Following Jesus, full of grace and truth
“Remember, we’ve recently come through a pandemic! Go easy on ourselves!” In our Church Life Meeting last Sunday,…
Jesus’ own Spirit, inside of us
Last Sunday we considered God the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ own Spirit, inside of us now through faith. An incredible spot, scary and comforting…
Jesus, our TRUE Elder Brother
Do we all need an older brother? I had one growing up, and we’ve since become pretty good friends, but that wasn’t always the case. At just two years older than me,…..
The whole world is God’s kingdom
The whole world is God’s kingdom, and we enjoyed having four emissaries of God’s love, three students who came from Nigeria, South Korea, Madagascar, and a missionary working in Nepal and Myanmar. As they spoke, we could hear …
Draw near to God…
As you can see from the attached photo, I couldn’t resist going to Yosemite with my good friend Ron Taylor. We put in a little effort (4:30am departure from Santa Cruz and 8 mile cross-country ski trek) in order to be immersed in God’s beauty and …
Office Changes, Bible Still the Same
During the sermon on Sunday, it was amazing to look out across the sea of faces and note so many of you and your history with the Lord and with His Word. Isn’t it amazing that He speaks to us at all? And that we’re caught up together in this historical restorative Love of God, even here at HSCC! What stood out to you about the Scriptures this last Sunday? How did the Word of God nudge you?
Mornings of the Roundtable
Last Sunday we launched out series “We Still Believe” with the PLT roundtable discussion as the main part of the “sermon”….
Hatching a New Year
On Sunday, we had a dear friend of HSCC and missionary, Jim Hatcher preached to kick off our 2023 year!! Jim and Lynette have been connected to HSCC for 41 years and on the mission field for 36. Wow, what faithfulness. Jim shared authentically about his nomadic experiences as a missionary, and how a longing for HOME is…
What Do We Believe?
As we head towards our sermon series “We Still Believe” I’d like you to read and consider the Apostles Creed, copied below. I grew up in a church that recited this weekly and appreciate the simplicity and clarity. This brief, yet powerful confession has been…
Choose Your Own (Advent)ure – Christmas Style
Did you know that when Pastor Danny and I originally launched this blog/pastoral letter, we wanted it to be a place where we could share the gold “nuggets” that God has taught us during our sermon preparations? These nuggets, for one reason or another, couldn’t be included in the time to preach during the Sunday worship, but for us have been encouraging, eye-opening, and useful in…
Peace & Vision
This past Sunday we considered the real “Peace” that Jesus brought when He came to earth as announced by the Angels. We discovered that He left us His peace through the sending of the Holy Spirit we have with us now all the time. Remember the…
What is Hope Made Real?
On top of seasonal busyness, the holidays can stir up a lot of heart-content too. Last week, Danny reminded each of us to breathe. Such a good reminder! Let’s take another breath this week as we consider another theme from our Advent sermon last week, Hope, Hope is often spoken casually as a wish, a desire—something that would occur if….
Happy Holy Days
What a pleasure to experience our annual Thanksgiving service last Sunday. Weren’t you grateful for all of the gratitude? And how about that POTLUCK?? I got in line as one of the last people and the tables were still completely stocked full of food and deserts. The conversations around the…
How to be Thankful
I want to give a special encouragement to our church community to be sure to attend and participate in this Sunday’s worship service at 9:30am. As most of you know, this special service is one of the best of…
Whose the Fairest Ministry of them All? (Clue: it’s all of us!)
Okay, if you missed our Ministry Fair—I’m not saying you missed out (We don’t want to trigger any FOMO PTSD for those youngin’s) but…it was super fun! Here are some initial reflections on our time together…
Gifts for EVERYONE!
This Sunday at 11am, there’s an exciting event for everyone who attends HSCC—the Ministry Fair! Now many of you have been to a “market fair” or “county fair” but this event is strategically placed at the end of our Bestowed sermon series—why, you ask? Well…
Finding a Way to Believe
As we traverse through our Bestowed series (studying the work of the Holy Spirit among us through giving spiritual gifts and shaping our stories), last Sunday we bounded down an uncommon trail in the modern Church’s conversation surrounding spiritual gifts. A conversation about the Supernatural. As we learned, the modern list of spiritual gifts is actually a conglomeration of…
Lemonade Reflections
Last Sunday at 12:30pm, a large gathering took over High Street Community Church front lawn and parking lot. As the warm sunlight finally broke through, Andrew Trowbridge launched his 5th Annual Lemonade Stand to support Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz. Dozens of Westsiders…
Gifted Homework?
This week I uttered a strange statement during the Equipping Hour…”you have homework!”. It wasn’t the normal charge—to put into practice what the Lord has given to us in message or class in the ACE—it was actual reading/writing/arithmetic stuff….