Presby-Musings

This week we are continuing the sermon series that we started last week--a series that is going to take us all the way through the month of May.  The series is entitled, Deep & Wide.   We need to be the kind of church that is both deep and wide.  We want to be deep in our faith, and our love of Scripture, but we also want to have a wide embrace, welcoming everyone to journey with us.   Over the last two weeks we've discovered the two biggest reasons people give as to why they don't attend church:  They feel judged, and they feel lectured.   We've also learned that the best way we can overcome those objections is by practicing Radical Hospitality (welcoming people just as they are) and having Fearless Conversations (not being afraid to listen, engage and be open to people with real issues).  Today we're going to take a step further and discuss the third biggest reason that people have shared as to why they don't want to attend church--th...

Years ago, in the first church I served as a pastor, I had a church member who would send me emails a couple of times of year--emails that were filled with criticisms of everything we were doing wrong in the church, and what she would do to fix them.   The fact that her communications generally arrived around Christmas and Easter each year was not a coincidence. They were, in fact, the only times a year that she attended church.   When I would read her criticisms, my blood would reach the boiling point.  "Who does she think she is?" I would ask my wife.  "She shows up twice a year and knows everything about everything?  Not likely!"   And then I would quote some Scripture...sort of.   "Jesus taught us to make sure the plank of wood is out of our eye before we start trying to tell someone else they've got a speck of dust in theirs.   That woman has a whole lumber yard in her peepers!"   This is the verse I was attempting to quote...

I made a to-do list yesterday of all of the things I have to write, create and do over the next couple of months in the midst of a couple of weeks of vacation, short trips, meetings, events and the like.  It's a long list.  It takes up a whole page at least.   I made the list because I realized I needed something to help me keep all my tasks organized in such a way that I could begin to work ahead some, and to mark and measure my overall progress.  I completed and checked off six tasks yesterday.  There are 36 more to go.   At some point I will finally reach the end, and cross off the last task--for this list.  I just now realized I probably need to make a new list for October and November, because those months are bound to be just as busy as August and September.  Oh, and then there's December... probably going to need a new list just for December.   Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining in the least.  There's a lesson in thi...

My wife Merideth and I have started doing something to push back against the darkness, and to start our mornings off well.  We stopped watching cable news in the morning.  In fact, we stopped watching any kind of news at all on the TV--or listening to it on the radio.  Instead, we crank up some inspirational music on one of the Christian stations on our Pandora account.  If you aren't familiar with Pandora, just go to Pandora.com and you'll learn all about the wonder of streaming, online radio.  It's miraculous.   This song by Christian artist Lauren Daigle was playing on the Pandora station Merideth chose today:   God I give You all I can today These scattered ashes that I hid away I lay them all at Your feet From the corners of my deepest shame The empty places where I've worn Your name Show me the love I say I believe Oh Help me to lay it down Oh Lord I lay it down Oh let this be where I die My lord with thee crucified Be lifte...

I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and I saw something that made me shake my head sadly. A person was commenting on an article about a prominent Christian leader and author, who she happened to disagree with. Her comment was simply to place a reference of Scripture in the comment line. Her reference of choice was second Peter 2:1, which includes a warning about false prophets and false teachers. She also included the letters SMH which stands for shaking my head. SMH I'm familiar with this passage of scripture because it was quoted numerous times in comments and reactions on news stories and social media posts regarding a story that made the news regarding me and my church. The story made TV news because I bet my congregation if they broke an attendance record for Easter last year I would do something crazy.  The crazy wager was that I would get a tattoo of the church's logo on my leg if they broke the record. Apparently, this was an act of here...

Today when I was in the checkout line at Publix, the cashier asked me, "How are you today?" I paused before I answered.  I thought about telling her the truth: "My day pretty much stinks, to be honest.  I've had a horrible week dealing with some pretty rotten stuff.  I'm stressed, tired, weary, beat, worn-out, picked on, picked apart and wishing desperately that I could take a long, permanent vacation to somewhere, anywhere but here."  What I said instead was:  "Good." I wonder what would have happened if I had actually told her the truth...  I bet she would have been frightened. I doubt that she really wanted to know how I was doing.  And I didn't really want to share. It was easier just to put on a front and be a guy who is doing "good." I wonder if she believed me.   I've been thinking a lot this week about how so many people find it easier to just to put on a mask and be someone they are not rather than be aut...