Tuesday, February 27, 2007

We will miss you Bill.

William "Bill" Cranston Broughton, 1947-2007

We said goodbye to Bill yesterday at a memorial service at church. There was a large congregation- from our communities in the Palouse and from across the state. Bill's friends shared memories of this graceful, kind and faithful man.
Bill left us sooner than we all expected. Though he leaves his "earthly tent" for an "eternal house" (1 Cor. 5) we are stunned and we miss his presence here.
We miss you Bill. You were good for us- for the church, for the schools, for the conservation districts- for your family. You left a testimony of a life well lived. Thank you.
Pastor Corey

Monday, February 12, 2007

Dancing for God

Did you know that there is a fair amount of dancing in the Bible. Some of it good and some of it bad.
David- was one that danced as praise to God. That's a good thing.
I did a little dancing this last weekend. It was all in good fun. It was also in support of a good cause, our local PEO and the causes they support.
Dancing takes a lot out of you- it was a pretty long weekend.
Worship was fun on Sunday. There was a "computer error" (read Pastoral operations error) on one of our worship songs. I feel bad about that- we had a real "flow" going. I thank God- that our congregation is so forgiving. The youth bailed us out by leading the singing of "Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart"- good job youth!!
It was also "Scouting Sunday" It was good to see some leaders and scouts in their uniforms on Sunday. I couldn't find my old uniform, but I did bring my scouting patch collection to show the youth and I used it as tangible illustration during the youth sermon.
I have been working with a couple Cub Scouts on their "God and Me" award. We have had monthly meetings (read classes) for four months. I had fun- I think they did too. It was a really neat program. I thank Shawn and Katrina for their patience!
Sunday evening youth was okay. the youth are working on a long term project of making a move about what love really is. But this week I wanted to show them a movie called "Face the Giants." This is a full length movie that a church actually made. Its a good movie. Some of our youth watched the whole thing. Some of the youth who are a bit more "interactive" stayed with me and played a video football game. During the game i would give the players different challenges. Such as playing with the controller upside down or behind their back- or both at the same time. The main point was that we should live life the way God meant it to be lived. We can live other ways (unholy and ungodly ways) but they are spiritually awkward and not what God created us for. Just like game controllers would created to be held in a certain way.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

January is Over

Well its official. I turned 30 last week. So I am in my thirties now. Wow.

It has been really cold and gray lately. Just darn cold.

Worship has been warm- and that's the way it should be. I preached the last couple weeks on the return of Jesus to Nazareth and how his hometown buddies like him and then after he says some things about loving outsiders (people in present day Lebanon and Syria) the hometown folk want to kill him. Those church folk sure got riled up about the message of loving your enemy. Thanks for keeping it real Jesus- that message was one I needed personally.

The kids helped lead us with one of the songs on Sunday. That was a lot of fun. They did a great job.

The Youth Group has started a short film project called for the time being: Love is and Love is Not... It is a film based on 1 Corinthians 13- a great chapter on Christian love. We are going to be working on it for a few weeks and we hope to develop it in to something that is shown in worship on Sunday.

In our Bible for Dummies class on Tues morning- I continue to be dazzled by how the "same 'ole" stories in Geneses from a few thousand years ago connect to real life today. We just finished reading about Joseph and his brothers. All the family drama and betrayal- the deep wounds and the dishonesty. But in the end there was repentance, healing and love. Like Joseph said, what others intend for bad God has made into good.
Lift up Christ in your life and God will make things live that appear dead- God can heal even the long dead and broken family relationships.
peace,
Pastor Corey