Grateful for the Ordinary
The past few weeks have been pretty warm. Actually some of those days were down right blazing HOT. How did you manage the heat? Did you lose some houseplants? Was sleep a challenge? Did you take 5 showers a day? I was in Southern California for…
Shipwrecks, Storms, & a Holy Ghost
Are you ready for an epic adventure? The end of Acts reads like a synopsis of a blockbuster film: riots, beatings, starvation, storms, shipwrecks, pagan islands, and more. As we finish our Summer in the Spirit series, we’re also finishing the journey with the Apostle Paul. And in the midst of this, we’re considering staying mindful the activity of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our uncertain journeys.
Lord of the Harvest
During the last month, my household has been enjoying 3 different kinds of peaches, an abundance of plums, and now we are harvesting nectarines and tomatoes. Apples and raspberries look to be in the coming weeks. We’ve given some…
Living “Wide Open”
Our upcoming sermon is called “Wide Open” on Aug 7th, dealing with Acts 10 and the faith being made open to the whole world. Up until that time most believed that faith in God was…
Creative Ways to Connect This Summer
It is the middle of summer. I hope you are enjoying the extra daylight, warm days and all the activities that happen this time of year. Let me encourage you to do them WITH people. An encouragement for fellowship…and summertime is a wonderful time for it. Here’s a few creative ways to connect with others this week…
Invisible Person
As we continue on in our “Summer in the Spirit” series I want to make sure we don’t miss the most basic and the most important truth—the Holy Spirit is a person (not human, but a distinct entity). The Holy Spirit is…
Begin with Waiting
Last Sunday we looked at Acts 1, in our sermon series “Summer in the Spirit”. We found that even though Jesus gave clear directives to spread the Good News locally and globally, His followers were first told to wait…their focus wasn’t on the doing, it was on the waiting…
Holy Outreach
We’re spending the whole Summer focusing on God, the Holy Spirit, as the divine person we can know and be changed by through the scriptures and through His presence in our daily lives. I had the joy of teaching on…
Newsflash: Pastor Attends Church
I went to church last Sunday. No really—"I went to church”. For the first time in a while, I basically had no part in putting on the worship service. Sure, I was..
A Full Fifth
I wanted to use this space to mention a few things from our time together for “5th Sunday”, our "worship of service" in place of our normal Sunday morning Worship Service. As you know…
The Never Ending Series
I can’t believe Jesus 1.0 series is over, can you?! We started the series back in December as we celebrated Advent, and now we’ve witnessed Jesus ascend, leaving his disciples behind to wait on the coming promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit). The beautiful thing about a…
Blessings Harmonized
As you probably know, we hosted the Moody Bible Institute Chorale on Wednesday evening for a concert. The event had been rescheduled three times in the last year and a half due to covid concerns. Admittedly, I was skeptical that it was going to…
Is Busy Giving You Pause?
May is a very full month around here! True story—I wrote a first draft of today’s “pastoral blurb” yesterday morning to ensure that I got it to Dave before the deadline to send in the all-church email. The piece I wrote has to do with how many things we have going on in….
The How of Help
In staff meeting this week we discussed how Christians and The Church can better care for people, both christian and nonchristian, who are dealing with mental health or sexual…
Seasons of the Spirit
Since last Sunday’s Sermon on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24) , I’ve had a handful of conversations. Some folks resonated with the experience of the Hiddenness of God. God can sometimes be hard to find. I’ve also connected with others who long for…
The Way We Give
If you’ve been around anyone in a leadership role at HSCC the past few weeks, you know the church is in “budget season". Staff are figuring out costs for plans, Deacon liaisons are connecting and submitting requests, the PLT is discussing and praying through the…
What an Easter!
Can you believe it’s almost Easter Sunday already? I don’t know about you, but for me this year feels like it is flying by and in the midst of our busy life, this week we have a holiday (a holy-day) set apart for us to pause and…
The Fear of Death
As I’ve reflected on John chapter 11 last few weeks and I’ve been impacted by Jesus’ intentionality during His last weeks of “earthly” ministry. Of course, His earthly ministry has continued for 2,000 years, but we’re talking pre-resurrection here ;) As you may recall, we dove into the story of Lazarus (John 11) and soaked in the layers of revelation Jesus showed to His…
Where’s My Peace?
This morning I was feeling "off"…some tiredness, discouragement and the weight of the many responsibilities and cares of life. A friend shared with me a similar incident he’d had a few days earlier and captured it with…
What Fog Reveals
A few mornings ago, we had our first really thick foggy morning. From my vantage point, a few miles inland, I could see the fog creeping up the valleys, covering the city and advancing on the forest. In the later spring and all summer into…