A Promise is a BIG Deal!

Remember when you were a child and you would promise your friends something – maybe it was that you would invite them to your sleepover birthday party, be on their team at recess, trade them a certain baseball/hockey/Pokemon card, etc. If there was ever a shadow of doubt that you would come through on your promise, you would be require to ‘Pinky-Swear’ on your promise – something that if you broke, would bring shame and condemnation to you on the school yard.

This Sunday, eight families are making a promise to their church congregation. While for some reason we don’t make adults pinky-promise things in our society (why is that?), what they are doing is effectively  just that! They are standing up in front of the congregation to promise that they will intentionally parent their children to follow after Jesus!

This is no small promise! Parenting a child is a lot of hard work – even just getting them to bed at night can become an all-consuming mission of your day! As Bill Cosby demonstrates, getting your child to do simple tasks requires a lot of hard work and repetition – parenting them to follow after Jesus requires EVEN MORE work!

Luckily, these parents aren’t doing it all on their own! They have invited other couples into their life to intentionally speak into their families and support them in coming through with their promise. These people, we have called them, Spiritual Parents, and they will also make a promise to pray for and support these families so their children may follow after Jesus.

This gets me excited! Our church is continually working hard to mentor and disciple each other for the glory of the Father and the advancement of the Kingdom of God! If you are part of Portage Alliance Church, you are part of these parent’s story. Together we can help more parents make good on their promise this week.


Some Great New[ish] Music

Do you have a preteen in your house? Wish you could get them listening to something other than LMFAO’s “Sexy and I know it”?

You need to pick up Toby Mac’s album Dubbed & Freq’d.

Dubbed & Freq'd

I grew up listening to Toby Mac back when he was bustin’ some Decent Christian Talk with Michael Tait (now with the Newsboys…. a match up I won’t comment on right now…) and K-Max. Toby Mac has been putting out pretty good music over the years and is pretty much considered one of the best music producers in Christian music.  This newest album is a compilation of many of his hits that have been remixed, dub-stepped (…ask your kids) and tweaked. To the cynic, this is just another cash-grab but I’ll go on the record saying you should happily hand over your cash for this album.

I’ve been listening to it for 2-weeks now, seeing if this latest offering is worth the $9.99 I paid for it.  Once I got past my “this-isn’t-as-good-as-DCtalk-but-sure-is-better-than-Michael-Tait-with-Newsboys” nonsense, I found myself coming back to it very often. It became an album to chill out to, work out to, and dance around the house to.

Bottom line: get your kids this album! It is filled with great, uplifting messages that unapologetically praise Jesus and is mixed to a fantastic beat.  Seriously, get it now! Available on iTunes right here.


Child Dedication

PAC Kids Rock is having another Child Dedication service

Sunday June 3rd!!!

We are going to have an information class for all parents who are interested on Sunday May 20th at 11am (during the service). We will go over what child dedication means, what you’ll need to do to prepare for it and answer any questions you may have.  During the class, your children will be able to go to their regular PAC Kids Rock class.

Sign up at the info booth at the church or use the form below if you’re interested!


Worshipping as a Family

Last Sunday night, PAC had a fabulous worship night where many people were able to come out and sing, read scripture, pray and share communion together! We made sure that we would attend as a family.  Sometimes when attend public events, we have to weigh the pros and cons of bringing three kids, (5, 4 and 1 1/2 years old) with us.  This often means that only myself or wife attend while the other stays home with the children.

Not so, this day.

We took the plunge and brought the kids with us to worship, hoping it would be a good time.

It ended up being a highlight for all of us! It was such a treat as a father to watch my girls spin, dance, giggle and run to the music. I got to push cars back and forth with my son while singing my heart out and watching him take it all in. Near the end of the night, we packed up 10 minutes early because it was past their bedtimes and meltdowns were beginning, but I have some great take aways from that night!

