Abortion, Federal Funding and Religious Freedom

In December of last year the Federal Government announced that it would require all applicants to the Canada Summer Jobs Program to agree to a formal attestation that: Both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other …

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The Gospel of Stranger Things

I discovered a Netflix show called Stranger Things  earlier this summer.  Everybody else probably watched it when it dropped last fall. Either that, or you have no plans to watch it at all, so I am probably safe talking about it, but if you haven’t caught it and are planning to watch it, here are …

Dealing with Silence

I recently watched "Silence," the latest Martin Scorsese film, based on the novel written by Shusaku Endo. It was a deeply troubling movie. The film portrays the fictional story of a 17th Century Jesuit Missionary from Portugal named Father Sebastian Rodrigues (played by Andrew Garfield) who sets sail for Japan in 1640, determined to help …

A Funeral Sermon

In chapter fifteen, the Apostle Paul is wrapping up his first letter to the Corinthian church by answering a few practical questions. The Corinthian church had been confused about many things, not the least of which is Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. For starters, there were some in the church there who didn't …

Guest Post from Julie: Our Young Philosopher

I have this boy in my heart. He's been around for almost twelve years now and has completely changed my life. Our second son Jacob Allan Mark joined our family on May 29th 2000. Three minutes into our seventh anniversary and weighing in at a whopping 10lbs 7oz. Nothing about this boy was tiny and …

An Endangered Species: The Casual Church Attender

Canadians are usually quite good at finding differences between themselves and their southern neighbours. Our congregation (the Tintern Church of Christ) has played host to a mission team from the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock Arkansas for three years, and most recently a group of teens from the Northeast Church of Christ …

Our Inheritance

I was reading the parable of the Prodigal Son this week (Luke 15: 11 – 32) and the greatest insult of the younger son's request  is what is implied by the request. To ask for your inheritance now is wishing your father was dead. 'I wish you were dead so I could get on with …

King Jesus

As a minister my greatest challenge is to convince the people that I love and serve that the biggest problem in their life (whether they will believe it or not) is a theological one. Our biggest challenge in life is not our suffering, or how to cope when things don't go right. Our biggest problem …

Pictures of Egypt

Exile is an powerful metaphor for discontinuous change. Not a simple adaptive challenge like buying a bigger pair of pants because all your clothes shrank (go figure). Exile is finding yourself in a unfamiliar place where what used to work doesn't work anymore. Christians find themselves in exile these days. We are doing what we've …

Perception

I saw this image on line.  For those of my readers who are from my tribe (CofC) we best fit here among the evangelicals.