Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church March 26, 2020 Dear friends, The above watercolor hangs in our church office and it's a good reminder of the promises of God during our troubled times. This is the third pastoral letter of the coronavirus pandemic and I hope it finds you both healthy and safe. Well, we're all starting to get settled into the new routine, which,...

Back when we put together the schedule for Mark, this week was supposed to be a communion Sunday. Since Easter is in a few weeks, the plan for this week was to skip forward to the institution of the Lord's Supper in Mark 14. Then next week, we'll be looking at the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, and then the Resurrection on Easter. After that, we'll return to our regularly...

This week we're continuing our sermon series on The Gospel of Mark. We'll be in a famous text this Sunday, Mark 9:2-13, where we'll see what's commonly known as the Transfiguration. It would be easy to think that this has nothing to do with our world today. Or that it was just another cool miracle, but one that has little meaning for us now, maybe in the future, but not no...

Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church March 18, 2020 Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. With the rising concern over the coronavirus pandemic, we thought it would be important to reach out to you with another communication from your church, both with information and encouragement. My intent is to write a pastoral letter on a weekly basis (we'll see how that go...

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...