Pastor’s Blog
Cultural Blindness
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 […]
Weary and Tired
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 Praying Parent
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, […]
A Tribute to a Friend
According to the world’s math, he was average. Academically and athletically he was right in the middle of the bell curve. Professionally, as a teacher and coach, he took home an average paycheck. He chose to live, work, and worship within a mile of the school he graduated from. He had a wife, two kids […]
God or Caesar?
Most of us haven’t had to choose between God and Caesar—at least not yet. Times are changing like the seasons, however. Secularism is on the march. If religious freedom was an apple, government has been taking quite a few bites from it lately. Case in point, Georgia. The state legislature passed a bill this week […]
Christian Little
Christian Little liked to read the paper. He liked knowing what was going on. In November 2012, he read that his state legalized marijuana. He wondered if the sky was falling. Christian Little liked to listen to talk radio. He liked knowing what was going on. In June 2015, he heard the United States Supreme […]
A Transgendered Parable
For the context of this parable, please read the previous blog: “An Open Letter to the YMCA“. A wolf walked into a barnyard. The rooster was first to sound the alarm. The pigs huddled. The sheep scampered. The chickens clucked. All the commotion brought the farmer running. “No worries,” said the wolf to the farmer. […]
An Open Letter to the YMCA
My blog is a letter I sent this week to Bob Ecklund, President and CEO of the Pierce and Kitsap County YMCA. In addition, I sent the letter to each of the YMCA’s Board of Directors–ten of them. It concerns the “Y’s” recent decision that members are free to access whatever bathroom/locker room facility based […]
Culturally Required
The doors of the church remain wide open, the free offer of the Gospel proclaimed to all, but culture’s continued free-fall required us to clarify our Statement of Faith and amend our Bylaws. Hesitant to name specific sins given we are all sinners who have our own particular proclivities and sins to wrestle; we still […]
No President Adolf Hefner
Last time I piggybacked on Muggeridge’s observation that when the masses believe God is dead, the resulting vacuum will be filled by those driving for power or promising pleasure. If God is in the grave, there’s a mad dash for his throne. The 20th century is full of examples of peoples and nations oppressed by […]
Adolf Hefner
“If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.” Malcolm Muggeridge Muggeridge said that over half a century ago. He did so from his perch in […]
Fungus or Fetus?
The hubbub this week has been the discovery of water on Mars. What is interesting about the find is the pronouncement that followed: life may exist on our neighboring planet. But listen and read carefully what constitutes life. From the reports I am reading no one is saying this means there are little green men […]