Thoughts from our Pastors and Guests

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Personal fear, or lack thereof, is not our main concern when deciding how to respond to COVID-19. Loving our neighbor as ourself is. Facebook rant. News of another case in Illinois. California counties shutting down. Facebook rant. Italy pauses mortgage payments. Facebook rant. With one simple scroll on a screen our minds consume conflicting messages about COVID-19. It s...

Last Saturday morning I was listening to the radio and all the news was about COVID-19 (a.k.a. Coronavirus). Italy cancelled school for the entire country because of Coronavirus. A cruise ship off the coast of San Francisco was being quarantined because of Coronavirus. The stock market is falling because of Coronavirus, and stores have run out of toilet paper, water and ha...

Lent, the forty days before Easter (not counting Sundays), is a somewhat curious period in the Church's calendar. Most things in the Church's year are festivals and we happily talk about celebrating them. Lent is very different: it is a minor-key period which is never 'celebrated' but only 'kept'. Some churches and Christians treat Lent very seriously, while others ignore ...

Reflections on Kobe Bryant's Death Like the rest of America I was both shocked and saddened to hear the news that Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and 7 other passengers died tragically in a helicopter crash last Sunday afternoon in Calabassas, California. As I listened to the ESPN reporters and guests trying to make sense of it all, one of the themes that emerged was h...

Our daughter Maddie, a college senior, was stressing about her serious lack of funds over Christmas break. She had an appendectomy on December 1st and due to complications post-surgery she wasn't able to work all month. I kept telling her, "The Lord knows what you need." And then I would anxiously pray, "Lord, HELP!" The Scriptures tell us that we walk by faith and not by ...

We were created for community. And we need to be in healthy community in order to grow and become the people God calls us to be. But when we isolate and pull away from community there are serious consequences. Here are at least four consequences of not being in community: Lost perspective When we live isolated lives we have no outside objective voice to speak into our li...

Wonderful. Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. Grand Arsonist? No. Jesus did not come to set fire to the Roman Empire. He was concerned with stoking the flames in our hearts. He does this by being Immanuel when we read God's word. This Advent season we have focused on what Immanuel, God with us, means for us. Immanuel means hope, peace, joy, and l...

We've heard of the three wise men, but have you heard of the three wise women? Check out this post from Canon J. John to find out who they are. In any sort of drama production lighting is important, with the spotlight falling on the important characters and everybody else hidden in the shadows. Modern life is a little bit like that. Some people are never out of the spotli...