Kevin Presseault

There's an interesting discussion going on over at LifeChurch.tv's Swerve lab . Someone asked the question: How do you walk the fine line between being friends with those on your staff and being their boss/pastor? Is there a certain amount of keeping at arm’s length that must take place? Do you find that being chums with your staff makes it more difficult to make the tough calls or bring correction when needed? I find this a VERY interesting question... mainly because in the business world I've never experienced intentionally keeping people at arms length. Sure, people at work were not best friends, but they were good friends and great relationships. I still keep in touch with a number of them who I haven't worked with in over 10 years! So why is it that just because we're pastors we're somehow now above becoming close to the people we work with? It seems to me that Jesus didn't keep his "staff" at arm's length. He laughed and partied wi...

OK... this is probably one of those comic book movies that you never expected (or wanted) to see. But there is something pretty appealing (in my head anyways) about seeing this Canadian hero hitting the big screen... or maybe the direct to DVD screen... I happened to stumble on this little piece of news and thought I'd put the blurb up here for all to see. Canada’s only superhero Captain Canuck is soon to become the star of Canada’s first action/adventure film. Based on the original comic book by Richard Comely, this feature film will turn Canada into an action-packed playground complete with an exploding CN Tower. Personally, I'd rather see the CN Tower being turned into an alien space ship and blast off into orbit... but that's just me I guess :-) The web site about this movie can be found here ... but they have no more information then what I just posted. You can also check out the official Captain Canu...

I haven't posted anything about this before... mainly because we weren't certain if it was going to happen, but now that it's all said and done I thought I share this news... mainly for prayer support. My brother-in-law David is now in Afghanistan. Here's a picture of him and a bunch of the guys he's serving with. He's in the front row, third from the left. He's not there with the military, but rather, with an organization to help train and support Afghanistan police forces. He'll be there for a year, with some vacation time to come back home a couple of times throughout the year. I don't want to share too many details just in case Osama reads my blog :-) So, if you're the praying type, our family would appreciate you adding David to your list that God would keep him safe there and that he would be used to help and support the people of that country.

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. Isaiah 53:5 I was was standing in line at Tim Hortons this morning, waiting to get my morning fix of coffee, I was just reflecting on what Easter means to me... It's kinda of weirds. Most of my life all Easter meant was a few days off school or work, a bunch of chocolate and a big meal with my family. This whole idea of a guy dying on a cross for my sins, being beaten so I could be whole, whipped so I could be healed, pierced for my rebellion, just sounded... well... ludicrous. Yet, today. WOW!!! That thought really does bring me to my knees! I always smile when people tell me I became a Christian because I needed a crutch in life. When I put my faith in Jesus I was at the top of my game. I had a beautiful girlfriend, a fantastic job traveling the world, awesome friends, a great social calendar o...

This is a fantastic song by Casting Crowns and a fantastic message! For too long the church has picked and chosen which problems people face we want to help and which ones we simply ignore or shun. Like the singer says, this is no where to be found in the ministry of Jesus or any where else in the Bible. God's call on our lives is to show his great love for EVERYONE! Regardless if this is comfortable for us, benefits us or whatever, it's all about helping a hurting world. If we pray to impact our communities then we better get ready to get REAL messy! (If you're reading this on Facebook here is the link to the song.)

YES!!!! FINALLY!!!! I will definitely be fighting the urge to run to Futureshop all day today! Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica is now out on DVD. The only thing keeping me from running out and buying it is the fact that my birthday is a couple of weeks and I always feel guilty buying stuff for myself around that time... I'm kinda weird that way :-) Actually, I guess I'm kind of weird in a lot of ways! I've been watching the occasional episode of season 3 on the Space channel on Sunday evenings (when I actually remember it) so I'm really pumped about getting caught up in the series. This has definitely become my favorite show on TV... far surpassing Heroes and even coming close to being right up there with The X-Files. We'll see how long the desire to get this can be fought... Considering I'll be driving right past TWO Futureshop stores and one BestBuy on my way to school tonight this should be quite the challenge :-)

The last few days have been a real blast and a real whirlwind! Hard to believe that this weekend is Easter already. Hopefully that means it's just a few more weeks of snow and spring will kick in! So here's a Tuesday morning brain dump on much ado about nothing... Last weekend I went to Chatham, Ontario with the Elmira Theatre Company to put on our show, Ten Times Two, at the 2008 Western Ontario Drama League Festival. Our show absolutely rocked!! The cast and crew were TOP NOTCH! We came home with a bunch of awards, but not the grand winning "Best Production" award... so that means we won't be going on in the competition up in North Bay later next month. Oh well. It's not about the awards but the love and joy of theatre :-) I'm just a few weeks short of finishing school for another semester. I've really enjoyed this class on Intro to Preaching and have learn of ton of stuff that I'm already using in my ministry here at Woodside... so tha...

