A work in progress, theStory.ca is to be used as a tool to help connect people and live out our values. For example through the new calendar, you'll be able to check the potluck schedule, the kids teaching schedule as well as the ability to see what is going on in the community all week long.

We've also improved some of our old features...

*Much of static info on this site has been removed. Why? Not only does it make the site easier to navigate, but it reduces the tendency of being pinned down or categorized by flat, emotionless text on a computer screen. If someone wants to truly know what theStory is all about, they'll have to be in contact with the community, whether one on one or on Sundays.

*The monthly short film box will also feature up to date Vodcasts (as it presently is) by members of the community (like you?!) sharing thoughts and perspectives that connect with our monthly themes.

*Right here in this blogspot will be the opportunity to further interact with weekly/monthly teachings and themes through reading and response.

*Click the ATIC button at the top of the screen to see an old school church initiative that we're about to re-introduce.

Our hope is that the new incarnation of the site empowers our cause. If you have any other ideas, don't hesitate to share them!

Darryl, Nathan, Joe

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If you like, you can follow us along on our adventure here.

A quick pastoral thought for you as the remains of yesterday's gathering kick around in your brain and soul over the next few days: We are all in on the ground level of shaping a new community of faith, and in some ways this new adventure puts us at risk. It forces us to be accountable for our convictions and ideas and in turn requires us to be graceful towards others as they too face into the intricacies of their faith.

And if it isn't obvious yet, you've chosen to take a harder route laced with the temptation that says "Forget about this! Why bother? It'd be much safer to hide behind somebody else's credo, somebody else's work instead of putting myself out there week after week."

Your feelings are justifiable, but your participation in this new initiative has already given you away: It exposes the fact that you care too much about your own soul to leave it to someone else to figure out; It screams that you think there's more to God's kingdom on earth that what you've previously experienced; It eludes to the idea that even though theStory is not perfect, you like what you're beginning to see...you're intrigued by what's possible...and about the part you play in it.

Honestly, does it get any better than this?

Love God, Love Others, Tell His Story,
joe

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so as we wait for the dust to settle, i have a question: how does one practically navigate these waters? at theStory we've begun facing into this new reality by asking ourselves the following:

Ethos: What does it mean to create safe space for people to check God out but to also call people accountable to their commitment to follow Jesus?

Sundays: How do we continuing breeding a culture that values experiential learning and where questions & answers are of equal value?

Between Sundays: Continuing the dialogue and implicating ourselves into the life of our community. How does this happen?

$$: Where we're at, where we're headed and what we need to get there.

Leadership: Elders? Deacons? Other? Who?

Kids: What's our responsibility in regards to kids? What role will they play as part of the community?

Potluck: So far so good, but now what?

a quick caveat: please don't confuse this post for an infatuation with the new and a disdain for the old. in fact, quite the opposite is true. my motivation is not youthful dis-satisfaction or a false sense of entitlement but rather a concern for what it means to pastor and to be a disciple of Jesus in 2007.

truth be told, i'm haunted. in this new economy how do we practically live in the tension of remaining true to christian orthodoxy while at the same time persistent in re-articulating our faith for this present age?

over the next few blog posts i want to unpack some of my thoughts regarding this new economy through the following categories:

Accountability (for the church, leadership and laity)
Money (blurring the lines: 'personal finances', 'the 100% tithe', 'the funnel')
Rhythms (the weekly life of the church)
People (kissing efficiency goodbye)
Futuring ("The best way to predict the future is to invent it.")
Communication (rearticulating the sunday morning experience)

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Sunday was meant to be a little bit more of a celebration. So we had everyone bring instruments. And the entire service was music, with a few readings scattered in between. Then we sang. There was about 6 guitars, a bass, one keyboard and the rest was percussion. We set up journals in the middle for people to write along with some candy for people to be able to get rid of the bad taste we left in their mouth on the Friday. It sounded horrible, yet for some reason it felt more like worship than I can ever remember. The kids were with us and most of them had some sort of thing they could hit hard or blow into to get high pitched squeals. Dave brought an old Culligan water 5 gallon bottle with a few clever additions to make everything vibrate. Talia (a five year old) brought her little guitar and strummed every string to every song and note.

Musically we would have failed band class and asked to take art instead, but I think that we came together as a community that day. All the kids, about 7 of them, were free to be kids and participate with us. Some of the older adults participated and some of the others watched from the back while singing along with smiles on their faces. For some of us it was hard to not put on a production. For some of us it was awkward to participate because we are so used to watching. We basically broke every rule of what a worship service should be. Kids were interrupting. We never stood up. We didn't just pick the best musicians, we made everyone musicians. We didn't do a spiritual test on everyone before we gave them the opportunity to lead in worship. We just let people play the songs to God.

