Short-Term Missions meets Spiritual Pilgrimage

Evangelicals don’t use the word “pilgrimage” as a paradigm for religious travel, but “pilgrimage” better describes the process of participants going away to be changed, rather than changing those to whom they go.

Water into Wine: How Jesus Moves us from Scarcity to Abundance

January 20, 2019, Second Sunday after Epiphany Readings: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11 In August 1964, a young man from bustling city of Columbus, Ohio traveled to the home of his fiancé in a country ‘hollar’ (a valley), of northeastern Kentucky to be lawfully wedded at her family home. She wanted a church-wedding, […]

Time and Light, Advent 2018

Last week, I had the chance to be in Prague, and among other things to see is Prague’s famous Astronomical Clock. It is 608 years old (installed in 1410) and it not only tells the time, but also has dials that represent where the sun and moon are as well as how much daylight there will […]

The Five “Scopes” of Scripture

How do we approach Scripture as written documents? How does reading Scripture influence our living and working? Scripture reading (and interpreting & applying), is an important Christian spiritual discipline. But I find that many people struggle to know how to approach scripture, or worse, that they approach it poorly, making it say what they want or […]

Prayers for Living with Illness

Last Sunday I woke up early and before I even opened my eyes, I began praying for the sick. My wife had been dealing with some new health issues and I eventually got up and wrote these prayers for use in worship. I was reminded how anemic our theology of sickness and healing often is. Why […]

Sharing the Gospel through Ashes

Ash Wednesday, Lent, and telling the Gospel Story through Liturgy “These ashes remind us that we all need Jesus.” We passed around a small bowl of ashes to the children and let the children touch them and make observations. We pointed out how the ashes came from something alive but are now just ashes and dust (ashes […]

Are Today’s Trials Pushing the Church Back Together Again?

I had a cool encounter last night at a panel discussion on Christian Unity at the Newman Centre (the Catholic Student Union) at McGill University. During a break, another out-of-place looking guy walked over and introduced himself: “I’m Terrell, and I work as a Parish Vitality Consultant for the Catholic Church.” Surprised, but excited, I […]

Ten Experiences Children Need in Church

At our junior camp this year, we had a boy who liked to ask a lot of questions—questions in the middle of our lessons, questions about completely different subjects, questions that evolved into stories, etc. I gently responded each time, “that would be an excellent conversation to have after our lesson.” Finally, when I […]

10-minute Theology – Church Buildings

For the last several months, a church I work with has been considering the sale of their building and the possibility of renting another church or alternative space for their community. All practical challenges of the church are also theological in nature. How should we understand the spiritual or sacred dimension of our church’s building?

The Art of Living in Exile: Finding home in Post-Christian North America

It was a beautiful hike up the mountain. My wife and I were in Canmore for a retreat, and we had just enough time for a late afternoon hike. We’d fallen in love with the colour pallette of the Rockies in the autumn, which is very different from home in Quebec. The terrain was relatively […]