Rumors are necessary for church life.  Fact is, we could never keep up with our friends and neighbors in church if someone else did not share information about them. .... Still... 

Jesus said, "I am among you as one who serves."  The word he uses is the word for deacon.  This is the pattern of Jesus' ministry.  The attitude is as important as the behavior.  

How many of us preachers feel overworked, stressed out? (I have never complained about being underpaid, though some colleagues are. In fact, I often say, “You can’t pay me enough for what I do, but I’m not complaining, because this pastoring business is more than a job; it’s a vocatio.”)

We’re quickly approaching the advent season when we celebrate Jesus “moving into the neighborhood.” These weeks would be a great time for small groups to find ways to be sent like Jesus into the neighborhoods  GoGGod

Do you expect your website visitors to know how to do Boolean searches? What about expecting them to search your site using the built-in search tool of your CMS? To help visitors search your site, you can use the power of the big search engines (Google and Bing) to provide custom search boxes for your site.

We've been busy adding new features. Well, more accurately, Chris - our web developer - has been busy adding new features.Maybe you've imagined a team of programmers behind the scenes making this Network website happen. Nope. It's just Chris working one day per week for The Network. But he's getting a lot done in that one day.

 As David Letterman used to say: “From the home office in Grand Rapids, Michigan; here is tonight’s top ten list.”  Well The Network has expanded our own “Top 10” section to now display:From the Community (that’s all of you!)

"We are all missionaries and our mission field is right out that door." I must confess some mixed feelings about that.

Is Reformation Day a thing of the past that doesn’t relate to those who haven’t grown up in the “Dutch church”?   Is it something that we should re-energize or let fade away?  If we stop celebrating this defining moment of the Reformation do we risk losing our historical roots which help ground us theologically?  What do you think?

Last week a colleague of mine sent me a link to this hilarious, yet serious, rap on the Heidelberg Catechism. This "cat rap" as I shall call it, is the curious result of a challenge by C.J. Mahaney to rapper Curtis Allen. I hadn't heard of either of these dudes (the term seems fitting), though I've read some good things by Kevin De Young, whose recent book on the catechism occasioned Mahaney's challenge. 

It is around this time of the year that the demands of community life add up.  From school to sports, social life to planning for upcoming events, from regular commitments to unscheduled sickness, the moments seem to press in on us.  There is a simple consequence.  In busy times I default to the urgent.  

This Sunday the song involved twirling, stomping, jumping, clapping, leaning, and praying — all motions that the kids chose for the song.