Apr 20, 2020 | Church News, Pastoral Care
A late night comedian, describing what it’s like to do a TV show from his bedroom while his toddlers were wrecking the house, said, “This is a sub-optimal time to be a human being.” We need the jokes! I’m typing this while sitting alone in a very empty church...
Mar 30, 2020 | Church News, Pastoral Care
The contrarian impulse can bring out the worst in us and our best. When momma put the cookie jar on top of the refrigerator, she only made it a more interesting challenge. Tell a population what they can’t do, like “practice social distancing,” and there will always...
Feb 18, 2020 | Church News, Pastoral Care
Our World Within Weekend was that rarest of experiments that actually produces better results than the experimenters dared hope! Some highlights: We started the final week of registration with about 40 sign-ups, but by Saturday we were serving lunch to almost 120! For...
Jan 21, 2020 | Church News, Pastoral Care
“One hand for the ship, one hand for the sailor,” is a wise adage born of hard experience. Still, self-care is usually the first thing to go overboard as we race around trying to manage our lives. Let’s right the ship! Join us for our congregation-wide World Within...
Dec 2, 2019 | Christmas at First 2019, Church News, Pastoral Care
Sunday, December 15, 6pm, Carpenter Chapel “Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation.”—Thomas Keating Sometimes in the midst of the loud and busy holiday season, we feel the silence and pain of our grief most deeply. If you are grieving...
Nov 26, 2019 | Media, Pastoral Care, Sermons, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship Arts
Matthew 4:1-11 New International Version (NIV) Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness 4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If...
