Date/Time
Date(s) - November 14, 2014
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
Canadian L'Abri
Categories No Categories
Nov 14 – Plunging into the Kingdom Way
Tim Dickau, pastor at Grandview Calvary Baptist
http://labri.org/canada/lecture.html
Canadian L’Abri is situated on Bowen Island, a short trip from Vancouver. It is set in 21 acres of beautiful evergreen rain forest with 2 small lakes and an open grassy field. Students are able to hike through deep forests or up Mount Gardner, or kayak around the island. Some can go off island to tour Vancouver and its harbour, or go off to Whistler or other nearby mountains to ski or snowboard in the winter.
L’Abri, French for “shelter”, is a community of homes: families and singles living an ordered life where together we seek to demonstrate the existence of God, not just in mind but also in body. We are not an academic institution, conference center or quiet retreat facility. Visitors coming from all kinds of backgrounds, beliefs, ages and occupations may share in our normal family lives, and witness our core beliefs; that the God of the Bible is really there, and that Christianity is true. Some who come to L’Abri do not consider themselves Christians, but wish to examine Christianity from the inside and ask their questions. Others have a desire to better understand their Christian faith and how it relates to the culture and times in which they live. Many come at times of personal struggle or indecision in their lives, seeking help and support. Whatever are their reasons for coming, people’s ideas, questions and struggles are taken seriously. As we work, study, eat and play together, there is plenty of time to talk with others about things that matter, and work through important issues. Workers, (who are permanent community members), and visitors alike, spend several hours each day in practical work (gardening, chopping wood, cooking, etc,) and several hours in directed study.
As well as work and study, we are committed, as ‘workers’, to a life of prayer as we seek to live out the reality of a God who is not only there, but who acts and speaks into our world; changing lives, providing for need and answering specific prayer. Although without prayer our work here could not exist, we do not make divisions between ‘spiritual’ activities and non-spiritual ones, religious occupations and non-religious occupations. This is because we maintain that Christianity speaks to all of human experience, embracing every thing to do with our minds, bodies and souls. It is therefore, relevant to every area of life and culture, art, science, politics, etc.
Each person who comes to L’Abri brings his or her own valuable life experience, skills, academic or professional direction and interests. As they participate in the daily reality of an extended family, with all its mundane chores to be done and the beauty and confusion which children and animals bring, they will be participating in a way of life where faith and occupation are integrated, where work, study and prayer are all of one piece in the fabric of human experience lived out under God.