The proposal begins with a model that moves us from simple benevolence to partnership with God’s transforming work. In fact, we have already been practicing this model for ministry as a church: acts of compassion and benevolence leading to meaningful relationships that have provided a context for testimony about God’s goodness so that God’s transforming [...]
Archive for the ‘Featured Articles’ Category
A Sample Vision Statement
Sunday, December 18th, 2011 | No CommentsThe Vision/Mission of the Fernandina Beach Church We have been working long and hard at capturing a “vision” for this church that is faithful to God’s plans and purposes for our church family. Any vision worthy of the name must be broad enough to encompass the wider work God has entrusted to his people. Every [...]
Initiatives
Friday, December 16th, 2011 | No CommentsThe Shepherds charge the Community Outreach Committee to explore, determine the feasibility of, and initiate the following: Enhancing current ministries: How can we as a church become more involved and effective in reaching our community through the ministries that we currently support? Establishing new ministries: What opportunities presently exist for better serving our community? What [...]
A Conversation in the Heavenly Realms
Sunday, December 11th, 2011 | No CommentsWhat follows is an extended meditation on the Incarnation. Not only how God redeemed culture, but how he entered it … became part of it. This thought-piece takes the form of a conversation between God the Father and God the Son, conducted in the heavenly realms. Father: Our creation is in trouble. Son: Yes. Shocking [...]
Shepherding Well
Friday, December 9th, 2011 | 3 CommentsThere are elders (individuals) and then there are elderships (collective). Shepherd is a singular noun (who people are called to be personally) … Shepherds is the plural form (who groups are called to be together). Most elders I know are stuck in the tension between. It is a source of constant fascination to me that [...]
The Tree Falls
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 | No CommentsIn the fall of 1993, James Lane was driving his Volkswagen on the back roads of the Oregon coast. He was forty-one, born in the year-of-our-Lord 1952. Around the time of James’ birth, a seed pod dropped from one of Oregon’s towering western red cedars and took root in the loamy soil of the coastal [...]
The End of the World
Sunday, November 20th, 2011 | No CommentsBedraggled men wear signs announcing it. Pastors with over-heated imaginations write novels visualizing it. Preachers pound pulpits proclaiming it. The end of the world. The Day of Judgment. The Second Coming. Even poets bravely broach the subject. Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, [...]
Heart of a Hero
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 | No CommentsThe Beat Goes On In the breast of every man and woman beats the heart of a hero. That beating may be muted. It may be tentative and unfocused. It may be congested by sin and scars and accumulated failures. It may falter with a sense of unworthiness and self-doubt. But the beat is there [...]
Chance Encounters
Sunday, November 13th, 2011 | No CommentsWe met running through the Atlanta airport, trying to catch a connecting flight to Jacksonville. We labored side-by-side for a few moments and then she dropped behind gasping. I yelled over my shoulder that I’d have them hold the plane for her. Sadly, the gate was already closed when I finally got there. We watched [...]
An Unlikely Hero
Thursday, November 10th, 2011 | No CommentsRecently, I went shopping for some clothes to wear on an upcoming trip to Thailand. I am speaking at the Asian Mission Forum in Chiang Mai and needed something appropriate and cool (the temperature “cool” rather than the fashion “cool”). The woman presiding over the Men’s department was in her mid-60’s, grey-headed and life-lined. She [...]
