Unwritten Rules

When I was a pastor in MA I made the mistake of asking a long-time member what “traditions” the Church had for Christmas Eve worship.  I was told, unequivocally, “Traditions?  We don’t have any of those?”  It was, of course, wrong – but the member didn’t know that.  Now, someone has graphically depicted my experience!…

Read More

Nice Thoughts From a Friend

My good friend Chris has some reflections on the nature of what it really means to be “pro-life.”  He’s coming from a Mennonite perspective which I find helpful.

Why…?

I often wonder why I bother checking my mailbox at Church.  Invariably it is stuffed with brochures from several “most important” things I could do this year for my Church, people asking for money to support ministries I’ve never heard of, product adverstisements, and newsletters from other congregations.  If I actually wanted to read all…

Read More

Questions I Wish Churches Would Ask Themselves

I’ve got several friends who are either getting ready to move on to a new pastoral calling, or have recently started at a new congregation (Hi Chris!).  This led me to think about the nature of a congregation’s interim period, as well as my own introduction into life at Central Baptist.  Sometime during my revery…

Read More

Just For Fun

I love the Regional Pastor for ABCNJ.  He’s intelligent, engaging, loves Jesus, and has both raised the bar of expectation for the region and helped people discover that they could vault those expectations (because Jesus empowers us to do so).  As a matter of fact, the only thing I have against him is that he’s…

Read More

What a Day

Today my family had an unexpected turn of events.  We were called upon to care for the children of a couple from our church community due to illness.  It was our pleasure to do it.  Yes it did create a good deal of stress in our household once everyone got home from school, but life…

Read More