The Glory Report

THE FILLING STATION GLORY:

Dear friends,

Wow – what a weekend! I can’t believe how fast it flew by. But I am glad to report that God showed up in a powerful way, and many lives were touched and changed for eternity!

FRIDAY MORNING IN THE BIBLE COLLEGE:
On Friday morning, I had the joy and privilege of being able to meet with some of the students at Pacific Life Bible College. First of all, I met in the library with a group of students for their ‘pastor’s round table’, an informal discussion group for those aspiring to pastoral ministry. After that meeting, I spoke to the pastoral leadership class on some of the key principles of effective ministry. I shared with them two main Scriptures: Acts 6:1-3 where the apostles said, “We must devote ourselves continually to the ministry of the Word and prayer,” and 2 Timothy 4:1-5 where Paul told a young pastor to “Preach the word.” I told them that we need more pastors in the church today who will build their life, ministry and teaching upon God’s holy and eternal Word, and not man’s wisdom. I had fun!

THE GLORY BEGINS – FRIDAY NIGHT:
I was so glad to be able to be at Bible Fellowship’s youth and young adults conference this year. The Filling Station was an event that I started four years ago, and I was so pleased to see that this event has continued to flourish under the leadership of their new youth pastor, Dan Lal. I was so blessed to be invited back as a guest speaker! One of the things I enjoyed the most about the conference was the amazing worship. The worship team consisted solely of youth and young adults, and I loved seeing their passion for the Lord! The Friday night speaker was a youth and young adults pastor named Ben Woodman, who was one of my students at PLBC when I taught there several years ago. He challenged the youth to seek after the ‘more’ that the Lord had for them.

MORE GLORY ON SATURDAY:
On Saturday morning, I ministered on the topic of “The Glory and Goodness of God.” Preaching from the story in Exodus 33-34, I shared how when Moses prayed, “Lord, show me your glory,” the Lord’s response was, “I will make all of my goodness pass before you.” We looked at how God is good, and His glory is His presence. Therefore, the glory of God is the goodness of the Lord manifested towards His children. This glory was most clearly demonstrated in the life of Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Our response to the goodness of God is to let our lights shine before men so that they can see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father. At the end of this session, I prayed that God would pour out His goodness on these students, and that they would be sent out into the world to go around doing good, just like Jesus did.

In the afternoon, there were several workshops, and then in the evening, there was a great move of God’s Spirit during worship. We praised the Lord for about an hour and a half, and it was amazing to see all of the young people pressing in to encounter God. Then the evening speaker, a youth pastor named Ben Johnson, ministered on the story of Moses from Exodus chapter three. The night ended off with more worship.

SUNDAY MORNING – FREE THE GLORY!
On Sunday morning, the final session of the youth conference was combined with Bible Fellowship’s Sunday worship service, and the church was packed out with the young and the old praising the Lord together. Pastor Craig Millar from Northgate Foursquare Church in Courtenay ministered more about the goodness and the glory, and talked about how God wants us to ‘free the glory’. He told us that the glory – the treasure – that’s in the earthen vessels of our lives is meant for the world, and God wants us to impact our world with God’s goodness. It was a great service, and it was really neat so many of our old friends from Bible Fellowship.

It was a great conference, and my prayer is that every one of the young people who attended would continue to grow in their relationship with the Lord, and carry His glory back to their home churches.

“Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Ex. 34:29-30).

Lots of love,
Pastor Chris

p.s. when we get home, I'll post some pictures!

The Father & Son Road Trip

Dear Friends,

Caleb and I got up at 5:15 am on Wednesday morning to drive to the airport to catch our flight to BC for The Filling Station youth and young adults conference. Because of the poor weather conditions, it was slow going, and we were almost late for our flight! We parked my mother-in-law's car in the economy lot which was quite a ways away from the airport, so we were racing for the terminal in blowing snow... it reminded me of a scene out of the original Home Alone movie! Anyway, we made our flight on time, and left the cold blowing snow of Manitoba behind for the blue skies and green grass of Beautiful British Columbia.

