Taken from my 2016 Annual Report for Callander Bay Church “But I am afraid that…your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3 On April 4th, 2017, I will be celebrating 25 years of ministry in North Bay/Callander. As I reflect on that time, I see […]
The Collapse of Parenting
I found this incredible article in Understanding Today’s Youth, a newsletter put out by Youth Unlimited, by Paul Robertson. In the research of Leonard Sax, author of the book, The Collapse of Parenting they determined which factor at age 11 is the greatest predictor of happiness and life satisfaction, when that child becomes an adult. […]
Figuring Out What’s Important
I Choose Important Over Urgent “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” Dwight D. Eisenhower I finished up a series of messages called “I Choose” on the weekend. I talked about the need to choose what’s important more than the urgent. You can check out the full message in […]
What I’m Reading: Simple Church
As part of my New Year commitments, I want to do more reading. I find when I read it makes me more creative. It helps me speak better. It helps me lead better. My goal is to try and lead at least one chapter a day when I ‘m in my office at the church. Which […]
Landing in Ramah: Christmas Letter 2016
Christmas 2016 Dear Friends, I GIVE UP! This is now my third attempt at writing my Christmas letter. The first time, after I completed it, the computer froze and I had to hard crash the system. When I did that the letter reverted to a copy that I only had completed about a quarter of […]
The Power of Being an Introvert
I am an introvert. It’s true. I prefer to be with my own thoughts in my internal world than engaging with the world outside myself. I am also a Christian. A follower of Christ. Being an introverted Christian can at times be an oxymoron. The internal warring of two opposing juggernauts. As a Christian I […]
Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain
On Sunday, we continued our series of messages called “Keep it Simple” I talked about how we need to, as time management guru Steven Covey puts it, “keep the main thing, the main thing.” The apostle Paul in his writings responds to a disagreement on a particular issue, and asked his readers to remember what […]
Spiritual Pathways
I have been talking about “Keeping it Simple” in my weekend messages. Life seems to be anything but simple and connecting with God can sometimes seem very complicated. A couple weeks ago on a Sunday Morning, I introduced the concept of Spiritual Pathways. Spiritual Pathways are ways of connecting with God. A few mentioned that we […]
Building the Dam: Accountability
I am grieved. Someone I know, respected, in ministry had a moral failure. It saddens me. He was a hallmark of faithfulness in ministry. He had served the same church for more than 30 years. He had a heart for people and evangelism. Whether it was a wedding or a funeral, the gospel was always on […]
A Letter to a Younger Me
I was reading an article where former National Hockey Player and Toronto Maple Leaf, Doug Gilmour wrote a letter to a younger self. I liked the perspective of writing from wisdom and experience to a younger and less experienced you. I hadn’t though of the article in quite an extended period of time, when I […]