Stories of Hope

  For days now, we have been averaging only 4-5 hours of sleep because we keep reviewing last week's "over the top" farewell weekend.   The songs we sang during our God-glorifying worship services have become a joyful musical loop that runs constantly in our heads. Your affirming words keep coming to mind.

  Thank you for extending a call to me thirteen years ago. After fifteen wonderful years at Jubilee Fellowship in St. Catharines, Marja and I were ready for an exciting new challenge. You invited us for a date and followed it up with a Letter of Call. That was a wonderful leap of faith on your part

  Thirteen years ago Stan challenged me to write a personal vision statement for my ministry at Hope Fellowship Church. I have shared it at every Introducing Hope Fellowship Seminar. It included this now familiar sentence: “Hope Fellowship is the hope of a multi-racial, multi-national, multi-generational, multi-ability multitude worshiping the Triune God without restraint in all of their lives as if they were already standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 7: The Transition Years   Today, Hope Fellowship finds itself in the Transition Years, the years of change.   The good changes included the launch of two great ministries. Our first ever Vacation Bible School in July, 2015 was a rousing success for one hundred kids who were inspired to conquer challenges with God’s mighty power. One year later, the registration is already full for our next VBS. That’s the power of positive reviews shared through word of mouth advertising and Facebook!

  On Wednesday, Pastor Steve showed me the hot tub that the Family Worship Centre is loaning us for Stand Up Sunday. It’s rectangular! “I thought it was round,” I exclaim, counting on a tub that rolled. “Four to six men will do it,” he assured me.

  Giving thanks and choosing joy IN and even FOR difficult challenges that feel like chains? That was last week’s “hard to swallow” sermon.   Ellen, however, left church thinking about two blessings that have come into her life as a direct result of the cancer for which she is undergoing treatment.

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 6: The Focusing Years During the Focusing Years, from 2012-2015, our leadership introduced new words and phrases that became part of our vocabulary. Words like Believe, Belong and Bless. Phrases like Internally Strong and Externally Focused. We defined ourselves as a “community embracing and living our God’s redemptive plan.” We celebrated our “culture of grace” and emphasized the importance of “making room at the table.”

  Numbers shouldn’t matter, but sometimes they should get us excited because they’re one way to measure how God is blessing our church. Here are some numbers that can help us feel the joy that Paul expressed in Philippians, the New Testament epistle that is at the heart of our current sermon series

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 5: The Growing Years   A new facility will attract people to check out a church. But it is the worship, preaching and hospitality that turn guests into family members. The combination of these things brought numerical and spiritual growth as more and more people began to call Hope Fellowship their spiritual home

  A perfect day! A fabulous schedule. Excellent speaker! Delicious everything! Deeply moving testimonies! Nice set up in the sanctuary! Loved the worship time! Loved meeting old and new friends! Loved the sharing time!

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 4: The Building Years   In 2005 the Christian Reformed Church celebrated its one hundredth anniversary in Canada.

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 3: The Healing Years   On Tuesday morning, September 16, 2003, in the tiny custodian’s room of our newly purchased little school, I sat at a wooden table that the previous pastor had hammered together as a desk and began my ministry at Hope Fellowship. Outside, a manure spreader went by on Bloor Street. I laughed out loud and wondered what I had gotten myself into

  In May, a Christian Reformed pastor from Seattle will move to North Oshawa to plant a new church close to UOIT.

  Last December I first heard about the Advent Conspiracy, a movement that encourages people to spend less at Christmas so they have more to give away. Brian Bell, the pastor of Trulls Road Free Methodist Church, told me about it as we visited together in his office.

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 2: The Humbling Years   For reasons understood best by the staff, the elders and the Lord, Hope Fellowship’s staff disintegrated after two years. One by one they resigned or were let go. When the dust settled, only one person was left: Evelyn, our wonderful administrative assistant

  Seventeen youth and their parents have booked flights to build a house this summer for a family in the Dominican Republic. They are paying their own way with personal fundraising efforts and savings. But the cost of the house - $5,000 U.S. ($7,000 Cdn) – had to be raised separately. In her October staff report, Alice wrote, "It will be exciting to see what happens with this." This week she reported that $8,817 Cdn. has been raised to date

  On Tuesday, a winter storm packing 30 centimetres of new snow was predicted. Our small group was scheduled to meet, but the weather forecast compelled us to cancel. Everyone was disappointed because we love getting together and we were eager to see each other again

The Beginning Years   Seventeen years ago, on March 7, 1999, Hope Fellowship got its start. At the time, Zion CRC in Oshawa had become a large church under Rev. Henry Wildeboer’s visionary leadership with dreams of moving to a larger property and building a larger facility. Blueprints for the new building were drawn. But when the proposal came to the congregation, the vote fell just shy of the required amount.

  I wish you could have joined us at last week’s leadership retreat at Kingfisher Bay. The things that you would have heard and seen would have inspired you and reassured you that God has placed Hope Fellowship in good hands

  The Bible can be used to promote the idea that the earth was created in six days, six thousand years ago. It can be used to defend a geo-centric (the sun circles the earth) view of the universe. It can be used to defend slavery, anti-Semitism, racial segregation, interracial marriage and the silence of women in church. It can be used to advocate capital punishment, polygamy, the stoning of adulterous women and rebellious children, and the dispossession of indigenous peoples. I don’t agree with any of the above. But I could find biblical proof texts for all of these theories and practices