This past week...

... we got an update from a few of the members of the Collide cluster who are in Mexico sharing Jesus with people in need. Jordan, Adam and Daniel have been in Mexico City for three weeks now and we were so thrilled to hear they’re safe, healthy and having an amazing experience. The boys have partnered with the YWAM base in the city and have made themselves available to whatever the base needs them to do, wanting to serve in the best ways possible instead of creating their own agenda.

Jordan writes, “we have been working with IPHC, which is a health care school from YWAM, and it has been rad! We went to an area in the mountains and worked with World Vision for a day, giving shots and praying for the people there. We also went with a church group and took blood pressure and and syringed out ears and cleaned equipment, it was a riot!” This might seem like an extreme example of the principle that ‘in order to live our missionality in our individual lives, we also need to be living it out in community together’, but it’s a beautiful one. We’re so excited to see the ways God uses Jordan, Adam and Daniel in Mexico City and then how he will continue to use them in powerful ways when they're back in Langley. Be in prayer for them as they wrap up their time there and return home in a few weeks!

I've been thinking...

... more about the comment I made in my sermon on Sunday that 'in order to live out missionality in our individual lives, we also need to be living it out in community together.' I've been thinking about this because one of the common responses I get from people in the church when suggesting that they need to be in a cluster, living out mission with a group of people, is that they are living out mission in their own world and they don't have time to also being doing it with others. Though it sounds reasonable, I think that for most people it's inaccurate - and it's from reflecting back to my time in university that I see this most clearly. When I was a student at SFU I got plugged into a Christian group on campus called Campus Crusade for Christ. For the first year and a half I resisted much involvement beyond a bible study, because I was so 'busy'. As time went on though I started getting more and more involved and I started engaging what I can only in hindsight clearly identify as a cluster. We had about 40 of us gathering fairly regularly for meals, having fun together, worshipping together, breaking off into small groups, and doing mission together. And it was in doing life together like this that I experienced a fuller joy in my faith, learned to live missionally, and became motivated to then engage people in my own world. I encourage you to keep fighting for us to be a people on mission together.

God has been moving...

... in some really exciting ways in the Aduro cluster over the past few weeks. Last week the group headed into Langley in small groups to pray over the city and listen to God for where He might be calling them to step out in faith. One of the groups met a young girl, new to Canada from Mexico, who they invited out to their cluster. She came this week to their gathering where they ate dinner, played frisbee and worshipped around the campfire late into the night. “It was so neat to see the relationships developing as members of the group got to know her and spent the night sharing their lives with her,” explained Elisha, who leads Aduro. Be in prayer for this young girl and the Aduro cluster as they share Jesus with her through living life together.

Last week...

... I decided to play hooky for a couple days and take Thursday and Friday off (and I had already planned to not preach on the Sunday). I had been noticing some signs of weariness lately, and I thought it'd be a good idea to get a rest. Obviously we all experience weariness, but this was one of those times when I felt that I needed to step back, slow down and get perspective. One of the things that I'm trying to be more sensitive to in my life is indicators that I'm not in a healthy rhythm (my friend calls them 'tells'). So for instance, getting impatient with Taylor and Matthew is a 'tell' for me that I'm not managing my energy or stress well - because when I'm healthy I don't respond in anger to them. Another 'tell' for me that something is wrong is when I frequently close my office door during the day - it's an indicator that I'm weary of interacting with people and need alone time. I could go on and list other 'tells', but you get the point. I think as leaders we all need to be able to identify our 'tells' that we're out of rhythm or not managing stress and weariness well. And if you don't know what your 'tells' are, ask the people close to you - they'll be glad to let you know! We all need to be conscious of our tells, and then what we need to do to restore ourselves.

One small group ...

... has been experiencing the fruit of digging into sermon questions in some really intimate and unique ways. One of the small groups off the Wanted Cluster has been doing sermon questions for the past year. By doing the sermon questions every time they gather they’ve seen discussion building off each week, allowing them to not only dig deeper into the sermon, but into the whole book of Matthew. Each time they gather there is brokeness and real life issues that the scripture has stirred up in people and they have a space to discuss it, pray for one another and then carry what they’ve learnt and processed into the week. Each one of them has said at some point that they would otherwise hardly remember the sermon by Wednesday, let alone have processed what it means to them and how they need to change because of that.

