Dreams Unlocked

Sophia and her beloved Appacha. Today was a special service. The area minister of B.C. for the Mennonite Brethren preached. Following the sermon, he performed an "installation" ceremony, where Felicia and I were formally installed as the pastors of Heritage Mountain Community Church. It was a very cool ceremony. He asked me a series of questions and then he asked the congregation a series of questions. Then he asked the congregation to gather around and lay hands on us as he prayed for us. His message was on leaders and followers. He gave excellent advice to both me as the leader and the church as the congregation. It was a cold, wet miserable day today. Both Felicia and I kind of moped around the house in a low energy daze. This is our last week downtown! We move on Saturday. Wow. Goodbye traffic, noise, energy and convenience. Hello cul-de-sacs, quiet, trees and an upper middle class enclave. Oh - I really appreciated the comments on the last post. Helped change my perspect...

Adam giving thanks for Jello. Adam turns 4 on the 26th. We are having his party tomorrow at a wave pool in Coquitlam. About 10 kids and their parents are expected to come. Should be fun. We bought him a hot wheels car track thingy. I got an update from Urban Sanctuary - they're packing it in. They simply did not have the numbers or finance to remain sustainable. They think they are probably going to merge into another church downtown, and become a home group of that church. It's sort of sad for me. I poured my life into trying to get that church plant going and now it's dead on the vine. One of the enduring mysteries is why some ministries take off, and others flounder around. On a more positive note, Heritage Mountain Church continues to flourish in incremental stages. Had some more positive meetings out there today. Can't wait to move, though.

Every Sunday after church we invite people to come to the front to pray about any concerns they have - personal or corporate. Last Sunday, I shared about how I was starting to feel pressure, because we had not yet found renters for our home. Later that afternoon, I ran into a friend who used to be in a Bible Study in our apartment. He is a realtor. I told him anout our situation - he said, no problem, I'll get you a renter. I said, uh, ok. Between Mon. and Tuesday he showed the apt. 5 times and secured us a renter today - signed lease and damage deposit!!!! I am so grateful!!! I still can't believe it - we had hired this big name property management company - they got us one showing in 10 days. We were very disappointed with them - terrible service as well. We canceled our contract w. them (and lost a little money, as well). But, at least now we are guaranteed renters for the next 12 months!

Radiohead - August 19 2008 Thunderbird Stadium - Vancouver Me in my garbage bag rain jacket. Last night Felicia and I went to see Radiohead. Radiohead are in a special class of band in my books. Up there with U2 and Coldplay in terms of innovative and artistic excellence. I saw them 4 years ago at the same outdoor stadium at UBC. That concert 4 years ago was amazing - beautiful warm weather, the sun setting behind the stage. We were close to the stage. And last night... also amazing but it was pouring rain!!! We had an umbrella and some garbage bags to sit on, but the weather was really really miserable. And as a sign of our age, we left before the first of two encores, meaning we probably missed at least another hour of music. But, I just couldn't take the wet and the cold anymore. They are awesome in concert - great sound and very cool video back-drop. We were right at the back, so we couldn't really see them very well, but it was still pretty fun. Tried to do some work tonig...

The view from my office that I have enjoyed for the past 6 years. Bye-bye. Sniff. Thanks for all the condolences on the death of my last macbook. 2 weeks and we leave beloved city life for the serenity of the 'burbs. I am trying to savor every last minute of urban life. For those of you who don't know, our apt. is on the 26th floor w. a SW view. We overlook Yaletown and have views of the water and UBC. Through our bedroom we have great city views and the North Shore Mountains as well. The view is definitely one thing we will miss. At night time, the city is all alit w. lights in the apartments - it is really quite amazing. We also have floor to ceiling windows which just magnify the stellar views. The house we are moving to is basically a dream house - we are renting it for 9 months, while the owners go to Cambridge for schooling. The house is brand new, 4000 sq. feet w. 2 decks and a view of Mt. Baker. The house is also basically at the top of Heritage Mountain. This is a hous...

