Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Last Wednesday, we enjoyed a family day, going to see “Thomas and Friends” at the Johnstown War Memorial. It was a last minute decision as we saw it advertised on PBS the Saturday before. Both Ethan and Sarah enjoyed the 90-minute musical stage production. There was a lot of audience participation, a lot of music. … Read more
Here’s my latest finance letter for West Side … Summer is upon us! Some days we can feel it in the warm sunshine and some days we wonder as we experience the cool rain and blustery winds. One day I was in eastern PA and we traveled from balmy eighty degree temperatures to an icy … Read more
Sarah will be baptized in a service tonight at West Side. I wrote the following prayer in my journal this morning. Precious Lord, you are so abundantly good to us! Today is Sarah’s baptism and we have looked forward to this day and planned for this day and rejoice in this day. And we give … Read more
Jesus, consistent with the Old Testament, speaks unabashedly and repeatedly about wealth, greed and generosity. In Mark 12.41-44, Jesus relates a story comparing the giving of the rich to that of poor widow who gives two very small copper coins. Jesus comments … They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, … Read more
Are you doing the same things that you were five years ago? Does your ministry (we are all called to ministry as followers of Christ) look the same as it did five years ago? As you discover your God-given giftedness, have those gifts developed beyond what they were five years ago? Have you discovered any … Read more
I presented the sermon at last Thursday’s Community Lenten Lunch service here in Clearfield. My sermon followed the reading of John 6.1-15. A Group Workcamp is coming to Clearfield, June 20-26, 2010. Who would think that 430+ youth from all around the U.S. would want to come to Clearfield to home repairs, let alone pay … 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
Schnase defines Christian hospitality as “the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ.” It is active: that means we have to do something! It is offered to strangers, those we don’t … Read more