Presby-Musings

From time to time I will have someone come up to me after a worship service and say, "I just look forward to church all week because when I come here, I get my batteries recharged."   Or they will use language like, "I love coming to church and getting my spiritual tank filled."  And sometimes people will say something like, "Coming to church just gets me through the rest of my week."   While I completely understand what they mean (I've also have had some of the same kinds of feelings when I've attended church and came away feeling energized), I've started to question the perspective that fosters that kind of dynamic.   Lately, when I hear someone say something like "I get re-fueled on Sunday," the question that comes to my mind is simply this, "What is happening when the weight of our day-to-day lives makes us feel like we are merely enduring things until we get to Sunday?"   Is this what God wants for us?  To j...

Not too long ago, I was approached after one of our worship services by a visitor to our church.  He made it clear that he was simply there visiting a family member, and was not at all interested in a long term relationship.   "You'll probably ignore my suggestion," he said bluntly with a deep scowl on his face, "but I think you should have an altar call at the end of your services.  How do you expect people to get saved if you don't have an altar call?"  In his mind, it wasn't a church service if you didn't have an altar call.  A pastor friend of mine told me how he horrified members of his new congregation when, during a children's sermon, he placed his Bible on the communion table.  He recalled how there as actually an audible gasp when he did it.   Apparently, the former pastor of the church had spent years teaching the congregation that nothing  except the communion elements should ever  be on the communion table.  When my ...

This week I am beginning a new sermon series for the month of September entitled, "Together."  This series focuses on my church's core values, what we call the "Five Things."  A couple of years ago, I preached a series on the Five Things to introduce them as the "how" that enables us to accomplish the "why." Sounds awesome, right?  And sort of vague. So here's what I mean:  The "why" is our purpose, our vision as a church.  We believe that we are called to "Reflect and Reveal the Unselfish Love of Christ to the World."  The shorthand version of this is, "Know Jesus, Show Jesus." How we accomplish our vision is by focusing on our core values, our Five Things:  Worship, Pray, Grow, Love & Serve.  What we have discovered is that when we actually do pay attention to the Five Things, God has done some amazing things in, among and through our church. Funny how that works, eh? You might be wondering w...