Church Life
-
The Church in the Wildwood
Maybe you remember a hymn in the songbook in the back of the pew in front of you entitled “Church in the Wildwood.” If you do recall it, this means right at this very moment your brain is streaming, “oh-oh, come…come…come…come…” Yes, that’s the song! I remember thinking there is absolutely nothing biblical about this hymn. It’s about going down to a little brown church in the dale. Haven’t we preached over and over again that the church is the people and not a place? And aren’t we supposed to keep ourselves from being tied to a building? That being said, this article is actually a tribute to the churches…
-
Heads Up
I was asked to speak recently on a Wednesday Series at one of our sister congregations. The assigned topic was pretty straightforward. I was asked to speak on “Elders and Deacons.” While this was fairly straightforward, it was also a challenge. How does one deal with this topic in forty-five minutes? As I prepared, it seemed to me that there was no way to adequately deal with my assignment in the allotted time. It would take at least forty-five minutes to do an adequate word study of those two words and to point out how those two words have been misunderstood by many people. I tried to do a little of that in the time…
-
Pieces of My Heart
“Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ” – Elizabeth Stone The idea for this post came from my tweet last week when I returned from Mexico. What I tweeted at that point was: “Home from Mexico. Left pieces of my heart there but thankful to be back to the ones here who hold the largest chunks!” Then a little earlier this week, I watched two pieces of my heart drive off to the high school – one to his last first day of public school and the other to a new…
-
A Simple Challenge: Greet Someone New This Sunday
It really does not matter how large or small the congregation is where you worship, there is someone who will be in worship this Sunday that either you have never met or you have not talked with in a long while. I’m challenging all of us–including myself–greet that person this week! Maybe it means you talk with someone who isn’t in your age group. It could be mean an older Christian walking up to a member who comes in on a cane, or an older Christian speaking to that young couple who is still struggling to get going in life. Maybe it means you talk with someone who is just,…
-
3 Things That Are Above Personal Religious Opinion
It seems like everyone has an opinion these days about anything and everything. I don’t know why our opinions seem to matter so much more than they used to, but I think it has something to do with this sense of entitlement everyone has about loving themselves and doing whatever they want to do. When I was younger, I don’t remember hearing so much about tolerance and self-love. I do recall being told much more about love for God and pleasing Him and being obedient to His word. I do believe that opinions are important and that people have a right to them individually. We will always do ourselves a…
-
The Only Kind She Writes
I know that we live in the digital age. I understand that we can communicate much more quickly with a lot more people via email, social media, etc. than we could just a few years ago. At the same time, I am just old-fashioned enough to believe that there is something to be said for taking the time and making the effort to actually write a note, card, or letter and put it in the mail. There may be some who are reading this who believe I may have another reason to prefer the old-fashioned way. They may think that I get some sort of perverse pleasure from knowing that the recipients…
-
Vacation Bible School
It’s that time of year again – Vacation Bible School time. I have seen so many advertisements and invitations to join with different congregations as they have their VBS. It is finally time for our congregation to host our VBS. Hours and hours of planning, ordering, cutting out, painting, decorating, and praying have gone into this effort. It certainly is a busy, and sometimes, stressful time, but it is also a wonderfully important and happy time for those children who attend. Today’s post will be a short one because much of my time has been spent on the topic for this post – VBS. I hope these thoughts about VBS will help you realize…
-
But What If No One Comes?
Your congregation has planned that special event, and you were part of the group that helped plan it. Maybe it is Vacation Bible School. Maybe it’s a Gospel Meeting. Maybe it’s a special marriage seminar. And then, the event comes, and the attendance is nowhere near what was expected. Now, those of you who planned for the event are down, and maybe you hear that “no one” came (which simply isn’t true). How can we handle those times? Here are a few suggestions for handling an event where “no one” comes. Remember the Purpose. Why did you have the event in the first place? Was there a purpose statement given?…
-
Farewell to One of Life’s Greatest Blessings
Recently, as we were singing a hymn where I worship, I was struck by the meaning of some of the words we were singing. Has that ever happened to you? The words that caught my attention are the final words (at least in our songbooks) of “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” They depict the transition from earth to heaven for the faithful Christian in these words: This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise To seize the everlasting prize; And shout, while passing through the air, “Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!” Prayer is viewed by some as only an almost rote religious exercise. Others may view it as only a duty to be…
-
Don’t Forget Your SonScreen
I finally did it! I went to Florida and did not come home with some part of my body blistered or hurting. How did I do that? I actually followed the directions about applying my sunscreen. I did it before I was out in the sun. I made sure I covered everywhere. And I reapplied as needed. Sometimes in the past, I fully deserved to be burned. I just couldn’t be bothered with sunscreen. At least once, I had a spot down by my ankle that somehow I missed when applying the sunscreen and wound up blistered and hurting. Still other times, there were other factors like wind and sand…
