Tomorrow morning LPC’s leaders – elders, deacons, trustees, staff people – will gather for a Leadership Retreat. We do this every year. It is a time for members of the three leadership boards to be together at one time and in one place. We welcome newly elected officers and remind them and ourselves of the amazing promises they are going to make to God, to the members of the church through whose voice God has called them, to themselves, and to the whole world as they are ordained and installed the next two Sundays.

We will open our time singing God’s praise and then spend several hours considering this moment in the life of our church and the joys and challenges God has given “in such a time as this.” We will talk about the reality of three generations, three tribes, and three services. When they get home from the retreat, you can ask an elder, deacon, trustee, or staff member about that. Continue reading →

I was scrolling through my newsfeed the other day and noticed a post by one of my Brazilian friends. She had posted a photo of a book she is reading.  The title of the book caused me to pause, “Jesus, O Maior Lider Que Ja Existiu,” “Jesus, The Best Leader Who Ever Lived.” My friend said she was inspired by the book and hashtagged it as #TheBookoftheMonth.

I googled a bit and discovered the book to be a Portuguese translation of an American writer’s bestseller – that’s what the author’s website says, anyway,  Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership.  Apparently they could not find literal Portuguese translation of the silly English title. Amazon describes the content of the book as, “Following the example of Jesus, a ‘CEO’ who built a disorganized ‘staff’ of twelve into a thriving enterprise, a handbook for corporate success details a fresh, profound approach to motivating and managing others that translates to any business.”

I am pretty sure I wouldn’t like the book. Continue reading →

This coming Wednesday, March 1, is Ash Wednesday. We Presbyterians are late-comers to marking the day, and we still don’t do much with Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday. We sometimes join our Anglican friends for a Pancake Supper the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, but are never sure exactly why we are doing so.

There is no explicit Biblical warrant for a season of penitence prior to Easter or for that season to begin with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads. The lack of Biblical warrant was enough for our Reformed fathers and mothers to reject the observance of Lent, and Ash Wednesday as its beginning.

It took a long time for Presbyterians, especially those of us with a little Covenanter and Seceder blood running through our veins, to find some value in the disciplines of Lent and of Ash Wednesday, in particular.

On Wednesday, forty days, excluding Sundays, before Easter, we Presbyterians will gather for an evening Communion service in the Sanctuary. Continue reading →

He turned out to have been the perfect storm. At least for me he was. I have not yet talked with our son in Boston. Yesterday’s snowstorm, Winter Storm Niko, we are told, was supposed to hit us hard.  3”-6” became 8”-10”, and we were thought to be foolish if we did not have at least a month’s supply of bread and milk in our storehouses.

Niko was an underperformer for those of us in the Philadelphia area, and that made Niko the perfect storm.  Around our house Niko showed up with the low side of his 3 to 6 and just kind of gave up on doing much of anything around 11:00 in the morning. The unmet expectations were fine with me. Continue reading →

My older brother John will join us in Guatemala next week. More precisely we, the Guatemala Mission Away Team, will join him in Guatemala next week. John retired to Antigua, Guatemala, about a year ago and he met last year’s Away Team on the last night of the trip when we stayed in Antigua prior to heading the airport in Guatemala City the next morning. After spending time with some of the team members and hearing some of our stories, he wondered if he might join us in our work in San Lucas Toliman this year. The rest is history, as they say.

So next Saturday afternoon, John will greet us at the Guatemala City Airport and become a part of the LPC Guatemala Mission Away Team.  John brings a wealth of construction experience and skill to the team – commodities sorely lacking in his younger brother – and will contribute much to our work.

John knows the details of the trip – when to be at the airport and the “what to bring” list every team member receives, and I will be in touch again this week to remind him of those details. But, still, I owe him another letter, a big-picture, why and how, letter.  It will go something like this: Continue reading →