For the first time in years I have kept a paper calendar (more as a diary) consistently. I let it be a place I recorded what I did rather than things to do. So, I took a look back.
Read moreWe don’t like history… we like nostalgia
The moral convulsion
“The period between the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown in the summer of 2014 and the election of November 2020 represents the latest in a series of great transitional moments in American history. Whether we emerge from this transition stronger depends on our ability, from the bottom up and the top down, to build organizations targeted at our many problems. If history is any guide, this will be the work not of months, but of one or two decades.” — David Brooks
Read moreBuild on and learn from history… don’t ignore it or destroy it
Pope Francis released a new encyclical this weekend and it’s going to be pulled apart so the “divisive” stuff gets highlighted. Early news articles focus on his statements regarding the death penalty. But, there is a lot of other reading to take in and not miss.
Read moreHistory lessons on racism from Bob the Tomato
Remember Veggie Tales? One of the creators, Phil Vischer, has continued to do a lot of fun stuff. On his somewhat more serious side he has a podcast I never miss called The Holy Post. This is a video where he quickly goes over history and why racism is still a problem.
Losing giants of the faith
I grew up Pentecostal. When I was just starting into ministry I was introduced to the work of Edith Blumhofer and enjoyed her work on Assemblies of God history.
Years later I was able to meet Vinson Synan a couple of times. He was another great historian and was a bridge from eyewitnesses of the Azusa Street Revival to the current time.
Both of these great voices of Pentecostal history have passed away recently. I am thankful their work lives on.
Another podcast is finally up
I have been pondering the issues of race and women in ministry lately and have started to podcast again. Life got a bit busy in January, so here is my second episode. You can click on the Podcast button on the side menu of this page as well to see all episodes as they come out.
I also apologize because I have been fighting allergies and my voice is very scratchy in this episode.
It is my hope you listen, learn, and interact with me on these issues.
Soul wrenching
We finished a long three week trip as we visited family. It was a great trip filled with friends, family, and conversation. There was one last stop I needed to make before we made it home.
Read moreThoughts on Independence Day, Part 2
Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. — GEORGE WASHINGTON
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. — GEORGE WASHINGTON
The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. — JOHN ADAMS
Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things. — ALEXANDER HAMILTON
A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one. — ALEXANDER HAMILTON (NOTE: I really don’t like those “TWEET THIS” features, but in this case… TWEET THIS QUOTE!!!!)
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them. — THOMAS JEFFERSON
“The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.” ― David McCullough, 1776
Founding documents
We are getting ready to sell our church building and have had people doing some clean out projects. I am thankful some folks going through some old files recognized some buried treasure. In the old boxes were the first Constitution and ByLaws of our church and this announcement calling for the first official meeting of the church to set up as an official organization.
When our church was founded it was as Peoples Church in 1943. It then became Columbia Heights Assembly of God and we now operate as Heights Church. We are shifting buildings, but we are still on “mission.”
It’s gratifying to see the goodness of the Lord all through this church’s history. It is a powerful reminder to pray for fresh anointing as we move ahead!
