The Lord can speak to us in the middle of the night. Sometimes He can be rather chatty, and other times…perhaps whispering a one-syllable word. Sometimes He is like an excited child running to my bed in the middle of the night (usually a Saturday night before I have to preach the next morning). I … [Read more…]
We had a fantastic Art and Music Camp last week at New Beginnings UMC with 21 children attending. Besides the Art Classes and Music classes, I had to create an activity each day. I asked my 9 year-old niece, McKenna, for advice and she told me to be sure to dance the Hokey-Pokey (so I … [Read more…]
Blessed Not Lucky I am blessed and favored by God… not lucky. Sometimes it seems that everything falls in place, and yet other times, well…you know. There are times that it seems you can’t buy a break right? Paul speaks of being content in all circumstances in Philippians 4:11. Some translations say he is happy … [Read more…]
Time Spent Conferencing My wife Holly and I traveled to the 3rd Annual Nicaraguan-Connection Conference in Franklin, Tennessee last week. We met with Pastor Ruben Asuncion Zeledon, President of the Nicaraguan Methodist Church. We spent time with Paulette West, Executive Director for United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, Southeastern Jurisdiction (UMVIM SEJ). We conversed with Rev. … [Read more…]
In the times of tragedy, God’s people should share the source of their strength. Before going into fulltime ministry, I worked with my wife Holly, mother Ann, father Louis, cousin Alan, and brother Mark and about several artisans at Buckhead Plating, Inc. and we survived many hairy experiences. In the early 70’s we struggled to … [Read more…]
Life is like a rock song. Many church folks forgot to set their clocks forward. I noticed our second service attendance was much higher than the first service…wondering to myself, “How many of these are really first service attenders who overslept? How many are so sleepy they do not even know that this is second … [Read more…]
I had a great time at a district meeting recently. John Addison, the former CEO of Primerica and current editor of current leadership for Success Magazine, shared some of his ideas from his current best-selling book Real Leadership: 9 Practices of Leading and Living with Purpose (McGraw-Hill). His motivational and positive speech was exceptional and I … [Read more…]
Sometimes people assume that big churches do big things for God and the small churches do…well little things. Some people may surf the web for closest church and judge it by its webpage or exterior design. New Beginnings UMC is a small-sized church offering two services on most Sundays (Christmas Day and New Year’s Day … [Read more…]
This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday as well as Thanksgiving Sunday. There are places in the world that do not celebrate Thanksgiving and some that do not follow the lectionary and do not even observe Christ the King Sunday. I think that it is appropriate to combine the two—be thankful that Christ is our … [Read more…]
Growth at New Beginnings UMC will come both numerically and spiritually. We are working evangelically to bring more people to Christ, but we are also working closely with the members we presently have to take them into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Christ and His church. Christ is the true vine and we are … [Read more…]