Recent Blogs

Our Lenten theme is "Building Relationships through Reconciliation." We know Lent is a season of living a more sacrificial lifestyle that promotes a closer relationship with God. We practice giving something up for Lent, but for what purpose exactly? Everyone doesn't really know why we practice giving things up during Lent.

Recently, Pastor Claude and I have received a multitude of  requests for weddings in the church. It's an exciting time! In preparing for these weddings, I'm taking a training on Prepare/Enrich, a helpful tool for pre-marital counseling. Prepare/Enrich emphasizes the importance of communication in a relationship. This makes sense! So many relationships start AND end because of communication. Sometimes we think we're expressing something clearly, but the message received is not what we thought we'd sent. 

A great part of reading the Bible is that we are brought into  close relationship with God's desire for the best life for all of humanity. Jesus is the greatest proclaimer and manifestation of God's sincerest will and deep love for us. However, we who read the words of Jesus and seek to follow them may often find them difficult to attain, but when we understand the extensive relationship that God wants to establish with us it becomes much easier.

Salt and light are part of the physical and visual elements that we all need to live well. Simply put, salt enhances food and light illuminates the world around us but each one does much more than that respectively. Normally, we eat large amounts of salt for taste, actually too much of it; but we require certain amounts of a variety of salts to maintain overall good health in moderation. 

When I was in college, I worked as a Student Leadership Assistant in our Center for Leadership creating and facilitating leadership workshops and conferences for students on campus. Often we'd get requests from on campus groups seeking to update their mission and vision statements. 

"The Beloved Community" is a term that was first coined in the early days of the 20th century by the philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, who founded the Fellowship of Reconciliation. However, it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who popularized the term and invested it with a deeper meaning which has captured the imagination of people of good will all over the world.

The ritual of the sacrament of Holy Baptism symbolizes the  washing away of our sins, the beginning of a new and transformed life in Christ's love and the entry into the church, the body of all believers in God through Jesus our Savior. A baptismal candidate can go through the ritual of Holy Baptism either by being totally immersed in a pool of water and quickly brought back up, by pouring water over the head of the baptismal candidate, or by applying water by hand onto the head of the baptismal candidate. The candidate can be of any age from an infant to a senior citizen.

Although December 25 has come and passed and you may be tempted to put all of the Christmas decorations away, to stop singing carols, and to move on to the next holiday, wait! There's more! Did you know that for Christians, Christmas is not just a day, but a season? Christmastide continues until Epiphany on January 6. Next Sunday, we'll continue to "Carol On" for Christmas!