Dreams Unlocked

I posted a pic. of me and world famous apologist Ravi Zacharias on Facebook. It garnered over 175 likes - far more than any other pic. I have ever posted online. Zacharias is arguably one of the most prominent Christian leaders in the world. He is the head of a 22 million dollar/year ministry with offices all over the world. There are hundreds who work in the ministry with over 50 itinerant speakers. He is in high demand as a speaker and people regularly line up hours ahead in order to get seats. He is an arresting speaker commingling natural charisma with a photographic memory of lengthy quotes. My history with Ravi goes back to India. There was some interaction between my parent's families and his family. I am unsure of what that interaction actually was. I know my Dad's brother worked with Ravi's ministry in India, providing leadership development training for his staff there. In the 70's and 80's Ravi spent part of his time as an itinerant evangelist wit...

Contemporary America is attempting something amazing: the creation of an autonomous free floating value matrix, which can be traced directly back to Christianity, while simultaneously severing the taproot which provides said values.  I posted this on  Facebook - it elicited a very lengthy and eloquent response from my childhood friend, Andy Tait. You can read it on my Facebook page. Andy says that "the modern west began when ties to Christianity began to fray". He gives a lengthy explanation of a variety of advances that have taken place as church and state began to separate. This has been of particular interest to me over the past 5 years. I have been studying a lot of the cultural changes happening in the West. The person who has helped me the most is Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. He has written with the greatest insight and comprehension on the pivot, the West has taken from theism to secularity. See A Secular Age, Sources ...

Other seed fell on good soil.  It came up, grew and produced a crop,  some multiplying thirty,  some sixty, some a hundred times. On Wednesday June 17,  Dylan Roof went to a Bible Study at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston South Carolina. An hour into the study he pulled out a gun and shot and killed 9 of the people in the study, including the pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney. The passage they were studying was the parable of the sower found in Mark 4. In this parable, Jesus teaches how the Word of God is like seed sown on a variety of soils.  Some seed missed the soil, hit the path only to be eaten up by birds.  Some fell on rocky soil and had no chance to set down roots. The sun burned them up. Some seed fell among thorns - the thorns killed the seed. But other seed.... That seed fell on good soil - that seed did not die. It came up It grew. It produced far beyond its humble beginnings. The men and women felled by Roof's gun are like...

Last week, Felicia and I attended an orientation evening at the middle school that Adam will be attending next year. It's one of those nights where the staff and administrators do their best to assure you that your kids will learn something and not grow disillusioned or bitter in the process. There are a certain type of parent who for some reason feel that they know more about kids education than the actual child educators who have both the training and experience to actually know what they are doing. Despite, the fact that these qualified men and women are there to present to us some of the plans they have for our kids education, these spritely parents feel compelled to pop up and pontificate on their personal philosophies of education. Most of these theories seem to be based on daydreams they have while dozing in their recliners while netflix plays in the background. Or (worse), they are a hodge podge of theories culled from day time talk shows and poorly written blog posts...

Adam and I - Wildwood School A couple of weeks ago, Adam and I went to Saskatchewan Canada for 6 days. A lot of my early formative years took place in Saskatchewan. After shuttling around from India-Vancouver-Toronto-Regina, my parents settled on Saskatoon Saskatchewan as the city to raise their family in. My father took a position as a neonatologist - one of the first in the province of Saskatchewan. We moved into a new developing neighborhood called "Wildwood". I was the in first Grade 3 class to attend Wildwood Elementary School. In between Wildwood, I attended an inner city school called Caswell. Castle had an "Ac-Tel" program, designed for academically gifted children. Somehow I made the cut. After elementary school, I went to Aden Bowman High School - made famous because Joni Mitchell went there. After high school, I skipped University and attended a denominational bible school with the unfortunately generic name of "Canadian Bible College"....

A friend of mine is dying. He has lung cancer. I will not see him before he dies because he lives in another country. He recently posted his final Facebook post. He is too sick to receive visitors anymore.  I was trying to think of what I could write in the comments. I looked up 2 Corinthians 5 which talks a lot about looking forward to a new home in heaven. And then this in v.4: For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life What is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Stunning! Mortality is not life - it is not all of life. Real life is coming. It is around the corner. Death is the door into real life. Mortal life ends, so that real life can begin. When my friend sheds this mortal coil, he enters into the reality of which this life is such a faint shadow. What we consider our greatest earthly joy or achievement will be unrecognizable from the...

Jesus did not die alone. There were at least 2 others crucified with him. Two thieves. One on either side. The social and emotional context surrounding him was painful. The crowds, the guards, the rulers and even one of the thieves kept mocking him: "Come down from the cross, if you are who you say you are." The death of Jesus was the ultimate vindication of the crowd - he wasn't who he said he was. We were right - he was a fraud. They all mocked .... except. Except for one of the thieves. He rebukes the other thief: "Don't you fear God, since we are under the same sentence. We are being punished justly. But this man has done nothing wrong." Amid the din of rebuke, sarcasm and ridicule came the voice of truth from a ragged dying shell of a human propped up on that Roman gibbet. The thief understood the human condition - "we are being punished justly." He understood that he was getting what he deserved. And he looked at Jesus and re...

