The pandemic has demonstrated the value of social media and communication in general.

During this past year, yes I said a year, we have learned that we cannot just put a message in a bulletin or announce it on Sunday morning anymore. Instead, we have adopted multiple platforms to communicate with parishioners.

Depending on the specific needs of individual parishes these tools have ranged from snail mail, phone trees, email blast using tools like Mailchimp, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube worship services, revamped websites, live streams, apps for smartphones and more. In short, these tools have been a godsend. They have allowed us the ability to maintain our communities while we are staying at home to flatten the curve and save lives.

But as vaccines begin to be rolled out with the government targeting September for population vaccination, we need to start thinking about how we shift and refocus those tools to begin looking outward after they have served us so well looking inward.

Simply put, Back to Church Sunday in 2021 may be the most important day in the calendar. Not just for drawing back together our own communities, but for active evangelism.

The world is starving for community, events to attend, people to see and activities to engage. Our fall ramp up this year will be the most important
of our generation.

There is an incredible opportunity that awaits us this year to offer events, social gatherings and of course in-person worship in the name of bringing people to Christ. To that end, we must start planning now and give some thought to how we will take all these new tools and turn them outward so that we can invite our mission fields and build community.

If the pandemic is teaching us one thing, it is the importance of web-based tools in maintaining relationships.

This is true with family and friends as we once again are self-isolating through a second lockdown. This is also true for staying in touch with parishioners.

Many parishes have adapted and are making greater uses of Facebook Live, YouTube and Zoom. But to have that personal contact that we are missing from the lack of in-person services and coffee hours, phone trees have sprung to life again and the lost art of writing notes delivered through snail mail is back in vogue.

In short, digital tools must augment our relationships, not replace them with a click of a “like” button. Social media and digital platforms are meant to bolster relationships.

Tithe.ly Church Management Software is another tool in the modern parishes’ relationship-building toolbox. It is a robust database that tracks events, groups and even provides a place to store all those minutes taking at each committee meeting. Treasurers can track givings, generate tax receipts and produce monthly reports with ease.

But the most powerful tool for relationship building is the ability of the ChMS to generate various reports. Birthday and anniversaries are built-in reports generated each month to enable birthday or anniversary blessings mailed to parishioners. Custom reports for life’s big moments like baptism, weddings and funerals can also be created. The importance of receiving a hand-written note on the anniversary of the passing of a loved one, the baptism of a child or celebrating that first year of marriage goes so much further in relationship building than hitting the “like” button on Facebook.

The thought of building an app for your church probably scares most people, myself included. I have never built an app before. And if I am honest, I am not that techy of a person. In reality, I am an end-user. People build programs, and then I use the best program. It is very much the same as being a mechanic, finding the right tool for the job.

So, when I submitted my request form to Tithe.ly to begin the process of building All Saints’ first app for smartphones and tablets, both for Android and OS, I was nervous. Had I bitten off more than I could chew?

Thankfully, the process was easy. Some simple design questions and layout choices and the Tite.ly team took care of the rest. My role in the app rollout was entirely about what would serve the church the best, a functional design and what information I wanted the app to contain.

So here are a few tips to think about when preparing to build an app for your church.

1. Don’t replicate your website. The website already has a mobile version. Think about how you want people to interact and what additional information you want to share. For All Saints’ we decided on an interactive prayer wall, an “events” button, a connection to our live stream, pictures of life at All Saints, a Bible tab and a tab to the revised common lectionary.
2. Your app will also allow push notifications. Set a policy on how and when to use this feature. For example, snow event and worship is now cancelled is a good use. Birthday announcements are probably a bad use and will have people uninstalling your app.
3. Link your app to your other social media accounts, whether YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Create an eco-system where individuals can easily access all your online information.

For the first 20 years of this century, a website was one of your post important evangelistic tools. The next 20 years though will continue with people moving from computer screens to their smartphones and tablets.

Now is the time to get on Tithe.ly to launch your branded app.

Recently the Diocese of Huron has entered into a partnership with Tithe.ly
Tithe.ly is your all in one online platform for churches. Through Tithe.ly the diocese and its parishes will have access to an online giving platform, messaging service, apps for individual parishes, professionally designed websites for parish, Church management software (including accounting) and event coordination.

