Olive Regina Anstice asks whether we are a confessional church that is rooted in Scripture, committed to pray, and believes in the necessity of personal redemption. … Read more
“Living Faith”: The Process
As a member of the committee responsible for drafting the new statement of faith, Garth Wilson describes the questions and concerns that the committee had to deal with while writing the document. … Read more
Unity in the Body
By Jack Charleson. As Christians we have a responsibility to honour the command given by our Lord in the Great Commission. However, there is a tendency for many of us simply to ensure adequate funding is made available through congregational budgets to meet the expenses of others as they seek to carry out the work for us. … Read more
Two Tracks – One Goal: How Alcoholics Anonymous Relates to Christianity, by Cal Chambers
Reviewed by Kit Schindell. This excellent book would be of great help to any Christian who is addicted… to alcohol, to street drugs, to prescription drugs, to food, to sex, to work. … Read more
The Ways of Our God: An Approach to Biblical Theology, by Charles H.H. Scobie
Reviewed by Calvin Brown. This is a major work which reflects a lifetime of both scholarly and devotional interaction with Scripture. Encyclopedic in scope, it deals not only with the history and methodology of biblical theology but with the flow of salvation history. … Read more
Christian Ethics
By Dennis Stoutenburg. Christians should become more concerned about not just presenting the message of Jesus to a lost world but of presenting him in a manner that is practically effective and socially persuasive. Should not every investigation of sacred Scripture ring ethically and morally true? … Read more
The Blessings of the Power of Prayer
By Isabel Peters. Having been raised in a praying family, the author chronicles the rise of a large, interdenominational Prayer Fellowship. She shares the Prayer Group Covenant and some other helpful aspects of the Prayer Fellowship's characteristics. … Read more
Pastors (Off the Record): Straight Talk About Life in the Ministry, by Stefan Ulstein
Reviewed by Kit Schindell. Ulstein hopes that these stories of everyday pastors will help pastors and their congregations to break through the walls of professional expectation, careerism, and petty politics that keep the Church from being all that it can be in Christ. … Read more
We Meet In the Garden
By Kathleen Larmour. At 33,1 am broken
So wearied by my flesh
That imagined vitality
Cannot raise its head
From within a cluttered mind. … Read more
A Journey Towards God
David Colpitts wishes homosexuality hadn't been his struggle, but because it so deeply reveals his need, it continually calls him into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, not unlike the other spiritual struggles many Christians have. … Read more
Of Church, State and the Political Engagement of Evangelicals
By Bruce Clemenger. The debate about the relationship between church and state has been reignited. Firstly, we should respond to the misperceptions that are rooted in stereotypes, misunderstanding, or bias, and secondly, it is an opportunity to discuss the relationship between church and state. … Read more
A Life Worth Living
by John Bigham. A ready-made follow-up for the enlivened faith and enthusiasm generated by an Alpha Course takes the form of the Beta course, A Life Worth Living, a nine-week look at Paul's letter to the Philippians, in the format of the Alpha course. … Read more
Introducing Channels Magazine
The Renewal Fellowship within The Presbyterian Church in Canada was founded in May 1982, and during the next year, plans were made to begin a magazine to reassure isolated and sometimes discouraged Presbyterians in Canada who wanted renewal that they were not alone. Word associations with media, communication, and television channels resonated with the old hymn, “Channels only, blessed Master”, and suggested the name Channels. And so, Channels – intended to be an instrument of blessing for The Presbyterian Church in Canada – debuted in the fall of 1983.
Over the next 23 years, some 66 issues were published. Channels succeeded in placing the Renewal Fellowship within a broader national and international context. Publishing articles written by internationally known authors such as Eugene Peterson, James I. Packer, Michael Green, Darrell Johnson, and John G. Stackhouse Jr. helped members of the Renewal Fellowship to realize that they were a part of a much wider movement.
Recognizing the high quality of this magazine prompted a desire to make a digital archive of all 66 issues. Each article is presented in text format, and at the bottom, a searchable, downloadable PDF copy of the issue opens at the page where the article originally appeared. Enjoy!
Thank God for the World
By Bruce Robertson. The sheet music for this children’s song appears in the original PDF
Response to Homosexuality
By Patricia Allan. The issue of homosexuality demands a response of godly compassion from the Body of Christ. How serious it is to misrepresent God. We need to take a broad biblical response. The prohibitions are there, but we need a response that sees the whole person. … Read more
1991 Annual Meetings
On March 1 and 2, we gathered at St. Andrew’s Church in Whitby, Ontario to worship, to plan and to hear Dr. Joel Nederhood (pictured on the cover) speak on the subject, “The Uniqueness of Jesus.” A searchable, downloadable PDF with photos of the Annual Meetings appears here. Photos by Jack Harewood.