bless the world
In her book, Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland , Dr. Lisa M. Bitel states "The archaelogical evidence of [Celtic monastic] enclosures...suggests that living within the sight of the monastic enclosure was useful to farmers and herders, doubtless economically as well as spiritually.
bless the world
One of the things Baptists do when we take our own pulse is to count. We count attendance, giving, groups, and most of all, we count baptisms. Lately, like the last 7 or 8 years, baptisms in Southern Baptist life have been down. So, there's a lot of
bless the world
I don't mean to harp on this, but the current rise in oil prices impacts more than just where we take our next vacations. As James Howard Kunstler states in his article, Wake Up America, We're Driving Toward Disaster: As the world passes the all-time oil
1 Corinthians
Other than the first Pentecost recorded in the Book of Acts, I can't think of a better Pentecost Sunday than ours last week. Many of our members wore red, as is our custom on Pentecost. Our worship began with the baptism of a 9-year-old boy who had professed
bless the world
I just realize that I haven't posted anything here since April 29. That is the longest time between posts since I started writing this blog almost 2-years ago. But, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Two funerals within 4-days, and all that goes with them.
1 Peter
After a very hectic week last week, I am finally back around to tending the blog here. Here is the podcast of my sermon from last Sunday, April 20, 2008, titled "People With A Purpose." The text is 1 Peter 2:2-10, and I talk about what it
bless the world
Pastor John Carmichael at Evangel North Church tried the Easter Outreach Idea with great success this year. John left the following comment: We used this idea for Easter 2008. It doubled our church attendance for Easter. We average 105, on Easter we had more than 210. Largest crowd ever! The
bless the world
I just returned from a meeting of community leaders and agencies that work with children and youth in our community. About 18 people were there including the superintendents of both the city and county schools, and representatives from Social Services, Community Action, Habitat for Humanity, our local community college, Boys
bless the world
Blessed Is He Who Comes In The Name of the LordMatthew 21:1-111As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there,
bless the world
Last year, several of us in the Fuller DMin Missional Leadership program had dinner with Alan Roxburgh one evening. Alan is one of the DMin adjunct professors, and author of The Sky Is Falling, co-author of The Missional Leader, and contributor to Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder, the book
bless the world
Seth Godin has an excellent post on marketing in a recession. His point is this: When the mass psychology changes and times are seen as not so good, the story we tell ourselves changes as well. Now, we buy out of defense, to avoid trouble. Or we buy because something
bless the world
Water From The Rock, Exodus 17:1-7 1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said,