I have never been a huge fan of a major distinction between clergy and laity, pastor and parishioner, shepherd and sheep. There are certainly responsibilities I have by virtue of my occupation. And I certainly believe that I will give a certain type of higher accounting for my calling before God as a teacher and…
I have baptism on my mind, because we will be having a baptism service on Sunday immediately following our 10:30 service. I love baptisms! I love what they mean for the body of believers. We get the privilege of hearing about the way that God brought a person to faith and trust in Jesus Christ.…
I wrote a sermon this week on 2 Samuel 6:16-23. In this passage, King David of Israel is bringing the ark of the covenant up into Jerusalem effectively moving the center of Jewish worship to that city for the first time. And he is dancing and leaping and shouting praises to God while dressed down…
Over the years, I have been asked by people to give my five year and ten year plan for the church. This has never really sat well with me. The question honestly is a bit confusing to me for two particular reasons. First, I am unsure if they are asking out of concern for the…
I am rereading the book, ‘The Pastor’ by Eugene Peterson. The book serves as his memoirs and for some reason has spoken so deeply to my soul that I have read it or listened to it more than five times in the past few years. I am currently working through it slowly with our associate…
ReCAST Church was started 12 years ago, and it was right at the rise of the smartphone craze. I had my first iPhone around the start of the church, and I barely knew what to do with it. The App Store was new and amazing, and there were plenty of games to be found to…
I knew from the very beginning of ReCAST Church that I wanted there to be a plurality of leadership. More than just a generalized desire for plurality of leadership in the church, I was convinced from the Scriptures that having more than one person leading a church was what God desires. For this reason, we…
I once heard of a prominent pastor who aspires to preach the entire Bible within His lifetime. And he said in jest that if he has the opportunity, you can be sure that the Song of Songs will be the very last one. True to his word he has not yet preached through the Song…
There is a type of person that many Christians don’t want to believe exists. It may be that we have a strong sense of grace, a naive view of the world, or even a “think the best of people” attitude. But we need to wake up, because this type of person is only going to…
Last Sunday was our annual church picnic at the park. And the confluence of over a year of Covid and the reality that the church has grown in the past several months created a really exciting, joyful time. A couple of times during the afternoon, I stepped back and looked over the park and just…
ReCAST Church has grown and shifted and changed shape many times since we began in the Spring 12 years ago. When we had our first service with 14 adults and 21 children, there was no youth group in sight. We had two kids entering middle school that attended in those early days and I even…
God has blessed ReCAST Church with excellent staff over the years. David Schrock has been our youth director for a couple of years now. He has built up the programs for middle school (ReCAST 180) and high school (Gravity) to a place where we have a great volunteer base in both programs and a fun…
