The Tragedy of Christmas Trees
Two Sundays ago, I spoke about my family's Christmas tree – how it fell, shattered a bunch of prized ornaments, and dispersed irremovable blue glitter forever into my world…some of you have asked me how it’d doing – and I’m happy to report it is still standing, crooked, leaning backwards, a bit pathetic, but it’s there lighting up our living room! But it is dying. Christmas trees, from the moment they’re cut down, are either dead or dying (however you want to
Mary’s Steps of Faith
Throughout December in the women’s bible study, we’ve been taking a careful look at the story of Mary in Luke 1, and have had some fantastic discussions. It’s a perfect Advent bible study to focus on with the women – especially in a year where we are focusing on discipleship, taking steps of faith, and learning to follow Jesus. Mary’s faith – among many other things – is a model for each of us to grow from. Before I go on, take a
The Bible is So Cool!
A blog by Rebecca DeLucia, Next Generation Pastor "The bible is so cool!" I wish I could have captured the look on the child's face as they said this on a Sunday morning. We had just finished our November series called “Unsung Heroes” which covered the book of Ruth. If you aren’t familiar with the Central Kids curriculum we use, called GROW, it has a big idea each week. For the November series the four big ideas were: God gives us companions, God gives
Irresponsible Responsibility?
This morning on the way in for our men’s bible study, I was listening to a song called “Irresponsible” by JUDAH. and J. Monty (the song is a bit outside of my normal listening patterns, but I kind of like it…no worries if you do not!). Anyway, the chorus kind of hit me this morning – especially as tomorrow is Thanksgiving (a day where we give thanks, and are reminded to live as grateful people):And I just wanna say that
We Must Learn To Pray. We Have To.
This past Sunday, along with this week of Step Groups (from Discipleship Essentials), is all about prayer. If you missed the sermon, you can check it out right here, but the main point was this (in the words of Tim Keller): We must learn to pray.We have to. At the end of the sermon, I suggested that if you struggle with ‘rudderless’ prayer - or just want some structure or help for your prayer, you could try following a guide or something along those
Visions…
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe. Our Bible reading for this week takes us to the book of Revelation. It is a book centered around the vision John experienced while exiled on the island of Patmos. Although I have personally never experienced a vision that I would attribute to God (most of my visions are likely attributable to eating entirely too much before bedtime), the use of visions in the Bible to communicate important information from God is well documented. Old
Survival of the Fittest
I usually find our Wednesday morning men’s bible study conversations fascinating. Today was no different. So much so that it inspired what I wanted to share with you today.With the men’s bible study, we’ve been slowly working our way through Paul’s most ambitious letter – Romans. Today, we spent a lot of time on two deep, challenging, and rich verses from Romans 12: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living
The Next Four Years
Well, it’s Wednesday. The election is over, and someone won…or maybe they’re still counting votes – I don’t know…because I’m writing this on Tuesday morning before the polls opened or a single state was called! So I don’t know whether Harris or Trump (or the third party surprise write-in!) will be our President for the next four years. But regardless of who our next President will be, what will we be for the next four years? We will be the church of Jesus Christ. We will
Mourn With Those Who Mourn
I hope you’re able to enjoy this beautiful fall day a bit. Go out for a walk and appreciate God’s good creation. Also – tomorrow is Halloween – so thank you to all who are going to give out candy here at Central (as well as those who donated it). It’s a great chance to be a light in our town. (Also note: Sunday is Daylight Savings "fall back"!) The big news of course, which weighs heavily on all of our
Intentional or Not…
On Sunday, our fall “Step Up” discipleship series began, and this week, our Step Groups are kicking off. It’s an exciting week around here! (By the way, if you didn’t get your book – we have them at the building now!)As I was going through the material in “Discipleship Essentials,” the book that is guiding our Step Groups, I was continually struck by one word: intentional. He uses the word in the “Core Truth” for the week:Discipling is an intentional relationship in which