On Sunday, I spoke about – and challenged us – to “be great”.  And by “great”, I didn’t mean what we typically think of as being “great”.  I meant “great” in the way that Jesus showed us and leads us on: Compelled by great compassion, we are called to be a great commission people, in the way of the great commandment. But if we want to “be great,” there’s two more “greats” I want to mention to you.  The first, by way of warning.

I hope you’re doing well on this second Wednesday of Lent. Lent is the season where the church traditionally looks back at Jesus’ journey to the cross in the final days of his life, as it looks ahead to his resurrection at Easter. I’m not sure what Central has done historically in regard to Lent, but this year, we’ll be looking at Lent through a different and very particular lens: love.As I introduced last week, this Sunday we’ll be kicking

Here’s something I’m realizing about myself: I could preach on the church – and the mission of the church – forever. As I’m preparing any individual sermon on any given week throughout our current “What in the World?” series, I continually want to break up what I’m writing into 2 or 3 new sermons…or series (for instance, on Friday, I briefly considered breaking up last Sunday’s sermon into 3 different sermons…which I had already broken into 2 different sermons!). I guess

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together

“Now is the time when people will be reaching out to God…and the church must be ready to show them the love of Christ.” This is a quote from Gokhan Talas, founder of the Miras Publishing Ministry in Istanbul, Turkey - taken from an amazing article in Christianity Today about the response of the church to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. I encourage you to read it, and support one of the agencies that is on the ground helping in the affected areas.

Hello Central Baptist friends and family

This Sunday, we kicked off our new series called “What In The World?” We’re starting to ask what in the world we are here for, why the church, what’s our purpose… What’s the mission of the church? Over the next few weeks, we’ll answer this question from different angles  – but they’ll all point towards the same idea: To bring God to people, and people to God. As a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), in the simplest possible terms, that’s exactly what we’re called

Last Sunday, we wrapped up our “Rise Up & Build” series with a bold message from the prophet Haggai. If you missed it, make sure to check it out! We heard about what can happen when the eyes of our hearts are focused on the wrong thing: at best, we will miss what God is doing;at worst, we’ll self-sabotage and find ourselves working against God. We want to avoid that!  After all, God IS still with us, behind us, and empowering us –

Last Sunday, we continued in our “Rise Up & Build” series on discovering a future vision together for Central. Over and over again, it’s been made clear to me that what we need to do – first and foremost, and more than anything else – is pray. Pray for God to make a vision known and clear to us. Pray for God to put a burden on our heart like He did for Nehemiah. Pray that God would give us courage, success,

This past Sunday – New Year’s Day – we kicked off a series that kicks us off in looking forward to God’s future for Central Baptist Church. Where is God leading us? What is God calling us to do? What’s next for Central? Or, as Nehemiah puts it, what is God putting on our heart to do for the world around us? As I said on Sunday, God places this ‘vision’ on our hearts, as he did for Nehemiah, when like Nehemiah, what’s broken