The Centrality of Christ in Ministry

It’s simple, Christian ministry is about Christ. Holding the Son of our almighty Father as central to our lives and ministry isn’t particularly optional. We are commanded to make Christ the central figure of our lives; the main character of our story, so to speak. There are those who like to say that Christianity is something special because it’s simply about a “relationship”. But it is quickly forgotten that this is not a typical relationship where all things are considered equal. This relationship is one of complete abandonment to, and dependancy on — Christ. We cannot presume to live in effective obedience in life or ministry if we say with our mouths that we follow Jesus but refuse to make Him the central figure of our lives in submission, self denial, slavery and servanthood.

Taking a critical look at how we approach our relationship to our local church and the leadership God has blessed us with should humble us. If Christ is central to my life, His affection for His bride, the Church, will flow from my heart. Praying that my Church leadership holds Christ as central to their lives and ministry is my faithful responsibility, after praying the same thing for myself, especially when I think I’m right and they are wrong. Rage in the face of correction is seldom righteous in the hearts of sinful people.

It’s more than just words. Many affirm the theology of holding Christ central, many hate what it looks like to apply it. If Christ is not central to my life, it means I have set Him aside and placed something in His rightful place. The evidence of this is borne out in the fruit of our lives. We set Jesus aside when our testimonies are beautifully woven tales that grip tightly to our egos and keep the almighty “me” as central to the story. We set the work of God aside when our biggest concern is numbers or dollars or equipment. Christ becomes secondary when we rely on our traditions and pride instead of immersing ourselves in scripture and following Biblical principles. Compromise comes in many subtle forms and often zeal is gas to the fire of compromise.

What does any of this have to do with Arrowhead? Everything. Under the authority of scripture, submitting well to obedient and flourishing local churches and holding Christ central, that is what missions is all about. The Gospel, the story of Christ and His work, we love it. We love to share it, no matter how it’s received. If you love it, why not prayerfully consider coming to serve the Lord with us here at ANBC? Discipling and teaching, evangelizing and serving - together we can be an example of what it means to hold Christ as central to life.

God is Not Jimmy Stewart

A number of times recently, I’ve heard it said that God is the perfect gentleman, He will never impose himself on you, he will always hold the door and politely wait for you to walk through. The spirit of this sentiment is noble. It draws on all of the wonderful attributes of our good Father and creates a caricature that is benevolent and kind and patient. Unfortunately that caricature looks more like the friendly, helpful and kind, fatherly persona of Jimmy Stewart than it does of God as He reveals Himself in Scripture.

The entire narrative of scripture bares out the nature and character of God. He is our Good, Good Father. The gospel of Jesus Christ begins with God and His holiness (John 1:1-18; Leviticus 11:44-45). It begins with just who God is as outlined in His Word: immutable (Psalm 102:25-27) creator (Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1:16), eternal (Isaiah 44:6), just (Job 34:12), truth (John 14:6), powerful (Genesis 1), jealous (Exodus 20:4-5), merciful (Psalm 136:1), wrathful (Romans 2:6-11), patient (Nahum 1:3), compassionate (James 5:11), omnipresent (Jeremiah 23:23-24), omniscient (Psalm 147:4-5), God is perfect (Deuteronomy 32:3-4) and triune (Ephesians 4:4-6) and holy (1 Samuel 2:2).

Certainly God is long-suffering, His patience with our rebellion is beyond comprehension in light of His perfect holiness. But is it really true that He is the kind of cardigan clad, slipper shuffling, gentleman that will never impose Himself on us? Is God really stuck waiting to see what we will do? The idea suggests that we have some innate ability to obey Him aside from His work in us (Ephesians 2:8-10). Let’s look at just a few people in Scripture and ask them if God imposed on their lives.

Noah
Not only does God impose His will on the entirety of humanity in their death, but on Noah in His commands to build the Ark, occupying decades of his life. (Genesis 6:13)

Joseph
Joseph’s brothers treated him horribly, threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. (Genesis 37:12-36), near the end of this narrative we hear Joseph affirm that this was God’s work; “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” (Genesis 50:20). God imposed Himself on the life of Joseph through the actions of his brothers, and further imposed on the lives of the brothers to achieve His purposes in the life of Joseph. Notice in particular the word “planned” (“meant” in some translations), it is intention not reaction. God didn’t simply use the evil for good, he planned it for good.

