The Pastor's Perspective

  Have you ever caught yourself going through the motions of something that was supposed to be deeply meaningful?      Perhaps you sat through a conversation nodding along while your mind was miles away, or completed a project at work simply to check a box off your list. Maybe you found yourself at work but focusing on something completely different than the task at hand.       This human tendency to drift into routine doesn't just affect our daily chores; it can subtly poison our spiritual lives as well . We can easily wake up on a Sunday morning, put on our best clothes, sing all the songs, listen to the sermon, and yet leave the church building without ever having truly engaged our hearts with God . In fact we can go to church for months and even years without really connecting with God.       Research continually reveals how easy it is for religious habits to lose their personal, transformative power. According to data from...

The first Thanksgiving The year is 1621in America . The air is cold and the land is still unfamiliar. For the colonists , their first year in the new world had been marked by incredible hardships. They were survivors who had endured the trials and struggles of establishing a settlement. Yet, with the autumn harvest complete, they had achieved their first success—a successful corn harvest.      This was a victory that called for a celebration. So, to express their thanks and honor their Native American allies who helped them in this new land, they planned a great feast. They invited the Native Americans to celebrate with them. The joyous, three-day event was filled with games, signs of affection, and abundant feasting on venison, fowl, and corn.      It was an act of sharing—a profoundly generous gesture that Governor William Bradford noted in his journal. For him, the abundant harvest was a gift from a loving God who had not only protected them from the d...