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Nov 6

3 Comments

A Short (and Welcome!) Hiatus

A little later this month, my wonderful wife and I will mark our 15th wedding anniversary. In some ways, it seems like a lifetime ago that a fresh-faced 19 and 20 year old walked down the aisle of a church in small-town southern Alberta to make a commitment that we scarcely understood, but have grown into together. We’ve spent over half our lives together now, which is a marvellous thing.  I doubt and second-guess many things in life, but the decision to spend my life with Naomi is not among them. She is one of God’s best gifts to me. Read more

Nov 3

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God is a Giver

This morning our provincial conference of MB churches has gathered in Surrey, BC to engage in conversation about how we understand the doctrine of the atonement. I’m unable to be there in person, but I’ve got one eye on the life feed of the presentations this morning. My other eye is on Miroslav Volf’s Against the Tide—in particular, an essay called “You Can’t Deal With God.” After telling the familiar story (told in the play/film Amadeus) of Antonio Salieri’s attempt to bargain fame out of God, Volf concludes with this affirmation of the character and work of God: Read more

Nov 1

12 Comments

The Gospel According to Who?

As far as ambitiously titled books go, Chris Seay’s The Gospel According to Jesus would surely rank near the top of many lists.  I wasn’t even sure who Seay was when I cracked open the book (turns out he is the pastor of a church called Ecclesia in Houston, TX), but the title grabbed my attention.  I was curious to hear more about the “Faith that Restores All Things,” suggested by the subtitle.  As a Mennonite, I suppose I am drawn to anything that smacks of a Jesus-centred approach to faith.  Consequently, despite my unfamiliarity with the author, I had high hopes for this book. Read more

Oct 29

2 Comments

The Theater of Divine Love

The only thing better than coming home from a brief out of town conference to the hugs and giggles of children and the embrace of my wife, is to also have a little brown cardboard package full of new books to leaf through! Miroslav Volf is a theologian I have long admired, and based on the cursory glance I have given it tonight, his collection of essays called Against the Tide promises  to be a wonderful read. Here’s an arresting paragraph from the introduction: Read more

Oct 26

16 Comments

Commending the Faith

This past Saturday, I attended John Stackhouse’s lectures on faith, reason, and the new atheism down at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Evidently, there is still some interest in this topic as the event sold out—even in hyper-secular Nanaimo! Around twenty people from our church attended which was fantastic to see! I was in and out of the sessions throughout the day due to carting kids to hockey, friends’ houses, etc, but a couple of things struck me about his presentations: Read more

Oct 22

94 Comments

I’ll Have Some Charity Please

One of the things WordPress’s comprehensive stats page gives navel-gazing blogger-types like myself the opportunity to do is observe as certain “milestones” come and go in the life of their blog. Recently, the 4000th comment came through here, and I am coming up on 400 posts in the nearly four years I have spent in the blogging world. This may be a testimony to my stubbornness and persistence (or egotism!) more than anything else, but it’s still kind of neat to track how this forum has evolved over its lifespan. Read more

Oct 21

3 Comments

Really?

Received this via a co-worker today.  Hilarious commercial.  Baffling message.

So let me see if I’ve got this straight.  In order to save myself from obsessing over the mind-numbing amount and variety of trivial minutiae pouring out of my phone, and from all the addictive tendencies and relationship-destroying habits that these pieces of technology cultivate and capitalize upon, I should… get a different phone?!

Um… OK.

Oct 20

12 Comments

The Goodness of Good

It’s a busy week around here, so apologies for the lack of original posts. In the meantime, I continue to come across interesting articles and posts discussing the justification for/origins of our moral intuitions (which has been the subject of conversation around here for the last little while). Here are a few quotes on these matters from the eminently quotable David Bentley Hart who last week wrote this essay for First Things’ On the Square: Read more

Oct 17

18 Comments

More on Morality

Given some of the discussion that has been taking place on an earlier post, I thought I would pass on this link to an interesting article by biologist Frans de Waal in today’s edition of “The Stone” (a philosophy forum from The New York Times). The entire article is worth reading as I think he touches on a number of very important points (including the limits of science), but I was especially drawn to one particular section. Read more

