The following is my homily for May 29, 2022, Ascension Sunday. This Sunday was to be the second Sunday of our message series all about “celebration.” Clearly, given the events of the past week, the topic of celebration is no longer appropriate. Instead, it falls to me as pastor, to bring words to our gathering, […]
Category: Scripture
At Nativity, we preach in “series”, using Scripture to explore inspiring and life-changing themes over multiple weeks. This is a practice that we originally adopted from our Evangelical friends but one that is right at home in the cycle of the Lectionary and the seasons of the Liturgy. This week we kick off our last […]
If then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, I will hear them from heaven and heal the land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 Last week, I began our new message series for the new year by highlighting the value in differentiating between our circle of concern and our sphere of […]
We just started a new series for this new year about something that shapes a huge portion of our behavior and identity – though we don’t always know it. Our habits operate below the surface, quietly automating our lives, sometimes unbeknownst to us. It’s an especially timely series, given the multitude of resolutions we make […]
This weekend, we are celebrating the release of our newest book Churchmoney: Rebuilding the Way We Fund Our Mission. The book is the story of our successes and failures with raising money at our parish and the practical lessons we learned along the way. The book came to be because we believe money is an […]
Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Jesus said: “Roll away the stone.” John 11.40 As odd as it sounds, recent statistics consistently show that many people who don’t go to church or describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, nevertheless still profess a belief in God and […]
I’m posting this week from California at Saddleback Church’s Global PEACE Conference. I’m here with Brian Crook, our Director of Missions at Nativity. It’s been an inspiring and thought-provoking experience. Pastor Rick Warren had the vision of bringing together pastors from countries around the world to share ideas and learn from one another how to […]
This past week, our “Message Team” met for an all day off-site to finalize our plans for our message series for the upcoming year. The message team consists of 7 people on staff who meet each week to help develop and evaluate my weekend messages. A few times a year we take extra time to […]
One of the casualties of our new construction will be our old chapel. It sits on what will eventually be our new lobby. The chapel is in no way architecturally distinguished—its only artistic distinction being the stained glass windows—which will be preserved and reused elsewhere. Mostly the chapel was used for quiet prayer and daily […]
Our latest message series at Nativity for the Easter season, called “Groundbreaking,” has got me thinking a lot about what the Early Church did and looked like. This message, by the way, is all about how Jesus’ resurrection changed the face of history, and how deeply that resonated with the Apostles and the first Christ […]
