Presby-Musings

This week I am preaching the conclusion of the sermon series, "The Missionary Next Door: learning to be a witness where you are." Before we get in to the text and start digging around, let me ask a question:   How good are you at picking up on non-verbal cues? Non verbal cues are the subtle facial expressions, body language and gestures that tell you what someone is really thinking even when they may not be speaking. Most of us have at least some experience with these kinds of things. How can you tell if someone is really listening to you?  If they are wearing a shirt like this:  They probably aren't listening. Just a hunch. How can you tell if someone is lying? "They're a politician and they're talking..." probably went through your head right then.  It went through mine.  There's something to that, to be sure. What about this?  Think about a moment when someone communicated their faith to you without saying a word. Recently, I was...

This week I am concluding a two-part sermon series on the vision of our church.  I have to confess that I have sweated over these two sermons a lot more than I thought I would.  I decided at first that the best way to approach them was to think like a prophet.  But when I thought about what happened to the prophets---they were reviled, stoned, imprisoned and basically ignored---I wondered if my strategy might have a flaw in it. There is something prophetic in casting vision, though.  Especially if the vision that is being cast is a holy vision.  I imagine that sounds a bit pretentious to some, but let me explain.  When I say "holy" I just mean something that strives to be as close to God as possible.  A holy vision is one that is unmistakably God's.  There's no way that someone could equate it with anything else. In other words... it sounds a little crazy.  It seems impossible to reach.  To think about such a vision brings...