Oct 12

27 Comments

Good For Us

Later this month Prof. John Stackhouse from Regent College will be here in Nanaimo to talk about the New Atheists (can we still call them “new?”) and whether or not it is crazy to be a person of faith.  Those who have been long-time readers of this blog will know that this is an event that has special interest for me because a) I wrote about the New Atheists for my masters thesis a few years back; and b) John Stackhouse was my supervisor for this project.  So I’ll be there with bells on.  And if you are on Vancouver Island on Saturday, October 23, I would encourage you to attend this event (you can register here).  I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say. Read more

Oct 11

9 Comments

What’s Old is New Again (NHL Style)

According to WordPress’s new, more comprehensive statistics page the second-most popular post I have ever come up with—at least according to number of page views—is a post from last year on hockey jerseys (naturally, of course… What else would you expect, on a blog that deals primarily with faith-related subject matter?).  Apparently I am not alone in my life-long fascination/curiosity with hockey jerseys!  So, because fall is here and hockey season has officially begun, I thought a hockey post might be fun for a holiday Thanksgiving Monday (my apologies to the non-hockey aficionados who read this blog :)). Read more

Oct 9

2 Comments

The Love More Lovely Than the Rest

Fall is a beautiful time of year on Vancouver Island, but yesterday and today it’s been pounding rain, driving wind, and lots of time indoors. I’m usually the first person awake in our house and occasionally I will begin the day by throwing on the headphones and listening to the music of Canadian singer/songwriter Steve Bell. Steve has that rare gift of being able to combine fantastic music with lyrics that are deep and insightful and illuminating and life-giving. I remember a few years back when I had a part-time teaching gig at a college for one semester, I would listen to Steve Bell every day on my 45 minute commute. His music invariably did a very nervous and apprehensive soul good. Read more

Oct 6

8 Comments

The Whole Jesus

Next month, the British Columbia Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (of which the church I serve at is a part) will be holding another event to further discuss some of our differences (or perceived differences) regarding how we are to understand the cross of Christ. The atonement debate has been simmering in these parts for a while now (I’ve reflected on it here, here, here, and here if you’re interested in any background). Some see a decreasing emphasis in the penal substitution component of what the cross accomplished, and think that this represents a compromise of the gospel. Others see room for locating penal substitution within a broader understanding of what was achieved at Calvary. This event is an attempt to better understand and talk about these differences. Read more

Sep 29

12 Comments

Religious (Yawn) Knowledge

Well, the blogosphere is abuzz this week with the results of a survey on religious knowledge conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life—particularly the fact that atheists and agnostics scored highest on the quiz.  The sheer volume of words being devoted to these results makes me hesitant contribute still more.  Whether it’s Christians desperately explaining the results away or atheists/agnostics pointing to them as yet one more piece of evidence demonstrating their intellectual superiority over their benighted religious brethren, it all gets very tiresome. Read more

Sep 28

4 Comments

Sacred Spaces

Anyone involved in church work in a twenty-first century, Western, post-Christian context is familiar with the common trend toward declining church attendance (see here, for some figures from the American context). The story is a well-rehearsed one: people are interested in “spirituality” not institutional “religion.” Churches are places of lifeless formalism. And if churches don’t do anything for us, why bother with them? Why not spend a Sunday morning enjoying the outdoors or our kids’ sporting activities, or a quiet cafe and a newspaper, or… fill in the blank. Read more

Sep 24

11 Comments

You’re Not Awesome (and Neither am I)!

Last week I was driving back from a breakfast meeting and happened to catch a bit of a CBC radio program where the hosts were discussing an apparently growing service dedicated to reminding people of how awesome they are.  At Awesomeness Reminders, it’s all about you and your awesomeness and being continually aware of this awesome reality.  For the low, low price of only $10/month ($20 outside the USA and Canada—apparently non-North Americans begin with an awesomeness deficit), you can receive a daily phone call carefully crafted to convey just how awesome you are in order to fortify you to face the challenges of the day ahead. Read more

Sep 20

6 Comments

Us and Them

Perhaps it’s some kind of strange back-to-school induced nostalgia, but today I’m thinking about parenthood and family and just how it is that my little twins have somehow become these big grade four creatures that no longer need (or want, sometimes) their hands held, or to be walked to school, or shepherded to their various activities, or any of the other things that have just been a part of life for what seems like forever. They’re growing up, I suppose, as kids are prone to do. It’s an interesting journey, this business of raising children. Read more

Sep 19

2 Comments

Bumper Sticker Theology

Some lighter fare for a sleepy Sunday afternoon… I couldn’t help but chuckle at this bumper sticker, spotted yesterday at the Saturday Market over on Salt Spring Island.


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