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The Great Church Search: Prayerfully Seeking vs. Selfishly Shopping

Church Shopping It sounds like such a consumerist mentality to finding a new church home. Yet, I myself have been guilty of casually referring to this season of church visiting as such. What other term is there to eloquently describe the season where one {or a family} is intentionally looking for a church to call their home? When we were preparing to relocate our family we were put in the position of needing to find a [...]

By |June 19th, 2014|Blog, Community, Faith, Family Discipleship|2 Comments

Hope for the Lonesome Woman

"Why, my soul, are you downcast?    Why so disturbed within me?Put your hope in God,    for I will yet praise him,    my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11, NIVAs we have been talking about Authentic Community, The Lonesome Mother, and The Legacy of the Lonesome Mother, I have had on mind to talk about hope. I mentioned in the last post on this topic, that I in no way advocate finding our "fulfillment" for loneliness in other people. [...]

By |January 8th, 2013|Blog, Community|0 Comments

The Legacy of the Lonesome Mother

If you haven't read the post on The Lonesome Mother in the series we are doing on community here this month, I highly encourage you to take a moment to do so. The Legacy of the Lonesome Mother We all know the saying, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Isn't safe to say that if a mother is struggling with feeling alone, that one or some of her children may also be? As we [...]

By |December 7th, 2012|Blog, Community, Friendship|3 Comments

The Lonesome Mother

Lonesome and forlorn she stood at the counter elbow deep in warm dish water, on the verge of weeping. Not certain as to what was bothering her she prayed for the Lord to meet her.  After praying, she felt a little better... she had a little more self-control over her overwhelming urge to cry. Later in the day she rested as the little ones napped, she woke before they did and disciplined herself to read [...]

By |December 4th, 2012|Blog, Community|2 Comments

Authentic Community

~Authentic Community~If we have real fellowship...The past few posts I have shared about community have been mainly positive, but today... in all honesty I want to share the other side of the coin.Community is not always unconditional love, worshipful fellowship, prayer, laughing and celebration... no real community is REAL.Real Community is authentic and because it involves humans--it also involves a whole lot of sin. Even as Christians we struggle with sin. Just because we have [...]

By |November 27th, 2012|Blog, Community|4 Comments

Proclaiming Amen

Proclaiming Amen Together! One aspect of community that I believe is largely under-utilized is the ability to come together in prayer. It is much more comfortable for "most" to have a personal intimate prayer time with the Lord, but when it comes to truly opening up with those honest authentic prayer requests in front of others that is when "authenticity" is challenged. What better way to truly know what is on the heart of your [...]

By |November 18th, 2012|Blog, Community|1 Comment