I think for us at theStory this was a good way for us to celebrate Christ's resurrection. We came together to worship and that's all that mattered. In some ways I think we made a spectacle of what music has become in the church and exclaimed with our loud instruments that worshiping God was never meant to be a perfectly crafted rock show. I sort of felt like the end of Little Miss Sunshine. If you haven't seen the movie, you need to, it was one of my favourite movies last year, but let me give you a bit of a spoiler. The entire movie is getting this young girl to the Little Miss Sunshine competition where she is to compete in a beauty and talent contest. All the other girls look like they are 19 year olds in 8 year old bodies covered in make-up and bikinis. It is quite disgusting. This girl, completely oblivious to what culture's ideas of beauty really are goes up on stage and performs a dance that her grandfather taught her. She performs it and disgusts everyone that watches and she makes a mockery of the entire competition. It is quite a beautiful scene. As weird as it may seem, Sunday felt a lot like that for me. Culturally ugly and horribly sounding but one of the most freeing experiences I could have experienced inside a church.

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We'll be walking through a new series this month entitled "This is About That" where we'll continue to see how Jesus uses paradoxical language, loaded with meaning, to reveal to his listeners the subversive nature of his kingdom.

Read: John 9 & Mark 11

Think: Backwards. Makes no sense. Out of left field...sounds like Jesus. Spouting his counter cultural truths, Jesus made his first listeners think twice about how they existed in and perceived the world around them. In turn, we are confronted with the same reality: Go with the flow, or swim upstream with Jesus.

This Sunday is also Palm Sunday, so keep that that frame work in mind as you engage this week's text.

Pray: Father, make me sensitive to my surroundings, and may I interact with my world in a way that exemplifies your image in me.

Live: "We are not alone, we feel an unseen love
We are sons and heirs of grace
We are children of a light that never dims
A love that never dies, keep your chin up child
And wipe the tears from your eyes
Stand ready and tall, reflect the light"
(Thrice, Vehissue)

NEWS

*Prayer: 7-8pm, this Thursday at 586 Highbury Park.

*Good Friday: We will be meeting from 11:11am-12:12pm on the April 6. Be there. Bring a friend.

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Last week we discussed from the scriptures the idea of God is One, Equality vs. Unity and the drawing call of God that says, "Know Me". Then the hard questions and thoughts began to make themselves know. Honest statements like...

"...I understand Interconnected, but Interdependent...how?"
"...What do I have to do for God to answer me?"
"...We're not raised in a society where we learn to trust. Can I truly trust God?"
"...I need to be in control of my own will."

Looks like this idea of "Empty is Full" is a little harder to swallow than we thought...

This week we begin our new series, Empty is Full, where we'll be exploring the Biblical idea that only when we are emptied are we truly fulfilled. Invite someone into the mix this month.

Read: John 5

Think: In this week's text we find the beginning of a thread that is woven through our next four reading. Jesus spins his yarn and essentially says this: "Empty is the new full". Funny enough, this thought is in direct contrast to what appears the to be the unspoken idiom of our age: "Full is the new empty". ‘Fill ‘er up!' we say, while Jesus responds, ‘Let it go...'

Live: "Jesus' disciples had to be taught how to see. The disciples saw the clean robe of Jairus; Jesus saw the stained garment of a bleeding woman. The disciples saw a prostitute groveling at Jesus' feet; Jesus saw a servant preparing his body for burial. The disciples saw a threatening alien force teaching in Jesus' name; Jesus saw more partners for the harvest. Jesus saw a woman giving two coins, illustrating the mysterious generosity of Kingdom economics; the disciples would not have seen anything at all if Jesus had not pointed her out." (Andrew Jones)

Pray: Father help me to hold loosely the treasures of this world. Help me to see others from your vantage point. May my life be about You, and not about me.

NEWS

*Evolving Church Conference: Check the website out here, talk to Darryl or Nathan.

*Prayer: Thursday, March 29 from 7-8pm @ 586 Highbury Park.

*Poker: Thursdays @ 9pm. Talk to Darryl if you're interested

*Coffee?: If you'd like to meet up and chat for whatever reason, drop me and email at joe@thestory.ca and let's set something up.

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"Society...was regarded [by the Desert Fathers] as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life...These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster." (Merton)

"Solitude is not merely a means to an end. Solitude is its own end. It is the place where Christ remodels us in his own image and frees us from the victimizing compulsions of the world. Solitude is the place of our salvation." (Nouwen)

"Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before GOD. GOD will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before GOD, but GOD wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but GOD wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but GOD wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper."
(1 Kings 19:11-13)

"Humble silence opens the ears and causes the listener to hear that 'sound of sheer silence' with which God so often speaks." (Jones)

"As an apprentice of Christ, I may be saved by grace, but I still have years of habitual anger, materialism, lust, and many other things to be dealt with. They're not just going to go away. Like someone who has a bad golf swing and always slices off to the right, I'm going to have to practice hitting the ball in a different way to make it go straight. The slice is in my body; it's how I have been formed. [Silence and solitude] help transform my habitual actions. These disciplines are not a substitute for grace, but receptacles for it." (Willard)

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Traditionally in the Western world, Lent is a time when Jesus followers fast from certain items or pastimes to prepare and position their hearts towards the week where we mourn the death and celebrate the resurrection of Christ. If nothing it else it removes a person from the everyday funk and routine that can dull the spirit, and puts us physically in a place where we deny ourselves for the purpose of focusing on Jesus.