Monday night at...

... our small group we were chatting through the sermon questions and I was struck by the depth of the discussion. I've known it cognitively, but it struck me again just how much we all need to not only listen to a sermon, but also to have a place to process through our questions, struggles and insights, and then figure out together how to apply it to our lives (even for me, and I preached it!). I know there are times when doing a different study as a small group is healthy, but in general I wonder to myself, 'why move onto learning something new when we haven't even processed, applied and prayed through what we're already learning?' I want to encourage you to have small groups off of your clusters going through the sermon questions together so that, as the scriptures encourage us in several places, we're not just hearers of the Word, but doers of it.

Tomorrow night ...

... (Friday) I get the chance to share at the Trinity Western Graduation Banquet. I've been thinking a lot about what to share there. I never went to Trinity myself, but a lot of my friends did. For some reason preparing to speak there has gotten me thinking about my friends who went to Trinity (that was a lot of years ago!). Interestingly, one of the things that strikes me is that so many of them, and others I knew at the time who were strong in their faith, are really not walking closely (or at all) with the Lord anymore. While they were in university, at Trinity or elsewhere, they were passionate about their faith. But over the years they've moved away, pursued various careers, started families (ie. done all the things they're supposed to do), and somewhere in the mix they lost their center. I've wondered to myself, how did that happen? Did they lose Christian community? Did no one track with them and keep them accountable (including me)? Did life just become too busy? And were there warning signs that could have been addressed in their life earlier? One of the realities for you and I as we shepherd people in our church is that down the road many of them will likely not be walking with the Lord. We need to ensure that we're praying for our people, getting them connected into community (clusters), following up with people when they stop showing up, and being intentional about helping them understand how to navigate life and faith. We're here to shepherd them - let's not just assume they'll finish well, but let's fight for it.

With Easter approaching ...

... we have lots of opportunities for you as a community to engage and experience the cross together. Just last night one small group went through Stations of the Cross together, as families, and had a really amazing time. With 7 kids between the ages of three and seven they had their work cut out for them but it became a really beautiful picture of not just entrusting to a younger generation the beauty of the cross, but by doing it in community, it really spoke of kids who will carry this together.

They had many cool moments - when they got to the station with the coins, illustrating our betrayal of Jesus, and the question was asked “What are some things we make more important than Jesus?” one of the young boys said “lego” and later, as the families gathered around the cross, the kids shared their sins (kicking, not listening, etc) and they nailed them to the cross together. It was an amazing experience for all the families of really slowing down to approach Easter, in community, as more than just a Sunday experience.

I think I might...

... be the worst pastor ever if my thought for this week wasn't focused in on Easter! I've been reflecting a lot this last little while on the book that John Piper wrote entitled 'Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die'. I know the fact that John Piper suggests that there are 50 reasons why Jesus came to die probably shouldn't shake me, but it does! I've felt this overwhelming conviction that somewhere along the way I bought into some rote-textbook answer to what the cross is about, and I've lost some of the wonder, mystery and majesty of the breadth and depth of what the cross accomplished.

So I'm really focusing on slowing down this week to take all of this in - personal reflection time, talking about it as a family, Stations of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul. I want to encourage you that this week more than any other week of the year, you take time alone and in community, to discover more of the cross, and more of what the cross tells us about who God is. I'm praying for you this week. And looking forward to an epic celebration with you on Sunday!

God has been moving...

...so powerfully among our youth in the past few months and they have seen really amazing things happening within their community in the Elevate cluster. Tuesday nights Elevate kids gather to share life together, receive teaching and having a blast doing crazy things.

