The front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the tale… of “five shooters” who ambushed a group of “teenage football players” after a game at Roxborough High School.  The shooters jumped out of a Ford Explorer SUV “and began firing, unloading more than 60 shots, killing a 14year-old boy and wounding four others.”  The story tells the facts.  It is a story that has been told again and again over...  Read More

The Art of Neighboring…  This fall we are considering Jesus’ command to “love our neighbor.”  Notice, Jesus is not suggesting… he is not recommending… he is not hoping against hope that maybe sometimes we will ‘love our neighbor.’  NO… Jesus is giving us a command.  Most of us think of Jesus as a ‘friend’, so we have a hard time imagining Him giving us a command.  But the call to love our neighbor...  Read More

Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible.   Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have. This quote, written by John Ortberg, a pastor in CA, captures our dilemma.  Hurry seems to be the definition of today’s world.  Before the alarm goes off in the morning, we have a list of things to do that will more than fill our day.  From shopping… to a work call… to a fa...  Read More

In 1915, Samuel Sorenson Adams wanted to tease his wife Emily after she complained that he had left the jam jar sticky.  That night, Sam cleaned out a jam jar, filled it with cloth-covered, spring-loaded ‘snakes’, that would pop out when she opened the jam jar the next day.  Emily must have enjoyed the humor of that practical joke, because Sam went on to create a snake peanut brittle can, a snake ...  Read More

The Lord added to their number those who were being saved.  Acts 2:47 One of the surprising blessings of the pandemic is the way God has added to our number these past two years.  Who could have imagined that a global pandemic, with all the isolation and uproar, would be fertile ground for church growth.  Between those who now join us for live-stream worship from their homes across the country, to...  Read More

Imagine a week surrounded by mountains… the Rockies… the Canadian Rockies.  From one snow capped peak to the next, the views we enjoyed during our family vacation were awe-inspiring!  We saw those views from our first sip of coffee on the deck, to our drives from hike to hike, to peaceful moments sitting by a glacial lake with mountains reflected in the still waters.  The view never grew old, in f...  Read More