… for the first time in my adult life. Sunday night our family attended our final worship gathering at the church community we moved to Hamilton to start more than nine years ago. It was a beautiful gathering with people we really love. People told stories, shared their feelings, reminisced, talked about the influence we …
Leadership
Came & Went / Wait & See
Is July seriously over!?! Where did it go? Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated this space. We were away at a cottage for a week in July and then camping with The Freeway for the long weekend. All the other time in between seems to shoot by as I have had lots to …
Local Hamilton Network, TrueCity, & Cultivate
A few friends and I are forming a local network here in Hamilton for those interested in creating new forms of church in this area… not just church planters, but others as well. We are mostly folks who are involved in TrueCity in some way or another and want to encourage church planting in collaboration. …
Mid-Life Crisis
“Clear your mind…” It’s kind of a weird phrase really. I, for one, have no idea how to do that. My mind is in overdrive in recent days… so are my emotions. So much is happening inside me and all around me, and I literally can’t process it all. I am feeling exhausted just from …
One Crazy Month
June has been insane… Here’s a taste of what’s been going on in Pernell-Land: I got in a car accident. I was stopped on Main Street in Hamilton for construction on June 8th and a Ford F250 slammed into the back of my car and pushed me into the minivan in front of me. My …
Lessons I Am Learning
Some organizations (and people in leadership in them) are absolutely terrible at communication. Terrible. When you apply for an employment position you should only promise what you can actually deliver. In other words, just do what you say you’re going to do. When you are interviewing potential employees for your organization – same goes for …
Only Fool’s Rush In
For the past couple weeks I have been actively sending out resumes, making connections, wheeling and dealing to try and find out what I am supposed to do for employment come August. I want to keep my options pretty open and not rush into anything… but I am also all too aware that I can’t …
The First Sunday After
Just a few weeks ago I spoke at a church in London, ON where a good friend of mine had finished up as pastor the week before. The week I was there was his first Sunday attending the church, but not as a pastor. I thought then that it must have been weird for him. …
A Tough Transition
The last several weeks and months have been very difficult in many ways, particularly emotionally, for me. I have really wrestled with who I am and who I think I am supposed to be. Part of that has to do with the community with whom I live, work and love (I will write more about …
Back In The Saddle
OK, here’s the deal: I have started and then deleted three different personal weblogs (may they rest in peace). I started blogging in 2001 with Typepad and then in 2003 with Blogger and then in 2007 with WordPress. For various reasons, I deleted all of those blogs. It’s been well over a year since I …
