http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike Iron Sharpens Iron Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:31:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Are we about to have our least "regionally" influenced Assembly ever? General Assembly, a meeting of C&MA leaders in Canada, is normally held in one of our cities, alternating between eastern city (like Ottawa or Toronto) and western (like Calgary or Saskatoon). But this time, over 700 leaders will holding ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2010/03/a-bridge-over-the-bosphorous/ [caption id="attachment_204" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Plenary Session Urbana09"][/caption] It's been a long time coming, but I know that I need to provide a source for people interested in following ideas and messages that came from Urbana 09. Here are 4 themes that emerged as important for me: Empowered A trendy word in many ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2010/02/urbana-09-top-links-and-lessons/ So here in the middle of so many people, God grants me the joy of seeing Andy Bayer! Andy (Cobourg AC) was on our very first "exploration" Fusion team to Mexico City. It was a largely a journey of prayer, and of hearing the stories of our International Workers. Lisa ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/12/urbana-day-2-and-3/ I am unbelievably privileged. I am surrounded by 20,000 young people who have gathered to study God's word and ask him to speak to them about how "The Word became Flesh", and how that relates to their lives. On a rainy Boxing Day evening, over a hundred young people from Eastern Canadian District ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/12/urbana-09-day-one/ Ezra 10 depicts a weeping priest, Ezra himself, pouring out his heart to God regarding the sins of the people. It gathered a group, and leaders were galvanized to respond. They realized they were living in disobediance to God. "We have been unfaithful to our God.....But in spite of this ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/12/provoked-2-prayer/ This past weekend I visited Ottawa Chinese Alliance church. On Saturday night I got to be with the youth - whose time together included a Skype call with Jonathon Mikes in Mexico City!  I really enjoyed watching the youth gathered for games, friendship, learning to play instruments for worship, leaders committing their ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/12/what-will-this-crowd-do/ This week I got to be at Scarborough Community Alliance Church for a panel discussion with Pastor Timothy Quek, and then ended up having a meal with he and several young men from the church. Good questions included; "How do we as leaders mobilize the people around us for missions?", "How do the ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/11/people-might-think-you-are-crazy/ Some great words on the "Brown Blog". I get to work with people like this! http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/10/viral-voices-1/ "The Lord will march forth like a mighty hero..." It's been on my mind for a good long time, especially this year: why do does the concept of a great hero resonate so powerfully in our world? Both Hollywood and television have always done well with hero-themed movies, and lately it seems the ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/10/heroes/ A year ago, I felt God really pushing me to see we could bring students from Ontario Alliance churches to Urbana. Urbana is a student missions conference put on by Inter Varsity every 3 years, and has a long history of being very focused on challenging the next generation with a biblical ... http://www.sea2sea.ca/mike/2009/09/journey-to-urbana-09-why/