Pastor's Corner

Mid-Week Challenge

It’s alarming to read headlines that proclaim: “A majority of Americans now say they are not sure about the existence of God.”  How can this be when According to a Pew Research Center study, as recently as the 1990s, roughly 90 per cent of US adults...

Mid-Week Challenge

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; there’s just something about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all Heaven and earth proclaim Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, But there’s something about that name. Kings and kingdoms will all pass...

Mid-Week Challenge

Human nature leads us to believe that when something is lost, it must be found.  Depending on the immediate value of the lost item, everything else happening in the world takes a backseat until we are reunited.  With this thought in mind, I remind...

Mid-Week Challenge

Yesterday, May 2, was the accepted anniversary of publishing of The King James Bible. It was not the first Bible in English, but it was the first to have the stamp of approval of the monarchy, and the first therefore widely read by commoners...

Mid-Week Challenge

Jesus Christ gave His followers a pattern for prayer that includes seeking forgiveness daily. The invitation to regular repentance is not a means of renewing our salvation, but rather a maintenance plan for our fellowship with the Lord. When we trust Jesus as our...

Mid-Week Challenge

The American Bible Society is in its thirteenth year of conducting State of the Bible survey, asking American people their opinions and practices relating to the Bible.  I always look forward to reading their finds because it gives me an idea of how Americans...

Mid-Week Challenge

We have arrived at the middle of Holy Week.  The central point of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus.  There are still those that doubt.  If we only focus on the vast majority of simple facts, agreed upon by both Christian and non-Christian New...

Mid-Week Challenge

What subjects do religious people debate in our day?  Who is God, who can serve in ministry roles, who can get married, how should a church arrange its leadership structure, and who gets to go to Heaven are a quick few.  Reading through the...

Mid-Week Challenge

Anyone who has attended one of our Wednesday evening gatherings will tell you that it is very different than what we do on Sunday mornings.  And in some ways, more fun and engaging.  At midweek we realize that people have worked hard all week,...

Mid-Week Challenge

A few years ago, I received an email that introduced himself as a Christian brother in Nigeria. He told me he needed help because he had fallen on hard times due to war and political changes. He was in need of leaving his...

Mid-Week Challenge

It’s always nice to hear some good news!  Lifeway Research has just released their latest findings on Sunday School and small groups.  Churches with an active Sunday School reports growth in the new year. This growth includes changed lives as well as numerical.  The...

Mid-Week Challenge

You might have noticed that religion has been in the headlines a lot recently.  From the Super Bowl ads “He Gets Us” to the theater with Jesus Revolution, media is taking notice. Revivals at colleges have been in the headlines.  Asbury, Lee and now Texas...

Mid-Week Challenge

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the 40-day period in the church calendar known as Lent, a time of preparation leading up to Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday. Around the world, countless Christians will have the sign of the cross written...

Mid-Week Challenge

Great news for all the men out there; you have 363 days until Valentine’s Day! You can’t say you have not been warned.  Just like Christmas and birthdays, Valentine’s Day comes around at the same time every year.  For some reason this is the...

Mid-Week Challenge

It’s Valentine season.  A season that those in love look forward to, and a season of dread for those who are not! For a couple who were once in love, lack of communication is often cited as a source of their fallout.  God...

Mid-Week Challenge

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage.  We have seen reports of new writing programs like ChatGPT, Jasper, YouChat & Grammarly.  These programs will correct your grammar or go all the way and write the entire paper for you.  All the user has to...

Mid-Week Challenge

One of the greatest needs we have as human beings is to feel like we matter.  For most of us, our purpose is what drives us to get up in the morning and it’s what brings us satisfaction at the end of the...

Mid-Week Challenge

It is not too often that I address the ministry of another.  Pastor, layperson, self-appointed authority, whomever, it’s just not profitable to give public attention to someone else’s attempt at sharing what they think is appropriate when it comes to religion. More so, if I...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Once in a lifetime” events are, well, once in a lifetime.  It’s not too often that our generation gets to be part of several of these that might cause other generations to be envious. August 2017 brought the first total solar eclipse exclusive to...

Mid-Week Challenge

“New Year, New You!” We have heard that statement many times in years past.  It is loaded with promise, opportunity and renewal.  The new year is always a chance for doors to be open and change to be made.  God is the ultimate provider...

Mid-Week Challenge

2022 is almost in the rearview mirror, no looking back, only forward.  Some people like to say that, but I think it is okay to sometimes look back, because it leads us to be thankful for what is ahead.  The Bible encourages us...

Mid-Week Challenge

At Thanksgiving we ask, “what are you thankful for?” At Christmas we ask, “What does Christmas mean to you?” Just as the responses at Thanksgiving include the typical answers, Christmas is no different.  We “check the boxes” of expectation at this time of year. ...

