Attitude Adjustment

Series: Breakout
June 29, 2008

In my wallet I carry some of my most important stuff. I carry my ID, very important in today’s world. I have my insurance cards should anything horrible happen to me. I have my credit cards and a bankcard if I want to buy anything. But I also have a few things that are even more important. I have the very first note that Robin sent me. I have a card with all her relevant sizes and shapes so I can buy her clothes, shoes, whatever. But here I have the most important thing in my wallet. It’s the card that I wrote our wedding vows on, and kept in my pocket for our wedding just in case I got nervous and needed a cheat sheet (which I didn’t). On this same card is our wedding text, and it’s the text we come to today in our Breakout series taking us through the letter to the church in Philippi, one of our books of the bible. It’s Philippians 2:5-11.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being make in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

Read the whole sermon here or listen online at connectionschurch.ca

Connections Picnic

Look at the intensity on their faces...priceless!



Vanessa was the only person to bring a jello mold! It was soooooo good. Next year everyone better bring jello!

What can I say- Connections has the cutest girls in the city!

Check out lots more photos on our facebook page, we're an open group so just join us.

A Theology of Unity

Series: Breakout
June 22, 2008

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

Look at that prayer. Let’s break it down into its three parts:

First, “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” Have you ever known a young couple in love? That stage where they ask, “What do you want to do tonight?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” “I know, we can just sit on this couch and look at each other all evening long.” “Oh there’s nothing I’d love more.” “Oh I love you.” “The world has never before known a love like this.”

We have at least three engaged couples here at Connections now, and let me be the first to tell you, this as the minister that will officiate your wedding- you are pathetic. We see you looking at each other and batting your eyes. One says, “I have to use the rest room,” and the other says, “Hurry back, I’ll miss you.” You have no idea how much comic relief you provide the rest of us.

But this a a great first stage of love....

Read the whole sermon here or listen online at our website www.connectionschurch.ca

A Great Encouragement

I was with a few other church planters this past week for our (roughly) quarterly gathering to share, swap ideas, encourage each other, etc. Toward the end when our designated facilitator asked us to randomly go around and share something that we appreciate about each other.

Great, I thought. Now I have to figure out something really insightful and original to say about everyone. Despite the usual awkward beginning that most of these exercises entail, we quickly found it easy to say a lot about everyone in the group.

I'm usually way more focused on what I'm going to say about others than worrying about what will be said of me, so when people starting "appreciating" me, it was very humbling. Especially when someone said,

"George, I really appreciate your humble confidence."

Or was is confident humility?
I don't remember. Perhaps it doesn't matter. But I thought about it as I drove home.

To have confidence in the Lord, but humility in oneself.
Confidence in our calling; humility in working it out.
Confidence in our gifts; humility in exercising them.
Confidence in the future; humility in the present.

I decided not to shrug off the compliment, but embrace it. And I pray that a "confident humility"/ "humble confidence" will be something that others see in me too.

A Theology of Suffering

Series: Breakout
June 15, 2008

Last we unpacked what I could have called “a theology of joy.” We live in a culture that is joy-obsessed. People are searching for it with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. But because they have made joy their god, they find themselves not on the upward trajectory to happiness, but the downward spiral to misery. They accumulate stuff, they become workaholics, they look for the one person to make them complete, and joy continues to elude them. But this desire for happiness and joy is God given, it is good, and it’s part of what it means to be human. So we don’t abandon the search for joy, we just need to look in the right place!

We look to God. We affirm that true joy, the kind of joy that isn’t faked or forced, that wells up inside of us, that transcends time, place, situations and circumstances, comes only in God. For our God is a God of joy, who made joy, who is joyful, who gives us joy in Him. We put our life in Him, we put our faith and trust in Him, we put our belief in Him, and when we get our purpose straight in Him, we are, as CS Lewis put it, “surprised by joy.” We are surprised to find the joy of the Lord. It’s the icing on the cake, the after-effect we we’re expecting, which makes it all the better.

But joy isn’t the whole story of our lives is it. In fact, our desire for joy really stems out of the other side of the coin, the other extreme of our lives, and that’s the reality of suffering. In this book of the bible we are studying, Paul, the author, rejoices over the church he planted in Philippi. He prays for them, he thanks God for them, he has the full assurance that God will complete his plan and purpose for them. And he knows that Jesus is coming again, maybe in his lifetime. He knows Jesus will come and complete his work of redeeming and renewing all of the creation. He will complete His redeeming work in all of us, His children. This is the source of his joy! God started a great work of salvation in our world and in our lives, and He will see it through to completion. His plans for the world and our lives cannot and will be thwarted. God is in control!

