Learning from a Pandemic

Dr. Pat Keifert of Church Innovations One of my favourite Missional Theology Yoda Masters is Dr. Pat Keifert of Luther Seminary. He would say there are two kinds of change: continuous change (e.g. from winter into spring) and discontinuous change, which is what we’re dealing with right now with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing about our …

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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 …

The Cost of Free Speech

I saw something on my news feed last week (Twitter feed to be exact) that I didn’t know still existed. On Sunday, July 9th, The Klu Klux Klan held a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from

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 …

My Babies

by Julie Walker I don't know how this happened. I feel like yesterday we had small children running around this house and today we have a house full of teenagers. Every single one of our children is a TEENAGER!! What has actually happened! This cannot be God's plan. All those runny nose, messy eating, midnight …

The Son of God and an Unwed Mother

Today is the day of Epiphany, a surprisingly complex holiday that celebrates different things depending on what flavor of Christian you are. In Eastern Christianity, it is a day (usually 13 days later) celebrating the baptism of Jesus. In Western Christianity, it is a day celebrating the visit of the Magi, representing the revelation of …

Book Review: The Day the Revolution Began

In this book, N.T. Wright explores (in exhausting detail) what actually happened (spiritually, and theologically) when Jesus was nailed to the cross in the Spring of 33 CE. Wright observes that nobody on the Saturday after Good Friday was persuaded by the humiliating death of Jesus from Nazareth that a world-wide revolution had just been …

Humanity Washed Up on Shore

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Pictures are said to be worth thousands of words but Nilüfer Demir's picture of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, found dead on the coast of Turkey could be worth millions of words.  On Wednesday this week Alan, his brother and mother all drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean from Syria to Turkey.  Only his father survived. …

I Wish I Had Thought Of This

With four sons I don't know why this never occurred to me 😦 Spoiler alert for the two people on earth who haven't seen Star Wars Episode V.

A Page Gets Turned

Now I never write about politics here so I would ask you to indulge me just this once.  Last Friday was the opening of our Parliament in Ottawa and one of the Parliamentary pages, 21 year -old Brigette DePape smuggled a protest sign in under her skirt that read, "Stop Harper." During the throne speech, …