AnotherJohn.Com

Let's face it: You only want me for my sermons! Every week I spend time preparing words I pray will be 1) faithful to God and 2) helpful for all us to grow in our understanding of who God is and what our response to God should be. The sermon play below should have most of our sermons available. It also includes scripture reading links you should make use of as well. If you are having trouble viewing the player below, you can visit my sermon channel here. Please let me know if you have any issues.

This was too funny not to post. Is he worried he won't see any more church offering plates?

I had forgotten to put this sermon up yesterday. One day at one of the Mercedes churches I did a lesson with members of the youth group. Part of the activities was to think of an advertising slogan that could be used in church (i.e. God's like scotch tape; you can't see Him, but you know He's there). Mine was from the Payless shoestore commercial; they're slogan was the title of this sermon. Who knew all these years later I'd get to used it. Exodus 16:1-15 Matthew 20:1-16

The family was able to return to Galveston and get a first hand look at the damage from the hurricane. Mom said it's everything you see on television and worse. There's no way the TV can portray the stinch and desolate feeling accurately. One of my sisters was able to send me pictures of the house. It is still standing, but there is little hope anything can be done to repair it. Wow! That's an emotion that is difficult to explain. I don't know if that is exactly how the Israelites felt, but it has to be close. Sure I, like many others, give them a hard time. We tend to focus on their disbelief and disobedience way more than their times of victory and faithfulness. That might very well be the intent of the OT writers so to keep us aware of our short comings as well. In this week's lectionary reading the Israelites are complaining again. Considering the events of the past 10 days or so (and when I go beyond myself and family, things that have happened that...

My mom found out their house is still standing. As of Monday night there was still about a foot and a half of water inside. My sisters both know their apartments have water damage. The rest of my family have yet to find anything out about their homes. I still haven't decided which is worse--coming back to see your home in ruins (beyond repair) or coming back and not seeing your home.

It was just a small idea. We change our marquis each week to reflect (hopefully) this week's sermon. I thought I would post those here. You can also see what's going on at Oak Haven. Stay blessed...john

Television newscasts have not done a good job in providing information--as far as I am concerned. The most info I have been able to get has been from a business that is running at less than full capacity and another company's building. The Galveston County News provides good information and pictures describing some of the clean up and devastation. Here is there website: The Galveston County News Stay blessed...john and gloria

We know there are many of you who have been in prayer for the people who live on the Gulf Coast. Particularly, I know you have been praying for our family. I can’t tell you how much that means. Here’s a quick update: My mom and step dad are with my grandparents in High Island. The town is surrounded by water; so, there’s not getting out right now, but they are fine. My dad and his family went to Victoria; they will heading back today (Sunday) to Texas City. Two of my sisters are in Houston where the older one lives; they’re fine. My younger brother is at a camp in Kerrville; so, he’s okay. My grandmother stayed at a hospital in Texas City. She was transferred yesterday to another hospital. They were without water and power. She was pretty scared since they were going to be taking her by helicopter. Last week she broke her hip and wrist in a fall. A couple of aunts and uncles went to San Antonio. Some of them are coming to stay with us for at least a few days. Of course, no on...

The question arose: Do you think the catholic church was too pragmatic in its approach to the lapsi (those who lapsed in their confession of the Christian faith in the face of persecution), or do you think the Novationists were too harsh? Why? Also, why do you think the Novationist position did not prevail? Here is a little detail about the Novationsists. Essentially, they were a group of early church believers that openly opposed allowing those people who had denied their faith facing persecution to return to the church. As a person whose life has been touched by it, I prefer to tread alongside the avenues of grace. So, I would have to believe the Novationists were too harsh in their stance against those who succumbed to the pressures of persecution and, as the text points out was the belief of bishops everywhere, failed to defend their faith in Christ—an action that consequently removed them from the community. In all reality, each of us will face experiences that will pres...

