Leaving The Church

Many people (millions, actually) are leaving church in order to find Jesus and a new form of communal life not stifled by dead institutions. Am I talking 'bout YOU? Got a story? A new website just opened called LettersfromLeavers.com which will accept your story and publish on their blog. And when i say "new" I mean co-creator Tim Bowers just told me its up and your letter might be the very first letter if you submit it today with your story of why you left church and what you are doing now.

via tsk

family, funeral and healing

I just got back from the funeral of my uncle Abe. My brother, sister, Mom, Dad and I piled in our van and traveled to Comox, BC. We arrived to take part in first the graveside service, then later the memorial service. We all got together later at night for a big potluck.

The VanderKwaak family is a big family. My Dad has eight siblings. Uncle Abe was the oldest brother. He was a hard working, faithful man who, with his wife, also raised a large family. So, do the math and you'll notice that I am part of a large extended family. Lots of uncles, aunts, and cousins. If you run into anyone with the name Vanderkwaak, chances are really good we are related.

Although the occasion for us traveling to Comox was sad, the re-union with the extended family was beautiful. I met and became re-acquainted with relatives that I haven't seen for over 20 years. We all grew up in Terrace together, but after high school we dispersed to begin our own lives -- we never really stayed connected.

Growing up in Terrace was a mixed bag for our family. The large VanderKwaak clan co-existed in the same town, yet there was a noticeable distance between some of the families. No open disputes, but yet distance. Why it was there, I don't know.

The cool thing is that we now talked about family dynamics for the first time as extended family. We all noticed the distance growing up, yet no one professed to know the reasons for it. We wanted to put it behind us, and we did.

It was so good to see everyone. It was a strengthening experience for me to be with the people that I belong to.

As we left Comox today, we exchanged phone numbers, emails and we all want to stay in touch. Many commented that the occasion for us gathering was sad, but the re-union was beautiful. There was healing within our families.

Matt's Inline Session At Vans

Matt was digging around in his DVD collection and came across a promotional video we made when we lived in So Cal. It was shot at Vans and Matt was 14 at the time. He was hoping to grow into a sponsorship, but we moved a few months later. It's not so much inline now as it is snowboarding, skateboarding and little bit of guitar.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday - 46 days before Easter. It's called Ash Wednesday due to an old tradition of the people marking themselves with ashes in the shape of a cross symbolizing their repentance before God.

It's also know as a day of fasting. I'm not a very good faster. I've done it only a few times in the past. One time I endured a week of minimal food. Other times just a day. I have a friend who fasts every Thursday.

Today I'm fasting - I'm trying it. Just fluids.

I'm hoping that this time of lent will deepen my understanding of the work of Christ in me and the world.

"Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."

Technorati Tags: heartland, lent

Lent Rant

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. It's on my radar for the first time since I've been a pastor. Maybe this reveals my ignorance (yes, I'm guilty), but I suspect I'm not the only pastor who doesn't know much about the season of lent. We know it's the period before Easter but for many of us that come out of the church growth movement, we haven't paid much attention to Lent. We were too busy doing demographic targeted sermons before Easter, like "Being A Team For God," or "The Expansionist Vision." Yawn.

Many pastors are shifting their personal focus from their calling, to who they are in Christ. We have been left empty and have left many others empty after seasons of trying to ramp-up, launch, leverage, birth, results-oriented, and multiply. After picking ourselves out of the hole of burnout, we are now looking to get back to the heart of Christ.

This shift has many of us looking at the Bible with a profound yearning that longs for more of Jesus in our souls. We have done church without much Jesus, making growth our priority, and we are now lining up with other followers of Christ looking for ways to get back to the very heart of it all -- which is best shown on the cross. We are in a religion of death and resurrection. And this gives us hope in this shattered world.

For a few weeks I have been at a loss. Here I have been a pastor since 93' and I don't know much about lent or where to look. I have searched denominational sites that show the sequence of the lectionary for lent, I have read catholic sites on stations of the cross, I have looked at the church.com sites for help, but there isn't much out there.

Many of us are trying to dust off this cherished time of the year and reclaim it for our own souls and the souls of those we shepherd.

Any readers (there is only about 5 people who read this blog, including my brother and one of his kids) have resources or experiences you'd care to share with the rest of us?


Some Resources Found:
Reflecting the Glory, by N.T. Wright
The Heart of The Cross, by James Montgomery Boice
Spurgeons Sermons On The Death And Resurrection of Christ, by Spurgeon
The Season Of Lent
Lenton Links And Resources

Technorati Tags: heartland, lent

How Canadians Can Save the American Church

I just ran across this link from Darryl.

Earl Creps thinks Canadians can help save the American church.

We're in trouble down here....The American church is desperately in need of help if we are going to have any reasonable chance to do mission among Pre, Post, and Semi Christians in emerging culture. Some of that assistance might just come from north of the border. ...

Could the Canadians light the fuse on the next great awakening? I don’t know. But I think we should find out.

Interesting spin on challenge we all face -- trying to incarnate the church in our own setting. I've lived on the states side for about 9 years, 4 of them involved in ministry. It is a different culture, more open to institutions, hero figures, and christianity. Canada is more pagan and less interested in church institutions. People in Canada have been trying to figure out how to be followers of Christ yet part of the institutional church. A growing number of people are leaving the church to try and save their faith.

The culture here in Canada is different than the US, but we are all trying to figure it out. Let's learn together.

Roses are Red

Roses are red
Violets are blue
We fix trucks


(from a sign outside of Chilliwack)

warehouse space

We are looking at some warehouse space to move our worship services and offices into. Brian has put together a nice drawing that helps us see how the space can be configured. The congregation is going to have a conversation about it on Sunday after the worship service.

update: We had good conversations about the warehouse space. We feel there is more to this that just getting a lease. Lots of new issues were raised that need follow-up. So there is a group of people who are looking into more options in the Chilliwack area.

Switching Servers

We are going to switch servers in the next day or so. That means this blog maybe down. Our service agreement with geohost.ca is going to expire in a few days, but we are not going to renew. We have our own re-seller account and will be running everything from there. We need to backup the site, change DNS pointers, upload the new site and hopefully we'll be back online soon. We may re-appear with a Joomla site or another site that is cooked via photoshop/dreamweaver. We'll see.