As I sit down to write this blog entry, I've just wrapped up my last show as co-host of GodTalk on CJOB 68. (For audio of some of the best moments - click here) I'm very excited to see my co-host of the last two years, Greg Glatz from Central Baptist Church, move the show into the future along with Melissa McEachern of Family Life Network. So what has eleven years of talking about God with Manitobans taught me?

First of all, I've learned that personal beliefs matter. People live out of particularity not generalities and the best conversations happen when the particulars are invited to the table. It was in the 18th show, only a few months in, when I booked Charles Templeton for a live phone interview from his home in Toronto. Templeton had garnered some of Canada's highest journalistic achievements and wrote "Farewell to God" as his final tome. I was speaking with a man who had once worked side by side with Billy Graham and now was vehement in his denial of a loving God. His personal account of a shift to agnosticism was gripping and I realized that night that talking about God is very real and very personal. I offered my particular belief in Jesus Christ alongside of his agnosticism and the phone lines lit up. Particular beliefs are more interesting than general statements.

I've also learned that dignity is worth it. The term "Christian tolerance" has always fascinated me. I've heard people say those two words are a contradiction in terms. I think that has to do with how people have experienced some Christians. It is my Christian belief in a Savior that gives me freedom to speak with anyone about anything. I recall one Easter when we invited a wiccan onto the show and her first comment as she walked in was, "I guess this is the day the pagans get thrown to the lions." For some reason she was predisposed to a certain kind of treatment. I suggested we really simply wanted to hear what she believed. The conversation spanned an hour and as she left the studio, she said she had never had an experience like this before and would be delighted to come back anytime. We parted as friends. What fascinated me was that the conversation had included some of the most intense caller questions and in studio comparison of Christian and pagan worldviews to date. Seems dignity does not need to be sacrificed in the face of difference.

Perhaps this is self-evident but I've noticed that two-way conversations are more engaging than one-way conversations. In fact, when something is one-way, by definition, it's not a conversation at all. I remember a caller who told me one night that Jesus told us to evangelize, not to have a dialogue. I can appreciate his interest in following Jesus' invitation to give witness to the life that is found in knowing God personally, but I just haven't come across any way of sharing faith outside of a relational context. In my experience, information dumps seem to be ignored or written off as bigotry. Until further notice, I'm going to pursue meaningful relationships out of which conversations emerge. Interestingly enough, when someone asks a question, it gives us permission to be as specific as we want.

One Truth that has given me the courage to keep going back on air every Sunday night is that the Holy Spirit is a really good talker. John 16:8,13 NLT says, "8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment...13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard." Seems my role is to foster an environment of dignity and care that validates people's questions, such that the real talking can happen. Keith phoned in one night to thank us for a previous conversation when he had queried if the Canada Moose were on Noah's Ark. Then recounted to us that he had discovered his faith once again. I knew who he'd really been talking with in the months between those two calls.

To the extent that I have... ... evoked laughter in one person to smile for just a fleeting moment, ...provoked in one person a God-thought to ponder the mystery and meaning of life, ...inspired one person to see beauty in the ordinary people on their street, ...offered hope to one person to live another day...

To that extent...I look back with gratitude, joy and satisfaction.

What has given me the freedom to engage any and all conversations, is that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. It's been a privilege to foster an open conversation about the living God. Join Greg Glatz, the rocknroll preacher and Melissa McEachern Sunday night from 9-11pm. This conversation is just getting started...

This posting is an excerpt of a recent email to a friend. Our conversation was struck up when he told me about his friends who wished they could be like him and not have to celebrate Christmas... Here's some of my response...

"I celebrate a present reality as much as a historical reality. The nuances of trying to peer back into history and seek out the veracity of cattle lowing and baby waking is tenuous at best. I am left with lots of questions in that regard. However, my lived faith in the present tense is how I find that story to be true. I'm offered the birth story of Jesus as the Son of God as a radical claim that leaves me no option but to accept or reject it and my decision has implications. Obviously I don't suggest to people to believe because of my experience, but my experience helps give me confidence to take the risk into faith. At the end of the day, I ask myself, What's the risk of believing the following? That the Creator of the universe loves me, that God provides a means for me to deal with my depravity, that God bears out in humanity through Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection a way for me to experience life to its fullest, that my capacity to forgive and be forgiven even exists... What risk is that to me, compared to turning away and saying, I'll imagine that I am the maker of myself and my own destiny.

I have chosen to risk into faith because I see life there. My faith is not about proving the historical veracity of birth narratives (many of your questions so well articulated are mine as well...). At the end of the day, I want to LIVE with purpose, with forgiveness, with hope and a future. This is a messed up world, how exactly am I to make it, without some help? God says, I'll give you the dignity of just offering.

Here's how I see it. I will always enjoy probing philosophical and historical questions, but at the end of the day I simply wish more for you. I meet people who choose to fundamentally doubt God rather than risk into God. There's lots of fodder in our world for doubt, all in the name of religion. But do I think Jesus can make a difference in your life, for sure... And is it because I can produce a DNA sample of the manager's straw or claw back the injustices and deceit that you have innocently had to endure? No, it's because I am just barely confident enough to suggest that God shows up in the present tense, and a way to know that is to simply say, 'I'm willing to be loved'."

