I believe in respect. Unfortunately, I don’t see much of it anymore.  American culture seems to run on disrespect.  Politicians show complete disrespect to other politicians.  Crowds at ballgames disrespect the players, the referees, the coaches, and fans of the other team. And disrespect aimed at teachers, police officers, retail...

Several weeks ago, I shared on a Sunday morning that we are considering a name change. Nothing has yet been decided, but we want to answer some of the many questions we have received.  Why are we considering changing our name?  What else would change?  How does a church change...

Earth Day (April 22) isn’t normally considered a Christian holiday. I think it should be. The Bible starts off with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Unfortunately, the Christian world has spent way too much time and energy arguing the specifics of that creation, and too...

We began a homeless ministry in January, and we have housed from 2-10 people each night since then, using the existing facilities of 8 different churches.  This IHELP model (Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program) offers our homeless guests up to 90 days in a shelter, with showers, dinners, brown-bag-lunches-to-go, and...

I was looking for the right image, artwork, or photograph for this blog, so I googled “love” and I looked at the resulting images trying to find what I wanted.   There were hearts.  Flowers.  Couples kissing.  Children holding hands.  Picnics.  Puppies.  Sunrises and sunsets.  Diamond rings. All of them beautiful...

I had an interesting interview a couple of weeks ago.  A doctoral student was conducting research, wanting to find out why a few pastors are able to stay in the same church for many years.  He knew I had been here at FSBCA for 17 and a half years.  He started by saying...

I preached on Sunday, August 21, on A Christian Response to Government and Politics.  In part, I taught that Christians must operate with a much higher standard than do politicians, and even the way we do politics (which is often a very dirty business) must be done according to the ethics of...

This was originally published in the FSBCA Weekly.  It has since been moved to this blog. I knew it was coming, but it still infuriated me when it did.  There are enough people on the “lunatic fringe” of Christianity that it was inevitable. A California pastor posted a video on...

This may just be the strangest blog I’ve ever written. It’s on a topic that I hope you never need to use, “How to leave a church with integrity.” I will start with some honesty.  I don’t like it when members decide to go to another church.  It hurts my pride...

I continue to answer questions submitted by FSBCA members, and I must admit that I’ve received many good questions, far more than can be answered in Sunday morning sermons this month.  (I’m glad to pastor a church of curious-I-want-to-know-the-truth kind of people!)  Many of these questions will be answered in...