all of the distraction and wrestling and frustration yesterday with my sermon… and in the two weeks worth of conversations on membership and discipleship really paid off this morning. I think my number one goal was to get us to admit as a congregation (and as the church) that our current journey of faith –…
Becoming Disciples through: Accountability and Practice
1. Our life of faith is a journey Later on in today’s service, the life of faith will begin for this little girl as her parents and family bring her forward to be baptized. As the water is poured over her head and the Holy Spirit fills her life nm, we are remembering that God…
distracted
This morning I have spent three and a half hours in front of my computer attempting to work on my sermon. So far I have nothing but a title, but I have accomplished such other things as: found an excellent debt reduction calculator for excel as I think about whether or not I can manage…
FF: Bucket List
From Rev Gals: Do you have a “Bucket List”? In other words, from the movie ofthe same name, five things you want to see, do, accomplish, etc. before you kickthe bucket? I actually don’t have a “bucket list”! I have a friend who I know has all of these lists of things that she wants…
no words…
New York RegionNew Riverside Pastor’s Compensation Splits CongregationBy PAUL VITELLOPublished: April 23, 2009Parishioners have filed a lawsuit to stop the installation of the Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton, who they say will receive more than $600,000 a year and will shift the church’s mission. He’s a former preaching professor of mine from Vanderbilt. And I…
knock-knock
I have posted on here many times that home visitation is not my strength. And if I’m to be honest with myself, even though it is the number one priority of my PPR, it’s not as high as it should be when I sit down and schedule myself for the week. And reason #1 –…
making members, making disciples
At my church, we have a pretty significant number of people who are “constituents” of our church and not official members. For various reasons, these people want to be an active part of our congregation but do not want to take the vows of membership and officially become United Methodist. And yet, many of those…
soil conservation
This morning, I preached a sermon on soil conservation. Yah, it may seem like a strange topic – and definately not in line with any lectionary passages or a sermon series. But this spring, I auctioned off a sermon during our youth fundraiser. And the winning bidder got to choose the topic or scripture for…