We are studying the healing of the blind man in John 9 this week. I reflected a bit on the church blog here. But as I consider this story, I find tremendous implications for discernment. The main point of the story is not the healing of the blind man. We read this story and celebrate [...]

I have been reading Charles Cosgrove’s chapter in Cross-Cultural Paul: Journeys To Others, Journeys To Ourselves on American Individualism. This is a fascinating chapter full of profound observations about how our culture impacts the way in which we view Christianity, church, and living in community. Cosgrove outlines our (American) values and how they stack up [...]

The more I preach, the more I realize how the context of our life impacts our reading of scripture. We certainly don’t want our life situations to rule the text. Yet it seems the Spirit uses the books we read, the people we encounter, the challenges of daily life to inform our reading of scripture. [...]

The Spirit has been prompting us to explore our wedding policy. We have a beautiful building; many people want to get married at First Baptist. Recent inquiries have caused us to reconsider our policies. If you read them, you would find little variation from a country club contract. Preferential treatment was given to members while [...]