I think everyone has their awkward years growing up — that particular phase of angst, searching for personal identity, not feeling you like fit in or belong, making questionable fashion choices
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People are often surprised that I was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. In Saskatoon they imagine that a black girl, with Jamaican parents, who is originally from Ontario is obviously from Toronto… but we are not. Growing up we were
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Planning for your future becomes more important the closer you are to retirement. If you’re 20 and come into a windfall of cash, it’s unlikely all of that money is going into the TFSA. We tend to struggle with picturing ourselves in the distant future. Churches tend to lack vision that extends beyond 3-5 years. Lead pastors are kind of like politicians, they have direction enough for their term, and little beyond. What we rarely see is vision casting that extends into generations. We struggle as a whole to plan for the future.
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You ask me how I can still be a Christian when all over the news in this country and that other one to the south, we hear stories, we see pictures, we drown in evidence that to be Christian is a blank cheque to power, infidelity, abuse and deceit.
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In the last couple of years I have been deeply inspired by a group of people who have chosen to see themselves as part of the same story. Through MCC’s Indigenous Neighbours work I came to know of a reconciliation effort now known as Reserve 107.
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The ability to interact online is a marvelous gift and one that, as someone who has been blogging for nearly a decade, I am immensely appreciative of. But to the surprise of precisely no one who has spent more than five minutes online, the shared spaces of our online discourse can also be profoundly uninspiring
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Stories have a great power to inspire and help us see outside ourselves. History is filled with stories, many of which come from a context different enough from our own, that we can see the aspects of another life in a
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Like many church kids I grew-up listening to Bible stories. From the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, to Samson ripping off the city gates with his bare hands, from David
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When was the last time a church coach or lead pastor was fired for not hitting a discipleship quota? Never. What we measure describes what we deem the most important in the community. By this metric
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There are currently two different stories playing out in North America. One is a story of a nation that seeks to reconcile with its oldest relatives, the First Nations and the land itself. The nation-to-nation relationship
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The CPR saved my people’s life. Okay, maybe that sounds a bit dramatic. Anyway, the story is: A century ago, as World War I was grinding on and the Russian revolution flared up
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So I’m a bit of a jerk. A surprise to some. Not so much to others. In May, New Leaf hosted In the Company of Women, a conference for men and women who long to see the mission of God advanced in Canada through shared leadership. Last year, when my almost friend Jared Siebert mentioned this idea of reclaiming
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The New Leaf Network is a dream I have been dreaming for quite some. It was born out of what I was seeing in Canada: the Holy Spirit up to something brand new in our towns and cities. For years, I have been watching my friends get caught up in that “brand new” only
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