We leave this afternoon through next Monday midday.  Elaine is really disliking leaving the island, as do I.  When I allowed myself to want to return to Grand Manan it was like breaching a dam.  The pull was instantly overwhelming to me … to both of us.

I’ll be doing my regular work with HERG (Health Education Research Group) on Wednesday and Thursday.  HERG is a part of the education faculty at UNB.  If you are interested in some of the things that we do, browse the website, here  The actual HERG website is temporarily off line.

On Friday,we will be a part of a gathering of Nazarene pastors and wives, to be held in Cavendish, PEI.  This is a yearly event and the only time that my association with the Church of the Nazarene should take us away over a Sunday.  I also am the webmaster for the sites linked above.

Just a word on the sanctuary reset …

I LOVE interaction in our services.  To me, it says that there is a reason for everyone to be “on deck”.  To come and sit to merely spectate doesn’t make sense to me.  You can do that at home on your living room sofa.  We used to argue that coming and sitting in rows where you look at the back of someone’s head, was fellowship.  I had to admit some years ago now that we come to church on Sunday mornings for a variety of things but fellowship was one of the least obvious and seemingly least important.  Do you remember the days when “chatting” in pre-church was a disrespectful thing to do.  Again, that sort of nixed the fellowship thing.

Today, in all honesty, the pastor is not an expert by virtue of any formal training or position that he has gained.  We live in an information age in which any and all kinds of learning is available to everyone. I don’t think the position was ever intended to carry that notion.  A pastor is one of a group of people, a functional family (hopefully).  She/he has a viable role to play … just like everyone else.  Redefining the pastor is another necessary exercise for us today.

So I want people to participate.  I don’t want you to just come, sit, give and listen … to be an audience church.

We are leaving the sanctuary set with the table as a prominent feature in our gatherings … for a few weeks.  Some of the folks suggested this possibility after last Sunday’s service.  I loved the fact that I was not the radical voice that initiated that.  But I LOVED the suggestion.

You see, I believe that when we come together, everyone brings something to the table.

What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:26

We don’t come to church to defer to experts.  We come to engage together and when we do that something powerful emerges from our gatherings.

The table gives you a place to set your Bible and make sure that I am preaching from it.  It gives you a place to write notes or make funny drawings in the bulletin.  You can set a coffee cup on the table.  You can look across it or around it to see people’s faces and perhaps to hear their hearts as well.

You see, I am a Lifer now.  You have been for some time.  I am in it for life!

Together in the weeks, months and if God is good … and He is … in the years ahead, we will journey to places of intimacy with the Almighty that none of us might reach alone.  The African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

One morning I might even dance.  If I do, you’ll know it is God, not me.

Love you guys.