Our good friend Kareem met us at the airport, and we went out for breakfast together - pancakes at IHOP. After that, we went and hung out at his place for a while before heading into Surrey. Because Kareem has two vehicles, he let Caleb and I borrow one of them for the weekend, and yes... we got to ride in the BMW! Sweet... my dream car! Later that night, Caleb and I had dinner with some other good friends - Pete and Dawn Brooke (we'll be staying with them while we're in BC), and then we headed off to the church for their youth meeting. It was great seeing everyone again - lots of familiar faces of old friends, but lots of new people as well. The worship was amazing - the power and presence of the Lord was just as wonderful as we had remembered it. I was so blessed watching these youth passionately worshipping God without reservation. I knew in my heart that this was going to be an amazing conference, that God was going to come and show up and pour out His goodness in a supernatural way.

Today (Thursday), Caleb and I got up and headed over to the church, and Caleb spent the day at Regent Academy, Bible Fellowship's Christian school, with a bunch of his old buddies from school from last year. While he was doing that, I spent the morning working on my message for the Saturday morning session of the conference. My topic is: "The Glory and Goodness of God." I had lunch with my old senior pastor, Steve Witmer, and spent most of the afternoon visiting with some of the staff at the church and school, and visiting with some of the youth we had worked with as well. I had dinner with Geoff Schulkowsky, a good friend, one of the youth leaders at Bible Fellowship. It was good catching up with him. And Caleb and I ended off our day by going swimming at the Newton Wave Pool.

Tomorrow morning, I will be doing some guest speaking at Pacific Life Bible College - at their pastor's round table, and in their pastoral leadership class. Then - tomorrow night - "The Filling Station: Glory" begins... be praying for us!

Lots of love,
Pastor Chris

An Anniversary and a Youth Conference

Dear friends,

Well, today is March 25th, and this year, Liza and I are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. This day got off to an almost disastrous start when Liza was driving into Winnipeg, and ended up in the ditch. The roads were very icy, and Liza spun right off the road. Fortunately, she didn't flip the car, and she walked away without a scratch... I'm sure her angels were working overtime! When Liza got home tonight, I treated her to a homemade steak and vegetable stir-fry dinner and a movie.

Tomorrow morning, Caleb and I will be boarding an airplane to head to Surrey, BC for Bible Fellowship's fourth annual youth and young adults conference, "The Filling Station: Glory." I am looking forward to being a part of this weekend event as one of their guest speakers, and am anticipating a powerful move of God's Holy Spirit among these young people! Please be praying for us, for God's protection as we travel, for His wisdom as I prepare my message, and for health and strength in my physical body - I've been battling a bad head cold the past couple of days. Thanks! May the Lord Jesus richly bless you and your family today...

Lots of love,
Pastor Chris

Brand New Day

Dear friends,

Wow. What an amazing service we had Easter morning! I thank God for the amazing team of people who helped to minister the Good News about Jesus to our congregation... from Ken Oakley who led the worship team, and Al and crew's powerful drama "The End of the Beginning", and Andy, Tracey and Jodi's acapella rendition of a powerful old hymn about the Cross, to those who served communion, ushered, greeted, ran sound, and cared for the children and infants, it was a great team effort! My message was, "Brand New Day," and my text was Luke 24 - the two men on the road to Emmaus who encountered the resurrected Christ. We looked at how God wants us to experience a brand new day! His plan for us includes a new beginning, new hope, and new faith. In Christ Jesus, all things will become new. At the end of the service, we gave an opportunity for people to commit their lives to Jesus Christ, and four people gave their hearts to the Lord - praise His mighty name!

Today, I want to close with a story I shared with the congregation during our resurrection Sunday service, and I pray that it would encourage your hearts today as well...

Some time ago I saw a painting of an old burned-out mountain shack. All that remained was the chimney...the charred debris of what had been that family's sole possession. In front of this destroyed home stood an old grandfather-looking man dressed only in his underclothes with a small boy clutching a pair of patched overalls. It was evident that the child was crying. Beneath the picture were the words which the artist felt the old man was speaking to the boy: "Hush child, God ain't dead!"
(James DeLoach, associate pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Houston, quoted in When God Was Taken Captive, W. Aldrich).

