Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
We have a pile of books in one of our rooms, including the books I’m trying to read during Lent (incidentally, I’m way behind!). We’ve noticed recently that there’s one particular book that Sarah seems to be fascinated with. Maybe it’s the colors. Maybe it’s the fact that there are pictures of children on the … Read more
Bishop Schnase is clear in his definition that faith development happens outside of weekly worship and that it happens in community. Faith development involves practices by which “we mature in faith; we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of God” (Cultivating Fruitfulness 43). Our spiritual growth never stops, it is never to … Read more
At West Side, we have just concluded a three-week study of Radical Hospitality, led by Ken Bodle. The class was approached in such a way as to not make Radical Hospitality a program, but to look at who we are at our core. We recognized that it is Christ who first welcomed us when we … Read more
I have always thought that worship is something difficult to describe. We can come to worship at a weekend service but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have worshiped. Worship cannot be done for us. We don’t attend a worship service and passively watch others worship. We all are participants in worship. We all are … Read more
Sarah, who has been with us for about 4.5 months, turned one year old today. She continues to do well, and we are very grateful to have her in our family! Unfortunately, even though today was our day off, the day got off to a rocky start. Sarah, who usually sleeps till around 9:00 a.m. … Read more
My sermon last Sunday focused on Jesus’ time in the Garden of Gethsemane (“olive press”) found in Mark 14.32-42. In the midst of the agony Jesus was feeling, he was also greatly concerned for Peter, James, and John, who were supposed to “keep watch” with Jesus. I love the question Jesus asked his friends when … Read more
As I mentioned a few days ago, Leadership Network held a free online leadership event today called, Aha!, a 4-hour (plus) series of videos from around 40 different presenters talking about their aha! moments. I had the event running on my computer (to the TV) the entire time, but I didn’t catch nearly all of … Read more
We have blogged a bit about our journey through the ordination process of The United Methodist Church (see our last post or Our Journey Toward Ordination for the longer story). We are currently working through the final stages of this process, having been commissioned as Provisional Elders in June 2009. We are on target to … Read more