Much has went on over the past couple of months, which has taken focus away from updating the blog.  Catalyst was on hold for a while, we have it running again with a temporary speaker on the AM, while I focus on a family matter. Here is a short recap of the last session we had on Crazy Love before the break.

The title of this session was “When You’re In Love”

When you are in love you go to great lengths to be with the one you love.  I remember everything I would do when I first met my wife.  The back and forth driving, the late nights…just to be able to spend a few minutes after work with her.  The many times I would phone her in the payphone while working (this was before cell phones and txt’ing).

The question that was dropped at the start of this sessions was “Are we deeply in love with Jesus Christ?” 

Many times, we will just say, “Yes”.  But we need to examine our lives and see if that is really the case.  Even as I type this recap, I am examining some things in my life, and it is gut check time, are there changes to be made, focus to give.  Let’s be honest.

Are we craving a genuine love relationship with Him?

Galatians 5:13-14

Why are the words of Psalm 63:1-5 not an honest reflection of our lives most days?

Are we fooling ourselves? Can we really be in love with God and that it would be the most satisfying aspect of our lives?

God wants to change us, He died so that we could change. But are we letting Him change us?

Revelation 3:20

James 4:8

John 10:10

Not in the future, but in the now.

As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural.  As long as we are pursuing Him, we are satisfied in Him. It is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating towards other means of fulfillment.

We can experience closeness with God…these verses can help us communicate with Him.

Psalm 131:2

Psalm 4:7-8

Psalm 16:11

Psalm 28:7

Psalm 90:14

Psalm 119:111

Tell God:

• that you want Him to change you
• that you love to genuinely enjoy Him
• how you want to experience true satisfaction and pleasure and joy in your relationship with Him
• that you want to love Him more than anything on this earth
• that you want to treasure the kingdom of heaven so much that you’d willingly sell everything in order to get it
• what you like about Him
• what you appreciate
• what you struggle with
• what you are angry about
• what causes you to get frustrated
• that you want to experience His love
• how you feel
• what is really important to you
• what isn’t important to you
• that you want Him to change you

Here is the recap from the second Catalyst talk in the series, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan.

The title was “Profile of the Lukewarm”.  The talk was back in November on the 29th.

Fact: Jesus is not interested in those who fake it.

Is there evidence of the kingdom of God in your life?

Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things that can distract us away from Christ?

Hard hitting scripture to think about – Phil 3:10

Would you describe yourself as in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?

Lukewarm people attend church – Isaiah 29:13

They give money to charity and the church – I Chron 21:24, Luke 21:1-4

Don’t really want to be saved from their sin – John 10:10, Rom 6:1-2

Moved by radical stories about what people are doing for Christ  - James 1:22, James 4:17, Matt 21:28-31

Rarely share their faith – Matt 10:32-33

Gauge themselves to the secular world – Luke 18":11-12

Jesus is a part of their lives; only a part – Luke 9:57-62

Love God, but not with all of their heart, soul and strength – Matt 22:37-38

Love others, but do not try to love others as they love themselves – Matt 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14

Will serve God and others, but there are limits on what they will do – Luke 18:21-25

Jesus said, Luke 14:31-33

Jesus asks for everything.

When you go through all the scripture that Chan uses, it is quite an eye opening and challenging chapter of the book. It did stir up some comments and lots of questions from those in attendance in Catalyst that morning.

It has been a long time since I posted on my blog.  I need to get back into a regular groove. 

In Catalyst we have been going through a series called “Crazy Love”, based on the Francis Chan book of the same title.

This session was November 15. Here is a quick recap.

• Creation is simply amazing. God as creator, made over 350,000,000,000 (est.) galaxies. Generations of people never knew they existed.  What is our response when we look up on a clear summer evening and see the expansive universe?
• Look at the intricate detail of creation.  A caterpillar as 228 distinct muscles in its head.  The precision of the human body on how it all works together when healthy.  For instance, when you study how insulin is produced and regulated in someone without diabetes…when it doesn’t work you have the different forms of diabetes.  Precision.
• Whatever God’s reason are to make such diversity, creativity and sophistication the point of it all is for His glory.
• We are called to worship Him.  All creation echo the truth that He is glorious.

How do we learn to know God? Here are some basic and crucial points about God. Scriptures used somewhere under each point when teaching are in brackets.

