Dreams Unlocked

I read 67 books in 2017. 19 of them were related to my doctoral dissertation. Looking over the list is like remembering good friends I got to spend time with. I will probably post a bit more about which books stood out to me and why. The best Christian book I read was "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A'Kempis. This is the third time reading this book for me. This book is almost like a sacrament in terms of being able to draw someone in into the presence of God. It is a book to be read slowly and prayerfully. The best novel I read was Home by Marilynne Robinson. She is currently my favorite living writer. Her writing can best be described as poetic soul craft. She is truly unparalleled in terms of skill and gift. Here are the books I read: 1. Ultimate Prizes - Susan Howatch 2. The Imitation of Christ - Thomas A’Kempis (3rd time) 3. Welcoming but not Affirming - Stanley J. Grenz 4. The Bible and Homosexual Practice - Robert Gagnon 5. Bible Gender Se...

Finally got around to taking the family to “The Last Jedi”. I have mixed feeling. At times it get the timing of the story was a bit off. There were a few odd directing decisions as well. There were some compelling story points and some familiar action scenes. It was nice to see the continuation of Luke Skywalkers story and the new progression of Kylo Ren and Rey. I thought this was the weakest of the three most recent Star Wars films, so that was a bit disappointing. My kids liked it, even my 10 year old daughter who wasn’t very thrilled about going. My score : 6 out of 10.

A male and female pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses stopped by. I couldn’t tell if they were married.  They asked me if I thought about the future. I said yes, right along with the present and past.  They asked if I had a Bible in the House.  I said yes.  They said “Great!” In such perfect stereo it was like they practice saying it together.  They asked if they could leave some literature with me.  They handed me a copy of the watchtower. That magazine has not changed since I was a kid. Same cheap paper and same illustrator.  With their mission accomplished, they left.  Jehovahs Witnesses are kind of like polite home invaders - but they leave stuff, instead of taking stuff.  

I still consider myself an evangelical Christian. I wrestled all year with identifying with this term as it has been co-opted and is used more to describe a political voting bloc, instead of a follower of Jesus Christ. But, then I realized every expression of Christianity has its challenges, its blind spots and will be syncretistic. So, I continue to hang on to the title, despite the cultural baggage it forces me to carry. Evangelical Christianity in America needs to realize it is syncretistic in terms on combining a civic national religion largely founded on myths, materialism and a feeling of cultural superiority. The amazing thing is that God continues to use and bless this form of Christianity. Indeed, for all its faults American Christianity has done a great amount of good globally. The funding of overseas mission efforts, schools, hospitals, etc. Does she have blind spots? Of course! But the challenge comes in if we choose to be refined and developed o...

Our two youngest children are attending a new school this year. This change requires that they need to be picked up and dropped off every day. A 10 minute commute each way. Yesterday I got there pretty early. I was parked behind a small grey car. After some time a man got out of the car and opened the trunk. He pulled out an orange safety cone. And then he fixed a neon reflective green vest around himself. He walked to the cross walk and placed the safety cone down in the middle of the road. He walked back to the sidewalk. He is the crossing guard.  As I still had time, I thought about this man whose name I do not know. His job does not pay well. It does not appear to be very significant. You likely do not need specialized education to do it. And yet, he makes sure the kids and their parents cross the street carefully. His very presence, visible from passing cars is an added measure that they keep their speed down. He has a very important job. He is the crossin...

Newbign and a friend in India. I love Leslie Newbign. I read and re-read him over and over. He is one of the top 2-3 leaders and thinkers who have shaped my own thinking. Here's a piece of dynamite: "To work for the reformation of structures, to expose and attack unjust structures, and, when the point is reached at which all other means have failed, to work for the overthrow of an evil political and economic order is as much a part of the mission of the church as to care for the sick and to feed the hungry." - from The Open Secret, pg. 109

For the past 3 months I have been attending monthly meetings with several hundred other Ithacans to discuss and learn about the issue of mass incarceration. This is an issue I had never heard about until I saw the documentary "The House I live in" and then 13. The theory is that the war on drugs started in the 1980's under Ronald Reagan has actually been a tool of social and racial control. By creating lengthy sentences for very minor drug offenses and then targeting African American offenders we now have an extremely unbalanced incarceration rate of blacks vs. whites. I have lived in the United States for 4 years. Every country in the world has racism and prejudice of various kinds. In America, white supremacy has been built into the very fabric of the nation. When America was founded, blacks were defined as 3/4 human. Abolition of slavery came. Jim Crow laws were passed - and then Jim Crow was outlawed. After Jim Crow came mass incarceration. As one acade...

