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

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.

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! 

Scary Movies and the Christian
Around Halloween I had some good conversations with different friends on the whole watching horror movies issue.  In the days surrounding Halloween, as I channel surfed my TV by repeatedly pressing my already severely indented “channel-up” button (from the several quadrillions of times I have pressed it over the years), I couldn’t help but come across scary movie after scary movie being served up on my already over-priced, non-digital cable package.  I know I’m not alone on this.  Now I do have to admit that over the years I personally have enjoyed many a scary movie, everything from Jaws, Halloween and The Thing (the 80’s one with Kurt Russell) back when I was a teenager right through to more contemporary tales like Wes Craven’s Scream series, M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Village and a recent rental I got called Disturbia.

But as a Christian who should always be discerning about what aspects of the world around me I let into my heart and mind what should I think about all these scary movies that make their way into our TV’s, movie rental stores and theaters?

That being said I would like to pass on another good article on this issue that again relates to our recent discussions as a church on our value of discerning, missional cultural engagement.  This one again is by Pastor Harleman of Mars Hill Church (pastor of film and theology) and looks more closely at the issue of the horror, gore and fear movie genre and the Christian life.

For the article click here

As a disclaimer I would like to say that there are actually some movies that I choose not to watch because I think they will be more harmful than helpful to my life as a Christian.  I should also say this can often include really bad romantic comedies, etc.  This is something that I have chosen to do because I, like Mars Hill and other culturally engaging churches, understand that movies are the modern preaching pulpits of our day.  So the question is, how are we both discerning and engaging with this most important culture-forming media of our time in Jesus’ name (Colossians 3:17)?

I wanted to share a helpful interview with Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA.  He touches on the whole issue of clean vs. unclean in Christian/Church life today.  You’ll remember in our discussion on Sunday night on Acts 10 how I mentioned him in regards to this issue.  We certainly have a lot of unlearning and learning to do as God’s people today.

To view the 5 min. video just click here 

Living in a Co-op can really have its interesting moments.  Let’s say I’m chatting with someone I haven’t spoken with or seen for a long time.  It’s good to catch up and listen to how the other person is doing and all the changes that have occurred.  Almost always the conversation is pretty upbeat and we are both tempted to oversell how good things are actually going.  But that’s ok, there often isn’t time in these conversations to admit how things really are.  Somewhere along the line the question, “so where are you living these days?” comes up.  Now perhaps it shouldn’t really matter, but the reality is I can answer this question in one of two ways.  I can simply say I live in an area of northwest Richmond called Terra Nova.  For anyone who knows Richmond this will immediately conjure up images of the Fraser River meeting the ocean, strolling on the dyke with the scenic coastal mountains in the background, gated townhouse communities, people walking their little dogs that wear little dog reflective jackets that are nicer than mine, million dollar homes which you’d think were abandoned if you didn’t see people come out maybe once a year to either wash their Mercedes Benz or prune their prize-winning rose bushes. Many would probably also mention the Starbucks we have on the main corner which I think would win the skinniest Starbucks in the world award.  

Now I can leave it there and let people think I must be doing pretty well for myself for living in such a swank neighbourhood or I could share a little more by adding that I also happen to live in a Co-op.  I always add the part about living in a Co-op as well.  This has at times ended that part of the conversation because people in middle-upper class suburbia will often attach a stigma to Co-op housing by lumping it in with other forms of social housing.  I’m already used to this because people generally don’t know what to do when I tell them I’m a pastor either.  Sometimes, when our church gets missions teams up from the American south and I explain where we live and where we are doing church before they come, they think I’m talking about “the projects.”  But even many Canadians have many misconceptions about what Cooperative housing is as well.  So let me briefly explain:  Simply put, it is a community of people who have entered into a limited partnership with the government to create more affordable housing for those who need it and to bring together people of various income levels to live together in an intentionally cooperating community.  We have Ph.D’s, lawyers, pastors, single mothers, mechanics, construction workers and social workers all living in the same complex together.  Most pay a market rent which tends to be at most 90% of the rent prices in the neighbourhood and those who can’t afford that, around 1/3rd of the residents, also get further rent subsidies from the government.  Glenda and I thank God for this place because not only has it allowed us to stay in Richmond near our family in a time of incredulous real estate prices but it has also allowed us to live out our dream of creating intentional Christian community within an existing community here at the Co-op.  

Now I bring this all up because I have to be honest in saying that at times I am tempted to leave the part of our living in a Co-op out of such a conversation.  And my question is, why?  I think you’ll agree with me when I say it’s because we live in a world where most people are tempted to play favourites.  We tend to stick with those who are most like us and if someone doesn’t fit our particular sphere of culture, economic status, etc. we might not be as inclined to build a relationship with them.  This is a real problem today, as it was in the time of the New Testament.  On Sunday in Acts 10 we saw how God taught Peter (a Jew) that He doesn’t play favourites and was just as willing to give His Spirit to Gentile (non-Jewish) converts to Jesus as he was to Jewish converts to Jesus.  This was absolutely revolutionary to Peter who like all Jews was taught not to associate, or even eat a meal with Gentiles.  

Is this not still just as revolutionary today?

So my question for you is do you play favourites?  Or do you, like God, invite people of all ethnicities, socio economic levels, cultures, sub-cultures, age groups, religions, etc. into your life? 

God certainly doesn’t play favourites and neither should His people!

First let me say thanks to my fellow church planter Nick from Tapestry church in Calgary (part of our incarnational church network - The IIB Network) for passing this on.  It seems like we are both on a similar quest for the holy grail of figuring out how to be a missional church of Jesus followers in modern day Canadian suburbia.  Not as easy as you think!  The gospel both affirms and contradicts many values and lifestyles found in your average suburban community.  So where do we begin?

Here is a take on Ten Ways to be the People of God in Suburbia by Chris Smith.  Clearly not a comprehensive list but perhaps a decent place to start.