On a flight the other day the flight steward picked up a little book and proceeded to read a rote welcome from the book over the public announcement system. Her script included how absolutely delighted the airline was that we had chosen to fly with them. It’s just that her voice and her face didn’t …
A New Year’s Desire: Learning To Listen Well
This past week some of our pastoral team and I sat with a family who had just lost their son, brother and grandson. He took his own life. As I spoke with his parents, sisters and grandparents, a deep feeling of inadequacy engulfed me. I didn’t know what to say. Any thought of a word …
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10 things I’m learning about life and pastoral leadership.
1. I must arrange my life so that I am experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in my everyday life with God (Dallas Willard). Why? Because the call to discipleship of Jesus means that I must arrange my life around a life-giving friendship with Jesus. Failure to do this will result in a chasing after …
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When you’re not sure what to pray anymore.
We’re living in traumatic times. And pastoring a community at this time is traumatic. Almost every day brings news of another person who is ill, many of them in our congregations. I spoke with a friend the other day who said he conducted six funerals last week. Six. We’re living through something a bit like war-time …
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Reflections on a year.
As 2020 draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the year that turned our world upside down. To live through a pandemic is not exactly a privilege, but it does invite some opportunities for reflection and learning. Opportunities to reflect on our lives, and opportunities to learn about the world that we find ourselves …
Open letter from a lonely pastor.
COVID 19 has left me feeling lonely as a pastor. I’m lonely not being able to see our congregation. Not being able to see faces, pick up body language, listen to stories. Not being able to share the triumphs and tragedies, the ups and downs of life. In person. I’m lonely not being able to …
Three words that shape our future….
There are three things about our friendship with Jesus that enable us to imagine a future that’s good and hopeful. FRIENDSHIP God did not simply want a relationship with us. He wanted something much more. Something more intimate. God always wanted a friendship with us, and not simply a relationship. A relationship is transactional, but …
Have you got a canary in your coalmine?
100 years ago, miners would carry caged canaries down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately. The idea for this was first proposed around 1913 and …
Lego and why black lives matter
Our son Caleb is seven and he’s obsessed with Lego at the moment. The minute he is finished with his school work for the day he races off down the passage like someone who just got let out of lockdown! He returns triumphantly a few moments later, staggering as he shoulders the enormous box of …
FALLING LEAVES
This is our favourite tree in our garden. It’s leaves are always the last to turn the dramatic colours of Autumn. It feels like our favourite tree holds out for as long as it can and then finally, reluctantly capitulates to the new season surrounding it. Eventually it’s leaves begin to turn colour. Yellow. Red. …
Byron Chicken 