FIRST CHURCH EXPERIENCE IN CALGARY

I attended Westside King's Church last night with Joyce and Pete. It sits on a fairly large plot of land that, I understand, will be developed one day to include a community of affordable apartments and integrated retail units. Their Saturday night service is meant to be seeker-friendly, as the main meeting hall is set up cafe style. In fact, there is an area where you can grab different beverages, baked goods and ice cream! The stage is fairly impressive: a couple rows of par can lighting, 2 projection screens flanking the stage and 2 screens thrown about 30 feet back, 2 remotely-controlled cameras off to the side. The worship was good, delivered by a full band (including 5 backup singers) in a distinctly rock flavour. I also hope to check out EPIC, a church that follows a model similar to The Meeting House which my friend Ray told me about before I left Toronto.

After pointing out the "puke verse" found in Revelations 3:16 (many English translations use the phrase "to spit out", but the Greek word has a stronger, more revolting meaning) the guest speaker from Dayton, Ohio boldly stated that the church today has become far too safe. Too safe to take risks, especially when it comes to taking steps to healing the world. He pointed us to the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. I love it when someone points out something new from an old, familiar passage. This point is lost in the NIV but other translations actually indicate that there were two groups of people crossing the Red Sea. The first group were the ones who crossed through the sea on dry ground; the second group are those who crossed on dry ground, through the sea. This often overlooked detail illustrates 2 types of people: those who are willing to take risk by stepping out in faith "into the sea" and those who wait until there is dry ground before stepping through the sea. The second group characterizes those who refuse to take risks. What was Jesus' response to His disciples after being rudely waken up because of their reaction to the fierce storm? YOU COWARDS!! He never promised that we would find peace from not having to face storms. Rather, He empowers us to find peace in the midst of storms.

I had an amazing sushi dinner last night, also another first since moving to Calgary. Well, I have to admit that I've never seen pieces as large as the ones we had from TOWA Sushi - and it was because of the generous sizes of the fish not more rice being packed into the roll! We're going to work off this meal by going for a Sunday hike!