Why Go To Church?

Someone emailed me this today, and i thought it interesting...Going to church is not the only thing, but it is certainly the place for encouragement, support, and relationship that only family can give.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this.. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

Hungry?

We were at Angelus Temple (aka The Dream Center) in Los Angeles on Sunday morning. Yes, we go to church on holiday!

As I sat to listen to Pastor Matthew Barnett, one of the foremost Christian leaders in America, I was both surprised and encouraged. Pastor Matthew was talking about how important it was to be a church that lived and operated in the supernatural and by the power of Holy Spirit.

Surprised why? Aren't they already operating in the supernatural?This is a church that has over 200 ministries that serve the city, they visit and feed the poor, they house the homeless, they disciple the addict, they rescue the prostitute, and on and on it goes.

YES, and here's the encouraging part - they don't ever want to become a church of 'good works'. Pastor Matthew was reminding himself and the church that everything that they do or hope to do - amazing things that are happening today and that God has yet in store - must flow from a growing and hungering relationship with and for the presence of Jesus.

Here's some quotes from Pastor Matthew's talk -

"We go in and out of supernatural strength way too much in our calling. We need the presence of God in and through our lives. Let God minister to you regularly. We must never only be a people of good works but must be built on prayer and times of refreshing in the presence of God. This is God's work that is far beyond what we are able to do.

Compassion without the favour of God is not enough." We must live in the supernatural filling of God."

This is also what we are hearing from God for our Church family. God is speaking the same thing to His people no matter where we are. "Be hungry for relationship with Me!"We need Him and His strength if we are going to see a world changed. Nothing less will do...

Thank You!

Shanda, the girls and I are so thankful for the many expressions of honour that we have received as pastors at Northgate Foursquare. Cards, letters, emails, signs on telephone poles, flowers, gift certificates, calls, standing ovations and the list goes on. We truly feel humbled and honoured by all of this.

As Pastor Scott mentioned on Sunday, this is also important for out children. So often we hear horror stories of how pastor's children go off the rails for various reasons. Our children have the visible and vocal support of a church family and know that we are loved and appreciated. They are growing up loving the church and for this Shanda and I say 'thanks!'

May God richly bless all of you that participated. We are encouraged. We are blessed. We are thankful.

Scotty, We Need More Power!

We just got back from Kigumba, Uganda. It is in the northwest of Uganda, and it is about 200 km from Kampala. It took about 3.5 hours to get there. The road was quite good for 100 km, but terrible the last 100 km. Thankfully, they are working on repairing it. Pastor John is a very good driver and he got us there safely through potholes and dodging trucks, cows, goats, monkeys, children, boda boda drivers, chickens and bicycles. You could meet all of these things in the space of 1 mile, so you need to be careful!

When we got there, we were brought to our lodging. Pastor John checked it out with us and he decided it was not suitable - for which we were grateful. The rooms were ok, but they only locked from the outside with a big padlock. They were also right off the bar...Not sure if it was an old jail or what, but I was happy to avoid this place.

The next one that we went to was much brighter and cleaner! The power had been out in the whole town for 1 or 2 days already and never came back on in the 2 days we were there. No one seemed to know why it was off or when it would come back on. They just kind of live with it. Can you imagine if that happened in Canada?! The coke was warm, the fans and lights didn't work. I could picture the Captain of the Enterprise calling Scotty for more power. (if you don't know what that is, I'll pray for you... :-) )

The conference we did went very well - and I'm not just saying that because we were the presenters! There were about 100 - 125 pastors and leaders from various churches. Some came from very far away just to be further trained! The people were so receptive and responsive. Pastor Scott did a fantastic job on teaching about the church. It is a passion of his and it shows in his presentation!!

We also team taught and taught about church issues, personal and leadership development. We had a great time of prayer at the end with a sense of God moving in a powerful way. The people were so grateful that we (Northgate) would leave the comparative comfort of the city to come out into the hinterlands. Truthfully, we are so grateful to be a part of this.

I will write more later about some of our experiences there. There are some things that are just different in Africa...

Pastor Jack Interview

This is not your usual interview with Pastor Jack Hayford, president of Foursquare USA.

We're Adding Another Service

Well - we are looking at adding another service in the next few months at our church. We are looking at various models. Here is my personal favourite.... I see new ministry possibilities for Pastor Scott.

