I spent part of my afternoon at my son’s public school, watching him and his classmates ‘graduate’ from the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistiance Education) program.  In our province, anyway, they teach grade six kids  about the dangers of drug and alcohol use and how to resist peer pressure. 

It was actually quite a moment to see some of the 12 year olds promise to never use illicit drugs and to stay away from alcohol.  I was so grateful for the school system and police force for investing not only in my son, but in his friends.  I was thankful to see other adults taking the development of my son and his friends so seriously.

In so many ways, that’s what I see our small group leaders and Xtreme, InsideOut, UpStreet and Waumba Land crews doing every weekend with 200 kids. All week long, our volunteers work at their "real" jobs.  But they hold our kids spiritually in their hearts, and they bust it every weekend to make sure our kids have someone pour into them spiritually and morally.  I honestly believe that a few years from now, there will be hundreds of kids (one day, thousands of kids) who say their lives turned out so much more positively because an adult other than their parent invested deeply in them.  And this isn’t just for "church" kids.  Our dream is to see whole cities and regions impacted by this. 

Thank you to everyone who invests in the life of a child.  I spent tonight grateful for my son’s school and our police force, and very grateful our Connexus community that invests so heavily in the next generation.

It’s way more than worth it.

Been off line for a day now (not by choice!!!), but I have to relay this neat juxtaposition.

Director Jules Dassin who died this past week.  He made some very influential films many years ago like "Never on Sunday" and worked with top actors like Joan Crawford, Burt Lancaster and Richard Burton.  He made his last film in 1980, and was disappointed with the box office results that he made a decision: he’d never make another film again.

When I heard the story I thought how sad. Who knows what else he could have produced?  Who knows what else he could have done?  28 more years of life, and he chose not to use his primary gifting because of his disappointment with the results of his last film. His demons caught up with him, and it kind of sounds like he stopped living long before he died.  He spent the last 14 years returning a statue to Greece.

I heard this on Monday, the same day I spent the morning with Chris Vacher, who works on staff at Orangeville Baptist Church.  Chris is probably one of the brightest church leaders in Canada I’ve met in a while.  Optimistic, plenty of vision, gifted, intelligent, strategic, connected and full of passion for what God has called him to do, he completely energized me.  I love leaders who dig into vision and run with it.

We all have God given talent.  It runs in different directions, but we all have it.  Life can suck the passion out of our talent, and a small defeat can turn into a huge obstacle in our minds.  Sad about the director. Pumped about Chris.  We can’t let life grind our gifts into the ground.  Leaders like Chris remind me to keep living every second for what imagines it to be.

A new feature on the blog today…I added Twitter to the sidebar.

Twitter basically keeps you up to date with what people are up to…if anyone actually cares.  If you care, you can sign up, and then you can let your friends know what you’re up to or thinking or anything.  Some of the Twitter posts are quite funny.  Some of them aren’t.  Mine will be a mixture of both, and more, and less, I’m sure.

Going to watch tv now and see if anything grabs me because i’m not tired because i’m too well rested….

Easter Sunday is almost here…a day I’m more excited about than Christmas.  Yes, it’s a new series and yes, it should be a great day.  I’m praying for big life change to come people’s way in this next month.  I’ve actually spent an incredible amount of time trying to enter the "space" of Easter and thinking/praying through all its implications.

This year, it’s kind of cool because my birthday lands on Easter Sunday (first time since 1913 Easter has been this early).  I always see my birthday as a time to pause and reflect and think through what I’ve done with the time God has given me and what I should work on.  Usually I feel like I’m tapping into about 10% of the faith God has given us and 10% of the life that’s possible.

So as I head into the next year, in this season of Easter and resurrection and newness of life, some prayers/goals. Nothing earth shattering:

• I want to tap into the full power of God every day to overcome the remaining negatives in my life. I just want resurrection to rule in my life and relationships. 

• I want to lead with all diligence.  Put everything I have into what I’m doing.  Sometimes I skim through things.  Want to be done with that.  The next year of ministry and life really excite me.

• I want to enjoy every moment with my family.  Jordan goes to university next year. All those people who said they grow up so quickly were bang on right.

