ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 22, 2023Last Sunday, I made an announcement about the sermon this coming week. Without specifics, I suggested it might be a bit more challenging for some folks. In my preaching, I try to balance encouragement, teaching, inspiration, and challenge. No one sermon falls solely into a single category. There is always some overlap. So I don’t believe Sunday’s sermon will only challenge, but it will require
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 21, 2023Do you ever read a story in the news that you wish you would not have read? There is a satirical “news” source called the Onion, and I wished the article I had read a few days ago was in fact an article from the Onion, yet sadly it was not. The article was on BBC News Online, and it was about an underground network
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 20, 2023Yesterday was Juneteenth. Today is World Refugee Day. Both of these days encourage people to educate themselves on the past and the present, and then to recognize how history rarely offers anything new. In Sociology, there are a couple of opposing theories (I am very much a novice on these matters): 1. Social Evolutionism, a belief that society is evolving and making progress; or 2.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 19, 2023Prayer for the Week: Wherever the thought of perfection brings a paralysis of the spirit, we turn to your liberating power of grace, O God. Too often, we find ourselves in pursuit of the improbable and allow the prospect of failure to leave us consumed with melancholy. Speak to us once again of your perfect and limitless love. May it shape us as vessels of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 18, 2023Yesterday, after making a couple of visits, I went to the church to get some work done. It was a little before 2pm, and I checked the temperature on my phone, and it said 101, with a “real feel” temperature of 115. Ugh!! I went into the Forum Building, and it immediately felt so good. Since there was nothing happening at the church, I was
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 17, 2023Yesterday, the Cypress Creek Christian Community Center hosted a graduation for the Commonwealth Mortuary School. We’ve been doing this for a number of years, and it’s so gratifying to see folks receive their diploma after doing the hard work. The Centrum is used for a number of graduations in our community, and in conversations I’ve had with faculty and staff from different programs, I have
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 16, 2023This Sunday, we will be talking about perfection. Throughout Christian history (and many other religions), there have been those who have believed that perfection is achievable in one’s lifetime. Of course, how they defined perfection was very different depending on the group suggesting such a thing was possible. Yet I look at some of the humble and selfless saints throughout history and see how they
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 15, 2023I’ve been a little long-winded in recent Etchings, so today I’m attempting to change that. Sadly, brevity is my hope each day when I begin writing. I often refer to Proverbs 4:25 as the Squirrel passage. It reads, “Focus your eyes straight ahead; keep your gaze on what is in front of you.” Like in the Pixar movie “Up,” we are often taken off task
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 14, 2023There are times in life when we need to be corrected and times when we need to be jolted into an awareness of how our language may have been triggering and painful for others. Since the 2018 Olympics, I have been using the phrase: Cypress Creek Christian Church is a Training Center for the Love First Life. In the lead-up to the Olympics that year,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 13, 2023It has been nearly a decade, but one afternoon, I received a phone call at the church in which the caller had many questions about the church’s beliefs. Clearly, from the questions, this was an individual who was searching for what I would call a very odd form of fundamentalism. When my answers were not pleasing, I was called a “harlot” and an “abominator.” I’m