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Sermon Planning – Series or Lectionary?
Yesterday I returned from my first ever sermon planning retreat. For several years now I have been planning my sermons on the run, fitting a few solid half-days into my regular work week at the church study, hoping and praying that no emergencies or minor distractions would come knocking. It has worked, but I always…
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My Cyber Sermon Suggestion Box for 2014
Next week I am taking a much needed few days to pray, read, and do sermon planning for 2014. For those of you who don’t know, I am a preacher that uses both the lectionary and sermon series at various times of the year. As all who are part of our worship team at FUMC…
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Humanity as it could be …
“Humanity as it could be … as most of wish it would be.” This video story had me singing the hymn by Oliver and Miguel Manzano: When our homes are filled with goodness in abundance, when we learn how to make peace instead of war, when each stranger that we meet is called a neighbor,…
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All Saints Day
… remembering and giving thanks for all the saints who from their labors rest. Plan to preach this Sunday on “Why do we need saints?” If you can imagine a world without them, then you imagine a world without God.
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Rainy day blogging
So today my wife encouraged me to dust off the ole blog and give it a bit of a face-lift. Guess that means I might need to start blogging again since the posts have been few and far between these past few years. I think maybe I should just let my wife start taking the…
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What is in your hand?
“Then Moses answered, ‘But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me?’ … The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’” – Exodus 4:1-4 The story of Moses’s call to be God’s deliverer is an extraordinary one. Sometimes we focus so much on the burning bush encounter on the mountain…
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Faith in the midst of Storms
At 12:59 am on December 26th, 2004, just one day after Christmas, the world experienced the largest earthquake in 40 years. The main difference between this earthquake and so many others was this one took place underwater in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. The quake registered 9.0 on the Richter…
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Daily Bible Study – Summer 2013
As many of you know, I continue to do some Adult curriculum writing for the United Methodist Publishing House. Those of you familiar with the Adult Bible Studies quarterly may or may not know about the Daily Bible Study companion resource that follows the same themes but gives each student a daily Scripture, meditation and…
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Evangelism 101
In less than 24 hours, I will be flying to El Salvador with a Duke Divinity School teaching team to join Methodist pastors at the Central American Pastor’s School in Ahuachapán (the five participating countries that have a border agreement for easier transportation include El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua). For the second…
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Sermon Blogging – “Say No to Spiritual Short-cuts”
This year, I am preaching a sermon series for Lent and Easter titled “Renounce and Affirm.” Though many of my series often depart from the RCL (lectionary), this one actually follows it from the First Sunday in Lent through Pentecost. Podcasts of these sermons can be found here. This past Sunday, however, we did not…
Welcome to my blog! I love theology, life, writing … and the three things often intersect on this blog. I am not sure where I first heard it, but I have never forgotten the quote: “Give me anything and I can tell you about God.” I like that. It doesn’t matter what it is – movies, pop culture, politics, the church, music, motorcycles, basketball, the beach, the mountains, war, hunger, love, forgiveness, or people and personalities – it is all raw material for reflection on the mystery and majesty of God.
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