Each year for Charge Conference the pastor is asked to do a report of the state of the church that he or she is serving. Below is my report for this year. This has been another hard year for our church. Both membership and average attendance, for both Worship and Sunday School, is down. One promising […]
The Fourth of July is a very special day. It is the birthday of our nation and the time when we celebrate our freedom. It may be my favorite holiday of all. This is partly true because it comes during the summer which is becoming more and more, the older I get, my favorite time […]
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” [Jeremiah 1:5a N.R.S.V.] The theme for this, the 30th anniversary, resurrection was that each and every one of us is known by god. Thirty years ago three pastors in the Holston annual conference had an idea for a youth event each year in Gatlinburg, tn. […]
“And when they had come into the house they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him. And when they had opened their treasures they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense and myrrh.” [Matthew 2:11 N.K.J.V.] Christmas is the time of gift giving. This practice is traced directly […]
“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! Psalm 27:14 NRSV. The theme for Resurrection 2014 was hope. The key verse of scripture was Psalm 27:14 quoted above. As you may notice the word hope is not found in the key verse, but certainly the theme of […]
Luke records an interesting story in the twenty-fourth chapter of his gospel about two disciples who were on their way to the village of Emmaus. This was just after Jesus had been crucified and they were still confused and sad over the events that had happened. I imagine they had based their acceptance of Jesus […]
“Count your many blessings; name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” The other night I was having trouble sleeping. Some people say that sleeplessness is a part of the aging process, but I am too young for that to be the problem, so there must have been […]
