In our last series, we talked about loving our neighbours, and stepped through six shifts.  From stranger to neighbour to acquaintance to partner to friend to becoming “like family”.

It’s possible to become like family with a focused group of people, where you practice loving your neighbours within that small group, and see that spill over to others outside.

This series looks specifically at this stage of being “like family” with other followers of Jesus.  It’s called the church, believe it or not.  Important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

You probably have all sorts of preconceived notions of what that word means.  Attached you’ll find a video of some people on the street who were asked about what they think of when they hear “church”.

You can find the video here:

Question: When you hear the word “church” what do you immediately see, or think?  Make a list, there may be several.  What experiences have informed you?

Ryan Sim - July 15, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - Originality

Think back to your last experience of school. I'm sure it involved some good teachers, and some not so good teachers. Soemtimes we like teachers or not for trite reasons – fun, easy, etc. But think about the content - who could really teach? I remember two kinds of bad teachers. One who didn’t care. He taught the curriculum, nothing more, nothing less. One day he didn’t show up, and the students didn’t mind at all! I also remember one who tried really, really hard. But he didn’t actually know the material, so he had no credibility. The smart kids were always proving him wrong. But what about good teachers? What about the ones where they explain something, and it clicks? Now, imagine a really great teacher. Somebody who comes up with something new and original, and explains it well. This is rare indeed. I recall my favourite professor at university, who joked at the beginning of his course, "I've you've read my book, sorry, I only have so much material." But that was okay, since it reall was his material. He wrote the book because it was his authoritative, original content, and he shared it in compelling ways. Question: Who was the best teacher you ever had? What did they teach you? Why were they the best?

From Series: "Sermon on the Mount"

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