So, the question had to do with being in a new/unfamiliar church setting and focusing on what is coming next at each interval of the service/program (do I stand here, what does this mean, why do we do this, who is that big headed guy up front in the black dress, etc). For our purposes, we’ll make this a small discussion regarding church visitors. You want your visitors to feel comfortable enough to participate in your congregation’s worship time. Perhaps, however, your church presents an experience that is radically different from what they are accustomed to. Or it may be your visitors have little or no experience in a church environment. What, if anything, should/could we do to encourage them to use the service as a time of personal reflection and/or worship and not be preoccupied with those kinds of things? One suggestion that arose was having a time after the service to answer questions or take time to explain certain elements of a worship gathering. In other words...

Here's something I think we'll let the kids play. It's called Anatomy Arcade. Use the mouse to correctly place bones of the body. +Ursi

We Remember: I remember: A teacher making us turn off the television and getting back to schoolwork. So, we all used to internet to keep up for a while until we protested and made her turn it back on. Wanting to go to help so bad. I had no clue how I would get there or what I would do. Wondering where it was going to happen next. I think many of us wondered how many more targets there were going to be. Going into class and looking it up on foxnews.com. When I first went in that morning someone mentioned a plane hitting the first building. I saw a picture of it and we thought it was a big accident. A fellow student dropping his head into his hands after the first building collapsed. This guy was supposed to be the coolest, doesn't care about anyone type. Yea, buddy we all need God. Going to work that night (Wal-Mart) to a quieted store with constant coverage on the television monitors. It seemed like no one was joking or goofing off. Being glued to television for days. ...

I don’t know what your schedule looks like. You’re probably busy and have a million things to do. Believe me I totally understand. I want to offer to you a great way to focus on what matters (Luke 10:41-42). Have you ever sat in your church’s sanctuary alone? Of course, that would probably mean you would have to contact your pastor or figure out some way to get in the building. Whatever it takes, try it. Here at Oak Have our one building makes it something that is very easy to do; it was the same in Edinburg . At Bandera I had to walk a few buildings over and sometimes that just couldn’t happen. But sitting in that sacred place has always blessed me. I’ve used that quiet time to center on God, remember what He has already shown me, the work He has done and is doing in the church, give thanks for the people who meet there regularly, pray for those who aren’t there, to pray, to sing, even just to unwind. I know that would probably be something that would take more...

The other day I was having a conversation with someone. This person was describing how they ended up in Perkins. Perkins wasn’t the first choice to be. No, there wasn’t another seminary lined up. Rather there was a job in a church in New Mexico (I don’t remember exactly what the position was, but something to do with children). The church flew in this applicant to participate in a few weekend activities including a Sunday worship time. As far as this person could tell the weekend was great. After having time with some of the kids and families there was already a small connection. However, the church called (on this person’s birthday) to inform them they offered the position to another applicant. This person had to know so the question was asked what persuaded the final decision. The church thought this person was too young (22 years) and wouldn’t be able to relate to some of the situations working with families would present. That got me thinking. I’ve never faced that. At l...

Okay, so I'm getting more and more info about things in the North Texas Conference. Here is an event coming up that should be worth anyone's time: The North Texas Conference Lay Speaking Ministries is pleased to offer an outstanding workshop on Teaching and Preaching to conference Clergy and Laity. Our leader will be the Rev. Dr. Alyce M. McKenzie, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Rev. McKenzie offered this topic, “Five Alive,” at the 2008 session of the Perkins Theological School for the Laity in March. At that time, she limited her focus to the study of scripture using our five senses. After the session, she was approached by participants with the idea of expanding the course to include learners' development of a sermon based on the study. Her immediate response was, “That sounds like a great idea!” This workshop grew out of that conversation. We are also pleased that for the first time, Lay Speaking Ministries...

This is from an email I received: Dear colleague, There are many churches all across America that use traditional worship as their primary way of doing worship services. Jim Bankston, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston believes in the importance of traditional worship and St. Paul’s does only traditional worship. The large United Methodist Church I served for over 30 years in Tulsa does both traditional and contemporary worship. We are both committed to finding ways to do traditional worship better. We believe it will make a significant difference for the church to be able to improve the quality of traditional worship. Therefore, we are holding a national conference on November 11-13, 2008 called Traditional Worship for Contemporary People. The event will be held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston and features some of the great, practical experts on traditional worship. Although this conference has been designed primarily out of the United Methodist...

