I wanted to thank you so much for your prayers for and support of Pastor Nick as he continues to pursue his ordination. Happily, he “passed” his final interview for ordination at the Midwinter Conference with the Board of Ordered Ministry and we will look forward to his ordination on July 1 this summer in…

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.  – 2 Cor. 7:10 Paul wrote these words after having had to write a pretty sharp letter to the church in the greek town of Corinth.  He wanted them to understand that when we are challenged to live our life…

What has the Lord been stirring in you lately? I used to expect that God would deliver a personal message to me every day. I believe God can do this, particularly when we are reading scripture on a regular basis, but I’m finding in this season of my life, the Lord seems to stretch themes…

“O Holy Night” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Did you know it was translated into English (from French) in Massachusetts, likely in West Roxbury? The translation was done in 1855 by John Sullivan Dwight who was a unitarian minister and the former director of the school at the 19th-century Brook Farm commune. Did you know that…

How important are names? When Pastor Nick and I were preparing for our boys to be born we talked for hours about their names. It was one of the most enjoyable parts about planning for their arrival. We picked out names for girls, names for boys. We considered what their initials would be. As you may know,…

Dear OCC,                                                                                                            …

The virtue we are wrestling with this coming Sunday is restfulness. Though I believe Jesus can commiserate with our stress, (he did after all, sweat blood in Luke 22:44), he promised his yoke was easy. We also don’t see the Creator God stressed from all the creating. However, we do see in scripture that our God…

This coming Sunday we are talking about power. We don’t often think of empowerment as a virtue of Christ because we think so often of Christ’s humility. But what empowered Jesus to stand up to oppressors, to speak up for outsiders and ultimately, what empowered Jesus to go to the cross?  Think about the power…

God’s people accept others, and speak blessing into their lives. Pastor Karen spoke about the virtue of acceptance and blessing last Sunday.  She mentioned that to accept someone doesn’t mean you have to agree with them.  This is counter-cultural at this point.   In a world without God,  the most important stuff – life, love, who…

This fall we have started a worship series called, “More than Words.” This series is focused on virtue – developing Christian character such that our actions and reactions speak of Jesus. The phrase, “walking the talk,” comes to mind. This topic has become pertinent as over and over again we see leaders and influencers in…