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Are there hip replacements for limping leaders?

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Thursday, May 8, 2008 in Book Reviews, Leadership and MinistryTalk. 0 Comments

Dan Allender has provided a provocative look at several serious aspects of ministry leadership in his book "Leading with a Limp." He writes primarily out of his experience as the founder of Mars Hill Graduate School located near Seattle. His thesis is clear: "to the degree you face and name and deal with your failures as a leader, to that same extent you will create an environment conducive to growing and retaining productive and committed colleagues" (p.2). He then proceeds to discuss common, unhealthy responses to the challenges of leadership and urges ministry leaders to replace them with more effective responses — courage, depth, gratitude, openness and hope. The leadership challenges he identifies are crisis, complexity, betrayal, loneliness and weariness. The phrase "reluctant leader" seems to capture for him essential aspects of a healthy leadership perspective. Any ministry leader would gain considerable benefit from reading and reflecting on Allender’s ideas.

Allender helps us map the interior contours of Christian leadership, a kind of psychology of leadership, incorporating a realism about a leader’s limitations and dependence. Depravity works wondrously well even in the world of Christian leaders. The story of Jacob’s midnight wrestling match with God and his resulting disability — his limp — provides the overarching metaphor for Allender’s presentation. What struck me, however, was the silence regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in restoring, enabling, and guiding Christian leaders to walk with their limp in God-honouring ways. The result is a rather dark view of Christian leadership, lived in a hostile, dangerous and debilitating context. Periods of joy, satisfaction, thankfulness and redemptive accomplishment seem very rare or extremely intermittent. Allender is right to urge leaders to name their failures and walk with humility, but there is another side to this picture. We do lead as Christians in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Surely this awesome reality makes a difference. Does God ever provide "a hip replacement" and enable us to walk "normally"?

Allender rightly points to examples in Scripture of reluctant leaders — Moses, Jeremiah, etc. Yet, there are also many examples of people–Joseph, Joshua, Samuel, Nehemiah, Daniel, Mary, Paul– who embrace God’s calling, fearfully but willingly. . God’s entry into their lives is surprising and filled with change, but I am not sure from the information Scripture gives us that these people were reluctant leaders. We seem to have various responses to the leadership challenge in Scripture. I wonder how Peter’s encouragement for ministry leaders (1 Peter 5:1-4) fits into this idea of "reluctant leader"?

I found it hard to locate the faith community in the picture of ministry leadership that Allender presents. The community seems to be primarily a hostile place, the place where leaders are undone rather than the Kingdom context where God’s power and love triumphs. Undoubtedly Allender writes out of personal experience and many Christian leaders, unfortunately, would have to agree that churches often fail to live up to God’s ideal for his people. Yet, for every bad leadership experience, one could probably name a good church leadership experience. What Allender does help us realize is that naivete is not helpful. Faith communities can be places of devastating animosity for leaders, but they can also be contexts of wonderful support, love and encouragement. To lead with suspicion may not be the best stance. If Christ "loved the church and gave himself for it", then some of this perspective must also guide our embrace of ministry leadership. Leadership is fundamentally relational. Ministry leaders are given a trust by the people of God to live and lead within the faith community. How does 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 get lived out in Allender’s perception of ministry leadership?

Allender begins by acknowledging that leadership is something for all of God’s people — every disciple is a leader. However, his focus quickly shifts to what he terms "formal leadership", by which he means a specific leadership role in terms of organizational leadership in church, seminary, non-profit business, etc. Does the leadership model he presents then apply to all followers of Jesus? I think he probably would agree to this, but this is not his focus. But what difference does it make for a ministry leader to see himself as a "limping leader" serving in the midst of a host of "limping leaders"? One of his recurrent emphases is Paul’s confession that he is "the chief of sinners" and the importance for leaders to own this reality for themselves. Again, there is no argument against this reality. But here again the leader operates in a context where all, as disciples of Christ, are leaders and "chief sinners". This is not a category exclusive to the formal leader. It is the reality in which all disciples live. Perhaps the challenge for the formal leader is to understand how to exercise Kingdom leadership as a "suffering servant" among a group of "chief sinners".

Every believer is a flawed person. Scripture makes this clear and this is part of our daily confession. However, in Christ we also are "new creations". This too is an exciting reality. Paul in Galatians urges Christians to "walk/live in the realm of the Spirit" and as we do this "we shall not let the fleshly nature achieve its goals" (Galatians 5:15-16) (my translations). How does this reality fit into the context of Kingdom leadership? We will never lead perfectly and there obviously are times for confession, repentance and restoration in every ministry leader’s experience. But should this be the overwhelming perspective? If a ministry leader is living in submission to the Holy Spirit daily, will the fleshly temptations towards narcissism, fear and addiction gain control? If a ministry leader repeatedly expresses sinful behaviour, does that person have the spiritual maturity to be in a formal leadership role? How do the characteristics and behaviours Paul identifies in 1 Timothy 3 for formal leadership match the paradigm of leadership that Allender proposes? I wonder whether Allender gives too much room for excusing sinful behaviours and fails to give sufficient challenge to pursue the way of the Spriit, the ways of the Kingdom — and the great potential we have to live it.

The perception of a loving church depends on where you stand

Published by Mr. Mark Naylor on Friday, April 4, 2008 in Church and Culture. 0 Comments

In the book UnChristian (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), which deals with research from the Barna group, David Kinnaman refers to a survey which asked the participants to agree or disagree with the statement, “Christian churches accept and love people unconditionally, regardless of how people look or what they do” (p. 185). 20% of non church goers (outsiders) agreed strongly, just over 40 % of church goers agreed strongly, but 76% of pastors strongly agreed that this statement described Christian churches.

The discrepancy is intriguing. Do the pastors have a good sense of reality based on personal experience, or is this an expression of their desire for this statement to be true? Have the outsiders been biased by unfair reports, or have they had negative experiences that contradict the statement?

