Good stuff!

Had small group tonight.  We have been hosting since our normal host home is now occupied with a newborn!  A few weeks back, one of our couples announced their new pregnancy.   Tonight we were presented with yet another announcement… another baby!  The uniquely exciting component to this announcement is that this couple has been trying for years to get pregnant and were disappointed a number of times, but now they have huge smiles on their faces…. good stuff! 

It’s always a exiciting to welcome new life into this world.

Homosexuality and the church

Just typing that should make me nervous, but I am not sure why.   A while back I stumbled across a pastor’s blog from the Charlotte area.   He is the pastor of Lake Forest Church (EPC) in the Charlotte area.   The EPC is the more ‘conservative’ arm of the Presbyterian denomination.  They have had a great evangelical track record and have been starting churches all across this country in recent years.  Great stuff.  

Mike Moses, the pastor of LFC, has a blog titled Purple Pastor.  It has been an engaging read over the last few months.  A recent post about homosexuality and its impact upon his church and denomination is worth reading.  I would agree with much of what he says.  

Click here to read the comments by Mike Moses.

Great post from Internetmonk.com

(Taken from Internetmonk.com)

Some Christians love to talk about the sins of Obama or gays or the mainstream media, but get really animated when I suggest we need to talk about our own, even if they are listed in the Bible dozens of times.

If the Gospel isn’t grabbing you by the real sins in your real life, just exactly what is the Gospel doing for you? Or you with it?

I don’t like the fact that I can give a really good talk on prayer when I rarely pray.

I don’t like it that I can read Matthew 5:23-24 and, as far as I can recall, never take a single step toward obeying it.

I don’t like that I can sin and then condemn someone else’s sin in almost the same breath.

Prayer at the Democratic Convention

I try to stay away from political posturing on this site, but I thought this was a great demonstration of how faith and politics can coexist.

Imagine No Religion

Interesting read from my hometown of Seattle.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008140844_billboard27m0.html

Competing systems

Well the sabbatical has ended and I find myself squarely in the throws of church leadership now that I am in the office.  I will say this, Andrew, Jon, Barb and Blake all did a bang up job during a tough time within our church body… both campuses.  I am certainly proud of them, their maturity and spiritual leadership. 

In the last couple of days God has certainly been at work!  Sharing the entirety of what God seems to be revealing to the team would be a bit premature, but I will say this.  It’s time to make a shift.  The North Campus has been a wonderful exhibition in faith, hard work, and selflessness, and in our worst moments a display of fear, apathy and self-centerdness.  But as I sit here, I truly believe that the faith and ownership of so many (of which many are no longer worshipping with us), are about to be gloriously rewarded.  Stay tuned…