Moses
God spoke directly to Moses from the burning bush, gave him specific commands to be obeyed and expected them to be followed out, in spite of Moses reluctance. (Genesis 3:4 - 4:17)

Pharaoh
God worked His will in the life of Pharaoh to achieve His will. God actively hardened the heart of Pharaoh, imposing on him intentionally for His own ultimate glory. (Genesis 9:12)

Abimilech
God applies judgement on the life of Abimilech by sending an evil Spirit to bring tension between he and the lords of Schechem. God’s active interference here is in His work to achieve His will. (Judges 9:22-24)

Samson
Samson desired a Philistine woman as his own and returned to his parents and demanded they retrieve her for them, their reluctance was understandable. What they didn’t understand, as revealed in v. 4 is that this desire came directly from God. Samsons desire for this woman was rooted in God’s work to have an occasion against the Philistines. To achieve His own will, He imposed a passion on Samson. (Judges 14:1-4)

Hophni and Phinehas
God's imposition in the lives of the sons of Eli was in His giving them over to the hardness of their hearts. "..they would not listen to their father, since the Lord intended to kill them." (1 Samuel 2:25). God had plans for them, as rooted in the disobedience of both they and their father. His intention was to kill them, and as such, closed their ears to the scolding of Eli.

Job
God brought Job to the attention of Satan for the purpose of bringing Glory to Himself through the suffering of Job (Job 1:8-12; Job 2:3-7). This is not in contradiction to God’s goodness, nor does this make him any more or less a “gentleman”. When the nature and Character of God is understood as scripture presents it—central to the narrative, there is no need to strive to protect God from His own public image.

Jonah
God sent a great fish to consume Jonah in his disobedience, this for the purpose off achieving His ultimate will for Jonahs life - that he go to Ninevah and preach. (Jonah 1:17)

Paul
God struck Paul blind for the purposes of achieving his ultimate conversion. (Acts 9:1-19)

These are just a few of the many, many examples of God imposing His will on humanity. Throughout Scripture and with intentionality. We must be wary not to create a god to meet our personal design. But please don’t misunderstand, we must examine the entire narrative of Scripture as we consider the core of it’s purpose is revealing the nature and character of God. God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33) nor does He cause anyone to be tempted to sin (James 1:13); but these truths must be held in tension with the truth that the steps of man are established by God (Psalm 37:23-24).

Through the entirety of Scripture we see over and over again, the supreme majesty (Hebrews 1:3, Psalm 145:5), ultimate power (Psalm 62:11, Job 26:14, 1 Corinthians 6:14) and complete authority (Romans 13:1-7, 2 Timothy 3:16) of the God of the Universe. We, very clearly, see through creation (Genesis 1), the awesome greatness of God (Ephesians 1:19, Revelation 11:17). God exercises His perfect will in spite of our sinfulness, and this is something we will never completely comprehend (Proverbs 20:24; Romans 9:21-24).

Certainly we must also remind ourselves regularly, that even as the redeemed we are not our own (Romans 8:9). We have been purchased and belong to Him.

I think this quote from the second book in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia sums up the situation very nicely.

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” ― The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

If anything, we should desire God's sovereign hand in our lives, left to ourselves we will always choose sin (Matthew 6:24). We do not need to squeeze God into a cardigan and slippers in order to satisfy our definition of what good is. Scripture adequately defines God in His goodness. He has an intentional plan. We must simply believe or not.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding;
think about Him in all your ways,
and He will guide you on the right paths” Proverbs 3:5-6

So long to an old friend

The time finally arrived for us to need to say so long to our faithful old Pontiac Montana. It had been given to us as a gift and has served us very well for almost 5 years without incident. Unfortunately the harsh NB roads finally made it a liability for repair.

In very short order a Ford Flex became available for a price that was sufficient for us. Although it is still 9 years old, it has a reasonable amount of miles on it and is in fairly good repair. We did have some unexpected work to put into the vehicle - but such is the nature of buying used. We are very thankful to have this new vehicle and hope that it will serve us for another 5 years.

A Visit to NBBI for Chapel

It's always great to connect with Bible School students! This year Kyle and I visited the school with Andrew Ardern for two days and enjoyed speaking in Chapel as well as taking in some classes and visiting students.

Chapel Selfie! 

