An unexpected journey

It’s been a few weeks, but here’s a catch-up post.

My 95 year-old Granny died on November 11, after a few months of deteriorating health. She was a small, but strong woman, who had lived a full life. She had a quiet faith that was demonstrated in the way she lived her life. She left a huge legacy of family behind, which is a testimony in itself.

I found myself on Thursday 12 trying to work out flight times and connections which would enable me to get to Orkney in time for the funeral service. I managed a Thursday evening flight out of Sudbury which got me to Kirkwall airport on Friday evening via Toronto, Amsterdam and Edinburgh.

It was a worthwhile trip and I would’ve regretted not going. Granny was the last of that generation, so it’s probably the last family get-together of that magnitude. I met relatives I haven’t seen for a long time, relatives who were too young to remember me and others who have been born since I emigrated to Canada 15 years ago. Although it wasn’t under the best of circumstances, it was good to catch up with lots of family and friends.

I was also able to spend some time with my sister and her family in Airdrie, and my parents, too, before heading back to Elliot Lake. On the Thursday I was able to arrange to meet Thomas Mathie, aka the Headphonaught, for coffee. It was a pleasure to finally meet Thomas. I love reading his stuff as it’s always a challenge. He truly shows God’s love in action in the way he lives his life. Check out his blog and you’ll see what I mean. His photography is amazing as well. He is also one of the founders of the Something Beautiful podcast, which is always worth a listen. I came away feeling that I’ve known him forever and I look forward to connecting with him again in the future.

Unfortunately, since coming back I’ve been under the weather and am barely able to talk just now. I managed to get through Sunday alright. At our gathering we had a discussion around love and used this video. On Sunday night our Hope Band led worship at the local Anglican Church, which was quite enjoyable. Some pics here.

Cameron is sick  now as well and Pamela and Emily are away to North Bay for the weekend for a swimming meet. I don’t think I’ll make it to our gathering this Sunday, so I’ve arrange for our drummer, Jeff, to step in and lead. Our first kettle goes out today, so it seems that Christmas thing is just around the corner. I think that’s all for now.

The Remaining

We had a teen worship band, The Remaining,  from Sault Ste Marie at our place today to lead us in our Sunday gathering. We started off with a spaghetti lunch and once it was cleared away we got right into a time of worship. The place was rocking. The band has only been together for 13 weeks and are aged from 14-18, but it seemed like they had been together for longer than that. A couple of young ladies from the group shared some thoughts, along with some of their story, and left us with the challenge to get out of our comfort zone and find ways of connecting our respective generations with Jesus and the Good News of the Gospel. We plan to have them back again for sure.

Some pictures and video here.

Just beginning

So, it’s been almost a week since we had the grand opening of our new location in Elliot Lake. I figured I should share an update, so here it is.

It took just about a year from the date of purchase to the date of occupation and there were times, I have to admit, when I doubted it would happen. Red tape and regulations can wear you down after a while. But all of that is behind us now and we are finally in the place. The above sign greets you as you enter the building and it is our hope that people will stop referring to our space as the church or God’s house. Our old building had a sign that said ‘Welcome to the House of the Lord’ above the door and I hated it, but, for reasons that don’t really matter now, we were not able to remove it. So instead it remains where it is and has not followed us to the new place.

The place was buzzing last Saturday, beyond what we hoped or imagined, and many people from the community of all ages came to check us out. Quite a few came back for our worship celebration on Saturday evening, as well as having a few new faces for our Sunday lunchtime gathering. We decided to make some major changes to our Sunday ‘thing’. We now gather for lunch at 11.30am and get into some worship round about 12.45pm. We are hoping that this will help people get to know each other and lead to a better sense of community. We are also going to use our space during the week as a drop-in centre/cafe/hangout kind of spot and we’ll see how that develops as we encourage people to think beyond ’Sunday-go-to-church-Christianity’. We’re finding that lots of people from other fellowships want to be part of the drop-in/community thing, so we’re stressing that our building is more about community than SA building, so everyone is welcome to come and be part of what is happening without having to give up being a part of their particular fellowship.

Our biggest challenge now is not to fall back on the patterns of the past, but to keep on the path down which we believe God is leading us. We’ve been here almost 8 years, but it seems like it’s all just beginning. Looking forward to the next 8!

P.S. If you are interested in seeing some pictures from the opening click here.