Mid-Week Challenge

To meet or not to meet, that is the question.  A few of my pastor friends and church attenders have been kicking around this question amongst our group for the past few weeks.  You might have guessed that the nature of the question...

Mid-Week Challenge

The last of the midterm elections ended yesterday with the election of Raphael Warnock as Georgia’s next Senator.  Now that the nation’s congress is set, politicians are rushing to pass new laws and make new friends before the New Year.  A lot of what...

Mid-Week Challenge

Black Friday has passed, Cyber Monday gone, are you still looking for that perfect Christmas present?  One would think that finding the perfect gift would be no problem in this technology driven society we live in and with shopping days named for the technology...

Mid-Week Challenge

Have you ever played the Telephone Game? That’s when you take a group of people, line them up, and at the beginning of the line the first person whispers a message to the next person.  The secrete message is then passed along the...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you are old enough to remember high school politics you will recall that the most qualified person normally did not win the student council election.  We always voted for the most popular person.  Experience, desire and determination had nothing to do with how...

Mid-Week Challenge

The midterm elections are almost behind us.  If you have election fatigue, like most of us, the take away is that we will not have to watch any of those political ads on TV for a few more years.  For some, the election...

Mid-Week Challenge

Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL is something most college sports fans are very familiar with.  For years college athletes have asked why schools and sports programs can make millions of dollars off of their abilities and the student athlete sees none of that...

Mid-Week Challenge

The story headline reads: Scientists date and verify biblical tale in new study. I love seeing headlines like these in secular print because I know that those behind the story went to a great deal of trouble to disprove the evidence the scientist produced.  The...

Mid-Week Challenge

In the Creation account in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1 records the creation of people.  When God created man and woman, He gives them this command in verse 28:  “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion...

Mid-Week Challenge

Sometimes you just need a laugh! In the craziness of the world we live in today, sometimes we just need to give our brains a rest for a moment and let our hearts be merry.  The Babylon Bee is a satire news website...

Mid-Week Challenge

Campaigning for the November midterm is in full swing.  It is during this time period that we see a different side of politicians.  Based on the perceived desires of the electorate, a candidate will pivot his or her speech.  History shows that, if elected,...

Mid-Week Challenge

James 2:17 tells us that “faith without works is dead.”  This verse has long been used to debate many theological topics. Is James telling us that if we do not perform some type of spiritual work we cannot be saved? Is he saying that people can...

Mid-Week Challenge

The truth hurts, but it can help explain why you feel as bad as you do some days.  After reading the latest release from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, the pain we have been feeling in the Church over the past...

Mid-Week Challenge

Depending on your age, the name Mikhail Gorbachev might mean very little to you.  If you are 45 or older you know him as the man who helped Ronald Reagan and other world leaders end the Cold War with the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. For his courageous...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Settled Science!” That’s a term we have heard a lot over the past few years.  What it has come to be known as is a trigger word for arguments between the left and right.  That’s sad, because I remember a time in our country...

Mid-Week Challenge

You have heard me proclaim, on several occasions, that Christianity is the best thing that ever happened to women and children.  History proves this as certain groups were historically mistreated and neglected until the commands of Jesus caused the Church to provide care and...

Mid-Week Challenge

Modern technology is something we all take for granted, but historically speaking, it was just a few years ago that some of our modern tools first came onto the scene.   In *950 the Windmill was invented in Persia.  The printing press in 1455 by *Johannes Gutenberg,...

Mid-Week Challenge

Back to School! Those are the words most students don’t want to hear, but parents love! That is unless you are a parent of a first-year student or one who is in their last year.  It’s interesting in how we respond at different times...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Uncertainty,” that seems to be the word of the season we are in right now.  Gas is almost five dollars one day and then $3.50 a few days later.  Store shelves are empty one day and now I’m reading about the big box...

Mid-Week Challenge

Most everyone has asked the question, “why am I here and how did I get here?”  The first part can be placed firmly in a religious/spiritual category and the second one has provided more room for debate.  Are you a Creationist or Evolutionist? At...

Mid-Week Challenge

There is no question that we are living in one of the angriest and revenge filled times in American history.  Just this week there was a road rage shooting on I840 that resulted in two men going to the hospital and the shooter still...

Mid-Week Challenge

Exercise is not on most people’s “favorite things to do” list.  On a hot and humid day like we are experiencing today in Middle Tennessee, you don’t want to go outside, let alone exercise.  So what can we do to get moving on this...

Mid-Week Challenge

We continue to hear about and witness the reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision last week on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer any right to abortion. This decision...

