And here we are again . . . summer . . . warm hot . . . COVID. Just a few thoughts . . . This Sunday we’ll continue our series that looks at D Problems: our emphasis is discouragement (and how we can be encouraged). Please feel free to send me your requests for songs of worship and praise that you would like to sing. And if you aren’t receiving the lyrics to the songs each Sunday but would like them, drop me a line. Thanks to Matt and Johania for sharing our July messages while I was away. Their growth (and growing c...

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That was a great day. I know I say it often, but it’s true, that was a great day! Yesterday, I mean, Our celebration service of worship through music. So many participated. And so many were there! It was as if Premier Ford knew that we had planned this day and so the provincial government relaxed restrictions so that we could have people in the sanctuary (I know that’s not what happened, but it was still amazing to have people attending our service in person!). True, the service did not run “glitch-free”. Th...

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It was just over a year ago that George Floyd died/“was killed at the hands of” or “by” the police (some people still argue at it being described this way). The Black Lives Matter movement began to protest. Some called it “rioting” and others called it “rebelling” – and there’s an interesting distinction there, all based on how you want to see it. Case in point: some considered what happened on Capital Hill January 6 a riot; others call it the beginning of a rebellion. Whi...

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Last week I said that I am loathe to talk about politics. I will gladly talk ethics and issues, though, and sometimes those and politics intersect. Although I’m not really sure that the latest . . . disappointment (it’s not really a scandal, is it?) . . . is politics or ethics or an issue (a combination of all three, surely) as much as it is a sad commentary on what we were (it is we were, isn’t it?). More bodies. More bodies of children. More bodies of indigenous children who were taken from their homes and families...

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I am loathe to talk about politics. Of course, because I believe that my Christianity – my relationship with Jesus – should influence my politics more than my politics should influence my Christianity, I do have certain . . . leanings. Thoughts. Ask me and I’ll tell you what I think. About Canada’s political leaders. About Ontario’s provincial leaders. Even about the American’s political leaders (though I have a hard time understanding why some Canadians are more vocal about the leaders south of the...

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It may be a stretch to think this, but we celebrate three new years every year: the traditional New Year’s on January 1, the end-of-summer new school year the beginning of September, and a church new year after year-end reporting (which is also a time of looking back and looking ahead). Our church year ends April 30; yesterday we took time to review the year past (and a strange year it was) and to look ahead, using Ezekiel 37 as our scriptural launching point. How do we assess the year past? It is difficult to report church a...

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One of my favourite Mother’s Day cartoons is of a man and a child (husband and son) standing watching a lady sitting at a table with a cup of tea (obviously the mother) with the caption “Is Mother’s Day over yet? We’re starving.” It isn’t that husbands and children are incapable or incompetent, it’s just that . . . well . . . I don’t want to speak for anyone else, so I just won’t say any more. But you know that yesterday was Mother’s Day. And that the day after Mother&rsqu...

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Perhaps you have heard Madison Kohout’s story, which is quite a bit different from the protagonist of Sunday’s Scripture story: It came about completely by accident, when she moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma into an apartment she had rented online, sight unseen. She fell in love with the affordable two-bedroom when she arrived, but in her excitement she didn’t notice the sign outside the apartment complex until she had been living there for about a week. “The first week of moving here was crazy!” ...

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I used to think that Mother’s Day was the most difficult message to prepare . . . until this week. I found the challenge on looking at what the Bible has to say about racism and anti-racism and justice and injustice and equality most daunting. It is a topic that I know little about personally, being a white North American male. Who am I to speak on racism? Yet racial divisions aren’t simply a social issue reserved for politicians or civic leaders to handle. This is a spiritual and moral problem. So we must talk about it. A...

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Why is it that commercials have such a hold on us (or maybe it’s just on me)? I remember commercials from my childhood . . . on things that weren’t directed at me and on things that were. I remember you’re soaking in it [click here] and be a good cook mother said; you’ll get a man . . . what did I get . . . ? [click here] and two all beef patties . . . [click here] – although to be honest I don’t like sauce on my burgers. Sometimes it is the mini-drama of the commercial that catches our attention; s...

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