Tithe.ly is a powerful evangelism tool for the Diocese of Huron and individual parishes. The Diocese of Huron itself, Proud Anglicans Huron, All
Saints Waterloo, The Parish of the Blue Mountains, St. James’ Stratford, St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Mark’s London and St. Thomas St Thomas are all first adopters of this new system.

Signing up to the system does not mean you have to have everything Parishes will be able to pick and choose buffet style the pieces of the platform they wish, such as professionally designed websites for $9 (US) a month or they could just opt for the all-access option.

Over the coming number of issues of the Huron Church News, I will be highlighting one part of the system.

The first place I want to begin with is websites. Tithe.ly has several professionally designed themes. Choose the theme that works for your parish. It is as simple as dropping in your images and updating the content.

In 24 hours, I was able to port images, select a few new ones, port content and customize my menus, fonts, buttons etc. All this sounds a little scary, but please rest assured if you can fill out a Facebook profile you can build a Tithe.ly site for your church.

Some of the features I find outstanding are the integration of my live stream from Facebook right onto my site, the plan your visit feature, so parishioners can reserve seats during this time of pandemic and a customized footer that will be available for the Diocese of Huron only, that will help to create and foster a diocesan culture and brand.

Stay tuned as over the coming month I learn to build my first app so that I can push content right to peoples’ phones, stay connected, and offer more opportunities for engagement with parishioners and seekers.

Who are you trying to reach on social media? As we start to think about setting budgets for 2021 where are you willing to invest in social to maintain and develop new connections?

One of the things that social media has allowed churches to do for the past decade is micro-target ads and messages to certain demographics. For giants like Facebook, this has always been their best marketing feature.

But microtargeting an audience on a single platform won’t be as effective for the next decade as different generations rush to different platforms. And each of the platforms has a unique way to shape content that helps churches tailor their message to the demographics they wish to reach.

Currently, 7 in 10 adults in Canada are active on Facebook, so this should still be the main platform that focuses much of our energy in driving content and conversations. Facebook is perfect for a few pictures, a microblog post and sharing upcoming events.

Yet, we should also be aware of demographic shifts in social. Facebook currently is skewing to a Baby Boomer audience. Millennials meanwhile prefer Instagram where they can develop Stories on their feed and even post short videos. Moving into this space will require photo and video editing software and a willingness to learn how to develop eye-catching content.

Gen Z or Zoomers alternatively are on Snapchat and TikTok. Snapchat offers similar features surrounding stories as Instagram, while TikTok is
a short video platform. Unlike Instagram, both of these platforms are populated by a younger generation that creates using their phones rather than professional cameras and editing software, so there is a lower
barrier of entry and it is perfectly acceptable to be campy.

To make your church stand out, save time, and enhance the experience, take advantage of each social media platform’s features to weave these different content styles together to reach out to all ages, or nations, and teach them all that Jesus has taught.

As churches have rushed online many have been surprised at the number of views for worship services. Churches that used to boast 50-75 in attendance on Sunday Morning now have hundreds of views from a live stream or an uploaded video. And it would seem that we are reaching and
connecting with more people than ever before and many are celebrating.

I don’t want to be the one to deflate all the accomplishments of our churches and their online efforts. Yet to make sense of the number of views and all the data from digital platforms, there are some best practices.

First is to separate out the number of unique viewers from total views. This is easily done on YouTube, whose analytics will tell you precisely the number of unique views. This doesn’t separate out the number of times an individual may re-watch a service, but it does give you a precise number of unique individuals engaging with your content.

Facebook does not provide unique viewer numbers, unfortunately. But Facebook does provide the peak live viewers data during a live event, as well as 3-second viewers, 10-second viewers and 1-minute viewers.

You might have 133 3-second viewers, 84 10-second viewers and 50 1-minute viewers. Of the three numbers, the best to use for your data is the 1-minute viewers’ number as it reflects better the number of people who watched the service verse those who scrolled past on their feed.

