church

Taking a long walk off of a short pier…

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mg-9i5a1100.jpgDo you want to know what God’s plan and path for your life is? Like, you get the sense that God has a special role for you to play in the world. Something rewarding and fulfilling.

You just don’t know what that path is?

There is one story I think shows us one of the most critical elements to understanding God’s path for us. It’s found in Matthew 14:22-33, and it’s where Jesus walks on water. Now, this story is also found in Mark 6 and John 6, but in Matthew’s account, we see an important part to the story – we see another person walk on water.

In Matthew, we see Peter get out of the boat and become the Buzz Aldrin of water walking to Jesus’ Neil Armstrong. And it’s in Peter’s example I think we find the key component to following in the footsteps of Christ:

Peter had enough faith to do the impossible. Continue reading →

Too Close for Comfort…

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Recently, I had four of my closest friends over to my house for a weekend (along with their two spouses and two dogs, it was a full house, and loads of fun). We spent the weekend playing board games for, quite literally, sixteen hours (it was probably more than that, but I wasn’t timing). Now, my house has the room space for this kind of shindig – kind of. I had one friend who was crashed on my sofa, but everyone else had their own room and bed/air mattress.

These friends know me fairly well. I’ve lived with them, gotten angry at them, laughed until I cried with them, and been my most ridiculous with them. One of them even tried to choke me one time (I must admit, I had asked him too). The level of intimacy we have with one an other is incredible, and it’s honestly why I value their friendships so much. (That, and the fact that they simply know too much about me, and it takes too long to break in a new set of friends).

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Falling on our swords…

/ pastorfeltz / 1 Comment

 

Tradition can be a powerful tool. If tradition is used right, it can connect us to past generations, teach us important lessons, and serve as a rite of passage into the next stages of our life. Liturgical Christians, like Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox have a fantastic grasp on great ways to use tradition well.

I love tradition, when it’s done right.

But tradition can also be overly romanticized and kind of stupid.

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Dear Church, We’ve Moved. Love, Your Kids…

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Cocina-Moving-Poster1

A lot of churches are struggling to connect with Millennials, for a large number of reasons. The biggest reason I’ve noticed, while wearing both the “church leader” hat and the “millennial” hat, is that the church isn’t sharing information in to social ‘watering holes’.

A ‘watering hole’ is a hub that the community gathers regularly. In ancient times, it was often a well or a marketplace. More recently, it was the downtown area of a city or village. Now, the ‘watering hole’ has moved online to social media. Before, you’d look for ‘Help Wanted’ signs in windows to find a job, now we go to different websites. If you wanted to get to know even a little bit about someone, you’d have to go to their house. Now, we have virtual living rooms on Facebook.

Many churches continue to make community announcements, celebrate birthdays, and organize events using the techniques they did twenty years ago: passing clipboards and having the pastor tell the congregation what was going on. The problem is that the churches kids (Millennials) can’t hear them, because we’re not there.

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