O, Canada

    Tomorrow I am honored to preach at the ordination of Tim Barone in Colorado Springs, CO.  Tim has been a seminary fieldworker of mine for the past few years.  It's been a pleasure to know him and see him grow as a man and a future pastor.  His ordination publicly commences his pastoral ministry.  God-willing it will be a decades long.  He's from Colorado, but his first call is to Thunder Bay, Ontario (yes, that's in Canada).

     While St. Louis has its drawbacks (tropically humid summers), I do get the vantage point of seeing a larger church body at work.  I get to work with seminarians who get practical, residential fieldwork education in my church.  I get to see them sent out across the country (and Canada), and count them brothers in the ministry. 

     This may sound silly, but this reminds me the Church is bigger than my church.  There are congregations of Christians in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  They too have a mission.  And now a pastor I know goes to serve them.  This is humbling because it prods me to remember who the Senior Pastor of the church is.  He holds together this ragged band of Christians, the Church militant, scattered globally (and in Canada).