Tuesday Notes

Dear First Pres Family, On Sunday I couldn’t resist sharing what I experienced to be a seasonally delightful cartoon. It briefly, and yes, tangentially, kicked off my sermon; and yes, now my Tuesday Notes. It was a four quadrant cartoon: a picture of Humpty Dumpty in a coat walking through…

Church Family, The Gospel is a message that I need to hear.  Over and over again, until it sinks into my head, heart, prayers, and soul; I need to be reminded of the love of God for me in Jesus Christ. I need to be reminded and convinced that God’s…

Church Family, The new Sunday morning Adult Education class at 9:00 is off to a great start. I was bummed I could not be in two places at once on Sunday. As I was preaching at 9:00 (if you missed the sermon you can listen to it here), a great…

Church Family, Sunday was a very full and vibrant day of ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn. From the string quartet in the Classic Service to the powerful time of confession and repentance in the Modern Service, to the 2 great Adult Education classes, to the conclusion of…

Church Family, On Sunday morning at First Pres we studied what I find to be one of the most powerful and compelling teachings of Jesus. The thought crossed my mind that, rather than preaching a sermon, perhaps I should have just read the passage from Luke 15 and sat down….

Dear First Pres Family, My youngest daughter, Abigail, is now a senior in college. Just the other day… she was in third grade… and she wrote a really good story. She created it drawing on things that were interesting to her. Things like basketball and Michael Jordan. She also wrote…

Church Family, Who is the greatest person you know? You can’t answer “Jesus” on this one, even though that’s probably the right answer. Seriously, if I were to ask you to name the greatest person you know or the greatest public figure in your mind, who would you name?  What…

Church Family, It is “back to school” season in America. Facebook is full of pictures of young people moving into college dorms, the stores are populated with school supplies, the practice fields are once again full of hollering coaches and First Pres has returned to our regular worship schedule of…

Dear Church Family, On Sunday we concluded our sermon series on the book of James. If you missed it you can listen to it here. In James chapter five he warns the church in Jerusalem and to us, the church of today, against the pitfalls of wealth. Tim Keller, pastor…

Church Family, In 2013, TV news anchor AJ Clemente had a rough first (and last) day on the job.  Before the start of the evening bulletin on KFYR in Bismarck, North Dakota, AJ’s nerves and anxiety manifested in a string of swear words under his breath.  Failing to notice that…