Growing up, my family and I would spend every Christmas Eve at my Aunt’s house. We’d pack up the car in the early evening and make the hour-or-so drive from Milton, Ontario to St. Catharines. St. Catharines was where my folks grew up, and is still, to this day, the hometown of much of my extended family – cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

On the drive, we’d always tune in to the CBC to hear Alan Maitland reading The Shepherd. Year, after year, we would be sure to leave at just the right time in order to hear this story on the drive to our Christmas Eve gathering. Sometimes, if the drive had taken less time than we had thought, we would wait silently in the parking lot for the final cadences of Frederick Forsyth’s classic short story.

We would walk around to the buzzer and call to be let up to Aunt Tena’s apartment. Inside we would find a feast of untold quantity, with classic Mennonite dishes alongside family favourites. Over the course of the coming hour, our extended family would also buzz up and more and more people would crowd into the living room. And there we ate together. Plates on laps, old amongst the younger, we would mix and mingle, we would talk about what was important to us, and we would share all that had happened in the preceding months. Read more…

andrew For Leaders, Stories and Articles Andrew Stephens-Rennie, CBC, Christmas Eve, Sticky Faith

I wonder how many Canadian priests are now furiously preparing video responses to this.

If you’ve got a rapping priest, or if you’ve got some rhythm in you, you might want to check out this article about Rev. TyTe, the beatbox vicar.

andrew Music, Stories and Articles Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Christmas, Hip-Hop, Music

What does it mean to wear my faith on my sleeve? How is it that I live out my faith? (How) do I share my faith in Jesus with others? Sometimes we get uncomfortable when people talk about sharing their faith. Sometimes we fall back on that quote often attributed to Francis of Assisi:

Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.

I think we can tend to fall back on this quotation as a justification for not saying much. Do we consider what our actions say about our faith, or do we use this as a defense mechanism to suggest that people not bug us with this question?

Dorothee Sölle, a German liberation theologian opens up this question in a real, and challenging way:

Tell me how you think and act politically and I will tell you in which God you believe Read more…

andrew For Leaders, Life Issues, Pop Culture, Stories and Articles, TV Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Faith Formation, Rob Crosby-Shearer, Tim Tebow

I came across this article earlier today sharing some thoughts on how HBO’s series “The Wire” might be incredibly relevant for those of us who are leaders within the church. Whether clergy or lay, paid or volunteer, what can we learn from one of the grittiest TV shows in recent memory?

In his article, Wesley Hill argues that for those of us involved in the institutional church, there’s much to be learned from a show that is, as its creator puts it, is “cynical about institutions, and about their capacity for serving the needs of the individual.”

We may not always agree, and the stories of drug riddled inner-city Baltimore may be far from home for many of us, but this show might cause us to think about the ways in which our own institutional structures help or hinder the mission we claim as our own.

Hill writes:

I’m hard pressed to think of a more acute commentary on the task of Christian leadership and institutional efforts at community renewal than that. In our churches and ministry organizations, we can’t promise people “answers” per se. We can’t be saviors and messiahs. But what we can promise is faithfulness, perseverance and truth-telling. We can work for a better future filled with peace, justice and equity even if, in the meantime, it looks for all the world as if we’re failing spectacularly.

So what do you think? Where do you find hope, this advent season? As a leader, how do you keep pressing on towards a better future, even if, from time to time, it appears as though things are falling down all around you? How can we continue to press on in the midst of an ever-changing culture and the absence of certainty?

andrew For Leaders, Stories and Articles Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Culture, The Wire, Wesley Hill

From Andrew, an apprentice of Jesus Christ. To God’s people in the Anglican Church of Canada, faithful followers of Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

In this Advent season may God uphold you in hope held firm with love, joy and peace.

I do not cease to pray for you, and for your ministries as you proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom; and as you teach, baptize and nurture new believers in your various communities across this country, from sea to shining sea. This task is great, and at times difficult, yet, by God’s grace, it is a task for which we all have been equipped.

For it is by God’s grace through baptism that we are given the strength to follow Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Resting in our assurance of God’s grace and mercy, we continue to practice the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst, even to this day. Read more…

andrew News, Stories and Articles Advent, Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Christmas, Five Marks of Mission