Living In The World of Psalm 24
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe The reading for last week included Psalm 24. Although it immediately follows the most famous Psalm, apart from a verse or two made popular by a variety of worship songs, Psalm 24 is not one of my “go to” Psalms. It made me wonder what else I was missing right around Psalm 23. Psalm 22 is a plea for help in the midst of nearly unimaginable suffering. It is perhaps best known for containing a direct
The Toughest Person to Forgive
What a gorgeous day! Hopefully you can get out today and enjoy it a bit. First things first – this Monday is Memorial Day, and we’re marching in the parade again – so check out those details below.Last Sunday, we kicked off a new series on forgiveness called Easier Said Than Done. We heard about what forgiveness is, and why it truly is ‘easier said than done’. It costs a lot, as we learn to absorb the cost in forgiveness.
Unity Among Us
This morning at our men’s bible study, we kicked off a new study on Paul’s letter to the Romans. It’s a big letter, covering all manner of things – but the (easily overlooked) intention of the letter is what we spent the most time on today: The pivotal importance of the unity of the church. For the Romans, it was a matter of the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians learning not just to get along, but to love one another and
It’s Not the Chocolate that Matters
When I asked my sons, Luke and Jacob, what I should write about for this month's blog they began to rattle off a slew of silly things, then Luke said, “you should write about Wonka.” “Yeah! We just watched that at our Youth Group movie night, it’s perfect,” exclaimed Jacob. At first I chuckled as they continued their list of silly things. But I couldn’t shake it. It did seem perfect. Not just because we switched our movie at Central Youth’s movie
Called To Be…
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe. As we enter the book of Romans in our Bible readings, I am struck by one of the opening items in Paul’s greeting. He starts his letter with “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”. In particular, I was drawn to Paul’s statement that he was “called” to be an apostle. Most of us know the story of Paul’s conversion and Christ’s direct intervention
Reflections on Dinner Church
As I discussed in last week’s email, last Sunday we had the privilege of visiting Dinner Church at First Baptist of Red Bank. If you missed that email, you can read it here, but essentially, Dinner Church is a ministry of FBC Red Bank where they put on two meals per week for anyone and everyone in town who is lacking for food and/or human connection. The hope is to form relationships with the attendees that can lead to new or growing relationships
Come to the Feast
As you may or may not know, this Sunday is the next “ABCNJ North Shore Rally”. 'What is that?', you might be asking….good question. Should I consider attending it? Even better question. Why? The best question. So here’s some answers. What is it?Central is an “American Baptist Church” – that's the “ABC” in the title of the rally. Since we are in New Jersey, we are a member of the ABCNJ (the NJ chapter of the ABC). And, the ABCNJ is
Reminder: People are Great
On Monday, I was reminded of something that we all need to be reminded of at times: People are great. Like, when you really get to know a person – most people – if not all - are great. But so often we don’t get to know them, and so we misjudge and miss it. I was reminded of this on Monday at a funeral that I had the privilege of being a part of. It was for a woman named Courtney who was
The Value of Light
By Rebecca DeLucia, Next Generation Pastor Over spring break last week my 5 year old nephew came to visit. We took him to the Planetarium and the show we saw was about two kids searching for answers about space. Questions ranged from, “How far away is the sun?” to “What is it like to be an astronaut?” The final question they needed to answer was, “What makes Earth so special?” It cutely used the answers to
A New Dawn
Hello! I hope you’re staying dry and cheery in a week that is wet and dreary (ok, that’s enough rhyming…). Last Sunday was Easter – and it was a great one! Our own service was lovely – as was our Good Friday service. It was so nice to be with you to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord. But I want to just highlight the sunrise service for a moment. If you didn’t brave the alarm clock to get