Two months ago the cluster started breaking off into small groups once a month to go deeper in the word and allow kids a place to get really intimate with their leaders. One group in particular has seen radical change as their leader, Johnny, a young man with a great heart and a love for youth, has stepped into building community in a counter-cultural way. He’s pouring his life into these guys, going to their schools, picking them up from work, taking them to the gym AND meeting with them as a whole group once a week to keep digging into helping them grow in their faith. Johnny has taken life-on-life ministry to a whole nother level as he steps into the lives of his youth, outside his comfort zone or even his original responsibility as a youth leader, to see Jesus Bigger in their worlds and real community built. Very cool.

It's been a little weird ...

...waking up the last week and not to be eating breakfast with 23 others like I did for 8 days in Mexico. As an introvert, I'm surprised how much I've missed it (and it's not just that I miss having someone else make my breakfast - thank you Amy Lewis!). After getting back from Mexico I realize just how much I loved living life that intensily with a group of people. It wasn't just eating meals together - it was the being there together to lay hands on Cally as her fever overtook her. It was picking up boulders together as we landscaped an orphanage (and jumping when I uncovered a tarantula!). It was standing on a hill that overlooks a city together and having our hearts stirred together against the poverty, drug problems, and spiritual darkness.

It makes me wonder why sometimes I find it so hard to make time to do the same thing in community back home. Maybe it's because I have a lot of other things to balance here at home, and so understandably I'm not as focused as I can be in Mexico. But maybe it's more than that. I've wondered if maybe sometimes our gatherings back home here lack the missional purpose that our time in Mexico did, and so we're bored. I also think that sometimes back home here we expect to live life individually and to just once and a while come together into community, whereas when in Mexico we expected to live life as a community of people and to once and a while do things individually. Do you get the difference? So what's one thing that you've gotta change today? And who's keeping you accountable to it. I'm working on mine.

Last Wednesday night...

...the Wanted cluster headed out to prayer-walk in a neighbourhood they gather in every other week. Desiring to stretch themselves and get outside of the ‘box’ in prayer they’re trying some new things. For some it was exciting and unique, while a few others were uncomfortable but up for something new. As they walked around, they prayed for the neighbours and they prayed that their cluster's presence in the area might be a light, a safe place or just a conversation starter about why all these young adults hang out for dinner every other week and take up all the parking! They're seeking to experience and display His Kingdom.

Ever since...

...preaching yesterday about how our lives are to be a display of the treasures of God's Kingdom I've wondered to myself … 'how would those close to me describe my life?' If, as Jesus says, my life is to be like a house, would they walk into my house and be intrigued and compelled by what's on display?

How would Taylor and Matthew describe their dad's life? What would Wendy say (the one who knows me best)? Or what about those who don’t know me best? What would Steve, a guy from our cluster who doesn’t come to church, say about the treasures I have on display?

Would they say my life is full of Kingdom treasures, or would they say it's full of religosity? Man, I want my life to be an authentic display of treasures - not my treasures, but those of God's Kingdom… grace, mercy, joy, beauty, love…

Last Thursday night...

...the Collide cluster hopped on the bus in Langley to head out for some intentional connecting for the night. They bussed and sky-trained their way downtown, sitting with different people along the way, hearing their stories and having interesting, deep and sometimes bizarre conversations. Once in Vancouver they spent the evening sharing food Canadian-style (Timbits) and talking with some more people. They had an amazing night of loving on strangers and doing mission together in tangible, stretching ways. Connect with any of them to hear funny moments from the night and how they’re seeing the kingdom unfolding through getting on a bus and striking up a conversation.

Latley...

...I’ve been trying to slow down more. Slow my heart and mind in the midst of the craziness of life (work, kids, sports, meetings, training, chores, reading, – agh!) and take in the fact that all around me, while I’m rushing around, Jesus is unfolding His Kingdom.

In Matthew 13 he says to the disciples (after describing how many people’s hearts are becoming hardened to seeing and understanding the unfolding of the Kingdom):
"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."

All around us (even in the mess and confusion of life) Jesus is unfolding His Kingdom and he’s inviting us to see it and to experience it. To see it when my son is completely caught up in giggles … when a friend lets go of bitterness … when I notice myself trusting in God more than circumstance … when over $4000 is raised on a Sunday to help strangers hurting in Haiti …

Ah, that today we could see His Kingdom unfolding – what would that look like for you? How could you step into it?