One of the interesting correlations I’m looking to explore and uncover is to see if there’s a direct connection between where a city ranks on the Creativity Index and how much church planting is taking place. So if creative cities are great magnets drawing in people are they also drawing church planters as well?

Richard Florida makes the case that the Creative Class cluster together in various cities and companies follow suit. In his book Who’s Your City? Florida argues that geography is not dead and that more and more people choose where to live first and then find a job once they land. Or they may be part of the Creative Class and land in a hotpot like a Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Raleigh, and so on knowing there will be an abundance of opportunities in alignment with their career pursuits. He even makes the case that instead of people moving to where the companies are companies more frequently going to where the talent is.

So is church planting any different? We’ve seen people flood to the suburbs for decades and its no surprise that’s where the majority of church planting is taking place. Planters go where the people are going to. Is it the same with cities high on the Creativity Index? In my studying of church planting at various cities in North America so far this rings true as well. The city where I found the most going on as far as church planting also ranks the highest in the group (Seattle) on the Creativity Index. On the other hand, the city that ranks the lowest in the group on the Creativity Index also has the least amount of church planting (Tucson). Is there a direct correlation?  Does this apply across the board?

Are then Creative Cities not only drawing the Creative Class but they’re drawing church planters as well?

Have you ever wondered why following God has to be difficult and challenging? You hear so many pastors/teachers say things like, “Come to faith in Jesus and He’ll make your life better.” It’s actually quite the opposite. Maybe we should be saying things like, “Come to faith in Jesus and He’ll ruin your life for good.” But the catch is you’ll love life more than anything you could image. Paradox?

We see this from the time Jesus was walking around Israel in the 1st century and teaching. As long as he was handing out free bread and fish and speaking in parables then everyone loved and followed him. However, once he started to turn up the heat on what it would cost people to follow him the crowds “mysteriously” got thinner. We all want the crown but we don’t want the cross.

This morning as I was reading in Acts 14 Paul and Barnabas said something to the disciples who lived in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. They said, “We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God (v. 22).” Why? Why can’t following Jesus be a lot easier? Why can’t those who follow him live in better health and never suffer any hardships? It seems like quite the opposite. The deeper your love for God and the more you take steps in radical obedience the more treacherous the path becomes. It’s like you’re now bowling without the bumper buffers in life.

We read of stories of missionaries in the 19th century packing their belongings in caskets as they headed overseas to proclaim the Gospel. They knew the risk and the cost yet they went nevertheless. I still am kicking around the quote I heard not too long ago that said, “God called us to go … not come home.”

Maybe this whole blog post is simply for self-speak. I’m not hacking my way through a jungle to proclaim the Good News to a loin-cloth wearing groups of tribesman, I’m not having to eat bizarre foods that are still alive and wiggling, and heck, I don’t even have to learn a new language. I’ve been thinking of the cost as I think that we pulled out all of our life savings to simply move here. I think of this as I fret and worry about wondering if we’ll even make ends meet living in a city where the average person spends 68% of their income on their mortgage because of the high cost of living. I just wonder …

In the end I simply look up and say, “it’s all worth it.” PERIOD. I have no complaints, no regrets, and no hesitation about being here. I’m incredibly humbled and grateful simply to be here to begin praying for the people in Edmonds Town Centre and looking for ways to connect with them hoping to win their favor in order to share with them the love of Christ. Is it difficult?  Yes and no, but there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing …

Everyday we’re getting more and more familiar with our community that we’ve moved to at Edmonds Town Centre in Burnaby. As a matter of fact to saying I’m digging it is an understatement. Sure, I’ve lived in cities of 1,000,000-4,000,000 before but never in an urban environment. It was always on the periphery or at least a ways from anything urban. One of the things that attracted me to Burnaby is that though it is technically a suburb (since it’s not Vancouver proper) it still is urban. Throughout it’s short history Burnaby has gone from rural to suburban to now urban. Sure, it doesn’t have the compact density of the downtown core but I can still live an urban lifestyle but not pay the high rent/mortgage prices that those who live downtown do.

