F or the last few months, we have been talking about returning to normal in our living. However, we have been challenging ourselves to find out what is “normal” for living out our lives. We are consciously choosing to decide what will be priorities and major priorities in our “NEW NORMAL!” We talked about ENCOURAGEMENT,…
We are not fully on the other side of the Coronavirus Crisis… but we HOPE the other SIDE IS IN SIGHT! For months we have all been talking about the time when things can “get back to normal.” The challenge is not only when it will happen, but what will it look like? In some…
I am so looking forward to Easter this year. And we need Easter now more than ever. We need its message of hope found in Christ’s triumph over the grave. Easter, Christ’s resurrection, was God’s way of saying, “darkness, disappointment and death do not get to have the final word!” I think of the words…
This Easter (April 4), will be more significant this year than in a generation. In the wake of 2 million deaths from a global pandemic, a polarized political nightmare that won’t stop, and deep unrest, injustice and pain across racial lines, it is time to engage the Lord at a new level – a deeper…
Confirmation is one of the highlights of my ministry! It has been a life-changing program for students (Confirmands) and for myself as the Pastor. Throughout February, we will be continuing our Confirmation program until Sunday, April 11th (the Sunday following Easter) when we will have the joy of welcoming eight new Confirmands into full church…
How is that coming for you? Are you moving on in your spiritual life? Or, as John Wesley (the founder of our denomination) said: “Are you moving onto perfection?” Welsey said that if we stopped moving forward in our life-long faith journey, then we were slipping back. Slipping away from a God that does everything…
Advent, Christmas and Christmas Eve will be different this year… It will BE JOYFUL and we will be TOGETHER! Now, it may not be as normal,but together we will create a new normal filled with all the Advent and Christmas traditions. This year, Christmas is all about OUTREACH -> Others (Loving Our Neighbor).Make it Simple.…
This November, seven churches and their pastors will begin meeting as a part of a new “circuit” gathering of churches that will be working together to make the mission and ministry of our churches come alive! We will be joining with all the United Methodist churches in Iowa to develop a Mission and Ministry Plan…
Back in January, we launched the year by focusing on “How we want to have grown (and become more mature) in our faith and therefore in our lives!” If you don’t have a target, you’ll never know where to aim…and you’ll miss it every time. We are done with that. We continue to learn to…
W e are all about “Go be the church!” Now is the time for us to all live into it! In our church, we are farmers, connected to the land and the changes that come to farmers whose lives are dependent on the weather and markets. We not only know farmers, but they are family…