Pray for Joel

You might have heard about Joel Corbin who was hit by a truck inside of a sushi restaurant, by an apparently drunk driver, in Maple Ridge, BC. His grandma is my mom's cousin. It's a terrible situation. This little 9 year old boy needs a miracle. Joel is in a coma right now and he needs our prayers. Please pray for complete healing. If you want to help the family financially - the info is in the story. If you're part of a church, please put it on your prayer chain.

Thanks.

Great God, Great Day

What a great day! Sunday is always one of my favourite days of the week, but particularly so when we launch a new season of ministry each fall. here are my highlights of today:

1. 2 HOT new worship songs written by our worship leaders! The songs were powerful and really expressed God's heart. Great job!

2. An awesome sermon! Pastor Scott talked about our theme for the year, "Restore". Isaiah 58:6-8. Scott did a great job of challenging us, yet not condemning or guilting. 'compassion based activism'. Yea Scott! Yea God!

3. I had 3 hour nap today. This is not me, but I really needed one! Ordinarily, I don't like naps as they leave me feeling groggy for an hour after i wake up. I was so tired because I got up at 3 am this morning - couldn't sleep after one of the kids woke me to tell me she'd had a bad dream. I really don't mind waking up for those. It was something that happened regularly to me as a child

4.I just came from an Alpha leaders training meeting. Truthfully, as I was driving there I was still feeling groggy from my nap. As we talked afterwards, it was invigorating to hear some testimonies of people now leading Alpha:

"When I first came to Alpha, i was afraid to pray out loud. Now, I'm much
bolder." "I remember the joy of bringing a friend who had never heard of the
death and resurrection of Jesus. She is not a christian yet, but she is now
coming to church occasionally." "I was so discouraged as the people in my
group hardly spoke the first 6 weeks. Then 2 of them gave their lives to Jesus
at the Holy Spirit weekend." "I saw a lady that came to my group is now part of
another church - she's given her life to Jesus!" What a great way to end the
evening...but there's more!

5. I got a text that one of our former Master's Commission students, Victoria Katongo, got engaged tonight to her beau, Kato!

Thank you God for a great church and family to be a part of!

We Have a Lot of Work To Do

If you have hung around our church for long, you quickly discover that "I'll Fly Away" is not one of our favourite songs. (It is awesome that Pastor Scott would be the leader of that sentiment - :-) ) It is a song that talks about a desire to escape the reality of the world and head for heaven ASAP. The tune is catchy but the words shouldn't be.
The harsh reality of the world is exactly what Jesus has called us to impact with his love, mercy and grace. In short, to pray and work as he prayed and worked, "Your will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven." In other words, bring what is in heaven to earth.
It is when I read stories like this - Women buried alive in 'honour' killings - that convince me more than ever that the church cannot stay in isolated fortresses and hang on until Jesus comes. We are called to be a force for justice, goodness and kindness in the earth.

His Sermons Has Bite!

A Kentucky pastor has been arrested in an operation targeting people with exotic animals. His church has ceremonies involving snakes...and people get a bit annoyed if our music is too loud.
:-) We've got nothing on him apparently.

Opposition Grows to Morgentaler's Appointment

I wrote about honouring evil a few days ago. Turns out that opposition is growing to the promotion of Dr. Death (aka Morgentaler) to the Order of Canada. One recipient of the award has already turned his medal in. "Father Lucien Larre, who was inducted into the nation's highest order in 1983 for his work with troubled youth, said in a news release yesterday that he felt "compelled in conscience to return my Order of Canada." A Nfld. MP has also spoken out against it. It turns out that the decision was not by consensus as is usually the case but was driven by a liberal Supreme Court judge. The sources said Chief Justice McLachlin drove the nomination, which was opposed by the two government members on the nine-member committee, Privy Council Clerk Kevin Lynch and deputy heritage minister Judith LaRocque. Finally, Kelly McParland of the National Post has a great article that takes on the arrogance of Morgentaler displayed in his press conference.

"I get the feeling Dr. Morgentaler has a selective respect for the
rights of others. The rights of women who agree with his views are paramount. The rights of unborn children are non-existent. The beliefs of women who disagree with him are to be dismissed; any religion which advocates against his views is to be disregarded; the qualms of those Canadians appalled at the carnage that has flowed from his work are to be ignored. I suspect -— and I'm just guessing -— that what's important to Dr. Morgentaler is his beliefs alone. Others' beliefs are inconsequential. Maybe this callousness is what lets him so easily take life away from so many. " for the rest of the article, click here

Honouring Evil

The Bible talks about how when a nation is anti-God, there comes a point where it calls good evil and evil good. It was abundantly clear, but still shocking to learn today that Dr. Henry Morgentaler will be awarded the Order of Canada - the highest civilian award available in Canada. However, this is not for some great scientific discovery or humanitarian achievement. It is actually to recognize him for his work in promoting abortions and his efforts beginning in 1969 (successful in 1988) to have abortion legalized and completely unregulated in Canada.

