Church

I a WOKE this Christmas!

Before you applaud or unsubscribe, maybe you too should consider becoming “WOKE.” As I understand it, WOKE is a term used to describe an awakening that takes place when an individual who has not experienced life the same way another individual has experienced it due to factors such as race, socioeconomic status and historical factors, views life through the lens of the people who do not share the privileges they have simply because they were born in a different environment.  While this term has become a battle cry for social Marxism (here comes the unsubscribes and the applause) this term based on the definition I have created above, can be a great way to view December 25th and Jesus’ birth. 

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911 – What Is The Nature of Your Emergency?

“I am looking for someone.” “When did you last see them?” “It was quite a while ago.” “When were you expecting to see them?” “I was hoping to see them Sunday.” “I’m sorry sir, but the person is not missing until they haven’t shown up, we cannot help you with someone you are supposed to see. This is an emergency number set aside for many things including people who can’t be found but your case has not happened.” “But I can’t find this person.” “Sir, I believe there is some misunderstanding. Let me clarify some things. You can’t find someone you are supposed to meet on Sunday?” “Well, yes, sort of.” I can’t find the person today for Sunday.” Okay, I think I understand, you were supposed to meet up with this person Sunday, but you can’t find them today.” “Yes, you got it, can you help me? Our worship drummer is away and no one else can play from the church, it’s an emergency, please, I can’t find a replacement, I am desperate, I’ll take anyone…” “Sir, this line is for emergency calls only…” “It is an emergency, we have no drummer…”

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Taking an Acts to the Church

No, I didn’t spell the title wrong. Yes, I could have spelt Acts “Ax” and gave it a perfectly suited title for this post at least. Yes, for some I also could have used the word “Ask” and while the meaning would be different unlike the interchangeability I am aiming for between “Acts” and “AX” if read out loud the same word would be heard, acts or ax. It’s time to rethink church by taking Acts to it which, if my premise is accepted, we will take an ax to many of the things we call church.

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I Am The Tower of Babel

I had dreams of being more, of building up to heights never seen before. I had a plan that I could complete, that would make me complete. I would put everything I had into it, and in time, it would make me everything I wanted to be, everything God created me to be, but it all came crumbling down.

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Separating The Sheep from the G.O.A.T.s

It seems wrong but maybe we need to undertake this task. Jesus, in (Matthew 25:31-46 NIV), talks of His return and that at that time He will separate the sheep from the goats. I am not Jesus and I will not be returning in glory with all the angels but right now I think the task of separating the sheep from the G.O.A.T.s might be a good approach to refocussing my life on true Christ following rather than the hype of the modern day Christianity. In our western civilization and its distorted version of Christian values, we must hit reset by separating the idea that aiming to be recognized and rewarded based on worldly parameters is not a desirable pursuit. It’s time to separate the sheep from the G.O.A.Ts.

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Transition – Discovering God’s Call for Your Church

Many of you know that my calling is to a very specific field of ministry in the church. I am a transitional pastor. I help congregations discover God’s call for their collective of Christ followers. I met Bruce Cormier and his wife Lesia at my last transition. Together we, the collective of Christ followers called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship – Mimico and myself, set out on what ended up being an 18 month journey to understand what God was saying about the future of our church. We had a building. We had a small in-person congregation of about 30 and a similar sized online group who, in their younger years had attended in person. It took me 18 months to get to this point and Bruce managed to say it in just over 1500 words!

This little church has close to doubled in size and continues to grow under their new permanent pastor. The biggest question we needed to answer was about the building the church owned. As you read this, maybe your church needs to ask itself the same question they were asking:

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