Newsletter
2024 in Overview - Looking Forward to 2025
"When a great and true revival comes in the church, the present miserable, feeble talk about avoidance of controversy on the part of the servants of Jesus Christ will all be swept away as with a mighty flood. A man who is really on fire with his message never talks in that feeble and compromising way but proclaims the gospel plainly and boldly in the presence of every high thing that is lifted up against the gospel of Christ."
- John Gresham Machen | Selected Shorter Writings - Facing the Facts Before God
To all my subscribers & the occasional reader, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!
This year, the year of our Lord 2024, has been a fruitful and a productive year in many ways.
As a father, I have had a new baby, born in April. My family enjoys the beauty of northwestern Canada immensely. I even went on a 4 km walk with my 2 yr old and 5 yr old this summer. My almost 2 yr old (at that time) walked the entire way. Kudos to him. Given that we had many family members visit it us from abroad over 2024, we have been able to enjoy the beauty and community of northwestern Canada with family.
I hit some sound goals in 2024 with workouts, running 394.1 km by Mon, Dec. 23. This was a bit less than former years since I have been doing more strength training, which I have no way to track. The Strava App is a great way to track running, by the way.
I’ve enjoyed dabbling in new reading topics like matters surrounding the morality of the oil industry and Canadian history. I read the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein and Prairie Lion by Jonathon Van Maren. I listened to the entirety of Jeremiah Burroughs sermons entitled the Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment on Canon Press - a great devotional & thought-provoking series. I’ve managed to make my way through a couple other books - most notably Keeping Faith in Science by Ted Fenske and No Other Option: Self-Determination for Alberta by Michael Wagner. There are others. But these are the primary ones coming to mind as I write this.
As a pastor, our church has been a busy place over the last year. God is at work in His Church. God is doing a great work in Christ Covenant Church of Grande Prairie. We are busy with worship and various forums for fellowship & mutual care: hospitality, men’s meetings, Psalm sings, etc.
As a Christian, I have grown in my love for Scripture. I’ve been preaching through Kings and Colossians primarily over the last year and serving my congregation in this way. Such deep study in the Word of God has contributed to my own love for God. I also love the Psalms and especially of late, I have grown fond of Psalm 71.
In this last year, I have participated in the work of building up various mission churches in Canada. My church hosted a Zoom call for the CREC in Canada in January. We had 30+ church leaders on the call. I was invited to White Stone Church in Grimsby Ontario to speak at an evening event in February. Subsequently, I was invited to lead the congregation there in membership vows and in the ordination of elders on behalf of their overseeing church - All Saints Church in Pennsylvania. Over the course of the summer, my session of elders decided to take on the work of a new mission church in Drayton Valley. In the past two weeks my elder led the congregation in Drayton Valley in membership vows and then we proceeded to ordain Josh Holt as an elder in this fledgling congregation.
This Substack is an outlet to spread Biblical & theological writing, as well as cultural/political commentary from a Christian perspective, into my church/community. I take suggestions for writing from my congregation from time to time. I’ve also taken some suggestions from my social media network.
This Substack is also intended as a standard around which Bible-believing, confessional, Christians can rally. I hope and pray that through this newsletter and Chinook Podcast, we can build bridges between Christians who are serious about bringing their faith into life, and spread sound doctrine throughout the Peace River Country in Alberta and across Canada.
The central intent is stated in the “about” section:
The intent of this newsletter is to encourage Christians to be faithful in the home, the Church and the public square and to work for ongoing revival and reformation in the Canadian Church.
Currently, my most popular post for 2024 is “What is Going on with the Moscow Mood?” Next in line is “Book Review - Shepherds for Sale (by Megan Basham).” Third, comes “On Realpolitik, Conservative Consensus and the Need for Prophetic Witness.” Fourth, comes an essay entitled: “Cults and Sects and Catholicity.”
I’ve had other opportunities to speak. In September, I spoke at the Canadian Theopolitan Conference in Vancouver on “Children in the Gospels”.
