Last night I filled in for Marcos as the teacher for the “Walking With the Word” Faith Acts class. Marcos and Erin are on baby watch, so we figured we’d give him the night off. The class, which will run all fall long, is an introduction to the Bible, and I would recommend it to anyone. The table in Room 6 is just about full, but we could squeeze in a couple more chairs. Hopefully Marcos, with news of a new baby, will be back in class next week. Continue reading →

Six weeks ago I changed my Facebook profile picture from a photo taken last Christmas time with our grandson Caleb to the Arabic letter “nun,” a  reminder of, a statement of solidarity with, our Christian brothers and sisters, the Nazari, under siege from ISIS in northern Iraq. This morning I changed my profile back to the photo of Caleb and me. It was a hard decision. Okay, it’s only social media, superficial by definition.  Maybe social media is not place for social conscience and justice. Hashtags don’t change the world. Still, it was an uncomfortable decision to make.

Our world is full of injustice and pain and sorrow. From the headlines of war and oppression to the personal stories of disappointment, anguish, and woe told by friends and family members, our world is full of injustice, pain, and sorrow. And my profile is no longer that of someone wanting to remember refugee brothers and sisters; it is of a happy grandfather. Continue reading →

LPC worshipers will notice something new in the pew racks and Chapel bookshelves on Sunday morning.  Thanks to generous contributions to our Memorial Fund, we have been able to replace our older New International Version pew Bibles with brand new English Standard Version Bibles.  Take a look!

So why did we do that? The old NIVs seemed to be wearing well enough (maybe not used enough).  Part of the problem is that our old NIVs were old NIVs.  In 2011 an updated NIV was published with a number of revisions to the text, and the older versions removed from the market by the copyright holder.  The older versions were not available electronically and it made life a little more difficult for our Tech Team members putting passages on the screen each Sunday.  But as much as we love our Tech Team members, we didn’t do it for them. Continue reading →

Skye Jethani is a Christian writer and thinker who earlier in the summer wrote a provocative series of articles titled, “How Churches Became Cruise Ships.” Jethani is insightful and the articles are worth reading.  In the articles Jethani looks at the evolution of the great passenger ship from an ocean liner to a cruise ship.  The ocean liner’s task was to move people from place to place – New York to London or Liverpool. The cruise ship’s task is to entertain people as they go in a grand circle – Fort Lauderdale to Fort Lauderdale with some islands in between. Jethani likens the contemporary mega-church to the floating hotel/vacation destination that is a cruise ship. Continue reading →

Most of our college and university students are already back on campus.  District by district and school by school, elementary, middle school, and high school students will be back in class by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week. Back to school in September (or so) is as deeply ingrained in our American way as just about anything.  We go to school and summers off, we return in the fall. We can argue all we want about the merits of public, charter, private or home schools. We can debate Common Core and teaching to the test.  We probably won’t agree on the best funding mechanisms for schools, but everyone agrees that school is a given, an essential and a mandate not be questioned. Continue reading →