Leadership is not just a matter of telling. It is about sharing; working on a vision, building a consensus, inviting everybody to participate, and then sharing that vision. Leadership is no longer about back-room deals and power mongering. It is about communicating.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Features
Of the best rulers … when their task is accomplished and their work is done, the people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”
- Lao-Tzu
It was a group of a dozen who gathered one November morning in a church sanctuary to start a long and arduous journey. Half of them are going to spend 2009 under a great deal of scrutiny, analyzing their own approach to being leaders in their community, in their church, and being analyzed by their congregation and others. These ministers have willingly and voluntarily submitted themselves to a process of further developing and sharpening their leadership skills. The next day, lay leaders from their congregation will join them. Together, they will face the challenges of being a church.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Features
The Record is grateful for the support of our donors who raised more than $100,000.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Features, Opinion
When Andrew Faiz (Pop Christianity, May 2008) mentioned “a powerful letter … which spoke of the loneliness and pain a homosexual person felt within the church,” he touched a nerve for me.
I first came alive to the reality of homosexuality in my early 50s. I was then back at university as a mature student preparing to be a marriage and family therapist. One of my courses was on human sexuality and the professor spared us little as he introduced us to the variety and complexity of human behaviour. He brought three lesbians to address the class with their personal stories, in particular how they came to realize their sexual identity. As I listened, I experienced a jolt of identification as I realized: these people can no more help who they are than I can change the colour of my skin.
Resources for could-be theologians.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Features, Resources
For the Reformers, presenting the Bible in the everyday language was paramount. It was assumed that every Christian deserved the right to read and study the Bible. But somehow things changed and for a variety of reasons biblical study once again found itself almost exclusively relegated to the offices of ordained ministers and scholars. Nonetheless, the tide has changed once more. The truth is, it's now easier than ever to not only read your Bible in a completely comprehensible fashion, but also to study it in-depth almost effortlessly using your home computer.
Providence, Incarnation and the Suffering World
posted on April 1, 2009 in Features, Theology 101
When I graduated from seminary, my first pastoral assignment included chaplaincy service on the children's ward of a local hospital. There, on a weekly basis, I encountered the pain and sorrow of families struggling with seriously ill, sometimes dying, children. Often I sat with parents whose questions were poignant and painful: “Why?” “How could God allow this to happen to us?”
As a young minister, I soon realized that the usual theological answers were anemic. The mystery of evil, the reality of suffering, and for many, the absence of God, can be overwhelming.
Churches are dealing with diminished identity.
posted on April 1, 2009 in For the Record
Icebergs are about 90 per cent underwater. Among other things, this means it takes considerable effort to change their course. Because these facts are commonly known, people who help organizations change direction sometimes describe the resistance and other pressures an organization may expect as the “change management iceberg.”
The change management iceberg identifies the “underwater” promoters and opponents of change, and describes other pressures that will be applied beneath the surface of the organization, so to speak, to the visible, articulated vision of the leadership.
Protestants love to do things without knowing why.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Pop Christianity
I have been working pretty steadily since I was eleven years old. I was the world’s worst newspaper delivery boy, spending more time reading the paper than getting it to doorsteps. I was a short order cook at a bowling alley. I worked the line in a Ford plant. I have been a lay minister, a journalist, a security guard, a janitor. I’ve run hotels, been an accounts payable and an accounts receivable clerk, a civil servant and much, much else. I’ve worked in radio and television, at newspapers and magazines. I’ve had a theatre company, produced short films and made documentaries. I’ve been around.
What I learned from all those years of different careers is that people work really hard but rarely effectively. That there are customs and habits in every work environment which are rarely questioned. People forget why they’re doing what they’re doing; it quickly becomes an endless process of just doing stuff, filling in time sheets and collecting the pay.
Korean ministry reaches 900 seniors.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Mission Knocks
“People cried when we started these programs,” Rev. Grace Myung Chun Kim told the Record. “They were so excited. A lot of seniors homes don’t even have a chapel or a chaplain, so this was something new. They never had something like this before.” She is referring to the Korean-Canadian Family Ministry, which she founded in 1988 to bring hymn sings to seniors homes in the Toronto area. Today, the program reaches more than 900 senior citizens.
The ministry is run with the help of more than 130 volunteers who visit 16 different seniors homes twice a week, every week. The project has been so successful that Kim has helped start hymn sing programs at 14 seniors homes in Vancouver and in three states.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Calvin
How did one Frenchman, John Calvin, who died basically a refugee in a foreign city and was buried in an unmarked grave, come to have his name and thought so closely associated with Scotland? For generations, Scottish Presbyterianism has been seen as Calvinist or Calvinian. The origins of this association have centered at the popular level around John Knox's great praise of John Calvin's work in Geneva in those now virtually immortal words: “The most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles.” Knox's time in Geneva was certainly of paramount importance for shaping his vision for reformation in Scotland.
The tracing of the influence of Calvin upon Scotland's Reformation and subsequent generations is sometimes easy to identify and at other times more complex. The reality is that there were diversities within the Calvinian family due in part to national contexts and the personalities and limitations of the locations.
The Risen One knows, and calls us by name.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Progressive Lectionary
April 12, Easter Day: First read John 20:1-10
Before the break of another day without Jesus, Mary went to the tomb. Darkness gave cover for a woman alone, and a known associate of an executed criminal. Why did she go?