I even dabbled in satire at one point with an article entitled: “Antioch, Natural Affections & Diet-Gate.” I think some people may have found it funny - others did not find it so funny.
I’m a generalist on this Substack. I dabble in topics. I write book reviews. I weigh in on controversies surrounding my communion of Churches. I try to understand contemporary controversies. I talk about politics and what the Bible has to say to various problems. I write public letters to elected officials and post them here.
It look likes I have a new topic to dabble in for the New Year. It appears that the world’s largest AI data centre industrial park is likely coming to the Greenview Industrial Gateway, just south of Grande Prairie Alberta. You can find the info about this industrial park here. You can read about the news here. I need to study up on Artificial Intelligence, it’s pros and cons, its potential good and evil. Frequently in the Bible, technology that is used for evil by wicked men, is inherited by the righteous, for righteous use. I don’t want to be naively optimistic or have a destructive pessimism about this development. If you have anything good for me to read and/or listen to on this, please send it my way. I already asked CR Wiley and the guys over at the Pugcast. Apparently they have been talking about it. Over this week I have been listening to one of their talks on AI from 2 yrs ago.
In 2025, I hope to extend the reach of this Substack. I have found it helpful to come to know a hub of Christians in Canada who are reformed and reforming. I want this Substack to be a trumpet blast around which orthodox Christians rally in my province and across Canada as it is now. Between this Substack & the Chinook Podcast, which I co-host with elders Jamie Soles and Brad Donovan, I also want to be able to build networks between Christians in the professional world. In interviews, I want to draw attention to spiny, courageous work being done by orthodox Christians across our province, Canada, and even North America.
A Free Book?
I am offering a free copy of my book “the COVID Archives” to the first 2 people who land me 10 new free/paid subscribers. You each would have to land me 10 new subscribers and show up on my referral leader board for doing so in order to get the deal. Subsequently, give me your address over DM and I will send a free copy via Amazon to your home or mailing address. This offer expires by the end of February 28, at 11:59 PM.
One way to do this is to hit the button below and to start referring friends.
Looking Forward in Hope:
Finally, I Thessalonians 5:1-11 is a fitting passage to meditate upon as we gear towards 2025. I imagine that 2025 could get spicy. It is already shaping up to be so.
1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Many would describe me as a postmillenial or an optimistic amillenial. I’m definitely not an R2K, end-timesy sort of guy. We have work to do in the present. Jesus has called us to faithfully build His church and witness to Him in the midst of all the angst and turmoil of history. We should work in hope that God is overcoming the evil one through the faithful suffering of His Church. I believe that I can be hopeful for the future. Even if I don’t see a better day in Canada during my own life-time, I work & pray for a better future for my children.
Jesus has called us to faithfully build His church and witness to Him in the midst of all the angst and turmoil of history.
I am not a yuppie pastor/theologian who thinks that the way to the victory of Christ in this world is a walk in the park.
This coming year will also come with its trials and challenges, also as we see tremors in the geopolitical and economic situation up here in Canada and across North America. The Trump inauguration is happening on January 20, 2025, after all. I was recently talking with a friend about how artificial intelligence, with all of its potential threats and blessings, will be one of the next big challenges for Christians to tackle.
More often than not in history, the pastors of Jesus Christ (and Christians in general) have had to walk through history with faces streaked with sweat and grime, but with a cheerful grin that annoys the powers of Hell to no end. As a friend of mine once told me (I think he was translating a Dutch saying): we need less pop stars and more work horses. We know that the One who is in us is greater than the One who is in the world.
There is a simple encouragement to Christian communities in such times. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” Ora et labora. Work and pray. Keep awake and be sober. Be on guard. Worship and fellowship with your church community. “Fight, laugh, feast,” as some of my colleagues in Moscow would say. Help one another out in ordinary ways.
May you all have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!
In Christ,
Pastor Nathan Zekveld
Photo by Marcin Nowak on Unsplash
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