Dear Church Family, Whether it's sports, business or board games, there is a method that we all follow. We even create a strategy for tackling the challenges of each day. How would you describe yours? In our passage for Sunday, Mark 6, it stood out to me that God has chosen a particular method for getting [...]
Dear Church Family, One of my Dad's favorite Christmas gifts was an electronic gadget that had multiple voices on it saying "NO". For some reason he got a little ornery in his old age and "NO" became his favorite word. Now, he didn't even need to speak it. He could just smile, point the device [...]
Dear Church Family, A big thanks to Alan TeBrink for filling in for me last week as I flew down to Scottsdale on Wednesday to be with Tracy. This was one more opportunity to experience 115 degree temperatures....and hopefully the last. Tracy and I arrived back in Monte Vista on Wednesday after a beautiful drive [...]
Dear Church Family, Is it possible to have "Good" conflict? Most often conflict is seen as negative because someone is causing someone else aggravation. But in order for change to occur a challenge to the status quo has to happen. When that challenge doesn't happen sometimes harm can continue. For example, aggressive behavior remains because people [...]
Dear Church Family, This year is certainly unique to me as I have never been so intimately aware of the coming harvest time. Being in the valley and surrounded by fields of potatoes, barley, alfalfa and hay has made me appreciate how fragile life on earth really is. If I remember correctly, it didn't rain last [...]
Dear Church Family, We will conclude this series on "Prayer: How They Did It" on Sunday with a message on "The Lord's Prayer". Was this how Jesus prayed or was it Jesus' prescription for us? Or both? The Scripture passage is Matthew 6:9-13. The challenge for us is to listen with attentive ears and open [...]
Dear Church Family, When churches do things together they represent an inkling of what the kingdom is supposed to be. On Sunday we will worship with Bowen Community Church on their site at 10:00 am for our traditional "Church in the Wildwood". We're hoping to be outside (so bring a sweater) but we may end [...]
Dear Church Family, What is your threshold for pain? Whether it's physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, our friends in the Old Testament certainly put up with a lot. And for what? They all seemed to believe it was worth it to suffer for the glory of God. We won't be talking about Shadrach, Meshach [...]
7/17/2024 Dear Church Family, The amazing thing about being 63, a pastor, a father and now grandfather is the regular occurrences of life and death. Babies are born and others leave this earth. I just received news of another high school classmate departing. And I just came from visiting Kevin and Deb, our friends from [...]