Canada is one of the few nations in the world where a baby can be terminated right up to full term and it is still totally OK. Most nations with abortion legalization have some form of restriction. Now our nation is celebrating and honouring the man dedicated his life to a 'procedure' that now sees 100,000+ babies aborted every year in Canada.

canada.com had a story on it quoting our friend,

Faytene Kryskow, director of the non-partisan, non-denominational group Motivated Young People for a Strong Canada (also known as 4 My Canada) said "there is strong evidence that this man is not a hero in the eyes of many Canadians. "Why is it that there is such an aggressive push to honour (him) with the highest level of civilian honour in Canada, when the largest non-governmental event in the nation on Parliament Hill this year so far was the March for Life?" she asked.

For the rest of the story click here... God forgive us...

Thankfully not every mainstream media outlet agrees with this selection.

Sunday ramblings...

Saturday was a wonderful celebration of marriage as Ryan Alexander and Lyndsay Forth tied the knot at Filberg Park. I had the privelege of performing the ceremony. Pastor Corey did a great job of MCing the reception as fun was had by all. The family even had arranged for a kid appropriate table with colouring, games and such for the kids. it was the most fun that our kids had had at a reception!

After being away last week, it was wonderful to return to our church family this Sunday. Pastor Scott preached a great message. He talked about how important it is to be families that actually impact and shape the culture rather than being shaped by the culture. The bottom line was that a family needs to live on mission or it will be 'out of commission'! We cannot live lives that are simply for our benefit. They must be lived for and under the mission of Jesus. We must teach our children and families to live missionally rather than 'doing what is right in our own eyes!' A great challenge!

After church, we went out on the boat. We didn't even go out on it last summer. As you may recall, the weather was less than the best this past summer. I was not excited to put gas into it at $1.30 a litre! However, we were out with some friends (the Fitzgeralds) and went tubing. It was great fun as we saw our children laughing and screaming and enjoying time together. The water was F R E E Z I N G! Hopefully we will get some good hot weather and warm that lake up some.

In the evening, we played the board game, "blokus" . Chris and Esther Graham introduced us to this game and we went out and got it for ourselves. Great fun - even if I didn't win. :-)

Tomorrow is Canada Day and the parade and all that the day entails. Should be fun! Hopefully we all take time to pause and be thankful for what God has given us!

It means right away!

In our home we have an ongoing challenge of teaching our kids the importance of obedience. Basically, we are challenged with delayed obedience, which is actually disobedience.

But as I was reading Mark chapter 1 this morning in the NAS version I realized that perhaps the children are not the only ones that have a problem with true obedience. Something really stood out to me as i read. It was the word, "immediately" which means, "
directly, that is, at once". In other word - IMMEDIATELY.
In 45 verses this word shows up 8 times! I went back and reviewed them.

• v. 10 "And immediately, coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens parting"
• v. 12 After baptism... "and immediately, the Spirit drove Him (Jesus) into the wilderness
• v. 18 After Jesus called Simon and Andrew, "They immediately left their nets and followed Him."
• v. 20 After Jesus saw James and John, "And immediately He called them."
• v. 21 "And immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue (church building) and taught
• v. 28 After casting out evil spirits..."and immediately His fame spread"
• v. 31 After touching Simon's sick mother-in-law (Jesus loves mothers in law :-) ) "immediately the fever left her"
• v. 42 The leper came asking for healing and "As soon as He (Jesus) had spoken, immediately the leprosy left"

What's the point? I saw a few things for my life.

1. There was an abiding purpose (Baptized, wilderness, gather a team, church, healing) such that the next step for Jesus' life never seemed to be in question.
2. The Spirit of God was intimately involved in directing Jesus' life. I need to open my ears and listen ALL THE TIME so that I can be directed and initiate rather than respond to life.
3. Sickness immediately responded to Jesus. Lord, show me what gets in the way of immediate manifestation of God's power in and through my life.
4. The disciples responded with immediate obedience rather than questioning and reasoning themselves out of His calling. Father, help me do this.

Basically, I need to listen more, obey more quickly and watch the good that Jesus does in and through my life.