Prayer is part of my life. Every morning I spend time in contemplative prayer – lifting my life before God and centering myself for the day. I pray for healing for patients in hospitals and for guidance for their caregivers. I pray blessings upon couples at weddings, children and teenagers at baptisms, and for those who have died and their families at funerals. I even say […]
“Is it okay to question and doubt?” I’ve heard that question in at least a dozen ways: • “What if I don’t believe God created the world in six literal days? Can I still be a Christian?” • “Do I have to believe everything the Methodist Church says it believes?” • “How could God ever love me if God knew some […]
“Does God have a plan for my life?” That is one of the questions you asked me to address as part of the current sermon series, “I’ve been wondering…” Does God have a plan for my life? If so, what is it? For some people the answer to this question is obvious. They might point to our scripture passage for this week, “For I […]
This week I’m continuing a new sermon series, “I’ve been wondering…” Over the last several months you have submitted questions about which you have been wondering. Questions like, “How can a loving God allow good people to suffer?” and “Does God have a plan for my life?” A question that is particularly relevant right now […]
This week I’m beginning a new sermon series: “I’ve been wondering…”. Over the last several months I received questions about which you have been wondering. Does God have a plan for my life? Does prayer work? How can we live together when we don’t agree? This week I invite us to reflect on a question with which humanity has struggled for millennia: Why […]
Who is welcome? Who is welcome to receive God’s Love in Christ and, therefore, be part of the community called the Church? That is a question with which Christians and the Church have often wrestled for nearly 2,000 years. In the Early Church, the question revolved around race. Was God’s Love in Christ available only […]
This week I’m continuing a new sermon series on “The Church at Its Best.” As I take my place at Oak Hill amid a global pandemic, economic insecurity, and racial unrest, I want us to spend a few weeks reflecting on what “the Church” looks like when we are living at our best. I do so fully knowing that for many […]
This week I’m beginning a sermon series entitled, “The Church at Its Best.” I believe that God works in and through the community called “the Church” to bless the world. Amid a global pandemic, racial inequality, social unrest, economic disruption, and a looming political season, what does the Church look like when we are living at our best, our very best? I’m reflecting on […]