Addressing the Coronavirus Outbreak at PHPC March 12, 2020 Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. With the rising concern over the coronavirus, we thought it would beimportant to reach out to you with communication from your church, both with information and encouragement. This is intended to be a pastoral letter on how we, as Christians, should respond to the Coro...

This week we're continuing our sermon series on The Gospel of Mark. I'm looking forward to being back in the pulpit after having been on sabbatical. We'll be in Mark 8:31 to 9:1 this Sunday and Jesus will tell the disciples that He's going to die and rise again. Peter reacts, well, poorly. And so Jesus goes on to teach them how to face suffering in a godly manner. It shoul...

Well, that was an amazing send-off last Sunday. Kath and I were floored by the wonderful tributes, memories, letters, song, and hugs we received. I had some great church experiences growing up and as a teenager/college student, but I never dreamed that I would work for a church that is as supportive, loving, caring, and all-around wonderful to me and my family as you all h...

First, a quick thought on the weekly heart prep. Most weeks, I give a quick summary or teaser of what I'm planning on preaching. But this week is a little different. This week, the passage not only has words that point us to the Lord, but its point also is instructive in how we prepare our hearts to come to worship. There's a lot happening this Sunday, and I wanted to prea...

Are you a dog person or a cat person? I'm neither, they're way too much work and I have enough to do and plenty of kids to take care of. But there are certain families that always need a dog or a cat. And the irony is, of course, that my family has had one or the other for almost the past decade. I have fond memories of our dog, Dixie, sitting under our dining room table w...

How many of you have seen the recent movieA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhoodstarring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys? The main character, Lloyd, is an Esquiremagazine writer assigned to interview Mr. Rogers. When they first meet, Lloyd has a black eye, which Mr. Rogers asks him about. He tells him that it was a softball injury "I made the play at the plate."But it wasn't a so...

We are looking forward to having our good friend, John Armstrong, speak at both our Men's Retreat and preach this weekend. He will be speaking on "How to be a Godly man in a #metoo world" at the Retreat, then preaching on Ephesians 5:1-21, "Children of Light." John is a Marine who grew up in Texas (had George W. Bush for a Sunday School teacher at one point!) and has been ...

This week, we're in Mark 6:45-56. This is the famous passage of Jesus walking on the water, followed by a completely non-famous passage about his healing work in Gennesaret. And as we come to this passage, we will end up talking a lot about paradigms. Paradigms are funny things. They're wildly important because they control the way in which we understand the world around u...

This Sunday's sermon text (Mark 6:30-44) will move us from the halls of Herod's palace out to the lakeside country. From a royal feast with all of the important, influential people in attendance to a crowd of peasants and farmers who forgot to bring dinner in their rush to hear the new prophet speak. The manipulation, lies, violence and twisted morality of the royal family...

You might have missed the news that two days after Christmas last month, Islamic State terrorists beheaded 10 Christians in Nigeria in retaliation for the death of one it leaders. It's a grim reminder that the forces of darkness are still coming after Christians, and that there is intense, brutal persecution still going on around the world. This Sunday's passage, Mark 6:14...