The Inconvenience of Following Jesus

Here's my struggle with following Jesus... It's so damn inconvenient sometimes. Missional living goes against so many of my natural inclinations. In our consumer-driven culture, where Google chooses which ads I look at and Starbucks allows me to pre-order my coffee before I can even say hello to a barista, being a disciple of Christ …

Validate Me!: How we lose sight of the goal

What is success? What criteria do you use to determine whether you are doing well or not? In our day in age, we have metrics for just about everything we do. Our workplace have evaluations, schools have grades, gyms have scales, restaurants have reviews and social media have "likes." It's hard to go anywhere or …

Playing Devil’s Advocate: The cost of trying to be original

A few months back, when the ALS ice bucket challenges was flooding my newsfeed, I found it interesting how so many people wanted to express their unique opinion on the matter (as I'm pretty much doing right now). After the challenge went viral, the haters came out of the woodwork. They made the case that …

Finding a “Worthy” Cause: How economics have changed the way we give

In his book, I Spend, Therefore I Am, Philip Roscoe describes how the influence of economics have changed the way we interact as humans. He argues that with the collapse of the economy in 2008, companies and NGO’s began running to economists in order to provide them with some kind of solution to do more …

The Simple and the Cautious: Two Streams of Discipleship

In responding to the Great Commission, there's no way we can ignore the centrality of discipleship. That seems to be more of an emphasis among the churches I'm in contact with these days. But the important question moving forward is, what's the best approach in making a disciple? I realize there are countless of ways …

A Convenient Generosity

Often times, it's a good idea to take a step back and examine the culture we live in. A guy who gets me thinking, and slightly cynical about the culture we live in, is Slavoj Zizek. In one particular observation, he dissects the way in which charity is evolving in the west (click to watch his lecture). …

Out of Character

If you've ever read any of previous blogs, you'll notice that I spend a lot of time discussing the subject of "humility". To be honest, I probably talk and write about it a whole lot more than I live it, but none the less, humility has been one of those characteristics I hold with high …

Constipated and Loving It!

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty overwhelmed by all the information I have access to. In this digital age, we ingest just about every video, article or music clip that catches our eye as we comb through the world wide web. My friend refers to these never ending streaming blitzs as a …

Movements, Protests and the Ever-Expanding Flannel Industry

For the past five years, I have been consumed by the concept of "movements". It's just fascinating to watch the evolution of trends in our generation. Just look at how something like those funny looking Crocs can make its way into every home in North America, or how everyone all of a sudden felt the need to start wearing flannel (I'm …

Running on Empty

I'm not sure if you catch yourself doing this, but when someone asks me "How have you been doing?", I find that my default answer always seems to be "pretty tired" or "things are busy." Sometimes I'll even say it when things in life are pretty peaceful and under control. It's a horrible habit. I've …