I suspect that part of the discrepancy has to do with the difference between standing inside looking out verses standing outside and looking in. For example, I have a love / hate relationship with hospitals. I think they are wonderful but I am happiest if I don’t have to be inside one. When visiting I feel quite out of place and uncertain about what I am permitted to do and am always relieved to leave. On the other hand, my daughter, Becky, has just completed her nurse’s training. She enjoys the environment, loves to be busy and experiences significance as she helps the patients. The hospital is the same, it is our separate and distinct relationships with and experience of the hospital that is different. It is a matter of perspective.

those of us who are church goers need to learn to speak another language of love

This illustration may parallel the contrasting perspectives between pastors and the outsiders described by Kinnaman. What looks like love to the pastors is seen through another lens by the outsiders and experienced as uncomfortable, judgmental or cold. Most likely the relationships and environment of church speak differently to outsiders. Perhaps their language of love is different from what is normally expressed in church. If this is so, then those of us who are church goers need to learn to speak another language of love, one that is understood by those outside of the church.

This missional stance – becoming like others, as opposed to inviting others to become like us – has even greater urgency when relating cross-culturally. What is considered comfortable, familiar and accepting varies from culture to culture. Cross-cultural experiences tend to be stressful due to the many unfamiliar cues which bombard the person who is not used to the setting, cues that need to be interpreted. In that context even expressions intended to communicate love and acceptance can be misunderstood or judged negatively. On the other hand, when God’s people learn how to make people from another culture feel comfortable and accepted by speaking that people group’s language of love, rather than waiting for others to conform to the church’s way of relating, then the experience of the outsider will correspond to the perspective of the insider.

Helping CHURCHES do MISSIONS better

Published by Mr. Mark Naylor on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 in Church and Missions. 0 Comments

Best Practices for Church Missions Workshops Photos

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Immanuel Abbotsford

“Thank you for the great workshop. Our missions focus is struggling and we found it to be so helpful and encouraging. The questions and exercises were well thought out and gave us good direction, as well as the prayer focus throughout. We found it time well spent as it enabled us to focus well right there. We have a good plan, I think, to get the ball rolling in the right direction.”

This was one of several positive comments received from the participants of the Best Practice for Church Missions Workshops held in Victoria (March 1) and on the TWU campus, Langley (March 8). While organized and sponsored by FEBInternational and Northwest Baptist Seminary for our FEBBC/Y churches, the facilitators who participated were from Outreach Canada, Center for World Missions BC, YWAM, FEBInternational as well as others who represented a wealth of missions experience. Each of the 13 church groups that participated was provided with a facilitator who guided them through the exercises designed to stimulate conversation and lead to consensus and direction for church missions teams.

One of the facilitators comments:

"These workshops … have exceeded my expectations. Not that I had low expectations but the level of relational building, prayer, and planning was very good from what I saw. My time with [the church] leaders was very significant … and some real progress was made. I felt honored to help them through the process.

The number of people that came from the churches was also very significant. To have 5-10 people from the same church (including pastoral staff) together at the table for 7 hours discussing Global Mission is truly remarkable.”

This one day basic workshop for doing missions in churches focuses on vision, strategy and planning. Five one hour sessions encourage each group to discuss and shape their missions team in the following areas:

Clarifying the ROLE of the missions committee and determining priorities
Assessing the HEALTH of the missions in the church
Identifying people resources according to GIFTING
Setting strategic GOALS
PLANNING and assigning tasks

Read about this workshop with more comments from participants

For information concerning further opportunities to participate in this workshop contact mark.naylor@twu.ca

Home to Harmony

Published by Dr. Lyle Schrag on Thursday, February 28, 2008 in Ministry and Preaching. 0 Comments

One of my greater joys comes from time shared with my “A-Team” which I affectionately call the tiny band of brothers and sisters in our CLD Affinity Group. The group has grown over the years to several dozen, each called by God into a wide array of ministry in the church. They study hard. The course material is intense and demanding. But, I guess that my job is make it real. After all, ministry is much more than the formulas taught in books. The reality is that theories dissolve into the fabric of human life.

The subject of study this semester is Power, Change, and Conflict. To be honest, I am impressed with the material that the students are expected to read. But, if it were up to me, I’d add a few books to the list. And, I’d probably start with one – Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley.

Philip is a simple, Quaker pastor in Danville, Indiana – gifted with the grace of story. He has written what has become a series of books about a simple, Quaker pastor in the fictional village of Harmony, Indiana. Some have likened his stories to James Harriott’s All Creatures Great and Small or Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon tales. will probably never be compared to Lyle Schaller or John Maxwell or any other authority in Leadership studies – but, it’s evident, he knows the life of pastoral leadership with an intimacy that befits ministry.

His stories include an array of characters all too familiar to too many pastors: petty “dictators” like Dale Hinshaw, congregational “queens” like Fern Hampton, wizened saints like Miriam Hodge. There are theories that help discern the dynamics of power, change and conflict – but somehow finding them come alive in a story makes it so much more human. And, I have to believe that when pastoral ministry is seen in humanity, it becomes much more divine.

So, for just a moment, allow me the heresy of suggesting that you set aside Barth’s Theology, or Maxwell’s Leadership or even Anderson’s Preaching [forgive me!] for just a moment – and read what happens when people become church, and pastors become people. For a sample, give it a try: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/151/story_15151_1.html

Church Board Talk: The Significance of Attitude

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Friday, February 15, 2008 in Board, BoardTalk, Church, Leadership and Ministry. 0 Comments

When you are seeking additional people to serve as part of the church board, what aspect should receive most attention – skill, experience, character or attitude? Certainly Paul warns us not to ask a novice in the faith or someone who has not had experience in leading a family to fill this role. So experience is important. As well, Paul emphasizes specific elements of character that should be considered – gentleness, self-control, not a drunkard. Some skills are helpful, because Paul notes that the ability to teach is important for someone in such a leadership role.

But when all is said and done, probably attitude should hold first place. But having said that, we have to define what kind of attitude. I think the closest we come to defining the right attitude occurs in Philippians 2:1-5. Using Jesus as his example, Paul describes that kind of mindset or attitude that believers must exercise one to another. In this context he talks about love, humility and mutual submission (v. 4) and then illustrates this through the actions of the Messiah Jesus. Words like servant, humble, obedient define the attitude of Jesus in response to God’s will. Presumably, what is required for every believer must be exemplified in Christian leaders.

I think we find a similar clustering of attitudes in 1 Peter 5:1-5 – serving not lording, being examples, willingly involved. Then he says that every believer “must clothe himself in humility towards one another.”

