How might you prepare for Resurrection Sunday? We have not greatly emphasized Lent season as others have, but there is something beneficial in looking with anticipation to high points on our church calendar, and taking advantage of opportunities to practice greater reflection. And I am excited for our plans for Easter this year.
Keep ReadingThere's a vast gulf between useless and essential. For example, a church building is not essential. We could still function as a church without a building, and meet in a park, a rented space, and/or from home to home. We could still be a viable and biblical church. Yet while a church building is not essential, it is certainly not useless. We find daily benefit from having a church building to host events, meet for prayer, and most of all gather for worship on Sundays.
Keep ReadingHave you noticed any changes around the church building? We've been working to make some upgrades and updates to our facilities, starting during last Saturday's workday, and in preparation for Easter Sunday. Thanks to all those who came out and helped (more than I could name here)! We'll have another workday on April 5th, and we'd love for you to help.
Keep ReadingWho are you discipling? That's the question that will be at the heart of our vision over the next few years. If you were at the family gathering on Sunday, you heard that our vision is that by 2030, every member/attender of CBC will be equipped and trained to disciple someone else, and that by that date every single person (kids aside) in our church, when asked, will be able to answer the question, "Who are you discipling?" with a real and concrete answer.
Keep ReadingSunday evening we will gather for our semiannual Family Gathering, and I hope you will join us! In advance of and preparation for Sunday evening, please look at the document that you received in the CBC Weekly. In it are this year's ministry reports, as well as a graphic representing our proposed vision statement and new church covenant.
Keep ReadingI studied biology/pre-med in college, and, as with any major, some courses were more challenging than others. Then there were other classes that were what you might call "filtering" classes. I remember talking to one of my hockey teammates about taking organic chemistry, and he remarked; "That's the class they use to weed you all out, huh?" He was spot on.
Keep ReadingFeb 6
2025
Last summer as we were in our Proverbs sermon series, we spent some time one Sunday on the topic of sexual immorality. It's a big theme in Proverbs, and we'll touch on it again this week in Romans. In that Proverbs sermon, I issued an invitation, that if any man wanted to take steps in freedom from lust/pornography, to get a hold of me. Several reached out, but I want to issue that call again.
Oct 17
2024
I recently read, in a book about sexual addiction called “Freedom Fight,” about several related and fascinating experiments. In the first experiment, researchers put a rat alone in a cage with two bottles. One had normal water, the other morphine-drugged water. The rat invariably chose the morphine water, and drank until it became addicted and eventually died. The experiment purported to show that addictions are primarily chemically-driven.