I want to personally invite you to a special worship service on October 2nd at 11 am. We will celebrate the love God has shown us in our diversity. A highlight of our service will be a special musical offering in Korean by our neighbor church Light Global Mission Church. Everyone is encouraged to dress in clothes that are native to your country of origin. The service will be immediately followed by an international pot-luck. Bring a dish to pass that reflects your heritage.
The Sunday following Easter is traditionally known as Low Sunday. This name has theological origins and is used to illustrate the contrast with Easter Sunday. While there may be these theological and liturgical reasons for the name, history also shows that it is a good summary of attendance. Frequently, the Sunday that follows Easter is one of the lowest attended Sundays. This low is highlighted by the stark juxtaposition to the often swelled crowds of Easter Sunday.
For Christ Presbyterian Church I believe we bucked the Low Sunday trend. This Low Sunday was anything but low for our congregation. Our congregational meeting and Worship were not only well attended, but also rife with the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection. Continue reading
I find it amazing how easy it is to get distracted by the negatives in life. Truth be told, lately I have allowed some of the struggles of life hold more weight than the positives. Some of this is due to the fact that I have been struggling with a nagging sickness that seems to want to hold on to me more than I want it to. The reality of the mind, spirit and body connection is one that we often only pay attention to when it’s too late. Yet we know that when one part of our bio-psycho-spiritual being is off, the rest are surly effected.
I also know that we live in a world that celebrates the negative. We live life surrounded by bad news. In 1982 Don Henley released the song, “Dirty Laundry.” Continue reading
The Following The Star Devotional is a daily online devotional with readings and soft music to help each day of Advent hold a special spiritaul meaning. Click the logo to be take to the page. (The Following The Star devotional doesn’t start until December 2nd, the first day of Advent.)
This is a video post of “The American Dream” by Casting Crowns. I have posted this to Facebook a few times but think that it’s a great follow up to last week’s blog post about “Taking Time to Be Holy.” Being a father, mother, child, neighbor and friend provide many opportunities to share Holiness with the world. Are we spending our time chasing the American Dream or are we finding ways to have balance and sharing ourselves with those around us.
I’m sure that many of you have seen the viral video of middle school student’s bullying a 68 year old bus monitor. The video, which I didn’t watch all of because I don’t want to allow such poison in my heart, has been viewed by over one million people (you can find it on YouTube. This has sparked a conversation about kids and how they are raised to treat others. For some this video has a voyeuristic appeal as they enjoy the meanness they watch. Others are being moved by this video to have conversations about civility and the practice of parenting. Continue reading
As the summer season begins, I was considering how over the past few years worship attendance at Christ Presbyterian Church hasn’t trailed off as much as it had historically. I hope that this reflects a positive spiritual reality in our worship. I have always been uneasy with the fact that during the summer you will find many Churches almost drop off the map.
During the summer, worship attendance falls, Sunday School shuts down and even pastoral calls seem to taper off. On one level, this is a very good thing. Giving teachers and students time to renew themselves can be a positive thing. Our practice of going to one service at 10 AM serves more than just a numerical need. Yes, it is true that as folks travel, our attendance drops, and by offering one service we have a larger congregation. More importantly, it allows the participants of our two services to worship together for two month in a unified service. Even the amount of pastoral calls or visits I make seem to lessen during the summer, even though it is a great time for such visits since I am freed from many of the other concerns that take my time. Continue reading
This past Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. Often we tout Pentecost as the “birthday of the church.” This is a great image and an easy way to connect kids with the concept that the coming of the Holy Spirit marked a special event in the life of those who follow Christ. On the other hand, this birthday image can fall short. There is more to Pentecost than what our contemporary birthday celebrations mean.
I have heard more than one person say at the occasion of a birthday, “Congratulations, you survived another year.” Birthdays mark a chronological advancement, but Pentecost is more than the fact that the Church has made it through another year of Christmas, Easter, Sunday School and all the rest of the things we do in our life together. Continue reading
I
n a conversation last week, I was told by someone who is a recent addition to a church choir how much they appreciated being “upfront” during Easter. This person had discovered that as a worship leader you must reorient your approach to worship in order to be both participant and leader. It is easy for those who are in worship leadership to become doers of worship. By that I mean that a leader can often find themselves in a place of making sure worship is right for everyone else and miss their own opportunity to worship. Continue reading
At last night’s Session meeting, the Session endorsed Christ Presbyterian’s participation in the Acts 16:5 Initiative. In previous Tidbits I have given some insight into the content of the Initiative and shared some of my esteem for its leader, Stan Ott. I believe that our participation in this program will assist our congregation in developing a solid vision of what God is leading us to. Stan affirms that, “the Acts 15:6 Initiative does not propose a simple checklist of things to do. Rather, it suggests a wide variety of practices and practical “next steps” that a congregation may take.” I’m excited to see how God works through this program to address our unique issues and achieve our congregation’s specific God-given mission.
I’m sure that most of you are wondering what this entails. Here is an outline of the Acts 16:5 Initiative. Continue reading