At the start of a new year and a new presidency, it seems like a good time to touch base with the essentials.
According to our Lord Jesus Christ, among the 613 laws and precepts in the Hebrew Scriptures (including the Ten Commandments), these two are the greatest:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37);
Read MoreI want to record, here, the plans I spoke about at last Sunday’s congregational meeting, at which I shared my decision to preach my last sermon at MBPPC on Sunday, September 7, 2025, and to retire from the ministry at the end of that month.
Read MoreOne of my recently-retired colleagues described his final year of ministry as The Year of Lasts. While it is true that I am now within the borders of my last year, I am not finding “the lasts” to be particularly fraught. For example, Christmas Eve, 2024, was my last Christmas Eve as an active pastor. I was neither flooded with memories of Christmases past, nor anxious that this one had to be spectacular. In fact, my prayer was: “Loving God, let me be free to live in the moment and have a good time celebrating Christmas Eve.”
Read MoreAs we begin 2025, I want to let you know that I will retire from serving as pastor at MBPPC, and from ordained ministry, later this year. At the congregational meeting scheduled to follow worship next Sunday, January 12th, I will share details of my plans. For now, let me say that I am announcing this decision now so that we will have plenty of time to continue our ministry together, to lay the groundwork for the transition, and to look forward to the next chapter in the life of this unique worshipping community.
Read MoreAs 2024 comes to a close, we at MBPPC have so much to be grateful for!
We have worshiped every Sunday and on holidays, blessed by a beautiful sanctuary to gather in, with inspiring music provided by our choir, Tim Beggs, and a variety of guest musicians. We have heard God’s Word and shared the Eucharist in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Read MoreThis Christmas Eve will be my 30th serving as pastor at MBPPC.
I am writing this week’s installment mostly for those of you who were born in 2000 or after, members of the so-called Generation Z. You are much on my mind, and some of you whom I know personally are in my prayers. Your experience of life is far different from the way mine was at your age. Even in 1995, when I celebrated
Read MoreTo all of you who are accustomed to reading my weekly scribbling:
Apologies that last week’s message was late. Our mail server went down & we were not able to restore it until yesterday.
Now then! Here we are approaching the second Sunday in the season of Advent, and Christmas is a mere two-and-a-half weeks away. I want to invite you to come to worship this Sunday for some really great, warm & cozy, Currier and Ives pre-Christmas delight. The focus of the reading from Luke 3:1-6 is —
Read MoreI want to call your attention to two upcoming congregational meetings, and encourage everyone to attend. In a Presbyterian Church, congregational meetings are called by the Session when the authorization of active congregation members is for an action, or when important information regarding the life of the congregation needs to be shared.
In the case of the first meeting, set for Sunday, December 8, 2024, immediately after worship. The authorization the Session is seeking is to approve my (the pastor’s) terms of call and contract for 2025
Read MoreAfter 35 years serving as a pastor, I have observed a great deal about why people attend church. These observations are drawn from what people have told me about their own church-going and non-church-going. Among people’s reasons for going to church:
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