The Joshua House
a missional community of worship following Jesus...

Join us for an afternoon filled with food, fun and friends. Drop by for as little or as long as you would like between 3:30pm-7:00pm on Saturday, December 20th.

Where: Terra Nova Co-op Common Room located at 74-6600 Barnard Drive, Richmond.  For a map click "here"

Bring the family. There will be crafts and activities for the children and all the sounds of the holidays.

There will also be an opportunity to support those in need both locally and internationally:
We will have a "Love All" table where you can donate to our Advent Conspiracy Fund. The money we raise will be split with some donated to buy gifts for families in need through the World Vision Christmas Gift Catalogue and the rest going to The Richmond Food Bank.

Cheques need to be made out to: "CSBA - The Joshua House"

Through JubeJube there will also be a table where you can buy fair-trade hand-crafted women’s handbags from the Philippines.

Hope to see you there!

Iraq, Afghanistan, Rawanda, Darfur, AIDS, cancer, malaria, starvation, poverty, terrorism, 9/11, Indonesian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, three children murdered in Merritt, Bisphenol-A in baby and water bottles, theft, adultery, molestation, rejection, loss, broken relationships, pride, selfishness, greed, suffering, death, the list goes on and on and on and on.  Why is the world so messed up?  Why are we so messed up?  Where is God in all this?  I’m sure there isn’t one person who hasn’t asked themselves these questions and wondered about it all.

Renowned new testament scholar and Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, N.T. Wright, recently wrote a book called Evil and the Justice of God where he tackles these very issues head on.  He reflects on the reality of evil in our world, how the world has tried to offer theories and solutions in both modernity and post modernity but how ultimately the answer may lie in a Galilean Jew who was crucified on a cross 2,000 years ago.

As a result of the book, N.T. Wright made a short DVD series entitled Evil that we as a church will be using at our Terra Nova group on Sunday nights after we finish our study in the book of Acts.  This looks to happen around the end of May or early June and will go over four Sunday nights.  So I would like to invite all of you to join us and to think and pray about others you would like to invite who might be looking for some answers to this very real question of evil and suffering in our world.

So how about that birth control, eh? “What, did he just say birth control?”  That’s right.  Glenda and I have recently been listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church) on Birth Control and to be honest, found it quite helpful.  This is clearly one of those real life issues that everyone (hopefully just married couples) thinks about but hardly ever wants to talk about.  Well, leave it to Mark Driscoll to talk about it, why he’ll talk on just about anything if it will help people learn how to follow Jesus in this world in which we live.

So that being said I would like to pass it on to you, those who choose to connect with The Joshua House.  This is just our part of our trying to be a church that helps people live their whole lives in glory to God.

Just click on the link below and listen or go to the church website above and look for it under the recent sermon series “Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions.”

Also a warning, the content might not be suitable for the younger folk, so keep that in mind if you play it with kids listening in.

Sermon

Question and Answer Period

Interesting book coming out by Timothy Keller, pastor of a church in Manhattan, New York called Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The book is called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

Tim Keller is an interesting bloke because he’s sort of known as one of the pioneers of a more recent urban kind of Christianity (what Christianity should look like in the cities). Put another way, he’s up there with guys like Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, N.T. Wright, etc.  I can’t believe I just put all those names together on the same line!

For some of you who might not know, these guys definitely don’t always agree with each other on everything but they are sort of part of an increasingly more popular group of leaders steering the way for Western evangelicalism in the 21st century.

I just finished listening to a really interesting sermon given by Tim Keller on “Exclusivity: how can there be just one true religion?” and wanted to pass it on to our community as I found it rather helpful. Have a listen and maybe pick up the book if your looking for more answers to questions like the one above.  The sermon is on the book’s website as it is one of the several issues the author raises and seeks to answer.

The book’s website above has other helpful links, resources and media too.

To listen to the sermon click here

To me, heaven is getting the kids to bed early without the kind of drama that would put Grey’s Anatomy to shame, making a big plate of nachos and sitting down to watch one of my favourite 80’s movies on TV like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, Lost Boys or The Breakfast Club (if you want to know more about my quirky movie taste feel free to see my favourite movies list on my facebook).  Whether it’s Cancun Mexico in the winter, a bite of our favourite chocholate bar, or scoring that game winning goal, I’m sure if we thought about it we’d all have different ideas of what heaven means to us, right?    But what of the bible?  What does it mean when it uses that term, and subsequently how are we as Christians to apply this understanding to our real lives here, now and today?

Often the way we talk about heaven in church can be like the way we talk about RSP’s (which by the way are due at the end of this month).  Most of us have them, believe in them, and even put our hard earned money into them but ask someone to explain how this will save us money on our tax returns and you will likely get back a blank stare and the word, “uhhhh” being uttered.

