Sermon Archives

Dan Schrock
March 18, 2018

Talking about LGBTQ Inclusion

This afternoon from 4:00 to 6:00, our congregation begins a formal process to explore the possibility of becoming a more welcoming church to the LGBTQ community. The Spiritual Leadership Team, or SLT, is planning 3 of these Sunday afternoon conversations, one today, one in April, and one in May. No one on the SLT knows […]

February 18, 2018

Being Alone with the Alone

Most of us go into the wilderness at some point in our lives, but there are at least two kinds of wilderness experiences. The first kind of wilderness experience is the one most of us do not want. We get divorced, and the divorce is difficult. Our best friend dies, and we mourn for several […]

January 28, 2018

A Visual Discipleship

On September 19, 2016, our former pastor, Marilyn Rudy-Froese, began a three-and-a-half month sabbatical. None of us knew it at the time, but that day marked the beginning of seven pastoral transitions in our congregation. The first pastoral transition was receiving Ron Guengerich, who worked as a substitute pastor while Marilyn was on sabbatical. When […]

December 31, 2017

What Makes a Good Life?

What makes for a good life? You can find one vision of a good life at a blog called mrmoneymustache.com. Since 2011 the host of this website, who calls himself Mr. Money Mustache, has been handing out opinioned arguments on how people ought to be managing their money and their work lives. His basic point […]

December 3, 2017

Enthusiastic Collaborators

What do you think a holy person looks like? When you get to know someone, what clues suggest to you that this person may be holy? Do you know holiness when you see it? Consider Tom. Almost every Sunday, Tom came to church all alone and sat in the same chair. He was a quiet […]

November 12, 2017

Uncomfortable Questions

Jesus is the answer. That’s a message you might hear from other Christians, read on bumper stickers, or see on billboards. At least one contemporary Christian singer and songwriter, Andraé Crouch, wrote a song called “Jesus is the Answer.” A couple of years ago, Thomas Nelson publishers released a book called The Jesus Answer Book. […]

October 1, 2017

A Kerfuffle over Skin Color

When you imagine what biblical people looked like, what skin color do they have? For instance, what skin color do you imagine David and Solomon had? Or Ruth and Naomi? When you read the letters of Romans, Galatians, and Philippians, what skin color do you suppose Paul had? When you meditate on the stories about […]

August 6, 2017

Loss

In February 2016, Laura Kelly Fanucci gave birth to identical twin daughters, named Margaret and Abigail. Both babies were premature, both had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and both died in their parents’ arms within two days. Laura, the mother, was well-acquainted with loss and grief long before the death of her twin daughters. When she was […]

June 25, 2017

An Act of Resistance

When I was a child, we sang a song about Zacchaeus in Sunday school. Perhaps you know the song: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. . . .” One detail about that song puzzled me. Why did the songwriter emphasize Zacchaeus’s height? Yes, I know Luke 19 says […]

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