Exploring Faith, Family, and Community
Religion versus Christianity As I look around and listen to stories from in and around the church, I have to wonder: are we as the Church trying to mimic Jesus, or are we replacing Him with our own idea of what we want Church to be? Are we following religion versus Christianity? I know. That…
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I spent some time with an old friend recently. For years, we had served side by side in various ministries at our church and eventually both progressed to leadership roles. One day, she stepped down from everything, left the church, and moved out of the area. I hadn’t heard from her in years. During our…
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Everyone wants a great love story. Our movies and books are filled with them. The couple meets and falls in love. There’s an assumption that they live happily ever after as the credits roll. End of story. But real love is far from a chick flick or even a romantic fairy tale. How many failed…
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I’ve spent part of my Christian life being spiritually barren. At one time in our lives, every weekend was taken up in church activities. Potluck dinners. Youth car washes. Women’s tea parties. Men’s breakfasts. Superficial conversations on Sundays without ever getting to know the people around me. It seemed we filled a lot of time…
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“Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James 1:2, 3 (CSB) It was anything but joyful. There was confusion and anger as I tried to sort through the changes in my husband, followed by shock and more…
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It’s amazing how quickly we forget to remember the past. I think back to September 11, 2001 when we weren’t Democrat or Republican but Americans, and then I look at the division in our country now and how much opposing views are tearing American’s apart. It’s not just American’s though. You can’t read much in…
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Even in the middle of a busy metropolitan suburb, life can be lonely. After rushing around in traffic all day, we withdraw into the sanctuary of our homes and spend our time surfing through social media to hide away from the chaos of our schedule, until we have little personal interaction with real people. Or…
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A Reflection on 2019 2019 was not an easy year for us. We started off the year with more questions than answers about our future in ministry and struggled through the pain of betrayal by some church leaders when we felt God was calling us to walk away from their ministry. We maneuvered through the…
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The word I picked for 2019 was “confident”. Not confident in myself or what I could accomplish, but confident in God and what I have seen Him do. Confident in the knowledge that He will continue to work in our lives, no matter the season. A few months ago, someone commented on the confidence Jay…
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See The Need Around You The young man in the picture is 20-year-old Dom who was shot and killed on July 11, 2019. I can’t stop wondering about the moments after he opened the door that morning. Did he see the shooter? Did he know him? Was anything said before the shots were fired that…
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