• God is Holy – This means He is set apart, distinct from us. Perfectly set apart, with nothing and no one to compare Him to. (Exodus 3:14)
• God is eternal – We all had a beginning. Everything in creation had at one point in time a start to their existence, a specific time.  Everything that is but God.  He always had been, since before there was an earth.  Big bang…only when God spoke into existence the beginning of time, I guess there may have been some sort of big bang (not the scientific theory). (Psalm 102:12, 27)
• God is all-knowing – We can fool some people about who we really are.  Put on the masks.  But that is impossible with God. He knows us deeply and specifically. (Hebrews 4:13)
• God is all-powerful – Colossians 1:16, tells us everything was created for God.  We live though as if God is created for us, to do what ever we what.  Maybe we have watched too many Aladdin movies from Walt Disney. (Pslam 115:3, Daniel 4:35)
• God is fair and just – God is the only being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. (Proverbs 8:13)

When we stand in the awed silence before a mighty, fearsome God, whose tremendous worth becomes even more apparent as we see our own puny selves in comparison.

I will be posting recaps of session’s 2 & 3 soon (or at least that is the plan)

Here a recap from the last Catalyst session we had a couple of weeks ago. This past Sunday was a special Remembrance Day service and we did not have a session.

This was part 4 of 4 in the Social Justice series, titled “We Can Do Something”. 

There is a always a question that people ask themselves when they encounter the issues of social justice.  They see the issues, the needs, the hurts etc  and wonder what could I, one person do?  God uses some ordinary people to accomplish some great things….just open the Bible read a few narratives, see where these people came from, were called out from.  Then read the beginning of the Book of Acts, specifically Acts 1:8.

These were the scriptures we used in the session:

Ephesians 2:10, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, I Peter 3:15, I John 3:17, Matthew 23:23, John 10:10

• Seeking justice is the task of bringing the truth and power to bear on behalf of those who are oppressed.
• There are roles for everyone to engage in Social Justice
• Pastors, Teachers etc…need to be teaching about the God of Justice. Teaching about the authority of the Word of God, to know God’s passion for justice.  They can show us how God can use everyone to meet the needs of social justice.
• Frontline workers…live in the communities where the victims of abuse live. Living and working among the poor.
• There are so many gifted, talents of people that can help meet the needs of the oppressed, Christians that are trained as police officers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, business, politicians, cooks etc.  These talents and skills can be used to help meet the needs of these people in situations not just in places around the globe, but in the neighbourhoods and communities that they travel to work in everyday.
• Poetry, art, music, video, these are creative talents that can be used to help capture and tell the story to others to show what is happening.  To help bring awareness and attention.
• No matter what talent a person has, God can use it to help someone in need.

We ended the session and the series with the following two scriptures:

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-46

The next series starting next week is based on the book by Francis Chan, called “Crazy Love”.

Getting this post out late.  Been meaning to get to it all week.

This past Sunday we completed session 3 of 4 that we are doing in Catalyst on Social Justice.

We talked about hope. 

With everything that we have talked about in regards to Social Justice and all the issues and problems ongoing in the world. There are 4 aspects of God character that we can trust in: (I am listing the scriptures we used for each aspect/trait)

1. Justice – Isaiah 30:19, Isaiah 61:8, Ecclesiastes 4:1, Psalm 10:13-14, Psalm 11:5-7, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Psalm 146:5-20
2. Compassion – Psalm 145:9, Exodus 3:7, Exodus 22:26-27, Psalm 9:9-12, Psalm 12:5, Lamentations 3:36, James 5:4, Isaiah 53:3, John 11:33-35, Acts 1:8
3. Morals – Isaiah 59:2+16, Jeremiah 5:28-29, Jeremiah 21:12, Amos 2:6-7, Zechariah 7:8-12, Luke 11:42
4. Rescue – Psalm 10:13-18, Psalm 35:10, Psalm 140:12, Jeremiah 20:13, Luke 4:18

Stayed tuned for the Facebook Event announcements for the Catalyst Meet-Ups. 

This Sunday we close out the series….next series on the horizon, Crazy Love, based on the book by Francis Chan.

Last weekend we had an All Nations Sunday at Calvary Church.

I had forgot about that special service….I had sent a Facebook invite out to Catalyst that we would have a gathering. Just before service started Pastor asked if we should stay up for the special service. We decided we would because we wouldn’t have enough time to get through everything.

