Nutty Idiots
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Nutty Idiots

A friend recently went on a book-buying spree as an act of protest. A couple of hours after setting out to a used bookstore, she appeared outside my office. Her arms were piled with children’s books by Roald Dahl. She invited me to pick out one that I might like – I went with Matilda. Here…

Co-creating an EP with God and community
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Co-creating an EP with God and community

What does community look like for creatives in the church? We asked Ruth Chan, a Toronto singer-songwriter musician and artist. Chan’s artist name is “Heather is Growing,” and she is releasing her first EP, Heather is Growing on April 28th. Christian Courier talked to Chan about her songwriting journey ahead of the EP release.  Chan:…

Remembering a Prophet
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Remembering a Prophet

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Neil Postman’s death at age 72. Postman spent most of his career at New York University as a Professor of Media Ecology and wrote more than 20 books, mostly about the effects of the electronic media on our lives. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age…

One Last Love Letter to CC
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One Last Love Letter to CC

This will be my last regular column for Christian Courier. I was recently elected as a municipal councillor in my hometown, and I am cutting back on some of my other commitments to focus on representing my constituents, including this column. I wanted to take an opportunity to say goodbye. I wrote my first article…

Seeming fair and feeling foul
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Seeming fair and feeling foul

It begins, once again, with Galadriel telling the story of an ancient war. This time it is the story of the First Age – the story of how the elves left paradise in Valinor to journey to Middle Earth and to take revenge upon the fallen angel Morgoth. These battles are bigger of course, and…

Timely and timeless
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Timely and timeless

“Reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning prayer,” quipped the philosopher Hegel. If he’s right, what does this reveal about my own heart when I groggily reach for my smartphone upon waking up, scrolling through headlines before even a word of prayer to God or a verse of Scripture? Jeffrey Bilbro’s Reading the Times…

Yahweh takes on Mammon
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Yahweh takes on Mammon

Earlier this year, the price of an average house in Hamilton Ontario, where I live, crossed the million dollar threshold. In fact, we are on pace for the average house to be two million in three or four years. Statisticians are saying that only the wealthiest five percent of Canadians can buy a house here….

A quick look at Kevin Max
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A quick look at Kevin Max

Less commercially successful than his former dctalk bandmates TobyMac and Michael Tait (now of Newsboys fame), Kevin Max has always been a black sheep in the Christian music industry. Recently in the headlines for identifying as an “exvangelical,” Max has been using his distinct voice and eclectic style to make some of the most interesting…

An era of good feelings
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An era of good feelings

Two years ago, Carl Trueman wrote The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, in which he explores the origins of a worldview obsessed with the expressive individual and her happiness. Earlier this year, my friend Guilherme de Carvalho, head of l’Abri Brasil, spoke on the subject of an “affective revolution” that has swept through…

Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’
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Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’

“I’ll be sharing my video story at an event in Langley,” Amy Dyck told us at the end of our March local arts council critique session. Maybe I should go to be a familiar face in the crowd, I thought. When I studied the details of “A Creature Chronicle,” however, I realized that stumbling upon…

CC wins 10 awards!
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CC wins 10 awards!

On May 5, the Canadian Christian Communicators Association held its annual awards ceremony showcasing the best in faith-based writing, design and content creation for the 2021 season. Christian Courier (CC) competed against at least 18 other publications and received 10 awards, including first place in the Feature Article, Interview and Photo Essay categories. “They’ve combined…

Harmonious encounters
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Harmonious encounters

This month’s theme is “duet,” which to me as a musician means singing. Duets can involve turn-taking, harmonising, or counter-melody, and each produces a different effect for the listener. How do voices work together, complementing or contrasting each other to create something greater than the single voice can manage? As well as a musician, I…