Pastor Howard White’s January (2016) sermon series is title Dare to be Great. The Dare to be Great Challenge is: A Great Commitment to the Great Commandments and the Great Commission done with Great Compassion will grow a Great Church (and a great Christian). The 5 sermons in the series are Dare to Follow Matt …
Category: Church
Jan 09
TED Talk: Atheism 2.0
This is a fun TED talk. He is describing what can be learned from religion’s methods, even if you do not believe anything about religion (even if you don’t believe in God). He describes the tools and strategies of religion that ‘we’/culture can, and should, adopt. http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0#t-926345 (I am certainly not an atheist.) I think …
Dec 17
Prudence, balance, thought, and Christianity
http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/19/3-tips-for-a-more-civil-conversation-about-syrian-refugees/ Mollie Hemingway offers 3 suggestions regarding the Syrian refugee issue. The piece ends up looking at Christian beliefs – for good reason. She makes many good points, all of which I will not try to summarize here. One take-away (near the end of the article) is that the answer to the question “What should …
Dec 06
Musical Communion Liturgy
Our Pastor, Dr. Howard White, has developed a musical communion liturgy in which he as the leader sings and the congregation also sings in response. It is set to popular Christmas tunes. See the attached. (It is the Sunday Bulletin, which happened to also be our musical presentation by our music groups.) Bulletin-December-6 -2015
Oct 17
James K. A. Smith on The Future of Religion in a “Secular” Age
http://www.slate.com/bigideas/what-is-the-future-of-religion/essays-and-opinions/the-future-of-religion-in-a-secular-age James K A Smith (http://www.calvin.edu/~jks4/) is a Philosophy professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI and a Christian. Dr. Smith makes some excellent points on this topic. I’ll pick a couple paragraphs (it’s better to read the whole article) The “spirituality” of the spiritual-but-not-religious often imitates this sort of excarnate religion, often without …
Oct 16
Two American Revolutions
There was an excellent podcast, by Dr. Robert Godfrey, titled Two American Revolutions. The second ‘revolution’ corresponds to (if I’m remembering correctly) the second great awakening. The podcast is part of Godfrey’s series A Survey of Church History. from Renewing Your Mind podcast (normally by RC Sproul) C:\Users\James\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Podcasts\Renewing Your Mind with R.C. Sproul\03 Two …
Oct 16
Charles Finney
Charles Finney (1792-1875) was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism. Finney was best known as an innovative revivalist during the period 1825–1835 in upstate New York and Manhattan. There was an excellent podcast, by Dr. Robert Godfrey, …
Sep 20
may we love alike
“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley Speaking of the ‘divisions’ in …
Sep 19
Bonhoeffer Quotes
Life Together Quotes (70) 1 – 2 – 3 Ethics Quotes (16) 1 The Cost of Discipleship Quotes (147) 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas (131) 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
1 John 4:19
http://quoteseverlasting.com/quotations/category/c-s-lewis-2/