Ask These Questions

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

I’d be interested to know your honest answer to a simple question because I’d like to be able to include it in the message this Sunday: what’s the smartest thing you can think to do with 20 bucks? (Click reply - I really would love to know). I’m looking for anything from clever to obvious to amusing. As a sample, I’ve already received this brilliant reply from a few contacts I made in advance, “rechargeable batteries – you could always use a battery and these will last forever”. I like it.

Along side that and just for kicks, ask yourself another question – slowly – and with some actual thought – even deliberate thought (I’m loving hyphens today): what is the 76 year old you saying? Think about it. One day you will be “there” – on the other side of many of your life’s choices. By “other side” I mean “having MADE those choices” so you’re on the consequence side of them. Will it be “spilt milk” or “time well spent”? Will it be “I wish I did…” or “I’m glad I did…”

In the course of 5 years, you go from having all the time in the world (~27 years of age) to thinking you see the end of the game (at ~32 years of age when you think “only 15 years and I’m almost FIFTY! How did this happen to me?”). As an aside to our over-fifty readers – obviously life doesn’t end at 50, and everyone knows this intellectually – but it doesn’t mean I’m ready to be there before I absolutely have to!

Life is an issue of conversion – taking what you’ve got and turning into what you get, and turning that into something else. Time into money, money into stuff, stuff into junk and the cycle starts again. I’d like to challenge you about these cycles, these questions and the 76 year old you – and I feel like being un-churched about it (whatever that means). Join us Sunday for Starbucks at 9:45 (visit our website for directions) or tune into the podcast through the week.

So, again… Think about it. What is that 76 year old codger really saying?

I hope to see you there,

CSW

REPLIES
Again - I'd love to know your thoughts on our two questions. Click reply.

LAST SUNDAY
Change the way you view your SELF (to dramatic effect) because there is no "them". Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
What are you turning your stuff into, the value of other people and a step worth taking.

FYI
For the past few weeks, we've been consistently ranked in the top 75 religion/spirituality podcasts on Itunes North America.

A NOTE OF THANKS
Part of the message prep involved a look back over the last year and it left me wanting to say thanks. Every single thing you do - even the samllest things - even just showig up - all go into the mix to make our beginning possible.

Tough Bond Call

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

While sitting in the theater watching Casino Royale this past weekend (which gets my vote for the best Bond, the best Bond film, and the best foot chase sequence in the history of film, period), we were getting to one of those moments when you sense a plot twist coming and I wanted to call it. Why? Because along with you and almost everyone else I know, I have an almost endless inner need to try to make myself look smart.

But here’s the thing: it only makes you look smart if you (1) call it before it’s obvious and (2) make the right call. So you’re left with this delicate balance of holding off long enough to be sure of your answer, but at the same time giving an answer while it’s still meaningful to do so…

Life can be like that. You never seem to get enough evidence so that life’s tough calls are obvious. I’m talking about reward-able choices. The only valuable decision is the one that DIDN’T make itself. If the answer was obvious, you don’t deserve a reward for making it. And I wonder how often are we waiting for our choices to be made for us – in life – by chance or circumstance or some chunk of wisdom that makes it all plain as day, and takes all the risk away? But if life was just math, even an idiot could learn to get the right answers. Which begs a question: what about life as a test of character?

I have a suggestion: you were MADE to make choices that won’t MAKE themselves. The risk is the point. I’ll even risk declaring a principle: the mistakes, misadventures and missteps of a courageous life are better than the best that can come from a life of un-made decisions. The point is not no-risk, the point is intelligent risk.

Jesus tells a story in Matthew chapter 25 about three servants taking three levels of risk. 2 take reasonable risks and earn a good return. The third servant takes no risk at all and simply keeps what he’s got. I’m sure you’re sensing the outcome. Even poor choices are deemed better than no choices at all.

I guess I’m trying to encourage you not to be afraid. Our best life is somewhere in between having all your blanks filled in and having too many left empty. The valuable decisions are the one’s that won’t make themselves but also were not “shots in the dark”. “Evidence” only takes us so far and then we must choose the remaining distance based on courage, intuition and faith.

Will you make the call? The next plot twist is just around the corner for you. The most important decisions won’t make themselves, but neither do you have to risk it all. Just express a little courage. It’s what we’re doing as a church right now: taking steps towards an outcome we can’t be sure of. Join us in the journey!

This Sunday we’re delving into the last part of our fall series, “A Guide to the Satisfied Life”. Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast. I hope to see you there and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
What can we put in our lives to dramatic effect (see above). Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
Change the way you view your SELF (to dramatic effect).

YOU AND YOUR "THING"
You don't build a great church with a few hero's. It's a few small decisions multiplied across many people. If we take small steps towards a thing that only God can do - and it happens - then those small things were well worth taking. Take a step. Become a great church with us. Be surprised at what it does. Be the Menthos!

Menthos, Again?

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

We had two of our trusted volunteers perform the famous reaction so you could view it safely from a distance and showed the video on Sunday. Now we know it to be true - if you put a package of Menthos in a bottle of pop, you’ll get a surprising reaction. (See included pictures).

