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Quite a few thoughts on my mind lately. Got back from a vacation a couple weeks ago and hit the ground running like you do. Also got to spend July 4th weekend with great friends, been a nice start to the summer, and the only real casualty is the blog. So hoping this post gives me some clarity and gets me blogging again. If any of this resonates, let me know.

I was grateful to have preached last week in our new sermon series “One Word Prayers” and my word was “Please.”  In the message I revealed my love for bacon, coffee and that we’re expecting a new baby this fall. That said, the point of the message was we use the prayer, “Please” in many ways, from seeking God’s blessing, interceding for others, and desiring God’s sweeter reality. You can listen/watch it here and embedded below.

There’s a draft on the post-sermon that I’m unsure I’m going to finish. Similar to the feeling of “it’s great to have written”, there’s the “it’s great to have just preached” but this time I really feeling, “It’s great to have just connected.” I was grateful to have had a bigger part in shaping this sermon series and I think I feel the difference of having preached something a bit closer to my heart. If you’re not a weekly preacher, there’s often either a hangover or afterglow, I’m grateful to have experienced the latter.

The other night I started on a draft that wondered why it sometimes feels like everyone I know is unhappy. It’s a half-true of course but it feels like there’s a lot going on with all of us, we’re all in need of something and what do things like contentment, waiting and joy look like in the midst of this? Working on it. 

I’m also thinking about what’s going on in the news:

• Still have a few thoughts and finishing the follow up to “What to Do with all These Stories of Women Being Sexually Attacked …”
• Working my way through the Supreme Court-Hobby Lobby decision. On one hand requiring businesses to provide birth control seems like clumsy socialism yet this decision feels like it gives greater power to corporations and I’m not comfortable with that either. Some great essays/posts out there and I’m processing

There’s a pile of book reviews I’m trying to put together:

• The Church and Post-Modern Culture Series via Logos Bible Software.  I was asked to review this seven volume series and while it’s time-consuming nerdy work, it’s reading I need and thankful for, especially during these post-seminary days. 
• Fail by J.R. Briggs – love this guy, love how he talks about failure, love that IVP published this. I even when to his conference where each presenter shared about their greatest failures and how they survived. 
• 24/6 by Matthew Sleeth – Sabbath, rest, worship, renewal. Every time I approach my stress and confront the feeling of being overwhelmed, I return to the teaching and practice of Sabbath. 

And an assortment of reflections ranging from short term mission trips, student ministry, small group ministry, discipleship culture in churches, faith and science divide and general leadership. I’ll never get it all out but I’m grateful to be around all this.

On a bit more of a personal level, I’m looking for rest and renewal this summer. I’ve said this all year, so I guess it’s been one of the themes all along and it’s filtered through just about everything I’ve been a part of including our Summer Discipleship Course starting this Sunday morning at the Lexington campus during both morning worship hours. We’re calling it “Rest and Renewal in Summer and Scripture” and I’m excited to  kick it off this week.

Hope all is going well with you and your summer.

If you’re up for a 30 minute sermon about prayer, heaven and bacon, I’m your preacher :)

[Been out of pocket this week – a few belated postings going up in the next few days.]:

Most days I feel like a good father but I’m just being humble. It turns out, I’m actually “The #1 Daddy.” My six year old confirmed this for me in writing and I can produce this document at a moment’s notice.

I’m tempted to set it all on cruise-control but in a moment of self-awareness, I thought maybe I’d reflect on the goodness and the challenges of fatherhood.  I’m thinking about my personal joys, I’m thinking of two friends celebrating their first father’s day among a few other scenes featuring fathers and grandfathers playing out in my head.

This Father’s Day, I was surrounded by my family, my wife, my children, my own father and mother, brother, sister and her husband and kids. We’re vacationing together and it all fell on Father’s Day weekend. We all live in different parts of the country now so these days are special.

If we’re local or Facebook friends, you know we just announced that Susan and I are expecting baby number 4. If you don’t know us, we’re a couple who spent 6 years in fertility treatments, quit them and adopted our first [Read more…]

I had the opportunity to write our church’s small group study this week. We create every other week based on the text the sermon will be preaching and while the study is not always sermon centric, the guide aims to study the passage through small group discussion. We’re big believers in the importance of Scripture in community.

Also, it must be mentioned, the sermon this past Sunday was incredible. Our pastor, Bryan, gave one of the clearest and strongest messages for the egalitarian position that I’ve heard. He includes his “conversion” from complementarianism to egalitarianism, his look at I Timothy 2:-15, and a fantastic historical understanding of evangelicalism and the role of women. I had no idea how mindful early evangelicalism was to include women in leadership and am shocked at its regression. Here’s the link to the video or if you prefer, audio only.

So the text for my study was the infamous 1 Timothy 2:1-15 and here are a few of my reflections from [Read more…]

A couple weeks ago Grace Chapel hosted “Global Awareness Week” which is an opportunity for us as a congregation to connect with our local and regional partners and catch up on what God is doing through people/organizations throughout the world. I thought last year went really well and this year was even better. The theme this year was “Justice and Compassion” and it was appropriate not only for the content but also for what is needed in the world today. May the Church be on the forefront.

The highlights for me included:

[Read more…]