For those of you who may not know, this coming Sunday will be the last one at South Pittsburgh Assembly of God (SPAG) for both Marci and I. We've been at the church for nearly four years and have been very involved. I've been the worship leader for the better part of three years, and was elected to the church board earlier this year. Marci has also spent much time helping out teaching Sunday School and organizing and being a part of numerous activities within the church. In that time, the church has been good to us, and we have been thankful for us.

But we were feeling that we had outgrown the church and weren't really being strengthened by it. So we had debated about searching for a new church, but it was hard to just go and do because we were so involved and needed by SPAG. We left that thought on the backburner for a while in the interest of the church.

However, when Pastor Paul left our church over the summer, we lost good friends in him and his family, and the church lost its leadership. I tried my best to step up by emceeing the weekly service, and I became Chairman of the Pulpit Committee that was formed to try and find his replacement (which lead to me having a virtual Chairman of the Board position). I was able to hold things together for a while, but when we, as the leadership of the church, started exploring the idea of merging with another smaller church in hopes of creating a larger and stronger church, we were met with some opposition which has caused some to "take sides". Unfortunately, this came as my passion for the church was waning, and in October Marci and I decided to make the move to leave SPAG. I've been there for guidance, advice and help in the meantime, but mostly I've been an observer while continuing to lead worship.

So, this Sunday is our last Sunday at SPAG, and the board has been gracious enough to allow me to speak as a farewell. I've already picked out a children's Christmas story, The Tale of Three Trees, to share as part of a message that we typically don't know God's will for our lives, but ultimately it's better than our own will for our lives. It may fall on deaf ears, with those who have taken sides and determined that their will is God's will, but I'm hoping it will be a good note to leave on. After all, we're leaving the church with no idea where we're being called next. We just know that our hearts are no longer at SPAG, and God has somewhere else for us now.

Yea, this is from last year, but I think this is an excellent rant from a pastor in Georgia about Halloween and the way that many churches approach it. It captures much of how I feel about the way that Christians approach a holiday named after a Catholic holiday. As always, there's no better way of demonstrating love then by telling them that Trick-or-Treating is evil and then inviting them to some lame thing you're doing instead of going out and collecting a pillowcase full of candy.

And we wonder why the world thinks that Christians are a bit "off center".

I got this from over at Church Marketing Sucks, but I thought it was an excellent sermon about Christian in-fighting from Dr. Ergun Caner over at Liberty University. It's definitely worth the listen/watch (it's a video, but I'm listening in the background while doing other stuff). It's a direct link to the file, so it should pop up in your media player.

Snakes In The Pew

For any of you who are confused into thinking that atheism is not a form of religion, you should read this rant about de-Godding US currency. First, the guy is getting way too worked up about a few words on money. He says he's been crossing out "God" in "In God We Trust" for over 10 years now before he spends them. I'm not sure what "In We Trust" is supposed to mean, but apparently it has some kind of special meaning to him.

His efforts clearly speak to someone who has a belief that God exists, but he wants no part of Him, and not someone who does not believe in God at all (which is what an atheist is defined as, correct?). I'd expect an atheist to look at the inscription and laugh because they though the notion was ridiculous, but this guy pushes towards anger issues.

While the guy has the right to do what he wants within the bounds of the law, you've got to think about the correlation between the growing anti-religious sentiment, the decline in morality, and the downward spiral of humanity that has been developing over the past half century. I'm pretty sure it's not all a coincidence.

Yesterday was a very interesting day for me, but for now let me focus on the morning. Several weeks ago, I was asked by our pastor to fill in for him July 9th while he and his family were going to be out of town for his sister-in-law's wedding. I told him I could do it (on top of my worship leader duties as well), and even though I had done portions of services before with college groups, it was definately a different experience going it alone.

I spent the time talking about the uselessness of worry and the benefits of trust. In general, I think it went pretty well, but I was clearly nervous and not flowing things together smoothly. I am anxious to get a copy of the tape to listen to and see how it actually went. In my mind, it's just a blur right now anyway.

I'm going to try to get the sermon into an MP3 eventually, and if I can get that done, then I'd gladly share it. I know the experience makes me appreciate my pastors all that much more, for it's no easy task to put a good sermon together and deliver it well.

You've probably seen the commercials with that tag line, but this past week it sure has been the truth. Monday, we got the news that Pastor Paul was going to be leaving our church to move out to Washington state. Marci and I are very sad to be seeing him and his family go becaue they have been our best friends in Pittsburgh for the last few years. But they are being called by God into family ministry, so we wish them all the best and do plan to stay in touch!

Then in the middle of the week I got a call from Don letting me know that Meredith was pregnant. Congratulations to the expecting couple! Seems like many of my friends are starting (or growing) their families, which is nice to see, but Marci and I are still several years away from doing that ourselves. Besides, the dog is enough trouble.

Then yesterday I got a call from my parents letting me know that my dad had accepted a position here in the Pittsburgh area, and that they'll be moving this way in the next few months. I had known this was a possibility because my dad had visited with us when he came over for several interviews, but now it's becoming a reality. I have to say that I'm looking forward to having them closer, and Marci likes the idea as well, as long as we're not sharing a living space :-). The whole family seems fine with the idea, even though they'll be leaving the town where we all graduated from high school, but you've also got to play the hand you've been dealt.

So, after nearly a year of marriage with not too many events, we suddenly got bombarded with lots of life-changing news (maybe not all of it changing our lives, but life-changing none-the-less).

For once, the advertisers were telling the truth...

"Life Comes At Your Fast"

Does anyone else see a problem that this site and this site are owned by the same company?

A very interesting article from USA Today that you may have missed:

Baseball's Rockies seek revival on two levels

It is interesting to read the comments from those outside the organization, who seem to have mixed feelings on the religious influence.

What's wrong with putting together a team of guys who try to live life the right way? It's much better than looking the other way when guys make a major mistake.

Today, I came across a very cool article on ESPN today about how a number of German churches are looking to appeal to soccer fans by showing World Cup games in their buildings. Not only that, but the churches in communities where games are being held will be holding services in the languages of the countries playing there that day. Talk about trying to appeal to the masses.

While the article does raise some concerns being made by observers, the general idea is a great way to get people in the door. Once people come and find a friendly environment, they are more likely to come back and hear what you have to say about God. As always, any good relationship is built upon a solid friendship. And if that friendship is built upon soccer, then there is nothing wrong with that.

Maybe it's something we could try with Steelers games at our church in the fall...

Every year around Easter, I begin to get annoyed by rabbits. I'll be walking through my neighborhood, and inevitably I'll come across a house where the residents must have decided to take a trip to Michaels and buy everything that was pastel or had a bunny on it.

Now, years ago I would have had no problem with this because I enjoyed the "holiday" of Easter and all the candy and games that came with it. However, as I have grown into my faith and beliefs, and I've become so aware of what Easter is really all about, all the Easter Bunny stuff becomes borderline heretical.

The ones that really get me are the people who push all of this other stuff, and still call themselves Christians. These are the people who are at all the Friday fish frys throughout Lent, but don't bother to show up at church on Sunday. The same people who decorate their house with rabbits, skip out on Good Friday (arguably a much more significant day for Christians as it was the day that the sins were removed by the blood spilled by Jesus), and then come to celebrate the risen savior on Easter. The hypocracy to my as a believer is frustrating, and I can completely understand why a non-believer will point at such people as reasons they don't want to be a Christian.

As Christians, let us remember and focus on the truly important parts of this holiday weekend. This is the annual celebration of the sacrifice that was made by Jesus to wash away the sins of all those who truly believe in him.