I love it that it can be 10 PM and I need something from the store for Camden so I can grab my coat, walk out the door, and in a couple of minutes I’m at a myriad of stores, plus I can swing by to an over over-flowing coffee shop that’s busier at night than in the morning. I know all of this makes me sound almost tourist-ish but I can’t help myself. It’s nice to not use a car much and me and Katie already decided if our only vehicle does indeed break down then no worries because we’ll be completely auto-free. The bus stop is right outside our place and the Skytrain is less than a mile away.

One of the frustrations I had, felt, and experienced about more suburban settings was how often time communities were made up of a similar socio-economic strata. What I love about our new community is that you have swank high-rise residential towers and then across the street are more run-down low-rise apartments. Yet everyone mingles together on the sidewalks and goes to the same coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. This is what I longed for … urban height living next to urban blight. I pray the Ion Community would look like whatever hub/town centre it is planted in. Mixed incomes, mixed ethnicity, but held together by the community we live in but more importantly the equality we all find in Christ. In Him there are no distinctions because we’re all saints and sinners and that’s the beauty of God’s grace and love.

It’s bad when the only thing you’re home state is known for is a baseball movie in a cornfield. Welcome to my Iowa. Sure, we had the Hawkeye football team that made a run for greatness this season only to tank it at the end with loses to Northwestern and Ohio State, but then again, it’s Iowa, not Michigan, Ohio State, of Penn State (not that Michigan has been good of late). When College Gameday was at Iowa for a big football game all they showed was images of corn and John Deere tractors.

As I walked over to Starbucks this morning I thought of Iowa. I thought about the irony of ending up in a cosmopolitan world-class city like Vancouver to plant a church.  Planting soy beans would’ve been more in line with being from Iowa. I’m still in the awe and wonder stage of being here. Sure, we’ve lived in Omaha, Phoenix, and Tucson which are cities indeed but Vancouver is something completely different … even other-worldly. The way my boys are growing up is a far cry from the simple way I did back in Iowa.

I thought about that when I walked them to school yesterday. I saw Sikhs and Hindus (as evidenced by the way they adorned themselves) as well as a myriad of others. Much different than growing up in a Catholic-heavy eastern Iowa. I heard so many languages that I couldn’t even pinpoint what some of them were. And then I thought … “what the heck am I doing here?”  I’m from Iowa … I-O-W-A!

As I walk around the city sometimes I feel a tinge of guilt for not raising my boys in a nice suburban setting with a ranch-style house, 2 car garage, and a big grassy backyard where we can play football or set up tents. Instead we’re in an upstairs apartment figuring out how to live. As I’ve been reading through the book of Acts I am reminded that a more appropriate name of the book should be the Acts of God. It certainly wasn’t about the apostles and other early Christians. Instead it was about God carrying along this infant group of worshippers. It wasn’t about Peter’s great leadership, Paul’s keen strategy, but God’s Spirit evidenced among them pulling them along.

That’s all I want. I know I’m a dumpster fire waiting to happen unless God does something. I know that He must work through me and even in spite of me and any momentum is simply because I was able to hear His voice and discern His direction. I know I’m in way over my head but that’s okay, He’s God and I’m not.

This is a crazy admission but I owe a lot to my dog and before you think I’m beginning to sing a country song let me explain. When we got the pooch 3 years ago I didn’t want the flea-bag … at all. But since I was outnumbered I had no choice but to go along with it begrudgingly. I had even come up with “affectionate” names for him.  Most of the time I’d simply call him “MB-1″ which stood for “mouth breather” because  of the noises dogs back when they always breath through their mouth and the occasional drool. I even had a mental tab running in my mind of how much that dog was costing me in vet visits, dog food, haircuts, and so on.

But today I’m feeling a bit more grateful for him.When we had our brief stint in Illinois we ended up getting a house with no fenced in yard. So instead of letting the dog go loose in the backyard to do his thing I had to take him for walks and then pick up the poo which is something beyond hideous. Not only that but Illinois winters aren’t like sunny Arizona days so I remember trudging through ice and snow sometimes in negative temps just so the dog can sniff 132 trees before he decides that on that day it would be the last tree where he’d take care of business.

