Jesus follower

I met today with Nancy, an advocate for fair trade in the Sunderland, ON area. Our meeting was for me to connect this work with our SERVE and Encounter week (Jun 30-Jul 4), with the theme “Right The Wrong”. We sat outside at Katie’s Coffee House in Sunderland, enjoying a beautiful day and very friendly…

Linda Wielinga sent me this story which struck me as interesting, a neat God moment as it made me think of myself and what a slow learner I am. How many times do I keep bumping into those things that are no good for me, and yet I foolishly persist in doing it again… and…

Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger have been studying the emerging churches movement (if you don’t know what it is, read the book, its hard to explain). As I read their book I am finding that, apart from some occasional discomfort on how emerging churches apply their ideas, I am often resonating with what they stand…

Wow, not only have I been in Port Perry for 10 years, the first Tim Horton’s here in Port Perry is also celebrating their 10th anniversary. But now I am leaving… For the last 10 years I have been going to Tim Horton’s almost every morning for my own quiet time, sitting in the same booth. But…

Some of you may have sensed that I have a bit of a beef with ‘church’. I probably need to clarify, its not so much with a specific church (I love my present church, and also my new church). My beef is with the concept of church as it has been distorted from its original…

We commissioned our new church leaders [Sunday, June 1, 2008] and I used the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28. Some of the observations and applications I made were: Paul writes this letter to a part of Jesus’ missionary team in Thessalonica, a new community of Jesus followers facing great persecution yet standing firm. He urges them to respect their…

Here is another word game. See if you can go a whole week without using the word “church”. You can use words that mean the same thing, just try not using the word itself. I was thinking about this when I was looking at how Jesus spoke about the church. He only used the word…

John Smulo gives his reasons why he prefers the term “Jesus follower”. — Norm Here are some of the reasons why I normally refer to myself as a ‘Jesus-follower’. It centers on Jesus. It implies action. It raises questions rather than answers. It encourages further understanding and exploration. It points others to Someone beyond myself…

John Smulo gives his reasons why he does not like the term “christian”. — Norm Words have meaning because we give them meaning. Sometimes particular words lose meaning. Other times they take on new meanings that are loaded. “Christian” is a word that has several meanings depending on the context in which it is used,…