Last weekend marked the official start to the Advent season! It’s so exciting to see all of the decorations around the church and to hear the sounds of Christmas songs in our services. This is a special Advent for Aimee and me as it is our first in Gig Harbor. Although we have been here […]
Advent Potpourri
OK, I am sheepishly now going to admit something to you: I got Advent wrong! Usually, the first Sunday in Advent falls after Thanksgiving and we went about our sermon planning and prep as if that were so. Only it wasn’t! We were early by one week. You’d think a “religious professional” would get that […]
A family away from home
It is perhaps ironic, certainly providential (we are Presbyterian after all), that this Thanksgiving weekend also marks the beginning of Advent, our month-long celebration in anticipation of the coming of Christ. Ironic/providential in that it is also a story of a young family unexpectedly compelled by their government to be away from their home in […]
The Greatest Rescue
I love Festival of Hope weekend. It is so fun to watch boxes of product arrive in the weeks leading up to the event, and hear our pricing volunteers “ooh” and “ahh” at scarves, necklaces, and handbags as we pull them out of the boxes. I love the way the weekend makes our church buzz […]
Living wisely in an age of terror
I have the pleasure of mentoring three young pastors-in-training every Tuesday morning. We cover a wide variety of topics that will better prepare them for a life of vocational Christian ministry—one example of our Beyond These Walls commitment to “Releasing Leaders.” This week, however, we were discussing a topic that, I promise you, never came […]
How to Create Some Space for God!
Have you ever felt that nudge? A friend, co-worker, family member, or someone you just met is talking, and you sense the conversation could take a spiritual turn. But what do you say? What don’t you say? How can you bring up God without shutting the connection down? About 150 of you been gathering for […]
The ugliest weekend of the year!
Every year on the weekend prior to All Saints Day (the Christian version of Halloween!) we at Chapel Hill celebrate St. Andrews Sunday. This is a moment for us to look back at our Scottish roots and celebrate the lives of our spiritual ancestors. It is very Scottish—bagpipes and everything! (I know, it can sound like […]
The Power to Redeem Our Broken World
Sometimes our default is to look around us and see the glass as half empty. The world is filled with brokenness and it doesn’t look like things are getting much better. It can be downright depressing, am I right? When I first met Joseph Bataille from World Relief Haiti, he talked about a similar experience […]
A Father, Two Sons, and a Letter to Rome
One of the basic facts you probably learned about the epistle to the Romans was that Paul wrote it. It’s distinctly Pauline in its logical, argumentative style, requiring us to put our brains in gear and really think. It can be a lot of work to read! But Paul wasn’t entirely original in what he […]
A Vigil and a Seahawk
On Monday morning I sent out an emergency blog regarding the shocking assault on a crowd of concert-goers in Las Vegas the night before. Like all of you, I was having trouble grasping the enormity of the carnage. At the time, we were receiving reports of 50 dead and some 400 wounded. I challenged you, […]