Maybe letting the Eagle out of the bag early wasn't the worst thing I could have done. Next Monday I'll be at Irving stadium watching the Eagles play that other team. A few members of the church invited me to attend. They did say if the Eagles win they wouldn't be at church on Sunday. Can I tell my DS this really great story why our church attendance was down this one week? They also said I couldn't wear any Philadelphia paraphernalia. We'll see what happens. Stay blessed...john

We have all heard, probably many times, the advantages of having a support system when raising children. Our family has certainly been blessed with that. So, we say (or at least we used to) “It takes a village to raise a child.” Yes, our children are often times in need of so much direction and guidance. There are so many things they have to learn about themselves, about their faith and about who we pray will be their Lord. Many families seem to be satisfied in handling their own child-rearing, alone. It’s my opinion having that neighbor who will yell out the window when they see something they know is wrong or the family friend who is allowed to do the whooping because you know how much they care is sadly a missing element in many of the lives of our children. There are two things I would like you to do now. First, stop thinking about raising children. Secondly, reread the paragraph above. This time, however, replace “our children” as the subject with “the ...

Since our recent move I have not had an internet connection at home. I found out quickly that many of our beloved hotspots are no longer free, but you can subscribe to their monthly services. We also learned that our library closes kind of early. There was no connection in my new office either and it was only last week that I started going to school each day. So, I’ve been without a consistent internet connection for about a month. Next week that should be a memory. That will do a couple of things for me. It’ll allow me to respond to emails and such in a timelier manner. Also, the audio to our worship services at Oak Haven have been recorded. Once our home is elbowed into the 21 st century, I’ll be able to post weekly sermons as well. That’s something I’ve missed doing. The blog has had some new readers lately. It is great to have you, hope you can stay. You keep visiting (leave more comments), telling others to visit and we’ll keep tying (it is the Blog That...

Youth rooms, buildings and houses should only hope to have these! +neatorama

Some of you may recall previous blog confessions. Those were a good thing for me. Here are my confessions upon making a move to a new town, church and school. I confess: This is the nicest parsonage we’ve lived in. Only in the last several days have I had my own time for grieving over our move. It still feels like I’m filling in for the senior pastor. I want to keep tabs on what the youth are doing in Bandera (Hello Generation X). During the weekdays, I have spoken more to members from Bandera UMC than Oak Haven UMC (It’s going both ways). It feels good to have all my office stuff up again; it’s the dumb stuff that means a lot. I already feel at home in Irving. I have compared churches before (Oak Haven, Bandera UMC, Edinburg FUMC, Mercedes FUMC and El Buen Pastor UMC); it’s been a positive thing. I always fought and overcame the temptation to correct people when they called me a youth pastor, but man am I going to miss working with the youth so closely. I had believed for a while i...

A few weeks ago, prior to the move, I mentioned my reading of one of Joel Osteen’s books. That book was Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. It seems I have lied to you and myself. I had promised to finish it, but that just isn’t going to happen. First, I’m already well into several books for classes. Secondly, I just don’t consider it worth my efforts to complete it (there is a department store receipt serving as a bookmark at just over the halfway mark). Now, don’t just shrug me off as another Osteen hater. I don’t know the man. It’s just hard for me to take seriously his claims. There were some good things he had to say in the book. They were, however, all tied to a common theme that disturbs my faith and is a part of what I think is of great concern in our culture. Everything, as the title suggests, is about you. As open minded as I was trying to be I couldn’t help but notice the many times the word “you” or “your” was printed. ...

Prior to classes officially beginning, I attended two orientations. One was the school’s general overview of studies and programs. The second was actually a retreat, of sorts, to introduce and address the importance of our Spiritual Formation class. It was an all day event (I only mention that so you would have pity on me and the others for having to sit in a chair all day listening to one person speak). Before the retreat, we were to have read What God Wants for Your Life: Changing the Way We Seek God’s Will by Frederick W. Schmidt—he led the retreat and is the director of Spiritual Life and Formation at Perkins. I must tell you I enjoyed the book far more than I enjoyed getting to know my plastic chair (even with complimentary breakfast and lunch). It took me two days to read the 225 pages. The only reason I bring that up is because I bought the book late and read it the two days before the retreat. The first day, including obviously the first half of the book,...