But there’s the crazy thing: all of this, he shares from a jail cell. He shares from one of the most miserable, hopeless, helpless situations a man can find himself in. He writes this letter of joy even while he suffers. And that’s what we want to get into today.

Listen to the sermon on our website or read the whole sermon here.

"I'm Going to Miss Connections"

Now before you think I'm leaving, this was said to me this past Sunday.
A family that has been with us since last fall is now facing a move this July.
They've been instrumental in helping with the worship service, family ministry and their Connections Group.

So after the service on Sunday Scott said something that struck me as one of the greatest things anyone could say. He said, "I'm gonna miss Connections."

He didn't say I'm gonna miss your preaching, miss you, miss worship, miss my brothers and sisters here. Thought I'm sure all those things are true.

When he said he's going to miss Connections it "clicked" for me in a new way- we aren't just a dream anymore, we aren't just a mission to London, we aren't just a little group of people gathering on Sundays.

We are a church.

That may not mean much to some, but that means everything to me. It means we belong to God. It means we are part of something that transcends space a time, place and race. It means we are part of the one eternal body of Christ. It means we can change lives and change the world.

It breaks my heart to see my friends leave, but it makes my heart soar to think, "We are a church!"

Toward a Biblical View of Suffering

Tomorrow I'm preaching on "A Theology of Suffering."

Of course I can not cover it all, but we're going to cover a lot of ground.
As preachers often say, we must first preach to God, then to ourselves, then to others.
We first "preach" to God, making sure we are faithfully reflecting back His truth. If it doesn't stand up to Scripture, it doesn't stand. We make sure our personality and preferences don't compete with God's revelation, but rather compliment it.
Then we preach to ourselves. It has to start with us if it's going to be authentic and winsome.

That said, in preparing to preach on suffering, I've had to examine the Scriptures, examine myself, and wrestle with what is one of the most problematic issues inside and outside of the church.

How do we reconcile a infinitely powerful and loving God, which the scriptures reveal, with the pain and suffering that exists in the world, which the scriptures also reveal?

It's troubling for many believers, and it is the main objection of many who reject Jesus and the Bible.

Tomorrow we're going to slug it out. We're going to wrestle this one into submission, and find that while we may still have many questions, we might also find a savior who not only understands our pain, can use our pain, and stands in solidarity with us through our pain.

PS, a helpful biblical study is found at http://www.relationshipskills.com/acticles.htm

I'm Art!

I always knew I was a masterpiece in the eyes of God.
Now the world has finally caught on!

I had the privilege of being the subject of a photo shoot that found it's way into Gerald Vaandering's art show. This was the first piece to sell.


I won't say how much it sold for, but I will say that a picture of me makes more than the real me makes in more than a month!
I'll be traveling to Vancouver to add to the city's beautification. Apparently, they love me out west. Ha!

You can check out other pieces from the show here:
http://www.gibsongallery.com/current.html

It was a ton of fun and it really does make a person feel special to be "art."
How wonderful that we really are the work of God's hands, beautiful in his eyes.

Thoughts on moving forward

One of my past blogs raised some questions on how we will make the move to hiring staff at Connections. Here are some of my thoughts at this point (I know this will at least help me clarify my plans):

First, none of our positions can start at full-time pay. We aren't there financially. We haven't even begun to talk about stewardship. We are still just a group of folks with a mission and me as the pastor/planter/leader. We will need to transition people into full time work. Over what period of time, I don't know. My hope is that we can almost simultaneously move to several part time positions.

Second, I realize this approach has some advantages and limitations. A serious limitation is in getting folks that have experience and education in these areas. In other words, the "outside expert" model of staffing. Interestingly, this is how I was "hired." Funds were secured to pay a planter/pastor like myself.

As the vision and mission of Connections came together, I soon realized I wanted to grow a culture of leadership within the church, so that future staffing would come from within the church. This makes me a product of the ecclesiastical model going back to more congregational approach. It also flows a bit like the biblical model in Acts where the Apostles came into a city to plant a church, but trained the people of that city to run the church.

Third, the advantage for Connections is that we can move quickly into a more "staff-led" approach to our ministry. In other words, it's cheaper to hire four people at quarter-time than one person at full-time. This is a hard move because people need to be in a position in life where they can work only part-time, or can piece together multiple part-time positions.

My preferred part time positions are: Administration, Worship Director, Family Minsitry Director and Media/Arts Director. (A year ago would have probably said: Worship Director, Family Ministry Director, Small Groups Director, Community Outreach Director. I know more about our mission now.)

