T-Rex Jesus

So, it is happening again. Senior High Rally started around 7pm last night (Friday) and it is still before noon on Saturday and of course the creativity is flowing. This morning the home groups were invited to re-imagine a biblical story and we were inspired to see, hear and incorporate the good news in wonderfully imaginative, humourous and insightful ways.

Zachaeus the Raptor and T-Rex Jesus. Noah and his wife booking a vacation on a "Zoo Cruise" gone wrong, but ultimately right. The story of Jonah told in a game of tag. A commercial for that new healing product "Jesus Touch" gel including the requisite list of side effects (except in this case they were all to be desired rather than feared!).

I heard it said last week that if you want something transformative to happen to your congregation just offer to host one of the two rally events that are held in our conference every year - Senior Rally in October and Junior Rally in March.

Nothing that has happened so far at Sherwood Park United Church has caused me to change my mind on that one!

Reporting in as one of the Chaplains at Senior High Rally 2010 in Sherwood Park United Church.

Back at last...

Here's a curious little piece of information. I wrote a blog entry every day for forty days in Lent and before that off and on - pretty much every time I wrote an article for "In Contact". Throughout the Lenten writings and in most of the previous entries I invited people to interact with me. Not once did anyone comment online with regard to anything I wrote. It was easy not to get an inflated idea of how many people were reading... I knew a few who were reading the writings in Lent, but I did not expect that there were too many others.

In an interesting irony, the title of the last Lenten writing was this: Is this how it ends? Of course I was referring to the end of the Lenten season and the disciples commenting on the death of Jesus, but for those people who kept checking the blog after Lent, it probably had a different ring. It could well be the question I was posing to myself after completing the Lenten discipline that both challenged and inspired me.

But over the past three weeks or so, I have had several people make reference to the blog and while they have expressed an understanding that I've been very busy, they have also mentioned that I haven't added anything lately. You may know who you are - and now you know that those little comments dropped into the middle of other conversations have sparked a rekindling of my blogging enterprise!

So this entry is an answer to all of that. No, that was not how it all ended - at least in blog terms, and no it was not how it all ended for Jesus either.

Lessons for me?

• Resurrection themes can pop up in the most unlikely of situations.

• Keep on writing because you never know who is reading.

Lessons for you?

• Keep on letting me know you are reading - whether it be by commenting in the blog itself or by letting me know the next time you see me. I am always happy to write in response to questions or requests. In fact I commented to someone recently that I get inspired by deadlines, but I also get inspired by questions.

Posted in Banff, Alberta on October 15 while attending the Banff Men's Conference - more on that later!