Monthly Archives: February 2010

USAtoday reported recently that Canadian churches are in decline.  The actual report is more about Anglicanism.  For those of us who have good friends in the Anglican church (at least for the moment!), this is not new news.  Outside of mainstream Christianity in Canada the story may be better, but even there I imagine there is a tendency to stagnation.

… at the present rate of decline — a loss of 13,000 members per year — only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.

… Nationally, between 1961 and 2001, the church lost 53 per cent of its membership, declining to 642,000 from 1.36 million. Between 1991 and 2001 alone, it declined by 20 per cent.

Supposedly people do not identify with a denominational brand now-a-days – they just say they are Christians.  Or, as the article states – in my paraphrase – people are making up there own categories of who they are, calling themselves whatever they want. 

This is the result of postmodernism in action.  We create our own communities of people that we identify with and they become the only "truth".  And when we actually look more closely, even our identifying with a community is tenuous.  Whenever we do not agree with them or feel we have been wronged, we create a new "community", until (my guess) we finally come to the end of life and have broken relationship with so many  people we have no one left!

How different from the Christian proposal for community!  Jesus called for love of God, neighbours and enemies.  Even when we are about to give a special time of worship to God (bringing our offerings), if we have something hindering a relationship with another flesh and blood person, we leave the offering and go to that person. 

Not that Christians always follow up on that, but that is the desire.  What a great ideal to hold up in the midst of an increasingly disillusioned postmodern generation.  Better yet, what a great life to live!!

No, not the drink type!  These are actually the “peashooter” type. 

Our youth group had fun tonight.  First shooting at moving targets (some of the adult sponsors!), then accuracy in shooting (filling a garbage pail) and finally a time to shoot at each other (thankfully marshmallows are soft and fluffy!!).

Afterwards we sat down and talked about faith and actions.  Not always the easiest to put into deeds!  The youth had come from a day at high school where a drug bust and a “girl fight” had taken place.

How do you live out your faith in that type of situation?  A good question.  What bring is home is that the girl being beaten attends our youth group intermittently.

We’ll see what shows up in the lives of the youth over the coming weeks.  I trust we can indeed take what we believe and put actions to our words!

There are some written booklets that are just too thick for a regular stapler and too thin for the “heavy duty” machine! 

Such was our Annual Report for 2009!

The day was going well.  The cover and contents were looking good.  The printer was doing it’s job.  

Then the stapling became a slippery slope of sloppiness.  The heavy duty stapler placed protrusions in plain sight of unsuspecting readers.  The standard stapler was insufficient – the staples could not penetrate the profusion of profundity found within!

Now, remember, this is small town Saskatchewan.  In “the city”, any number of stationery stores could have provided us with appropriate fare.   Perhaps the most appropriate store would have been “Staples”, where the needed staples were going for $3.99.

Alas, Kindersley does not have a Staples store.  Our town’s Walmart is slightly smaller than (fill in the blank).  Standard staples were only found packaged with sleek staplers – the package deal being shown off at unreasonable prices.  Another store in town carried staples, but not the specialty we were seeking.

With some persuasion, we twisted 1/3 of the reports together with inferior staples.  Tomorrow will dawn a new day.  Our hope is not punctured.  We will find another creative way to approach this most pointed dilemma. 

Until then – may your life be stapled together with the love of God, the connection with friends, and the hope of a new day.

Our current teaching time on Sunday morning at the Kindersley Alliance church is called Family Bible School.  During that time we have looked at various subjects for all ages.

This week I will substitute teach for our adult class.  The teacher has been speaking on random thoughts and miscellaneous ideas.  These are things he cogitates on during the week – finds articles or video.

So, I’ve gathered some YouTube videos, snippets of books and a song or two.  I enjoy this approach – it tends to touch down on current topics with discussion to follow.

As the week progresses, I’m sure more thoughts will come to mind.  Right now I plan on touching on Postmodernism, how God chips away at our lives and even a bit on compassionate giving as a part of our everyday life.

Drop in – 9:45 Sunday morning!