I caught this over at the Sovereign Grace Blog (By CJ Mahaney)

Lazy? Not me. I’m busy. Up early, up late. My schedule is filled from beginning to end. I love what I do and I love getting stuff done. I attack a daily to-do list with the same intensity I play basketball. Me lazy? I don’t think so!

Or at least I didn’t think so. That is, until I read about the difference between busyness and fruitfulness, and realized just how often my busyness was an expression of laziness, not diligence.

I forget now who first brought these points to my attention. But the realization that I could be simultaneously busy and lazy, that I could be a hectic sluggard, that my busyness was no immunity from laziness, became a life-altering and work-altering insight. What I learned is that:

• Busyness does not mean I am diligent
• Busyness does not mean I am faithful
• Busyness does not mean I am fruitful
  

Recognizing the sin of procrastination, and broadening the definition to include busyness, has made a significant alteration in my life. The sluggard can be busy—busy neglecting the most important work, and busy knocking out a to-do list filled with tasks of secondary importance.

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Everything we do communicates something.

The building we rent, or buy, or build, screams something about our mission and values. There is no way around it.

As a church, Jacob and I desired to communicate our love for St Jérôme by the location and style of our building. Quebeckers are used to seeing huge catholic cathedrals in every town. I am used to seeing huge evangelical church buildings at the outskirts of every American town.

We found a number of affordable and available spaces outside the city, but rather than follow many evangelical examples of separation from the city, our desire is to influence the city as we participate in it. Rather than follow the opulant Catholic examples and feel comfortable, (like simply pay more and rent a hotel), our desire was to find something affordable and practical, freeing up our ressources to invest in people rather than facilities. Besides, hotels are for visitors and outsiders, we want to live here, not visit.

As we searched for a place to rent in the city, almost every obstacle we could think of presented itself. The city has a policy of "not renting to churches". Most schools either follow the same policy, or simply don't rent to anyone. (We contacted over 80 schools in our search to no avail). Most community centers are connected to the city, so no luck there either.

We had to find some kind of privately-owned and operated community center: "Ici Par Les Arts."

"Ici Par Les Arts" uses many different kinds of arts (painting, sculpture, dance, sewing, drama, poetry, etc.) to help troubled teenagers. The left wing (above) is a large room often used for workshops which can hold a maximum of (when emptied of all else) up to 150 people (we use this for our morning services). The front (at right, with the painted window) is an art gallery to display the work of local artists (we use this for our Sunday school classes).

Some Sunday mornings we strategicaly cover nude paintings located where we hold our Sunday school classes. One morning, as some kind of an unknown project, a huge bowl of condoms sat right next to the front door . The Sunday school classrooms are also far from ideal. We even have our share of local alcoholics asking for change during our coffee break. But here's reality: If you desire to influence a city, expect to feel uncomfortable sometimes. And since people in need stream in and out of this building all week long, and we rent the exact same facility, we are also seen as a friend of the community.

The leaders of "Ici Par Les Arts" love us as well. They call us "our Sunday friends".

Recently, I was even invited to meet with the executive counsel of "Ici Par Les Arts". The director wants me to meet this assortment of local lawyers and business-men because of the great relationship we have. The director (she is not a Christian) desires to show the entire community why the presence of our church is a great thing.

All of this because we did not (1) set up shop in the suburbs, or (2) rent a more comfortable, but more expensive space.

We will move eventually. We may buy or build a building. That's fine. But as we do so, we will ask a few questions of ourselves: 

• What will our meeting space communicate?
  
• Will it value mission over comfort?
  
• Will it communicate a desire to impact our city by participating in it, or a desire to separate from it?
  

For all you on the west coast, it's snowing in Québec right now

Good thing we already installed our winter tires.

Looks like I'll have to go out and buy some gloves.

