Thursday, September 22, 2011


Wow, didn’t expect to be this busy.  Since beginning my adventure as a lead pastor at Northside I’ve been on the move.  I’ve had down time, but I just haven’t had a desire to write/blog anything.  Here’s a brief update:

Stepping into a lead pastor role has been great!  I’ve loved it!  I feel I’m right where God wants me.  That is a great feeling.  A lot of challenges come with moving to a new place and starting a new job.  You have to find all new places to shop and buy groceries.  Fortunately, there are plenty of great spots (easy to get to too) to grab a burger at around here.  We have a Jimmy Johns 2 mins away. 

I recently invested in Richard Foster’s new book Sanctuary of the Soul (Journey into meditative prayer) and Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel.  I’m looking to use bits and pieces of each for upcoming sermon series.  Speaking of that, I’m really enjoyed preaching on a weekly basis.  Is it challenging?  Yes.  But I feel it is helping me mature and draw closer to God.  I’ve started a series at Northside on the church.  We are using Paul’s letter Ephesians to find out what the church is.  There have been some great discoveries for me about the church.  I’m loving what I’m learning as I live with God’s Word for this study.  We have spent the past 3 weeks in chapter 1 of Ephesians and will be moving into chapter 2 in a week.  Some rich stuff here! 

Well, I hope I can get back to a more regular groove again with blogging.  Until then, it may be sporadic. 



God bless!      

Monday, September 05, 2011

Thursday Thinking will be back on schedule this Thursday.  It’s been difficult to keep up with all the changes that have recently taken place.  Until then, here’s a brief update on my life.    

It has been a while friends! There has been a lot of newness in my life these past couple of weeks. New city. New home. New friends. New responsibilities. A lot to take in. As most of you already know, I've accepted a call to lead pastor at the Elkhart Northside Church of the Nazarene. These are wonderful people and they have been so good to us in this transition.  I’m looking forward to this journey together.    

This past Sunday was my first official Sunday as lead pastor. It felt different, but also like I was right where God wanted me to be.  My first message was on Jesus changing water into wine from John 2. Do you remember that story?  Great message to preach in a denomination that takes an abstinence approach to alcohol, huh?  My thoughts were on the deeper truth John is communicating here about Jesus’ identity.  The connections John makes to the Old Testament prophecies about the coming day of God’s salvation are amazing!  That day is described as a wedding feast with an abundant amount of wine (see Isaiah 25 and Joel 3).  It just struck me as interesting and it reveals Jesus’ identity.  It answers the question, “Who is this guy?”  The day of salvation is here.  The Messiah is among us.