Our friend Elisapi is a student at NBBI! 

They have a lovely lounge in the library.

Christmas Craft Market

The Christmas Craft market is a fundraising project that we run every November. This year the proceeds went toward the purchase of round tables for our dining room. We have found a set of tables that we will be able to purchase second hand for a fantastic price in August of 2018. The Craft Market was a wonderful success again this year!

Christian Camping International Canada Conference

CCI holds an annual conference for Bible Camps to meet and look at issues facing Bible Camping in Canada. It's always a great opportunity to get together and discuss important topics, but also to fellowship with other camp folks and learn together. This year the conference was held in Guelph, Ontario.

Always great to hang out with these guys. 

Some camp dudes from the "Far East" 

Enjoyed some entertainment too!

Calvary Baptist Church Missions Fellowship

One of the aspects of our ministry is connecting with and giving ministry updates to Church and mission groups. We do so on behalf of Arrowhead as well as ourselves. It is always a blessing to be with the folks at Calvary Baptist Church in Miramichi. This particular visit Kyle had an opportunity to share about the ministry he is involved in at Arrowhead as well.

An Intern at Arrowhead

We are very pleased to announce that Kyle Hubick has been accepted as a one year intern at Arrowhead Native Bible Center. Kyle will work with me (Grant) directly and be involved in every area of our ministry; administration, maintenance, planning, facilitating and operating our summer camp programs, conferences and social media. In addition to being exposed to all of the administration and function of the ministries at Arrowhead he will be assigned a number of books and a cross-cultural communications course as a part of his internship. Kyle will also be responsible to assist with a kids club and teen discipleship program at St. Mary's First Nation.

We are so excited to have Kyle moving here to work with us for this year. We would ask that you pray for Kyle as he prepares to come and after he arrives. Kyle will be living in "The Nest" cabin right here at Arrowhead, but he will need to raise $1200 a month of support to cover his expenses (ministry travel, accommodations, food etc.). Would you consider committing to support Kyle for a year as he serves at Arrowhead? Will you pray for the ministries here at Arrowhead and for Kyle as he interns?

ANBC Summer Camps 2017

Our summer camps are a huge part of the ministry at Arrowhead — and we love every minute. This year was no exception, there were blessings and trials, challenges and triumphs. God was at work and we laboured to encourage the staff to be submitted fully to serving the Lord!!

Thank you for your continued support in prayer and finances. Without your faithfulness we would be unable to continue to serve the Lord here at Arrowhead.

Staff Training
Every year we build into our volunteers by striving to equip and enable them for ministry—most importantly we draw our attention to the centrality of Christ to both our message and our labours.

We were blessed this year to have Marsha Boyd-Mitchel join us from the Christian Action Federation to speak to our staff.

Teen Camp 
Kirk Hubick joined us this year for our teen camp and walked through the Gospel clearly and steadily with our campers.
 

Junior Camps
Our junior camp serve ages 8-12, it is always amazing to see the Lord work in the lives of both our camper sand volunteers. Our programs are designed to involve all of our staff in the teaching and discipleship. It is a wonderful opportunity to speak the message of the gospel into the lives of young people.

Nova Scotia Camp Out
Typically we like to offer 2 different out trips, this year due to the NCEM general conference we wer eunable to offer two, but offered an extended trip to lower Nova Scotia. The discipleship and ministry that happens naturally as we enjoy the week together is beyond measure. We've seen the Lord do some amazing things on these trips. 

ANBC Summer Camps 2016

Arrowhead is best known for our summer camp programs. It is an aspect of the ministry here that we absolutely love and find such a huge blessing. This summer we hosted three weeks of on site camps here at Arrowhead; a teen camp and two subsequent weeks of junior camp. The new playground was a huge hit and was seldom not covered in kids. It was also amazing to have a volunteer lifeguard for our summer camps this year; Kyle Hubick did a fantastic job of keeping our waterfront safe!

As is the case at Arrowhead, we do not measure the success of our summer in a number of "decisions" or even in the number of campers we see through our door. We measure our success in two ways: 1 - was the Gospel clearly taught; and 2 - was there evidence that the Gospel was clearly understood. Conviction of the Holy Spirit and a rejection or submission to the Gospel is not our work, our work is to faithfully proclaim the Gospel and plead with young people to know God. This summer, even through some challenges, we saw the Gospel proclaimed and we did see God work in the lives of both our campers and staff volunteers. Please pray for those young people who left our property with the Word of God in their minds - that they would be pierced with conviction of their sin and the need for redemption.

