In November I will be teaching a seminar in two different locations on the subject of “Developing A Vision For Your Small Church.” The seminars will be held at Living Faith Community Presbyterian Church in Baxter (near Barrie) on Tuesday…
Loving People Can Be Hard
I was the pastor of my first church before I attended Bible College or seminary. I was a young and inexperienced person and now I marvel at the patience of the people in that church. I believe that God wanted…
A Different Perspective on Losing Your Youth
I served as the senior pastor of Grace Bible Chapel for eight years in the 1990s. When I resigned from that position, I spent some time looking back over that eight-year period and tried to evaluate the impact of my…
Can Small & Large Churches Work Together?
Elsabeth “Ellie” Black may be Canada’s best female gymnast. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She won gold on the balance beam at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and gold in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercises at the…
The Power of A United Front
Last week I shared my dream for the small church across Canada. As part of that dream I made the following two statements. “I have a dream that small churches will bond together in such a way that they will…
Heads Up: A New Addition To The Blog
Every few weeks I will be sending a “Heads Up” blog entry that will give you a heads up on some resources (conferences, seminars, books, websites, etc) that pertain to small churches and might be of interest to you. I…
I Have A Dream
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of the most powerful speeches in the history of the world. The occasion was part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that became one of the critical…
What Is Normal?
I have spent the past ten days doing what I love to do: holding conversations with pastors and other church leaders on the subject of the small church. I have been to Winnipeg in Manitoba and to Churchbridge, Saskatoon, Milestone…
. The Refugee Crisis
I am writing this blog entry in the pastor’s office at City Church in Winnipeg. Tim Nielsen, the pastor of City Church and a good friend, is sitting at the other desk listening online to a video on the current…
The Relationship Between Patience and Change
One of the tensions that exists in all churches is the fact that there are things that need to be changed on the one hand and people who hate change on the other. In any group of people, studies have…