• I plan to finally write a book.  I’ve been haunted by this/encouraged by many for years. I have a few ideas of my own and some I’ve been working on with a friend.  No big ambitions other than to try to say what keeps running through my little brain and heart.  If my wife reads it that would be nice.

• I want to get better at having fun. Our recent cruise was the biggest relaxation I think I’ve ever had (because when you’re in captivity on a cruise ship you really don’t have much choice but to rest)…I should rest hard as well as work hard.

• I want to discover new depths of joy in my relationship with God and others.  Simply being present in the moment with God and with the people I’m with should help.  I’m always thinking about the past or the next moment.  Want to change that.

That’s me.  Today at least. 

What would you do differently in the next year if you put your mind, heart and faith to it?
What do you want to do with the next year in the power of Easter?

Hey!  So you took up the challenge and did some posting (sort of).  Thanks!  I’ll be wading through correspondence tonight and tomorrow.  But before we go further, it’s great to be back.

Two days in airports and seven days on a cruise ship.  Here are a random assembly of thoughts as I get back:

• I really did unplug.  I haven’t been this rested in years. Maybe ever.

• Sabbath is not over-rated.

• The purpose of rest in our culture is usually recuperation, but Jesus mainly used it for preparation.

• The salt water at St. Thomas was so salty you could float without treading water.  That was fun.

• I have everything in the world to be grateful for.

• I got on the treadmill three times last week – the first in over a year. Not sure why I resist activity. It was fun too.

• Enjoy your family.  Time flies.

• As a communicator, I honestly have nothing to say.  All I really have is a relationship to facilitate and a Person to witness to.

• My mom broke her leg on our trip (there were 18 of us Nieuwhof family
  people on this vacation.)  She simply missed a step on a city street
  and fell hard.  It was nice to be with her to care for her for a few
  days.  Six weeks in a cast and she should be good to go.

• Snorkling rocks.

• Relationship is more important than ideas, but it’s easier to talk about ideas than to infuse relationships with meaning.

• Four of us in a tiny stateroom…makes you really get along!

• I missed worship two Sundays in a row because of our travel schedule, and my soul aches because of it.  I don’t need to preach (although I’m on again this weekend).  I just want to sit and worship.

• I have no natural talent for rock-climbing or surfing (tried them both), but that’s okay.

• I wish I could really get my head around the full scope of Good Friday and Easter.  I only know enough to know that those realities have so much untapped power.

• I am so blessed to be able to do what I do and be surrounded, personally and in every way, by amazing people. I’m just grateful.

Excited to be back this weekend and to gather around the cross and empty tomb.  Back on the blog again tomorrow…

I usually just hang around the house on March break (spring break, to our American friends), but this year we’re disappearing somewhere off the Florida coast for nine days.  And my plan is to totally unplug for nine days.  Zippo internet. No cell phone.  No texts.  Notta.  I might bring Toni’s (my wife’s) macbook to do some photo editing.  That’s it.  Otherwise a bible, a few books, my family and that’s all.  I’m totally looking forward to it. I want to jump into Easter with my heart fully alive and engaged.  That’s what I’m aiming for.

While I’m gone, here’s what I’d love.  While I’m gone…I’d love YOU to run the blog. 

I won’t be monitoring or reading it for nine days starting now. 

You can post comments without moderation (as many of you have discovered) and I would love for you to start discussions and fuel a dialogue in my absence.  Rant…rave…talk about what jazzes you, frustrates you, puzzles you, angers you, delights you.  Rattle some chains. Drive this thing.  I’ll read it when I get back. (I’ve asked a friend to check in once a day or so just to make sure no crazy people have posted ultra-weird or inappropriate stuff, that’s all). 

So…over to you. Talk about your heart, your soul, your life, the church, leadership whatever.  Riff off this post. Hundreds of people read this blog each day…so I know you are out there.  You read it from all over North America and other parts of the world.

So go for it!

Can’t wait to get back and see what you’ve posted.  Don’t chicken out.  It could get really boring over the next nine days if you do.  Then you’d have to listen to me again….zzzzzzz…..

