom, so we thought you would be wise." "What is wisdom?" "Wisdom means that you are smart. About a 7 second pause before, "I am wisdom." Then back to coloring and reading. A series of errands and house-hold activities followed until dinner. We ate dinner at around 5:30. It was at this point that Sophia's early revelation about her name became actualized. Out of the blue with no appropriate context or prompting she blurted out: "Nobody knows anything except Jesus." I immediately pulled out my newly antiquated iphone 4 and tweeted her words. I haven't been able to put that sentence out of my ...

Felicia and I went out last week. Our normal date nights usually consist of either dinner or a movie. Last week we did something different, we went to a play. She Has A Name is a play that has been touring across Canada. It is currently playing in the Vancouver Fringe Festival. It is directed by a very talented friend of mine from Regent, Stephen Waldenschmidt. The story is about a teen prostitute trafficked into a brothel from another country in South East Asia. She is befriended by a worker for a NGO seeking to rescue girls like her. Throughout the play 3 actresses in white robes enter in and out providing background narration through chanting rhymes and poetry. Not sure if they were supposed to be actual angels, but they were a very creative touch. The story is also unique because it shows the toll the job takes on the worker from the NGO - the pain of seeing the young girls being trafficked and ogled by other men and the pain of being away from his wife and kids. I though...

Pre-School, Kindergarten and ...... Grade 3 I watched Letterman the other night. Howard Stern was on. When Stern wasn't promoting his show, "America's Got Talent", they discussed some more personal issues, including their children. All of Stern's children are grown now. David Letterman has a son in Grade 3 - so along with Diastema, that's 2 things Letterman and I have in common. Letterman made an interesting comment about his son Harry. He said, "I was fine when he was in kindergarten. I was fine with Grade 1. I was fine with Grade 2. But Grade 3 .... I just want it to stop. I just feel the world is filled with goons and I want to protect him from them." I can relate to the talk show's angst. Adam is in Grade 3, and it feels different for me than Grade 2 - Grade 2 sounded small - Grade 3 sounds much older. Maybe, because I have clear memories of Grade 3 myself and blurry uneven memories of my life before that. Now my son will be goi...

Well, I guess it's time to update you on what is happening with our move to the Empire State. Well, it is still happening, but we have experienced a significant delay in terms of our Visa application. In order to work in the States you need a Visa, if you are not a citizen. The Visa I am applying for is an R-1 Visa, or a religious workers visa. This allows the applicant to work in a religious institution provideing religious services. Normally, these are quite straight forward, if someone is working within the same denomination. So, if you are a Baptist in Canada, you can quite easily move to a Baptist congregation in America, and so on. One of the issues in my case is that the church I am going to is not part of a denomination, it is an independent inter-denominational church. So, both the church and I need to supply evidence that I am in fact part of the same "denomination". This has been done by supplying all the documents that show I am licensed and connected with...

I follow most news events fairly closely. I watch local news either at 6 or 11 PM. Like, many of you I have been following the case of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in an altercation in Florida. Zimmerman is a neighborhood watch volunteer which I understood to be people who keep an eye out on their neighborhood, to make sure no bad guys are lurking around. One night, Zimmerman saw Martin walking in the darkened neighborhood. Trayvon Martin is a fairly large African American young man. He was wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman called 911, because he was suspicious of Martin. The 911 operator told Zimmerman to stay in his vehicle. Instead Zimmerman got out of his car and followed Martin into a darkened area. What follows is unclear, known only to Zimmerman and Martin. But, what we do know is Zimmerman shot and killed Martin. He was taken in for questioning and then released. The expected outcry led to Zimmerman eventually being arrested. Zimmerman got into further t...

Felicia and I at a waterfall outside Ithaca New York. Homer's epic poem Odyssey is about Odysseus' journey home to Ithaca. In a few months I will be taking a journey to Ithaca as well. Ithaca New york for me. And my journey will include 4 other sojourners. And it also started before today. Here's what happened: In the spring of 2011, I stepped down from my position as lead pastor of Heritage Mountain Community Church. It wasn't something I wanted to do - but a perfect storm of circumstances led to this untimely departure. This placed me in a season of life I had never been before. Set adrift, free from the mooring of steady employment and a ministry placement. Our family had to restructure according to this new change. In the fall of 2011, Felicia went back to work full time and I assumed the role of a stay at home Dad. I also began a job search for a new ministry placement. Felicia and I discussed the possibilities before us. We both no longer felt tied ...

