STATIONS mentioned in local Altadena blog

A local blog for the city of Altadena genorously posted an article regarding our Good Friday service.  You can read it by clicking here.

Merry Christmas!

Like many others, Shanti and I are using the Internet to send out our Christmas greetings this year. (Why not, it's FREE!) Anyway, we invite you to click here for your viewing/downloading/printing pleasure.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit bless you richly in the coming new year.

Advent

We were blessed this last Sunday to have a few of our church members share their artistic talents as we entered the Advent season. My friend (and fellow band member) Tim read a poem he had written, and another friend, Matt, provided a series of realtime drawings that were inspired by Tim's poem. We had a videocamera capture Matt sketching out the drawings as the poem progressed, and I provided music inspired by both the poem and the drawings.

I want to post more about how this all worked and how it impacted our corporate worship, but in the meantime, you can read the poem and see the drawings here.

Even More Easter Musings

For a nice article by Bono regarding Easter and other things...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/opinion/19bono.html?_r=1

More Easter Musings

Dr. Mouw, the president of Fuller Seminary, has a great little blurb about Easter on Fuller's website:

http://www.fuller.edu/news-and-events/home-features/easter-mouw.aspx

Let us proclaim the Resurrection boldly and unabashedly!

Christ Jesus is risen!

He is risen indeed! May the joy of the resurrection continue to resonate in our lives long after the lilies, eggs and brunches are gone.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Great Friday

Every year, our church pastors normally participate in community and/or ecumenical Good Friday services. However, holding a Good Friday service of our own is not usually part of our tradition during the Easter season. Enter the worship leader filled with ideas from seminary... Pastor George, Pastor Connie and I met together and planned a service that would hopefully be true to our congregation, but also a chance to stretch ourselves in worship. We ended coming up with a unique blend of art, music, scripture, readings, confession and prayer that really seemed to work well.

Though the content of the service was a blessing, the greater blessing was the high attendance that we enjoyed for this "inaugural" Good Friday service. I'm reminded of how blessed I am to work with a congregation that puts its trust in its leadership, even when the road ahead might be unknown or unfamiliar. This has been the kind of group I have had the honor of serving for so long, and am continually thankful to God for my Christian brothers and sisters at ABC.