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

With love in the Lord Jesus,
Pastor Chris

BCC Newsletter - March 19th

Dear friends,

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

BRAND NEW DAY: EASTER SERVICE - Sunday, March 23rd @ 10:30 am.
What if I told you that you could turn the page of the calendar this weekend and start a Brand New Day - where all of your past mistakes and failures were left behind you forever? That you could be free from fear, worry, guilt, shame, hopelessness, and that you could walk in victory? Would you be interested? This Sunday morning, as we celebrate the resurrection, I will be sharing a message with our congregation called, "Brand New Day." Come and hear how the power of the resurrection can transform your life from ordinary and natural, to extraordinary and supernatural! Invite a friend...

MIGHTY MEN'S BREAKFAST: Sat. April 12th @ 8:30 am.
We are going to kick off our new monthly men's ministry with a bang! (Well, with bacon and pancakes anyway). Come and check it out, and hear the vision we have for seeing the men of God in our church become MIGHTY MEN. Youth guys are welcome as well.

CLOTHING GIVE-AWAY: Sat. Apr. 19th from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm.
It's that time of the year again - to clean out your closets and find your best used clothing that you would be willing to donate to our clothing give-away. Please pre-wash all items before bringing them in and dropping them off in the coffee room, thank you.

IT'S A BOY!
Congratulations to Ken & Shannon Neustater on the birth of their son, Landon Robert Henry, born Thursday, March 13th and weighing 7 pounds and 1 ounce.

LATEST PODCASTS:
As most of you are already aware, we make our weekly Sunday morning messages available online free of charge. Here is a listing of some of the most recent podcasts you can download from our website or through itunes:

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:
God has given to all believers the Great Commission – to preach the good news and make disciples. Here are 5 keys Jesus gives to effective evangelism.
EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER - FAMILY EDITION:
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, is the popular reality home improvement show where families in need have their homes renovated. We are going to look at God’s design for a successful family.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE DINOSAURS?
If God created everything in the universe, and the original creation was ‘very good’, then why is there death and suffering in the world? And what really happened to the dinosaurs?
DINOSAURS, SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE:
The challenge to us as Christians is to “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15). There is much scientific evidence that confirms the Biblical account of creation.
GETTING READY FOR ETERNITY:
Everyone must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and because of the reality of this coming Day, we would be wise to meditate on the Scriptural truths concerning Heaven and Hell, and get ready for eternity.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR AUDIO SERMONS PAGE.

Chris Jordan
Lead Pastor, Beausejour Community Church
Web: http://www.beausejourchurch.ca/
Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/

