Category Archives: Ministry

November 22, 2017 · 3:40 pm

A Prayer at Thanksgiving

In this blog post I want to share a Thanksgiving prayer. I expected to write something somewhat traditional along the lines of recounting the many blessings for which we can offer thanks to God.  And while there is an abundance of such blessing to recount – for which I am thankful – the prayer that began to form in my heart and mind went a different direction.  This prayer is much more one of intercession for things in the news over the past year that many find troubling.  As a pastor I have seen the effects the deterioration in our national dialogue has had on friends, families and the church.  Perhaps you have as well.  If so I invite you to join me in this prayer at Thanksgiving.

 A Prayer at Thanksgiving

O God, in the noise and clutter of a confused and troubled world, help us to hear you. Continue reading →

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October 26, 2017 · 3:48 pm

Connect

This Sunday at FBC Columbus we begin a three-week stewardship emphasis using the theme “Connect, Grow, Serve”.  We will be thinking about connections and connecting this week through an interesting passage of Scripture: Matthew 12:46-50.

As I have stopped to reflect on this theme I became aware of just how often I have used this word “connect”, or some version of it, in ministry. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2017 · 6:05 pm

Living Interactively With God

In my sermon today in the series “Be the Message” I drew on the wisdom of Dallas Willard and his work on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the “attitudes that ought to be” (or Beatitudes).  Willard said that living a good life, or being a good person, is learning to live “interactively with God”.  He suggests that this is what Jesus is speaking about in his famous sermon when he describes persons who are “blessed.”  Jesus does this by offering a quite unlikely list of 8 different characteristics: poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted (for righteousness sake). Those who live in this way are “blessed” or content because they are in tune with the things of God, the ways of God, and the will of God.  They are living “interactively” with God.

That may seem to us a high bar of a goal.  Perhaps even unattainable in our own merit, and therefore unreachable.  But it’s the life that Jesus modeled, and the life that he calls us toward.  A friend, having listened to the sermon, commented that living interactively with God today might be thought of as having a 24/7 FaceTime encounter with God. Continue reading →

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September 25, 2017 · 10:07 pm

Discovering What God Has in Mind

One of our dear more mature members (let’s just say she’s in her 10th decade on this earth) remarked to me Sunday as she left worship: “I ask the Lord every morning what he wants me to do today.  He generally has something in mind.” She put in two sentences what I had just tried to say in about a twenty-five minute sermon.

As we strive to “be the message” by finding God’s purpose for our day . . .  week, month, year, life . . . we would do well to begin with her question: “What do you want me to do with this day (week, month, year, life) Lord?”  But, having asked the question, we then need to be in a listening posture to discover what the Lord has in mind. Continue reading →

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September 18, 2017 · 8:56 pm

Love the One in Front of You

Bethemessage

Our church is in the midst of a five week emphasis called “Be The Message” utilizing a resource published by Kerry & Chris Shook.  One of the most memorable pieces of this emphasis so far for me has been the phrase “love the one in front of you”.  Chris Shook introduces the phrase in one of the videos as she describes an encounter she had with a woman in the grocery check out.  She was frustrated with this woman who was completely disorganized and unable to focus on paying for her groceries.  In a hurry herself, Shook could feel her irritation building until the woman shared with the clerk that she had just come from her daughter’s first chemo treatment and she was trying to find something at the store that her daughter could eat without it upsetting her stomach.

Shook was reminded that everyone, including the one directly in front of you, has a story.  Our calling as followers of Jesus is to “love the one in front of you”.  Continue reading →

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