I read 59 books in 2016. Here they are: January River Dwellers - Rob Reimer - DMIN Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness- Tim Keller Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling Pursuit of God - AW Tozer Into Abba’s Arms - Sandra Wilson - DMIN Fasting - a Neglected Discipline - David SMith How to Read the Psalms - Tremper Longman III February 8. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made - Paul Brand and Philip Yancey 9.  Invitation to Solitude and Silence - Ruth Haley Barton 10. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill 11. Prepared to Preach - Greg Scharf 12. Hipster Christianity - Brett McCracken March 13. Secrets of the Vine - Bruce Wilkinson (2nd time) 14. Road to Character - David Brooks Introduction to the Devout Life - St. Francis de Sales Continuous Revival - Norman Grubb How Can I Get Through to You? - Terrence Real - DMIN April 18.  Strengthening the soul of leadership- Barton - DMIN 19. Leading Across Cultures - James Pluedemann ...

I have now lived in the United States for 3 and a half years. I, my wife and 3 kids are all Canadian citizens. One of the most interesting things I have discovered while living here is the sharp racial divide that exists here. There is nothing similar in Canada. Even the systematic racism against First Nations people is not the same. There is simply not the same amount of large populations of First Nations peoples living in urban centers. There does not seem to be a very large or significant First Nations middle class. And Canada is simply not an old enough nation to have the lengthy history of race relations as America does. First Nations peoples were not brought here as slaves but they were subjugated to European colonialism in their own land. Felicia and I just watched a very compelling documentary called 13th on Netflix. It is a history of the black experience in America since the passing of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery. It is a fascinating piece that chronicles th...

On Monday this week I was invited to speak on a panel about the proposed "Ithaca Plan", put forward by the Mayor's office in the city of Ithaca. This is a comprehensive proposal to treat a drug epidemic in our county which claimed 3 lives over Mother's Day weekend this year. It was a meeting which ran from 12:30-4:30 (My involvement was about an hour long.) I sat on a panel with a clergyman from Chicago who leads a national movement of Clergy for Drug Renewal, and a former District Attorney from Washington D.C. who also campaigns for drug law reform. Here are 2 things that I shared that I think are worth passing on to you: My motivation to speak out -  One is the nature of God. The God of the Bible is revealed as a God on the side of the poor, marginalized and rejected. Constantly choosing the younger and weaker to accomplish his purposes. Another  motivation is the nature of humanity. Human beings are created in the image of God and because of that fact both de...

I am currently teaching an adult education class in my church called "Personal Spiritual Formation". It is based on material put out by the dean of the seminary I currently attend, Dr. Ron Walborn. 25 adults signed up for the class and I ended up having to turn away others who showed interest. As we have been working through the material someone commented to me that this class is not what they thought it was going to be. This class covers things like grieving and honesty. I think what has happened is that for many of us spiritual formation simply means learning more things - head knowledge. But, the material I am teaching goes deeper - it goes to the heart. The reason I feel this material is important is because there is something missing in contemporary Christianity. We have lost our hearts. What I mean is is that we have absolutely excellent academic training in areas of theology, hermeneutics, exegesis and biblical scholarship. Almost anyone can now access some of the ...

I got a Bible! I am having an identity crisis. For almost my entire adult life I have self identified as an evangelical Christian. But, my identity has been hijacked. Evangelical Christianity has been severed from its roots in the gospel and has been replanted amidst very confusing political soil. And I don't know who I am anymore. This dilemma traces its origins back several decades. In the 1980's progressive Christian Tony Campolo was loudly declaring that evangelicals in America no longer believed in the Jesus of the gospels, but instead they had transformed him into a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Republican. And THAT Jesus is impotent to do anything for us. (Because he is a figment of our imagination). Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention has renounced the label and now calls himself a Gospel Christian. Evangelical traces its roots to the word evangel - which in turn traces its root to the Greek word euangelion - which means "good news...

A couple of weeks I used an illustration in a sermon concerning the anthropologist Margaret Mead. In a University lecture, Mead asked the students what was the first sign of civilization? She held up various objects: a bowl? a weapon? the forging of iron? Mead said none of these were the first signs of civilization. She then held up a human femur bone. Upon closer inspection, you could see that the bone had been broken and then had healed over. She said - the healing of this bone means that someone cared for this person. Someone hunted for them. Fed them. Insured their personal comfort. .... all at expense to their own needs. Civilization began there and is only sustained if human beings can continue to display these same acts continue on through our line. To care for the broken among us is the sign that the body of humanity is still healthy and functioning. This story that I have shared via my friend  Selina Robinson  shows us what will be part of the downwa...

