Personal and Family Devotions Wednesday, March 18th Grace and Peace to you! Throughout this crisis, I’ll be sending you devotions/studies with some readings and questions, along with some links for songs and hymns. I’ll try to include some great quotes too (Hey, I love quotes!) to help us discover wisdom from the past to live well right now. These are unprecedented days for us with the unexpected rushing at high velocity into our lives. These are not unprecedented experiences, however, in history, making this a season in which we can draw on the experiences of those who’ve gone before us,... Read this post

Personal and Family Devotions March 17, 2020 Readings Today: Romans 8:31-39; John 16:32-33; Psalm 91 A Joyous St. Patrick’s Day to All! There’s a short version of this great prayer, usually confined to the last several lines, beginning with ‘Christ with me, Christ before me…’. Since my middle name is Patrick, and since I was supposed to be in Ireland today, I’m including the entire prayer for your devotions today. As you pray through this magnificent supplication and confession, you will discover in fresh ways what we noted yesterday in Romans 8 – God sends his Spirit and strength to... Read this post

Personal and Family Devotions Monday, March 16th Grace and Peace to you! Throughout this crisis, I’ll be sending you devotions/studies with some readings and questions, along with some links for songs and hymns. I’ll try to include some great quotes too (Hey, I love quotes!) to help us discover wisdom from the past to live well right now. These are unprecedented days for us with the unexpected rushing at high velocity into our lives. These are not unprecedented experiences, however, in history, making this a season in which we can draw on the experiences of those who’ve gone before us,... Read this post

Beloved Christ Community Members and Friends, Grace and Peace. This Sunday, March 15, we are canceling all gathered worship services. We will offer Live-Stream worship services at 8:30 and 11:00 AM. This Sunday, I will be preaching from Romans 8:26-39 and our full liturgy will be available in a downloadable format for your family and small group to use. * C3 Children’s Ministry Director Becky Clark will also be making a downloadable children’s lesson available. * C3 Next Gen Pastor Charles Johnson will be in communication with Student Ministries families in the coming week. Follow the links below to join... Read this post

‘#GirlDad’ is going viral and understandably so. Asked by someone whether he and his wife Vanessa might have another child in hopes of a son being born, blessed as they were already with daughters, Kobe Bryant responded, “I’m a girl-dad.” For Kobe, there was nothing out of balance with being a dad to ‘only’ girls – and thank heavens for that response. His late daughter Gigi backed him up too. When it was suggested that Bryant needed a son to carry on his sports legacy, Gigi answered, “I’ve got this.” From all accounts, she did. She was a gifted player,... Read this post

Clarity and Charity 2 The Foundation of Christian Sexual Ethics 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 January 12, 2020 As we noted last week in Paul’s earliest letter, addressed to the Thessalonians, Christians are called to sacrificial love and sexual holiness. * Holiness is not rigid and repulsive but beautiful in every way. We worship in “the beauty of holiness” – Ps 29 There are many competing voices today on both love and holiness and whether eternal standards for such matters even exist. As a Christian community, we are looking at the documents, at the teaching of Jesus Christ and his Apostles on... Read this post

Clarity and Charity 1 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10 January 5, 2020 Paul was with these people only a brief time before persecution forced him out of the city and down to Athens and then on to Corinth. This was a small fledgling Christian Community to whom Paul wrote and this is the first letter Paul ever sent to a church. That makes it the first document of the Christian Scriptures. That’s important to know – when we read this passage we are getting a sense of ‘firsts’, of the basics for what Paul wanted in life for those who called themselves... Read this post

One We Struggle in this Conversation – Our Own Sins (and shame) – Our Own Suffering (abuse and temptation) – The Church’s Failures Abuse of children and women Self-Righteousness and Neglect – The Pace of Cultural Change Acceleration and Language Two Why We Need this Series 1. Declare the Whole Counsel of God – The Bible is not anti-sex; exactly the opposite! 2. Deal with Falsehoods – Permissiveness and Culture Warriorism 3. Deal with Confusion and Questions 4. Open Up Avenues of Healing – These broken places can be healed 5.Open Up Hearts to Gospel-Shaped Living – Concerns for our... Read this post

This is about the Salvation Army and the people who so hate what it believes that it will seek to cripple its ability to help the most poor and marginal of people, regardless of what those people believe. It is not about Chicken or about whether a corporation can do what it wants within the law with the funds that are theirs to steward. It is about a popular myth. That myth is that Christian organizations which do great good in the community will be left alone by those who cannot abide their traditional Christian stands on sexual ethics; that... Read this post

The aesthetics of worship are always a source of both inspiration and conflict. From sound, light, color, and clothing to bread, wine, oil, and water the elements that constitute the look and feel of worship are massively important and even defining of what a church is all about. Think about it. If a Pastor stands on a large platform behind a plexiglass pulpit wearing a Hawaiian print shirt and skinny jeans, and is surrounded by guitar stands, his image broadcast on large screens in a room without windows and illuminated by theater lights, you know that’s a particular kind of... Read this post