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...

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 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...

Have you ever gone back to your hometown after being away for a few years? Sometimes those visits are wonderful, but often they can be disappointing or even painful. Perhaps you expect people to be very glad to see you, but then your interactions don't quite live up to that. Maybe you're just reminded of how glad you are that you left and have made a new life somewhere els...

Merry Christmas from the church staff and leadership!We hope that everyone had a wonderful day yesterday and that you've got some good family time scheduled during these last few days of 2019.We always enjoy a more low-key worship service the Sunday after Christmas, and it's fun to see parents, grandparents, and extended family that are in town visiting our members.We have...

Hello Church Family, this is normally where I'd be talking about the upcoming Scripture text (Psalm 110) that we'll be looking at this morning.It's a great text, the most frequently quoted OT text in the NT.It'll be a great time of worship this Sunday and then the Christmas Eve service two nights later (who have you invited to that service?).But I want to take this space t...

Happy Reformation Day! If you're reading this on what most of America celebrates as Halloween, you're actually reading it on the 502nd anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. While the Reformation was much bigger than Luther, and the 95 Theses didn't address everything that the Reformation stood for, it was a hug...

If your family is like our family, lots of things have been starting lately. School is back, classes are underway, kids sports have had a couple games, college and pro football have had their first clashes on the field. It's all very exciting and there's a lot more to come. Our sermon series in Mark is underway, as well. What we've covered in Mark in one chapter takes a...

Hey everyone, there's only a week until school is back in session. If you're like us, your kids are trying out for sports teams, you're buying back-to-school clothes and supplies, getting schedules straight, and getting in those last couple trips to the pool. Speaking of getting things in, now that we're done with our sermon series in Jeremiah and looking to delve into the...

One of our children has not seen many of the Marvel movies, so her siblings and I are guiding her through the movies. The big question (which is also the question for those wanting to catch up on the Star Wars films) is: do you watch them by release date or by chronological order? We've decided to go chronologically, so we've started with the first Captain America movie se...

I can't wait to hang out with you all this Friday night in downtown Leesburg at the Trinity House Caf! It will be a great night of singing old and new worship songs, and hopefully people walking by will be drawn in. We've participated in a number of different outreach events this Spring - flyer invitations to Easter, hospitality for our neighbors, literature table at a com...

I hope you had a wonderful holy week and Easter Sunday! We enjoyed the Good Friday service with Ketoctin Covenant OPC (the transcript from the sermon is on our website), the Sunrise Service (thanks to Tom Gardner, Frank Pugh, and Jon Thompson for speaking), and our main Easter service. Thank you also to Ken Christian Colley and my daughters for passing out flyers all o...

It's March and my son is already home for Spring Break! This semester is going fast. Baseball teams are at spring training, and soon we'll be filling out brackets for March Madness. And Lent isjust starting, which means Easter is only 40 days away! The other thing about March that we've been promoting is Mission:Possible, a challenge to invite an unchurched family in y...

You might be wondering why it says "guest preacher" when it's Pastor Dave Dorst from Leesburg preaching to us this Sunday. But it's not me - it's the older, wiser (and even more competitive) Dr. Dave Dorst who pastors Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Leesburg, Florida. I'm really excited that he'll be speaking on the Men's Retreat and then preaching to the whole co...

I hope you got a lot out of our guest preachers the last two weeks.Paul Hahn from Mission to North Americais a great, dynamic guy who reminded us how to strive to be a flourishing church, and Jegar Chinnavan, the church planter,reminded us that we have, and can share with others, the glory of the one and only God. We'll be back preaching in Jeremiah this S...

"I'm back! I'm back in the saddle again!" the classic rock song plays in my head as I've entered the office or Harper Park this past week. In some ways it feels like I've only been gone for a month, as the old habits and routines have come back quickly. But it other ways, it does feel like I was gone the full 5 months of my sabbatical, and I definitely feel rested, spiritu...

This weekend is the British Open golf championship. I don't think that we have a ton of golf fans in the congregation, and I don't watch much golf, but I will be trying to watch a good bit of this one because I have played at the course they're competing on, Carnoustie in Scotland. Long story short: I had a week of golf with my father-in-law and brother--in-law back in m...

I'll never forget when I was in high school, going with my youth pastor, Dan, to visit one of the new kids who had visited our church (we'll call him Chris). As we were talking to Chris, Dan realized that he knew a bit about the Bible but perhaps didn't have a great understanding of how we're saved. So he got out a piece of paper and, after defining the words "faith" "wo...

I hope you're enjoying summer and our study of the book of James. We're in the middle of a lot of preaching by Ruling Elders and Associate Pastors, so enjoy the variety! James Murphy did a great job last week. As we read and preach through James, we need to keep reminding ourselves that James is not writing to tell people what to do to be saved, he's writing to describe ...

As May passes into June, we are looking at a lot of transition.Somehow Kath and I are old enough to have a son graduating from High School.Congrats to our Miles, along with Luke Adsit, Pierce Brenner, and Seth VanDerLinden as they graduate from High School!Congrats to Kathryn Christina Beaton, Annie Hunter, Sophia Clifton, Leah Bolzman, Nathaniel Mullins, Sam Rohrdanz...

Here are the Community Group Questions if your group meets between May 13-19....