Out of the Mouths of Babes
Posted December 4, 2024 by Linda Bedford in Advent
In Psalms 8:2, God says strength comes from the mouths of babes and sucklings. Some say children can understand the realities of God’s Kingdom better than the learned, and that their praise is perfect because they aren’t blinded by pride or hypocrisy. Jesus accepted their worship because it was pure and only for God.
How Will This Be?
Posted December 3, 2024 by Brenda Coker in Advent
Men and women throughout the ages—poets, philosophers, theologians—have sought to put thoughts on paper, expressing the inexpressible, trying to parse the inscrutable. Mary herself asked of the angel Gabriel as he disclosed her impending motherhood: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Her answer came, as a gradual revelation, through:
Monday Over Coffee: "A Script to Follow"
Posted December 2, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Denzel Washington is a unique Hollywood celebrity. He seems not only supremely talented but remarkably grounded in how he sees the world and inhabits it. He burst upon the scene playing an American Civil War soldier in Glory, a performance for which he won the 1990 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he’s made every script he’s been offered better, playing a series of strong, intelligent…
Christmas of 1988
Posted December 2, 2024 by Angela Holder in Advent
December 25 fell on a Sunday that year Our new church closed the nursery So the whole family might celebrate together In one room I held my daughter Born five months earlier In the cool wee hours of a hot Midland summer Missing 8/8/88 by less than a week Rainbow arcing across her first afternoon
Questions of Curiosity
Posted December 1, 2024 by Amy Brown in Advent
My young nephews love to ask questions. Their favorite is: “Why?” “Why do I have to sleep?” “Why is it cloudy?” “Why does my baby brother cry all of the time?” “Why can’t animals talk?” I love to wonder with them as they encounter this great big world. Their curiosity is inspiring and reminds me of the power a question holds.
How We Weep and Laugh
Posted November 26, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Worship, Advent
Sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne, an influential writer during the French Renaissance, once penned an essay called, “How we weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing.” In it, Montaigne writes of jubilant generals from ancient wars who, even as they experienced the joy of their hard-earned victories, at the same time also wept over the deaths of their sworn enemies.
Monday Over Coffee: "The Gong Show"
Posted November 25, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
The Gong Show was a game show that ran on television in the mid 1970s—a sort of “amateur hour” contest in which ordinary people from all walks of life offered their talents (a term used loosely in this context) on stage before a live studio audience, a host, and three celebrity judges. Each act was typically only three or four minutes long, but if it wasn’t going over well with the crowd or the…
Looking Forward to the Not Yet
Posted November 19, 2024 by Adam Cogliano in Worship, Advent
Every year without fail, Advent arrives with a tinge of surprise. No sooner have we celebrated Fall Festival and gathered with our families over a Thanksgiving meal than we suddenly are lighting candles and singing Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, which often (including this year) is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but while it comes suddenly, its…
Monday Over Coffee: "Rookie Mistake"
Posted November 18, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
As a kid, I was an avid baseball card collector. My brother and I would regularly ride our bikes down to the nearby 7-Eleven convenience store, purchase as many packs as our weekly chore money would reasonably allow, then pedal home to open them. Some of the packs would prove to be gold mines with the cards of All-Star players or hometown favorites showing up in the middle of the pack. Sadly,…
Faith in an Anxious World
Posted November 14, 2024 by Julianna Vaughan in Family Ministry
We all feel anxious sometimes. That’s why it’s a relief to remember Jesus doesn’t ask for perfection from His disciples, He asks us to listen and trust as He works both in us and through us. To experience God’s hope and share it with others we look up to, seek God’s wisdom, look inside to reflect on where God is at work in us, and look out to ask for help from others.
Monday Over Coffee: "Know Thyself"
Posted November 11, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
You probably remember the term dramatic irony from a high school English or literature class. It’s when the audience knows something important that’s happening to the characters in a story that the characters themselves do not know. In Romeo and Juliet, for instance, as the final act hurtles to its tragic conclusion, we find ourselves wanting to yell at the star-crossed Romeo, “Stop! Juliet isn’t…
Monday Over Coffee: "Collecting Ourselves"
Posted November 4, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Something on the internet recently captured more of my attention than I care to admit—a viral video of an older man, a lycra-clad cyclist, accusing a young driver of getting too close to him on a road in Park City, Utah.
Whom We Served
Posted October 29, 2024 by Steve Wells in Pastor
It was the beginning of October 1983. Missy’s dad, Dan Yeary, was in his study at the University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, Florida where he served as pastor. The private phone line on his desk rang—the only people who had that number were his wife, his children, and the church administrator—so Dan knew this was an important call. When he answered, he was surprised to hear a stranger’s voice…
Monday Over Coffee: "To Everything, a Season"
Posted October 28, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
A couple of weeks ago, my wife, Kelly, and I traveled to Canada where she was born to visit her dad. We left Texas on an 80 degree afternoon, then flying high and northward, we touched down late in the evening in Alberta shivering, the thermometer’s mercury near the freezing mark. The following day dawned frigid, but beautiful. The leaves of the trees both inside a beautiful park in Calgary, and…
Humility and Trust
Posted October 24, 2024 by Stephen Fox in Discipleship
My arrival at South Main in 1985 came during the upheaval of entering college and taking command of my life, both physically and spiritually. That was a formative time for me and so many members of this congregation helped me on that journey. To make ends meet, I began working at a grocery store, earning a meager paycheck that could only stretch far enough with the right living arrangements and…
Monday Over Coffee: "Grace in Victory/Poise in Defeat"
Posted October 21, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
It was the last little league game I ever coached. My son Charlie’s team, the Royals, was making our way through the post-season bracket in the 12-year-old division of West University Little League when we came up against one of our rivals, the A’s, on a bright Saturday afternoon in early May. While one of my lasting memories of the game itself was a bad call by the umpire, another memory—a more…
The Same Joy
Posted October 15, 2024 by Suzanne Mercaldo in Discipleship
Standing in the kitchen after we finished breakfast, my brother and I waited for our mother to hand us our offering envelopes each Sunday morning. Next, we raced to the car to fight over the front seat! I always enjoyed putting my own envelope into the offering plate as a child, and I still have that same joy now knowing that our contributions added to those of others are used to help many people.
Monday Over Coffee: "Background Music"
Posted October 14, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Each morning when I was a child, my mother awakened me and my brother, then my sisters across the hall, with a song of cheer about the sun coming up. I think she invented it—the notes, the lyrics—or maybe it was one from long ago her mother sang to her, but it was a catchy tune and always got us moving. She did this almost every morning. She sang the song with such persistence, such repetition,…
Reflecting Jesus
Posted October 8, 2024 by Matt Walton in Discipleship
Generosity is a characteristic at the heart of God, who gives life as a gracious gift. We see God’s generosity on display most accurately in Jesus’ life and sacrifice. This is why our pastor likes to say that you are never more like Jesus than when you share. As disciples of Jesus we are beckoned into lives that reflect Jesus’ life offered for the world. This is why growing in generosity is…
Monday Over Coffee: "When the Day is Done"
Posted October 7, 2024 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
If you’re like me, I expect your work tends to follow you home at the end of the day. This is certainly the case if you’re a student. They call it homework for a reason. For me, it was often hard to leave behind the legal matters I had labored over at the office each day. I’d get home and worry over them. I’d ruminate about all the things that had gotten pushed to tomorrow and were right now just…
