The year was 1978 in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. A group of five teenage boys came together and created a band, New Edition, so named to indicate they were a new edition of the Jackson 5. The group reached the height of its popularity in the 1980s and...
Have you ever assessed your listening skills honestly? I recently did and realized I am often least attentive when I’m listening to those I love most. There are times when Chris or the kids mention a person or anecdote that I have no memory of previously hearing. It’s...
By Heather Mustain I remember my first missions trip like it was yesterday. I was a freshman at the University of Colorado and had recently come to know Christ. Eager to live into this new life, when the opportunity to spend my spring break in Jamaica serving at a...
By Charlie Fuller. It was on a cloudless night back in the 1960s. My dad took my older brother and me out to the backyard, and we craned our necks upward. The night sky was filled with stars. Bright stars. Dim stars. Clusters of stars. Individual stars. Stars...
It was the yearly church fishing trip, and it was quite exclusive. My uncle, the pastor, gave up on trying to teach me the right catfishing technique. As I started to cry, Rev. Tate took me aside, and she worked with me for hours. She first taught me that the best...
Each year, 150 to 200 of us bring ornaments to place on our large extended-family Christmas tree. There is one ornament my grandma puts on the tree every year: it’s a little ornament in the shape of underwear. It’s her reminder to us to always have on a fresh pair....
By Scott Spreier. Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born king; peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” I first remember singing this wonderful song as a youngster at our church Christmas pageant. (Or was it the school pageant? In...
By LeAnn Hampton. In a perfect world, Advent is a time for us to slow down and contemplate the mystery of God’s great love coming to be with us in the presence of Jesus. Do you live in that perfect world? We don’t. Advent at the Hampton house this past week meant...
Today we begin the season of Advent. One of my favorite worship elements during this season is the children processing down the aisle at the beginning of each service with the various pieces to build our nativity scene. Each week a new element is added and gradually,...
By Katie Murray. Today is Christ the King Sunday. A relatively recent addition to the liturgical calendar, it was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925. Pius wrote in his encyclical "Quas primas" (In the first), addressing the new feast day, that God “must reign in our...