I wanted to share with all of you a recent interesting article in Time magazine entitled “Christians Wrong About Heaven, says Bishop.”  It is an interview with a well-respected Anglican bishop, pastor and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright who actually seems to dare talk about the specifics of what the bible means when it speaks of heaven.  I found it very helpful and I hope you do as well.  

By the way, in the near future I am considering on using some of his new DVD resources in our church.  He’s got a great DVD on the Resurrection as well as another on Evil, both of which I believe are very timely and essential topics to learn about today as Christians.

For the article just click here

Lent
This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday which is known as the beginning of the season of Lent in the Christian calendar. This is the period of time leading up to the passion week and ending with Easter. I came across a rather neat description of Lent from a visual liturgy resource website I use known as The Work of the People and thought I would share it below:

“Our Orthodox brothers refer to this season as a time of “Bright Sadness”. During Lent we face our humanity: we learn that sin still dwells in us, that we still carry darkness. We learn that we would likely have fallen asleep as Jesus prayed for deliverance in the garden, and we would likely have denied knowing him as he silently accepted his death sentence. So, it’s a dark season indeed, but it is also a season of tremendous hope, a looking forward to the celebration of the resurrection. In identifying with Christ’s suffering during the Lenten season, we ready ourselves for the sorrow of the Passion Week and as a result more fully embrace the joys of the resurrection.”

Before our bible study time I’ll be showing a short video relating to Lent to help our community enter into this season together. I will also be giving out a great handout of daily readings in the Psalms in anticipation of Easter for those who are interested. The handouts were made possible by Mars Hill Church , thanks Mars Hill!  I was made aware of this resource because our sister church, The Open House in East Vancouver, is also using them during Lent.

Mars Hill – Acts 17
It’s actually funny that I should thank a church named Mars Hill this week as this Sunday we will be reading the well-known passage in Acts 17 where the name Mars Hill, located in Athens, Greece, is taken from. There are actually two famous Mars Hill churches in the U.S.A., one in Michigan led by Rob Bell (the one that we got these Lent readings from above) and the other in Seattle led by Mark Driscoll. Both got their names from Acts 17, and if you want to know why, then you’ll have to come on Sunday…

ok…

I’ll tell you now…

Its because the when Paul shares the message of Jesus with the very intellectual, religious and non-Jewish Athenians he seems to do so with great sensitivity and understanding of their culture. In other words he seems to use the culture to reach the culture with the message of the Kingdom of God. Both the two churches mentioned above seem to try to make this one of their guiding principles in building their churches. I don’t even want to try to begin to compare ourselves to these two very large churches but the same holds true for The Joshua House. 

I hope you can all make it!

Terra Nova Group
Date: Sunday, February 10th
Place: Terra Nova Co-op Common Room
Time: 5:30-7:15pm
Topic: Acts 17 – Mars Hill

Community in Prayer
Please call or e-mail us with any prayer requests you would like to have the church community praying for!

Upcoming Events
The Richmond Winter Festival
The second annual Richmond Winter Festival will feature two nights of fireworks, live music and celebration of winter. From playground to podium, easel to stage, the weekend activities and family fun will be held:
Date(s): Friday, February 8th, 2008 Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Location: Richmond City Hall, Granville Avenue, Brighouse Park
Admission: FREE
Website 

Trinity Western University & The Centre for Entrepreneurial Leaders Presents
The Virtues of Business – Good Qualities Business has to offer and Good Qualities Business needs to flourish

Featuring Dr. Richard Higginson

Date: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Time: 12pm - 1:30pm
Location: Vancouver Club
Cost: $25/person (includes lunch buffet)

Date: Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 10:00am
Location: TWU – Reimer Student Centre Dining Room First Floor
Cost: $25/person (includes continental breakfast)

To register or for more info go here 

Higginson’s work, dealing with the interplay between entrepreneurship and Christianity, has been an inspiration and encouragement to many Christians in business—proving that conversations about seeing business as a calling are engaging businessmen and academics all over the world. “Virtues and vices are being inverted. Greed is good and sin to win: the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown down. How can Christianity meet this challenge?”

Have You Heard Any Good News Lately? - Evangelism in a Postmodern World
So this Sunday at our First Sunday gathering I’m going to be speaking and sharing about this whole evangelism thing and what it might look like in a postmodern world.  You might be wondering what I mean by “evangelism,” you might be wondering what I mean by “postmodern,” well if you want to find out then you’ll have to come out.  The truth is that evangelism is one of those words that if you throw around enough in church settings it makes you look like a super Christian rock-star but when used in the “normal world” seems to come across like a swear word.

