It has barely been a month since being inducted into my new charge and I am already thinking about “church growth”. For me, experiencing growth within a congregation is not something that happens because I “perform” well, or because I successfully implemented some creative “outreach” initiatives. No, my expectation for congregational growth comes largely from two [...]
I have never lived more than a 3 hour drive from where I was born. Niagara Falls. St. Catharines. London. Thornhill. Toronto. Beeton. Toronto……and now, Nassau, Bahamas. Just yesterday I announced to the people of St. Giles Kingsway and The Well that I had accepted a call to another congregation. Beginning in June, I will [...]
I don’t need to visit cnn.com nearly as much as I used to since I came across these excellent blogs of Canadian missionaries serving in Haiti. The Van der Mark’s blog – I worked at Muskoka Woods with Laurens Van der Mark in the early 1990s. Laurens’ wife, Cheryl, gives a detailed account of what [...]
Paudler is one of two children my wife and I sponsor through Compassion Canada. Paudler lives in Haiti. It has been more than a week since the devastation began in Haiti as the result of a 7.0 earthquake. I continue to be stunned and saddened by the reports I’m hearing—tens of thousands, possibly over a [...]
I wish I could see the whole picture. I wish I could see how all of the pieces of my life are fitting together and where, specifically, things are heading. But, of course, I can’t. I take great comfort, however, in the knowledge that God knows every step (see Psalm 139:1-5). The Lord not only [...]