R.I.P. old friend. You served me well. I want to respond to Craig's comment on the last post on Osteen, because he makes some good points. But first - big drama in the Ninan home! Here's how it went down. About 4 in the afternoon yesterday, Adam, Sophia and I are happily skyping with my parents. Adam was playing his ukulele and singing these stream of conscious songs. There was a tall glass of water on my desk. Adam accidentally knocked the water onto the keyboard and.... effectively killed my Macbook. I sprinted to the local Apple store. I related my dilemma - the guy gave me a look like I had just been shot in the stomach and was dying painfully. He said - its dead, but..... I think I can save the hard drive. That was sort of good news, as the hard drive contains pretty much all my work. I asked if he could transfer all the data onto another computer. He said, yeah. On the spot, I bought the exact computer that now lay dead in my arms. I talked it over with Felicia - she agre...

I previously blogged about my admiration for Joel Osteen here . Well, well, well, how fickle we all can be. I have since changed my feeling about my toothy brother. Osteen preached a sermon called "Broaden Your Life", where he encouraged people to try new types of food or go to the Opera if they never have before. My personal favorite admonition was to drive a new way to work. I'm serious - this was the whole sermon - try new things. And then he had a sermon called, "Encourage Yourself". In this message he actually told us to write letters of encouragement to ourselves. I now see that Osteen's entire ministry is anthro-centered, rather then theo-centered. His gospel is centered on man, not God. It's easy to build the biggest church in America, if you keep telling people how awesome they are - who doesn't want to hear that? I am a preacher. This is my job. A large part of my work is crafting a sermon during the week, and then presenting it on Sunday m...

Today, we kicked off our church's day camp. We have 50 kids registered, which is by far the biggest day camp of the 5 that Adam is attending this year. I am speaking today and Wed. The kids are aged 3-12, which is a pretty broad range of ages to try to keep focused. But, it went ok. I was actually surprised w. how smoothly everything went. I go back Wed. and Friday -giving me Tuesday and Thursday to work on other church business. Beautiful weather lately. So, I have been so desperate to play tennis, that I actually posted on Craigs List under "activity partners". I got 4 people reply, and I sort of felt like I was internet dating. It was 3 guys and one married woman, which I thought was kinda wierd. Felicia and I agreed I could play her, w. the whole family present. I have my first game tomorrow afternoon with a guy named Michael. We even exchanged cel numbers and physical descriptions! Hilarious. Will tell you how the "date" goes tomorrow.

My son - no comment. I am still alive. My problem is that posting on here is the last thing I do every-day. And this past week, I've been too tired to come into my office and write something witty, interesting and life changing. This coming week looks no better, as Adam and I have to leave every morning at 7:30-8:00 to be in Port Moody for his day camp at 9:00. I am teaching Mon- Wed. I'm kinda intimidated, as I've never really taught little kids before. We'll see. Speaking of "we'll see", Adam's birthday is coming up. Instead of getting gifts, we are asking the kids to bring toys that we are sending to an orphanage in India that my parents set up. I was explaining how the kids won't give him presents, but Mom and Dad would. When Adam heard that the kids wouldn't be bringing him gifts, he looked very serious, and said, "We'll see."

The Pride Parade was on today. An estimated half a million spectators invaded downtown Vancouver to watch the moving spectacle. I was considering going to see part of it, but a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to hang out, so I headed to another part of downtown instead. I find the Pride parade quite an interesting phenomenon. I believe the Pride parades are birthed out of the Stonewall resisters (a group of gay and lesbians in a gay club in New York City who were being arrested, and resisted - the year was 1970). Their actions essentially birthed the modern gay rights movement, and we began to see a concentrated effort to remove the stigma of homosexuality. Gays were coming out of the closet and moving next door. As more and more rights were won, and mainstream acceptance was gaining ground, the Pride parades also went under a cultural shift. No longer seen as venues of protest, they are now sort of a celebration of the gay community. They are often accompanied by incredible ...

