Welcome to another of our sporadic and intermittent “On Further Reflections with Norm Allen.” I’m Norm Allen and with me is ErInn Oxford, the executive director of The Dale Ministries.  I’m excited to have Erinn with us today, because we’ve been friends for 12 years or something like that, and I have been friends with her husband Dion for longer - but we share ministry in the city, and ministry to people who have needs – I’m on one side of the street  - and Erinn is working a different side of the street, with a different kind of person in her enclave in Parkdale.

Welcome to another of our very occasional and sporadic “On Further Reflections with Norm Allen.”  Today I’m delighted to have Stacey Campbell with me - CEO of Prison Fellowship Canada. She and I have been friends for most of the ten years that she’s been the CEO of Prison Fellowship Canada, and as many of you know, I have been a friend of Prison Fellowship, both in Canada and internationally for much of Touchstone’s life, since 1984. Through my friendship with Ron Nikkel, the former president of Prison Fellowship International, I’ve developed a deep affinity to the work and the people of Prison Fellowship, both in Canada and in other parts of the world.

I’ve been thinking about the context in which we’re living at the moment, and the fear, anxiety and anger that seems to be part of our whole cultural experience.

This is a conversation I shared with two people who are very close to me. Dr. Ken Derksen who is close to me - maybe because he’s my neighbour and my doctor. We share our journey in Christ together. He’s also a board member on one of the larger churches in our area.

Heidi Allen is - has the misfortune for several decades to be my daughter. She’s a graduate of Western University in Music, a graduate of Regent College in Theological Studies, and has a degree now in Psychotherapy, so she has her own psychotherapy practice.

Welcome to the second portion of ‘On Further Reflection with Norm Allen’ – in our conversation with Mike Janzen about his Psalms Project. The two volumes are titled, “The Carried Words,” and “The Lifted Songs.” And last time we focused on Psalm 42, and today we are going to discover some of the other Psalms that were Mike’s companions in connecting with God and connecting with his physical and mental health. So – welcome, Mike, again. We appreciate you taking the time to be with us.

Welcome friends to another of our occasional ‘On Further Reflections’, where I have conversations with people whose stories I find interesting, and whose stories I believe may be interesting and nourishing for you.

Today, my friend Mike Janzen – musical artist, writer and composer - and I are going to discuss his new two-volume Psalms project. It’s not just the Psalms project that is of interest, but also because it’s an expression of his journey out of darkness into light as part of his recovery from a concussion injury that he suffered 5 years ago.

Welcome to another in our series, “On Further Reflection,” with Norm Allen. We have had a few of these videos and podcasts over the last year, and we hope this one will be of interest and some encouragement to you as you have a chance to meet my friend Hugh Brewster, who is the next generation of Touchstone circles of friendship. He and I have been friends for nearly 10 years (and his dad has been a friend of mine for a lot longer than that). He is one of our younger leaders – younger generation group. I called them ‘The Young Lean Guys’ when we first started because they were in their 30’s and a lot leaner than me. And they are now…

Well, hello there – it’s Norm Allen here with another of our sporadic “On Further Reflections with Norm Allen” series of podcasts and videos. Today, I’ve invited a close friend of mine of long, long-standing, Ron Nikkel, to engage in conversation about the news that we received back in the middle of February about the double-sided life that Jean Vanier had, and the L’Arche International movement had to pay for an agency to do an investigation of complaints against him about sexual misconduct with women that he had been in a counselling relationship with.

We’ve been offering, encouraging, and teaching spiritual friendship for 30-plus years. We’ve introduced ‘On Further Reflection’ podcasts as a series of sporadic offerings to explore some of the issues around spiritual friendship that we have discovered over the years.

Advent season’s greetings to you as we launch this latest edition of “On Further Reflection with Norm Allen” in video, audio and written versions. I am going to offer some thoughts about Advent as we have these twenty-four days in December before Christmas Day. I’m going to be having some questions from a friend of mine who will remain anonymous, which will help the conversation.

This time, in addition to our written blog, we’re also doing a video version, and the subject for this particular edition is: “The Opposite of Faith is Ingratitude.”

I was struck in this post-Thanksgiving season by the story of the ten lepers that yelled out to Jesus one day, and said, “Please help us!”

This is the 6th in our blog/podcast series of “On Further Reflections”. I’ve been exploring Jesus’ conversations with people as a way to learn more about how we may also converse with God. I’m inviting you on another imaginative journey exploring the lives of two of Jesus’ close friends. They have become binary examples of good and bad ways to engage Jesus, but I don’t believe that is fair or true.

Welcome to our fifth “On Further Reflection” entitled “Jesus says, ‘Come and Have Breakfast’. We aren’t far past Easter and I’m inviting you to use your creative imagination to reflect on one of my favourite resurrection stories from John the Gospel writer.