She probably didn't even know, herself. Why would you go? Why do we go to the funeral home, and stand by the casket? Why do we go back to the cemetery, after the grave has been filled in, before it's all neat and level and green? Because we need to know it's really true. That big, round stone, rolled over the opening of the tomb and sealed with wax, would prove to Mary that Jesus was really dead and gone.
It's going to be okay.
illustrated by Jonny Mendelsson
posted on April 1, 2009 in Phil Callaway
We have a dog by the name of Mojo, which is a Bible name, of course. Named after Moses and Jonah (Moses who stuttered, and Jonah who ran away from home a lot), this Maltese-Shih Tzu lap dog does not appreciate my laptop computer. When my father was alive, Mojo was his biggest fan, following him around their suite, grinning up at him past crooked teeth, and pouncing on his lap. The two sat by the window happily munching bananas, lost in a one-sided conversation.
Dad loved the old saying, “If you can start the day without caffeine, live without complaining, eat the same food every day and be grateful, relax without liquor, and sleep without the aid of drugs, you are probably the family dog.”
One night, as Alzheimers' began to rear its ugly head, Dad asked, “Do you have any books on doubt?”
Life is like that: so solid and so fragile.
illustrated by Barry Falls
posted on April 1, 2009 in For the Journey
“What on earth was that?” said my son Halden. He had his head sucked into his shirt collar like a turtle.
“I am not sure,” I said. I was in the act of desperately trying to collect my thoughts along with a spilled glass of shiraz and a particularly good bit of sharp cheese that was scattered all over the deck. I carefully raised my head to peer over the railing of the sundeck just in time to watch the author of our dive-bombing pull off an unbelievable aerobatic manoeuvre. He veered right and then left before bashing a wee sparrow to the ground. Instantly swooping up, down, and around in helicopter-like fashion, he grabbed the stunned sparrow with his talons and proceeded to wherever he was holding his dinner party. We had just been had by the grim reaper of the bird feeder.
posted on April 1, 2009 in Called to Wonder
Click here for this month’s Called to Wonder.
We come with adoration, praise, thankfulness and worship.
posted on April 1, 2009 in From the Moderator
Pyramid, Great Wall, Roman Colosseum, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Petra of Jordan, Chichen Itza, Teotihuacan of Mexico, and more. Do any of these names sound familiar to you? These ancient structures are amongst those listed by the BBC as the 50 places you must visit before you die. They are truly incredible. It is hard to even imagine how these structures were built without any modern equipment.
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
Brigadier General David Kettle, (centre, in uniform) Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces, spoke to staff and students at Presbyterian College, Montreal, in January. Next month he will be honoured with a Doctor of Divinity at Knox College, Toronto.
Strategic conference to tackle big issues and local concerns.
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
Shaping a vision for the future of the church and responding strategically to local needs is the focus of a proposed conference for the spring of 2010. The national long range planning committee is suggesting April 29 to May 2 at Nottawasaga Inn in Alliston, Ont., and has proposed the theme On the Road to Emmaus.
As convener Rev. Daniel Cho noted in his opening remarks at the Life and Mission Agency meeting in March: “Even in times like this, we have the potential to change things around in our attitude, our vision for the church, and our Christian faith.”
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
Vancouver School of Theology on May 11, 2009; Knox College, Toronto on May 13, 2009; and Presbyterian College, Montreal on May 7, 2009.
Relationships a priority for Arabic-speaking ministries.
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
“We're not developing followers for mission, we're developing leaders. That's a huge difference,” said Rev. Sameh Hanna of the Arabic Outreach Ministry. “Planting a church used to mean holding a service every week. That's not true anymore. We must build bridges first – start with relationships, express love and care. A worship service will follow naturally.”
The presbytery of East Toronto approved the AOM in November 2007. Since then Egyptian-born Hanna has worked to make his group useful to individuals, families and institutions in the Arabic-speaking community. The group has held conferences, retreats and services, often with members of Coptic and Syrian Orthodox churches. Two members are licensed councilors and donate five per cent of their time to cases received by the mission.
Personal visits are common, as are private services in homes or hospital rooms. For instance, Hanna and members of his group held a communion service for a pharmacist and his wife, who was dying of liver cancer. The couple had no previous contact with the mission.
St. Andrew's brings fair trade store to Picton, Ont.
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
Thanks to a devoted team at St. Andrew's, a new Ten Thousand Villages store on the quaint main street of Picton, Ont., is planning to open for the May long weekend.
“Prince Edward County – and Picton especially – have become big tourist destinations,” said Rev. Lynne Donovan, who spearheaded the initiative. “So we asked, how can we take advantage of the strengths of our context to make an impact? This store was perfect.”
Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit, fair trade organization with 49 permanent locations across Canada. Some stores are corporately owned and operated, but others function under a partnership agreement. They are staffed by volunteers working with a paid manager.
posted on April 1, 2009 in News
In 1885, Dr. David Watt Torrance, a 23-year-old Scottish surgeon, arrived in the Galilean city of Tiberias and began work to establish a mission hospital. Planning and permissions took some time, but on January 1, 1894, the hospital was opened ending years of working from rented rooms in the city. Herbert Watt Torrance joined his father at the hospital in 1920 and took over from him four years later. The hospital was always honest in its mission to preach the gospel of Christ and offered its service to all from the beginning, regardless of race, creed, class or colour. That same understanding of the unconditional nature of the gospel message forms the foundation of very different work today.
In 1959, the government of Israel established a public hospital nearby. The mission hospital was no longer needed. The building remained and the witness of worship remained – as did support for the Messianic Jewish movement.
