Today is Family Day in a variety of places across Canada. Who can argue with a holiday in February? (yet another reason, my good American friends, you should want to be Canadian!) And since the holiday is about family, here's something for all my family and friends who might think me stark-raving mad for moving… Continue reading Family Day in the city
I think we need to update the list of deadly sins - and I vote that shopping just might be the greatest modern enemy to living the Jesus life. The church in North America is in such a dangerous place and we hardly know it. We exist in an environment of consumerism; it's the air we… Continue reading The eighth deadly sin?
This week I began work again after a time of sabbatical. And it is good to be working again. The structure for the week, the purposefulness of a place to go where your skills are engaged, the craft of it, the mind/body engagement. It’s good. I missed my work; I was itching to get back… Continue reading For the love of work
My faith tribe, the Christian Reformed Church, is holding its annual Synod (meaning "assembly" from the Greek word συνοδος) in Grand Rapids, MI as you read this (if you're a keener, you can watch it here). It's mostly a big family meeting where we huddle up to listen, discuss and decide on weighty, and not-so-weighty, issues,… Continue reading That’s Synod with a y
The best quote I heard last week: "It's difficult to love people who hurt and disappoint us ... but what other sort of person is there?" Those are words wholly applicable to the church. We come to church mostly expecting pure and distilled divinity; what we mostly get is raw and uncooked humanity. What other… Continue reading What other sort of church is there?
Church attendance is in decline - I’m not presenting any shocking news here. What’s surprising, however, is the shifting worship attendance patterns among committed Christians (my own informal survey concludes that twice a month is the new normal for core and committed Christians). Of course we can come up with many fine reasons for why… Continue reading Why bother with church?
Squinch 