40 (Movie), by Illustrator Simon Smith

I found this online and I thought I would share this with you all. We showed something similar to this last night at our Ash Wednesday service. The first time I saw this video I wept. That is what power is.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday has turned into one of my favorite services that we do during the year. It is a time for us to remember that we are creation and not creator----therefore, we should put our full trust in God who is the author and finisher of our faith. I want to invite all of you to the Ash Wednesday service at Warren's Grove. It is going to be this Wednesday, February 25th at 7pm. I look forward to seeing you all then.

Video

I wanted to share with you this video that was put together for Warren's Grove. This was made, with great thanks for his tireless effort, by Everett Gardner. I think you will really enjoy this----and you will get to see many people share why they love going to Warren's Grove.

Working Out

Yesterday I had an interesting phone call. Someone from the Duke Chronicle (which is our newspaper here at Duke University) called me because he had read an article about healthy ministers. Apparently the New York Times did an article recently about clergy in the United Methodist Church being unhealthy. At the end of the conversation he said that I seemed to be the one on track when it came to being healthy out of all the other Pastor's he had interviewed. I was wondering what you all think. Do you generally think that Pastor's are healthy or unhealthy?

Paper

I have my first paper of the semester that I am working on. It is really on a subject that is my passion ----- What is the Nature and Mission of the Church. But, for some reason I am just having some writer's block, or no motivation. So, please be praying for me. This paper is due tomorrow, and I definitely want to get it done so that I can watch the Duke vs. Carolina game on Wednesday night.

Hug Me Pillow

Okay, so I found this on Overstock.com. And I have to say ----- there is something that is just not right about this pillow. It seems a little creepy. But, it really made me think about something. There are people in this world that are that lonely. I know that I have been that lonely before. Lonely and just needing someone in my life that would pay attention to what I have to say. I don't think a pillow can do that for you ----- but in many ways this is what we are to be as the Church. We are to help people to find who they are in Christ. To help them find their existence in their creator. What do you all think. Is this another great example of how lonely many of us Americans are. What should we do as a Church?

Skiing

I wanted to go one more time skiing before the hard part of the semester started. So a buddy of mine (Jeff LeBlanc), my son (Peter) and myself headed up to Sugar Mountain yesterday. And I have to admit ----- Peter flat out wore me out. He is getting to be quite a skier. For any of you that don't know Peter is 6 years old ----- and he is an exceptional skier. I don't know how much longer I am going to be skiing faster than him. The conditions were probably the best I have ever skied in. It was an awesome day on the slopes. If any of you are thinking of making a trip to go skiing ---- now is a good time.

Safety

I wanted to share with you all a quote that I just found in one of my readings. It is from a professor at Duke Divinity School named Dr. Stanley M. Hauerwas. He says this: "how wonderful it is to serve a God who has more interesting things for us to do than to make our world safe....." What do you all think about this? I honestly get excited about this quote because I think we have sterilized Christianity to the point where it just looks like a religion of safety. I like adventure and imagination ---- and those things are not necessarily synonymous with safety.

Free Food

I love free food. When I was at UNC-Wilmington I used to go to all the Christian groups on campus and sit in on their meetings if there was free food. I would sometimes be in Inter Varsity, sometimes Baptist Student Union, sometimes the Lutheran College group ---- it didn't matter as long as it was free food. Essentially Jesus is offering all of us free food, the bread of heaven. Well ------ it is almost free. He does want to take something from us, he wants to take our dirty laundry, our sin, and leave it at the cross. Why don't we all leave our sin at the cross and go and eat at the great feast, where there is room for all.

I found this really cool picture