Social @ QQ's

This Sunday night (8:00PM) at THE VILLAGE, we'll be going to QQ TEASHOP in Westdale. Show up when you can, leave when you have to - see you there.

p.s. if you don't know where this is, it's near the corner of King Street West and Marion Avenue...beside the Shopper's Drug Mart.

Outreach 2.0

Join us as we continue our discussion/implementation of outreach at THE VILLAGE...Sunday, April 22nd @ 8:00PM (96 North Oval).

SUNDAY, SUNDAY

Just a reminder that THE VILLAGE will be meeting on Sunday @ 8:00PM. We're starting into a new series on OUTREACH, with a focus on what we can be doing as a community to reach out to those in need (in and around Hamilton).

96 North Oval - see you there.

Experiencing the Upper Room

This Thursday (April 5th) @ 7:30PM, we'll be meeting in the church house (96 North Oval). There, we will be having a time of worship and remembrance - marking the Last Supper and the events that took place in Gethsemane.

April 1, 2007

THE VILLAGE

Exodus 19-20

8:00PM

96 North Oval

THIS SUNDAY:

Join us for the last student lunch of the 2006-2007 school year...12:15PM after our morning service (100 North Oval).

this SUNDAY

8PM - 96 NORTH OVAL

THIS SUNDAY NIGHT

This Sunday night (March 18TH) - after the church-wide Lenten Service (which starts @ 6:00PM) - we'll be meeting to continue/complete our study of the Exodus/Moses. As usual, things will get started around 8:00PM at 96 North Oval. And if you're looking to read ahead, check out Exodus 19-20 (i.e. Mount Sinai & the Ten Commandments).

THE EXODUS (continued)

This Sunday (March 11TH) @ 8:00PM, we pick up the Exodus narrative at the crossing of the Sea of Reeds (i.e. Exodus 13:17-15:21).


96 North Oval.

PURIM

As we mentioned at THE VILLAGE (during our study of the Passover), yesterday was the Jewish festival of PURIM. This holiday is found in the book of Esther (9:18-32), and here's a little more information about it (taken from www.myjewishlearning.com):

Primer: Purim

PURIM, or the Feast of Lots, is a joyous holiday that recounts the saving of the Jews from a threatened massacre during the Persian period (539-330 BCE). The story of Purim is recounted in the Book of Esther, whose eponymous heroine plays the leading role in saving her people. The holiday is traditionally celebrated with wild abandon and with the giving of gifts to friends and the poor.

History: While the origins of Purim appear clear from the Book of Esther, historians have looked in vain for any sort of extra-biblical corroboration of the events of the story. Be that as it may, it is a tale that purports to take place during the Persian period. A young Jewish woman, Esther, rises to be Queen of Persia under the tutelage of her guardian Mordecai. All, however, is not right. The Jews have enemies, and a certain Haman, the grand vizier, plots the Jews' destruction. Even though Esther has hidden her Jewish identity from all, Mordecai prevails on her to risk her life by revealing her true identity to the king. She does this and denounces the evil Haman's plot. At the end of the story, the Jews are able to turn the tables on their enemies, who are then punished in place of the intended victims. This story is one of the most beloved in the Jewish community, because of the hope that it gives a minority living in an oftentimes hostile majority culture.

In Megillah (scroll), the Talmudic tractate devoted to Purim observances, Rabbi Akiva declares the Book of Esther to be divinely inspired. Some commentators believe this eventually led to the inclusion of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, despite the omission of God from the book. The Greek versions of Esther contain a number of additions--including God's name--not found in the Hebrew story.

At Home: In distinction to various other holidays, such as Pesach (Passover), Purim is the quintessential community holiday. Nonetheless, there are a number of activities that are centered in the home. One of the favorite activities in preparation for the holiday is the baking of hamantaschen, the triangular filled pastries that are the traditional food at Purim time. In addition, following the commandment to give gifts to friends and the poor, the preparation of so-called mishloah manot baskets is a fun activity to engage in, as is their distribution on the holiday. The centerpiece of Purim's home celebration is the seudah, a festive meal accompanied by alcoholic beverages.

In the Community: Purim is a community holiday of joyful celebration. The centerpiece of the communal celebration is the reading of the Scroll of Esther, the Megillah, in the synagogue. This is a raucous affair, with whoops, hollers, and noise being made every time that Haman's name is mentioned, so no one can hear the name of this horrible evildoer. Another tradition is the Purim shpiel, the Purim play, during which fun is poked at community leaders and members. Purim has often been called the Jewish carnival, and dressing in costume and taking part in a Purim carnival heighten the levity of the day, on which one is encouraged to engage in activities that at other times of the year would be somewhat more restricted in scope, such as drinking.