Mid-Week Challenge

How do you make hard decisions?  A survey of 2,000 adults found that 70 percent say they always trust their instincts with 35 percent experiencing a physical ‘gut feeling’ about situations.  Nearly one in five (17 percent) turn to the feeling in their gut...

Mid-Week Challenge

Yesterday (June 14) was Flag Day! A national holiday celebrated since 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson officially established June 14 as Flag Day, marking the 100th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress establishing an official flag of the United States.  While July 4th celebrates our declaration...

Mid-Week Challenge

Summer fundraising has begun for sport teams and youth travel clubs.  We all have had to sale our fair share of candies, home goods and knickknacks over the years.  One of the most well-known from my childhood is World’s Finest Chocolate bars.  They came ready to...

Mid-Week Challenge

For those of us who were looking for a little nostalgia, you might take a look at this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.  The Bee kicked off again yesterday for the first time in three years.  We all remember the Bee as a...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you grew up in the 1980s, who could forget all those Publishers Clearing House commercials Ed McMahon made? You know the one where he walks up to the person’s home with an oversized check that changed their lives? Sure, you do, right? Well,...

Mid-Week Challenge

I was saddened to read the findings of the latest study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University,  https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AWVI2022_Release05_Digital.pdf[https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AWVI2022_Release05_Digital.pdf] but not surprised.  The discovery explained a lot that many of us already knew was true about the condition of the local church and her leaders. ...

Mid-Week Challenge

*Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good* - *Shane Idleman* The title for this article comes from the oft-quoted Isaiah 5:20[https://www.biblestudytools.com/isaiah/5-20.html], "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil. …" Isaiah's "woe" was designed to awaken and convict the nation to turn back to God...

Mid-Week Challenge

If there were not enough issues weighing on the White House right now, President Biden has chosen to take on another issue: student loan forgiveness.  During a press conference last Thursday, President Biden said he was considering "some debt reduction" but not up to...

Mid-Week Challenge

I don’t use Twitter, but I’ve been called a twit.  Not sure what that means but I have been hearing a lot of people using the word around here lately.  As you are well aware, Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has purchased the social media...

Mid-Week Challege

If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?  Back in 2010 NEWSWEEK Magazine did a first-ever “Best Countries” special issue.  They chose five categories of national well-being—education, health,...

Mid-Week Challenge

According to the findings of a new poll performed by Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group, most Americans say the lessons of Easter and Passover are not only important spiritual observances, but also will influence the nation’s future.  The poll, conducted April 5-8 found...

Mid-Week Challenge

I’m a sci-fi nerd.  I’m not as deep into it as some, but I enjoy a classic TV episode, movie or latest ET theory.  Back in the 90s there was an alien investigation show that had as its tag line “The Truth Is...

Mid-Week Challenge

Long before the time of the Twilight film saga, before we knew the names “Bella, Edward and Jacob,” before we had to pick which team we supported, there has been a fascination with vampires.  The Munsters gave most of us our first look.  It wasn’t that much longer...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you have been around church for awhile there are certain things you take for granted.  There are things we just think we know because of our experiences in a church family.  Every now and then a research team will come along and use...

Mid-Week Challenge

One of the reasons I believe the Bible to be trustworthy and accurate is that it does not seek to make the characters described to be superheroes.  They are presented as real people with real struggles and real reactions to everyday activities.  It’s too...

Mid-Week Challenge

A few years ago, the Barna Research Group performed an in-depth study on why young people leave the church.   Being a pastor and with a daughter about to head off to college, I’m always interested in how we keep our young adults involved in...

Mid-Week Challenge

Every now and then I come across an article that is too good not to share.  Jim Denison’s A Relationship with God Requires a Commitment That Transcends Evidence is one of those.  Enjoy! “Nordic combined skiing” is so named because it combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing....

Mid-Week Challenge

Do you have trouble pronouncing names in the Bible?  I know I sure do.  It’s a struggle trying to remember which character did what, when and with whom they interacted if you have trouble with their name.  As you know, names have meanings, especially...

Mid-Week Challenge

The “Big Game” is this Sunday and the world will be watching!  As the Rams and the Bengals go at it on the gridiron the whole world seems to be concerned with the game, what about God?  Anna Kupp, the wife of Los Angeles...

Mid-Week Challenge

The careers website Glassdoor released its annual 50 Best Jobs in America report for 2022. According to the report, tech workers came out on top, with Enterprise Architects No. 1 on the list. They have a median base salary of $144,997 a year, 14,021 job openings and a...

Mid-Week Challenge

Do you remember when supermarkets added the “10 items or less” lane?  These lanes were an attempt to allow those of us who are light shoppers the peace of mind of knowing that a planned short trip to the store would actually turnout to...

