Christmas Eve
Every year for almost the last decade, Wendy, Mark and I have driven to Spiritwood for the Christmas Eve service. It was a fun drive up there but a long one back (if we had hit anything, we wouldn’t have been found until probably Boxing Day) in the middle of the night.
This year we thought long and hard about going to one of the downtown cathedrals to celebrate Christmas but after thinking it through, it felt like we were being ecclessial tourists. Instead Wendy and I are coming to help out at the coffee that New Hope Community Church puts on at the Salvation Army Community Centre. The church is in the building here and while it normally offers up some soup and sandwiches on a Sunday night free for the community, on Christmas Eve they are doing a special candlelight service and coffee house.
Wendy and I are just going to clean and help out in anyway that they need us to but we are looking forward to it. It should be a nice night.
Finally
Curtis Dagenais turns himself in and will likely spend the next 25 years in jail for the murder of two Spiritwood RCMP officers. Hopefully healing can begin and life can slowly return to normal for some members of my former congregation and the community.
Contextless Links
- Peter Coors gets DUI :: “I made a mistake,” Mr Coors said in a statement. “For years, I’ve advocated the responsible use of our company’s products.” He added: “That’s still my message, and our company’s message. I’m sorry I didn’t follow it myself.” via
- The best and worst moments of the 2006 World Cup :: “Silliest Slogan: “Welcome to Germany — Land of Ideas.” Well, yes, the Reformation, Marxism, E=mc2, and some others we’ll pass over.”
- Two RCMP from Spiritwood die from gunshot wounds :: The manhunt for their killer continues.
- The greatest hockey brawl of all time. Canada vs. USSR at the 1987 World Junior hockey championships
- An open letter to Dell
Neuropathy is back
I found out yesterday that I can’t travel more than an hour anymore. Heading down and back to Toronto was pure agony physically but I kept wanting to blame other things. I am still paying for driving to Spiritwood and back yesterday. It wasn’t that long ago that I drove from Saskatoon to Edmonton back to Saskatoon to Minneapolis in under 24 hours. No longer.
Technorati Tags : neuropathy
Funeral of Elmer Bowes
Yesterday Mark, Wendy and I went to Spiritwood for the funeral of Elmer Bowes who is an old friend of all of ours and attended the church for years. It was a good funeral and a nice celebration of a life well lived. I think it was the biggest funeral I have ever been at which is a tribute to the lives that Elmer impacted. Martin Taylor had an excellent sermon and the two eulogies did a great job of conveying who Elmer was. Elmer’s live was a life very well lived and I was honored to know him.
The State of the Blog 2006
Over the last couple of weeks and months I have been thinking about this site and what I wanted to do with it. It has been around in some form or another since 1996 when I launched my first personal site on GeoCities. It started just a couple months after I started pastoring in Spiritwood and was a tool I relied on heavily when I was at both Spiritwood and Lakeview Church. For me, it was an online database of resources, links, and unexplored ideas.
By the time I quit Lakeview Church, it had taken on a life of its own but recently I have been questioning it’s worth. I am not pastoring and the need to keep track of my links can be handled pretty easily by del.icio.us Yesterday a friend of mine sent me this in an e-mail.
Unemployed
As of 12:01 p.m. yesterday I am unemployed and no longer pastor of Lakeland Church. Decades fly when you are having fun. I guess this means that as of today, I join the ranks of the church shoppers. Do I fill out a form?
Finishing weak
My second last Sunday in Spiritwood tomorrow. I had an allergic reaction to the injection they gave me on Friday and feel absolutely terrible today. Weak, nausious, and tired. So much for going out in a blaze of fire.
Sunday
A new chapter
Years ago when I was at Lakeview, we used the idea of different chapter in the church’s life for a metaphor for a building project. It was called Chapter 6. To reuse the metaphor (I should have copyrighted it), when I quit Spiritwood, it is the close of one chapter of my life. On February 13th I won’t be a paid pastor anymore and I won’t be employed by any religious institutions any longer. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what the next chapter of life would be. Am I still called to ministry? Is God tired of me? What is the impact on the path that I am taking Wendy and Mark on.
