Category Archives: Christian Faith

February 21, 2015 · 8:47 am

Leadership and Lent

As of this past Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) we have officially entered into the spiritual season of Lent. You may or may not come from a faith or personal tradition that observes Lent, but let me invite you to think about the season in relationship to the ways and places where you are asked to provide leadership.

Lent, a word derived from an old Anglo-Saxon term “lencten” means “spring” – a time of lengthening of days. Most of us are probably ready to see the tangible signs of spring about now as we are mired in the grip of winter.

In the church we have patterned our Lenten observances after the 40 days of temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness following his baptism. Through a period of fasting and prayer we see Jesus facing the temptations of the Evil One to live and lead in a way that is inconsistent with his identity and God’s will. Jesus manages his response to Satan through his faith, his knowledge and application of the Scriptures, and the strength he finds in communion with God. Continue reading →

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December 30, 2014 · 10:35 am

Ringing in the New Year

The world has changed a lot since I was a kid. It’s the new year, and specifically “New Years” that makes me think of this. A family tradition of several years running in my growing up days was to attend the New Year’s Eve Watch Service at church. What’s that? It’s where you gather with folks at church to “watch” the new year come in.

Our celebrations were often filled with food, games and conversation in the church basement. I faintly remember one year when Father Time and Baby New Year made an appearance in some kind of dramatic presentation. I think this was imprinted on me as some adult relative played the part of Baby New Year, clad in nothing but a cloth diaper!

As the hands on the clock crept ever closer to midnight Continue reading →

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December 4, 2014 · 2:08 pm

Lo, Woe, Go . . . a Response of Advent

During these early days of Advent, as Thanksgiving has given way to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, ushering in the secular season of sales and anxious economic forecasts; one is left to ponder another response. Rather than unleash the credit or debit card, joining the throngs of holiday consumers, why not recover a little of the spiritual side of the season?

This season of waiting, expecting and hoping is pregnant with promise. It draws us to the nativity story and its fascinating cast of characters. Among them we find the shepherds, the true working men of this tale. They, like the other characters, have a story to tell, and a particular angle from which to tell it. Do you remember the shepherds? These character actors are discovered in Luke 2 between verses 8 and 20. A description of their brief foray unto the Nativity stage might be summarized in the words “lo”, “woe” and “go”.

Having drawn our attention to these shepherds abiding, Luke, Continue reading →

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November 19, 2014 · 4:37 pm

Contentment

Ask an average group of people what it would take, financially or materially, for them to feel content and you are likely to get a wide range of answers. Some would probably indicate a salary figure or set of material assets that is somewhat beyond their current reality. Bigger house, larger paycheck, better benefits = contentment. Others might talk in terms of paying off debt or having a steady job. Still others might be in a place where they are able to say, “I am content. I want for nothing.” The point is that financial contentment is a very subjective thing, often defined by personal circumstances and histories.

When my wife and I were first married we were poor college students. Continue reading →

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September 7, 2011 · 6:00 pm

Where Were You?

This Sunday in worship at FBC Columbus we will play a video featuring Alan Jackson’s song Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning? as a call to reflection and prayer on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  It’s one of those questions most of us know the answer to: Where were you?

I was just dropping our youngest child (then two years old) off at the babysitter’s when we stopped to watch the images unfolding on the morning news program playing on television.  We stood there in her living room horror-struck as we (like many of you) witnessed the second plane slam into the other twin tower.  The world changed that day.   It’s hard to believe it has been ten years, but that two-year old is now almost as tall as her mother and has hardly known a world without the threat of terror.

It seems every generation has had their “where were you” question(s).  Where were you when . . . . Pearl Harbor was bombed? . . . President Kennedy was shot? . . . MLK was assassinated?. . . .  the Challenger exploded?  Sometimes we even turn the question around and ask it of God.  “Where were you, God?” is asked in a manner consistent with, “How could you let this happen?”. Continue reading →

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