I've been asked to teach part of a church planting boot camp, in French. So this week, 18 people (13 are aspiring church planters in Quebec) will walk through the many models and methods of church planting, all undergirded by a sound theology of ecclesiocentric church planting (one interesting difference between Quebec and the U.S. is that in Quebec, the emphasis is on the local church birthing daughter churches, in the U.S., the emphasis is generally on the church planter himself).

Wednesday and Thursday I'll be teaching the following subjects:

• "Préparation pour le lancement" (Preparing for the launch)
• "Préparer l'équipe de lancement" (Preparting the launch team)
• "Partager la vision" (Sharing the vision)
• "Votre chemin vers la maturité" - parcours de formation" (Your road to maturity - an intentional discipleship process)
• "Bâtir avec des petits groupes" (Building with small groups)
• "Relations avec la communauté" (Community engagement)
• "Cultes édifiants" (Intentional worship service) 

This is an exciting moment in the church planting history of Quebec. Could you take time out Wednesday and Thursday to pray for me, this course, and the 18 students taking it?

Thank you for praying.

-Rob

Ephesians 6:11-12
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

I ran into this bit of perspective at Matt Dirk's blog:

So far, the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression has forced some Americans out of their homes, but for most people it’s just caused them to put off a vacation, car purchase, or retirement for a year or two. Meanwhile, a million people in India live like this their entire lives:

We've had 3 baptisms over the last two weeks. The first two were two weeks ago,Sunday afternoon, at a nearby lake. Around 150 people showed up!

Sara and Audrey were both baptized by their fathers; Jean and Stephane. The third was last week during our morning service as Julie was Baptized by her father-in-law Joclyn (an English pronunciation would be something like "Josslin").

Sunday afternoon at the lake was an unforgettable festive occasion. Here are a couple of photos:

Above: Stéphane baptizes his daughter Audrey

Above: Jean baptizes his daughter Sara

Last Saturday I was invited to preside over the funeral of Martine's uncle. It was the thickest emotional preaching experience I have ever had. About 100 people crammed into a small chapel as I shared a few thoughts from the Bible and sang a couple of songs (with Martine's sister Julie).

Even though I had been invited by the closest family members to speak (who do not consider themselves necessarily to be christians, and who have heard me speak before), the tension in the room was palpable. Most listened with arms crossed and stoic expressions. Many in the room had long since expressed their objection to any form of spirituality; and at the behest of the closest family members, here I was talking not only about spirituality in general, but about the hope that Jesus brings in particular.

All I did was share the same thing I shared with Michel before he passed on... hope in Jesus. That hope had transformed a man terrified of dying into a man at peace and looking forward to passing into God's presence. Michel had even asked me to return on a couple of occasions to continue talking about Jesus and what the cross was all about. "That's good" he repeated throughout our talks

At the end of the funeral service, about half the people mentioned that, though tearful, they had been greatly encouraged. The other half walked out with gazes fixed ahead.

After a short night's sleep Saturday, I was joyful, encouraged, and full of hope.

...Thank you for praying for me, for us, and for Martine's family.

I ran into this review over at Tall Skinny Kiwi:

We had spoken several times of Jesus and the cross. Consequently, in our conversations, he returned again and again to the image of Jesus removing the sin from his shoulders and placing it on his own; thereby allowing him to enter into God's presence sans terror, completely in peace. The change was remarkable. No sacraments. No added burdens. Just peace.

During his extended hospital stay (as a result of terminal cancer), his terror and anguish over the prospect of dying had greatly intensified. He saw Jesus, his heart changed. He finished in peace.

The entire family has asked me to do the funeral Saturday. I'll sing a couple of songs and, others will share, then I'll share what brought peace to a man terrified of a certain and impending death. All of Martine's aunts, uncles and cousins will be there.

Please pray for all of us during this time.

Last week two couples from our missions organization (WorldVenture) came to see what was going on.