Mid-Week Challenge

It is rare that a public figure comes right out with the truth. Chamath Palihapitiya, a 45-year-old billionaire venture capitalist who owns a stake in the Golden State Warriors NBA team, had no trouble letting everyone know how he felt about the Uyghurs in...

Mid-Week Challenge

New Year Resolutions always mark the beginning of a new season in our life.  LifeWay Research has released their report on what Americans are hoping to improve on in 2022.  It wasn’t too surprising to learn that most people are focused on their health...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you follow the news on the college campus, you might recall a movement a few years ago to remove all religious based organizations that did not comply with a new campus statement, worded as a human rights policy, that required all student organizations...

Mid-Week Challenge

Paul reminds us in Galatians 4:4 that at just the right time (God’s time), Jesus came into the world to accomplish what had been promised.   At just the right time. During this time of the year “time” is something we never seem to have...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Keep Christ in Christmas” has been a theme seen in many Christians homes since the late 1980s. As the secular world sought to commercialize Christmas and separate Jesus from the season, many Christians displayed the “Keep Christ in Christmas” theme on pins, signs and...

Mid-Week Challenge

With two weeks to go until Christmas, what kind of shopper are you?  Did you begin in October and have time on your hands or have you yet to begin and can feel the anxiety as you read these words.   Me, I’m somewhere in...

Mid-Week Challenge

Yesterday, Pew Research Center released the findings of their annual study of American religious belief.  Each year the Center conducts surveys to determine where Americans stand on key theological issues and belief. In this year’s survey, the Center attempted for the first time to...

Mid-Week Challenge

Did you ever think you would live in a time where the forces of Satan would have anything in common with the People of God?  Well we might just chalk this one up to being another sign of the times.  Last week, pop...

Mid Week Challenge

Last Sunday we began our annual stewardship study. From time to time we all need to be reminded of how thankful we should be in our daily life. Author Nancy Leigh has a great one-week refresh plan:    God’s Word teaches that thankfulness ought to...

Mid-Week Challenge

Congratulations to all of our Atlanta Braves fans!  Last night they won their first World Series in 26 years.  Somehow this gives me renewed hope in my Dallas Cowboys.  I miss the days of Aikman, Irvin and Smith.  Everyone has a pro athlete hero...

Mid-Week Challenge

Some of the best and most powerful messages are those that use few words and are quick to the point.   One such message was expressed by William Shatner after he arrived back on earth after traveling into space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space...

Mid-Week Challenge

Due to the COVID lockdowns, you might not have traveled by air in the past few years but I’m sure you have seen the many news stories that have to do with the airline industry.  As transportation comes back to a full schedule it...

Mid-Week Challenge

There has been renewed interest in the boat-like rock formation on Mount Tendürek in Turkey which looks a lot like Noah’s Ark.  For many years this site has been studied as it is thought to be the location of the vessel from the Book...

Mid-Week Challenge

I’ve written many times about thinking back to the “good ole days”, but this week I discovered how much fun it is to read comments from people who are younger than me longing for their childhood.  In a BuzzFeed article (https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/people-sharing-things-were-great-223535254.html[https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/people-sharing-things-were-great-223535254.html]), people were asked to...

Mid-Week Challenge

Do you have trouble concentrating?  Are you easily distracted?  Did you know that the average attention span for a goldfish is nine seconds?  Surely you are not as bad as a goldfish, right?  According to a study conducted a few years ago by Microsoft,...

Mid-Week Challenge

We have all heard preachers say something like, “Christianity is not something you can turn on or off. It’s a lifestyle that should be followed every day.”  Basically, the meaning is we can’t claim to be a Christian on Sunday or when it is...

Mid-Week Challenge

As kids of the 1980s we lived for the weekend at the mall.  Walking the halls, visiting the food court, hanging out with friends was a rite of passage when you hit the middle school/high school age.  Now days the malls are no...

Mid-Week Challenge

Who are the people in your neighborhood?  They are the people that you meet when you are walking down the street…so the song from our childhood goes.  How important is it to know who lives around you?  According to a new survey, it’s very...

Mid-Week Challenge

What do these have in common:  One Hour Photo Labs, Floppy Disks, Personal Digital Assistants, Overhead projectors, VHS tapes, Paper Road Maps, A Phone Booth?  If you are over 35, you might guess: “A way to determine someone’s age?”   How about these: Touch Screens, The...

Mid-Week Challenge

Do you remember your first pair of tennis shoes?  If not your first, do you remember getting a new pair when you were young?  The feel and smell of a new pair automatically made you feel more like an athlete.  When you tried...

