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When most people think of churches and Pastors, no doubt the focus is on Sunday.  Yet with an average 50-hour work week, the Sunday service is just one part of what Pastor’s do.  

We crave connection.  One form of counterfeit connection is more along the lines of projection, aligned around our effort to appear a certain way, to display our lives in a certain light however far that might indeed deviate from the reality of who we know ourselves to be.

We crave slowing down. We yearn, most days, for a slower, more sustainable pace to our lives.How can then we learn to slow down this summer?We can find it by a practicing a daily Sabbath moment.Let’s begin with this – that slowing down is a command. God clearly commanded rest via the 4th of the...

I read a fascinating question recently courtesy of author Andy Couch. He asked, “Are you more strident today than you were 10 years ago?” For the vast majority of respondents, the answer is “yes”. Couch’s working hypothesis is that our stridency increased proportionally with the growth of social...

Whether we are talking about a closet, a shed, or the basement, I imagine many of us witness the same process.

As we end this fiscal year, we are within striking distance of reaching our fundraising goal for NewChurch Live. When we support NewChurch Live, we support the many services this congregation/ community offers. Some of those are public. Others are quieter, centering around pastoral care, service...

It was the third person I witnessed experiencing a drug overdose. Frightening. They do indeed turn blue. And all three, thankfully, survived.This person, last Tuesday, overdosed while eating dinner at a local shelter. Many miracles obviously but one particularly striking was the gentle, un-anxious...

The end of another school year is here and as we all catch our breath after what feels like a whirlwind from spring sports, end of year concerts, teacher gifts and commencement ceremonies, it can feel like there is no time to breathe. No time to take it all in and reflect on what just happened. You...

Two communication plans….

Pete Davis writes beautifully of the need to find worthwhile commitments in our lives, commitments beyond ourselves, commitments that serve.  

We share broken hearts this morning around the shootings in Texas that took the lives of 21 people, 19 of which were elementary school children. How do our hearts hold all this?The basic choice, I imagine, is this … do our hearts expand or do our hearts contract?Contraction is an easy and...

As we sat in a recent Zoom call, each of us in turn spoke of the challenges of apathy in the fragmented times in which we find ourselves.  Why has this apparent apathy grown?

Fundraising is not our goal. Let me repeat that. Fundraising is not our goal. We have shared this repeatedly over the years and it continues to be true. Fundraising is, however, the single most powerful way you can support our congregation.

In his recent book, Dedicated, author Pete Davis noted how those we most often admire carry, at their core, a set of unshakeable commitments or deep set of beliefs.  These long-haul heroes have simply kept at it for years or even decades in their quest for creating a kinder world.

As many of us do, I find myself going back often to books and writers I admire. At no time is this more true than when I’m pondering topics upon which I respect their opinions, thoughts, or feelings. I find, often, the questions they ask provide me with the mindset and mindframe to explore my own...