What are the primary attitudes that will identify a believer whom the congregation can entrust with their spiritual leadership? Foundational is sacrificial love – for God and for others. Is this demonstrated consistently in the family, in the faith community, in dealings with non-believers? Humbleness comes a close second, i.e. discerning God’s view of him as a person, his giftedness, and his place in God’s program, and embracing this with joy, perseverance, and contentment. Thirdly, submission forms an essential ingredient – the ability to voluntarily rank oneself appropriately under God and in relationship to all others. For every person this will mean accountability to someone and leadership over another. Whatever the appropriate role, to accept it willingly and carry it forward in a loving, caring, serving manner will be the primary attitude to discern.

When the nominating committee starts its annual work, perhaps there should be some discussion about the desired attitude towards God and people that potential nominees must have, would be good. Often a person’s skills or experience will bring them to the attention of the nominating committee. But before concluding that such a person is suitable, consider their willingness to serve, their humbleness, their submission. Are these attitudes evident and the norm for them? Care taken on such matters will be time well spent for the good of the congregation.

WordPress Plugins

Published by Mr. Loren Warkentin on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 in Internet and Website 101. 1 Comment

WordPress is a great CMS (Content Management System) platform for a church website and web design as it is extremely flexible and very easy to use. Part of this flexibility comes from WordPress’ ability to take advantage of the programming skills of people from around the world who have designed various small add-on applications for WordPress called plugins. There are many hundreds of plugins to be found in the WordPress Plugins Database. A web search for specific plugins will open a long list of possibilities. If you need a particular functionality on your website the chances are that someone has already designed a plugin for it. There are also sites which list the top plugins (here are a couple - Top 50 and Usefull Wordpress Plugins )

I have spent considerable numbers of hours researching the net and searching for just the right plugins for the Northwest site. The following is a list of some of my favorites and a short description of their function.

The Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin.
WordPress is continually being improved both for functionality and security. This plugin allows the webmaster of a WordPress powered web to easily update to newer versions of WordPress, automatically taking care of backing up the site first and then updating the WordPress code. This plugin makes the webmaster’s life a whole lot easier.
The Author Image plugin.
On a website like the Northwest site where we have multiple contributors and authors - it is a valuable feature to have the author’s photo automatically linked to their article or blog. This plugin facilitates that.
The word processing plugin "Deans FCKEditor".
The word processing editor that comes packaged with WordPress is a somewhat "bare-bones" editor. This plugin expands the functionality of the editor so that it acts much like a normal word processor.
The Event Calendar plugin.
Northwest always has some sort of up-coming event. This plugin help to keep track of those events via the WordPress web interface. Adding a new event can be done by any of the regular contributors to the Northwest site by adding an Event Calendar activated post.
The FormBuilder plugin.
Forms through which people can respond to you (i.e. ask questions, submit prayer requests, comment on items on the site etc.) are a normal part of creating a website. Forms need to be secure and able to filter out junk and spam. This plugin allows one to create any number of forms on a site and have them all share the same security features. This plugin rates special mention as it is designed and maintained by my son who is a web programmer with Power to Change.
The Google Site Map Generator plugin.
This plugin creates a sitemap for your website and informs search engines of any changes or additions.
The NextGen Image Gallery plugin.
Putting images on the web in an orderly fashion can be an onerous task and if you want them to be displayed in fancy ways requires knowledge of web scripting languages. This plugin takes care of the details and allows you to add galleries and albums of photos to your web. The header on the Northwest site is powered by this plugin.
The Role Manager plugin.
The Northwest website has a number of people who use the site to post their articles and edit their information on the static pages. User levels of permission are designed into WordPress and this plugin gives the webmaster greater flexibility in assigning those permissions.
The Simply Exclude plugin.
Sometimes it is desirable to keep a particular category of posts (articles) from appearing on the front page of the website. Yet they need to be accessible some other way. This plugin allows one to designate categories to be excluded from the front page.
The Themed Login plugin.
The default WordPress login page is very plain and merely displays the WordPress logo. This plugin allows one to use one’s theme as the login page. If you click on the login link you can see what it looks like.
The Search Pages plugin
WordPress uses both ‘Pages’ and ‘Posts’. Pages are static while ‘Posts’ are the blog part of the site. WordPress search function only searches posts. This plugin allows one to search both posts and pages.

These are just 10 plugins. There are many-many more. There are e-commerce powered plugins which would allow you to add a "shopping cart" to your site. There are mailing plugins which would allow you to manage users in a mailing list. The list of possibilities is virtually endless.

Installing and using these plugins is as simple as uploading the plugin folder to the correct spot in your WordPress powered website and then activating it. Usually each plugin comes with complete instructions as to how to use it.

If you are using WordPress for your church website - let me know - send me a link to your site. Share what techniques you have learned or what hasn’t worked for you.

If you are interested in this topic don’t forget to read the other articles that I have written on church websites.

Church Talk: Discerning New Ministry Leaders

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Friday, January 25, 2008 in ChurchTalk, Leadership and Seminary. 0 Comments

In 2007 Amal Henein and Francoise Morissette published Made in Canada Leadership. Wisdom from the Nation’s Best and Brightest on Leadership Practice and Development. They argue that "in each of us rests the potential for leadership, but the response and measure depend on us….We are all called to lead"(58). They discovered that parental influence and leadership identity are linked. Parents can model what leadership looks like — making it visible for their children.

They also discovered the some "have a passion and disposition for leadership early on", but in contrast some individuals "stumble upon leadership by accident"(61). Those who enter leadership by accident tend to be reluctant participants, but, motivated by a desire to serve, they step forward, often when things are in crisis and no one else is willing to do it. The innate leader, however, instinctually grasps leadership opportunities. Over time both kinds of experience result in effective leadership.

What I found surprising is that two thirds of current leaders placed themselves in the accidental category and only one third in the innate group.

I think their results have significant implications for our understanding of ministry leadership development in the church. Every believer is called by God to exercise influence for the Gospel, i.e. to be a leader. The Holy Spirit within us empowers us to grasp and accomplish this leadership. Some will exercise leadership in the church as pastors or missionaries or youth directors. Others will express a quieter leadership, mentoring others one on one, parenting their families, leading a small group, being responsible for maintaining good facilities — there are countless ways.

What we need to grasp is that ‘accidental leaders’ must learn "to see themselves as leaders through others’ eyes first"(64). Someone else has to awaken them to their potential and encourage them to try. "For accidentals the challenge is to turn leadership on"(67). If this dynamic is operative within the church setting, then ministry leaders need to understand this reality. If we only respond to innate leaders, those with a surging creativity to express leadership, then we run the risk of ignoring 66% of the potential, gifted leaders that God has placed within the body of Christ, the accidental leaders.

