Doing to Participate

I’m pulling this conversation out of comments and placing it on the main page today. Feel free to join in, even if you can’t quite figure out just what it is we’re discussing. I admit, I have some trouble with this myself.
The original post and comment chain was posted on May 18 and after and [...]

Talking in Clichés

I was thinking a bit about clichés. Why are they so powerful? Why do clichés so resonate with people? When you think about it, clichés are nothing more verbal shorthand entries for a kind of thinking that has already been done by someone else. Clichés are used most by people leading other people, from politicians [...]

Gazing into the Future

The past couple of weeks, a commercial has been airing on television. This T. V. spot is promoting the services of a bank—I’m not sure which bank and for our purposes today, it doesn’t matter. The premise is that the bank’s logo stands at the side of busy city street. The logo is a kind [...]

Mastering Time: Forgetting, Forgiving & Trusting

In our Home Group "gathering" last night, we discussed the second installment in the four-part sermon series called It’s About Time. Rick provocatively called the sermon and the accompanying DVD video for this installment "Choose Who You Cheat."
We started the discussion by attempting to answer the question, "What do you need to forget?"
John said, (after [...]

One Candle Sunday

A Passage from Psalm 111:
Praise the Lord!I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart,In the company of the upright and in the assembly,Great are the works of the LORD;They are studied by all who delight in them.Slendid and majestic is His work,And His righteousness endures forever.He has made His wonders to be [...]

Dialogue

We were discussing this idea at our Home Group meeting last evening. Doug Pagitt is probably more concise:
“Dialogue has become something of a lost art in Christianity. As worship has shifted from the New Testament description of life-on-life faith to the speaker/audience model used by many churches, we’ve moved away from using dialogue as a [...]

What’s in the Name? Part 3: Sanction

Q: We’ve covered the words "new" and "freedom" in the name of your blog. Now we get to the most enigmatic word, "sanction." What are you intending to convey with this idea?
A: The odd thing about the word "sanction" is that it contains two contradictory meanings. It can mean both "authorized approval or permission to [...]

Humor, Fun and Faith

The Lansing State Journal contained an article on Sunday that made me think about how Christians appear to those people who aren't Christians. I don't know: I've always thought Jesus showed the full range of human emotions: joy, sadness, love, anger and for lack of better words, frustration and fear (though I'm not really sure [...]

A New Blog Announcement

I wrote on Wednesday about being behind in things I need to do.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't read pastor Rick Stacy's Monday Morning Email until way after Monday. He sends an email every week updating the congregation about what happened during the Sunday morning worship service, among other things.
Anyway, Rick announced in his [...]

The Gift of Flippancy

I entered into a casual conversation with someone at work about churches. He was telling me all about his church, how it's like some 90 years old, how their attendance has remained steady during all that time (except for the 1950's after a lot of babies were born), how they love to eat and dozens [...]

It’s Not About Them

This past Saturday, our church conducted a Home Group Leader's Seminar. The leaders from each of our home groups, plus anyone else interested in home groups, gathered together to toss around some ideas and address some perceived challenges.
A survey was commissioned by the leadership of Meridian Christian Church during January to determine what people within [...]

The Reformation Reformed

Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom have written a book called: Is the Reformation Over? Following is a portion of a review which appeared in Christianity Today's Christian History newsletter:
"Protestants can't fathom why the Catechism approvingly quotes Joan of Arc saying, "About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we [...]

Is This Real?

Lansing State Journal:Evangelicals say they're persecuted; others say they're the ones in power: "John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron, said evangelicals who feel slandered are responding partly to the added attention from their role in the presidential race.'Their very success has brought extra criticism that feeds this sense [...]

Our VBS Wrapup

I toyed with the idea of catching up my posts, but I learned long ago that, when I try to do that, I always feel like I'm behind. So, I'll just write a summary today to bring us to current.
We finished up the weekday VBS on Thursday of last week. As I suggested to those [...]

VBS: Day Two

Gale's helping this little guy after the hand-print finger painting quilt project. I know I'm getting the title of the craft wrong, but you get the idea.
All of the crafts made during the VBS will be given to a local family getting a house through Habitat for Humanity. The kids also made care packets for [...]

VBS: Day One

I'm not up-to-date on my knot-tying skills. That shows on my face.
I was asked to help tie some yarn on the Tabernacle Window Light Catcher Thingy and was surprised to look up just as Chuck was snapping the picture.
In spite of the look on my face, it was a wonderful evening. The program went [...]

Under Construction Update

Our home group is putting the finishing touches on the preparations for the Under Construction Vacation Bible School we’re hosting next week.
This VBS is designed to teach children about the concepts of sharing and caring, learning and teaching, the worship of God and celebration of His gifts to us. It is also designed to work [...]

Service and the Fraying of Nerves

Friday night Gale and I attended our Home Group pizza gathering and planning meeting. The meeting went long, but well. It took a bit longer to recover from the 5 slices of Southwest Chicken pizza.
Maybe a bit of background is in order.
In March, all of the home fellowship groups in our church were given an [...]

Beware of the Birds!

Pastor Rick today completed his sermon series Putting Family First. If the server is working, you can link to audio of the message at MCC's website.
It was a wonderful series with plenty of insights about raising a family in today's world. Today's message was about honoring your parents and was interwoven with a tribute for [...]