Lesson Number One: Pruning My first lesson from the church garden came from planting the pumpkin plants. Each of our 4-year-old preschoolers planted a pumpkin seed in a cup in March and tended it over the past 6 weeks and now we had 20 pumpkin plants ready to be planted in one 4x8 bed. Any good...
I’m writing this article the day after our big storm. Now they’re saying that tonight we’ll have a big storm too. So by the time you read this, there may be two days after a big storm. The first night of storms took place on our ministry team night. I had finished up at our...
Have you ever felt like you’ve just been going through the motions, like you were simply doing what was expected of you? I have to be honest; sometimes worship feels that way. Maybe you’ve heard somebody say something like “I just didn’t get anything out of worship...
I’ll never forget the first time I came home after leaving for college. Having graduated from high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, my college was 811 miles away near downtown Seattle, Washington. After just two months away, I flew home for Thanksgiving break. The evening drive from...
This morning while eating my Multi-Grain Cheerios, I finished reading 1 Kings. The end of the book finds the reader going through a cycle of descriptions about the various kings of Israel and Judah. In the typical way, verses 41 through 44 describe the reign of Jehoshaphat, a king of Judah...
There are often beautiful flowers in the chancel area during worship on Sunday mornings at 8:45am. These are given by individuals or families in our church to mark a special moment in their life: the birthday of a loved one, a wedding anniversary, or another similar moment. If this is something...
I am writing this newsletter article at the eleventh hour. I generally try not to procrastinate, but I am rewriting my newsletter article because a few trusted people told my that my first article was too political. One of the three pastors I shared it with thought I should post it. Also, one...
For the past month I’ve been having a blast thinking about our mission and vision. This sermon series has had me digging through old church newsletter articles, annual reports, and bulletins, while also thinking about our town and opportunities around us, while simultaneously thinking...
I wanted to update all of you on the changes to staffing at the Presbytery level in North Central Iowa. Because of the shrinking size of the membership within our Presbytery, steps were taken last year to partner with other nearby Presbyteries to combine in a few areas. As we seek to follow God...
There’s a fun youth group game that involves two teams, two individuals, and some of those foam pool noodles. Usually in a big room, the two individuals represent their teams, wear a blindfold, and try to hit their opponent with the pool noodle. To complicate matters, they start off in...