In my more frustrated and down moments, part of me thought about shutting down this site, selling everything and moving to Fort McMurray and just make a lot of money and just leaving everything behind. Fighting illness has made me wonder at times how much quality time I left and I didn’t want to leave Wendy and Mark in a financial mess if something happened to me. The untold story of the last year has been the train wreck that has been Wendy’s and mine marriage this year (not all years are good years). It left us both wondering if a change in environment would be better for all of us. (Wendy is planning to post some more about this later on her blog) During a difficult time, we spent a lot of time talking about what the future looks like for us.
One of the questions that we had to ask is that are we still called to building the kingdom and if so, what am I called to? I have worked in a small conservative rural setting as well in a large suburban seeker setting. I appreciate (and disagree with… the life of a contrarian) both of these contexts. There are those that feel comfortable in bringing change from the center of an organization, movement, or denomination but for me, I am more comfortable on the fringes. One of the great gifts given to me was by Jared Siebert. Jared helped me understand myself by introducing me to the work of Grant McCracken (the first time he asked me if I had heard of Grant McCracken, I thought a dirty joke was coming). McCracken introduced me to the idea of Flock and Flow in how society changes. Basically it is the transition from…
- Risk to Safety
- Noise to Signal
- Novelty to Form
- Chaos to Certainty
As it moves from left to right, it becomes safer, more watered down, more structured, and in the context of the church, sold by Maranatha or put into a can by Group Publishing and sold across the country. Those that were there when it started and when it was risky generally dislike the final polished product. We see this happening already in the emerging church. The money comes in, repackages it, makes it comfortable and in many contexts subverts the meaning of where it all started from. Most churches start out on the left but move to the right over time. So do most theological movements. Most Methodist movements today look nothing like what John Wesley was trying to do.
For me, I like it on the left side. I like the risk, the struggle to find the signal, figuring out the novelty, and I really enjoy chaos. Erwin McManus calls it The Barbarian Way which is a talk that everyone loves to hear and quote but no one is willing to live that way. Growing up in a poor single parent home and my mom being sick a lot, stability is something that we really wanted. Looking back, I learned that stability doesn’t always come from health, wealth, or the Saskatchewan Roughriders making the playoffs.
I don’t judge those on the other side of the spectrum. Someone has to buy what Maranatha has to sell :-) God calls people all over the place. I think there are those that bring about change in the middle and those of us who work on the fringe. If truth be told, we probably both think the other one is crazy but I think that we are both needed.
Back to where God is calling me. I am going to spend some on the left side of McCracken’s chart for a while in a couple of areas. One of those areas is Resonate and we have some cool stuff happening there that is being worked on. We are stealing some ideas from Emergent ™ and TheOoze as well as Jonny Baker that we will be rolling out in early 2006 that will be kind of fun. The other thing is the worship.freehouse. The Freehouse started out as an idea to do some creative worship events in the city and we have kind of done that. I never really acknowledged this but it has also become a community of friends that all want to do something together for God.
Finally, there is the book that I am working on with Scott Williams and Darryl Dash with the working title of Fearless Honesty. I am not sure how long the next chapter of my life will be or how it will finish but the introduction was just written.
Technorati Tags : Wendy+Cooper, worship.freehouse, emerging+church, Resonate, Flock+and+Flow, church, change
That was quick
1995 - 2006
Today church was a little different than normal as it was announced to the congregation that I had resigned as pastor of Lakeland Church after ten years of being their Sr. Pastor (technically I asked my Bishop to be released from my appointment and he granted my request). My last Sunday is February 12th, 2006. Will talk about the future later but tonight is a quiet night thinking about the past.
Technorati Tags : Lakeland+Church, Spiritwood, Free+Methodist
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
This morning Wendy wrapped up the last of the unwrapped presents and placed them under our Christmas tree. Mark was upstairs in trouble and Lee was working (The same Lee who was at work at 5:00 a.m. this morning). We had some Tony Bennett and Bing Crosby on the CD player and some tinsel was hanging off of Hutch.
