We have a firm “No-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving” rule in the Hawkins home. For those of you who are reading this with the twinkling lights of a well-established Christmas tree in the background, that’s fine. I get it. I don’t have anything against early decoration. But we are a turkey-before-tree, yams-before-yule, and carols-after-cranberry family. Part of that is […]
I’m so blessed!
The other day I was driving home, pondering… if I am honest…worrying some… about several challenges facing our church. As I drove along in a funk, a song came on the radio. I’d never heard it before…but it captivated me like no song has in a long time. The song was called “I’m So […]
Legacy Sunday
Twelve years ago, I shared with our elders what I believed to be the three priorities for our coming decade. Not that we didn’t have other things to attend to, but these three would be our particular focus. I called them the “3 Ds”: denomination, debt, and discipleship. First, denomination. We were increasingly aware that […]
Fret not
I “rediscovered” a psalm recently: Psalm 37. Of course, I’ve read it countless times over the years, but somehow, it jumped out at me. I’m calling it the “Don’t fret” psalm. Pull it out and read it. David encourages the reader three times in the first eight verses, “Fret not yourself.” “Fret not yourself because […]
Three things to do during our mid-term
Recently, someone introduced my kids to an updated version of “slug bug,” replacing VW Bugs with Teslas. Unfortunately, our community is significantly affluent that this results in one of them hitting the other every 30 seconds. So, I decided to change the game. Instead of hitting each other when they see a Tesla, I invited […]
Why dwell upon death?
One of the biggest differences between my homeland, the UK, and the US is where people are buried. In the UK, graves are primarily located around the exterior of churches, rather than exclusively in designated cemeteries, like in the US. On our recent trip, our kids were fascinated with these church graveyards. They loved to […]
Invite your one!
This is the way. I am your father. May the force be with you. Star Wars has been a focus in our house recently! Have you ever noticed how weirdly similar these phrases are to things we say in church?! Jesus is the way, Our Father, The Lord be with you… To someone unfamiliar with […]
Is God speaking to you?
While in the UK this summer I visited the Isle of Iona, where Saint Columba and his band of monks landed in the 6th-century and proceeded to set up a monastery from which they not only evangelized Scotland but also carried on the monastic tradition of copying and illuminating biblical manuscripts. The most famous of […]
Seeing miracles up close
I met six-month-old Aurora in the men’s prison last week. She’s a fluffy white doodle training to be a Diabetic Service Dog. We watched her detect the scent of hypoglycemia off her trainer…a man who has been incarcerated for many years. Learning to alert her master before he loses consciousness is a skill that could […]
Accountability in action
Presbyterian. Perhaps the most misspelled and least understood of denominational names. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you were to choose a recognizable, intuitive, trendy name for a church, “Presbyterian” would likely not make the short list. Although we may not LEAD with “Presbyterian,” your “Session” (the board of elders—another inscrutable word!) has chosen to […]