Words of Welcome

Acts 18:1-4 Tomorrow we celebrate Labor Day, a day set aside to honor all those who labor with a day of rest or play, whichever they should choose. It’s also, quite unofficially, the final weekend of summer. So even as we rest, we will also play. Of course, college students are already digging into their books, the teachers have been meeting and preparing their rooms, and by Tuesday the kids will all be back to school. Soon the leaves will fall and the temperatures will cool. Baseball will give way to football. But, for a moment, we can still bask in the glories of summer, as we enjoy our picnics and barbecues. Labor Day isn’t a religious holiday, but then neither is Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, nor Memorial Day. Still, as with those other days, it’s appropriate to stop and consider the meaning of the day. In this case, we want to consider our labor and our work from a theological and spiritual perspective. Indeed, this is a good opportunity to remember our missional calling to bear wit...

John 4:7-10, 16-29 We’ve all had life-altering conversations. John has already told you his story about how he came into the church. I want to follow up with a couple of my own, even though I’ve essentially been in the church all my life. There have been moments, nonetheless, that have helped change the course of my life. I could mention Brent Smith’s invitation to join in a bible study while in high school, or Dennis Helsabeck’s invitation to go to Twin Oaks Christian Church, but of the many conversations that helped form the direction of my life, I’d like to mention two. The first story takes place in the summer of 1981. It was the final week of my brief tenure as a youth minister. I spent that week serving as one of three teachers at a high school church camp. At that point I didn’t really know what I would do next. I’d thought about seminary, but I wasn’t sure that I was either called to ministry or something else. That week I met Gary Railsback, the new recruiter from...