Oprah makes or breaks superstars and may just be the most infuential spiritual "teacher" (or at least facilitator) we have in North America.  Last year, she featured The Secret and catapulted it to fame.  This year, she”s hooked up with Eckhart Tolle to teach a live webcast every Monday night based on his book, A New Awakening.  With Oprah’s endorsement, it jumped to #1 on the New York Times’ best seller list. Their joint just-released podcast is #1 on iTunes in religion and spirituality.

If you check out that list, you’ll also see Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray Love, her story of love and spiritual awakening through eastern spirituality.  Eastern religion is all over our culture right now. It’s pretty much in the water system.  Everyone ‘s got a view on karma, reincarnation and the path way to God.

How do those of us who follow Jesus make sense of all of this?  How do those of us who don’t follow Jesus make sense of all of this?

As I head off for a holiday on March break, I’m loading up my iPod with a few podcasts on eastern spirituality and am going to finish Gilbert and Tolle’s book, all in preparation for our new series Jesus the Guru which launches Easter Sunday in Barrie and March 30th in Orillia. 

Here’s what can help me:  how have you been influenced by Eastern spirituality?  What attracts you to it? What attracts you back to Jesus?  What do you struggle with most about it?  How is the dialogue going with your friends over eastern spirituality?

I’m all ears and all heart as we launch this series a few weeks from now to talk about Jesus in the midst of what’s happening in our culture. Your insights will be so helpful as I get ready.  Over to you — fire away!

We celebrated our first family day in Ontario today…a celebration, our premier says, of family, because families need more time together.  Good idea.

So what does your family do to stay together, to foster family life and a journey that points kids in the right direction? We’re at the stage where racking up the mileage on the car is not hard…hockey rules, and right now we’re all over the place in playoffs.  Beyond that and work, there’s not a lot of time left.  So how do we leverage that time?   Because time is the key to relationship, and relationship is the key to life in Christ (it’s all about a relationship!)  To me, as the kids get older, the key is not just praying together or reading the Bible together (that’s important and necessary), but opening a dialogue about faith and life that runs through life. That can be a lot trickier.

Personally, I find conversations about God and life happen best in the flow of every day life. Here’s what we do to try to track together at this stage in life (my boys are 16 and 12):

• We eat dinner together almost every night.  Very important. With my BBQ busted, I’m loving it when Toni brings out the crockpot in the morning.  Ribs rock.
• We serve together Sundays at Connexus.
• We listen to music together, and let the kids drive the playlist.  Beats four people living together 24/7 with four iPods running and four soundtracks. 
• I let my 16 year old drive wherever he’s legally allowed to.  That gives us time together.
• I pull each son out of school once a term and do something with him for fun.
• I’m reading through Daniel with Sam (aged 12).  Great story about a young man, God, and integrity.
• We play board games, watch movies and read in the same space.
• I’m trying not to work to hard. 
• We try to do several shorter vacations together each year.

Pretty normal, unimaginative stuff, but the key to relationship is time.

What things do you do with your family?  What helps you keep communication and God-opportunities wide open?

I love ministry leaders.  This week in conversations with three of them from both sides of our North American border, I offer up their ministry to you for prayer and action.

• Casey Ross is a great lead pastor for Catalyst Church in Greenville South Carolina.  Catalyst is like all churches, supported by it’s members.  It’s in a cash crunch right now.  Pray big and help the great work of this team however you can.  We believe in them So do many, many others.

• Bryn MacPhail leads a Presbyterian Church in Toronto that’s about to do a full 180 in ministry.  They are going to narrow the focus, create relevant, Orange environments and killer adult services in a staid, traditional church.  I told Bryn this would either succeed wildly or he’d be unemployed in 12 months.  Man, I love his courage and boldness. Bryn asked me to ask you to fill out a short survey to help his team shape the ministry.  Do that please.  I totally groove on Bryn.

• Remember in prayer my friend Todd Dugard. Todd pastors Harvest Bible Chapel in Barrie and on Friday conducts a funeral for a ten year old girl, Jennie, who dropped dead suddenly at school Monday from a heart condition no one knew might be fatal.  Todd’s been with them all week, and as a preacher, i can promise you he’d appreciate your prayers on Friday for him, the family and everyone.

Leadership is never easy, but it’s so rewarding.  Let’s lift these guys up together this week.