the Essays & Reflections
Tag: Faith
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Church as a Base Camp
Church is not the goal. To journey and be transformed is. As a pastor my heart beats so that others may have their own intimate and exciting experiences with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. For the church to facilitate this, we need to see ourselves as the base camp of life. Where we prepare others
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Becoming a Bi-Vocational Pastor
The natural question one is asked as they graduate from Seminary is: What is next for you/Where is God calling you? With only 82 days between me and my Masters of Divinity this question is looming in the bushes (or shrubbery if you will). For my wife and I we will be bi-vocational pastors. Choosing Bi-Vocational This does
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My Dad Sharing about his Faith and ALS
Back on November 7th (2010) my dad got the opportunity to share with his faith community at Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church where he was at with his ALS diagnosis and his faith. At this point he had just begun to use his wheel chair. This 13 minute conversation took place 266 days before he past away from complications
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The truth is that there is Truth…
”The truth is that there is Truth, but not for us, only for God. This is the appropriation or recontextualizing of the hermeneutics of finitude I propose.” Merold Westphal I really need to get into his work once my schedule lightens up more.
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What makes something Great?
Yesterday morning I found myself thinking about greatness and faith. I have come across individuals who hold that something done with Christ is automatically great. It isn’t that I would discount the importance of living a life with the Spirit, and honoring God with our times and talents. It is that I have issue with
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Aesthetics – Thoughts on True Art from Sayers
I have been working through a great book by mid-century literary scholar Dorothy Sayers (Wikipedia) that touch on the topic of art and expression. They were very meaningful so I thought I would quote a portion below, if you want to read the work it’s called ‘Toward a Christian Esthetic‘ in the book Letters to
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Sermon: Arrival
A week and a half ago we had our very first meeting of Ignite on May 9th (this will be the monthly college rally for students in the twin cities and at substance church starting this fall). The whole idea of this night was to give a taste of what we hope to do this
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Sermon: The Untold Story of Zacchaeus
This morning I was honored by the chance to preach at Minnesota Teen Challenge to a room full of men working on real life change. The passage is Luke 19:1-10 and this is probably my best sermon I’ve given to date. Please check it out, enjoy it, and let me know your thoughts (email or
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Sermon: Experiencing God’s Love
This is the second and final sermon I needed to give for my Preaching Practicum course that I took this summer. It was this past Sunday (8/16/09) that I had the opportunity to Preach at Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church (www.eppc.com). I preached from John chapter 14 verses 23-27 and this was the second and final
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Sermon: Living Beyond Yourself
I just finished up 9 straight days of class, 8+ hours a day. While it was very intense and time consuming it was a great experience, though one i don’t think I will need to repeat. I took my first Old Testament course (OT501) on Genesis – Ruth, and then immediately rolled into my Preaching