How Would Jesus Drive?
 
You can’t miss the new church bus as you pull into the main parking lot, and this week you will notice that the church logo, name, web address and “Sharing the Life of Jesus” have been emblazoned across the sides and back of the bus just in time for the long youth workweek trip to Kentucky.  Continue reading →

Ready to Step Up

During Sunday’s worship we will recognize the graduates of the Class of 2009.  Over thirty high school, college and graduate school students will be recognized for their recent achievements. It is, as we say, right and good to acknowledge the students and to thank God for the milestones reached. 
 
Our English word graduate comes from the Latin gradus for step and has connotations of moving up – one more step, one more notch.  We congratulate on graduates for having done all that needs to done in order to move up to the next step – another degree or the beginning of new vocation. Continue reading →

Music from a Grateful Heart
 
From time to time our confirmation kids will ask if it is possible to confirm their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, but not to join the church. From time to time many of us may wonder about the possibility of the “I'll take Jesus, but hold the church” option. Sorry.  It doesn’t exist. When you open the door of your heart to Jesus, he holds it open and lets in all his friends, that ragtag band gathered from the streets and the alleys, the roads and the country lanes. When Jesus comes into your life, so does the church. I, for one, am glad that’s the way it is.  Continue reading →

The National Spelling Bee and the Dangers of Indifference
 
You may have seen the news about the winner of this year’s National Spelling Bee. Kavya Shivashankar became the nation’s best speller last night by correctly spelling Laodicean, which the dictionary says is a proper adjective meaning indifferent especially in matters of religion or politics. I think it means more than that. I’ll explain in a minute. Continue reading →

Hope When Things Have Gone Wrong
 
Last weekend Becky and I attended our son Christopher’s graduation from the School of Architecture and Notre Dame University.  We attended the graduate school ceremony on Saturday, and so did not hear the President’s address at the undergraduate exercises on Sunday.  Our speaker was a not very inspiring Keynesian economist from the University of Chicago.  The students’ words are what struck me in the speeches I heard last Saturday, however; and especially at the smaller ceremony at the School of Architecture itself.  Continue reading →