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5 Ways You Can ‘Breathe’ This Christmas

Don’t just believe…breathe

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Reading Time: 5 minutes

Even though Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, we sometimes forget to breathe. Mark Schultz penned it the best — “we’re running just to catch ourselves.” We may experience moments of rest, but at the end of the day, Christmas can end up becoming more stressful than helpful. As Christmas Day approaches, I want to share five ways we can all breathe.

5 Ways You Can Breathe During Christmas

As a Christian, I find myself reassuring our family that we make sure to “keep Christ in Christmas.” Yes, it’s a cliché, but it’s impossible to focus on more than one aspect of Christmas. We can enjoy several aspects of Christmas that are outside of Christ, but we can only actually focus on one. Hopefully, we choose to focus on the mission of Christmas (Click here to read about what I mean).

When we learn to focus on Christ, we’ll learn how to breathe. Christmas will move from chaos to mission; from overwhelming to a blessing.

Based on Advent, here are five ways we can practically breathe during the Christmas season:

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7 Things Every Pastor Loves To Hear

Showing authentic appreciation for your pastor

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Reading Time: 5 minutes

Pastor appreciation can sometimes be superficial. We often think we have to “do something special” in order for the pastor to understand they are appreciated. As a pastor myself, I won’t turn down baked goods or a restaurant gift card, but I’ve come to learn that honest appreciation is experienced through ministry participation and honest servant-hood.

7 Things Every Pastor Loves To Hear

Here are 7 things I love to hear from my parishioners (and I’m sure every other pastor can agree):

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9 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Fruit of the Spirit

Learning to live by the Spirit

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Reading Time: 7 minutes

The Fruit of the Spirit are certainly well-known, but I’m not sure if they are truly sought after.  Part of that issue is probably found in the fact that we misunderstand what the Fruit of the Spirit are.  The Fruit aren’t just ‘good ideas,’ they are the product of someone who pursues life in the Spirit.  They’re called ‘fruit’ because, through the Spirit, these attributes grow and mature in our lives as we let go of our selfish ambitions and human desires and allow the Spirit to guide us.

9 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Fruit of the Spirit

As Paul wrote, life in the Spirit includes:

“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).

These attributes are so important, we need to make sure we understand what’s actually happening when we pursue them. To help, let me give you nine things you probably didn’t know about the Fruit of the Spirit:

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REVIEW: All Saints, the Movie

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Inspiring stories are great, but inspiring stories based on real life, are powerful. The All Saints movie is just that. It's a true story of how God inspired a pastor with a dream that, not only saved a small local church but, built a thriving faith community around an 'out-of-the-box' ministry.

REVIEW - All Saints Contest

ALL SAINTS is based on the inspiring true story of salesman-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock (John Corbett), the tiny church he was ordered to shut down, and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia. Together, they risked everything to plant seeds for a future that might just save them all.1

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Please Don’t Stop The Reading!

Continued Learning, Part 1

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Reading wasn’t always my favourite thing to do.  In fact, throughout high-school, I believe I mastered the art of writing a paper without reading the book.  I look back, however, and think of how better my papers would have been if I started reading sooner.  Some of it had to do with the topics, and I certainly didn’t like fiction. But as I’ve entered into the workplace, future education, and now into ministry, I’ve realized reading keeps your mind sharp. 

This is a 3 part series about how we can continue to learn beyond the traditional classroom setting.

Please Don't Stop The Reading

In Newfoundland and Labrador (where I live), we have an increasing excuse to decrease our reading habits.  Unfortunately, the province added a tax to books.  But just because we’re the only province in Canada to tax books, doesn’t mean we have to be the only province who stops reading. I’d like to offer five cost-effective ways we can make this happen:

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