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
Maundy Thursday Reflections
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe The events of the Thursday before the crucifixion centered around the Passover meal that has come to be known as ‘The Last Supper’. The events of that evening were among the most momentous events in all of history was going to happen but, apart from Jesus, no one—not even those directly involved—had a clear understanding of the implications. While we typically focus on the attendees of the meal, there are a number of others who
Easter is (Almost) Here!
Well, it’s here: Easter week! We had a great Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt on Sunday. To all who helped run things, welcome and direct people, run games and crafts, set up and clean up – THANK YOU. We welcomed in over 100 kids and their families to our building, and got to connect with a lot of them. It was a great afternoon. Thank you for using your time, gifts, and energy to serve how you did. Amazing!This
The World Has Gone After Him!
This Sunday, as you may know, is Palm Sunday. It’s the Sunday that Christians all over the world celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem - where the crowds went to meet him, and lay branches from palm trees at his entry – to welcome him as a king would be welcomed to town. It is quite the scene. But because of our current sermon series, I won’t talk about Palm Sunday this week. So, I’ll take this time to share some thoughts
That is in the Bible?
Some of what is in the bible is pretty surprising. There are stories that are hard to wrap our minds around, history that is tough swallow, characters that are all too real) that we can all recognize ourselves in them), and rules that seem completely alien from our modern life. And then there’s the Psalms. In our bible reading plan, we entered into a few Psalms last week. The book of Psalms captures a wide range of situations, human emotions, and responses
A Very Fun Youth Retreat
On Saturday, Central Youth had our first ever one day Youth Retreat! It was a great (and long!) day filled with games, laughter, and conversation. The leaders and I took 9 kids to the American Dream Mall for indoor Snow Tubing and an epic photo scavenger hunt. The students bonded with one another and the leaders got to see their personalities shine. We didn’t only have fun though, we also spent time together in Small Groups, sharing about our lives
The Mission Continues
If you’re following along with our bible reading plan (and I encourage you to!), tomorrow, we wrap up the book of Acts. As we started Acts, I mentioned that Acts 1:8 (“…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”) functions as a sort of table of contents for the book (as it starts in Jerusalem, goes to Judea and then Samaria, and ends in Rome as ‘the ends of the earth’) – but
Scripture is Script
At the end of the last sermon series (the Off the Shelf series), I introduced the idea that the story of scripture is the one true story of the world – that each of our own stories (and every other story) finds its meaning in. As that story, it is something like a six act play, where the majority of the 5th act is missing – and it is our role to “improvise” the rest of the 5th act, playing our part faithfully. I first heard
Love: It’s What It’s All About.
Well, today’s Valentine’s Day. If you celebrate, I hope it’s a good one. Amanda (my wife) and I did the math this morning: we started dating on Valentine’s Day in 1997…which means we’ve been together for 27 years! So suffice it to say, for us, Valentine’s Day always is something of a special day (it also provides us with one of the best moments from the vastly underrated Ghostbusters II). Love is always something worth celebrating. Yes, I know it gets muddied up with
The Holy Spirit & Scripture
This past weekend I (Rebecca) traveled to Dallas, Texas to visit a friend and was able to attend church with her Sunday morning. As we took a tour of the church I was struck by the universal soundtrack of Sunday mornings: teachers setting up crafts, printers pressing last minute papers, worship tuning and practicing, coffee brewing and indistinguishable conversations - moments of fellowship. Then as we began the service, we recited the Apostles Creed together. I was once again struck