Themes and Theology: The overriding theme of Purim is the saving of the Jews from a mortal threat. Even though God is not mentioned at all in the Book of Esther, from a Jewish perspective, God is the one who is pulling the strings of redemption behind the scenes. The holiday of Purim has become one of the best-loved holidays of the Jewish year. The reasons for this are easy to see. It is a joyous holiday on which everyone just lets go. Most significant, however, is the paradigmatic nature of the story of Purim. It is not difficult to see how a story in which a small and threatened Jewish community in exile is able to triumph over its foes would prove to be a powerful image for a Diaspora community faced over the centuries with threats from many different sources. The story of Purim, however, holds out the hope that no matter how bad the circumstances, things will turn out well in the end.

this SUNDAY...

Tired of cafeteria food (or the not-so-amazing things you normally eat as a student)?

You're invited to our monthy STUDENT LUNCH:

SUNDAY, MARCH 4TH @ 12:15PM

[100 North Oval - in the lower auditorium]

F.Y.I.

ASH WEDNESDAY is this week...February 21ST...marking the beginning of Lent.

THE VILLAGE returns MARCH 4TH

SKATING @ THE VILLAGE

This Sunday night @ 8:00PM, we'll be meeting at the church (100 North Oval) to go skating for our monthly social event. If conditions are good, we'll likely be going to Cootes Paradise...SO, bring your skates, a hockey stick, and if you have a shovel, we might need it to clear away some of the snow!

info about the student lunch...

Reading week at MAC starts this weekend, and a number people may not be back by next Sunday (the last Sunday of the month)...SO, this is just a reminder that the next STUDENT LUNCH is going to take place on SUNDAY, MARCH 4TH @ 12:15PM.

THE VILLAGE in Egypt

Sunday, February 11th @ 8:00PM we continue our journey through the book of Exodus. [96 North Oval]

another quote to consider...

Finished the book...worth the read...a lot of great insights, such as the following:

"How much energy do we modern Christians put into condemning sexual sins compared to avoiding the judgmental, Pharisaical attitude of those with rocks in their hands? Who killed Jesus, adulterers or Pharisees? I'm not trying to minimize adultery - believe me, I know how terrible it is. I'm just saying that our modern preoccupations don't seem very informed by the gospel"(p. 99).

MP

Moses @ THE VILLAGE

This Sunday (February 4th) @ 8:00PM, we'll be continuing our new study on the life of Moses. If you have a chance, please read the following passages before we meet: Exodus 4:27-31, 5:1-23, 6:1-13.

96 North Oval (near the corner of Sterling & King Street)

Peace,
Mike & Heather

VISION/DIRECTION/CHANGE

Just wanted to get your feedback about your own experience of church...you can be as honest as you like, and can even answer anonymously. If you have a moment and would like to share your thoughts, please leave your comments below as they relate to these interrelated questions:

What would your ideal church look like? How is that similar/different from your experience at Mission Baptist Church? In your opinion, what things draw you (and others) to church and what things keep you (and others) away. What would you change - add, take away, modify?

Thanks,
MP

THE VILLAGE (this Sunday)

Movie Night & Discussion

96 North Oval @ 8:00PM

Student Lunch (THIS WEEK)

Sunday, January 28TH

Free lunch for young adults (university-age/20s/30s) immediately following our morning service. Service starts @ 11:00AM - lunch begins around 12:15PM.

The Life of Moses

New series starting this Sunday (January 21st) @ THE VILLAGE. Same time (8:00PM), same place (96 North Oval). If possible, please try to read the first three (3) chapters of Exodus.

Sunday, January 14TH

See you at THE VILLAGE...8PM...96 North Oval.

A New Kind of Christian

At the moment, I'm reading a book called A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIAN by Brian McLaren, and thought I'd share an excerpt from the third chapter (pages 22-24). As for context, this is written as a journal entry directed to God:

"I was thinking about the statement 'God is in control.' I know that the question of what that statement means has been under hot debate in recent years, with the 'openness of God' camp suggesting new interpretations and traditionalists crying 'heresy' in response. Now I realize that this debate really reflects some thinking people questioning their own modernity, not your ultimate power. At any rate, what does 'God is in control' really mean to people today? I am almost certain that we cannot consider the word control without thinking of it mechanistically. In other words, for you to be in control means to make something happen your way, the way an operator operates a machine, flipping switches, turning gears, pressing buttons, causing effects that cause other effects. I think it is almost impossible for us to consider control meaning anything else. But then I consider this: before the modern world, there were no complex machines. There were no switches to flip, buttons to push, or gears to grind. If I recall correctly, some of the first complex machines, clocks, were beginning to be developed in the 1300s, but it wasn't until the harnessing of the pendulum for clock technology in the early 1600s that modern machines really became commonplace. So God, whatever a person in ancient biblical times would have meant by saying 'God is in control' (if he would have said such a thing at all) it is almost certainly very different from what we mean today. For him, your control was associated with farmers controlling animals or parents controlling children or perhaps a king controlling subjects - all very different from an operator controlling a machine 'like clockwork.' So if we say the Bible speaks of you being in control (a word that doesn't even appear in the old King James Version, according to my concordance), we run the risk of importing and imposing all our modern conceptions of clockwork, operation, mechanism onto you. We end up thinking of you in a way that may really distort both your nature and our situation in relation to you. In one way, Lord, this makes me want to praise you, because many of our intellectual problems with faith, like the whole issue of how evil can exist in your universe, seems to disappear or shrink when we step outside the mechanistic model. In other words, if a company designs a plane and it crashes due to design failure, we hold the designer liable. Or if a person drives a car drunk and kills a pedestrian, we hold the driver responsible. In both cases, the machine designer or operator is the only sentient being capable of being held responsible. But if a parent raises a child with all appropriate guidance and the child grows up and rejects his parents' teaching and commits a crime, we don't hold the parent responsible in the same way. So I can see how limiting ourselves as moderns to a mechanistic view of the universe - and of you - really creates problems for us. Forgive us, Lord, for judging you according to our own incomplete paradigms."

MP

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just a reminder that THE VILLAGE will be returning on Sunday, January 14th @ 8:00PM. Hope to see you then!

Mike & Heather

TWINS!!!

One goat is good. Two goats are great. And through our World Vision fundraising campaign, we've raised enough money for two goats! So, Methuselah will be joined by a little friend.

The World Vision Gift Catalogue reads: "One hearty goat can provide up to 350 litres of nutritious milk to a needy family each year. Two goats can breed and produce several kids a year - the beginning of a whole herd. And these robust animals practically raise themselves. They survive well in the harshest climates, eat grass and leaves, and produce plenty of manure for fertilizing a family's vegetable garden. The gift of a goat can change a child's life - no kidding!"

Anyone have any ideas for what we should name the second goat?

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from THE VILLAGE! We're done for 2006, but will be starting up again in early January 2007. Have a great time with family and friends, and we look forward to seeing you again in the new year!

Hope, Joy, Peace & Love,
Mike & Heather

DECEMBER 17TH @ THE VILLAGE

This Sunday (the 17th) @ 8:00PM (96 North Oval) we'll be having a Christmas Party (with Egg Nog & Hot Chocolate). Please bring along some kind of Christmas dessert and games.

See you there,
Mike & Heather

SUNDAY the TENTH

Join us @ 8:00PM (96 North Oval) as we continue to celebrate the season of ADVENT together.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

If you're planning on renting a movie anytime soon and haven't seen AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH...pick it up and watch it. It is an excellent piece of moral entrepreneurship that is so convincing it's scary. Below, I've also listed a number of practical things we can be doing to reduce global warming...more information can be found here: www.climatecrisis.net. As it's stated in the film, this is a moral issue. And as God's people - who the Lord has entrusted with the responsibility to care for His creation - we ought to seriously examine our habits that are contributing to the problem.

SOME IDEAS:

(1) Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

(2) Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer. Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.

(3) Use less hot water. It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.

(4) Turn off electronic devices you’re not using. Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

(5) Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them. Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!

(6) Be sure you’re recycling at home. You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates.

(7) Plant a tree. A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%.

(8) Avoid heavily packaged products. You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

(9) Eat less meat. Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.

(10) Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible. Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year!

"When you pray, move your feet"(African proverb).

SUNDAY @ THE VILLAGE

This Sunday being the first Sunday in advent, we'll be taking the opportunity to mark the season together at THE VILLAGE...8:00PM @ 96 North Oval.

STUDENT LUNCH...DECEMBER 3RD

Just a reminder that this Sunday @ 12:15pm, it's our final student lunch of the Fall term...SO, if you're university-aged or in your 20s/30s, we'd love to see you there. AND if you're in school and have exams in December, we've made up special exam survival kits just for you (candy, chocolate, study tips, etc...).