Christmas this year will be spent in Saskatoon. On December 20th, we are heading over to Jerry and Gloria Reimer’s house for an early Christmas dinner. We have spent almost every Christmas with the Reimers since I started working at Lakeview Church. On the 22nd we are looking forward to getting together with Tamara after her return from Taiwan.
On Christmas Day; Wendy, Mark, Lee and I are going to be spending it at home. Like other megachurch pastors, I am not having a Christmas morning service in Spiritwood so we will be getting up early, open our socks and presents and then hanging out over breakfast and the Walt Disney World parade on television. A little Regis and Kelly with my Christmas breakfast.
Wendy and I bought Mark a sled for Christmas. As long as it is -15 or warmer, we will probably take him sledding. I looked for one that would be fast so Mark will be flying down the hill. Our nearby hill isn’t that nasty so he should be quite safe.
One Christmas tradition that hasn’t continued is that our outside Christmas lights haven’t been stolen. We changed the way we put them up and our lights are scaled back but unlike in previous years when we have had whole light strings stolen, not even a light has gone missing. Good but weird.
Technorati Tags : Christmas
When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off
The New York Times is reporting on megachurches deciding not to have a service on Christmas Sunday.
Some of the nation’s most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on the Sunday that coincides with Christmas Day, a move that is generating controversy among evangelical Christians at a time when many conservative groups are battling to “put the Christ back in Christmas.”
Scot McKnight offers an excellent response to a lot of the criticism that the churches are getting.
Second, let’s ask a question at the heart of the discussion: Does the NT teach a Sunday morning worship service? Well, the evidence isn’t what some are making it out to be. We need to be fair here: there is a distinction between what is taught and what is mentioned or hinted at as something practiced. And there is no clear text legislating that Christians are to meet for worship on a Sunday morning.
And it ought to be observed that there is, whether some will admit it or not, no clear connection between Christian worship on a Sunday and the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of “rest” while the Sunday was a time of “worship.” (See here A.G. Shead, New Dict. of Bibl. Theol, 749-50.) Not one shred of evidence here. In fact, the Apostle Paul says in Col 2:16 that one’s judgment about Sabbaths ought to be kept to oneself – or at least it ought not to be used as an instrument of judgment. (I have a hard time, and you probably do too, thinking Paul is letting ordinary Christians render judgment about when they were to “attend worship.”)
There are, however, clear indications that Christians met on Sundays, the first day of the week: Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2. I’m not sure what Rev 1:10 means, and no one ought to be dogmatic about it, but I tend to think it is close to meaning “the Lord’s day (when on the first day of the week we gathered for the Lord’s supper).”
And there is the warning in Heb 10:25 that Christians ought to meet regularly with other Christians, though the author does not say this was to be on Sunday – we can assume it was, but it is an assumption.
This leaves us with this: no strong correlation between Sabbath and Sunday; no commandment to worship together on Sunday; the evident practice, however, of meeting on Sundays for worship and fellowship. The precedent, as Joe Thorn rightly says on Steve McCoy’s blog, is there; there is, however, no commandment. And Col makes me wonder if it is appropriate to correlate Sunday worship with Sabbath practice.
Lakeland Church is not having a Christmas service but a Christmas Eve one. We are a microchurch, not a mega one but we had a lot of discussion about the schedule and also how the majority of people did not want to attend church on Christmas morning but wanted to be with families. They have opportunities to attend church on Saturday night and many churches are having multiple services Saturday. I think a lot of the controversy comes from people just wanting to pick on megachurches.
Technorati Tags : Christmas, Scot+McKnight, worship, New+Testament
Elway Update
I spent the night up with Elway. It wasn’t as if I needed some sleep anyways. We watched some late night movies and he threw up all over me. It wasn’t good. He would take a drink, whine and then go to the bathroom outside. I was tired I fell asleep on the kitchen linoleum with a bag of Iams as my pillow. I don’t remember making my bed of dog food but I woke up a short time later wondering, what I was thinking? Can you tell I have had 13 of 14 nights with no sleep? Late in the morning he started shaking so I took him upstairs and wrapped him in covers on our bed. He seemed to do a little better this morning but @ about 4:00 a.m. I didn’t think he was going to make it. We are taking him to the vet this afternoon.