Fourth, the way to move people into part-time positions is basically through making themselves invaluable to the church as volunteers. We already have key folks without whom we could not function at the level we do as a church. Administration, worship and family ministry are particularly dependent on a few individuals.

It's interesting how these positions of influence have grown out of our mission. Competent church administration is vital, because we are reaching out to unchurched people. These folks don't know how to run a church organizationally. So we rely on the few folks we have that know "church administration." With worship it's a matter of excellence and consistency. With Family Minsitry it's a matter of professionalism and motivation. With media, it's about creating the worship experience we envision.

Fifth, and finally, there's a old saying in the church that pastors should work themselves out of a job. I know what they mean, but it's misleading.

We should work ourselves forward in our jobs/calling. I need to get out of the way so others can step into roles I'm currently filling. But this doesn't mean I'm out of a job; it means I move to the next one. This way the mission grows.

So do you want a job at Connections? Make yourself absolutely vital. Then move your job forward so others can get involved as they become equipped and empowered to take over.

There's a lot more to be said and learned. But at least that helps me organize my priorities.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Series: Breakout
June 8, 2008

I was born in the states and grew up under the revolutionary document call the Declaration of Independence. This document states that all men (they caught on to slaves and women later) are created equal, and all of us are endowed by our creator with certain rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That’s a fascinating declaration. You have the right to life and we can create a government where that can largely be enforced. We’ll argue a bit about when life begins and ends, does we ever have the right to take a life in between, but for the most part, we can enforce this. You also have the right to liberty, unless you’re a slave or a woman, but give it some time. So don’t take someone’s life, pay your taxes, and you’ll basically be free. Great enlightenment ideals, great biblical ideals. Then we have this third piece- you have the right to happiness. Well, not really. We can’t make you the promise of happiness, but we offer you this- the right to pursue your happiness. Don’t take a life, don’t take anyone’s liberty, and you’ll be free to pursue happiness. Basically we can say that the American experiment is basically the unfettered, unrelenting chasing after a dream- happiness.

So America must be the happiest place on earth, right? Well, I actually have no idea, but I do know this, on the website, the pursuit of happiness.org, America is not number 1. It’s not even in the top ten. But do you want to know who is? Yeah baby, you got it- Canada. We just barely made it in, by the skin of our teeth! Number 10.

Listen to the sermon at www.connectionschurch.ca or read the whole sermon at cccsermons.blogspot.com

Choice Points, pt. 2

I think it was two weeks back I initial wrote about choice points.
The first one was action vs. inaction.
This is the big canopy over all choices: We decide to do something, or, as we perceive it, not do something.

But we all know that indecision is in itself a decision.
Occasionally it is the right decision.
More often it is the decision to stagnate, to remain stuck, to fool yourself into thinking things will remain the same, or even improve, if we just do nothing.
But nothing could be further from the truth so much of the time. The world moves on, opportunities pass us by.

Connections is facing some choice points this summer. I see at least three major choices areas we have to make:

• The decision to find a ministry center.
• The decision to hire staff.
• The decision to move towards multiple levels of leadership, including Advisers, a Stewardship Team, and the staff.

Here's my concern- with each of these we become a little more established, and when you get established, you lose a part of your mission.
And right now all we are is a mission.
We have a vision and we have people. That's about all. And it's a great place to be. Can we move volunteers into staff positions while keeping the passion alive? Can we start structuring ourselves in a ministry center, but still see our calling to be in homes and the community. Can we create a structure of leadership that will empower the mission to move forward, instead of creating a bottle neck of decision making and useless committees?

I think so. I know so. Getting established changes the mission, but doesn't kill it. I know we can make the decision to move forward in these areas, and do so in ways that grows the mission instead of burying it.

So again, what are some of the choice points in your life right now? Indecision is a decision, and usually the wrong one. So pray, thing, evaluate, get others advice, seek wisdom, and move forward!

To All the Saints...

Series: Breakout
June 1, 2008

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:1-2

That’s all the further we can get today, because there is so much there. Several years earlier, we’re not exactly sure, but probably a little more than a decade now, Paul was out on his second church-planting mission. The story is told in Acts, and we pick up the story in chapter 16. Paul and his posse wanted to go into Asia to tell people about Jesus. Strangely, God wouldn’t let them. I don’t understand it, I don’t know how it happened, they wanted to go, they intended to go, but the Spirit wouldn’t let them go. Later, Paul had a dream that they were supposed to go into Macedonia.
This gives us the assurance that God is sovereign. It assures of us two things...

Listen to the sermon online at www.connectionschurch.ca or read it at cccsermons.blogspot.com