Mid-Week Challenge

For the past few days our church has held our annual Vacation Bible School.  The theme this year is “Destination Dig!” Boys and girls have learned the story of Jesus as we “dug” into the Bible.  I found our theme interesting as the Bible describes the...

Mid-Week Challenge

It’s getting harder to get my thoughts around what I’m supposed to believe about the American culture.  Actions, on several fronts, have not gone along with logic.  This week I read about the U.S. women's national team and other soccer teams who knelt before...

Mid-Week Challenge

The annual Perseids meteor shower begins this evening and is predicted to peak on August 11 and 12!  The Perseid meteors are known both for their epic "fireballs" - explosions of light and color that last longer than those from typical meteors - and...

Mid-Week Challenge

We’re all charmed by the way kids approach life, aren’t we? Toddlers and young kids have a way of finding delight in even the most routine events. Do you remember a time in your life where you could grab a stick in your...

Mid-Week Challenge

Anyone who has struggled with weight loss can give testimony to the number of devices out there to help you with the challenge.  There’s a device that locks your refrigerator, a cookie jar that makes a pig sound when you open it, and a...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you grew up in or around church you probably have a favorite hymn.  The songs we sing as children and even now as adults help to identify and make application of our faith.  The songs we sing in worship help us to...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Silence is Golden” – It’s an expression that can mean many different things.  Keeping your mouth shut, a room full of teenagers with headphones on, a simple walk in nature, no news is good news, or the 1964 B-side of the #1 single "Rag...

Mid-Week Challenge

The Chicken Sandwich War rages.  If you been out to a fast food restaurant or watched an advertisement recently you have no doubt had a craving for chicken.  Popeye’s started the war a year ago with their new sandwich that had customers lining up around the...

Mid-Week Challenge

Growing up my mom and I loved to keep an aquarium in the house.  We tried our hands at all kinds of freshwater fish and exotic tropical arrangements for them to explore.  Out of all the varieties we tried we had the best...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you have ever walked through a bookstore before looking for a new Bible you have noticed that there are lots of choices.  What translation, what cover should I chose, do I need one with the maps?  Should I select a Study Bible...

Mid-Week Challenge

I’m sure you have seen the bumper sticker that spells out the word “Coexist” using the symbols of the major world religions.  It is a seemingly innocent attempt to encourage the people of our world to learn to function within their individual belief system,...

Mid-Week Challenge

You don’t have to be a football fan to know the name Tim Tebow.  Tebow, best known for inventing “Tebowing,” down on one knee in a praying position, has been very outspoken in his faith in Christ.  Raised by missionary parents, he has used...

Mid-Week Challenge

As we begin to see the “light at the end of the tunnel” of this past year of social distancing and isolation, I am thankful for the lessons I have learned along the way.  A year ago I would not have thought it...

Mid-Week Challenge

Someone once said, “Sow a thought, reap a deed. Sow a deed, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” It is true that before you can do a thing you have to think it. Your thoughts...

Mid-Week Challenge

You have heard the expression, “My life flashed before me!”  This morning I had one of those moments.  No, it wasn’t a life or death situation.  Thanks to modern technology I was able to visually relive a portion of my childhood beginning in 1985...

Mid-Week Challenge

How we view the world around us will determine how we react to the highs and lows life.  It’s a simple concept that helps to explain why people react and respond the way they do to the everyday stimuli that all of us...

Mid-Week Challenge

There has been a steady flow of religious commentary sweeping the headlines responding to the Gallup poll released last week that revealed just 47% of Americans reported belonging to a house of worship, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% as recently as 1999. https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx[https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx] The responses have...

Mid-Week Challenge

Every celebrity looks to associate themselves with a popular brand as to increase their personal exposure to the public.  Landing an endorsement deal is a mark of evolution in the next level to stardom.  Every now and then someone comes along and hijacks a...

Mid-Week Challenge

It was just a matter of time until “cancel culture” found a way to cancel the individual parts of the Christian faith that it had no answers for in the fields of science and reasoning.  According to a report in the Wall Street Journal,...

Mid-Week Challenge

What do you think of when you think of St. Patrick’s Day?  Green rivers and beer, shamrocks and Irish folklore?  It’s too bad that this is the first thing that comes to mind, but it is due to the way we have allowed...

Mid-Week Challenge

We have seen a lot changes in our country in the past few months.  We have learned that things we have been using or activities we have been doing for years are now culturally unacceptable.  We have changed behavior, gone along with the process...

Mid-Week Challenge

Some good news in the area of young adults continuing their church attendance after they leave home.  A recently released study from Lifeway Research reports that 66 percent of American young adults who attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year as...

Mid-Week Challenge

Over the past few years the phrase, “Never meet your heroes,” has taken on new meaning.  In the information age we live in, we have ready access to the celebrities we see on television.  We read their tweets, listen to their interviews and get...