These 3 make today great. I have been a Father for almost 8 years. Adam was born in 2004 in St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver. A medical resident that was there used to be in a Bible Study with my brother at the University of Western Ontario in London. He also knew my Father through the Urbana conference. Interesting connections. Sophia was born 3 years later in the same hospital. A wife of a pastor at the church I was working at was the nurse assigned to Felicia. And James... James showed them all up by taking the initiative of being born in the entry way of our home. A 911 operator and 5 firemen helped him make his dramatic entrance into the world. As I was tucking Adam and Sophia in tonight, I asked them what makes a good father. Sophia said it was playing games with her. Adam said going on hikes was a sign of a good father. Later on, I thought about my own father: Dr. Abraham Ninan. 3 years after I was born, my family immigrated to Canada so that my dad co...

Your problems don't define you. Your achievements don't define you. Only God defines you... and He loves you. I tweeted this earlier tonight. This is the first tweet I have ever written of the over 5000 that almost made me cry. People build their identities on a variety of things. Some define themselves by their work. Or their role in a family: mother, father. Some define themselves by some sort of brokeness in their life. An addict, a drunk, divorced. But, these identities are only surface. There is a deeper identity that we all have - this identity is drawn from the One who Created us. God created you. Only He has the power and authority to define you. God is love. His very being is love. So when he chooses to define you - he defines you as an object of His love. You are the beloved of God. You are a child of God. In the book of 1 John, John writes, "See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!  And t...

I am a product of my environment. I was born in 1970 and am a member of that slacker generation x. My generation is now grown up, married off and started families. We cling to our youth by wearing sonic youth t-shirts, even when we are well into our 40's. My generation has been raised by the media. TV, movies, music - and then later on the internet contributed to our development. I  grew up in an Evangelical Christian home. We were very devout. We went to church TWICE on Sundays - AM and PM. For some reason, back then churches had an evening service. For some sad reason the pastor had to preach two different sermons. I grew up in Awana and Youth Group. For most of my childhood and adolescence I was told that the media was bad: rock music, tv shows and movies were bad. There were some exceptions, like Chariots of Fire and the odd Billy Graham movie. I was allowed to listen to Christian "rock" which sounded painfully lame when compared to what my pagan friends at school...

Charles Colson has died. Colson was a driven man, who through hard work and a fierce intellect succeeded at all that he attempted. He served in the marines, then had a successful law career. He then entered into politics and served as special counsel to President Nixon. He had reached the pinnacle of power with an office right next to the Oval office. And it is in this crucible of power and pressure that his life narrative takes an interesting turn. Colson had an intense, almost brutal way of getting things done. In a dramatic attempt to insure Nixon's re-election, Colson worked with a group that broke into the office of psychiatrist Daniel Elsberg, who had been leaking Pentagon papers. These leaks were proving to be disastrous to the Nixon administration. In an attempt to protect the President, these men conspired a criminal act and then worked to cover it up. Colson was indicted on conspiracy charges for his role in attempting to cover up the burglary. Colson ended up ser...

Sophia took this pic. with the ipad. Adam had a dental appointment this morning. Felicia was off today. She worked a day yesterday which meant she got a normal night's sleep, and woke up when most people do. So she took him -which I'm grateful for. Going to the dentist is never great fun. But, taking your kid is even more hard. So, I was left to navigate James and Sophia. All our kids are at an age where they don't need a lot of oversight, which is weird to say because Sophia is almost 5 and James is only 2. Yet, they seem to be able to occupy themselves quite well. The most surprising is how well James can play on his own. Not a very needy kid. So I started my day as I often do these days - a light breakfast. And then I read my Bible. Today I read John 20 and Philippians 4. I also read an old out of print devotional by E. Stanley Jones. After the reading I try to do some listening prayer. This is the most challenging part - as the kids are kind of loud and sometimes James...

I love Bruce Springsteen. I own 8 of his albums and portions of 10 others. I've seen him in concert - it was amazing. His new album Wrecking Ball could quite well be one of his best. I just bought it on itunes and am listening to it right now. I've heard about half the tracks. Springsteen ha an uncanny ability to capture the mood of the age. This current album captures the theme of the end of the American empire. Pain and rage are recurring themes as he watches the American Myth finally dissolve right before his eyes. This is a song called "Rocky Ground" - it is absolutely stunning. I don't think Springsteen has ever professed any kind of faith - but this song is certainly an eloquent Psalm like prayer. Here are the lyrics: (I'm a soldier!) We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground Rise up shepherd, rise up Your flock has roamed far from the hills The stars have faded, the sky is still The angels are shouting "Glory Hallelujah" Forty d...