Helping Build Hope

September 26, 2021
My dad had a plaque on the wall by his work bench that said, “Work fascinates me.  I can sit and look at it for hours.”  I don’t know who…

Consider it Pure JOY!

September 12, 2021
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds."    I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the Jewish Christians who were…

“Celebration Sunday”

September 5, 2021
Over a month ago, when I planned worship for today back, I decided, let’s call this Celebration Sunday.  I figured, it’s Labor Day weekend—our last chance to enjoy summer before…
  When I was in seminary, I had a professor who used the term, “huckster religion” to describe people he thought were peddling theology that sounded good, but was not…
I remember that one of my favorite things as a child was getting the Highlights Magazine in the mail.  This was almost as exciting for me as ordering books from…

“A Simple System”

August 15, 2021
Our scripture lesson today reminds me of John Wesley’s Three Simple Rules.  Rule #1:  Do No Harm.  Rule #2:  Do Good.  Rule #3:  Stay in love with God.  These three…

“Be A Blessing”

August 8, 2021
Have you ever cursed someone?  Paul writes, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”  I imagine if we took an anonymous poll, a decent number of us…

“Just Do It”

August 1, 2021
In our scripture lesson today, Paul gives us his ”Ten Commandments of Christian Community”: Love must be sincere—or as Eugene Peterson put it in his Message translation, “Love from the…
What is your favorite thing about Christmas?  In an effort to get better at technology, this week I used an app called Poll Everywhere to ask 25 people from our…