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On the Road Again

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I'm in Grande Prairie this week, ostensibly to attend  a dance competition where my daughter, Jen's dance studio is competing, and doing very well, if I may say so with a bit of fatherly pride. However, as I do not yet have a travel budget, I stole the opportunity to make calls on the churches in town, with some very encouraging results. I have previously visited most of them during my time with Alpha, so this was a matter of renewing relationships and re-introducing myself in my new capacity with Christianity Explored . Most calls just involved friendly conversation and ministry updates. I have also told all my churches that I am happy to encourage them with Alpha as well, so I shared the joy of what is probably the main Grande Prairie Alpha church, over the number of new believers coming to faith through their Alphas. Then, however, without my having even mentioned it, he produced material on a new discipleship program they are considering - Discipleship Explored - ...
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At Least I Have a Business Card

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My new business card Well, it's a start. And it fulfils in me a sense of belonging. We don't have a fully formed organization yet, but I have a card. And they say a card is as good as a raise. And a raise would be nice. In fact I've asked my boss, who is me, to double my salary. Considering I haven't yet begun to draw one, it was an easy request to grant. In fact, he (I) offered to triple it. What a generous boss! Second best boss I've ever had. Forgive, if you noticed it, the pretentiousness of the address - "Suite 35." Considering the fact that it is a condo unit, and it is unit # 35, it is only a slight enhancement, but it does add a bit of prestige, n'est pas ? So now it's time to hit the ground running. I've already had a number of encouraging conversations with local churches who are, or have run, Christianity Explored (CE) programs. Time now to broaden the field to introduce CE to other churches with a passion to introduce their communit...
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A New Chapter Begins

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Yes, it has been another while. I was looking at a fundraising proposal I made a year or so after I joined Alpha in a part-time role in 2011. I stated, in a tone of writing that sounds to me now rather boastful, that my target was to have 100 Alphas run in Alberta in 2012, and that I actually exceeded that target by 10. We had 110 Alphas in the Province in 2012. I chuckled at my innocence, even naivety, of those early days. In 2017 we had just shy of 700 Alphas in the Province. Already, in the first four months of 2018, there have been over 350 registered, including an encouraging number in the Province's schools. Having said that, my time with Alpha Canada has come to an end. Alpha Canada has decided to terminate the Alberta Regional Director position as of April 30, 2018, in favour of a Canada West Director to cover both Alberta and British Columbia. (With the current pipeline dispute, as of the date of this post, I hope my replacement...
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Been a While

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Yes, it has been a while since my last post. Alpha called me in mid-November and informed me that I had 29 days of holidays I hadn't taken over the time I've been with them, so I decided to actually take them between then and the end of the year. I have not been, "unbusy" though. I have continued to both make and answer phone calls and emails. One thing I did was speak at my church, Christ the King Edmonton, the picture from whose website I posted above. It was officially about the work of the Holy Spirit among the unsaved, but of course, I hope I was able to work in a bit of a commercial for Alpha. If you would like to hear it, or hear what my voice sounds like, you can find it here .   Another small accomplishment is this: there is a club in Edmonton, the Urban Tavern , where I do stand-up comedy some Sunday nights. I asked the manager what were his least-busy weekday evenings. The upshot of all this is that I have arranged to run an Alpha at the club on Wednesd...
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Wonderful People

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Anglican Diocese of Athabasca Synod - Peace River Alberta  Friday Oct 13 I drove 5 hours to Peace River to make a presentation at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Athabasca. Bishop Fraser Lawton would love to see as many of his parishes as possible running Alphas. Many of the delegates are actually familiar with Alpha, although, having run it often in the moderately distant past, may not be so familiar with all of our new materials. So Friday evening's dinner was turned into a model Alpha supper, including jokes and the showing of the invitational first video of the relatively recent Alpha Film Series. This version is hosted by Toby and Gemma, a hip young pair of presenters, and targeted at the Millennial generation, the 18 - 35-year-olds. I always say that baby boomers like it too because they too like to pretend they can still be young and hip. Between Friday evening and Saturday morning I met many great people and found quite a bit of enthusiasm for Alpha. If all comes ...
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One Body, Miles Apart

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  I have a super busy day today, so I'll make this a very brief post.   Each morning, as I have mentioned before, I open up the report of all Alphas running in Alberta this year (2017). The number keep climbing, so I hesitate to give it as a final total, but as of today it takes up 543 lines in my spreadsheet.   Two of the newly registered Alphas this morning are from completely opposite ends of the Province - one in High Level and one in Medicine Hat. Google Maps shows these to be a twelve and a half hour drive apart.   Same Province, same faith, same God, same Lord Jesus Christ, same Spirit. Just sayin'   Blessings,   John
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Billy Graham Evangelism Congress

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No Sooner did I return from my Calgary junket (Sunday afternoon) than Eva and I started a three-day Evangelism Congress beginning Sunday evening at the Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall. One of the featured speakers noted the irony of hosting an event aimed at bringing a Christian revival to our nation in a facility named, "Fantasyland." We who were there, and who have on our hearts the evangelization of our nation, would not consider our aims any kind of fantasy. The event was completely inspiring, with speakers such as Mark Hughes , Danielle Strickland , Charles Price and Edmonton's own Bob Jones, Senior Pastor at North Pointe Church . The worship band was also from North Pointe and the quality and duration of music was just about exactly perfect. I say duration because I find a 15 to 20 minute worship set to be just about right. I met many people there who I have previously met in my travels around the province, some of whom recognized me before I recognized t...
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