Involvement Minister

A couple of weeks ago, I shared two opportunities that we had to connect with people in our surrounding communities. We had booths representing the church at “Hay Hoover” and Pelham’s “Fall Fun Day.” By taking...

I have this hat that my dad brought back to me from a business trip to Atlanta when I was 9 or 10 years old. You can see that I’ve worn it a lot. In fact, I wore it to just about everywhere I went during the summer...

Several years ago, there was story shared about a woman from Connecticut whose power had gone out during a storm. She left her house to go to a local hardware store to purchase some flashlights, but the store was...

I attended the New Day Conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the end of last week with a small group from Riverchase. It was a good conference and I left encouraged about the opportunities we have to fulfill the...

You Are What You Eat You’ve heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” Simply defined, it means that you should eat healthy if you want to be healthy. This phrase can trace its roots back to the early 1800’s. It came...

Above the piano in our house is a large wood sign with the phrase, “it is well with my soul” on it. Kimberly and I purchased it during a season of our life together where we were not completely sure what the future had...

I would like to share with you an excerpt from a poem written by Ann Weems. The beginning of it describes a four-year-old child that brought with her a balloon to church one Sunday. When her Sunday school teacher saw...

When my grandmother, who we called Granny, passed away several years ago, my mom and her siblings asked me to speak at her funeral. My mom had shared Granny’s Bible with me, so I began looking through it for any...

I’m not much of an optimist. I’m not really a pessimist either. I consider myself more of a realist. Rather than seeing my cup as half empty or half full, I just see an 8 ounce cup that has about 4 ounces left in it. I...

A study commissioned in 2017 by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy a few years back suggested that seven percent of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from chocolate/brown cows. If you do the math, that...

We were discussing King Uzziah last week in the Homebuilders’ class. 2 Chronicles 26 tells us King Uzziah was appointed king when he was only 16 years old and that he “sought the Lord” (vs. 5) for a period following...

One of my goals in the first few months of being here is to connect with those who are involved with organizing or leading our various projects, events, and ministries. I have been able to visit with several of you...

This is a question I have been asked more than once since we’ve arrived here. I am going to have an opportunity to present to the congregation the vision I have for this work later, but for now, I do want to share a...

Mark 8: 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise...

Mark 8: 15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod”. (ESV)   Jesus was trying to teach His disciples about the influence of bad people in our lives....

Mark 6: 22 and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he...

In the first six chapters of the book of Mark, we find Jesus healing people, casting out demons and calming the storm. The responses from the people vary tremendously. When Jesus healed a demon-possessed man, the...

Mark 4: 40 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (NASB) I don’t watch scary movies. I still remember the first scary movie I watched as a child. That movie was “Dracula,” and the...

Mark 3:13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out...

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (ESV) I often put music in the background when I’m doing some work; sometimes I pay attention to the words, but...

Luke 11: 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness....

Proverbs 18:19 "A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle." As you read Jesus’ interactions with the people around Him, you’ll notice He was careful to not...

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (ESV) It was so much fun to make paper airplanes as a child. When I learned to do paper...

John 13:36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” 37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my...

Jonah was a prophet of God who loved preaching to God’s people. When God asked him to go preach to a group of people he didn’t like, Jonah refused to go. Jonah decided that preaching to Nineveh and preaching repentance...

“Luke13:34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and...

Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You, who pardons wrongdoing and passes over a rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 19 He will again take pity...

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among...

Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (ESV)  I find it...

Habakkuk was prophesying in the midst of a corrupted generation. The people of Israel thought that they were doing God’s will, but they were only departing from God further and further by their actions. The book of...

 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In the gale and the storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet." Nahum 1: 3 Some people do not...

Matthew 28:18-20 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son...

Psalm 34: 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. How long do I look for something important? For example, if we lose a quarter, or maybe a dollar bill, do we look for it until we...

Isaiah 62: 6-7 On your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who profess the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes...

Isaiah 62:12 They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought after, the City No Longer Deserted. (NIV) 1 Corinthians 1: 2 I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who...