John Calvin and Martin Luther

Today is Reformation day. The day that the protestant reformation is celebrated. I'm sure there are many who do not look forward to this day. When I was a kid I had to go to church on Oct 31st. I didn't like it. Maybe there are other's who don't like it for what it stands for, I don't know.

Most bloggers are commenting on Halloween today. But one blog that I read gave good overview of what today means for many of us reformed Christ followers. Darryl wrote a good post on rediscovering the gospel He writes:

On this day 490 years ago, Martin Luther sent out his 95 Theses to some church leaders. It's also reported that he also posted his proposal at the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, which served as the university bulletin board. continue here.

Also, you can read some great info from Tim Challies where he hosts a Reformation Day Symposium. Follow the links there and you'll get some other's perspective.

For the tribe of people I am a part of, the Christian Reformed Church, John Calvin is held with a sense of awe. He is one of the early reformers. Aside from the usual stuff that a famous person gets remembered (name of a college, bobblehead, etc.) he wrote the Institutes, which is his most popular work. My Dad still reads the Institutes for devotions. I can't say that I have it on my bed side table, but Calvin's piety is legendary. I have written before about reformed theololgy while I was taking a class at Calvin seminary. Because the reformation was confrontational in nature, some of the theology that comes out of that era is confrontational. Which doesn't help us much today as we seek to be follower of Christ in this time and place. But I can see the stakes heating up with respect to what is foundational for the church and what are modern constructs. The problem surfaces when we mix up the two. Maybe there will be another reformation of sorts down the road.

meth and death

i've post here before on the proliferation of drugs in chilliwack. since moving here three years ago, i've met many who are on meth and even more people who have friends or family that are using. answers are not easy to come by, yet the number of people using keeps increasing. it's like what bruce cockburn sings, "the trouble with normal is it always gets worse."

Santiago Canyon Fire

My friend, Michael Bischof, just emailed asking for prayer:

As you might know, the So Cal fires are really bad, and the Santiago Canyon Fire is now upon our neighborhood. It is surrounding the community of Foothill Ranch where we live, and there doesn't seem to be enough fire crews or air support to fight it effectively at this point. We have packed up our cars and are ready to evacuate.

Would you take a moment to please pray for our community as well as the many others being impacted by this horrendous fire season.

Take a moment and pray for Michael, his community of Foothill Ranch and others in So Cal who are affected by the fires.

[update from Michael at 8:30pm ...

The fire ended up around 4:00pm coming through the trailhead canyon that is behind the houses right across the street from us. We were told if it did we would need to evacuate. There is so much fuel in this canyon (brush, shrubs, huge oak trees, etc.) we knew it would be bad. It came through very quickly and we evacuated as we saw it coming. In tears and exhausted we drove away wondering if we would ever be back.

Other neighbors stayed. After being gone at my mom's apartment in Mission Viejo for about an hour, we called some of those neighbors who said the fire had worked its way through the canyon and for the most part climbed the ridge on the opposite side of the canyon. Our neighbors right across the street had a palm tree in their back yard catch fire . . . but that was the worst of it.

So we're back home tonight, though there are still many patches of fire burning that we can see. The firemen said it should be fine, and that they would be here for the next two weeks!

]

thankfully, the crises in Michael's neighborhood seems to be past.

Decades Coffee Club Conversation

I'm in Decades coffee club using free internet, sipping a bold and nibbling on a bran cranberry muffin. Ron makes the best muffins outside of 8671.

A random conversation with a person sitting two tables over puts my attention on a topic I think of often. The person is articulate, smart and in her early 20's - she used to be involved in church culture, but no longer. Her parents are still in but their daughter isn't. She is paying off school loans, hanging with friends -- doing life -- but chooses not to step into a church building and would rather do something else with her Sunday. In my conversations with people here in Chilliwack, I find this story repeated over and over. Parents raise kids within the church culture. Kid gets old enough to make own choices, heads off to college or full-time work and church culture looses it's value to them. They don't go, anymore. Most likely never to return.

I had the feeling in this conversation that I had a lot to learn. I wanted to ask more questions, I wanted to listen I wanted to know why she was no longer attending church in a building. I could make assumptions and draw resulting conclusions, but I may be way off. Unfortunately, the conversation ended and all I'm left with is questions and no answers, half a cup of bold and a muffin wrapper.