Mid-Week Challenge

A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes very popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzword[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzword]    We have seen our...

Mid-Week Challenge

Midweek Challenge  It would appear that revival has come to Washington; that is if you take into account how often religion, spirituality and the Bible is referred to in speeches and lectures given to us by politicians.  As a pastor it is becoming too...

Mid-Week Challenge

How are those New Year Resolutions going?  Twenty-seven days in is the place where most of us reassess our ability to fulfill those high hopes we all had on January 1.  All of us get to that point in life were we stop...

Mid-Week Challenge

One of my favorite things to do in the evening is to stargaze.  I am fascinated by the vastness of the universe.  Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have looked to the heavens with awe and wonderment.  The Biblical writers were so...

Mid-Week Challenge

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin this week.  So much has happened in our world since the last newsletter.  Here we sit, one week away from the inauguration of Joe Biden, COVID looms, vaccines are out there but not getting distributed to...

Mid-Week Challenge

This past Sunday, Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the 117th Congress.  Two weeks from today Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.  If the trends in Georgia continue today, the balance of power will shift in the US Senate giving...

Mid-Week Challenge

Like most junior and high schools in our country, the schools I attended allowed the students to vote for Student Government and leadership councils. We had to give a speech, put up signs, make promises, etc.  Before the election took place we all knew...

Mid-Week Challenge

When two Christians, with opposing views, pray to God about the same issue, which person does the Lord listen to?  That’s the question I have been asked many times before.  It has come up again due to the fact that No. 1 Alabama...

Mid-Week Challenge

The custom after most elections is for the incoming administration to make comments about getting back to work and working to reunite the parties, community or country. They speak of working to heal the wounds of the campaign and remind us that we are...

Mid-Week Challenge

As I read through the headlines today I came across an advertisement article for Costco and Star Wars fans.  Like most of America, my son and I are big The Mandalorian fans.  The Disney+ series follows the main character as he attempts to return “Baby Yoda” to the...

Mid-Week Challenge

Almost a month after the 2020 Presidential election, it is becoming clear that Joe Biden will be our next President.  Mr. Biden has promised an administration that will reunite the divided country.  In his victory speech a few weeks ago he said, “I pledge...

Mid-Week Challenge

I love a good preacher joke.  This morning I read one I had never heard before.  It goes as following:  A farmer was showing his pastor a plot of ground he had spent the last year cultivating from a patch of tangled briars and...

Mid-Week Challenge

How do you measure charity?  How much money you give, how often you help older people across the street, how many hours you log at the soup kitchen?  Yes, those are some measures, and as it goes the United States is the most charitable...

Mid-Week Challenge

This Sunday we will begin collecting boxes for Operation Christmas Child 2020.  Our church has participated in this ministry since our founding 15 years ago.  In that time we have grown, the number of boxes collected by our church has increased, but more than...

Mid-Week Challenge

The Morning After is a 1986 crime mystery starring Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges.  The movie is about a washed-up, alcoholic actress who wakes up on Thanksgiving 1986 next to a murdered man.  She does not remember anything from the night before. She calls her friend...

Mid-Week Challenge

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday November 1, 2020, and then begins again Sunday March 14, 2021.  Set your clocks! The change will take place at 2 a.m. on those fall and spring mornings. Things you might not know about Day Light Saving Time  Why 2...

Mid-Week Challenge

I’m beginning to feel my age, but I’m not that old.  Normally when you hear someone say that it has something to do with the limiting of their physical abilities.  No, I cannot keep up with my son running cross country or match the...

Mid-Week Challenge

I have to admit that I have actually enjoyed listening to the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.  Like one legal scholar said yesterday, “I actually learned something today.”  It has been a courteous and educational proceeding.  I have...

Mid-Week Challenge

By now the whole world knows that President Trump contracted the Corona virus.  It was not a surprise to level headed, rational thinking people.  But to others in the media it was as if Christmas came early.  It was as if they were waiting...

Mid-Week. Challenge

In Matthew 10:16 Jesus makes the famous charge to Believers, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Make no mistake, there is a war going on now, in fact, the war has been going...

Mid-Week Challenge

I spent a few moments this morning watching the ceremony for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as her casket was being placed at the Supreme Court building.  Later she will become the first woman in history to lie in state at the US Capitol....

Mid-Week Challenge

One of the more positive outcomes of being in the COVID lockdown is that it has caused Americans to evaluate what they consider important.  A recent poll of 2,000 Americans over age 21 found that isolation has brought about positive changes which have caused...

