Pastor’s Blog

Christian lived in Mushy Middleville. He liked his life. It was easy to like. For the most part, people left him alone. Not to be mean, but they left him alone because they didn’t notice him. He was nondescript because that’s the way he lived life. If life was a golf game, he was middle […]

October 1, 2020 Church Family, Jettison to the end of your life for a moment. This is not a morbid exercise. Indeed, it is wise to do so. “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). On your death bed, if asked what three things you desired […]

September 24, 2020 Church Family, In Deuteronomy 29, Moses is renewing the terms of God’s relationship with his people. Why is it being renewed? The reason being that now at the end of their 40-year wilderness wandering, everyone over the age of 20 when they departed Egypt had died. The children of the Exodus were […]

God’s prophets had a tough gig. They were to speak on behalf of God to his people. At first glance, what was so difficult about that? Wouldn’t people want to hear from God? You’d think the guy with a direct connection to the Creator and Sustainer of the world would be revered. The writer of […]

August 27, 2020 Church Family, There’s a guy down the road from our home who has a political sign in his yard. Some find it offensive. Some drive by and snicker. It simply says, “Inslee’s an Idiot.” I’m the guy who snickers. I wouldn’t put that sign in our yard but those three words resonate […]

Church Family, In 1 Kings 19, Elijah was ready to “tap out”. He was weary, tired of knocking heads with the king and frustrated with the unresponsive populace. God was of little concern in the palace and of little concern of the people. Heaven was sounding pretty good to the prophet right about then. But […]

Pity my wife. She has to hear my rants. And she has heard a lot of them as of late. In fact, she probably could ghost write this blog. No argument that the virus is real, nasty, and dangerous. But it is not equally dangerous to all. Nevertheless, our governor has shut our state down; […]

“Good Friday” is one of the most meaningful days on the church calendar. It is the day we recognize Jesus dying on the cross. Each year we gather as a church to reflect upon the death of our Savior and our role requiring the Atonement. This year we are unable to gather. Nevertheless, we are […]

March 19, 2020 Church Family, Your elders and deacons met last evening to discuss our plan regarding COVID-19. Sadly, we will not be assembling at the church building. Though your leadership will be making decisions on a week-to-week basis, it appears we won’t have any large group gatherings for the next several weeks. This means […]

Kenya was an amazing experience. It was the third time in ten years I had the opportunity to help train Kenyan pastors. Lynn went with me this time, speaking twice to over 100 women, many of them pastor’s wives. We worked in the southern portion of the country, near the Kenyan border with Tanzania. The […]

I get weary. It’s not predictable. It’s not seasonal. It’s not even brought on by the same stuff. It just seems to happen from time to time. Sometimes it’s from dealing with my own sin; sometimes it’s from dealing with someone else’s. There are times it’s financially related. The service engine light in the car […]

A Partial Prayer List for Parents as They Pray for Their Child Referenced in Pastor Rich’s sermon, A City on a Hill–Again Deuteronomy 4:1-14, February 19, 2017 This prayer list is taken from the book, Equipping God’s People for Kingdom Praying: pray that your child: . . . will know Jesus early in life (Proverbs 22:6, […]