How then do we create the right conditions so that the majority of people who fit the accidental leader category will have the opportunity to respond to God’s calling in their lives? Plainly we have to help them discern their leadership potential, be encouraged to step out and test their ability, and be there to support them in their first tentative steps. We have to help them "see themselves as leaders."

I would suggest that we have a huge untapped resource of potential leadership capacity in our churches because we are quite unaware of the accidental/innate leadership distinction. What could you do within your sphere of ministry leadership to help accidental leaders emerge and discover their potential?

A New Year and a New Web Look

Published by Mr. Loren Warkentin on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 in Website 101. 0 Comments

You may have noticed the new look to the Northwest website this month. Over the past several months I have been testing a number of new possibilities for our site in order to make it more friendly to navigate, more functional in terms of accessing the information and resources we provide here and hopefully more aesthetically pleasing. I did this by adding some "plugins" and changing the "theme" we were using in WordPress. I have already written a couple of articles on what a church can use for their web site and this is another to continue discussing the web publishing platform - WordPress.

One of the exciting features of using a platform like WordPress for any web site is how customizable WordPress is. WordPress has been designed so that third parties can provide add-on features to make a website look just the way one wants it and do exactly what one wants it to do. This is done through "themes" and "plugins". Here are some ideas for your site:

Themes

There are hundreds of themes that have been developed for WordPress by third parties. Many of them are free to use or to customize to your own liking. If you are interested, the WordPress website features a page where you can view or download and test hundreds of themes in virtually any configuration one can imagine. (click here to go to that site). Most of these themes require very little additional customization other than to change some graphics or logos etc.

Some themes, however, provide a greater extensibility to WordPress itself - offering the web developer many more options for customization. One of these is a theme called K2. This is what I use here on the Northwest. site. Here are some of the advantages of using K2: (view the K2 "About" page)

K2 Advantages

One can develop one’s own style. The K2 theme provides a way to style the site without having to tamper with any of the original coding.
K2 comes with its own sidebar manager which I am using here. It allows for considerable flexibility. A number of other plugins provide sidebar modules that work well in the K2 sidebar system.
K2 comes with prepackaged support for a number of popular plugins.
On the K2 "About" page there is a whole list of features that I won’t duplicate here.

K2 Resources

Here are a few links to sites with resources to work with the K2 theme

The main K2 site. From here you can download the K2 theme.
The K2 support forum
The K2 documentation wiki (lots of good information here)

Plugins

In an upcoming article I will tackle the subject of WordPress and plugins.

Church Board Talk: Productive Behaviour

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 in Board, BoardTalk and Church. 0 Comments

Behaviour will often make the difference between just being a church board member and being a productive church board member. People may know the rules about playing volleyball and participate in the game, but without passion, concentration, commitment and desire to work collaboratively, they will rarely excel and be productive with the team. Similarly a church board member may know the board rules, attend the meetings, and contribute occasionally, but this does not translate into productivity. To be a positive and constructive influence in the development of a local church requires each church board member to understand and adopt intentionally the behaviour that marks a productive church board member. Let’s consider three behaviours that will help any person become a productive church board member.

1. Enthusiastic and engaged: church board members serve primarily as volunteers. Time given to church board activities becomes part of their stewardship, a gift given generously. Many other responsibilities crowd the time available and often church board members face significant challenges to remain enthusiastic and engaged. Making time to read material before a board meeting, keep in touch with church life, educate oneself about board work requires commitment, an energetic giving of self. Being prepared for each church board meeting takes time and effort, but the results will be productive because good questions are asked, consensus is achieved, and the mission of the local church is advanced. Joy flows in the midst of such worshipful work. The church board chair and lead pastor together bear responsibility to encourage each church board member to remain enthusiastic and engaged in the church board’s work.

2. Generating goodwill: church board members are key promoters of the church’s mission and vision. They have many opportunities to speak discretely about the significance of the church’s work and build a positive ethos within the church body. A dispirited, cranky church board member can be a serious hindrance when he or she discloses concerns to the body in general, rather than seeking effective resolution within the church board context. Church board members function as primary advocates for the mission and vision of the church. When a church board member is asked about a sensitive issue, she or he can respond by saying "the Board is handling this and it will soon be resolved," without revealing confidential information. Church board business must be dealt with within the context of the church board meeting and the behaviour of church board members in supporting this principle is very important.

3. Committed to building consensus: each church board member contributes a unique set of gifts, experience, professional competence, and spiritual wisdom. The chair has the significant responsibility to ensure that each member is contributing to discussions through questions, stating opinions, and careful listening. But at the end of the day, some decision will be required. Productive church board members participate with a view to achieving consensus. As discussion proceeds they are praying for the Spirit’s wisdom, they are considering creative solutions to challenges expressed, they are evaluating the proposal carefully in the light of the church’s mission, values and vision, and they are checking for potential conflicts of interest within their own context. Consensus is not compromise; it is achieving a decision that clearly is in the best interests of the church and the Gospel it represents.

Productive church board members know how to behave so that their participation enables the church board to conduct its work effectively, efficiently, and worshipfully.

Seeker Becomes Self-Feeder

Published by Dr. Lyle Schrag on Monday, December 3, 2007 in Church. 0 Comments

As full disclosure, I should confess that I’ve been a fan of Willow Creek before Willow Ceek was Willow Creek. In the mid-1970’s the youth pastor of my home church in Park Ridge, Illinois was a Trinity College student named Bill Hybels. I always enjoyed coming home on holidays from Seminary just to see what was happening with Bill and the youth group at South Park Church. In the vocabulary of the ‘70’s, it was a “happening!” High School kids were showing up by the carload, each week more than the last. When I heard one of the elderly people complain, it was the first time I heard a phrase that has since become an evangelical mantra: we are just being sensitive to the seeker.

The term “seeker-sensitive” has become so much the standard for evangelical style that I was a bit shocked to read the recent confession from Willow Creek reported by Bob Burney in the Baptist Press [November 6, 2007.] As the result of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their philosophy of ministry, the Willow Creek leaders discovered that while they have reached large numbers of people, they have not been producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ.