Over the past two Sundays, I’ve used that image to ask two questions: is there anything we could drop in our lives to produce a surprising effect, and is there anything we could drop in our church to surprising effect?

Jesus uses two similar images in Luke 13: a mustard seed and a batch of yeast. Both of them are small beginnings to a much larger outcome. So what is the catalyst in life and faith? What is the yeast – the mustard seed – the “menthos” in life’s pop bottle?

In terms of what we could drop in our church, it’s relatively easy: the Kingdom voice. Anything with even a tiny amount of Kingdom truth in it will produce a dramatic effect. It says in Isaiah 55 that the message of God will “not return void”. In other words – anything which expresses a Kingdom Voice will NOT have NO EFFECT (sorry for the double negative – better to say it this way, “it’s impossible that it will do nothing”).

In fact, it’s simply not possible to get a dose of the kingdom small enough that it will only have a mild effect. Think of the email devotional last week. The parable of the sower seems to indicate there are only two kinds of Christians: the one’s that won’t last, and the one’s that will produce a hundred times as much. There’s no middle ground – it’s either dramatic multiplication or gentle expiry. So again, it’s the same idea: it’s simply not possible to have a dose of the Kingdom low enough that it only has a mild effect.

Over the next two weeks – a small piece of that Kingdom voice is going into 1800 mail boxes in Oakville. You may say that’s no big thing, and you may be right. But it doesn’t need to be. A small thing in their mail box plus a small thing in our lobby (a group of people trying to actually mean it) will produce a dramatic effect. Trust me! I’ve already seen it once!

This next set of messages represent my best attempt to come to terms with both these questions: something we can put in our lives and something we can put in our church to produce a surprising effect – and they are one in the same. It will take us right through December 17 and it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on a package of teaching. I trust you’ll find it challenging.

Be the Menthos!

Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

I hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
How to Have a God - the rest of the story. If not a pet, then what? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
What can we put in our lives to dramatic effect (see above).

THE PLAN
It's our first concerted effort to open our doors to Oakville - add your prayers and passion to it!

Hey - Thomas Question People

You can help us send a more effective message as a church by filling out this online survey.

One of the ways we're trying to build a great church is by listening.  Rather than assume we know all we need to know without even asking, we'd like to find out what's actually going on out there.  And there's a team of McMaster students that are helping us do it.  

It doesn't take long and it's mostly mouse clicks.

Click on the link below:

Online Survey

Thanks in advance,

CSW

The Shortest Email Devotional in the World Pt 2

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

Let’s stick with this brief and to the point approach. I like it.

You can find the parable of the sower in Luke chapter 8 starting at verse 5. Jesus describes 4 things that happen as a sower scatters seed on the ground. In the first case the seeds never sprout, in the second they die quickly, in the third they die slowly and in the last case they produce a hundred times what was sown.

And then He said these 4 scenarios also describe what happens every time a person hears about a Jesus-based life because words are like seeds, too.

Now that’s a steep challenge – because even though there are 4 scenarios, there are only two possible outcomes. For every seed that’s sown, it either (1) doesn’t last or (2) produces a hundred times as much. Only two outcomes.

We always like to imagine there’s lost of room in between. But that’s the point. There isn’t. And if you ask me, I think the difference between them can be described in terms of the steps you take based on what you hear.

Something to think about.

Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

I hope to see you Sunday, and I hope you bring someone with you,

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
How to Have a God Part 1. There are some things too wild to become pets - and God might fit in that category, too. Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
How to Have a God - the rest of the story. If not a pet, then what?

6 TIMES 2
We haven't taken a single step, yet, to let Oakville know we exist. It's because we've been working on the inside of a great church first. But the time is coming. We'll need 6 teams of 2 people to take a simple first step. Why not you? Are you willing to try to produce a hundred times as much (see above)

BY WHAT YOU HAVE TO GIVE
Living to get is something you can't control. Living to give is something you can choose every day. Be part of giving a great church to someone else. Trying to get a great church for yourself is why so many people are so dissatisfied with their Sundays.

The Shortest Email Devotional in the World Pt 1

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

I'm not being trite with this - or even time strapped. I just think we sometimes lose the power of a simple truth in the embroidery we wrap around it. So no embroidery. Just a simple admission: I realized this past week that most of my prayers could be summed up in this one sentence: "God, give me what I want to make my life easier." Is that also true for you?

Most of His passion for us can be summed up in this one sentence: "I long to give you all of what you need to make your life better." And our lives will be lived in the tension between those two very different interests: what we want to make it easy and what we need to make it better. Which do you choose?

Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

I hope to see you Sunday, and I hope you bring someone with you,

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
Are you fully invested? Your investment has the power to turn even the simplest things into more than you expect. How do you get fully invested? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
How to Have a God and are you sure it's a God you've got?

6 TIMES 2
We haven't taken a single step, yet, to let Oakville know we exist. It's because we've been working on the inside of a great church first. But the time is coming. We'll need 6 teams of 2 people to take a simple first step. Why not you?

DON'T FORGET
There are thousands of great churches all over Canada for people who've already made up their minds. Let's be the single best destination for the even larger number of people who haven't.