Jim & Corinne Thorp (who spent many years in Brazil & Mozambique) are the new Directors of the Americas, Andy & Nancy Spohrer (who spent several years in Ireland) are East Regional Directors of the U.S. Once every couple of years they swing by here to check up on us (to make sure we aren't dealing drugs, etc.)

They came to our Sunday morning service. Jim sang for us in Portuguese. We visited Montreal & St Jerome. Caleb & Constance spoke in English. We hung out with Louis, and Jim & Rob even took in a football game together (on TV). It was a great 4 days.

Above: Constance can't believe it!

Above:  Andy & Nancy Spohrer, Martine & Rob, walking on the Montreal waterfront

Above:  Rob, Martine, Andy Spohrer, Jim Thorp in Montréal

 Above: Martine, Constance, Corinne Thorp in downtown St Jérôme

 Above: Rob, Caleb, & Andy Spohrer walking through downtown St Jérôme

While driving the other day, Caleb asked me a jolting question (translated from French):

“Papa, if a bad man came and killed me, would you go and kill the bad man?”

Huh? Wow.

After recovering from my initial suprise, I thought to myself, “how do I communicate that 1) I will do anything to protect my son, and, at the same time, 2) turn the question toward God’s love and compassion for everyone… especially bad people. Okay, point #1:

“If a bad person ever tried to do anything to you, call me right away and I will run and tell them sternly to never touch my son. I will do whatever it takes to protect you.”

 “But,” he asked, “what if I was too far away for you to run to me?”

 “Call me on the phone and I’ll drive as fast as possible, then tell the bad person not to touch you.”

“So if I had a cell phone in my back pack and a bad person was there, I’d call you and you’d come to protect me?”

“Yes, I’d come really, really, fast. I’d also call other people to come and protect you”. A confident and contented smile stretched from ear to ear as I responded.

Time for point #2:

“You know that God loves everyone?” I asked.

“Yes, I know that.”

“That Christ died and rose again for everyone… even bad people?”

“Yes”.

“Sometimes, when we tell a bad person how Jesus loves them, they trust Jesus, and Jesus changes their heart so that they no longer do bad things.”

“So, sometimes it’s a good idea to tell even bad people that Jesus loves them?”

“That’s right”.

Our desire is that Caleb grows to be a man who is strong and loves; a man strong enough and loving enough to simultaneously protect and show compassion.

Not easy.

Since preaching on a weekly basis in French, I've been discovering what it takes for me to feel ready to preach Sunday morning. In an ideal week, between small groups, college ministries and church planting meetings, this is what I do to prepare:

• Tuesday or Wednesday:  Gather as much information as possible on the text (from personal reflection, commentaries, Strong's and Englishman's Concordances, etc.)
• Wednesday to Thursday: Let it soak, pray it through, begin to organize the text in my head.
  
• Thursday or Friday: Write it out word for word, put the powerpoint presentation together.
• Saturday evening: Preach through it to Martine. She corrects my grammar and helps clarify ideas and expressions.
• Sunday morning (between 4-5am): Spend time in prayer, then preach through the sermon two more times, eliminating the need for a word for word transcript.
• Sunday late morning (service is from 10-11:45, I start around 11): Preach it in front of the church. (the fourth time I've preached through it... I take from 45-55 minutes).

As time goes, I may spend less time practicing beforehand. But I never want to take for granted that 80+ people sit still for 45-50 minutes every Sunday... to listen to me as we open God's Word together.

Thank you for praying that God would powerfully use my lips to glorify Him here in Quebec.

Above: Rob preaching

Above: Caroline, Zac, Jacob, leading singing

Above: Jacob leading our children in prayer

Lord-willing, soon, all of our sermons will be available as video and audio for download soon.

Le scandale de la grâce (The Scandale That is Grace)

L'amour radicale pour ceux qui ne le meritent pas (Radical love for those who don't deserve it)

 I found this over at the DesiringGod blog:

After a couple of weeks to refocus, spend time with the family, and time listening to God (not simply studying and producing); we’re back and at it.