So what do we really mean by it?  What should we mean by it?  What does Jesus say about it?  And how does it look in the world we live in today?

Please note the new time below for this First Sunday!  

First Sunday
Date: Sunday, February 3rd
Place: Towers Baptist Church (small sanctuary)
Time: 4:30pm-5:15pm (pizza dinner – cost by donation) 5:15pm-6:30pm (service)

Theme
Have You Heard Any Good News Lately? - Evangelism in a Postmodern World

Community in Prayer
Please call or e-mail us at thejoshuahouse@shaw.ca with any prayer requests you would like to have the church community praying for!

Upcoming Events
WestCoast Baptist Association Gathering
Date: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Surrey Chinese Baptist Church
Street: 8590 160th Street
City/Town: Surrey, BC
facebook event link

The Richmond Winter Festival
The second annual Richmond Winter Festival will feature two nights of fireworks, live music and celebration of winter. From playground to podium, easel to stage, the weekend activities and family fun will be held:

Date(s): Friday, February 8th, 2008
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Location: Richmond City Hall, Granville Avenue, Brighouse Park
Admission: FREE
Website

Trinity Western University & The Centre for Entrepreneurial Leaders Presents -
The Virtues of Business – Good Qualities Business has to offer and Good Qualities Business needs to flourish
Featuring Dr. Richard Higginson
Date: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Time: 12pm - 1:30pm
Location: Vancouver Club
Cost: $25/person (includes lunch buffet)

Date: Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 10:00am
Location: TWU – Reimer Student Centre Dining Room First Floor
Cost: $25/person (includes continental breakfast)

To register or for more info go to website

Higginson’s work, dealing with the interplay between entrepreneurship and Christianity, has been an inspiration and encouragement to many Christians in business—proving that conversations about seeing business as a calling are engaging businessmen and academics all over the world.

“Virtues and vices are being inverted. Greed is good and sin to win: the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown down. How can Christianity meet this challenge?”

The Imam and the Pastor - Visited
With the smell of my dad’s Starbucks permeating the air, sitting next to a rather large man so I couldn’t cross my legs and having another big-headed man block my vision of the guest speakers, I was both dismayed and delighted at what I saw and heard at this speaking engagement involving the actual pastor and imam from the documentary The Imam and the Pastor.  I was dismayed at how few young people were present but I was delighted by what I heard from both Pastor Wuye and Imam Ashafa.  With our acting mayor and a councilor or two present, this was an event sponsored by our city council and one of its new initiatives called the Richmond Intercultural Strategic Plan and Work Program prepared by the Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee.

Even after watching the film I was still very moved and impressed by both the passion and eloquence of these leaders in communicating their story of peace and cooperation even in the midst of major theological differences.  In our present-day postmodern, multicultural, pluralistic Canadian culture where Christians are usually seen as having some scary hidden agenda and Muslims of all kinds are being scrutinized for their religious connection to some very minor elements of dangerous fundamentalism (even Christianity has these elements too), I found the stories and lessons from these two men to be very timely and insightful.

It’s obvious that we don’t suffer from anywhere near the violent tensions of genocide found in Africa and other parts of the world, however, even with my short discussion with a woman of another worldview briefly after the event showed me that their is still a lot of misunderstanding and distrust amongst various people of differing beliefs and values.  So how can we continue to maintain a peaceful yet sincere co-existence and perhaps move to what one organizer called “beyond mere tolerance” of one another?  How can we truly be “peacemakers” as spoken about by Jesus without capitulating truth and our own convictions?  With our city asking these spiritual questions I don’t believe we as Christians can afford not to get involved.  

Here’s a short article in The Richmond News about The Pastor and the Imam speaking engagement that a few of us went to that took place this past Friday night at Richmond City Hall.

Expelled – The Movie
With the debate of Intelligent Design versus Darwinism heating up in America over the past couple of years, this spring a new movie-documentary looks to expose some of the issues surrounding the debate and some of the real-life censorship that has affected many scientists and professionals alike.

Expelled website
Just go to the “playground” to view a trailer.

Terra Nova Group
Date: Sunday, January 27th
Place: Co-op Common Room
Time:  5:30-7:15pm

Scripture
Acts 16 – Timothy of Good Reputation

Community in Prayer
Please call or e-mail us with any prayer requests you would like to have the church community praying for!

Upcoming Events
Imagination, Culture, and the Municipal Economy
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Time: 7pm - 9:30 pm
Location: Richmond City Hall - Council Chambers
Admission: This is a free public lecture and seating is limited Please RSVP at 604 247-8320 or suzanne.greening@richmond.ca

“Advances in the economy, in scientific knowledge, in social demographics and in communications are transforming the way we live. With this transformation come momentous challenges – and momentous opportunities. These opportunities demand fresh resources of imagination and ingenuity and a profound re-examination of our social, economic and moral priorities. At the same time, more and more hard evidence is emerging regarding the important role that arts, culture and creative activity play in the economic prosperity and social well-being of municipalities. As we move from a resource-based society to one built on information and imagination, it is essential that we integrate imagination and creativity into the way we learn, and build creative activity into the fabric of all aspects of modern society.”

