At the ACC after-school tutoring program a few weeks ago Pastor David casually mentioned to me that he and Sobeyda were going to be hosting a refugee family from El Salvador. My heart jumped with excitement...what an opportunity for ACC to show the love of God! I also was encouraged by their willingness to share their living space with strangers, knowing they give so much already as a Pastor and Counselor. The next day Carolina and her almost 11 year old son Onandy arrived....
As you probably know, I recently announced my decision to transition out of my role as pastor of Astoria Community Church and accept a position as Assistant Pastor at another church. You can read about that decision here. A question some of you are asking is, "How do we find a new pastor for our church?" In our denominational tradition, an important principle is that loc...
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Back in my day the band Petra was blaring from most Christian teenagers' headphones or boom boxes as they were called back then. Christian rock bands were controversial at the time so of course, I had every album and t-shirt Petra came out with. Yeah, did you catch that? I said album. There were so many great songs that Petra put out but one of their songs "Hollow Eyes" ha...
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Dear friends and members of ACC. I am writing to inform you of a personal decision I have reached that will have an impact on our church. A couple of years ago, I began to pray about how and when I should transition out of my role as pastor of ACC and pass the baton to a younger leader. As I approach the age of retirement, the eventual need to take this step is inevitabl...
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The greatest news the world has heard is that the tomb where Christ lay is empty. Christ has risen from the dead! But what does the empty tomb mean for us? Below are four implications of Christ's resurrection as explained by Scripture. 1) The empty tomb means that Jesus truly is the Messiah. When Jesus cleared the merchandizers out of the temple in John 2, he was exerti...
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During each week of Lent this year, we will post an excerpt from a classic writing on Christian spirituality, followed by some questions for personal reflection. This week's post is a letter written by John Newton to a fellow pastor, Rev. Thomas Jones, on January 7, 1767. Newton was an Anglican minister in the 18th century, whose story of conversion from slave trader to a...
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