It takes courage to be different when you know it’s the right thing to do. Most people don’t want to stick out from the crowd and be made fun of or even worse, ridiculed for what’s considered by others to be pretentious or self-righteous behaviour.

The scripture this week, 1 Peter 3:13-17, in the ‘Decidedly Different’ series makes me think of a survival or crisis preparedness kit.  

Every day we make choices that reveal our allegiance to Jesus and his ways. Often our decisions are not what we would have made before we cared about what God thought of our actions.

Did you remember that this weekend is Thanksgiving? How are you planning on spending it?

Don’t apologize for being different. Those are words that all of us as followers of Jesus need to hear. We are different because we are transformed by Christ and we have a whole new way of looking at life.

As followers of Christ we are called to make a difference in our everyday world. Most often that means right in our own community and then sometimes it means making a difference in other parts of the world.

‘Transformed – Decidedly Different’ - Last Sunday Pastor Tracy introduced this as our theme for the fall. As a follower of Jesus you have chosen to be different in a good way.

Romans 12:1 is such a familiar passage of scripture. The Message paraphrase takes the familiar words and reminds us again what the heart of the matter is.

I think the problem is that words today hold little value to people. We throw them out without thought;

One of the most common questions I’ve heard as a pastor – and just simply as a Christ-follower! – is, “What is God’s will for my life?”

Have you ever felt a little foolish for something that you did or said? Perhaps it was a simple matter of acting before thinking it through, or speaking before you had all the facts...

What a summer it has been so far. We have had three great weeks of Malcolm's camp and are now on a two-week break. I can't believe we are almost in August.

Over the last week I’ve been watching our construction crew renovate the mudroom in the farmhouse.

Peace and quiet. We go to great lengths to find this feeling, to get to a place where our minds are unhurried and we are able to rest and relax. For a lot of us, that’s what we’re pursuing on our summer vacations – peace.

I popped into Pastor Del's office, unexpectedly, the other day and we began talking about our summer sermon series...

Last Sunday we started a new series from Proverbs called ‘Summer of Wisdom’. The speaking team will look at various aspects of practical wisdom each week like the home, friendships, avoiding foolishness and learning from the wise.

How’s your prayer life lately? I ask that question in light of our recent theme of Breakthrough Prayer.

What a great time we had together last Sunday on Father’s Day. For those of us who were able to stay for the potluck lunch and games, it was a superb opportunity to connect while having lots of fun.

This coming Sunday is Father’s Day, the occasion each year to recognize the important role that dads play. Being a father for decades and a grandfather for several years now, I have a fair bit of practical experience in this regard to reflect on and learn from.

While reading through some of the works and writings of Andrew Murray, a great teacher on prayer, I came across a beautiful prayer of preparation for Communion.