Catalyst will be on tomorrow and we should have the annoucement for the 1st MeetUp next Friday.

This past weekend there was no Catalyst due to the installation service of Bishop Hanscom and Pastor Jeremy. It was a great service to be a part of today.

We are half done the series on Social Justice.  2 down and 2 more to go.  This upcoming weekend we will be back at it. Also, it should the first Catalyst Meet-Up.  This is where members of Catalyst will gather somewhere in the city and discuss the topic we have covered in the Sunday Catalyst gathering. The meeting place will be announced Sunday and through the Facebook group.

I am also planning the next couple of series…the next series will be based off the book by Francis Chan, “Crazy Love”, this book is amazing. The following one may be based on txt messaging, and Facebook/Twitter DMs…..where I will take questions from Catalyst throughout the week and preCatalyst and answer and teach based off the questions. 

This past weekend we continued our series on Social Justice.

We dove into some scripture that talks about how we should not be surprised that we live in a world that has so many injustices.

Job 24:2-4, 9-10

Psalm 37:14

Isaiah 3:14

Lamentations 5:11-13

Ezekiel 22:29

Joel 3:3

Amos 1:13

We got into a good discussion when I mentioned that Jesus was born into a situation that can be classified as one of the most brutal acts of injustice ever, Matthew 2:16.  Can you imagine if you went to a Christmas production and they had their drama take on that angle. 

Read: Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 28:18-20, Ephesians 6:14-15, Acts 1:8 as you engage into Social Justice issues.

I closed with a quote from Ed Stetzer tweeted on Twitter Saturday night…”When James speaks of ‘faith without works,’ the example he uses is social justice. Faith caring is dead faith.”

Matthew 14:27 “Take courage, It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

I also continued to stress the fact that being Apostolic, means social justice is at the core of who we are…read scripture and it is without a doubt, Jesus calls us to engage.

This past Sunday AM we had our first meeting of Catalyst.  We are rewinding the Social Justice series from 2008, as we never completed that series.  I spoke the first message again, this time however, I added more ideas on how being Apostolic means social justice takes on quite a significance.  If you examine scripture from the Psalms, to the words Jesus spoke, actions that Jesus did, actions and behaviours of the Apostles…social justice is important; very important.  In fact, I would say that when you are engaged in acts and needs of others, the “least of these”…it allows for you as an individual to connect with what the spirit of Christ is already doing in that situation.  We dove into more of this, and will continue to explore the subject of Social Justice…the goal is not just to be studying, talking…..but to take it to a new dynamic.

This week, we will be speaking in the AM again, and plan for the first meet-up of Catalyst the following week.

I also announced that every 2 months to 1.5 months, we will be having Catalyst At Night gathering in the main sanctuary on Sunday evenings.  This is not a break out session or service, but rather we are going to brand the evening service as Catalyst At Night.  I will be speaking, and we will be adding some additional elements from Catalyst.  Should be good. 

Saturday night I sent out the message to the Facebook Group about Catalyst.  Catalyst is being relaunched at Calvary Church. When it is relaunched it will be bigger then last year’s Catalyst.  Those that were on Facebook Saturday night, Sunday morning or on their mobile device stepped into the service Sunday morning with a little pre-service information.

Sunday morning, Pastor Jer in the AM spoke on the changes happening at Calvary Church. Part of what he spoke was the relaunch of Catalyst. Catalyst is unique to itself at Calvary Church, and it is being led by my wife and I. It is also a department by itself. There was lots to cover in the AM, and Pastor Jer couldn’t go into all the fine details of what this change to Catalyst meant.  That being said, there were some questions by some people after the service.

This upcoming Sunday morning we will be having a “Catalyst Remixed”. This will be a time to go into the changes in a little more detail.  I will also take questions and provide answers. 

There are reasons that we are going to relaunch Catalyst the way we are.  Primarily, with just being a Sunday morning class, it was too restricted, and couldn’t maximize its potential.

It is official this September Catalyst is once again launching at Calvary Church.  This time around there will be more to Catalyst then just a Sunday morning experience. I met with Pastor Jeremy this week and we discussed how we needed to take this to the next level. 

Catalyst will be for 19-35 Singles, College and Careers.  Sorry, those that are married will not be able to attend, even though some have asked me if they can.

