On Wednesday and Thursday of this week (December 26-27), we accepted into our care 94 refugees from Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Over half of them were children. We fed them. We gave them places to sleep for a night or two. We gave them backpacks, clothes, towels, jackets, hygiene items,...
United States Senator John McCain passed away this weekend. As a pastor who wants to focus on Jesus, I usually don’t say too much about politics and politicians. Nevertheless, I was deeply moved when I heard the news. I didn’t agree with him on all things, but I deeply respected...
Many celebrities, politicians, athletes, and social media users seem to be having trouble determining what is right or wrong. (Or they just don’t care.) As a result, we are seeing an abundance of racist tweets, name-calling on Facebook, and putdowns in speeches and interviews. These remarks are widely condemned and...
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 am often on Facebook and Twitter, and I enjoy it. (I also try and keep up with my kids and grandkids on Instagram and Snapchat, but I don’t post much there.) I use social media for fun, to communicate to people important to me, to promote my faith, beliefs,...
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...
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...
I believe in religious freedom. I also believe in serving people and loving people regardless of their background, their morality, and their faith. So if I’m a baker of cakes, and someone wants me to bake them a cake, I would do so. I would bake them a cake if...
On the night Jesus was born, according to the traditional reading of the Christmas story, the angels said to the shepherds, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” “On earth, peace . . .” We have yet to experience that peace on...
