Post Thanksgiving Pastoring

Sunday I preached a pretty decent sermon, which was surprising only because I hadn't, um, written one. I had about four lines of notes on a cue card. Tuesday, my lay leadership team met and we're going to try something that I think might be new and exciting. We have been trying to develop a…

Surprised by Stewardship

I had what I thought was a relatively disappointing Stewardship Sunday this past week. We had decided to do the 18th because we thought people would be away on Veteran's Day weekend. Last week there were 74 people in church; this Sunday, there were 51. Well, bugger. I'd worked hard on my sermon and thought…

Sermon: Tipping Point

"Tipping Point" ( Nov 18, 2007 ) There's a difference between living on the side of fear and living on the side of faith. Stewardship sermon 2007. (Matthew 6:19-21, 25-34)

Borg, Lewis, and Attonement

Marcus Borg said one other thing in his lectures that revolutionized the way I think about language for Jesus. It was in his lecture about reclaiming Christian language, and it should be noted that this was by no means my first exposure to ideas like this; it’s just the time I got this particular point.…

Never preach what you’re not ready to hear

So you should never preach a sermon that you're not prepared to hear. Mine today was the first in a three-part series about giving, and the focus was on abundance. The basic statement was that we have a choice to focus on what we've been blessed with, or to focus on what we lack. Gratitude…