Encountering Jesus: The story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is beautiful, poignant, and impactful. It presents to us three aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry which are amazingly hopeful and inspiring for us today. We’ll see how Jesus responds to Martha (the activist), Mary (the contemplative) and Lazarus (the dead guy!). More than that, we’ll discover what Jesus wants to do in and through our lives. This weekend’s service(s) will end with an opportunity for us to encounter Jesus at the exact places and spaces where we most need Him. I believe it will be an extraordinary weekend, a life-changing weekend, and it will be so much more meaningful if you are here with us. Who knows, it might not even be -26 degrees Celsius!! Bless you all and I look forward to being together with you!  Pastor Ian Trigg P.S. After this weekend we are closing our survey on how we can serve you better – would you take a moment right now and share your voice with us?

Encountering Jesus - John 9:1-34: Vision. It truly is one of the most remarkable gifts God has given us. The ability to see, to discern shapes and colours, to recognize beauty … it's all quite amazing! Ray Stevens classic song from the 70's “Everything is Beautiful” reminds us that there are none so blind as those who choose not to see. Our encounter with Jesus takes us to John 9 this weekend and the miraculous intervention and explanation of the healing of the man born blind whose life Jesus transformed. “I once was blind but now I see” was his testimony. Perhaps ours will be strengthened as we remember and discover the fact that He who healed still heals, He who came still comes, He who saw a blind man who couldn't see Him still reveals Himself to us in our stories. Have a blessed weekend and it will be great to worship together this weekend in the shadow of the Lord's table!

Encountering Jesus - John 8:31-47: Have you ever seen a picture of an elephant held in place by a small rope tied to its leg? It makes no sense. This enormous creature could break free with an easy tug, yet there it stands. I'm told that as a young animal the elephant is conditioned to "know" that this rope has the ability to restrain it. Later in life, it is a lie alone that holds the elephant captive. This weekend as we hear Jesus confront the lies his listeners believed, we'll consider how the Devil seeks to deceive us as well. In the midst of the real challenges in life, our prayer is that we will encounter Jesus and learn how to live as his true disciples, set free indeed.

Encountering Jesus - John 6:60-69: I remember a conversation from years ago where a pilot friend of mine talked about the “point of no return.” Apparently, in the world of avionics, there is a point in a flight path where turning back to where you began the flight is no longer a feasible or viable option. The early followers of Jesus were not versed in this train of thought! At a critical juncture, many of them felt very comfortable turning back, away from Jesus. Jesus' question to the remaining disciples (“Do you want to leave too?”) is very “to the point” and their response is so insightful and authentic. We'll visit that question and response and evaluate the depth of our commitment to Jesus and His Kingdom this weekend. We'll end with a reminder of what our commitment to Jesus ought to look like and how we express such a commitment in many ways, including water baptism. Who knows? Something remarkably “spontaneous” might just happen! This might be my favorite weekend of the year after Easter! I so hope you'll be able to join us!!

Encountering Jesus - John 6:1-15: Throughout his gospel, the apostle John was very specific about which events of Jesus' life he included, calling each one a “sign” of Jesus' true identity. And at the very end of his book, he concludes by saying, “these (signs) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31) The question is, how on earth does the massive picnic that Jesus put on (i.e. the feeding of the 5000) communicate that He is both the Messiah and the Son of God? How does it encourage us to put our faith in Him and assure us that there is life in his name? It turns out that in this well-known, yet often overlooked miracle of Jesus, there are incredibly rich layers of meaning that provide profound insights into who Jesus truly is and how He wants us to encounter Him. Join us this weekend as we take a fresh look at one of the most famous accounts in the whole Bible. I have no doubt that it'll make you fall in love with Jesus all over again. I know I have as I've prepared this message! See you soon!

Encountering Jesus - John 5:1-15: As I write this, I'm about to enter our worship center for Ruth Barkey's memorial service. If ever there was a motivation for an encounter with Jesus, this serves as one. Life is a remarkable gift – but it is also a remarkably fragile gift. Ruth was so ready for Jesus when death came because of her life of encountering Christ in a beautiful, joyful, inspiring way. We usually focus on how we encounter Jesus when we seek him out, but this weekend we'll look at an encounter that had no human search involved: it's the story of a man who suffered from a 38-year-long disability and how Jesus came along and decided to do something amazing. It's just what He does in our lives! If you need something amazing from Jesus this weekend, this is the place to be! I'm pretty excited to share the platform with my oldest son, Kyle, as we will teach together about how Jesus comes to us and changes us. I so look forward to worshipping with you this weekend!

Encountering Jesus - John 3 & 4: I was vividly reminded again this week of the reality that there simply isn't a life story that gets a free pass on experiencing pain. Pain and brokenness invites itself into all of our journeys and while some of our pain is self-inflicted and some comes from the sinful choices of others, some literally comes from “out of the blue.” It just happens. What do we do with our brokenness? I think the best answer is to simply bring it to Jesus. Let Him into your story. Discover His remarkable presence and gracious healing. Acknowledge the pain. Invite the Saviour to heal and restore. He comes to us all and we'll see just how that happens through two extremely different stories from John 3 and 4 this weekend. There are many faces of brokenness but just one source of healing and grace. Come discover all that God has for us this weekend!

Encountering Jesus - John 2:1-12: Every single time we say yes to something, we are also indirectly saying no to something else! Choose to stay later at work? You're saying no to your family. Choose to say yes to Big Macs with any degree of frequency, you're saying no to a healthy heart! Choose to say yes to your iPhone instead of doing your Math homework, you might just be saying no to post-secondary education! Every choice carries a consequence and the choices we make around our relationship with Jesus especially impact our lives. This weekend, we'll dive into the encounter between Jesus and some servants at a wedding in Cana and the myriad of implications that followed. We'll look at the wonder of this first miracle and how it came to be and what it all meant. If you want to be amazed at the wonder of who Jesus is and why He came - say yes to joining us in church this weekend! If you can't physically be here, join us online via livestream! Have a blessed weekend!

Encountering Jesus - John 1:43-51: Happy New Year! The new year is a time for us to reflect and refocus on what our priorities should be. As a church it reminds us that we are on a Transforming Journey of Knowing God, Loving Others, Reaching Neighbors and Serving the World! Transformation, be it physical or spiritual, remains an allusive goal for so many of us. There are no simple or easy answers, however one of ways that we observe positive life change is when we see people have encounters with Jesus. This week we begin a new series from the gospel of John entitled Encountering Jesus. We will discover how a diverse group of individuals were irrevocably changed because of their encounters with Jesus. You and I can also have our lives positively altered because of the encounters we will have as we journey together through the book of John. We begin this week by looking at The Skeptical Student in chapter one, Nathaniel. Come anticipating an encounter with Jesus! Clint Mix

Make Room - Romans 8:12-17: Happy New Year's and Happy Youth Pastor Sunday (if you don't know what that means, I'll explain it on Sunday). I am glad that God is more faithful to his promises than I am to my New Year resolutions. How guilty do you feel when your New Year's resolution flops? How do you deal with failure? Do you feel worthless? Do you feel like you have to earn God's love with your credentials? Go read Romans 8:12-17. I have a promise for you: God is faithful, and even if you flop he doesn't. Jesus has some stuff that you need to know. If you follow Jesus or not, bring yourself and bring a friend. Come hear this good news. See you Sunday!