Guest Speaker: Max Wyman, O.C., D.Litt (hon) - Mayor of the Village of Lions Bay and Chair of the Metro Vancouver Regional Cultural Task Force
Website: http://www.richmond.ca/news/2007city/1221luluseries.htm

Missions Fest 2008
“For Such a Time as This -
Destined to Make a Difference”
January 25–27, 2008
Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre
Website

Trinity Western University & The Centre for Entrepreneurial Leaders Presents
The Virtues of Business – Good Qualities Business has to offer and Good Qualities Business needs to flourish
Featuring Dr. Richard Higginson
Date: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Time: 12pm - 1:30pm
Location: Vancouver Club
Cost: $25/person (includes lunch buffet)

Date: Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 10:00am
Location: TWU – Reimer Student Centre Dining Room First Floor
Cost: $25/person (includes continental breakfast)

To register and for more info visit website

Higginson’s work, dealing with the interplay between entrepreneurship and Christianity, has been an inspiration and encouragement to many Christians in business—proving that conversations about seeing business as a calling are engaging businessmen and academics all over the world.

“Virtues and vices are being inverted. Greed is good and sin to win: the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown down. How can Christianity meet this challenge?”
 
The Richmond Winter Festival
The second annual Richmond Winter Festival will feature two nights of fireworks, live music and celebration of winter. From playground to podium, easel to stage, the weekend activities and family fun will be held:

Date(s): Friday, February 8th, 2008
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Location: Richmond City Hall, Granville Avenue, Brighouse Park
Admission: FREE
Website

The Imam & the Pastor
This Sunday we will be taking a break from our study in the book of Acts to watch a movie.  No, not the Matrix or Lord of the Rings, although both would be well worth watching.  No, this Sunday we will be engaging a documentary that is being shown in communities across the GVRD.  As seen below there is a showing this Thursday at The Richmond Hospital.  In a time where the world is being rocked by ungodly forms extremism and fundamentalism of all kinds by people of various beliefs, this documentary gives us a look at what an alternate path of peace and cooperation might look like.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9)

As followers of Jesus, how can we promote peace without selling out on what we believe?   

Here’s a little write up on the documentary:
“The Imam and the Pastor’ depicts the reconciliation between Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, and the peace-making initiatives which have flowed from it. The film, narrated by Rageh Omaar, traces their remarkable story. It depicts the dynamics of personal forgiveness, and highlights some of the difficulties that arise in Christian-Muslim partnership and how they can be tackled.”  

For more info and to view the trailer go "here"

I would invite you all, if you are available, to attend the speaking engagement being held at Richmond City Hall, where both pastor James and Imam Muhammad themselves will be on hand to share their story.

Can there be truth in John Lennon’s famous words, “…all we are saying, is give peace a chance?”

Invite your friends, all are welcome!

Terra Nova Group
Date: Sunday, January 12th
Place: Co-op Common Room
Time:  5:30-7:15pm

“Blessed are the peacemakers”

Community in Prayer
Please call or e-mail us at thejoshuahouse@shaw.ca with any prayer requests you would like to have the church community praying for!

Upcoming Events
The Imam and the Pastor – A documentary from the heart of Nigeria…
“From vengeance and killing to healing and friendship…”
“A moving story of grass-roots peace-building that gives hope to humanity”
Date: Thursday, January 10th
Time: 7pm
Where: Ralph Fisher Auditorium (in The Richmond General Hospital)

Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye Speaking – The two men featured in the movie above
Date: Friday, January 18th
Time: 6:30pm
Where: Richmond City Hall

Missions Fest 2008
“For Such a Time as This -
Destined to Make a Difference”
January 25–27, 2008
Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre
website

In the spirit of our discussion last Sunday night on Advent I would like to pass along an Advent video that the wife of a former teacher of mine created for this Christian season.  May it inspire us all to worship more the one who is worthy this Christmas!  Some of you might think I’m being a little early on this…but have you seen the stores lately?  Although traditional Western Advent doesn’t start until December, Celtic and Eastern Orthodox Advent start in the middle of November.  I don’t think you can start too early to begin meditating on and preparing spiritually for both the remembrance of the incarnation of Jesus and the expectation of his second coming (two major themes for this time of year).

For the video click here and then press the "play" symbol

Enjoy with a cup of eggnog!