June 2013

Sermon Illustration #3—THE KINGDOM OF GOD MAKES AN IMPACT: Church Buys Porno Theatre

Leave a Comment / Moral Authority, PCUSA, Sermon Illustrations, The Lord's Prayer, The Missional Church / By /

Topic: The Now and the Not-Yet of the Kingdom of GodScripture: Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heavenSource: Kent Richardson, “A History of First Presbyterian Church, Concord, California,” revised by David Stearns, FPCC website (scroll down to “Service”). Fourteen years before my arrival as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Concord (California), the congregation had been dealing with a vexing problem. Situated just one block from Concord’s central square, the church had a rear property line in common with the Showcase Theatre. The art deco building faced the city square, and in its heyday was […]

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Sermon Illustration #2— FAITH: Buried in an Avalanche

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I was washing the dishes, listening to our local news radio station, when the news anchor started a phone conversation with Jeff Eckland, a skier who was caught in an avalanche at Kirkwood near Lake Tahoe. The news report had come over the wire services: Skier is buried in snow 17 minutes but survives  KIRKWOOD – A Kirkwood ski area employee survived a brush with death when he was caught up in a snow slide and buried for about 17 minutes, the Alpine County Sheriff’s office said. Jeff Eckland, 24, of South Lake Tahoe was skiing the resort’s back side

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There’s a Sermon Illustration in There Somewhere

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Our home was filled with happy chaos for about twelve days surrounding my early June birthday. It was one of those milestone birthdays, the big 6—0. So our girls decided to orchestrate a birthday party for the two of us (hubby’s big one is in August); hence, “the twelve days of Birthday.” We are definitely of the school that celebrates birthdays as long as possible, and I have not been disappointed this year! One of the party games our daughters cooked up was a matching game using twenty of my favorite sermon illustrations over the years. Just picking them out

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Response to Ed Koster’s Recent Article

Leave a Comment / GAPJC Decisions, Parnell v. San Francisco, PCUSA, Uncategorized / By /

I’m not sure why Ed Koster is still responding to PCUSA remedial cases that were completed over a year ago, but since he mentions one case I spent about three years on, I will comment on the points he makes in his recent Outlook article. The PCUSA faces a problem of discontinuity that is messy in its consequences: Any particular presbytery ordains for the whole church, based solely on the local governing body’s discretion. This scenario works if the presbytery reflects the doctrine represented in our Confessions, which have been agreed to by the body as our means of interpreting

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