Church

Imagine a giant 15,000-piece jigsaw puzzle in a big cardboard box. Now imagine a married couple locked up in a room together where the only way out is to solve this jigsaw puzzle without the box top. Without the box top, they won’t know what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like. Does it sound stressful, even impossible? I imagine it could possibly lead to murder! Unfortunately, many marriages are just like that – not murder, but the jigsaw puzzle. When Tonya and I got married, we each brought a variety of puzzle pieces into our marriage – ideas about how marriage works, who would do what, how to do holidays. Although we came from a similar background and upbringing, we still had work to do. Making it even more difficult is that we live in a culture that no longer agrees what the finished puzzle should look like. If…

As I mentioned last week, I was the youngest of 5 sons. That meant the gender scorecard in my family was 6 men, 1 lady. I had a lot of first-hand knowledge about men and a limited amount understanding of women. (Next week, Michele Cushatt is going to fix all of that when she talks about “Understanding Women.”) Truth be told, there are many times I don’t understand myself and I’m a man! For the ladies in the audience, I’ve compiled a list of things your mom may never told you about men. When two men are next to each other at a stoplight, at least one of them is thinking about beating the other one off the line. Men can slip into a coma waiting for you to come out of the fitting room. Putting toilet paper on the roll is not common sense, it’s a super power. If…

I was born to Christian parents and we rarely missed church. Not once during my entire lifetime did either of my parents ever talk to me about sex. With five boys, I assumed they must have known something about it but they sure weren’t sharing it with me. I attended the same church from birth through high school graduation. I believe my Sunday School teachers were godly people. Two of our pastors were major influences on my decision to enter the ministry. Yet, as best as I can remember, we never had a class or sermon on the topic of sexuality. I assume that many of them had read the entire Bible – even the parts that talked about sex. But they weren’t talking about it either. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t talking about it – or thinking about it. But I was doing so without hearing the most important…

After months of anticipation, our EnVision remodel is underway. The first demolition crew arrived on August 30 and work has begun. As they say in construction (I'm learning new things all the time), now the fun begins! Dan Hettinger, who directs our congregational care at Mountainview, sent out the following email to our prayer team. I'm passing it along so you can join us in praying for God's kingdom to be expanded through these efforts. ********** 52 Days of Prayer for the EnVision Construction Good afternoon! Today is Day 1. It feels different here at church. There are new faces of the construction crew and the downstairs is an exciting mess getting ready for an amazing transformation. Would you, as a member of the prayer team, commit to pray every day for our church during this construction project, starting today? Nehemiah led one of the most remarkable construction projects ever.…