From the Pastor “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. […]
Anxiety, depression and addiction are all on the rise. Suicide rates have jumped dramatically in recent years, especially with the younger generations, and most dramatically among young girls. Mass violence, amplified by firearms and otherwise, has increased. And the most mundane of civil arguments now seem to inevitably polarize everyone into teams focused more on […]
It is typical in January to cast eyes toward the coming year, to make plans, to speculate, and to generally think about what comes next. And it’s good to make plans. But it is also foolish to assume that our plans will survive contact with the random and unforeseeable events that inevitably await us just […]
Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I love how it can bring the best out of people. I love how it encourages strangers to do random acts of kindness for one another. I love that it is a time when people feel encouraged to reach out and help those in need. And I […]
Two years ago, I preached a five-part series, titled, Our Challenge. In it I laid out my best understanding, from the Word, of the three principle benefits a healthy church society provides to the world: purpose, meaning, and connection. You can find these sermons on our website, and at NewChurchAudio.org. If you want an insight […]
From the Pastor Wow. June was a big month in some ways. In the past few weeks, the mask mandate was lifted for those who are fully vaccinated, we’ve reinstituted singing in our worship services, our school held an outdoor commencement followed by a kid carnival, we held an online-only society meeting with great attendance, […]
From the Pastor: Get Ready for New Church Day! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the […]
From the Pastor Who in your life doesn’t have any personal agenda whatsoever? Who of them doesn’t have a personal bias? Even the most noble among us cannot escape at least having an inclination toward self-fulfillment. Love of self is an inescapable component of the human experience. It has its uses. Love of self is […]
From the Pastor The whole of the Lord’s life in the world from earliest childhood consisted in constant temptation and constant victory. The last was when on the Cross He prayed for His enemies, and so for all people in the whole world. (Secrets of Heaven 1690:1) We begin the month of April celebrating Easter. […]
An ongoing topic as I write this is when and how we will return to “normal” education at the school, here. Since March 13th of last year, we have taught our students online because of the pandemic. It seems to me that, at least as we are currently configured, we are better able to deliver […]
From the Pastor Man, I hate February. I’m honestly not a fan of winter in general, but at least Christmas is nice. And that first snowfall is pretty. And I have to say that I enjoy the feeling of being warm indoors with nowhere to go when it is cold and inhospitable outdoors. It makes […]
From the Pastor The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light given brightness. (Isaiah 9:2) It’s December! Which means that it’s time for Christmas decorations, music, food, gifts, and other festivities. It is also a time […]
From the Pastor “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14) Apologies ahead of time. This will get a little long, and slightly (though hopefully not too) political. Buckle up. I have had several interactions with people over the past month on the topic of […]
Well, summer is almost over. I hope these past few months have been good for you and yours. It’s been one of the stranger summers I can remember, for sure. Everyone is wearing a mask. Except the ones who aren’t. We’re having the usual meetings to plan out the new year at the school, except […]
I’m a pastor and a public speaker, and so you’d think I’d have a lot to say about what’s going on in our country right now. But the truth is, I feel utterly inadequate. I have not experienced life as a black person in America. and my first instinct right now is not to talk, […]
Lately, one of my favorite questions has been, “What’s the first thing you want to do when they ‘blow the All Clear’ and end social distancing?” I’ve had a lot of answers from different people. Many say they want to hug an older relative, or play with a grandchild. Some who have had to avoid […]
Hello, friends, This is a long letter. Please bear with me, as there is a lot to communicate. As you know, the new cornavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has come to our county, bringing with it coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Yesterday, the governor of our state signed an executive order prohibiting public gatherings of over 250 people, […]
“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. . . I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.” – Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz I love this quote, although it’s not quite accurate. Jazz does resolve, just not when and/or how the listener […]