Another data point to consider is your email analytics. Mailchimp provides wonderful analytics. You can see how many people opened a specific email and compare those results to your average open rate. It also provides which links were clicked on and who your top subscribers are. This provides great data in analyzing how many opened the order of service for any given Sunday.

Together using multiple data points I am able to better
ascertain a) which type of content is most effective in reaching beyond the church walls, and b) who many people I am effectively reaching.

This helps me better tailor my online offerings to meet the needs of those who are watching but also have an eye to broadening the reach of the Kingdom of God.

With the beginning of the new school year, the Deanery of Waterloo started Hello Church: Church in a Bag program addressing the needs of Sunday school children and their parents.

As we adjust to life in the pandemic, it has become clear that social distancing requirements will most likely keep many of our Sunday Schools
closed for the coming year.

Recognizing that parents with Sunday school-aged children might also stay away from church until Sunday school reopens poses a challenge for many parishes. But it also provides an opportunity for mission and evangelism and deepening people’s connections to their various churches.

With six churches participating with almost 100 bags created and delivered each week, the deanery looks to continue to innovate in this time of pandemic to bring the church to the homes of the faithful.

As a recipient of this program, Kelli Tigert says “it has made my daughter feel so loved as part of our church family to receive her bag and she is so excited for the next ones to come. Such a truly amazing and thoughtful idea.”

Just like meal kits that are delivered to the door, Sunday school bags are delivered each week, maintaining that connection with parents and kids
and demonstrating the kind of outrageous love of Christ.

Each bag contains a lectionary-based bible verse, a story and a craft. Everything needed for the Sunday school lesson is in the bag. Everything is supplied.

As a bonus, Hello Church provides 15-30 minutes of non-screen time activity for parents during the week. Knowing that Zoom fatigue is weighing heavy on parents, the program is designed to be offline and to add in discipleship and formation.

While the pandemic and the Amber Stage guidelines pose many challenges to returning to church it also has provided an opportunity for mission, discipleship and evangelism.

We have all heard the phrase, “The New Normal” thousands of times during this pandemic. It is almost ubiquitous at this point, but it still merits pondering what it means and implies for us all.

It suggests two things really,

1) this is new, it is something we have never experienced, and 2) it is also what we should expect going forward, it is now customary.

This should mean much to us in the church, that out of necessity have rushed online so that we could still provide good quality worship, a connection with God and community while isolated. It means what we are doing today will continue to be expected of us once we return to the in-person church in September.

There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that not all our parishioners will feel safe returning to face-to-face worship. Some will have
underlying health conditions; others will be married to or are caring for someone who is considered high risk. The cameras will, simply put, have to keep rolling.

When we host Back to Church Sunday this year, there will be many regular attendees missing. Not because they do not want to be there, but because it is not safe while we are in the Amber Stage. Therefore whatever form of online worship you and your parish has chosen will have to continue, whether that be live streams, pre-recorded YouTube videos, and even digital coffee hour and Bible studies.

This “New Normal” will necessitate a hybrid model of digital and in-person church, community and worship. Each step of the way care will need to be taking to ensure no one is left behind when we re-open the buildings. The cameras and online engagement simply must continue and we will need to be more creative than ever before.

Welcome to the New Normal.

Social distancing has meant that the church has had to change and change rapidly. We are no longer able to gather each Sunday for worship physically. So many of us gather around our computers and watch live streams or prerecorded YouTube videos.

This has also meant that the finances of parishes have been deeply affected. Simply put, the plate cannot be passed. Many have chosen to take this opportunity to sign up to Pre-Authorized Giving, while others mail cheques for their offering.

Thankfully there are online solutions that can be quickly integrated with social and web platforms. CanadaHelps is a popular and easy solution as
a web portal for charities. In one quick stop, you can set up a page for your parish and integrate the online donation platform with your existing channels.

The downside to CanadaHelps is the fee structure. CanadaHelps applies a 4% fee to any onetime donation and 3.5% to any monthly donation. That means if I donate $100 to a church I will get a tax receipt for $100 but the church only receives $96.

PayPal Giving Fund is another solution. It is the charitable arm of Paypal. First, you will need to open a PayPal account for your parish and then link that with PayPal Giving Fund. Once approved, you can accept donations to your charity through PayPal Giving Fund at 0% fees, which means my entire gift goes to the charity of my choice.

