Credo: Part 3

To continue my credo, my statement of faith, I will conclude with further thoughts on Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit, and how the Church, the universal body of Christ, connects us all.

Credo: Part 2

Part two of my Credo is what I believe about Jesus. As a firm believer in the truth presented in the New Testament of Jesus Christ, I believe that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Luke we hear how the angel appeared to Mary while she was

Waterfall

Yesterday morning we added a newer-to-us song to our worship set list. Chris Tomlin’s “Waterfall” is an amazing worship song with water being representative of God’s love for us. When you think about it, it is definitely an excellent metaphor for the all-encompassing love of God.

Credo: Part 1

I believe. It is a statement of faith. As the Sheldon United Methodist Church confirmation class nears its completion, we are in the midst of writing our Credo. A Credo is a statement of creed defining what we believe. Each year I ask the confirmation students to study and

Sunrise Service

Every year our students put on our church’s Easter Sunrise Service. Typically, I end up doing quite a bit of the service myself. I find myself leading worship, directing the service, and often having to give the sermon. When I am responsible for that much of the service, it makes me feel like it’s lessening the “student-led” aspect of the Sunrise Service.

No Resurrection Without the Cross

In some of my reading recently I ran across the statement that many in the New Age movement like to have the love of Christianity, the joy of Christianity, even the hope and magic of Christianity, but they want nothing to do with the cross. We would not be

Being Expert S’WORD’smen

The past few weeks, we have been going through the pieces of armor along with making a craft, doing an activity and singing songs has been fun! Even the Little Ones in our Sunday school group are catching on quickly. They may get the words a little jumbled up, but they are trying and so CUTE! As one child will tell you, “today we learned about the Shield of FACE!” And now let me tell you, at first he did not believe me when I corrected him with FAITH!

Another child was quick to correct me with SALVATION, when he thought I said the Helmet of Starvation. It’s nice to know they are listening!

While preparing the curriculum for the leaders on the last piece, “The Sword of the Spirit: We must be expert ‘sWORDsmen’. The sword is the word of God, it is the bible.” See the play on words there…?  Any-who, kids will learn about how memorizing scripture will help to protect them from sin. All along in the 1^st & 2^nd grade class they had been crafting actual armor pieces from cardboard and paper. And now we are going to have them make a sword? Do we want 1^st & 2^nd graders to have swords? And how does one make a sword that kids cannot hurt theirself or others with it? Turns out a paint stir-stick, 2 popsicle sticks, aluminum foil and tape does the trick. Swords were made, words written on the handle and if they dare try to stab someone the aluminum foil would buckle; helping us to truly teach the children they do need the WORD of God, not the stabbing of a sword!

Fun curriculum!

Ephesians 6:11

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

 

Crave

Last Wednesday evening we held our second community youth worship event. It was similar to what we held last November, but involved a few different people. Mainly, our guest speaker was Jon Konz, the campus minister for O’Gorman Catholic High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.