The studies, published by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins in a new book entitled “Reveal: Where Are You?” produced a remarkable confession from my friend, Bill. “We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that hey have to take responsibility to become “self-feeders.” We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

It’s a remarkable moment. And I can’t help but think that we may begin to hear another term added to our vocabulary next to “seeker-sensitive” … “self-feeder.” It will be fascinating to see what that will begin to mean.

WordPress for Churches

Published by Mr. Loren Warkentin on Sunday, November 25, 2007 in Internet and Website 101. 0 Comments

WordPress is a web authoring software package that is designed to be easy to use and free for the downloading. The creators of the software describe WordPress as follows: "WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time."

Both large and small websites are run on WordPress. As I have researched the use of WordPress on the internet I have been amazed to see the number and variety of entities that use WordPress in some way. Many use it as it comes straight out of the box (so to speak). Others tailor and customize it to suit their particular business or corporate needs. WordPress allows the user to be as simple as to require virtually no previous experience or to be as creative as their web programming skills allow. One example of a large entity that uses WordPress for many of its numerous websites is Power to Change (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ Canda. View a list of their other sites at TruthMedia).

WordPress was initially designed to be primarily a blogging platform. However it is so flexible that it can be used in almost any capacity as a Web Content Management System running websites as complicated as a major business might need or as simple as a personal blog.

So what is so great about it for the local church? Here is a list of things that I particularly appreciate about WordPress:

WordPress is free! It is released under what is known as a General Public License.
WordPress is very easy to use. Here is how the creators of the program describe what they intend it to be: "We are proud to offer you a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free personal publishing platform, with sensible default settings and features, and an extremely customizable core." (Read more here). All of our faculty here at Northwest have become adept at using it.
WordPress has a significant community of web developers who test it, create additional features for it (called plugins), and use it themselves.
There are a number of web hosting companies that provide the initial installation of WordPress automatically. There is a page on the WordPress website listing some of them. These hosting companies will often even assist you with your domain name if needed (for a fee, of course).
WordPress comes with a default theme. There are, however, hundreds of great themes available to choose from on the internet. If you have some web programming experience you can create your own theme or customize the default theme. The main Northwest website (where you are reading this) is based on a version of the default WordPress theme that I customized to suit our needs. Larry Perkins’ and Mark Naylor’s websites are based on a slightly customized version of a theme called K2.

So, that gives some of the features of WordPress and why I think it is a great resource for church websites.

Meeting the need for Cross-cultural expertise in our churches

Published by Mr. Mark Naylor on Friday, November 23, 2007 in CLTP, Church, Cultural Issues, Evangelism and Leadership. 0 Comments

Joy’s (1) emotional pain was evident as she related her move from her family’s mono-ethnic Chinese church to a multiethnic congregation. She felt guilt as if she had somehow betrayed her home church.
Bob pastored a multi-ethnic congregation but was frustrated by his inability to recruit leadership from certain groups.
Jane enjoyed belonging to a church with ethnic diversity, but was disturbed by the “multi-ethnic” label as it raised the spectre of racism. “Why don’t we just focus on our oneness in Christ?” she mused.
Arif enjoyed the ethnically diverse church he attended, but also often visited a mono-cultural congregation of his ethnic background because of the familiar music and worship style. “Is it OK to belong to two churches?” he wondered.
Pastor Daud was upset and felt betrayed. After a number of meetings during which all participants affirmed their desire to belong to a multi-cultural congregation, one ethnic group left to form their own church.

Our increasingly multicultural Canadian environment with all its complexity necessitates increased expertise and insight on behalf of church leaders so that they can minister effectively. Cultural competency is required to facilitate healthy relationships and build unified congregations.

How does a leader deal with the dynamic of valuing cultural distinctives while integrating people from various backgrounds into a church with one identity and purpose?
How can the inevitable tensions that arise from cultural differences be resolved in positive ways?
How does a church shift towards an intercultural mindset without losing its missional drive and what form does that take?

Moreover, church leadership who wish to lead their multi-ethnic church into making a relevant gospel impact need to develop the skill to recognize and utilize the strengths of cultural diversity.

How is the gospel to be contextualized while maintaining the constant of Christ as Lord and savior?
How can significant relationships be developed with communities that have different priorities, values, and history?
How can our churches be equipped as confident and competent witnesses to those world representatives who are our fellow Canadians?

How can significant relationships be developed with communities that have different priorities, values, and history?

There is an immense need for committed believers to be trained for effective and relevant service in ethnically diverse contexts both locally and globally. At FEBInternational and NBS we believe that training and preparation for the cultural and theological demands of these environments is essential. Training for effectiveness in cross-cultural ministry needs to occur in real life, real time ministry settings. This is why the Cross-Cultural Leadership Program (CLTP) was created: a mentored, experienced based training program for cross-cultural ministry in Canada and internationally.

Is there a need in your church for expertise in intercultural (facilitating relationships between ethnic groups) or cross-cultural (focus on reaching out to a particular ethnic group) ministry? Is there anyone in your church who demonstrates gifting and ability in developing significant cross-cultural relationships? Northwest Baptist Seminary and FEBInternational are ready to assist in training such individuals through the innovative and flexible CLTP program. Visit the CLTP website or contact the supervisor of the program, Mark Naylor at mark.naylor@twu.ca

(1) The names used are fictional, but all examples are based on true situations

Church BoardTalk: The Challenge of Sustainability

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Friday, November 16, 2007 in BoardTalk and Leadership. 0 Comments

At our recent "Best Practices for Church Boards Workshop" held in Langley, one of the groups attending had also participated in the first workshop we presented two and half years ago. What was remarkable to note was that none of the members of that church board were the same. Over that short period of time the whole board had changed.

I began to wonder what the average term of a church board member is? If there is a constant change in the composition of a church board, how can the congregation sustain its mission, vision and ministry? It is not just pastoral leadership change that can be debilitating for a local church, but significant and ongoing board changes can be equally detrimental.

Sometimes a significant turnover of church board members occurs because there is a church crisis. The entire board thinks it best to resign and allow a new leadership team to regain the trust of the congregation. However, such events thankfully are infrequent. More frequently the composition of a church board changes gradually but consistently from year to year. But this means that over a two to four year period half of the board members will be new. Such a rate of change requires the board leadership to pay particular attention to several factors.

