Last week, I told you how I started the Psalms in my yearly bible reading plan – and I encouraged you to read Psalm 1. Today I opened my bible reading app, and the Psalms for today were 22, 23, and 24.  Dynamite Psalms. Psalm 22 – for anyone who is (or has been or will be) struggling with God – is an amazing Psalm for you. In fact, when Jesus struggled MIGHTILY with God (on the cross, no less), he found the opening words of Psalm 22

I love the bible. I hope you do too.  It’s possible you don’t, which I totally understand.  After all, it is an ancient book from another culture that is thousands of years old, written in different languages to different people, and on a good day, can still be very hard to understand.  But I still love it. And for as difficult it is to ‘get’, and for all of the amazing reading aids that are out there, nothing replaces simply reading it.  Each year, I

Last week, Amanda and I had a chance to go to the American Baptist Church’s Biennial Conference in Puerto Rico. It was an excellent trip.  After what my family and I had been through with the loss of my sister, it was a perfect few days away for us to rest, recover, explore, and learn. We loved our time in Puerto Rico, especially the rain forest there (it was seriously great!). The beauty of it reminded me of how beautiful our

Happy Wednesday!  Wednesday is the day that I write these Central thoughts, and it’s also the day that I lead the men’s bible study in the morning. And to say the least, the last few Wednesdays have not gone as planned. First, Jonah was sick and I stayed home to take care of him. Then Eli was sick and I had to stay home with him. Then I was sick and had to stay home myself. Then, of course, my sister died

Hello Central family and friends. I hope you’re doing well in Wednesday morning. As you’ve probably heard, my older sister Rayna unexpectedly passed away last Friday from a cardiac arrest. For our family and her family (husband Keith and 8 children), we are still coming out of shock as the reality of our loss is sinking in.We wanted to sincerely thank you for all of your prayers, your support, and your care throughout this hard time. It has meant a

If you’ve been outside – or even just looked outside today – you know: today is a weird day.  The smoke from the Canadian wildfires has flooded our air and everything looks different. It looks like we’re living in a vintage photo or something…it’s so odd! It caused me to reflect a bit on our vision. Our ability to see is such a delicate thing, but also so crucial for our lives. I wear contact lenses every day, and it’s amazing

I hope you’re able to enjoy this beautiful week. Get outside, go for a walk, sit in the sun! We started our week off here at Central with our yearly participation in the Atlantic Highlands Memorial Day Parade. It was a great time. It was so encouraging to see all of us in our blue shirts, putting a visible and public face to our church. We had a chance to meet and engage with more people from town, give out candy,

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32On Sunday, we kicked off our new “Voice of Hope” series – which concludes our ‘trilogy’ of series based on our identity statement (Jesus is central, so we aim to live by faith in him, be known by love like him, and be a voice of hope in the world).  If ‘live by faith’ points to ‘what’

 I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful day. Try to get outside and enjoy this fantastic day. May is a busy month for us at Central – and I couldn’t be more thrilled.Last Saturday was the Town Wide Yard Sale – and it was such a great day. The headline is that, thanks to your generosity and serving, we raised a bit over $350 for the AACC Food Pantry! Awesome. But perhaps more important, we had a great day meeting some neighbors and making

Next Wednesday May 17 at 7PM, we will host our first “Equip” seminar. This inaugural seminar will focus on mental health, equipping us to better love our neighbors who struggle with their own mental health issues – so that we can be a voice of hope in our community. It will educate, destigmatize, and open up this important conversation for us. So many people struggle with such issues, and for too long a time, the church was guilty of sweeping