Robin Hood in Church?

Well life at 59 is pretty good so far! I’ve only been at it for 2 days, but it feels much the same as 58! There are many advantages to getting older.

Because the kids have moved out and are happily married, Susan and I have more private time together. Even when we’re busy, the time that we spend at home together is much more personal.

Grandchildren, as Solomon wrote (he must have had a few hundred of them) are a blessing from the Lord. We can care for our 6 grandchildren, love them, play with them and send them home again. I remember a poem I heard years ago that I enjoyed (but Susan doesn’t agree with it).

“I’ve seen the lights of Paris
I’ve seen the lights of Rome
But the lights I like the best of all
Are the tail light of our children going home!”

There’s also (hopefully) an increase of wisdom, which flows from years of experiences. Mostly bad experiences- we learn more readily from failure than success.

And for me, it took about 50 years to really understand and move into my life purpose. I guess that understanding not only evolves, but our purpose changes from decade to decade. At my age now, it seems easier to focus on that purpose. I’m hoping that the next 15-20 years will be my most productive as I learn to discern kingdom priorities and set appropriate boundaries.

I received a few presents for my birthday, which I really appreciate. Pobably my favorite was Kelly’s letter to me on my blog. A couple of others I loved were a book from a dear friend called, “What I Learned from God While Gardening.” It’s so good I wish I’d written it myself!

Another couple whom I deeply value as friends had 10 fruit trees planted in Africa in my name. Wow! I was so touched by their thought-full gift. It was a great birthday! Thank you for your blog comments and well-wishes.

This week our church has been presenting the comedy drama, “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood.” I am so very pleased with the gifting of our Director of Arts, Maureen Reid, and how she inspires dozens of actors and workers to fulfill her godly and passionate vision. The play has been the result of months of dedication and work of a whole troop of volunteers.

Merry Men (Opening Scene)

Robin and Marion Meet

Robin is Captured

I’ve been asked why our church would produce a secular, rather than a Christian drama, so this is a good place to articulate some philosophical values that we hold.

1. We serve a happy God, as Paul wrote to his son Timothy. God likes to have fun – we know that from the parties he expected his people to throw in celebration of the holy days. This play is a great place for people to come, be entertained and have some good clean fun.




2. God created the arts. I love how Maureen leads our church in the celebration of the gifts of art all around us. Whether it is in musical choirs, kids concerts, art shows (including sculpture, paintings, sketches and carvings), cooking and eating (my favorite), dance or drama; there are hundreds of gifts of art that God has given which need to be enjoyed. For us as leaders, success is helping as many people as possible use their gifts to point people to God.




3. One of the under-girding values of our church is small groups. We call any group of 4-10 people serving in the community a small group. It could be a baseball or soccer team, kid’s church class, leadership council, ushers group, sewing circle, Alpha table, Bible study group, sewing circle, or a drama troupe.




Our goal is to help people move from the outside circle to the inner three circles. Adherents are all those who attend Northside Church (regularly or irregularly) but who do not participate.

Prospective Believers is a group of people who do not yet attend any church and who are maybe not yet believers. My hope is that everyone who is part of our church family is praying for 4-5 friends or family members to be part of our church (or another church). That outer circle has about 8000 people in it!

The Robin Hood play is a great place to invite one of those 8000 people to see the church in action – maybe to help remove their preconceived ideas of a church being boring or irrelevant or uncaring.



4. We want everyone to know and experience the love of God. We believe God’s intention is that every person in our world would receive his love, acceptance and forgiveness, whether those in the outside circle read about what we are doing in the local paper, or come and see for themselves; whether they first are introduced to the church through Alpha, boxing club, hockey or a drama, that to me is exciting!




5. Thankfully our drama team has chosen to designate all the proceeds of this play to Missionary outreach (The Northside food bank). Thank God that every $12.00 we give to missions translates to one more soul finding Jesus as their Saviour.

So thank-you Maureen for leading us, those who constructed our sets and painted the scenery, who helped with lights and sound, who sewed the magnificent costumes, took pictures and video, served in the concession or welcomed guests, did secretarial work, decorated and picked up supplies! What a great success we see when scores of gifted people faithfully use their gifts, time, expertise, energy and love for God’s glory.

Bless you one and all – we love the play!

Barry