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Worship & Worry
I’ve been around a lot of Christians and one thing is for certain, none of us are worry-free. Yes, some are better at hiding them than others, but I haven’t met one person who doesn’t have something...
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Link Friday!
Best picture from the links today! Poor doggie! To end your week, and kickoff your weekend, here are a bunch of (hopefully) helpful links for you. Let’s get going! (W=WORSHIP, D=DISCIPLESHIP,...
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By Request: "A Good Church"
I recently spoke at the 165th anniversary celebration for Beckwith Baptist, a church in the Ottawa area. I got a lot of comments and requests for the text, so I thought I’d post it here this week....
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Busyness is Killing The Church
I wrote this article a while back for ChristianWeek and it feels like it’s time to resurrect it. Pastor: “How you doin’ Bob?” Bob: “I’m so busy I can’t catch my breath!” Pastor: “How are the kids,...
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Discernment
Discernment When my daughter Eowyn was very little, she took it upon herself to simplift the alphabet. She’s replaced all the C’s, G’s, and K’s with the letter D. It was cute, (and if it caught on,...
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Flame Wars in The Church
A lot of churches today are currently embroiled in e-mail “flame wars”. They must stop! Did you know you can use salt to put out a fire? In fact, if you have a kitchen grease fire (and don’t have a...
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Link Friday!
To end your week, and kickoff your weekend, here are a bunch of (hopefully) helpful links for you. Let’s get going! Rick Warren at TED 2006 – A great place to start today. What is a Church Elder? – I...
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Why Life Sometimes Sucks
Matthew 6:19-34, John 15:5-8 are key verses to read and know if we are to understand life as a Christian. They are encouraging, reassuring and powerful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read...
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"Mind Your Buckets": How to Set Your Life's Priorities
A long while back (about 2 years ago) I gave a talk at the church I was serving about how to set our priorities. I called it “Mind Your Buckets” and it was all based on a picture that I’d been working...
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Common & Special Grace
I’ve seen some wonderful miracles throughout my life, and this past year has been even more amazing. Sometimes I get miracle and coincidence confused, but not this year — it’s been pretty obvious....
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De-Trivializing Our World
Did you know… … a cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers. … C3P0 is the first character to speak in Star Wars. … the most abundant metal in the...
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The Complexity of Christianity
(Photo credit: Phil Dowsing Creative) I was invited for an “Ask The Pastor” night last week and brought along this handout I’d been working on. I sat in front of the white board and asked myself “If I...
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I'm Angry with my Toothpaste
Oh toothpaste, how you have let me down! You promise so many things! In your TV commercials you tell me that no person can respect, love or enjoy the company of someone without shiny, white teeth. You...
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The Story of Robin
I spoke on Meditation this week, beginning with a story of a man named Robin. Do you see yourself in his story? Robin wakes up once again to the beeping of the alarm clock, and hits snooze one more...
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Christian Meditation: Stopping & Listening – Part 1
Meditation is a multifaceted and religiously loaded term. There are many Christians today who shy away from practicing meditation because they aren’t sure that it’s “allowed”. Let me assure you it...
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Christian Meditation: Stopping & Listening – Part 2
Meditation is a multifaceted and religiously loaded term. There are many Christians today who shy away from practicing meditation because they aren’t sure that it’s “allowed”. Let me assure you it...
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Picking It Up & Putting It Down
I feel some of you may need to hear the advice I recently gave a friend who is going through a tough time: “Sometimes we feel bad after praying that God would take our burdens and then picking them...
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Best of CTP Blog [So Far]
Picture unrelated… I just really like Nutella. To celebrate my 10th week of blogging [Wow, it seems like I’ve been doing this longer…], here’s a list of the 10 most viewed articles on the CTP Blog:...
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Male Eldership
There’s some confusion among Christians regarding male Eldership and the role of women in the church. This is a concern to me because it can easily become a divisive topic if it’s not clearly...
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Mega-Churches & Jealous Prayers
I watched this video again (more here) and it reminded me of my struggle with jealousy. I am a writer and a pastor, so this video hits me on both sides. Jon Acuff, who is a successful Christian...
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