November 12, 2014 · 11:37 am

Cultivating Gratitude

My agricultural heritage often surfaces in my thinking.  A recent case in point would be my work on a stewardship sermon on the theme of “gratitude.”  I keep coming back to the thought that gratitude requires cultivation.  To become a truly grateful person, one must work at or develop that quality.  One must cultivate gratitude.  Agree?

Let me further puzzle this one out with you:  Cultivation is all about preparing, developing, and improving soil conditions for maximum growth and production.  A well cultivated garden or field is absent the invasion of weeds that compete for nutrients.  It also contains soil that has been worked up, broken up, and made ready to receive seed or plants.  And it may benefit from some additive fertilizer, or a cover crop that has been tilled under.  These small but important steps will yield a more productive crop from a well cultivated environment.

Isn’t the same true of cultivation of our lives? Continue reading →

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November 12, 2014 · 1:58 am

God’s Abundance All Around

The motto for our regional body, the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky, is “Together on God’s Abundant Journey”. It’s a phrase our Executive Minister, the Rev. Soozi Whitten Ford, has introduced through her ministry among us. The Scripture reference Soozi draws from for this thinking is Ephesians 3:14-21:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with the power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. (vv. 14-19 NRSV)

Now, that’s quite a prayer! 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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September 2, 2011 · 12:07 am

Continuing the Conversation

As someone who has the opportunity to speak to a group of people almost every Sunday through the medium of preaching – and someone with a communications background – I’ve always thought of what I do as beginning the conversation.  Perhaps I begin it interpersonally with a congregant or more who follow up during the week with a comment, question, or remark.  Or, perhaps I spark a conversation a listener/participant has with God in their own prayer life.  Or, maybe what I started in 20 or so minutes on a Sunday morning is continued in conversation between family members or friends later that day or week.  This summer I have enjoyed using a monthly sermon feedback forum to continue the conversation with those who’ve participated in our faith community after worship. 

This blog is my effort at opening another venue for “continuing the conversation”.  I hope some who read and respond are part of our faith community at FBC Columbus.  And I hope there might be others who join in as well.  My intent is to post some musings, questions and thoughts regarding a theme I’m working with.  Reflection is always richer when its collaborative, so here’s another medium through which to do so.  Let’s continue the conversation  . . . .

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