By Julie Hawkins, Pastor of Ministry I woke up Monday morning a little frustrated that it felt like an ordinary day. How could we possibly go from the celebration and feasting of Easter Sunday to sitting in carpool lines and a regular workday? I appreciate that the week after Christmas is usually a quiet, slow […]
Keep on Feasting!
By Pastor Julie HawkinsPastor of Ministry One of my daughters asked me what I was most excited about this Christmas. Our advent reading had talked about the growing anticipation and expectation for the celebration of Christmas. Part of that is naming what we are excited about. For me, the best part of Christmas is Christmas […]
Numbering Our Days
By Pastor Julie HawkinsPastor of Ministry Every morning when I wake up, the very first thing that I do is read a psalm. I started this practice a few years back after being challenged to engage Scripture before scrolling. Confession time: many mornings, that psalm read isn’t ingested through the bleary lens of my 4:45 […]
Seeking the Kingdom
One of my intentional themes for this year is taken from Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” I decided that throughout the year, I wanted to focus on that command to seek first the kingdom of God. But what does […]
From Announcement to Anticipation
Last Sunday morning I was on a plane back from a family trip. When I took my phone out of airplane mode at 10:30 am, I already had six text messages from people saying, “Did you hear the news?” I really wanted to respond, “What news?” and see how people navigated telling me via text […]
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Dependent on when you read this, we are about halfway through the season of the church calendar called Lent. During this 40-day period, Christians may fast from something like sweets, social media, television and spend time reflecting on Christ’s sacrificial death. I started Lent out strong. I love a good challenge. I love goals. I […]
Stuck in the middle
As I write this, I am sitting in the middle seat of a middle row about six hours into a 12-hour flight to Seoul, the first leg of my journey with Outreach Director Cara Taylor to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We are going to visit our global outreach partners with Thai Christian Foundation. At this exact […]
Building community in the stages of life
I am in a season of life when it could be easy to feel like a lot of my community building and relational connection happens on the go. My life is marked by conversations on the sideline at soccer games, or in the middle of the cross-country field during the meet, before or after a […]
Join the journey of service
Last Tuesday at the State of the Church Town Hall, about 230 attendees celebrated some of the incredible ways that the Lord has been at work at Chapel Hill in the last year. I say “some of” because it is a pleasant challenge to try and name all the ways we see God at work […]
Celebrating a fresh start
You know how some memories are seared into your brain? The first time I went to Celebrate Recovery is one of those moments for me. I remember walking into the Memorial Chapel on a Wednesday night, hearing people declaring freedom from addiction and past hurts, and I felt a little like Moses in Exodus 3 […]