Heart (Re)tuning
My palms burned as I held the tuning peg on my cello in a death grip, tightening it millimetre by stubborn millimetre. Would it stay put? Cautiously picking at the string, I heard a perfectly pitched “A” ring out. The moment I released the peg, though, it immediately...
Who’s Enough?
“I’m too fat; I’m too tall. I sing off-key and I don’t fit at all.” So runs a rhyme I made up as a seven-year-old with a crippling case of self-doubt. For several years, I chanted this merciless mantra under my breath whenever I did something wrong, couldn’t find...
The Hour of Darkness – It is Finished
I would like to begin with a story. Many years ago, I taught in Campbell River. Enrolling students from other countries was just getting started and our school had several Koreans in attendance. We did not have separate English Language Learning...
The Next Generation
Almost everyone loves a baby. Welcoming several into our church family through recent dedications has been inspiring. We readily stand as a church family and pledge ourselves to pray and to support the parents as they do the hard work. Then the teen years arrive and...
Doing Real Life Face to Face
Have you had moments where you felt a tinge of loneliness lately? There didn’t seem anyone available to share in your joy, your challenge, your desire, your hope? The space around you seemed a little too empty? Vancouver continues to be considered one of the loneliest...
Praying Radically Yourself
Have you noticed something different at the end of our last decade? You can see it in services like Doordash and Skip the Dishes. You can see it in demands for services like Amazon and Uber. You can see it in the way food is prepared in super markets. Many people have...
Developing a Hunger for God
In a season of feasting, celebrating and giving it is not always apparent who or what we are hungry for. The health of Faith’s family depends on an ongoing hunger for God but when all our needs are met how do we stay aware of this underlying hunger? In John Piper’s...
Spiritual Leadership
In our recent Remembrance Day ceremonies, we recognize that many of the war’s leaders emerged under fire from necessity. Not often enough, we recognize that many of the church’s leaders arise from the reality of the spiritual warfare we are involved in. In our...
Licking Frozen Flagpoles
Seasons have a way of bringing their own hazards. Spring and Fall can bring floods, summer can bring drought and heat stroke, winter can bring frostbite and frozen flag poles. Churches can have seasons with hazards and benefits but first let me share a story of the...
Building a Church Family Culture
September 8th Faith Fellowship’s family paraded around 62 flags representing the nations who had come to gather in worship. Three more countries had representatives but we didn’t have their flags – yet. We talked about courage – the courage of God for entrusting less...