Love Wins, Author: Rob BellGod Wins, Author: Mark Galli“Let’s you and him fight!” The old comic-book trope is good advice for bystanders as Mark Galli’s God Wins counters Rob Bell and his book Love Wins. The two are respected evangelical leaders (an editor and a pastor) who attract headlines and readerships as they debate “heaven,” “hell,” and the “good news.” Their subject is a meaningful alternative to the otherwise preoccupying evangelicals’ debates over homosexuality and abortion.
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Somewhere between “grudgery and gratitude”
But in a society where we’ve increasingly lost touch with our agrarian and spiritual roots, we also seem to have lost some vital thanksgiving rituals that could further assist us in cultivating a harvest of gratitude in our busy lives.
Never, ever, did Willard Hasmatali even think about planting a church. He was excited about operating a prayer and retreat centre at Diefenbaker Lake, about an hour’s drive northeast of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan – but a church? Not on the radar!
You could almost time the passersby’s reaction to us four teenaged guys dressed in baby-blue blazers (purchased at an MCC Thrift Store) perched in the mezzanine of the Steinbach Regional Secondary School gym: a stare, a smirk, and a shake of the head. Our low-budget crew consisted of Marty behind the VHS camera and rickety tripod, Ken holding a microphone duct-taped to a hockey stick (boom mic), and Chris providing colour commentary to my play-by-play call of the games below.
Some good words [and a few bad ones] In Katherine Paterson’s children’s novel, Bridge to Terabithia, a fascinating conversation takes place. Leslie, the new neighbourhood girl, is riding home after …
Everybody knows the new church on the block. It’s the fresh, informal, innovative church plant down the street. “New Church” may be small, but everybody is deeply invested – and it shows in the way they love each other and their neighbours.
On occasion, I’ve set up my telescope in the courtyard at Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, B.C., to show students the sky. Tuesday evenings work best, as I can interact with …
While most British Columbians grumbled about their summer weather, Camp Likely on Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo region had a summer to remember. B.C.’s newest MB camp hosted more kids than ever before – and marvelled that a full complement of volunteers came forward to staff all positions despite the vacant director’s position.
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and BackAuthor: Todd Burpo, with Lynn VincentNow, finally, thanks to Todd and Colton Burpo, we know a lot more about heaven than we did a few years ago! We know that we will have wings and will fly (though Jesus won’t). We know that infants (even miscarried babies) keep growing there, whereas older people revert to how they looked in early adulthood (but without glasses). We know that Gabriel sits at God’s left hand, that only Jesus gets to ride his horse. We even know what Jesus looks like.
The 2011 Minot, N.D., flood – the worst since 1881 – reminded Duane Deckert, pastor of Bible Fellowship Church (MB), that one’s shelter – whether church building or house – is not where God dwells.