Common Ground Blog (Page 3)
Haiti: Blog 2, Day 3
Creole is the native tongue in Haiti. All the other languages that I fluently speak like German, Spanish, Greek and English just get in the way of trying to learn another one. Of course none of us speak Creole, so it’s been both fun and frustrating at times. Yesterday as we started our Bible teaching, most of the Haitian pastors would come over and greet us and tell us their first names. As one of the pastors was introducing himself…
First Blog from Haiti
Blog 1 Day 1 One Long Day! It started with the news late in the evening that Katie’s mom fell and broke her hip and isn’t doing that well. So Kate will be heading to the hospital first thing in the morning to check on her mom. Woke up this morning at 1:00 AM, showered, shaved, dressed and kissed my most lovely wife goodbye. Her last words to me were, “Be careful, you know that night blindness of yours” “and…
Our Vision of God
Every January we as a family of Common Ground come together at our annual All Church Visionary Gathering. The purpose of these gatherings is to acknowledge where we’ve been with God, and to look ahead and dream and to cast a vision of what God wants from His church and where we are headed as a local body in the coming years. So often it seems we have to come up with some new creative strategy and idea for doing…
A Pastor’s Prayer (Part 5)
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas is a traditional greeting during this particular time of year. What are we to make of such a greeting when we wish upon our family and friends a Merry Christmas? Obviously we are wishing for them good fortune and happy times during this traditional holiday season. But is that all there is to this Christmas season, good fortune and happy times? First off I have to admit I’m a certified sentimental sucker for traditions and especially…
A Pastor’s Prayer (Part 4)
The other day I had some pastors pray for me. And what they prayed for in particular was that God would bless our church and that God’s favor would be upon me. I’ve somewhat wrestled biblically with what exactly we mean when use those phrases. Of course I desire to be blessed by God, and who wouldn’t want God’s favor upon one’s life? And when we pray those types of prayers of blessing and favor, what do we want blessed…
A Pastor’s Prayer (Part 3)
When one thinks about church growth what does one think about? What comes to your mind when people discuss church growth? Believe me, the topic of “church growth” is constantly on the mind and heart of almost every pastor. And sadly in today’s American church this is what characterizes and stigmatizes and distinguishes a supposedly good pastor from a bad pastor. If you can grow a church numerically, and better yet if you can do it in very short time,…
Prepare Him Room
Oh for a fall that would last forever… Or at least until spring could come. The last week has been pretty hard on the notion that maybe winter might skip us this year, and already the stores are filling their aisles with things of Christmas. You have to admit were we to miss winter, we would skip over Christmas, and that would be a shame. What a wonderful time built into our year to draw us to reconcile the notion…
A Pastor’s Prayer (Part 2)
Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 6:4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert…
A Pastor’s Prayer
Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, My heart beats for Christ and His beloved bride. My hope and prayer is that we as a family would continue to go deep with God as we cry out to Him for His sustaining grace and power in our lives. Would you please beseech our Lord with me this week with this prayer? Oh most gracious Lord and Father, You’re not surprised at the size of our church. You knew far in advance…