Category: Scripture
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A Christmas Sermon: Humility or Humiliation
46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.…
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Self-Care Isn’t Enough
In the small part of the world I inhabit it’s rare that a week goes by during which I don’t talk with someone about self-care. The church I serve has more than its fair share of teachers, social-workers, therapists, and grad students. These are people who are moved by their neighbors’ pain and have given much…
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A Sermon: Reading the Bible Together
Here’s a lightly edited version of this past Sunday’s sermon at New Community Covenant Church. As a church we say that, “We desire to listen and submit to the Scripture, God’s revealed Word for His beloved children.” There are at least two important assumptions within this statement. The first is that God reveals himself through…
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Experience Matters
Another article I wrote for the Undocumented blog has now been posted. “Many church members are too afraid to come to church anymore.” I was attending a meeting of ministry leaders when the well-respected Hispanic pastor stood to share. He told us how the police had begun parking near their church building on Sunday mornings,…
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What is your hope for the church?
This morning I got an email from a friend at Christianity Today. He wanted to let me (and others) know about an interesting question the recently re-branded “media ministry” is asking its reader: What is your hope for the church? Despite how often I think about this sort of question, it took me a few…
David W. Swanson 