News & Notes With Jeremy Bell

Dear Folks,

Here are the letters that Jan and I wrote as an introduction to the Partnerships and Possibilities brochure. Some of you may have already received it in the mail. Bob Webber, Jennifer Lau, Sam Chaise and myself collaborated to put Mosaic (the magazine published by Canadian Baptist Ministries) and the Partnerships and Possibilities brochure together. You may have seen the two pieces with the cover letter. The brochure enables us to begin to visualize some of the wonderful breadth of work that we are doing with the Lord and with each other in our local churches. Thanks to Bob Webber, Ceal McLean and Naomi Wakeman for their hard work.

Here are lists of topics covered in the brochure:

• Church Support
• Supporting Pastors
• Residential Camping
• Children & Families
• Urban Camping
• Youth
• Short Term Ministries in Western Canada
• Women in Focus
• Refugees & Uprooted People
• Education
• Church Planting

Here is access to the copy on the web: Partnerships and Possibilities 2012.

Trust that you’ll be seeing this work in your own church soon.

Warmly,

In Christ,

Jeremy

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Message From Executive Minister

In the 1980’s, I was asked to do a funeral for a Saskatchewan farmer who had moved to the coast in his retirement. His wife had passed away and his children urged him to travel. He said he had no need to travel. Instead, he set up a newspaper stand on Robson St. in Vancouver, and for over a dozen years John Sanderson sold papers to the world. Or, as he said to his kids “I don’t have to go travelling, for the world has come to me.” John is in fact describing Western Canada of 2011. You will see from the Partnerships and Possibilities Ministry Guide that our God has invited us to a whole array of immigrants and resident Canadians of all stripes, rich and poor, literate and barely so. It is a most exciting time to be alive in a family of churches together, encouraging one another, listening to God and seeing new things in Him bear fruit. You will hear of new churches, ministries of renewal, encouragement around youth, education, camps and children & families, and so much more.

Thanks be to God for His strength, faithfulness and encouragement in these days.

In Christ,

Jeremy Bell

Message From President

Open My Eyes

This summer, our church hosted a Stampede breakfast as an opportunity to reach into our community with a desire to become more closely connected. Approximately 550 people arrived in our parking lot for pancakes and Christian music with a country rhythm. As I looked around me, I realized that I knew very few. It was a very mixed group, with people of many different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds gathered to enjoy the fellowship. This is a drastic change in our neighborhood where only a few years ago the population was largely white and fairly affluent. In the recent tragedy in Norway, the perpetrator was labeled in the media as a fundamental Christian whose beliefs made him hate ‘foreigners’ and that they were deserving of annihilation. We are challenged in these times to demonstrate that as Christians we are not weird radicals hanging out on the fringes of life nurturing our hate but rather we are a people ruled by God’s law of love who desire to bring our neighbors God’s message of hope.

As I travelled extensively in northern British Columbia and the Yukon this summer, one of my projects was to photograph and identify as many of the beautiful and different flowers as I could find. The task was easy because the fields, forests and ditches are filled with a magnificent assortment of exquisite flowers. Each one becomes a wonderful study to appreciate the diversity of color and marvelous design God used to make our world beautiful. And so it is with His people. Each person is uniquely designed and precious to Him, worthy of our time, our love and our care. As our churches seek to engage their communities in new ways,

I pray that God will indeed open our eyes to the wonderful opportunities to get to know our neighbors as special gifts from God and where new relationships allow us to share God’s message of hope and love.

Jan Paasuke

News & Notes With Jeremy Bell

Dear Folks,

Christmas never sneaks up on me. Every year just after Christmas I reflect a little, make note of a few lessons learned and determine that next year I will endeavour to approach Christmas in a different way. I usually have 360 days, plus or minus, to begin my new approach for the next Christmas. My behaviour, however, seldom changes. I blame it “for sneaking up on me”. But Christmas is not an “it”. It does not “sneak”. When I talk like that I am in serious need of a mental shakeup, but nevertheless, our attitude towards Christmas and it spiritual opportunities is often a metaphor of how we spiritually engage much of the rest of our life and faith.

So today I am giving myself, and you, a reminder that it is two weeks before advent. I do this because I want the advent of the Christmas season to be different for you and me this year. If you can benefit from observing my own attempt at this new behaviour, then so much the better. We can all learn from attempting new spiritual disciplines.

I have three brief sections to this newsletter. First of all on a personal note, things that I have learned from the past and hope to put into practice this year. Secondly, what Christmas is meant to be for a Christian and thirdly, some links and aids to doing Christmas in a healthy way.

Part I: Things I Hope I Have Learned

• While Christmas may be more about giving than receiving, it is certainly not about consuming as much as we do.
• I hope to spend less on myself and less on those who do not need it (my wife Kerry is far more balanced in this than I am).
• will try to sign up for a local charity’s Christmas Dinner on December 10th (by the way, I never understand why Christmas dinners aren’t on Christmas Day).
• I intend to plan some of those conspicuous Christmas acts of charity in the first quarter of next year, instead of joining the rush to be charitable just in December.
• There is a little slogan from the BC lottery association that says, “Know your limit, Play within it”. It is a meaningless attempt on their part to attempt to be socially responsible. I think I’ve attempted to be funny in previous years on Christmas day by saying, “know your limit, EAT within it” I think I’m being funny. I am not. So many in the Christian church are proud of what they don’t do while forgetting the carnage of consumerism and gluttony that are incredibly destructive. The misuse of food is destructive in my life, not just on Christmas day, but also for the whole season. I’m going to eat considerably less this year, and the Lord being my helper, be able to tell you the effort paid off.
• I am praying that I will be open to being spontaneous in my generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness whether it is by card or in any other form. I will make an effort this year to take far more time in connecting with those I care about rather than doing it in the rushed, careless, and cursory fashion I have done in the past.

Part 2: What Christmas Is

• Advent, which begins on November 27, is the first Sunday of preparation for the season marking the coming of the Christ child.
• Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year, (not January 1) so it is time to prepare to make resolutions and to seek God’s strength in keeping them.
• Advent opens up a time of reflection and preparation that truly allows us to be counter to the culture we live in.

Part 3: Links or Aids

• Carey Hall has an excellent online advent devotional
  Register online HERE or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  More information at www.carey-edu.ca/institute
• Regent Bookstore carries an Advent Reader for $8.95, or save 20% if you pick it up in store.
• Kitsilano Community Church will have a series of reflections online at the beginning of Advent, http://www.kitschurch.com/

Peace of the Lord be with you this day, this season, and always.

Amen

Warmly,

In Christ,

Jeremy

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it