Church

Can I summarize the things that we as a board are sensing God is calling us to for the coming year  (a most awkward sentence — but you get the idea)?

Our year’s motto?  “The year of the impossible”  

For each of us around the table Saturday, this past year has been one where God has been molding us.  Our lives need more than we can possibly do for ourselves.  We were once again impressed to realize that a full life is truly impossible — without God!!  But with God, this can be the year of the impossible!  A year where we step out and expect God to be there, where God will do above and beyond what we can ask or even think, or even dream.

Faith in action is risky. 

One of the areas we need to attack this year is understanding the needs of people in order to reach out to them with the love of Jesus.  We need to look around us and understand where people are at.  That means by April of next year we would like to do some “surveying” to be sure we are on the same page — on the same page as our neighbours, our friends, community people and work place acquaintances.  We need to understand our own stories so that we can speak to people about how God has touched our lives in ways that will relate to their own situations. 

We need to speak to them of the hope they can find in God through Jesus. 

We need to be in such a place that our actions of love will create a buzz of talk about God. 

We need to be In such a place that as people see what God is doing — the things that can only be “God things” — they will be pushing in to see what God can do for them.

An impossible order!

So be it.  Let’s see it!!

We finished our board retreat at noon today.

A local restaurant beckoned — off we headed to the Crossroads Restaurant.  On the crossroads of highway 7 and 21, the food was great.  After “vision” discussions and “thinking ahead” planning, just talking about hockey was fun!

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what we came up with (I want the church to hear this first thing tomorrow morning during the worship service — tune in around 2:00 in the afternoon and you’ll find this posted)!

This is becoming an annual event.

My wife, Jill, and I enjoy working together.  This has been the story of our life. In our first pastorate she was as well known for her work with the youth as I was.  She mentored youth that still remember her to this day.

So, when she wanted to have me help out in the kitchen, I was ready!  A little hesitant, but ready. 

You see, I’m not a cook — I may be a Baker, but not a cook!  Over the past number of years Jill has distinguished herself in that area.  Relative to her (as I truly am by marriage), I’m a mere novice. 

Last  year we had six grade 6/7 kids show up for six weeks, once a week (if you can understand that last 16 word phrase, I commend you).  We taught them hand washing, and spaghetti cooking, and biscuit baking, and smoothie making — along with a lot of other tasty treat goodies.

This year we signed up again.  Today was our first day — pizza bagels (how to mix two ethnic foods into one!!).  What fun!  Sharp knives and broiling ovens.  Accompanied by the swift patter of six grade sixers/seveners.  They never seemed to stop talking.

Would I trade this life?  I don’t think so!!  What a great way to get to know your community.  I never want to forget that elementary school kids are as much a part of this society as I am.  We all bring different experiences and gifts.  None of us are to be considered greater than any other — we are all made in the image of God. 

So, I watched all of those images walking around today, and laughing, and having fun.  If that’s a sign of who God is, then there’s more to God than meets the eye!!

I went to a church site that had a sermon preached by Dave Petrescue in January of this year.

It’s not so much that Dave said anything new.  As a matter of fact, his words carried the same passion he displayed when he was in high school.  His heart cry was for people to come to know the love of God — on a personal level.  The time in Egypt over he past years was an answer to a prayer to God — “surprise me!”

As I watched through the video I caught myself with varying emotions.  To watch on video a man who is now deceased causes an emotion I have yet to label.  Grief is not the right description.  Neither is sadness.  There is some mixture of reminiscence, along with a desire to back up a few months.  Just enough time to find a way to get together.  When you know a final outcome, you are impressed to push back the ticking clock of time to the point before life blows up.

Every once in a while I stopped.  I laid my head in my hands and asked a question Dave asks in his sermon — what legacy am I leaving behind — after all, life is short (as it turned out to be for him).

I don’t want to push this death aside.  Nor do I wish to merely disregard a number of deaths that have personally affected me in the last year or so.  To deal with this requires an unexpectedly high amount of emotional energy, but to work through to understanding and perhaps a “healing” is good for me, and will be a help as I care for others with similar situations.

My desire.  With the comfort God is giving me — that I would be able to comfort others..