A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Uncategorized
I started reading a new short book this past week. The title of the book is “Jobs to Be Done,” and the idea behind the book is that people inherently look at things in their lives as “jobs to be done,” and then “hire” different things or people to do those jobs. For instance, the…
There’s a story of a young seminary graduate who was sent to a village where an elder missionary had established a church community. The older missionary was showing the young man around and introduced the young man to the chief of the village. Figuring he would make an impression, the seminarian said “In the wisdom…
A Prayer for Thanksgiving Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, and His loving-kindness endures forever. Psalm 136 Lord God, heavenly Father, You have created me and endowed me with all that I am or have as a pure gift of Your “fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness…
This past Sunday our church council met for our regular monthly meeting. One of the things that we have been working on (and will continue to work on) is a vision for what we can do as a church and student center over the next five years. Since this isn’t just a vision for the…
I’m writing this on Wednesday morning before Hurricane Milton makes landfall later tonight. When you read it, we will be receiving reports about the impact of Hurricane Milton just as we did from Hurricane Helene. Right now, there are people across my social media feeds sending out requests for prayer as Milton approaches. So it…
I don’t know about you, but I have clear memories of my mother telling me, “Jay, patience is a virtue.” It was perhaps the first thing that I knew to call a “virtue”. It’s also something that I have to tell myself most times when I find myself standing in line for something. Recently at…
See if you can identify these catch phrases from tv and movie characters: “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen.” “D’oh!” “Winter is coming.” “That’s what she said.” “Say hello to my little friend.” Maybe a few of them stumped you, but you probably connected to at least one of the catch phrases. Perhaps in your…
The word that we most commonly translate as “disciple” is the Greek word “matheteis”. At the most basic level, it just means “learner”. Often times a matheteis was a particular kind of learner, someone who was in a sort of apprenticeship program, but not always. I think that unfortunately, sometimes Christians don’t feel like they…
I announced this past Sunday that I have received a call to First Lutheran Church in Gainesville FL. As of right now, I am still prayerfully considering the possibility that God is calling me to leave University Lutheran and lead that church. Considering a call is a torturous process for a pastor, as it is…
We had an interesting intersection this week between our two “Jesus Centered” challenges: a. Our red letter challenge came from Mark 16:15, “Preach the Gospel” b. Our “Together with Jesus” challenge involved reading Mark 15 and 16 If you listened to the podcast, you got an earful about how Mark 16:9-20 brings up some questions…