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Join us September – May!
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“A little something for everyone and a lot of Jesus” is how we worship. Come as you are and experience our energetic, spirit filled service with moving messages and music ranging from contemporary Christian to traditional hymns.
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We teach and preach a Jesus that is real and authentic … Taken straight from the gospels with no biased or politics attached. Whether you’re an active participant or a “fly on the wall” listener, we have something for you.
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B I G I D E A
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).
Pastor Bob
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Recent Posts
06
Jun '23
SOCIAL MEDIA SAMPLINGS FROM TWITTER
06
Jun '23
Curiously, the social media platform known as “Twitter” has become a source of inspiration and spiritual growth. That’s because I seek out the spiritual voices on Twitter that I need to hear. And, I filter out all the rest. Here is just a sampling of some of my favorite spiritual tweets recently. See what you think:
- Boston Celtics pro basketball coach commenting on how to thank God even when you’re not winning!
“You always hear people give glory to God and say ‘thank you’ when they’re holding a trophy, but you never really hear it in times like this.”
- This is a tweet from Chad Bird, whom I do not know. But I love what he says here.
“A little bit of vulnerability among Christians would go a long way toward giving a witness to the world about what the church is really here for.
Jesus didn’t found a gym where we can go and flex our biblical biceps in front of mirrors so everyone see how hard we’ve worked at being holy. He didn’t create a virtual spiritual reality where we can gather together with like-minded virtual reality users and talk about things of virtually little importance.
Christ founded a church, which is a little bit hospital, a little bit mental ward, and a little bit weekly reunion of sinners who’ve made a mess of their lives. It’s a place where self-proclaimed righteous people who have it all together will be bored because there’s nothing for them there. Church is for real sinners who really sin with other real sinners, for here they find the Friend of Sinners, Jesus the Christ.”
- This person named Rich Raho always lifts up things said by Pope Francis. I thought this one fitting for VSCC right now.
“A Church weighed down by structures, bureaucracy, formalism – said the Pope – will struggle to walk through history, in step with the Spirit, meeting the men and women of our time.”
- Greg Laurie is a well-known pastor who thinks he knows more than he does. This is a common trait among pastors – especially the well-known ones, and the ones who want to be well-known. Why is it important for religious leaders to think they have to know the answer to heaven and hell questions? The truth is – we don’t know! Not even Greg Laurie.
“How can a God of love send someone to Hell? My answer…” And then Greg is on a video explaining how he knows as much as God does …
- Another good Pope Francis quote from Rich Raho.
Pope Francis: “The commandments that God has given us must not be locked up in the airless vaults of formal observance; otherwise, we are limited to an exterior, detached religiosity, servants of ‘God the Master’ rather than children of ‘God the Father.”
- From the Twitter account called @StoicTeacher comes these 10 quotes from a spiritual giant named Rumi who was a Sufi mystic poet from the 13th
If you feel empty in life, meditate on these 10 soul touching quotes by Rumi:
- You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop.
- Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.
- What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.
- Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.
- Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.
- The wound is the place where the light enters you.
- This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.
- Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
- Love is the bridge between you and everything.
- I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.
7) James Martin, SJ, a progressive Roman Catholic priest, posted this:
Pope Francis’ forceful comments today on the decriminalization homosexuality, during his in-flight press conference: “God loves them. God accompanies them.”
8) Rich Raho
Pope Francis to South Sudan Bishops: “Our first duty is not to be a Church that is perfectly organized, but a Church that, in the name of Christ, stands in the midst of people’s troubled lives, a Church that is willing to dirty its hands for people.”
9) If only religious people actually lived according to their covenants. Could you live by this covenant?
10) Matthew Zurcher SJ offers this quote from my all-time favorite public theologian, Cornell West.
“Whatever forms of intellectual critique, that’s fine with me. But in the end, I know where I stand. I stand on a love that lifted me, I stand at the bottom of a cross––of a blood––that transformed me so that I could try to love my crooked neighbor with my crooked heart.”
11) BONUS! From the late great Bible scholar, Charles Spurgeon: (I love this one!)
“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
— Charles Spurgeon
Blessings on your journeys thru social media,
Pastor Bob <><
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06
Jun '23
BLESSED YOUTH: DON’T JUST PRAY – DO SOMETHING!
06
Jun '23
In her new book, “Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence About Mental Health with Children & Teens,” Sara Griffith Lund offers all of us real tangible things we can do to help our “Blessed Youth.” There’s something for everybody here, so pay attention!
5 THINGS WE CAN DO TO HELP OUR BLESSED YOUTH
- Help youth develop positive relationships with caring adults outside the home. This is where faith families come in. Even though parents want to be the only ones to meet every need of their children, they can’t. When youth develop trusting & meaningful relationships with other adults, “it gives them a better chance at trusting the world, at knowing some of its goodness, at believing they are worth something, at knowing they matter.”
One thing families of faith can do is invite church members to think of themselves as mentors to youth. Even casual conversations that happen on a Sunday morning can begin to plant the seed of trust in a young person or child.
