I discovered Page CXVI shortly after their first Hymns album was released. I think I listened to that album non-stop for a couple weeks. As most of you know, I didn’t grow up singing hymns and I’ve never much enjoyed them when I have sang them in church. But I do love hymns that bring [...]

Yesterday the interim teaching pastor at my church, Jay Barber, gave a message on mentoring. Spiritual mentoring is one of four key values my church has identified as important in a person’s spiritual growth. For the last year and a half I’ve been on what we’ve called the “Mentor Team” assisting staff and volunteers as [...]

In Acts 15 we learn about what is called a “sharp disagreement” in the NIV translation. Here’s a bigger chunk of that story in Acts 15:36-41, Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see [...]

I had the opportunity to lead worship at my church’s morning gatherings yesterday. I also led at our high school group last night but talking about all of those would be too long for even me to read. Here’s a look at the setlist: For All You’ve Done (Hillsong) Responsive Reading (I mixed this reading [...]

This past weekend we had a few pagan bloggers come to my church (oh the horror!!!). They are the two writers that make up the new blog out of Portland titled Year of Sundays. Essentially they’re going to different churches around Portland every Sunday for the entire year. And they don’t hold back on any [...]

At Sunset (my church home) we have two separate morning services on Sunday that are not just at different times but also have distinct stylistic differences. Most people would just call one a “blended” service of traditional and somewhat contemporary items, while is the later time is a “contemporary” service. I use these labels more [...]