One of our heating pipes sprung a leak this week, which means our heating system was unavailable for Sunday Morning Worship this morning. We told most of our older folks to stay home and warm, but still held worship for those who could tolerate the cold and who felt their immune systems were up to…
Category: Pastoring
Mystery
Pastoring, in my mind, is a mysterious vocation. We stand between the light of comfort and the darkness of sorrow. We shepherd people out of this world, and into new life. We proclaim a message of great power, which can only be expressed in this world through weakness. When we at our best as leaders,…
Prayer
At Central we take a nod from our liturgical brothers and sisters and make our prayer time “of the people.” Given that we are who we are, this takes on a rather odd format, but is nevertheless endearing to me 1. This image was captured just as prayer time was beginning, and our prayer leader…
What a weekend!
This past weekend was exhausting, but for all the right reasons. Saturday night IBC, the Brazilian congregation which is part of the Central Baptist family, had their inaugural kickoff. It was an amazing event, which blew the roof off of the sanctuary. In attendance were the folks from IBC, representatives from ABCNJ, many Brazilian Baptists…
Tradition
Jaroslav Pelikan, an excellent Christian scholar and author of the five-volume series The Christian Tradition once wrote the following, Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Many people who are acquainted with me will often mistake me for a radical believer. They’ll hear my critiques of…
An Idolatrous Promise
A recent comment on my post, Ironic Partisans pointed me to a well-written article about Donald Trump, authored by Rachel Held Evans. As readers of this blog are aware, I am desperately trying to avoid filling the echo chambers of social media with more fuel – but Rachel quoted something from Mr. Trump which I…