Ok - I got an iphone. I got it because my calender is on ical on my mac. I could never make any plans w. anyone, until I got home, looked at it on my computer and then e-mail them. Now, I can make plans right away in person, instead of over the internet. I have to say I'm quite impressed w. the little gadget - lots of neat features. On another note - can anyone believe that MASH is still on tv?

I passed this store on Hastings St., as I was driving back from Port Moody tonight - instant classic! "WE HAVE THOUSAND DIFFERENT KINDS OF MERCHANDISE AT THE LOWEST PRICE OF $1" . I especially like the SAVE SAVE SAVE at the bottom in orange. 2nd urban oddity - I was getting gas today. There was a police car, parked in the lot. The police man was inside drinking Tim Hortons. As I walked up closer, I noticed he was reading the Hobbit - It just seemed like such an odd context for that book to be found in! Pretty long day in Port Moody. I was writing my sermon in a Starbucks out there - this lady sitting next to me, asked if I was reading the Bible. I said, yeah. We started talking - she was part of a church that was actually shutting down in September. It was a 7 yr. old church plant, that never grew past 20 members. We had a great chat, as I related our own struggles in church planting. She and her husband might drop by Heritage Mountain in the fall.

Me and my bike crew! I turned 38 today. Wow. I'm not sure if that makes me middle aged, but I know I'm getting there. A couple of friends who work downtown bought me lunch, which was very nice of them. I spent most of the day working - I am writing a sermon on our churches purpose statement which is "Loving God, loving others and growing together in His Community." I am using a text from 1 john - we love because he first loved us. We need to experience and appropriate God's love in our own lives. From that, we are then empowered and filled up to love God back and then also love others. You could really go far in a lot of directions when preaching on the love of God. Sermon writing - Writing a sermon is quite a journey, literally. Often when I start off, I have a general idea of where I'm headed, and then the text and the Holy Spirit send me veering down different paths. For example, I wrote 3-4 pages last night, on how to experience God's love, in spite...

My parents were in town this weekend. My Dad had an "early years" reunion at Regent College. My Dad was in the 3rd graduating class from Regent - I was in the 35th graduating class. They had a great time meeting up with old friends and profs, including Dr. James Houston and J.I. Packer. We saw them a few times which was nice - they also came to Heritage Mountain for my first sermon there. The sermon went well, and I was glad they got to meet our great new church. I worked on Saturday, so I took today off - we drove through Stanley Park and hung out on 3rd beach in the afternoon. Then tonight my parents and Felicia and I went for dinner for me and my mom's b-day. I find as I get older and it comes to gifts like Christmas or my b-day, I am not so interested in material things. Instead I would rather have new experience. Like, for a grad present from Regent, I got a surfing lesson in Tofino. For this birthday, I went to Spamalot with Felicia - which is hands down the greate...

Adam and dental care - a perfect match! Adam went to his first dental appointment. It was with a pediatric dentist - Dr. Patton. Dr. Patton actually helped found the Christian Medical and Dental Society, which my Dad is currently the president of. I first met Dr. Patton at First Baptist and we became fast friends. He was always very supportive and encouraging to me. Adam did great - he is always quite well behaved in these situations - getting his hair cut or seeing the doctor. Today I had the kids as Felicia worked. Adam and I were taking turns playing doctor. He asked me what was wrong. I said I have headaches. So, Adam placed the stethoscope on my head, and asked "Is there anything in there?" The kid is golden - get him an HBO comedy special! I laughed for a solid minute and then confessed, "Not really". It was a great moment that I shall never forget. Also - working on my first sermon - "The purpose of the church, within the context of the Kingdom of God...