A Beautiful Collision

Here's something from the liner-notes of David Crowder Band's latest album A COLLISION (a band/album worth checking out):

"...for the past two years we have ended most nights in concert with the following statement: 'when our depravity meets His divinity it is a beautiful collision.' This recording is about that collision. It is the collision of our fallen state and our Maker's transcendence. It is a rendering of our mortality and eternal life. It is about the tension that exists in the living of life, here, where the sky meets the broken earth. It is about a tsunami in East Asia. It is about a sunrise over Hiroshima. It is about too many who know intensely what pain the word 'cancer' holds and the words of my friend whispered in my ear, 'It's okay. None of us are getting out of here alive you know.' It is about victory. It is about the joy that comes when blood tests return and a miracle is announced. It is the hope in a rescue that has come, the hope in a rescue that has found us, and the relentless hope in a greater rescue that is still coming - one that has not yet arrived but is no less present. This music, broken, improper and inadequate in its response is rooted in that hope. The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now and coming."

THIS SUNDAY...

...we'll be talking about the way that God has been at work in our lives. Namely, sharing our testimonies with each other. Same time and place (8:00PM @ 96 North Oval).

mark your calendars...

...THERE IS NO STUDENT LUNCH THIS SUNDAY.

THE NEXT STUDENT LUNCH WILL BE HAPPENING ON DECEMBER 3RD.

THIS SUNDAY NIGHT

Any specific questions on your mind about the Bible, God, faith, or life in general? This week at THE VILLAGE, we'll be having something called Q-FILES, where we'll have an opportunity to wrestle with some of your questions...feel free to leave your questions below, or email them to Mike: mpowell@missionbaptist.ca.

MP

p.s. 8:00PM, 96 North Oval

We've Raised Enough for Methuselah!

Although goats through the WORLD VISION catalogue were $150 at one time, the Christmas catalogue has them listed at $100. To date, as THE VILLAGE and STANDING GROUND (Sr. High Youth), we have raised exactly $138.25. Great job...and with $100 designated for Methuselah, that means there's already $38.25 that we can put towards another animal. Any suggestions? Maybe a friend for Methuselah?

LOST predictions

The "Fall Season Finale" of LOST airs tonight (8:00PM on CTV, 9:00PM on ABC). Since a number of people @ THE VILLAGE watch the show, feel free to leave your theories about what you think will happen next, who "the others" are, who/what the "monster" on the island is, etc...

MP

THIS SUNDAY...

Sunday the 12th @ 6:00PM, girls from THE VILLAGE will be meeting at 96 North Oval for a girls night...please bring along $ for dinner, a favourite movie, and a favourite snack. We'll either be going out for supper or ordering take-out, and then hanging out in the lounge. Email Heather if you have any questions: heather.macumber@canada.com


Sunday the 12th @ 8:00PM, boys from THE VILLAGE will be meeting in front of the church (100 North Oval), and then going out to play pool. Bring along some cash, and email Mike if you have any questions: mpowell@missionbaptist.ca

The Quintessential Human Act

It has been said that the most elemental form of human speech is prayer...that prayer is "the quintessential human act"(Dr. Victor Shepherd). Considering that God created humankind in His image - designed us with an innate capacity for a relationship with our Creator - this makes perfect sense. But why is prayer so often a last resort, when it should be our first response?

Countless answers could be given to this question, with varying degrees of depth...but as i consider my own prayer life (or lack thereof), the conclusion i come to relates to a lack of dependence on God. Let's be honest. Though we may truly believe that God hears/answers our prayers, how often do we neglect setting time aside to pray because it appears unproductive? In our independence, so often we're driven by what we perceive to be tangible/visible/measurable, aren't we? And prayer may or may not factor into the process. We're self-reliant. We want to be completely self-sufficient. We'd rather do things on our own, without God's help.

But if prayer truly is the "quintessetial human act" - the essence of life in its purest form - then the majority of people in the world aren't really acting very human (myself included). Therefore, against all of our inclinations to be independent, we need to re-learn dependence...and i'm pretty sure it's no accident that prayer is often referred to as a spiritual discipline. Learning to depend fully and completely on the Lord is a life-long struggle, especially in a culture that values independence and considering our sinful nature that is thoroughly self-centred.

Therefore, may we un-learn complete self-reliance, and re-learn dependence on God by devoting ourselves to prayer.

MP

in conclusion...COLOSSIANS

This week @ THE VILLAGE (Sunday the 5th, 8PM, 96 North Oval), we'll be concluding our study of the letter to the Colossians (i.e. Chapter 4). Regardless of whether or not you've been able to join us for our first few studies on the book, we'd love to see you there...

