As I sit today on my back porch working on my upcoming sermon, I find myself thinking a bit differently about the back porch which I love. This last year I was able to replace the screens with windows. I always loved my screened porch but the windows allow me to spend more time there. It is easily my favorite room in my house.
The month of September is National Suicide Prevention month. I was reminded of that this week as I, along with other United Methodist clergy in Indiana, were informed that this week one of our own clergy, 24 year old Rev. Jarrid Wilson, took his own life. This leaves me with much sadness that Jarrid was experiencing such hopelessness that led to this result and such sadness for his family and friends who now grief his loss.
A beautiful tent was arranged to the south of the main church building for the worship experience last Sunday. The beautiful white tent is a perfect metaphor for God’s church. What a perfect visual as we launch the upcoming sermon series “Won’t you be My Neighbor”.
Last Sunday we started a two week series on the topic of Spiritual Gifts (click here to hear the sermon). I am taking advantage of the timing to be in the homework mode and am assigning homework myself.
Before next Sunday, in fact to make next Sunday’s message pertinent to each one of you individually, please take one of two Spiritual Gifts surveys that we are making available.
Archived Posts
Back and Forth with Chat GPT
Many of you know that I’ve found a new consultant to bounce my ideas off in regard to preaching. My good buddy Chat GPT and I sometimes disagree—often miscommunicate—but usually come up with some fruitful illustrations.
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
Here’s a preview of our congregation’s Core Values
In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.