Life In Greencastle

[feel free to join Anna and me after church  this Sunday  as we talk about David Zahl's book  Seculosity .  Even if you haven't read the book, you're welcome to join us.  It will give us the chance to talk about what areas of life we feel like we have to win in order to have enough, whether that be parenting, work, politics, leisure, sports.] If you know our family, you know our home is truly a 'living' home.  Just  yesterday , another shipment of baby chickens arrived at our local post office, and Anna and Elise were outside prepping the brooder area for them, including refreshing the bedding and setting up the heat lamp.  So, you shouldn't be surprised to know that someone in our house has recently begun to dabble in the art of home-brewed kombucha. Before you report us to any authorities, please allow me to explain more what kombucha is.  Those of you connected with the world of health and wholeness know that kombucha is a type of fer...

You may have heard that we are going to be getting together in our family groups again this August and September, and I wanted to share more about our hopes for doing so as an elder team. First of all, let me explain what our family groups are.  Since we strive to be "a welcoming family of believers" as a church, one concrete way we do that is to make sure that every elder is paired with a deacon and together they are called to care for a "family group" - a small gathering of families and individuals in our church, usually between ten to sixteen people.  We've had the idea of family gruops for several years now, and we used our family groups for similar conversations back in 2013.  I'd like to use our groups again to begin good dialogue among us - helping us talk about where and how we see God at work in our congregation, as well as to start talking about where we sense God leading us. I'll be sending out a letter this week that will show you our dif...

taking time daily to connect with God through prayer, reading God's Word & reflection is the best way to create a strong foundation for our lives In 1978, Walter Wangerin released  The Book of the Dun Cow , and it's still hard to classify what exactly he wrote.  Part fable, part children's book, and part Christian wisdom literature, the story opens with a proud, dignified rooster named Chauntecleer stepping forth to awaken the day with his morning call.   Wangerin goes out of his way to make Chauntecleer's initial crow a truly spectacular event, and for good reason.  This basic, daily, orderly exercise is more than just putting on a show.  Chauntecleer's daily crow is what keeps evil at bay, provides structure to the day, and calls forth community amongst the other animals.  In other words, Chauntecleer's crow is a metaphor for an essential part of our spiritual lives. To Wangerin, Chauntecleer's daily act of a good morning ...

Ferris wheels can show us a lot, and not just because of the views high in the sky.  If you're taking a trip up to the State Fair anytime soon, take a moment to watch where all the action is.  The focus from the crowds will inevitably be on the passenger cars.  Friends, lovers, and family members will start pairing up in the line waiting to get on, trying to figure out which car they'll get into.  And those on the ground will point up into the air, tracking the cars as they make their great arc through the air.  Each car will bring its own experience, as the passengers take in the sights of the world from high above, looking past the food trucks and animal barns.  They'll look out over 38th Street and to the skyline of Indy to the south.  They'll gasp and take a deep breath of joy or nervousness at the top of the wheel. It can be only natural, then, to think of the passenger cars as what is most important.  It looks like that i...