From our previous Thoughts from the Neighbourhood we have learned how we are following Jesus as his disciple. The question now is, what would happen if someone you know wanted to learn how to follow Jesus…..your neighbour, a friend or co-worker….what would you do? What’s your plan? To not have a plan in place is actually having a plan…it's just not a very good plan. We plan our budgets, where we want to live and work….we plan how to raise our kids and for retirement…..so what’s our plan to disciple people? Sometimes we think the best approach is to invite someone to church or read a book or ..read more

From our last two “Thoughts from the Neighbourhood” we have learned that a disciple is simply someone who is an apprentice, trainee, or intern of Jesus, so it's pretty exciting to think that we can join Jesus on His mission. But here is the challenge. For us to join Jesus we must look a lot less like ourselves and a lot more like Him! Less of our old nature, fearful, or angry, with no patience and put on more of the new nature, following Him, loving and compassionate. The more we become like Jesus the more other people will be blessed and drawn to Him. So, what does becoming more like Jesus lo ..read more

Over the next few weeks lets unpack the word “Discipling”. Its an important part of who we are at Immanuel so let’s examine what it really means. Jesus said to “Go and Make Disciples”! Let’s face it those words can both inspire us and scare us. Most people who hear that command conclude I can’t do that or I don’t know enough about it…so we are content to delegate discipling to someone who knows more about it than we do. Would you change your mind if I told you that our fear of making disciples comes from our misunderstanding of what discipling is? To start with, in our modern-day world, we at ..read more

There is nothing more annoying than trying to spread hard butter on soft bread. Apparently, the butter is supposed to be stored in the cupboard not the fridge. If you store it in the fridge that’s what causes all the problems. If I try to spread the hard butter on the bread, it usually rips the bread to shreds resulting in a 3” hole in the middle of the bread. One way around this is to place a chunk of the hard butter in your mouth, add a piece of bread, then add some meat, swish that all together then swallow… let’s face it, your stomach really doesn’t care if everything comes down together i ..read more

I have been giving some thoughts about what our new normal will be like after COVID-19 passes. Two weeks ago, I talked about on-line worship, last week we looked at Christian Community among our members and today I want to talk about mission. Pandemic or no pandemic, local relational mission only happens if you are intentional! If you have been intentionally active with neighbours, then when the pandemic passes, those intentional relationships you are building will continue. In today’s COVID-19 world, I’m finding my neighbours are more open than ever to conversation and prayer around spiritua ..read more

I have been giving some thoughts about what our new normal will be like this fall after COVID-19 or at least living with COVID-19. Last week I talked about how online worship will have a bigger footprint in our church and today I'd like to think about what the pandemic is teaching us about having authentic Christian Community among our members. To start with, I believe the church has long confused Sunday worship attendance for Christian Community. While certainly being together in worship is part of what we mean by the “communion of saints,” authentic Christian Community is most deeply exper ..read more

In the next few weeks, for our Thoughts from the Neighbourhood, I would like to give some reflections on what I’m learning/observing about church, ministry and the future reality in light of COVID-19. I do sense some things are going to change and that the new normal will be different. The first observation is around our online worship. The opportunity to reach more and a wider variety of people will be better than ever. Then, once the recording is posted online and members start sharing it on their social media, the total number of people viewing throughout the rest of the week skyrockets e ..read more

For the next few weeks in our “Thoughts from The Neighbourhood” I wanted to explore the following question. What can we expect to be normal as a church as we emerge out of the Pandemic? I know it's hard to believe that it’s been over a year since everything shut down. but in that year things in our world has really changed! For me, pre-pandemic, I was not a big fan of online worship or zoom, but every plan I had pre-pandemic changed significantly when dealing with the reality of COVID-19. As in the rest of society, little did we know that what would happen over the course of this past year wo ..read more

Every BBQ season I wonder why it is that hotdog buns come in packages of 8 but you get 12 hotdogs per pack! These kinds of things bother me! Hotdogs and buns go together, but you wind up with four extra hotdogs or you’re short four buns depending on which package you open first. Shouldn’t they be equally numbered or more balanced? I mean everything starts out OK, perfectly balanced, but later on, when you’re ready for the 9th bun there aren’t any! Who wants to eat a wiener without a bun? If you think about it, life can be the same way. You start out OK in life, baby… teenager… young adult, not ..read more

Last week Donna and I received our 2nd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. I never imagined a vaccine would be available in only a year and a half since the Covid outbreak. Sitting there waiting my turn for the shot gave me time to reflect on how fast our world has changed in the past year. Zoom, online church, empty church buildings, and video sermons. It's as if the future, 10 years from now, has been forced into the present-day reality of our lives. Some churches that couldn’t adjust have closed, some are hanging on by a thread, others seem to be adjusting and coping with the new reality, wh ..read more