As a child one of my memories of Christmas was that my parents would always invite people into our home on Christmas day who found Christmas difficult or couldn’t spend it with their family. Each year for part of the day, someone would come to our home for food and drink and my family would […]
Daddy, help!
Right now, every time I am cooking dinner, or emptying the dishwasher, or taking out the trash, my daughter Evelyn incessantly cries out to me, “Daddy, help! Daddy, help! Daddy, help!” And she won’t stop until I give her a job to do. Sometimes there are helpful things for her to do, like take spaghetti out of […]
Overflow !!
When you hear the word overflow, what do you think of? A beautiful fountain in a city park? An overfull drink in an unsteady hand? Pastor Larry’s sermon illustration from Sunday? An accident you once had when removing a toilet in a home renovation? Well… Right now, I think of my two year old daughter, […]
Connecting the Disconnected
A few times every year, the Pastoral Team heads off to Pacific Beach for a retreat to spend time together asking God what He has in store for us as a church in this next season. I love our times spent sharing meals, praying, going for runs on the beach, studying Scripture, toasting marshmallows, and […]
How do I get there?
It’s hard to go somewhere if you don’t know how to get there. People frequently get lost on the way to our apartment. First off, the house number doesn’t exist on anyone’s GPS (and I literally mean anyone’s GPS). Then, every GPS (again, every GPS) takes you the wrong way and you end up behind […]
Merry Christmas!
On Christmas Day, at 3pm for 10 minutes, the United Kingdom comes to a halt for an annual moment of reflection—the Queen’s Speech. In the midst of all of the Christmas festivities, it is a chance to pause and listen as the Queen reflects upon the year that has been and the meaning of Christmas. […]
Follow Your Heart
For some people I know, “Follow Your Heart,” is something like a life mission statement. They’ve had too much of being told that you need to think things through, or being told what others think you should do, or feeling like you need to make others happy with your decisions. And so they come to […]
A Self-Confessed Bibliophile
I love books. My first job was for a bookshop. In fact, my wife and I (before we were married) spent five weeks one summer working for the bookshop at two of the biggest Christian festivals in the UK. This might sound great, until you realize that it required us to spend the whole time […]
How did you end up becoming a part of a church for the first time?
I went to church as a child, but for most of my teenage years, church didn’t figure in my life. I had a faith in Jesus… of sorts. It mostly consisted of praying to ask for forgiveness for all the wrong things I had done that day, even though I knew I would do most […]
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Expedience or Obedience
We are privileged to have many successful business leaders in our congregation, and in the week prior to a sermon on leadership, we thought it would be great for us to hear from one of them in particular. Steve Maxwell is the husband of Kim, and the father of twins Nate & Brynna, who are […]