Tag: sermons

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Journal Joy Notes

Reflections on Easter Weekend

I am thankful for each one who took time to honor Jesus by worshipping at Community Wesleyan in Kirkville this year.  Attendance at Good Friday service and Easter Celebration service was up despite the fact that for nearly all of us, the pace of life accelerates on a holiday weekend.   (The busy pace is one reason I’ve written less lately.)  Yet somehow, if we do not take time to honor Jesus on Good Friday and Easter, when will we ever?   He is supremely worthy of our praise.  

This weekend held several highlights for me:

I have come to deeply appreciate the interactive passion narrative that we used again this year at the ecumenical service at St Paul’s Episcopal Church.   Reading the narrative as characters in a play, helps put me more closely in touch with what really happened. In addition, sharing together in the service with other churches reminds me again that the family for whom Jesus died and who are responding to his call enfolds so many more than just my local church fellowship or even my denomination. 

Easter has become a family time too in our culture and our family is no exception.  It was a delight to have our daughter and son-in-law visit for a couple days and to have my brother-in-law, Joe, and father-in-law at Easter dinner.  

Easter is a special time for children.  Our church tries to make a home for children at God’s house.  I enjoy greeting them at the Easter brunch and the Easter services.   Some, especially the little girls, are all dressed up in Easter outfits and appreciate it if my wife or I notice.   The boys like the food, as I think I would have as a boy.

Easter music is always a highlight. Special music adds a great deal; solos, instrumentals, handbell choir and holiday choir all help to mark the moment.  I usually enjoy most the songs that the congregation seems to truly get involved in.  This year was no exception.  At our Good Friday service, there was a special moment when we sang the hymn, At Calvary.   In Easter Celebration service, the praise team led with joy as everyone joined in on Celebrate Jesus.  Then we sang the story of Jesus’ life via the new hymn, In Christ Alone; an inspiring time.   One of the gifts of any worship service is when the music comes back to you and you find yourself singing it throughout the day or in the middle of the week.  Then you know it was inspiring.  (Singing in the choir will make that happen for sure.)

It always encourages me to see people in church at a holiday service that I or our church have reached out to in some way recently.  Perhaps I stood by the side of someone in their family at a difficult time or performed a wedding or a funeral.  Perhaps a child in the family attended preschool.  People don’t realize how much it encourages pastors and church leaders when they attend.   

On the flip side, I always wonder what people thought were their favorite moments in sermons.  If they had to nominate a five minute segment from one of the three sermons I gave over this weekend to be put on U-Tube or inserted in an advertisement for our church, what five minutes would they choose?   Pastors often have mixed feelings about their preaching and I guess this weekend is no exception.   Some parts went better than I expected and others I would like to do over.   I just trust that overall my thoughts were a blessing to many. 

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Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Reflections on Speaking at Houghton Chapel

I remember as a student attending the mandatory chapel services at Houghton College.  Since I was taking mostly Bible and related courses and was already active in church leadership in my home church, I considered chapel interesting.  But I was quite aware that was not always the attitude of many of my peers.   In fact, I sometimes felt a little sorry for chapel speakers who were asked to address an audience many of whom felt compelled to be there.  A few of their listeners would even be shamelessly involved in other pursuits like reading, doing homework or chatting with friends. 

I don’t remember it ever entering my mind that I might someday be one of those speakers.  But that is what I had the privilege to be on April 13, 2011.  Funny it is how perspectives completely change. 

Continue reading “Reflections on Speaking at Houghton Chapel”

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Forward Look Journal

Lenten & Easter Message Series Depends on the Wind

Very Windy

What comes to your mind when you think of wind? I think most of us have many associations as wind is a big part of our lives.  One association for me centers around a childhood memory.  My bedroom as a boy was on the West side of our house and the cold winter winds whistled in the window.   Here in Kirkville, I often think of my neighbor’s cheery wind chimes blowing in the breeze.   Sometimes I think of the warm southern breezes that bring warming temperatures and birds flying in from the south in the spring.  Today wind is in the news often as a power generation source.  March is the month most associated with wind. 

 

Exploring the Bible’s use of wind images will be exciting.

This year at Community Wesleyan during March and April, we plan to explore the Biblical imagery of wind.    Three of the most defining Biblical passages for understanding how the Bible uses the idea of wind to teach us are the creation story, the prophecy of Ezekiel over the dry bones and the event of Pentecost.  Because of Pentecost we cannot help but associate wind and God’s Spirit.   These three Bible passages will play a big part in this series.  

