Ruminations

Um, this may appear to be rated R-17, but it isn’t. It appeared on the television news, so it is censured.
It may make you want to lose your lunch, however…

Isn’t it funny how you can forget things?
I’d forgotten what it was like on Monday after preaching on Sunday. I think I need to take my vocal cords to the gym and put them on a workout routine. What is so odd is that I must do something different when I speak/preach publicly as opposed [...]

Beautiful, mildly crisp, sunny Saturday morning. Great day to get elbow deep in trash.
The Message Church turned out impressively to hit the streets of Leland (well, at least Lincoln Road) to do litter patrol this Saturday morning. What better way to say we want to make a difference than to pick up after folks?! We [...]

Think you have to sacrifice when you go to church?
I just received this from pastor Audrey in Ubaúna, Brazil:
We had to stop holding worship services in the church building and we moved to the [Seed of Hope] project. Yesterday [last Sunday] we had almost 150 people and 3 conversions. It was really good. The heat [...]

Benaiah. Lion. Pit. Snowy day.
Thanks to Mark Batterson, many know the story.
It wasn’t an accident; he didn’t fall into the pit that held a lion. It wasn’t an attack; the lion hadn’t come after him. The circumstances surrounding the event were simply that, circumstances; the snow, the pit… they were merely the settings, not the [...]

Just read this. And it got me to thinking.
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Kenyan wildlife officials are ferrying thousands of zebras and wildebeest to a park in the country’s south to feed starving lions and hyenas, and prevent a conflict with humans.
The lions are hungry and have no food. Zebras are being rounded up to [...]

It is distressing to see how secular that we as the church have become.
I’m not referencing all the things folks typically reference with calling the church a secular organization. I’m specifically talking about our view of our position in regards to the Enemy, Satan.
In 1973, in my second year of undergraduate studies, I read Whatever [...]

What a weekend at River of Leland! Here are some of the highlights:

Timothy Berry from Global Awakening was in town to provide training for our volunteers — eye-opening and life-changing are two terms that describe it. Look for the volunteers who seem to be walking in a new confidence and you’ll probably see the ones [...]

Last night I sat in a gathering of people from several different area churches. Hosted by Lifepoint, there were people present from Rock, Horizon and River of Leland. There were probably others; I talked with folks from each of these.
We’d gathered to pray for Haiti.
The interesting thing is that while Haiti was the focus of [...]

Our official, unofficial launch at River of Leland is now officially behind us.
A couple of observations:

Faithfulness is an amazing spiritual principle. Both on our part and God’s.
Setup went remarkably well. Yes, there were interesting problems, but everything flowed.
One Sunday out of the gates and it is obvious that we have great volunteers!
We have to be [...]