e-Soundings

Look for the Lonely this Christmas …will they be welcomed?

It’s easy to miss the lonely and the isolated, even in a crowd.  Are you and your congregation prepared to make friends with the lonely? Or are you distracted by all the busy-ness of the season? Read more →

The Overlooked Meta-story of Handel’s Messiah

The Christmas staple  of the Messiah is spectacular! The "Halleluiah Chorus" alone is often the sentimental "showstopper" in many Christmas concerts. But aside from its beauty and reference to the Christ-child, it's real intention and message is to link Christmas to Easter, (which is the reason for Christmas after all!). Read more →

Easter Changes Everything!... .......or does it?

Easter proclaims the most transformative event in the history of the world.  Billions of lives have been changed because of its truth and power.   Yet today, 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, it’s treated like another secular holiday.  For most people it’s devoid of the power expected the most important “Holy Day” of the year! What if.......during LENT:   We took a small step to turn Lent into the profound preparation for the gateway of Easter it was meant to be. Read more →

Easter is Vanishing...

This Easter, I listened to many preachers and worshipping congregations proclaim “He is Risen!"  I heard leaders pleading for enthusiasm, and people weakly responding.  They sung familiar words such as: “Love’s redeeming work is DONE!”, ...”made like him, LIKE  HIM WE RISE.”,  “Easter People, raise your voices, SOUNDS OF HEAVEN in earth should ring...”, and “ALL CREATION IS REBORN!” But they all rang hollow as we all returned to our daily struggle hours and days later. What the Easter hymns were proclaiming was a total, radical transformation not just of us, but of all creation!  Read more →

Three Questions about your Wonders, Worries and Wishes

This last month in worship, we have asked each other to share responses to three important questions. >>>>>>> 1) What do you WONDER about? i.e. Faith questions?, reflections?, doubts?, etc. 2) What do you WORRY about? i.e. What keeps you... Read more →

Three Simple Rules: #3 Stay in Love with God

Paul sums up this third rule with elegance: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught,... Read more →

Christmas is for Adults

In our current recession, with friends and family losing jobs and homes, with money running out and Christmas expectations always high, we need a deeper, more "grown-up" understanding of Christmas. Read more →

God's Love Letter 3) "U-Turns Allowed Here"

Part three of our series on the Bible explored one of the most (if not the most) important theme of our scripture: Sin. Sin can be defined many ways, but is most simply put as "anything that distracts, discourages us... Read more →

God's Love Letter 2) "Ordinary People with an Extraordinary Love."

In the second part of this series, we have looked at the honest but clearly flawed people of the bible. God has gone way out of the way to find the most ordinary people and fill them with an extraordinary... Read more →

God's Love Letter: 1) "Wad'ya Know?"

What we all can agree upon is that the Bible is clearly inspired by God and transmitted through human minds, hearts and hands. And that underneath every verse of scripture is a spiritual truth that sometimes needs more work than we think in order to get to its heart. Read more →