musings.from.the.porch

[ January 20, 2007; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] What are your early impressions about praying? What images stick in your mind? Here are some that come to me:

The pastor who gave really beautiful, well-crafted, poetic “Congregational Prayers” on Sunday. I knew I could never pray like that. I felt so lame that I wondered what was the point in me praying?
The pastor who […]

[ January 6, 2007; 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. ] Once again Jesus is after our heart condition and what is the motivation behind our actions. While Jesus is the ultimate expression of love of the Creator God to His creation, the tough thing about Jesus for me is that He does not allow compromise or human rationalization or justification for deviation from God’s standard […]

[ December 23, 2006; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] here are notes for conversation at the Porch Christmas Eve Eve party. Please add your comments…

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a friend about the state of the world and culture and life. Good, deep stuff. John is part Chickasaw and a deep thinker. He observed that in traditional societies, you think about yourself in relation to […]

[ December 7, 2006; 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. December 16, 2006; 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. ] Here are my notes from our planning meetings for next quarter. Don’t hesitate to talk with any of us to get more insight. Bottomline for most of us is that The Porch is something that is satisfying something very deep in many of us - even if we cannot entirely tell why; that we are being […]

[ November 25, 2006; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Jesus says,
Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not take oaths at all – not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, not by earth, because it is his footstool, and […]

[ December 9, 2006; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] How do you spend your time? How many people do you really know who are not “in the Club”? Can you be transparent with people who may not understand you? What if you took a risk to listen to - really listen to and show respect for - someone of another religious, spiritual, or philosophical […]

[ December 2, 2006; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] When I think about Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 regarding retaliation, I think about conversion.    Conversion is the act of changing from one way of functioning to another. Given that definition, it’s rather odd that when we talk about conversion in the religious sense, we speak of it as though it happens to us only […]

[ November 18, 2006; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Have your attention? So, help me think about the text ( Matthew 5:27-32) that we have to work with for November 18. I thought I’d record my thoughts here as I develop them and prepare to facilitate the conversation. I have posted my homily thoughts below

Three Zones of Personality

Jesus makes this really hard statement […]

[ December 31, 2006; 9:00 am to 11:00 am. ] A joint service on Sunday morning with the WCUMC Sunday Morning service

[ December 24, 2006; 11:00 pm; ] The traditional Christmas eve service