However, something happened. I began to really enjoy those times and God used them for me to connect with Him on a deeper level like never before. I’d end up making the walks longer and many times alone in the snow at the park it’d be just me and God alone … and my dog. It was through that wonderful time of repentance, soul-searching, and seeking God that He used to redirect us to Vancouver.

Fast forward and now we’re here and in a good way not much has changed. We live upstairs in a 4-plex which means I need to take the pooch for a walk morning and night. But I don’t mind. It gives me a great chance to pray and now walk our new community taking in the sights and sounds all the while praying and listening for God to speak. I walk Wilson through high traffic pedestrian areas where I run into countless people who stop and say hi to the pooch and make comments on his good manners or silly little sweater. My dog is actually helping me now exegete my community. I walk and pray while he sniffs, poops, and looks cute. I’m constantly asking God to show me where He’s at work and what He wants me to do.

It is such a rich time to have an excuse to walk and pray while meeting people and not looking like a dork. So MB-1 is now helping me plant a church while he fertilizes and waters the grass.  I think that is a good trade-off.

So it’s been 18 days since we moved to the Vancouver area and we’re still adjusting and settling in. We finally got into our new abode over the weekend so we’re beginning to unpack, arrange and rearrange furniture, put up wall-hangings, and so on. Yesterday the boys started school and they all loved it and were excited to go back again today. It’s kind of funny that we’re here to plant a church and we’ve been so busy settling in that I honestly haven’t had much time to even begin to think about it. But that’s okay because this is all part of exegeting and understanding our context.

I’m a coffeehouse junkie for sure and God in His good sovereignty has allowed us to live just a couple blocks from a Waves Coffee and a Starbucks. Knowing that these are great Third Places to network and meet people it was on my high priority list when it came to housing to find a place close to a town centre / hub with ample coffee shops and hang-out places. I still believe that Starbucks (or any coffee shop) is the best place to people-watch (of course without coming across as the creepy guy in the corner at his laptop staring at people).

What I love about hanging out at a coffee shop surrounded by residential high-rises (see pic above for our area) is that most people are on foot and there’s never a shortage of traffic coming in and out.  On top of that is you have different crowds depending on the time of day. In the mornings its about 70% Anglo comprising of the 30-50’s crowd sprinkled in with a few 20-somethings. I was here last night at 10 PM at the same Starbucks and there was literally not one seat open and was full of about 95% 20-something Asians. Same place, same neighborhood, but its the great intersection of life. Also couple that with the elementary school just a few blocks. As I was walking the boys to school I saw and heard Punjabi Sikhs, Russians, East Asians, Africans, and so on who were the parents taking their kids to school. Again, same neighborhood but its the great intersection of life.

All of this is making me stop, slow down, and begin to listen. Having a dog is a great benefit in the city because as I walk Wilson (our pooch) around the neighborhood it allows me a chance to meet people, pray for those who I see out and about, and begin asking God to give me His eyes for this neighborhood. The time for church planting activities will come soon enough but for now it is time for me to watch, pray, and listen … which in reality is part of church planting.

I suppose as followers of Jesus there really isn’t any such thing as supernatural. As a matter of fact everything we see recorded in the Bible in reality is natural. For God to do something that goes against our scientific or rational understanding doesn’t make it supernatural. It indeed is natural. Why does God have to avoid or bypass the laws of nature that He alone set in place when He works in our lives?

When Jesus or the apostles (through Jesus’ power) healed people things like bones mended, muscles and sinew strengthened, eyebs were healed, life came back to dead corpses, and so much more. Somehow the healing process was sped up quicker than fast-acting pain killers or the normal time frame it takes our bodies to heal. So what then do we do with the book of Acts?

