Church

In high school, I got a job working at the sporting goods store in the local mall. On my breaks, I would walk around the mall or head to the food court. Granted it was Peoria, IL, in the mid-1980's so there wasn't a broad spectrum of diversity -- but it was still fascinating to watch the people who went to the mall. I'm still fascinated by people. Airports, baseball games, coffee shops -- anywhere people gather. I like to observe how people act and react. How people interact intrigues me, especially as I watch through my pastoral eyes. This afternoon, while the kids at Opportunity Camp went to the beach, I walked into Felton and settled into the White Raven coffee shop. The White Raven is mostly a coffee shop with a few eccentric offerings, such as incense sticks and greeting cards. Felton only has about 4,000 people and most…

Let's talk about coffee and life -- two of my favorite subjects. When I'm at home, I'm a creature of habit. I have a general routine that I stick to -- roasting my own beans, alternating between my pour over and an Aeropress. The last thirty years of coffee drinking have been a constant pursuit of a better cup of coffee. I also liked the coffee we used to have in the office. Thanks to brewing equipment from New York companies for coffee machines, coffee was really good. Traveling, of course, throws a monkey wrench into habits. Whether it's working out or preparing a great cup of coffee, traveling makes it harder to stay on course. Many good habits have lost steam (did you catch that) when traveling. If it's a short trip, I'll usually skip the hotel coffee and head to a local coffee shop. While reducing my overall…

Well, I'm back! Literally. It's been about two weeks since my last post and for good reason: during that time I've been to Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series and just recently returned from Montego Bay, Jamaica, where Tonya and I led a team of seventeen teenagers from Mountainview on a mission trip to Robin's Nest -- a children's home we help sponsor. At the end of this week, I will travel with our daughter, Hope, to Opportunity Camp near San Jose to work with kids in the social services system. While in the Montego Bay airport awaiting our flight to Houston, we watched the breaking coverage of the tragedy in Orlando. I'm still watching. Needless to say, I have many thoughts swirling around in my head. The phrase that keeps popping up is this: "in the image of God." As a Christ-follower, I believe that every person…

In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul spells out a basic principle of how to live and move as a Christ-follower: “For we live by faith, not by sight.” Over the years, I've noticed a few basic characteristics of people who walk by sight and not by faith. When you walk by sight, you’ll find yourself saying one of two things: "Let’s go back." you walk by sight, you will focus on circumstances rather than the vision God has for your life. After 400 years of slavery and a few years (OK, 40!) of wandering in the desert, the Israelites were willing to return to Egypt rather than wait for the Promised Land. "Let’s stand still." In the midst of an opportunity, those who walk by sight will become paralyzed. There is a time to pray and reflect but there is also a time to act. Churches don’t ever really stand still; they…

When we moved from California to Atlanta, GA, there were things I had to adjust to … southern accents, sweet tea, and banana pudding. I quickly discovered you could say the meanest thing about a person as long as you added “Bless their heart …” somewhere to the sentence. “Billy is the dumbest kid I know, bless his heart.” One of the things I had to adjust to was the lack of fences in the backyard. Here’s an aerial picture of our house in Covington, GA. I could wave at neighbors two or three doors down either side. In California, you might not even know what your neighbors looked like. It was more like Tim Allen only seeing the hat and eyes of Mr. Wilson. Our American culture emphasizes words like privacy, personal, and individual. Our technology, as much as it allows us to be "connected", often ends us encouraging us to be…