So, what are your thoughts why so many no longer go to church services?

Chilliwack Winter

Folks, welcome to winter in Chilliwack.

First Things First, Not Today

I'm sitting here at my desk. To my left is a pile of mail I should pay attention to. My starbucks coffee mug is to my right, filled with coffee to get me through the energy lows of the today. Underneath my hands is a 4 year old powerbook G4, 15" screen. I'm still in love with it. It tells me I have 82 new emails. The biggest object in the room is my planner, and it's also to my right, symbolically near the coffee.

I learned in a Covey conference years ago, that the first thing I need to do when I come into work is plan. Look over the projects, opportunities, and prioritize them. Break them down into manageable steps and then put the steps on a priority list. The list becomes the object of war for the day. Stick to the list, and knock the list down and I won the war for the day. If I ADD the day away, the list doesn't get touched -- but it's a very beautiful, spontaneous and occasionally a very productive day.

On one hand I'm filled with energy today and making the list and killing it one by one will work today. But, I'm also in this place of fog and wonder. I just got back from 5 days of travel with my oldest son. We left last week and traveled to the midwest to attend my nieces wedding. The wedding was awesome. The reconnecting with family was deep, and the conversations were rich.

My oldest son is now 17 and in grade 12, or three years ago we would have said he is a senior in high school. That means life awaits him. Together we were part of recruiting day at a college in the same town the wedding was held. So taking my son to the wedding was one thing, the college visit was the other. Listening to him talk about his interests, passions and academic goals was wonder filled. It just seemed like last year that I was in college in his shoes. Starting out, stretching my arms, and asking tons of questions about life and the future. Now he is there. He is forging the way not only for his own life, but as the eldest, his own siblings. It's quite vertigo for me to be in this place now. A year from now he may be out of the house, then another year and another may be gone. Being in the journey is rewarding, but dropping passengers off in the corners is hard.

I'm now going to turn my attention to the list war, and it's a great war to battle in don't get me wrong - but something in me wants to soak it in some more, gather my thoughts, listen to my heart, and pray. I'm there and not there. Okay, first things first, but there is much else going on.

how do you read?

i never thought of myself as "dedicated" to reading. it's just that i do it alot and when i can ...

I took this test and you can too from here

(ht:mike.devries)

Starbucks Scotland City Mug

Chris and Pippa came back from Scotland and gave me this:



Oh YA!

ImageWell For Mac

ImageWell is a small app that I use for quick pic resizing. State Wars Hockey uses it too. They do a ton of pics.

ImageWell is a small, but powerful, image editing application that lets you quickly resize, crop, watermark, edit your images, take screenshots and then upload them to the web, save to your computer or email them to a friend. ImageWell also lets you annotate your images with text, shapes, arrows and lines, quickly and easily. And it doesn't stop there - add a drop shadow, a shaped border, flip or rotate your image, plus so much more.

Download Here

Rabbi and Talmidim

I have a bookmark to a favorite site called Follow The Rabbi. It's a ministry started by Ray VanderLaan ... he does trips to Turkey, Israel etc. He has lots of great articles and references on his site. I was reading there today this article ...

Jesus was born, grew up, and spent his ministry among people who knew Scripture by memory, who debated its application with enthusiasm, and who loved God with all their hearts, all their souls and all their might.

More here.

Hockey Ministries International and Chilliwack Bruins

The 2nd season for the Chilliwack Bruins is in full gear. Training camp and the preseason is in the books, and the team roster has been chosen. My work with the team began last year as team chaplain. It's a great ministry. Hockey Ministries (HMI) has a partnership with the WHL to provide chaplains for each of the teams in the league. When the Bruins announced that they were starting a new franchise in Chilliwack, HMI sent me to the Bruins as one of the chaplains. Being a hockey guy who also works with youth made this was a natural fit. Last year everything was new. The team was new, the coaches were new and the players were new. Looking back, it was a great year. The team was very supportive of the Chaplain concept. They gave me space and permission to connect with the team. We put on 2 chapels a month and I stayed in touch with the players, praying for them and helping them process life issues. This year we are building on what we learned last year and trying to make adjustments based on what could be improved and what went well. We had our first chapel last week and we are off to a great start. It's going to be a great year.