Rural Rev

This past Sunday was the “kick-off” fora new message series that my congregation and I will be sharing this month: Get in the Game. Since many of the men in the church (and quite a few of the ladies, too) are big football fans, I thought it might be fun–and hopefully enriching–to consider some of [...]

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The Sunday of Labor Day weekend proved to be an “in-between” time for me and my congregation. We had just wrapped up our summer-long study of The Apostles’ Creed, and we were yet to begin a September message series organized around the theme “Get in the Game.” However, with it being Labor Day weekend, the [...]

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Back when I was in college, Christian friends of mine used to critique various preachers and/or churches for not being “deep” enough. That frequently frustrated me. On the whole, when I heard these same preachers and/or visited these same churches, I was hard pressed to discern how ‘depth’ was lacking in their approach. Granted, they [...]

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This evening, I had the great pleasure of “sitting in” on a meeting of my congregation’s Scholarship Committee. As the name implies, the committee’s sole function is to award several college scholarships to graduating high school seniors, which isn’t bad work if you can get it. Now the amounts that we award aren’t huge (although, college costs [...]

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In my message this past Sunday, I told the story of Mr. Vickery. Mr. Vickery lived just down the street from me in Princeton, Illinois…the little farming community in which I grew up. He was retired…probably in his late 60’s or early 70’s. And like a lot of other retired folks in our town he [...]

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I’m getting ready to try a little “worship experitment.” Using a wiki set up on my church’s website, I’m inviting the members of my congregation (and anyone else who will join in) to collaborate with me in the development of a preaching and worship series with the theme “Elements of Faith.” Scheduled for the month [...]

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