The planning so far

Continue reading “Lenten & Easter Message Series Depends on the Wind”

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Forward Look Journal

Winter series is planned called Love Can Build a Bridge

Bridge-building

Next Sunday begins a new series of messages with the exciting theme, Love Can Build a Bridge.  Marilyn Wilsch suggested it to me after hearing the song by that title sung by the Judds.    After thinking and praying about it and looking at the kinds of messages needed for our winter calendar, I decided it was just the right series for this time between the New Year’s messages and the beginning of our Lenten emphasis in March.   Shaun and Mystical Harrington, father—daughter duet, will be singing the theme song for us.   One of our drama props folks is making a sturdy bridge to be the focus of the platform décor for the series.   

Continue reading “Winter series is planned called Love Can Build a Bridge”

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Journal

Visual for Alertness

As I posted the new page for visuals for this past Sunday, I was reminded that one of the members of our congregation gave me a great illustration for this past Sunday’s sermon after service.  I was illustrating by talking about the need for baseball players to be alert.  He said it was a true story.  When he was playing Little League, his team was in the field.  An opposing player hit the ball straight to the center fielder.  The center fielder might have caught the fly had he not been laying flat out in the grass picking dandelions at that moment.   I still can’t stop laughing at that one.  Talk about no alertness.   But, sadly, I suspect that often we as Christians are so focused on our own agenda that we are just as oblivious to what God is trying to say or do through us.

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Forward Look Journal

A Heart-Warming Christmas Planned

 

It's Christmas

Here’s a heads up about some of the planning for the month of December.  I think you will be inspired by the presentations as they enrich our services.   The name for the sermon series is “Preparing Your Heart for Christmas.”  

Date Events Message
Dec. 5  (9 & 10:30 am) Communion
Women’s Choir
Children and Youth Choir		 Preparing Your Heart by Cultivating Spiritual Awareness
Dec. 12 (9 & 10:30 am) Handbell Quartet
Skit		 A Generous Heart – Pastor Eric
Dec . 19 (9 & 10:30 am) A Heart-Warming Christmas with
Choir and special music		 The Expectant Heart
Dec 24 (6:30 pm) Musical specials and a short one-person drama The Adoring Heart
Dec 26 (9 & 10:30 am) Puppets The Energized Heart
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Church Leadership Journal

New Page Series Created called Visuals

I continue to be challenged by the way our society has become so visually oriented.   The new page series – Visuals – is meant to respond to this need by presenting visual sketches of messages in a readily accessible spot.  

The story behind this decision is this.  November 7, I preached a message called “Walk Humbly with Your God.”  To be homiletically sound, it had way too many sub-points – five!   But I was inspired to illustrate it visually by having six people (one point required two people) come up to the platform and mime the point.   I had all the five points mimed at the beginning.  Then I reviewed them and had the congregation repeat them while looking at the mimes.   The surprising result was that I had people telling me that they were repeating all five points to people at work that week.   Research says that usually most people can’t tell us much about the sermon by the time they get to the parking lot.   What a difference.

At the beginning of the work week, unknown to me, my administrative assistant was inspired to download silhouettes similar to the mimed figures and make a bulletin board of the five points.   So the visual impact was increased.

As I discussed that result, I decided to try something new.  Each week I will make a visual summary of the message for my blog.   Sometimes some of it will be used in the Sunday message time and sometimes not.  

This is a work in progress.  On this first one, the second and third files are auxiliary files.   For all the files,  I have some technical work to do.  The plug-in loads them fine but when you try to view them, the computer wants to open them with Internet Explorer rather than Powerpoint.   I worked around it by saving them and then using “open with” to force the computer to use the right program.   I’ll work on this.

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Forward Look

September Sunday messages

So what is happening at church now that it’s almost fall?  September is back-to-school time and for most of us, the passing of Labor Day also marks the winding down of vacation, camping and weekend travel season.   In weekend services, I’ll be starting a new message series based on Paul’s writings to the Philippian church called “Walking with Jesus.”   Each week we’ll explore one chapter of this rich and encouraging book.

Sep 5 (Labor Day)   Partnership in the Gospel   Phil. 1

Sep 12  Communion Sunday    Looking Out For Christ’s Interests  Phil. 2

Sep 19   (Ladies’ retreat weekend) Pressing Toward the Goal  Phil 3

Sep 26 (Pulpit Freedom Sunday)  Learning Contentment  Phil 4

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Forward Look

New Sermon Series

Who Is the LORD?    That was the provocative title of my message this last Sunday and it will be the subject of the next series of sermons.  Worship songs, Scripture lessons and messages will all be planned and coordinated to help us to discover more about who God is.   All the main texts will be from the book of Exodus.

July 18  Communion Sunday – Message – The LORD Who Brought Them Out.
July  25  The LORD Our Banner – Ex. 17:15,16
August 1 The LORD Who Makes Holy – Ex. 31:13
August 8 Communion Sunday   – Message –  The LORD Who Heals –  Ex. 15:26

Summer is a great time to learn more about God and how he brings deeper wholeness and peace into our lives.  I hope you can join in worship during this series.