  • My kids remembered that night as a fun time in church – too often, kids are told to be quiet, stop wiggling, so sit over there, etc. That night, they were able to come to church, have fun with some friends, dance to music and do come colouring – a perfect night for a 5 year old! The next worship night we bring them to, they will be excited to go because the last memory was so good!
  • My kids got to see other adults worship God – again, another positive experience in church!
  • My kids were able to ask lots of questions about church – and I got to do my best to answer them! I am no expert and if you have ever tried to reason like a 5 year old, you know how difficult that can be.  My kids learned that asking questions in church is a good thing!
  • My kids got to see Joanne and I worship together – children take their cues from their parents, I only hope and pray that we left some great cues for them to follow!

If you didn’t make the last worship night at PAC, be sure to come to the next one (the next one is coming up soon – the date will be well advertised!) and bring the whole family so you can create these cherished memories for you and them!


April Video Update

Yes, I know I don’t do these much anymore… but here is one that you’ll want to watch if your child is in the k-3 class.  We’re doing a new series this month called, God To The Rescue and its all about God’s rescue plan for creation.  It is a great Easter series and it has some great take-home information for you parents to help reinforce what your kids are learning at church.  Check it out!


Screen Rage… Do you have it?

A similar tie-in to my previous post about how when my iPad is everything, it ends up being nothing, here is a great article about our obsessive behavior with our glowing devices. Ever been frustrated when your kids are trying to get your attention while your on your iWhatever? Or have a hard time getting your kids of your iWhatever? You have to read this article!

Screen Rage

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When something is everything, it ends up being nothing

I am kinda a tech-nut. I frequent many tech blogs, try to know the jargon, the specs and year-to-year improvements over the previous models. I know just enough tech stuff to really screw up the tech toys that I play with. Currently, I have an iPhone and use an iPad at work – and I really do love these devices – how they are made, their aesthetics, and their functionality have impressed me and captured much of the Western world.

My iPad fills many different roles – I use it for work emails, blog posts like this one, sermon planning, organizing many different notes in Evernote. I use it for games, subscribing to a few different magazines, playing games, watching Netflix, catching up on Twitter and Facebook and much more!

I also have a few bible apps – Glo Bible and YouVersion, primarily. But what I have found is that when I have a device that is everything for me – creatively, educational and for leisure – all of those areas, for me, are somehow cheapened.
Continue reading


Attention Fathers!

Be the kind of husband that you want your daughter to have one day.

It’s tough. It requires sacrifice. It’s totally worth it. Like it or not, your daughter is already learning from you what to expect in her marriage and what kind of guy she should look for.

Check out this blog post for a great read!


Soapbox time…

I love Jesus! I love working with children and families! I love being able to tell children and families about Jesus! I love that there is wealth of great product from great companies made by great people to help children’s ministry workers tell kids and families about Jesus!

BUT…

I am sick of the narrow view of the Gospel that so many of these people/companies/products promote!  Far too often, the Gospel that is presented is a one – two punch with the goal of 1) getting kids to heaven and 2) sin management. While yes, the good news of the Gospel does include the benefit of being with Jesus eternally in heaven (and earth… the same thing?) and the Gospel does compel us to change our behaviour, that understanding of the Gospel is cheap, watered down version of the life abundant that Jesus offers!

The blind regaining sight, the oppressed set free, the captives released, experiencing the presence of Jesus in your life today also needs to be preached to kids! (See Luke 4:16-22) Prayer isn’t just the way to get to heaven, its the way we can commune with Jesus, be changed, and have things changed. It’s how we are able to live in the Kingdom of God that is already here!

Sin management does not produce life change – life change through Jesus produces action in our lives and reduces our natural reaction of sinning to a reaction that glorifies God.

“You win them to what you win them with”

I want to win kids to Christ with the message that Jesus is able to heal, release and set them free from the world that offers them empty dreams and destructive relationships. That is when, I think, we will see a powerful transformation in the lives of kids and their families.

I pray that we get to see ridiculous amounts of spiritual fruit in the lives of the kids who attend PAC Kids Rock!


In-School Retreat

I am speaking at Westpark School‘s In-School Retreat today for grades 7-12.  I have the privilege of being the main session speaker where we will be examining the question, “What is the Gospel?” and if your understanding of it is enough to captivate and transform your life.  Should be a gooder.

But that also means part 3 of Raising Men isn’t coming today.  Sorry folks, I have better things to do ;)


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