Newsletters
Fall 2018 Newsletter
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Could “Church” end sooner than I thought?
For years now we have been aware of the decline of main line denominations in western society. There have been many attempts to make church more relevant or entertaining but with few exceptions the decline has continued unabated. Many, including…
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Summer Music Festivals
Summer music festivals are huge. Here in Renfrew we are about to host Blues Fest and thousands of people are expected. But I confess that the whole music festival scene is foreign to me. I have never been to such…
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Canada Day
Years ago Susan and I were in Atlanta at a conference. Our time was split between two churches, both very large, wealthy churches. In the one building we felt at ease while in the other we felt uncomfortable. Our comfort…
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Canada Foodgrains Bank – Prayer for those in Crisis
Loving God, we bring before You the people of [Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Northeast Nigeria] who are currently experiencing famine and personal hardship. We do not know them personally, but we share a common bond as human beings, created in…
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in praise of Eli
Remember Eli? He was the priest of the temple back when Samuel was born. As the story goes he spoke with Hannah, Samuel’s mother when she was praying to God for a child. After birthing Samuel Hannah dedicated him to…
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Bible Study Conundrums
When I returned from sabbatical a few months ago I decided to revamp my church’s bible study. I thought we had spent enough time talking about when the various books were written, by whom, and in what context. I wanted…
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Entitlement
Do you know what I mean when I say, “people with a sense of entitlement drive me crazy.” I’m not alone in that, I know a lot of people who say the same thing. We’re generally talking about people whose…
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High lights of my sabbatical.
I’m back. It was a great sabbatical. Let me share a few highlights: John Philip Newell is a person of deep spirit who writes from the Christian Celtic tradition. I am especially appreciative of his reflections on substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary…
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sermon from March 12 (recording unavailable)
The Word Introduction to the Word And now welcome to week two of our Paul fest. To recap this is my sad attempt to make up for 30 years of neglect when it comes to the apostle Paul. This is…
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