I love The Beatles. Their great talent combined with their large catalog allows for all sorts of fun games. For instance, I have long considered challenging a certain fellow-pastor (and Beatles lover) to see who could come up with the best sermon series with individually titled sermons all inspired by a single Beatles album. It’s […]
The Word teaches that a church (and really any community of people) can be looked at as being in the human form. One way of describing how a church works is by grouping its activities into “systems”, similar to the various systems of the human body. All the systems interconnect and support one another, but […]
Hello, friends! I hope you all had a great summer, and are looking forward to the coming change of seasons. For myself, it has been a summer full of moving in, setting up and planning, with a break in the middle for some important down time at the beach. As a part of my planning […]
I strongly believe that if you take these seven tasks deadly seriously, and make them the seven most important things in your life–even for a short period of time–then you will see a powerful net positive result in the lives of the people around you, and maybe even in your own life, too. Here they are:
The Easter season is a great time to focus in on our ideas of God – and on our relationship with Him. Following are some thoughts I wrote for our April Newsletter, the ECHO, about the Lord’s resurrection as it is described in the Gospels. About the Lord’s Resurrection There is as you may know […]
Why do we feature a white horse and two interlocking letters, rather than the traditional symbol of the cross? There are several reasons. First, the horse is a Biblical symbol for the power of understanding, and the white horse described in the Book of Revelation represents the power of a pure, true understanding. This is […]
In a political and social environment where people are inclined to select their truth from any number of conflicting sources, and where “fake news” is the indictment most used to discredit information we don’t like, it can be difficult to sort fact from fiction. But the truth matters, and ignorance or misunderstanding can hurt us […]
Quite apart from the fact that our Lord clearly warns against any attempt to address violence with violence (Matthew 5:38-42), it is our considered opinion that school safety ultimately depends on the cultivation of a strong culture of charity – among the students themselves and between all the students and staff. More guns in schools […]
February 14th, 2018 If there’s one thing sacred in the spiritual and practical life of the church it is marriage – and all the expressions of intimacy that belong to the realm of marriage. In fact, we are one of very few churches in the world that teach the potential for marriage with all its […]
There’s an old cartoon that features a man after death arriving in heaven, asking God why He permitted so many crimes and atrocities in the world he had just come from. In the next frame we see God saying, “That’s funny, I was going to ask YOU the same thing.” God permits all sorts of […]
July 20, 2016 – It is with profound sadness, grief, and concern for our nation that we mark the the series of incidents of racially charged homicides in our country. As we know, actions like this are permitted in Divine Providence for the sake of human free-will, and also for the reason that they expose […]
Festival services include special events and activities. Like most Christians we recognize special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter with distinctive customs especially geared to families with young children.
Cleansing truth from the WORD… is like the water we use to wash away filthy things. Sunday worship, which included an infant baptism was all about washing, not just baptism, which is a special kind of washing, but washing in the way the Jewish people used to do it, the way the Lord Himself did […]
We are also to lay down our lives for our friends… The Lord Himself said that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends”? In this week’s sermon “No Greater Love” I discuss how the two teachings fit together, and challenges all of us always to serve the Lord, that is, […]
“How can I really know whether I am inwardly alright or not? How can I be sure?” (Read more)… This week’s sermon: Know Yourself, by Rev. Michael D. Gladish Only the Lord can discern perfectly what’s in our hearts, but He gives us tools and clear signs that point us in the right direction. Some of these […]
Evil, disorder and tragedy are real problems…. Nothing we think or say can diminish that fact. But the Lord urgently teaches us that He permits no evil unless some good can come out of it. What is that good? Read more in this week’s sermon: 7 Ways to Benefit from Evil
It’s NOT EASY to let go of our preconceived ideas… In Matthew 21, we read about the Lord entering Jerusalem amid great joy and celebration, but knowing that He would soon be crucified. His actions from that time on did nothing to appease those who hated Him. What does His driving out of the money-changers […]
Did you know that there is an inward kind of peace and… happiness – that we may not even notice in ourselves? Why is that? And what good is it, anyway, if we’re not aware of it? This week’s sermon looks into this from a deeper, spiritual perspective and may bring some comfort if you […]
