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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Maybe God Was Right Afterall.

A study done by a BYU researcher says, Couples who delay sex have better marriages - Rediff.com Get Ahead

Funny. The Bible has been saying that for years.

Sin is a Genetic Problem

I guess some of us get holiness and some do not: Bad behaviour can be linked to DNA: scientist. It's the luck of the gene pool.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Merry Christmas Nina!

Nina Totenburg recently swore in public when she said, forgive the expression, "Christmas".  RealClearPolitics - Video - NPR's Nina Totenberg Apologizes For Saying "Christmas". I hope she loses her job for heaping such vulgarities upon us unsuspecting citizens. And why didn't the network just [beep] that out.  At a bare minimum she should be fined for such crudeness or at least for being such a, forgive the expression, moron. /end sarcasm

Free or Nearly Free Web Sites

If you are planting a evangelical church, particularly an Anglican or Evangelical Covenant Church, in the Mohawk Valley of upstate New York (and maybe elsewhere in upstate NY) you may be eligible for a free web site. You may or may not have to pay for your domain and hosting. Start a conversation here.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Nice Church Web Site -- Lafayette, IN

My ol' friend the Revinator is still preaching up at storm in Indiana at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Lafeyette. Take a long look at their site. Very nicely done graphically speaking -- excellent use of light, borders and shadows.

Sex in the UK Pulpits

Dr. Alex Appiah of Living Springs Ministries has taken up the American custom of preaching on sex and has made his way into the media for doing so: Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Sermon to spice up your sex life.

He isn't the only one. A UK Church of England clergyman, Reverend Robert Hampson, the vicar at Holy Trinity Church in South Woodford, has also addressed sex from the pulpit. His sermon wasn't about "better sex" but addressed to children, namely a group of Brownies, amongst others, to remain chaste until marriage. People have gone off the deep end and diocesan officials have received formal complaints.
And just for good measure, in the former English colony of South Africa, there is also some sex in the pulpit with a clergyman saying that "Jesus was HIV positive": Pastor's 'Jesus had HIV' sermon angers South African Christians | World news | The Guardian. Uh yeah, that was not well received either.

Dishwasher Repaired Today

Giving a shout out today to my appliance repairman, John Boucher at JB APPLIANCE REPAIR. Non-working dishwasher now repaired. I'm so grateful for somebody honest to call on. And a little shout out to my father-in-law for hooking me up.

I marvel at these guys who bust out the tools, take apart the stuff, know how it all works and fix it. I'm clueless. I suppose it's like reading HTML/CSS code for other people. I get excited about it but it gives them the willies.

Church Life. I Am Blessed.

So I live in two church worlds at the moment. I am the Interim Pastoral Team Leader for St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Syracuse. My wife is the Children's Ministry Director at Grace Covenant Church in Clay. She's there every week. I'm at St. Andrew's 2-3 a month plus meetings.

I cannot believe how blessed I am. The people at GECC are so good to my wife and our family. We couldn't possibly love them all any more than we do. They have been so supportive during difficult times in recent years. We have so enjoyed our recent Love to Pray small group and our kids love the ministries they are involved in.

At the same time, I am so enjoying the friendships that are growing at STA. These people are so loving to each other and now, me. On top of their graciousness I get the privilege of working with Scotty and receiving Eucharist every Sunday. I am blessed indeed.

On top of all that, I'm the official web master for both churches!

It won't go on like this forever. Eventually St. Andrew's will have a new pastor, which could be me. I'm applying. But for the time being I have two church families that are very good to me.

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Pastoral Arts

The Pastoral Arts

My beloved friend Rick has begun a new ministry venture in the area of the arts and ministry. A perfect fit in many ways as he is a gifted pastor and artist.

Warning!

German man castrates teenage daughter's 57-year-old boyfriend - Telegraph

More power to him.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Conflict Over Bible Translations

A Movement of Evangelical Christians Takes Issue with 'The C. S. Lewis Bible' - Christian Newswire

Apparently there is conflict over the recently published "CS Lewis Bible". Some evangelicals think that the NRSV is too liberal a translation to be associated with Lewis' works.

Coffee Today

Welcome to Eve Galleria - A Central New York Art Gallery and Coffeeshop in East Syracuse

I am off to have coffee today at Eve Galleria. Their web site has been our class project, which I have had the lead on and features a lot of my photography. The owner is Eve Troncone and the coffeeshop is also an art gallery with Eve's paintings and other hand designed items. Should be a good place to enjoy coffee.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Public Assistance

Receiving unemployment benefits and food stamps when unemployed is somewhat like chemotherapy to the cancer patient. When you need it, you need it. It might save you. But too much of it for too long and it'll begin to kill you.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Churches Outing Grinches

Christmas attitudes land businesses on naughty-or-nice lists at First Baptist Dallas' 'Grinch Alert' website | News for Dallas, Texas

So a church has put up a website, Grinch Alert, to out businesses that do not promote or allow the promotion of Christmas. The site puts them on the Naughty List.

I'm wondering what Biblical support they could think of to justify that behavior. (Of course that might possibly not even be on their radar.) Immediately I think of Jesus teaching about loving your enemies, and this doesn't seem too loving but maybe I'm not seeing their perspective.

I mean, what would be the point of such a site? To make certain businesses feel bad? Or even more provocatively, to punish them financially by listing them and encouraging people to take their business elsewhere?

I can't imagine Jesus doing this. It's ironic but it seems this church needs to be put on the naughty list.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

9 Sr. Pastor Position Available in ECC

Churches Seeking Staff - Evangelical Covenant Church

Wow. There are a total of 9 Senior Pastor positions listed at the ECC web site. That is the lowest I have ever seen. Connecticut. Pennsylvania. Virginia. Massachusetts. Kansas. Minnesota. California. That's it. Several hundred churches in the ECC and only 9 positions open. These are interesting times.

With all the clergy stability, I wonder how this will affect the health of churches?

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Making Web Pages

Since I have been underemployed and not finding much suitable work, I decided to take a web design course in hopes that it would fund my future ministry endeavors. Here is a link to a site I created — Steven M. Evans — ironically enough it's an iWeb template and not written from scratch like all of the pages that are linked on it.

So I'm hoping to be in business for myself in the near future making web sites. If you need a site or know someone who does, let me know.

Promoted: Web Master to Interim Pastor

Leadership of St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Syracuse, NY - An Anglican Mission in America Church in Central New York

It's been a long while since I've posted anything and want to get back at it. Between time constraints and other issues I just haven't been able to get any blogging done.

I'm connected to the link above as I am currently the Interim Pastoral Team Leader for St. Andrew's. It's a very part-time gig but with some great people. I'll post more about that in the later.

I serve St. Andrew's a couple of Sundays a month and go to Grace Covenant with my family the other Sundays. My wife is on staff at Grace as the Children's Director. So I get to be a vital part of two fantastic congregations. I'm liking that.

I started out serving St. Andrew's as their web master. Their current site was my first class project. It's functional but not beautiful and I already want to rewrite the code. I've got fall leaves on the front door of the page and after today, it's time to change to snow.