You can’t read through it without noticing some key aspects that leap right off the page to the eyes that are trained to thinking logically, scientifically, or rationally. As the church was birthed and rapidly spread it went hand-in-hand with the supernatural … or the “sped-up natural.” As the Gospel went out so did miracles (otherwise known as signs and wonders). People were healed and the dead was raised. For example, in Acts 9 Peter raises Tabitha from the dead and tons of people “believed in the Lord.” Last night we worshipped with The Point church up at SFU. Victor gave a great message as he talked about dreams and visions. In our highly rationalistic Western mindset a topic like that can be met with skepticism but it’s the type of thinking we’ve missed as we’ve downplayed how God works.

As we drove down Burnaby Mountain from SFU last night and in light of reading through Acts I told Katie that I want the Ion Community to be known for its signs and wonders. Not for the sake of sensationalism or emotionalism but the fact that we can tangible see, feel, and sense God’s presence among us because He’s changing lives, healing, and so much more. I think that’s why we stepped out in faith and risked it all to come here without not really knowing anything other than we HAVE to trust God for His supernatural provision. I figured that if I couldn’t trust Him to provide for us to get us here and care for us when we’re here then what business do I have trusting Him to use us to plant churches?

Maybe as followers of Jesus we need to take “supernatural” out of vocabulary. Maybe what we deem as supernatural needs to become normal and everyday?

In Acts 7 Stephen delivers a great message leading up to the reality of Jesus being the long-awaited Messiah. It is a great snapshot of Israel’s history beginning when Abraham was called by God out of Ur and led to the land promised to him. What an amazing way to start off as a country!  Well, but then there was the 400 years in Egypt as strangers and slaves. As I read today something remarkable jumped out to me that made me pause and think about church planting and the whole adventure of it.

The Israelites were an oppressed people and when their cries reached God he sent Moses to deliver them. It was more spectacular of a deliverance than what Hollywood could produce full of bugs, a bloody river, frogs, the parting of the Red Sea, and finally when Moses went up on the mountain it shook and contorted as God met Moses there. There would be little doubt about the reality of God’s presence.  For 400 years the people had to wonder where God was.  Why were they oppressed and reduced to slaves? Had God forgotten them?  No, He delivered them in HD fashion. But something wasn’t right …

“Their hearts turned back to Egypt (Acts 7:39).” While Moses was meeting God on the mountain and after all that they’ve seen and experienced with God “their hearts turned back to Egypt.” We often claim that if we’d only see God in real and tangible ways then our faith would be solidified … not true. The Israelites saw the mighty power of God and still “their hearts turned back to Egypt.”

So what does that mean for me personally? Where is my heart?  Is it here in Vancouver or “back in Egypt?” While the transition hasn’t been the easiest (which is normative for all who move) being here has driven me closer to God. I don’t want my heart to drift back to Egypt and regardless of whether the times are good or bad I still long to cling to God as my anchor, my suppport, my shield, my power, my crutch, my everything. One of the reasons I hesitated and fought it so long to get back into church planting is because I know that it treads the same terrain as the crucible of pain and disappointment. I have no illusions or fanciful thinking about it because I’ve seen from the inside and outside what goes on in the life of a church planter and what it takes to birth a church from scratch, especially initially starting solo.

It is funny, Grant (our 10 yr old) told me as we were driving up here … “Dad, Tucson was our Egypt, Illinois was our desert where we wandered, and now Vancouver is our promised land.” I laughed (and cried) at the same time. God can communicate the deepest of truths through the insight of a 10 year old. If this is our land of promise then I beg God daily not to let my heart turn back to Egypt.

It seems like one of the topics that has been swirling for a long time now is over the issue of how a church gathers.  My initial question is, “Does it really matter?” On both sides of the spectrum you have purists who adamantly argue their slant on the New Testament as the appropriate way to it to do and be church. If you read Acts right you can import your ecclesiology right in saying house churches are the only way or large gatherings plus small groups are the only way or open air public gatherings are the only way or if you look closely in the Greek I think it does mention multi-site churches with video venues and coffee kiosks …

I’m fully aware that early on the church planting endeavor that planters are more driven by ideals. They’ve had years to flesh out everything they don’t like about the church and craft in their minds what church really should look like. Most I know have a preconceived notion of exactly the way they’re going to do church only to find out that 18 months later it really isn’t like what they had imagined or dreamed it would be. But that’s okay. I’m in that mode now no matter how hard I try not to get too idealistic because people are messy, church is messy, and God never seems to do things on our terms or timelines and I’m fully comfortable with that.

