Pastor’s Blog
Three Things That Keep The Church Vibrant
Central celebrated its 121st birthday this week. Our church was founded in 1897, the same year as the Boston Marathon. When Central first began meeting for services, you could buy a ladies’ blazer at Bloomingdale’s for less than $3. In 1897, William McKinley was...
Kids Have The Best Responses To Worship
Our parents at Central are great about engaging their children in worship. A lot of times on the way home from church they’ll ask their children what they learned that day, and sometimes they’ll share their children’s responses with me. Back in January we spent three...
This Above All: A Letter to My Son on His First Birthday
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” -Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3 Dear Hudson, Because of you, this has been the best year of my life. On your first birthday, here are a...
Watching The World Cup, Thinking About Church
The World Cup is in full swing, and even though the USA didn’t make it this year, I’m still watching. As teams and fan bases from all over the world pour their hearts out on the world stage, “the church” could stand to learn a few things from them. Passion Matters The...
A Prayer For The Fourth of July
As we pause next week to celebrate our country, I am grateful for the unique promise of liberty granted to Americans and for those who have dedicated their lives to upholding it over the centuries. But I’m also struck this year by the work required of each generation...
5 MORE Things You Can “BE” This Summer
We’re working through the Sermon on the Mount together at Central this summer. Last week I shared five things you can "be" this summer based on the last five weeks of worship. We have five more weeks to go, so here’s a preview of what’s coming up over the next several...
5 Things You Can BE This Summer
We're working through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) together at Central this summer. Jesus' sermon is the most important body of ethical teaching in history of the world. It re-defines how we are to relate to one another and clarifies how we are to...
A Beginner’s Guide to Being Awesome
Many of you have asked for a written version of Sunday’s sermon. Here it is. What I didn’t tell you beforehand—although many of you have figured this out—is that Sunday’s message was a loose paraphrase of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, slightly stylized to sound a bit...
Five Things I’m Grateful For This Mother’s Day
5 Things I'm Grateful For This Mother's Day Mother's Day is tomorrow. Here are five things I'm grateful for. MY WIFE This is her first Mother’s Day—kind of. We celebrated last year, but Hudson wasn’t born until July. I’ve never seen anyone love anything as much as...
The Silence of Holy Saturday
What do you say about the Saturday before Easter? To the first followers of Jesus it was supposed to be Sabbath, a day of rest, and Shalom, a day of peace. Sometimes rest and peace come with stillness and silence. But the stillness and silence of Holy Saturday are...