Thank you for all the engaging and life-giving conversations of 2008! We'll talk more in 2009.

I have some ideas about what went wrong on Parliament Hill, most people do. But what this situation needs now is a bit of parental wisdom. The good and helpful question now is not about who spilled the milk or who stole the peanut butter but rather, how do we make things right?

And I am speaking out of personal experience from as recently as yesterday after school. Obviously things didn't go so well when my kids (aged 13, 11 and 9) got home after a long day of reading, writing and arithmetic. I wasn't there to see it all unravel, but I did get a distraught cell call once the feathers had flown. As the story goes, people were trying to meet their basic needs by putting together a snack of crackers and peanut butter, and somehow things got personal, really personal. A bit of selfishness, a bit of misunderstanding, a bit of stubbornness and before you now it we've got a full out crackers and peanut butter tug of war that comes to some less than admirable behavior as people take out their frustration on each other. Very quickly people are hurting, they feel insulted, wrongly accused and they're angry. I secured the area over the phone by sending people into respective areas of the house and planned a conversation one on one with everyone involved when I got home.

What transpired over the next couple hours was not easy, it wasn't exactly fun, but the end results are remarkable. After hearing people out, inviting responsibility taking, and making some clear parental errors myself by exaggerating the circumstances and escalating rather than de-escalating the rhetoric, we came to a brief but most profound moment. We looked at each other and said, "I'm sorry, I was wrong, will you forgive me?" And I heard the words coming from and to me and to each other, "I forgive." The heavy emotional air lifted, the sense of possibility returned and we could get on with figuring out what snack would be for everybody today. For the record, it's crackers and chocolate milk - back to basics, will add in the peanut butter in time. Late last night, as we prayed before bed, all of the parties involved in Crackergate spontaneously thanked God for forgiveness, for making a way to make things right. How else would we have found a way through? The moment wasn't about concessions, it was about confessions and forgiveness.

I know it was only about crackers and peanut butter and you may be saying, you went through all that for just that?! While we're just one simple Canadian family out on the frozen tundra trying to figure things out, I can't help but wonder what Canada would be like if our leaders could do what my kids and I did last night. Perhaps there'd be more crackers and peanut butter to go around come the New Year if they did.

(Snack suggestions always welcome...)

When I saw the headlines of the past 2 days about the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church coming to Canada, I knew I wanted to respond. A grieving family shouldn't have to deal with these kinds of added grief, sadly the nature of public media makes it almost impossible to avoid them. My deep sympathy goes out to all involved.

It's not the first time the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas has been in the news for threatening to dishonor the living who are mourning the dead and, unfortunately, it won't be the last. Their message to their northerly neighbours is that "God is punishing Canada" as evidenced in the tragic death of Tim Mclean, a Greyhound bus passenger. While Westboro's proposed protest does a lot to promote their media notoriety it does nothing to promote the cause of God in the world.

This disturbance has come about because the people of Westboro Baptist have confused the difference between God and humanity - God is God and they are not. I offer here a few simple clarifications in case anyone else finds themselves at some point caught in the same confusion.

#1 About humans: "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Always act in ways that make things right, offer undeserved favor to others at all times, humbly acknowledge and accept that you are a creation. #2 About God: "The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love." (Psalm 145) #3 About judgements: There is a day when God will make final assessments, and they will be wholly true and right. (II Timothy 4:1)

So while Westboro continues to establish its punishing reputation, God continues to offer compassion.

Last week I had the privilege of spending 5 days in Montreal. On Friday afternoon, a guided tour took us literally into the shadow of the Olympic Stadium, affectionately known as "the big O", and to the poorest French-Canadian neighbourhood in Canada. Standing in a backlane with one of the townhouse occupants, he described the spiritual dynamics in these surroundings. He had moved into this neighbourhood a couple years ago with the interest of creating a better community. The comment which has left me pondering the Canadian religious landscape and my role in it is when my newfound friend said, "We do not say the words 'God' or 'Jesus' in public because we care about our neighbours too much." Given Quebec's religious history in the 20th century and people's living memory of it, their disdain and disappointment in some of what has happened has brought the culture to a point where terms that used to signify some of the most sacred practices have become words that are now used to curse each other. So words like 'God' and 'Jesus' are used as insults rather than blessings. I left Montreal with a question. How am I living out my spiritual life in the neighbourhood? Does it lead to cursing?

Saturday, May 3 at 7pm, Greg "the rocknroll preacher" Glatz will play lead guitar with the Royal Unruh Band in an effort to support inner-city kids through Urban Potential. Winnipeg personalities Larry Updike and Brian Barkley from CJOB's morning show will host the event.

Every Sunday night I sit in the newsroom for an hour before our show and listen to the police scanner blurting out the sad, sordid and sickening story of life in the city. What makes it onto the news is more of the same.

I invite you to click on the photograph to see a different story. A story of potential, promise and possibility. Patty Boge (offthepagephotography) took the photos. She has done what few do - humanize rather than humiliate those who live in our inner cities. Look at the photos, look at them carefully...then tell me about who lives in our inner city.