Church Blog (Page 20)

Bible Study – The Four Disciplines of Christmas

We spend this Bible Study time before Christmas looking at the four “Theological Disciplines” of Exegetical Theology (reading the Bible and deriving meaning), Systematic Theology (categorizing the information from the Bible), Historical Theology (understanding the history of the Church and how the Bible has been interpreted), and Practical Theology (what we do with the message…

Speaking of Faith

I remember meeting someone once for the first time who cut the tension of the first time meeting with a question: “So, Jay, what do you like to talk about?” The question put me on my heels and made me think, but I also marveled at how brave and kind the question was. Of course…

True Presence

If you asked my daughters what the most frustrating thing about God is, I think I know how they would answer. They have long complained that God is invisible. Thankfully, they understand that He is both invisible and present, and they comprehend Him through the eyes of faith that “see” Him in other things. But,…

The Artist With Us

It is hard to explain Banksy. On the one hand, that name itself means much in our world. If you know the name, you know that Banksy is something of a guerilla painter or graffiti artist. And yet, while the world may know Banksy by that name, we still don’t know much about who the…

Incomplete

My watch tracks all sorts of things. It can tell you my heart rate, my elevation, my oxygen saturation, and my sleep depth. It can even tell the time. And on top of all of that, it can tell me how many steps I’ve taken and how close I am to my goal of a…

Bible Study – In the News

Our Bible study about things that are found in the news. We can see God at work in many of the things that we see in our news services, as well as being able to see ourselves as being able to be God’s Body in a world that He calls us to act in. Week…

The Vote

This is election week. Elected positions and people that you forgot existed show up on ballots. Soil and Water Management? We end up doing research, trying to figure out who is the best vote. Or perhaps we vote by party line. Or perhaps we bubble in the name that we think sounds the nicest. When…

Hacked

His profile picture changed to a doctored photo of a billboard that announced “Excellent Crypto Trades”. Not that a pastor friend of mine couldn’t be getting into mining doge coin, it just seems unlikely. Not only that, but dangerous. Perhaps reckless. The message I sent: “Did you get hacked?” How often does God send us…

Halloween as a Christian

Every now and then I get questions about celebrating Halloween as a Christian. There are certainly things that present problems for a Christian on Halloween. One of those is the presence of imagery and costumes that seem anti-Christian. I remember showing up for a Halloween party where a guy had an inverted pentagram and “666”…

Brother Andrew and the End of Your Rope

Brother Andrew was born in Denmark in 1928. Brother Andrew soon grew up and in around the 1940’s he joined the Danish army and left for Indonesia as a part of a force that was trying to maintain Dutch colonial rule in the country. While in Indonesia, Brother Andrew was disillusioned by war. He had…