Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Each year, the Juniata Valley Ministerium conducts weekly Community Lenten services from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday. Each week, we gather in a different church so that most pastors get to host one service and speak in one service (outside their own church). Tonight, I spoke at the Water Street Evangelical Church. This year we … Read more
Today, we concluded our series on “Navigating Life: Doing Life God’s Way!” We believe it was an important series; we certainly hope that it was helpful for the hrist followers in our congregations! We don’t always collaborate on our sermon series, but this series grew out of a conversation we had while traveling to Tennessee … Read more
Read Luke 1.26-38 Mary’s response is arguably the most amazing response of any human being in the Scriptures. God asked her to throw away her reputation (through an "illegitimate" pregnancy). Add to this that Mary is very young, and she simply says, "I am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen as you have said." What … Read more
Heart disease is the number one killer in America. And spiritual heart disease is the number one killer in the church. Today we begin our Advent/Christmas series that will help us to develop healthy hearts. We’ll try to do so by looking at how the main characters of the story each responded to God. We’ll … Read more
While I believe that most of us really want to be generous, and most of us really do want to honor God with our whole lives (including our money), my guess is that the line for those willing to sacrifice is a lot shorter! I don’t know about you, but the thing that scares me … Read more
It’s a question of ownership: Whose money is it, anyway — mine or God’s? If I think it’s mine, I’m going to hang onto it and use it the way that I want to. But if I view it as God’s money, then I will be more likely to use it in ways that honor … Read more
Money is one of the topics we love to avoid the most in the church. But Jesus talked so much about money (more about money than heaven, hell, and prayer combined) so it’s such an important topic that we cannot ignore it! There are basically two views about money – the world’s view and God’s … Read more
You can’t talk about Acts without talking about the Holy Spirit, and you can’t talk about the book of Acts without talking to about life change (transformation). Today, we’re going to talk about one more thing that I don’t think you can miss, when talking about the book of Acts: Action. You can’t talk about … Read more
We continue our journey considering three of the most important points from the book of Acts as we try to write the next chapter in our history of serving God in the world. Last week we talked about the essential role of the Holy Spirit (to be filled, we must yield). The reality is, you … Read more
Today we begin a new series, looking at what I consider to be three of the most important points from the book of Acts. Now if you turn to the back of the book of Acts, you’ll discover there are only 28 chapters. You’re not missing a chapter! Acts 29 represents the next chapter in … Read more