A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
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We’ve been praying for three people in our Sunday morning service for a while now. We’re doing this because of a challenge from our District Convention this summer. I don’t know about you, but I have found some difficulty in this prayer. In the prayer, we take a moment to silently pray for three people…
This past weekend was Halloween weekend. This holiday has had an interesting history with the Christian Church. While the origins of the holiday seem to be mostly Christian in nature, there have been grace concerns over the celebrations in our history. Depending on who you listen to, traditions like dressing up in costumes or going…
What is an experience that you tend to tell people about? Maybe it’s that restaurant that you just love, or the excitement you feel over the Noles playing football, or maybe it’s the book you read, or the musical artist you listen to. It’s not the same thing for every person, but I think every…
One of the things that Liz and I decided to do while I had some extra time on sabbatical was to go to Disney World, a place where Liz and I had not been ourselves in almost 20 years and our three girls had never been. As you well know, Disney’s way of talking about…
Good morning from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I am here at the request of our District President who normally takes this trip. Four times a year, he and his fellow District Presidents come to the midwest and meet with the national Synod President and others about the state of the denomination. But our District President couldn’t…
There’s a joke that goes: Little 5 year old Samuel couldn’t go to church with the rest of his family one Palm Sunday because he was sick. He stayed home with his mother who took care of him while the rest of the family went to church. When his father and siblings came back, he…
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…