And now the end is near…

…and so I face the final curtain. I think I can hear this ‘old’ building singing that song now. Sunday 29 March will see the final worship service, gathering, get together, whatever you want to call it, in this building. It’s probably not a moment too soon. Although we won’t have possession of our new and renovated location by then, it has been decided not to drag out the end for what has been any longer.

The above building really has become a bridge to nowhere, a time machine, a self-serving structure, with no relevance or effectiveness in the vicinity of where it is situated. There may have been a time, probably about 20 years ago, when there was vibrant ministry taking place here, but as the world has moved on, what takes place here has withdrawn itself into a safe cocoon.

The past few years have been difficult as I have become painfully aware of the disconnect of what this has all become. It is hard to put your heart into something that doesn’t make sense any more, into something that glorifies program over relationship, into something that looks nothing like the community that God intended for His people. Over the last year or so we have been attempting to transition to something new and different, but that is always hard when you are surrounded by the ghosts of the past. It will be good for all concerned to move out from here to something new.

However, that’s not saying that by just moving everything will instantly be better and more effective. That is why the old and ineffective has to be shut down with a break before commencing the new. The break could be as long as a month or as short as two weeks. But when we finally get back together it will look nothing like the old. Those looking for a traditional Sunday-go-to-church experience will be very disappointed, but it shouldn’t be a shock to their system as we have been explaining and talking about the day this would come for over a year now. The worst thing that could happen to our new location is that it become a Sunday church in new clothes. What happens on a Sunday will only be a small part of what takes place there every day of the year. We have no idea what it will all look like in the end, but we are stepping out in faith to only God knows what. It is both exciting and scary at the same time. One thing is for sure – once we step away from what has been, there is no returning to the safety of the past. To do that would show a lack of faith and trust in the vision that God has given us for Elliot Lake.

If you are in the vicinity on March 29 at 10.30am then drop by and say goodbye to something that has had its time, but is now making way for a fresh expression of community. Come and say thanks for the faithfulness of the past and join the journey of stepping out, with God, into the future.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Our worship service last Sunday was rather difficult. There were a number of dynamics and other things which left us kind of fried at the end of it all. We have been trying a kind of gentle approach to transitioning to some major changes that we are heading towards as a congregation. Last night, after staying up until after midnight with some other people from the church discussing what exactly happened on Sunday, we decided that perhaps the gentle approach is what is causing some of the recent roller-coaster rides. So we decided on a less gentle approach starting this Sunday.

The new space that we are moving into once it is renovated (which won’t be this side of Christmas) is a bit smaller than the cavernous room/sanctuary that we use at present. So today we worked out the measurements of the new space and measured it out on our old space. We removed all the huge wooden pews and put them outside of the measured space so close together that they won’t be usable this Sunday, or from this moment forward. On Saturday we wil set up the furniture (tables, chairs, couches, coffee tables, etc) and try a few diferent configurations. It may jolt some of those living in the past awake to the fact that we can never go back there.

Added to this we will be showing ‘Today’ from the Nooma series, which talks about living for today and not dwelling on the past. Exciting times ahead…

The Sound of Truth

We have all heard what we wanted to hear
“Truth” that sounds right to our ears

      

But what wisdom is there within us
To live based on the feeling of our hearts
How many times has instinct let us down
Never to be thought through
Never to be questioned
Say what you really mean
When your ambition calls you
For what use is there in praying
If you will only hear what you want to hear?

    

We speak of fighting to resist this world
But what about the battle within us?
If we have chosen to live against the grain
Then why are we all facing the same way?
There is no difference between us and them
If we all blindly seek truth from sentiments 

The words of this song (by As I Lay Dying) really hit me this morning as I was on the treadmill and trying to get my head around worship and what it has become. We didn’t have a sermon this morning and instead had a time of discussion around the ‘Sunday’ Nooma DVD. I think the days of the ‘traditional’ preach are numbered.

The worship time was more intense today than it has been in a long time. People were responding to the Spirit in ways that we haven’t seen in a while. We had a longer than normal prayer/reflection time singing ‘This is my desire’. There seemed to be a real honesty in the singing of the words ‘Lord I give you my heart’.

We are a congregation in transition, and as we move forward our desire is for the masks to drop off and for us to be more like the people that God created us to be. If you’re a praying person, keep us in your prayers.