Mid-Week Challenge

Halloween is more than a month away but that has not stopped stores from flooding their shelves with bags of candy for those early shoppers.  Next to Christmas, this commercial holiday is probably one of the favorites among kids. What other day is it...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Sticks and stones may break my bones…” you know how the rest goes.  The truth is that words in fact do hurt.  They especially hurt when it comes from someone who has used their power and influence in a cruel way to advance...

Mid-Week Challenge

I have struggled to put into words how I feel about the depressing culture we live in.  With two teenagers at home, we work overtime trying to protect them from the wolves that stalk them daily.   There is such a double standard in every...

Mid-Week Challenge

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the "unalienable rights" which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator.  A common misunderstanding about...

Mid-Week Challenge

One of the great challenges the COVID pandemic presented to church leaders was how do we keep our congregation together, trained in the Bible and connected with the needs of fellow members?  Thanks to social media, email and online meeting capabilities, regular meetings could...

Mid-Week Challenge

With all the jokes I have heard about taking your “dog to the vet” I never thought I would hear a true story about a dog taking himself there.  Why on earth would a dog ever think about returning to that place on...

Mid-Week Challenge

Has anyone ever made you a promise and didn’t keep it?  How about a time when someone “gave you their word” and then went back on their vow?  How important is it that we keep our promises and what impact does doing what...

Mid-Week Challenge

Looking for ways to unite our country seems to become harder as each day passes.  Most people are looking for positive solutions to real issues but even the best of intentions can go wrong when the voices of division speak loudest.  Take for example...

Mid-Week Challenge

 With all the confusion on television and social media you might find it hard to put into words how you feel about our present situation.  When news media outlet leaders like Chris Cuomo and his governor brother tell us not to turn to God...

Mid-Week Challenge

What did Jesus look like?  The portrait on your grandmother’s wall? The statue in the Cathedral? Maybe the stained-glass window in the church where you grew up? Perhaps it is the image your Sunday School teacher showed you on those cards when you were...

Mid-Week Challenge

If there is one lesson we should have learned over the past four years it is be careful how quickly you come to a conclusion on a subject you know nothing about.  Don’t believe everything you hear the first time you hear it. ...

Mid-Week Challenge

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah lived in a time similar to ours.  He proclaimed the Word of the Lord in the middle of a society in crisis.  Political correctness was not a term back then but the stories recorded in the book that bears...

Mid-Week Challenge

“Cancel Culture,” it’s a term you might not be familiar with but you have seen it in practice.  A celebrity says or posts something someone disagrees with, a social media campaign follows to ruin his or her career and “cancel” them from the social...

Mid-Week Challenge

Amidst all the chaos happening in our world right now something very boring happened at 2:22PM Central last Saturday.  Space X and NASA launched two American astronauts into space from American soil for the first time in over ten years.  Equally as boring was...

Mid-Week Challenge

How do you know that the COVID-19 outbreak is getting better?  The voices of blame become louder and more pronounced!  It’s sad that the human default after a crisis is to look for someone to blame.  Instead of focusing on rebuilding, growth or what...

Mid-Week Challenge

As we are coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, research is showing that faith has played a big part in getting people through the last few months.  According to a survey by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Associated Press-NORC Center for...

Mid-Week Challenge

There is nothing funny about the COVID-19 virus that has changed the way we live and the way we will have to interact with others going forward.  Nothing funny, that is until you look at how the story has been given to us...

Mid-Week Challenge

With isolation restrictions lifting in several states, life is trying to be returned to a sense of normal.  Most agree that it will never be as it once was.  What this time has taught many of us is that we can take many...

Mid-Week Challenge

I read a great article today by Jim Denison titled How People You Don’t Know Change Your World.  https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/denison-forum/how-people-you-dont-know-change-your-world.html[https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/denison-forum/how-people-you-dont-know-change-your-world.html]   He talks about how people you have never met, maybe never heard their names, have a direct effect on your life.  Over the past seven weeks, through the power of technology,...

Mid-Week Challenge

As you might know, today is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.  Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, it now includes events coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network...

Mid-Week Challenge

People who have been following the fringe news stories reporting on state government responses to COVID-19 were not surprised to learn about the extreme measures Mississippi, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina and a few other states are going to.  While all states have adopted “stay...

Mid-Week Challenge

As Christians, we are in the middle of Holy Week, that period of time between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.  This is unlike any Holy Week we have experienced as a Church.  In some circles it has forced people to think more about what...

Mid-Week Challenge

April 1, 2020!  This morning I wish I would have awakened to the news anchor’s exclaiming, “April Fools! The last few weeks were just one big joke! Ha, Ha, not funny, everyone go back to your normal routine.”   But you know it’s no joke, we...