Starbucks has embarked on a campaign. But, it is not a campaign to get people to drink more coffee. No, they want to get people talking. That is a good thing. People should talk. What should we talk about in a coffee shop? Movies? Music? Clothes? The Freudian postulate that our thoughts are merely high functioning nero-physiological reactions to external stimuli? Nope. Let's talk about race. Starbucks has instructed their lovely baristas to scrawl Race Together across your Venti Latte, along with your name and what kind of elixir you have ordered them to make for you. So, at a time when racial tensions are at a zenith of touchiness, Starbucks thinks its a good idea to have those two words slide toward you, followed by the cheery announcement of "Santosh, your chai tea is on the bar!" I am befuddled as to what I should do then. Am I actually supposed to engage my barista? Why would I? What would I say? How on earth would I be able to explain how the contemporary...

Last week I taught an Adult Education Class called "The Limits of Romantic Love". The class focused on a quote by C.S. Lewis that I had used in a previous sermon on marriage. In a section in Mere Christianity, Lewis gives his views on Christian marriage. He makes an insightful observation on the difference between romance and the deeper love that grows later in a marriage. Due to the short attention span of our current culture, once romance or emotion has dissipated from a marriage, we tend to grow bored and seek "fulfillment" elsewhere. But this is not wise. By moving on from partner to partner we miss out on the deeper love, Lewis eludes to. The hook-up culture of millennial does not build love. It might provide temporary glandular excitement. But, in the process it numbs our emotions, making this deeper love impossible. This deep love is not as exciting as romance, but is is far more fulfilling. Deep love only grows and flourishes in the hard soil of adversit...

Dorothy and me. Dorothy and King. I recently had an experience I thought I would never have in my lifetime. This past October I was introduced to an elderly African American woman in our congregation named Dorothy Cotton. Dorothy usually sits in the row behind my family near the front on Sunday mornings. She is brought to the church by a young family that lives near her. I soon discovered that Dorothy Cotton was the highest serving female in the Southern Christian Leadership Convention - the sole female permitted into Martin Luther King Jr's inner circle. She was involved in many tactical decisions at the highest level of the civil right movement. Her focus was on education. If you google here name, pictures come up of her with King at various events. This past Martin Luther King Day I was invited to have lunch with Dorothy, along with my colleague, Pastor Eric Hause. The venue for our lunch was quite intersting: a local soup kitchen. We walked in. Our newer cl...

I think policeman hate crime. I think firefighters hate fires that destroy. I think doctors hate disease. And I kNOW pastors hate sin. I am a pastor. And the longer I have been a pastor, the more I have come to hate sin. I hate sin. The reason I hate it is because,, I spend more time than others in the midst of the damning effects that sin has in the lives of others. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. But, one does not have to wait for death to feel the effects of sin. Sin kills slowly, entering in through any small opening we give it. Like an ever ravenous cancer it slowly drains all joy and pleasure out of life. I sit in the midst of the nuclear fallout of sin on a regular basis. If that was the only place I sat, I would be in constant despair. But, my life is balanced out by also sitting in the presence of God. The following keep me from falling over the pit: Regular meditation on the character of God. Reading the Psalms. Silence. Watching my children at ...

I love Tuesdays. Tuesday are my day off. When you are a pastor, you work Sundays and so most pastors select a day during the week to take off. The best part of my day off is that I get to pick my 4 year old son James up from his pre-Kindergarten class. Today, his teacher said James was a bit quiet and not his usual exuberant self. And then she quietly confided that his best friend had ignored him and had been playing with other kids. James' tender 4 year old heart was broken. Felicia asked me if that made me sad. Of course it did. No emotionally healthy parent is immune to the pain that their children endure from time to time. But later on, I pondered it a bit more. I am still sad that James was sad. But, the rejection and pain he went through today help form him into a whole human being. If James went through life facing no pain or rejection, he wouldn't be real. He would be a detached person without the ability to empathize with others in pain. The pain James went throug...

Peter Mansbridge: Calm, Cool, Collected and Canadian Its interesting how a sub-story of the Ottawa shooting has been the startling difference between Canadian and American broadcasting. I am unable to get any Canadian channels so I got all my news through CNN last night. It seems like the American media thinks it is serving us well by bringing is a dozen "experts" who analyze every single aspect of a story down to whether the types of socks the shooter was wearing can tell us something about his religious identity. (i made that up - but wouldn't be surprised if CNN found some sartorial theologian who could make the connection). This won't change how America reports the news - this is just an observation by american media on Canadian media. American news is far more obsessed with celebrity and dramatic "breaking" events than reasonable thoughtful observation. Exceptions might be Meet the Press or 60 minutes that take a bit longer to tease out a st...

