In January Reed and Adam were dismissed from their responsibilities on staff. I touched on some of the issues in an earlier blog and I will give you more of the details now that the “dust has settled” a bit. The reasons they were hired two-fold: 1) I wanted to give young...
When I reflect on my responsibilities as pastor they may be able to be summarized by Spiritual Maturity and Church Health. Those words form two of my new prayer cards for 2021. God has been speaking to me through events over this past year to bring these into sharper focus than ever...
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Would you like to read the bible through the year or maybe the New Testament? Check out The Bible Recap (http://www.thebiblerecap.com/start). It is a reading plan with an accompanying podcast that I have followed throughout 2020. I thought you might enjoy doing it in 2021. If...
Ruining Christmas? I was watching one of the many Christmas movies on TV and in one scene the comment was made, “OH NO! WE RUINED CHRISTMAS!” My mind wandered for a moment and I asked myself the question, “Is it possible to ‘ruin’ Christmas?” Before we deny...
Passing of Gordon Neevel Gordon and Audrey Neevel are the parents of Kristal Bartelds and Julie Pedersen and have had a second home down in Sierra Vista for quite some time now and have been a blessing to us in so many ways! Gordon recently passed away on November 27 following a brief and...
ELDER RECOMMENDATIONS Each year, we look to add a couple of men to the eldership as others rotate off after serving their three year terms. The process began by seeking recommendations from the congregation. The names you submitted were prayed over by the elders, several were invited for...
Happy Thanksgiving! I am so grateful we get to “be the church” in such a time as this! We need each other and our community needs us! Not all thanksgiving is “happy” but I find that often feelings follow actions and the act of giving thanks can lift the spirits when we...
Trunk or Treat Explained Back when we noticed that Halloween would fall on Saturday, we made a decision to cancel our Saturday gatherings, not for Halloween but to serve our community. This ran counter to how I viewed Halloween for most of the years we were raising our kids...
Pastor Randy provides some updates on building our team through the elder board and the Creative Arts Director. He encourages us to finish the year strong in our Bible reading by inviting us to read the New Testament with him through the end of the year. He also offers a few other updates coming...
CATCHING UP Since it’s been awhile since I’ve written, there is a lot to catch up with. “Thank you Thunder Mountain!” Lori’s Place. Did you know that the conviction rate for sex crimes soars from 20% to over 90% when Lori’s Place gets involved? When Mike and...