First, careful orientation of new church board members to the work of a church board generally, and to the issues that a particular church is considering, becomes more critical. If it takes six to twelve months for a new church board member to learn how function well in and contribute substantially to the church board’s leadership, then reducing this time lag and enabling a person fully to participate more quickly is well worth the effort.

Second, discerning potential, new church board members becomes a significant part of the leaderships’ responsibility. Encouraging a person to accept the ministry of church board membership requires investing time, helping the individual to understand their giftedness, dealing with questions, communicating clearly the responsibilities, and engaging in prayerful discernment.

Third, planning and leading church board meetings that accomplish significant ministry, engage the mind and heart of the members, and effectively blend worship and work, requires dedicated attention to details. When church board members see the contribution their collaborative work is making to the health and advancement of the church, then they are motivated and eager to continue.

Fourth, balancing the workload among the various church board members becomes an important factor, because each feels that they are contributing to the work of the church board. If a person knows that their skills, knowledge, and/or competence is helping the church board make good decisions and establish effective policy, then motivation is increased.

Other factors could be elaborated. The message, however, is simple. We have to work hard at sustaining a church board and its ministry. If this work is done well, then many other aspects of church life will operate smoothly and happily, as God’s Spirit blesses and leads.

Get Your Church Website Noticed!

Published by Mr. Loren Warkentin on Thursday, November 15, 2007 in Internet and Website 101. 0 Comments

You have a message you want to deliver; you have a specific audience that you want to target; you develop a cool website for this purpose and then you do a search - and if it shows up at all, your shiny new church website is buried 20 pages deep into the search engine’s list. "How will our people find our website?" You are not the first person to ask this question. Here are some tips and ideas that you can use. I have broken them down into several broad topics and included links to some very helpful websites.

Web Site Design

It is important that the structure of your website accommodates search engines.

"How will our people find our website?"

Searchable text: Search engines need to be able to "read" your site. So pay careful attention to such things as key words and phrases for which your target audience would likely be searching. These must appear prominently as part of the text on your home page. Use such terms in text headings (in your HTML <h1>, <h2> <h3> etc.), as opposed to graphics, to maximize how search engines rank them.
Page Titles: Each page on your church website must have a unique but relevant title (HTML tags <title>Title Here</title>). Search engines look for these and they also appear at the top of your browser window. If you are using web authoring software like WordPress* the titles you give to your posts and pages become the page titles automatically.
Meta Tags: This is a little more technical as it requires you to get into the actual HTML code of your website but it is something that search engines look for. Each page of your site is broken down broadly into a header, body and footer. In the HTML of the header there is a place for Meta Tags. One of those tags is the KEYWORD tag (HTML <meta name="keywords" content="place your key words here each separated by a comma" />). Choose good, descriptive keywords including your church name. For more information on this go to the WC3 website and read their information on page structure. Scroll down to section 7.4.4 on meta data.
Site map: Creating an easy way for people to see the contents of your site at a glance is also good for search engines. WordPress* has several plugins that do this automatically.

External Links

Search engines look for traffic to your site. This indicates to them that your site is in demand. So get your site listed on site directories (i.e. the denominational web directory) and other similar websites etc.

Submit your URL to the search engines

Be sure that you follow their instructions carefully as submitting your information more than once could be construed as spamming and actually reduce your chances of a good ranking.

Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.
MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx.
Yahoo: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit.

Use Other Media

Place your web address on everything you publish - from your weekly church bulletin to your daily email signature; from your letterhead to your note pads! Do you publish a church ad in the local newspaper? Don’t forget to include your web address there too!

Web Ads

One technique that is promoted to increase traffic to a website is the use of web advertizing. This is probably not an appropriate technique for a church website but I mention it here for interest sake.

Patience

Search engines will eventually find and rank your site. It may take some time. Following the tips above will help search engines determine just how valuable your site is to your target audience.

Other Sites on Website Design and/or Promotion**

Google has some good material at http://www.google.com/webmasters/.
Also at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Web Marketing Today has a good checklist at http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm
Modwest has a good FAQ answer on website promotion.

*I will be writing an article on WordPress at a later date. It is the software that all of our Northwest sites run on.

**Including a particular website’s url on this site does not imply endorsement of the site or its views.

Church Board Talk: Relationships are Everything

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 in BoardTalk and Leadership. 0 Comments

Dr. Lyle Schrag, director of our Northwest Centre for Leadership Development, led our sixth Best Practices for Church Boards workshop this past weekend. Seven churches participated. As I gave one of the presentations and facilitated a conversation among one of the church boards, the centrality of relationships to good Church Board operations became absolutely clear. In the world of Church Boards relationships are everything.

Almost every question asked centred on some aspect of relationship — board to pastor, board member to board member, board member to ministry staff. Every practice presented served to enable good relationships to flourish. Good policies nurture good relationships and provide pathways to use when they need to be repaired. When relationships break down, church boards become dysfunctional and board members lose the joy that their service normally generates.

Building and sustaining good relationships within a church board is a primary responsibility of the chair and should also be a significant concern for the lead pastor. Because church boards function within the body of Christ, the essential principles of Christian relations should be modelled by the members of a church board. They include being truthful, exercising courtesy, working together with humility, listening carefully, forgiving freely, and being patient. The Holy Spirit can demonstrate His active presence in the church body by His work among the board members.The standard set by the church board will be a powerful testimony and example for the rest of the congregation. But if the church board fails here, it sends a strong signal to the rest of the church that Christ’s vision for Kingdom community is unattainable. If those we entrust with our spiritual care cannot make it work, then how can others in the church community be expected to succeed?

Church board chairs can take some simple initiatives to foster good relationships within a board. First, plan with the board two or three events each year where the members and spouses get together just to build relationships. When board members build deep relationships, they are able to weather difficult passages more confidently and with greater trust. Secondly, be commending publicly about the contribution that the board members are making. The people in the church probably have little awareness of the commitment it takes for board members to serve well. Keep the church board in the prayers of the church. Publicly be thanking them for their contributions. Finally, inject some humour into the meetings — wholesome, friendly humour. It is possible actually to enjoy church board meetings and also make them occasions for celebration, worship, prayer, and serious Bible study.

I can well imagine that when the Philippian church leadership team met, they shared freely about God’s work among them, rejoiced in His gracious provision, prayed for Paul in prison, and cared for one another deeply. The hostility within their environment required them to build and sustain close relationships. Yet Paul reminds us that even the Christians in Philppi had to work hard to sustain this, striving to "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel" (Phil. 1:27). Relationships are key to developing a great church board.