It is a little more complicated to set up than CanadaHelps, but the time put in today will reap rewards in the future from the fee-less base service and the assurance that every cent goes to the parish and the building of the kingdom of God.

In this new normal of living through a pandemic, our reliance on social media platforms has been vindicated. People use to see social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as distractions, and not core to ministry. This all changed with Covid-19.

We now rely on Facebook, YouTube, Zoom and Hangouts for everything from connecting with parishioners, holding meetings to streaming worship
services. The most popular tools are Facebook for live streaming worship services and Zoom and Hangouts for video conferencing.

Many of our churches already had a decent Facebook presence. Being able to adapt quickly and make use of Facebook Live has allowed many of us to stream services and maintain our worshipping communities. This weekly opportunity for virtual worship keeps the body of Christ together when we cannot be together.

Zoom and Hangouts have also been instrumental in this new normal Zoom’s free account allows for up to 100 people on a video conferencing call, more than enough for parish council meetings. Zoom’s limitation is that it restricts group video calls to 40 minutes. To overcome this restriction you will need to sign up to plan. The most cost-effective is $20 a month, or $200 if paid annually.

Hangouts meanwhile are part of the Google Business suite that the Diocese of Huron has made available to every cleric for free. They host up to 100
participants and have no time restriction on video calls, so there is no need to upgrade the service. Hangouts, as part of the Google business suite ecosystem, integrate all the Google tools. You can present your screen or separate window and share documents live; a great tool for the treasurer’s report.

Regardless of the tool one thing as become clear, social media is no longer a secondary tool, but a primary tool to ministry. And while it is not for everyone, it has been a gift from God in maintaining our communities in this crisis and allowing us the opportunity to continue with ministry.

Web, social media and email offer us instant communication. The speed at which information travels today is unprecedented. And while misinformation travels faster and wider than the truth, the tools we choose to use can also have unintended consequences and send a message we may not have intended.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to consider before
sending an email, instant message or tweet.

1) Whether it is in the business world, in church land or just between friends never send a negative comment or reprimand electronically. It often inflames the situations. It is always best practices to sit face to face or at least pick up the phone.

2) The Internet is forever. Be sure of what you put out there. Ask yourself will you still be comfortable with what you have written in a week, month,
year or 10 years from now?

3) If something is on fire, or you need an answer quickly, don’t use email or instant messenger. Not everyone has access or responds instantly. If it is on fire, treat it as such and pick up the phone or arrange a meeting.

4) If an email chain has gone on for more than 4 or 5 replies this is a clear indication that it should have been a phone call or meeting. By the fifth reply, you should take the conversation offline.

5) Email, text and instant messenger simply are not personal. If you really want to connect with someone on an issue, reach out. Go see them or pick up the phone. Your point will have more impact. Your compliment or thank you will mean so much more. Or even better, take the time to write a
handwritten note.

The web has given us an amazing opportunity to share information and communicate instantly. That being said though, relationships are built upon trust. And trust is built when you take the time to pick up the phone rather than banging out an email or sending a tweet. It says we value each other.

There are times to step away from the keyboard, pick up the phone and engage directly. Doing so demonstrates the type of love that Jesus continually reminds of in His ministry.

Whether it is Google, Facebook, Yelp or Bing, there are many modern replacements to the “yellow pages” that include churches.

Have you claimed these business listings for your church yet? It is simple, easy, and free. But more importantly, it allows you to manage your content and control the story you want to tell.

For instance, if you Google your church, you will see a business listing on the righthand side of the search result. There is likely a picture, location on Google Maps and reviews from people that have attended your church.

Your church is likely listed whether or not you have claimed ownership of it. This means other people are telling your story, influencing which images are seen first, and you are missing a chance to interact with people who review your church. These reviews can be a point of contact and give you valuable insight into how visitors experience your services and facilities.

Claiming listings allow you to update your business hours and communicate when the church is open. You can link directly to your website which makes it easy for people to learn about your church and all you offer in God’s name. And the listings can support each other. For example, Google pulls events from your Facebook page and can list them on when your church appears in the search results.

