Carmen’s Family Advent Countdown
Find a printable version here: Carmen’s family advent What you will need for great family fun (and significant learning) during Advent: A Quarter Several varieties of grapes (or grape flavored items) Smiley sticker A little “surprise” in a brown paper bag (it would be great if were full of gummy fish!) A birthday candle Bell “Goldfish”…
Read MoreCount your blessings: Cultivating a heart of Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and what a different Thanksgiving it will be! You may well NOT be gathering around a big family table to count our blessings, so what might a redeemed, intentional day of giving thanks to God look like when many of our traditions have been interrupted? As Christians we recognize that whatever makes…
Read MoreSpotlight Interview with Christopher Wright: Here Are Your Gods
Christopher J. H. Wright is a missiologist, an Anglican clergyman and an Old Testament scholar. He is currently the International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership International. He was the principal of All Nations Christian College. He is an honorary member of All Souls Church, Langham Place in London, UK. Listen to the full interview here…
Read MoreOctober = Pastor Appreciation Month – 10 ideas to make it a Month to Remember
Pastors are precious. I know my pastor is precious and I know your pastor is precious too! October is Pastor Appreciation Month so how can we make a month to remember? My top 10 (COVID friendly) Pastor Appreciation Ideas: This may not be the year to have an all-church ya’ll come public appreciation event but…
Read MoreThe second mother effect: how Kamala Harris learned about the love of God from a saint downstairs
As the children’s book affirms, “everyone has a mother.” But what about a second mother? Kamala Harris identifies Regina Shelton as her second mom and she’s a woman we need to know. Regina and Arthur Shelton were the downstairs neighbors in Oakland, Calif. when Kamala was just seven years old and her parents divorced. The…
Read MoreHow NOW shall we live?
Every morning a new headline to break our heart, sear our conscience, convulse our emotions, and threaten our sense of safety and sanity. It feels increasingly as if the world upended – and there are those declaring with certainty that the End is near. How now shall we live this moment, this day? Three thoughts:…
Read MoreThe wake is over. He is home. George Floyd’s homegoing service and the sung Gospel
The wake is over. George Floyd’s homegoing service was carried by every major outlet around the world. From PBS to CNN to FOX to the BBC and beyond, the world had wall to wall coverage of a four hour funeral for a black man whose name was unknown to all but a few people just…
Read MoreThree conversations over three days on how to change the world
Over the past three days I’ve had three conversations with three different people asking and answering the same query: the world needs to change, what can we do to move that change in a redemptive direction? The first conversation didn’t go well. My conversation partner was a generation older than me. He sees and hears…
Read MoreAct of God: why does God get blamed but rarely thanked?
As the pandemic matures, watch for a wave of lawsuits. From business deals that didn’t go through to hospitals that didn’t accommodate scheduled surgeries to every other institution, business or entity whose failure to live up to their side of a contract resulted in injury – perceived or otherwise – to someone else is going…
Read MoreMother Nature, scientism, Creation care, COVID19 and the question of how now we shall live
April 22, 2020 was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. There was a 3.8 magnitude earthquake in California. As earthquakes go, that’s relatively minor. But it lead to a flurry of social media posts about “angering Mother Nature,” how Mother Nature was being provoked by human “assaults upon her” and myriad other references to the…
Read MoreH.O.P.E. for those in S.O.S. distress
People are distress and some of them are acknowledging their distress with cries of S.O.S. (Save Our Souls). Time is ripe for sharing the Good News of the Gospel. This is the day to Help Others Perceive Eternally. Today is the day for Christ’s people to serve as living demonstrations of hope, secure. But how…
Read MoreWhy pray in the midst of this?
I offered to pray for a mom who was angry and frustrated and grieving in the midst of more than she can bear. To be clear, I had done what I could and connected her with resources in our community in addition to offering to pray but the offer to pray is what provokes this…
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