Best. Note. Ever.

I finished my sermon yesterday by telling about a note I received in my box on a recent Sunday morning.  Here's a picture of the original:You get a note like that -- from an eight-year-old who wants to be baptized, gives his phone number, and says he is "looking...

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Home Based Launch — Family Jewels

A Jewish rabbi one time put it this way: In the church, you all believe that a family comes to church and finds faith there.  Then you bring that faith from the church back to home. In Judaism, we do it differently.  We believe that faith starts in...

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Grandparenting By Grace

Last Sunday's sermon ("After The Storm") included this litany from the book Grandparenting By Grace, authored by Irene Endicott and C. Ferris Jordan: We are teachers of God’s plan of salvation to our children and grandchildren. We are witnesses of how God...

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Crisis Mode & Consistency Mode

During my time in pastoral ministry, I have become relatively comfortable and effective at dealing with people who are in crisis mode.Not perfect by any stretch.  But by and large I have been able to be a "non-anxious" presence in people's lives when they are...

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Reasons I Miss My Cats

Back in 2009, I wrote a post called Why I Hate My Cats.  And Why I Love Them.  You can read about it here.But now, I neither hate them nor love them.  I just miss them.Over the last couple of months, one of them wandered away to die in the woods. She...

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The Storm Before The Calm, Week 5 — After The Storm

I alluded to this on Tuesday . . . I can't wait for this Sunday's message.It comes from a biblical story that you have probably never heard used in a sermon.It leads to a question that all too many of us neglect to ask.I pray it brings healing to debris fields...

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Psalm 19 — Creation And Law

Psalm 19 is a glorious hymn that at first glance connects a theology of creation with a theology of worship:1 The heavens declare the glory of God;    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth...

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