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Showing posts from February, 2011

Learning The Gospel

WOW! The Christian world seems to be all abuzz talking about "Universalism" . And I'll admit... up to a couple of weeks ago, I had no clue what that even meant - and I won't be explaining it or debating it here. Feel free to Google it and read more about it yourself. In the last 2 weeks I've had more conversations about universalism then probably any other theological idea. So I guess it's no coincidence that in October I scheduled on our preaching calendar here at Greenbelt a 3 week study on the book of Galatians called "Learning the Gospel" If you're not a believer in preparing your preaching calendar six months in advance because it stifles the spirit of God... well... here's a great example of how praying on this topic for the past 4 months has aligned with exactly where God has brought us. I love it when God does that! This series will be exploring who Jesus is, what does our relationship with him really mean... and why it makes a

My Week so Far

This week I'm back in my old hood of Kitchener-Waterloo to attend a course at Heritage Seminary. For those who don't know, I'm currently working on getting a Diploma of Pastoral Studies and Leadership and then I'll be taking 10 other courses in order to get an "equivalence" of a Master's of Theology. I couldn't go directly into the Master's program because I never went to university... but that's a whole other topic. I love seminary. I do. No, really. I do. I read about a lot of pastor and how they describe seminary as "the cemetery"... and I guess I can see some truth to that. But I just love learning... and the courses that I'm taking at Heritage really encourage and grow my faith. I do find myself in a tension though... part of me wants to learn... and the other part just wants to get out there and bring the love of Jesus to people. While I enjoy sitting around all week discussing the minute details of the Prison Epistl

Monday Mind Dump

Gotta be honest... most Monday mornings I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I've heard other pastors call it a "spiritual hangover". Maybe that's the term I should start using :) Cause this weekend was an awesome spiritual roller coaster! On Friday evening my wife and I attended a pastors' dinner and conference put on by One Way Ministries . It was great to be a part of this... Being the new kid in town it was a tad awkward at first not knowing anyone... but then we found a few familiar faces so we didn't feel completely isolated :) The conference itself was a preview of the Love and Respect conference which will be coming to Ottawa in November. I'm a big believer in the material covered by Love and Respect... in fact, I use the principals in all my discussions with couples. This was a great refresher of the material for me... but... man oh man was I ever uncomfortable sitting there for 1.5 hours for the first session. Maybe I had the only br

Practical Atheist

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Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view