Church Web 101

Published by Mr. Loren Warkentin on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 in Internet and Website 101. 2 Comments

…where does one start when planning a church website?

Today I am launching a series of articles for churches on the topic of church websites. Have you grappled with how to start, develop and maintain a good church website? Have you learned some great secrets that you would be willing to share? I hope to add a number of articles in the future that will provide resources that specifically address the needs of churches in relation to their use of the internet. I may not write all the articles but rather will try to develop a network of people, web-links and other resources that can provide the kind of help needed – particularly for churches.

In this article I am starting with some fundamentals. In order to have a website you need three basic pieces of the internet and website puzzle.

1. The first piece you need is to own the "domain name" that you will use for your website. The domain name is the address that you type into your internet browser that takes you to a particular website. The domain name that Northwest owns and uses is nbseminary.com. When you type www.nbseminary.com into the address bar of your internet browser it opens to the Northwest website for you to browse. So an example of a domain name for you might be www.yourchurchname.com.

A domain name is purchased from a domain name registrar and is paid for (usually) on an annual basis. Domain names cost anywhere from $8.75 per year to $34.99 per year depending on the registrar and what they offer beside the domain name registration. On the more expensive end of the range would be a company like www.networksolutions.com and on the cheaper end would be a company like www.mydomain.com – with many in between and a few cheaper and a few more expensive.

You need a "place" to locate your website so that it can be accessed from the internet any time of day or night - a web host.

2. The second piece of the puzzle that you need is a "place" to locate your website so that it can be accessed from the internet any time of day or night. This "place" is usually provided by a web hosting company. For a monthly fee these companies will "host" your website on their web server computers and make sure that your website is both secure and always accessible from the internet. Hosting fees can range from as low as several dollars a month to several dozens of dollars a month - again depending on the services provided. Most church web sites do not need anything more than a basic or basic to mid-range hosting plan.

3. The third piece of the puzzle that you need for your church website is the development of the website itself - i.e. the computer files that hold all the information you want to present about your church. For the basic website these files can be understood in two broad categories. There will be the actual web pages themselves – i.e. what you are reading right now, and there will be the graphic elements of the site. That includes the overall site design, photos, video clips etc. Site designs usually incorporate a top section called a header that identifies who this site is about, the body of the site which holds the information, and finally there usually is a bottom part – called a footer where one might place a copyright notice, some links to important sections of the website and so on.

- What should a church put on their website?
- Who is going to be responsible for the website?
- What sort of time commitment might be required by a website?

One other element the site will need is some sort of mechanism to navigate from one page to another. Links that do this navigation are often found either in a menu bar across the top of the site or on the side of the site in what is called a sidebar.

I will write more about each of these pieces of the puzzle in future articles. Here are some other questions I would like to address in future articles. Where does one start when thinking about a website? What does one need to create a website? Can just anyone do this or is purely the realm of the specialists - the geeks? What makes a good church website? Is there special software that I need? Are there people who can help me?

I am sure you have your own questions. Why don’t you add a comment to this page? Do you have a particular question that we could address in a future article? Do you have some special solutions your church has discovered? Write and let me know.

Disillusioned with the Sunday meeting expression of church

Published by Mr. Mark Naylor on Thursday, October 25, 2007 in Church and Preaching. 1 Comment

The following is a response from my wife, Karen, to a couple of recent blogs found on this site:

In his Oct 17 blog "The Foundation for Hearing God," Loren Warkentin wrote:

We Christians have become acculturated to this [fast-paced] style of living and I believe it has affected our spiritual lives. We are easily bored. If a “worship service” doesn’t entertain us sufficiently we move elsewhere. Long sermons and church services tire us. But maybe more deadly is the effect this lifestyle has on our personal, devotional relationship with God - it has become fragmented, stretched thin, missing even - and so we look for a fix. We still want to hear from Him, but….

YES! We desperately want to hear from Him!! But maybe the problem is not our expectation but the "worship service."

I don’t believe most Christians go to a church service looking to be entertained. We go seeking God. My great desire is to be engaged - my mind, heart, will and spirit - but when it comes to church services, I have all but given up. Most often I come home from a service knowing that I have (yet again) missed God.

My great desire is to be engaged - my mind, heart, will and spirit

Music moves me so if the "worship team" is decent and the songs are good (by that I mean there is some substance and content to the lyrics), then I can worship.

But the vast majority of sermons I hear do not engage me. I recently attended a friend’s very charismatic church. I am not a charismatic by theology, preference, experience, desire, personality or history, but if I lived in that town, that’s the church I would go to.

the vast majority of sermons I hear do not engage me

Why? Because I met God there. It was clear that the leaders were communicating their heart and more importantly, God’s heart. The sermons (I heard 3 over the weekend) came out of their lives and what God was teaching them, not from a commentary.

I find that in sermons the grand themes in the Bible are often reduced to the bottom line "be nice" and so much of what I hear is the "same, old, same, old." I love the "old, old story," don’t get me wrong. But the way it is presented is like eating dusty, stale crackers.

I have met numerous people who no longer attend church, not because they aren’t entertained, but because they miss God when they go. Initially they think the problem is with them, that somehow their expectations are out of line. Some of them keep going out of habit, others keep attending because they have kids and others just give up (I have talked to all of the above).

I have so many questions but have no place to ask them

Although evangelicals say we base our lives and beliefs on the Bible, there is little Bible reading. At one service I attended the preacher read 1.5 verses and then told us that even though the verses meant something different, he would still use those verses to preach on his chosen subject. At such services I look around at the people and think - Do they really find these words a life giving message? or is coming to church a habit and good way to see friends?

I have so many questions but have no place to ask them. Most of them start with "yes, I see what you’re saying…but what about this? and this? and this?” Does the preacher not have the same questions? If he (most are men) doesn’t, why not? Am I that off the charts? Do the people around me not have similar questions?

In Kent Anderson’s Oct 19 blog, "Apologetic Preaching," he writes in reference to J.P. Moreland:

People, he said, need more than just to hear what the Bible says and how to apply it, because people don’t actually believe the Bible very strongly. People today are looking for passion and some sense that the preacher knows what she or he is talking about. Pastors need to be brokers of knowledge just like doctors.