Kirk was our guest teacher for Teen Camp, solid Gospel teaching as always. 

Tomahawk throwing was a new activity this year and it was a huge hit.  

Awesome to see us able to use our waterfront again. 

Serving up the yummy vittles.

Some of our summer volunteers. 

Jim serving up some tuck, makes him a popular guy! 

Our new archery program was a huge success this year. 

Announcements with Rick in the dining hall!

We were so blessed to have this family with us for our on-site camps! Rick served as our program co-ordinator for the summer and kept everything going! We love you Mittons!

Woods N' Weeds Day 2016

We've had a lot of folks come and help us out at Arrowhead this Spring! If it wasn't for everyone's help we certainly wouldn't be able to have the property all ready for camp!

 It was great to have Danny join us for the day to help us with burning all of the brush accumulating around the camp.

The fellas cleared some more brush and helped clean up a lot of what is down. 

 There's always a lot of leaves to rake and sticks to pick up!

 And lots of lawns to mow!

The ladies did a fantastic job of cleaning up our flower gardens! 

I think everyone will be surprised by some of our changes this Spring!

Truth and Consequences.

The Tension

At Arrowhead we hold the Gospel high, we value the message, and we value those who will receive the message. We do the work of presenting the Gospel in such a way that honours God first and foremost. Following a chronological Gospel model, we avoid man centered teaching, and focus on the central figure of the Gospel, Jesus Christ. We do not manipulate or cajole, we do not build up emotional situations and "count heads". We measure success here not by numbers but by engagement with the teaching. Our two big questions at the end of every week of camp are:

1. Was the Gospel clearly taught effectively?
2. Was the Gospel understood as it was taught?

We teach the Truth of scripture, and the profound tension presented in the Gospel with every non-Biblical worldview reveals the work of the Holy Spirit, allowing us to serve God in His command:

"but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you."  

1 Peter 3:15

In confidence that it is a work of God, we rejoice in every single person who is saved.

The Conundrum

Every year about this time we begin to feel some tension as we strive to connect with a suitable number of volunteers for our summer camp programs at Arrowhead. It can sometimes become a battle against the flesh to worry about just what the summer will bring. 

Will we have enough staff? Will we have enough funds? Will we be able to make the camp available to lots of campers?

These are questions I wrestle with every Spring. We are working to partner with solid Gospel centered churches in Atlantic Canada with a passion for the Gospel. We want to serve the church as an opportunity to effectively share the Gospel, cross-culturally, right here in New Brunswick. This is a ministry of the Church, and it is my hearts desire to see the ministry here thrive. 

The Consequences

I know a lot of pastors who are passionate about evangelism and the Gospel. But they cannot do the work alone. Every Christian in the pew is meant to be an "Out of the pew Christian" as well. 

Volunteering at Arrowhead can be a challenge, it can be hard, it can mean giving up personal time. It can have eternal impact.

The simple fact is this; at Arrowhead we require a minimum number of volunteers to safely and effectively run our programs. We are only ever able to operate our summer camp programs in the labour of love effected by committed Christians. 

Consider it. Prayerfully.

So... it's almost April!

It's been a while. I haven't had the gumption to compose a blog for some time. In fact, Liz and I were so very exhausted from last years activities, that we went into complete station keeping mode for January and February. We ran the book shop, maintained the financial books, maintained the buildings, hosted a couple of rentals and kept up with correspondence - but otherwise we intentionally tried to engage in rest. It was good, but it certainly highlighted the necessity for us to have a healthy balanced schedule - and Lord willing to find another couple who will come and serve with us here on a full time basis.

That is, in fact, our biggest prayer request right now. That another couple would consider coming and joining us in the roles of maintenance and kitchen management. We have some very exciting ideas for the growth of the ministry here at Arrowhead, I think the Lord is going to use this place mightily. We are eager to meet the couple that the Lord calls to join us!

Our year is shaping up nicely for 2016. We have an ambitious schedule for our summer camps, and I am very much enjoying connecting with church teams that we can support in ministering here at Arrowhead this summer. We are strongly encouraging teams to come and serve together, and have some fantastic opportunities for the team to take ownership of the ministry here.