1068.words.one.Monday.night

So I've tried to update this blog for several times over the past couple of weeks and yet I never got past the first paragraph because I was so concerned about grammar and sentence structure and all that jazz and so I thought we would try something a little bit different because one of the things that I've heard over and over again when it comes to writing is the importance of just letting it flow and don't worry about editing until you come to the end and therefore dear reader, if you have the fortitude to look past the fact that this will in reality be perhaps the longest run-on sentence ever written, you will learn a thing or two about some of the latest happenings in our life and family here in Beausejour, Manitoba where incidentally it has been exceptionally warm over the last couple of days - lots of snow has been melting and it has felt like spring was right around the corner until BAM we woke up this morning and there was a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground and yet that itself was somewhat comforting in light of the very extremely challenging past week that Liza and I just had which started out good two Sundays ago with a great service at church ministering on God's plan for a successful family which I creatively titled, "Extreme Home Makeover: Family Edition" and was pleasantly surprised by the great response from the congregation who like myself know we need a wisdom and favour greater than our own to fulfill our God-given task to be good parents and spouses and of course one of the things I like to do is tell jokes in my messages and I shared the story of the son who was put to bed by his father and asked for a drink of water but his dad said no it was too late but the son asked again and the father got upset and said if the son asked again he would get spanked and sure enough five minutes later the son said to the father, “When you come up to spank me, could you bring me a drink of water,” but anyway at the end of the good Sunday we had things started to go downhill because on Monday Liza sprained her wrist and then on Tuesday I had a dentist's appointment and yes, I realize that dozens if not hundreds of other people visit dentists every day and that in itself isn't a very stressful or challenging event although I suppose if I mentioned the fact that I had gotten one of my teeth pulled you might be more sympathetic but the reality is that most of the bad things that happened this week didn't happen to me personally and I just wanted to be included in this week that in many ways in my mind has paralleled the sufferings of Job although none of my kids died and we didn’t lose any livestock and I didn’t get any boils or anything like that or a wife telling me to curse God and die but we did have a sewer backup problem in our house on Tuesday night that was pretty bad considering the fact that we couldn’t get a plumber in until the next morning but he couldn’t solve the problem and so we had to go all day without the use of the water (that’s right, flushing toilets, etc) all day on Wednesday and then there was the hassle of calling the insurance company and talking to adjustors and having contractors and restorative companies come in and rip out the drywall and carpet and then bag and tag all of the items that were destroyed and thus non-restorative and then they brought in the big fans that were so loud and annoying but thankfully we were able to turn them off at night so we could sleep and anyway on Thursday Liza had a doctor’s appointment in the city where she had to get a mammogram because a couple of months ago she discovered some lumps where some lumps should not have been and of course this is the serious part of the story but we haven’t gotten the results back from the tests yet and most likely won’t until she sees her doctor on Thursday, but anyway on Friday Liza was coughing lots and continued to feel sick all through the weekend which she was sure was because of all of the cleaning chemicals that they came in and sprayed when they cleaned and sanitized our house after the sewer backup and then on Saturday we had a wedding at the church for Kevin and Jamie, and I am happy to say that that went incredibly well (thanks to everyone in the church who helped me out with set up, clean up and food and such) and then yesterday’s Sunday service was called “Mission Impossible” where we looked at God’s purpose for all of our lives to be salt and light in our world and to share the Good News about Jesus with everyone we meet to take as many people to Heaven with us as possible and that brings us to today, Monday, my day off which was relatively uneventful and now that I’m done my blog I’m going to sit down and sip a nice hot cup of Earl Grey tea (yes, that’s the kind Captain Jean Luc Picard drank on Star Trek the Next Generation, and I’m sure that’s the kind of tea the Queen of England drinks as well and nothing else comes quite close to it as far as taste goes) and watch some episodes of Lost on DVD which Liza and I have really gotten into lately because not only does the show have interesting characters, it is very intelligently written and has so many great references both overt and subliminal to great literary works, not to mention all of the deep philosophical and religious themes of destiny and free will and redemption and forgiveness and more and so with that I will sign off for now, and hopefully next time, I will add a couple of periods and paragraph breaks, but until then, please know that I am praying God’s richest blessings to be upon you and your family, signed your friendly neighbourhood pastor, Chris Jordan… good night!

GLORY - The Filling Station 2008

Calling all students! Come and join me at The Filling Station Youth and Young Adults conference in Surrey, BC from March 28-30! Check out http://www.thefillingstation.ca/ for more info.
Visit our blog http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/ to view the promo video for this event.

Why Should We Go To Church?

Dear friends,

One of the blog's that I have personally subscribed to is "Life Purpose" by Pastor Barry Buzza, the President of the Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada. I want to share with you his latest post, "10 Reasons Why We Go To Church." I've only included the first 5 reasons on my blog, but I encourage you to visit Pastor Barry's blog to read the rest. Be blessed today!

~ ~ ~

A friend of mine spoke with me the other day about his 11 year old daughter. He’d apparently had a very serious discussion with her about going to church. Although their family faithfully attends a church in their city, Sara, their youngest, decided that she’d had enough. "After all", she argued, “going to church doesn’t make a person a Christian and besides that, there are a lot of people who do go to church who live worse lives than those who don’t go!” My friend asked for a bit of advice from me, not as a pastor, but as a dad whose kids both faithfully serve in our church along with their husbands and children.

