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The CBC’s Tapestry and Our Hope for the Future of Media in Canada

The CBC’s Tapestry and Our Hope for the Future of Media in Canada

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I listened to the full CBC Tapestry interview with John Stackhouse the other day and have a few thoughts not necessarily on the content of the episode as much as the hope I have in Canadian media. For a public-broadcaster, it’s no secret that the CBC skews left. I do, too, but that’s not the point. Everyone/entity skews one way or the other. That’s reality. It’s the willingness to fairly represent the other that should serve as the litmus test…

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Big Trucks and the Road to Wisdom

Big Trucks and the Road to Wisdom

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Media is a tricky thing. I should say, discerning truth as the media presents it is a tricky thing. I had the fortune of teaching a course on this very topic at our community college this past fall and the two-fold conclusion I came to after all was said and done was this: Media is an inescapable, all-pervasive and completely saturated reality in our advanced, technology-dependent, capitalistic world Learning how to discern and think critically about the media we consume…

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Resisting the Visitors’ Centre for the Adventure that Waits

Resisting the Visitors’ Centre for the Adventure that Waits

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There’s a story Rhonda and I first heard while studying at Regent College in Vancouver in the summer of 2006 that has become a bit of a theme in our lives, resurfacing over and over for the past 15+ years. Any time a tough decision is pending or a dose of courage is required in the circumstance we find ourselves in, this story finds its way to the forefront of our minds, reminding us of its truthiness and giving just…

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My Church: Igniting the Flame for Mission

My Church: Igniting the Flame for Mission

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Building on last week’s post about the future of our church, I want to provide some more thoughts as to what I think might be a viable direction for our community to turn toward as we face a season of major transitions. To recap, there are a number of factors faced by our community, including—what we sense—to be a persistent exhaustion over the past few years, that doesn’t bode well for moving forward with the same model and strategy as…

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My Church: Desperate Seasons Call for Desperate Dependence

My Church: Desperate Seasons Call for Desperate Dependence

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Grassroots Church  has been our home church for the past 10 years. It has played no small role in our spiritual journeys and an integral component to our social lives, our parenting approach, the development of our worldview, our approach to social issues and so much more. Through this community’s example, we have learned what intentionality looks like and what can be accomplished when intentionality is employed by a large group of people. Over the past decade, we have been…

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Guy stretching before run
Stretching Benefits Us When We Stretch

Stretching Benefits Us When We Stretch

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I ’ve been told that properly stretching before a run is a smart idea. Of course, I rarely do it, but it’s probably a smart idea. Yesterday I went for a run and it felt good but after a cool down and shower I was sitting at the table when I mindlessly moved my leg only to be gifted a lovely Charlie Horse and the reminder that I should have, once again, stretched before the run. It’s a matter of…

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Growth in Adversity: Not Always a Given

Growth in Adversity: Not Always a Given

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We’ve got this incredible grapevine in the greenhouse attached to our house. You can almost watch it grow these days. Perfect conditions – easy access to ground water (which doesn’t bode well for our basement right beside it, but I digress); south facing so it’s getting tonnes of sunshine; and sitting inside the greenhouse, giving it a stable and much warmer climate than would have outside of that greenhouse. Our greenhouse is basically replicating a hillside in Italy. Well, aside…

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Man typing at keyboard
In Search of the Discipline Gene

In Search of the Discipline Gene

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To date, I’ve done 14 weeks of writing, which is no small feat for a top-notch procrastinator like me. When I set out to do this #2021WritingChallenge it was with the purpose of becoming a better writer and to form a discipline in my life that I could stick with. I’m not sure how well that discipline has been formed, as it turns out. I still struggle every day to write and it’s only my tenacity and pig-headedness that cause…

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Quiet as a Salve for an Obnoxious Extrovert

Quiet as a Salve for an Obnoxious Extrovert

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As an extrovert, quiet isn’t a commodity that holds a lot of value in my life. At least, not quiet for the sake of quiet. Quiet as a response to a migraine prompted by my kids’ bickering and complaining? Well, it’s hard to put a price tag on something of such value. I kid. Like anyone, I enjoy spurts of it here and there – but long noise-free periods of time has not historically been high on my list of…

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Constructs and Prayer: Building Belief Without the Baggage

Constructs and Prayer: Building Belief Without the Baggage

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We live according to our beliefs. “Beliefs” is an all-encompassing term encapsulating our convictions, our values, our understanding of reality and our constructs. The impetus that decides whether we stop and give $5 to a street person or keep walking is based on what we believe our moral obligation to be in that moment, how we believe that individual might spend that money, whether we believe we can spare the inconvenience and potential awkwardness of the interaction and whether we…

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Steve teaching at Grassroots
Grief is For Us

Grief is For Us

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I love teaching. I’ve taught all kinds of things over the past 20 years or so. High school computer science; middle school math; web design; guitar (I don’t play guitar, so figure that one out), college communications and digital marketing. Quite the array of subject matter. My favourite thing to teach, though has been the Bible. Well, if I’m honest, it’s teaching in such a way that inspires, challenges and encourages and usually uses the Bible as the means to…

