On April 26 Westminster Church accepted 5 new members and we did an infant baptism.  I took a few minutes to explain membership and baptism and what we believe about them.

In James 5:7-12, James encourages his readers to be patient and establish their hearts because Christ is coming back. But shouldn't Christ's return mean we should be doing more?

James has some harsh and bity words to say to the rich in this passage.  But does God think we should all be poor?  Here I compare a few other texts to try to develop a theology of wealth and possessions.  More than that, I make the argument that we should be going through this same process for every area of our lives.

I recently took a trip to Toronto, Canada to do research on Henri Nouwen.  Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest who taught at Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School.  He wrote a number of books about Christian spirituality, leadership, and loss.  He spent the last 10 years of his life living in L'Arche Daybreak.  This is a community of disabled adults and their assistants where I went to stay for a couple of days.  I wanted to understand how Henri's personal story impacted his ministry.  I was surprised to learn a lot more about life, ministry, and myself on the trip.  This sermon is my attempt to share this experience with my congregation.