Church Stuff
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All You Need is Love
Tomorrow is my first Sunday as the lead pastor of a church. We’re talking about love. In preparing for my first sermon at this church, I was all ready to talk about planting the Gospel, keeping pure motives, and all that kind of charge-the-hill stuff. But then God really pressed on my heart that the… Continue reading
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Podcasting & Stuff
By the way, it might take a couple weeks, but I’m hoping to start podcasting our services as soon as possible. We’re also in the process of searching for a new name for the church. Any ideas? Once we get that settled, we’re going for a new sign and can get going on a new… Continue reading
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Who’s That?
The church I started pastoring this week has a preschool called the Training Station. I have a feeling it’s going to be a great source of inspiration and entertainment. A few minutes ago I got to sit in on the Bible story that Ms. Grace taught. It was great! She really has a gift for… Continue reading
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“Mennonite? Huh?”
Quite a few people the past couple weeks have asked me about Mennonite beliefs. On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, we live close enough to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania to have people confuse Eastern Shore Mennonites with the Amish. A little explanation: Mennonite theology and doctrine is very similar to that of other biblically-based denominations. The only… Continue reading
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Newark Calvary Fellowship
The Calvary Chapel was cool. It was called Newark Calvary Fellowship. The worship music was excellent–just a couple guitars and vocalists, and people really seemed to be into it. Very worshipful atmosphere. The pastor preached a message on James 3:1-12, and he did a really good job illustrating it and explaining its meaning. The people… Continue reading
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Going to the Chapel and We’re… (insert music)
It feels strange not to go to SonRise today, but it’s not because we’ve left already. We’re visiting Carolyn’s sister Kristen and her husband Michael. They go to church at a Calvary Chapel. I’m really looking forward to checking it out. I’ll blog about it later. Continue reading
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New Job… And So Much More
On Monday night I met with the Mennonite Church in Ocean City, and they “affirmed” (that’s a nice Mennonite word) me as their new pastor. The next step is for me to meet with the Leadership Team to work out details. I’m guessing I’ll probably officially begin in May. I’ll keep you posted. It’s sad… Continue reading
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My (Probably) Last SonRise Sermon
This morning I’m preaching what is likely to be my last sermon at SonRise Church for a while. It’s kind of funny–my first sermon at SonRise, before I came on staff, was the week after Easter (in 2004). My last sermon at SonRise, after leaving the staff, is also the week after Easter. So it’s… Continue reading
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Really Cool Live Painting Video
Seems like I’ve been posting a lot of videos lately, but oh well. I can do that–haha. Enjoy this one. It’s a little long (about nine minutes) but very much worth it. Continue reading
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Lessons from Preaching: Interacting With Your Listeners
In my preaching, I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way: through experience. I keep a running file of mistakes I make in preaching and what I’ve learned from them. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned about crowd interaction while preaching: (1) Since people’s thoughts are guided by associations, be highly selective in… Continue reading
Surfing the Inner N8 