[The problem with church services is not] the lack of entertainment, but the lack of substance

I believe that passion comes not just from knowing God, but from knowing God this past week; from working through doubts, questions, injustices and opportunities. I don’t think we need to develop a database of God’s miraculous interventions (Moreland’s suggestion as reported in Kent’s blog) because most people don’t live life like that. But we do want to know how to meet God in our ordinary, every day life.

Church services are a prime opportunity to bring people into God’s presence so they can hear from Him. At least the vast majority of resources are geared towards constructing and maintaining very expensive buildings so there can be a corporate gathering. But when that doesn’t happen the discouragement can lead to disillusionment. It is not about the lack of entertainment, but the lack of substance.

maybe church is just (mediocre) entertainment and isn’t meant to be a place where life and the gospel come together

Coincidentally, I am reading about the Veritas Forum, a movement in universities that faces the hard questions of life in the light of who Jesus is. Experts in many different fields offer expertise to students who can respond and interact. Their messages do not reduce the gospel to a trite "be nice," but honestly grapple with the relevance of God’s revelation in the context of a secularized worldview.

I find the Sunday meeting expression of church to be very unsatisfying because it is one dimensional. Much time and effort is put into this one expression and yet it falls short of what it could be: a gathering of people who need and want to meet with God, who have come to worship and to be in God’s presence. Yet week after week some of us leave so frustrated. Eventually we learn that maybe church is just (mediocre) entertainment and isn’t meant to be a place where life and the gospel come together.

Church Health Assessment

Published by Dr. Lyle Schrag on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 in Church. 0 Comments

Quick note, helpful tool: Check out the resources of Leadership Transformations, Inc. Actually, go directly to their ministry resource outlet entitled HealthyChurch.net [just add the www. before the title, and you’re there.]

One of the things that I’ve discovered in the last two years is that most churches wait until a crisis to assess the health of their fellowship, and then struggle to find a way to do it well. Outreach Canada has addressed the issue well with their Vision Renewal process and the Ministry Fitness Check. I’ve also discovered that most healthy churches derive momentum from consistently assessing their health, and making it a standard practice to measure their progress. If you were to put it in physical terms, they put their Body through an annual [or at least “predictable”] physical.

HealthyChurch.Net has produced a helpful tool: Church Health Assessment Tool [also known as CHAT] that is well-worth your inspection. Some may find it to be a bit pricey, but, then again, as the commercial says, some things are priceless, and CHAT may prove to be that for you.

The REAL Examination

Published by Dr. Brian Rapske on Monday, October 22, 2007 in Bible, Bible Study, Biblical Languages, Christian Life, Church, Discipleship, Ethics, Hermeneutics, Preaching and Translation Issues. 0 Comments

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 sat.

By and large, most of our students do a good to great job in writing their exams. Sometimes, there is a feeling of uncertainty about their answer to this or that question, but generally, there is a sense of satisfaction and relief as they leave the examination hall. They studied hard, retaining much. And during the exam, what was committed to memory was laid out in answers to questions or synthesized and made the basis of responses to cases presented for analysis. With the completion of the examination, they have done their part in the course and all that awaits is the professor’s grading of the work and the formal posting of the student’s final mark for the course.

It is not a new thought, but it occurred to me that most of our exams are not the real examination. Indeed, the real exam is taken when the knowledge is put into practice for the benefit of those who will be served or helped. The real examination occurs after the exam for the course. In the knowledge of that truth, I’ve taken to adding a little note at the bottom of each examination sheet following my Christmas wish to the student. In the hermeneutics exam sheet, for example, it reads, "Remember, the real examination for this course takes place every time you open your Bible to translate, study, preach, teach and counsel."

The principle holds not only in the academy, but also in the church and in life generally for the Christian. The real test of what we’ve heard in the sermon, or the Bible study class, or the home group is not that we were in attendance, or even whether we can replicate the content flawlessly. It is, rather, what we’ll do with what we’ve heard. The test is action.

Using the image of building, Jesus taught that hearing his words only and hearing them so as to do them are the difference between the foolish and the wise respectively (Matthew 7:24-27). The book of James puts it even more succinctly, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1:22)

Churchtalk: Responding to the Breakdown of Tolerance

Published by Dr. Larry Perkins on Thursday, October 18, 2007 in Christian Life, ChurchTalk, Culture and Evangelism. 0 Comments

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 "utterly conflicted" on this question. Recently violent responses to religious and cultural minorities have occurred in various regions of Canada.

If as followers of Jesus all we can muster is tolerance for those who hold different values and dress differently, then we have not understood Jesus’ teaching.

Many suggest that the answer to these conflicts lies in transforming Canada into a purely secular society. If we accomplish this, we will enthrone tolerance. Apparently religious values or ethnic values cause intolerance. This sounds to me like the argument used in the past that the rape victim was somehow responsible for being raped! If these religious and cultural minorities just stopped being different, then we could tolerate them. A retreat to secular values, however, will not solve the problem, because even within secularism there are many diverse values vying for priority. Where in the world do we find a secular society that is free from intolerance?

Maybe the growing reaction against multiculturalism and intolerance towards religious and ethnic minorities in our Canadian society is presenting Evangelical Christians with a new opportunity to demonstrate the love of Jesus and show another and better way to live.

For Christians tolerance is an insufficient response to human differences. Jesus challenged his followers to "love your enemies" and to "pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). Tolerance is not good enough for kingdom people. If as followers of Jesus all we can muster is tolerance for those who hold different values and dress differently, then we have not understood Jesus’ teaching. Paul struggled with this issue and declared that in the Messiah Jesus no cultural or economic distinctions count (Galatians 3:28). Paul claims that God is "no respecter of persons", i.e. he does not play favourites. God loves "the world" and expects His people to do the same. Maybe the growing reaction against multiculturalism and intolerance towards religious and ethnic minorities in our Canadian society is presenting Evangelical Christians with a new opportunity to demonstrate the love of Jesus and show another and better way to live. God’s Kingdom embraces people from all cultures and in our church communities, as we are empowered by God’s Spirit, we can truly "love one another."

Evangelical Christians should note, however, that they are a religious minority in Canada. This means that sooner or later their Christian values will conflict with generally accepted Canadian values. When this happens, the government or courts will judge what ‘reasonable accommodation’ should be in specific cases. Perhaps we already see this happening in the issue of same-sex marriage. How should we respond when our values are regarded as ‘unreasonable̵

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