My $12.50 contributed to the 3 billion $ or so money the Dark Knight made this weekend. I have not been so eager to see a movie since the Departed. I went on Saturday afternoon with a buddy. The theater was packed with giddy people. And.... this is one dark flick. David Letterman said you should see the Dark Knight for 2 reasons: 1. Heath Ledger's performance. 2. Batman's motorcycyle. Ledger does dazzle as the psychotic Joker. I have never seen a more disturbing character on the screen. And dark is the best way to describe the film. The movie opens with a murderous bang and really doesn't stop from there. Everyone is excellent in their acting, yet Ledger still manages to tower above everyone else. Like Apocalypse Now, this is a film that it is hard to say you "liked". It is so dark, depressing and holds no ultimate redemption. I hate to say this, but I really wouldn't recommend kids under 10 see this movie - it'll mess you up man. A pretty full weekend: ba...

The Believer It was a good day for Canadian music on tv last night. Rush performed Tom Sawyer on the Colbert Report last night and Neil Young was on Letterman - but he didn't play music. Rush's performance marked their first appearance on American tv in 3 decades! I'm not really that into Rush, but they are certainly among one of the top rock bands of all time. I have recently started getting more into Neil Young. He's an interesting cat. Some have compared him to Dylan, in terms of lyrical potency and staying power. On Letterman he spoke about this new fuel system he is working on with a team he has assembled from around the world. It was kinda interesting, and also kinda weird - Young came across kind of like a mad scientist. He also talked about an upcoming film he directed "CSNY Deja Vu". It's a documentary on last year's tour. Performances are interspersed with crowd reactions and vignettes of American soldiers back from Iraq. Young was on Charlie...

Someone pointed this out to me today. This looks like the movie I wanted to make. I've sort of stood on the side-lines and watched people on both sides lob volleys back and forth in the culture war. Hot button issues like homosexuality and abortion quickly polarize us into our safe corners. And, I am often left wondering with questions like: Why do the Christians feel the compulsion to wage a "values" war? When did Jesus transform from a 1st Century Palestinian Jewish maverick Rabbi, into a White Anglo Saxon Protestant Republican? When did the gospel become pro-war and pro-rich? Why are Christians known more for what they are against, rather then what they are for? Why are some people afraid of Christians? Why aren't there more poor people in our churches? How did our churches become middle to upper-middle class enclaves? Why do we have Christian "celebrities"? How did Jesus' broad reaching teaching on the Kingdom become narrowed down to a few propositio...

Ninans at English Bay. I got the new Rolling Stone w. Barack on the cover. There is no print on the cover, just his smiling mug. I got sticker shock when I went to pay - 7 bucks!!! About 5 pages in, there is a HUGE 3 pg. ad for..... Greyhound. No joke. They are marketing it to people who go to rock concerts. It is right after a big article on the Bonnaroo music festival. The ad reads "FASTER ROUTES get you there in time for the OPENING BAND - whether that's good or bad is up to you". How cute. The next page reads, "TERMINALS SO NICE, it's almost a shame when it's time for YOUR BUS TO LEAVE. Almost" The accompanying picture of the "so nice" terminal shows people sitting on plastic benches smiling. Everyone in the picture is well dressed and smiling. This ad is so far from the reality of bus travel. I have taken a Greyhound between Saskatoon and Regina many times, and I took a Greyhound from Calgary to Saskatoon once. The terminals were not ...

Adam and his awesome fore-hand at last week's tennis camp. I've enjoyed Craig 's spirited comments on Rambo and religious and cultural perspectives on homosexuality. For those of who don't know, Craig is a fine fellow who runs an excellent video store in downtown Vancouver called the Screening Room. He is also a sometimes actor and scuba diver! He and Morgaine are long time friends that I enjoy bumping into from time to time - something I will certainly miss as we move East to Port Moody. Speaking of Port Moody, we had a nice service this morning. Numbers were quite low, due to summa time and all. But 22 people stayed after to pray for the church, which was quite encouraging. The week ahead looks like a lot of study time - I'm trying to outline my next 6 sermons and put together a study guide for the church to use. It'll be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to it. Adam is in another day camp next week, so my mornings will be kinda quiet, except for Soph...