robdale.ca

Last night, I went to a movie with Heather, Christina, and a friend of hers. Before the movie, Christina’s friend was telling us about her summer plans, which included a trip her family would be taking. This trip was being paid for by the “Make A Wish” Foundation. Most of you have heard of the Make A Wish Foundation. So, why are they sending this family on a trip? Good question. I asked Christina’s friend.

I learned that she has a sister who is battling cancer. The sister is in grade six. That would put her around twelve or thirteen years of age. Battling cancer. Not sure what her future holds. How long her life will be. Cancer.

I enjoyed the movie, but found myself constantly thinking of a Grade six girl battling cancer. I realize she isn’t the only one. I know that every day grade six girls lose their battles with sickness. And yet, it put life into perspective once again.

Would you take a moment today and pray for a grade six girl battling cancer? Simply ask God to be with her.

Thanks.

This excellent post was stolen in its entirety from Carey Nieuwhof’s website. Carey is pastor of Connexus, a church in Western Ontario. He was featured on Global television’s recent documentary Hib2BHoly. Here’s his letter:

An Open Letter

Dear Hip 2B Holy Viewer,

If you happened to have watched Hip 2B Holy on Global, and you’re one of the people who hasn’t gone to church for a long time or ever, this letter’s for you.

First, I just want to say sorry for keeping you away for so long.  The church has not done a particularly good job of being clear or even being open to people who aren’t part of our club.  That needs to change and I hope it is changing.

Second, sorry for any and all anger directed at you by Christians.  I’m always amazed that Jesus rarely had a harsh word for religious “outisders”.  Instead, he kept his harsh words for insiders who didn’t reflect God’s heart (usually religious leaders).  How we got it backwards, I’ll never know. So for the times we’ve held placards denouncing you and whatever your group stands for – sorry.  It’s not like Christ to attack the people He died for.

Third, sorry for behaving like Jesus died for the church.  His compassion and affection were actually sent for the world, not just for a small minority of people or peoples.  When Jesus died and rose again, we were all covered by that.  Sometimes we in the church behave like it was for us only.  That’s wrong.

Fourth, sorry for making it so hard to understand what God is saying.  If you’ve tried church, you realize that often we just get “weird” about how we do church and we make it hard for someone with no background to understand what’s happening or going on.  That needs to stop.

Finally, while the documentary did a great job in many respects, I felt a bit bad about its portrayal of mainline Christianity.  Yes, it’s in decline.  Yes, I was in mainline circles for a decade and left, but there’s no bitterness.  There are pockets of life and some fantastic Christ-followers in mainline churches.  Wish that had come out.

There is a lot more to be said.  But the bottom line is this: Jesus loved this world passionately enough to die for it and offer us new life.

I hope you can be part of a new dialogue – a new beginning.  Many of us are still getting our heads around what it means to be loved by God.  I don’t fully understand it.

When we gather, we want to create an open, accessible, even irresistible environment in which people of all backgrounds and life-stories can come together to discover grace, forgiveness, transformation and hope.

We need you.  We need skeptics, doubters, people who think they are beyond the reach of love, people who feel the whole Christianity thing is garbage.  We need you in community – in our community, to be part of the community and part of the dialogue.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was shutting down this blog for a season. I gave my reasons in that post, so read it below.

But, something happened today that caused me to change my mind about shutting down this blog – or ending the season of not updating to it.

I’ve started bicycling. I’ve been out a few times so far, and it’s been great to try and get back into shape. I ride along the Ottawa River, and as I was out riding today, I paused a few times (yes, to try and catch my breath). I sat and looked out at the river, and just enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment. I even tried to take a couple of pictures, but for some reason, they didn’t save on my phone.

As I sat there reflecting on God, life, and my journey, I was reminded of the series we are currently doing at Bikers’ Church. It’s called Whispers, and we are talking about hearing God’s voice. Last week, my friend, Jason Boucher launched the series for us by talking about the Scripture, “Be still and know that I am God.” It was a great moment of stillness for me.

And I wanted to share it with you.

And so, I’m going to stop worrying about how often I post here. Whether I go weeks or days or only hours between posts. But I’m going to keep the blog open so that when these moments happen, I have a place to express them.

Can I encourage you to do something? If you don’t want to miss any of the posts, then subscribe using an RSS Reader. Many email programs have readers right in them. A quick google search will point out many others. You can subscribe simply by clicking the button to the right of this post. Or, you could follow me on Twitter. Whenever I blog on here, my Twitter account automatically notifies my followers.

So, let’s keep enjoying this journey together. Hopefully it will be a place where we truly do reflect upon things.

Hey folks,

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I have battled with setting priorities and trying to decide where to spend my time. I have to be honest, and this blog has suffered during that process. Since I began to twitter, I have found using that medium to share thoughts, links, etc. a much more enjoyable (and easier to manage) system. As well, I have been truly enjoying the blog at CCBC and being a part of a team of bloggers.

So, I have made a decision. I am going to stop blogging at robdale.ca (at least for a season). In a few days I will be forwarding this URL to the Bikers’ Church blog.

Thanks for enjoying this part of the journey with me. If you haven’t checked out the CCBC Blog, you’re missing out on some great writing. So, hopefully I will see you over there.

Rob

Yeah, I know. It’s been almost two weeks since my last blog post. Well, that’s not entirely true. I am part of the blogging team at Bikers’ Church (you can read that blog here). I’m also one half of the video blog at SlicesOfLife.ca. So, it’s not like I’m not blogging. Add to that my twitter, which is updated multiple times a day, and there are certainly ways to stay in touch with me online.

Still, this blog has been quiet. Part of the reason is because of the renovations happening at CCBC. We’ve been going nuts. Most of our free time is spent over at the church getting it ready. We are almost done. Really. In fact, by this Thursday, I hope to have 95% of the work completed. How great would that be?

The other reason for the lack of writing on this blog is that I’m trying to decide what to do with it. I’m needing to figure out the direction I want robdale.ca to go. That may take me a few more weeks to figure out.

So, thank you for your patience. For those who continue to check the site each day, my suggestion is to use a News Reader to subscribe to the blog. That way, you’ll never miss a post.

See you again soon!