My band of brothers in the DMIN program. I got back Wednesday evening after a 10 day intensive of the first module of my Dr. of Ministry program at Alliance Theological Seminary. Classes ran from 8 AM - 5 PM everyday except for Sunday. My cohort has 11 students and then I was in a smaller group of 4. We will study together for the next 3 years, gathering twice a year for this same immersive experience. My journey to this particular seminary is quite interesting. I was actually prepared to study at another larger and better known seminary. But God stepped in and changed my direction. It happened through a Christian family camp in the Adirondacks that we attend every summer.   Camp of the Woods is a beautiful Christian resort that brings in top rate speakers and has an excellent children and youth program. This year Dr. Martin Sanders of ATS was one of the speakers. He spoke on "the soul". Felicia, my parents and I were profoundly moved by his messages as he spok...

Read a story about a mega-church pastor who had been cheating on his wife for the past few months. He got caught. He was fired and stripped of all his ministry credentials. And then he filed for divorce. The Christian life is a tight-rope. We can fall off either side. What keeps us tethered and balanced is our relationship with God - nothing else. The power of God flowing through our souls can keep us upright, when temptation screams all around us. But most of us neglect this primary relationship. Placing the demands of ministry ahead of all else can be devastating. Identity needs to be grounded in relational reality, not vocational reality. We are children of God, before we are pastors, leaders, teachers, etc.

Adam and I about to be inspired. Well, I had an absolutely surreal experience this past Tuesday. Somehow, I was invited to a private event at Carnegie Hall. One.org and Red.com were both celebrating their 10 year anniversaries. One.org is an anti poverty activist organization that lobbies governments and companies to do more to reduce global poverty. Red.com is an organization that encourages well known brands to donate portions of sales of speciality products to the Global Fund - which works towards an AIDS free future. I have volunteered for One since its very beginnings and have purchased Red products. But, I am still stupefied as to how I managed to get this extremely exclusive invite. The event honored Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael Bloomberg and a couple of other people I was not familiar with. Some of those who participated were: Bono The Edge Miley Cyrus Bill Clinton Joe Biden Stephen Colbert Trevor Noah Sting It was unbelievable. I had 2 tickets so de...

Adam and I out for dinner. If you are friends with me on facebook, you'll notice that I posted of my recent acceptance into the Doctor of Ministry program at Alliance Theological Seminary. I have been thinking of pursuing further education for a couple years now. Felicia and I talked and prayed and felt the timing was right for me to start now. I looked at several programs in the States, Canada and even the United Kingdom. I was trying to decide between a PhD and a DMIN. A PhD is a professional academic degree that would open doors for me to teach at a college or seminary in the future. A DMIN is also a professional degree but is  focused more on practical vocational ministry, usually in a local church. I would have loved doing a PhD, but honestly didn't think I would have been able to give the full focus the program would have required. We would have had to move and Felicia would have had to return to working full time. Consequently, I shifted to looking at variou...

Today, the other pastor I work with and I attended a large pastors conference out of town. The speaker was a mega-church pastor, well known in evangelical Christian circles. His messages were excellent - very helpful and biblically sound. The last session he took some questions and answers. One question was about how to minister in an age of terrorism and mass shootings. His answer was interesting. He went straight to a defense of police officers. He claimed that the situation is not helped when we demonize police officers. I agree. I agreed with everything he said - police, firefighters, soldiers - these men and women stand between the rest of us and complete social breakdown. I hold great respect and admiration for these people who place their lives on the line daily, so that the rest of us can live lives of security. Now, what I want to point out is what he did not say. I am still a relative newcomer to the USA - 2.5 years now. And so I have been able to observe a little ...

Last week I preached on identity. The question of self identity is one of the key questions we need to answer in order to have a meaningful life. When asked "who are you"?, most of us respond either vocationally or relationally. Vocationally - I am a pastor, doctor, home-maker, etc. Relationally - I am a Ninan - I am so and so's child, father, etc. We now live in a time where gender and racial identity seems to be becoming more and more fluid. In my sermon, I addressed that if we follow Christ, our identity gets re-defined in terms of our relationship with Christ. As followers of Christ, we are adopted into the family of God. Thus, our primary identity is that as a child of God. A Christian is someone who has God as their father. This understanding is incredibly transformational. We lose insecurity and fear as we enter into the truth of this reality. Our attempts to secure self esteem through peer or societal approval, proves moot. We are also liberate...

Yesterday, I was thinking about what the benefits of being a Christian are. What difference does being a follower of Jesus Christ? I came up with the following: 1. The ability to forgive others. Because Christ has forgiven the worst in me, I in turn can forgive the worst in others. 2. No stress. If God loves me and is caring for and  protecting and guiding me, I never have to worry about anything ever again. 3. Community. The most important human need we have is for a community of love and acceptance around us. The Church gives me this gift. There are more - what would you add?