The Gate
JUNE 2008
The Official Newsletter of Gateway Covenant Church “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” -Psalm 133:1
Firmly nestled on the East End of Prince Albert stands Gateway Covenant Church, built in 1981 as a community desiring to ask the questions of “what does it mean to be the church?” and “how do we feed the spiritually
Gateway Covenant Church
COVENANT
A F F I R M AT I O N S
homeless?” Gateway seeks to give people a safe environment where they may be free to worship in a comfortable setting and articulate how God has been at work in their life. Worship begins at 10 in the morning followed by coffee where people are free to chat. Come and worship with us! God bless and take care.
Phone: (306) 764 - 7155 Fax: (306) 763-1570 Website: www.covgate.com Email: gatewaycovenant@hotmail.com Address: Box 2318 Prince Albert, SK S6V 6Z1
Table of Contents: A Word From Randall/ New Library
Thoughts from the Intern
2 3
What’s Been Happening At Gateway?
3-4
Book
Gateway Covenant Church
COVENANT
A F F I R M AT I O N S 1
Who are the ECC? The Evangelical Covenant Church is a denomination of more than six hundred churches in the United States and Canada. It was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1885 as a voluntary covenant of churches committed to working together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Covenant churches emphasize the Bible's witness to new life in Jesus Christ expressed in a day to day walk with the Lord. What is a Covenant Church? • Evangelical, but not exclusive. • Biblical, but not doctrinaire. • Traditional, but not rigid. • Congregational, but not independent. The Evangelical Covenant Church is an apostolic, catholic, reformation, and evangelical church. Who hold to the centrality of the word of God, the necessity of the new birth, a commitment to the whole mission of the Church, the Church as a fellowship of believers, a conscious dependence on the holy spirit, and the reality of freedom in Christ.1 To download the Covenant affirmations please visit the website of the ECC at: 1
http://www.covchurch.org/ affirmations
A Word from Randall Sometimes you get a broad view of a great vista and you drink it in. Lately, there are few broad vistas that capture my attention. But the beauty I have seen is in looking closely, at the details of life. Why an individual responds the way they do. Why a heart feels the way it does. What motivates an individual. It's all amazing in the fine, small details of the heart. If you take the time to look closely, you will see amazing beauty. But it does take time. You can't just look quickly and move on to the next thing. No, it requires a luxuriously long look, the kind of extravagance that people need, if they will be loved and cared for in ways that allow them to feel loved. You need to take a long look and then you will see the intricate details of creation. The curve of a heart in love. The colour of a spirit when grieving. It's all there to be seen, if the one looking will look deeply and patiently enough. Tonight I captured some tiny flowers on the small berry bushes in the back yard, and our lilacs this year are looking and smelling glorious. But if you are going to see the real beauty, you've got to get down on the level they are at, and look closely at them. Then you see things as they are. Just like life. Pastor Randall
New Book In The Library! Donald Miller eloquently documents his road trip from Texas to Oregon with his friend Paul in their Volkswagen van in search of greater meaning than what life had given them. The book highlights Miller’s thoughts on pain, friendship, and beauty giving a detailed analysis of what it means to be human. Miller’s memoir of the search for meaning is both hysterical and heart warming. It is an enjoyable read of two friend trying to figure who God is. Pick it up at the library soon! 2
Thoughts From The Intern: Thinking About Faith I do not know if this is a cultural misunderstanding or not, but it seems to me everyone has their own definition of what faith is. The problem is many of these definitions are severely lacking, and sometimes people attach these poorly constructed definitions to Christian belief. Perhaps these labels originate from common stereotypes or ones experience, but nevertheless these descriptions appear to be fallacious. Allow me to give an example to demonstrate what I mean. Richard Dawkins who is a prominent zoologist, a popularizer of science, and a former Oxford professor writes “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” Dawkins is one of the world’s most established atheists and critics of religion, he also believes teaching faith to your children is a form of child abuse. Most of us probably disagree with Dawkins, and surely Christians don’t equate their faith to ignorance. Christians would say God can be deduced from the world, most importantly in the life and works of Jesus. We don’t believe things that have little support, if we applied this mentality to all realms of thinking we would certainly adopt some silly beliefs. C.S. Lewis gave some refreshing thoughts on faith. A former atheist himself, Lewis found the notion of faith to be puzzling at one point in his life. He wrote in Mere Christianity, “I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of the evidence is against it. That is not the point which faith comes in. But supposing a man’s reason once decides that the weight of the evidence is for it... Now faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods... Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable; but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway.” (116-117, in Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics) He viewed faith as holding to what is true in the face of personal trials. Not holding fast to something in the face of conflicting evidence.
more concretely expounded upon in the writings of the German reformer Martin Luther. In Luther’s writings faith is not convincing yourself to believe something not evidenced, faith is a relationship. It involves trusting (think a husband and wife). More specifically, it means trusting that what Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection is enough for all of us as. Luther wrote, “Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures.” Though it must be mentioned that Luther held a low view of reason as the means in which we tried to know God and earn salvation. He didn’t reject reason altogether, only in the instance if it is was seen as autonomous from faith. In respect to this Luther fervently stated “she (reason) is and she ought to be drowned in baptism.”* So do we believe in the absence of evidence? I think not. We can ignore such a straw men of faith. We have Jesus and his gift of grace is sufficient for all of us. * Special thanks to my theology professor Dr. Tim Perry, for his assistance in clarifying Luther’s ideas on the relationship between faith and reason to me.