Look for the new trailer announcement coming on Facebook in the main sanctuary soon.  The first series will be the one we never did finish in 2008 due to my family interm’ing in Cornwall.  That series was on Social Justice.

Again, there will be multiple ways to connect with Catalyst, this blog, Facebook Group, and following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/regbertrand).

There are a few things that we are still developing….but see you soon.

Things are progressing with my study for my mortgage agent license. I have completed 11 modules in the course book, and have booked my exam for September 4th. 

I have launched my websites and Facebook Fan page for this new business. I plan on making use of social media for marketing this business and will post more about how I plan on doing this soon.  One of the things I would like to do is explore some features of the Facebook Fan page where I can implement an online application tab within Facebook. 

I also got word this Friday night that Catalyst will be starting again in September. I will be meeting with Pastor Jer to talk over some of the past experience when Catalyst was going in 2008. Also to get some of his expectations for Catalyst.  I have some opinions on how it should launch.

Tags: Mortgage, SocialMedia, Catalyst

The past little while we have had sporadic Catalyst sessions. Whenever we are in Ottawa for Sunday morning service, we have Catalyst.  The last time we had Catalyst was November 2, 2008. We have been continuing the Social Justice series, here was my last post on those sessions.

What we were also working on at the conclusion of the “God is Green” series was a proposal to the Board of Directors of the church.  We had planned for having it in place for the board meeting in September.  However, we did not meet that goal.  So, we are still working behind the scenes with some of the members of Catalyst to get this proposal together.  Hopefully, in the next while we will have the all the information we need to make it more of a formal proposal.  Then we can submit to the board and go from there.

Tags: Catalyst, God is Green, Social Justice, proposal

Lately I have not been in a regular blog rhythm…some of that can be attributed to Twitter, I use Twitter a lot more and short posts that may have been done on the blog are now on Twitter.  So if you read this blog and are not following me on Twitter, check it out and subscribe to my Twitter feed.

Here is a quick list of things that have been going on. in my life. Blogging has be slower lately, which is odd because I am on the laptop so much. I am going to try to give a recap post for each of the following this week; hopefully that will get me into a regular rhythm again.

1. Cornwall - The past few weekends we have been going down to Cornwall preaching in the services there.  This past weekend, the kids were away, so my wife and I went down on Saturday night and stayed over in Massena, NY.
2. Adoption Training - Each Wednesday evening and this past Saturday (all-day) we have been going through the PRIDE adoption training.  We have also had homework after each session to complete….some weeks it is more then others.
3. Adoption Meetings with Case Worker - We had a couple meetings with our case worker, one being with interviews with our children.
4. Catalyst - The weekends that we are not down in Cornwall, Catalyst is held.
5. BMX Season Wrap-Up - We have completed the BMX Season, and I am wrapping up the loose ends and preparing for the AGM at the end of September.

Tags: Cornwall, Adoption training, PRIDE, Catalyst, BMX, Massena NY

Here are a couple of recaps from the past couple of Catalyst sessions we have had:

10/26/2008 - In this session I took the message that I spoke on in Cornwall earlier in October on being a Citizen on a New Kingdom. Wasn’t actually the complete same message, as in Catalyst there is more 2-way conversation as I speak.  II tried to fit it into the series we had been doing on Social Justice before our extended break. There was lots of conversation, questions and not everything was responded to by myself; this was good. After the session one of the young men that was there said he wants to have a sit down and discuss something that he is working on via his job at a Health organization.  This sounded interesting, can’t wait.

11/02/2008 - This past Sunday I spoke on “Hope in the God of Justice.”  I wasn’t feeling the greatest in the class. Again, lots of good dynamics in this session.  The biggest point I made here is that those that are oppressors know that the biggest battle is in removing hope.  Those injustices utterly depend on the inaction of hopelessness.  The biggest reason people do nothing is that they feel that they will not make a difference.

We then went through many scriptures that as Christians we can have a hope that has the power to prevail against these injustices.  That the center of our hope is Jesus Christ and He is a God of Justice.

