This Isn't My Church?

I'm not entirely sure I know what I'm doing here in Blogger anymore, it's been so long since I've posted.  I need to go back and clean out some old stuff, figure out what's happening, but for the moment, I'm taking a page out of some other books and posting my UMC General Conference reflections.  It was an interesting and emotional ending to my seminary experience, so we're talking a lot of words, and they may not be worth reading but...  Here's the TL;DR sum-up: You know, I give a lot of lip service to Christian love, but I have to say - my time in Tampa, time on Twitter, and time on the Live Stream really made it sink in, just how important it is.  When it's not there, well, you know it.  And, BTW, it's God's church.

Also, click on the post name - it apparently isn't super obvious from the home page that there's a jump.

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A Sermon: Get Over It Already

Been a while since I posted, again...  Happy New Year!

I preached this morning at Union UMC, Boston, and here is a transcript for it.  As always, I didn't follow the 'script verbatim, but it's close.  A slightly more academic version of this was also preached for my Intro to Preaching class at school this past week, but I wrote it with Sunday morning in mind.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Podcast: Not sure if one was made today or not, but I'll try to find out!

Click here to read!

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Coincidences?

I actually do believe in coincidences.  I believe that God is still active in the world, and probably even (since my theology says so) that He knows what's going to happen to us...  But by virtue of the fact that He gave us free will, I also believe in real, genuine, true coincidences.

Shortly after I posted my first sermon here (Why Can't We All Be So Lucky), a "coincidence" happened.  My dad works with a man who's currently in the army, but is considering going back to school - seminary.  They're office-mates at work, so my dad overheard this man talking to his mentor on the phone about "How do you know you've been called to ministry?"

If you've read the sermon, you know it was all about finding your call, and having the faith to deal with it.  I have to add here something I didn't put into the sermon.  Not everyone has just one call - sometimes God has many roads for you, depending on where you are in life.  But the main point is, I wrote the sermon the same week as this man was struggling with his calling, and my dad was able to overhear the phone call (and [sorry dad] my father doesn't have the best hearing).  Apparently, my sermong did mean something to the guy.  I don't know if it helped him reconcile what he was feeling at all, but if it provided even the least bit of comfort, well?  You've got to think this is one of those coincidences God might have had a hand in.

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