Each service has a number of tools and features that allow you to claim and manage your listing. From the images that appear, to what it says. Leaving it unclaimed means others will tell your story and it may not be the story you want to be told. By claiming the listing you can control your content and share the story you want to tell.

Heading into 2020 and keeping up with all the innovations in social media can seem daunting. Which emerging platform should the church engage with? How is it best to deliver our message of hope and salvation?

Before getting lost in Snapchat, TikTok or Lasso it is best to know where the overall trends are headed. And the biggest trend in social media is towards short videos, often known as ethereal content.

Video has become a major trend and the type of content people prefer to consume. In fact, it is what makes YouTube the second largest search engine in the world!

Videos are a versatile and engaging format that not only gives us a real-life picture of what is going on but also allows us to engage in a new and authentic way.

Because social media is designed for people to connect, share content and engage, videos are a perfect fit for this type of interaction.

The major platforms like Facebook and Instagram are pushing hard for videos. Instagram’s recent algorithm gives more preferences to videos when ranking content. And this is the impetus behind Instagram and Facebook stories, short videos that last for 24 hours and then vanish from the timeline.

And considering that each Christian is in effect a Brand Ambassador, or as we would normally say, an evangelist, reaching into your pocket and pulling out that phone to video part of your day, a thought about scripture or theology or even sharing devotionals is a great way to bring Christ out of the church and into your followers’ lives.

It was 20 years ago…about now. Sometime after my birthday, but before December.

It was about now, 20 years ago that I stopped listening to the demons on my left shoulder and said yes to that lone voice on my right voice.

It is not always easy. It sometimes feels like that lone voice loses. But then before I can give in the hundreds of voice on my left, something distracts me, Hannah rushes in to tell me she loves me, the phone rings and something brings me back.

I know, I know. This is the work of the one on the right. He is, after all, a body. And the body has many parts.

I keep listening. Sometimes it is easy. Often it is not. But I listen. I strain to hear.

I pray for him each day. I pray that he wins. Because I need him too.

It has been 20 years.

When I meet someone for coffee I rarely meet at Tim Horton’s. I normally search out a locally owned coffee shop rather than a chain.

There are a few reasons for this. One, I prefer to support a local small business; and two, they often have free Wi-Fi that is marketable better than Tim Horton’s.

Whether it is a coffee shop, on the train or at the hockey game, I am always in search of free Wi-Fi so as not to use up all my data on my cell phone plan. Free Wi-Fi means I can linger for a bit before or after my meeting and perhaps have a muffin or second cup of coffee and catch up on the day’s headlines. It also means that I can give the coffee shop a good Yelp, Google or Facebook review while I am relaxing.

Free Wi-Fi is not something we normally think to advertise or provide at our churches. After all, we don’t want people glued to their phones during the service or worse, during the sermon. We might even wish they would sit quietly and reflectively before or after the service praying.

Yet free Wi-Fi also gives the opportunity for the quick review on Yelp, Google or Facebook, which can drive more seekers to your door. It may mean that someone shares an Instagram story of their morning visit that inspires friends to come back to their faith. It may also mean a simple status update that is shared and liked and seen by hundreds.

In our rush to create spaces that are intentionally reflective and unplugged, we can also miss the opportunity to provide the tools for those that come to share their faith and their experience of our churches. And while we want people engaged in intentional prayer, we also want them to share all that God is doing in their lives. And free accessible Wi-Fi gives them that chance in the moment.

Recently someone seeking to use the goodwill of the people of the Diocese of Huron cloned what appeared to be Archbishop Colin Johnson’s email and sent an email out the emails listed on the diocesan website. The person was seeking Google Play or iTunes cards. This is just one of many scams that are used to prey upon people.

There are a variety of ways to protect yourself from falling victim to such scams. Here are a few tips to help protect yourself.

1. Never send money to someone you have never met face-to-face. And don’t do it if it someone you know asking you to use a wire transfer, a prepaid debit card, or a gift card like iTunes or Google Play (those cannot be traced and are as good as cash).

2. Don’t click on links or open attachments in an unsolicited email. Links can download malware onto your computer and/or steal your identity.