What’s Been Happening at Gateway? Luke Loseth
Luke has been working around the community recently with various jobs. He is developing interests in music, recording, and painting. At the moment he is at home with his family.
Logan Holmes Having graduated with a B.A. in Education from Providence College, Logan is now working as an electrician. He may be also be going back to school in the fall. Logan also attended a short term missions trip to Ecuador this year with other members of the ECCC.
Matthew Kent
Having attended Providence College and working as an administrative staff at Faith Covenant Church in Winnipeg, Matthew is now treeplanting for the summer. In the fall, Matthew will return to his studies at Providence and return to his work at the church in Winnipeg.
Thoughts On The Christian Life: “The heart has reasons which reason cannot know.” -Blaise Pascal mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher -----------------------------------------------------------------------------“The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus.)” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran Pastor -----------------------------------------------------------------------------“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” - James 4:1-3 (NLT) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Most Holy God How can I honour you With less than perfect Obedience? I wish to be obedient. Perhaps I have come A fair way Since beginning with you But the million small demands of life Don’t look sacred. I tire of little humdrum tasks You give me. Obedience eludes me. This slow work by you Will re-create. Give me the grace to live Till every heart beat, breath is yours. Teach me your ways. You’ve promised me a yoke that Suits me well. Obedience will become me. O Most Holy God Christ, Teacher, Renovator Of hearts, perfect mine For your glory. - Linea Lanoie
I think the whole notion faith and it’s authority are best summed up in Paul’s letters, but it was 3
What’s Been Happening At Gateway? have been building relationships with Cree people, learning and analyzing the Cree language, and helping with the revision of the translation.
Chris Sheldon Chris Sheldon sends Gateway Covenant Church his greetings. He writes “I am living and working in Saskatoon at GC Teleservices as an account representative and team lead. I have been with GC Teleservices for over a year. I will be doing this for the time being. I do know that want to go to Western Academy of Broadcasting to become a radio DJ. If that ultimately doesn't work out, I do want to do something with music in some way. I do miss everyone at Gateway and hope to see them sooner rather then later.”
The work has been slow going. So far we have published the book of Ruth and the Easter story from Luke. This year we also printed the very first Cree Scripture calendar. We plan to publish the David and Goliath story later this year and hope to finish work on both the Christmas story and the gospel of Mark in 2009.
Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragements for me and for the work the Lord has given me to do. Your friendship and fellowship has been a blessing to me!”
Whitney Kutzan Whitney is working as a tour guide at the four museums. They are the historical museum, the Diefenbaker House, the Police Museum, and the Educational Museum. She is working good, flexible hours. So come down to the museum anytime and check it out and say hi to her.
Meagan Lindenas Meagan writes “I completed my first year of engineering in April. I really liked university life and living on my own for the first time. I have applied to go into chemical engineering next year and will be living in residence again. Over the summer I am working as a lifegaurd at the Kinsmen Water Park.”
Meg Billingsley
“Around 1980 the Canadian Bible Society did a survey to find out more about Scripture needs among the native languages of Canada. As they talked with Cree people, they found that while some people still used the Western Cree translation published in 1862, it was difficult to understand because the language has changed so much since then. So they hired a retired Cree Anglican priest to do a new translation of the New Testament and about 40% of the Old Testament. The Rev. Stan Cuthand finished the first draft of the translation in 2005. Before any translation of the Bible can be published, it must first go through a rigorous checking and revision process to make sure that it is accurate, that it clearly communicates the meaning of Scripture, and that it speaks naturally. I moved to Prince Albert about four years ago to work with Wycliffe Canada in helping to check and revise this new translation. During that time I
The Reid Family Steve, Lisa, Matthias, Callah, and Keziah have moved to Hobema, Alberta where Steve is stationed to work for the RCMP. They took possession of their house this week.
Church BBQ Recap Last week Gateway had their end of the year barbecue. Despite poor weather, we managed to have a great time of food and fellowship. Thanks to all of those who came out!
Tasha Spink Tasha Spink will be moving into a group home sometime in the summer or early fall. She had her evaluation and everything is set for her to move.
Returning Home Edna McLennan, who was in the hospital for some time, has finally moved back into her home.
The Chicoine Brothers Clinton has been busy as a pilot working in Stony Rapids, SK. Curtis will be starting his five year residency at the hospital. His eventual goal is to become a psychiatrist.
Saints of the Church Calendar On June 16 the church celebrates the life of Joseph Butler (May 18 1692June 16 1752) who was a bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher. Butler retained a reputation as a committed Christian from his peers his entire life. Born in Wantage, England, he was the son of a Presbyterian linendraper. It was quite suitable then when he chose to attend Oriel College, Oxford to join the clergy of the Church of England in 1714. In 1738 he became the Bishop of Bristol. In 1750 he became the Bishop of Durham. And rumor has it that he was offered the position of Archbishop of Canterbury in 1747. Butler is famous for many works, among them were Fifteen Sermons on Human Nature, Analogy of Religion, and Nature and Revealed. Analogy was an important work for Butler, because it involved him using arguments from probability to convince Deists to reconsider orthodox faith. His approach to apologetics had a large influence on future writers like C.S. Lewis and John Warwick Montgomery. The Sermons On Human Nature were a robust response to ethical egoism (the theory that the foundation of morality is your own self-interest). Together, the Analogy and Sermons are considered today to be some of most notable contributions to theology, apologetics, and ethics because of their strong application of sound reasoning.1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Joseph_Butler 1.
Please remember to keep all these people in your prayers! 4