The Apostle Paul desires to go back to the cities he and Barnabas have preached in to see how those churches are doing. Barnabas is determined to take John Mark with them on this journey. John Mark had gone with Paul and Barnabas on the first journey but returned to Jerusalem early in the trip (Acts 13:13). It is Barnabas’ expectation to take John Mark on the journey with them again. But Paul insisted that they should not take John Mark with them because he had left them before. Verse 39 tells us that the dispute became a sharp disagreement. The disagreement ends in Paul and Barnabas deciding to part ways. It may shock us that leaders in the early church were in conflict with each other, but conflict and disagreements should never surprise us. Wisdom is knowing that conflict will eventually happen, and that we should prepare ourselves to do conflict well. So how do we do conflict well? What are some tools and practices that can equip us to work through conflict? And how can we work towards reconciliation when conflict has driven us apart?

A cultural and theological crisis was brewing in the early church. Some Jewish followers
of the Messiah were insisting that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to receive
salvation. (15.1) Others— like Paul and Barnabas—- believe that Gentile believers are
welcomed into the church as Gentiles. The resulting discussion leads to the Jerusalem
Council where important questions are being raised around salvation, ethnicity, culture,
Torah, and how the church will be faithful on its mission into the Gentile world. In 2022
we may not struggle with the idea of Gentile inclusion, but the question of how the
church can be unified through our differences has not gone away. So… how can we
experience unity in diversity? How can the church make space for a unity that
transcends and includes our differences? How can we make possible the vision of unity
that includes every tribe, tongue, and nation? 

Our Teaching Pastor Paul Walker sits down with Pastor Keith to discuss the implications of Acts 15 as it relates to the gospel, race, polarization, and the third way of Jesus. Keith shares his own experience of walking through the polarization of USA political landscape and the racial tensions that ensued. 

Generosity is at the heart of the character of God. As the famous Bible passage says, “For God so loved the world that he GAVE….” (John 3:16) When we give, we emulate the very generosity of God towards us. Being generous with our money now forms our character in a Christ-like direction and there are inherent rewards that result from it. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, “what we reap is what we sow”.  Yet so often walking in generosity confronts our fears about security, and worth. We can hold back because of the hold money can have on us. But God wants to break the power that money has over us, we need only offer him our open hands and God will direct us. This will change us. Think about what generosity could do for you! Think about the person you can become because of generosity. Giving is a chance to ask “who am I in relationship to money?” This is not a question of how much we give in comparison to others. The widow in giving two copper coins in the offering gave more than everyone else. (Mk 12) Jesus sees her heart and knows that she gave more than anyone else in giving all she had. In the same way, how might our practices of generosity form us in the image of our generous God?

Everyday we are confronted with advertising that is trying to sell us something. We are told that our happiness and wholeness is found on the other side of a shopping spree. Curiously Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal.” (Mt 6:19) This is a call to consider how we spend our money. It is a call to simplicity and saving all we can. Simplicity is about learning to be content with less (Philippians 4:12). This practice is a direct affront to the basis of advertisements that remind us that we never have enough and are always lacking. The practice of simplicity is based in the truth that the most important question in our financial life is, “does Jesus want me to have it?”. When we live as people of simplicity we make possible a new kind of living from the place of “enough”. We even discover that we have margin to serve others and worship Jesus in all we do. 

God is not some cosmic do-nothing deity. God is a creator, a worker— and we are created in this image. This is why the first human Adam is given a vocation and an assignment in Creation. Our reflection and our likeness of God will be expressed in our working lives and not apart from them. Work is a gift of God, not a punishment for sin. This means every worker is called to serve God in his or her profession or trade— not outside of it. The Apostle Paul will commend to us the posture of  “working with all our heart, as working for the Lord”(Col 3:23) “Earning all we can” should not be understood as aggressive acquisitiveness or justification for greed. “Earning all we can” is reaching our own potential so that we have “something to share with those in need.” (Eph. 4:28)

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the upper room like a rushing violent wind and filled all those who were gathered. This reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not merely an idea, a concept, an ethic, or a feeling.The Holy Spirit — who is a person of the Godhead/ Trinity, makes God’s presence real to us. This is why the Apostle Paul will tell us to “be filled with the Spirit.”(Eph. 5:18) The Greek verb appears in the present tense, which signifies an ongoing action, not something that happens once and for all. In English we might represent this sense with “keep on being filled with the Spirit.” By implication, the filling of the Spirit is something that can happen again and again in the life of the believer. We were meant to have ongoing connection and encounters with the living God.

Throughout Scripture we find reference to the Holy Spirit empowering people for Kingdom work. It’s important to note that the Apostle Paul did not create a technical category, limited list, or box, called “spiritual gifts.” Rather, when the Apostle Paul talks about “the spirituals” (πνευματικός) or “gifts” (χάρισμα) in 1 Corinthians 12 and elsewhere, he is simply offering a number of examples of ways that the Spirit uses and enables all believers to minister. What the Apostle Paul is not doing, is creating a bunch of exclusive categories of gifting that are held by few people in the church. So all of who follow Jesus may experience the Holy Spirit flowing through us in multiple ways. There are several examples or “lists “found in the New Testament, and none of them are exhaustive. The encouragement by Scripture is that we need to be eager (12.31) to welcome this move of the Holy Spirit, and to not be ignorant of the ways the Spirit is working in the church. (12.1)

We live in the age of self-help, therapy, and technique-obsession. Deep down, we all know we’re broken and need to change. The question is, How? In North American Christianity, the most common approach to this process is one of intellectual ascent. If we can know enough, learn enough, be smart enough, get inspired enough… we’ll change. Another approach is through strengthening our emotional health. If we process our negative emotions and focus on the positive… we’ll change. And while all those approaches have value, none of them can bring about the complete change we actually need: to be like Jesus. Jesus, in the middle of teaching about the Holy Spirit, tells us he is the vine and we are the branches. And apart from "abiding in the vine” we can do nothing. In the same way, the Apostle Paul will describes this abiding process as “living and walking by the Spirit.” So, how do we really change? We partner with the work of the Holy Spirit who is transforming us into the image of Christ. When we spend time with the Holy Spirit we will bear the fruit and virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

The Holy Spirit falls on a group of Gentiles for the first time. The implications are mind blowing. Peter realizes for the first time that, “God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” (Acts 10:34) God does NOT show favouritism but accepts from EVERY NATION—the Anishinaabeg, The Cree , The Dakota nation , The Dene, The Métis, The Oji-Cree  ….. and many, many more nations. 

As we gather for Heart Shift, we gather under the Spirit of the Creator — who brings together every nation, and tribe into the new people of God. To be people of the Spirit  is to be formed into the multinational, multicultural, new humanity where are all the walls of hostility are torn down. 

Yet in 2022, we have a fresh understanding of where the church has failed to follow the Holy Spirit into a multinational and multicultural Kingdom of God. We live in the shadow of colonialism, racism, and ethnic genocide towards our indigenous brothers and sisters in Canada. It is in this context we need a fresh work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into people who receive and give love.  (1 Cor 13)