This Monday was Juneteenth. A holiday commemorating the actual freedom from slavery in the United States. Well, that is simplifying it a bit, but there are some great resources out there about the holiday, so I’ll just offer my meager reflections on a “toe in” celebration of the day. My first instinct was to exclude myself from this…

Pastor Karen reminded us last Sunday that there are kingdom seeds and there are weeds of the enemy.  We are always planting seeds in our lives, whether intentional or not.   Some of them will grow into the fruit of the kingdom-  Righteousness,  Peace and Joy.  Other seeds that we plant will grow thorns that…

This Sunday marks the end of the Sunday School for this church season,  and traditionally that has meant the start of the summer slump at church,  both in attendance and in financial support. Pastor Karen and I are taking time for vacation this summer and God commanded rest.  However, summer is not the time to…

oy! It sure feels like summer this week! I hope you are finding ways to be cool. It probably does not come as a surprise, but I’m reading a new thought-provoking book. It’s called, “Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation,” by Cindy S. Lee. Some of you may really enjoy reading it as well. Here are…

This Sunday is Pentecost… You can celebrate if you want by wearing red,  or a 1990’s style flames t-shirt.  On Sundays,  we have been exploring what the church was meant to do,  and walking through three pictures of the church:  one family,  one body, and this week,  one temple.  These pictures are found in Paul’s…

We were talking the other day with someone in a serious situation and they mentioned that they were not certain that they believed in God. And this is something that we encounter quite frequently,  people who have been church-attenders,  but underneath there is fear because there is doubt somewhere inside them. But there is a…

Certainly sharing and spreading the good news was at the very top! But Jesus knew that the longevity of the new multi-ethnic people of God would require some organization. These new believers would need the support of one another to not only grow and keep their faith but also provide for themselves. They would need…

Two chances to show up in our neighborhood One of the tasks for Orchard Covenant is to be a good neighbor in Indian Orchard.  To be present and a part of the community,  in part because that is just what a good neighbor does,  but also because if we want Indian Orchard to see what…

A blessed Holy Week to you, Church! I hope you have set aside some time to contemplate Christ’s journey to the cross this week. If you haven’t, keep reading! Thanks to the focus of our Lenten sermon series about the last words Jesus spoke before he died on the cross, Pastor Nick and I have…

This was an honest question one of our teens asked Dina at Youth Group this Sunday. Dina did a great job with her answer, she answered honestly saying something like, “There have been times in my life when I knew something that happened was Jesus at work. There have been times in my life when…