Thursday, February 25, 2010
Don't know if you saw the flap over the TV news reporter who wondered aloud on the air, "What happened to the vice president?" His forehead looked "bruised" to her. She speculated that something might have happened to him at the Olympics where he had visited the day before.
While the vice president was speaking, the reporter was apparently clued in by someone on the set that those were ashes from an Ash Wednesday service. Red-faced, she set the viewers straight and even noted that she should have known better since she is Catholic herself.
I dare say that the day before, no reporter would have misunderstood someone wearing Mardi Gras beads.
But ashes?
Sadly, I think it’s a sign of the times.
There are pieces of the Christian ...
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Posted by Richard Dunagin
Keywords: lent, ash wednesday, mardi gras
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Our true expectations are revealed by our focus. If you focus on the negative, you are likely to find more bad than good in life. But if you center your life by faith on God's power, you're more likely to discover God's goodness infusing your life.
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Posted by Richard Dunagin
Keywords: expectation, psychologist, student, teacher, quiet
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
After Six Weeks in the sanctuary, the Elephant in the Room has left. Several of you gave me suggestions on what to do with him after the series was over ... very creative!
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Posted by Richard Dunagin
Keywords: elephant left room commitments prayer presence gifts service witness
Monday, November 2, 2009
There are three reasons we use stage props for worship.
(1) Simplest is that our worship space is pretty sterile on its own. That is, we worship in essentially a school auditorium, not a warm sanctuary. Things that add color or interest are a welcome relief for those who don't want to feel like they're in a school. (Indeed, even expensive sanctuaries add flowers and other plants, as well as stained glass and candles and woodwork purely for decoration.) We can’t make things more permanent in our worship space because in fact the room is used as a school auditorium each week as well as a worship space, complete with school assemblies, plays, musicals, etc., so the space has to remain fl...
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Posted by Richard Dunagin
Keywords: props, worship, tv, elephant
Thursday, October 29, 2009
This may be a first. On our new website, I have a blog. Duh ... obviously you know that ‘cuz you’re here.
The “first” I’m referring to is that in launching the blog, there are already two comments — two comments before I’ve posted anything. In other words, you’re already way ahead of me. But you probably knew that already!
I hope to post something meaningful in this space – and often things that are perhaps a bit more “personal” than I would normally deem appropriate for a typical Sunday morning sermon. So it is perhaps altogether appropriate that my first post is to apologize for not getting around to putting something in this spot ...
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Posted by Richard Dunagin
Keywords: first