“Injustice occurs when power is misused to take from others what God has given to them, namely, their life, dignity, liberty or the fruits of their love and labor.” (Gary Haugen)

Psalm 10:13-14, Isaiah 61:8, Psalm 7:11, 11:5-7, Jeremiah 9:23-25, 22:15-16. Matthew 23:23, Proverbs 28:5, Micah 6:8, Psalm 146:5-10

Tags: God, Justice, Injustice, scriptures, Gary Haugen, Cornwall

Here are the past 2 recaps for Catalyst.  This recap will work good as the topic spanned two weeks. The topic was about preparing ourselves in dealing with issues of Social Justice. As Gary Haugen (International Justice Mission - IJM) writes in his book, “Good News About Injustice”

There are two ways we can grow into engaging the reality of injustice of our world.

(1) develop a compassion for people suffering injustice by looking through the eyes of others who see this injustice first hand. (Week 32)
(2) prepare ourselves to help people by looking at them through God’s eyes, that is through his word (Week 33)

Week 32

We need to be able to develop compassion for injustice even when the injustice is out of sight and out of mind.  It is not always going to be right before us, or we will not always be viewing it through the media lens.  However, we need to remember what we know. (Hebrews 1:11, Hebrews 13:3, Galatians 2:10, Collossians 4:18)

We need to remember these as if we were the ones suffering the injustice ourselves.

I used some examples from the IJM to describes some different issues.

• Child prostitution
• Abusive Child Labor
• Slavery
• Murder and Corruption
• Abusive police and forced prostitution
• Detention or disappearance without charge or trial
• State-sponsored torture

When we read or see it through the media lens or first, second or third hand accounts etc…we cannot allow it to become a point of defeat. Rather we need to remember that Christ has overcome the world.

“Jesus calls us to a moment of honest reflection. Do we really want to move to a new place?  Do we really want to stand before a needy world free of all hindrances of the heart? Do we really want to see the world with the heart of Jesus and the courage of his Spirit?“(Gary Haugen)

Week 33

This past Sunday I talked to Catalyst about getting into the Bible and reading about injustices that the ancient scriptures talk about. 

Job 24:2-4, 9-10, 

Psalm 37:14

Isaiah 3:14

Lamentations 5:11-13

Ezekiel 22:29

Joel 3:3

Amos 1:13

After reading scriptures like this we should not be surprised about the kind of world we live in.  Christ came into this world….and the Word tells us that he is with us always, (Matthew 28:18-20)

In Week 32, I used the following Franciscan blessing…Craig Groeschel closes his book “It” with it…

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God Bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and starvation, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.”

Tags: Catalyst, social justice, compassion, Franciscan blessing, Craig Groeschrel, Gary Haugen, IJM, International Justice Mission

I had forgotten that I was going to start using the week number to label the posts for the Catalyst Class.

This past week I spoke on the series Social Justice. We started with topic of “Seeking Justice.”

I went through some scriptures that spoke on how God does not like injustice and how seeking justice is something that God’s people would be involved in.

It was a good session, not many questions this week. Maybe it was the huge Family Day BBQ that was waiting outside.

Everyone seemed to be very attentive so that was good. I talked about some recent examples of injustices, from Rwanda - which is close to home as we have lots of Rwanda church members that lived through that situation - to Dafur, to South Africa - one of the young ladies in the session mother has talked to me how when she was growing up her family fled the country of South Africa to Zimbabwe.

I made mention when talking about Rwanda that when I was reading the book by Romeo Dalaire, “Shake Hands with the Devil” and watched Hotel Rwanda, that I the honor of baptizing a lady from Rwanda. It was an amazing experience. On Sunday morning after Catalyst ended, I had the opportunity to baptise another lady from Rwanda.

I ended the session with the quote from Gary Haugen,

“For the little Filipino girl
abducted into prostitution, for the Pakistani boy chained to a weaving loom,
for the Latin American widow pushed off her land and even for the African
father rotting in his prison cell without a charge or a trial, we share
Christ’s saving love on the cross and the servant love of our hands.” (Good News About Injustice”)

This upcoming Sunday I will be speaking in Catalyst on the new Social Justice Series. The topic I am going to be speaking on is “Seeking Justice: God’s Compassion. Commandment, and Commission.”

I am really excited about this series. This Sunday morning is family day and we usually have a few more people attending as well.

We are having a session this week for Catalyst. We have only had one session in the last month. We are starting a new series which we will be in for quite some time. The series will be on Social Justice. I will be using material from International Justice Mission and Sojourners.

