Speakers for 2010 Calvary Grace Conference

I am pleased to announce the speakers for the 2010 Calvary Grace Conference. Vishal Mangalwadi and Art Azurdia have both accepted invitations to speak at our 2nd annual conference (January 29-30, 2010). I have been interested in Vishal's ministry ever since I read his outstanding little book, The Legacy of William Carey. By showing the dramatic transformation which the Word of God wrought in India, Vishal offered a powerful reminder of the gospel's efficacy for societies and cultures. Vishal has spoken at the 2005 Desiring God Conference for Pastors and was recently featured on the Christian Research Institute's broadcast (Oct 8 & 9), talking about his latest book, Truth and Transformation. Art Azurdia returns to our conference this year having ministered to us last year. Art's ministry was greatly appreciated and we are very thankful to have him with us again. Art's ministry came to my attention initially through his book, Spirit Empowered Preaching, deemed by many to be the best book on preaching since Lloyd-Jones' Preaching and Preachers. It was fitting then, that Art would be asked to speak at the 25th Anniversary of the Welsh preacher's death. Art teaches at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon after serving in pastoral minstry for over two decades. He also helps pastors by leading the Spurgeon Fellowship with fraternal events and a journal. Art has become a dear friend to many in the Calvary Grace Church family and we look forward to welcoming him back to Calgary. *** We have started up our conference blog once again, so check it out at http://www.calvarygraceconference.tumblr.com/ Also look for updates here and at our church website, http://www.calvarygrace.ca/

Upcoming Conference Announcement

At Calvary Grace Church we are busily putting things in place so that we can make a formal announcement regarding our 2nd annual church conference. The 2010 Calvary Grace Conference will be January 29-30 in Calgary, Alberta. We are confirming a somewhat expanded lineup of speakers and are excited about the prospects of what the Lord may do among us in those days. Stay tuned.

Foretaste of Heaven

I am glad to see the return of my wife, Christel, to the blogging sphere. She is a great writer with deft insights and thoughtful observations. Check out her new blog, Foretaste of Heaven. ...My sentiments exactly.

Trendy Church Stuff

Kevin DeYoung is a great writer with tons of insight. His books and blog should be standard reading for anyone interested in the so-called "Emergent Church". Here is a great summary analysis from DeYoung: ... I don’t think there is a single insight from the emergent church that cannot be gleaned from the best of the evangelical, and specifically the Reformed, tradition.

Thinking About Your Diet

I don't diet really. Although my wife has helped me cut back on sugar and carbs. But what diet does my congregation have? Thinking back over the pulpit history of Calvary Grace, I would like to think there has been a healthy diet of Old and New Testament, Epistles and Wisdom Lit, Prophets and Gospels. Here is a list, a sort of diet of expositions: Isaiah Servant Songs 1 Timothy (book study) Selected Psalms Parables of Jesus Deuteronomy (book study) John (book study) 1&2 Samuel (book study) Galatians (book study) Marriage (Ephesians 5) Jeremiah (2 sermon overview) Matthew 5 (series) Ecclesiastes (book study) Revelation (book study). With the conclusion of my Revelation series yesterday, I am thinking about what to preach next. I have a few series already in the works, but which to serve right now and which to serve later is the question. So, what to choose next? And how does it fit into a healthy diet?

Hockey in Arizona

Much of the hockey news lately has been dominated by business and legal talk surrounding the bankruptcy proceedings of the Phoenix Coyotes. It is sad to see a franchise die, but when other teams in Phoenix are struggling to make money, hockey in the desert is going to be the first thing to go. With all of this Arizona hockey talk I was reminded of how I got a broken nose. As a student at The Master's College (when pastor Paul Martin was a sem student and some sort of "co-ordinator of campus fun" at the college) I got involved with the hockey program at California State University at Northridge (CSUN). I couldn't play for them because I wasn't registered there as a student, but I was an assistant coach for a season. We played an exhibition game on the road in Tucson, Arizona against another university team. Because it was exhibition I was able to suit up in my only game for CSUN. We arrived at the downtown arena of 7000 empty seats and went onto the ice for warmup. Standing in the corner waiting my turn in a standard pass-and-shoot drill, a puck rang off the post, into the corner, and into my nose! I spent the rest of warmup trying to get my cracked beak to stop bleeding. And when I finally got into the game I wished I had stayed home. The Arizona team was full of ex-pro players and they crushed our team of midget-calibre Californians. I played defence, but what could be done with no goalie and no one to pass to? I think we lost by ten goals. After that experience, I can honestly say I have no fondness for hockey in Arizona.

Harvest Thoughts: At Once He Puts in the Sickle

Mark 4:26-29 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” It is remarkable to think that there would be such a delay as the seed grows incrementally even imperceptibly. Yet "at once" the crop is ripe and must urgently be reaped. We don't use a sickle anymore, but rather a long series of small sickles that cut a 25 foot swath of grain. One thing is for sure, the urgency of the harvest is still a truth centuries later. And as Jesus uses this parable there is the striking contrast of delay and urgency. The seed grows almost mysteriously. Each day the seed representing the manifestation of the kingdom of God is closer and closer to its ultimate fulfillment. But by outward appearances there is no growth at all. It is only when you observe it having looked away from it for a while that you see the crop maturing. So this delay can give the impression that nothing is really happening with the seed, the crop, the Kingdom. But the day comes when it is ripe. Once it is ripe it cannot get riper. It is a fulfillment point. And when that point is reached, reaping becomes urgent. On farms throughout the centuries the harvest season has always been the same. Tools are sharpened, workers are recruited, longer hours are put in, and other concerns, unrelated to the harvest, are set aside. How are we to apply this harvest metaphor then? At bottom, we should consider that when we observe the kingdom of God (inaugurated, without consummation), we should not be fooled into thinking that it is not growing in the maturity of its purpose. The kingdom is growing. It is easy for us to be despairing because we don't see a kind of growth where entire stages of growth are skipped. Jesus is building his church (Mt. 16.18), even though we may feel like the farmer who 'knows not how' (Mrk 4.27). But the kingdom is coming to consummation too. Knowing that this culmination is going to occur should impel us to act like the harvest is now...now and not yet. The harvest is now, of course, as Jesus describes in Mat. 9. 37,38. The consummation has been brought forward. In harvest terms it is the presence of the future. Which is why we are to appeal to the Lord of the harvest to raise up workers. The harvest is now, assuring a not yet. Every Christian therefore lives in the consciousness of the coming sickle. Our hope resides in Christ, the firstfruits of the harvest. But woe to those who must face the sickle without Christ. As every farmer knows, the greatest amount of material that he threshes is cast away as chaff. Thanks be to God, for One who has faced the threshing for us, Christ the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Cor 15.20).