A beautiful February morning to my Chapel Hill family! We rarely do this, but it appears weather conditions are such that it would be unsafe to encourage people to be out on the road tonight and tomorrow in order to attend church. So regrettably, we are cancelling all weekend worship services and activities at the […]
Big News Ahead
Last weekend I shared with you from Mark 1:17 Jesus’ very succinct definition of discipleship: “Follow me” (Jesus wants dedicated followers) “and I will make you become” (Jesus transforms us) “fishers of men” (Jesus invites us on mission with him). I reminded you of Jesus’ self-described mission statement: “[I] came to seek and to save […]
Chapel Hill Out and About
It might surprise you to discover that January is the craziest of months in my annual schedule. For the first three weeks of every year I travel to participate in gatherings that represent some of my responsibilities (and privileges) beyond the walls of Chapel Hill. The first week I travel to Orlando, Florida to meet […]
Wow! What a Weekend!
It would be hard to pack much more good news into two days than we experienced over the weekend at Chapel Hill. If you missed it—you really missed it! First, we gathered as a congregation to vote to call Ellis White to be our Associate Pastor for Weekend Services. It’s hard to believe that Ellis […]
Celebrating God’s Kindness in Baptism
I hope—and suspect—that you are still basking in the wonder of your Christmas experience. The “eagerest” of beavers among you might already be putting away some of your Christmas decorations. But the Toone family barely got their tree up in time for the holiday! Let me explain. For the first time in years, the four […]
Reflections on 2018
Happy New Year, my Sweetheart Church! Someday when I look back over my long ministry at Chapel Hill, I suspect I will remember 2018 with particular fondness. Because it appears that this was the year when God, in his kindness and for his purposes, did something that is all too rare. Let me explain. For […]
GLOW-mentum!
Merry Christmas! You feel the buzz, don’t you? A level of excitement like we haven’t experienced in a while. A sense of momentum and growth that is just contagious. Take last weekend’s GLOW. We were blown away when more than 520 worshippers showed up for this innovative “Christmas by Glowstick.” We have a name for […]
I’m proud of you!
I don’t remember being so nervous about a sermon. We had decided to try something different: to use a classic Christmas movie to illustrate our Advent sermons. We were going to kick off with “Elf”…and I can’t tell you how nervous I was that we would get it “right;” that we would find the right […]
Getting “Reel” for Advent
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and Cyndi and I got to spend ours with our daughter, Rachel, a minister in our Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination who is serving as the Dean of Spiritual Formation at Montreat College, a Christian school in Billy Graham country near Asheville, North Carolina. (In fact, Rachel lives literally next door […]
The Spirit Is Working
Sunday after service, a long-time member came up to me and said, “Wow, the Holy Spirit was really working this morning. Something is happening in our congregation. It feels like the days when we were worshiping in the gym!” For those of you who have come since 1994 (the last time we worshipped in the […]