I don’t remember the first time it happened when I was present, but it was a number of years ago. It has only happened, maybe, a half-dozen times when I have been present, but it continues to cause me to think. We were getting ready to sing the old hymn, “Send the Light.” That great old hymn is a tremendous missionary song, reminding us that there are people all throughout the world who need to hear the Gospel, and that we have a responsibility to send “the blessed Gospel light.” However, a few times I have been present where a song leader took a good amount of time telling us…

I would hope that every congregation of God’s people would agree that their number one priority is to win souls to Jesus and help keep them growing closer to Him. You may choose different wording for that, but I would hope that would be what we are about. But are we really doing that? I’ve sat through a lot of meetings and conversations lately at Central where this has been talked about (thankfully). Obviously, for a congregation to run as efficiently as possible, there will be some matters that may seem mundane, like the condition of an air-conditioning unit or when some event needs to go on the calendar. We…

A fairly interesting football game over the weekend was overshadowed by a few moments of excitement in the stands. As the Miami Hurricanes struggled to defeat Appalachian State, the attention of a large number of the fans was drawn to something happening away from the field. A cat was somehow hanging from the upper deck and unable to climb back up. Fans in the upper deck tried to reach out to the cat, but that only scared the feline. Some fans below were formulating a plan, though. They had brought an American flag to the game–it was the 20th anniversary of 9/11, after all–and unrolled it, holding it underneath the…