"In all that deep darkness, a miracle was preparing". That is a line from Gilead, a novel by Marilynne Robinson. The context is that the narrator is discussing a long time when he was single. As a pastor in a small town, he was seen as quite a catch, so many daughters and nieces were presented to him. But, no one caught his eye. This caused him to feel sad and lonely. In every life we go through periods of deep darkness. Its almost like our time in the womb prepares us for similar times of murky shadow times. It might be helpful to consider that when we find ourselves in those times that a miracle is in fact being prepared. For the character in Gilead, the miracle was the woman who would become his wife. The woman tells him "You ought to marry me." The effect was so tremendous that his response was: "That was the first time in my life I ever knew what it was to love another human being." Darkness is ok. Shadow seasons need not frighten us. Becaus...

The scientist (Cornell professor Dr. Jonathan Butcher) and the pastor (me) answer some questions from students. So, I'm a pastor. Part of my job is preaching. I share the preaching load at our church with our interim lead pastor. Since he's the lead guy, he preaches slightly more than I do. I want to share with you a little bit about what it's like to prepare and deliver a sermon. And one thing to please not do to your pastor immediately after he or she preaches their sermon. I normally start my preparation for my sermon Monday morning. I print out the text in the version I will preach from and in Greek, so I can access both the Greek and English while reading and making notes. I read the Greek first to get a good handle about how it sounded when it was first written. Then I read through the passage several times, making notes and waiting for an outline to emerge - After about an hour I have a pretty good idea of how the passage is laid out. Now, it's time...

I am actually completely stunned at the continued fallout of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The latest wrinkle is that 9 CURRENT pastors have now publicly stated their opinion that Mark Driscoll should step down for an entire year instead of his current 6 week staycation. Now, one of those 9 pastors has been fired. Swell. The most damning observations of the church comes from respected pastor, speaker and author Paul David Tripp. Tripp served on the accountability board of Mars Hill for awhile until he realized the board could not do very much, least of all provide actual accountability. Here are some snippets from Tripp: "I don't think even now that there is the recognition of the depth of what Mars Hill Church and Mark is actually dealing with. This is without a doubt the most abusive, coercive ministry culture I've ever been involved with." "What is happening is they are managing a crisis, instead of dealing with the deep personal sin at the bottom of t...

I hate kids. I believe the most famous atheist in the world is losing his mind. Last month Richard Dawkins wrote that we shouldn't condemn what he called "mild pedophilia". The term itself is a stunning. Pedophilia might be a lot of things but the one thing it can never be is "mild". And now Dawkins has stumbled again in the twtterverse. Some misguided seeker mentioned that they would be in a real dilemma if they found out the child in their womb had Down's syndrome. And here the ever compassionate anti-God professor let's loose with this missive: Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice. It is more moral to terminate a Down's Syndrome child, than to give it a loving family. I wonder why stop at the womb? In Dawkin's world, perhaps it is moral to terminate any kid that doesn't measure up to whatever standards Dawkins deems worthy of life. Children with Down's Syndrome...

When we lived in Vancouver for awhile I had the interesting fortune of meeting celebrities - I never sought them out - they would just sort of be where I was : grocery stores, video stores, etc. In 2005 Felicia and I were out for a movie. After locating our seats I got in line for popcorn and soda. As I was standing in the line, I glanced over at the man next to me. He was short but very muscular - I thought he might be a body builder. I looked at his face and thought he looked familiar - he returned my gaze and I thought he looks a lot like Robin Williams - his chin is much more pointy than in films and tv. A few more seconds and I was confident it was him - I asked him "Are you Robin Williams?" He said yes. Then I fumbled into verbal idiocy as I wasn't sure what I should say now. So I said "I'm a big fan of your stand-up". which is true. He said thank you. At this point, I should have shut up and focused on the line. Instead, I kept going. ...

Felicia and I visited Mars Hill Church in Seattle in 2005 when we were starting to consider church planting in Vancouver. Mars Hill Ballard (at the time), met in a retro fitted warehouse. It had a very cool vibe and was filled with young people. The worship I think was good - but I can't remember it now. Mark Driscoll spoke on an unpopular passage of Judah and Tamar from Genesis 38. I remember that Driscoll made a remark that women should not go to night-clubs because they are at risk for assault there. The way he said it sounded like he was insinuating it was their own fault if they were assaulted. After that visit, I kept track of Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll. There seemed to be no stopping them. They continued to grow and expand at an incredible rate. Driscoll was writing a lot of books and speaking in a lot of places. In 2007 two popular elders were fired when they voiced disagreement with a new governance structure which centralized the power to Mark and I think 2...

We have now been living in the United States for over one year. One of my first observations is how political this nation is. People have very strong political views and feel propelled to voice them loudly at times. The Middle East always raises some strong pitched points of views - especially among evangelical Christians. There is a branch of evangelicalism which is completely and totally blindly pro-Israel (I mean this in terms of being completely and totally supporting Israel's claim to their land in the Middle East AND full and complete support for any and all military campaigns carried out by Israel). There are other Christians who are moderate. And there are some whose support for Palestine borders on a soft anti-semitism in terms of viewing Israel. Where do I stand? I am pro-Israel - I support the Israeli people to have a nation and land, like every other country. But, this support of Israel needs to be balanced by a concern for the Palestinian people and the hu...