To describe something as “surreal” is to say that it is “bizarre, fantastic, difficult to believe.” “Surreal” could certainly describe 2020, the last vestiges of which we are counting down, many of us with glee, I suspect. If a year ago you had described what we now take for granted—everyone wearing masks, professional baseball games […]
1 Day in Port Orchard
Between now and Easter 2021 WORSHIP Join us for worship on Tuesday nights at 6:15 pm (4647 Sidney Road SW, Port Orchard, WA 98367) On another day, visit and praise and pray! Pull into the parking lot of our worship space. (The gates may be locked. Just park up by the Little League fields and […]
Almost there!
When I climbed Mt. Rainier with my two friends back in 1995, I remember looking up from the flank of the mountain and thinking, “I will never make it to the top.” The mass of rock and snow above us was huge, our pace seemed snail-like and it really seemed impossible. But we did what […]
Jesus is (still) Lord
Well…I was wrong. I said last Sunday that, come Wednesday morning, half of the country would be mad. Nope. As I write this early Wednesday morning, the WHOLE country is mad as we stumble-bumble our way towards election clarity. I am intentionally writing this blog at this time because I want to lean into the […]
How to fulfill your unique calling
My beloved Sweetheart Church: We are going to be preaching through the book of Daniel beginning in January, a wonderful study about a man who was living as an exile in a foreign land and yet found a way to be both faithful to God and useful to his culture. In a very real sense, […]
Love endures…
I’ve walked this earth for almost 64 years. I cannot recall a year that was more incessantly irksome. Pandemic, economic travails, political nastiness, racism, violence, wildfires, blood moons … and blood-red suns … it has felt apocalyptic. But it has not all been bad. At least for the Toones. There have been some sweet, redemptive […]
Delayed…but not forgotten
Of all the challenges COVID-19 has posed pastorally in these last eight months, the loss of human connection has been the hardest for me. Ordinarily, our deacons and pastors partner up to call on people in the hospital. It is all but impossible now. Often in the past, I have been called to a person’s […]
Our united state?
It might seem quaint and old-fashioned to a younger generation, but I remember starting every school day standing by my desk, hand on my heart, staring at the American flag hanging on our wall and listening as, over the intercom, a disembodied voice led us in familiar words: “I pledge allegiance….to the flag…of the United […]