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From Pool to Garden: The Gifts of Reflecting

From Pool to Garden: The Gifts of Reflecting

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30 years ago I’m swimming in our neighbour’s pool. We aren’t very close with these neighbours but we’re friendly enough. We ride the bus together, skate on their rink in the winter and, well, swim in their pool. Their house is about 500m down the road from ours and they have a big property, 1.62 acres to be exact. The pool is massive, as far as home pools go, situated in a super warm greenhouse with a strong smell of…

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Glasses of Beer
Healthy Parent-Kid Adult Relationships: Where We’re Planted Matters

Healthy Parent-Kid Adult Relationships: Where We’re Planted Matters

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Good morning, son; twenty years from now maybe we’ll both sit down and have a few beers Whenever I listen to “Still Fighting It” by Ben Folds, this one line just pops out. It materializes in my head, forming an image of what one day might be. As an aside, another line, “You’re so much like me, I’m sorry” is also capable of ripping apart my soul and would require more than a few therapy sessions and some serious self…

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Why I No Longer Read the Bible and Why Maybe You Shouldn’t Either

Why I No Longer Read the Bible and Why Maybe You Shouldn’t Either

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I grew up with the teaching that reading your Bible every day was one of the key traits of being a faithful Christian. We called this “personal devotions.” Personal was key here. There are times when we are to be in community learning together and then there are also times where it’s “just me and God” and all the distractions of the world and those around us are diminished so that we can clearly discern what it is that God…

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Our Queen of Simplicity

Our Queen of Simplicity

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It is somewhat serendipitous that my wife’s birthday landed smack dab in the middle of the week in which “simplicity” happened to be the word to write about for the #2021WordChallenge. I feel compelled, and in fact am eager to dedicate a week of my writing to the one who demonstrates to me the beauty and allure of simplicity every day. I’m also quite eager to share this photo of her. There’s been this thing over the past few years…

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Google Devices and Inquiry

Google Devices and Inquiry

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We have a Google device in each bedroom and in the main living area in our house. I am fully confident there is an increasingly growing group of computer nerds in Silicon Valley who, each morning grab their Starbucks, clock in and then pull up a chair around a table with a “Bill Family” label affixed to a speaker, ready to listen in on all the comings and goings of our exciting home life. I don’t blame them, really –…

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Tiny Particles and Theological Constructs

Tiny Particles and Theological Constructs

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Bizarro World Quantum theory is interesting. Well, at least it’s interesting when your entire reality has been shaped through a Newtonian understanding of the universe. When the A+B=C, static, binary approach to physics is all that you’ve been handed and therefore all that you have to make sense of reality, then quantum physics is downright baffling and literally beyond comprehension. In other words, this stuff is interesting for all of us. You just gotta dive in. Truth be told I…

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I’ve got this Thing. And it’s a Problem.

I’ve got this Thing. And it’s a Problem.

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I think I’m a pretty good guy to be around most of the time. When life is humming along, things are falling into place, and stress-inducers are at a minimum, I’m a tolerable dude. I handle my kids well, I dote on my wife, I smile a lot. Steve’s the life of the party when life goes swimmingly. But I have this thing. When I can’t find my wallet or my computer is on the fritz or the furnace gives…

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Maddy with her art wall
Focusing in on Focus

Focusing in on Focus

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My daughter’s been getting into the Art Hub for Kids thing lately. For those not in the know, Art Hub is a channel on YouTube with video after video of a dad and one of his kids drawing cartoon-y type pictures – ice cream cones, unicorn mermaids, Hatchimals, dinosaurs, emojis, etc. Basically, all the things 6 year olds go gaga over. Viewers are instructed step by step on how to draw and colour each picture. It’s basically that part of…

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Satisfaction Over Comfort

Satisfaction Over Comfort

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Last week’s #2021WritingChallenge Word of the Week was balance and this week’s is purpose so I’ve decided to combine the two into a long-winded, rambling post. Yikes. A conversation I had with a buddy this past summer has been sitting with me for months now. We had stopped to skip some rocks along a river during a hike and were discussing some of the deeper things of life. To be honest I don’t recall all the specifics of the convo…

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Shaping Worldviews. In Order.

Shaping Worldviews. In Order.

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This week’s #2021WritingChallenge is the word order. My eleven-year-old is reading Bruxy Cavey’s End of Religion right now. It’s a treatise on the toxicity of religion and how it is antithetical to everything Jesus was about. For those unversed in the ways of Bruxy (or unfamiliar with the actual portrayal of Jesus in the Bible), this may come off as counterintuitive – “Heh? Didn’t Jesus come to start a religion? Why would he be opposed to it?” But actually, it’s…

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Where I Turn for a Safe Landing

Where I Turn for a Safe Landing

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The week of January 8th’s #2021WritingChallenge is the word ground. At about 2:00am on December 4, 2020, my family and I were sleeping soundly when 2 strung out bad guys found their way into our living space through our attached garage. Exactly what their path of invasion was I’m not sure but they came into our living room, our kitchen and our entryway and snatched all of our computers, phones, devices and purse. They left through the same door they…

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