Pastors Blog
The Deep Calling is about making space for God in the every day, bearing witness to transformation in the ordinary. It’s about knowing truth and experiencing Truth. It’s about learning to listen to the voice of God. It’s about satisfying your longing with the only One who can satisfy your soul. All are invited. All are welcome to answer the deep call of God.
Parents/Caregivers are the primary disciplers of their children. Pastors, chaplains, teachers, coaches and mentors are wonderful support, but cannot supplant the powerful impact a Christian father, mother, caregiver plays in the spiritual development of a child.
To support the role of parents and caregivers in the spiritual development of their families, especially in the lives of their students, we have some great training and inspirational opportunities for you to consider…
I recently went to run an errand. I was tired and I wanted to go into the establishment, complete the task at hand, and go home. I had on a hat, sunglasses, and a look on my face that was probably not very approachable. As I went about my task, I wasn’t necessarily unkind, but I can only imagine that my tired demeanor didn’t send out the warmest of messages to the people whose livelihood was wrapped up in my missional errand. When I was done and I began to drive home, I wondered why I hadn’t been more friendly to those I had encountered? Perhaps someone who had been in my presence could have used a smile or an encouraging word. Yet I had chosen to go through my errand with a disguise, completed only by my sour look, instead…
Devotional Reading: Ephesians 5: 1-2
Board Devotional — Week 5
by Pastor Kevin Wells
Unity as a reality has been scarce these past couple of years in the world, and sadly in the Church as well, as we have squabbled over politics, Covid-19, social justice, and sundry other items. In most circumstances the position one takes on these issues is not nearly as dire as we are wont to think. For most people with healthy immune systems to mask or not to mask isn’t going to make or break either their lives or personal liberties.
We are a church family called to reach out to those in need. But what does that even mean? To reach, by definition, is to stretch out an arm in a specified direction in order to touch or grasp something. If this is true, then to reach has to be an intentional movement that requires purpose and effort. Reaching is not simply stretching aimlessly, but rather a pattern of precise outward movements with the objective to get to a specific destination and touch or hold something. By definition, it is impossible to reach without having an aim, a goal, a clear vision.
Devotional Reading: Matthew 25:40
Board Devotional - Week 3
It’s too easy. It’s too easy for us to read this small passage and think that the Pharisees were so hard-headed and legalistic. We are quick to say that it is obvious that they didn’t understand what Jesus was about. Time after time in the gospels, we see these sorts of conversational clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees and too often we think, what is so difficult about understanding the love that Jesus was preaching?
Remember when you were in junior high? The awkward hairdos, the braces, the acne. The way your jeans would fit one day but become highwater jeans the very next day! Was that just me? We all wanted to grow up as quickly as possible, but growing came in slow, little, uncomfortable, embarrassing, sometimes messy spurts. Looking back, as much as I hate to admit it, I realize that although each phase of adolescence was tough, each phase had value and was necessary.
Devotional Reading: John 15: 4-5
Devotional Reading: Romans 15:1-18
Grace is a word that we use many different ways in English. It can be a title (Your Grace). It can refer to elegant or refined movement. We say grace at meals and give grace periods around due dates. We have the grace to admit we are wrong one day, and pompously grace others with our presence the next.
It’s a malleable term.
A devotional reflection on Genesis 12: 1-2 by Pastor Heidi C Jackson.
My younger son is convinced that he is in fact a superhero. To be honest, I’m pretty convinced he is one too. I’ve gone so far as to purchase a superhero suit for him, (complete with an eye mask), to help him hide his true identity when chasing bad guys and fighting crime. When he was younger, he asked me about a tiny birthmark on his face. He wondered why it was there. I told him that I was pretty sure that every superhero had a special mark, and perhaps that was his.
The Gospel is not an after thought. God planned long before all of the creation to provide for the deliverance of humankind from the consequences of sin. The implications of this are astounding, or rather humbling to say the least. This is central to Christian doctrine. But have you stopped and thought deeply about what this means to you personally?
Ephesians 1:3-5
When she was tiny, just barely able to talk, one day my niece reached up to me to be held. Once she was at eye level, the first words out of her mouth were, “Alli, I have a plan.” She proceeded to tell me that she was coming to my house to stay the night. And that we would watch Daniel Tiger and eat ice cream. We had a lovely time. All according to the blueprint she had laid out.
Isaiah 35
As I sit down to write this first post of the new year I have to admit that I’m wishing I hadn’t signed up for this particular week. There’s no one to blame but me since it is an assignment I gave myself, but I’m still finding the process hard.
You see, today is one of those days that carries a heavy personal significance. We all have them. Days we dread, not because of any terrible new thing we anticipate happening, but because of the story we know is already married to the date. Nothing changes on “the day”. The narrative has already been written. The story is the same now as it was the day before and as it will be the day after, but somehow the marker of the specific date makes the realities more acutely felt.
Today is one of my days. Tomorrow may be one of yours.
