Purpose/Mission

The Purpose and Mission for all of our members is Seeking Expressions of Jesus as Lord in Life and Community (Matt. 16:13-20). This mission is accomplished as we take the gospel message of Jesus into the relevant and daily life experiences we encounter both individually and as a community (Matt. 28:16-20).

Beliefs and Statement of Faith

• We believe in one God in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:4-6; John 4:24; John 10:30)
• We believe God is the creator of all that there is seen and not seen, understood and mysterious, questioned and answered. (Gen. 1:1; Isa. 42:5; John 1:3; Acts 17:24;26)
• We believe in one Lordship over all things, places, contexts, and people through Jesus Christ as the son of God. (Matt. 16:16; John 1:14; 10:30; 14:6-7; Col. 1:18)
• We believe Jesus suffered and died for our sins as he was crucified on the cross, that three days afterwards he was resurrected in body, that he ascended into heaven, and that he lives eternally at God’s right side. (Mark 16:19; John 20:17; Acts 1:9; Rom. 4:24b-25)
• We believe that all people can find redemption, forgiveness, and righteousness through holistically enacted faith in Jesus Christ. (John 3:16; Acts 2:38; Rom. 10:9-10; James 2:18)
• We believe that the Bible is the whole and complete Word of God meant to equip, teach, and inspire all followers of its reading. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
• We believe in the unity of one church under Christ Jesus through Biblical Christian practices. (John 17:20-21)
• We believe that all followers of Jesus are blessed and gifted according to the good works Christ calls them too through his Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:4; Gal. 5:22-24)
• We believe in the full immersion baptism of all who hold these beliefs to be true as a physical commitment and representation of God’s grace before all his followers. (Acts 2:38; 41; 16: 31-33; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21)

Values

We each acknowledge ourselves being within our own unique contexts, experiences, history, and relationships but are united by Expressions Mission and Five Interlocking Values. As such we seek community by balancing a holistic practice of all said values within our faith and in everything we do.

Passionate Spirituality—Spiritual Reading (Scripture); Spiritual Speaking; Spiritual Breathing; and Spiritual Acting

Radical Discipleship—Invitational Living; Incarnational Living; Infusional Living; Inspirational Living
(Please See (i)Living Covenant)

Authentic Community—Hospitality; Unconditional Acceptance; Intentionality; Relevant

Transformational Mission—Recognize a Need; Collaborate; Acknowledge a Kingdom Relevance; Take Action

Holistic Stewardship—People; Wealth/Materials; the Environment

I must admit though that this is not what toke my heart away during the course of the film. What really got to me was the central storyline with the character of Jake and his questions behind identity as a paralyzed marine. Sitting in my own wheelchair I began struggling with the same uncertainties he was facing in the light of a new world.

Who is my Avatar? What would it be like to have a new body? Or as Col. Miles Quaritch said to Jake; to have my real legs back? Who is the real me?

Being a gen X’er, the word avatar always seemed to me to be an image you put on your facebook page or blog address to which people identify you as. It surprised me to realize after looking it up in a dictionary that the word avatar actually means “the embodiment of something: somebody who embodies, personifies, or is the manifestation of an idea or concept.”

In that sense really think about it for a moment and ask yourself; Am I the same person at work that I am at home? Are you the same person on Sunday at church? How about when you are standing with the other parents outside the school while waiting to pick up your kids? How many Avatars do you have? Which one is the real one?

There is this moment in the film when Jake and his new found friend Neytiri are arguing over the fact that she does not see him as being authentic. In a sense she is saying, “I do not know who or what you are!” It is during this moment that the spirits of Ey’wa, the Na’vi’s understanding of God, descend around Jake and it becomes a sign to Neytiri that even if she cannot see the real Jake, Ey’wa could see him.

It is easy for me to conceal who I truly am in character as a husband, son, pastor, or follower of Jesus behind shadows of personal conception and agenda. In some sense it seems as though I can get lost in these avatars myself and forget who the real me is. No matter how hard I try though it doesn’t seem to change the fact that God still seems to know me as he whispers the words of Jeremiah 1:5; “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” It is a mystery I still wonder about today.

Jesus himself became an avatar in the sense that he was God incarnate. I guess you could say he was the real avatar. One day he went fishing with a group of fishermen. He spent the entire day with them while learning who they were, speaking their language, and seeing who they truly are. It was then that he turned to them and said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matt. 4:19) Jesus in becoming one of them saw right through them to their hearts; he saw their real avatars!