Mid-Week Challenge

This is certainly becoming one of the most unique and easy to remember years of our lives! World events, political battles, dangerous weather and now COVID-19 social distancing.  It is amazing how events can quickly bring us together as a people and just as...

Mid-Week Challenge

A lot can happen in a week.  Looking back on last week’s Midweek Challenge the reaction to the coronavirus pandemic has declined.  More cases have been reported, the Stock Market has been paused a couple of times, Disney World is closed and “social distancing” will likely...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you are 20 or younger you might not remember that in early 2000 many Americans were living off of beans and rice.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner had some combination of the two ingredients.  Why were Americans restricted to such a basic diet?   Was...

Mid-Week Challenge

Early Tuesday morning storms rumbled through our area leaving a devastating path of destruction.  It has been reported that over 20 people have lost their lives.  Thousands more effected with injury, property damage and in some cases complete loss.  In the area surrounding our church...

Mid-Week Challenge

Living in denial will cost you.  In the past few years we have come up with some pretty interesting terms to describe people we disagree with.  A person who does not believe in manmade climate change is called a Climate Change Denier or an...

Mid-Week Challenge

Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”  That can be said of...

Mid-Week Challenge

Need some good news today? On our way to school this morning I shared with my daughter that I had watched as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that he was no longer an atheist.  She responding by asking, “But is he a Christian now?”...

Mid-Week Challenge

To say that there is “tension in our nation” at the moment is an understatement.  We have watched (or at most heard about) the impeachment divide that has been going on in the Senate for the past few weeks.  It all boiled over last...

Mid-Week Challenge

We all have seen, read and made personal remarks about the passing of Kobe Bryant on Sunday.  The sudden passing of someone so well-known and loved is always emotional.  The late night talk show guests were canceled, NBA games postponed and sports channels talking...

Mid-Week Challenge

We all have heard of a church praying for revival, but have you ever heard of a church praying for “survival?”  That’s what the members of the Grove United Methodist Church in Cottage Grove, Minnesota are praying for.  The church has been around for...

Mid-Week Challenge

Maybe you have heard, “The End is Near,” and there is a great photo going around the internet that proves it!  Elias Chasiotis was taking pictures of the solar eclipse on December 26 when he captured a photo at sea level of the...

Mid-Week Challenge

Has anyone accused you of believing in fairytales if you take the Bible serious?  The Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and Jonah all seem a little hard to believe if you listen to a college professor or someone who watches...

Mid-Week Challenge

So, what are we all wishing for in 2020? Here are the top 10 New Year's resolutions according to a survey of 2,000 people: 1. Diet or eat healthier (71 percent), 2. Exercise more (65 percent), 3. Lose weight (54 percent), 4. Save more and spend...

Mid-Week Challenge

One of the best family programs on television at this time of year is A Charlie Brown Christmas.  It aired for the first time more than 50 years but it continues to be one of the most beloved TV specials of Christians because of Linus’...

Mid-Week Challenge

About this time each year the Bible app YouVersion reports the most popular verse searched, downloaded and sent over the past year.  The Bible verse for 2019 is Philippians 4:6 “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him...

Mid-Week Challenge

We have not heard much about the “War on Christmas” this year, so does that mean Christians are winning? I guess it all depends on how you look at it.  In 2017 Pew Research conducted a survey that found a large majority of...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you turned on the television or picked up print media just one time this past year there is a high probability that you heard about some type of “existential” threat that was looming on the horizon.  According to the reports, impending doom could...

Mid-Week Challenge

What is your idea of the perfect Thanksgiving?  Time with the family gathered around the table with a perfectly cooked bird and all the trimmings?  Light hearted conversation about memories made and times gone by?  Talk of hope and dreams by the little ones...

Mid-Week Challenge

If you follow any news outlet it has been impossible to ignore the outrage and shock of loyal fans and equal distain of hardened critics to Chick-fil-A’s decision to withdraw its financial support of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Salvation Army.  Monday’s announcement marked the end to...

Mid-Week Challenge

With all of the negative news we hear in the media today Christians often wonder if their efforts are making a difference.  Some have asked, “why bother?”  Many times we focus on the big picture and miss all the little victories happening around us. ...

Mid-Week Challenge

Agree with them or not, you have to admire someone who is honest about the holes in their belief system.  Only when we reach this point can we have a real discussion about truths held by each side.  It would be nice if...

Mid-Week Challenge

Over the past fifty years we have become more aware of the importance of mentoring the next generation.  We have seen the steady rise in mentor programs, youth based development programs and attention on age graded research.  In times past the focus was on...

Mid-Week Challenge

Over the past fifty years we have become more aware of the importance of mentoring the next generation.  We have seen the steady rise in mentor programs, youth based development programs and attention on age graded research.  In times past the focus was on...