So how does a church gather and is it really that big of a deal? Is it right to say right off exactly how you’re going to gather? Is that doing church in a prepackaged way that’s void of context? I may have a few thoughts about this of where I’d like to see Ion going but I don’t want to get hung up on the way we gather. I know churches who set out to be a network of house churches only to find themselves 3 years later running several thousand in a couple of large worship gatherings.  What happened?  Did they get off track?  No, things change and context often times determines the how of the gathering.  I’ve always known churches that took off quickly and were pushing 750 after two years only to reformat themselves and become a network of house churches.  Again, does it really matter how a church gathers as long as Body Life is being lived out?

Today is Thanksgiving and I admit it feels a bit odd. It’s the first time I’ve celebrated it outside of the U.S. so it seems a bit surreal. Today we’re getting together with about 15 college students to celebrate and eat turkey (and hopefully watch some football which is as much part of Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie). I have this image of us gathering together like campers in the cold huddling around a small campfire. Somehow the warmth of Thanksgiving will find its way across the border and into our hearts … or something poetic like that.

For whatever reason I’ve been up since 5 AM. I woke up kind of in a panic fretting about our future and living life on financial support from the good graces of the Canadian National Baptist Convention, the WestCoast Baptist Association, a few individuals, and of course my Mom. We had hoped to have a myriad of churches already on board with us supporting us not only in prayer and sending teams to help but as well financially. I realize this is pretty par for the course in church planting but still it makes me nervous and at times when I take my eyes of God it terrifies me. So after fretting this morning I headed over to Starbucks to spend some time reading the Bible and praying … and like always God does meet me and I’m sitting at my table trying to hold tears back so no one else notices.

I’ve been trekking through the book of Acts and everyday something goes “Pow!” and resonates within. Today I read chapter 5 of the great account of the apostles being harassed and then flogged by the Sanhedrin. After being warned not to keep on teaching about Jesus and doing what the angel told them to when he said, “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people all about this new life (5:20),” the apostles kept on anyways saying, “We must obey God rather than human beings (5:29)!” After their flogging I love their response.  It is a natural response when following a supernatural God … “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (5:41).”

The way the apostles responded stopped me in my tracks. Like anytime you read through Scripture you can read something a million times but the Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates His Word and teaches / reminds you in the times you need it the most. Today was a great reminder. It’s been almost 2 weeks since we moved here to the Vancouver area. We’ve still yet to get into our home, we’ve been living out of suitcases for the previous 5 months as we’ve been transitioning and now we’re here and like any move its always way more expensive than you plan or realize. But today … it’s alright. I’m so grateful that God would allow us the privilege to come here to Vancouver to not only plant churches but our very lives. There’s no promise of ease nor comfort nor success, but for the glory of it all … for the glory of God we come nevertheless. It reminds me of one of my life verses from the book of Job, “Though he slay me yet I will trust (or hope) in Him (Job 13:15).”

Today on Thanksgiving I’m grateful for God and His glory. I’m grateful that He’s called us here. I’m grateful that He never promises it to be easy. I’m grateful that any discomfort is for His Kingdom alone and for Him to be lifted up. As the angel told the apostles after he freed them from jail in Acts 5 (“tell the people all about this new life”), life in the Kingdom is truly the pearl of great price.  It’s worth everything. It’s worth it all to sell everything for a taste of God’s Kingdom and this new life. I’m grateful God has redeemed me and bought me off of the auction block of slavery to sin and self. I’m grateful God has freed me to serve Him and to now serve and love the people of Vancouver … so regardless of what happens all is well and God is good.