Throughout Jake’s journey he was offered healing but it came in two forms. On the one hand Col. Miles Quaritch offered him purpose in being used as a marine and in doing so he would be “given his legs back”. On the other hand Jake could choose to submit his entire being to the wonder and care of Ey’wa in the awakening of a body given through love and the mystery of recreation.

Without giving anything away I admit to struggling with this in the personal sense. It might be easy to expect God to heal me as a paralyzed man on my terms with my own expectations of time, appearance, and significance. But is healing meant to be easy and solely about me or is it really about the relationship which I have with my creator?

It seemed a question to which I might wrestle with for many years to come until I heard a comment William Young, author of ‘The Shack’, stated in an interview the other day. He said, “I do not believe God heals people so that he can use them. I believe God heals people because he loves them; and then he invites them to play.” It was in this moment that the questions seemed to disappear and the visionary wonder of healing and recreation coalesced with the trust that God would find the balance (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).

Is the movie Avatar a Christian film? I do not think James Cameron intended it to be so when he first developed it but; like most created things, if we are willing to extend a listening ear we just my catch the faded whispers of truth from a loving creator who is saying, “I see you.”

^15″I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. ¹⁶There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him.” – Ecc. 4:15-16

Most of us have heard the story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and know the character of Scrooge. It seems like the spirit of scrooge is still alive and well if we look around at some of the people we encounter amidst the business of our Christmas holidays. A few years ago I think I had the most ironic and oppressive encounter with such a character while working in a Greyhound parcel depot here in Calgary.

To be honest I took the job thinking it would be fun and I would be a deliverer of blessings and joy to many over the Christmas season. It was anything but and possibly one of the hardest jobs I have ever done. There I was sitting in the back room with no windows and just a fold out table in front of me stacked with piles upon piles of parcel delivery slips and just a small space for me to put a phone on. I would phone hundreds of people a day, trying desperately to pronounce their names right as I advised them of their parcel waiting for them to pick up.

By the third day I was beginning to feel like I had lost all meaning to Christmas and the Spirit of joy had slipped away. So in an effort to rekindle the fires if you will, I decided to bring in a music box and play some Christmas music in the background. Things were going smoothly until the mid day when I heard some shouting out in the front of the depot.

I came out from the back room that I was in through the double doors to the front and found close to fifty people all lined up at the front desk and winding slowly back towards the outer doors with the snowy cold blowing through them as more people came in. Robin, a coworker and friend, was at the desk trying to help a gentleman with finding the parcels he expected to receive once he arrived at the depot which unfortunately were no where to be found and he was extremely angry that we did not have his expected parcels.

“What do you mean you do not have my &%*#@ parcels!” He would shout at the top of his lungs as he tore strips off of Robin. “Listen to me you little #$%^&; I want my parcels now!”

Now picture this as I sat there watching what was going on while listening to this:

 My heart wanted to just explode while the lyrics of the song rolled around in my head! Where was the love of Jesus? Where was the Christmas joy everyone was supposed to be celebrating? I was asking, “For whom is this guy toiling and depriving himself of pleasure?” (Ecc. 4:8)

I suppose it could be so easy to get wrapped up in the business of the season and forget the real reason we are celebrating. Christmas is more then presents, gifts, food, and the “Ooo’s” and “Ahh’s” of what did you give to so and so or what did I get.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus! Christmas is the season to rejoice in our King and Lord  who has no end to those he leads and all who follow (Ecc. 4:16). Christmas is the joy of knowing we received the gift of Immanuel (God with us) and it is through his blessing that we can stand in his place (Ecc. 4:15) and be given the glory of being in the Kingdom of God as his children.

All that to say I wish you All a Merry Christmas and a Season for Rejoicing!

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” - Matthew 1:23

Why does God allow suffering in this world? Is marriage really important in the long run? Does Christianity matter on any other day then Sunday? Why do I go to church? What is the church? How should I deal with violence in my life? What is a good parent? Did Jesus really have to die on the cross? Am I a Christian if I consider myself to be Spiritual? What is Spirituality? Where does God come in to the reality of today? What is the truth? Does truth exist? Does God exist?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

Ever since I was a kid I struggled with the deeper questions in life and what their relevance was to me. I wanted to understand everything and deeply needed to know that God was really truly involved in this world. In some sense I wanted to know that God thought this world mattered. That I mattered. Maybe you are like me.

The truth of it though was the answer I seemed to always receive was paralyzing as people would turn to me and say, “There are two things you don’t talk about in this world. The first is Politics and the second is Beliefs.” Ironic when you think that it is our beliefs which shape the basis for everything that we do!

