Author Archives: Sandy Copland Dufour

In Joyful Expectation

Posted on by

A song was heard at Christmas
To wake the midnight sky
A Saviour’s birth and peace on earth
And praise to God on high.
The Angels sang at Christmas
With all the hosts above
And still we sing the newborn King
His glory and His love.

This poem by Timothy Dudley-Smith is a song of joy. As we celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus, “joy” follows along the Sunday celebrations of Advent after the Sundays of “hope” and “peace.”

The shepherds marvelled as the angels sang and quickly ran off to see this newborn King. They spread the news of Jesus’ birth with joy. For Mary and Joseph, however, along with joy, the arrival of this Child brought danger, unexpected travel plans, perhaps even confusion. For Mary, she was to learn the grief and then the inexpressible joy of as she watched her son and Saviour follow His heavenly Father’s will.

As we follow Jesus, we experience many similar emotions and situations. Change comes as The Holy Spirit of Jesus works within and among us, along side the teaching of the written word, to lead us into new territory and in different directions.

For the Renewal Fellowship, we are mindful that things don’t always “stay the same.” As our churches have struggled and faced change post-pandemic, so too has the Renewal Fellowship. As the board of Renewal Fellowship, we find that we will have to do things differently. Our new direction will focus more on a publication that will highlight pastoral and theological issues. While change can be unsettling, change can also bring new energy and creativity. And, as always, we are assured of God’s presence and guidance as we follow in obedience to His promptings. And then — the joy!

As we trust and obey, we experience His peace and joy. We continue to teach and make disciples, but through a different format. We are grateful at Renewal Fellowship for the willingness of its staff and board to risk to venture in a different way. Please pray with us, that as we discern where God is leading, we will continue to be an encouragement to His faithful people.

Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the magi all experienced the wonder and joy at the arrival of Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, come in human form as a vulnerable baby. I pray that we all, with them, will experience the wonder and joy of Jesus’ presence as we follow what seems to be an uncertain path into an unknown future. We are always assured of Immanuel, God with us.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. — Romans 15: 13

 In Joyful Expectation,
Sandy Copland-Dufour
Board Chairperson

Bread in the wilderness

Posted on by

Dear Fellow Followers of Jesus,

I recently came across a prayer/poem of Walter Brueggemann. It begins:

“On our own, we conclude: there is not enough to go around, we are going to run short of money, of love, of grades, of publications…” (1)

We are living in a time of “shrinkflation.” We see packaging change to accommodate smaller amounts for which we pay more. Wages are not keeping pace with cost of living and interest rate increases. We are all feeling the pinch. How are we, as Christians, as believers in God’s goodness and generosity supposed to respond to our anxieties about the future?

Should we as Brueggemann writes: seize the day, seize our goods, seize our neighbour’s goods because “there is not enough to go around”? Perhaps we glibly assure each other that all will be well. Or perhaps we quietly and stoically poke another hole in our belts and tighten once more.

How do we face the encroachments to what we believe the Word teaches? How do we counter the shrinkflation of our financial situation? Brueggemann again reminds us that “in the midst of our perceived deficit you come, you come giving bread in the wilderness, you come giving children at the 11th hour, you come giving homes to exiles, you come giving futures to the shut down, you come giving Easter joy to the dead, you come – fleshed in Jesus.” And so, “by your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity, override our presumed deficits, quiet our anxieties of lack, transform our perceptual field to see, the abundance . . . mercy upon mercy, blessing upon blessing.” Can we keep on keeping on, trusting Jesus’ words about His presence and protection? Walking into each new day with its deficiencies and needs, knowing that our God will supply all our needs according to His riches? Does He truly own the cattle on a thousand hills?

Brueggemann again: “Sink your generosity deep into our lives, that your muchness may expose our false lack that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give, so that the world may be made Easter new, without greedy lack, but only wonder, without coercive need but only love, without destructive greed but only praise, all things Easter new . . . all around us, toward us and by us, all things Easter new.”

I pray for us as a Fellowship that we can boldly go into an unknown future led by a known Saviour, a loving Father who sees all and knows all, accompanied by the Holy Spirit of Jesus, God with us, Emmanuel.

(1) Inscribing the Test: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, 3-4.

Let’s get on with it!

Posted on by

Matthew 28:16-20 – Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Hello friends and fellow Jesus followers. In Matthew’s gospel the Eleven have returned to Galilee as Jesus had told them previously. On meeting up with Jesus there is a dual response – worship and doubt. In spite of the uncertainty of some, Jesus gives them, and us, His “Great Commission.”

He prefaces the command itself with the statement of His authority, with the reminder that it had been “given.” The disciples and many other followers had certainly witnessed His authority over the winds and the waves. They had seen and perhaps even experienced His healing power over spiritual, mental, and physical disease. They had watched and listened as Jesus challenged the ideas and traditions of the religious leaders of the time. Ultimately, they had witnessed His power over death – the death of others and even His own death.

So, they should have been assured of His authority – all authority in heaven and on earth.

Then why did some doubt? Perhaps they had come to understand that Jesus would soon leave them and return to the Father as He had said. Perhaps they realized that now the ball was in their court. They may have recalled Jesus’ words that they would do greater things that what He had done. Yikes! I think I may have been among the some that doubted!

But Jesus presses on. Go! Baptize! Make disciples! Preach! Teach! And do all this with the full authority of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Who me? Yes, you. Remember everything I taught you and pass it on. And in case we are still doubting, Jesus gives that wonderful promise. And surely, I am with you, not just now and again, but always, to the end of time. That same promised “Immanuel, God with us” that starts off Matthew’s gospel, ties it all together with the promise of God’s abiding presence.

What are we waiting for? I pray that the Lord Jesus will give us, through the work of His Holy Spirit, the courage and perseverance needed to continue on with Jesus’ loving work in His world. There are many more disciples to be made. Much preaching and teaching is still needed. So, let’s get on with it!

So, they should have been assured of His authority – all authority in heaven and on earth.

Then why did some doubt? Perhaps they had come to understand that Jesus would soon leave them and return to the Father as He had said. Perhaps they realized that now the ball was in their court. They may have recalled Jesus’ words that they would do greater things that what He had done. Yikes! I think I may have been among the some that doubted!

But Jesus presses on. Go! Baptize! Make disciples! Preach! Teach! And do all this with the full authority of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Who me? Yes, you. Remember everything I taught you and pass it on. And in case we are still doubting, Jesus gives that wonderful promise. And surely, I am with you, not just now and again, but always, to the end of time. That same promised “Immanuel, God with us” that starts off Matthew’s gospel, ties it all together with the promise of God’s abiding presence.

What are we waiting for? I pray that the Lord Jesus will give us, through the work of His Holy Spirit, the courage and perseverance needed to continue on with Jesus’ loving work in His world. There are many more disciples to be made. Much preaching and teaching is still needed.

So, let’s get on with it!

Sandy Copland-Dufour is the RF Board Chairperson