What's Going On?

"What's going on?" you ask (as also did Marvin Gaye). "What's coming up? What's in the works?"
Well I thought it was time I wrote another post, so let me tell you about a couple of things.

I've been working on a few things. A couple of churches have been really encouraging to me. Yesterday I met with St Albert Alliance. They are planning a pretty major fall Alpha campaign, as a church as a whole, in small groups and in Seniors' homes.

South Calgary Chinese Evangelical Free Church (SCCEFC - Chinese Churches seem to like initials; see Westside Calgary Chinese Alliance Church [WCCAC], SEAC [South Edmonton Alliance Church], ECCC [Edmonton Christian Community Church] etc., but enough of that - they are all good Alpha churches) are planning 2 Alpha's this fall.

Christcity, my favourite Sunday evening church, (I tell people I'm an Anglican Sunday mornings and a Pentecostal Sunday nights) is planning to give Alpha a higher profile this fall. I've been after them for quite a while about that because they are quite a rockin' church and I have long felt they could be a very major Alpha church.

And I've reserved a spot at Break Forth for next year, along with a breakout session.  My session will be entitled, "Communicating the Relevance of the Gospel in a Changing Culture," (I hope the title will fit in the program.) My description for the program is:
 this
 "Evangelicalism has never chased relevance more determinedly than it does right now. And yet, we've never been more irrelevant." (a quote from Os Guiness)
As soon as we feel we have to try to make the Gospel message relevant, we are admitting that we think it is not, so how do we communicate the eternally relevant message in today's world?
 Hopefully, it will receive the same response at the conference as last year's presentation.
Please continue to pray for Alpha's ministry in Alberta, across Canada and around the world. As we are embarking on a fall fundraising initiative, you might also consider clicking on my picture on the right and helping us out a bit.

Blessings,

John


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wonderful People

Image
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 ...
Read more

Whirlwind Tours

Image
Because, as the title of this blog indicates, this is a diary, it will not always contain great theological or philosophical revelations. Sometimes it will be just what a diary is - a record of my thoughts and/or activities. I have set myself a bit of a busy schedule over the next two weeks, but that's the whole point, isn't it. Even though this is my retirement career, I still treat it as a full-time job. Basically, I do my best to devote 9-5, five days a week to my Alpha duties, and Saturday and Sunday are never ruled out if Alpha stuff needs attention. So... my schedule as it stands so far for the next couple of weeks includes two presentations at St Paul's Anglican Church in Edmonton this Sunday, trips to Westlock and Morinville, AB, a Pastors' lunch presentation in Whitecourt and visits to churches in Provost, Wainwright and Lloydminster. One thing I like to do wherever I go is check out a bit of each town's history and sources of local pride. Many Alberta comm...
Read more

On the Road Again

Image
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 - ...
Read more