To my Sisters, Last September I began a journey that I admit had it moments! Nancy Miszczenski and I began a journey together and enrolled in Empower. Empower is a 9 month program of classes at Nyack College. There is a class about conflict, Old Testament, New Testament, Spiritual Gifts, prayer and so many more really great subjects. I never once walked out of a class...

As we come out from under the board of the CMA, we have a few choices to make in how we replace that board: an elder board, a majority elder board, and a two-board system where the pastoral and the governing aspects are separated. I kept pushing this off until I had peace about which one. Now I have peace. We have decided to go with -- primarily based on the people in o...

Last Sunday I did a verbal version of this, which you can listen to it here. For the last couple months we've talked about how we are adding some organization to some things in our church. I want to summarize five of these different organizing endeavors, but first..... Just to reiterate - the point of organization is to create more movement. Movement creates the need ...

About a year ago I wrote a blog post about this topic which you can read here: Are We Moving Into Another Building? We have now put a search for a building on "active" mode. But what are we looking for? In many ways, we still have a lot to figure out. About a month ago Stan Nancy Miszczenski visited a new church plant that was launching out of a leased retail space. It...

When I first got into church-planting back in 2009, there was a lot of talk, trainings, and workshops centered around how Sunday morning gatherings had been too overly-emphasized in past decades. I was taught and reminded of the other important vehicles for community and discipleshi So when we started True Life, I talked about Sunday mornings sort of in the negative: "o...

Two weeks ago - in Easter - part 2 -- I briefly mentioned the 3 P's of Mission. 3 Aspects of Mission that we as a church and each of us individually should be engaged in. CAN be engaged in. Here they are spelled out in a bit more detail: PRESENCEThis is about simply BEING the presence of Jesus, letting the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit ooze out of us onto those around ...

The following is an excerpt from a book I'm reading called "Winning on Purpose" by John Edmund Kaiser. I thought it went along well with the thrust of our sermon from this past Sunday (Resurrection - Part 2: Power to Go). _______ The first question for any band of believers who cares about their collective destiny is this: Why does our congregation exist? Before we look ...

What will 2017 at True Life be about? What will improve? What will change? What are some goals? Below is what I believe to be some things to address, tackle, plan for. In my time as a pastor, I have often been wrong about what I thought I heard from God, so I pray God confirms some of these things through our community. In fact, many of the things below are because of th...

There are a lot of things I could write about this, but I'll pick four things. Four things that I pray God does. Four things that each of us have a part to play in. Sunday Mornings are a time to: 1. Ignite or Re-ignite Our Awe of God If we are not driven by awe of God, we will be driven by awe of something else.regardless of how much we know the bible. So our hope ...

TRUE LIFEThis is about True LifeNot the life you can seeBut the life that is buriedDeep inside of meIt's a morning of freedomFor you and for meBecause today I am willingTo allow into-me-seeMy eye is on JesusMy strength and my sheildI trust His protectionSo today I can yieldIf I think of your reactionI will freeze in my tracksBut if I think of our freedomI will not hold any...