We even got her a Dora cake! She loved the cake but not so much the attention. Check this out:

There is a fantastic book by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis called Total Church.  Total Church discusses a radical reshaping that needs to take place in the church around Gospel and Community.

It is hands down the best book I have ever read on Gospel Communities.  It is reformed and theologically robust, while at the same time practical with insight in how to see Gospel Community happen.

If you are passionate about the Gospel, community and mission and are a small group (community) leader this a great resource to look through.  I am hoping to have a summary of the book done over the summer at some point.

Also, the Resurgence has provided training from Steve Timmis on Gospel Communities.  You can find the sessions linked below:

Total Church Training – Session 1

Total Church Training – Session 2

Total Church Training – Session 3

There are a few things I’m learning as a young father.  The biggest is that my mission field is first and foremost at home.  There is a huge responsibility for me as a daddy to continue to see Jesus and The Gospel at the center of our home.  What freaks me out is that people forget to both tell and live out the Good News of Jesus in their homes.

My greatest disciples are  my kids and I am continually reminding myself to tell the Good News over and over.

What’s crazy is how easy it is to forget.  I think of Joshua leading the Israelites into the promised land.  Within a generation of Joshua’s passing the bible says that Israel had forgotten what God had done.

Ephesians 6:4 is the verse that we looked at this weekend.

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The last seven weeks we have been going through the book of Nehemiah.  It’s an amazing story of someone who was used to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

As the church it is our mandate to join God in the rebuilding of the spiritual city (the church) within our city.  For those of who us have grown up in church we hear the verse Jeremiah 29:11 thrown around a lot.  It’s a great verse, but I think we can often take the verse out of context.  Often we apply it to ourselves as individuals, not realising what precedes verse 11.

Israel once again is in exile.  This time to the Babylonians.  You would think that if you were taken into exile by a particular people that you would expect your God to say “stay away, don’t interact, and shun the pagan culture around you.”

That’s exactly opposite of what God tells Israel to do.  In Jeremiah 29:5-7 God says,

⁵ ”Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

What’s the context of Jeremiah 29:11?  That’s not a statement from God to an individual.  That is a statement from God to a community of people (Israel) who have been taken over by a pagan culture, yet God instructs them to flourish even in exile.

Seek the peace and prosperity of the city!  That’s what the church is called to do.  We are not simply to be in the city, we are called to be FOR the city!

Just a little update on baby Judah…

This week has been a little big of a journey.  Judah was born on Monday morning and immediately we sensed that not everything was right (I know that’s not proper language, but it’s how we felt).  He was a little grey and was having trouble breathing.  They immediately took Judah to NICU to give him more oxygen and because of this little complication they did immediate blood tests. What is ironic is that Judah’s breathing immediately got better but the tests revealed that he had a deadly infection in his blood.  To be honest, if he had not gone to the NICU for his breathing they probably wouldn’t have caught the infection.  

Since this discovery they have had Judah on antibiotics and he will be in hospital for a total of three weeks.  For us, this is a miracle!  He is completely healthy and when released he will have absolutely no infection in his blood system.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is something I personally needed.  You may disagree theologically and I appreciate that and it’s even seems odd to say.  But it’s how I feel.

I’ve had some time to do an evaluation of my life and if I were honest my life has been easy.  I’ve never really suffered or come face to face with sickness or death.  This experience has shown me how big my God is and how fragile life really is.  I find it easy to depend on myself, yet this week has been a clear reminder of who is in control.  I needed a wake up call to the fact that every breath I take and every moment I have is because of Jesus.

Some of the mid-wives, doctors and nurses have thrown the words “luck” and “karma” around.  Some can’t believe how fortunate we are that they found the infection so early.  We have a different perspective and we’re thankful we serve a God who is watching over us every day!  

Heather, Ava and I are proud to announce the arrival of our new baby Judah Andrew Fess.  He was born yesterday morning (Monday, May 17th at 4.10am).  He was 8 pounds 13 ounces and over 21 inches long.  He is already being scouted by the Leafs and the way they played he may start next year.

 There have been a couple bumps in the road.  Judah has been fighting a little bit of an infection and is looking to be in hospital for the next couple weeks.

We are praying that he strengthens and that there is a quick recovery!