ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 15, 2024Prayer for the Week (a rewrite of the opening prayer in worship yesterday)We open our hearts to you, O God, whose call upon this world orients us toward justice, kindness, and mercy. Today, we invite your presence to come among us and to be made known to us. With humility and vulnerability, we make ourselves available to your Spirit as you seek to shape and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 14, 2024Outside of a scientific experiment, nothing happens inside a vacuum. There is no event, from the world-changing historic events to the rather mundane events in our daily lives, that occurs apart from other influences. Dr. Warren Carter’s study yesterday was extraordinarily helpful in understanding the multitude of events that shaped the central texts of the Christian faith, that is, the New Testament. So often, we
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 13, 2024I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Warren Carter twice yesterday. Both times, I was challenged and pushed to go deep. This morning, I am so looking forward to the next round of teaching (9am – 3pm on the 2nd floor of the Education Building). And of course, he will be with us on Sunday, in both Sunday School (joint Sunday School in the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 12, 2024The other night, I walked into the education building here at the church, and the digital sign right in front of me was stuck on a single screen. Now it is important to understand that we use an Amazon FireStick as a way of running our communication slides on the screen (thanks to Joel for figuring that out). The image on the screen was for
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 11, 2024I am really excited for Dr. Warren Carter’s visit to Cypress Creek Christian Church this weekend. His time with us all started with a conversation I had with Terry Ewing, a staff member at Phillips Theological Seminary and longtime friend. We were having lunch, and I echoed a frustration I heard from many within our church family, specifically how one talks about scripture in an
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 10, 2024Later this month, it will have been 15 years since I went to Italy on a Lily Grant with four other Disciple clergy. My primary purpose was to visit catacombs in and around Rome to specifically look at the symbols of the early Christians. It was an amazing experience, and even all these years later, I am still processing everything I saw. The two main
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 9, 2024In May, I will be preaching on Psalm 98, but as I was doing some preliminary work on the passage, I was really struck by this section: Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth! Be happy! Rejoice out loud Sing your praises! There is such joy and gladness radiating from those words. Here in the United States, where the numbers remain pretty high in
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 8, 2024Prayer for the Week: Sometimes the conviction that life overcame the grave some 2000 years ago is not quite enough. I am looking for resurrection this day, Gracious God, and I need it to make an appearance in that part of my life that feels dead and trapped inside a grave. I am looking for resurrection, not simply a retelling of what occurred outside of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 7, 2024In Luke 24:21-23, we read of some who are still trying to make sense of the death and possibility of Jesus’ resurrection: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 6, 2024The other night, I kept getting cramps in my right foot, specifically my toes. I get leg or foot cramps occasionally, but not very often. But I must have crawled out of bed seven or eight times as they kept on coming back. Nothing I did seemed to alleviate that painful contraction. At some point, I remembered that when cleaning out my mother’s apartment, she