Our Team

Our team has some big ideas. Find out this Sunday at HMC.

Hello from my new study

I'm officially in a new office.

While I was away on holidays my workspace was relocated (don't worry, I agreed with the move before I left). My new space has a similar look to the former (squarish space with one window and one door) but now it's in a low-traffic high-cinderblock laden section of the church.

Since I love drywall and seeing people hanging around in the foyer mid-week, I was apprehensive at first. But now, after one week, my new office is starting to feel like home.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to the move and design of my new study! I couldn't have done it without you.

Is it weird if I call it a study?

Preacher sends crowd scrambling for the exit

It's been awhile. I've been neglectful lately. I'm sorry.

I spent last week speaking in evening chapels at Mishewah family camp. It's one of our denominational camps near Pembroke, Ontario. My family was there with a handful of others from HMC, a whole lot of people from other parts of the province, and countless blood-thristy mosquitos.

The most interesting part of the camp experience happened shortly after I started preaching on the last night. The winds suddenly picked up and the rain began to pour down and--lo and behold--half the people got up and ran out. I think they went scurrying to close their trailer windows and secure their tent pegs, but I'm not sure. Some may have used the storm as a convenient time to escape the deep Holy Spirit conviction that they were feeling. But I haven't ruled out the possibility that it might have been the preacher.

Now, I'm looking forward to being back at my post on Sunday morning (I've been on holidays this week too). That kind of thing doesn't usually happen on Sunday mornings in Hanover. But I think I'll advise everyone to keep their windows up and items secured before they come to the worship service just in case.

Christ Plays in at least 10,000 Places

I'm finally finished.

I set a goal for myself back a year or two ago to read through Eugene Peterson's 5 volume spiritual theology series. Tonight I turned the last page in my final book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

If you know anything about the series you'll know that this book is actually his first of the five. I picked it up in February while visiting Regent College in Vancouver. A friendly enrolment specialist issued me a $20 gift card for the bookstore. The book choice was a no-brainer. Both the visit and the title were on my list of goals for 2011. Now they're both checked off.

I'll pass along two profound excerpts:

"Stories are verbal acts of hospitality" (p. 13)

"The community of God's people has survived... always as a minority, always marginal to the mainstream, never statistically significant. It gives us pause. If we, as the continuing company of Jesus, seem to have achieved an easy accommodation with our society and culture, how did we pull off what Jesus and the community of Jesus failed to accomplish?" (p. 288)

Did you catch that last sentence?

I wonder, have we done a better job of Christianizing our society--and remember, societies don't follow Jesus, only people do--or socializing our Christianity?

Where are all the pastors going?

Clergy burn out.

I starting to wonder what's going on.

I don't want to be a burn-out stat so here's a few commitments:

1. Embrace Further Education - It's easy to regurgitate information and rely on past successes. Especially when you're preaching almost every week. That's why I'm hoping to take a week long course or two every summer.

2. Spent quality time with my wife and kids - My kids are only young once. Enough said.

3. Deal with conflict quickly - I'm committed to keep the lines of communication wide open and deal with difficult situations quickly, sensitively, and courageously. Unresolved conflict absorbs a lot of mental energy so it's best to ask "what's up?" as soon as possible.

4. Build a staff team that loves working together - This is a work in progress but we can accomplish a whole lot more when we work together.

Moving mountains

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." (Mark 11:23 NIV).

I believe in moving mountains. Actually, we have one growing in our church parking lot. It didn't go into the sea but it did get moved--further back and a lot higher. I guess God uses high hoes.

Many thanks to Dan and Adam who volunteered their Saturday to mountain moving.

Retreat from "I" or "You" to "We"

We retreated this week.

That's right, our pastoral team waved goodbye to our families and our offices for 2 days in order to spend time in Stayner, ON.

While away we set goals, bounced around ideas for congregational discipleship, and we even had time for a late night game of euchre.

But my most significant moment came, not in a new idea or a breakthrough conversation, but when I reflected on how things were being said.

Sometimes I can get caught up talking about myself too much. That's an "I" mentality. Other times I'm tempted to point my finger at someone else when I think a wrong needs to be righted. That's a "You" mentality. But there's a third way; it's not an "I" or "You" by a "We". "We" knows that if there's a problem, together we can find a solution because we're all responsible. I think that makes for good teamwork.

Happy New Year!

It's the start of a New Year so, once again, the Mills family set some goals.

While I don't want to give away any of my clan's ambitious ideas, I will enlighten you with a few of my own. In no particular order:

Learn biblical Hebrew. I learned Greek but never took a Hebrew course. I'm not sure how attainable this one is given my schedule. Nonetheless, it made the list.

Read Christ Plays in 10,000 Places by Eugene Peterson. I've finished the other four books in the series but I've never made it through the first--even after two attempts and a handful of overdue notices from the library.

Visit Regent College. It's an international graduate school located on the campus of UBC. I've known many who have studied there, and read books by Regent professors (including Peterson), but I've never been there myself.

So, these a few of my plans for 2011. How about you?