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

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?”