... but is anybody listening? The release date for the LONG overdue X-Files movie was released today, July 25, 2008. You can read about it HERE . I loved the X-Files TV show! It's still the bar that I use to judge every other show that I watch. Seasons 4 and 5 were by far my favorite. They were doing some awesome stuff! For me the series quickly went down hill when they left Vancouver and move production to L.A. And that had nothing to do with being a Canadian :-) Something about it just changed... I guess it just became too Hollywood... So now, we finally get a sequel to a pretty bad movie, what, ten years later? Does anyone at this point care what happens? And, if the truth is out there, will we actually get any more answers in a new movie or will it just be more questions upon questions. Will we get more on the alien invasion or is it just going to be a stand alone monster movie with familiar lead characters? I would love for this to be an awesome movie... at this point...

In September 2006, when I told my client at Bombardier that I was leaving the computer industry to become a pastor she exclaimed very enthusiastically "You probably just added ten years to your life!" To this day that little phrase still brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. Two days ago, since it was so beautiful outside, and the fact that I had no car, I walked home from the church. And these are pictures of what my morning commute looks like. The first picture above is the main road that I drive/walk down. In the summer time I think I see more people walking then cars! The next two pictures are from the forest that I cut through. This is at the edge of a farmer's field, so the smells really vary throughout the year :-) I LOVE spending quiet walks in these woods in the summer and fall! It is so peaceful and quiet. I usually have some great talks with God in this forest. I love to just be still and listen to the wind, look for animals and enjoy the free...

In my seminary course "Intro to Preaching" I'm due to preach the first of two sermons tonight. This is kind of a weird concept... preaching a sermon to a bunch of seminary students in order to get a grade... not really what I'm used to. I'm actually going into this like I would any other time I teach from the Bible. I'm praying that God would use this time to transform us. That he would use his words to change the lives of the students there. And if I get an "F" for not having it structured in the proper exegetical form or didn't express my homiletical idea well enough or whatever, but God uses it to change just one person, well, I'm perfectly OK with that :-) I'm preaching from Philippians 1:19-26. God has REALLY used it in my own life over the past few weeks as I've worked on this. I'm always amazed how God brings me exactly what I need!

Just saw the new Indiana Jones movie poster over on the official website . VERY COOL! All I can keep saying about this movie is please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink, please don't stink!!!

Being a HUGE Indiana Jones fan, and, obviously, a fan of all things relating to the Bible, I thought this article in Time Magazine about finding the Ark of the Covenant very interesting. I especially like this quote: Those who hope to find the original biblical item, moreover, will likely reject Parfitt's claim that the best we can do is an understudy. Animating all searches for the Ark is the hope — and fear — that it will retain the unbridled divine power the Old Testament describes. What would such a wonder look like in our postmodern world? What might it do ? What would it do indeed? Melting Nazis Indiana Jones style is pretty cool :-)

Since I wanted to take this computer my brother-in-law built for me for a little test drive, I figured I'd download the 10 free trial of World of Warcraft. Since I've never tried an online multiplayer game before, I since I've heard nothing but great things about this game I thought that would be a fun way to waste away the evening. Actually was quite fun. Figured I make myself a priest character... an undead, walking zombie priest! COOL! I also hooked up with my dad who lives in Toronto and he showed me around and protected me on a bunch of quests - he's a total WoW junkie :-) I can definitely see how people get REALLY hooked on this. It was a ton of fun... and pretty neat way to play some D&D style of games with some friends from all over the place. I could really get into this... but I got a thing paying monthly for a game, especially since it's so hard for me to say exactly how much spare time I have to play in a given month. This week, for example, I...

This morning was quite fun trying to get the car out of the driveway! Because of the high winds and blowing snow, my car was nearly completely buried on one side. It's hard to tell in this picture... but the snow was actually up to the windows! I figured it would be easy enough to get out... just move the van then I could dig it out... but the van wouldn't start this morning!!! ARRGGH! So... I dig out one side (the side that only had about 6 inches between the car and van), climbed in from the passenger side... started the car THEN HIT THE GAS!!! Only took me about 6 tries of rocking the car back and forth before I finally busted through! I so can't wait for baseball season... :-)

Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons died yesterday at the age of 69. You can read a full article about him HERE . Very cool to read that even at his age his still played the game he helped create :-) I LOVED playing Dungeons & Dragons! In fact, if I could actually find the time in my busy schedule I would probably still play to this day. Some of my best memories are of spending weekend retreats saving princesses and fighting evil warlords with my best buddies in our basements, rolling dice, tracking hit points and laughing the days away! I also credit getting into role playing games at a young age for developing my reading skills, math skills, problem solving, and, yes surprisingly, developing my social skills. Thoughts and prayers going out today to Gary's family and friends... and to the generation of teenage boys who he had a direct influence on.

Tomorrow I'm speaking out at Floradale Mennonite Church as part of the Elmira & District Ministerial Association 2008 Lenten Services. I always love the opportunity to meet other people from different churches in the area. I'm going over the readings that I have to choose from for my message and I was thrilled to find that one of my absolutely favorite stories is the text selected for tomorrow's service! I love it when God does that! I'll be preaching the story of the thief on the cross beside Jesus. My title is The Last Chance. I'll be looking at the idea of what if you knew that this Easter was your last chance to make a difference in the world? What if you knew that after Easter there would be no more chances to live the life that God's calls you to? Working on this is a great eye opening reminder for myself :-) If you're around and free tomorrow night at 7:30pm, why not head on out to Floradale Mennonite Church. It would be great to see a fe...