So then where can we go to express these beliefs and seek out honest open dialogue? Where might we gather to share and to live out a journey of exploring faith in today’s reality?

Questions for God is an open group which meets at the Starbuck’s in the SE Calgary community of Cooperfield where we gather together on the Friday evening of every second week to seek out, converse, and explore our faith in today’s reality. Each week we take home a new article with some suggested questions for journeying into some of your own self discovery before we will share and explore together as a group in the next gathering. We might not always agree but, together with a practice of grace we can explore with the confidence of knowing God is right there with us waiting, wondering, and struggling for the moments of inspiration to which we will all find.

If you would like to know more or if you would like to join us please email erik@expressionscommunity.org or visit www.expressionscommunity.org.

“Jesus is Lord” is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often sought to ally itself comfortably with allegiance to other authorities, be they political, economical, cultural, or ethnic. – Lee Camp

“For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” – Ecclesiastes 2:26

As a teenager I dreamed of being a pilot. For years I would stick my hand out the window of my parents moving car and day dream of being in a British Aerospace Sea Harrier with the wings carving through the air as my hand drifted this way and that through the wind. I was no Top Gun but I loved the sense of freedom and adventure it brought. There was nothing I couldn’t make that plane do high up in the sky. At least nothing my imagination couldn’t do.

I was thirteen years old when I took my first flight as a copilot in a single prop Cessna 150. It was my thirteenth birthday and my best friend and I were both given the flight at Springbank Airfield as a gift from a family friend. There wasn’t really enough room in the plane for the three of us to fit so I just stood in awe of the other planes on the tarmac while my friend went up first. After a couple of hours it was my turn and we circled the plane a few times on foot before climbing in to do the take off check list.

Being that it was my first flight; the pilot did most of the take off procedures. After being in the air a few minutes he looked over at me and said, “OK, well why don’t you take over the wheel for a little while.” It was then that it struck me. The unrelenting reality of independent responsibility. The rules and gravitational laws which dictated the possibility of human flight. It was an over whelming sense of fear and self doubt. I remember looking over at him and thinking, “Who Me?!”

I gripped the wheel with slow hesitation; scared to push, pull, or turn the wheel the wrong way or too much. I looked at the pilot and said, “Where do I go?” He smiled and answered, “Any where you like!” In that moment my mind and body was paralyzed; transfixed solely on the destination which to me was to land safely back on the ground without crashing. The pilot looked at me again; “Just enjoy the flight.”

The memories of my first flight seemed to resonate with me as I looked at the characterizations Solomon struggled with in the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes. Solomon finds this internal struggle where part of him is striving for the complexities of truth, wisdom, and the legal realities or reason for life. He desperately wants to get it right and arrive safely at the destiny or destination to which his creator so desires for him. On the opposite side he finds himself freeing his imagination in the pursuit of creative desire, passion, and the fulfillment of enjoying his life’s ambitions.

Locked between them he is paralyzed with the thought,

“What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun?… For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” (Ecc. 2:22;26)

For Solomon it seems that all things both between the legalities of wisdom and the creative pursuits of pleasure; everything comes to the reality of striving after the wind. But why the wind? What does he mean by wind and where do we find this wind so to speak within our own sails?

In English the word wind commonly means “a natural movement of air of any velocity; especially: the earth’s air or the gas surrounding a planet in natural motion horizontally”; but Solomon wasn’t really talking about the earth’s wind. The Hebrew word he used was ruah which in a more liberal sense means spirit. So in a sense what Solomon was trying to say was that all things pertaining to an individual’s life, whether done for wisdom or for pleasure, become an expressionism to their pursuit of spirituality. A spirituality which for all comes to a head when faced by the presence of God.

Jesus had a common saying throughout the gospels. He would often recite that, “the Kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:31; Mark 1:15; Luke 17:21) His revelation to the Kingdoms presence though was never meant to place us in a state of fear so as to focus solely on our destination and save as many souls as possible before we go to heaven. The nearness of God’s kingdom was meant to free us with the awareness that ruah is not only in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit but also in our own individual strivings for creative passionate dreams and ambitions.

In essence Jesus is our pilot and is now turning to you saying, “Why don’t you take the wheel for awhile?” Where will you go? How will you express your spirit? What does your imagination tell you that you can do?” However way you choose to express your spirituality and strive for ruah remember… enjoy the flight!

“All the way to heaven is heaven.” – Catherine of Siena