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One of the main benefits of the Virgin HealthMiles activity rewards program is that it provides a nice incentive for healthy living. Part of the program encourages the use of “challenges” where participants can challenge one or more others in the program to a friendly competition. In addition to the participant-initiated challenges, the plan sponsor … Read more
If you read my post about the 2010 HealthFlex HealthMiles Challenge, you may know why I’m looking for creative ways to get my steps in each day. My newest experiment is a temporary workstation on our treadmill (pictured below). I tried it out for about an hour this afternoon and it worked pretty well, although … Read more
I wrote several posts last year about the Virgin HealthMiles activity rewards program, including last year’s first ever HealthFlex HealthMiles challenge (see my preview and recap posts). HealthFlex is our UMC health insurance program. Last year’s challenge started in July so I was caught a little off guard with this year’s challenge which begins Monday … Read more
Ilearned (via various United Methodist sources) about an 8-week series of blog posts that Mark Beeson, senior pastor of Granger Community Church (Granger, IN) is writing, called “Methodist Mondays.” In Beeson’s first post, he explains the rationale for the series as well as the process (i.e., a new post each Mondays for eight weeks). In … Read more
One of the biggest problems that I’ve tried to confront throughout my ministry is complacency. From the beginning of my journey as a Christ-follower, I have said that complacency is one of the biggest problems we face! Complacency is a temptation for all of us and perhaps the temptation only gets stronger as we grow … Read more
If you’ve been following our journey (i.e., most recently, welcoming Sarah into our family), you may recall that Ethan has struggled in this process, especially in the early days and weeks. Now that Sarah has been with us nearly six months, we’ve noticed recently that, while Ethan still has his moments, he is starting to … Read more
This morning, the final day of our post-Easter family sabbath time, we left Lancaster and stopped in Hershey, PA on our way home. We went to ZooAmerica and Hershey’s Chocolate World. After a couple of very warm days (with 80-degree temperatures) it was a much cooler day (in the 50s). It was also fairly windy. … Read more
Easter is a busy time for pastors, of course, and it’s an especially busy time for a family with two pastors and two kids. So, we’re taking a mini-vacation after Easter for some much-needed Sabbath time. We arrived in Lancaster, PA yesterday and will head back home tomorrow. On our way here, we reached another … Read more
During Lent this year, my sermon series focused on the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, leading up to his crucifixion on the cross. One of the key study resources that I used for this series was Adam Hamilton‘s recent book, 24 Hours That Changed the World. I enjoyed reading the book personally and will … Read more
Today was our first Easter with Sarah and our third with Ethan (see Easter 2008 and Easter 2009). We began Resurrection Day in worship. After lunch, we all took naps (when *I* nap, you know we’re tired!). Joleen says the Easter Bunny came while we were asleep, and when the kids got up (at 5:30!), … Read more