Southside Community Church - Milton

May 19, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 17.3; Jeremiah 9.23-24 Knowing God involves a two way relationship (or actually four plus ways - answer that riddle!) We will focus this weekend on the reality that God knows us. What does that mean for us? What does He think of us? What does He do with what He knows? What do we want Him to know, what would we rather He didn't know? Let's explore that.

May 12, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Daniel 11.32 On Mother's Day our thoughts are drawn to matters of the family. How many are the stories of those who look back upon the influence of moms who have raised, supported, prayed for and encouraged them over the distance of a lifetime. The Old Testament gives us the caricature of a young man who would be the envy of any prayerful, faithful mom. This young man was taken from his home and displaced into a whole new world. But he had been raised well and thus we have the story of heroic Daniel. Tucked away in the middle of the book is a verse that may well be his life motto: "the people who know their God will be strong and carry out great exploits"

May 5 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Proverbs 1:1-7 For many of us formal education consisted of classes, exams and required reading. We put aside reading for leisure in favour of the hundreds of pages that needed to be mastered in keeping with the calendar. We avoided our interest being captured by subjects and topics of interest that were calling to us like Odysseus' sirens because they would detract us from staying on course towards the completion of a diploma or degree or certification. But when the program was completed we were free to engage as we chose in matters of more interest! So a class taken for audit for pleasure was a treat. If you could choose a subject for study that was for personal profit and enjoyment - would you think of studying God? What would that be like? What would it yield? That's what's on offer for us in this study.

April 28, 2019, Speaker - Ian Campbell Knowing God This Sunday we commence a new study series called "Knowing God," based on the J.I. Packer book with the same title. We will track with the chapters and also encourage you to acquire the book and use the study questions personally or with some friends as weekly follow up discussions. Packer begins the book with the distinction between those on the path of life who are "balconeers" and those who are "travelers." The first are content with theory and observer status while the second - what we hope to be - are on the journey, needing to know what they need to know as a matter of daily direction and indeed survival. Let's join the journey. Knowing God: J. I. Packer is available for Kindle and as a published book, available from Amazon.ca Talking with God Exodus 33.11 In all of our study about who and how God is, one of the most startling statements of Scripture concerns the Ancient Moses that the Lord would talk to Moses face to face as a person does with a frie

April 21 2019, Speaker - Ian Campbell Luke 24.5 Two angels at the tomb of Jesus on Resurrection Sunday asked a great question of the women "Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?" It seems we could meditate on that angelic question with powerful insights yielded. How much of our thinking and behaviour is with a graveyard rather than empty tomb perspective?

Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 4:32-37 "What's yours is ours and what's mine is my own!" This variation on the saying "What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours" is perhaps more telling that we'd like to admit. Ask parents of youngsters about sharing toys and about how well that works out. Or take a field trip upstairs to the Nursery on Sunday morning to get a live view of little humans sharing. But this was a reality in the early church. They had everything in common and made sure no one was in need. How would that work for us in 2019?

Speaker: Ian Campbell Responsive Acts 8.26-40 A preacher was in an elevator and had his Bible in his hand. A person joined him in the lift and, noticing the Bible in his hand, asked "Is that a Bible?" "Yes", said the preacher, "have you read it?" "Of course," said the new friend. "What's your favourite part?" pressed the preacher. After some embarrassed hesitation the preacher pushed harder with "You've never read it have you?" "No" was the reply. "Why did you say you had read it then?" preacher persisted. "Because I guess I thought everybody should read the Bible at some time in their lifetime and I just haven't gotten around to it!" Acts 8 is the great story of an Ethiopian Royal official and his adventure in Bible reading.

Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 6:1-7 In the church there are often two groups of leaders - elders and deacons. Acts 6 is the story of how a group of leaders we call deacons originated. The original tells us how church organization grows and develops and is a perfect model for starts and initiatives for the church through the centuries. Let's see how it applies at Southside@Main

March 24, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 6:1-7 In the church there are often two groups of leaders - elders and deacons. Acts 6 is the story of how a group of leaders we call deacons originated. The original tells us how church organization grows and develops and is a perfect model for starts and initiatives for the church through the centuries. Let's see how it applies at Southside@Main

March 17, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 2.42-47 The early followers of Jesus took very seriously the prayer of Jesus that we would be "one." He prayed that this would be so in order that the world would believe. Indeed the unity of the Jerusalem believers had a great impact on their neighbours. They were described as having favour with all the people. Wouldn't this be a great goal for us as we settle in to 200 Main - to have favour with all our neighbours and passers-by?