Mike & Heather

PRAYER REQUESTS?

Make a request, pray for a request that has been left, comment on an answered prayer.

AIDS Walk 2006

THIS WEEKEND @ MISSION

The last Sunday of the month means it's time for our STUDENT LUNCH...so if you're at college/university (or in your 20s/30s), this is for you. Following our morning service (which runs from 11:00AM to 12:15PM), we'll be meeting downstairs in the lower auditorium.

ALSO...there are two other things to remember this weekend:

(1) THE AIDS WALK: Saturday @ 1:00PM, you're invited to come to an event that we are organizing. At Mission Baptist (100 North Oval), we'll be hearing from a WORLD VISION REPRESENTATIVE about the problem of HIV/AIDS, and what they are doing to help. Opportunity will be given to donate $ that will directly help with global care and treatment programs. Following this, there's a 10 KM hike along the Hamilton Harbour Waterfront Trail.

(2) SUNDAY NIGHT: We'll be doing something a little different this week at THE VILLAGE, as Pastor Dieter will be joining us, and leading a discussion entitled: "The God of the Bible and Allah of Islam...Are They the Same Person?" Same time (8:00PM), same place (96 North Oval).

The Place of Jesus Christ in Worship

With the unmistakable emphasis that the letter to the Colossians has on Jesus Christ (as we have seen at THE VILLAGE), i thought i would share something that was transformational in my understanding of worship. If you ever have an opportunity to pick up the book WORSHIP, COMMUNITY & THE TRIUNE GOD OF GRACE (by James B. Torrance), it's well worth the read. But here's a brief section from the introduction that was invaluable to me:

"Our chief end is to glorify God and creation realizes its own creaturely glory in glorifying God through human lips. But nature fails in its realization because of our human failure. Instead of singing songs of joy, the whole creation groans in universal travail, waiting for the fulfillment of God's purposes in human lives. Does God then abandon his purposes for humanity and for all his creatures? Does God leave all nature to be subject to vanity and futility - to be ruthlessly exploited and abused - and forget he has made us in his image for a life of communion and shared stewardship? The good news is that God comes to us in Jesus to stand in for us and bring to fulfillment his purposes of worship and communion. Jesus comes to be the priest of creation to do for us, men and women, what we failed to do, to offer to the Father the worship and the praise we failed to offer, to glorify God by a life of perfect love and obedience, to be the one true servant of the Lord. In him and through him we are renewed by the Spirit in the image of God and in the worship of God in a life of shared communion. Jesus comes as our brother to be our great high priest, to carry on his loving heart the joys, the sorrows, the prayers, the conflicts of all his creatures, to reconcile all things to God, and to intercede for all nations as our eternal mediator and advocate. He comes to stand in for us in the presence of the Father, when in our failure and bewilderment we do not know how to pray as we ought to, or forget to pray altogether. By his Spirit he helps us in our infirmities. As the head of all things, by whom and for whom all things were created, he makes us his body, and calls us to be a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. He calls us that we might be identified with him by the Spirit, not only in his communion with the Father, but also in his great priestly work and ministry of intercession, that our prayers on earth might be the echo of his prayers in heaven. Whatever else our worship is, it is our liturgical amen to the worship of Christ...Christian worship is, therefore, our participation through the Spirit in the Son's communion with the Father, in his vicarious life of worship and intercession"(p. 13-15, italics added).

THE VILLAGE...x-ray showing one's inner self?

@ THE VILLAGE

...journeying onward

We've had a great first couple of studies on the letter to the COLOSSIANS, and have now covered two chapters. This week, we're jumping into CHAPTER 3. As always, it was awesome to see you all there...we hope our time together is not only encouraging but challenging. Have a great week, and we'll hopefully see you (again) on Sunday @ 8:00PM (96 North Oval).

Peace,
Mike & Heather

Coming to Theatres December 2006

OCTOBER 15th @ 8PM

Join us as we continue our journey through the book of COLOSSIANS...this week, we'll be taking a look at CHAPTER TWO. See you at 96 North Oval.

Mike & Heather

Goat 411

So far, the young adults and youth have raised $101.75 for our World Vision goat! We're almost at the $150 mark...keep on keeping on!

New Music

If you're interested in hearing some brand new music that I've just recorded, check out www.myspace.com/cellfish.

MP

THE VILLAGE returns OCTOBER 15TH @ 8PM

Have a great THANKSGIVING weekend, and we'll see you again when THE VILLAGE returns...at that time, we'll be continuing our study of Colossians (picking up at chapter two).