I am going to introduce the series tomorrow with a video clip and some open discussion. The clip is the full video from Alicia Keys, “Keep a Child Alive”. A portion of the video was seen on Idol Gives Back this year.

Also, tomorrow night I am going to Cornwall to speak in a daughter church there. I am going to be speaking on being missionial in our communities, breaking through the Christian subculture.

This past weekend, Catalyst was back on after a 3 week break. We had a member of the Board of Directors attend Catalyst this weekend. The group presented a draft proposal to the board to get some feedback before formalizing it.

The proposal on taking the first steps in becoming more aware of being good stewards of God’s creation. Taking it “green” from our “God is Green” series. The feedback was very good, and positive. They have to revamp some of the items and have some concrete examples to help their case.

In the next week, I will be delegating some of the tasks to various members.

I also got some feedback from the board member that put it in the ear of the board this week that a proposal was coming from Catalyst. There is a technicality that we have to meet in order for it to be a official recognized proposal that the board will address. This means that an official member of the church has to propose it. That is ok, we have a few “official members” and they will do the submitting to the board.

I will post some more develops and also a copy of the full proposal that Catalyst makes. One thing that was noted to Catalyst, it is one thing to submit the proposal but you have to be willing to back it with actions. Good stuff.

This past weekend we had another session for Catalyst.  I was a little worried that we were going to be kept in the main session again because it was Seniors Day, and there was a special speaker. Usually that is the common practice.  The reason I was worried was that it has been a couple of weeks that we had Catalyst.  Also, if we didn’t have a session it was looking like possibly another 2-3 weeks that we would have a one, because of Father’s Day and Foreign Missions Day.  Pastor Hanscom though did give us the go for Catalyst during the service.

This allowed us to complete the rough notes for the proposal that is being put together by Catalyst for the Board of Directors.  There are two members of Catalyst that are going to work on putting together the proposal and then in a few weeks we are going to have one of the Board Members attend Catalyst and then they will present the proposal.  How we came to the rough notes was based on everything we have done in the “God is Green” series. 

I can’t wait until I get the first draft to review with Catalyst member.

There were a few interesting things that occurred in this session:

1. One of the members came with some information that could be used for the proposal on how one can calculate the carbon foot print of the church.  It was thought that maybe biannually this could be done to determine how as a church we are doing, are we progressing or digressing as good stewards of God’s creation.

2. Another member had remembered that I was mentioning about the LEED certifications for building/construction.  So they Google’ed the term, did some research and thought that would be something that would be an excellent example to set in the community as the church looks to expansion and/or build and/or retro fit an existing building etc.

Tags: Catayst, Board of Directors, God is Green, proposal, LEED, carbon footprint

If you notice in the title of this post, the "Week 18".  That comes from the following ISO standard calendar format to better title the recaps of Catalyst.

This past weekend we had a very low attendance in Catalyst.  It was also a entire different attendance from the last week.  Which makes it difficult in connecting each together in a series, because they cannot connect the dots together from the past weeks. 

I spoke to those in Catalyst in the "God is Green" series on our "Obligation to Nonexistent Future People".

It is a time for a change, a change away from thinking that the bottom line is the underlying be all and end all. I won’t get into all the in’s and out’s of globalization, deregulation etc and how that plays into this unsustainable road we have been on.  However, things must change. 

We need to switch to a more sustainable way of living. We need to be concerned in what we are leaving to not only our children and grandchildren but also those that are not yet born.  In the setting of Catalyst, since they have no children of their own, this particular topic was important to show them that when we talk about the sanctity of life, we should also include those that are not yet born. That requires change.

We have a responsibility to make sure we are good stewards of God’s creation.  So that we are not damaging it even more, and creating a crisis for those not yet born to live in.  It takes simple steps to start, and as we make those, we begin to make a difference.  We need to consume less, and become more self-sufficient.

There is a better story for us to live by. 

In the next couple of weeks, Catalyst will be putting together a proposal to the Board of Directors of Calvary Church.  This proposal will be to make some changes locally in our church in regards to becoming better stewards of God’s creation at Calvary Church. 

Also, with Catalyst, this week I am going to be putting together a survey to send out to all the Catalyst Facebook Group members to complete.  The survey will be to gather some feedback on Catalyst.  I will use SurveyMonkey for it.