I thought about my answer carefully, because I’ve asked the same questions as Sara a few times myself. I’ll write here on the 10 reasons I believe that everyone should faithfully be part of a local church, but before I do, let me say up front that I agree with my friend’s daughter. Going to church doesn’t make me a believer or get me points with God, and conversely, not going to church does not mark me as an infidel! Someone once said, “Going to church doesn’t make anyone Christian any more than putting a wheelbarrow into a garage makes it a car!”

Here are the first (5) of my 10 reasons why I believe we should all be active participants in a church. We should faithfully attend church:

1. to receive teaching from the textbook on our Christian life, the Bible. Just as every plant needs nurturing to grow, so does every living believer. The Word of God compares itself to water, milk, bread and meat because it nourishes us and keeps us healthy. Whether it is in a Sunday school class, celebration service or small group Bible Study, we need to learn and practice the principles of God’s Word. Attending church regularly is a discipline which leads us to spiritual nutrition, every bit as much as eating right provides us with physical nutrition.

2. to worship our Creator and Lord. Worship (which literally means giving worth to) is fundamental to the Christian faith. It lies at the heart of the first three of the Ten Commandments because it has a significant effect on our lives. God does not have a big ego that says, “I must be told I’m great every day.” Worship doesn’t even change God; (He is unchangeable and all sufficient in Himself) rather worship aligns us with God and therefore, changes us! For that reason God commands us to honour Him always and set aside one day especially for Him. We call it a Sabbath day because Sabbath means to desist or stop. We stop our running for one day to be recharged, re-centered and re-aligned with our Creator. We were made to function that way. Without worship, we would tend toward self-centeredness, causing us to shrivel and eventually die spiritually. We need to worship and move toward God-centeredness.

3. Christianity is not a solo activity, rather it can only be lived out interdependently. I have a friend who was working at a lumber mill up in central British Columbia when he had a serious accident. His hand was severed by a very large circular saw. I didn’t know him before the accident happened, only after, and so was shocked to hear him tell the story. I’d always seen two hands on him and witnessed him writing, picking up things and talking with his hands. When I seemed to show some disbelief, he showed me his scars and explained that the supervisor at the mill had called the medic team and had him flown down to Vancouver carrying his hand in a plastic bag. An amazing team of surgeons was able to sew his hand back onto his wrist so that it worked almost perfectly!

The reason that I tell that story is because the Bible compares the participants in a church to the various parts of our body. As our various organs and appendages need each other, so do we. My fingers are writing these words on the paper, but my eyes, heart, blood nerves, brain and muscles are all working in harmony to make that possible. Just as my friends’ severed hand needed to be reattached to his wrist, we as people need each other to accomplish the work we’ve been assigned by our Creator.

4. The church is a perfect vehicle for doing the work of God. Whether it is feeding or clothing the needy, teaching values to children, providing care and activities for our teens, giving prayer or counsel to a person in distress or a host of other community needs, each of us has been given a gift for the purpose of serving others. A healthy church provides us with a variety of opportunities to serve.

5. It also enables us to help others find peace with God. Someone once said of the church that we are merely “one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread.” I like that. It’s not that we are “in the know” or deserving in any way; it is simply that we have been told where the bread and water are. Now we have a responsibility to pass the good news along.

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To read the conclusion to Pastor Barry's article, click here: http://barrybuzza.blogspot.com/

Double Digits

Dear Friends,

The past two weekends, we celebrated Tori's 10th birthday. On her actual birth date, the 22nd, we took the kids - and a couple of the cousins - to see High School Musical on ice. The kids really enjoyed it, and of course - you know Disney - they put on a great show. Then, this past Friday night, the 29th, we had a sleepover at our place with all of the kids cousins - Cassidy, Sophia, Brittini, Tayler, and Izzy, too. We played games with them (including Dutch Blitz), they watched movies, played video games, and went to the snowhill on James Avenue. Here are some pictures from the two weekends...