As we at the Rochester Church strive to explore what it means to be a community, I am about to embark on a new adventure that I am inviting the families in my ministry to join with me. I want to be more intentional about engaging in dialogue about how God is working in our [...]

I am cleaning up my emails and came across something I wanted to share. A group of teens led Kids’ Worship earlier this Fall. The younger children at church go to Kids’ Worship during the sermon in what I fondly call “Big Church.”
I wanted to share some feedback we received from a few parents of [...]

This is a powerful highlight clip from last week’s episode of Law & Order where they deal head on with the issue of abortion (You’ll have to sit through a brief commercial first):

Last Sunday in our Student Spiritual Formation class we discussed Jesus’ genealogy. Our primary text was Luke’s genealogy, but we also used Matthew’s. It was interesting to hear some of the things our students observed during this study. Here are a few that I remember:
Luke starts with Jesus and works back to Adam, and eventually [...]

This past week on vacation, I had the opportunity to read five books. I wanted to share with you something I learned from each book.
Raising Boys to Be Like Jesus by Sharon Norris Elliott
I was reminded of the importance of relationships. Throughout this book, the author consistently focused on the importance of character in the [...]

Why do we have such a hard time with submission? It is a lack of respect?
It seems like our society is replete with people who don’t respect others. Think about the number of marriages destroyed because of a lack of respect. People illegally download music off the Internet, stealing it from musicians who invest their [...]

This week a number of my friends are gathering in eastern Ohio to celebrate the life and mourn the death of a servant of God. Bill Covan, who was 66, passed away Tuesday morning, September 29, 2009, from complications following open heart surgery.
Bill served as the minister for the Struthers Church of Christ. I knew [...]

This is a great testimony by Ernie Harwell, the 91-year-old former Detroit Tigers broadcaster who was recently diagnosed with incurable cancer.

This past Wednesday in ARISE Connections, we focused on the importance of love in all relationships. Here is what we centered our thoughts on:
Love…
is patient
is kind
does not envy
does not boast
is not arrogant
is not rude
does [...]