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Showing posts from April, 2008

How We Spend Our Time...

I'm currently reading the book " The Relational Way " by M. Scott Boren. I was actually hoping to have it finished by today but I'm only a few chapters into it... Anyways, so far this book is just great! I love the emphasis on how it's not simply the proper structure of your small group ministry that is going to make the difference in your church, but whether or not these groups are fostering meaningful life connections. I was just struck by one section which compares the ministry of Jesus to the ministry of the average modern day pastor. Here's what it basically says about Jesus' ministry: Research on the Synoptic Gospels has provided estimates that Jesus spent about 50 percent of his time with 12 key leaders during his years of ministry He also invested time to a core group of 70 followers... but this was much less. And, of course, Jesus minister to the masses (like feeding the 5000 and the sermon on the mount) but again this was far less time... For

Trying to drop a few pounds

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When I stepped on the scale recently I was a tad shocked with what it said... 209lbs. Now... that's a lot better then my high of 215 in Montreal... but, I figured it's about time to finally do something about that extra few pounds. So this evening I started jogging. I found a great podcast to listen to that breaks the 9 week C25K program into 9 weekly episodes. Each episode is listen to 3 times during the week... and it tells you when to walk and when to jog. Pretty neat and really did a great job of monitoring the run. So the first one is under the belt... we'll see how sore I'll be in the morning :-) Then I'll do this every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'll try to keep a running (pun intended) update of this program on my blog.

Tuesday Brain Dump

I figured that while I eat some Lean Cuisine and listening to some podcasts I'd give a little mind dump of all the things going on in my life these days... Feeling a tad guilty about not taking any summer courses over the next few months... Ideally I wanted to take at least 2 courses each summer in order to speed my program along... but the only course that really fit in my program was a course on the book of Revelation. Now, that's a cool book and all, but I would rather use my New Testament elective course for something other then that one... just me I guess :-) I REALLY need to get into a better shape then round :-) I'm going to start jogging. A buddy told me about this program called Couch to 5K Running Program . Looks pretty interesting. I'm going to start that this evening... If you find my corpse on the side of the road somewhere please let my wife know :-) Our trip this weekend to Ottawa and Montreal was great. It was so nice to see family and friends.

READY TO ROCK!

I was doing a quick trip to Walmart this morning to grab a present for my nephew... and low and behold I stumbled on one last Wii version of Guitar Hero 3! Unfortunately I don't have much time to play today since we're leaving shortly for our weekend in Ottawa and Montreal. So Tuesday night is a rock party at my place! :-)

School's Out for Summer!

Insert Alice Cooper music here! Last night was the last course of my Intro to Preaching course. I really really enjoyed this course. The teacher was great - and I'm not just saying that knowing he sometimes read this blog :) It was a big relief to deliver that last sermon tonight... so now I'm ready for some relaxing reading that has nothing to do with school :-)

WOW!

I just gotta say it. I have never been more humbled and proud to be a part of this church called Woodside then I have today! Everything about this morning's service just made me want to jump out of my skin and thank God for how he provides in very dark and troubling times. Andrew's awesome choice of music. Dan changing his message from the one originally schedule to the topic of God's word to us in tragedy. Praying for Val's kids as a church. Russ' AWESOME singing of Healing Rain. People praying together and supporting each other and crying together. Man oh man the whole morning just ROCKED!! You could feel God's love all around! Everywhere I looked and everything I heard this morning brought tears to my eyes! If this is just a glimpse of what God could do with this church in this part of the world then I just can't wait to see what he's going to do in the years to come!!

Looking for Woodside?

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I'm getting a huge amount of Google referrers for "Woodside, Elmira, Ferguson". I guess people are looking for directions to the church for Val's visitation and memorial... So here is the link for directions: MAP TO WOODSIDE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP Thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.

Trust Fund Update

The Trust Fund has been completely set up. You can donate by clicking the button on this site or our church's site, www.woodsidechurch.ca. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to get this up for the kids!!

Trust Fund for the Ferguson Kids

We are in the process of helping get a Trust Fund up and running for the kids of Val Ferguson. In case you didn't catch my last post, Valarie Ferguson, a very active member of our church with our children's ministry, was found dead in her home last week. Her husband, Kenneth Ferguson, has been charged with first degree murder. Val's two children are now living with their grandparents. You can check out a news report of the incident and the trust fund at THIS LINK . Both myself and Dan Allen, our senior pastor, are interviewed and share about Val and the fund being set up for the kids. As a father of kids pretty much the same age as Val's little ones, this definitely hits hard! Val had such an incredible heart and passion for her kids and all the kids she reached out to here at our church and by volunteering at John Mahood Public School. She had a great impact on all our kids. She gave so much to our kids... now her kids need us! The trust fund will be set up at t

I know I've been quiet here...

Just because it's quiet here on the blog reflects that the exact opposite is happening in real life! Don't have time to go into all the details here, but you can read about what we dealing with as a church in this morning's newspaper . If you're the praying type please for the kids and family members dealing with this tragic situation! Also pray that we as a church will provide this family all the love and support that they need to get through this. And also pray for our Senior Pastor Dan as he ministers to this family. I'm a big believer that prayer is not a last resort but the first thing we should be doing in everything... so I'd appreciate your prayers in this.

Tuesday Mind Purge

Seems like this is the first Tuesday in a long time that we're not experiencing a snow storm, and class gets canceled! My professor just emailed to let us know that he's sick. Not fun. But I am going to take advantage of the night off! Here's a quite mind dump of things that are taking up a lot of my gray matter: I'm working on a ton of great things at the church. I'm really excited to start seeing some of this ideas become a reality over the course of the summer. World of Warcraft is more addictive then crack! If you've never played, stay away! :-) Actually I'm quite enjoying it. It's definitely getting the craving to play D&D out of my system. OHHHH!!! Just dawned on me that since class is canceled I can watch tonight's Blue Jay's game against New York! COOL! Next Thursday we'll be going to the game in Toronto. Our church's building campaign is in full swing. I'm looking forward to seeing how God is going to be worki