March 13, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell We are joining over 100,000 individuals and 1000s of churches around the world to spend Lent generously. What if rather than only giving something up for Lent we went all out and added some generosity and gave out kindness? Every day we will have a thought supplied by e-mail and every Sunday we will keep step with a study about some characteristics of the Acts church, a church that lived out generosity and grace in the heady and terrifying early days of Christianity. A Brave church Acts 5.40-42 Is "brave" an adjective that would be used of you? In what area of your life would you be called that? I imagine that it wouldn't be used often of us when it comes to our Christian faith or witness. However, for many of our brothers and sisters worldwide, this is precisely the word that comes to mind. Well in so many ways we are thankful for our freedoms and privileges in living our Christian lives here in the West. So we are not called to be brave very often, or are we? Let's thin

Speaker: Ian Campbell Matthew 5.9 Canada has prided itself in being a peacekeeping people. While we may know what peacekeeping is do we know what peacemaking is? Are they the same thing? How can peace be made? And why would this qualify us to be children of God? Let's add this one to our set of extraordinary declarations Jesus made about the characteristics of life in His Kingdom!

February 17, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Matthew 5.8 How does something become pure? Usually by some kind of testing. All impurities, all foreign substances have been excised. How is my heart in this regard? Is there anything in there that needs to be removed? Tough question!

February 10, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Matthew 5.6 Desires. Humans have a set of them. They are often only satisfied temporarily. We are hungry and thirsty, we eat and drink and are satisfied only to become hungry and thirsty again. When Jesus says there is a kind of hunger and thirst for righteousness and that those who have those desires will be satisfied we wonder if the satisfaction is also temporary and we would be hungry and thirsty again. Or when he says they will be satisfied is it for longer? Makes us wonder, doesn't he?

February 3, 2019 Speaker: Mike Burns Matthew 5.7 As a young Christian, I remember learning the distinction between grace and mercy. The quote, which is still in popular use today, goes like this: Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve and mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve. While this is still a helpful notion, I have come to learn that both grace and mercy are so much bigger than any single sentence definition. As we look at the beatitude of blessed are the merciful are we simply to understand this as the withholding of power or consequence, or is God calling us to something more? What does it mean to be merciful? Join us Sunday as we continue to explore the beautiful message of the beatitudes.

January 27, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Through the season of Epiphany we are going to visit the teaching of Jesus called the Beatitudes. These eight "rights and responsibilities" have been called the constitution of the Kingdom of God. We have been talking about the Christian hope as the life after the life after death and we'll see how these principles are seated in the current dynamics of the Christian life in the world and how they will be seated in the new creation. Along the way we will explore theories on the unfolding of the future events of our world. Blessed are the Gentle Matthew 5.5 Traditionally this verse is translated "meek." How interesting that Moses was said to be the "meekest" person on earth. What is that quality? And how would that characteristic qualify someone to inherit the earth? How does a person become meek and how is the quality of meekness manifest in behaviour? Thoughts?

January 20, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Through the season of Epiphany we are going to visit the teaching of Jesus called the Beatitudes. These eight "rights and responsibilities" have been called the constitution of the Kingdom of God. We have been talking about the Christian hope as the life after the life after death and we'll see how these principles are seated in the current dynamics of the Christian life in the world and how they will be seated in the new creation. Along the way we will explore theories on the unfolding of the future events of our world. The Mourners Matthew 5.4 Of all the names and titles given to God in the Scriptures perhaps the most heartwarming is in 2 Corinthians 1.3 where the apostle calls Him the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Comfort is a grand theme in the Old and New Testaments and is featured in the second beatitude: Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Let's consider how we are comforted and why in this life and the next.

January 13, 2019 Speaker - Ian Campbell Postcards from the Future Through the season of Epiphany we are going to visit the teaching of Jesus called the Beatitudes. These eight "rights and responsibilities" have been called the constitution of the Kingdom of God. We have been talking about the Christian hope as the life after the life after death and we'll see how these principles are seated in the current dynamics of the Christin life in the world and how they will be seated in the new creation. Along the way we will explore theories on the unfolding of the future events of our world. Blessed are the poor.. Matthew 5.3 In what ways could this statement possibly be true? Do we have the right definition of terms? Let's begin our study by pressing in on that question and then see how the future hope in the new heaven and earth may be informed by this aspect of the new community.

January 6, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Through the season of Epiphany we are going to visit the teaching of Jesus called the Beatitudes. These eight "rights and responsibilities" have been called the constitution of the Kingdom of God. We have been talking about the Christian hope as the life after the life after death and we'll see how these principles are seated in the current dynamics of the Christin life in the world and how they will be seated in the new creation. Along the way we will explore theories on the unfolding of the future events of our world. Blessed are the poor.. Matthew 5.3 In what ways could this statement possibly be true? Do we have the right definition of terms? Let's begin our study by pressing in on that question and then see how the future hope in the new heaven and earth may be informed by this aspect of the new community.

Speaker: Ian Campbell Romans 8.18-27 In our series "a Magic Deeper Still" we saw that the condition of "corruption" is a very important idea for us to grasp in trying to answer the "why" questions about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Now as we peer into the future and ask questions about heaven we need to think about earth as we think about heaven - the two dance partners. While heaven is the guest house for us when we fall asleep what is the on-going state and hope for earth?