3. Scammers are great at mimicking official websites, fonts, and other details. Just because a website or email looks official does not mean that it is. Even Caller ID can be faked. Always contact the company by opening a new browser window or by calling and speaking to someone at the organization.

4. Never share personal information with someone who has contacted you unsolicited, whether it’s over the phone, by email, on social media, even at your front door.

5. Always check the email address or URL to see it is legitimate. Case in point, the recent email sent to the diocese was not from a diohuron.org address but was from “Most Reverend Colin R. Johnson “anastasiapeckins35@gmail.com”

The World Wide Web, much like the world itself is a wonderful place full of interesting information and great people. But much like a market in a tourist centre, where the best deal is available only to you and pickpockets lurk around the corner, we need to take a few steps to protect ourselves.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. John 13:35

By the time you are reading this the Federal election is over. Either Mr Trudeau won a second mandate, a majority or minority or Andrew Scheer was able to turn the tables and is now on his way to 24 Sussex Dr.

Perhaps Jagmeet Singh or Elizabeth May hold the balance of power? One never knows what role the Bloc will play, and they may have more influence and seats than the NDP and Greens. Regardless, the election is over and we can all go back to our regularly scheduled lives.

But I wonder what would happen if in light of the Gospel and the verse above we were to go back through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, what would we find?

Would we find good factual information shared or memes insulting the leaders? Would we find the positive proposals highlighted or another string of insults demeaning Trudeau or Scheer? Do we condone behaviour that belittles or do we rise above it and show God’s love to the world?

Public theology is the engagement and dialogue with the larger society by the church and individual Christians. It seeks a fair and just society for all by engaging issues of common interest to build the common good. We, therefore talk with society not just to society. And no time is better for this to happen than election season. And nothing is quite as public as social media.

So what have you shared? Have your posts and comments reflected love for one another?

I wonder if I am ready to stand before God with the resume of my social media posts in my hands. Would they convict me of love for one another or indict me as someone who put aside the Gospel to fling a little mud during a bitterly fought election campaign?

Perhaps a good exercise is to go back, read what we shared and ask ourselves if by sharing it I made the Gospel known? Did others see Christ through our shares and retweets? The world is watching and we should always be deeply conscious of the responsibility each of us as the baptized share in making Christ known through word and deed. Even and most especially, during election seasons.

The welcome package is a sure-fire way to help newcomers learn more about your community. They identify the newcomer at coffee hour so your volunteers can introduce themselves and answer any questions. And most of all, they leave an impression in the mind of the visitor.

To ensure that impression is positive here are a few tips to help you generate the best welcome package for first-time visitors.

Most of the content needed for the package should already exist on your website: who you are, what worship is like on a typical Sunday morning, what life at your parish includes.

Simply re-purpose this content into print format, preferably into a set of brochures. The brochures need to be appealing. Not everyone is a graphic designer or has one who can volunteer their services. This is why I make
judicious use of templates.

Both Apple Pages and Microsoft Publisher have professionally designed templates included with the software. Apple has over 100 + new brochure designs that can be downloaded for an extra 9.99 at the Apple Store and Microsoft 365 has an equal number available for download for your favourite Microsoft program (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher) at templates.office.com

If you wish to break away from the templates that come with the software, both lucidpress.com and canva.com (https://www.canva.com/create/brochures/) are excellent resources that give you access to fresh designs. Canva also allows you to match your design with Facebook banners images if you are planning an event. A bonus.

All of these brochures just require that the text is changed and new images added in the placeholders. They are designed to be drag and drop so that non-profits who cannot employ a graphic designer can still have professionally designed brochures.

Once the brochures are finished and printed in colour, I like to finish it off with a fridge magnet and a pen, all branded and all from Vista Print. Pop
in some seasonal appropriate candy and then you have a welcome package that is professional and informative about the church.

Such a subtle way to leave an impression, but one that will leave a powerful impression that will have that first-time visitor returning again and again.

Back in the April 2019 issue of the Huron Church News, I wrote about Facebook’s built-in tool for polls as a means of driving engagement.

Far too often churches use Facebook as a broadcast medium instead of building those peer-to-peer relationships that make social media so powerful.

