Category: Christian Living
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Behold, unexpected joy
There is a baby boy on the floor next to me, crawling around the living room, exploring. Everything in this babies life is defined by one emotion: Joy. We hold him but his joy is something you behold. It sneaks up on you and slaps you when you least expect it. Bam! Joy, joy, joy,…
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Deliver us from evil
Lawsuit alleges sex abuse at Concord Church Former Danbury youth pastor accepts deal, to be sentenced November 2nd Youth Pastor suspected of preying on North Bay girl Former youth pastor arrest for theft Youth pastor sentenced for sexual assault If you hang out in Churchland you’ll almost never hear of evil in the church. We…
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Dispatches from the land of Hope
My dear friends of Despair, I know you are tired. Despair is an exhausting existence. As you know I was a resident there for many years. I know that each day is much the same. You spend countless hours looking for nourishment, feeding on things of no nutritional value, then falling asleep with the horrifying…
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Hold the reigns tightly
I’ll never forget the first time I rode a horse. Growing up in the city meant that horses just weren’t part of my life. I remember seeing horses as a kid at parades. At the county fair in the horse barns. Or occasionally at big football game when the police brought in horses for crowd control. And…
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The Community – Individual Continuum
Theologically, we all know that you can’t experience the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus without community. Jesus invites us not to merely partake in communion but to live in communion with one another. (A throwback to the Garden of Eden) Sociologically, we live in society built around the individual. We live in single family…
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The Joy of Jumping
As someone who has just jumped from the known to the great unknown allow me to tell you: It’s exhilarating. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…
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Love God, Hate People
In 2003, on my last day attending the first church I ever worked at, an elder cornered me in the parking lot in an attempt to affirm me. “Adam, one thing I really like about you is that you seem to really love all different types of people. Where did you learn to do that?” …
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LTM trips
I love short-term mission trips. Many of my most significant spiritual break throughs, both as a participant and as a pastor, have come on trips to far away places doing exotic things. But I can’t run from the fact that Jesus has called me to a Long-term Mission trip right in my neighborhood. To love…
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Make it Count
http://vimeo.com/26442053 Dan Stevers, the video guy at our church, made this for church. You can buy this one here. ($15) So powerful.
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5 Ways Your Church can be Good News to Unemployed Young Adults
A Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Wednesday said 745,000 more job seekers between 16 and 24 years old were unemployed from April to July. That compares with an increase of 571,000 among the same age group last summer. In July, the share of young people who were employed was 48.8%, marking a record low…