Posted on August 5th, 2008 by Dr. Lyle Schrag It’s August, and for what it’s worth, it’s time to take a break. Call it a “vacation”, a “sabbatical”, a “leave of absence”, a “retreat” or an “escape”, now is the time to take it. It may sound silly, but I suspect that some people could appreciate some advice on what [...]
Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Dr. Lyle Schrag It’s my time to add to the blog and I’m going to run the risk of a personal rant on Worship. It’s a theme that continues to stir my soul, which was stirred once again when I read simple comment made by Annie Dillard [in Marva Dawn’s book Reaching Out without Dumbing Down]: “Since “we” [...]
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske Christians are called to live above the level of their culture. I’m OK with that. But living unreflectively can be as spiritually unhealthful as enthusiastically endorsing the culture.
Though I’ve had my share of childhood scraps and squabbles, I’ve never as an adult settled a dispute by resort to bloodshed. I feel good that I’m living [...]
Posted on March 7th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske The Christian life is filled with delightful "coincidences"–confluences of life events with Scripture that give an unmistakable impression of the active oversight of God.
Conformity to the world is as deeply and extensively damaging as transformation by the renewing of our minds is deeply and extensively beneficial and God-honouring.
This past week I had an email interchange [...]
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by Mr. Mark Naylor I came across an interesting theory. People act according to their conviction about the nature of God. If God is perceived as an autocratic patriarch whose rules must be followed without question, then that is how the leaders of that group will act. If God is viewed as a stern judge who is inflexible concerning [...]
Posted on February 18th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske You can’t get away from it. Everyone’s talking about profits and losses.
The global economy is moving into a deep recession–perhaps even a depression–some say. Others are just as convinced that the markets are moving through a period of "turbulent correction" trying to find "a bottom" from which they will eventually "power upward" again to new [...]
Posted on December 12th, 2007 by Dr. Lyle Schrag Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself increasingly distressed by the quality of evangelical worship, or lack thereof. It’s gotten to the point where I have to discipline myself from ranting over the loss of the deep symbols of our faith, the absence of holy moments and spiritual drama, and the general illiteracy [...]
Posted on October 22nd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske It’s that time of the semester once again. The Registrar’s office has asked each professor to indicate whether they are requiring an examination that needs to be scheduled into the examination week for their courses. The schedule is out and professors and students are all now aware of when each examination will need to be [...]
Posted on October 18th, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins In a recent issue of Mcleans a lead article raised the alarm that our Canadian commitment to multiculturalism may be eroding. The key question that Canadians are debating is this: what reasonable accommodations should Canadians make to cultural and religious minorities? Where should the limits be drawn? The writer claimed that many in Canada are [...]
Posted on October 17th, 2007 by Mr. Loren Warkentin There is, today, a proliferation of articles, books and speakers discussing the topic of “hearing God”. Several well known evangelical preachers and leaders have weighed in with their contributions. I did a web search on the words “hearing God” and was fascinated by what came up. Page after page listing web sites, books, articles and other [...]
Posted on October 16th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor During the time we lived in Larkana, Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto became prime minister of Pakistan. Since Larkana was her family home town, there were some obvious perks. One of the most obvious was the construction of several fountains at key intersections. Each fountain had a plaque proclaiming the name of the patron who had funded [...]
Posted on October 5th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor Five aspects of evangelism common to our churches that need to change if we are to make a gospel impact in our communities:
a. The individualistic nature of evangelism. People commonly view Sunday worship as their expression of church, while the rest of the week is lived without church involvement. For example, I have seen [...]
Posted on September 27th, 2007 by Mr. Loren Warkentin On my way to work this morning the radio station to which I was listening had an announcement regarding some of the up-coming fall TV shows. I found myself reacting to the announcer’s casual monologue. What he was describing was entertainment comprised of watching godless and adulterous relationships, of watching actors and actresses portraying a society whose [...]
Posted on September 26th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor For the past couple of years I have been leading a Bible study on the theme “touching the robe of Christ.” This was adopted as a paradigm for the desire to break past misleading interpretations, religious terminology and church traditions and trappings in order to connect with God through Christ, to experience the reality of [...]
Posted on September 21st, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske My daughters, who’ve recently left home and struck out on their own, are searching for a home church. Sunday they tried out a young congregation meeting at a local movie theater. When we asked them, they described what had gone on that morning during the service. It was great! Earlier in their search they’d found [...]
Posted on August 23rd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Have you seen March of the Penguins? It’s an amazing movie! One of the most remarkable scenes is when the Emperor penguins are all clustered together for warmth in stormy, sub-zero Antarctic weather. Many are trying to hatch their young, keeping them delicately balanced and nestled on the tops of their feet.
Without food, the nesting [...]
Posted on April 12th, 2007 by Dr. Lyle Schrag I never met E. Stanley Jones, but over the years he has served as a Mentor to me. His book Song of Ascents is one that is a constant source of insight and wisdom … and perspective. Over the last couple of years it’s been hard to find perspective. Not since the Jesus people revolution [...]
Posted on April 10th, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske OK. It’s Monday, the day after the Easter weekend. So, what’s different? I attended two services—one on Good Friday at which a number of churches attended and one on Sunday in my home church. Regular church-goers like me and C & Es—Christmas and Easter only types—were reminded of the events [...]
Posted on March 15th, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Christians aspire to the kind of unitasking Christian focus of the apostle Paul when he declares, “For to me, to live is Christ….” The reality, however, is that we live in a world that shouts from every corner, “Multitask!” Life is full of commitments that urgently cry out and distractions that [...]