This past weekend in Catalyst we didn’t have as large of a turnout as usual.  Every once in while we have one of these weeks.  Hopefully, this up coming weekend the turnout is bigger.  That being said, there were a couple people in attendance that have only recently started being in out sessions, so that was good.

As we are nearing the end of our series on "God is Green" this past session was focusing on a list of things that we can do to be better stewards of God’s creation. We talked about the following items in our homes, with a statement about each (not the full explanation of each item):

- Refrigerators - to save power turn off the ice maker.  Mine there was a switch in the freezer to turn it off.
- Lighting - switch to CFL, see list below on types of bulbs and the light they give off.
- TV - LCD uses the least power  Attach to a power strip or switched outlet to make sure there is no phantom load drawing a current.  (Hint: if there is a remote, TV continues to draw power).  Do not fall asleep with the TV on.
- Audio Equipment - again phantom power is a issue here, see above.
- Dryers - use clotheslines as much as possible.  Even in winter, helps with humidity levels and that means a healthier home.
- Microwaves - Efficient way to cook. Use to precook food as well.
- Computers - Use sleep mode, turn off when not using. Laptop is more efficient then desktop. Turn printers off when not using.
- Stoves - Try using other appliances when possible; microwave or toaster oven. Use the right size burner for the pots.  Do not use max for everything.
- Pools - Try to have a multiple speed pump.  Solar power ionization technology. Put the electrical equipment on a timer. If you need a heater, get the solar heaters for the water.

Had a list of things that we could go without,

- lava lamps, multiple clocks, electric air freshners, coffee warmers, electric toothbrushes, etc…

Here is a list of 50 Tips from Serve God Save the Planet

When talking about CFLs the following comment is common, "Don’t like them they give off a yellow light".  Or at least it is a comment I have heard a bunch of times.  The reason, the wrong type of bulb is used.  Here is a guide:

- Bulbs labelled "soft white" generally have the same light as incandescent.
- "Warm White" - have a yellow light complimenting warmer colors in the room.
- "Cool White" - have a blue hue to the light
- "Daylight" CFLs - close to natural light
- If eyestrain is an issue, reading lamps etc, consider "daylight" CFLs.

Tags: CFL, God is Green, Green, environment, Catalyst, lights, appliances, Server God Save the Planet, pools, stoves, computers, microwaves, dryers, refrigerator, TV

This past weekend I spoke in Catalyst.  It has been awhile since I spoke in Catalyst as we have been going through the "Planet in Peril" documentary from CNN. I spoke on Power and Light in the "God is Green" series. It was a good session, I talked about how much consumption of power that we do, and how to measure that consumption.  I gave some tips on how to reduce that consumption and noted that even with all new renewable types of energy, it will take efficiency and conservation of energy to make a positive impact on the environment.  It cannot be just the renewable energy sources.  So, it will take people…..people being good stewards of the creation.

I noted a few examples here in Ottawa of initiatives to use methane gas for energy. 

1. Waste Management - news article
2. Plasco Energy Plasma Gasification Plant - wikipedia article

I also talked about how just this past week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGunity had removed the ban on outdoor clotheslines in suburbs.

As per the norm in Catalyst, there were lots of good questions as I spoke.  There will be 2-3 more sessions that I will speak on in the series, then we will be putting together the proposal to the Board of Directors.

Tags: CNN, Planet in Peril, God is Green, Catalyst, energy, power and light, power, light, Dalton McGuinty, Plasco Energy, Waste Management, renewable energy, energy efficiency

This past Sunday we completed (finally!) the last part of CNN’s Planet In Peril. There were 22+ people in Catalyst this week, and there were a few members missing.  We typically have about half that amount, we never seem to have everyone there all at once. Everyone seemed to be engaged in the film, they even clapped at the end.  Then I gave a bit of a summary and connected the film back into scripture and why we are doing this "God is Green" series. Especially since we had some new people in the session.  This opened up a few questions and we spent about 15 minutes answering those. 

The question that stuck out to me was along the lines of, is this going to take government mandate or grassroots efforts of people?

One comment that stuck out as well was that CNN didn’t provide the solutions to the problems and what needs to be done. Most of those in the session thought that was good, because the film was more about informing everyone of the issues and how they are all interconnected, and it then leaves it to the viewer to take action on the issues. 

Overall, good sessions we had with Planet In Peril.  Next week, I will be speaking on "Power and Light" in this series.