Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Sometime last year I talked how small we humans are in the universe. That was driven home to me last October on vacation in Nova Scotia, Canada. One of the most incredible sites on our trip was the 24 hours we spent in the tiny fishing village of Peggy’s Cove. Even though it was a … Read more
The writings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) pointed to the fact that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. Three days Jesus lay in the tomb. Three days the devil celebrated. But on the morning of the third day, God had … Read more
I wrote a "breaking news" report for 12th Street’s Easter Sunrise service. If there would have been a cable news network 2,000 years ago, the morning Jesus rose from the dead might have looked a little like this … [News Anchor]: We interrupt your regular Sunday morning routine to bring you some breaking news related … Read more
Today is Good Friday. And this morning I participated in my first Good Friday service in Huntingdon. From 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm, we rotated from church to church meeting in seven historic downtown churches. We spent about 20 minutes in each church, then walked to the next church. The host pastor of each church … Read more
Exodus 3.1-10 Moses and the Burning Bush, A sermon for Lenten Community Service I don’t know if you’ve ever done anything stupid before, but I know I have. And you might say Moses did. When he sees an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew, he reacts. That’s a good thing. He knew what he saw wasn’t right. … Read more
I recently wrote about a youth sporting event to raise money and awareness for Nothing But Nets. That event took place last Saturday night. Youth from several area churches brought money from donations to help send nets to Africa. We gathered at the Juniata Valley High School gym for an evening of basketball and volleyball … Read more
Several months ago, I did a message on unity. My point was, oneness is God’s dream for us. Jesus certainly prayed for unity, praying that we would be one with God and with one another (John 17). But does oneness mean sameness? I don’t think so. I believe God values both unity and diversity. The … Read more
Friday night was “date night,” and we went to see the movie Meet the Robinsons. After having seen the previews we decided that we wanted to watch this one. We especially loved the woman with the caffeine patches (which you may have seen in the commercials/previews). No side effects there! We enjoyed the movie, although … Read more
On Monday, our district had its annual "day apart with the Bishop." Bishop Jane Allen Middleton talked about the recent results of a leadership tool that all the pastors in the conference completed last fall (including five "observers" for each of us, three people from our congregations, a colleague, and our district superintendent). I may … Read more
We made a lot of progress on the required paperwork for the adoption process today. The top priority, at this point, is a pre-application to Americans for International Aid & Adoption (AIAA), which basically puts us on a waiting list for a formal application (after a screening process). AIAA is the agency that we have … Read more