I got about 3 hours of sleep last night but I just had a long walk and am hoping I can fake the pain out long enough to get a nap while Mark is at his Halloween party at the school. For all you fundamentalists out there, I do let Mark go trick or treating. This year he is going as Rocky from Rescue Heroes (which despite being really popular do not have a website). Condemn me in the comments below. The only bad thing is that I can’t have any left over candy.
Back to Elway, we had to put down a couple of dogs. My first dog was Tigger. I think we got him before I went to kindergarten. He was a black poodle that I wanted to name Brownie after a horse in one my story books. My mom later joked that it was her first clue that I wasn’t going to be a child prodigy. A couple of years later, Lloyd decided to teach him to ride in the back of the truck (we lived in Calgary, everyone in Calgary has a truck). Anyways, he fell out of the truck and suffered brain damage (that’s my dad, never has been able to foresee the consequences of his actions) and had to be put down.
I still remember the night I got Misty (actually Misty II as she was named after my grandfather and mom’s favorite dog). We had just moved from Calgary to Saskatoon and I was having a hard time adjusting to a new school, a new city, and new life. I was at hockey that night and the family down the block whose son was my team mate and friend often would take me to the game. After almost every game, he would phone my mom and tell her that he was taking “the boys” (there were a couple of us he would jam into his car) out for “drinks” which meant some sodas and pizza after our hard fought game. This time he came back to me and said, “Your mom isn’t home” but he had phoned his wife and Mom hadn’t left a phone message so he assured me that she would be able to figure out where I was. I got home that night and Mom said that she had a surprise for me. I didn’t have any high expectations because we were broke at the time. The next thing I know is that she pulled this little Lab/Cocker Spaniel pup out of a box and gave her to me.
That night we had set up a box for Misty to sleep in. Blankets, a ticking clock because we heard that comforts puppies, and a little stuff lamb. Every time I put the dog in the box, Misty cried. When I put her on the bed, she slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. Box cried, bed slept. I was in grade five. I just wanted to sleep. From that night on, that dog slept somewhere on the bed for 15 years. Misty wasn’t supposed to be allowed upstairs. That dog crept step by step, inch by inch over a decade so she would be able to be in the formal family room. Later she would lay in the middle of it when we weren’t there and if we would catch Misty off guard, we would come in and see a dog with it’s head under the sofa and her entire body in plain view with her tail slightly wagging as if to say, “I can’t see them, they can’t see me. All is good”.
Misty never seemed to age but one day she cried and couldn’t get off my bed. I was in college and took Misty to the vet. They said it wasn’t a problem but $900 later, she had to be put down.
Wendy and I lived in an apartment when we were first married. The day we moved into our house, December 15th, there were boxes everywhere and I said to her, “Let’s go to the SPCA and look at a dog”. We didn’t see any but on the way out, they said, “What about this dog?” It was Elway and he was too big for a small house. They mentioned that he had been there for a long time and was going to be put down. I don’t know if that was true but Wendy started to cry and $100 later, Elway was riding in the back of our car into the city. I was pretty cranky and really felt manipulated. I was thinking of taking him back in the morning but that night Elway placed his pay in Wendy’s hand as she slept and by morning, there was no way I could have taken Elway back. Since then he realized who the big dog was and has become my constant sidekick. I love driving to Spiritwood with him. He doesn’t sleep but manages to put himself in a position where I can pet him while I drive.
His greatest moment came just after Mark was born. A large drunk man barged into the house while Wendy was feeding Mark. She hadn’t locked the door (we live in Saskatchewan, no one ever locks their doors) but Elway barked and snarled and held is ground until the drunk guy decided he didn’t want to mess with him and Wendy could call 9-1-1).
Elway is only 8 and I hope has a lot of years left in him. If he just hang on for a couple more days.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace by A. J. Gregory October 28, 2008
- Rediscovering Church: The Story and Vision of Willow Creek Community Church by Lynne Hybels October 26, 2008
- The Teeth of the Tiger, A Novel by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell October 26, 2008
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
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