- Help youth play the soundtrack, “I am loved.” We all need to hear the words, “I love you,” but especially youth and kids. Be sure to tell them they are loved no matter what and that such love is not based on grades, victories, or starring roles in the school play. Sometimes youth and children can become very hard to love. But we must! And we must be sure to tell them that we love them! We need to tell them that we love them no matter what, and always. Here’s a good quote to use: “I love you, and there is nothing you could ever do to change that.” This is the most important thing we could ever say to them.
One thing faith families can do is to share messages of unconditional love throughout the congregation: “You are loved no matter what.”
- Help youth expand their worldview. Kids normally think the world revolves around them. And today’s culture, including churches unfortunately, encourages youth to be self-absorbed and to only present their best self to the world. Adults can help them understand that reality extends far beyond them and their circle of social media influence. Our youth need to be stretched beyond their bubble.
One thing faith families can do is support diversity initiatives in the community and promote dialogue on important topics from differing points of view.
- Help our youth hope for the future. Youth and children need to be taught that the worst things in life are never the last things. Sometimes life hurts, relationships break up, jobs are lost, loved ones die, and sometimes the money is not there. They also need to know that adults don’t always have the answers and we can’t fix everything, or even make some things better. But … we can be present. We can walk with them through awful times and eventually experience the good and true thing that waits on the other side.
One thing faith families can do is to encourage our congregation to be “peddlers of hope,” inviting other families and youth to join together to spread the hope. No agenda. No church. No strings attached.
- Help our youth find time to act like children. Sometimes it’s hard for youth to still enjoy being young and childish. We can help by creating opportunities for play, laughs, messiness, screw-ups, and … fun! Hep then hold on to, and develop, the imagination and wonder of life itself. And by the way, play is always good for mental health, no matter what the age.
One thing a family of faith can do is figure out how to use the church grounds and facility for fun activities for the community. Also, especially for children, play is the most important part of their day. Let the kids and youth be “the boss” of playtime!
<>< <>< <><
Continued blessings on your spiritual walk …. Peace be with you,
Pastor Bob <><
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Food for the Soul: 3 Poems of Marie Howe
Food for the Soul: 3 Poems of Marie Howe
If you’ve ever wondered how poetry can speak to the Gospel realities of our lives, Marie Howe shows us how. (No pun intended!). Below are 3 of my favorite Marie Howe poems that all speak, in one way or another, to my daily walk with Jesus.
Poem #1 is “The Star Market.” Think of Jesus walking into Walmart and discovering all the poor, lame, demonized, confused and lost souls that he has come to save. I dedicate this one to Barry Williams, who is our own Walmart missionary. Barry never fails to see the nameless folks of the Gospels every time he enters Walmart. And that’s when he becomes Jesus’s hands and feet. Like Jesus, Walmart is his mission field.
The Star Market
The people Jesus loved were shopping at The Star Market yesterday. An old lead-colored man standing next to me at the checkout breathed so heavily I had to step back a few steps.
Even after his bags were packed he still stood, breathing hard and hawking into his hand. The feeble, the lame, I could hardly look at them: shuffling through the aisles, they smelled of decay, as if The Star Market
had declared a day off for the able-bodied, and I had wandered in with the rest of them: sour milk, bad meat: looking for cereal and spring water.
Jesus must have been a saint, I said to myself, looking for my lost car in the parking lot later, stumbling among the people who would have been lowered into rooms by ropes, who would have crept
out of caves or crawled from the corners of public baths on their hands and knees begging for mercy.
If I touch the hem of his garment, one woman thought, I will be healed. Could I bear the look on his face when he wheels around?
Poem #2 is “Prayer.” For me, this poem speaks to the bitter reality in my life of trying to find sufficient time for God in my daily plans. As the poem teaches us, our plans never stop or have a pause. All the time, God is right there … waiting … for us to find the time for God. Which, by now, is gone again.
Prayer
Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important calls for my attention – the drugstore, the beauty products, the luggage
I need to buy for the trip. Even now I can hardly sit here
among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside already screeching and banging.
The mystics say you are as close as my own breath. Why do I flee from you?
My days and nights pour through me like complaints and become a story I forgot to tell.
Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.
Poem #3 is “Courage.” My take from this poem is that the four-and-a-half-year-old boy knows so much more than the dad with the three-and-a-half-year-old girl. What is Parasite 2? What should I be afraid of? If I don’t even know that … how can I ever have the courage to face the world without fear? Am I supposed to be afraid of things I don’t even know about?
Courage
I’m helping my little girl slide down the pole next to the slide-and-bridge construction when a little boy walks up and says, Why are you helping that young person do something that’s too dangerous for her?
Why do you say it’s too dangerous? I say And he says, She’s too young. And I say, How old are you? And he says, four and a half. And I say, Well, she’s three and a half
When he comes back a little later he says, I’ll show you how it’s done, and climbs up the ladder and slides down the pole. Then he says, She’s too young. What happens is that when you get older you get braver. Then he pauses and looks at me, Are you brave?
Brave? I say, looking at him. Are you afraid of Parasite 2? he says. And I say, What’s Parasite 2? And he walks away slowly, shaking his head.
(All 3 poems taken from “The Kingdom of Ordinary Time” by Marie Howe)
Have a blessed Middle Sabbath ….
Pastor Bob <><
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