March is almost one-third gone! 2023 is flying by…soon Easter will be upon us. In March I have been varying the things I do in my connecting time with God each day. A major departure for me is not reading a book of the Bible, meditating on it, praying over it, and asking God what it is…
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Does anybody remember flannel graf stories? This was used long before PowerPoint, videos, film strips, and slides. I remember as a little boy growing up near Detroit, MI my Mother and our assistant pastor’s wife used flannel graf to teach us young elementary children Bible stories. One such story was the parable of the Good…
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A disagreement between two individuals at the church turns violent, a stranger strolls into the church office shouting obscenities, and a man carrying a semi-automatic weapon enters the sanctuary during a Sunday morning service. It is common for churches to believe the events mentioned above will never happen at their location. Many churches in the RMD…
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Years ago, Lori bought a verse on a plaque that hangs on the wall in one of the rooms in our home. It is from Micah 6:8 which says, “…and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” I love that portion…
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One of my favorite questions to ask people this time of year is if they have any family traditions to celebrate the holidays. One person I talked to said their family hides a green ceramic pickle on the Christmas tree and the first person to find it gets a prize. Another said they always cook…
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One of the interesting things about having lived in a variety of places in the United States of America is that each area, state, culture, and zone has its own unique ways, standards, and laws. One of the most interesting uniqueness I have found living in Montana for the last ten years has been the…
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A couple of months back I read a fascinating (and sad) article about a Navy sailor who died during BUD/S (Navy SEAL training). There is a lot that can be gleaned and discussed from this story, but one thing in particular caught my attention. Over the years, the BUD/S program has become increasingly difficult, and the graduation…
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Throughout this year, for a variety of reasons, I have been “going down memory lane.” I am thankful that in a rapidly changing world and culture that the memories in my head cannot be changed, re-imagined or deleted. When it comes to November, I go down “memory lane” to various family gatherings through the years, to amazing ministry events in this…
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For churches with fiscal year January-December, October is the time to put together your budget for the following year. Budgeting is important as it defines how much money is available to support planned ministries. Budgets act like a map for church leaders and set expectations for spending. A worship leader or head of Sunday school should know…
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October is Pastor Appreciation Month! This special recognition was started by Focus on the Family in 1994 in the throes of the Promise Keepers Ministry in the mid-1990’s. Some churches in the RMD have embraced this special time of recognizing their pastor or pastoral staff while others have not regularly done so. In either case,…
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