God's Plan

The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Historically Prodigal

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I think almost everyone who attended Sunday school during the sixties and seventies has a memory of the high tech presentation systems used to etch memories in the minds of the young people who never missed a week. In fairness to this generation, attendance was not high because of the quality of storytelling but rather the willingness of a parent to use soap or the back of their hand to quickly put an end to any attempt to present an alternate to the fast paced drama that would unfold on the felt board every Sunday morning. We were told they were parables but we cared more about pulling the hair of the girl in the row in front of us or throwing a paper airplane at the teacher’s head. The felt board was a marvel of modern artistry but the stories got old really quick.

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New Year’s Renovation

We all have things we want to change about ourselves, things that we believe would make life better. From the shape of our nose to the contents of our wardrobe, from our home to the car we drive, at some point every one of us has thought that external changes will make internal struggles subside. It is the basis of all marketing: do this and make life better. What if we changed what changes us? What if the eternal influenced the internal which in turn changed the external? What if you/your church made 2023 a year of renovation, not a makeover but instead strip everything back to the footings and rebuild stronger and better than ever before?

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Stuck in a Holding Pattern

I am stuck in a holding pattern. Even though I have been here before it doesn’t get any easier. The same worries overwhelm me as I face the fact that I am not far from running out of fuel! There have been a few midair refuelling opportunities but it has been a long time since I have landed anywhere. Things remain up in the air; no contact with the tower and no permission to land. I remain in a holding pattern, playing the waiting game, a game I always seem to lose even though I play it so well.

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Empty People – Empty Churches

I see no need to attend church. I know it sounds crazy coming from a pastor but the truth is I have trouble giving a good reason to show up every Sunday let alone throughout the week. I am referring to the congregation of course, if I don’t show up I won’t have a job.

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Solving a Mystery

The basis of any good detective story is seeking to understand why. Digging deep into the past, sorting through the intricacies of the present and hypothesizing how the perpetrator hopes to influence the future are the foundations of any good Who Done It? Without these, all we have is a beginning and an end that lack depth and ultimately leave us unfulfilled. To know what happened and who did it is nothing without the why. But what if you were never told the why? What if you knew what happened, knew the history before it happened, knew who did it but never found out anything more than it was the right of that character to do it that way? So unsatisfying. So unfulfilling. So irritating.

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Pulling The Plug

It is perhaps the hardest decision anyone will have to make. The negative implications of choosing any of the options loom large over those who are given the task of deciding what future if any lies ahead. Choose to let her live and she might still die. Choose to pull the plug and her death is on your hands. Still, something has to be done. She can’t go on like this. She can’t exist in a coma like state. The way she’s propped up by life support is not really living but it’s not death either.

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