Pastor’s blog 6/14/10 The joy of 1st weddings
June 14, 2010
I can’t believe that I am now presiding at the weddings of confirmation students. Wow! That must mean that I have been here awhile. This past Saturday I conducted the wedding of Ashley Bents (a former confirmation student) and Josh Hein. What a great day it was for them and for me. I remember Ashley being a very active member at First. She sang in the youth choir that her mother lead. She was active in our youth program and always seemed to be around the church. I am amazed at how quickly her college years went. It doesn’t seem like nearly five years have past since she graduated from high school. She asked her grandfather John to sing the Lord’s Prayer at the wedding which was a moving experience for many. John’s voice has an intimate quality that really reached our hearts when he sang. At the reception instead of tinkling or bells to make the couple kiss we were invited to sing a verse or two of any song with the word love in it. This lead to many spirited renditions of love songs. Once again grandpa John charmed us all with his singing of the alphabet song. Yes Saturday was a memorable day. May God richly bless the marriage of Josh and Ashley!
Pastor’s Blog 5/31/10 Living the Great Commission
June 1, 2010
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… these are the words of the great commission Matthew 28. They are words that we all know yet we struggle to live them out. We your staff at First are working to express this commission using the powerful communication tools that are available today. We have a web page and have just created Facebook and Twitter accounts. Some of you will know immediately what these are and some of you will be a little confused. We want to use the technology that is available to reach all people with the Good News of Jesus. We encourage you to sign up as a friend of ours on Facebook and/or to follow us on Twitter. Join us in this new adventure as we see to be the hands, heart, feet and voice of Jesus in this world. God’s peace Pastor Richard
Unity oh unity
August 3, 2009
I am reflecting on the challenges that “unity in Christ” presents for each of us. I received many comments on this past Sunday’s sermon. Unity is difficult because we often want agreement with us and our point of view to be part of that unity. The question I think that the Apostle Paul poses in Ephesians is can we have unity: one faith – one baptism – one Lord and savior and still have many areas that we don’t see eye to eye on? A good question to ponder this week as we seek to follow Jesus in daily living.