The idea is simple. Run polls asking simple questions like, for Lent, do you give something up? Or take something on? Advent, blue or purple?

The natural extension of running these polls is translating the data that you collecting on your congregation from social media to everyday life. For instance, you might have a parish dinner in your calendar. This is a good opportunity to run a poll, or to ask the simple question, what is your favourite pie? The responses will provide you with data about the type of pie people who will attend your dinner prefer. During the parish announcements on Sunday morning when advertising the upcoming parish dinner mention the poll and that you will have said kind of pie for dessert. If you employ a screen for announcements, include a screenshot. Nothing builds relationships better, faster and deeper than people feeling heard, even if it is just about pie.

This same technique can be expanded beyond silly questions about food. Asking your congregation about their favourite bible verse will give you great data to build up future bible studies. Asking people to name their favourite hymn or song makes music planning throughout the seasons that much easier. Asking people about their hidden talent can lead to discovering all kinds of skills in the parish to further the kingdom of God.

Moving from social to real life is a great way to continue to build engagement on your social media platforms. And nothing makes people valued and will drive traffic back to your social media platforms than people feeling as their engagement is making a difference in the life of the church.

“Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” (Matt 13:16)

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said, ‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

Promises, promises. How often in life have promises been given to only to be broken? We are entering election season here in Canada with the upcoming federal election is set for October 21, 2019.

No doubt the politicians will be making all kinds of promises. The promise trackers have been released on the current government. In it, the Liberal government was found to have kept 90% of its 2015 promises to the electorate. In reality, that is a bit of a spin. They kept 50% of their promises, partially keep 40% and broke 10%. All in all, a good record when it comes to politicians and promises.

Going forward, all the parties will be dangling money and promises in an attempt to win your vote. If a change in government occurs, then be ready for the tried and tested line that the fiscal books were in worse shape and now we can’t deliver on our promises.

This got me thinking about promises. Humans use promises to solicit votes, cut deals and strike bargains. This is in great contrast to God, who promises come not from an attempt to extract something from you. Rather they come from a place of faithfulness to a relationship between creator and created.

After many years, Abraham and Sarah continued to trust God that God would be faithful and keep His promise. And when Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah gives birth to Isaac, a son. Promise kept.

Maybe the politicians will tell you that they too need many years in power to be able to deliver on their promises. But God’s promises are not about cost/benefit analyses or an attempt to buy your vote. God’s promises are always about being faithful, even when it seems impossible to do so. This is something we discover in our relationship with God. Even when it looks like death has won, and the promise will go unfulfilled, God finds a way.

Because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Promise made. Promise kept. 

One of my columns in the Huron Church News was picked up By the Gazette, the diocesan paper for the Diocese of Quebec.

You can check it out April-2017-Quebec-Diocesan-Gazette-for-web.

Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

I, like many of us, have been quick to criticize and slow to praise. It is easier to tear something down rather then build something up. And my recent adventures in home renovations have taught me precisely that. I am not sure why we do this as human beings? But I found myself doing it far more often then I wanted.

Over the past 6 months or so though I have been more proactive about praising more and criticizing less. I have found it immensely helpful to remind myself that while I may not agree with the decisions being made by others, that their hearts is in the right place. There are after all very few truly “evil” people in the world.

For instance, I may not agree with decisions my bishop makes, or votes taking in deanery council, but reminding myself that all these people want to see the Kingdom of God grow and are just doing their best has helped me temper my criticism.

What has also helped me temper my criticisms of others is reminding myself that it is easy to criticize, but then asking myself, “what am I going to do about it?” I can, after all, join in a “bitch” session, or I can be willing to help others and offer constructive solutions. This has helped me not just to be more effective in church land, but to be happier.

This, of course, is not just a realization I have had on my own or a moment of self actualization. It is born of a couple of things. It is a process by which I am becoming more the person God wants me to be. Allowing the Spirit of God to work me over has had a dramatic positive effect. Also, having good friends has been key. Not just too debrief and complain with but also challenge me to be a better priest, and a better person.

So a big shout out to Kevin Dixon and Bill Ward. You guys have helped make me a better person, at least 8 times out of 10. (sorry Billy, couldn’t resist)