I will be traveling to Gorrie, Ontario to facilitate volunteer training with the team from there in May. If you're from Ontario and would like to consider joining us this summer - you would be more than welcome to join us for that weekend.

Our computer suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure in February. It has set us back a little bit as far as preparing materials and correspondence. I think the greatest loss was our most current database. I have a database on back up - but it is over a year old - so we may have lost some of our addresses. If you would like to be sure that you are on the mailing list to receive our prayer letters or the Arrowhead Quiver - you can eMail your snail mail address to us at fawcetts@maritimers.ca

I hope to post regular blog updates from this point on - I would like to commit to one a week. We'll see what I can muster. Stay tuned.

Kejimkujik Camp Out 2015

Due to the success of our Cape Breton camp out in 2014, and the very clear value in the trips, we decided to add a second week to our itinerary. The camp out to Kejimkujik National Park was a huge success. Suzanne Matheson and I took two LIT's (leaders in training) and six teenagers camping in lower Nova Scotia at Kijimkujik Nation Park and Historic Site. It was wonderful to be able to have a private tour of the Mi'kmaq petroglyphs and spend some time paddling on the lake. Of course we took some time at a local theme park for fun too. Relationships were forged, fun was had, Gospel was taught!

We enjoyed a picnic at Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal.

This is the First Nations dedication monument commemorating the petroglyphs.

 Our tour guide showing the kids the petroglyphs in the stone.

Phil & Gracie Welch were so kind to have all of us into their home for a wonderful spaghetti meal before our whale watching excursion.

What can ya say... roller coasters are awesome!

Cape Breton Camp Out 2015

This year Venus Coté and I had the privilege of taking 2 LIT's (leaders in training) and four teenagers on a camp out to Cape Breton. It was a fantastic camp, during which we truly enjoyed getting to know these young people. Our philosophy during these camps is "family camping", so we spent a lot of time together enjoying the camping experience and some wonderful things Cape Breton has to offer.

These camp out programs are such a valuable part of our overall ministry program here at Arrowhead.

A visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site, we enjoyed a guided tour.

Observing some of our mighty God's creation we spent an afternoon whale watching.

An afternoon at a magnificent salt water beach, we spent some time swimming in the ocean.

Our time around the camp fire was both valuable and an important part of our trip.

ANCB On-Site Camps 2015

This year we hosted 3 weeks of camp here on site; a teen camp (ages 13-18) and two junior camps (ages 8-12). I would love for us to have four weeks of on site camp, but there are some challenging circumstances that make it difficult to maintain three weeks of junior camp at this time. Arrowhead operates as a support ministry to Church planting ministry, and the simple fact is that there are just not enough missionaries in the field, here in Atlantic Canada, to support. With that in mind we are hosting a Summit here in October, that I hope will be well attended by local lay people and Church leaders who wish to see the Gospel go out among the First Nations people of Atlantic Canada. We have run into some challenges with respect to band funding as well, some changes in community leadership can make dramatic changes for the ability of young people to get to camp - one huge measure that directly affects getting these kids out to camp to hear the Gospel taught is camper sponsorship. If you would like to know more about that please feel free to be in touch with me.

This year we were so thankful for our three weeks of on site camp. They were a tremendous blessing. As is often the case, they were fraught with those challenges that God saw fit to teach us with. But I am so happy to report that the Gospel was clearly and comprehensively taught, and from our observations, clearly understood but many of our young people. As a measure of success, I can tell you that the Gospel was a central focus to our camps and handled well by both our guest speakers and our cabin leaders and volunteer staff. Plus... it was a blast. Here are a few pictures from our summer.

We enjoy sweet fellowship during our summer camps.

Bruce Steeves and a couple of the lads helping get our Friday "breakfast in bed" ready for the campers.

Relationships forged.

Tuck is a huge part of camp!

We had two challenges with our lake this summer; firstly we didn't have a lifeguard, this alone was unfortunately enough to keep us out of the water. However, our second problem was the closure of Grand Lake due to a "blue green algae bloom". So slip-n-slide was one way we kept wet!

Teen camp challenges are always fun.

Tuck Time!

 

Gathering time is twice a day, and is the center around which the rest of the day rotates. We were blessed to have teachers this summer who, not only loved the Lord, but taught the Gospel so clearly.